My First Official Brontealong Post!!! (Do you hear sirens, bells and massive applause?)

I went online yesterday to put the *highly acclaimed* BBC movie Jane Eyre on my queue on Blockbuster.com (disclaimer--I am not advertising this website, though it is the one we use in our house, and they provide fast service, they have no idea about little old me or my itty bitty blog. Ahem, that is all.) I found out rather quickly that there are literally a gajillion versions of this movie. Wondering right now why I've never seen one!

This one is from 1996, or so it says online. Um, the cover makes it look pret-ty steamy! I may rent to compare. Says that Anna Paquin plays the "young Jane" for all of you True Blood fans.

This one is from the eighties and HEL-LO has Timothy Dalton in it--when he was hot aven! Yum...might have to check this one out as well. It's also almost 4 hours long (239 minutes it says).

This here ditty is from the seventies, the decade I was born in. Actually, it is two years older than me...they don't look at all happy do they? I mean I know it's not exactly a comedy, but they look rather pissed off about something. The Rochester in the picture looks like he's doing the good old "smell the fart" acting.

Ah, yes, the 1971 version with George C. Scott. I don't know if I could watch him as Rochester when the visions of him playing Scrooge would never leave my head.

The 1944 version, with ORSON WELLES???? M'kay, may be worth a view! Elizabeth Taylor is in it too, along with Margaret O'Brien--who I love! Ever see Meet Me In St. Louis? One of my favorite Judy Garland films, well Margaret O'Brien plays Tootie. That movie debuted the song "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"...but, I digress...

And of course, the 1934 version, which boasts that it is the first adaptation to use sound. And of course, it is a double feature!

So, I put THE movie in my queue...but I have to wait until we watch and return 2012 to get it. Since Sweetie and I have Friday off, that shouldn't be an issue. I should be able to receive it and view by next weekend! Then I'll know what all the buzz is about--hate being out of the loop!

I've begun to read the book. Now, I read this book years ago for school, and of course when you are forced to read something, enjoyment is out the window. Had I picked it up on my own I would have loved it. So far, I wish I had more time to read, because I don't want to put it down. I've fallen asleep reading it two nights in a row. Can't read before bed anymore, puts me right to sleep! The way Bronte paints the picture though is marvelous. When she talks about the chill in the air, I pull the covers closer to myself. When she describes the attitude of Jane's cousins I want to crawl in that book and smack 'em. I know that the book describes the Aunt as "stocky" but I picture her in my head looking like Margaret Hamilton:

It's a compulsion that can't be helped. I feel the same way about the Superintendent of the school. Keep picturing Eliza Jane from Little House on the Prairie.

Okay, so, here's my question, if you were to cast anybody, in any role in your own awesome, mind's eye view of Jane Eyre--who would it be?

Come on, Indulge my craziness!

PINK SATURDAY

I just wanted to apologize for missing Pink Saturday, something came up on the homefront that kept me from posting that day. My apologies. Perhaps I'll blog about it sometime in the future, not sure yet. Again, sorry guys...I'm going to have to take the time to check out others' posts from Sat. Have a great Monday everyone, and hopefully, I'll have a moment to post soon.

Varmints!

We have an invader in our pond...

This is not our invader, I haven't gotten a picture of him yet, this is a picture from the internet.

We have a muskrat.

Sweetie is not pleased, and he will have to trap it out, which is something we don't like to do, but these little varmints are destructive.

I wish he would just move along on his own, but because Sweetie dealt with the Great Muskrat Invasion of '02, we know that won't happen.

I'm trying not to name him because that will make eradication harder...it's the animal lover in me, but I know he can't stay.

P.S. Check out the orange teeth on that sucker! I wonder if they all have orange teeth...

My Return to Pink Saturdays.

Hi all! I've been away for a while, our family has been dealing with a lot lately and it has kept me from blogging. Now though, I have decided to blog to help heal, sort of. I love blogging for Pink Saturdays, and I love the idea behind it. So, I always felt most guilty about not blogging on Saturdays. Life must go on, and part of my life now is planning my wedding. Which brings me to my Pink Saturday picture. It is not a picture I have taken myself, rather, it is an idea for the topper to my wedding cake. This can be found at Personal Creations:
Now, most of you know that my name is Minnie, and Sweetie's name is Mike. Let me tell you that my family was thrilled when they found out that I was dating a guy named Michael...I had finally found my Mickey in their eyes. I have been receiving Minnie Mouse stuff my whole life from my family, and now Sweetie often finds a Mickey item among his gifts at Christmas and on his Birthday (welcome to my life, Sweetie). So I knew that I wanted to incorporate Mickey and Minnie in the wedding somehow, though I didn't want a Disney theme at all. I thought that this would be a fun way to do that. What do you all think? (The teacup would be personalized with our names, and if they can fit it, the wedding date.)

