By the Austen Book

Growing up, we watched a lot of miniseries--or at least a couple different ones many times, often while working on sewing projects.  So maybe my return to sewing is to blame for my recent rewatching of a number of miniseries and, consequently, this post.  Which is all about miniseries and which ones I think are best.  And here my opinion is law!

Originally I thought I could somehow include all the titles in one blog post, but that soon went out of the window--there are so many!  So I'm starting with Jane Austen.  If we're being technical, not all of these are miniseries--some are theatrical--but I'm going to lump them all together.  I also noted any cast members that reappear in the lists, just for fun (it's by no means exhaustive).  What's the point of watching a British miniseries if you don't spend half the time recognizing the cast from other miniseries?  There are also bonus points for featuring members of the Harry Potter cast.  Just because.

Sense & Sensibility: I think Emma Thompson's 1995 adaptation is clearly the best version.  It has such a wonderful cast and great wit.  Naturally some things from the book were sacrificed for time, but this one gets the spirit of the thing.  (Even if all the cast is totally too old.)

Cast cross over: Robert Hardy, Imelda Staunton, Elizabeth Spriggs
HP Bonus: Robert Hardy, Imelda Staunton, Emma Thompson, Elizabeth Spriggs, Alan Rickman, Gemma Jones

The 2008 PBS miniseries is, for me, kind of uninspired.  But I do think it's worth watching at least once, if only because it includes some elements the other leaves out (like Miss Steele, who was one of my favorite parts of the book).  And if you're one of those Downton people, there's plenty of Dan Stevens.   

Pride & Prejudice: We all know the 1995 version is the king here (even though the cast is too old).  

I grew up watching the 1980 version, and if the soap opera effect of that era weren't so distracting now, I would probably still find it pretty enjoyable.  As for the 2005 movie, I think it's also a great adaptation, especially for a shortened version (and the cast is all the right age!).  Each of these version offers something a little different, particularly in the interpretations of Mr. Darcy.  Of course, if you're going for something less literary, there's always Bride and Prejudice and the Mormony version as well.  I suppose I should mention the 1940 version, but only to say that I don't really care about it...hah. 

1995 cast cross over: Anthony Calf, Crispin Bonham Carter, Emilia Fox, Joanna David 
1980 cast cross over: David Rintoul
2005 cast cross over: Matthew MacFadyen, Rosamund Pike, Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Tom Hollander

Mansfield Park: I have never really been into this story for some reason, and it's her only book I've never read.  Of the two versions I've seen, I suppose I prefer the 1999 theatrical one, but I'm sure the 2007 miniseries is more complete.

1999 cast cross over: James Purefoy, Justine Waddell, Amelia Warner, Hugh Bonneville, Sophia Myles, Jonny Lee Miller

Emma: I love the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow version best, by far.  It's ever so pretty and funny and I want all of her dresses.  The cast is so lively, and did I mention it's pretty?

The TV version with Kate Beckinsale (also 1996) is probably more accurate (ie, less pretty), but I've never loved it.  The 2009 version with Romola Garai is a longer alternative I say, but really, all you need is Gwyneth.

1996 cast cross over: Sophie Thompson, Polly Walker, Juliet Stevenson, Alan Cumming 
2009 cast cross over: Romola Garai, Michael Gambon, Jonny Lee Miller, Jodhi May
HP Bonus: Michael Gambon 

Northanger Abbey: The latest version from 2007 is kind of the winner by default, but it's enjoyable.  The one from 1987 is kind of a hoot though, if only for its soundtrack that features saxophones.  
   
2007 cast cross over: Carey Mulligan
1987 cast cross over: Robert Hardy
HP Bonus: Robert Hardy

Persuasion: The 1995 version is pretty much perfect, I say.  It's dim and quiet, which suits the book so well.  I know the 2007 adaptation is pretty popular, but I just don't care for it that much.  It's not bad by any means, but I don't love the cast.  

1995 cast cross over: Ciaran Hinds, Samuel West, Sophie Thompson
HP Bonus: Fiona Shaw, Sophie Thompson

In Which the Speck Arrives

Today we got a baby!  It is weird--one minute you're just there and the next minute someone says, "Hey, here's this baby and it's yours!"  But enough about that for now.  Here's a summary of how it all came about and, of course, a plethora of pictures.

