Funny Out of Context Answers

Who's ready for the answers to my Random Quotes from around the house?

*crickets chirp*

OK here goes.

1) Me: "Jake? Find the banana!" Isabel walked out of the kitchen with a banana. Five minutes later, she walks around the corner; no banana, no peel. I asked her where it was and her answer was "Idunnooooo." I then yelled this out to Jake, who thought I was insane, until I explained to him what happened.

2) Jake: "It's Chinkeling!" This is an oldie. Jake was trying to describe something, a ring, a chime. His tongue got confused and he tried to say "ringing" or "chiming" or "tinkling" but instead, we got Chinkeling. We often use that made-up work to describe bells and chimes, coin rattling, etc.

3) Me: "I've got to get, your parent's anniversary, out of your hair." I was trying to get something out of Jake's hair, at the same time that David asked me what I needed to get a present or card for. Jake was scooting away from my hand and David asked me the question as I started to explain to Jake that he had something in his hair. The above sentence got a laugh from both of them.

4) Me: "Can you NOT play with Bubba's teeth?" In my bedroom dresser drawer, I have two tiny little wood round boxes. Tiny. One contains a strand of Jake's first haircut wrapped in a ribbon. The second has Jake's baby teeth. Isabel rummaged through the drawer and was messing around with the teeth. (Oh, Bubba=Brother=Jake. )

5) Me: "I'm gonna eat your meat, o.k.?" (That sounds REALLY not good!) Jake was not hungry, so I was going to eat the steak he left on his plate, OK??

6) Me: "Stop running around the couch with Bubba's teeth!" See # 4. She decided to run around the couch at full speed, as she often does, but this time with the little tooth box.

7) Jake: "Hey! I learned Gonorrhea's from Florida!" Jake was playing "Call of Duty 4" online with several people. Everyone has crazy screen/account names. One of the players was "Gonorrhea." They talk on-line using headsets and Jake had just found out another player lived in Florida, so he blurted this out.

8) David: "I got killed by soft toilet paper." This time, David was playing "Call of Duty 4" on the PS3. His character got killed by another player, whose screen name was "Soft Toilet Paper."

Where's Mickey?

On Sunday, it POURED on us after 4 hours at Magic Kingdom, so we decided to head home. On the way out, David mentioned he wanted to see the Animal Kingdom Lodge, so we drove in.


Holy Guacamole!! I want to LIVE THERE!! The place was gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. A co-worker of mine from Boston and his family stayed there years ago. He said that from his room, they could see giraffes, zebras and other animals. And sure enough, there were balconies facing a mini-safari section. The place was HUGE inside. Gorgeous. Did I mention gorgeous? Disney should pay me. LOL




Here's Isabel looking at some animals. It's blurry because this was actually at night and I am using my camera's night vision shot, which stinks. People's balconies face this area.



There were several areas for people to hang out near bonfires, there were 3 restaurants, pools, kids areas, arcades, indoor lounges and a gift shop. We decided to enter the gift shop and ended up buying this:










Whoa! Like we don't ALREADY have enough excitement in our lives!! We've heard rumors about Hidden Mickeys at WDW. Jake & I would sometimes look on random rides to see if we would see anything. THIS is fun, fun, fun. We had to buy it. Out to the lobby we went because there are 21, yes that's right, twenty-one, hidden at the Animal Kingdom Lodge area! A lot were outside or in restaurants, so we could not get them that day, but here's what we scored.



This one below is on a mural at the lobby. :)





Can you spot the hidden Mickey in this chandelier? I can.





This one below was off the beaten path; down a side hall near guest rooms. Cute.





This next one had us stumped. It's right in the lobby, by a bridge, near a mini-stream (I said it was an awesome lodge).





Here's where I think it is; David thinks I'm reaching. I don't know....I've outlined it in red. Click on it to make the picture bigger.




FUN!! Can't wait to see what else we find. (oh, if you go on Photobucket and search "Hidden Mickey," you can see other people's finds.

