Project Me (6) - Atonnement spoilers.

WOW!  My last project me post was 10.04.10 that was just about a month ago.   So to try to recap.  The book I read from the 1001 list took me all month.  Part 1 was really hard to get into.  But, Angie liked the book - I have mentioned she's really smart right?  It was literally over half the book!  Once  again an over indulged spoiled little girl is the main character.  Her naivete/fantasy/assumptions change her sister,  her cousin, her father's protege and her brother's friends lives and destinies.   Part 2 was seen through the eyes of a soldier retreating across France, wounded with a fever and only partially lucid, but a great improvement over the first part.  I guess it was the triumph of love, and the determination and will to live to reach the true love made this short section necessary, as well as letting the reader catch up on what happened since Part 1 ended. Part 3 was interesting, the whole girl grows up, realizes her mistake and tries to redeem herself.  Dealing with the casualties of war also forces her to grow up in one long day as a probationary nurse.  IF it had ended there, the reader could imagine that her sister and her lover, after finding each other again live happily ever after, that perhaps while never achieving the lost closeness of sisters, there are repairs made to the relationship.  But in the final section "1999"  the girl, now an old woman, facing slow dementia due to micro-strokes is wrapping up her life's business.  You would be led to believe that the first three parts are the result of her lifelong project - a book.  But as she takes stock, we discover that the soldier - her sister's true love- dies of a blood infection, probably from his wound in France, a few weeks after she sees him and her sister.  Her sister only survives a couple of months, dying in the German bombing of London.  Her cousin, who has married her rapist, now the couple is Lord and Lady, and dedicated to charitable works.  And as the narrator heads to her own birthday party, a full circle is made, as the grand and great-grandchildren of her brother and cousins, stage the play she herself wrote at 13, that she was trying to stage with her cousins for her brother at the beginning of the book.  I don't know, it just wasn't a satisfying ending.

I also checked out Gregory Maguires new book The Next Queen of Heaven  I loved his wicked series (also just got a Lion among Men) and his fairy tale books - Mirror, Mirror and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, are 2.  But this book, happens in upstate New York, with an exceptionally obnoxious teenage girl, who just needs some sense smacked into her.  I got about 50 pages in and decided that live was just too short to deal with another book with an obnoxious girl. So I closed the book and returned it to the library.

I was going to go for my semi-annual hair cut (annual this time, I missed the spring and then it was getting too close to summer - I live in fear  of not being able to put my hair in a ponytail/bun)  but some things came up and now I have to reschedule.   If and when I finally get around to it, don't worry you'll get to see it.  It is tough, because I hate blowdrying - and let's face it I leave my house at 330 am- so it really isn't happening  well - ever!  So the cut has to work with the way my hair wants to fall.  

I did find a new nail polish - I am totally in love!!  It is red ( painted a streak on a piece of paper towel because it was hard to tell) but so dark red that it just about looks black.  And there is a ton of glitter in it so it almost glows in the sunlight.  Of course when I went to take a picture it was hard to find the right light, but here's the best I could do:





They look almost brown here, sigh maybe I'll get a better picture this week!


I went to grace's daughter's a couple Saturday night's ago, to a Lia Sophia jewelry party.  I did get Angie something which for obvious reasons I can't tell you about until after Christmas.  It was kind of fun - haven't seen her husband Tom for a long time (he installs carpet,so when we agree and she doesn't, we chalk it up to carpet fumes)  and I only briefly met her daughter once.   And it was just kind of different from my usual Sat night, with my usual suspects.

I went to lunch at Mara's (local coffee roaster, dessert shop, cafe) with Grace last week.  I picked her up/ broke her out!  LOL!  We had the best pumpkin spinach quiches ever!  She was good and had a salad ( she's lost over 40 pounds since last spring - way to go Gracie!)  Me, I indulged and had a New England Clam Chowder and spiced hot caramel cider.  It was fun catching up. (and she listens to me whine about work, and about Braun's not sending C etc without complaint, and I think she's actually able to follow my jerky, disconnected, ADD  random trains of thought!

Temple annoyed me, they said they didn't receive a tuition payment, and weren't going to let Angie register for next semester, and for some reason we couldn't pull up the image on the computer so Curt had to go to the bank and straighten everything out.  Angie is doing well so far in her classes, she's feeling the work load, but all the time management skills she has from her HS days are serving her well and she's staying on top of everything.  She had a bad cold and since a lot of people in her dorm were coming down with strep, she got checked out, but no strep thank goodness. I sent her a care package with microwave chicken soup cups, zinc/ecchinacea drops, airborne, a lot of hand sanitizer (she did start out with   several large bottles in August, but just to be safe) and I made her some homemade chocolate chip scones with red/white colored sugar on top ( Temple's colors).

She has been keeping up with politics on campus.  She went to MSNBCs Chris Matthew's show broadcasting from the Temple campus, a few days later Bill Clinton was there, and Saturday she gave up the football game (the Owls won without her) to see President Obama on campus.

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 Happy Halloween! 

Thursday Thunks - Hootin'Anni Style

Thursday Thunks - Hootin'Anni Style

Welcome to the October 21st edition of Thursday Thunks!

(which we always seem to post on Wednesday)

Where we make you think a little bit before you blog!

