my dream yard

Having grown up in the burbs and moved to the city, I've begun to realize how much I miss having a big back yard. As a child I used to play in our back yard tree house with my sisters, swing in the hammock and hula hoop on the grass. We didn't have a swimming pool but the yard was large enough to lay out a slip n slide or inflatable pool. I have so many fond memories of that back yard. When visiting these days I tend to just lay out in sun chairs, read and relax. (I avoid laying on the grass nowadays due to the undisclosed location of Wyatt's feces). A backyard is something most people sacrifice in order to live in the city, and although I'm happy with my spot I can't help but miss having that private enclosed exterior.

One of these days when I finally do purchase a house, I'm going to make sure the back yard is my greatest achievement. I may never be able to afford such luxuries, but these are some of my favorite and most inspiring backyards:

photo credits: home and gardening, luxury-ideas, baslee troutman

photo credit: catalog living

photo credit: exotic excess

photo credits: kcpro landscape, yard surfer, house to design

photo credit: houzz

photo credits: inspire home magazine, houzz

cinderella

Pure coincidence?

photo credit: oflo sohol

dad's are the original hipsters

I stumbled across the most hilarious blog today called DADS ARE THE ORIGINAL HIPSTERS. Please take a moment of your time to skim some of the pictures and descriptions on the site. They are actually really entertaining. I can especially appreciate the "about me" section on the site, as seen below.

photo/copy credit: dads are the original hipsters blog

top ten summer movies

Summertime is almost here, which means lot's of big blockbuster hits are about to come out! There are at least a dozen movies that I'm looking forward to going to see. Hopefully half of them don't turn out to be total duds like some of last years releases (I'd give a solid "F" grade to Grown Ups, Prince of Persia, Sex and the City 2 and Splice). These are the top ten movies I'm most looking forward to this summer- at least they look promising!

  10) Cars 2

photo credit: walt disney pictures

The original Cars was awesome! People put it low on the list of Pixar movies and I totally disagree.

 9) X-Men: First Class

photo credit: paramount pictures

Yes, I'm a huge nerd. I love absurd sci-fi thrillers and have already seen all the other X-Men movies. Prequels to hit franchises usually suck though, so I'm a little on the fence with this one. But I still have high hopes, the preview was pretty bad ass.

8) Friends with Benefits

photo credit: sony pictures entertainment inc.

This seems like a pretty similar flick to No Strings Attached with Natalie Portman, which I saw earlier this year (I actually liked it). I'm more excited to see this just because of the cast and less so because of the storyline.

7) Super 8

photo credit: paramount pictures

In the summer of 1979 a group of friends witness a mysterious train crash and begin noticing strange happenings around their small town. J.J. Abrams is one of my favorite directors and is pretty good about "keeping the surprise" so I'm curious to see what this film is all about. 

6) 30 Minutes or Less

photo credit: columbia pictures

Two criminals kidnap a pizza delivery guy and force him to rob a bank within 30 minutes. This comedy is directed by the same guy who did Zombieland and stars Jessie Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride. These guys all make me laugh so I definitely have a good feeling about this one.

5) Crazy Stupid Love

photo credit: warner bros.

I'm in need of a good romantic comedy. This one is about a man (Steve Carell) who divorces his cheating wife (Julianne Moore) and takes lessons on how to date again (from Ryan Gosling). You had me at Ryan Gosling :)

4) Bellflower

photo credit: coatwolf productions

Bellflower is an indie film that premiered at Sundance and got rave reviews, and now its being wide released this summer. It's about a couple of guys who build flamethrowers and other weapons in the hope that a global apocalypse will occur and clear the way for their imaginary gang called Mother Medusa. The film seems a little dark and violent but has a very unique look (it was super low budget to produce).

3) Bad Teacher

photo credit: columbia pictures

I've already seen so many previews for this and it looks so effing funny. Cameron Diaz plays a boozing, toking junior high teacher who's dumped by her sugar daddy and begins to pursue a new colleague- who just happens to be played by her ex Justin Timberlake.

2) Tree of Life

photo credit: cottonwood pictures

Is this a dream cast? Starring Brad Pitt, who plays the father to a young boy who grows up to be Sean Penn. The film centers around a family with three boys in the 1950's. I hate to be bias but I usually like most movies Brad Pitt is in, which is why I'm putting this so high on my list.

1) The Hangover Part II

photo credit: relativity media

No explanation necessary. I have no doubt this will be hilarious.

dog tease

Try to watch this video without laughing. 

team cheech & pong

Epic fail of the weekend: Beer pong. I haven't played in forever and my lack of skill clearly showed on Saturday. (For Adam's birthday we had a Beer Pong Championship Tournament consisting of about 16 teams). Cher and I lost the first game and went 3 for 3 in the losers bracket. We even played a 4th game for fun and lost that one too. Sad. On a positive note, we drank plenty of beer.

Another upside to the weekend was going to see Thor on opening night- it was surprisingly awesome! I had originally gotten dragged to it against my will but it turned out to be pretty entertaining. Even if you're not a comic book fan (which I'm definitely not), it's still worth seeing in my opinion.

Starting off with what we thought would be the "Breakfast of Champions" at Chloe's on 26th and Church.

Apparently we didn't get the memo about team uniforms.

Dain & Cher

Derek & Julia sitting at the bar at Kabuki before the show.

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