Month: November 2010

Celebrity Memoir Quiz

24 Comments

I am not a huge reader of memoirs, but this year I’ve read a few that I’ve really liked, including the one I’m currently listening to.  See if you can identify the celebrities that penned these memoirs.  They are all women.  Each correct answer worth 6.25 points.  You have until Thursday night to submit your answers. I hide your answers until then.

Here are the rules… 1. Open to everyone.  Play once or every week, that’s okay.  I’m happy to have you here today.

2. No cheating.  No googling, other internet searches or looking at other commenter answers.  Yes, we’re going by the honor system

3. Your first answers will be the only ones accepted.

Last week’s quiz here.  Current leaderboard here.

*********

1. Audition: A Memoir Barbara Walters

2. Wishful Drinking  Carrie Fisher

3. Prairie Tale: A Memoir  Melissa Gilbert

4. How to…Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale  Jenna Jameson

5. Put on Your Crown: Life-Changing Moments on the Path to Queendom  Queen Latifah

6. Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain  Portia de Rossi

7. Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression  Brooke Shields

8. A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages  Kristin Chenoweth

9. Losing It and Gaining it Back One Pound at a Time  Valerie Bertanelli

10. Stori Telling  Tori Spelling

11. Everything About Me is Fake…and I’m Perfect  Janice Dickinson

12. Cancer Schmancer  Fran Drescher

13. Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles  Kathleen Turner

14. A Lotus Grows in the Mud  Goldie Hawn

15. Growing Up Laughing: My Story and the Story of Funny  Marlo Thomas

16. Between a Heart and a Rock Place  Pat Benetar

 

Monday Movie Meme- Travel

14 Comments

This week’s movie topic is all about Movies That Make You Want To Travel…
(Visit The Bumbles for more travel choices)
  
So this week it’s all about movies that make us want to travel.  I loved our trip to Italy (as I’ve mentioned a lot lately) and there are a few movies that take me back and make me want to fly back immediately.  Summertime (1955) is a great movie to see the magic of the city.  Loved it.  Casanova (2005) is a so-so movie but I loved seeing the city in its glory days.  Both Only You (1994) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) both gave screen time to the canal city.  Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) and Roman Holiday (1953) are favorites that highlight the other two places we visited.How about these pictures from our time in Venice to get you in the mood?
 
I want to visit England someday.  Maybe it’s the Jane Austen movies like Pride & Prejudice (miniseries and 2005 movie) or Mansfield Park (1999) that first piqued my interest.  And the period movies like Miss Potter (2006) and Sherlock Holmes (2009) were fun.  I also like the more standard fare like Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994),  Bridget Jones’s Diary(2001) , and Notting Hill (1999). 
 
Do you have a favorite movie that makes you want to travel?

Sundays with Gage – His First Thanksgiving

30 Comments

We took our first road trip with Gage to go home for Thanksgiving.  He is five weeks old and the trip was a little less than 2 and a half hours, so I was hopeful the trip would be fine.  I was more worried that the day would be too long and there would be too much noise and too many people for a happy baby.  Sometime in the last few weeks Gage has discovered that he has strong lungs and he likes to use them.  But no need to worry, he was a champ, even if he did sleep most of the time.  Here are a few pics from our four day trip…

It was a great weekend and since Gage slept with Grandma at night this mama got some extra sleep 🙂 

In these pics he’s with his great aunt Betty, Carolyn and cousin Lucy are feeding him, Grandpa is holding him between cousins Jenny and Billy who stopped by on their way back from the OSU-Michigan game, and great uncle Larry. 

And to prove he does open his eyes one more picture.   Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

I’m Thankful

17 Comments

Just a few things I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend…

Alone time (maybe it’s because there is so little of it these days :))

Books (seems too easy)

Catalogs/Online shopping

Driving (after a month of being housebound I have me freedom back!)

Evening walks

Friends, especially all those who have been so generous to Gage this past month

Gage!

Hair color, just got the gray out after not coloring for the pregnancy.

Ice cream sundaes were a real staple this past year.

Jason

Kisses

Letters, cards or any other personal item I take out of the mailbox.

Max

New Clevelanders (the welcome club I’ve belonged to for 8 years)

Ohio State football.  Go Bucks!  Big 10 Champs again.

Parents

Quality chocolate has been a diet staple this month.

Relatives

Scout

Take out/Drive through/Anything I don’t have to cook

Unexpected kindness

Visitors

Wine

X-Large clothing (my wardrobe must have for the past 5 months)

You.  If you’re reading this I’m thankful!

