Happy Halloween

Witching you a spooktacular holiday!

Don't forget to turn your clocks back
before you go to bed tonight!

Friday 5: At the Movies

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5!

1. What’s your favorite sports movie?
Oooh...tough one. So many great movies I could name -- Miracle, Eight Men Out, Field of Dreams...but I think my favorite is A League of Their Own.


2. What’s your favorite romantic comedy film?
Again, so many titles come to mind. Speechless, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally... I think at top of the heap, though, would be While You Were Sleeping.


3. What’s your favorite animated Disney movie?
That's a tie between Mulan and Cinderella. I love them both!


4. What’s your favorite non-Disney movie musical?
Non-Disney? There is such a thing?? Just... Kidding! Umm...lemme think a second... Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Carousel. The Music Man. No... Let's go with The Sound of Music.


5. What’s your favorite stranger-in-a-strange-land / fish-out-of-water movie?
This is the easiest question yet: French Kiss. The soundtrack is awesome, too!




Thanks for participating and have a celluloid weekend!

Thursday Thirteen 131: Eplegaarden

As mentioned last week here and here, my sister, niece (aka The Bug) and I made our third annual trek to Eplegaarden, an apple orchard and pumpkin patch close to me, on 17 October. It was a little windy, overcast and a bit chilly, but we still had a good time. This was one of the best years for pumpkins and apples. Pumpkins are large with a deep orange color, and the apple trees so heavy with fruit their limbs scrape the ground, making it easy for little ones to help in the plucking. Here are thirteen pictures from our day (and you'll note I cleverly slipped in a fourteenth in the header above).



It was a really good year for pumpkins, apples...


and squash. They had wagons full of gourds in assorted shapes, colors and sizes.


The annual measuring


Eagerly traipsing up the hill to the orchard (sure, she volunteered to pull it when it was empty!).


Look how plentiful this red delicious tree is--and this is a small tree!


Concentrating on those golden delicious...


This looks like a good one!


Look how the boughs of this golden delicious tree droop to the ground!


Shh...don't tell my sister I snuck this one in! And yes, she is indeed eating one apple while plucking another (tasting is allowed, within reason).


One more Gala, I think...




There were still plenty of grapes clinging to the vines, too!





LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:
(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Adelle Laudan * Elise Logan * Stephanie Adkins * Tracie
Ella Drake * Marcia * Sarah at His Unfailing Love
Bacolad * Alice Audrey * Shelley Munro * Ms Menozzi
Betty * Barbara * Harriet * Janice Seagraves
Mary Quast * Jennifer McKenzie * Paige Tyler
Mariposa * Yvette Davis

You can find more Thursday Thirteen participants HERE

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

Autumn display outside my grocery store.

Teaser Tuesday 6: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

He bent over his trunk again, but almost immediately stood up once more, his hand clenched on his wand. He had sensed rather than heard it: Someone or something was standing in the narrow gap between the garage and the fence behind him. Harry squinted at the bleak alleyway. If only it would move, then he'd know whether it was just a stray cat—or something else.
~Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
By J.K. Rowling

Monday Movie Meme: Surprise Endings

Argh! Don't you love days when the computer refuses to cooperate with you? I tried posting this three or four times from work today, but for some reason the work computer was really boggy today. Ah well...better late than never, right?

So around these parts we are getting ready for Halloween. But we've already covered horror movies. There's always candy on Halloween, but we've already talked about movie snacks too. Of course those little ghosts and goblins planning to ring our doorbell for the candy will greet us with a chorus of Trick or Treat! We always avoid the tricks by giving them the treats. But we do enjoy tricks when they come in the form of a shocker movie ending. Share on your blog movies that you thought you had all figured out which then left you with your jaw hanging open in wonder at the final scene. Don't forget to link back here at The Bumbles so we can share recommendations and visit your fellow participants!


When I think surprise endings, there are two movies I instantly think of:

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) -- Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free. Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.

and

The Sixth Sense (1999) -- A boy who communicates with spirits that don't know they're dead seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist. Was this not one of the best-kept secrets in movie endings ever??

Another weird movie with a surprise ending was Identity (2003). And when I say it was weird, I mean really out there. The plot: Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rainstorm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.

