Wordle

Here's a word cloud based on this blog, created by Wordle. (You can click on the image for a larger view.)












Apparently all I write about are Ray Bradbury, The Lord of the Rings, writing, and my cats!

Tenth Life Fund-Raiser

The Cat Who Fetches

Misty, our 9.5 month old kitty, likes to fetch. She brings toys for me to throw, but she also likes to explore the basement and bring me whatever she finds. Here's what she's fetched so far:

* bubble wrap sheets (on several occasions)

* a strip of dried caulk (I have no idea where she found that!)

* a phone jack

* a tupperware lid (I have no idea where the matching freezer container is)

Isn't she clever? She certainly keeps me guessing! I just hope she doesn't start bringing me mice. (So far, so good.)

Hobbit Rumors

It's a new year so there are lots of new rumors about the long-awaited Hobbit movie, directed by Peter Jackson. The latest news is that Elijah Wood (pictured left) will be playing Frodo, who isn't in that book. This prompted me to look for cast info on TheOneRing.net and The Internet Movie Database.

I was surprised by two things:
1. The release date (Dec. 2012)
2. The inclusion of characters who are not in the book

The latter includes Frodo, Saruman, Radagast, Galadriel, and Legolas. It's rumored that Orlando Bloom will be paid $1 million for a two-minute cameo as Legolas. Since Legolas wasn't in that book, I had hoped they wanted Bloom to play Thranduil, King of the Mirkwood Elves (and father of Legolas). Now it rumored that David Tennant (who recently played Dr. Who and Barty Crouch, Jr. in Harry Potter IV), will play Thranduil.

Speaking of Elvish characters, what the heck is Galadriel doing here? Where is Elrond? I hope the writers don't send Bilbo and company to Lorien instead of Rivendell. (Let's all hope they stick to the book and take a good look at the map of Middle-earth before they make any radical changes).

Perhaps Jackson has other plans for these non-Hobbit characters. In the past he said the movies (yes, plural, there will be two of them) would be based on material written by Tolkien. Other than The Hobbit, I wonder if he's referring the "The Book of Years" in Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings (LotR). Other than the events in LotR, there's not much mention of these characters in that Appendix, certainly not enough for a movie, so I can't help but wonder how inventive Jackson and co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens will be. Goodness knows, they took quite a few liberties with LotR! At least we only have to wait 23 more months to find out...

A Reply from Ray Bradbury!

Ray Bradbury is one of my all time-favorite authors. Just look under Bradbury in the topics list if you don't believe me! The older I get, the more he inspires me. Not just his wonderful writing, but his optimistic and loving attitude toward writing, life, and doing what you love.

This week Sam Weller, Ray's biographer, posted a request on his blog about Ray: did you have a question for Ray? I did -- and I was thrilled when Ray sent me an answer on Sam's blog, Listen to the Echoes!

I pasting the relevant parts here, just in case Sam's blog ever disappears:

January 4, 2011

Ask Ray Bradbury!

By Sam Weller at 4:38pm ET

I am visiting with Ray Bradbury later this week. If you have a question for him, I’m happy to ask. Just post your inquiries in the comment field down below, and Ray and I will do our very best to answer. All questions must be submitted here before noon pacific standard time on Friday.

Best,
Sam Weller

Dear Ray,
You are my favorite author and I feel like I’ve come to know you through your stories. After reading Sam Weller’s biography, I almost feel like you are family, a dear uncle who lives far away but whose visits and stories I eagerly await.
I would love to receive a note from you. If I write to you and send a card for you to sign, will you send it back? I know you are very busy but I would treasure it forever. Also, is sending a letter to your publisher (HarperCollins) the best way to write to you?
Thank you very much,
Cathy Akers-Jordan
Davison, MI
Comment by Cathy Akers-Jordan — January 5, 2011 @ 5:48am

Dear Cathy,
Thank you for your note! If you send a message to me in care of HarperCollins publishers, they will forward the letter to me.
Love!
Ray
Comment by Sam Weller — January 7, 2011 @ 5:56pm

Mere words can't express how happy this simple answer made me! Ray answered my question! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an important letter to write. :)

Some Favorite Christmas Songs

It isn't Christmas without Bing Croby, but here are some new Christmas songs that I love:

Michigan Christmas - Brian d'Arcy James. Click the link to listen via YouTube. Brian is from Saginaw and you can buy this album in iTunes.

