Uptown Funk (Oldtown Cover)

I've been a fan of Alex Boye since the first time I saw him performing in The Civil War, a musical production at my local community theater a few years ago. He came back a year or two later and starred in the production again, and I was hooked.

This video came across my Facebook wall early this morning and it made me want to get up and dance. I thought it was only fair to share it with the rest of you!

Enjoy!

Thirteen Things I Didn't Know About March

1. March is National Crochet Month. Seriously! I had no idea, and I love to crochet. The Crochet Guild of America (yes, it's real) is sponsoring Crochet-Along in March. Check out CGOA Now! for more details.

2. March 18th is the birthday of Sparky the Fire Dog, who is the official mascot of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). I am not making this up!

3. Each year the President of the United States designates March as Red Cross Month. Something tells me I should know this. Something else whispers that maybe I did once, a long, long time ago. But maybe I'm making that up. I really don't know. Go donate blood or something. It's the right thing to do.

Clip art courtesy of DailyClipArt.net

4. March is National Frozen Food Month. You probably already know that. I didn't. I'm going to buy some ice cream to celebrate. Again -- the right thing to do.

5. March is National Noodle Month. I kid you not. Not to be confused with National Pasta Month, which is celebrated in October of each year. What's a noodle, you ask? It's made from unleavened dough shaped either into thin, flat strips or round cylinders and cooked in boiling liquid. Derived from the German nudel.

6. March is National Irish-American Heritage Month, which should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody.

7. March is Music in our Schools Month. My heart aches every time legislators anywhere cut funding for the arts in our schools. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. The website linked to here offers a few suggestions for what we can do to help, including following the organization on Twitter and "liking" it on Facebook.

8. March is National Craft Month. Use your spare time this month to learn a new craft. Make a collage. Learn how to make jewelry. Knit or celebrate National Crochet Month. Get off Facebook and Twitter and do something crafty!

9.  March is also National Nutrition Month -- a time for all of us to focus on eating right and making healthy choices. I guess that means I should buy frozen broccoli instead of ice cream for National Frozen Food Month. I'm not going to lie -- I'm disappointed.

10. March is Women's History Month. The theme for 2011 is: Our History is Our Strength.

11. March is Youth Art Month. I hope the Youth Art Month and Music in Our Schools Month folks are working together. I'd hate to think they're competing for the limited funding out there.

12. I did my research just in time. This week is National Bubble Gum Week! I can't believe I almost missed it. Thank goodness I have a couple of Blow-Pops on top of my fridge that I was saving for my granddaughters. If you're really ambitious, you can even make your own bubble gum. The recipe is here! Or, if you're not in the mood to chew your way to bubble-gum nirvana, check out this Bubblegum Martini recipe.

Photo of vintage Barbie dolls from Wikipedia

13. It's also Barbie's Birthday! My first Barbie looked like the one on the bottom row, far right. She was beautiful. I still have her, as a matter of fact. She's old. She's fragile. Her hair now looks more like the Barbie on the top row. So does mine. She and I have weathered some storms together. When my little brother was younger, he wrapped poor Barbie in Scotch tape, tied a rope around her waist, and lowered her into a mud puddle in the empty lot next to our house. I'm not sure why. I was too traumatized to ask, I guess. Anyway, she's safe now, so you can all breathe a sigh of relief. But please join me in saying Happy Birthday! to my dear, old friend.

Thursday Thirteen: Websites

I ran across a blog meme the other day that prompted participants to list ten things they wanted to change about themselves. Now, I'm all for taking a good, hard look at myself. I do it too much, actually. But then I clicked on one of the links and read someone's blog containing five answers followed by a note that s/he was too depressed to continue and I thought wait a tick!  There's something wrong here!

There's enough negativity in the world. Too much, actually. There's always someone or something just lying in wait, ready to knock us down. So I decided today to list 13 places on the internet that lift my spirits when I click on them. After you've checked out my list, I'd love to know what sites are on yours. 

