**Cue Dr. Nick**
Hi everybody! 
Thanks for reading and for your lovely comments.
Hi Oybolshoi! I thought I'd drop in to say hello and let you know I'm still enjoying your trip report. Just to refresh your memory, I'm the fellow figure skating fan.
We got back from our Universal Studios vacation on Tuesday. I'm working on a trip report. So far, I have a 12 page Microsoft Word document going.
LilyLake, nice to hear from you again. I was actually thinking of you on Saturday when I was watching the Marshall's Cheesefest on ABC. I still miss Michelle, but those two little girls in the junior ranks, the ones that finished 1-2 at the Junior Worlds, are amazing. They both remind me a lot of Michelle Kwan when she first broke through to the senior level. There is hope for the future!
Be sure to let me know when the trippie is ready for reading!
I'm sorry to hear about your and your mother's losses. I'm sure it's very hard for her, but you're right - life goes on. I lost my mom almost 30 years ago and it still hurts sometimes, but what are you gonna do?
Thank you. You're absolutely right. And here's a
from me to you - 30 years or 30 days, when you lose someone you love that hole never completely closes.
And speaking of my mom - she grew up in the Murfreesboro, TN area. When she married my dad, she moved up here to Minnesota, but 10 of her 13 siblings still lived in Tennessee. We used to visit them every other summer. My dear late Aunt Pearl lived just up the road from Stones River National Battlefield, so I've been there a few times. I can't say that I share your fascination with Civil War history, but I do find it interesting. I'm also an avid reader, but I own very few books. I'm a county library regular. I don't read a lot of fiction, although I do enjoy Jane Austen. I usually roam the biography stacks, and sometimes I venture into some history. I happened upon an interesting book about a year ago. It was about the H.L. Hunley - a submarine used by the Confederacy during the Civil War. That was an interesting read.
Wow - I'd have been in heaven during summer vacation!
My reading habits tends to go all over the place - I also like biographies quite a bit, depending on the subject. I have a bad habit of getting really interested in something / someone, reading as much as possible until I'm sick of the subject and then I move on to something new. I don't know if it technically qualifiies as a biography, but the book that Doris Kearnes Goodwin wrote about Lincoln's cabinet during the Civil War was fascinating. In my mind that was like reading four biographies in one book.
I'm not sure when I'll get to read the 7th Harry Potter book. I'll probably have to wait until both of my boys read it. My husband will probably let me read it before he does. I love it when those books come out in the summer. I can lay out in the screen porch and read to my heart's content. Birds chirping, summer breezes rustling the leaves, and the dark arts threatening all that is good and right. Good times.
Sounds like a delightful way to read HP7. I'm too greedy to wait - I'll be turning pages in the parking lot at Borders!
Brenda you've made me cry !!! you were so nice about us, thank you.
: We had a real blast meeting you and Jay, it is such a shame you havent won the lottery (yet) As others on our cruise will discover, I can natter for England, and I'm very open bubbly and crazy person. Wayne is the more clamer one of us, he is quiet and takes everything "in". It takes him a while to " sum up" people, where I'm just jumping straight in !Anyway *** we left he commented on how nice you both were and he hoped we would spend many more times together on the cruise. Now this might not sound much, but believe me for him thats really a big deal!
Right back at you, Linda!
Wayne and Jason are similar - Jay doesn't open up nearly as quickly as I do. I talk too much and he'd rather sit back and take it all in. See, the four of us are a prefect fit!
I do remember those lovely cocktails,
what fun, sitting inn the sun and drinking and relaxing!
I have got you more HRPins as you now, so will defnately have to meet up in Oct.
Excellent! We can sit in the sun again and share a few more drinks!
The longer, the better! It helps me pass the time until my trip in September...
Denise
Well, I'll see what I can do if it doesn't end up driving everyone crazy!
Did anyone doubt their be alcohol involved in the meeting between Mr and Mrs "lush" and the Ale-carts?.....
AFEG, I don't understand where you seem to have picked up this idea that all Jay and I do is drink (or eat!).
I haven't been on the DIS for two days, whew, where to start? LOL
Poland -- PACZKI (Poonch - key)...The donut to end all donuts. Homer would be so disappointed in you for passing it up. Though, tradtionally, they should be reserved for Fat Tuesday. But I say a Paczki in the hand....
