Two Older Austen Movies

I have not commented on the last two Jane Austen adaptations, so I thought I would remedy that before tomorrow when the new Sense and Sensibility will start.

First was Pride and Prejudice (1995) with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. This is, in my opinion, the best film adaptation of an Austen novel I have ever seen. It follows more closely than any other P&P and if you want to watch it make sure you are prepared! This TV movie takes a whopping 5 hours (or 300 minutes). It is still amazing to me that in 1995 they went to such an extent, but with the new ones we got such short times (Mansfield Park: 88 minutes, Northanger Abbey: 93 minutes). Though I must say that I am not the biggest fan of Colin, he is very good in this movie. When I imagine Mr. Darcy I see Ioan Gruffudd...:big sigh:...anyway

Emma is good as well. The 1996 TV version with Kate Beckinsale and the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow version are both good and I am not sure at 107 and 121 minutes respectively either can be extremely close to the novel, but I like them. I like that the characters are not cut out or given characteristics that Jane herself did not apply to them. As to which one is closer to the novel itself, I believe I will try to find that out and then I will get back to you.

Butch's Funnies

My second son is normally the funnier of the two guys and he was showing us why again tonight. We were in the van on the way to church when Butch started talking about one time he was "taking care" of Otter. "I was lullabying her to calm her down. I was singing Rocky Top to her."

Pirate Day

Ahoy! thar. This be one o' t' funniest pictures we have o' Otter. She has evidentially been over at Steeple again! I be needin' to put t' wee mate lock on t' keyboard again. Aaarrrrggg!

Kids Say The Funniest Things

Tonight we were talking with the in-laws about the ten commandments and how some people separate the commandments differently. Joe said that he lived by two commandments. Before he could answer what they were Butch said that they were sleeping and eating. How well that little guy knows his Dad!

Reading Level

I got this link from Joe as he posted his own site's reading level. I thought it would be interesting to see how I rank. I was sure that I would be under Joe's level, but I checked it out and...

(My crochet blog lists me as a genius!)

Would You Do This?

I was listening to our local newscast when they showed a story about a teenager in Florida that was being punished by holding a sign. What did he do, you may ask? He was stopped by police for driving 107 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. So for punishment his mother is having him stand outside his school every morning and afternoon to hold up a sign stating, "I was STUPID. I drove over 100 mph and got caught. Thank God! I could have killed me and my friends." If you want to read more here is a link for the story. There is also a video of the local report on the web page. Teenager Shamed Into Slowing Down

Books Galore

It is time for the book lovers to come out and shop! I have learned to love book sales over the past several years after venturing into a local library's book sale. It became a bad habit seeing that we now have so many books that we could line our house in bookcases and have enough books to fill them all! Maybe I exaggerate...but not by much. Well, here is an event for anyone else afflicted with this same problem.

The Friends of the Library in Knox County is having their annual book sale next week. Sunday is a members only sale, then they sale to the public Monday thru Saturday. The event will be held in the Old Convention Center in Downtown Knoxville. Mon-Thurs 11a-7p and Sat 9a-3p. Don't tell Joe, but I will see you there!

Snow Day!

Beautiful blanket of snow

Boy, this tastes good!

I wanna play, too!

Knitters Unite!

I have tried to learn to knit one time. It seems harder for me to pick it up than when I learned to crochet. I am not sure if I just have not spent enough time on my skills or what. Well, Joe showed me a website that puts my skills to shame. If they can do this why can I not knit?
Knitting XXXL

Dogwood Arts House & Garden Show

This weekend is also the Dogwood Arts Festival's House and Garden Show. Today thru Sunday the event will be held at the Knoxville Convention Center from 10am- 8pm on Friday and Saturday, and 11am- 5pm on Sunday. This event has about 200 exhibitors scheduled and it is sometimes just amazing what displays are setup at this show. I have not been since it has been held at the new convention center, but I am sure it is easily able to surpass the past years events. I would love to go and see everything especially the gardening exhibits as I look forward to creating my garden in our backyard.

