Candy.24.Wife.Mommy.Pianist.Drummer.Trying to learn guitar.Poet.Songwriter.

4.14.2005

I am proud to announce that I am now the ecstatic owner of the DVD boxset of the TV miniseries, North & South. :::swoons::: It came in the mail yesterday, and I was itching so bad to watch it, Michael brought home some Mexican, and we popped in the 1st disc. The movie is based off the North & South novels by John Jakes, in 3 books. The mini-series actually came out in 3 parts, or books, if you will: Book I aired in 1985 on ABC, Book II aired in 1986, and Book III didn't air until several years later. Book I contains 6 episodes, Book II has 6 episodes, and Book III had 3 episodes, and each episode is about an hour and a half. Do the math, and that's approximately 22 and a half hours!!! After the 1st episode was over, I wanted to watch the next one, but I had to contain myself. Michael was sitting at the computer, and I kept hinting around that I wanted to watch the next one, and finally he stood up from the computer chair and said "Okay, let's put in the next one." No arguing from me! I skipped to the DVD player and put in the next one. Besides, it was ONLY after 10 o'clock, lol. This movie is FULL of well-knowns, including Patrick Swayze, Kirstie Alley, David Carradine, just to name a few. There is even a small role played by Johnny Cash, Elizabeth Taylor, Morgan Fairchild, and Wayne Newton. I'm thinking, "Okay, who WASN'T in this movie?" As you probably guessed, the whole story line is based on the Civil War, but Book I is about the events leading up to the Civil War, about a nation slowly being divided by the differences between the North and the South. The movie is centered around 2 friends, one from South Carolina, the other from Pennsylvania, who meet on their way to West Point. Their friendship grows and their families become close-knit, but the events leading up to the war, and the war itself, threaten to tear the 2 families apart. This is the perfect movie because there are bloody battle scenes for the guys, and romantic, steamy love scenes for us gals. Out of all the times I've watched this movie, I am just as awe-stricken by the wardrobe AND the twists in the storyline all over again as if I'd never seen it before. What makes all the more fun is watching it with someone who's never seen it before. The problem I'm having is keeping to myself different things that I know that are going to happen later! Perhaps we will watch episode 3 tonight after ball practice.

4.13.2005

Yesterday there was way too much pet drama in the Brewer household. First, the cat made a swift exit when Jacob's speech therapist got here, but I didn't really think much of it, because he's done it so many times now, and he usually just hangs out under the car or on the front porch, and finds his way back in the house. No big deal. It became a big deal yesterday though because the Kira got more adventerous and we don't really know where he went. I was outside, looking under cars in our neighbors' driveways, ringing doorbells, looking under shrubs, etc. Michael even called Terri, since she lives sort of kind of around the corner, and asked her to keep an eye out. Michael left work 30 minutes early. When he called me to let me know he was on his way home, I lied and said "He's JUST a cat! It's not worth coming home early for." But deep inside, I was getting worried. Even though I was totally against getting a cat in the beginning, I quickly grew attached to Kira, and quite honestly, he's the most loving pet I've ever had. Plus I had heard on the weather forecast that it was supposed to rain sometime later in the night, and the thoughts of my poor kitty being lost in the rain upset me A LOT. While I was waiting on Michael to get home, I dozed off on the couch for a minute, and I heard a "Meeeowww", so I opened the door, and there Kira was, on the front porch, staring at me. I thought by now he was calmed down and I could just bend down and scoop him up. WRONG! The little booger darted across the porch and into the sideyard. I had him trapped though! He COULD have jumped the fence into our neighbors' backyard, but for whatever reason, he didn't, and instead, he chose to munch on the tall grass. About that time, Michael pulled up in the driveway, and I didn't make a sound. I just pointed Michael in the direction of the cat, so that hopefully he could sneak up to him, and if he ran out of the sideyard, I could hopefully catch him. Well, Michael walked right up to him and picked him up without so much as a squirm from the cat! Unbelievable! I mean, the cat LOVES me, and HATES him, but when I was trying to get him to come in the house, he acted like he didn't even KNOW me. Cats are crazy! Needless to say, I scolded Kira, and our household made a pact to always make sure Kira is in the bedroom with the door closed any time the front door is going to be opened. All is well that ends well.

The other dramatic pet occurrence was that one of my turtles died. :( Michael discovered it yesterday afternoon, not even an hour after we got Kira back. He was in the garage, getting the stuff together to go fire up the grill, and he looked in the big container we keep the turtles in, and thought that one of them didn't look right. After shifting the water around in there, trying to get the turtle to move, his head was sort of just flopped over, and was pale-looking. I winced because it was just too icky to look at. The thing is, I don't even know if it was Sam or Nella, because after that, I couldn't look anymore. I can tell which is which by looking at their undershell, but I had to walk away. I've had these turtles for a very long time. We are going to give it a proper burial, but last night we were trying to get supper done, plus we don't have a shovel. Those that read this that have known me for a long time know that I've had these turtles a very long time. One of them I found during 6th grade, and the other one in 7th grade. Do the math, and that's 13 and 12 years, respectively. I guess I shouldn't feel so bad. That is a good number of years to have any kind of pet. And really, since I've been married, I haven't had the time to pay attention to them like I used to. Michael was the one to take care of them for me mostly. But still, I got used to them being there, and on warm sunny days I would get them out in the yard, scrub their shells with a toothbrush, etc. ::sigh:: Michael even said he noticed that it had not been eating much, if anything, lately. Used to when he would drop the food in there, they would both go nuts and eat it all up, but lately just the one has been eating, and the other one would just stay in his shell. I am wondering if that one has been dead for a little longer than just yesterday. It's been about a month since we actually got them out and everything.

Okay, enough about the turtles....TOO MUCH PET DRAMA!

Now, for an interesting observation:

Laundry Mystery #317 - When I go a few days (okay, a week) without folding the clean clothes in the laundry basket, why does the amount of clothes in the basket never dwindle, all the while the dirty clothes in the hamper continue to pile up? And yes, we pull clothes out of the clean clothes basket and wear them.

Speaking of laundry, it's piling up more by the second. Must fold and put away. TTFN!