Oh What a Beautiful Morning, Oh What a Beautiful Day

I happened upon this version of Oklahoma live on stage

 with Hugh Jackman playing the lead

Oh my heavens, yes!

It is a beautiful day. Today TGS and OSLW and I are going to finish roving around downtown Santa Rosa. A trip to the beach is also in store. We're cramming in the last two days I'm off. Tomorrow it's San Francisco and Alcatraz and clam chowder bowls and Ghiradelli Chocolate and Pier 36 and Lombard Street and sea lions...

I'll be sure and take pictures to share!

Armstrong Woods was absolutely breathtaking. Cool. Alluring. The smell of redwoods and the filtering shade were enchanting. Here's the place to go after a stressful day. It will banish all woes and worries.

Aren't they sweet?

Saturday night OSLW insisted we watch The Birds before we head to Bodega Bay today. If you're not aware, the story centered around the town of Bodega Bay. They even had scenery from the town. The Tides no longer looks like that. But the school is still there.

I had to add a stock picture because the one I took disappeared from my computer! Sounds rather Hitchcockian to me!

All in all, a beautiful day!

Whatcha Reading?

In 1994, this is me reading yet another Dick Francis book, with my dog, Bambi on my lap. Dig that crazy couch!

I do so love Tuesday book sharing. I'm keeping a list of the recommended books I want to read on my OneNote in MS Office. I'm going to try and see if Amazon has any free loaners of books I want to read.

I was looking at my 2013 Books I've Read, at the bottom of the blog. Hmmmm. One book???? It's February 12th for pete's sake. What is going on with me? It's always the same answer when the question has to do with time. Quilting.

I don't keep house very well....why? Quilting
I don't go out very much in the evenings....why? Quilting
I am a hermit on the weekends and holidays....why? Quilting

If I didn't love it so, so much, I'd grumble a lot!

I'm still reading A Great and Terrible Beauty. I think I'm still on it because I'm not enjoying it that much. If it was deadly dull, I'd put it on my Goodreads list: "Put down." It moves slowly and the plot has not grabbed me. Mind you, I'm in the middle of the book so it has had plenty of time to grab. I think I'll make a goal to finish it over the holiday weekend. The school districts around here are taking a four-day weekend. It used to be two three-day weekends, but I like it the current way better. That should give me enough time to finish it up and start on something more interesting. If it doesn't get done, you'll know why...quilting.

I just noticed on Google that a movie is being made of this book. Obviously a whole bunch of somebodies thought it was good. In my experience, just because it is made into a movie doesn't mean the book is good. On the other hand, if a book is a treasure and they make a movie of it, they ruin it.

There are few exceptions to this:




I will mention here that To Kill A Mockingbird is my favorite book and movie of all time!

Check out other books being read and get ideas for your reading list at Patchwork Times (click here)

Changes Are Coming!

I am definitely a spotty blogger. Mostly what I post is for my family. I plan on getting back to my original plan for this blog:

Quilting 

I'm currently working on finishing three quilts: 

Spiderweb Quilt

 

Marie's Square-in-Square

 

Bricks and Stones

 

 Movies

I've watched two movies this week...a treat I can only do while I'm on vacation.

Dark Shadows & Dark Knight Rises

 

 

Books

Just finished reading: Memoirs of a Geisha

Currently reading:  Mr. Pettigrew Takes a Stand, New Testament, Book of Mormon

Next: A Grand and Terrible Beauty

Parenting

Here are my babies!

Nancy Drew at 2 years old (now 33)

Noel Heart at 2 yrs old (now 35)

 

 

 

Talented Geek Son at 2 yrs old (now 31)

  Now What?

My dilemma then was what to do about posts for my family? The answer is to create another blog for our family. I'm very excited about this venture!

What will the family blog be? Stories about our family. I have some pretty amusing stories about my children. I will have to keep my children anonymous (see how long that idea lasted?) since they would be embarrassed if their circle of friends knew the family skeletons! Now I'll have a place to post videos I like instead of emailing them. I send them lots of emails with things I find interesting. I'm sure they're not always thrilled, and maybe get tired and don't even look. I know how much they look forward to each of my emails to find what new amusing, interesting and weird things I've found.

Family blog= stories, amazing videos, jokes, recipes, eclectic items and  inclusion of the weekly family letter.

Oops! Don't tell anyone! They don't even know my New Year's Resolution to write an old-fashioned letter to all of them. Shhh!

One Day to Vacation!

It's one more day of teaching and then it's Thanksgiving Vacation! I am so excited, which is why I'm sitting up at the unheard of hour of 12:30 a.m. and starting a blog. I rarely go to bed on time the night before the day before the last day before vacation. (And if you followed all those befores, you're more alert than I am.

I watched a great movie tonight, all in the anticipatory/celebratory state of the day before... Have you seen Second Hand Lions? It came out in 2003 and I actually watched it for the first time about six months ago. I ended up buying the DVD and watched it again tonight. It stars Robert Duvall, Michael Caine and Haley Joel Osment (from Sixth Sense). This is a movie that is sweet, quirky, utterly adorable, and it made me cry a couple of times. But it was a good cry.

It's also a great movie for families. It's rated PG. There's no cussing, no sex or nudity, no vulgar or coarse language. It's refreshing to watch a movie that has good character development, an unusual plot line, engaging actors and story.
What a gem! You'll love Haley Joel Osment with his almost-puberty cracking voice. If you have kids, I'd say they should be 12 or older to watch to really get it. I'm basing this on my 10-year-old grandson...I think it would amuse him and he'd enjoy it, but wouldn't get the meaning.

I always love to watch movies with the family on Thanksgiving Break, so you might want to check this one out!

And so it goes....my day.....my thoughts.....