A new, and wonderful idea is to introduce one of the other Pink Saturday participants to everyone. One of my favorites is found here: http://www.charmschooljewels.blogspot.com/ (sorry guys, I'm still a bit of a spaz when it comes to linking stuff, I'll figure it out eventually). From today's post, I see that she has a wonderful sweetie as well. I guess I'm not the only one who pulls their honey into their madness! If you check the archives of my pink saturday posts, you will see a picture of my very manly man in pink slippers that he gave me permission to put in my blog. He's very secure in his masculinity you see. Or, he knew I would put it there anyway...

Saturday funny for today: Sweetie trying to make himself breakfast and trying to get sausage out of a Bob Evans tube-style package. Picture it, he cuts the end off and stands there squeezing out the sausage looking at me saying "how the hell does this work?" LOL!!!! Someone does not make himself breakfast often...

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!

That is all.

St. Patrick's Day...The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

I love St. Patrick's Day. When I say I love it, I don't mean it like "I love that dress", I mean it is my absolute favorite holiday of the year. Ya'll can keep Christmas, Halloween, and Easter, St. Pat's is where it's at! I have the most decorations for this holiday, and I add to my collection every year. I have more than four shirts, shoes, numerous hats, jewelry, socks, etc., all with a St. Pat's theme. When I lived in the "Big City" (if you can call Erie, PA a big city) I used to take the 17th and 18th of March off and party hardy! Now that I live in the sticks, I can't really do that, there are too many other obligations. Sweetie and I do throw a party every year that we've been together for the holiday. I've given him a new appreciation of his Irish background and influenced his love for the day as well. We even have a four-foot-tall shamrock that lights up that we put in our yard for the special event. This year our party is on the 20th, and I can't wait. Our family needs a fun time, reason to celebrate something. We've had enough heartache and sadness for a long while.

So, I was pulling out my decorations for the day, and I am MISSING STUFF!!!!! I can't find one of my boxes of celebratory junk! The box with my pub signs (yes I have multiple) and bedazzled shamrocks (those number more than one as well) is missing. Not good. I don't know where in creation I could have put them. I'm freaking out here. So, I'm going to have to tear the house apart to find them. I will find them!

Bronte-along: All You Ever Wanted To Know...

I will be participating in something new and fun, the Bronte-along! It is the brainchild of the woman found here. I'm ordering Jane Eyre today from Amazon, and will be discussing it on my blog. We've also been urged to watch the movie, check Melissa's blog--according to her, we will all want the lead male character by the end. If it's anything like Sense & Sensibility, that is probably true. So check back with me! Let's discuss!

Wasting Time

Really. That's what I am doing here. It's 8:30AM, really 7:30AM, stupid time change thing. I'm not wanting to do a single thing that I need to do today. I need to finish cleaning, file my student aid forms, and do laundry. I don't want to do any of that. I want to take a nap, veg out, and find a moment of peace this weekend. So here I am playing Social City on Facebook, drinking coffee, blogging, and feeling extremely guilty for not doing what I need to do. I got a lot accomplished yesterday though. It may not look that way to the untrained eye, but I know how much stuff was taken care of, and how long it took me.

Little Women is on the TV, such a good movie, such a great book. I loved Louisa May Alcott when I was a girl. I read all of the books, and I'm that they never made a movie about the rest of them, they were all good. Also, out the window, what was darkness has lightened up to a gray, wet morning. Not a help for my lazy mood. It is cool however, to sit and watch the flocks of birds as they land, sit for a second, then move to a different part of the field next door. The snow is almost gone, there are just three parts of it left that once were snowbanks that stood almost as tall as me. The ice is nearly melted on the pond, with only a small oval of it still in the center, where the pond is deepest and holds the cold longest.

