Hey guys! How y’all doin? Today we got two packages here at Casa de Lindsay & Andrew. The first I think is my hubby’s headphones that he ordered for his birthday (I don’t know for sure, I didn’t open it). The other package was addressed to me, and I was all like, what? What’s this? I wasn’t expecting a package! But then I saw it was from Random House, and I was like, OH YEAH MY ARC OF 3 WILLOWS!!!!
I will explain, because until last week I didn’t even know what 3 Willows was either. It’s by Ann Brashares, author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the sisterhood, if not because of the awesome book series (which you should all read if you haven’t already), but also because of the two movies they’ve made. I haven’t seen the 2nd movie yet – I’m waiting for it to come out on DVD. I didn’t absolutely love the first movie. Although I did love America Ferrera’s portrayal of Carmen. Carmen’s story always makes me sob…also Tibby’s story at the end. I loved Bailey in both the book and the movie. The 3 Willows is about Polly, Jo and Ama. It is set in same area as tSotTP, and it even references the original girls (I think…I haven’t read it just yet).
I’ll let you know what I think after I’ve read it.
I learned today from my most trusted news source (Entertainment Weekly Online) that the American Girl store is going to discontinue the Samantha dolls!!! This includes everything that has to deal with her like clothes, furniture and even Nellie!!! (But not the books.)
I remember poring over the American Girl catalogs when I was little. Samantha was always my favorite from the very beginning. She had the best clothes and the coolest furniture. I remember being so in love with her little coin purse. But sadly, the American Girl dolls were always too expensive so I never got to have one as a child. Even now, as a real grown-up with a much-too-expensive apartment and too much debt to pay off, I can’t afford to get one.
So alas, I wil have to wait until many moons from now when I strike it rich to buy a used doll off ebay and hope the previous owner hasn’t loved it TOO much.
Now I understand that they need to keep coming out with new dolls and maybe the older ones aren’t as popular as the ones that look just like you, but come on people!!! Getting rid of Samantha!!!! I am shocked and appalled! My mom (who is visiting me for the week) is also outraged at this news.
I know that my fellow bloggers are big American Girl fans, so I hope that you are not too shocked by this horrible news.
Wait wait wait…that’s not the title of the book I love so much! It’s Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging!
For those of you who do not know what I am talking about, you need to go park yourselves down and start reading Louise Rennison’s fabulous series – Confessions of Georgia Nicolson. Turns out, there’s now a movie based on the first two books! Georgia is going to Hollywood-a-go-go land! Double cool with knobs, right??!! But then I watched the trailer and now I’m feeling a bit iffy. I was picturing Georgia as a bit bolder than in the trailer…although the girl who is playing Georgia (actually her real name is Georgia too!) does seem like she’ll do a pretty good job. But I’m a little bit upset that Jas DOES NOT HAVE FRINGE!!! What!! That’s like a key part in the books! Jas always plays with her fringe (aka bangs)! Plus, I belive they have taken out Mabs and Jools…you can’t just take out members of the Ace Gang! What is Nickelodeon doing!? Also, I was super excited to see a bespectacled Rosie, but guess what? No glasses. Whatever. I’m over it.
Here’s the trailer for your viewing pleasure. But I highly suggest you read the books – they read very fast (as they are written in diary form), and are hilarious!!
<3, lindsayF
P.S. Here is a list of the Georgia Nicholson Confessions series:
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging
On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God
Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas
Dancing In My Nuddy Pants
Away Laughing on a Fast Camel
Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers
Startled by His Furry Shorts
Love is a Many Trousered Thing
Stop in the Name of Pants!
Visit the website! http://www.georgianicolson.com/ For those of you who haven’t read the book, if you’re from the USofA, you’re supposed to click on Hamburger-a-go-go land, although I don’t doubt that you couldn’t figure out the site if you clicked on Billy Shakespeare country anyways. Cheers!