Thursday Thirteen 130: What's in My Fridge

I'm feeling completely uninspired this week, so...I thought I'd go with the mundane "what's in my fridge." Considering how sparse it's looking these days, this list was all too easy.

+ Gallon of 1% milk (skim is too watery)
+ Two cartons of juice: Apple and a Dole juice blend (orange strawberry banana)
+ Leftover pizza from last Friday - this needs to be thrown out, but I don't want it to smell up the house
+ Butter
+ Eggs
+ Apples - LOTS of apples. See Sunday's post.
+ Potatoes - is there a more versatile food? You can fry it, bake it, boil it, broil it, mash it...there are so many different ways to cook it!
+ Bacon - I don't often buy it, but was really hankering for some lately. I think it's the chilly fall weather.
+ Cheese - cheddar and American
+ Pork chop - thawing for Thursday night's dinner
+ Pickles - half a jar. For some reason, I only seem to eat them in summer
+ Ketchup
+ Sundae toppings - three kinds (fudge, caramel, strawberry - the latter is GREAT on pancakes and waffles)

Bonus: A bottle of wine - received as a gift that I have yet to open



LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:
(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Alice Audrey * Adelle Laudan * Journeywoman * Ella Drake
Kristen * Tracie * Colleen * Shelley Munro * Ms Menozzi
CM Torrens * Stephanie Adkins * BrendaND * Dawn
Inez Kelley * Zora Stout * Jennifer McKenzie * Elise Logan
Janice Seagraves * Rosetta Stone * Jeanne St. James
Paige Tyler * Jana * Melissa

You can find more Thursday Thirteen participants HERE

Teaser Tuesday 5: Ghost Hunters

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


This week I've plucked one off the TBR pile that has been languishing there three years now, Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum. I purchased it at the 2007 Wisconsin Book Festival, after attending a reading by the author. Listening to the prelude and talk of her research behind the book intrigued me enough to want to read it, which I meant to do last October, except I suddenly could not locate it. I made sure to dig through the TBR pile for it this year!

About the book: A Pulitzer Prize-winning author tells the amazing story of William James's quest for empirical evidence of the spirit world. What if a world -renowned philosopher and professor of psychiatry at Harvard suddenly announced he believed in ghosts? At the close of the nineteenth century, the illustrious William James led a determined scientific investigation into “unexplainable” incidences of clairvoyance and ghostly visitations. James and a small group of eminent scientists staked their reputations, their careers, even their sanity on one of the most extraordinary quests ever undertaken: to empirically prove the existence of ghosts, spirits, and psychic phenomena. What they pursued— and what they found—raises questions as fascinating today as they were then.

The opening paragraph:

No one saw the girl die. It was just a little too early, a morning still too dark, first light barely warming the edge of the sky. The night frost yet shimmered on the ground, a faint ghostly silver. It was barely 6:00a.m. on a late October morning when sixteen-year-old Bertha Huse stepped out into the quiet.

Sounds nice and creepy for an end of October, almost Halloween read, no?

Monday Movie Meme: Westerns

This week's theme is Westerns. Be sure to link back to The Bumbles and don't forget to visit your fellow participants!

My dad was big on westerns and WWII movies, so this was a pretty east one for me. Here are a few titles that immediately came to mind:

Stagecoach (1039, John Wayne); A simple stagecoach trip is complicated by the fact that Geronimo is on the warpath in the area.

High Noon (1952, Gary Cooper); A marshall, personally compelled to face a returning deadly enemy, finds that his own town refuses to help him.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962; John Wayne, James Stewart); A senator, who became famous for killing a notorious outlaw, returns for the funeral of an old friend and tells the truth about his deed.

Maverick (1994; Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Garner); Bret Maverick, needing money for a poker tournament, faces various comic mishaps and challenges, including a charming woman thief.

Tombstone (1993; Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliot, Bill Paxton); A successful lawman's plans to retire anonymously in Tombstone, Arizona, are disrupted by the kind of outlaws he was famous for eliminating.

Cat Ballou (1965; Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin); A woman seeking revenge for her murdered father hires a famous gunman, but he's very different from what she expects.

How the West Was Won (1962; Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck); A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the nineteenth century--including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads.

