Author: stacybuckeye

A Cold with Gage

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This was supposed to be a post about My Gym closing this week.  The My Gym that Gage went to 3 times a week and where we both made friends.  I’m going to need find a new morning activity for us.  Yesterday Jason was going to go and take pictures, but on Saturday morning at 2:30 am when I went to check on Gage, I found a sick boy.

We have hacking coughs, a runny nose, runny eyes, diarrhea and a fever.  All in time for Jason’s dad to visit from Michigan and for his last class at My Gym (Where I’m sure he got the cold in the first place.  Maybe I should have continued the circle and taken him anyway !)

He acted fairly well for as sick as he was and I thought for sure he’d sleep well last night.  Little ones really don’t care what their parents think.  Gage ended up in bed with us at 12:30 and was up because he couldn’t breathe through his nose/coughing at 2:30 am.  Again.  So, Jason and I took shifts until I finally got him to sleep from 8 til 9:30 in the guest bed with me (I didn’t want to interrupt Jason’s few hours of sleep).

Somehow Gage operates better with little sleep than his parents.  This is Gage’s first real cold and I am not a fan.

Fave Film #67 – Speed

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Speed1994

Cast-Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper, Jeff Daniels.

LA SWAT officers, Jack and Harry are called to a downtown highrise when a bomber calls in a ransom demand, holding an elevator full of hostages.  When they are able to thwart him, the bomber disappears, presumed dead.  It’s hard to keep a good villain dead in an action movie and the bomber shows up again, only this time he’s holding a bus hostage and Jack is the only one who can save them.  Well, and Annie, as long as she keeps the bus going over 50 miles per hour.

Why I love it – I’ll start with two of the leads, both of which I love.  Keanu has never been better as the tough and buff hero.  If I were in a hostage situation I’d love Jack/Keanu to save me.  And then kiss me at the end like he did Annie/Sandy.  And Sandra was perfection in the role of Annie.  She drove that bus over that large gap in the overpass like a professional bus racer.  She was rattled but never lost her sparkle.  They both had excellent chemistry.  Dennis Hopper was a great villain with just enough angst and crazy to make it work.  Jeff Daniels was perfect as the long suffering partner trying to impart his years of wisdom to the instinctual driven Jack.  Their friendship was a real bright spot for me.

In many action movies like this there are parts (usually extended car chases or fist fights) that leave me bored and my mind wandering, but this movie never had a dull moment.  From the excitement of the elevator dropping in the first scene to the careening subway at the end this was non-stop excitement.   Perfectly paced and just enough special effects to make it fun.

Yes, as with most thrillers like this, you have to leave your common sense at the play button, but if you do you’re in for a treat.

Check out the rest of my 100 favorite movies

Ohiana Book Festival and book blogger meet-up

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Last Saturday my mom and I attended the Ohioana Book Festival in Columbus and we can thank Carol for the wonderful day since it was her post that intrigued me.  We had a fun time going to a few of the panels, visiting the author tables, and meeting Carol and her husband and daughter.  I didn’t even recognize her (she doesn’t post enough pics of herself on her blog) but I knew who Amber was right away.  We only visited for a few minutes, but hopefully next year we can work in some more time.  She was lovely.

The panels

Columbus at 200 with Raimund Goerler, David Meyers, Arnett Howard, Nellie Kampmann

  • I grew up about 40 minutes east of Columbus and graduated from Ohio State so I was interested to see what kind of things they would share.  Goerler wrote a book about the history of Ohio State that I’m pretty sure I’ll be unwrapping for my birthday in October.
  • Kampmann talked about the haunted places around town and her experiences with ghosts.  Although I have no intention of reading her book I was most fascinated by her stories.

Fiction:Mystery series with Les Roberts, Casey Daniels, Carrie Bebris

  • This is my fourth time listening to Les Roberts speak and it never gets old.
  • I was surprised to learn that Daniels has a mystery series set in Lakeview Cemetery, one of my favorite Cleveland places.  I am very excited to start this series.
  • Bebris writes a series of books that blend Austen novels “in which the married Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice become entangled in intrigue with other Austen characters.” I picked up the first one!

Novel Ideas:Creating Fiction with Karen Harper and Robin Yocum

  • This one was fun because you had an author with 20 books and a brand new novelist sharing the way they approach writing.  I also thought it was interesting to hear Karen talk about the difference in British marketing and why some of her books are bestsellers over there and not here. (Hint:they add Queen to the title over there)

I only came home with three books, but I am going to make it a goal to read all three plus a few other Ohio authors for the next month or so.  I hope you’ll enjoy my Ohio author reading tour!

Mom Quiz

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I know I should have been together enough to get this up last week, but that didn’t happen so here it is a little late. These are noteworthy mothers, good and bad.  I’ll take the name of the mom or the book/movie.

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling!

This round will last til August.  The person with the most points will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

Have fun and Good Luck!  Last week’s Boggle Quiz here.  Leaderboard and rules here.

1. It couldn’t have been easy raising seven red-headed kids with little money and it got a whole lot tougher when you take in a son’s BFF, one with a shocking tattoo no less, and love him like your own.

