Passchendaele

Michelle and I watched Passcendaele last night and although it was a good movie, it was not at all what I had expected!!

A lady I work with had said her husband thought there was too much love story in it but in my opinion that was completly over shadowed by the graphic war scenes. The story also went a lot differently than I was expecting. The story other than when they are at war takes place in Calgary. It was neat to see bits of familiarity on the big screen!! It's a truly Canadian movie and a good one too...

The movie kind of depressed me in a way since it just really made it hit home how completly senseless war is, nothing is accomplished. But I suppose I could rant on that one all day.

We get our new big screen LCD this weekend so we will be watching a couple more movies so stay tuned for the reviews :)

7. Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

This book contains some "children's" fairy tales as translated from the ancient runes by Hermione Granger, with commentary from Dumbledore.

I would have a hard time reading these stories to young children however since I am not sure that the language or subject matter is appropriate even if the morals are. I suppose this is why the stories were written for wizard children.

It was a quick read (leass than one hour) and thoroughly enjoyable. Although likely less enjoyable if you are not familiar with the Harry Potter series.

3 Stars

6. Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich

What can I say? I love Stephanie Plum. The sheer hilarity of the antics and completly wacky situations she gets herself into are great. I find her to be a wonderful breath of fresh air and a break from reality. Really who can be serious all the time?

The book starts with Grandma running away...to Atlantic City...you can see this is going nowhere good.

I'm not a big "chicklit" fan but for this series I make an exception. This is the first of the between-the-numbers novels that I have really enjoyed. I see there is a new one out "Plum Spooky" hopefully it is more of the same and not the drivel of the Christmas and Valentines' Day ones.

4 Stars

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

This movie was very long! (butluckily it didn't seem long) Luckily I knew that before hand so I rationed my liquid intake for the entire afternoon before going!

The movie was excellent and really made you think. Brad Pitt (always a favourite of mine) plays the main character in a very convincing way. This movie brings out the full gamet of emotions. The main themes I take away from it are living in the moment and that age doesn't matter, nothing lasts forever. I can definitly see why it was nominated for best picture.

5. Gone With the Wind

5 Stars

*****SPOILERS****

****DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON"T WANT ANYTHING GIVEN AWAY****



I think this may very well be my favourite book of all time. I could read it over and over again (and have). Each time I reazd this book I glean something new. I see way more of myself in Scarlett than I am proud of. I hold a huge soft spot in my heart for Rhett and I despise Ashley Wilkes. However, sometime eachtime I read this book I still have a part of me hoping and wishing for a different ending and that Scarlett makes different choices througout. It breaks my heart that Scarlett ends up alone but really she has no one to blame but herself. Ashley is a spineless ninny and I can't believe she doesn't realise it until the Melly's death and the breakdown of her 3rd marriage. But I could go all day on this point so I'll leave it at that.


I do think the book idealizes the Old South and glamorizes the lifestyle. But the reality of it is that slavery existed in that time period and is abolished through the book. I do think that Margaret Mitchell portrays slavery in a fairly realistic light. Some like Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter choose to stay working with the families they have grown to love as their own, others strike out on their own. Before criticizing the book too harshly for its historical inaccuracies the important thing to remember is that this is a work of fiction. It is not meant to be an educational textbook on the Old South and as such should be appreciated for what it is....

What a Day!

Today at work was insane. A major crisis popped up and it pretty much ate up my whole day on top of the three meetings I also had scheduled. Oh and I moved offices today. Which is good because I finally have a window but bad because it made a crazy day even crazier!

My VP really appreciated my hard work though since he gave me permission to go out for a nice dinner and expense it! Oh and my manager is buying me a coffee tomorrow nice!

I finally get home and get 2 pieces of bad news. Ian's sister miscarried and his Stepmom may have canceer. So those both served to put a real damper on my day!! More than a damper really, it sucks! Thoughts and prayers to both!!

Car search

The lease on my current car expries in 4ish months and the car is not worth near what I would have to buy the lease out (thanks to our dollar skyrocketing and car prices dropping) at so I am turning in the car and BUYING something else. I am in the first step of looking at cars right now and I know I want a small car not a Chevy Cobalt (my current car) or a Mazda3 (Ian's car - that I don't like driving as much).

I have much higher standards this time around since I know I will be spending a little more money than last time (which was the bare minimum) and actually getting some features. Right now there are four cars I am thinking of Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, MINI Cooper and Chevy Aveo (only in the running because I still love my dealerships convenience factor!). All are good on gas, all will be pretty much in the same price range by the time I add on the options I want. So the search has begun (sort of)...