Tom Hanks Movies

I feel like I've finally been immersed in movie culture by seeing 2 highly-acclaimed Tom Hanks movies that I'd never seen.

My husband and I watched most of the "The Green Mile" a few weeks ago, and it was definitely as good as I'd heard. (Granted, I've been a Stephen King fan since I was a teenager and have the screenplay for "The Green Mile" but I'd never seen it).

Then a few days ago we watched most of "Forrest Gump". Also a very excellent movie, and one that will linger in my memory forever.

Winter Solstice

Happy Winter Solstice to everyone. This stunning photograph was taken at Newgrange in Ireland on winter solstice as the light illuminates the passageway and chamber. My sister has been several times (not on the winter solstice, though) and eventually I want to see it.

At this time of year, I'm especially fascinated by all the different religious celebrations that occur around the solstice. One of the more interesting specials I've seen was on the History Channel dealing with the "history" of the winter festivals. If you're interested, you can see some of it at History.com

I'm in no way affiliated with the History Channel

Winter Storm

We're getting ready for our first big snowfall that's supposed to start tonight and last through tomorrow. I guess it will be good for the ski resorts, but I don't know how to ski (although I've heard that the Wii balance board skiing games are pretty realistic).

I used to love snow until I started driving. Which reminds me that this might be a good opportunity to take my son out to an empty parking lot and let him learn about driving in snow.

Google Voice

I've been exploring Google Voice and there are SO many features that I'm not sure how to take advantage of all of them.

Right now I'm mainly using it to text my daughter since I'm a SLOW texter and it's so much easier for me to use a regular keyboard. So using the unlimited SMS feature, I text her phone, she texts me back, and I read it online like email.

There are other features like a Call Me widget (the image is above) that I haven't played with yet. And I've used the the voicemail transcription and REALLY want to use it more, so I'll keep fiddling with that.

FarmVille

My daughter thought I might enjoy playing Farmville on Facebook, and it is a fun way to connect with people. My son has a farm, too, so I visit his farm and send him presents. So far, I'm at level 16 (4 away from being able to get a dairy barn for my cows).

For me, the funnest part of this game is that it's real time. If you plant a crop that takes 1 day to ripen, then in exactly 24 hours, your crops are ready to harvest.

Charlaine Harris

My sister gave me the first book in the Harper Connelly series, and I'm hooked. So far there are 4 books featuring Harper who is able to find dead people and "see" how they died. She was struck by lightning at age 15 and had this "gift" ever since.

Harper uses her special ability for clients and travels from city to city with her manager step-brother Tolliver. (I'm in the middle of book 2, and I haven't read the blurbs of the next 2 books to see what happens to them).

This now makes me curious about Ms. Harris' other books, so if you have any opinions of them, please let me know.

Favorite Doll

In another post, I mentioned my favorite doll when I was a  youngster, and here she is. Her name was Chrissy and she had adjustable hair. I think the button on her belly would let you pull her hair to its full length, and winding the button on her back would roll it up and shorten it.

My grandmother dressed her for me when I was in my early 20's. And I never asked her if she chose the green velvet to look like the green curtain "Gone with the Wind" dress, but I always assumed she did.

Rug Clipping (Part 3)

As promised, here are the pictures of my rag rug. It's made from 3.75 rug canvas, and I'm using 1" x 4" fabric strips. I then fold the strips in half and slip them through the holes in the canvas. I'm using my jewelry pliers to grab the strips and pull them back through the canvas, so it's time consuming but still fun.

The canvas is 3' x 5' so it's going to take me quite a while to finish it, but I'm trying to decide the color design and then make sure I have enough fabric for the whole rug.

Raymond Khoury

I read Raymond Khoury's "The Sanctuary" and "The Sign" back to back, even though they don't share any of the same characters. They're both thrillers and page-turners.

"The Sanctuary" deals with a search for a life-extending elixir and the ethics involved with presenting it to the world if found. "The Sign" deals with how technology-induced phenomena could be used to manipulate people's religious beliefs.

While being very entertaining, the books did have (in my opinion) important messages and were very thought-provoking.

Dora Links Dolls

My nieces are getting Dora Links Dolls from my sister for Christmas, and I had no idea what these are. But I wanted to get them accessories to go with them.

I found them at Toys R Us and then looked up the doralinks.com website to learn more. I would've absolutely loved this when I was a preteen.

My favorite doll then was a Chrissy that had adjustable-length hair. When I was older, my grandmother dressed it for me and I still have it (somewhat) carefully preserved. Maybe I'll post a picture (I know, I know, I'll add this to my list of pictures to shoot and post.)

I'm in no way affiliated with Toys R Us, Mattel, or Dora the Explorer