2. The prairie was a wonderful place to raise four children, especially one precocious pig-tailed girl who went on to write about her childhood.

3.

4. This was one tough chick.  She had to fight to stay alive so that one day in the future her son could save mankind.  Good thing she was so buff.

5. This mother had to wear her shame for life after bearing an illegitimate daughter.

6. Having to choose which child will live and which will die is enough to drive this mother into a dangerous depression.

7.

8.

9. The original mom who was a temptress with an apple.

10. This saintly mother of four daughters endures hardship and still inspires.

Mother’s Day with Gage

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The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.  ~Rajneesh

The only mothers it is safe to forget on Mother’s Day are the good ones.  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had, and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed.  ~Linda Wooten

Happy Mother’s day to all.

Guess where I am today?

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When I saw Carol’s post about Ohiana Book Festival I thought it looked like a lot of fun and then I saw it was the day before Mother’s Day and thought it would be a great Mother/Daughter day.  I know my mom will miss spending the day with Gage, but I’m looking forward to a day full of girl time and books.  There will be around 100 authors and 25 different panel discussions.

Carol (Carol’s Notebook) and I are planning  to meet up at some point and I hope that happens!

The Actor and the Housewife, by Shannon Hale

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The Actor and the HousewifeThe Actor and the Housewife, Finished 5-9-12, rating 3.75/5, 339 pages, pub. 2009

Becky is a happily married mother of four who flies from her home in Utah to Los Angles to sell her screenplay.  That fact alone is very fortuitous, so imagine her feeling of good luck that she should meet her celebrity crush while there.  Felix Callahan, he of the romantic comedy that Becky watches over and over.  Sparkly conversation ensues and the two find themselves drawn to each other, even though both are happily married.  They each recognize an understanding in the other and suddenly it doesn’t seem all that strange that a stay-at-home mom and an A-list actor are the best of friends.

Their story encompassed almost a dozen years as their relationship goes through highs and lows, working together for months at a time to long absences where they are not speaking.  The book aims to cover the oft asked question of whether men and women can just be friends.  Becky’s initial waffling on the issue went on too long for me.  As much as I loved the dialogue between Becky and Felix, the actual story and the going back and forth started to bore me.  I loved the friendship itself and when Becky was on the page with Felix it was fun.  The rest of the time seemed to be almost filler.  As much as I liked her family, not one person was as interesting as Felix so they sort of blended into the landscape of the story.

This is ultimately Becky’s story and I had mixed reactions to her.  I liked her quick wit and committment to family.  She did not take her friendship with Felix lightly and with a heavy heart walked away from it when her saintly husband had a problem.  I guess my problem with Becky is that I just didn’t believe her.

The story was pure fantasy, except for the chapter that made me cry-that was just wrong.  If you look at it like a fantasy you might not be bothered by the improbability of it all.  Oh, I did like the Mormon aspects to the story.  I thought it was well done and wish more stories could incorporate religion this well without becoming a religious story.  It was refreshing.

I feel like I’m vacillating as much as Becky!  I liked it, but was put off by the back and forth and the complete ridiculousness of some of the plot.  This book from from my own shelves.

So, fess up.  Who is YOUR celebrity crush? Over the years mine have ranged from Joe Montana to Johnny Depp.

Big Boggle Quiz

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Here’s how to play…Words are formed from adjoining letters.  (You may not skip over letters) Letters must be in the proper sequence to spell a word.  They may join horizontally, vertically, or diagonally to the left, right or up-and-down.  No letter cube may be used more than once in a single word.

No proper nouns, abbreviations, contradictions, hyphenated or foreign words.

Scoring-Make up to 20 words with at least 3 letters.  If someone else makes the same word you will still get one point.  If you are the only one to find a word you will score how many letters are in that word (3 letters=3 pts, 4 letters=4 pts, etc)

Bonus-There is an author’s name (first and last name connected).  Find it for 2o points.

I love Boggle and have already made my list of 20 words.  The more people who play the more fun it is.  Spread the word :)

See how that last round played out here.  Current leaderboard here.  Last week’s Frenchy quiz here.

Tantrums with Gage

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I like to keep Sundays with Gage on the light side, at least for Gage, but we have reached the all important milestone of tantrums.  Did I say no?  Tantrum.  Do we have to leave the swings after 40 minutes? Big-time tantrum.  My favorite is the I’m going to hang out between your legs until you pick me up move that he’s perfecting.  Picking him up usually does the trick.  Unless it’s the swings, there’s nothing to be done for that.

Gage was having a grumpy morning so we took him out to the park and then outlet mall where they have lots of ducks and kiddy rides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This seemed like a great idea until after each thing was done.  It was like we flipped a switch and ended up with this…

I thought it was a bit early for tantrums, but from looking around at other mom sites I see that I am not alone in this 18 month old clingy/tantrum period.  That helps, but seeing that it might last for awhile has me calling in reinforcements.

I’m asking all you moms or kid lovers out there for some good tantrum advice.  What worked for you?