City Slickers and City Slickers II (1991/1994 ; Billy Crystal, Bruno Kirby, Daniel Stern, Jack Palance); Business men spend their vacation learning how to work a ranch and drive cattle. In the sequel, they return in search of Curly's gold. The first movie will be on TVLand this coming Saturday.

SC249 -- Organic Grace

Man, was I tired last night. Chasing after an almost 5-year-old through an orchard on a blustery fall day will do that to you. Sister and The Bug were up yesterday and we made what has become our annual autumn pilgrimage to Eplegaarden, an apple orchard and pumpkin patch only a few miles from me. It was two weeks later than we usually go, and despite heavy overcast skies and a bitter wind, there was a pretty good crowd for a cold October day. We first traipsed up the hill for apples. I had heard it was a really good year for apples and oranges, but even so I was surprised at how heavy with fruit the trees were. Some of the boughs were so laden with large, red apples the boughs drooped on the ground. It took no time at all to fill their ten-pound bag almost to overflowing with red delicious, golden delicious and gala apples.

We next embarked on a short hay ride around the farm. "Hay ride" is actually a bit of a misnomer as there was nary a blade of hay to be found in the horse-drawn wagon, but we had a good time nonetheless. The Bug made friends with a little girl about her age while waiting for our ride, and both girls got to help handle the reins. After our ride, we next went through "Harold Potterson's Hallowed Haunts and Harried Hunts." Pretty cheesy, but the little "wizards and witches" seemed to love it, especially the inflated haunted castle and maize maze. The latter had shorter corn stalks than one usually finds in a corn maze, so that the smaller kids wouldn't be two scared in their search for the "goblet of fire" -- which turned out to be a black cauldron filled with black and orange nylon ribbons. There was also a "quidditch" field and a game where you threw apples and tried to knock a sucker out of Dudley's hand. As I said, rather cheesy if you're an adult, but the kids all seemed to have fun.

After two and a half hours out in the cold, I was glad to return to the warmth of my apartment (and since they finally got the heat regulated round about last Thursday, it has indeed been toasty warm in here). I climbed into my pajamas, then into bed with a book to try to get warm. Around 7pm I was going to watch a movie, but quickly abandoned that idea. My next door neighbors had guests, one of whom seemed to be turning somersaults off the furniture and ramming into my wall. Whatever happened to teaching kids manners and consideration for others? I understand small children have a lot of energy (some more than others), but seriously--is it fair to make your neighbors suffer your child or young guest's bad behavior? So, instead of the movie I wanted to watch, I ended up back in the bedroom reading and working on the computer for a couple hours, then watching a movie on TCM in here at 9:30pm, one I had not seen before, The Wreck of the Mary Deare. Good movie. Boats, sabotage and mystery...what more could one want in a movie?


While waiting for Sis and The Bug to arrive this morning (naturally they were later than they said they would be...shocker!), I whipped up a couple fall birthday cards, again using last week's sketch, SC249. I can't believe I'd not used this set before today. It was a free hostess set I got last year. I randomly stamped the flower across the bottom and around edges of top portion of the card base in More Mustard. I also sponged around the edges of the image panel with the same color.





Stamps: Organic Grace (Stampin' Up)
Paper: White (Wausau Paper); Yellow, Patterned (DCWV)
Ink: More Mustard
Accessories: Brads

SC249 -- Winter {Friend}

Seems appropriate, what with the cold temperatures (20 degrees below normal!) and our first snow sighting last Saturday. I don't even want to imagine what winter is going to be like. *shudder* This card fits last week's sketch challenge, SC249. And yes, I know I did the last two out of order. Deal with it!

Stamps: Winter Friend (A Muse Artstamps), Winter is Calling (snowflakes, Stampin' Up)
Paper: White (Wausau Paper); Red, Green (The Paper Co); Patterned Papers (DCWV)
Ink: Basic Black, Brocade Blue
Accessories: Markers (La Plume), Red Brads

SC250 -- Fall Birthday

A fall birthday card following this week's sketch, SC250. The three stamped panels are popped up, and ink was sponged over the green background for a "shabby chic" look.

Stamps: Fresh Cuts (Stampin' Up), Birthday wishes (Savvystamps)
Paper: White (Wausau Paper), Green and Orange (The Paper Co), Designer papers (DCWV)
Ink: Really Rust, Basic Black
Accessories: Raffia, Punches (Marvy)

Thursday Thirteen 129: Vocabulary--1984

While recently reading 1984, I noted that this book has some great vocabulary words in it. Without further ado, here are thirteen plucked out of the book to add to your roster of words. Examples of usage are taken direct from the novel.