1. Operation Beautiful. The mission of Operation Beautiful is to post anonymous notes in public places for other women to find. The point is that we are all beautiful. 

2. Prettybooks on Tumblr.com. A collection of quotes, images and book reviews. The images make my heart happy.

3. Whitley Phipps singing "It is Well With My Soul" on YouTube. This is a relatively new song to me, but it struck a chord with me immediately. No matter how bad the day is going, if I listen to it, my spirits lift. It's not just the song that lifts me. The story he shares gives hope, especially when he says, "It is in the quiet crucible of your personal private sufferings that your noblest dreams are born and God's greatest gifts are given in compensation for what you've been through." 

4. The Happy Writer. The writing life is a hard life. Staying positive is freakishly difficult. Go here. Be Happy. 

5. 1000 Awesome Things. This blog, updated every weekday, reminds me to find joy in the little things, whether it's #299: Finally pulling out an ingrown hair or #899: The smell of frying onions. 

6. Christian the Lion. This isn't a website, but it's a wonderful video. If you haven't seen it yet, rush right over. If you have, watch it again. It makes me happy every time. John Rendall and Anthony Bourke bought Christian as a lion cub from Harrods in 1969. They raised him in their London home for several years, then set him free to live in the wilds of Africa. A year later, against advice from experts, John and Anthony traveled to Kenya, hoping to reunite with their old friend. "They" said Christian wouldn't remember.

7. Gives Me Hope. The optimist's answer to FML. Some of the experiences people share are big -- dealing with cancer or grief. Some seem small -- one woman paying another's bus fare. But all give hope and light in a world that seems to be growing increasingly dark. 

8. Greater Good Network. Their websites bring together communities that care, giving all of us the power  to make a difference in the world with simple, every day actions. 

9. The art work of Liz Lemon Swindle. It always touches me. At this stage in my life, I'm really touched by Mother

10. Poetry.com. For me, words can be soothing. Words used beautifully, succinctly, correctly, are like music to my soul. 

11.Military Homecoming videos on YouTube. Is there anything better than seeing spouses and children surprised by a returning soldier? I start sniffling within seconds. So touching. 

12. 365 Project. The 365 project is a photography project where you document a year of your life by taking a daily photo. I'd love to join in but my camera was ruined in a downpour last year and I haven't been able to replace it. The shots I get with my old camera phone just aren't that good. 

13. Bible Gateway . A searchable online Bible in over 50 languages and 100 versions, featuring a verse of the day. 

You may not like all 13 of my choices. You may not like any of them. But they're the places I go when I need a lift. Now ... what are your favorites?

.

Thirteen Romantic Movies

In honor of Valentine's Day, here are my top 13 Favorite Romantic Movies:

 1. Notting Hill (1999)

Starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. He's Hugh-Grantishly charming and she's ... well, she's Julia. Just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. The requisite "chasing the girl through crowded city streets" scene in this movie is one of the best ever. 

2. Love, Actually (2003)

Hugh Grant again, this time with the glorious Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and Alan Rickman, to name just a few of the talented actors in this movie. The scenes between Emma and Alan's characters are particularly touching. Bill Nighy is delightfully icky, but you can't help but love him. Even Kiera Knightly, who usually isn't a favorite, wins me over.

3. America's Sweethearts (2001) 

John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones are America's Sweethearts, once-married actors who made a string of romantic comedies together. Now they're divorced, but the studio needs them to appear together to promote their last movie. Julia Roberts and Billy Chrystal round out the cast. Hilarity ensues. What's not to love?

4. Overboard (1987) 

Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. She's a spoiled rich socialite. He's a poor carpenter. She falls off her yacht and loses her memory. He's Kurt Russell. She struggles to find her way in a strange new world. He's Kurt Russell. The chemistry between them is unmistakable. He's Kurt Russell. Need I say more? 

5.  Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

A classic romance. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. If you haven't seen it, don't wait. It's thoroughly charming -- and I mean that in a good way :) I find myself quoting lines from this one. "It's like a little clue."

