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Christmas Eve Updating


Since I have a rant – just a tiny one – for Friday*, I will update today.

I have nothing to update. Seriously, Christmas preparations and a child off school has brought the writing to a crawl. I will meet my goal of finishing by year end at the latest, but I am not making stupendous progress on a daily basis right now. I am okay with that. Rob pointed out to me the other day the need to build a bit of sanity and rest into my writing schedule. All work and no play is very bad. I agree. It will be finished by January. I haven’t any doubts.

One thing I did do was contact the Writer in Residence at the U of A to find out about meeting with her a time or two in March to get a bit of feedback. She let me know what she would need (16 pages for the first meeting) and will be happy to meet with me, just let her know when. Very cool.

Otherwise, I have been baking and cleaning and worrying about the dollhouse Rob is making because it isn’t done yet and we really haven’t much else by way of Santa gifts for BabyD. The trouble is that it (the house) has gotten a tiny bit out of proportion to the reality of our little girl’s size and expectations.

I thought, when I brought the idea up, it would be a box with two floors, a door, a couple of window and a roof.

It’s wider than BabyD is tall and nearly as tall is she is at the apex. Yes, the roof reaches an apex where the dormer attic is. And you read that correctly, it has an attic room which technically puts this “house” at three floors. It’s a mansion. Not only does it have three floors, but there is a hallway on the second floor, with two spacious bedrooms off it, there is a large living room/dining area and a kitchen with pull out appliance counters lining opposite walls. Each room will be painted a different color. The floors have been stained to look like real hardwood and  he sided it. Yep, it has siding with a realistically shingled roof. He painted it blue and the window trim is pink.

Oh yeah, the windows are trimmed. This is my husband we are talking about. He didn’t realize it until the stunned woman who checked out his purchases at the wood crafting store today met his description of this dollhouse with a dropped jaw and a comment that he was building an heirloom and not just a toy for his daughter. Sometimes I don’t think he has any idea of how incredible his visions of what things should be like really are.

And me? Oh, I was supposed to make a couple of foam beds. Cover them with fabric. And no, they are not done. I am a tiny vision person who hasn’t used a sewing machine since 4-H. I am thinking that making beds – and maybe a sofa – would be a wonderful “keep the child busy” project next week, when she is really driving me crazy.

Today then is ice-skating, because the child-minding at the gym is closed and I need exercise, followed by a trip to the pharmacy for allergy stuff and to the library to pick up dvd’s.  Somewhere in there I need to run by the liquor store for wine. What goes well with turkey? Please tell me “white” because I am not fond at all of red wine.

While BabyD and I pass the time before the feast prep begins, Rob will be working on the dollhouse. Fingers crossed people. Fingers crossed.

*Friday at midnight I close the entries for Matrimony. Follow the link and enter to win!

Daniel Day Lewis Won an Oscar for This?


Saturday night last I encouraged my husband to choose the movie we would watch. We have a stack because the bookmobile doesn’t run during the Christmas break and we wanted to be prepared. We don’t watch television, but we are movie addicts.

Rob’s choice was There Will Be Blood. Critically acclaimed. Won a couple of Oscars. Historical, and we love historical.

But three hours later, not only have we not watched anything other than a lot of disconnected scenes- but thankfully sequential in a chronological way -that didn’t really tell a story, I learned almost nothing about the early wildcatting days in the U.S.

A terrible movie is bad enough, but when I watch period piece and learn nothing about the time period – my time has been more than wasted.

“I rubbed you nearly the whole movie,” Rob pointed out when I complained.

Well this was true. One of the best things about movie night in bed (as opposed to on the sofa where I assure you I wouldn’t have sat for 3 hours watching Mr. Lewis “dazzle” me with yet another character study disguised as a movie) is that I get my back and bum rubbed. A woman can endure much for a good rubbing down.

Rob was disappointed by the lack of story too but his Virgo nature just won’t let him quit.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were bored?”

“Because it’s better to just watch the whole dull mess than to watch you silently fret about not having finished watching an awful movie. You still aren’t over the fact that we didn’t finish Grosse Pointe Blank even though you have seen it before.”

“I was okay with not finishing The Other Boelyn Girl,” he countered. Another film that was an affront to the history teacher in me.

“That’s only because it was chick flickish.”

I could have headed the whole thing off before we’d even checked the movie out because I’d read a review by a book publisher whose blog I follow which summed it up neatly. No plot. But Rob had been wanting to see it for a while and I can’t feed him a steady diet of romantic comedies and widow movies. He needs the occasional man movie and well, Iron Man has a waiting list that stretches into the summer.

“I think I should pick the movies from now on,” I said.

“Did I ever tell you the story of the time I went to the video store to pick our films by myself?”

“You were never allowed to do that again, were you?”

He laughed because I know him too well.

“Nope, I came home with Judge Dredd and Species.”

In case you haven’t seen There Will Be Blood, it’s about an oilman in the early part of the 20th century in California. The story, such as it is, is episodically told and there is so little dialog I felt as though I was watching a silent film at times (probably I was supposed to – you know – because it was “art”). But the characters are an unlikable lot and Lewis “emotes” a lot. 

I know that film is also about the look. It’s a moving painting in a way. But without good story-telling, it might as well simply hang on a wall. Good films blend the visual with plot. This film was not that good.

 

Don’t forget to enter the book giveaway!

Book Giveaway! Matrimony by Joshua Henkin


I interrupt the regular Monday Meme to give my dear readers a chance to win a belated Christmas prezzie.

Next month I will be reviewing the novel, Matrimony by Joshua Henkin. He contacted me a couple of weeks ago wondering if I would be interested in giving away an autographed copy of his book to one of my readers. Since I have never given any of you anything (except fits perhaps), I wondered how you would react, my dear readers. But I know that for myself, anytime someone offers me a free book, I am snoopy-dance happy. Books are a way awesome thing to find in your mailbox.

So, the novel is about a marriage as it evolves over time and the reviews I’ve read are quite good.  It was a New York Times Notable so I am looking forward to reading it myself.

The contest* is a random drawing and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment and share your ideas of what marriage means -from personal experience or just wishful thinking. The deadline for entering is midnight (MST) this Friday, December 26th. The winner will be announced on Monday, December 29th. And there are no geographical restrictions. Josh will send this book to the winner wherever they may be.

*I am not kidding people. I really have a book to give away. Enter and possibly win.