I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up with the current season of Project Runway, but you should be! If you haven’t and don’t want me to spoil anything for you, STOP READING NOW. If you don’t care, or you have been keeping up, how about last night’s show?? The last 4 designers, Kenley, Leanne, Korto, and Jerell showed their wedding dresses and a bridesmaid dress. I just have to say that I think the judges made a good decision. I liked Leanne’s dresses best (but I’m a huge Leanne fan, so that’s not a big surprise), and even though Kenley’s personality just grates on me non-stop, I really loved her dresses too. After the runway show, even before the judge’s said anything, it was quite clear that Kenley and Leanne were definitely in the finale. But Jerell and Korto – what happened??? They were so good and then this disaster happened! Korto’s wedding dress just looked awful and then the bridesmaid dress didn’t even look like one! Then Jerell’s dress looked somewhat pretty (except for the fact that it DID look dirty) until you looked at the bust and then it was completely awful!
I was a little surprised when Jerell was out and Korto got to move on to the finale. I mean, I knew it was close, but Jerell had won so many challenges. Maybe it’s because when they asked Korto why she wanted to go to Bryant Park, she said that she really wanted it whereas Jerell just said they’d be pleased with his collection. Personally, I thought Korto’s collection was more sophisticated than Jerell’s (although his did look fabulous), so I was happy that she got to go. Also her daughter is way super cute. I’m really looking forward to the finale. I think I’ll be happy regardless of who wins just because based on what I saw last night, I love everyone’s collections. I might even be rooting a little bit for Kenley’s collection a little bit more than I would because it just looked so hip and cool. But I’ll probably be rooting the most for Leanne because I would just die to get my hands on her clothes!
Whoa, I was just over at the Project Runway site at Bravo, and it says that the final 6 designers showed at Bryant Park! What?? I thought the honor was only bestowed to the final 3! Well, I guess I am not so surprised, because I believe Austin from Season One also got to show at Bryant Park even though he wasn’t in the final 3, but still…6! Whatever!
Sneak peak of Leanne’s final collection!
Isn’t that just so yummy!!
<3, lindsayF
P.S. I think Morgan aka The Model from Hell is back for the finale! For those of you who don’t remember, she was in the first season – she was a trouble maker, but not in the way that you hated her, but in the way that she brought a fun element to the show…although she did cause a lot of grief for the designers. Remember when she ripped her designer’s dress? Eek! But anyways, during last night’s show where they say, Coming up next time… they showed a blond girl briefly and the designers were like, Oh we know who you are. And Kenley said something like, She better not cause any trouble. What other model in the history of the show has ever caused any trouble? Only Morgan! Hooray! I can’t wait! Plus she’s originally from Iowa so bonus! We know how to liven up the party!
It has been a long time since I have done one of these, but I have been saving up for a good one….
Ned the Piemaker from “Pushing Daisies”
I only started watching “Pushing Daisies” last Monday, but I completely fell in love with it the moment I watched the first episode. I whipped through the first season in three days just in time to watch the season premiere on Wednesday. This show isn’t for everybody, but I think that everyone should give it a shot. It’s like a cross between “Penelope” a Tim Burton movie and “CSI.” The basic premise is this: Ned can touch dead things and bring them back to life. There are two little quirks to this gift. The second time he touches something he has brought back to life, it dies again, and if he keeps someone alive for more than a minute, someone else has to die. Oh, and he brought his childhood sweethear Chuck back to life and now they love each other, but can never touch.
So enough of that background mumbo-jumbo, here is why I would date Ned.
Ned is played by Lee Pace, who is really hot. He has a very “British” look to him. I don’t really know what that means, but that is the vibe I get when I look at him. He has an extremely sexy voice. His smile always looks just a little bit devilish. Also, when his hair starts to grow out, he has a piece in the front that kind of looks like a toupee, and I find it really endearing.
He makes pies for a living, which is something that I could never master. I love pie, but whenever I try to make one, something bad always happens (it’s always that dang crust part that I get wrong!). I could be his official pie taste tester since he can’t taste the pies himself (he brings dead fruit back to life to use in the pies so it would just get all moldy again if he ate a piece). And the best part…he named his restaurant The Pie Hole.
He’s a very inventive guy. He can’t touch his dog Digby (because he also brought him back from the dead) so he has a special wooden arm thing that he uses to pet him. The using dead fruit thing is also very smart because it saves money. He also invented an ingenious contraption so that Chuck could sit in the front seat of the car with him with no fear of unwanted contact.