So, here I sit, daydreaming about being able to stay at home all of the time, take care of the house, yard, dogs, and just be creative. It's been so long since I've had idle time to paint, crochet, read, bake, or do any of the things that spell joy to me. As I was going through some of Mom's things yesterday I thought about how I would really like to scrapbook some of the cool stuff I found for my brothers' families. I would love to make scrapbooks for them with our family information and sentimental stories. Our family may not have had a lot of money, but we were once a colorful, close-knit bunch. Thinking about it now is bringing tears to my eyes, because I miss them so much. It's strange to think that now my brothers and I are the oldest in the immediate family. Oh, we have Aunts and Uncles left, but Grandparents and Parents are all gone. So quickly. I think that the silence in the house is contributing to this introspection. The little ones in the family are missing out on the most, because they only have one grandparent left. Their Mother's Mother. Sad. Well, I've got to get myself out of this little funk and get moving, otherwise nothing will get done today.

Tidying Up...Let's Just Heave It All Into The Trash.

I'm in the midst of the great hoe out of my office/work area/holiday storage room gone terribly, terribly wrong. Actually, I'm at the half-way point...I think. I can't believe I had so much stuff stashed in this room. Oy. Cleaning it has been a nightmare, but I may be on the downhill slide. The "drop-off" occurred last night, both brothers, one sister-in-law and Sweetie helped to bring all of the aforementioned junk into our house. It was surprising and sad to peel back the first layer of the things that came from Mom's Some of it was mine anyway, from the time I spent with Mom after my roommate moved out of state. Other stuff was Mom's. Actually, a lot of sentimental stuff and paperwork. I haven't gone through that, but one thing I did unearth was the guestbook/memory book from Mom and Dad's wedding. It made me kind of sad that Mom never filled much of the book out. Not a huge shock, because our baby books are like that too. She started filling them in, but never finished, and what is filled out is sparse information. I'm glad I don't need to know a lot of that stuff.

Sweetie brought me roses when he came home from work this morning. I think he feels a little bad about jumping all over me because of the arrival of the junk. He knows there's no way around it, the stuff has to be gone through, he was mainly upset because it messes with his orderly sensiblities. We made up though, we don't really stay mad at one another long, it's a waste of time and energy.

It's been raining all day. Which is good because of the work I need to accomplish, but bad because it has been really gloomy in the house today. No sunshine coming in the windows makes for a "wanna nap" kind of day.

I just really want to finish this room. I did get "before" pictures, and I'm ashamed to say they are bad...really bad. It was a disaster area. It's looking better now, and the further along I get, the better it is looking (yay!).

Well I'd better wrap it up. I figured I'd drop in for a second (to give myself a cleaning breather) to keep ya'll up to speed on the progress. I'll be back tomorrow with another installment. Ta-Ta!

What A Day...Should've Stayed In Bed.

Today started off foggy...really, really foggy. Literally, it was so foggy that the wind was blowing it around into a swirling mass. Not a huge surprise that it was so foggy, because the temperature last night did not fall above freezing for the first time in a very long time, so the fog was caused by the warm temperatures combined with the cold off of the melting snow. Made for some good times commuting to work today. I love low visability. I got home early (meaning I didn't stop for any errands, just went straight home) to prepare for the impending drop-off of junk that my bro was going to bring by. More on that later. Anyway, when I got home, Sweetie had just gotten out of bed. I could tell by his major bedhead and bleary eyes. He was letting the dogs outside as I was pulling into the driveway. So I stood outside with him for a little bit, listening to him complain to me about said drop-off. Have I mentioned he's anal-retentive about clutter??? OCD?? Oh, yeah. After listening to him list and categorize all of his complaints, then telling them he was more than welcome to write them all down and submit them to management, I went inside to do a little quick cleaning, as I would be doing just that all weekend and I wanted to get a jump-start on it. So, while I was doing that, Sweetie finished letting the dogs out and put them back into their crates while he cleaned up the yard a little bit. I dusted and unloaded, then reloaded the dishwasher in about 45 minutes. Sweetie came in from outside and came to the kitchen and we chatted about bills for about five minutes, then he said he was going to run into town really quick to pick up a lottery ticket. I told him to let the dogs out of their crates so I could feed them...that's when all hell broke loose.

Apparently, even though Mojo, our shepard had already been outside less than an hour before, and peed on every spot he could find in the yard to pee on, he decided that today would be a good day to mark his crate as well. I swear to God, that dog has a huge bladder or something, because his crate was filled with pee...of course my resident neat-freak blew a gasket. I mean blew. his. top. Not that I was pleased, because now I had to clean the crate, and the dog--to top it all off, none of us had eaten dinner yet, and my brother was on his way over with a truckload of stuff from my Mom's. Joy.

That was my day...how was yours?

This Makes Me SOOOOO Happy!

