Archive for December, 2008

From the newsline at People Magazine:

Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, gave birth on Saturday to a healthy 7 lb., 7 oz., baby boy in Palmer, Alaska.

“We think it’s wonderful,” said Colleen Jones, the sister of Bristol’s grandmother Sally Heath, who confirmed the news. “The baby is fine and Bristol is doing well. Everyone is excited.”

The baby’s name is Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston and he was born at 5:30 a.m., according to Jones.

Baby Tripp takes his surname from his dad, Levi Johnston, an apprentice electrician and former Wasilla High School hockey player who has been dating Bristol for three years.

Bristol Palin is currently residing in Wasilla and completing her high-school diploma through correspondence courses.

Johnston is studying to become an electrician. He told the Associated Press in October that he and fiancée Bristol plan to wed in 2009 and raise the child together.

All politics and newsmedia aside, this is going to be one pretty baby!  Congrats to Bristol and Levi on the healthy birth of their son.

I’m so excited to share my list for my Just the Love Of It Challenge 2009:

Breathing Out The Ghost – Curnutt

Hypocrite in a White Pouffy Dress by Susan Jane Gilman

Life of Pi – Yann Martel

Deleted: The Bible Illuminated: The Book New Testament

Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

FaeFever – Moning

Recovering Charles - Jason F. Wright

Desire & Deceit – Mohler

Five Things I Can’t Live Without -  Shumas

Deleted: The Rapture of Canaan – Reynolds

The Makedown – Daneshavri

Deleted: The End of Iraq – Galbraith

Deleted: Odd Mom Out – Porter

Nearlyweds – Kendrick

Fire Me – Malin

The Vigorous Mind – Cummings

Love & Other Natural Disasters – Shumas

Deleted: Wuthering Heights – Bronte

Something Borrowed – Giffin

Mrs. Perfect – Jane Porter

Of Mice & Men – Steinbeck

The Secret Life of Bees – Monk Kid

Deleted: Lord of the Flies – Golding

Delete: The Frog Prince – Porter

To Kill a Mockingbird

New:  The Diving Bell & The Butterfly

New: Snow Flower & The Secret Fan

New:  Nearlyweds

New: The Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao

New: Revolutionary Road

New:  Peony in Love

New: Never Let Me Go

New: The Wednesday Letters

New: Sarah’s Key

New: The Prenup

New: Loving Frank

New: The Ten Year Nap

New: This One is Mine

New: Undress Me In The Temple of Heaven

New: This is Water

New:  Keeper of Light and Dust

New: Follow Me

New:  The 8th Confession

New: B as in Beauty

New: Up At The College

New: The Help

New: The Prosecution Rests

New: Disquiet

New: The Uncommon Reader

New: Shanghai Girls

New: Edgewise

New: Who Made You A Princess?

New: The Invisible Wall

New:  Finding Grace

New:  Angela’s Ashes

New:  The Secret Life of Bees

New: Cradle and All

New: Mating Rituals of the North American WASP

New: Holly’s Inbox

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Do you want to join me on my challenge?

Here’s Mr. Linky:

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I invite everybody to participate in the weekly MEME and write about any movies, television or big screen, that you’ve seen over the past week and write about it.  Please feel free to use the above logo photo in your post and/or link back to the site.  I will post every Sunday Night or Monday Morning on the movie I’ve seen from the past week.  I’m hoping that there are other movie buffs out there who will enjoy the MEME as much as I’m hoping to!  The only small request that I have is that you rate the movie out of 5 bags of popcorn (so, 1 bag out of 5, 2 bags out of 5, and so on). 

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Movie:  Marley & Me

Starring:  Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Adaptation and Biopic

Runtime: 2 Hours 3 Minutes

MPAA Rating:  PG

Directed By:  David Frankel

I loved this book.  I wept when I read it and just thought the world of it.  Of course, I am the world’s biggest animal lover and the proud owner of Tori, the sweetest blonde bombshell of a yellow lab ever to grace the planet!  She’s honestly just the best dog EVER…. unlike Marley the best WORST dog that ever lived.  I could not wait to see it and proudly Fandango’d my tickets so that we were assured entry on Christmas Day.   The twins and I dressed up warm and scuttled out for the early evening show.

