Jen FitzGerald's Blog, page 117

Monday Storm Edition

Last Thursday afternoon, a wild thunderstorm pin-balled its way across the Metroplex. DD works in the northwest quadrant of Fort Worth and we live on the far east side. Her work got nothing. We lost two large branches out of the dead tree and the whole neighborhood was littered with tree debris from the wind and hail and sideways rain. Limbs and trees were downed as well. Now, just a few miles northish--in the business park where our office is--nothing. There was rain and some wind, but the streets were free of the tree debris...

We lost power for a few hours, but it was back on before bed time. The Internet, however, has been stroppy all weekend.

Sonshine and I spent some time this weekend cleaning up the front yard.

Hope you had a lovely weekend without too much clean-up to do.

Spring Cleaning...

I'm a little behind schedule, but with Sonshine heading off to basic training next week, it seemed a good time to do some household clean-up.

We finally got through the bulk of Sonshine's stuff from his room, getting everything he wants to keep into boxes. His room will become DH's home office so that he can work more easily from home in the evenings and on the weekends.

But along with Sonshine's room, I've been tackling a junk drawer here and a box in the garage there. We have a lot of stuff, and it's as good a time as any to weed through it all and get rid of the stuff we never use.

How about you?? Are you a pack rat or do you maintain sleek storage areas in your house??

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Have a great Wednesday! It's all downhill from here.

Spectcular Movie Monday

Movie Monday's are supposed to be for films I've never seen before, but this is a special exception.

Yesterday, I saw Gone With the Wind on the big screen!

(The original pre-release poster. Used via the Wiki-commons license.)
In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the movie's original preview on September 9, 1939 in Riverside, California by the producer, David Selznick, his wife, an investor, and the film editor Hal Kern the movie is being shown in select theaters across the nation this week. The movie officially premiered in Atlanta at Loew's Grand Theater on December 15th of the same year.

Now, I've read the book and seen the movie (on a TV screen) at least a half dozen times each, and the opportunity to see it in a movie theater on a huge screen in wonderful re-mastered color was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I gratefully tagged along with a friend and her  family (thanks, Lara) rather than view it alone, though I would have and enjoyed the whole thing tremendously anyway.

What about you? Have you read the book or seen the film? Do you agree it's a classic film?

Don't Rain on My Parade, Glee style

One of my secret pleasures is the TV show Glee. Lea Michelle, who plays the female lead (Rachel Berry), has a phenomenal voice. She has given me chills with her renditions of certain songs.

Part of the character's back story is that she loves Barbara Streisand and wanted to reprise Funny Girl on Broadway--which she eventually does. Early on in the show, she sang Ms. Streisand's acclaimed Don't Rain on My Parade, which has for some reason become a must listen daily for me. I'm not sure why...

Anyway, I'm gonna share it with you today and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.


And have a great fall weekend, too!

Mum's the word...

It's fall! I love fall--the colors and the smells and the (eventual) dropping of the temperatures.

For three weeks, these mums teased and tantalized me at the grocery store. This past Sunday, I finally broke down and splurged all of $4 on them. That $4 was well spent on something that has and will bring me great pleasure.



But now I have several pots of flowers that need planting--which will require some energy to turn up the soil and plant. I also have to find a spot safe from the dog, who has already trampled one flower bed.

Happy fall, dear friends and readers.

Gifts from the Middle East

My sister- and brother-in-law live and work in the Middle East right now. They're home on leave for a short time and brought me these fun gifts...


 ...a magnetic post-it note and a camel-themed ornament...

Both are perfect.

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

TGIF

And tomorrow is writers group meeting! I get to hang out with my writer peeps.

Can't wait.





Have a great weekend.

Squirrelock Holmes...

A mash-up of sorts of two of my favorite things...


Happy Wednesday!

Outlander... Have you joined the craze?

The NYT best selling book Outlander (and sequels) by Diana Gabaldon has been turned into a TV series on Starz.

This past Friday, I was invited to a friend's house to watch the show. Now, I've never read the books, so I went in with no expectations on story line or characters. We only got through the first three episodes, but it's very interesting and I hope to see the rest at some point.

My friend also graciously allowed me to borrow her hard copy, so I'll be diving into that soon...


Have you read the book? Have you seen the series? What do you think?