Really Nothing - Revised

Hey all, it's been too long since I've blogged. I'd like to say it's because I've been doing something fabulous, but that would be a bald-faced lie. I haven't felt like doing anything at all. I've barely done any knitting. I've made a few rosaries (with two more to make), but I've actually been watching TV without doing anything else at the same time. That is so not like me.

I write great blog entries in my head when I'm nowhere near a computer, but now that I have the time and inclination, I can't remember those great blog entries in which I'm brilliantly clever and funny.

I just read this story and dammit! It makes it really hard to hate the Yankees organization. It made me cry - I'm a wuss, I readily admit it.

This morning I heard on the radio something that had me scratching my head, questioning whether Americans really are this stupid. The report was that GM had done a study where they found out that people didn't know that Chevy and Cadillac were brands of theirs (apparently Chevys and Cadillacs are selling, while anything with a GM badge wasn't – I'm thinking GMCs), so they were going to start NOT badging their GMCs – no clue what they're going to call them, but to those of you who don't live in southeastern Michigan, is this true? People don't know that Chevy and Cadillac are GM brands? Along with Pontiac and Buick? Even if they are killing off the Pontiac brand (something they should have done before they killed Oldsmobile, IMHO).

One of my co-workers was pregnant, due at the end of September, so I made her some cute little booties and then started a sweater to go with the booties as I chose red yarn and I figured babies don't get a boatload of red clothing. Anyway, I say she was pregnant because she gave birth Friday night – six weeks early – and the darn sweater isn't done!!! Because as I pointed out earlier I haven't been doing a damn thing, not even knitting. So, now I need to finish the sweater, and then make a preemie hat. I'm thinking that if I could find an adorable dress in white with red swiss dots that the red sweater and booties would be perfect. Hmm.

Hmm is right. I reached a point in the sweater where I don't know what the hell to do, so I packed it up to take to work tomorrow, so my friend Mary can help me. She's an amazing knitter and doesn't let little things like Cast on 2 stitches in the middle of a row worry her. So, I've started a hat.

My birthday is tomorrow and I have to tell you that I got the most amazing present from a group of my friends...a hand-painted picture of Ian Curtis by someone I actually know. She's a very nice young woman (that's how you can tell I'm old - I have a good 20+ years on her) and I'm honored to have her art in my house, as corny as that sounds.



I received some not so fabulous medical news today. I won't know anything for a few weeks, but in the meantime, if you could keep me in your thoughts and prayers (if you're so inclined), that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

And because it has been requested...CATBLOGGING!!!

Cat Scratch Saturday - Igor

Happy Saturday, everybody.

I've been busy already today. I got up late which happens when you're tired, but can't go to bed before 2:30 a.m. because of the stupid bar district. I got my fat butt on the treadmill this morning and then walked to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and since I was only a block away I continued on to the fruit market. Once I got home I did dishes and even though I haven't eaten I just don't feel like cooking anything. It's not hot or anything, I just have reached the point where I don't feel like doing anything resembling housekeeping, so I kind of blew it all on the dishes.

I knitted four whole rows last night on my sweater after not knitting at all for over a week. It's not because it's summer and it's too hot to knit, because it's not hot at all. Today's high is supposed to be 68F...it's July, dammit!!! I want to be outside sitting in the sun!!! Perhaps napping. I think I have too much yarn now, because I'm overwhelmed with everything I have to knit, so I choose to do nothing. Hmmm, not good.

I'm very bummed re: le Tour de France as my favorite guy, Levi Leipheimer, broke his wrist on Thursday, which means he had to abandon le Tour. Bums me out, not that he really had a chance since Lance and Alberto are considered the true GC guys of Team Astana, so unless something drastic happened to either of them, Levi wasn't going to win, but hope springs eternal...or did.

Well, it's Saturday and that means Catblogging. I realised that the last five catbloggings (at least) have been of Boris. It's not that I don't love Igor, it's just that Boris is much more photogenic. Igor, being black, is much harder to photograph, but here he is.



