A while ago my husband and I decided to place bets on the longevity of a few Hollywood couples. While five of the six couples are still together, one bit the dust this week - Jessica and Nick. And, because my husband seems to think that Nick is a cool buy because he loves sports and drinks beer, he had them lasting the longest of the six couples we decided to wager on. I, on the other hand, had them ranked third (as in the third couple to break up out of the six). So, while Jessica and Nick lost their status as happily married couple, I won a bet! However, because it is a six-part bet, I'm only 1/6th of the way to winning the ultimate prize. Still, I'm feeling optimistic. The odds are on my side (supported by Nicole Ritchie's assertion that she can't wait to get married because it's so exciting - "I mean, you get to change your name!" Yeah, that's right Nicole, changing your name is about the least challenging thing about marraige, but only someone with a dose of reality would realize that).

The other day I saw that Glamour had taken short-lived Hollywood marriages and divided the number of days married by the amount of money spent. It was quite amusing. Tori Spelling's marriage cost something like $4k a day once the math was done. And here we thought it would last forever.... There are a bunch of new couples we could bet on, as we decided to do this way before the Britney/Kevin hook-up (they'd move into the number one spot if did decide to add them), and Tom and Katie (I'd probably put them at number two).

On an entirely different note, yesterday my son told me, "Parents must love Christmas because Santa buys all the toys and they don't need to spend any money." From the mouths of babes.

Yesterday I received a call from a company performing a survey. Now, as someone who loves to give people my opinion, and as someone who was also kinda bored at the time, I was all to happy to tell this woman what I was thinking. Then she told me the topic of her call: movies.

"How many times have you been to a movie theater to see a movie in the past three months?" she wanted to know. IAnd knew I was in trouble.

"None," I told her.

"None?" she repeated, as if she wasn't quite sure she'd heard me right.

"Yep. Absolutely not one single movie," I confirmed, and I felt the survey slipping through my fingers. "In fact, I haven't been to a movie theater to see a grown-up movie since 1992 when I saw The Firm staring a much younger, much saner, Tom Cruise."

Well, I figured that was the end of it. But then she threw me a lifeline. "Well, you don't qualify, but are there any kids in the house aged 7-11?"

There were!

"Have they been to the movie theater to see a movie in the past three months?" she asked again.

And again, I had to tell her no. We are a family who doesn't go to the movies. As a kid my movie-loving parents lugged my brother and me to the movies all the time - I think I saw every James Bond movie before I turned eight, which spoiled me for the rest of my life by setting completely unrealistic expectations of men. But, ever since then, I hate going to the movies. Regardless of the fact that 99% of movies are crap, it's just not not fun paying to sit in an uncomfortable chair in a dark room with a bunch of strangers chomping on popcorn in your ear. Now, that said, we did rent a movie this weekend and it was absolutely, hands down, the best movie I've seen in years, if not ever. Crash was absolutely riveting. But, I watched Crash in the comfort of my own bed, with a cold beer by my side, and the ability to push the pause button whenever I needed to or had a hankering for something in the fridge. That is how a movie should be watched.