Cute but Deadly

Aren't they SO cute? The colors, I love them. These beautiful creatures at Animal Kingdom are also VERY deadly to the touch.

Then, um...we noticed the green ones were..kind of busy. We moved on cause we felt kind-of creepy, ya know?

End of Week 9...I think I can see it

It's the end of week 9 of my exercise and diet regimen. Another 2 pounds lost, with a total of 21 for 9 weeks.



And I can't see it. I take full body pictures, that I mean to post, but then I look at my butt and say "Uh uh." It looks exactly the same! 21 pounds and where is it coming off of?? I can't see it!!!



Then, yesterday on the monorail between Disney and Epcot, David took this picture...and I saw it. (Isn't my girl beautiful?)






But, was I right? Am I really seeing what I think I am seeing? The smaller picture below was taken on May 3rd. I started exercising and dieting on May 25th. You decide.

Funny Out of Context

I was yelling at Jake to do something, and how it came out was pretty darned funny, if you just happened to walk in on the conversation half-way through. I decided to jot down random things said around the house, on a pad in the kitchen. See if you can figure out what the heck we were talking about, and I'll give the real answers in another post.

1) Me: "Jake? Find the banana!

2) Jake: "It's Chinkeling!"

3) Me: "I've got to get, your parent's anniversary, out of your hair.

4) Me: "Can you NOT play with Bubba's teeth?"

5) Me: "I'm gonna eat your meat, o.k.?" (That sounds REALLY not good!)

6) Me: "Stop running around the couch with Bubba's teeth!"

7) Jake: "Hey! I learned Gonorrhea's from Florida!"

8) David: "I got killed by soft toilet paper."

Dr. Horrible Fix?

Look at the right sidebar, about 3/4 of the way down.

You're welcome.

Moby Dick

I finished Moby Dick. I borrowed it from elsewhere, (my library is closed for a year, remember?) and HAD to finish it because I am weird like that.

(Sorry Lisa but) I disliked it very much. I don't like to say Hate. It was just SO not my cup of tea. I enjoyed all that had to do with Queequeg and Ishmael, Starbuck and Stubb. The carpenter was interesting, the welder Perth was a well-written character. All the interactions between people were enjoyable.

Ahab was haunted, obsessed, possessed. "Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!!" I knew exactly what that meant without having to get it translated (helps being latina) and gasped. ("I baptize you not in the name of the Father but in the name of the devil," he cries as he dips the barbs of his weapon in the blood of Queequeg and Daggoo. ) He was beyond obsession, he was mad.

All this I enjoyed.

What I did not enjoy were the chapters upon chapters of "Ishmael" telling us about the kinds of whales they hunted. Their shapes and sizes and anatomy and physiology. How ones head is compared to another. How they are caught and cut up, what parts are valuable, how they are used to make oil, what they do with the bones, where they migrate to, what they do. It wasn't a little blurb. It was chapters and chapters of this. I felt like it was filler. I was in school, learning about whales from a boring teacher.

I often felt like there was something wrong with me for disliking it so. Then, I read the following reviews, published in the back of this copy of Moby Dick I borrowed. There were 3 published reviews. One was favorable, the other two said the following:

From the Literary Gazette (London, 12/06/1851):

This is an odd book, professing to be a novel; wantonly eccentric;
outrageously bombastic; in places charming and vividly descriptive. The author has
read up laboriously to make show of his cetalogical learning. .....Herman Melville is wise in this sort of wisdom. He uses it as stuffing to fill out his skeleton story. Bad stuffing it makes, serving only to try the patience of his readers, and to tempt them to wish both him and his whales at the bottom of an unfathomable sea. The story of this novel scarcely deserves the name.