Last Thursday at my weekly doctor's appointment (with my favorite tennis-ball-pulverizing Dr. D) we found out the Speck was breech--meaning his head was up instead of down, which is how it should be.  So, we scheduled a version--a procedure where doctors manually turn the baby from the outside--for the following Tuesday and were told that if he couldn't be turned then they would do a c-section that day.  I was not really ever planning or expecting to have a c-section so we spent the weekend hoping he would turn.   

Monday morning (my birthday!) we had a false alarm that had us at the hospital for a couple of hours and we learned that he was adamantly breech.  So come Tuesday morning, at the early hour of 5:30 we headed to the hospital again for the version.

 Last picture of the Speck's spacious estate.

 Last picture before, well, everything after.

Long story short, he could not and would not be turned!  Such a stubborn Speck!  They wound up putting in an epidural before trying to turn him and man, they were aggressive (they meaning two doctors working together).  So aggressive that I threw up after.  So!  It was off to the chamber of c-sections.  At this point, I have to confess, it was kind of a relief because if he had turned, I would have been induced and not been able to eat for HOURS.  (Although I STILL didn't get to eat for hours because my lunch tray was misplaced.)

So official!

So totally out of it!

Once in the OR with my unresponsive legs and lower-torso, a lot of things happened and most of them I could not really see.  Partly because they confiscated my glasses and partly because I was trying to sleep the whole time.  Yes.  I was just so completely tired, it was ridiculous!  Then, all of a sudden, I heard something about feet and just a moment later there was a baby in the world, wailing for all to hear.  Drew cried.  I tried to keep my eyes open.

And so there he was, our little Speck, out and about in the world for real and no longer taking up my internal real estate.  He cried and cried and cried and I laid there like O.o for a while.  The doctors discovered that his cord was wrapped between his legs and around his chest, which sounds painful, and that was the reason he couldn't be turned.  That's what you get for doing ever so many flips, flops and rolls, my little man!  Anyway, Drew got some pictures and eventually they brought him over to see me and I was like O.o  And then they sewed me up and I threw up again.  Throwing up laying down?  Not pretty.
 

 

(These were both before I had throw up all in my hair...)

After that I eventually went back to my room and stuff happened.  But enough about that!  Here's the fun stats: he weighs 8 pounds, 15 ounces--not exactly tiny.  We weren't too surprised that he was over 8, as we were both larger babies, but even so he was bigger than I expected.  He's also 20 inches long and has long fingers and rather wild fingernails.  But the biggest surprise was all the dark hair!  I expected a bald baby, with maybe some little blond wisps but with two dark-haired grandpas I guess there was always the chance for dark hair.  Wacky!

This was the part of the bath he enjoyed most.

I did post his name on Facebook (his middle name is Drew's), but I haven't really wanted to use it on my blog.  For now, I will call him the CAG or maybe the Speck or maybe Baby or maybe Hey You Little Man.  I should also say that Drew has been such a nice husbandman throughout the day's events.  He's been so helpful and supportive and has already changed the first diaper.  I couldn't have done it without him!
 

 Awwww.  Drewbles couldn't be happier!

 Drew's parents came by for a visit and brought treats I am looking forward to eating.

  So much hair!  I guess all that heartburn was not for naught.

 Sleepy.

 Hurray!  Jell-o lunch at last!

And that is essentially how the Speck entered the world.  So far everything is going just fine, and though his birthing was not what I anticipated, this is how it happened and I don't think he could have gotten out any other way being so tangled in his cord.  Maybe next time?  Wait, let's not talk about next time just yet.  We're happy enough with the Speck.

Checkmate

The best part of making a list is being able to check things off.  These days most of my things are checked off, and I am left with the feeling that I should be working on something without being able to think of what.  Here's where we stand of late:

Toes painted?

Check.  (YES, I did it myself this very day, though Drew did some touching up for me last week.)

A DVR full of entertainment?

Check.  Also, way to be on point, baby.

Absentmindedly leaving closet lights on?

Check.

Garden planted?

Check.  And it's not even June!  Though the neighbors were a little more on the ball than us:

A freezer full of foods?

Check.  (The crock pot recipes came from here)

Several inches of tummy between my swimsuit top and bottoms?

[no picture because duh]

Check.

Hair chopped off prior to insanity?

Check.  (Also, wearing Drew's hoodies?  Check.)

A home cage bed for the Speck? 

Check.

A suitably aquatic little buddy?

Check. 

Additional suitably aquatic little buddies that were bought on clearance in a moment of "Hey, more fish!"?

Check. 

Pretty flowers?

Check.  Okay, they have nothing to do with the Speck.  They're just pretty.

Diaper bag that Drew won't feel stupid carrying and doesn't look like a big purse?  (I am not into big purses)

 

Check.