Last weekend, I drove to Pittsburgh. HRH wanted to get the heck out of her town since the Icky Racing League were there and she hates them even more than I do (nominally). I also had to get some very cool Champ Car memorabilia to C&C and it was something that I couldn't mail or take on a plane as it would look fairly bombish. Turns out that Pittsburgh is about 4-4.5 hours drive for all of us. We all travel well together as we're easy-going about doing this, that or the other thing. HRH found vintage racing at BeaveRun race track. It wasn't a great day for racing as it was wet and a tad chilly, but we had fun nonetheless, once the rain stopped and the cars came back out on the track. Old race cars are cool and I love seeing them race. Heck, I got to root for a Pinto!!

Pittsburgh is a beautiful city built as it is at the confluence of three rivers and surrounded by high hills/small mountains covered in trees. They were having a street art festival. It wasn't overly large, but the first booth I saw was a woman who handspins and hand-dyes her own yarns. I supported her and picked up a very pretty hank of wool dyed in blues. I like to support independent artists and stores.

I hope everybody is having a good weekend. I want to go for sushi, but it probably won't happen. *sigh*

Hodgepodge to annoy LL & the Good Doctor

Along with consistent catblogging to annoy LL to the nth degree (no, I haven't forgiven you for the whole Crosby thing yet), I've decided to tell you what I've been up to...my friend Stephanie (from work) told me that I should occasionally knit for myself (I rarely do) and I was telling her about Beth and she said, You two need to pick a month when you knit only for yourselves. It was an idea that piqued my interest. So, I wrote to Beth and said that during the month of June we needed to knit something for us. And since we are who we are, we still knitted for others, but we had to work on something for ourselves more.

I had bought a number of knitting books in June and I chose this sweater (I liked the pattern, but even better, I had the necessary yarn) from them. In case that link doesn't work perfectly, it's on page 30 and it's pink - while mine is most definitely not.

I have finished the back and have started the front and I could have probably come close to finishing the knitting part of it this weekend, but I spent it re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in preparation of re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince prior to seeing the movie next week. It's going to be an exciting month of movie watching as I've already seen one in the movie theater, and with HP6 coming out, that'll be TWO movies in one month in the theatre. It's craziness...and it'll probably be it for the year, unless I can catch HP6 at the IMAX.

Is anybody watching le Tour de France? I love it and am excited about this season and hoping like hell there's no bloody stupid doping scandal(s) this year. I'll be happy with any number of winners - the only one I don't want to see win is Cadel Evans. Anybody but him and I'll be pleased as punch - unless he's improved on his personality since last year - which I doubt.

Happy Canada Day (plus One)

Sorry to abandon you all so abruptly (especially you, LL, I know how much you appreciate Catblogging), but Thursday was spent packing and downloading pictures to my computer (from the February Vegas trip) and then putting 2007 pictures on disk to save up room on the computer hard drive. I left early on Friday from work for Baltimore where I was until Tuesday. I was visiting my friend Rebecca and her family, and on Sunday I got to visit with my friend LT and his family, including my beloved Tyler.



Apparently, Boris doesn't just love boxes, but anything of a particular beige color. How can you not love catblogging, LL???

Wouldn't it be crazy if I listed June's books and movies early in July instead of waiting until August or September, as I seem to be doing of late?

I did really well book-wise.

Books

21. Wicked Prey by John Sandford - 402 pages - John Sandford is one of those authors whose books I buy as soon as I see it's available (and then lend it to a friend, after I read it). His books can include some violence, but I find them enthralling and I read them pretty quickly. You don't really need to read the Prey books in order, so you can pick this one up w/o worrying about really missing anything, but I think you'll want to read them all once you start.

22. Fables: Legends in Exile #1 by Bill Willingham, et al - 125 pages - My friends Katie and Dan own Green Brain Comics and since I like to support my friends in their businesses, I asked Katie to recommend some comics/graphic novels that I would enjoy. I have never been much of a fan of short stories, which is kind of how I view comics, but I love fairy tales and I loved The Sandman series way back when, so I was willing to try something different. Fables' main theme is that the fairy tales characters were chased out of their own lands by something called The Nemesis (I think) and are now living in New York City. In this volume, someone seems to have killed Rose Red and Snow White puts the Wolf (who looks human for some reason - which is interesting since all the other animals are still animals) on the case to find out who did it. I thought it was quite well done, although I'm still in novel mode as I don't always remember that I'm supposed to look at the pictures. DUH.

23. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway - 213 pages - A friend from work bought me this book after she had told me about it and I thought it sounded really interesting, especially since I was reading Shakespeare and Company already (only at night, so while I started it before the Hemingway book, I finished it afterward). Both are about Paris in the 20s and about all the ex-pats, mostly writers, who lived there.

24. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - 312 pages - I love Neil Gaiman and this book is no exception. While it might sound gruesome, it was really a very sweet story about a boy whose entire family is killed one night (he was supposed to be as well), but he had crawled out of his crib and found himself in a graveyard where the "ghosts" of the inhabitants took him in and kept the assassin from getting to him.

25. Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon - 87 pages - This is volume #2 in the Serenity graphic novel series. I'm enjoying these and I think the artists have done a great job in capturing everybody's likeness - some better than other, but still, enough to make me happy - old guy love and all.

26. Shakespeare & Company by Sylvia Beach - 220 pages - I liked this book better than the Hemingway book even though it was about the same period. I didn't know anything about the Paris bookstore when I bought this book, but it sounded quite interesting. Sylvia Beach owned the English-language bookstore in Paris until WWII. It was also a lending library for people who couldn't afford to buy books. She was also the first publisher of James Joyce's Ulysses which was banned in the U.S. and Great Britain. She also supported (it seems) Joyce, money-wise, but she didn't seem to mind, even though it seemed to me that he took advantage.

27. Fables: Animal Farm #2 by Bill Willingham, et al - 127 pages - The animals, save the Wolf as I've already mentioned, from fairy tales are stuck living on The Farm because, I guess, talking animals living in New York City would freak regular non-fable people out. Anyway, the animals revolt lead by two of the three pigs (a tad reminiscent of Orwell). It was quite good. I'm proud of myself for branching out into comic books, even if I am limiting it, so far, to Fables and Serenity.

28. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling - 111 pages - I think J.K. Rowling is awfully clever to write fairy tales for witches. Maybe I'm easily impressed, but these are the stories she mentioned in the Harry Potter books. And if you go to that link, you can even hear her read one of the tales.

29. The Sorcerer's Companion by Allan Zola Kronzek & Elizabeth Kronzek - 274 pages - This was written in an encyclopedic way, but I read it in order. It was interesting, and was well-researched, I thought. For example, it discussed dragons and how they were scary in Europe, but considered good luck in Asia - with a bit more information than that. ;-)

30. Things I Learned About Knitting...Whether I Wanted To or Not by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka The Yarn Harlot - 160 pages - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is an absolutely hysterical writer of knitting books. If you're not a knitter, you might not appreciate her writing fully, but omigod, I laughed out loud a lot while reading this book.

31. Facing the Extreme: One Woman's Story Of True Courage And Death-Defying Survival In The Eye Of Mt. McKinley's Worst Storm Ever by Ruth Anne Kocour with Michael Hodgson - 273 pages - I needed a book to take to Baltimore with me and this one won out because it was small enough to fit in my purse. I read it Tuesday and it proved to me that while I love reading mountaineering books, I have no desire ever to climb a mountain, especially one where it snows. It wasn't the best mountaineering book I've ever had, but it was pretty good.

Book of the Month - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Movies

27. - 6/6 - The Paradine Case (TCM) - 1947 - This movie was unavailable for a while on DVD, so when it came up on TCM (last June 26 - yeah, it was on my DVR for damn near a year), I DVRd it. After watching it a second time, I realised that this is a Hitchcock film I don't need to own. It's not that it's bad. It's just not a very happy film and it makes me sad to see Gregory Peck so pathetic.

28. - 6/7 - Bell, Book and Candle (TCM) - 1958 - I remembered seeing this movie many many years ago and wanted to see it again as I remembered liking it. Tastes change as we get older, I've discovered. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't extraordinarily fabulous. I wasn't in love with Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart together in Vertigo, and it didn't work for me here either.

29. - 6/7 - The Last Metro (N) - 1980 - This is about a famous Jewish French play director during WWII who goes into hiding (supposedly left the country), while his wife, Catherine Deneuve, continues to run the theater with a very young Gerard Depardieu as leading man in the new play. It was told as a true story...no clue if it is. It helped keep me in my WWI/Nazi theme of the past couple months. *sigh* So uplifting.