6. While You Were Sleeping (1995)

Back in the day, I didn't expect to like this movie. The premise sounded implausible, at best. But it's one of my favorites. Kinda makes you want someone to lean, if you know what I mean.

7. Return to Me (2000)

David Duchovny plays a widower still mourning the loss of his wife. Minnie Driver is a heart transplant patient who received Duchovny's late-wife's heart. Carroll O'Connell and his band of friends are scene-stealers all the way through. One of my favorites. 

8. P.S. I Love You (2007)

 

This movie has several things to recommend it. First, Gerard Butler. Second, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Third, Harry Connick, Jr. And Hillary Swank's pretty darned good too. Kathy Bates as Swank's mother is a great character. Does it even matter what the plot is? Barely. But the plot works and the scenery is stunning.

9. Some Like it Hot (1959) 

 

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are on the run, hiding from gangsters after witnessing a mob hit. Their only way out of town is to become members of an all-girl band. Marilyn Monroe stars as Sugar Kane Kowalczyk and Joe E Brown is hilarious as Osgood Fielding III. Wonderful. 

10. Teacher's Pet (1958)

Clark Gable plays a rough-edged newspaper man. Doris Day is a journalism professor at the local college. Since Doris Day's character despises Gable's character by reputation, he naturally pretends to be someone else when he's forced to take her class. Gig Young as Dr. Hugo Pine is wonderful. 

11. Truly, Madly Deeply (1990)

Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman in a deeply emotional movie that's also wonderfully funny. If I remember right, this was the first movie I ever saw Rickman in and I became a fan for life. Stevenson's portrayal of grief in a scene at her counselor's office is one of the most realistic I've ever seen. 

12. Sliding Doors (1998)

Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah in a wonderful movie about chance. What if one split-second move could forever alter the future? That's what happens to Paltrow's character, and we see her life playing out in two versions, running along in parallel.

13. It Happened One Night (1934) 

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in a wonderful romantic comedy. She's a runaway heiress. He's a reporter looking for a story. The story goes that this movie was a favorite of animator Friz Freleng, and Gable's character during the hitch-hiking scene helped inspire the creation of Bugs Bunny. 

Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else?

My daughter sent me a note to visit her blog this morning to see the results of a quiz she'd just taken. For years, she's felt a kind of connection to Marilyn Monroe and the results of her quiz came back saying that she is a Marilyn type. The bullet points were amazingly on target when it came to describing her personality, so I decided to take the test myself to see who I am :)

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are an Ingrid!

You are an Ingrid -- "I am unique"

Ingrids have sensitive feelings and are warm and perceptive.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Give me plenty of compliments. They mean a lot to me.
• * Be a supportive friend or partner. Help me to learn to love and value myself.
• * Respect me for my special gifts of intuition and vision.
• * Though I don't always want to be cheered up when I'm feeling melancholy, I sometimes like to have someone lighten me up a little.
• * Don't tell me I'm too sensitive or that I'm overreacting!

What I Like About Being an Ingrid

• * my ability to find meaning in life and to experience feeling at a deep level
• * my ability to establish warm connections with people
• * admiring what is noble, truthful, and beautiful in life
• * my creativity, intuition, and sense of humor
• * being unique and being seen as unique by others
• * having aesthetic sensibilities
• * being able to easily pick up the feelings of people around me

What's Hard About Being an Ingrid

• * experiencing dark moods of emptiness and despair
• * feelings of self-hatred and shame; believing I don't deserve to be loved
• * feeling guilty when I disappoint people
• * feeling hurt or attacked when someone misundertands me
• * expecting too much from myself and life
• * fearing being abandoned
• * obsessing over resentments
• * longing for what I don't have

Ingrids as Children Often

• * have active imaginations: play creatively alone or organize playmates in original games
• * are very sensitive
• * feel that they don't fit in
• * believe they are missing something that other people have
• * attach themselves to idealized teachers, heroes, artists, etc.
• * become antiauthoritarian or rebellious when criticized or not understood
• * feel lonely or abandoned (perhaps as a result of a death or their parents' divorce)

Ingrids as Parents

• * help their children become who they really are
• * support their children's creativity and originality
• * are good at helping their children get in touch with their feelings
• * are sometimes overly critical or overly protective
• * are usually very good with children if not too self-absorbed

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

TGIF!