1. anodyne (adj): relieving or lessening pain; soothing
eg: "It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant."

2. etiolate (vt): 1. to cause to be pale and unhealthy 2. to deprive of strength, weaken
eg: "Already, on the walk from the station, the May sunshine had made him feel dirty and etiolated, a creature of indoors, with the sooty dust of London in the pores of his skin."

3. persiflage (noun): 1. a light, frivolous style of writing or speaking 2. such talk or writing
eg: "When he spoke of murder, suicide, venereal disease, amputated limbs, and altered faces, it was with a faint air of persiflage."

4. spurious (adj): not true or genuine; false, counterfeit
eg: "In his capacity as administrator, it is often necessary for a member of the Inner Party to know that this or that item of war news is untruthful, and he may often be aware that the entire war is spurious and either not happening or is being waged for purposes quite other than the declared ones..."

5. diminution (noun): a diminishing or being diminished; lessening; decrease
eg: "And even technological progress only happens when its products can in some way be used for the diminution of human liberty."

6. execrate (vt): 1. orig., to call down evil upon; curse 2. to speak abusively or contemptuously of; denounce scathingly 3. to loathe; detest; abhor
eg: "The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense."

7. expropriate (vt): 1. to take (land, property, etc) from its owner, esp: to take for public use or in the public interest, as by right of eminent domain 2. to transfer (property) from another to oneself 3. to deprive of ownership; dispossess
eg: "It has always been assumed that if the capitalist class were expropriated, Socialism must follow."

8. inimical (adj): 1. like an enemy; hostile 2. in opposition; adverse; unfavorable
eg: "It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction."

9. pedant (noun): 1. a person who puts unnecessary stress on minor or trivial points of learning 2. a narrow-minded teacher who insists on exact adherence to a set of arbitrary rules (pedantic, adj)
eg: "A sort of intellectual warmth, the joy of the pedant who has found out some useless fact, shone through the dirt and scrubby hair."

10. inviolate (adj): not violated; kept sacred or unbroken
eg: "Now he had retreated a step further: in the mind he had surrendered, but he had hoped to keep the inner heart inviolate."

11. abstruse (adj): hard to understand; deep; recondite
eg: "But there were other days when they settled down to their work almost eagerly, making a tremendous show of entering up their minutes and drafting long memoranda which were never finished--when the argument as what they were supposedly arguing about grew extraordinarily involved and abstruse..."

12. sinecure (noun): any office or position providing an income or other advantage but requiring little or no work
eg: "He even had a job, a sinecure, more highly paid than his old job had been."

13. premonitory (adj): forewarning; foreboding
eg: "A sort of premonitory tremor, a fear of he was not certain what, had passed through Winston as soon as he caught his first glimpse of the cage."


LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:
(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Journeywoman * Tracie * Elise Logan * Adelle Laudan
Ella Drake * Alice Audrey * Stephanie Adkins
Cambria Dillon * fickleinpink * Mary Quast * Colleen
Inez Kelley * Shelley Munro * Annallee *Angeleque Ford
Ms Menozzi * CM Torrens * Jennifer McKenzie
Hootin' Anni * Happily Retired Gal * Calico Crazy
Janice Seagraves * Jeanne St. James * Paige Tyler

You can find more Thursday Thirteen participants HERE.

Teaser Tuesday 4: Dipped, Stripped, and Dead

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week I give you...the opening paragraph of a new cozy mystery, Dipped, Stripped, and Dead by Elise Hyatt.

When I was little, I was going to be a ballerina. This was a strange ambition for a five-year-old who could trip over both feet at the same time while standing still. As soon as that tragic fact dawned on me, I settled on the more attainable ambition of becoming a lion tamer. This, at least, seemed perfectly within my reach, because my cat always did exactly what I wanted her to--well, except when she balked at jumping through the lighted hoop. Which is just as well, because Mom didn't exactly approve of my setting fire to her quilting frame. With the quilt in it.

Tell me that opening paragraph doesn't have you wanting to read on!