Sadly, I got a bit of theatre rage because there were, of course, those people who were holding an entire row of seats for people who are supposedly coming, but who are not there yet.  (Oh, and surprise, surprise… they never did make it and the people now have 4 of the best seats in the house for their jackets!  Merry Christmas.)  So, the only seats left, 20 minutes prior  to showtime, are in the front row.  This seemingly didn’t bother the kids at all and we separated: them in the front and me almost 1/2 way up.  I sat next to a relatively ill-mannered child and his mother who tossed her entire bucket of popcorn on the dude in the seat directly in front of her.  Then, she proceeded to tell the guy to “lighten up” because after all it’s “New Year’s Eve for Christ’s sake.”  OKAY-DOUGHKAY, SWEETHEART!  So… I’m sandwiched between the kid who keeps staring at me and plunking his elbow on my drink and the guy who just ate Christmas dinner and is burping up what smelled like some type of red beef flavored with a ton of garlic.  Ugh.  So much for my magical movie day.   But, it’s Marley and Me… I’m going to love it!

I had a lot of trouble focusing on the movie because that kid next to me was driving me INSANE the entire movie.  He just kept staring at me and staring at me… his little round face reflecting the glow of the movie screen.  I gave him my scary face, but nothing doing… he was not intimidated by me in the least.  I was stuck… no more seats left, not even in the front row.

Oh, yeah… the movie was good.  As I had read the book, I knew what to expect.  I didn’t remember certain elements of the movie that must have been in the book.  For example, I didn’t remember their careers being so instrumental in the book, but it has been such a long time since I read it.   I remember more funny antics out of Marley in the book that I didn’t seem to get enough of in the movie.  Perhaps they’d already put as much as they could in with a 2 hour runtime as it was.  But, I wanted MORE DOGGIE!  Like, when they see Marley’s Dad at the breeder’s.. that monstorous dog who kept running forever.  You just have to love it that they picked “the Clearance Puppy.”

My favorite scene is when Jen Grogan (Aniston) comes home after experiencing her miscarraige and John Grogan (Wilson) walks back into the living room to be with his wife and she is crying… Marley has quietly placed his head on her knee.  It was very endearing to see a woman’s best friend on-screen… or, at least for me.  When I feel horrible, my dog Tori is all that I ever need for a good cry.  I also liked the scene when Marley was up to his late-night, never-ending food frenzy and toilet-water drinking duty.  Just as he finishes up, he sits at Jen’s bedside just before she wakes up in labor with Patrick.  Very cute… dogs just sense these things.   OH… and LOVE Jen dancing with Marley.

Alan Arkin was endearing as Grogan’s boss and Eric Dane is as handsome as ever, although I don’t like his womanizing, “man on the move” character.  Boring!  He’s just entirely too handsome to be wasted on that “player” type… for me, that is!  Aniston is always so pretty and she looked great on-screen!  My friend, Jill, told me that it’s yoga that gives her that great shape.  I guess I’m going to have to sign up for yoga!  In any event, Aniston did just a lovely job and played the character “Jen” perfectly… just as it should have been played.  The casting of Owen Wilson as John Grogan… I’m not sure that I would have casted him for the part.  Truthfully, I think his brother Luke would have been a better typecast for the role.  In my mind, I pictured more of a mousy, brunette dude to play John Grogan.  But, Owen did fine and I always enjoy him.  The cast of “Marleys” were great.  I don’t know what happened to Kathleen Turner, but she looked awful…. perhaps that was intended… ???

Like every good book that has a movie, the book was far and beyond better than the movie.  However, for a good family film… especially for dog lovers… I highly recommend it!  Out of 5 bags of popcorn, genre comedy/drama… I give this:

Oh, and don’t forget the hankies… you will shed a tear if you have any heart at all…

P.S. I just found out that THE FRIENDLY BOOK NOOK is hosting a Marley and Me giveaway!  Check it out!

P.S.S. For a movie review on the movie Australia visit Bermuda Onion’s Weblog!

P.S.S.S. For another movie review on the movie Australia visit Life In The Short Lane!

P.S.S.S. and so on… For another movie review on the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button visit Literary Menagerie!

This was the longest and worst year of my life… and, yet… in some ways, the best!  This is the final entry for The Sunday Salon 2008 and I’m really grateful for so much! 

The Sunday Salon: Week in Review AND Up n’ Coming Events…

I read and reviewed Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips.  I’m currently reading Breathing Out the Ghost by Kirk Curnutt.  The book is one that I am reading for TLC Book Tours and my post will appear on January 21st, 2009.  This book is extremely well written, but the subject matter really tugs at your mind and heart.  This is a book that takes all of my attention… again, VERY well written. 

