Petted it: Chippy

"Chippy"
RIP
?-2007

Chippy was my inlaws chipmunk. They fed him peanuts and sometimes he would visit them on their deck. We sent him a brick of chippy treats for Christmas only to learn that he is dead....
Oh, Chippy, we hardly knew you!

Read it: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

This is Marisha Pessl's first novel (she is an Asheville, NC native by the way). I liked it but it is not for everyone. It is the life story of Blue Van Meer told in the form of a research paper complete with the occasional illustration and parenthetical documentation. At first it is really clever after a while it is annoying and tedious. Skimming is a good idea in the middle of the book. The ending was good enough to suffer through the middle. I think if you liked House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski then you may enjoy this book. It is a cross between it and Secret History by Donna Tartt sprinkled with McSweeneys. The main plot of the book revolves around a cliquey, elitist group of friends and their mysterious leader/ prep school teacher. Blue collects clues to unravel the teacher's identity and discovering a lot about herself at the same time.
Also, the book has a really cool website: http://www.calamityphysics.com/main.htm

Watched it: Juno

We saw Juno with Scott and Salley Friday night. We were all super excited to see it and super let down. A lot of hype with this movie.

What we did not like:
*the funny stuff is pretty much what you see in the trailers
*the competitive "I am cooler than you" band name dropping (Jerry insists it is "the Stooges", not "Iggy and the Stooges", I concur)
*one of the names she dropped that she thought made her cool was Patti Smith...this could never make someone cool, it could only make them a total loser
*the guy behind us who thought even the most mildly amusing thing to be absolutely hilarious as he howled with laughter

What we did like:
*supporting characters were spot on, clever, but not overly so and very likable
*hamburger phone
*dissed Sonic Youth
*Michael Cera;he can only play one character, we like it, so that is ok
*wears the dorkiest track clothes for most the movie
*there is a plot that is never allude to in the movie that was really interesting and well resolved

Should you see it? Rent it, but save your moolah for another flick currently in theaters.

Watched it: Masterpiece Theater

I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!!
PBS's Masterpiece Theater is showing Jane Eyre Dec 30 and Jan 6
Then....
They are showing all 6 Jane Austen novels beginning in 2008!!! They call it Sundays with Jane
Holy Cow!
I am so excited...too excited really....

Read it: NOT!

Sometimes I pick up books and do not finish them...they deserve acknowledgment. You may think "gee, if she didn't like it, it must be good"
It doesn't mean the book was bad, just not for me
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy: Just could not do it. I read quite a bit. McCarthy is a very skilled author and I can appreciate that...sometimes, I just did not know what was going on and that is no fun. One thing he did that I thought was effective, was using short sentences. The sentences were sometimes not even nouns and verbs. I think this made for a very intense novel. I did see the movie though:)
[a funny story about the movie...Jerry and I were in a shop for people with more money than taste and the shop owner was talking really loud in a really Southern accent about "We jes' saaaw this movie las' niiight, it wuz weird, it wuz called "Too Much Country for Too Tough Men", needless to say we make up our own unique title every time]
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris: This was a NYT Book Review notable book of 2007. It is about corporate life. I've been there, so I thought this would be entertaining. The problem I had with it was that it was written entirely in first person plural. Yep, everything was "We...". I get it---corporate culture , lack of identity, getting on my last nerve...also, I read that the book was more like loosely tied together stories. I really like a plot that goes from one end of the book to the other. So, probably not bad but I'd rather just watch Office Space. [when I had my old job I would not let Jerry watch this movie if I was home when it was re-running on Comedy Central, I was like "please, I have to go there tomorrow"] We did not like this book, we were not amused. Then we returned it to the library.

Watched it: No Country for Old Men and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

We decided to trade holiday cheer for violence and bloodshed in our holiday movie selections!
No Country for Old Men was a dark and bloody Coen brothers film starring Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin. It was pretty good; the ending just ends, so don't zone out since there is no rewind button. There was lots of witty (in a dark, unassuming way) conversation taken pretty much directly from the book of the same title by Cormac McCarthy. Woody Harrelson was in it for a bit too, I forgot so it was a nice surprise.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was directed by the octogenarian Sidney Lumet. I
hope to be as together as him at that age! It was very well directed. Two brothers decide to rip off their parent's jewelry store for some cash and of course it does not go as planned. The film replays scenes for the days surrounding the robbery from different perspectives. There was some choppy mtv editing I could have done without. It was very intense to say the least.



Highly recommend both. I think NCOM is best on the big screen due to the scenery. I think of the 2 I actually like a little BDKYD better.

Celebrated it: Merry Christmas

We are having a pretty quiet day here at the Pemberton-Whitfield hacienda. This year instead of buying each other the same ole thing we invested in a photo. This pic was taken by Danny Burke. It was taken along side Lake Superior on the way up to the Porcupine Mountains. We like how you can see the sunset reflected in the trees.

We will have it framed soon (know any good framers??) and hang it on the wall facing our bed, so we can see it first thing in the morning!