Forever A Fangirl

Beware! Meme and Johnny Depp 2008 Ahead!

I blame Broke and Angry for all the time I spent on this. Fun, but time-consuming!

To do this meme:

Go to your search engine and type in your answer to the following questions. Then click on the "image" results and pick one photo from the first page of results.

1. Age at my next birthday (not fair! I just had a birthday!):

2. Place I'd like to travel: Paradise Island

      

                              3. My favourite place:

4. Favourite object(s): (mine is zinc yellow tho')                              

5. Favorite food (I picked holiday food):

         

Pecan pie

6. Favourite animal:

Schipperke dog

This little guy looks a lot like our Raven when she was younger. So much that I'd think it was Raven --but of course, it's not. heh. (Plus, Raven doesn't have boy parts.)

7. What my pet's name is:

I like "Raven's" cape. :)
More after jump...(Click--->)

QotD: Best Photo of '07

What's the best photo you took this year?  Show and tell!

I know I've answered this already but I tend to change my opinion of my photos so here's one I like at the moment. Taken this summer past, with me standing in Maple Lake just feet from the shoreline, fluffy clouds refected in the water, one can see the rippled sand beneath.

Maple Lake 09.07

I like this angle on the Lake. Not sure about the shadow other than it's not me. Could be one of the evergreens. Kind of odd when you blow it up.

Hilarity Ensues (Christmas Day)

A rarity: Acting like sibs--though they are shooting each other with Airzookas. :)

 

Quotes~ Mike Myers, Nietzsche, Dick Clark

My theory is that all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare.
-    Mike Myers












A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.
  -  Friedrich Nietzsche

Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?
  -  Dick Clark

I think this is about as random, as my younger son would call it, of a selection of author's quotes I could find. I like 'em all but having a last name (I still legally use the one I was born with) that begins with "McC" is a large clue to which one caught my eye.

Early Christmas a.m. at our House/ Feliz Navidad

My son and I were marvelling at how catchy this old now Christmas standard  is. Go Jose!

(There's a more Las Vegas-y version of him in the video after the jump.)

We made sugar cookies tonite after dinner at Friday's and I Am Legend after.

Want a cookie?

Pink Fuzzy Bathrobe? Nooooooo!

I just dug out a bunch of gifties to wrap for under the tree and behind my stash I saw, quite by accident (that's my story and I'm sticking with it) an open bag with a pink bathrobe of the "middle-aged lady" variety.

I know how this happened. I brought it all upon myself.

Due to the extreme markdown on EVERYTHING I've been on a bit of a buying binge with a few items for me included.

One was right up my alley of dressing for comfort. I ordered what was supposed to be a cornflower blue velour track pants/hoodie combo for half price. The colour wasn't my first choice but since I've graduated on some days to getting dressed--a track suit counts--I was being quite practical about the whole thing.

However, spouse no sooner saw me in it than he exclaimed, "Paris Hilton!" to which I said "Whaa"? "You look like like Paris Hilton," said he. I was a bit unpleased with the comparison but I realized that what he was talking about is her penchant when going casual to wear track suits in pastel colours--even though I'm quite sure her track suits cost 10X more than mine even when mine are not 50% off.

Friday night spouse took son to do son's Christmas shopping and at this point I don't know whose idea it was to purchase pink fuzzy. All I know is that a) it's horrid and b) I'm going to have to act like it's not.

Besides, clearly they have not been paying attention to the fact that at least 50% of the time I put on a track suit--not remain in my unfuzzy, cream-coloured, worse-for-wear bathrobe. Hmfpt.

Hey People!

I imagine most of you are too busy to have noticed my absence the last few days.

It really comes down to the fact that I’m stubborn as hell and won’t give up on something I want ‘till I’m thoroughly exhausted or every option known to humankind is.

The “something” to which I refer is switching my domain host—again, redirecting my domain name—again, and setting up from scratch my website—again.

I’ve done all this in order to not be a slave to my provider—sort of spreading my assets around, as it were.

I’ve not ever tried using WordPress.org and opposed to WordPress.com—very different and guess who didn’t know that until “too late?” I know bugger-all about the type of coding you need to construct a WordPress blog: c-Panel, file manager, directories, uploading and unzipping—all the unpleasantness that I’ve avoided for the decade I’ve been online. All of it has come to this—three days of trying again, getting stymied, doing searches for assistance, thinking I had the answer, finding out that I don’t, starting over and over and over. Yes, I could have paid for help. I would have done that at approximately the same time hell froze over.