30. - 6/26 - Flushed Away (RR) - 2006 - When you visit friends with a 5-year-old you end up watching animated films - not that I'm complaining, because I love animated films, and I got to see two (see #32) new ones (okay, new to me). I love Aardman and this came from them. It was very cute. Premise: Roddy is a pet rat who gets flushed down the toilet by a pretty disgusting rat and he spends the movie trying to get back to his cushy life as a pet. He meets up with the usual cast of characters - bad guys with an evil plan, normal rats living their lives, love interest, etc. And, of course, learns what is actually important in life.

31. - 6/26 - After The Thin Man (K) - 1936 - I had sent my DVD excel spreadsheet to my friend Rebecca on Thursday to see if there were any movies she wanted me to bring and she asked for a Thin Man movie. The first one is lent to a friend from work, so I brought the 2nd one. I love the Nick and Nora movies and this one has a very young James Stewart. If you haven't ever seen one, please do yourself a favor and watch them. They are quite clever and what is funnier than a police detective getting all angry and swearing heartily by saying "Phooey."

32. - 6/27 - Robots (RR) - 2005 - This was my second children's movie of the weekend (and better than my other option of Madagascar 2 which I had seen and wasn't overly fond of). I quite liked this...I thought the main character robot was cute and it was a lovely story appealing to my socialist heart. ;-)

Movie of the Month - The Last Metro (although I'm more likely to watch Flushed Away again, as it was a tad happier)

Cat Scratch Wednesday

How adorable is Boris in this picture? With his little chin resting on his elbow. So sweet!

Cat Scratch Tuesday

This is my very beloved Tikal shortly before I had to have him put to sleep because of a tumor underneath his tongue which wasn't letting him eat.




First off, LL, Derian Hatcher was never The Face of the Red Wings, much less the preferred face of the NHL.

But if you want to root for somebody like this...



I guess that's your prerogative.

Cat Scratch Monday

I find it a lot easier to take pics of Boris as Igor is so dark and he fades into the background...but here he is, oh so relaxed, and you can see his cute six-toed paw(s).

Really, LL, you root for this guy???

Cat Scratch Sunday

LL will learn not to say shit he really knows better about saying...I'm keeping my threat of catblogging for a week. ;-)



This is The Libertarian's cat, Carbon.

Cat Scratch Saturday (just for LL)

I don't know if Boris sits in the suitcase to try to keep me home or if it's just another box to him...but he's so darn cute, how could I not share him with you, LL?

Cat Scratch Sunday

Oops, missed annoying LL yesterday. Tragic!!!!



This seemed like a perfect picture considering the weather here has been fabulous - windows open and everything! So, in honor of spring (although it's more summery the past three days than spring-like) here's Boris sitting in an open window.

Cat Scratch Saturday

This is Igor's favorite place to hang out when I'm in the shower. Directly to the right of where he's sitting is said shower. Schneider built the shelves in the wasted space between the end of the tub and the wall (my old apt. directly below did not have these handy-dandy shelves) and we all appreciate them. Boris likes to climb up on the very top (just above Igor's spot) and you can see where Igor likes to sit. I use the purple towel to protect the ones I actually use from becoming covered in black cat hair.

Today was as GORGEOUS day here in Michigan. I went out for Sander's hot fudge cream puffs with the OS, Mom and the Nephew's girlfriend (nephew was going to a geek fest). After the hot fudge decadence, we went to Grandma's condo to check out the stuff that was left. I hadn't gotten to go through her stuff the first time around because I was in SF and Vegas. I got some cool kickass old time ash trays that don't look like ashtrays but sweet glass sculptural bowls. I'll have to take a picture sometime to show you. Childhood memories.

I'm not feeling 100% so I'm going to bed. I do not need to get sick AGAIN! I'm tired of being sick.

Cat Scratch Saturday

This is my favorite picture of my beloved Tikal who I had to put to asleep back in May 2003 due to a tumor that attached his tongue to the bottom of his mouth so he couldn't eat. The day I put him to sleep was one of the worst days of my life. He was so sweet and a complete lap cat. At night he would sleep under the covers in my bed. When he'd want to go under the covers, he'd head-butt me until I lifted the covers. I was always worried that he was going to suffocate, but obviously never did. One time the YS stayed at my place when I went somewhere and after a couple of nights, she told me that Tikal was head-butting her at night but couldn't figure out why. "Oh yeah, he wants to be let under the covers." After that, she had uninterrupted nights of sleep.

