Today started out great, too. Hubs was going out to play with the guys, and I couldn’t stay asleep, so I actually got up at a decent time (1pm). Then, I called dad for some last minute info about a farm store/bent & dent and ended up talking to him for about 20 minutes. He usually answers the phone with “talk to you later, bye” (not literally, but I’m sure he would if he could), so actually chatting with him was awesome.

Then, on my way to said farm store, I passed a charter bus- the company name emblazoned on the back? Chariots of Hire. I’m not joking. Totally made my day.

I got to the farm store and found my second favorite brand of bacon for $1.50 less than I usually pay for it. Then I went to an actual farm and picked up some great pastured meat and offal (and they had sweetbreads! Seriously- it’s almost impossible to find sweetbreads!), and then drove home. And the weather. Was. Gorgeous. Windows down, all the way, baby.

So, and here’s the best part, the weather was still gorgeous when I got home. It’s too early for bees or wasps. The sun was out (no clouds, no rain). Nice breeze. And everyone else is outside taking walks and drives to enjoy the weather. This kind of day is rare enough, but this kind of day on a non-work, non-I-have-to-be-somewhere-right-now weekend day? THEY DON’T EXIST. Except for today. And I got to take advantage of it.

I pulled out my crochet, and a blanket, and plopped myself down under a tree. A nice family walked by and asked me about what I was crocheting, and their adorable little boy stared at me for a while, and a bunch of kids were riding bike and playing basket ball. And then I took my crochet and propped it under my head like a pillow and lay (layed, laid? I always get confused there) there for a bit looking at the sky through the tree branches. And then? I packed it all up and took a walk. Why? Because I wanted to!

It was so nice.

Now, however, I have laundry to do, a carpet to vacuum, food to eat, and instructions on how to cook sweetbreads to look up.

Hope everyone else had a day as lovely as mine!

In one case, my favorite MMO blogger posted his first video ever- and it so happens to be his 7 year old daughter (cute) hand feeding a red fox. Apparently they made the mistake of feeding a wolf once, and ended up with one as a pet for 15 years, and still haven’t learned their lesson. And since my married name ends in “Fox”, I’ve been a little obsessive about them for the past few years. And this one is beautiful- fluffy, gorgeous fur, and barely even skittish! The video is a bit long, but if you like foxes as much as I do, it’s worth watching. And if you don’t like foxes as much as I do, it’s still pretty cool to see a fox eat right out of a little girl’s hand! So, if you’ve ever wondered what do foxes eat, follow the link to watch the video. It looks like a hamburger patty to me.

Secondly, a good friend of mine who lives in Toronto (I just realized that 2 of the 3 people I’m posting about here are Canadians… Hm… maybe I should consider moving up north?) just had a horrific time with a local business (Crystal Bath at 2839 Kingston Road, Toronto) over her order for a bathroom vanity (Toronto). This is downright horrible customer service, and apparently the company did a lousy job on the remodel as well. Follow either link for more information on this story.

And lastly, Allyn Hanes’ beer review blog is live! He talks about beer in an entertaining way, doesn’t get all snooty about it (in fact, the regular joke is about people who sniff beer before drinking it- he’ll often sniff his and then say “smells like beer!”), and really describes the beer in a way that someone who isn’t already a connoisseur can understand. I don’t even drink beer, but I love watching his review videos, because not only is he fun to watch, but his background in landscaping gives him tons of info to pull from when describing a flavor. For example, in his review of Moylander’s India Pale Ale (he reviews several IPA beers), he mentions how people refer to a “piney” flavor. Since he’s a landscaper by trade, he was able to explain that what people were tasting was actually kind of a cedar mulch and arborvitae in the beer.

Since I’m no fan of hops, IPA’s are definitely not down my alley, but I was fascinated to find out that flavors in beer can be as complex as they are in a good wine. And Allyn presents it all as the next door neighbor chatting over the fence and offering you a cold one. (BTW, a good friend of mine modified Allyn’s theme- so if you love it and want to hire him, he comments there as “Forest” or you can ask me for his info).

