Movie Day Reviews

by Bev

Dan in Real  Life  (Story)

Dan is a widower and father of three girls.  On his way to a big family gathering he meets a woman who he falls for only to find out later that day that it’s his brother’s new girlfriend, who was delaying going to the same weekend get-together.  Let the awkwardness ensue.

Hidalgo   (Story)

 

Frank T. Hopkins and his top endurance race horse, Hidalgo, are challenged to run the “Ocean of Fire”, a 3000 mile race across the deserts of Arabia to prove that they are the best.  In harsh conditions that neither are prepared for and through multiple attempts on both their lives these thrilling adventurers do not disappoint.

Consensus was that “Dan in Real Life”  was a very enjoyable afternoon and remains the one we recommend to watch,  “Hidalgo” was, however,  received with less enthusiasm.  There were only five of us in attendance, but  the overwhelming feeling was that it was a good story, but could have been told in a shorter or more exciting way.  The movie was “slow” for a horse race.

 We wait for some of your suggestions for future movies.  Having a choice of two or more is always good to accommodate everyone’s taste and past viewed titles.

 

Come to the Next Movie!

We will be showing this movie at the Moving Forward Group time of
Monday, August 8th from 1 to 3 pm.

Everyone is welcome so please come and join us!

Movie Day at SAM: Dan in Real Life

It was such a hot day that it felt pretty good to be inside with the lights down watching a movie and eating popcorn and treats. Thanks Bev for organizing such a fun afternoon.

So what did we think of the movie?

"We thought it was a very good movie good for all ages, men, women."

"It was fine.. enjoyable and very entertaining"

"It was a tear-jerker  and the girls in the movie taught their Dad a lesson. "

 and one younger visitor  gave it a thumbs up.

The general consensus is that it is highly recommended!

Our next movie day will be August 8th from 1 to 3 pm and we will be seeing the movie Hidalgo.  Click on the name to see a preview on YOUTUBE

We will see you on Movie Day!

Summer Picnic

  I hope everyone had a wonderful Long Weekend! 

 

Happy Canada Day!

 

 

    Most of us have memories that go back before "Canada Day" and before the red and white maple leaf flag.  Do you remember the long weekend at the start of Summer being "Dominion Day"?  Our kids won't know what we're talking about. Just as the last time I heard the "Confederation Day" moniker was when we celebrated the "Centennial", our countries 100th birthday.  (Now it's remembered as the name we proudly put on a new sports arena that half a century later has seen better days.) Yup.  It's all talking about the same day,  July 1, starting in 1867.

 

    You can change the name, but it remains the celebration of our country's birthday,  144 years ago, now.

 

    Speaking of birthdays.  We haven't forgotten our neighbour's birthday, either.

    The Fourth of July was a success for us this year.  We don't wear Red, White and Blue, but  "We the people" of the Moving Forward Group planned and executed a memorable Picnic across the street in the park.  Summer is now officially here. 

   

 We weren't many, 9 attended, including an 18 month grandchild, but we were mighty.  Each of us had a food to bring and share; we had potato salad, two kinds of sandwiches,  egg and tuna, fruit pieces, cheese and crackers, tablecloths, cutlery, plates and napkins, vegetables and dip and Strawberry short cake. What more could we want?  We were in wheel chairs, walkers, canes and better.  Even the weatherman (who lies every time his mouth moves) promised thunder showers.  We could not be phased.  We made the thunder hold off until we were ready to leave at 3:00 pm. and then the skies opened but we didn't care. The lightning was our Canadian Fire Works.

 

   

    We played Bocce Ball and the winner was Jimmy Lee from his wheel chair.  Your tosses were straight and true Jimmy. Congratulations! 

 

    Our next meeting will not be until July 18th.

 

 

A special thanks to Bev our Guest Blogger for this week! Good job on the post Bev!!

 

 

 

Healthy Lunch: Stir Fry

 This week we made Stir Fried Chicken.

 First you will need to chop up all the vegetable ingredients.

We used:
Brocolli
carrot
pea pods
orange, red and yellow peppers
cauliflower
onion
mushrooms

Put a little sesame oil in your hot pan or wok and stir fry. Add denser ingredients like carrots first. You can add soy sauce or terriyaki sauce to the vegetables near the end of the cooking time.
Remove the cooked vegetables to a separate bowl.

Next you need to cook up or heat the meat. We used a precooked, package of chicken strips from the deli section. Heat it with a bit of pre-minced garlic from a jar and a bit more sesame oil. Add the vegetables and reheat and then remove the heated food to another bowl.

Add  the vermicelli noodles or Shanghai noodles to the pan and brown lightly. Mix up a sauce by mixing about a quarter cup of water into a tablespoon or so of cornstarch and add a splash of oyster sauce, mushroom soy sauce and stir in with the noodles.


Place a bed of noodles on the plate and top with the chicken vegetable mixture.


Thank-you Jim for such a great meal suggestion and for showing us how to do this dish. and thanks everyone for all the chopping, cooking and bringing all the ingredients.

Chocolate Making

We have a couple of Chocolate Lovers in the group and we started discussing how easy it is to make nice homemade Chocolates.

It seemed like a good project for the week before Easter so we brought in a bunch of chocolate molds and melting chocolate, sucker sticks, and food coloring. Everyone was surprised at exactly how much fun it was and how easy the craft is.  Now that we know how to do these chocolates we discussed making some for next year as a fundraiser or perhaps as table favors for some SAM event.

We have an assortment of really cute Halloween and Winter holiday themed chocolate molds.

Look for more about our chocolate making in the Fall!

If you would like more information about making your own chocolate Bunny  a

good basic page with directions is on eHow.

(The picture is from the eHow site.)

Movie Day at SAM

Movie Day at the Stroke Recovery Association

We decided to have a Movie Day at SAM (Stroke Association of Manitoba) 

The decision was made to try having a movie event in the afternoon because so many of our members are free during the day. On the other hand many family members would not be able to attend at that time but we have to start somewhere. The movie Date Night was chosen because it seemed funny and like it might have an appeal to people who like an action show as well as people who enjoy romantic comedy.

We made some posters to put up around SAM, made popcorn, picked up some pop and rented the movie. Amongst other things, we learned that microwave popcorn is hard to make in an older microwave you are not used to. Next time I think would buy pre-popped popcorn and just relax at the event instead of worrying about how long to cook popcorn.

Our biggest challenge was that we had a large wall mount TV purchased recently and it was not yet installed on the wall. We went back and forth about getting a date to install it and we really appreciated Peter getting it installed on the wall for us.  The TV looks good and we think that we will be getting more use  out of it with time. We don't have cable into the space so we can't actually watch TV, but we have lots of DVDs and videos.   We are hoping to get cable some time in the future. A few of us can picture the fun of a Grey Cup and Super Bowl party and a few of us would like together to see the Oscars and other broadcasts as a group. There is a fair bit of interest is watching curling too.

We didn't have a huge group attending our first Movie Day but everyone who did attend seemed to have a really good time. We are thinking this would make a good seasonal event and plan on doing it again perhaps in the Fall.