Five on Friday - The Inception Version

Been having another one of "those" weeks and didn't get to the blog too much but I didn't want to miss Five on Friday where our host Travis asks us to pick out five favorite pieces of music and then share them with you.  Music is just one of those really important things in my life that I never ever take for granted so it's easy to want to sit down and do a post to do share some of it with you even when the days preceding this post have been busy and hectic and chaotic and ... well, you get the idea!

This week I decided to return to one of my favorite composers that I've featured once before - Hans Zimmer.  Hans is a fantastic musical score writer for many very popular Hollywood movies and one of his projects that I totally loved was the music for Inception.  If you haven't seen Inception it's quite the ride from beginning to end and the music really completes it.  As a matter of fact, Hans was up for an Academy Award for Best Soundtrack but once again got cheesed when the people who decide these things in LA gave the award to somebody else.  Seriously?  What are you people out there thinking?  Hans Zimmer is brilliant and without his music movies like Sherlock Holmes, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Driving Miss Daisy, Backdraft, and The Lion King - just to name a few - would be nowhere near as good as they are. I just don't get those award shows sometimes!

Ah well, be that as it may, I'd like to share five pieces of music from Inception that I was actually able to find on Playlist.com and hope that maybe you'll like them as much as I do.  If not, click on over to Trav's Thoughts and see if you can find five other bits of music that you might like better from the other folks that participate in Five on Friday but I tell ya, you don't know what you're missing with Hans Zimmer!

Saturday Stuff

Compared to last week, this has been a rather nice week ... no, make that a fantastic week!

Making the decision to use my 401K for Amanda's first year of college has taken a major weight off of my shoulders though I have had a little trepidation about that same weight reapplying itself next year when we have to start trying to figure out financing for her sophomore year however, there's time to cross that bridge later so I'm going to try not to stress about it now.

I had a long talk with Jamie the other night and the current plan is for her to move up here after Amanda leaves for college at the end of August.  That, of course, is subject to change if she can't remember to tell the truth to her father however she wants to try to continue to work at her job at McDonald's and save up some money before moving up here.  She did express some interest in possibly taking some courses at the local community college so I told her father to fill out a FAFSA and see what she qualifies for in regards to financial aid.  He was on unemployment for a very long time so she should qualify for a lot more than Amanda did.

Work wasn't too bad this week due to the simple fact that I had a lot more time off than I've been used to having.  If I hadn't picked up the open shift this evening, I would have worked a mere five shifts - something I haven't done in a very, very long time.  Next week really should be just five shifts as there's nothing open that I know of.  Even though I'm going to miss the overtime pay, I really think I could get used to having more time off!

So how did I spend a lot of that time off?  Sitting on the couch and watching programs that I had recorded on the DVR long ago.  I had five episodes of "Flashpoint" stacked up that I thoroughly enjoyed watching.  I've become a bit hooked on that show as it's not your typical cop drama - thank goodness!

Amanda and I went to the movies with our friend Paula to see the new Leonardo DiCaprio film "Inception" last night and let me just say that it was fantastic and definitely lived up to all the hype!  The movie is directed by Christopher Nolan of "Dark Knight" fame and he did a wonderful job with the film.  Add on a fantastic score by Hans Zimmer, some truly amazing special effects, and those blue eyes of Leonardo and well ... go see it as I want to discuss the ending with someone!  Amanda's already wanting to see it again she liked it so much.

And for all of you who told me to go out and do something for myself after the horrible week I had previous to this one, you'll be glad to know that I did just that in the form of some hair pampering.  I'd been wanting something different so I decided to become a brunette and got a nice cut to boot.  This picture is not that great as I took it with my cell phone but it gives you a bit of an idea at any rate. Of course, it must not be that much of a change as Amanda has failed to make any reference to my new do at all - perhaps it wasn't extreme enough for her?

Everyone have a lovely weekend no matter what your plans may be!