Tag: Downton Abbey

Snapshot of a Sunday

What I’m Reading: I finished The Great Gatsby for book club next week.  I look forward to discussing it and eventually seeing the new movie this

84 Charing Cross Road (film)
84 Charing Cross Road (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

spring!  I have done some book ordering lately, so a bunch of new books arrived.  The first that I picked up and devoured was 84, Charing Cross Road.  Wow! I learned about it through the blogger Wallace who reads it for her birthday yearly.  It was so intriguing and only available in print (no virtual book this!). I’m so glad I bought it, because after I lend it to all my friends to devour, I will re-read it yearly!  It was tempting to re-read it immediately after finishing, but I will let it out of my grasp for a bit.  So unexpectedly fun!  I will now look for the movie based on the book!

Other books that I now own include: A Week in Winter (Maeve Binchy‘s final book), Apple of My Eye (same author as 84, Charing Cross Road but about NYC! Yay!), Silver Linings Playbook (hope it’s as good as the movie), and How to be a Woman (Caitlyn Moran – British comedian, cheap book!).  Gone with the Wind is waiting to be started, but I think it will wait until after I read Maeve’s book.  It’s only fair, right?  Gotta pay respects.  I learned that my 13 year old nephew is reading GWTW so there is further incentive to get started on it!

What I’m Watching: Last night I watched Beasts of the Southern Wild.  It is so fascinating.  I didn’t love it, but I was moved by it.  I am amazed by the community who lives in the Bathtub and I’ll have to do some research on that.  The little gal did a great job and will be fun to watch in the future!  I’m also excited to see the final episode of Downton Abbey.  I won’t see it tonight (as I’m going to the Book of Mormon!) but I’ll watch it as soon as I can.  Last week’s episode was great and feel-good.  Hoping for a good ending to this season!  Can’t think of anything else that I’ve watched lately… I also bought the (cheap) Blu-Ray DVD of Becoming Jane, which I remember liking a lot.  I’ll watch that along with the latest Pride and Prejudice movie sometime soon – maybe this week during my overnight-shift-self-care routine.

What I’m Doing: Last week I hosted a baby shower and it was a lot of fun.  Great to socialize with co-workers outside of work and fun to meet the mama-to-be’s mother and sister.  Good food, good times.  I took a few days off this weekend, so I shopped for shoes (ugh), had coffee with SDL, and had a slumber-party with VN; I watched littlest nephew play BB, ate taco pizza and watched Rochester Roller Derby with Marissa, Gracie and some friends.  And now I’m heading to the Cities (well in a little bit) to stay with Deadra and John and to have a delicious dinner before seeing the Book of Mormon!  Yay!  Can’t wait.  We’ve been looking forward to this for quite some time – anticipation of great events is always fun!  And I’ll still get to choir and book club this week – sounds perfect, eh?

That’s about it for me!  What are you Reading, Watching, and Doing?

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Dickens & other Discussions

photo of Charles Dickens

My brain power is waning… I’m loving the new job but it’s exhausting learning so much!  It’s such a good thing!! Yay!  Earlier today I had so many thoughts about what to say in a blog… and now it’s kind of gone!  Oh well… I’m enjoying the learning so much that I don’t mind if I aren’t as creative as I want to be right now!  It’ll come again.  🙂

But I wanted to recognize the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birth with a short blog post.  I loved A Tale of Two Cities and am going to put it on my list of books to re-read in 2012.  It’s been a long time since I first read it, so it’ll be fun to read again.

In other news…

  • I have really slowed in my reading.  I’m plugging away on “A Moveable Feast” but behind in the assigned reading for last week and this.  Some aren’t enjoying reading Hemingway, but I think it’s fun to read after reading “The Paris Wife” and hearing the author speak.  I’ll keep on trucking…  It has been easy to read it on the iPad.  I tried to look up a word within the book, but it wasn’t in the dictionary.  He must have made up words!
  • The blogs I read daily really are taking up a lot of my reading time.  I must figure that out.
  • I’ve been enjoying old episodes of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix instant.  How fun to meet these characters in the beginning!  I just started watching (and loving) the show a few years ago and it has many seasons under its belt!
  • I love love love Downton Abbey!  I’m going to watch a bit of Sunday night’s episode tonight.  It’s hard to believe this season is almost done!  Love the fast pace of the British series.
  • Book club is coming up on Thursday!  We read “The Center of Everything” and I’ll have to refresh my memory, since it seems like I read it a while ago!  I look forward to seeing those peeps!
  • And SocialICE is this weekend!  The ice bar downtown.  It has been a fun event every year and I can’t wait to participate in another!  It’s fun to see the fur hats, coats, and boots that come out, but I’m afraid I won’t be sporting any of that!  Uggs and wool for me!

Off to read!

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Movies: Catching Up

Reel mosaic
Movies Movies Movies Image by Carbon Arc via Flickr

I’ve seen a few good movies lately, so thought I’d share!

I’ve had a movie-ful summer so far, that’s for sure.  I’ve received a few gifts of gift cards and am thankful for their assistance in my habit!

Netflix: “Downton Abbey” is not a movie, but rather a PBS Masterpiece Theatre series – 7 episodes – and such a delight!  I just found out today that season 2 starts in January!  Something to look forward to…

Netflix: “HappyThankYouMorePlease” was even better than I was thinking it would be!  Good stories about good people.  I love Josh Radnor from HIMYM and he directed and starred in this film.  Great music, too.

Theatre: “Crazy, stupid love.” was also much better than I thought it would be!  The plot was unpredictable (which I find that I appreciate more and more … so many movies and books are simple and dead in their plots) and the characters were sweet. I was moved to tears a few times (could be simply feeling emotional) and laughed a lot.

“Horrible Bosses” was also a great time in the theatre!  Many, many laughs!

I’m currently half-watching “The Band’s Visit” – a movie from the library – about an Egyptian police band who goes to Israel to play for the opening of an Arab Cultural Center but find themselves in the wrong town. It’s in Hebrew and English, so I don’t have to watch it as closely as a fully foreign film.  And since it has a lot of music in it, too, it’s even easier to half-watch. It’s due tomorrow, so I have to get it watched!  It’s enjoyable so far…

I’m going to start a new book tonight and that’s always exciting.  Dang that library that entices me to get such fun books!  But I actually reserved books off my TBR list on goodreads so have some books that I’ll be able to check off.  Yay!

What are you watching or reading?

Off to read!

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