Back in 2000 when the YS and I were driving my belongings and me back to Detroit from San Francisco in a big rented truck with Tikal in a carrier - at least to start. But we couldn't keep the poor sweetie in the carrier the whole time, so we let him out, hoping he'd sit on my lap, but he was a bit freaked out by the noise of engine and spent most of the first few days of the drive on the floor next to Aunt YS's feet (there was a separate little area in the wheel well on the driver's side). By the time we reached the Plains states, however, he was sitting on the seat between us and looking out the windscreen. Aunt YS played the license plate game with Tikal, and he won. He was excellent at spotting license plates and almost got all 50 of them. ;-)

The funniest part of the trip, however, was one time when he was sitting up looking out the windshield, we were approaching an overpass and as we passed underneath it Tikal totally ducked. It was hilarious. At the next overpass, he still ducked, but not to the extent of the first one. After that he figured it out and realised that the overpasses weren't dangerous, but that initial duck was so darn funny. I still miss him, even as much as I love Boris and Igor, Tikal holds a special place in my heart. He was a sweet boy.

Cat Scratch Saturday & March Books & Movies

Igor and Boris looking like they get along...silly boys.

Books

11. Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn by Donald Soto - 340 pages - I love Audrey Hepburn. She was an unbelievable woman - living through WWII, dealing with the abandonment of her father, the coldness of her mother, etc. All she ever wanted in life was to be loved and to be a mother of many children. She ended up married to two men who did not appreciate her or love her the way she wanted to be loved. Such a sad story.

12. Mystery of Crocodile Island by Carolyn Keene (#55) - 180 pages - Nancy and friends left River Heights and its myriad mysteries for the Florida Keys and some bad guys owning a crocodile farm and smuggling illicit goods. I know this will shock you but she solved the mystery and avoided great danger to her and Ned.

13. The Thirteenth Pearl by Carolyn Keene (#56) - 179 pages - This is the last of the Nancy Drew books. She leaves the country with her father, Carson Drew, for Japan where she dresses in disguise as a Japanese girl (somehow the people she comes into contact with fall for it), figures out the key that will help her solve the mystery of the missing pearls once she gets back to River Heights where her friends help her once again. Whew, I was worried on this one. ;-)

14. The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes and Other Surprising True Stories of Zoo Vets and Their Patients Ed. by Lucy H. Spelman, DVM and Ted Y. Mashima, DVM - 311 pages - The title of this book caught my eye as I do love rhinos, the subtitle convinced me to buy it. It contained great stories of vets figuring out what was wrong with their animal patients and how they cured them - at least most of them. It also had pictures of all the animals. I would definitely recommend this book to any animal lover, especially LL.

15. A Walk in the Woods By Bill Bryson - 274 pages - Somebody gave me this book years ago and told me it was very funny, but I had just never gotten around to reading it. After I read his Shakespeare book last month, I finally took it off the bookshelf. The person (whoever it was) who gave me the book did not steer me wrong. This book is one laugh after another and is about Bill Bryson's attempt to hike the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. I actually know someone who has accomplished this particular feat and I've also hiked the last bit in Maine myself where I saw people who were finishing the AT themselves (some were nice, some were a bit snotty, as if they are better than day hikers). Whatever. I'd definitely recommend this book, even if you're not hiker (I don't consider myself to be a real hiker).

Movies

11. A Night To Remember - 1955 - Retroplex - I read the book that this movie was based on when I was in grade school (multiple times). I was fascinated by the Titanic story. While I hate the James Cameron/Leonard diCaprio movie, Titanic, I loved this movie, as it's based on the book by Walter Lord and he had interviewed many of the survivors to get as true a story as possible. I cried throughout The Night to Remember which I did not do at all during Titanic.

12. Ratatouille - 2007 - Encore - I have a thing for animated films, but I hadn't seen this when it came out. I thought this was very cute. The concept is a rat that has a thing for cooking shows and ends up in a Paris restaurant where he helps the true owner (but we don't know that yet) take over the restaurant from the mean guy. If you haven't seen it, and it's shows up on cable, definitely check it out.

13. Coffee and Cigarettes - 2003 (N) - This marked the end of my Jim Jarmusch phase and I have to say that I bloody well hated this movie. It was all I could do to finish watching it. And it had Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Steven Wright, Roberto Benigni and Kate Winslett in it. Premise was a series of vignettes where people meet over cigarettes and coffee, not a horrible premise, but it was horrendously boring and I wanted to slap people. Honestly, it had Iggy Pop in it and I hated it.