I have also been reading The Bible Illuminated: The Book New Testament.  It is a much “easier” read than the traditional Bible… and, I’m reading through it much faster than if I were reading the actual Bible.  I like the book very much.  Although the picture of the baby in the book of Matthew… is that her real hair?  And, the picture of the kid with the gun staring me in the face bothered me… I just wanted to hurry up to get to the next page.  In any event, I like it and I’m glad that I used my birthday GC for it.

In my mailbox for revew…

• Desire and Deceit.. The Real Cost of The New Sexual Tolerance
• The Vigorous Mind… Cross Train Your Brain to Break Through Mental, Emotional and Professional Boundaries

For my contests & challenges…

Check on over at Thursday’s Thoughts for the New Year’s Day Edition!  In addition to the weekly MEME, there is a prize that you can win.  Remember, winners of Thursday’s Thoughts are also added to the Thurday’s Thoughts Blogroll.  BTW:  Did you know that other bloggers adding you to their blogroll adds more “traffic” points when people search for your blog on the web?  It’s true!  So, it’s a small perk, but a fun one.  And, I list (I think and I hope) all of my favorite blogs in my blogroll (to the right in the green bar under Blogs… Blogs.. Blogs..).  You have to push on the (plus) button and you can find yourself there.  If you’re not listed, let me know and we can swap add-on’s to our blogrolls.  anovelmenagerie@aol.com.

Movie Reviews…

The first of Monday’s Movies was published on December 23rd.  Every Monday, A Novel Menagerie will provide a movie review… IT’S THE BEGINNING OF A NEW MEME!  I hope that I get lots of you readers to join in on Monday’s Movie.  You can write about a TV movie or a Big Screen movie.  It can be an oldie… or a newbie!  Just any old movie will do!  The only thing that I respectfully ask is that you use the Monday’s Movie logo (side), you post it on Monday, and that you rate the movie out of FIVE BAGS OF POPCORN.  I have pictures of the bags of popcorn at the bottom of the post that you can copy from or you can use your own.   You can do one a week, one a month… or one whenever… just join in, you movie lovers!  This week, I reviewed Four Christmases and on Monday the 29th, you can read my review of Marley and Me!

At home…

I survived Christmas!  The twins really seemed to enjoy all the loot they got.  They have tended towards a few items as their favorites.  My daughters are so tall!  They look gorgeous in their new jeans and semi-high heels.  Cole just has an incredible figure… so jealous.  Dee is driving me certifiably insane.  Is there any way that I can give her away for like 14 days and then collect her back again?  I’m telling you, her mouth!  I should just shove a huge bar of soap in there and watch it fizz.  I can sit and eat popcorn while I watch her attempting to yell at me with it in her mouth… suds erupting from the sides.  Oh… that’s probably child abuse.  Nevermind. 

But, Santa was smart about one gift… headphones.  Yes, Santa herself found the greatest headphones that they can plug into just about anything.  Now I don’t have to listen to the same song over and over and over again (last week it was Celine Dion… ugh).  And, they go and do their chores with their headphones on and they don’t fight with each other.  It’s like peace and chores combined into one lovely dessert… just for Mom. 

So, instead of listening to the constant bickering and war of music players, I’m sitting here writing to the lovely and constant sounds of my puppy Claire’s rooster toy that makes the sound “cock-a-doodle-dooo” over and over and over again.  I’m going to kill that bird!  I once thought that rooster toy was so cute.  Maybe I should borrow those headphones to drown out the rooster and the twins now yelling at each other that they are going to “throw up on you.”  Hmmm… what else can I shove into their mouth that will foam?

Do I seem grumpy?  I think I am.  I don’t want to be.  Time for a glass of CharDONay!

And, last.. but never least… I’ve posted my final HOLIDAY CHEER post… the best books of 2008… according to only my never-to-be-humble opinion. 

Have a great week, Saloners!

And…here we go!

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1. I must visit Greece before I die.

2. You can’t stop believing.

3. I wish I never had to buy socks again. (I mean, where do they go?)

4. The love of God has helped me change my life.

5. I know the song Do-A-Deer, A Female Dear by heart. (Who doesn’t?)

6. If I weren’t so afraid, I would do some dangerous stunt involving heights.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to reading in peace, tomorrow my plans include cleaning my closet (no, it’s STILL NOT DONE) and Sunday, I want to write!