From the United States Magazine and Democratic Review (New York, 01/1852)

Mr. Melville is evidently trying to ascertain how far the public will consent to be imposed upon. He is gauging, at once, our gullibility and our patience. Having written one or two passable extravagancies, he has considered himself privileged to produce as many more as he pleases, increasingly exaggerated and increasingly dull. .... We have no intention of quoting passages just now from "Moby Dick." The London journals, we understand, "have bestowed upon the work many flattering notices," and we should be loth to combat such high authority. But if there are any of our readers who wish to find examples of bad rhetoric, involved syntax, stilted sentiment and incoherent English, we will take liberty of recommending to them this precious volume of Mr. Melville's.

and then I didn't feel so bad.

SCORE # 2 or How I (almost) won the Lotto!

Yesterday I wrote about what a Monday I had. Here's why.

Caller # 15 to local radio station will win $200 in Florida Lotto scratch off tickets.

Me: Dial, dial, dial.
Him: Hey, who's this?
Me: GET OUT!
Him: I have two questions for you. 1) are you over 18
Me: Yes
Him: 2) Have you won a prize from here in the past 30 days?
Me: Nooooo, holy cow!
Him: Congratulations Kaaren you just won $200 in Florida Lotto Tickets
Me: (if whisper-screaming were a sport, I'd win gold, baby.) OH MY GAWD! (I'm whispering all this) I CAN'T YELL! MY BOSS IS ON THE PHONE NEXT TO ME!

We continue funny banter about me possibly winning $250k & telling my boss 'good-bye' and such. He takes my info. and we hang up. I'm shaking and I call David. "TURN ON THE RADIO!!!" I tell him.

They play my winning recording (my boss listens in; he's off the phone now) and we're all high-fiving.

Today, we go during my lunch break to pick up my prize. Yes, David met me there, the dork. We go in, I fill out paperwork, and an employee hands me a nylon zippered bag. Huh? What's with the bag? We sit down in the lobby and open the bag. Inside, we have:

a FL Lottery T Shirt
a FL Lottery Hat
Sunglasses
a hand-held fan that when the blades spin, it spells out words (Isabel took THAT).
a hand-held weather/storm radio
an MP3 PLAYER!!!!
and 100 ea. $2 scratch off tickets!!




An MP3 player! A whatchamacallit - Shuffle. AND 100 $2 scratch off tickets!!!

We picked up lunch and took it back to work where we proceeded to scratch and scratch and scratch.

Total loot from tickets: $84 won and ten more free tickets won. *snort* GO ME!!

Just.....No...NO, I SAID!

This is never, ever, never, ever, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, ever, never, ever never, ever, never, ever, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, ever, never, ever





a





good





look






EVER!

SCORE! # 1

I don't normally blog about work because I am not STOOOOOPID, but this is an ok story to tell.

As you know, I was on vacation for two weeks. Two! No work done by me for two weeks.

I do work for both our Orlando and Charlotte, NC divisions. I get back to the office and receive a call from our Charlotte sales rep., who welcomes me back, says he missed me and tells me "Don't ever take two weeks off again!"

It took me about two weeks to get caught back up, as I had to do my daily work plus catch up for the two weeks I was off. During last week, Charlotte sales rep. would call me about things and then in the middle of a conversation, would say "Have you checked your mail?" I, thinking he was talking e-mails about orders, would say "Yes" and then we would continue with our conversation.

At one point he asked me again and I said "B, WHY do you keep asking me that??" He replied "Cause there might be something there for you."

"Ooooooh!," I said. "You mean 'snail mail'."

Last Friday, I received a little note from him, thanking me for all I do for him, along with a $40 Starbucks card. Whooot!!! You had me at 'Latte!'

Then, FedEx shows up with $50 Target gift cards for the entire office. It was a "thank you" from corporate for all the hard work the entire company has put in. Sweet! My boss hands me my envelope and says "Here, you deserve this." and I'm thinking "Why is he re-giving me the gift card?" (he already gave it to me 5 minutes ago). He was giving me his Target card!

Total Score on Friday: $140 in gift cards. Yay Me!