14. Slumdog Millionaire - 2008 (Star-Sfld) - I don't see many movies in the theatre, but I really wanted to see this one, so I went one Sunday with Pamela after she cut my hair. I didn't know much about it (i.e., the violence and torture), except that it was about a slum kid in India who gets on their version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I quite liked it.

15. Velvet Goldmine - 1998 (N) - I had been wanting to see this movie again for some time, especially after reading the Iggy Pop biography. I have to say that knowing more about Iggy gave me a new perspective on the movie. It's not a bad movie, but it didn't work for me as well as it had before. Sometimes too much knowledge can take away the enjoyment of a thing.

16. MacGyver - Season 2 - I love MacGyver.

Book of the Month: This is tough...the Audrey Hepburn book was great, but it was sad. The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes was fabulous, but Walk in the Woods was hilarious. I'm going with A Walk in the Woods.

Movie of the Month: A Night To Remember - See it...especially if you think DiCaprio's Titanic was good.

Cat Scratch Saturday

I was out earlier running errands, meeting the sisters for lunch (and the nephew) and I would have sworn there was a full moon out there because people were driving incredibly stupidly. It was as if I were behind only brand-new drivers who had no clue where they were going, besides not knowing that the pedal on the right made the car go forward.

Then I got home and discovered the 12 Hours of Sebring was on and a light went on! Well, obviously, anybody who knows how to drive a car properly was at home watching sport cars taking on a super tough old WWII air base turned race track where I should have been. Go Allan McNish and Audi!!!

Here is Boris pretending he's a Vampire and Igor giving me a look that says, "Please rescue me."



Silly kids.

Cat Scratch Saturday #2(3)

I've been debating about today's picture - one of Boris and Igor (the wallpaper on my phone) or a picture of Tikal or Zapata (my previous beloved cats).

And I still haven't decided...I'm going to search for a picture and see what appeals.



I decided on a picture of Boris with a cameo of Tikal.

I know you're all anxiously awaiting the books and movies of February, so here it is. I'm also watching Top Gear, so we'll see how well I summarise them when I'm not completely concentrating.

Books

4. The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer (267 pages) - If you haven't yet discovered Eoin Colfer (then you haven't been reading me for very long, or you've ignored my recommendations - and I'm crushed). He's an Irish writer for the Young Adult genre and he's utterly fabulous. This is (possibly) a one-off (i.e., not part of the Artemis Fowl series, which is supposedly done) and was a little sad (orphans a la Dickens but in the future), but there is, of course, upsides. The premise was that in the future there are no real countries, just areas controlled by different corporations. For some reason, there were lots of orphans who were essentially guinea pigs for the resident corporation - information which comes in handy when the hero orphan escapes and hooks up with a fringe element of three people who are actually the good guys. It's much more novel than I have explained.

5. Airman by Eoin Colfer (412 pages) - This is the latest book by Mr. Colfer and took place before the time of flight on some little island off the coast of Ireland which was its own little country. (Oh, kickass, I love Top Gear, they're playing Joy Division as background music - as if that would ever happen here.) The country had a good king who wanted his citizens to have a good life (vs. the older kings who wanted everything for himself). The king had a daughter, his head of army had a young son who were best friends. Good king is killed by bad element who also kills the tutor of the princess and her best friend. The boy sees it happen, so bad element throws him into the country's smaller island prison (mining diamonds) by pretending he was part of the assassination (but as a different person - it was all very convoluted, but in a way that made sense). He escapes eventually (think of the title of the book) and fixes everything.

6. Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed by Paul Trynka (354 pages) - I was very disappointed with this book, because although it covers Iggy's life up until 2006, it didn't discuss AT ALL the triumphant return of The Stooges to Detroit in 2003. I was already annoyed with Mr. Trynka for calling a lake here in the Detroit area as St. Clair Lake when its name is Lake St. Clair. It's a small editing issue, per se, but if I caught something that BASIC, who knows what else was wrong.

7. The Secret of the Forgotten City #52 by Carolyn Keene (180 pages) - This one was cool because the Forgotten City was in Nevada, not far from Vegas and she even went to The Valley of Fire, which I thought was pretty cool, considering I've been there and could picture some of the locations in the book. I hate to give away the ending, but Nancy finds the Forgotten City with the help of Bess, George, Ned, Dave and Burt. Yes, shocker, I know!