What a craptastic time it’s been.

So now that I’m ready to post, I find our Interwebs have been stricken by the Comcastic virus. Best case is back up tonight. Meantime we have Denzel’s Déjà Vu to enjoy. Toodles!

xxC.

Were your holiday cards store bought, handmade, online, TBD or MIA?

None of the above--erm, maybe a couple were thrift-shop bought. I still have an almost-full box.

The rest--and I finished the box off--were from the Mercy Home For Boys in Chicago. They gave out cards for donations--they just mailed 'em to me so I figured I'd use them. It helps that my spouse is one of seven sibs from a Catholic family. I used all the overtly Christian ones for them. hee.

Real Winter

Photo by Cyn

Anyone that's lived in a place with "real winter' will get this piece. Even if you've never left Southern California and believe me, I'd switch places with you in a minute, you'll still understand it as the writer has done an nice job of conveying how winter really feels.

One quibble though, the writer cautions that he's learned in living through "the past few" Northeast winters that "it is to be prepared to do whatever winter allows at the moment it allows it." Um, no offence, but having lived in the Northeast for many years (now relocated to the MidWest) --that was pretty clear to me at about age six.

NYTimes Editorial

When the snow stopped falling here in the Northeast, it was like looking out upon a collective memory of winters past — farther past than last winter, that is, when crocuses were pushing out of the earth in early January. It was hardly a surprising storm, yet it demonstrated how easily our idea of normal can be subverted. We are every bit as mercurial as the weather itself.

Last year, the abnormal felt like a surprise — shirt-sleeve days in New Year’s week. And now, this year, the normal feels unusual. Sleet, freezing rain, snow, wind, power outages, icy highways, canceled flights — this is what we used to expect from mid-December.

A real winter, like the one we’re having this week, means capitulating to the weather. There is no negotiating with a wind-chill of zero, no pretending that the driveway really doesn’t need plowing, no running a few errands without a hat and scarf and gloves. You simply give in and meet the season’s terms.

That is part of the pleasure of a real winter. You feel very resilient for living within its strictness. Yet if you look back in time, you can’t help wondering at the resilience of everyone who lived within winter’s strictness before central heating was invented.

There is no knowing what lies ahead, of course. This could be the start of an epic winter. It could be shirt-sleeves and gnats flying in early January again, for all we know. But if the past few winters here in the Northeast have taught us anything, it is to be prepared to do whatever winter allows at the moment it allows it. That could mean snowshoeing through the woods on a day like yesterday or playing an improbable — and deeply disarming — round of golf.

Optimize This

I'm beginning to feel very discouraged with what the blogosphere is turning into for me.

Unless a blog is strictly a "doesn't care about driving traffic-to-itself-type" blog-- a personal journal with no ulterior motives other than to express themselves to any size audience--or no audience. Does anyone blog for that reason anymore? Or is it all about networking? Eyeballs landing on your pages, long-tailed posts, keywords, popular search terms, SEO, SERPs. All this business-stuff. Can't I just write? For pay or not? Apparently only if I don't care whether anyone reads what I've written.

Blogs that are interested in making money are looking cluttered with traffic-monitoring widgets. It makes my head spin thinking about what I should leave in, take out. With the predicted de-indexing this blog will cease to exist for most of the blogosphere so I'm trying to get good content up here. And be particular about my widgets. Sadly, the one I find most "clickable" is the one that I'll probably not be approved for and I'll have to take it down.

The very people who I was going to for information about what to do--"reading" is more accurate--with some commenting back and forth--are saying we have to strap ourselves in for this sea change with their mantra being write more good content. They say this and  then add, "There's a lot of bad blog content out there." Well hell. I don't try to write bad content. Why click publish? Unless it is paid, is their response. Why bother to work on a paid post when the people paying--the advertisers--don't care what you write? The answer is simple. I care what I write. Me. That's who I write for even if it's paid content. I don't always do as good job as I'd like but why do I try to write something decent when I have a link elsewhere? Maybe so the reader will consider clicking the link. Maybe the advertiser doesn't care but the content on my blog is reflective of me.