A fully-stocked diaper bag?

Guess we're still working on that one.

Anna and the French Kiss (Book Review)

Author: Stephanie Perkins
Year: 2010
Genre: Romance
Reading Level: Young Adult
Series: #1 in the Anna and the French Kiss series

Literary Awards:

Cybils Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2011), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Goodreads Author, Young Adult Fiction (2010), The Inky Awards Nominee for Silver Inky longlist (2011), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2013)

Plot Summary: Anna is devastated when her father sends her to an exclusive boarding school in Paris for her senior year.  But once there, despite language barriers and being the awkward new kid, she settles in and even grows to enjoy her new life.  It doesn't hurt that her new life includes the super dreamy Étienne St. Clair.  Too bad he has a girlfriend...

Red Flags: Language, some teenage lustiness, some (legal-in-France) teenage drinking (with consequences)

My Rating: B+/A-
This one was so hard to rate--for the most part, I really liked it, but I had a couple of hangups that kept me from rating it high overall.  At first I thought Anna was a little too stream of consciousness, but once she kind of settled into the narrative, I enjoyed the writing a lot.  Anna was likable and I (very) easily related to her fish-out-of-water feelings (especially when she wrote down what people said and did at the movie theater--hah!). For the most part, the story hit that sweet spot of fun teen angst without taking itself TOO seriously.  Towards the end it started to go a bit overboard and I rolled my eyes a bit.  

One of the high points for me was all the description of Paris.  It felt real and natural, with enough detail to sound accurate but not so much that it read like a series of factoids.  I thought surely Stephanie Perkins had been there, but when she came to my local library last week I learned she hadn't.  Instead she put her librarian-honed research skills to work and learned everything she could about everything Paris.  Well done, Stephanie Perkins.  Well done.

My main issue is with the Étienne the dreamboat.  I liked that he was nice and generally a good guy.  I didn't like that he was really terrible to his girlfriend for pretty much the whole book.  How could I think he was a real catch when he was such an emotional cheater?  Not cool.  I could let Anna's behavior slide, but he knew what was going on and I didn't find his justifications very convincing at all.  I just can't get giggly about the romance when so much of it was people knowingly hurting others.  (Also Anna started channeling Bella Swan a bit too much toward the end with all of her "Beautiful
Étienne!" thoughts, haha)

But still, overall, it was a good read with some funny moments and likable characters--most of them anyway.

Delayed Reaction

Have you ever had this super exciting thing you've looked forward to for months and months, but it takes so long to actually happen that by the time it does you forget to even mention it to anyone?  

Hurray!!!!  About a year and a half ago we started snowballing our student loans (which are the only debts we have) and after paying off Drew's solitary (small) loan, we moved on to mine...which are more plentiful...  ANYway, two down and two degrees paid for, now it's just two loans (for one degree) left!  I hope we can pay them off before we ever buy a house, but we'll see how it goes. 

(Not even an exclamation mark, UHEAA?)

Matched (Book Review)

Author: Ally Condie
Year: 2010
Genre: Dystopian/Romance
Reading Level: Young Adult
Series: #1 in the Matched trilogy

Literary Awards:

Teen Buckeye Book Award (2012), YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults (2011), Publishers Weekly's Best Children's Books of the Year for Fiction (2010), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2013)

Plot Summary: Cassia Reyes has never had any cause to doubt the Society and its benevolence.  When the Society Matches her to her best friend, Xander, everything seems perfect.  But when Cassia catches a glimpse of a different Match for her--one the Society says was just a mistake in the system--her peaceful world explodes into possibilities. 

Red Flags: Some very mild violence

My Rating: B
This rating really has less to do with anything technical and more to do with the fact that this story just didn't interest me.  If you want a dystopian novel that's heavier on the romance and lighter on the heavier stuff that often comes with dystopian novels, this will hit the spot.  If you like an angsty love triangle or fretting over the question of "Which boy??" this is your book!  But as for me, it was just kind of dull and uneventful.  The Society was kind of interesting but not really new and I didn't have much patience for Cassia's mental back and forth (and back and forth and back and forth) with EVERY decision.  

I think Ally Condie has some nice turns of phrase, but I do question her frequent use of people "popping" food in their mouths.  You pop nuts, candy or popcorn in your mouth--but noodles?  Try popping a forkful of spaghetti in your mouth.  It's a small detail, I know, but there are so many words for eating!  Shouldn't an author, of all people, know more than one and know which one works best in a sentence?