Condolences

I have many close friends. Not counting sisters, I have two I call my "best friends," Wendy and Kelli. We went to high school together, college together, I was in Wendy's wedding, they both were in mine. My kids call them "Titi" (aunt).

This past weekend, Kelli and her mom Dianne lost Dianne's mom/Kelli's grandma. My heart and all my love go out to my best friend and her mom.

Monday, What a Monday!

I had a GREAT MONDAY..but I'm not saying why yet. NO, I'm not pregnant, shut up you. I'll let you know more tomorrow...maybe.

I also weighed in. Drum-roll please.....

Two more pounds lost in week 8.

8 week total: 19 pounds!! Here are our our happy faces!! (and that face is from before my 19 lb. loss, thank you very much!)

He did it to me again!

WHY am I surprised by this? Why, why, why? Why do I let him come in and then STOMP my heart?!? I should be used to this by now, right? I mean, let's look at his history with couples:

Buffy & Angel - angst, pain and death. Yea, he came back. Still.

Buffy & Riley - she was mean, he left, she deserved it though. So not really a valid point.

Willow & Oz - painful breakup.

Willow and Tara - Holy COW, painful ending.

Giles & Jennie - Ouch! Painful end just as it began.

Xander and Cordy - painful end for Cordy literally.

Xander and Anya - No wedding, vengeance demon, painful death.

Angel and Cordy - doomed and just stupid.

Fred and Gunn - Yea, that went well.

Fred and Wes - I've still not forgiven him for what he did to this couple.

Wash and Zoe - I've also not forgiven him for this one.

There's a pattern, people. I *know* the pattern. It's his modis operandi and yet, Joss sucks me in and BAM!

Acts 2 and 3 are up of Dr. Horrible. Hurry up before they take it down. It's funny, witty, sarcastic, terrific. Just what we expect from Whedon & Mutant Enemy.

Fourth & Fifth of July

I forgot to finish by vacation story. I also forgot to mention that Isabel got sick immediately after we got home from the reunion. Fever, cough and apparently headaches. Only, poor baby, she didn't know what it was so she kept saying "I hurt my head!" I asked her how; "Did you bonk your head?" Eventually, I figured out what she meant. I had to force fever reducer into her one night (she hated me) but then the next night, she came to me and asked for more of it.

As she got better, Jake got sick. As Jake got better...I got sick. And still am, with a stupid, hacking, phlegmy thing going on in here. Lovely, huh?

Fourth of July Friday, Jake went with the 6 in-laws to the beach while Isabel, David and I stayed home. The day before at the beach was enough beach for me. Said like a true Floridian who takes beaches for granted.

That evening, David had to work. :( Yes, on July 4. My brother-in-law and Jake set off fireworks in front of our house that evening. After about 3, Isabel was over it.




(Just a picture of my house that evening, cause I love it!



Saturday = ZOO TIME! My in-laws ended up buying an annual pass from their state on-line, because it was cheaper than buying the tickets down here. The parks have reciprocity, so not only did they see our zoo, they got an annual family pass to their zoo.





Here are the girl cousins.


Juliette's face, far right below, CRACKS me up. Click the pics to make them bigger.





We came home, bathed and changed and went out to dinner at Chili's. Sunday they left very early in the a.m. for the 9+ hour drive back.

I went to work Monday all sick, because there was no way they would have believed me calling in sick after two weeks. They believed me when I walked in and spoke, believe you me.

Mira Mirror

I bought this book because it was fifty cents. That's right. Five zero. 5 dimes; 2 quarters, and a hard back. I can't even remember if it was at a library sale or a thrift store.


I've been reading fairy tales with a twist lately, so I thought this would be cute.

This is the story of Mira. She gets sold to a witch, who has an apprentice, and the teach Mira how to use magic. The apprentice, a girl her age who calls her "sister", has lots of power and wants more. She turns Mira into a mirror so Mira can use her powers to keep the young witch beautiful. Then, the young witch meets a beautiful young girl, with skin as white as snow.....

I love the title's play on words: Mirror Mirror on the Wall / Mira Mirror on the wall.