I suppose after this rant what I'm really realizing is that many of so-called/self-styled experts are winging it almost as much as I am. This leads me to believe both that some of them know a lot less than what I was giving them credit for and conversely, sometimes I know more of some aspects of blogging than I'd realized. I suppose the sheer act of producing material for this blog has given me that. Experience. And with that, practical knowledge. And I should trust while being open to new information that I can implement it--or not--based my opinion of what's best. I've been busily doing every thing I can as I perceive the big G about to execute the final blow to Cyn City. But in truth it feels like little of it will matter. Content is King. That much I agree with. The rest--no matter who is saying it-- ultimately doesn't count for much.

Dirty Sexy Money, Season One, Episode 10, The Nutcracker (Spoilers)

First aired: 12/5/2007   

Synopsis: Season One, Episode 10, The Nutcracker

Nick learns Simon and Karen are secretly together, but refuses to say why it truly bothers him. Karen doesn't attend the family tradition of watching "The Nutcracker" in order to meet a mysterious person. Brian's suspension from the ministry makes him look elsewhere for a job, and Letitia suggests he go to Tripp for guidance. Meanwhile, Juliet has a visitor from the Seychelles, and Carmelita tells Patrick she thinks she's being watched by someone.

(Left) Lisa George (Zoe McClellan, not shown) and Jeremy Darling (Seth Gable) go to her gallery after hours and end up smoking pot and canoodling on the couch. This gets her fired and him dumped by his girlfriend for whom he's been pretending to be a starving artist.

In other news, unbeknownst to Nick George (Peter Krause), Karen Darling (Natalie Zea) is "spying" on Simon Elder (Blake Underwood) for her father, Tripp (Donald Sutherland). Karen's spying includes really close physical contact with Elder.

Note: This concludes the first group of episodes that ABC ordered. At the beginning of the months-old writer's strike, ABC announced that it had ordered "a full season" of Dirty Sexy Money. However, the length of the writer's strike which is now moving from fall 2007 into the 2008 New Year could change the outcome of this and other shows. The decision may be made to cancel them, especially if their status was "iffy" like DSM's is. The only way to know will be to stay tuned.

Maybe I'm paranoid~Rita Rudner

My husband gave me a necklace. It's fake. I requested fake.          

Maybe I'm paranoid, but in this day and age, I don't want                                       

something around my neck that's worth more than my head.

                            

Art/Life/Love Quotes

Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love. ~Claude Monet

Life is our greatest possession and love its greatest affirmation. ~Leo Buscaglia

Dirty Sexy Money~ Season One, Episode 9, The Watch (Spoilers)

Dirty Sexy Money~ Season One, Episode 9, The Watch

First aired: 11/28/2007   

Synopsis:In this flashback episode secrets are revealed about Dutch (Nick's father) and the relationships he had with Nick, Tripp, and Letitia. Karen's intimate view towards Nick is put on hold as she takes a liking to Simon Elder. Brian's attempt to get his son takes a turn he didn't expect and Jeremy continues to hide how much he is worth from Sofia.

This was essentially a flashback episode in which we meet Nick's father, Dutch and mostly see scenes of his relationship with Letitia Darling (Jill Clayburgh) six months prior.

What fires up the flashback in the first place is Letitia spilling the truth of Brian Darling's (Glenn Fitzgerald) parentage to Nick George (Peter Krause)--revealing that they are half brothers. If you didn't see that coming that you haven't been paying attention--at all. It was pretty much standard soap opera fare with Letitia in flashback spilling the big secret of Brian Darling's parentage and Dutch taking it badly--not wanting to discuss it and declaring that he must get away "from you people."

A very good thing is that Dutch is being played by the still-hunky Peter Strauss. I really hope there are more flashbacks with him or better yet, that somehow he turns up alive to shake things up.

The reveal upsets both Brian and Nick and they hash things out somewhat with Brian making several missteps (of course). He blames part of his being distraught on his losing all custody of little Brian to Andrea (Sheryl Lee), who is leaving the country.

The scene in which little Brian tearfully hugs his daddy goodbye--helpfully telling the good Reverend Darling that he knows that his daddy loves him (though the words never pass Brian Sr's. lips) and then watches his daddy through the car window as his car pulls away was excruciatingly cringe-inducing.

This episode may have been the most "bi-polar" yet with a couple of high notes but some retch-worthy lows.

Which breed of dog is your favorite?