Um, it's hot in my house! Can you believe it? It is actually hot in here. 77 degrees to be exact. In March. In Pennsyltucky. Who knew. Funny thing is, it isn't that shocking for March, just shocking for how early in March it is. When I was driving home it was 64 degrees at 5PM. That is unbelievable. I'm getting ready to put on shorts and a t-shirt, because it is too warm in here for jeans and a sweatshirt, and that makes me giggle like a little schoolgirl.

On to other news, I got another pair of contacts today. This is an on-going battle for me. The wonderful eye doctors that have put up with me for years all know that I have issues with contacts. This annoys me because I hate to be chained to the very thick glasses that I have to wear because of my awful eyesight. I have had that ball and chain since the third grade, and it is getting mighty old. This new eye doctor (wonderful woman that she is) has tried me on three types (at no charge...told you she was wonderful). She said she will keep trying until she finds some that work for me. (Did I mention I love her?) The ones I have in now are semi-comfortable. The left eye is bothering me still, but that is to be expected because that eye is the worst for contacts. Two things keep me in the realm of sucky contact wearer person: I have a birth defect in my eyes that has to do with astigmatism. NORMAL people with astigmatism have egg shaped lenses (or corneas, or something like that) that run horizontally or vertically. My deformed eyes run diagonally...yep, it's confirmed, I'm a medical weirdo. The second thing is, Dr. Wonderful (which is how she will now be referred to for the sake of me not having to type "my new wonderful eye doctor all the time) tested my eyes to see how quickly the tears evaporate after I blink. NORMAL people's tears take between ten to fifteen seconds after they blink to evaporate. Mine take, get this, three seconds. No wonder my eyes are itchy and irritated even when not wearing contacts. Thankfully, Dr. Wonderful cracked the code on that one, which makes me wonder: why didn't any other eye doctor check me for this after my repeated complaints to them? Anyhoo, she told me to take fish oil capsules for a while to see if it helps. If it doesn't, then I get to go in for a wonderful procedure where they plug the lower tear ducts on my eyes. That grosses me out, so I'm saying "go huge fish oil capsules that cost me $40 from GNC for a one-month supply, Go!"

I think my dogs have spring fever. I know I do, so it would make sense that they do as well. Problem is, this has caused them to take three times as long to go to the bathroom when they go out. They have to sniff everything, especially now that the snow is melting. This wouldn't be so bad except I have to go out with them and stand there...and wait...and wait...and wait. They will not (even if they could be trusted to do so) go outside by themselves. If I attempt to reenter the house after letting them out, they run right back to the door to come in. Separation Anxiety anyone? This is what requires me to get up at 4AM when I have to work the early shift (7:30-4:00) at work. This is why I'm tired and cranky on the week I have early shift, which coincidentally is this week.

And lastly on the new news line, is that I'm going to attempt to clean my office/crafting area/storage room for all things holiday. This will please Sweetie to no end since he has been after me to hoe through that room, um, for three years (she says sheepishly, while blushing). Basically up to this point I have painted the room purple (my fave color) and then proceeded to fill it with a large amount of crap. If it didn't have a home it went in that room. All of the stuff that I kept of my Mom's is in that room. One of the reasons it has to be done is because my lovely brother John is bringing over more of said stuff on Saturday. So, to keep Sweetie from busting an artery, I must clean and reorganize that room (especially since he has no idea about the drop). The other reason I'm going to do it is because that room pisses me off too. I don't like not knowing where anything is in there. I haven't seen the top of my desk since it was moved in, and have taken over Sweetie's desk (which makes him so happy, since I have added to the overall clutter of his office--you love me Sweetie, remember?) since I cannot use mine. Plus, I have all kinds of paperwork for the wedding, and other organizing that I need to do, and that room absolutely needs to be the hub.

St. Patrick's Day is coming up, my FAVORITE holiday. I claim my Irish heritage more than the others in my background, mostly because it is the most colorful heritage I can claim, but also because then I can blame my love of the liquid libation on that. We are having our annual party the Saturday following, so I also have to deep clean the house. I'm not talking de-clutter, I'm talking shampooing carpets, washing down walls, disinfecting within an inch of my life. Sweetie is a neat freak that puts all other neat freaks to shame. To me what is clean to a clinical level is to him passable. I'm definitely the Oscar to his Felix.

So that's the skinny on life for me right now. I'll be busy as heck. I'll try to take pictures of my Hurricane Room so the before and after shots can be recorded for posterity. I'll also take more pictures of the tiling job we did, but I'm waiting for Sweetie to trim it out so I'll have a final finished look pic for you. So, ta-ta for today.