He can say things like “It’s not weird, it’s magical” without sounding corny or hokey. And when he needs to create a diversion, he sets someone’s car on fire, which is pretty awesome.
Also, if I was dating Ned, first of all, he could actually touch me, so he wouldn’t be in so much agony all the time, secondly, I could pet Digby for him, and thirdly (is that a word?) I could totally steal all of Chuck’s really awesome dresses that look like they are from the fifties.
But wait, now that I am typing this I feel totally bad. For the first time, I don’t want to steal Ned away from his fictional soulmate. My heart is too happy watching Ned and Chuck be all cute together, so I think I will just admire him from afar and not even think about actually dating him.
Here is a video set to a very ironic Beatles tune (shout out to Amber!) that shows just how darn cute they are:
And here is another cute video where you can actually hear his voice, see Kristen Chenoweth (YEA!) and hear the wonderful Jim Dale narration from the show:
Jen
P.S. The first season is like 18 bucks at Amazon!!!
Lately, I have spent a lot of time adding books to my LibaryThing. It has actually become kind of an obsession. I just love to look at the library I’ve accumulated and see all the pretty covers lined up next to each other. It’s really quite sad how I have to scroll through all 200 odd covers every time I add a new book.
Now, I have had a GoodReads account for months now, but I only have like six books entered on that site. It seemed like a chore to enter each book after I read it. But then a month ago I joined LibraryThing, and I couldn’t stop adding! I joined up because it gives you the ability to add tags to each book. That is really helpful for a librarian, because then I can quickly locate all the “Fantasy” books I have read or all the “boy books.”
**For those of you who don’t know what LibraryThing is, it is a website where you can enter all the books that you own. The site brings up records from Amazon or the Library of Congress, so all the info about the book is right there. Then you can add tags, rate the books, and add reviews. You can either have a free account or pay $25 for a lifetime membership.**
I am keeping track of all the books I have READ, not ones that I own. But it is an especially awesome way to catalog what you own. I always forget which books I have, so when I go to booksales or thrift shops, I inevitably come home with something I’ve already got.
I have been writing down of all of the books I have read since January, so that is what the majority of my Library is made of. Today alone I added like 7 more books (3 that I just read, 4 that I remembered reading in the past)! It is so awesome to watch my library grow and grow. So if I start to get lazy about reviewing books on this blog, here is a link to my library where I have all of my books rated. I haven’t reviewed too many of them because that takes a little bit too much effort.
So please, everyone go over to LibraryThing and explore. Also, feel free to make me your friend. I only have two which is very sad. But I warn you that once you begin you may never be able to stop! Wah hah hah!! (that was my evil plan laugh)
I discovered this little treat this afternoon and wanted to share it with the rest of you. Clue is, and always will be, my favorite board game of all-time, and today it got even better.
You can buy it at the WB Shop, but it would be much better to buy it from the Caudron Shop and support The Leaky Cauldron.
From now on, all my learning will be done by watching Animaniacs videos on youtube (until I buy the DVDs of course, someday they will sit alongside my Wishbone DVDs that I purchased off eBay). I will start with learning the presidents, and from there will go on to the nations of the world, parts of the brain, state capitals and many other very important things to know that I knew once as a a genius child. A genius child who watched a lot of television. or maybe just a nerdy child who watched a lot of television…
Don’t you just love it when all your favorites things turn out to be connected to your other favorite things?! It always makes me feel like I am doing something right with my life–like I am on the trail to the bestest most favoritest thing ever.
