Amanda
10/31/10
Here's pictures of the girls, the hippie & the 80's girl. Tristen added makeup after we took these photos, so you're missing the bright blue eyeshadow, but you get the idea. :-)

They went their separate ways this year for the first time, Tristen with 3 friends and Teghan & I with her friend Mya & her mom. Teghan made a HAUL. Double what she usually gets. Tristen on the other hand got 1/4 of what she usually gets. She's got candy envy and wishing she hadn't ditched her little sister. Especially on her last year trick or treating. :-)

Hey, in case you missed it on the front page(s), a new round of "Five Pictures, One Word" starts Monday. I hope they will be interesting to you. As usual, they look way too easy to me, but that might be because I already knew the answers going in. :-)

Happy Halloween, and Go Big Red!

Several other roles in the movie have been cast, too, and you can see them here. So here we go! :-)

Indiana Jones? Ha. He's a lightweight -- only 5 movies. James Bond? Even with 23 movies, he's not even close. No, the winner by far is Sherlock Holmes, who has been in the theaters over 220 times.

Tonight I just finished watching the latest incarnation of Sherlock, thanks to Donna who alerted me to it. I'm a long-time Holmes fan, but I hadn't heard of it. This movie-length program was the first in a 3-part series on PBS's "Masterpiece Theater." I wasn't real excited about it as Holmes has been done very well already -- especially by Jeremy Brett several years ago, in a three- or four-year series (also on PBS) where they did every single Holmes story and stayed extremely faithful to the original. I was even less excited when I learned that this one was an updated "21st century" version of Holmes, taking place in modern-day London.

But wow is it good! They managed to hit every single note of the original 1880s Holmes, yet they brought it completely and believably into the present. The story moves along at breakneck speed; you will definitely want to watch it twice, and it is much better the second time. It is excellently creepy when the story needs to be, and it is often laugh-out-loud funny. And in this very first program, they not only introduced all the elements of the Holmes stories but ingeniously translated them into present-day equivalents. (The 1880s Holmes was an occasional user of cocaine; this Holmes rolls up his sleeves to reveal not one, not two, but three nicotine patches. In the 1880s, Holmes was a great user of the then-new telegraph; this current Holmes brings texting to an art form. Et cetera.)

The first program was called "A Study in Pink" (a take-off on the original Holmes story "A Study in Scarlet"), so check your local PBS listings and put your TiVo to work. The next is called "The Blind Banker" and will air on Halloween night, and several times after that. Don't know the title of the third and final (though I hope it's not the final) episode. Do yourself a favor and watch it. If you're not already a fan of Sherlock Holmes, this will make you one. Thanks again, Donna, for the heads-up!

P.S.: Just a few days ago, the guy who here plays Dr. Watson signed on to Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" movie. Don't know which character, but I assume one of the hobbits. (Maybe the hobbit, i.e., Bilbo...?)

Here's a simpler variation of the same recipe:
Pumpkin Soup with Bacon and Bleu Cheese

Today: Apple Bites.

And now, let's switch gears with a few bits of entertainment news: (1) The anticipated "Hobbit" movie became official on Saturday. It has been talked about for a long time but was never more than talk because of various legal and contractual difficulties. Last year it was going forward, but with a different director as Peter "Lord of the Rings" Jackson was unavailable. Then that director dropped out when the movie was delayed again. So on Saturday it was announced that the movie (really two movies) is going forward and that Peter Jackson is now able to direct. Great news! (2) There is no forward motion on another much-anticipated movie -- Spielberg's "Lincoln" starring Liam Neeson -- but in the meantime Robert Redford will be directing "The Conspirator," about Mary Suratt who was accused of helping to plan Abraham Lincoln's assassination. It stars Robin Wright (Jenny in "Forrest Gump").

Switching gears again, here's a Monday morning entertainment courtesy of John. It's the 1955 cartoon "One Froggy Evening," which has been ranked as the 5th greatest cartoon of all time. Steven Spielberg called it "the 'Citizen Kane' of animated film." Thanks, John!

Hello 3 day weekend..... 4 more hours can't go by fast enough!

Yup, Lennon would have been 70 tomorrow. --Gary