My First Blog Award

Melissa over at Hope for the Hopeless, was so kind and gave me a blog award. I'm so excited, its the first award I've gotten and the best one ever.

How did she know that tomorrow is my birthday? and that I will be wearing a tiara? My mom gave me one when I turned 21 and now its a tradition. Its also the only day I feel like I can get away with wearing one now that I am an adult, who is about to be a quarter of a century.

You get to make up your own rules for passing it on, since you're the one in the tiara.

I'm going to pass this award out to 3 fellow bloggers.

• Jenster at Jenster's Musings
  She's a cool Christian Lady and a cancer survivor, which makes her tiara worthy.
  
• Nici at Mrz Dinkela's Inner Thoughts
  She's new to blogging and I hope she keeps it up. Also, she loves tiara's almost as much as I do. Almost.
• Becky at Stuck in Frump, Striving for Fab
  She always makes me laugh and hopefully this tiara will help her in her quest for fabulous-ness.
  

My Family Calendar

So last weekend I mentioned I was going to visit some family. Each year in the Spring we get together to celebrate the Holidays. Until this year it was just the girls in the family, but since I got married and my aunt had a baby boy, we decided to include everyone.
We made good time on our trip and my husband and I decided to make a visit to Hollywood Blvd. Its a neat movie theater that has a restaurant you sit in comfy chairs with a small table in front of you. They deliver your food while you are watching the movie. It was good food. The theater itself is decorated with old movie posters and random movie pictures. Some of the decorations make me wonder if they also purchased some of their decorations from a Chinese restaurant that was going out of business. Its the only place I know where you can go and see a picture of Marilyn Monroe, next to a large oriental-style cement horse.

After our little side trip we made the trip to my Aunt's house for Christmas. The tree was gone, but we all had presents. We exchanged our gifts, wrapped in Christmas paper. I gave my sisters and cousin glow sticks, which meant they spend the rest of the evening hiding out in closets and dark bathrooms (so they could see their reflection in the mirror). Following tradition, each of us girls got something matching. This year its short sleeved zippered hoodies. We looked so cute in our matching shirts.

After a late night we headed back to my other Aunt's house, where we were staying. We spent the night in the Slither guest room. (Yes, they have a small snake, and no, I didn't freak out.)

Sunday Morning it was Easter! We headed back to my Aunt's house for Easter Brunch. She made an egg bake that was delicious. Even though it was cold we held an Easter Egg hunt. Us grown-ups had lots of fun hiding the eggs and laughing when the kids couldn't find them. Eventually we used the hot / cold method to ensure all the eggs were found. Well, all but one. Someone where in the yard there is still a naturally green hard boiled egg.

Because many of us have birthdays in the spring, it was necessary to add another celebration to our weekend extravaganza. Everyone who had a birthday in the surrounding couple months got a cupcake with a candle. Yum yum.

Our yearly Christmas/Easter/Birthday Celebration is the best!

Vacation

I'm going on vacation to the greater Chicagoland area Saturday 3/29 and Sunday. Its our yearly family reunion. We're celebrating Christmas in March, cause thats how we roll.

As a side trip the husband and I are going to see Vantage Point at the Hollywood theater at 4pm. Just in case there are any blog stalkers in the area.

Jericho on CBS

My favorite show is Jericho, on CBS. If you remember last year it was canceled after one season, because according to CBS the ratings were not high enough. Fans of the show, worked very hard to bring it back. They sent mountains of nuts to CBS urging them to reconsider. They did and gave us 7 more episodes for a season 2. They brought it back on Tuesday Nights at 9pm central time.

Unfortunately the "Nielsen ratings" weren't good enough for CBS. We all know that Nielson ratings are the ultimate authority. Never mind that
"'Jericho' is unique because the fans saved it -- watching it on the Internet and streaming and iTunes downloads, all those things that are not being counted," said executive producer Carol Barbee in a recent interview.
Thats a stupid move on CBS' part to ignore that. I bought Season 1, I'll buy Season 2, I'd even buy Season 6 (if they'd have let the show go that long). I watch it online. I watched all of Season 1 online, and rewatched some of Season 2 online. I've blogged about how much I like this show, because it makes you think.

People don't play "what if" often enough. Most tv shows are purely 42 minutes of entertainment. Jericho is different. When its over you wonder, what if something happened to the United States? Could I survive? Maybe I should keep more canned food in the house. Maybe I should learn more about wilderness survival. Season 1 made you think about how to become a smarter person, a more prepared person.

