Saturday, October 8, 2011

Turner and Hooch



I'm loving that my daughters enjoy watching some of the old 80's movies...it seems the 80's have become a cultural phenomenon for youngsters today :)

My middle daughter had some teenage drama last night so she was digging through our DVD collection to take her mind off things.  
Turner and Hooch is mostly a lighthearted comedy so she chose it, and by accident all of the rest of us sat down with her in the den to watch it. 
At our house movie night never happens on purpose.

Scott Turner is an investigator in a small California coastal town who is one week away from moving to Sacramento.  One of the older town citizens, Amos, is murdered one night after seeing/hearing illegal activities going on in a seafood plant next to his house.  Hooch belongs to Amos and is the only eye-witness to  the murder.  Scott Turner postpones leaving in order to find Amos's killer.  

The fun begins when Scott takes Hooch in.  Scott is OCD, an obsessive compulsive cleaner, who has never owned a dog and has a perfectly organized and structured life.  Hooch is a huge, messy, French Mastiff who is accustomed to drinking beer and eating chocolate chip cookies wherever and whenever he pleases.  This is just one of the hilarious scenes involving Scott and Hooch as their lives come together: 




It is through Hooch that Scott meets his future wife, the town vet.  And, it is through Hooch that Scott learns to love someone else besides himself and that it's ok if life is messy sometimes.

There is a pretty sad scene near the end...I forgot about this scene until my youngest was sitting in the recliner sobbing :( but the movie ends with a happily.

If you've never seen Turner and Hooch, please jump on the couch, get the whole family, some popcorn and coke, and prepare yourself for lots of hearty laughter as well as a few tears.

I could watch this one over and over again.
:)

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Wordless (sorta) Wednesday


Do you ever have those days where other people around you are lucky to be alive.

Yep, that was my day yesterday.

This little "happy" posted by a young friend on Facebook yesterday afternoon just absolutely made my day though!! 

Not exactly wordless, but it's close :)

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Elizabeth


I am not a lion.
But, I am a lion's cub.
And, I have a lion's heart
                                                                  Elizabeth I, Queen of England

My obsession with the Tudor era continues:  

One of the most famous monarchs of all time was Elizabeth I, the only child of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.  Over her lifetime she was considered a princess, a bastard, a lady, a bastard and back again over and over.  Depending on his mood and current spouse, Henry VIII either recognized Elizabeth as his daughter  or chose to distance himself from her completely.  

A reformist like her mother, Elizabeth also fell in and out of her favor with her older half-sister, devout Catholic, Mary.  Elizabeth's mother was the reason King Henry VIII divorced Mary's mother, Queen Katherine of Aragon, and Elizabeth's mother was the reason Mary was never allowed to see her mother again.  Thankfully, "Bloody Mary," although no doubt nuts by the end of her reign as queen, was not able to bring herself to put an end to Elizabeth's life as she was encouraged to do.  So, Elizabeth, a Protestant, as next in the line of succession, was crowned Queen of England upon Mary's death.  

This first installment, followed by "Elizabeth, The Golden Years," added even more intrigue to this era for me.  A woman, a daughter, a monarch, Elizabeth never thought she could or would have it all.  She knew by her mother's example that to romanticize life as a royal was a pretty sure way to get herself killed.  Elizabeth had her father's strength...and sometimes his anger, which helped her overcome many of her fears.  She also had a stubborn streak like both her mother and father.  She was very shrewd and intelligent and was a formidable statesman when it was practically unheard of for a woman to lead in politics.  Elizabeth I loved her country and vowed to make it what it once had been and end all of the religious discord.  Elizabeth would not be pushed aside as a woman who need only find a king to marry her and then rule England while she gave birth to male heirs.  She chose to rule herself.  

She chose.

That's the key here for me.  She chose.
While it's not so hard to believe a woman might choose to remain childless and unmarried in today's time, for the time in which Elizabeth lived, this was unheard of.  Elizabeth chose to be her own mistress with England as her marriage partner.  

Was her choice always a happy one? 
Nope.

Did she suck it up, stick her chin out and keep on going?
You better believe it.



Monday, October 3, 2011

More Mini Book Reviews

A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield



I stumbled on this one...somewhere...probably as one of the many free Kindle or Nook downloads I accumulate.
Stella Hardesty to me is an aging Stephanie Plum with more baggage.   Stella actually survived an abusive marriage...even though her husband did not.  She spends the rest of her life running a little sewing shop and helping other abused women pay back those who've made their lives miserable.  Stella barely stays above the law but is not in the least bit a hardened assassin of any kind.  She is tough enough to do what needs to be done but sensitive enough to feel deeply for others.  There are many others in this series and I will probably read another one, but I'm not hanging on the edge of my seat.  



Hit List by Laurell K. Hamilton



I love this series.  There have been some good ones, Narcissus in Chains and some bad ones, Micah, but what I love about these books is that when another one comes out, I can't wait to read it...when it's auto shipped from Amazon, I stop everything and give it all my attention.   I think I read this one in 24 hours...don't you just love getting caught up in a book like that??

While I'm very much a Jean Claude fan, I respect the relationship between Edward and Anita...In Hit List, that relationship takes front and center as they work on a huge case tracking a serial killer.  Amongst a load of supernatural beings, the scariest thing in the entire series is Olaf...he makes me shiver...he's like Hannibal Lecter who's now working for the police...incredibly complicated.  Olaf scares me more than Marmee Noir...who is the most evil of all the vampires. If you're a fan of this series, this is one of the best yet.  



Smokin Seventeen by Janet Evanovich



Another series on the Amazon auto-ship list... I read this one quickly as well.  This one was one of the best yet...with all the expected Stephanie Plum characters and craziness but with some added spookiness.  A killer is in Stephanie's midst...and is closer than she could ever imagine.  My daughters would call him a "creeper."  I would call him "scary."  His ability to fool everyone was what really gave me the willies...this is one of those events that I warn my girls about.

I'm still a Morelli girl, but I'm beginning to think that Stephanie may have to actually try a relationship with Ranger...I'm not sure she'll ever have her doubts cleared up if she she doesn't.  That ought to give Janet Evanovich at least 3-4 more books worth of material before she actually has to settle Stephanie and Joe down...if that's what she decides to do.  The next installment in this series comes pretty quickly, Nov. 22, and I'm already looking forward to it :)