Sing-A-Long Theatrestyle

I just learned that on Sunday the Tennessee Theatre in Downtown Knoxville will have a Mary Poppins Sing-Along showing (calendar). So not only do you get to sing along to Mary Poppins, but you also get to enjoy the wonderful, beautifully restored Tennessee Theatre. So if you want something to do on Sunday afternoon this sounds like fun to me!

As a sidenote: Events and Tourism is a new label on my blog that I hope will be of interest to anyone either locally or visiting our neck of the woods. I thought it would be nice to show off some of the great things happening here in Knoxville and the surrounding areas.

Another Thing Passed Through Families

Please excuse my short post, but Bubba decided to get sick towards the end of last week. So as he was unhappy being sick by himself he passed it on to me and Otter. Although they were rid of their fevers all day yesterday, I am not quite so lucky. It would probably help if I would rest, but how can a mom do that when taking care of a family (two sick as well)? Perhaps tomorrow will bring me back into better health since they are better now.

Amazing Fonts

I saw someone post a link for a site that will take your font and make it a code so that you can post in cool colors.

Is this cool or what?

So to see more go to:

www.tektek.org/color/

Life Imitating Art

Claude Monet's
Le Jardin de Monet, les iris (The Artist's garden, Irises)



Le front yard de Heather
(my front yard!)

I know that mine are crocus and his are irises, but this is what my yard reminds me of as I drive up each day. These are beautiful little welcomes when you come over to my house.

What Creature Is This?

From our recent zoo trip...


Otter in the water


Otter in a tiger suit

Wild Crocus

Indianapolis

For a couple of days I was in Indianapolis, Indiana while accompanying Joe on a business trip. I went online and looked up several things for my "go see it" list. Unfortunately for me I saw hardly anything while there. I woke the first morning to thick fog, which lasted most of the day. I did get to drive close enough to see the RCA Dome and find a Chick-fil-A to eat lunch at. The second day (and might I add last day) I had to pack up everything and check out of our hotel before noon. I did that then went to the shopping center, that I was less than 1/4 of a mile from when I ate my lunch the day before but could not see through the fog, to await Joe as he finished his last day. Of course my shopping trip was also to keep out of the pouring rain outside. A little localized flooding, you will understand, kept me from venturing downtown.

We headed closer to home after Joe's work was finished and ended up staying in Lexington, KY. I admit that waking up during the wee hours of the morning to strong winds and reports of tornadoes close by was not my idea of fun. I did eventually get to sleep again. When I called my Dad after we returned, he was very glad to hear from me since he knew we were staying in Lexington and heard about the weather there.

This was a trip that was unique in its own little way. Otter and I were glad to have the time with Joe, though. It was nice to keep him company in the evenings and on the drive.

Happy New Year

The Chinese new year is today. This is the year of the RAT! Our scouts will celebrate on the 29th with our Blue and Gold Banquet.

Mansfield Park

Yet another disappointing showing from the newest Jane Austen releases. These really need some better casting, more time and perhaps some better hair styling. I am far from being impressed.

This moves so quickly that I am not sure that you can tell what the relationships are truly suppose to be. There was nothing showing Fanny's friendship with Miss Crawford, her close relationship with her cousin, Edmund, it seems like all the relationships are almost nonexistant since you see so little of the events.

This has always been a little more risque due to the subjects that Ms. Austen writes about (ie. adultery). Luckily they did not show any inappropriate scenes to show this as the last film adaptation did.

Northanger Abbey

I must admit that though this is my least favorite among Jane Austen's novels this film adaptation was not bad. This movie though is one that I do not feel comfortable letting my children watch. One character uses foul language and there is some inappropriate sensual material. It has made me want to read the book to see if it is close to the movie (also to see if some of the inappropriate things are in the novel). At least there is no psychedelic aspects to this version!