Season 2 makes you ask questions. This new government is in place, but who gave them their authority? Its no longer the United States, its now the Allied States. Small name change, but change in meaning, in leadership, in authority. Not many in the town are questioning the new authority. They blindly follow. A few people are different. They ask questions like "who gave these people the authority to govern? Are they even good people?"

CBS brought Jericho back for seven episodes. I have enjoyed each one of them. I am somewhat disappointed in the time slot. They put a show on at 9pm, which I assume is 10 pm eastern. That's bed time for a lot of people and I wonder why the ratings aren't as high as CBS may wish. Why don't they count online viewings and fan support? Have they already forgotten about the nuts? Have they ignored the e-mails sent by me? Even my Mother, who is not very web savvy, took the time and effort to figure out how to send an e-mail to CBS about how much she enjoys Jericho. Is my purchasing power not as great? I guess my fan support of the show doesn't count, because I watched the show online for season one. We all know what little influence the internet has. People who watch stuff online really aren't important. They don't buy things online, they don't have opinions or ways to express them. Its such a shame that my voice doesn't count. I guess it won't matter to CBS that I no longer want to watch shows on their network. I did like Survivor, I've seen almost every episode, but that is 43 minutes of entertainment. I can spend those 43 minutes doing something else. Maybe I'll go surf the web.

The Longest Book Title aka On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness

Last week I talked a little bit about Andrew Peterson's new book On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. I'll start by saying it has a blue cover with gold lettering on the front. Below the title is an oval which gives you a small glimpse of a sea dragon... just kidding. Well not about the book's physical description, but I'll give you a picture to tell you what it looks like on the outside.

Now to tell you about what really matters, whats on the inside. The first few pages give you a "Brief Introduction to the World of Aerwiar", followed by a "Slightly Less Brief Introduction to the Land of Skee". Finally he has an "Introduction to the Igby Cottage (Very Brief)". Already you can get a taste of Andy's sense of humor. (and yes I call him Andy or AP for short)

When the story begins we meet a small family called the Igbys. You have an ex-pirate grandfather, Podo, who battles creatures invading his small garden, and plays jokes on his rival. You have a mother, Nia, who works hard to take care of her children- Janner, Tink, and Leeli. Leeli is the youngest and a great musician (song). She walks with a crutch and has an adorable dog named Nugget, he's as loyal as they come. Tink, is an artist (form) with a very curious stubborn streak. Janner is the oldest, who excels at writing(word). 1 He helps take care of his younger siblings and tries hard to keep them out of trouble, though it doesn't seem to work.

We find them living an an oppressed town run by Fangs.2 Everyone in the town is fearful of the fangs, which is smart. The fangs are ruthless and mean, no weapons are allowed Podo must even fill out all kinds of forms, just to get a hoe to work in the garden. 3 Glipwood is a very sad place that has very little joy, because the King and been defeated and the land is run by Gnag the Nameless.

On the day of the Dragon festival, Nugget tried to bite a fang. Leeli fights for her little dog, along with her brothers. This starts a major conflict between the Fangs of Dang and the Igby family. Their somewhat happy life in the cottage has been ruined. Fortunately, they have people on their side to protect them. The fangs believe that the Igby family has some knowledge about the Jewels of Anniera (and maybe they do)4, but this family won't give it up, until the time is right.

I loved this book. The characters are amusing, the land is delightful. You have creatures like "toothy cows" and "sea dragons" to watch out for. Each chapter has footnotes that enrich the story. Its a book that you could read several times and find something new each time.

Sometimes when an actor makes an album or a singer tries to tell jokes, you cringe at the results. This is not true of Andrew Peterson. He is a great author, an amazing song writer, and an great guy. I've met him a few times, and he appreciates his fans. He's one of the most down to earth people I know. I encourage you to read his book, and listen to his albums.

A few days ago I had a contest. For those of you who entered the answers are
1. Aedan, Asher and Skye (two boys and a girl. hmm...)
2. Walk is his first album, but Carried Along was his first major release.
3. This one is purely subjective. So I will tell you mine. My favorite album is Love and Thunder. I love it because its a journey. Each song is a part of the whole, and each song has meant something special to me at one time or another.

The winner of the Contest is Jenny. I'll be sending you the book in the mail soon. Thanks to everyone who entered.


1 Word, Form and Song are each one of the T.H.A.G.S. for more information about the T.H.A.G.S. see page 78 of OtEotDSoD
2 Fangs are terrible creatures like lizards who are mean and love to eat any type of food that is spoiled or rotten. Refer to page 164 of OtEotDSoD for a recipe of Maggot Meatloaf.
3 see page 42 and Appendices for more information about these forms.
4 Do not read page 168 of OtEofDSoD until you read all 167 pages previously. No spoiling the story allowed.