Zoup!  Gage’s first and only ‘restaurant’ so far.  Jason almost finished his soup before Gage needed to step out 😉

Wheel of Stacy Quiz

24 Comments

Did you see the Wheel of Fortune when the woman who guessed the correct phrase after knowing only one letter?  Think you could do it?  I’m listing some current bestsellers, but you’ll get to see only the letters in my name.  10 points each (5 for title, 5 for author).  Since it’s Thanksgiving week you have until Sunday night to submit your answers!   I know this is a tough one, so be the first commenter to request a letter and I’ll fill that one in for everyone too 🙂

Here are the rules… 1. Open to everyone.  Play once or every week, that’s okay.  I’m happy to have you here today.

2. No cheating.  No googling, other internet searches or looking at other commenter answers.  Yes, we’re going by the honor system

3. Your first answers will be the only ones accepted.

Last week’s Robert Downey Jr. Quiz here.  Current Leaderboard here.

1. Safe  Harbor BY   Nicholas  Sparks

2. In  the Company of  Others  BY  Jan Karon

3. The  Confession  BY   John Grisham

4. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk  BY  David Sedaris

5. American Assassin   BY  Vince  Flynn

6. Fall of  Giants  BY  Ken  Follett

7. The  Girl Who Kicked  the Hornet’s Nest   BY   Stieg  Larsson

8. Happy Ever After    BY  Nora Roberts

9. Worth Dying For   BY   Lee  Child

10. The Distant Hours   BY   Kate Morton

Monday Movie Meme – Mind Games

10 Comments

Feature Presentation…
MONDAY MOVIE MEME
This week’s movie topic is all about Mind Games…The movies love to make their characters forget. Memory loss. Hypnosis. Spells. It makes for interesting plot possibilities and entertainment for the viewers.
 
Here are the first five that come to mind…
 
1. Shattered (1991)  Tom Beringer plays a man who has amnesia after a car accident.  It’s the stuff he can’t remember that may get him killed.
 
2. Memento (2000)  Short term memory loss and a stockpile of post it notes make Guy Pearce’s character interesting.  And that fact that it is told in reverse makes it worth a second look just to figure out what happened!
 
3. Mulholland Drive (2001) Another car wreck causes amnesia and this one is a bizarre tour through Los Angeles.  Also needs a second viewing.
 
4. The Notebook (2004) A sappy love story that may cause a tear or two.
 
5. 50 First Dates (2004) Another short term memory loss sufferer is Drew Barrymore’s character.  She’s what makes it worth watching.
 
So, did I forget a good one?  (ha ha)  
Find out what movies other bloggers chose at the Bumbles. 
 
 

Sundays with Gage- The Chocolate Diet

30 Comments

I gained 45 pounds during my pregnancy and Gage was just over two weeks early so who knows how many more pounds I may have managed to pack on if we’d delivered on time?  My doctor told me to gain 25-30 pounds.  Whatever.  I knew that wasn’t going to happen and promised myself I wouldn’t obsess over it.  So I didn’t.  Here’s what I looked like a week and a half before Gage arrived.  My chin and neck had gone awol my ankles looked like thighs and I went from a size 7 shoe to an 8 1/2!  Yikes.  So when I got home from the hospital I was wondering what I would weigh.  I’d lost a lot of blood and other gunk during the c-section and Gage had been six pounds, so I was hoping for s significant loss.  I got on the scale five days after birth and…I lost six pounds.  What?!  Are you kidding me?  Needless to say I was disappointed, but I was recovering from days of being pumped full of drugs and a c-section so I had other things to worry about.  Oh yeah, and a newborn to feed, diaper, and love.

I gladly ate all of the chocolate that any friend brought me and went through more than one bag of Halloween candy bars and stepped on the scale two weeks after birth and…I’d lost 23 pounds!!  Soon after that my ankles showed themselves again and I can now fit into my pre-pregnancy shoes again.  I actually felt light enough on my feet to wear my 4 inch shoes on my date with Jason last weekend. 

I promised myself during pregnancy that I would join Weight Watchers Online come January to lose the baby weight and that’s still the plan, but until then bring on the chocolate, and mashed potatoes with gravy, and apple pie, and holiday cookies, and wine…

Remember When, by Nora Roberts/JD Robb

15 Comments

Cover ImageFinished 11-18-10, rating 3.5/5, mystery, pub. 2003

She was a businesswoman, a solid member of the community, and a fraud.  In the back room of her store, she poured two cups of coffee and knew she was about to lie to a man she considered a friend.  And deny all knowledge of one she’d loved.

Chapter 1

 This two part novel, written by romance writer Roberts and her alter ego mystery writer Robb, focuses on a New York City diamond heist.  In the first half of the book Laine has attempted to overcome her parentage by changing her name and not letting anyone in her new town of Angel’s Gap know that her father is an incarcerated thief, but her past finds her.  Laine is confronted by the murder of an old friend, her father, a killer who is stalking her, and a sexy man who may or may not be using her for his own gain.  Aside from the ridiculously fast way in which Laine fell in ‘love’ I enjoyed this first half of the story.  It was fun, suspenseful, and the characters were enjoyable.

