And since I had surgery:
Tuesday, November 2
Friday, December 11
Feline Friday: Munchkin's Condo
Of all the gang, Munchie seems to love the kitty condo best. She sez, of course it b'longs ta me, see--the colors match!
Want more feline Friday and cat blogging?
Be sure to check out Blogging Cat Noos for all the latest and a listing of this weekend's carnivals!
Thursday, December 10
Christmas Reading Challenge
I just finished the second of 3 books I definitely chose for the Christmas reading challenge.
I've always enjoyed A Christmas Story, a low budget film released in 1983. My first husband and I saw it while we were dating. At that time, I thought it focused too much on kids' "gimme gimme" attitude but it's grown on me over the years. I didn't realize until years later that it was based on a story written by Jean Shepherd--well, actually, a series of stories.
Because I've become so fond of the movie, I picked A Christmas Story up one year from one of the bookstores, probably Borders.
It's rare for me to say this but ... the movie was better. Here's why:
Jean Shepherd reworked three or four of his other stories to fit in with the actual Red Ryder BB gun/Christmas story piece. I thought they were all part of the same story or, at the very least, they all took place around Christmas time. Ahem. No.
Second, two of the short stories start out with occurrences that have nothing to do with the story that follows. For example, in the first one he's eating in an Automat with an elderly woman sporting a button that says "Disarm the toy industry". His conversation with her eventually leads to his look back at his obession with getting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. It didn't feel right and didn't "fit" in my opinion. I thought it detracted from the story.
Third, it just wasn't as funny as the movie was. The movie really seemed to tell the story from the boy's point of view. The short stories were told by an adult. There's a big difference between the two perspectives. One is charming and one ... isn't.
Lasstly, the Christmas story piece came first in the book. That was a real let-down. After that, where do you go? Oh well ... I've still got the movie to look forward to!
I'm reading Skipping Christmas by John Grisham next. The story was also made into a movie just a few years ago, called Christmas With the Kranks. I sure hope I like the book better!
I've always enjoyed A Christmas Story, a low budget film released in 1983. My first husband and I saw it while we were dating. At that time, I thought it focused too much on kids' "gimme gimme" attitude but it's grown on me over the years. I didn't realize until years later that it was based on a story written by Jean Shepherd--well, actually, a series of stories.
Because I've become so fond of the movie, I picked A Christmas Story up one year from one of the bookstores, probably Borders.
It's rare for me to say this but ... the movie was better. Here's why:
Jean Shepherd reworked three or four of his other stories to fit in with the actual Red Ryder BB gun/Christmas story piece. I thought they were all part of the same story or, at the very least, they all took place around Christmas time. Ahem. No.
Second, two of the short stories start out with occurrences that have nothing to do with the story that follows. For example, in the first one he's eating in an Automat with an elderly woman sporting a button that says "Disarm the toy industry". His conversation with her eventually leads to his look back at his obession with getting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. It didn't feel right and didn't "fit" in my opinion. I thought it detracted from the story.
Third, it just wasn't as funny as the movie was. The movie really seemed to tell the story from the boy's point of view. The short stories were told by an adult. There's a big difference between the two perspectives. One is charming and one ... isn't.
Lasstly, the Christmas story piece came first in the book. That was a real let-down. After that, where do you go? Oh well ... I've still got the movie to look forward to!
I'm reading Skipping Christmas by John Grisham next. The story was also made into a movie just a few years ago, called Christmas With the Kranks. I sure hope I like the book better!
Thursday Thirteen #42: Some of my favorite Christmas quotes
These are by no means all of my favorite quotes about Christmas, nor are they in any kind of order. These are the first 13 to hit my fancy:
1. It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air. ~W.T. Ellis
2. Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.
- George Mathhew Adams
3. It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, "God Bless Us, Every One!
- Charles Dickens
4. The magi, as you know, were wise men - wonderfuly wise men who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents.
--O. Henry
5. "The only blind person at Christmastime is he who has not Christmas in his heart."
--Helen Keller
6. "Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal."
--Lenore Hershey
7. Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.
~ Ruth Carter Stapleton
8. Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it "white".
~ Bing Crosby
9. Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world - stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death - and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.
--Henry van Dyke
10. I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the word seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.
~ Taylor Caldwell
11. Christmas will always be as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand.
--Dr. Seuss
12. "Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space."