A Michigan Christmas Card by the Meijer Choral Group. Click the link to go to a safe download site for the mp3 file. This brings back happy childhood memories. :)

They play both songs a lot on 96.1 WHNN. No matter where you live, you can listen to their live broadcast via their web site.

A snowstorm is predicted for tonight. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

9/11

Was is really 9 years ago? It seems like yesterday. Never Forget.

My Favorite E-Book Gadget

A while ago I wrote about how much I love my Book Buddy II, a pillow designed to hold hardback books. I was thrilled when Reading Comfort released a similar product, the E-Buddy, for use with e-book readers!

I chose a beautiful Lapis design for my Kindle. Now that I have tendonitis in both elbows even holding the 10.2 ounce Kindle (which is lighter than most paperback books) can be uncomfortable. (Knowing that makes me feel like a total wimp!) Now I read comfortably again. I recommend Reading Comfort's many products for book lovers (and e-reader lovers) of all ages.

UPDATE: I just discovered it's also the perfect size for paperbacks!

Why the Government Shouldn't Run the Post Office

Now that we've survived moving and are getting settled in our new house, we've noticed that we don't get much mail. My husband especially misses his daily Wall Street Journal.

Monday I filled out the change of address form at the Post Office, thinking that it would only take a couple of days for our forwarded mail to start arriving. After all, this is what happened the last time we moved (just a year and half ago).

Today I stopped by the Post Office to find out what happened to our mail. Silly me! I assumed the change of address would be handled by the local Post Office, but no!, it's being done at a major P.O., probably Detroit. Once our new address is entered in the system, we'll be notified and our mail delivery will resume. In the meantime, our mail is piling up in some other P.O., probably Detroit, and we can't even pick it up.

If that weren't frustrating enough, I asked how long it might take to get our new address in the system. Hold on to your socks: at least a week, maybe two. By the time the P.O. figures out where we live, we'll have a BOX of Wall Street Journals waiting for us, not to mention our regular mail, and all the junk we usually just throw away. SIGH.

What would Ben Franklin think of his Post Office? Maybe, like me, he'd think someone more efficient than the government should be running it.

Another Snow Day!

The University of Michigan-Flint will close at 12:00 p.m. today, Monday, February 22, 2010 due to the anticipated winter storm. All late afternoon and evening classes, events and activities that begin at 12:00 p.m. or later are canceled. Only essential personnel should report.

Woo hoo! Another snow day! The barometer change is making my sinuses hurt, so it's a good day to curl up by the fireplace (among the boxes) with a good book and a snuggly cat. This the third time U of M has closed this winter; since we hardly ever close, that must be some kind of record!

RIP Dick Francis

I didn't hear this sad news until Entertainment Weekly arrived today (click to enlarge):


























I love his wonderful stories which often have a horse-racing connection and always have interesting characters and excellent plots. I'm glad his son Felix will continue writing but I will always miss his unique writing style. I like to think Dick's in Heaven now with his beloved Mary, chatting with the Queen Mum about horses.


Links:
Dick Francis on Stop You're Killing Me!
Dick Francis author web site

Moving, at Last!

A week and half a later than expected, we now know when we're moving! We get the keys Wed., Feb. 24 and the movers will be here Sat., Feb. 27. Yay! The end is now in sight! Best of all, I'll have my spring break (Mar. 1 - 7) to unpack the essentials. After that, I don't care how long it takes to unpack. :)

Only one more week of listening to the shrieking neighbor children...

Snow Day, Packing, and The Bismarck

I'm doing my happy dance because I had a snow day today AND Lost is on tonight! The only way this could be better would be if my husband also had a snow day. The poor guy has a night class and has to drive home in crappy weather.

