Recount (2008 HBO Film)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Drama

When I heard HBO cable announcing the movie, "Recount" airs on last Spring, I've decided to wait for this DVD movie to come out cuz I don't have a HBO cable that could give you an extra cost in your TV cable company bill. I rented this DVD movie with other 2 movies on the weekend of December 13th when it finally came out.

I know what happened to 2000 Election in Florida where I am living in that time. I can't believe it. I do recall a day before the big media about it that I had no problem with the voting ballot when I went to the church where a number of my precinct took place in Daytona Beach. I noticed 2 colors, red and blue, in the state of Florida on TV news kept changing repeatly that late night while I was chatting with my mother-in-law on TTY. Dan Rathers, a CBS TV news anchor, said there could be a problem. The next morning I heard there are big electoral problems on TV news. Dad and I were staring and questioning each other when he came over to check on me that morning. I knew a woman who worked for our home county as an Election supervisor. She's a friend of my father. Her name is Deanie. She knows a sign lauguage little bit. This Deanie was very busy to solve the problems that day. My God, she worked so hard awfully. Poor Deanie cuz she lost her grandfather personally that time according to our local newspaper. Deanie kept getting calls alot from her family and political employees.

In "Recount" movie, it mentions my home county twice. I was surprised to hear that. You will find out to hear it in the beginning of this movie, not Palm Beach County. I was waiting for an election to be finished until in the middle of December 2000. That is a month long since it happened. Political employees were very busy to repair an election. They worked hard. Bush camp and Gore camp were fighting each other in the court to get a correct ballot. In that DVD movie, I don't see a truck delivering many boxes of voting ballot to the capital of our homestate, Florida. I recall I watched it traveling on the road on a local TV news.

Kevin Spacey who played Ron Klain, a Chief of Staff to the Vice President under Al Gore, did a wonderful acting job for HBO movie company. So is Laura Dern who played Katherine Harris, Florida's Secretary of State. "Recount" was filmed mostly in Jacksonville, Florida. Many scenes were shot in city hall, the federal courthouse, or the Riverplace Tower. Other scenes were shot on location on November 3 & 4, 2007, inside the actual courtroom of the Florida Supreme Court Building and outside its front exterior in Tallahassee, FL. This was the first time a Chief Justice of Florida, in this case R. Fred Lewis at the request of Craig Waters, granted permission for the filming of a major motion picture on the Court's property. It directed by Jay Roach. Sydney Pollack who was supposed to do a direction for this movie withdrew from this project due to a then-undisclosed illness so he was replaced by Jay Roach. Pollack died of cancer on May 26, 2008.

I am recommending that you should watch this very interesting movie.

See a video of "Recount" below:

December 30, 2008: Breakfast at Denny's With Dad

I had eaten a wonderful breakfast at Denny's yesterday morning.  Dad gave me this early birthday treat.  I ordered a hot drink, flavored cappuccino, and a breakfast, Belgian Waffle Platter.  Yummy!  Dad ordered something else, Senior Scrambled Eggs & Cheddar Breakfast.  Afterwards, I went home. 

Post-Christmas News

A night before Christmas I found out Mom and Joe are traveling again.  They were planning to take an airbus back to Chicago last Saturday morning.  I was somewhat upset when I found out as she asked me to check her airline schedule on an internet in my computer.  Mom and Joe purchased it on someone's computer while they were in California few weeks ago.  I didn't know that until now.  Mom didn't give Dad the news until last Friday afternoon when Joe made a confession to inform Dad about their plan.  I found out from David through IM that Friday evening Dad's reaction is he's mad.  I can't believe Mom and Joe are traveling again.  I miss Mom and Joe now.  I take over Mom's place to do chores at home again.  Mom and Joe will be returned home in time for my birthday.  I heard there's a winter storm in Chicago that Saturday but I guess they made it there on time.  The reason Mom and Joe went back to Chicago is that they are going to attend a special church convention.

Dad had a rough night after Christmas.  He has been a flu but he's about getting better now.  Dad needs resting.  He doesn't want me to touch him until Dad gets better when the flu leaves his body.  This time his throat hurts.  I think he's losing his voice.  I hardly listen to him when Dad talks shortly cuz his voice sounds terrible and low but I almost can understand Dad is saying something to me.

Florida still have a nice and warm weather until tomorrow when the cold front moves back in again.  Today is a partly sunny and 80 degrees.

