(or Halloween, as the case may be!)

What is Samhain? Here are some bits from Edain McCoy’s book Sabbats: A New Approach to Living the Old Ways on Samhain: (more…)

Well, we’re off tomorrow morning to Vegas. We’ll be back on Sunday. We’re not taking the laptop so I probably won’t be blogging from SinCity. Though, I will take tons of pictures and share them with you upon our return.

While we’re away, please feel free to take a gander at these recent pics of our critters: (more…)

I have some thoughts on the following pieces of entertainment. Enjoy:

Batman Begins This movie turned out to be surprisingly good! Once I got over my thinking, “That could never happen!” and started to remember that this is a comic book character, then I was able to enjoy it more. Good storyline. Pretty good acting. Katie Holmes is a cutie but the girl can’t really act, IMO.

The Wedding Date So cute. Characters are just barely one dimensional (most are maybe 3/4-dimensional!) but cute and to the point. Sorta predictable from the get-go but it’s cute how it comes about. Very funny at times too.

The Last Temptation of Christ You’re probably wondering what a witchy pagan such as myself is doing watching religious movies such as this one. Well, I’ll tell ya…in my Western Civ class, we are to review three historically-based movies from a long list of suggestions this semester. On said list is this movie and I wasn’t going to rent and watch it until last week my instructor played a bit of it for us (when Saul is preaching to a crowd and Jesus comes up and challenges him and says, “Hey, I’m just a man. Leave me be!” and Saul says, “Yah but I’m giving these people hope and something to believe in!”). It sparked my interest. So Honey and I watched it last night.
Now, this is a Scorsese film so it’s full of long, drawn-out dramatic bits and pieces. It’s not a historical account of Jesus’ life, rather, it’s a representation of the universal spiritual struggle. Personally, I’d like to see a more historical film about the life of Jesus (since I don’t know my Bible very well and I’m not inclined to sit down and read it). But this was pretty good. Music score is done by Peter Gabriel so that’s pretty sweet. David Bowie plays Pilot (sp?), Harvey Kietel plays Judas and William Dafoe is Jesus. Quite good, though confusing at times.

Until I Find You by John Irving What a horrible book! I had to skim the last 100 pages just to end the torture. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a HUGE fan of John Irving’s novels. One of my favorite books of all time is A Prayer for Owen Meany. But this one is so predictable it’s not even FUN to read! If you’ve read any of Irving’s previous books, you know he has certain images that frequent his pages. We’ve come to expect that. This book is FILLED with all of these images…so much so that I often thought it was a conglomeration of Owen Meany, Cider House Rules, World According to Garp and Hotel New Hampshire. If you’ve read some of Irving’s other novels, skip this one because you’ve read it all before. If you’re not a reader of Irving yet and you want to start, DO NOT START WITH THIS ONE!!! PLEASE! Do yourself a favor and start with Owen Meany or Garp. This is supposedly semi-autobiographical but, personally, I would have preferred it if he had just plain published an autobiography so we could read it and say, “OOOhhh now I get why these images keep showing up in his fictional novels!” Big disappointment.

Okay, I just started YaYas in Bloom. So far it’s cute. The new Tom Robbins book is currently on hold for me at the library. Hopefully I’ll get to start it before we leave for Vegas on Thursday.

We’ve been making mad amounts of beer lately. Go to Honey’s site to see a picture I took of the fermenting stage of our brew house!

It’s Friday and I’ve got some time to kill. So here ya go…

Appetizer
Do you button shirts top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top?
When I first read this question I thought, “How lame. Who cares?” But then I thought about how I actually do button my shirts: top to bottom. From bottom to top just feels weird and wonky. So, on second thought, this is a great question…especially for us OCD types!

Soup
What is your favorite sandwich?
As a general rule, I’m not a big fan of sandwiches. When I’m eating a sandwich, about halfway through I start to feel like I’m being forced to eat this hideous thing. But I eat them anyway. I had a PBJ for lunch as a matter of fact. But I digress…my favorite sandwich at present is probably a roast beef from Subway.

Salad
What was a family project you helped work on as a child?
My dad built a huge deck and fish pond in our backyard. I was 8 at the time so it seemed like it took four years but it probably only took one summer. I helped out with that a lot. I loved mixing the cement for the fish pond and making frequent trips to the lumber yard with dad: it always smelled so good and earthy there. My least favorite part was shoveling a million tons of rocks into and out of the wheelbarrow.

Main Course
When have you acted phony?
I typically don’t act phony. Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll confirm that I’m one of the most down-to-earth, honest persons they know. But I guess, in some way, I tend to act phony around my husband’s cousins, aunts and uncles.

Dessert
Do you write letters or postcards? If so, to whom?
These days, I only write letters to my husband’s grandma. Whenever an occasion calls for a card, I always include a letter updating her on stuff that’s going on in our end of the world. I’m married to her favorite grandchild so I really think she deserves my cramping hand from time to time!

A week from today, I’ll be in Vegas for the first time! I’m so excited!!!! We’re leaving Thursday morning and coming back Sunday afternoon. We’re staying at the Luxor. We have tickets to see Cirque du Soleil’s “O”, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, and Trey Anastasio. While there, I definitely want to gawk at the Bellagio fountains, watch the pirate ship sink at Treasure Island, and check out the sights from atop Paris’ Eiffle Tower. We’ll also be pissing away some money at the video poker machines and craps tables and, possibly, getting new tattoos!

It seems like everyone my age or older has been to Vegas at least once. I saw a show yesterday about a couple who have been there about 35 times! Ugh! I feel so out of the loop! So, this is a call to all my friends who have been to SinCity: what do you recommend? What do you caution against? The room is now open to suggestions!