Snow White is but a passing blurb in this book. Don't expect her and the dwarves to show up. Mira is left hanging on a wall for over a hundred year in a cottage in the woods, when her "sister" disappears, until a runaway peasant stumbles upon her.

The story deals with Mira trying to use the girl to get her close enough to power to change herself back. Mira and the peasant girl meet a merchant and his daughter, who take them in.

The story deals with these two girls and how, even though they are in different levels in society, have the same problems. They bond. Mira sees herself in the peasant and sees what true sisters behave like. She stops using them and starts loving them.

The end, which I won't tell you, was sad. I was unhappy with it, not because it was badly written, but because it was a sad ending. But it's reality. I wanted Mira restored, young, beautiful, happy. What I got was really what should have happened after over 100 years.

It's a good book for the tweens and early teens.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Very excited about this one. Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion (Firefly/Serenity/Buffy/Drive) and , Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother/Doogie Howser), along with others team up to make a cute, hokey, fun internet sing-along about a wanna-be bad guy who also wants to get the girl, while Super Hunk-A-Lious, kind-of stupid Captain Hammer thwarts his plan.

Click the link. Made solely for the internet, Act I is up.

*grumblegrumble* Bandwagon Jumper *grumblegrumble*

MEN!!

MEN!!

David decides he wants to try my very low carb diet, so he reads a little book I have and has been (constantly) calling me at work asking "Can I eat this?" No. "Can I eat this?" No.

SIX days later...he's lost 7 pounds.

MEN!! Why do they always lose faster than women? He's not even WORKING OUT!! SO not fair!

Anywhoo, back to moi.

End of week 7 & I lost another 4 lbs. That's now 17 pounds in 7 weeks.

Vacation at Home

Continuing with our vacation, Sunday we drove back to Lookout Mountain to spend the night, and Monday we drove home to Florida. Over 20 hours in 2 days. Can you say 'YUCK?'



Tuesday was a day of rest. A day of laundry and doing not mucha nothing.

Now in the meantime, David's sister, her husband and 4 kids were at a hotel near Disney. She had a gymnastics competition at Disney's Wide World of Sports. I think they were done by Tuesday. We made plans to meet them at their hotel on Wednesday morning, after they packed their car and checked out of the hotel. The 6 of them and 4 of us then headed to Magic Kingdom. For her kids, it was the first time they were in the Magic Kingdom.







We got to the park around 9:45 a.m. David had to work that night, so we 4 left around 2:30 p.m. David's sister & family? They stayed until after midnight! I was just tired thinking about it. They only had one-day passes and wanted to do as much as they could. Since the park was open until midnight, they stayed until about 12:50 a.m. and then drove to our house.



BTW, people. We live over an hour away from the parks now. Depending on which park you go to, we live between 1 hour and 10 minutes and 1 hour and thirty minutes away. We tell people this because although we live in Central Florida, we are no longer that close to Disney.



Thursday, the house was full of kids, David included (below playing with Ethan).








We vegged and then decided to go to New Smyrna Beach. Some of her kids had never been to the beach on an ocean, so we drove out with picnic lunches. David stayed home as he again had to work....and he's mister pasty white guy who turns pink.



Surprisingly, the beach was not crowded. This is the 3rd of July now, and it was fine. I did not bring my camera because I did not want all that fine sand damaging it, so no pictures (unless Jennifer wants to send me some from her camera).



[Confession: I live in Florida....and I don't like the beach. True, crazy I know. I would much rather be in a pool than at the beach. I went because Jake was dying to go and I wanted Isabel to hang out with her cousins. They both had so much fun. I just can't stand the mess afterwards. I'm a bit of a neat freak (read: anal retentive at times). Having sand in my car, in my house drives me fruit. I have not been to the beach in years. Well, except when I went, fully dressed, in like November with my in-laws. ]

We came back home Thursday evening, had dinner that I cooked and watched a DVD. David went to work. :( Yes, on July 4th he had to work.

