Have iceberg, need Titanic

I’m sure everyone is aware of the frozenness we have experienced this year. It is has been a winter like none I remember. Maybe when I was a little kid and was lots shorter so the snow seemed deeper. Anyway, this year the drought appears to be officially over.

This picture is from all the snow that fell off the roof at the Huntsville house. Because we have a tin roof (like the sundae), the snow will build up to about 4 feet and then slide off in a massive avalanche. Never walk to close to the house. It could all come crashing down on you.

No Talk. Just Pictures

Do you want my opinion or not?

Well, I just finished reading a couple of books and watching a movie or two. Thankfully, I am on the treadmill when I watch so it makes the time go by faster. But at 30-35 minutes a workout, it takes me 4 days to watch a movie.

Anyway, I just sent back "Becoming Jane". It was a pleasant diversion and the actors were good, but I'm not sure the people who write these modern Jane Austen books/scripts have ever actually read Jane Austen. They may have read Pride & Prejudice or just seen one of the modern movie adaptations, but have never read her entire body of work or been familiar with her life or with the society of the time. Becoming Jane is highly fictionalized because Jane never left anything behind that would really indicate how well she knew the young man in the story. He is mentioned in a couple of her remaining letters. Her sister burned most of her correspondence after Jane's death. We can only speculate as to what actually happened. Unfortunately, modern novelists have their characters act as 21st century people would, leaving me just a little uncomfortable with the story line. My favorite part in the movie though was Jane talking to her deaf brother in sign language. I am not even sure that signing was widely available in the 18th century. However, this was a pleasant diversion while treading away.

My favorite movie this week has been Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audry Hepburn. Why don't they make movies like this anymore. It was so delightful. It made me laugh and cry just a little bit.

On to Books -- 7th Heaven wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It is better than some of the more recent James Patterson books. I think he just thinks up an outline and then hands it over to Maxine Somebody-or-other to write it up. He collects the big bucks and gets to put his picture on the back cover. Anyway, I was not dissapointed by this latest book. I have hopes for the future.

No Graves as Yet is Anne Perry's first WWI novel. It is part crime novel, part history lesson. It wasn't bad, but I didn't really love it. And then it wrapped up to quickly with an obvious set up for a sequel -- which I have but only because I bought 3 for the price of 2 at Barnes and Nobel. I am looking forward to her next Thomas & Charlotte Pitt or William and Hester Monk series. those are better.

Los Libros

Excuse me, Motherless Jones Girls, for stealing your title, but I love it. I am going to review the book I just finished. It was great. It is "Home to Holly Springs". It is the first of a series of the Father Tim books. I became a fan of Father Tim when I discovered "At Home in Mitford". I picked the book up because I thought it was a mystery. I was wrong. The Mitford books have become a great change from the gruesome crime novels I read.

Father Tim is a bachelor Espiscopal priest in Mitford, NC. The town is full of the quirky characters that you find in southern literature -- most of them archetypes. Father Tim over the years is adopted by a big dog, takes in a surly abandoned teenager, counsels his flock and finds the love of his life at the age of 62. All this time, he recognizes God's grace in all the good and bad that happens in his life. He is prone to quoting scripture -- especially I & II Timothy, which he feels was written directly to him by Paul.

Over the years he marries, finds the family of the surly abandoned teenager and then adopts him, retires, goes out to substitute for a pastor in another parish, does missionary work and continues on with his good life.

Well, I always knew Father Tim had a back story. His past is often eluded to in the Mitford, but not enough to let us know too much. In "Holly Springs" he returns to his old home town in Mississippi is response to a cryptic, anonymous note asking him to return home. Here he faces the painful and loving past that he had and solves several mysteries that he didn't have the answers to as a child or adult. It is a wonderful story of grace and forgiveness and love and I must, must, must recommend it. It gets a little sappy at times, but a little sap is good for the soul.

Home to Holly Springs -- 2 thumbs up!!

Forgive me, for I have sinned.

Confession: I think I forgot about WW yesterday and today. I ate 3 pieces of pizza, garlic bread, 1/2 cup lettuce with lots of bleu cheese dressing for dinner last night. Today, I went to McDonald's for breakfast -- sausage mcmuffin, Hashbrown, and diet coke (thank goodness something had no calories). For lunch I redeemed myself and had a WW meal (even though Iwasn't hungry) and then had 2 Schmidt's mint sandwich cookies. So, after I decided to write it all down on my little WW tracker, I have no points left today and no extra points left for the rest of the week.

They say confession is good for the soul. I have come clean and hope to get right back on the wagon now. I did walk for 31 minutes this morning. I think I may need another 60!!

I gotta learn that the answers to my problems are not in the fridge.

Movie Review

Pirates of the Carribean 3 was about the most painful movie I have watched all year. I know it is just barely 2008, but I'm declaring it the most painful. 1 was great, 2 had too much Keira Knightly and not enough Johnny Depp. 3 had too much of everybody. too long. too dark. too confusing a story line. I fast forwarded through lots of it.