Hee hee... One of the reasons we didn't sample this is because we didn't know what it was supposed to be!
I reiterate my earlier point about the lack of visual food samples at the F&W booths. I think some beer and a donut would have been a terrific tribute to Homer, don't you?
Northanger Abbey -- I liked this very much, and also Persuasion, and I am surprised they are not discussed more often. Only Austen that I have tried to read but was having a hard time with is Emma. But S&S and P&P, love 'em!
Literature in public schools is like listening to the radio - they teach / play the same things over and over and over again. The only thing I can think of with NA is that because it's a satire on a genre that was popular at the time as opposed to so many other Austen books focusing on social satire that it's easier for teachers to make the other books relevant to their students.
HATED Wuthering Heights. Blech. And I have a really cool antique copy of it that was from my grandmother's house. Not sure if it was hers or given to her. I keep it for sentimental value, but the story, blech. (Have a VERY old copy of House of Seven Gables also. But blech.)
Really? I admit that first I saw the movie with Lawrence Olivier (he was so dreamy back then) and then I read the book. Funny about 7 Gables (which I totally agree - blech!) I have a huge antique volume of all of Dicken's works that my step-grandmother gave me shortly before she died...printed around 1880 /1890...and I can't stand Dickens! Yawn...but it's a cool book to have, and there is some sentimental value to it as well.
[Side note: I love books so much and I use a Literature based homeschool curriculum for my kids. Our bookshelves are PACKED. DH's bookshelves in his den are also packed, as well as having a stack that is over 5 feet tall that he hasn't had a chance to read. We're sick, really.
I'm starting to think everyone on this thread is sick.
**I'm joking people...no one here is more sick and twisted than me, I'm sure of it!**
Watched HP3 on ABC family last night for the first time all the way through. Thought of you. LOL
We were watching it too, even though we own the movie and can watch it uninterrupted whenever we want. That was the first really well-filmed Potter movie to be released, in my humble opinion.
GWTW - I love the book, but cannot bear to read the part where he walks away. So I read up until that part and quit. Sniff.
It is sad, isn't it? But if you read past that it's actually very hopeful - Scarlett is convinced she's gonna get her man back! It's irresistable.
Shakespeare - did my senior thesis (BA in English) on women in three of Shakespeare's comedies. LOVE Shakespeare.
The funny thing is, my dd13 is now obsessed w/Shakespeare and can't find anyone her age to discuss it with. She's obsessed w/ Shakespeare AND Disney??? I need a moment. (wipes away tear)
Now that is too cool - your DD sounds like a keeper!!
Speaking of driving, our route takes us through Nashville, Mufreesboro, Chattanooga, Atlanta. We always say one of these days we will take the time to do a Civil War tour. But so far we have always been in a hurry to get to FL. Dh is a history buff/archaeologist (he is currently majoring in Anthro, minoring in Hist.) LOVES military history. You'd get along just fine. LOL
You should stop at Lookout Mountain some time - it's very cool, great view, and wouldn't take as much time as the Chicakmauga tour, which unfortunately ends up with your driving all over Chattanooga. Outside of Atlanta is Stone Mountain, which is also very cool. There is a relief carving in the side of the mountain of a general on horseback (shame on me for not remembering who). We didn't get to see a lot of the surrounding battlefield but it's a lovely area.
I wish you lived nearby, because you and Jason would be an excellent addition to our VERY ecclectic NYE party. Although are friends are a varied lot, it does somewhat become Dorks on Parade. But, it is such a good time!!! I think you'd enjoy it. We have everthing from brownies to hummus to a variety of beers.
[Though, funny enough, I had tried for years to come up with fancy food for the party, and it was ok, but last year I made little sausages wrapped in biscuits, and everyone acted as if it was gourmet. Go figure!
]
Sounds like a good time! And sausages wrapped in biscuits...pigs in a blanket!! Everyone loves those! Just like little cocktail sausages in sauce that, to quote Homer, "looks like ketchup, and tastes like ketchup, but brother, it ain't ketchup!"
If we ever decide to come North for NYE we will crash your party and I promise to bring a dessert.
(Unless one of us KK's wins the lottery!!!
me, 
No Plankton!