Overall, for me, a standard dystopian novel with a bit too much romance (and romantical angsting) for my taste.  

Also I kept picturing these two boys.   Which begs the question, does Ky have a belly button??

Memorable lines:
"My mother yawns, her blue eyes opening wide." (Just try doing this.)

Crafts are for Babies! (Bonus edition)

You know that game of two truths, one lie?  Let's play it: There are three more crafts I did for the Speck.  I am only going to post about one of them.  The images on this post feature his real name.

Just a week or so ago, I had a last minute idea for another craft.  The room needed a little more art, and so I decided it would fun to hang some kind of bunting over the crib that included his name.  We threw around a couple of ideas and soon settled on the best idea, which was also the easiest.  

So I made up triangular pennants in Photoshop featuring the mobile animals, added the letters and then we printed them as 8x10 photos at Costco!  Making them in Photoshop took just a couple of hours and the rest of it took much less.  I cut them out, we measured and cut slits, strung them with ribbon and hung the thing up!  Parfait.  (Everybody likes parfait)

Here they are: 

 

The whales and the anchors are my favorites.  And that smiley face adds some real class, doesn't it?  Lucky Speck.

PS: I knooooooow he's not the size of a Speck anymore, but does anyone really think we'd update his nickname every time he got bigger?  If we did that we'd be calling him Loaf of Bread now.  I have every intention of calling him the Speck even when he's a foot taller than me and whining about girls.

To the North!

Northern California, that is.  We went there for a week and had a grand old time, full of sights and seeing.  Here's how it all happened:

For months we contemplated having a vacation before the Speck arrives--a "babymoon", if you prefer the jargon--but never decided on anything.  Then towards the end of March Drew's boss suggested he come out to California to finally visit the office (he works remotely, you may recall).  To which I said "Vacation!!!" and that was that.  So, not only did we get vacation, we got part of it paid for, since Drew was doing work stuff for a few days.  Partly paid for trips are really the best kind of trips.

We went a lot of places and saw a lot of things, and by golly, if I can boil a Mediterranean cruise down to one post, I can surely do the same for this trip!  But as usual, Drew has covered it in greater detail, if you are looking for detail.  Let's take it place by place:

1) Sacramento: home of the airport and our arrival after an uneventful flight.  We picked up our rental car and headed to...

2) Rancho Cordova: our nearby destination and home of Drew's office.  We checked into our hotel, and tried without success to find a Hmong restaurant in the area.  In the end we went to the recommended Adalberto's for Mexican.  

It turns out their menu is almost identical to the places here, but the food was a lot less greasy, came with free salsa and chips and didn't require a Tums later.  Win-win-win!  From RC, we went a ways up the road to...

3) El Dorado Hills!  We lived here for several years when I was a lass--it's the place and house I remember best from my childhood and it's where we moved from when we went to Missouri.  It was strange and fun to visit, where some things looked so much the same and so many things looked totally different.  It would have been fun to be there with my family, who remember so much more than me, but I did all right on my own.  It was much greener and prettier (scenically speaking) than I remembered.  In some ways it reminded me very much of Missouri, which I did not expect.

My old house!  My room was upstairs in the far right corner.  I wonder if the Strawberry Shortcake wallpaper is still up...

My beloved elementary school.  Go Badgers!  Who are now, apparently, bears. 

At the end of our EDH exploring, we went back to Rancho and picked up a (pricey) pizza from Round Table Pizza, just because I remembered it.  It was very good, and Drew is so nice not to complain when I want a vegetable pizza.

The next three days we stayed in Rancho, and Drew went to work while I sat by the pool in the morning and did little projects at the hotel in the afternoon.  The weather was perfect the entire trip, though the locals apologized many times that it wasn't "better." 

Drewbles went into more detail about this, but I will mention it too.  He's been listening to this particular Survivor podcast for a number of years now, and the people who do it live near Rancho.  So on Wednesday night we watched Survivor with them and then featured on the recap podcast after!  We are like celebrities or at least celebrity adjacent.  Anyway, they were extremely nice and very conscientious hosts and never let my water glass run out.  We stayed up very, very late, but it was really fun and Drew was beside himself with glee.  The next morning we checked out and headed off to...

4) The Jelly Belly Factory: It is exactly what it sounds like--a factory for making jelly bellies.  It also includes this soaring jelly belly man and a lot of Ronald Reagan art made from jelly bellies.

We bought a bag of Belly Flops, had some samples, wore our hats on the tour and then got back on the road for...  