Ten Truths That Nobody Tells You About Grout.

1. When Sweetie tells you he needs your help, he doesn't take into account that you are controlling about home-improvement projects and you will finally make him move and do it yourself. His only job will be sponging up your mess.
2. Make sure to wear some sort of latex glove when using dark-colored grout, unless you want your formerly semi-feminine hands to look as if you've been working on a carburetor for the last five weeks . (This is true no matter how much you scrub your hands...finally you just give up any idea of having feminine-looking paws.)
3. Yes sanded grout looks better with natural stone, but it's a real pain in the patootie to work with.
4. There is a warning on the box of grout mix politely telling you not to inhale any of the grout dust or you could end up with lung cancer. Do these people ever work with their product? There is no non-dust producing way of dumping the mix into a bucket to mix with water. They do not include a respirator with the box. And this is sold to the public--why don't they just make the stuff out of asbestos dust and just have it done?
5. When the home-improvement people try to sell you on the sponges made specifically for tiling projects, listen to them. Otherwise, you will spend a lot of time cleaning up little tiny pieces of carwash sponge that deposit themselves on your project. The money is worth saving your time.
6. Don't start this project at 7PM on a weeknight when you have to get up for work at 4AM. If you do this you will be in trouble. No matter how easy the project looks like it is, grout is evil and it will fight you.
7. When you do not have them, those turtle-like kneepads that they sell for flooring projects sound like a gift from God about three hours into a flooring project. My knees still hurt this morning. Slate tile is not forgiving to your limbs.
8. When butting this tile up against your light-color, natural-stone fireplace, dark grout and tile is a beautiful contrast. Keep in mind though, that you will be scrubbing this grout off of the beautiful, light-color, natural-stone fireplace for three hours or more with a toothbrush to keep it from staining.
9. Keep one of those tiny little whisk brooms with a matching dustpan handy. You know, the ones that you see in the store and wonder to yourself "what would I ever use that for?", when you are working with sanded grout you suddenly know why that would be a crucial tool for the project. Especially as you attempt to sweep the grout crumbs up with your hand, you will wish for that nifty little household tool.
10. If you can afford to hire a contractor to do said project, hire one...and because you are well-off enough to do this, you also have the money to head to a spa and have a facial and massage while the project is in progress. It will be much more gratifying to come home to your finished tile project with tighter pores and loose muscles. Seriously.

Blogger makes me mad sometimes...

I should learn to write my blog, then copy and paste...for some reason, if I take any amount of time to write, it will not publish and I lose all of the work I've just done. This makes me so angry. I was actually writing a nice, upbeat post about how beautiful it was outside today, but this pain in the butt glitch has reared its ugly head yet again. Now I'm agitated. Sorry, maybe the weather will be nice tomorrow to put me back in the mood, or perhaps I will get one second to myself later to rewrite.

It's Beautiful Out There...

I really wish today were Saturday. The temperature is in the fifties and the sun is shining. Not bad for March in our little corner of Northwest Pennsyltucky. However, rather than being able to hang around outside, I'm stuck in my partial cubicle in the office at work. NOT FAIR. It is so hard sitting here, looking outside my window and wishing that I were one of the myriad of farmers that lives in my small town. Even though there is work to be done on a farm, you have the time to bask in the sweetness of nature, especially during days like today. I love, when the weather is nice, checking my trees and shrubs for signs of spring. To see how big the buds are getting, just knowing that green is not that far away.

I joke with Sweetie all of the time about winning the powerball, just so that we have the time to stop and smell the roses. Like Ferris Bueller says "Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." No truer words were ever spoken, especially on a beautiful day like today. Makes you want to play hooky.

Time Flies By

It has been a very long time since I have written about anything on this blog. Our family has been going through quite a lot. Since the last time I have written, we have lost the fourth person in our family in four years. So much death lately, I'm beginning to wonder if anything happy can happen. I'm trying very hard to get out of this funk that I am in, but am stressed beyond my capacities some days. Some days it seems very hard to get out of bed. I think perhaps it would be a good idea to put my thoughts down, but I hate dwelling on the negative all the time. It's just so hard, having lost Mom in 2007, Dad in 2008, Grandma in 2009, and now George in 2010. I know that life goes on, and that none of them would want us to just stop living and loving life, and I know that my family would want me to be enjoying the thought of Mike and I getting married next year, but it is so hard to push the thoughts of missing them and the sadness involved out of my head. I'm going to try to though. So, hopefully, I'll be back to myself soon.