Me - Paula Cole

I have a new song up on the blog. Over to the right below my books I put my "Favorite Song EVER....of the month."

I have not listened to "This Fire" by Paula Cole in forever. I LOVE this album.

"ME" used to be like my personal song back when I was in an extremely difficult relationship and was trying to figure out if I was strong enought to move on. I played it today driving home in the car and remembered how amazing a song it was and still is.

Here are the lyrics. Press play on the blog and listen to it while you read the lyrics.

I am not the person who is singing
I am the silent one inside
I am not the one who laughs at peoples jokes
I just pacify their egos
I am not my house, my car, my songs
They are only stops along my way
I am like winter
I'm a dark cold female
With a golden ring of wisdom in my cave

Chorus:
And it's me who is my enemy
Me who beats me up
Me who makes the monsters
Me who strips my confidence

I am carrying my voice
I am carrying my heart
I am carrying my rhythm
I am carrying my prayers
But you cant kill my spirit
It's soaring and it's strong
Like a mountain, I go on and on
But when my wings are folded
The brightly colored moth
Blends into the dirt into the ground

Chorus (above)

And it's me who's too weak
And it's me who's too shy
To ask for the thing I love
And it's me who's too weak
And it's me who's too shy
To ask for the thing I love
But I love (6 times)

I am walking on the bridge
I am over the water
And I'm scared as hell
But I know there's something better
Yes I know there's something
Yes I know, yes I know, yes I know
But I love (5 times overlapping chorus)

But its me
And its me
But its me (4 times)

Familia

Thursday we drove from Ohio to Michigan, picking up David's brother Kevin at the airport in Toledo along the way. It was time for the family reunion.

David's family on his mother's side have a reunion every two years. I've been to the 2000 and 2002 reunions. (2004 we had just has Isabel and 2006 we had to move into the new house in the same month).

We arrived Thursday afternoon and got into our rooms at Indian Lakes Nazarene Camp. Thursday evening was just a meet and greet at the Learning Center, but since Isabel fell asleep, I stayed in the room with her. reading a book.

Friday and Saturday were spent swimming at the "beach, riding a pontoon boat, playing indoor and outdoor games, having meals together and just having fun. It was a great place for a reunion.



Saturday night....Talent Show. Yep, we have a talent show! It's really fun. Unbeknowst to him, Jake was the opening act. He 'rawked' their socks off.





There were funny skits (David's mom had me laughing so hard, I could not hold the video camera straight), a gymnastics routine, a few singers, another piano player, a little show & tell, a magic show, a comedy routine, some audience participation and a funny finale that I wish I had taken a picture of.

Isabel sang a song!! I had printed up the lyrics and copied then for everyone because it's kind of hard to understand her. (It's a pdf file. Check out the lyrics. They're really hard!) I passed the lyrics out, sat next to her and she sang her song, completely from memory. Our video camera is not digital!! So I have no idea how to get the video on the computer. But everyone was amazed that she memorized the entire song.



David and his dad sang a funny song: "Sing a Song of Sixpence" as a kind-of opera. It was good.

MY talent? Mine had to be presented on Friday morning. I explained letterboxing and hid a box on the premises. I had carved 10 personal stamps for everyone at home, and let groups choose a stamp, grab a notebook, clues and head out for the hunt. The box is still there for anyone with clues to find.



Here I am, waiting for breakfast. Their breakfast spread was my favorite one of the day. The staff did a fantastic job.

You can check out more pictures here on Flickr.

We left Michigan for our journey back to Lookout Mountain on Sunday.

Cedar Point, Sandusky Ohio

We drove to Lookout Mountain on Saturday two weeks ago and arrived late in the evening - a 10+ hour drive. Ugh. Sunday was spent at church and hanging about the mountain.

Monday, my family, David's parents and one of his brothers drove up in two vehicles to Sandusky, Ohio; home of Cedar Point, an amazing Roller Coaster/Theme Park. We arrived late there again, after another 10 plus hour drive.

