This past weekend she rocked it in Austin with a few bloggers who flew out to see her. Note that I was not one of those bloggers. I assure you it is only for economic reasons. Where I live it’s expensive to fly down the effing street, let alone to Texas.

Infection, 2004
A Japanese horror film with English sub-titles for our viewing pleasure. An infection that takes over a hospital staff involved in the cover-up of a patient’s death. I expect this will be made into an American film, although IMDb does not show one filming. I think I’ll classify this as a B movie since many of the “horror” scenes actually make me laugh. A great write-up of the film is available at Bloody-Disgusting.com.

Flightplan, 2005
A woman takes a nap on a plane and wakes up to find her daughter missing. Is her daughter really on the plane? Slightly original, but not pulled off well enough to be considered fantastic. The antagonist is a surprise if you’re not paying attention. Otherwise, not so much. The reason why this story line pulls together is too far-fetched. The whole time we watched the movie Hay and I kept yelling “SAAAAARSGAAAAARD” in tribute to the SNL pirate sketch about Peter Sarsgaard. I was left confused why they even bothered to cast the fabulously talented Erika Christensen’s character since it adds nothing to any portion of the story line. Perhaps her character was meant to throw us off the scent of the real “bad guys”.

…but, we love the texture of all-day-cooked chops, so instead I am making them like this:

Crockpot Pork Chops à la Poppy
2 medium shallots, halved then sliced into semi-circles
1 T olive oil
4 medium carrots, peeled and halved
4 small onions, skinned
3 large Yukon potatoes, quartered
4 cups chicken broth
salt, pepper, paprika
3 medium pork chops
McCormick spice packet

Sauté shallots in olive oil until they smell awesome (~3 minutes on low), set aside. Add potatoes, carrots, and onions to large crock. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and paprika to coat. Pour chicken broth over vegetables. Sprinkle salt and pepper over chops then coat with McCormick spice packet. Place chops on top of vegetable mixture. Place shallots on top of chops, and add any remaining shallots to vegetable mixture. Cover crock, cook on high for 2 hours. Switch to low and cook for additional 4-6 hours. When chops are completely cooked through and vegetables are cooked through it’s time to eat!

What it looks like right now in its raw form:

Mmm, nummy trichinosis! I’ll have to post a follow-up photo later.

Update: A little après-ski, anyone?