A few weeks ago, I went shopping with Shanon & Elena. One of the stores we stopped into was Wal-Mart. While in the crafty aisle, I was standing next to Elena who was sitting the in the cart. The cart was parked next to a large pillar that had merchandise hanging from it. The particular items were "Wet Floor" warning signs complete with the picture of the little guy slipping and falling. Elena pointed to it and said, "Do you know what this means?"

"No, what," I asked, eager to hear her interpretation.

"It means 'Don't die.'" Shanon and I both laughed. "I think we should buy some," she continued, undaunted.

"Why? Do you need to be reminded not to die," I questioned. She shook her little blonde head and said, "They're not for me." I'm wondering who she thought needed to be reminded!!

A second incident, this one with Collin's 6 year old Jordyn, occurred Friday afternoon. She was playing a computer game called Wingnut with the headphones on when suddenly she asked me, "What's a walnut?"

"It's a certain type of nut," I told her.

"Well, this girl in this game just called me a walnut." Her brother knew what she playing and was familiar with the terminology so he told her that she had been called a wingnut and not a walnut. Jordyn looked at Justin and with all seriousness said, "What kind of nut would have a wing????"

Labels: Elena, Jordyn

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Yesterday was a wonderful day. With one exception. Since it's always better to leave off on good news, I'll start with the bad.

My computer moniter burned out yesterday morning. Let us take a moment of silence...

.....

Thank you. I was happily, dare I say giddily, working on the data entry part of genealogy which is a chore that I love so very, very much when I noticed the washer was done. While I was working on the laundry (which is a chore that I do NOT love), I realized I could smell something burning. My first thought was the air conditioning. Since I was right underneath the mechanics of that, I sniffed upwards. No burning. I looked out towards the dining room and OH MY GOD! My poor little monitor...the sides of the display had caved in so there was a small stripe of the screen I had been working on and the inside edges were brown like someone had taken a match to it. And it smelled like burnt popcorn. The fact that until I get a new one means I have more room on my desk is a small consolation.

But now to the good stuff. Season 1 of Animaniacs came out Tuesday and Collin picked it up. I loved Animaniacs when it was on the air - so much so that I remember Derek & I would record the show every day and then when we had a whole tape, we recorded the audio of certain funny lines & songs onto a cassette that we could listen to in the car. But I haven't seen it for years. Would the funny still hold up? Turns out it does. We watched the first 4 episodes last night and I laughed my head off. Dot calling Albert Einstein "silly mustasche man" and Brain telling Pinky "I am not devoid of humor" were just a couple highlights. Yakko's World where he sings the name of every country (and one that doesn't exist anymore) brought me untold joy - - I was singing right along with him!! The only drawback was the video is bouncy sometimes but the fun...a perfect 10!



And then...oh, like things couldn't get any better?? Galaga became available on XBox Live's Marketplace. Now I'm not a big gamer - you can tell by my gamer tag on the sidebar - but I love Galaga. I started playing it because that was the game Matthew Broderick played in War Games and I became addicted. So when it showed up yesterday for download, Collin didn't even bother with the demo, just downloaded the real thing right away. Just the little "deeduhlee" when the game starts was enough to send my Joy meter sky-high. He literally had to send his 6 year old in to tell me to come eat, I was so into playing it.



So, all in all, Wednesday was a good day!!

Labels: amalgams

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At the beginning of June, even though I had about 5 or 6 bags of unread books in my car and a stack as tall as the Leaning Tower of Pisa in my locker of the same, I went to the library. You might remember the post about the screechy old lady and the girl with the cell phone. Anyway, the first 7 books of June's list were the books I got. Once you see them, you'll understand my post title. Of course, if you're a J.D. Robb fan, you already know....

54. The Complete Ghost Stories of Charles Dickens - Charles Dickens

55. Glory In Death - J.D. Robb

56. Immortality In Death - J.D. Robb

57. Rapture In Death - J.D. Robb

58. The Main Corpse - Diane Mott Davidson

59. Labyrinth - Mark T. Sullivan

60. Kiss of the Bees - J.A. Jance

61. Before the Cradle Falls - James F. David

62. After Midnight - Maggie Shayne

The Book of the Month went to Immortality In Death by J.D. Robb. It was the best out of the three I read, which isn't saying that the other two weren't good. They were terrific as usual but that one I really enjoyed. I liked Mavis's fashion designing boyfriend and the human side of Lt. Dallas we finally start seeing. The only reason I read only 3 was because I want to read the series in order and I had read Naked In Death, the 1st Eve Dallas book, a couple years ago. I grabbed what the library had which was only the 2nd, 3rd & 4th. I ended up going to Barnes & Noble for the next two and just today found the 6th. So you'll start to see more of her books peppered in the upcoming lists.

And yes, I finally read A Christmas Story by Charles Dickens. It was wonderfully written, as were most of the other ghost stories in the collection. However, there were 2 that were so dry and poorly written that I couldn't even finish reading them. I don't even remember what they were called. One of them, every single character irritated me to the point that I was yelling at the book. Maybe I was just in a mood, who knows??