Trick or Treat

A quick and easy Halloween card. No fuss, no muss!

Stamps: Sweeter Treaters (Stampin' Up)
Paper: Black, White cardstock
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie (SU)
Accessories: 1" Square Punch, Square Scallop Punch (Marvy); Grosgrain Ribbon (Joann's)

Cold weather here this weekend, about 20 degrees below normal and dipping into the 20s the last two nights. We even had a brief snow shower yesterday, mid-morning. Chance for more light snow/flurries overnight. Ugh! Much too soon for this, but what do we expect after the cool (almost non-existent) summer we had?

I did make it up town yesterday for the Wisconsin Book Festival, attending three events. Overall I noted low attendance this year. Only the first event filled almost all chairs. The second attracted only a handful of people, though I would have expected more teens and moms at that one. The third event was by far the best of the three, and though it had a pretty good turn-out, I still expected a larger crowd than there was. I think this is owed a number of factors: the lack of known authors and current focus of the event (as noted in Wednesday's post), the weather (it was damn cold out there!), the economy (who wants the temptation to buy books in a bad economy?), and the Badger/Ohio State football game (out of town, but a big one none-the-less). May try to say more on the Book Festival later. Much too tired the last two nights.

Thursday Thirteen 128: Recently Read

Thirteen books read during the month of September...

For those keeping track, that's 60 books read so far this year!


LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:
(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Alice Audrey * Tracie * Cass/MMC * Mary Quast * BrendaND
Janice Seagraves * Adelle Laudan * Ella Drake * CM Torrens
Shelley Munro * Ms Menozzi * CountryDew * Inez Kelley
Cambria Dillon * Americanising Desi * Elise Logan
Jennifer McKenzie * Paige Tyler * Angeleque Ford
Happily Retured Gal

You can find more Thursday Thirteen participants HERE.

Wisconsin Book Festival

The Wisconsin Book Festival kicks off today and runs through Sunday. To be honest, I do not look forward to it as much as I have in previous years. In fact, it took a great deal of poring over the schedule of events to find something I might actually be interested in attending. The reason? Despite what it says there to the left about encouraging Wisconsinites of all ages to "read widely," I feel that the festival has become more "literary" focused and, by extension, exclusive, the last couple of years. There is great emphasis on non-fiction, poetry and literary fiction, but anything else? Forget about it! Don't believe me? Look at the list of this year's presenters/events. How many names do YOU recognize? Me? Three, maybe four. Out of more than a hundred presenters.

Now, I have nothing against literary fiction or poetry. And while I generally don't care for non-fiction, I will pick up something on occasion if it interests me. Neither am I against being exposed to new writers or books. However, these genres aren't what most people read. It isn't what most people are interested in reading or hearing about. Yet the book fest organizers seem to actively seek the most obscure writers and books possible. I find it difficult to believe that a literate town like Madison, with the university and all its bookstores, has trouble attracting popular -- known -- authors. Of any genre. Yet romance, science-fiction, mystery, suspense -- they are routinely excluded from the book festival. In fact, I noted that Booked For Murder, a local store that caters to the mystery genre, is hosting their own, independent event this Saturday featuring a number of mystery writers. Sends a message to me.

In my opinion, if the book festival is to survive going forward, they need to stop being so heavily focused on literary fiction, stop thumbing their nose at popular fiction, and start being more inclusive. Will I attend any of the events being held around the Madison area this weekend? Maybe. There are one or two events on Saturday I am thinking of attending, but in general nothing has really called to me this year. By contrast, three years ago there were so many events I was interested in, that I attended three days, and had to decided between multiple events during some hours. That was not a problem last year, when I only attended three or four events, and definitely not a problem this year. Whether those one or two events I am thinking of this year are strong enough to woo me out into the frigid temps forecast for this weekend remains to be seen.

Teaser Tuesday 3: 1984

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


I kept it shorter this week! ;-)

When there were no external records that you could refer to, even the outline of your own life lost its sharpness. You remembered huge events which had quite probably not happened, you remembered the details of incidents without being able to recapture their atmosphere, and there were long blank periods to which you could assign nothing.

I didn't have to read this one in high school as my younger sister did. Instead, our class read Animal Farm. I'm glad I picked this one up this year!