Will see ya later! 

Our Christmas 2008

I had a wonderful Christmas on Christmas Day.  I stay home all day to celebrate it.  I had a cheese and herb turkey meat in the hamburger buns and a drink, an eggnog (yummy!) for my lunch.  After that, I had Christmas Hershey's Kisses candy.  A Chistmas dinner I had that night:  A tofu turkey go with vegetables.  It's very good.  I had a dessert afterwards.  That evening we opened our Christmas presents.  Joe and David were not there with us that night.  Dad got 4 pairs of Dockers socks from me and Jesus coffee mug from Mom.  Mom and Dad got a Wal-Mart gift card from Mom's aunt and uncle who live in Pennyslvania.  Another gift to Mom from me is undergarments.

 

 

See this picture on the right is that Mom got a framed picture of her 2 other friends with 2 other copies of them from me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dad got a Jesus coffee mug from Mom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom got ASL book from me (See on the right).  Also this is for Joe.  I wanted Mom to share it with Joe.  I wrote their name in one tag.  Anyways, Mom likes ASL book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look what I got those Xmas gifts from my family.

 

 

 

 

See on the left of Christmas tree is Angels Kissing blanket from my grandaunt and granduncle, Honey and Frank who live in Pennsylvania.

 

New outfits from my parents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left to Right:  A Makeup item and Angelstar Worry Stone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David was supposed to wait until Mom comes home last Friday but he left early cuz he have to open his Christmas presents from us.  He stayed with Dad, Joe, and me that Friday afternoon.  Mom was disappointed when she found out.  She went out for shopping.  One of us should call Mom on her cell phone right away when David arrives to visit us.

 

That's it.

December 23, 2008: Christmas Shopping With My Interpreter, Kelsey

I went out all afternoon with a young, nice female interpreter named Kelsey yesterday.  She's hired by Mom and Joe.  Kelsey is a college student who knew my deaf friend, Chuck, who is happened to be her ASL instructor at Daytona Beach Community College (DBCC currently turns into Daytona State College since last year).  I didn't know Kelsey knows Chuck until I found out that few months ago.  I already know Chuck works at a college for teaching students ASL class.  That early Tuesday afternoon, Kelsey came to pick me up 30 minutes later after my chosen original schedule to get her on time, a noon, but she did call to inform my father she would be there in 15 minutes.  After we left the Manison, we went to a big bookstore, Barnes & Noble, in Daytona Beach.  That big bookstore comes first for me to do a Christmas shopping.  First, I ordered my lunch in the cafe there.  I planned to eat there cuz I needed taking a break from making a lunch at home.  My lunch was an apple-cransberry spread, cheese and turkey sandwich.  Yummy!  My beverage was hot Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha.  That drink was so delicious!  I tried this out.  After I finished eating my lunch, Kelsey helped me to look for a signing language book.  Kelsey asked a female bookstore employee where we would find a signing language book.  We found it with other books in the other area of the section after we followed that employee.  I've decided to buy a signing language book there.  It's a Christmas present for Mom and Joe cuz they need to learn how to use a signing language.  They don't using it much in a long time.  That's why Mom and Joe have a very busy life and don't understand me well by my speech (sigh).  I chose the best book, a big and thick but not too much.  That the same one I saw at a library few years ago.  I borrowed it for scanning few pictures from that book to put into my blog.  I like that book very much so I purchased it at the front.  Kelsey bought her own presents for some people she knows.  After I purchased the new book, I decided to buy a sweet chocolate cupcake (YUMMY!)  at the cafe.  I wanted a glass plastic container of it to go, not staying in the cafe cuz we had to leave immediately for going to the mall.  At the mall, I kept searching for my family member's Christmas gift.  I had to make a hard decision to choose what he or she want but I couldn't find anything but I did find out what Mom and Dad want for Christmas already before I left home.  I've decided to pick a package of 4 pairs of Docker's socks for my Dad at JCPenney's but can't find his after shaving lotion.  After that, I wanted to stop by music CDs and DVDs shop to look for David's Christmas gift but I can't find anything that would be interesting to him and I decided not to buy DVD cuz of the price there.  Kelsey suggested I could buy a gift card instead but I told her in a sign I am thinking about it.  And to the Sears.  No, I can't find anything for Mom there.  I decided I am done searching at the mall and then we left the mall for going to Wal-Mart in Ormond Beach.  Wal-Mart was my last shop to do.  I purchased few Christmas presents for Mom and David, a package of more bows, and needed to buy a package of more Thomas English Muffins for my breakfast.  And then I went home.  Kelsey dropped me off at my family's Manison.  I came home at about after 6:30 pm.  I had a wonderful and fun time.