1. My favorite food seasoning is ... seasoning? Um.... garlic salt, I guess. Yeah, I pretty much put it on everything, so I guess it would qualify. Or just plain garlic. The salt isn't necessary, really. 2. My granddaughter's voice is music to my ears. 3. Lucky is having the money for a trip to Florida. 4. My career and my family are something I take very seriously. 5. Many people have changed Halloween traditions because the world has changed so much. Remember how much fun it used to be to take off Trick-or-Treating without parents? Now, kids go Trunk-or-Treating. It's just not the same. 6. Dog food and deodorant are the last things I bought at the store. 7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to curling up under a blanket and watching something good (or not so good) on TV, tomorrow my plans include my local RWA chapter meeting, followed by a book signing, and Sunday, I want to read, watch Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters -- after church, of course!

Friday's Feast #3

Friday's Feast

Appetizer

When was the last time you were surprised? When my daughter wished me a happy birthday on the morning of my birthday. I'd just woken up and forgotten it was that day.

Soup

Fill in the blanks: My eyes are brown, but I wish they were um....still brown? Browner? Or maybe just not getting old and needing glasses so much!

Salad

If you were a Beanie Baby, what would you look like and what would your name be? Good grief, what a question! I know absolutely nothing about Beanie Babies. Excuse me while I Google them. ..... ..... ..... <tapping foot impatiently> ..... ..... ..... I think I'd be a Panda and my name would be Ling Ling. I had a special relationship with the real Ling Ling, even though we never "met" in real life. We both got pregnant and miscarried at the same time for several years.

Main Course

Name two things you consistently do that you consider to be healthy habits. Healthy habits? Um.....I umm..... Okay! I get plenty of sleep most nights, and I drink lots of water -- admittedly, it's in the form of ice which I keep in my big red cup that is constantly at my side, but it still becomes water!

Dessert

What brand of toothpaste are you using these days? Sheesh. I don't know. It's whatever seemed the most reasonably priced for the alleged protection it offers when I bought it. I think it might be Aqua Fresh, but I'm not sure.

Do you like it? It's okay.

Why or why not? It's toothpaste. It doesn't make me gag. What's not to like?

Thursday Thirteen #7

Thirteen Pictures I'd Like to Cross Stitch

I'm taking the lazy woman's approach this week since I'm so far under the gun with deadlines and stuff. Sorry I couldn't be more creative. 1.

2 & 3. My niece, Heidi, has made stockings for everyone in her family, for her sister, her brother-in-law, and her niece and newphews. The stockings look so cool hanging above the fireplace, I've decided I'd like to make some, too. 4.

5, 6, 7 & 8. I love old-fashioned samplers, but I don't think I've ever stitched one. (I haven't yet kept any of my cross-stitching. I give it all away, so I can't remember everything I've done.) Anyway, I found this set of four and fell instantly in love :) 9. It just looks so peaceful. 10. 11. 12. 13. Have I mentioned that I love holidays? No? Well, I love holidays. If I had the time, energy and money, my house would be decorated to the hilt for every one of them throughout the year!