Monday Movie Meme: Dads

Funny ones, inspiring ones, scary ones, demanding ones. They come in all types and therefore the movies give us lots of characters to choose from. Share on your blog movies featuring Dads.

I tried to come up with a few movies not mentioned on The Bumbles' list. I also tried to keep it short, but kept thinking of more titles.

* Sleepless in Seattle -- A recently-widowed man's son calls a radio talk show in an attempt to find his father a partner. Who could forget the special bond between Sam and Jonah Baldwin?

* Love, Actually -- One of the storylines follows Daniel, a stepfather who finds a way to bond with his stepson after his wife dies.

* About A Boy -- Okay, Will (Hugh Grant) isn't exactly a father per se, but he does become a sort of surrogate dad to young Marcus and reconcile the past with his own dad in the process.

* Definitely, Maybe -- A political consultant tries to explain his impending divorce and past relationships to his 11-year-old daughter. This was a sweet romantic comedy.

* Mrs. Doubtfire -- An actor disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend secret time with his children held in custody by his Ex.

* One Fine Day -- Melanie Parker, an architect and mother of Sammy, and Jack Taylor, a newspaper columnist and father of Maggie, are both divorced. They meet one morning when overwhelmed Jack is left unexpectedly with Maggie and forgets that Melanie was to take her to school. The two adults project their negative stereotypes of ex-spouses on each other, but end up needing to rely on each other to watch the children as each must save his job.

* The Little Mermaid -- King Triton has difficulty controlling his headstong youngest daughter.

* Too Young to Be a Dad -- When 15-year-old, Matt Freeman, gets his girlfriend, Francesca, pregnant her family decides to put the unborn baby up for adoption. Matt agrees to the decision, but begins to rethink it. This movie is taken from the father's point of view.

* Three Men and a Baby -- Three bachelor friends find out one of them is a father when a baby girl is left with them by her mother.

* The Empire Strikes Back -- "No, I am your father." Not all dads are good guys; some are downright evil.

Father's Little Dividend -- In this sequel to Father of the Bride (1950), newly married Kay Dunstan announces that she and her husband are going to have a baby, leaving her father having to come to grips with the fact that he will soon be a granddad.

Skinny Treater

This is a "skinny" card, measuring 3.5" by 5.5." While digging out some Halloween seals the other day I came across some left-over bits from cards I made a few years ago, among them this trick-or-treater and some little pumpkins, and decided it was past time to use them up. I rather like this CAS card.

Stamps: Sweeter Treaters (Stampin' Up), Happy Hallow (Hero Arts)
Paper: Kraft, Black, Purple (American Paper Co)
Ink: Basic Black (SU)
Accessories: Orange Marker (Le Plume)

Talking Spirits Tour this Weekend!

Civil War Heroes Resurrected at Forest Hill Cemetery
1 Speedway Road; Madison, WI
Public tours: Sunday, October 4, 2009 – Noon to 4 p.m.
$5/adult, $2/child, Tours leave every 15 minutes
(Allow two hours for the tour, and wear comfortable shoes)

Six influential people from Civil War times will be featured during the Wisconsin Veterans Museum’s 11th annual Talking Spirits Tour. More than 1,000 people attend this award-winning event annually. Guides lead informative discussions of the cemetery’s rich history and gravestone art in between the vignettes. This year’s theme is “A New Birth of Freedom,” and focuses on the generation that embodied Abraham Lincoln’s resolve in the face of immense sacrifice.

Professional actors in period dress portray each of the Civil War-era citizens buried at the cemetery. Characters in this year’s tour include: Stephen Vaughn Shipman, a thrice wounded Union cavalry officer who went on to design the rotunda and dome of the second Capitol building in Madison; cavalryman John Coleridge Pradt, who lost an eye after being shot and left for dead when his unit was surprised by Confederate guerillas; John Wayles Jefferson, a heroic union officer and likely grandson of President Thomas Jefferson and slave Sally Hemings; Madison schoolteacher and nurse Emilie C. Quiner; Bascom B. Clarke, a young refugee from Arkansas brought north after being orphaned; and George Washington Spears, a confederate prisoner-of-war who was shot and killed in an altercation with a Union guard at Camp Randall.

Click HERE for more infomation, or on the "Forest Hill" tag below for previous entries about the event on this blog.