I have to be loyal to our rescue dog, Raven. She's a Schipperke, a Belgium barge dog--a ratter. Extremely quick and quite fierce for a wee smidge of a dog. Very good watchdog. And too smart for her own good.

 

           

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Ravenbluecoatsnowmuzzle

            

           

   

           

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Chris.raven.christmas.05

            

           

   

But if we didn't have Raven...it would be a dog with a sort of mellow temperament--a bit of a change from the Ravenator.

 

I would like a Labrador Retriever like this guy:

 

           

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Black+lab

            

           

   

But we don't have a big enough place for him or her right now.

Besides, we would get a rescue dog and I doubt sincerely that my number one choice of dog breed will be found at the first shelter we go to like it did with Raven. I had  the Schipperke breed picked out as a probable "good fit" for us but had others picked like a Jack Russell Terrier 'cos I never thought I'd find a rescue Schipperke.

Surprise, Surprise.

What Winter Means To Me

Show us what winter means to you.

Actually winter now means misery. Cold. Bleakness. Foul moods. Barely any snow to make things pretty. Ice and lots of wind.

Buuut. When I was a kid winter meant fun. In the first photo you can see how much fun my neighbours are having shoveling out their family's car(s).

Connecticut snowstorm--view from our house

This our backyard. Beyond the snow is a steep drop, then a ravine before the woods that I spent many a happy hour in. Absolutely beautiful.

Our backyard

More back yard and woods.

 

Our front yard, step, looking up the street. Near lower middle is a railing, one of two on either side of our front stoop. Near buried--and of course, how does one get out?!

What winter means to me is past-tense, really. Lots of snow and snow-related fun.

Coming unglued

Memememe

Hey Peeps,

In the spirit of TMI, here I am in the sleep lab about 20 hours ago, 12 electrodes on my head and many more on other parts, including my legs. Yes, I had to ask dude that was watching me on the monitor to unplug me so I could wee.

I'm about to hop in the shower now to try and get the remnants of last night's adventure out of my hair. You can see a white dot peeking out of my hair--that's a  glue-like substance keepin' the wire stuck to my head 'cos how else are they gonna keep it there?

Anyway, it went well 'cept I only slept for 90 minutes total. But that was enough for the sleep monitor dude to say that I'm completely fine which is what I already knew. Silly Drs. and their silly, expensive tests. At least I got this done after I met my insurance deductible for the year.

I was sprung form the sleep clinic in time to miss morning traffic. Came home to all my sleepyheads just up--a sight I rarely see--and I'm kinda glad I don't. lol.

So off I go. This gluey sitch must be remedied. Now.

Hope you all are well. I shall catch up sooner than later.

xxC.

Which are your favorite sites for shopping online?

Before I go to any site I plug "coupon codes" into a search engine. I refuse to pay for shipping if I can skip past it or at least cover it with 10% off.

For clothes:

I dress not only myself but two full-grown men (though one is only 15 y.o.). If I didn't buy them clothes they would in fact, go bare-arsed. Anyway, no one has to "dress up" for work or school nor are we inclined to.

At the mo, I'm either schlepping a non-driver somewhere or furiously tapping away at the keyboard writing both paid and unpaid material. None of this calls for clothes per se.

Honestly, I just throw on the first things I grab because the UPS guy is here or I'm running to some appointment.

So the answer, despite the fact that it is way not in style is Old Navy. We have a store just a couple miles away but have you ever been in an Old Navy Store? If you haven't I highly recommend skipping it. For returns I use the prepaid label they enclose. I rarely return things however because for two of the three of us, the cut of Old Navy stuff is just right. I mean how wrong can they get (speaking for me) yoga pants and hoodies?

I just dropped some good change at thinkgeek.com as younger son had generated a gift list there.

He's taking Accelerated Chemistry so this shirt seemed like a good choice:

For book-type things (books, calendars, etc.) Amazon.com is reliable--cheap too, if the book has been out long enough and you aren't afraid to read a used book.

And my dirty little secret remains the non-environmentally-friendly packaged Clinique. Almost all cosmetics are acquired there. They are blazing fast--as in next day--always packaged great for shipping--and have not ever made a mistake. Now if they would just get rid those stupid heavy-weight jars of face cream!

Gone

Hi guys!

I'm packin' a bag and heading over to the sleep clinic for an overnight.