But hey! I'm caught up now! July is almost over and I'm just starting my 10th book of the month, the 72nd of the year. Unless something miraculous happens, I don't think I'll be hitting the 200 mark like I hoped to. But the 100+ mark is definitely doable!!

Hope you all had a fantabulous weekend!!

Labels: Books

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I was talking to my dad the other day and somehow the topic of ultimate jobs came up. The conversation went something like this:

Dad: If I could be anything, I think I would be an archaeologist.

Me: Are you making fun of me? (My biggest dream was always to be an archaeologist, to discover things about ancient civilizations, uncover their secrets...doesn't that sound wonderful? My father, though, is very good at remembering things and bringing them back to tease you with. I thought that's what he was doing here.)

Dad: No! I always thought that would be fun. I wouldn't wanna be like your buddy...what's his name...

Me: Indiana Jones?

Dad: Yeah! I wouldn't wanna run through jungles and have poison arrows shot at me or anything. I just want to dig in the dirt, find little pieces of pots and things. Wouldn't that be great?

Me: YES!! That's exactly why I wanted to be an archaeologist!

Dad: You want to be one, too?

35 years and he never knew my dream was be an archaeologist! I could have sworn I'd told him. Apparently, though, that's where I get it from. I wouldn't mind the big discoveries like Indy but just to go to Egypt and dig in a tomb...that's what I want.

Ooo...except I probably couldn't sit and read at that job....

Labels: Conversations

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On we go with the book list. Here's what I read in May:

42. Something Wicked - Carolyn Hart

43. Bump In The Night - A collection of short stories that included:

- Haunted In Death - J.D. Robb

- Poppy's Coin - Mary Blayney

- The Passenger - Ruth Ryan Langan

- Mellow Lemon Yellow - Mary Kay McComas

44. Echoes From The Macabre - Daphne du Maurier

45. The Lighthouse - P.D. James

46. Kill Me - Stephen White

47. Play Dead - Leslie O'Kane

48. Ruff Way To Go - Leslie O'Kane

49. Northern Lights - Nora Roberts

50. Blue Dahlia - Nora Roberts

51. Black Rose - Nora Roberts

52. Red Lily - Nora Roberts

53. Birthright - Nora Roberts

The Book of the Month went to a series of books this time - the In The Garden Triolgy by Nora Roberts which, as I'm sure you can figure out, are Blue Dahlia, Black Rose & Red Lily. What I loved about this trilogy is that there was a ghost, one that the three women and their men tracked through all three books. In each one, you learned a little more about her and it was fascinating.

That new ad campaign that's going around lately, "Everyone's reading Nora Roberts" is no joke. At one point during this month I was sitting in the break room with Precsilla & Ginny and we all had Nora Roberts books with us to read during the night. She's wonderful!

This month was actually very hard to decide which book would get the BOTM honor - Echoes From the Macabre was spooky...it's where Hitchcock got the inspiration for The Birds. It was the last short story in there and it scared me silly! I'm almost afraid to watch the movie, though, after what he did to Rebecca!

Speaking of Rebecca - - in Carolyn Hart's Death On Demand series, she always has Annie Darling, the proprieter of a mystery book store, hanging 5 paintings in the beginning of her books. They each depict a scene in a mystery and if the reader is sharp, they can figure them out before they're revealed at the end of the story. In this book, Something Wicked, the first painting she described was the beginning of Rebecca. I was so excited because I had just read that book and I had never been able to figure out a painting before!!

The next two paintings didn't sound familiar to me but the last 2 did - Dream of Orchids by Phyllis A. Whitney and Curse of the Kings by Victoria Holt. I was so giddy that I got 3 paintings that I didn't wait to look in the back of the book to verify my findings. I was right with Rebecca and Dream of Orchids but they listed the final painting as Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt. Now I was stumped. I've read all of Holt's books (she's my favorite author) and I could have sworn that there was no Egyptian tomb in Mistress of Mellyn. I went right home that morning and re-read the ending to Mistress and then the ending of Curse of the Kings. And guess what?

I was right!! How something like that could have slipped by is beyond me! But there you go!

Also - - if you've never read any of the authors that are listed here this month, check them out!! Stephen White and Leslie O'Kane are fellow Coloradoans and are excellent writers. White's books are more thriller while Kane's are cozies, just plain fun to read!

Labels: Books

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Tuesday night Collin came to have dinner with me at work. The kids were with their mom so it only took us maybe 30 minutes to eat and we decided we'd hang out at Quail Lake and watch the bats for a while. There weren't as many as there had been the last time we saw them and I started wondering if maybe my heron* was hanging aroound anywhere close. Collin had never seen my bird in the flesh and he was agreeable to seeing if we could locate him.