--Dave Barry
13. "The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other"
--Johnny Carson
Wednesday, December 9
Push/Precious by Sapphire
Wow. What. A. Powerful. Book.
I first heard about the book on another forum, Obesity Help. The poster read it and wanted to know if anyone had. The synopsis she gave sounded really depressing but I was intrigued and so I went to request it from the library. That was in *June*. The waiting list was miles long.
Since then, I forgot about it.
The book is actually called Push originally but I understand the author, Sapphire, renamed it to match the name of the heroine and the title of the newly released movie. Yes, a movie has been released, called Precious and I am scared to see it!
The heroine is a 16 year old girl named Precious Jones. She lives with her mother in Harlem and has a harsh, depressing life. She's been traumatized and severely abused by both her parents and at the beginning of the book, she is pregnant with her second baby by her father. Her mother, one of the most hateful and despicable characters I've ever had the displeasure to read about, not only blames Precious for "taking" her man away she also engages in some really perverted abuse of her own--on her own child.
Precious is illiterate but still goes to school. She sits in the back and tries to learn and actually has a good aptitude for math. No one can reach her, although she does like her math teacher.
She's suspended (or was it expelled?) from school for being pregnant. The story starts in 1987 and since when was that a reason for expulsion anymore? Anyway, the principal (if that's who it was) has a change of heart somewhat and comes to Precious' flat in Harlem to tell her about an alternative school.
That's really when Precious' life begins. She shows up to apply for admission to the program and is placed with a wonderful teacher. She is in a class with others who are struggling with their own demons and trying to learn too. The teacher wants everyone to write everyday in a journal. At first Precious is very skeptical. How can she write if she doesn't know how?
But she starts with just a few letters she knows from the words she wants to say. The teacher writes in the spelling of these words below and then adds a response. For the first time, Precious feels she's made a connection with someone and can communicate.
You would think that this is one of those feel-good books that starts out so miserably and ends on a happy note. I wish that was the case but in this story, life keeps getting in the way of Precious' plans. It's sad but it's also inspiring and more true to life this way.
It's not a big book and so I was able to finish it in just a couple of days.
Back to the Christmas challenge...although in its own way, this book was part of that too. It was a gift to read it.
I first heard about the book on another forum, Obesity Help. The poster read it and wanted to know if anyone had. The synopsis she gave sounded really depressing but I was intrigued and so I went to request it from the library. That was in *June*. The waiting list was miles long.
Since then, I forgot about it.
The book is actually called Push originally but I understand the author, Sapphire, renamed it to match the name of the heroine and the title of the newly released movie. Yes, a movie has been released, called Precious and I am scared to see it!
The heroine is a 16 year old girl named Precious Jones. She lives with her mother in Harlem and has a harsh, depressing life. She's been traumatized and severely abused by both her parents and at the beginning of the book, she is pregnant with her second baby by her father. Her mother, one of the most hateful and despicable characters I've ever had the displeasure to read about, not only blames Precious for "taking" her man away she also engages in some really perverted abuse of her own--on her own child.
Precious is illiterate but still goes to school. She sits in the back and tries to learn and actually has a good aptitude for math. No one can reach her, although she does like her math teacher.
She's suspended (or was it expelled?) from school for being pregnant. The story starts in 1987 and since when was that a reason for expulsion anymore? Anyway, the principal (if that's who it was) has a change of heart somewhat and comes to Precious' flat in Harlem to tell her about an alternative school.
That's really when Precious' life begins. She shows up to apply for admission to the program and is placed with a wonderful teacher. She is in a class with others who are struggling with their own demons and trying to learn too. The teacher wants everyone to write everyday in a journal. At first Precious is very skeptical. How can she write if she doesn't know how?
But she starts with just a few letters she knows from the words she wants to say. The teacher writes in the spelling of these words below and then adds a response. For the first time, Precious feels she's made a connection with someone and can communicate.
You would think that this is one of those feel-good books that starts out so miserably and ends on a happy note. I wish that was the case but in this story, life keeps getting in the way of Precious' plans. It's sad but it's also inspiring and more true to life this way.
It's not a big book and so I was able to finish it in just a couple of days.
Back to the Christmas challenge...although in its own way, this book was part of that too. It was a gift to read it.
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