I have no problems sleeping but I have a new heart failure cardiac specialist and he's ordered testing as that's what doctors like to do.

I'm reluctant but don't want to be uncooperative. It's been a thin line since my diagnosis--well maybe about a year or two in to my diagnosis, after I armed myself with as much information about the condition as I could.

Doctors--specialists in particular, do not like to be queried too much by their patients.That's why they became specialists. They know it all. LOL.

I am not having any real problems. I just sleep second shift hours--and most of my world does not. I've adapted--why can't they? Riiiight.

I can't take the laptop which sucks the big one and there's no cable or DVD but I have a new book--the latest Kay Scarpetta mystery--so I shall read when I'm not sleeping because I won't be sleeping much. I can't sleep much when I know there's a strange dude watchin' me on a monitor. I'll try, though.

There's a 6 a.m. wake-up call--with coffee delivered to my room--yay! Though it gives me pause that the sleep disorder peeps who also are "pulmonary" people, are content with a fobbing caffiene-laden substance off on me. But I'll take it.

So no sleep tonight--which pretty well kills tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll see you tomorrow night (US Central Time). Cheers!

Johnny Depp Interview Today Show/Sweeney Todd Preview Videos

Below is great little little segment of the Today Show featuring Johnny Depp and Tim Burton discussing the film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

I found Depp to be every bit the guy that we all hear about, completely without ego, shy even, and  according to Tim Burton, "scared" to watch himself on film. The interviewer queries Depp, who has made eight films with Tim Burton, about whether Depp has seen any of them. Clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning but ever-polite and self-effacing, Depp admits to having seen "a couple" of them.

Synopsis: Sweeney Todd (formerly Benjamin Barker) returns to London after being set up and banished for life by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman). He opens a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Shop where she sells "the worst pies in London." With the help of Mrs. Lovett, SweeneyTodd tries to rid London of all the people who have ever done him wrong while hoping to be reunited with his daughter who is now Judge Turpin's ward.

Sweeney Todd is based on the hit Broadway hit musical by Stephen Sondheim.

Two previews of the film after the jump. The second one is quite bloody.

What work of art changed your life?

It's going to seem quaint. I was 19 years old. It was a print for my first apartment and really, the first time that I'd ever had full-size proper art (though in framed poster form) on my wall and it wasn't even one of my favourites of his but just the same it got me started on my journey of art appreciation. It also helped me to see "art" in so many things in day-to-day life. Thank you, Vincent.

Sunflowers #2

~Vincent Van Gogh

The Golden Compass: Behind The Scenes and Trailers

I hadn't realized until tonight that the film, The Golden Compass has generated controversy much like Harry Potter did. The Catholic Church has taken umbrage regarding the making of "The Golden Compass" and from what I understand has urged Catholics to boycott it.

I just read a number of critic's reviews however and the movie may not draw the crowds that the church fears it will.

My son read the entire series and I'm a bit chagrined to say I haven't read any of books in the "His Dark Materials" series even though I declared back in May that I'd be getting started on them. One of the biggest criticisms of the film, The Golden Compass is that it lacks sizzle which I'm assuming the books do not. Regardless, after viewing about 15 minutes total of Dakota Blue Richards, the girl cast from 10,000 other hopefuls to play the lead part of Lyra Belacqua, acting and being interviewed about the film I can see that she has "star quality" and I'm curious to see how the film plays out. To be fair, it seems the critics are quite divided, giving the Golden Compass an either/or grade of "C" or "A".

I'm due to get out to catch a movie so I'll likely go on Sunday. Of course you'll need to stay tuned to know what I thought of it.

Written and directed by Chris Weitz, the adaptation of Philip Pullman's bestselling and award-winning novel, first in the His Dark Materials series, stars Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, Eva Green and Dakota Blue Richards.

(Above) Casting Lyra: Dakota Blue Richards

Twelve-year-old Lyra is an orphan who lives in a parallel world, where human souls take the form of animal companions called daemons. When her best friend disappears, Lyra promises to find him. Her uncle, Lord Asriel, doesn't want her to go, but the mysterious Mrs. Coulter offers to bring Lyra along for the adventure of a lifetime. One thing Lyra packs for the trip: the alethiometer -- a mysterious compass that many people are violently determined to possess. When the compass reveals to Lyra the truth about her friend's kidnapping and the evil force behind it, it's up to her to stop the war that threatens her world. Golden Compass Movie dot org

Behind-the-scenes of The Golden Compass, opening in theaters on December 7.