One Writer's Tool Kit

Every once in a while, someone gives me a tool kit for writers. It's always very crafty and cute, and it contains things like a handful of lifesavers, an eraser, a tiny chocolate bar, and other clever things that make me smile. But what if I were creating a real tool kit for writers? What would I put in it? 1. A copy of Dwight Swain's book, Techniques of the Selling Writer. The examples are a little outdated, but this book is gold in my opinion, and it's much more powerful than any of its counterparts. 2. Paper. A case, at least. 3. A laptop computer. One of the really lovely things (again in my opinion) about being a writer for a living is that you can work anywhere. Being chained to a desk kind of wipes out that perk. 4. Toner. 5. A printer. 6. A copy of The Writers Journey, Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler. I resisted this book for a long, long time just because I'm stubborn. I tend not to get excited about the latest fad, and this book was it for a while. When I finally did take the time to read it, much of what Vogler said made a great deal of sense. 7. Membership in a professional writer's organization. No organization is going to help you get published or stay published, but the association with other writers in this solitary business and the exchange of industry information is invaluable. 8. An extra measure of persistence. Talent is wonderful, but time after time I've seen persistent writers who appear to have a small amount of natural raw talent achieve publishing success while writers who seem to have a great deal of natural talent let their writing ability lie dormant. I'm grateful for every ounce of talent I've been blessed with, but over the years I've come to realize that an even greater gift is my desire and ability to keep going when the road gets rough. 9. A support system. I don't mean a cheering section filled with people who tell us how wonderfully we write, but a real live support system made up of people who understand why we don't answer the door and the phone, who don't try to talk us out of going to critique group or that writing group meeting, who don't interrupt when we're writing, who understand that a whisper is as loud as speaking in your regular voice when you are interrupting and that a five minute phone call can end your work day. These people get the fact that most of us can't write as quickly as we can type, and understand how much work we're doing when we're staring out the window, at the ceiling or into space. They don't have to read a word I write to be invaluable to me and to my career. 10. A never-ending gift certificate to an office supply store. I haven't met a writer yet who wasn't also addicted to office supplies :)

Thursday Thirteen #6

Thirteen TV Shows I Loved as a Kid

1. Here Come the Brides. I've blogged about this one before because I was so excited to find season one on Netflix. I had the biggest crush on Robert Brown who played Jason Bolt.

:::sigh:::

2. The Mod Squad. Oh my. I wanted to be Julie, and I was so desperately in love with Pete I remember getting teary eyed just watching him. I was also so young!!!!!

3. Bewitched. I'm still half convinced that if I could just twitch my nose the right way, I could actually perform magic. In fact, I'm so convinced, I'm not going to clean my house again until I can actually make it work.

4. That Girl. Oh, the excitement! Living on her own in New York! It almost left me breathless. Some day, I swore, I'd be Ann Marie. I still haven't made it.

5. Rawhide. Was there anyone cooler anywhere than Rowdy Yates?

6. The Red Skelton Show. I loved the idea of making people laugh without uttering a word, and Red was the best at pantomime.

7. Bonanza. I was desperately in love with Little Joe (are you sensing a recurring pattern here???) but Adam was also tremendously cool, and Hoss had his own kind of charm. I probably would have taken any one of the three Cartwright boys if they'd asked.

8. The Virginian. I'm adding this one only because I can explain that I loved this show right up until Dan Duryea (?) ignored my fan letter and did not send me an autographed picture of himself. I'm not one to hold a grudge, but you'll notice old Dan's picture isn't here today.

9. Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. Absolute magic on a Sunday evening. I can still remember shows I saw once as a kid and never saw again, and I'm still a huge Disney fan.

10. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I was madly in love with Napoleon Solo. He was so suave. So debonair. Illya Kuriyakin wasn't bad, either, actually.

11. Rowan and Martin's Laugh In. Loved to watch it, but always felt slightly scandalous when I did. It was so daring. LOL.

12. Marcus Welby, M.D. And so began my lifelong love affair with James Brolin.

13. The Carol Burnett Show. Had a bit of a crush on Lyle Waggoner, but I just loved Carol and her sense of humor. Still do. I could watch those old reruns today and laugh out loud.

And one more, for good measure -- Alias Smith and Jones which I can't forget about because, well, of course, I was madly in love with Kid Curry because I was dating a guy who looked a lot like Ben Murphy, and his best friend who, coincidentally was dating my best friend because that's just how it works, you know, looked like Pete Duel, who played Hannibal Hayes.