Tuesday we were up early and ready for fun! Here are the pictures from both Tuesday and Wednesday's adventures.

If you're a roller coaster nut, this is the place for you!

On Tuesday, Isabel was not interested in one single thing. She was a cranky wreck. David and Tricia (David's mom) convinced Isabel to finally go on a very slow old-time car ride. She cried in line, but grandma distracted her, and by the time we got on the ride, she was happy.

Wednesday, and all of a sudden....Isabel wants to ride everything in the two kid areas....over and over and over. She and I did Planet Snoopy and the Junior Gemini Kids areas, while the rest of the group rode the crazy roller coasters in this park. (hence the bazillion pictures of just her; everyone else was elsewhere).

We spent Wednesday night at the hotel again and prepared for Thursday and phase 2 of our vacation.

By the way, HUGEMUNGOUS THANKS to David's mom and dad for paying for the hotel AND Cedar Point tickets for us!!

I Didn't Forget....

about the weigh-in. I was just out of pocket for two weeks. *Gasp!* you say? Yes, I am back from a 2 week vacation! I will fill you in all about it soon.

Today was my first day back to work in two weeks. *shudder* I worked and worked and worked....and am up to 6/25/08 with paperwork. LOL It's not pretty.

I was SCARED as heck to get on the scale. Two weeks of vacation and no working out. I did stick to my diet almost 2 weeks. I cheated 3 times, so I was so scared to weigh myself.

My metabolism has always been weird. I can't just diet to lose weight. I have to exercise too. And I can't just exercise alone without dieting. When I exercise, all I do is maintain weight, not gain.

So, after two weeks of vacation, over 2000+ miles driven, tons of money spent, and way too many stops at fast food restaurants where all I could eat are salads......I LOST 2.5 pounds. Heh heh. Funny. Not a great amount. If I had worked out, I would have lost more, but at least I did not gain weight.

Total weight loss so far: 13 pounds (in....5 weeks? or 6? I lost track and need to check.)

Rascal

This book was sent to me by Aunt Joan in the big ole box of her favorite books last year. By Sterling North, 'Rascal' is the memoir of the author's youth in 1918 Wisconsin. Sterling is 11 and living with his father, a sort-of idealistic daydreamer who lets Sterling run wild. Sterling's mother has passed away, leaving Sterling and his dad to fend for themselves, as his two older sisters are already living on their own.

Sterling is forever bringing home pets; dog, woodchucks, skunks! and then, Rascal, a baby raccoon he and a buddy take from its mother's nest.

The story deals with their antics, their daily peaceful, innocent lives. It also deals with Sterling's loss of his mother subtly, in the way he nurtures Rascal, in the way he enjoys the nurturing of his friend Oscar's loving mom.

Eventually, Sterling realizes that Rascal, although being a loving, intelligent best friend, really needs to be in the wild. Although heart-wrenching, Sterling knows his decision is the best.

It's a sweet book gears for the young (second through sixth graders) but it was a nice read; something I never got to read in my youth.

Atonement

I rented 'Atonement' the other evening and watched it alone. David was at work and Jake was not interested. I have a rather more-than-small crush on James McAvoy, so I wanted to see this.

The cinematography/photography was beautiful. From the rich house in the country to the shift to war-torn Dankirk, the landscape was breathtaking. The five-minute steady-cam shot in Dankirk is an amazing camera feat; kudos to them.

The story had me rooting for Robbie to "get the girl" and then shocked me immediately after. I found myself wanting to take Briony over my knee and beat the living daylights out of her. The pain she caused.....

Then, the last 10 minutes of the movie was as if an elephant had stepped on my chest. I lost my breath. I could not breathe, I was so stunned. It was only when the credits started rolling that my tears did the same.

It's a beautiful film. It deserved its Golden Globe win and I liked it so much more than "No Country for Old Men," which won the Oscar in the same year "Atonement" was nominated.