Show us a magazine to which you subscribe.

Since I was 16 years old I've subscribed to Rolling Stone Magazine. Yes, there was a time or two that "someone" else let the subscription run out but even in my very lean years when I couldn't afford it, I'd request it as a Christmas gift from my parents. It's still only $20 for a year's subscription--think it was about $9.95 for a year back then. It comes every two weeks which keeps it's content relatively fresh (in the non-Internet sense).

Why have I subscribed so long? One.They practically give it away (see above).

Two, three, etc. Annie Leibovitz, Greil Marcus, Mikal Gilmore, Hunter S. Thompson, Peter Travers, Cameron Crowe, Ben Fong-Torres...that's a start.

RS has gone through many stages over the years much like the television show Saturday Night Live. It has had it's very high points right down to (some magazine covers especially) being kitty litter box-worthy.

Though I subscribe to a couple of news magazines too, RS would be the last magazine I'd stop.

My 25 y.o. son said to me a couple of months ago that he is fond of Rolling Stone for it's sharp writing and great political commentary and because he remembers it being in our home "all (his) life."

In sum, Rolling Stone Magazine is 40 years old. It's had it's share of hits and misses. But I subscibe because the overall quality of it's feature articles is generally good-to-excellent, it leans left as I do, and throughout the years many of it's covers have been frame-worthy.

Not-quite-dr*nk blogging

Finally dove (dived?) in and started a blog of my very own: maplelakeontario.com. (But please do not go there as it's not really *there* yet.) I believe as the years go by I will spend more time on the Lake each year though I've already cumulatively had the pleasure of several years on Maple Lake. :)

I'm only doing the easy stuff right now on the website-to-be. As soon as I have to start adding widgets or gord forbid, modifying something code-like and I get awfully, horribly, terribly stuck I am so asking one of graphics friends since they kindly offered.  :p

I would like emoticons or smilies available on my blog. Not to be over-used--just there for fun (I'm aware that they are not *cool*.) I asked TypePad when they were first starting out--after they'd queried what I wanted to see them add. Four years later, still no smilies at TypePad. :/ Smilies were the only thing good on MySpace--though they were pretty cheesy. LiveJournal isn't much better.

Totally random: Did you hear (Patty said so) that Live Journal was sold off again? At least they got some new templates before being set free.

Finishing the free wine off tonight, Can you tell? It's "Cab" and it's very good, I think. It's just I'm not used to *drinking* so I made a kind of wine cooler out of it and it's good.

Gold Medal Wine Club~ Madroña Vineyards

I am very fortunate to have friends who live in a renown California grape growing area, dense with small vineyards, so though not an expert I've had a number of guided wine tours and have a decent knowledge of how small "boutique-type" wines are produced. I also know that some of the best wine I have tasted came from a winery so small that it sells most of it's wine right there at the vineyard.

Some of the wineries I've visited have offered membership in wine clubs and though i have not yet joined, after receiving my Madroña Vineyards 2003 Vineyard Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and 2004 Estate Merlot I must admit I am sorely tempted. I received my bottles of Madroña wine as part of the Gold Medal Wine Club. They were very well packed for safety and inside the bottles were presented in a very eye-appealing fashion in decorative tissue and with accent ribbons and bows. In other words, they looked exactly like a festive gift.

Included with these lovely wines was The Wine Press, a Gold Medal Wine Club Newsletter and a  personalized gift card. The Newsletter is on glossy paper with full colour photographs of the vineyard--which is beautiful. It also had a biography with photos of the family who founded Madroña Vineyards as well as the winery history. A recipe section included tasty-sounding treats like Blue Cheese Madroña Cabernet Butter and Chicken Parmesan El Dorado. Yum! Inside the newsletter too was a Judge-The-Wine-Results page in which there was "cumulative, on-going tallies of the Judge The Wine Scorecards, which are provided in each delivery of  wine and mailed back by club members." Very interesting and chock full of information. The Wine Press also had a full-page, comprehensive description of Madroña Vineyards 2003 Vineyard Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and 2004 Estate Merlot including the wine credential highlights. The descriptions seemed very accurate based on the tasting that was enjoyed after the corks were popped. All-in-all it was great fun trying Madroña Vineyards 2003 Vineyard Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and 2004 Estate Merlot as part of the Gold Medal Wine Club award-winning, small production wines collection.