I spent my afternoon packing, with much feline assistance from Sophie. We packed photos, games, and models. When I found the model of the Hood, guess what song got stuck in my head? Let me share it with you:

"Sink the Bismarck" by Johnny Horton

In May of 1941 the war had just begun
The Germans had the biggest ship that had the biggest guns
The Bismarck was the fastest ship that ever sailed the sea
On her decks were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees

Out of the cold and foggy night came the British ship the Hood
And every British seaman he knew and understood
They had to sink the Bismarck the terror of the sea
Stop those guns as big as steers and those shells as big as trees

CHORUS
We'll find the German battleship that's makin' such a fuss
We gotta sink the Bismarck cause the world depends on us
Yeah hit the decks a runnin' boys and spin those guns around
When we find the Bismarck we gotta cut her down

The Hood found the Bismarck and on that fatal day
The Bismarck started firing fifteen miles away
We gotta sink the Bismarck was the battle sound
But when the smoke had cleared away the mighty Hood went down

For six long days and weary nights they tried to find her trail
Churchill told the people "put every ship asail
Cause somewhere on that ocean I know she's gotta be
We gotta sink the Bismarck to the bottom of the sea"

CHORUS

The fog was gone the seventh day and they saw the morning sun
Ten hours away from homeland the Bismarck made its run
The Admiral of the British fleet said turn those bows around
We found that German battleship and we're gonna cut her down

The British guns were aimed and the shells were coming fast
The first shell hit the Bismarck they knew she couldn't last
That mighty German battleship is just a memory
Sink the Bismarck was the battle cry that shook the seven seas

We found the German battleship t'was makin' such a fuss
We had to sink the Bismarck cause the world depends on us
We hit the deck a runnin' and we spun those guns around
Yeah we found the mighty Bismarck and then we cut her down



What can I say? I was raised on WWII movies...

A Snow Day at Last?

The eastern US has is still digging out form a blizzard but here in mid-Michigan we have no snow. SIGH. I'm never going to get a snow day at this rate. I do have hope though! The NWS has issued a Winter Storm Watch for Tues morning through Wed morning, possible accumulation of 6-10 inches. It's time to do my snow dance...

Cul de Sac by by Richard Thompson Monday, January 18, 2010 (click to enlarge)









(read it at http://www.gocomics.com)

RIP Mia

Mia Keeler
1992-2010

Rest in peace, fiesty girl. You were my first (surrogate) cat and the reason I love kitties. I miss you already and I always will.

We Are Homeowners - Yay!

Since about 9:00am (after 45 minutes of signing and initialing papers), we are homeowners! I'm sure it will seem real after we move in -- and I can hardly wait.

The owner's son is living there and packing her stuff. He has 30 days to move, but he thinks he'll be done by mid-Feb. That would be wonderful but we're planning on a late Feb/early Mar move, just in case.

I met both realtors (ours and theirs) at the house last night to look at it again, go over any last-minute questions, and to learn how to light the sunroom heater. From the sunroom, we were treated to a beautiful view of the nearly full moon rising behind the branches of the huge trees in the backyard. It was especially lovely since we can't see the moon from our current apartment.

We want to pack as much as we can (especially things like glass, china, and Roger's books), then have movers pack the rest and move all of it to the new house. I've been researching movers and have learned a lot about choosing a reliable, professional full-service company. I think we're going to use Personal Touch Moving, Inc (located in Lake Orion, MI). Their Better Business Bureau rating is A- and they are about $1,000 cheaper than Corrigan Moving Systems (which several friends have used; Corrigan is near Detroit and has a A+ BBB rating).

I'm so excited about the house I'm having a hard time focusing on work. I've never wanted to move before and now I can hardly wait to do so. I'm looking forward to having more room, a yard (with bird feeders!), and no more neighbor kids playing Wii over my head or shrieking under my feet.

As a parting gift to our apartment neighbors, you are invited to a reenactment of Riverdance after our apartment is empty. Be sure to wear your hard-soled shoes! I'll provide loud Irish music and all you have to do is jump around a lot.

Kindle Addiction

I'm not saying I quickly adapted to my Kindle, but yesterday I was reading a printed book and I keep wanting to click the built-in dictionary... Sad, eh?

The Inspection

Today we had the inspection of the house we're going to buy. It was nice to have so much time to look around and think about where we want to put things, and to realize our furniture will fit. :) The actual inspection took longer than I expected (the inspector was very thorough and very good at explaining everything to us) but I learned a lot.