That evening after eating my snack, a sandwich and a soda, I had to wrap Christmas presents for my family immediately.  That's alot of work through the night.  I finished wrapping them at about 10:30 pm and then cleaned up Christmas items on my bed.  What a mess!   I put them into my bedroom closet.  Mom put my Christmas presents under the Christmas tree in our family's living room for me.

Note:  The reason I decided to buy a signing language book for Mom and Joe is that they need an upgraded book.  Mom's other English signing language books are very old.  New ASL changes them.

That's it for now.  Good night.   

Mom and Joe. Christmas Shopping With Joe Little Bit. I Cancelled 2 Events By a Deaf Club.

Mom and Joe

Both Mom and Joe slept late that last Thursday morning, December 18th, a day after they flew back home in Florida.  It was a long journey for them.  Mom and Joe were very tired.  I finally hugged Mom for the first time since she went away when Mom came down to my big suite for seeing me.  Also, she gave me a very pretty ivory winter coat but it's a light wool, just like my mom's but her own coat is a little bit different from mine.  I like it very much cuz it keeps me a warm when the cold weather comes back again in Florida.  It's a early Christmas gift from my mom.  I think it's an used that she got from a garage sale in California.  Before that, I borrowed Mom's own wool coat from her once.  I am glad they have had a safe flight.


Christmas Shopping With Joe Little Bit
That Thursday afternoon December 18th, Joe and I went out to do Christmas shopping little bit.  I had a lunch at Larry's Giant Sub, next to T.G.I.Friday's Restauart on the beachside.  It's located at the shopping plaza, across the road from the beach, houses and hotels.  And the park, too.  Larry's Giant Sub have a framed photograph of Tom Cruise and me on the wall.  It's still there for a long time.  I used to go that restaurant for breakfast and lunch ony but not too many times.  It's a very good eaten place.  I love it.  Anyways, I ordered an Italian Connection submarine sandwich and a beverage, lemonade, and a small bag of potato chips.  My lunch was very delicious.  After I finished eating there, Joe had to do errands himself and then we stopped by the big building called Cash America, a pawn shop, next to the police station in Daytona Beach.  Joe wanted me to go in there when he came back several minutes later.  I did.  I checked it out.  When I got inside there, I noticed there are computers, TV sets, and music equipments everywhere.  And used DVDs, too.  I chose 2 DVD movies, "Chocolat" and "The Devil Wears Prada" but Joe purchased them as Christmas presents for me.  I know those are early gifts.  LOL!  Afterwards, Joe wanted to stop by at a health food store, Love.  He needed to buy more food there.  When we arrived there, Joe spotted Mom's car in the parking lot.  What is she doing there?  I believed Mom is doing her food shopping.  I waved Mom when Joe got in and talked to her.  I waited in the car.  Mom left Love shop early for going to Wal-Mart to do more grocery when she's done shopping at Love.  Several minutes later after Mom left, I went home with Joe when he finished shopping.  We came home at almost same time as Mom.  We returned there about 10- 15 minutes before Mom arrived back.


I Cancelled 2 Events By a Deaf Club
On Sat the 20th, I didn't go to the other deaf club in other town cuz nobody rides with me to get there.  I was having a hard time finding someone who would take me there.  The other deaf club was having a big Christmas party in Belleview, Florida, between the Village and Ocala.  That's too far away from my hometown.  And last Monday night, December 22nd in Deland for Volusia Signing Silent Dinner, planned by my hearing/interpreter friend from my deaf club, Nova, I didn't go there.  My deaf friend, Amy, said no to me cuz she already got 2 other people to ride with her and her hubby, Chuck.  I was upset and disappointed.  Nobody takes me there.  I felt trapped at my mansion.  I think Amy was too late to ask me to ride with her as if she's not thinking about me beforehand.

Kitty's Christmas Tree 2008

Yesterday evening, Mother found this artificial and fiber optic Christmas Tree in the garage of our Mansion. I guess this was belonged to a doctor who owned our Mansion before us. It looks different than the last year I had cuz an old one is broken. I like Fiber optic Christmas Tree better than Christmas lights. Hope u likes my pictures. :-)