We pick a subject, and your job is to interpret it anyway you want.

Write about it on your blog... simple as that.

Maybe you can interpret it as a picture - we don't care!

Please only leave a link if you have written a Thursday Thunks post.

Don't forget to go visit the other participants' blogs.

Read and comment about all their Thursday Thunks responses!

That's what all this is about after all, isn't it?

We'll have so much fun and become lifelong friends....

Today's questions are brought to you by the color purple, witches' brooms, the number 800-555-1000, and hootin' anni.

1] We all love snuggly things, right? In your own words, explain how the "X" and "O" became symbols for kisses and hugs!  Because a great kiss can have the same take your breath away impact as a knock out punch - so X for a kiss,  And a hug can just surround you and cocoon you from the world so O envelopes you in a hug!

 

 

2] Besides eliminating sticks, what would you put in a non-stick pan? Well tonite it will be sauteed mushrooms and gnocchi.

3] x=y over pi squared. What are your thoughts on crematoriums having discounts on those that die in fires? OMG!!  The thought of being cremated is the biggest creep out to me ever!  Burned - alive or dead makes me shudder!

4] Tongue twisters are fun...but, it's torture to try to say lisp with that "s" in the word. What is your favorite tongue twister? Risque answers get extra credit! I don't know any except for the She sells Sea Shells, or Peeter Piper and his Peppers

5] Cold weather is coming up. If it's zero degrees Fahrenheit, and tomorrow night it's predicted to be twice as cold, what temperature will it be?Well 0 degrees Farenheit is -17 degrees Celcius, So twice that is -34 degrees Celcius  which is -29 degrees Farenheit.

6] Your significant other is upset with you, would you rather be skating on thin ice or be in hot water? Why?  I'm a hot head - which a lot of  my friends know.  So if I were skating on thin ice I'd just melt the ice and end up in hot water anyway.  My style is big all out fight, and then be over it (hot water) Curt is more roast and stew and avoid conflict (thin ice) and those differences are actually the biggest thing we fight about!

7] What's worse, expecting the unexpected or being a wise guy?  Any of you actually following my life know that at this point the unexpected is the norm, and I'm usually a wise ass - so I think being in an rut of the expected or being boring is the worst.

8] What brand of vacuum cleaner sucks the best? Mine really sucks!!!  Hoover.  may lose suction and need to be emptied but I want that Dyson guy to show me how much dirt he actually vacuums up at once that it would be a pain to empty, or does he have already vacuumed concentrated dirt in his closet until next time?  We checked it out once,  Dyson doesn't lose suction as it fills, but if you have a half full or less Hoover you will get more suction.  And I empty mine every time I use it!

 

 

9] How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire? Do you like playing with fire?  Cause you aren't trying to build a campfire in the pine needles at the side of the path??  Actually, thanks to some psychotic apocalyptic relatives, I can build a campfire w/o matches.  Can't tell you how unuseful that is in my life.

10] Toys R us...what was your favorite toy?  Really tough call,  my Robin Hood Long Bow? My Erector Set? my Etch a Sketch?, my Lincoln Logs? my Spirograph? my BeeBee Gun?  my chemistry set?

11] Halloween is near...let's go grave robbing....what would you like to find? How cool would it be to find an empty grave??

 

 

12] Do you wake up or open your eyes first? I'm not sure if it's a good idea to open your eyes before you wake up, what if you are face down on your pillow??

 

13] What mask would you wear to a Halloween Party? Masks make me claustrophobic. So i do makeup but no mask on Halloween!

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Welcome to “Sensational Haiku Wednesday!”

Click here for info and background on this weekly event!

The basics:
Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!)

This week’s theme is: Freestyle 

 

Closing my eyes I

can feel the heat of your breath

but you are not there!

 

Closing my eyes I

want your warm embrace to be

real not fantasy!

 

Closing my eyes I

want my memories to be

real in life again!

 

Opening my eyes

I know I am lucky to

have loved before loss. 

Your Sleeping Position Says You Need Peace

You are calm and rational person with a good deal of balance in your life. Friends consider you to be kind, caring, and truly loyal. You are easy going and trusting. However, you are too sensible to fall for mind games. Open to the world, you are not afraid to be yourself. If you don't get enough sleep, you are: Able to cope It's hard to sleep next to you because: You're a bed hog

What Does Your Sleeping Position Say About You?

Blogthings: Quizzes and Tests and Memes, Oh My!

       

Before their baths (Kimmy/Samantha spoilers)

Tomorrow I am planning on felting my Samantha and Kimmy bags.  I followed the lead of several people in the KAL group and used the leftover yarn from Kimmy to make a dumpling bag.  I ended up having about 3 yards of the light brown left.  Talk about close.

So here's the dumpling before:


Kimmy all ready for her bath:



And Samantha before felting - the sun was at a weird sideways angle - this picture sucks but is actually the best shot of the pockets:



I didn't do the handle the way the pattern called for,  I didn't like the way it came out in other people's pictures.  So I made a braid - but didn't create a loop to attach it, but had each cord in the braid attach to the bag evenly on the ends:



Hopefully I will have the after pictures later in the week.

I just finished the last square for my VJAC afghan - now I have to seam it together .... ughhh...