You can see what I mean here, because they have embedding disabled. Poopy heads. (vid is clean)

Also, I don’t think anyone understands all the words to this, but for those who are interested, here’s a vid of the underpants gnome song. Enjoy!

I have been a Clueless geek since I made a bargain with my not-boyfriend that I’d watch his horror flick if he watched Clueless with me. How was I to know that I was actually displaying culture and taste instead of insipid stupidity every time I watched Cher make a fool of herself in front of the hot gay guy?

You see, Sunday afternoon I watched the Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma, based on the Jane Austen novel, and BOOM, it hit me. Clueless is a remake of Emma of the same awesome caliber as 10 Things I Hate About you being a remake of Taming of the Shrew.

OK, I’ll grant you that a simple movie can never be as good as a classic novel such as any of Jane Austen’s. And I know that A&E and the BBC have their own versions which are probably much better. However, Gwyneth was available on the free movies on On Demand, so there. Free trumps good any old day.

And I’ll be honest with you. I’ve never been a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow, often choosing to skip movies entirely just because she headlined in them. But the woman held her own! Usually American actors and actresses show up as the gaudy, incapable things that they really are when held up against the acting of the British. Keanu Reeves in Much Ado About Nothing, anyone? The man nearly ruined the whole flick despite the awesome acting by the others. But Gwyneth Paltrow? I may have to rethink my opinion of her. She really performed well. Plus, I think she should always wear her hair up from now on. It looks good on her.

The thing is, I’ve always known that 10 Things I Hate About You. I mean, they kept the same names and attended Padua High. The cheesiness is part of what I loved! But in Clueless, yes, SOME of the names were the same, but Cher vs Emma? Not obvious (I’ll have to watch it again to see if Emma is her middle name or a silent first name or something). But still, as I watched Emma (obviously I haven’t read the book yet, though it is in my TBR pile), I kept noting the similarities and at times was able to predict what would happen next based on my knowledge of Clueless.

But while I loved the cheesy obviousness of 10 Things, Clueless shows me something different. How you can take a classic story, boil it down, and turn it into something different. While the best parts of Emma were modernized, I saw where the cast was narrowed down to make individual characters stronger. While Emma’s governess became Cher’s best friend, certain personality traits were greatly exaggerated or removed. Where Mr. Knightly was like a brother to Emma, he actually became a brother to Cher through several remarriages.

It all began sliding into place how these people had done it. Me? If I were to try to remake something, I would have immediately gotten stuck trying to find the modern equivalent. But that’s now how it was done. It was taking the basic parts of the original, and re-spinning it.

For example: Harriet got sick before the party and couldn’t go. So Mr. Elton felt free to press his affections on Emma on the drive home. Later, Emma gets stuck while crossing a stream and is rescued by Frank Churchill.

Ty gets hit on the head at the party. Later, Elton drives Cher home and tries to press his affections on her. He drops her off in the middle of nowhere, and is rescued by her “brother”.

In fact, there was even a mugging in both, but totally different circumstances and results.

But I see now how it’s done. It’s like making an outline of a story, and then writing a story based on THAT outline.  And if you get stuck, you can always go back for more details! I’ve always wanted to write my own 10 Things, and now I think I know how.

Also, I have a new review of Wild at Heart up at the site I review for.

Anyway. I showed them to my mother who then asked me to make her a pair of earrings. So, I found two sets of crosses that were similar enough to count as pairs, and made some earrings.

And then I made a pretty pretty necklace. At least, I like it.

I’ll be listing one pair of earrings and the necklace on Etsy once mom picks the earrings she likes best. Now to figure out pricing. I usually base it on how long it takes me to make them and how much the supplies cost. The only problem is- I was watching bad TV and dropping things. Somehow it doesn’t seem fair to charge people for that!

The problem is, I often don’t like what they have available. A simple sterling silver earstud of Cinderella’s Castle or Spaceship Earth- is that too much to ask?

Anyway, I seem to have solved the problem of a lack of good dangle earrings (they occasionally have studs I like, and you can see the pair I bought this year by clicking on my Twitter profile pic to enlarge it).