Quail Lake is a very popular fishing spot and even at 8:45 at night there were still a handful of people there with their poles and bait. As we were walking down the lake path toward where we had just seen the heron fly in, we heard one of these fishers let out a startling scream and I saw a pole go flying up in the air. I couldn't tell what was going on because there were bushes and I didn't care too much because I had a heron to track.

The damn bird was taunting us, though. We'd get to where he was and he'd fly to where we had just been. We went through this for a while before I said "Screw it, it's getting dark and I have to get back to work." On our way back up the path we ran across two young men carrying their fishing gear, one of them limping hard. The other was laughing and the limper hollered out, "Shut up! It hurt, man, it fucking hurt!!" Then they saw us. The laugher looked at us, jerked his thumb towards his buddy and said, "He got bit in the toe by a fish!!!" and started laughing again. His friend looked so embarrassed! That, however, explained the yelling and the throwing of the pole, though. See what fishing will get you? No good comes from fish, I'm telling you!

*= I related this story to AJ, a co-worker and after he finished laughing his ass off, he told me that his next door neighbor has a backyard pond that he keeps stocked with quite expensive fish. One morning he looked out to see a Great Blue Heron "getting his grub on" with his fish. The bird ate his whole stock!! And you know the bird was like, "Aw, hell yeah! I've hit the jackpot!"

Labels: stories

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Thanks to Kathleen for digging into her Hitchcock archives and finding out the reason for the change in the ending of the movie Rebecca. Here's what she found:

"Selznick's edit (to stay true to the book) contained provisos, since censorship forbade strict fidelity to du Maurier's story. Maxim shoots Rebecca, whereas in the film she has to die accidentally. The doctor's X-ray of her malformed uterus is omitted, along with Jack Favell's sick, worried query about whether cancer is contagious: he's afraid it might be a sexually transmitted disease. One primale, unfilmable scene in the novel Hitchcock left until later in his career. Olivier does not gun Rebecca down; ever the gentleman, he is not even sure that he hit her. Somehow she fell over, banged her head and killed herself. It was a hygienic solution, because it left no mess to be cleaned up. ... At the end, Hitchcock's Rebecca had to go further than du Maurier's novel. The novel concludes with a distant view of a false dawn as Manderley burns. Selznick, having torched Atlanta for Gone with the Wind, could hardly resist this smaller scale conflagration, and the scene enabled Hitchcock to compose a surreal poem in praise of decay and purgative fire. du Maurier's characters are all incorrigible, untidy, self-consuming smokers. ... The narrator burns the dedication page of a poetry book and watched it sift away: 'It was not ashes even, it was feathery dust.' When Rebecca is reburied, she recites the terminal mantra - 'Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust' - and imagines the crumbling corpse as 'dust. Only dust.' Yet the novel stops short of that ultimate scene, the incineration of Manderley. Hitchcock filmed it, with a last close-up of Rebecca's scorched bed, and made i a grandly operatic climax. It is his equivalent to the 'Liebestod' in the crypt that ends Bunuel's Abismos de Pasion, a version of Wuthering Heights with the added benefit of a Wagnerian soundtrack. Transfigured, Anderson (Mrs. Danvers) dances through the flames and dodges falling rafters like Brunhilde among the wreckage of the Gibichung hall as the funeral pyre flares in Wagner's Gotterdammerung. A simple case of arson becomes an immolation, cauterizing the polluted world."

My original thought when the movie first ended was that maybe moviegoers didn't want to see Olivier shooting his wife - I was pretty much dead on with that theory! I apprecaite your help with this, Kathleen!!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Labels: Books

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I admit it - I've been a bit slack when it's come to posting lately...and I don't even have a good excuse. I'm just lazy. But to make up for it, here's some pictures for your enjoyment!


Sunrise from Quail Lake. It's a shame my camera can't see the colors I see - this particular sunrise was incredibly pink but you can't really see that here. What you can see, however, is the silhouette of a large bird flying across the water. I didn't even see that until I downloaded the pictures onto my computer!


We see a lot of different animals when we go walking but we had never seen a turtle before, nevertheless one this big!! This guy was climbing the bank, going away from the lake. Prescilla was concerned he was going the wrong way and wanted to turn him around but eventually she let him continue going his own way. Later I found out that herons eat turtles and that since Quail Lake is home to at least 3 herons, he might have been running for his life!


Speaking of - here's my heron. Isn't he awesome?


A couple weeks ago, Justin, Jordyn & I came up with a new game called The Last Gumball which involves marbles. This is Jordyn messing around with the shooter marbles. I like how the one on the right appears to be glowing, giving her an alien cyborg look.


Saving the cutest for last, this is my boy, Sam. Usually when I get him up in the morning to let him run around in his exercise ball, he chills in my hand for a bit, waking up and looking cute. But of course the morning I have the camera ready he freaks out. See the look of death in his eye? He's a ticked off hamster! In fact, I think he's flipping me off! Aaaand - we also get a good shot of just how fat his belly really is!

So there you go. Hope everyone had a fantabulous weekend and have a safe & happy 4th of July!!

Labels: Pictures

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