New photo stills from the upcoming film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince are out! Eeeeeeeeeee!!!! I’m sure they’re on all the fan sites but I found them on yahoo.
I was just reminiscing this morning about the eight hour all-nighter I pulled to read The Deathly Hallows last year, after it’s release. I literally read from 12:45 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. the next morning. Matt has always been so good to go out at midnight and purchase the books for me. When HBP came out I was eight months pregnant with baby #2. When DH came out, I was almost eight months pregnant with baby #3. It has been immensely enjoyable to read (ok, devour) the Harry Potter series and I look forward to sharing them with my children some day. But first, the films!!!
It’s cryptic, I know.
This past Saturday Matt and I celebrated (sort of) our 11th wedding anniversary. Yes, we got married quite young by society’s current standards. But I had just graduated from college and Matt finished shortly thereafter. I say “sort of” in terms of celebration because we had a house full of out-of-town guests: My friend and her two sons, and her twin sister and her three sons. And those five boys plus my son meant we had six boys all under the age of six-and-a-half running around, plus my two little girls. Let’s just say my cream berber carpet is now quite black in some areas. Hopefully I’ll find some good carpet cleaner!
As they were preparing to leave, one of the friends mentioned her 2 year-old son had suffered constant diarrhea during the last 2 days. To my horror, I watched as he shoved his hands down his diaper and then touch all of the baby’s toys. After the herd of friends left, my OCD kicked in and I proceeded that very night to clean the bathrooms, the floors, lysol down the toys, door knobs and anything else that might bring upon the dreaded Montezuma’s Revenge. I don’t know why, but lately I’ve become a bit of a germaphobe. I noticed it kicked in after my third child and I’m trying to figure out why… I’m obsessive and insistent with the hand sanitizer and hand washing and I feel uncomfortable whenever my children play with toys that don’t belong to them or when other children play with my children’s toys. I worry that they’ll catch gross diseases. For example, last summer my two year-old daughter caught hand-foot-mouth disease from who-knows-where and passed it to my five year-old. Last winter my son caught the stomach flu, twice, and passed the vomiting/diarrhea to my two year-old, twice. I realize that’s just the nature of the beast of childhood diseases; it goes around and then around and around some more.
As for the “nuttiness” of it all, I use the term in reference to my OCD, to seven little kids running around my house for three days (the baby is still immobile) and to laughing and having a good time with our friends. We did conduct a blind taste test of peanut butter between my fave Skippy and her fave Jif. We both preferred Jif. It was definitely a “nutty” weekend.
I just finished watching part one of Andrew Davies’ adaptation of Sense & Sensibility and I’m not quite sure what to think, yet. I can say that I didn’t particularly care for the opening scene between Willoughby and Eliza with all of the steamy “ooh” noises and overt skin shots. Frankly, I was embarrassed by how hard they were trying to make it “sexy” in a modern-day sense. I watch period pieces for a reason. If I want a skanky modern scene, I can turn to any channel on my TV. Perhaps Andrew Davies hasn’t figured out that women don’t necessarily need or like explicit scenes. Unlike a dude, I don’t get turned on by visual stimulus.
The entire production dragged painfully and the acting was disappointingly mediocre. I also found Dominic Cooper to be too smarmy as Willoughby. “Willoughby! Willoughby!” The name can’t help but conjure an image of the gorgeous Greg Wise. (See inset picture of gorgeous, brooding man.) Unfortunately, I also could not help but compare this production to Ang Lee’s 1995 S&S, which was adapted by Emma Thompson, and one of my top twenty faves.
Thus far, this is my least favorite current adaptation of an Austen work… We’ll have to see if part two redeems the production. To Be Continued.
Jane-ites, Austenites, whatever you may call yourselves, set your TIVO/DVR/VCR for the next two Sundays as PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre airs the latest adaptation of Sense & Sensibility. I’m curious to see what sultry scenes have been added by Andrew Davies, the same screenwriter who gave us the Colin Firth “shirt” scene in his A&E adaptation of P&P.
And in case you haven’t checked it out yet, click here to to see the “Men of Austen.” It’s going to be a great weekend!
There’s no “green clean” in our home. I love the smell of fake clean; lemon Pinesol, Orange Glo, Lysol, Clorox… You know you’re a little obsessive and excessive with the cleaners when your five year-old smells an orange scented wipe, inhales and sighs, “Mmmm. Dad, that smells clean.”
In case you’re wondering what’s on the cleaning agenda for tomorrow, here’s the schedule:
Monday- Laundry.
Tuesday- Laundry leftovers.
Wednesday- More laundry leftovers.
Thursday- bathrooms, toilets, sinks, tubs.
Friday- floors, mopping, vacuuming and baseboards, courtesy of my five year-old. We utilize child labor in our home.
Saturday- Any leftovers.
Sunday- Trying hard not to do any leftovers.
I modeled this method after a suggestion by my friend Michelle, another clean freak. It’s worked out fairly well, although more often than not there are LOTS of cleaning leftovers to do on Saturday.
As I mentioned previously, PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre is showcasing adaptations of Jane Austen’s canon of work from January through April with new adaptations of Persuasion, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Sense & Sensibility. (Already purchased and on the way. S&S is only available for pre-order at this time.) While I was perusing their website, I came across this link: “The Men of Austen,” which any Austenite will enjoy.
Darcy & Wentworth are delish. Who’s your favorite?
My current obsessions:
The Brits. Jane Austen books and film adaptations, Persuasion in particular. The latest BBC release seen on PBS was excellent. I absolutely loved Sally Hawkins as Anne Elliot. I could feel her pain and anguish, as she wrote in her journal about her meeting with Frederick Wentworth. And Rupert Penry-Jones is SO good-looking. Not that anyone could hold a candle to Ciaran Hinds’ acting in the Columbia version. But Penry-Jones is definitely eye candy!
I’ve finally outgrown my Toby Stephens obsession from the 2006 adaptation of Jane Eyre. Which was also excellent. I also loved him as Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night with Helena Bonham Carter. If you need a new Brit, check out Blake Ritson from the latest adaptation of Mansfield Park.
I have to say I thoroughly enjoy good British actors. They deliver difficult dialogue so much better than many American leads. Why is that? My friend MK would say it’s because many of them have had stage acting experience and actually attended an acting academy.
I recently watched The Jane Austen Book Club which was cute. I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t read it yet, but the idea was quite clever, if a little bit contrived. One of my favorite scenes was when Grigg compared Mansfield Park to Empire Strikes Back & The Return of the Jedi, “only in reverse.” That got a hearty chuckle. I’d give it a “B.”
And “ICE,” a 5-calorie carbonated beverage in fun flavors such as Pink Grapefruit, Orange Mango (my fave,) Black Raspberry and Strawberry Kiwi.