The best news is that house is great shape. Because they used real wood, cement, etc. the construction is strong, the walls are straight, etc. They don't use such good building materials today!

The only problems the inspector found were:
1. The garbage disposal doesn't work
2. The gas wall heater in the sunroom won't light
3. The logs in the gas fireplace in the basement need to be updated
4. The attic insulation was installed upside down (with the paper side up, so the paper needs to be slit)
5. Wall plugs in the kitchen and bath need breakers added
6. Smoke detectors need to be replaced and CO2 detector needs to be added

We're asking the seller to fix the first two. Roger and Dad can fix everything else (such little things!) and add a second bath (shower, toilet, and sink) in the basement. We also want to add a sump pump alarm, just in case.

The appraiser comes tomorrow. Now that it's starting to seem real, I'm so excited about moving I can hardly wait! We've asked our realtor to arrange the closing ASAP so we can move ASAP. I'll be so relieved to get away from our noisy neighbors and into our own house at last!

I'm also looking forward to meeting the seller. Given her collection of Dept. 56 villages and the amount of counted cross-stitch on her walls, we seem to have a lot in common! I might consider buying some of her Dickens Village and I want her to tell me how to care for the beautiful plants/landscaping, gazebo, etc. They have put so much work into making the yard lovely and I want to keep it that way.

I still can't believe we're finally about to become homeowners!

My Favorite Electronic Book Gadget: The Kindle

For Christmas my dear husband gave me a Kindle (second generation) book reader. This thing is every bit as cool as Amazon claims: light, intuitive (so much I can't help wonder if Apple designed it!), and addictive. I'll never give up printed books completely, but I *love* reading on my Kindle. The screen really is crisp and easy to read (unlike a backlit eye-strain-inducing computer screen). Best of all, it can hold TONS of books, magazines, blogs, and newspapers.

New "hardback" books are usually $9.99. New "paperbacks" are usually around $6 -- but public domain books (Shakespeare, Poe, etc.) are free or very cheap. Where was the Kindle when I was hauling around a thirty pound Shakespeare textbook? :) If you keep an eye out you can find new promotional paperbacks (temporarily free).

In addition to classics and murder mysteries I "splurged" on a couple of very helpful, inexpensive books:

1. The Complete User's Guide To the Amazing Amazon Kindle 2: Tips, Tricks, & Links To Unlock Cool Features & Save You Hundreds on Kindle Content by Stephen Windwalker $0.99

2. Kindle Shortcuts, Hidden Features, Kindle-Friendly Websites, Free eBooks & Email From Kindle: Concise User Guide for Kindle 2 (US & International), DX, 1, iPhone & iPod by Aaron Steinhardt PhD $0.25

From these I learned about how to access Project Gutenberg, free books and audio, keyboard shortcuts, and hidden features (like the calculator, Minesweeper game, and Go game). About the same time I also discovered Sudoku Volume 1: Interactive Sudoku Puzzles for Kindle 2 and Kindle DX and Word Morph Volume 1: transform the starting word one letter at a time until you spell the ending word (Word Puzzles Optimized for Kindle) -- both for just $0.01 each. Who knew you could play these games on a Kindle?

Interested in Kindle fiction? I recommend Stephen King's UR ($2.99) and The Gift of Murder (a $7 mystery anthology which features "The Kindle Did It!" by Gail Farrelly -- and profits go to Toys for Tots).

As you can see from the photos (courtesy of Amazon), the Kindle is light and comfortable to hold. I love curling up with my Kindle. It's so easy to use, I really do forget about the hardware and just enjoy the story -- just as advertised.

I love my new Kindle so much that I named it: Miss Marple (because it appears so cozy and simple, yet it knows so much more than you expect). I supposed the same logic could apply to Lord Peter (sophisticated, elegant, and knows so much more than you expect) but apparently I like to assume my gadgets are female. (Ask me about my car, Christine.)

For those who know I only like Miss Marple on TV (not in print), I can't explain this choice. The name just seems to fit!

Merry Christmas!

This was too funny not to share:

To All My Democratic Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wish.

To My Republican Friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 2010.


Seriously, I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and safe, happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!