8. The Sky Phantom #53 by Carolyn Keene (180 pages) - We are getting VERY close to the end of the Nancy Drew books and it's making me sad. This is one that I didn't read a jillion times as a child, so I didn't remember what happened. It was one of the more outrageous Nancy Drew books as Nancy (at the tender age of 18) is taking flying lessons and proving herself to a brilliant pilot (along with her skills as a dancer, drawer, painter, actor, horseback rider, skater, skier, etc., from all the other Nancy Drew books). *eyes rolling*

9. The Strange Message in the Parchment #54 by Carolyn Keene (180 pages) - A thought came to me while re-reading the Nancy Drew books over the past few years. And that thought was "Nancy Drew was the precursor for Hart to Hart." What? You're thinking. Yes, you know how the Harts knew everybody in the world - especially those mixed up in some sort of crime or mystery - well, that's Nancy and her father.

10. Shakespeare: The World As Stage by Bill Bryson (196 pages) - I'd say if you want to know about Shakespeare, read this book. Bill Bryson is HILARIOUS and he pulls no punches and tells you what is actually known and even discusses the discrepancies between other books on Shakespeare - essentially, stuff people made up - not out of any real sense of maliciousness or anything, but stuff that just isn't proved out by the evidence. It's short and sweet.

Book of the Month: You know, I really want to pick the Iggy Pop book, but I'm still pissed off, so I'm going with Airman by Eoin Colfer.

Movies

6. The 49th Man (1953 - TCM) - This movie was about the smuggling of an atomic bomb (in pieces) into the United States. I thought it was very interesting and well done. I won't give away the ending because that would be wrong. If you like older movies (b/w), definitely check it out.

7. Down By Law (1986 - N) - I was still in the midst of my Jim Jarmusch phase here. This one has Tom Waits, John Lurie and Roberto Benigni as cell mates (the movie starts off showing how they all end up there individually) in a New Orleans prison and shows their adventures of escape and their bid for freedom. It was better than the one I just watched last week (which will be discussed next month, of course - trust me, it won't be the movie of March). In fact, I'd say that of Jarmusch's older films, I have liked this one the best.

8. How to Steal A Million (1966 - K) - For Valentine's Day, I went over to my friend Marianne's house (we got Thai take-away) with other friend Susan to watch movies. I took a bunch of movies and they chose a very fun Audrey Hepburn romantic comedy. I love this movie wholeheartedly. Audrey is gorgeous and sweet and lovely. Peter O'Toole is incredibly handsome and funny. It definitely asks you to suspend your disbelief mechanism and I have no problem. If you have never seen this movie, once again, you haven't been listening to me. Watch it. You will love it.

9. Murder By Death (1976 - K) - I had not seen this movie for many, many, many years, but I remembered the gist. However, as I had no knowledge of The Thin Man movies 30 years ago, some of the spoofs were lost on me back then. I kind of object to Neil Simon making Nick and Nora British - just for the record, that's just wrong. How can you object to a movie with Truman Capote, Alec Guinness, David Niven, Maggie Smith, Peter Sellers, Eileen Brennan, Peter Falk, Nancy Walker, Elsa Lanchester and James Cromwell?

10. Hammett (1982 - N) - I'm starting my Wim Wenders (as well as I can since Netflix is no longer carrying Wings of Desire - pissed me off) film retrospective. The premise here is that Dashiell Hammett has to solve his own mystery using what he knows from writing mystery books. It takes place (obviously) in old San Francisco. It was nicely done and fun to watch with Marilu Henner and Peter Boyle. I would say that it's not Wim's best, but I still liked it.

Movie of the Month: I probably can't pick How To Steal A Million, eh? I'm going to go with The 49th Man. It kept me on the edge of my seat and surprised me at the end.

Now, it's time for Top Gear to have my full attention. James and Richard are racing in Italy - Richard in a 40 year old Ferrari Daytona and James in a fancy ass boat of some sort.

Cat Scratch Saturday (Thanks, Red)

I tried to post this this morning, but blogger was misbehaving.

I'm off to Autorama, but here is Saturday Catblogging. I started an entry this week, but didn't get very far.



This picture of Igor was taken by my friend Rick.

For LL - Catblogging Saturday