The second half of the novel is part of the In Death Eve Dallas series and takes place over 50 years later in 2059.  I have never read this futuristic series so I was not familiar with Eve or her friends.  I thought this part of the book was okay.  I didn’t feel like I was missing anything by not having read the series, but I wasn’t that interested in it either.  We knew who the bad guy was fairly quickly and then it was just sort of biding time til the end.  If I was a fan of the series I may have enjoyed time with the characters, but as it was I didn’t care much.

The diamond heist that tied the two halves together was enough to make it interesting.  It is a fun, light read.

This is from my personal library and was chosen by Donna and Debby.

Fave Film # 34 – Only You

19 Comments

1994

Cast- Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr., Bonnie Hunt, Billy Zane, Fisher Stevens, Joaquim de Almeida

Faith believes in destiny and when the Ouija board and then a crystal ball at a carnival tell her that her soul mate is Damon Bradley she takes it to heart.  Fast forward more than a decade and Faith is about to marry a podiatrist when she takes a message for her fiance from Damon Bradley.  Convinced that it is fate she takes the next plane to Italy to find him.  Only she is always one step behind and must rely on her best friend and a new love interest to help her track down Damon.

Why I love it – It is no secret that I love Italy and have since we visited there in 2008.  The beautiful setting of Venice, Rome and coastal Italy made this movie easy on the eyes.  It also made me want to head back as soon as Gage is up to it!  The Italian landscape wasn’t the only thing easy on the eyes.  Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. as Faith and Peter were adorable and it was fun to watch them together onscreen.  And I’d love to have Tomei’s wardrobe.

This movie was pure romantic escapism.  It was about destiny and finding that one other half of yourself.  Faith’s belief was magical and innocent and it was nicely offset by Peter’s belief that they were meant to be together.  I love stories like this when they are done well and the leads perfect in their roles, like this one.

As much as this was a love story about destiny and falling in love it was also about the hard work and reality of marriage.  Faith’s best friend and sister-in-law Kate, played perfectly by Bonnie Hunt, went to Italy with Faith thinking that her marriage was over because her husband was cheating on her.  She was ready for a sexy Italian diversion and she got one in the suave Giovanni.  These two couples traipsing around Italy searching for the illusive Damon Bradley were fun to watch and easy to like.

It’s a great romantic comedy.  Here’s the trailer if you still aren’t convinced.  Here are my 0ther 99 favorite movies.

Robert Downey Jr. Was In That? Quiz

34 Comments

Jason and I had our first date night as parents on Saturday night and we went and saw Due Date.  Jason liked it more that I did, but it had its moments.  I am always charmed by Downey and I’ve listed his characters in the order that I like his movies best with a hint (these are only the movies I’ve seen).  Can you identify the movie?  Leave a comment telling me the # and the name of the movie.  No Googling or looking at other commenter’s answers – that’s cheating and no fun!  Play once or every week.  It only takes one correct answer to be eligible for a prize.  You have until Thursday night to submit your answers.

 Each answer worth 5.5 points, with 6.5 points for the bonus question.

Last week’s Thankful Quiz here.  Current Leaderboard here.

1. Kirk Lazarus (2008) also starred Ben Stiller Tropic Thunder

2. Peter Wright (1994) also starred Marisa Tomei  Only You

3. Ian (1985) also starred Anthony Michael Hall  Weird Science

4. Terry Crabtree (2000) also starred Michael Douglas  Wonder Boys

5. Tony Stark (2008, 2010) also starred Gwyneth Paltrow  Iron Man 1 & 2

6. Sherlock Holmes (2009) no more help on this one!  Sherlock Holmes

7. Steve Lopez (2009) also starred Jamie Foxx  The Soloist

8. Paul Avery (2007) also starred Jake Gyllenhaal  Zodiac

9. Peter Highman (2010) also starred Zach Galifianakis  Due Date

10. Joe Wershba (2005) also starred George Clooney  Good Night & Good Luck

11. Wayne Gale (1994) also starred Woody Harrelson  Natural Born Killers

12. Special Agent John Royce (1998) also starred Tommy Lee Jones  US Marshals

13. David Seton Barnes (1991) also starred Sally Field  Soapdish

14. Jack Jericho (1987) also starred Molly Ringwald  The Pick-Up Artist

15. Derek Lutz (1986) also starred Rodney Dangerfield  Back to School

16. Billy Covington (1990) also starred Mel Gibson  Air America

17. Leo Wiggins (1988) also starred Anthony Michael Hall  Johnny Be Good

BONUS QUESTION For what television series did Robert win a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor?  Ally McBeal