Last weekend was Iowa’s Homecoming (and I hear that I am lucky to be such a nerd and to have chosen to do homework over watching the game. Cmon Hawkeyes! make Nate Kaeding proud!) and to celebrate there is always a concert after the parade—this year was Rooney!!!!! (and Chuck Berry, also very cool) AHHHH, MICHAEL MOSCOVITZ IN IOWA CITY!!!! I saw the Princess Diaries movie before reading any of the books, so Robert Schwartzman will always be Michael to me. Whether he likes it or not. sly smile.
anyway, so I got out of work and walked downtown to wait for my friends before watching the parade. Wait, what do I hear?? is that a heavenly angel doing a soundcheck? NO IT WAS MICHAEL MOSCOVITZ! (omigosh I hope Robert doesn’t google himself and read this…) The stage for the Homecoming show is just out in front of the Old Capitol Building, so the Rooney boys were essentially just doing their preshow stuff outside–meaning that I could literally just walk right up to the stage and watch. Don’t worry, I tried to look cool. I leaned against a rock and took out a newspaper while slightly shaking my head along to the music. OMG! there were literally only like five other people there watching with me–so chances are good that maybe the guys in the band made eye contact with me??!! I was trying really hard to have a quirky-Midwestern-girl-I-am-enjoying-your-music-very-much-but-I-am-not-throwing-myself-at-you smile, which is really hard to do. Especially when you are panicked that you are giving a I-may-look-23-but-if-I-come-face-to-face-with-you-i’m-going-to-scream-and-steal-some-of-your-hair-for-a-scrapbook smile. here is a representation of the situation:
A re-creation of me trying to act cool while standing front-row while Rooney soundchecks.
except imagine my hair shorter, and Robert looking less like Michael Moscovitz.
oh, and just to make a connection between Rooney and another teen-girl book sensation. Their video for “Are You Afraid of Me” is all about vampires. Yes.
oh and this is one of the songs they played while I was watching soundcheck and my eyes glazed over. Totally reminds me of Phantom Planet’s “Hey Now Girl”–as in I love it.
Yesterday I went into the Iowa City Public Library to pick up one DVD–and I left with one DVD, three magazines, and six books (I won’t even tell you how many library items were already at home). Luckily, my boyfriend offered to come pick me up, because I have made that long 30 minute trek across the river to my apartment with books up to my chin many times and it ain’t easy. How am I so easily led astray? It is that dang New Releases shelf. I had told myself: “just run in quick, grab the DVD and get out of there. Don’t even browse the stacks AT ALL.” But here is what really happened in my mind that day:
Books I checked out on my last visit to the IC Public Library.
1. So I will just pop into the library after class to see if “The Thin Man” had been returned. A couple days earlier, my friends Jill and Sarah were discussing whether or not the main characters on Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist were named after the duo in the thin man movies. I had no idea what they were talking about, so I looked up an old trailer on youtube and discovered that it is based on a Dashiell Hammett novel. I had read Red Harvest for a Detective Fiction course and passed it on to Steve who became a big fan–thus I thought BINGO!
2. I grab the movie and as I walk to the check-out area, I see a little display of magazines. Oooh, that American Craft looks good. I’ll just pick that up, too.
3. Maybe I’ll just run upstairs quick and look at the magazines. I really feel like reading a Mental Floss issue. Why oh why did I ever let my subscription run out? I had thought I would just remember to read it at the library, but that never happens–until today! today I am going to get it!
4. While I’m up here, I’ll grab the newest issue of Bust. I really enjoyed the previous issue’s interview with Miranda July. It had inspired me to check out her movie “Me and You and Everyone We Know” over the summer–and I was totally enthralled by it.
5. I might as well run past the new release shelf–I mean I am going to be a Librarian! I have to keep up with what is current, right?! Green Up Your Cleanup? yeah, I need that. I just used a whole bunch of crazy cleaning products on my bathroom last week and I felt super guilty about it afterwards…and I worried that my flesh on my hands would melt away overnight from all the chemicals and I would wake up Miss Bone-and-Sinew-Fingers.
6. Well I already grabbed one book, I might as well get more. oooh panini express. need that.
8. This graphic novel looks just the right size and thickness to be the type of graphic novel I like. (Three Shadows)
9. Hey, a graphic novel of The Merchant of Venice! Wasn’t my professor talking about this book at the American Library Association conference? I should definitely get it. Then I can remember the plot of the play and maybe understand the reference to it in Breaking Dawn.
10. Oh! In the Pink! This book was mentioned in the latest issue of Oprah’s Home magazine–the one that had her library on the cover so I had to buy it–and I must check out this book because the cover is flawlessly black, white and pink!
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