5) The Walt Disney Family Museum: This was our first stop in San Francisco, and it is also much what it sounds like (though it is not owned or run by the Disney company).  We had some navigational issues getting there, but still had plenty of time to see it all.  Highlights include a model of Disneyland and the frequent benches that I took advantage of.  

 

 

After a few hours here, it was evening time and we headed into...

6) San Francisco (proper): We started our first night there by sitting down on the bed and...didn't get up again.  We ordered some Thai and watched a lot of Wife Swap while waiting for Project Runway, which didn't come on until 9 and was TWO HOURS and I fell asleep at the end.  It was good to take it easy because the next day started early with...

6a) Fisherman's Wharf/Aquarium of the Bay/Pier 39: I very much enjoy the sight and smell of fresh seafood, even though I am sometimes grossed out by seeing their glassy eyeballs.  The aquarium was a bit on the small side, but I enjoyed their multiple tunnels and baby rays that would pop their little faces out of the water--has anyone ever seen full-grown rays do that?  I never have seen the like!  Anyway, the chowder from Boudin's made a very excellent lunch.

 

 

 

 

We also saw Hugh Jackman.

6b) Alcatraz: there are so many places I never thought I would actually see in my life, and this is one of them.  One of the good things about Drew is that he DOES stuff instead of wishing to do stuff or talking about doing stuff.  I am less of a doer so he is good for me that way.  Anyhoo, Alcatraz!  It was a very interesting place to visit and kind of spooky too, being an old prison and all.  What a horrible place to live!  Then again, the people who lived there were pretty horrible themselves so...

 

 

One tourist lady in particular was taking these super excited photos throughout. I decided to try her method in the solitary confinement area.  No light or human contact, woot!

6c) Lombard Street: It's...curvy...?  We spent the rest of the night watching Wife Swap (again) and waiting for the new episode of Grimm to come on, only to get a repeat in the end.  Thwarted!

6d) Muir Woods: When I was girl in EDH, we learned about Redwoods in school and all got a tiny sapling to plant.  I remember having ideas about planting it under a trampoline and the tree growing up through it.  This was a silly idea, not least because we didn't even HAVE a trampoline.  Anyway, it was been a lifelong goal of mine to see the Redwoods, and we did it!  (Also, I have to give Rise of the Planet of the Apes credit for my knowing there were Redwoods near San Francisco.)

 

 

 

Sometimes when I see something like this that I've always wanted to see, it feels kind of anticlimactic when it actually happens.  I don't know what I expect--that there will be streamers or fireworks or people congratulating me?  I am learning to just be impressed and glad on my own.  And the trees were SO tall and lovely and it smelled so nice.  Muir Woods itself is a very nice place to visit, with wide, smooth paths to walk on and numerous options for trails of various lengths.  I would love to go back one day and do a longer one, with Drew carrying the Speck around instead of me.  We left there with a little tree model carved from--what else--a Redwood and a nifty pair of earrings made of tiny Redwood pinecones.

6e) The Golden Gate Bridge: We drove over it four times and took lots of pictures.  It is, um, a good, sturdy bridge.

(For all our awkward-on-purpose picture taking, sometimes we look kind of awkward on accident.  It keeps us humble?)

6f) Ocean Beach: Neither of us knew SF housed such a great, sandy beach!  I could have sat there all day, and I would be happy to live in earshot of waves.  Alas, I know from House Hunters that that can be a very expensive place to live.  We did some sand writing, I found some more shells for my collection and we were grossed out by the many partial bodies of crabs in the sand.

  
6g) Ghiradelli Square: We wound up going here for dinner at a fancy schmancy restaurant and I had more chowder (not as good as Boudin's!).  True fact: I couldn't eat all my bread bowl but since I cannot let a bread bowl go to waste, I brought it all the way back home. 

And that, essentially, was the end of our trip!  The next morning we packed, I wore my dress as a skirt (awesome), I maybe cried about not being able to pack a suitcase right (um), we went back to Sacramento and a short flight and drive later we were back at home.

It was the perfect length of trip, and it was fun to see a new place and so many new things.  I was a little nervous beforehand about my ability to do stuff, and while I wasn't as fast as usual, I was quite pleased with how well I kept up and how not-hard it was.  Go me!  I suppose the Speck deserves a little credit there too.  *high fives tummy*  Thanks for the trip, Husb and Husb's work!

(Final side note: people in California were much more prone to stare at my stomach than Utahers.  Also much more prone to say things like "When are you due!?!?  *googly eyes*"  Newbs.)