Dirty Sexy Money~ Season One, Episode 8, The Country House (Spoilers)

Synopsis: Thanksgiving has arrived and Nick George wants to spend the day with his wife and daughter, but Tripp has another idea. Tripp wants Nick to set up a meeting with Simon Elder so Tripp and Simon can talk face-to-face once and for all. Meanwhile, Letitia helps Karen try and to get closer to Nick. Brian fights to keep his ex-girlfriend, Andrea (Sheryl Lee), from taking his son away from him while Jeremy goes on a first date with Sofia.

First of all, Dirty Sexy Money needs to give Carmelita (Candis Cayne) a bigger role. I would in fact love to see her replace Patrick Darling's (William Baldwin) wife, Ellen (Bellamy Young) and become Mrs. Patrick Darling herself. (Oh,the scandal!)

The scene with Carmelita, and Patrick and Ellen Darling all together in one room for a "sit down" that Ellen demanded was very funny. I saw again too what the casting agents must have when they chose Billy Baldwin for this role. He is very good as the cuckolded husband-who-cheats.

Getting back to Carmelita, she just owned that scene--everything funny sprang from her presence and Candis Cayne simply acted the hell out of it.

Not really digging Bellamy Young as Patrick's wife. I was reading her bio and noticed that at least once before she played the cold, bitch of a wife as she is here. I hope that's not her primary acting persona--for the sake of her career.

This episode carried a big reveal having to do with (surprise!) Simon Elder and what possible reason(s)he may have for wanting revenge on Tripp Darling (Donald Sutherland). It was a neat little twist that immediately switched up the stakes in the dance that our hero, Nick George,Tripp Darling and Simon Elder are doing (though perhaps Nick is having his strings pulled by Tripp & Elder rather than dancing to his own beat).

I'm a bit disappointed that they couldn't give Jill Clayburgh more material to work with. Helping plot with the yet-again divorced Karen Darling to get the happily-married Nick back is just juvenile. That, coupled with bedding her husband and her lover for over 40 years really tars the character with one brush: shallow, superficial, and selfish. Hopefully, now that the show has been picked up for a full 22 episodes ("the back nine") the Darling matriarch can be given some material in which she displays more than one dimension.

I spent money. Yay for me!

Happy Monday. I'm finishing up my Christmas shopping (I hope). This last "item" was a bit of a pain to obtain with spouse having gone to the early a.m. opening of a store with "75 or so " other hopeful consumers but alas, the store manager came out prior to opening and announced that there were only "39" of the item left. So spouse left. This "item," which is actually several items, which I'll blog about more after Christmas, is part of a bigger "system," so to speak, and this system is the rarest one to find what one needs/wants for it espech when when the rush is on. I have to continue being vague because there is a snowball's chance that someone who shouldn't read this, will. Of course, I could be making all this up in an attempt to throw off the scent--so we'll remain in the dark until 12/25.

Overall, this means that I'm "done" shopping but since I usually am picking up smaller things right up until Christmas Eve, I'm never truly "done" nor will I ever go about crowing to the world about it. I spent money. Yay for me! Um, no. :D

Delicious Ambiguity, Self: 48

 

"Schol Bowl"

It was scary driving today. Lots of icy rain clogged/clogging up the streets and vehicles on the wrong side of the road facing towards you as you carefully passed by them. Thankful that I was only driving to Woodfield Mall and back--only fishtailed near the accidents at the beginning of the ride--love how cars around me scatter when that happens. (My youngest was not in the car--the oldest was but it's never good in icy rain as it's a Mustang GT--new tires really help though. I'm much less afraid of dying in a spin-out now.) From noon--on I  was supposed to be ready at a moment's notice to pick up younger son from the return from the Scholastic Bowl tournament in oh, jeez I'm forgetting--very far away near another state.  He left at a unholy hour this a.m. Anyway, out of abt. 40 schools they were in it as one of the last three teams--first and second places went to Barrington High School and The Latin School (magnet school, Chicago).

I think third place is respectable but the disconcerting thing is they had to do some long-ass travel today in a yellow school bus during some really rough weather. So, it was very late when younger son finally called from school looking for chauffeur service. But I was very glad when he called.