You see, Disney has these charm bracelets. The bracelet runs about $11, and each charm is about $4. And they have A LOT of charms to choose from.  And I make jewelry, so I have the pliers, split rings, french hooks, etc, to do whatever I want with them.

So this is what I made:

You can click these photos to enlarge them.

These cost me $8 a pair plus materials that I already had. Compare that to the cheapest earrings at WDW that run about $12 a pair. So, I got cuter earrings for less money. And they have that personal touch.

Saved money and didn’t even need Walt Disney World coupons. What more could a girl ask for?

Anyway. While browsing for Christmas gifts for hubs, I came across an incredible pair of cotton novelty boxer shorts with the DC Comic version of the Joker emblazoned across the cro… front. And it says “The Joker” across the butt, which I thought was cute but hubs merely puts up with.

However, they only had one size in the store, and it wasn’t my husband’s size, so I did a search online and found only one place with them actually in stock. I ordered them, they sent the wrong pair, I emailed them, they sent me the correct set of boxers and a return label, I wrapped ‘em up and gave ‘em to hubby who now only complains when they’re in the wash instead of on him.

Turns out that I like boxers on him too, so I trucked on back to the website to do a little birthday shopping for him. I remembered seeing a set of The Grinch boxers there, among a few others. Thing is, while I was browsing, I came across these:

And I just had to share. (Btw, this is an affiliate link, but I really do use this company, really do love their product, and they do have some hilarious boxers if you have even a slightly dirty mind).

more animals

That right there just explains so much about me, doesn’t it? I like squirrels so much that I own the domain NuttySquirrelBottom.com. Disturbed yet?

Btw- I’m going to be doing a series of posts with my affiliate links in them for easy reference for my mother and friends who want to give me a kick back with their purchases. So, if you see posts with normal titles like “Food and Drink”- go ahead and read through, but don’t feel pressured.

So, anyway, he pulls up this awesome video of Andrea Bocelli singing Elmo to sleep. I love it! Andrea Bocelli has the most incredible voice, and it’s so cute the way he keeps smiling at Elmo.

There’s a better quality video here, but it won’t allow for embedding.

The thing is, I’ve just come out of a hard place, or am coming out of it now. Hard to tell depending on what time of day it is. Anyway, I’ve rediscovered my faith, and while it’s still a rough time, I just felt that it was very important to talk about this.

There are a handful of celebrities who have been on my heart lately. Blame it on Lynn Spears’ Through The Storm or what you will. I had the thought to start a positive celebrity blog, but I’m really not sure that’s what God has for me.  But I do know that while I’m praying for someone very important in my life, there are a few others that I need to lift up in prayer.

Britney Spears is one- though that may be because of her mother’s book. But also the Jonas Brothers who are professing Christians and are wearing purity rings. They’ve taken a LOT of flack in the media for that. And Christian or not, there is nothing wrong with abstaining until marriage. If they change their minds, I don’t want it to be because of peer pressure! And Miley Cyrus since she’s still essentially a good kid, but is starting to become affected by the limelight.

I started looking for a celebrity prayer list and found instead a rather strong gossip site. I know a lot of people love the celeb gossip sites, but I’ve turned my back on them (hold me accountable if I slip up!). Eventually, though, I found one site that either assigns you a celebrity to pray for or lets you pick one from their list. That sounded a bit controlling to me, though I’m sure that wasn’t the intention.

However, after a little more searching, I found Celebrity Prayer Network. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it’s close. While I have it on my heart to pray for all celebs whether they’re believers or not, this site focuses on those who seem to be most in need. Like I said, Christian celebrities need to be supported as much or more than other celebs to keep them from caving into the media machine. But it’s a good starting off point if you don’t have special celebs on your heart.

The other one would be Barack Obama. He’s about to take the highest office in our land, to be one of the most powerful men in the world. He definitely needs prayer. Whether you voted for him or not, he’s ours for the time being, and anyone needs prayer- a leader most of all.

So, I’m sorry to any of you who find this highly offensive, but the whole point of the blogosphere is to put ourselves out there, isn’t it? So that’s what I’m doing. This site is the “all of me” personal blog. I may not share my hurts in so public a forum, but there ya go.