279: movie week

movies we've watched recently:


Going to School in India: a well-made documentary about children who live in various locations in India and the interesting places and ways they school.

English and several Indian languages. English subtitles


Kamikaze Girls: a comedy-drama about a teen-aged Japanese girl who lives in her own world. she loves the Rococo era and dresses in a style the Japanese refer to as Lolita. she accidentally takes up with a biker chick and chaos ensues.

Japanese with English subtitles


Private Fears in Public Places: a weirdly romantic drama about people who can't connect in meaningful ways. i liked the cinematography and the way the characters' lives intertwined.

French with English subtitles


Raise the Red Lantern: period piece set in 1920s China. four wives (each referred to as "mistress" and a number that tells which wife they are. i.e. first mistress, third mistress) compete with each other for their husband's attention with tragic results. beautiful imagery especially the costumes.

Mandarin Chinese with English (and other) subtitles

278: craft madness

hey y'all.

baby bliss and i have been crocheting like mad hens over here.

she's making a neck muff for her godmommy. (i don't think she reads my blog so i guess it's okay that i told.)

i'm working on two scarves for no one in particular tho i do have an idea who i might give each one to. i'm almost done with one. the other i just started.

i'm also working on a basket for the church holiday craft bazaar. which might not get finished cuz we're sposed to take stuff up there tomorrow and i'm not done. maybe halfway...

that brings me to my dilemma: i have lots of rings and a few other pieces of jewelry all done. even a few dog leashes. but i haven't labeled or packaged anything yet. grrrrr!

and i've been toying with the idea of donating all the stuff for the silent auction and kid's booth sales instead of doing a booth myself.

i've also been asked to help vendors set up the night before and act as auctioneer on saturday.

uh oh.

i don't have a clue what i'll be doing. it's a silent auction and that makes me feel a bit better but i'm still wondering. i'll have more info by this time tomorrow.

277: The Hindi-Bindi Club - a review

I will start with this disclaimer: this is my own unbiased opinion of a novel I read this summer. I was not compensated in any way for this review nor do I expect to be. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it to those who love learning about other cultures.

* * *

This is a book about love, marriage, family, food, and relationships.

Monica Pradhan did a great job of explaining the subtle layers of Indian culture for me.

In The Hindi-Bindi Club, three young-ish Indian-American women learn through their relationships with their moms that living up to the expectations of their families can allow room for their own individuality.

I learned many things from this book. For example:

- If I choose to cook more, I can try the yummy-sounding Indian recipes found through out this book.

- People are basically the same when it comes to family. Most of us want what's best for our families. Sometimes we're pushy but hey, it's what we know. :-)

- Maybe arranged marriages aren't so bad. Marriage can be difficult at times. Having two families willing to invest in the survival of one's marriage can be a good thing.

- Tradition and ritual can be good things too. Sometimes it's helpful to know what one is expected to do and then do it. Other times, maybe not. ;o)

- I really really want to visit India. As many regions as possible. I want to experience it live and in person.

Thank you Monica Pradhan for sharing this book with us. I reallllllly want to see this one on the big screen. Hopefully soon.

* * *

Christmas is coming y'all. If you're looking for stocking stuffers or you're making out your wish list, this one is a definite good read. :-)


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276: how cool is this?

hey y'all.

i almost forgot to tell y'all this.

i belong to a couple of online reading groups/book clubs where you can create an account, list your favorite books, rate them, and write reviews (if you want).

about a week or so, i got a nice e-mail from the author of my favorite summer read, Monica Pradhan, author of The Hindi-Bindi Club.

she'd seen my rating of her book and thanked me for rating it so well . i think it was absolutely wonderful of her to take time to do that and i told her so.

i thought it was so nice in fact, that i decided to write a full review on Hindi-Bindi Club. i did and i'm gonna blog it in a separate post.

i'm also thinking about posting on amazon.com. (if i can remember my login info...)


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275: get an elf

hey y'all.

a friend just sent me an e-mail with a link to her elf self.

well, i couldn't pull her up but i'm making my own elves right now.

it's funny and goofy. of course i haven't made any with my face. only baby and mr. bliss. LOL

if you wanna make your own elves, go here: ElfYourself.

you'll need to be able to upload photos from your own 'puter or else you'll have to do random elves.

have fun!

274: new stuff

hey y'all.

i was determined not to get caught up in the Black Friday hype. just cuz i never do.

but i couldn't resist taking a peek at online specials.

then i remembered that i really did need to buy some stuff. like business supplies so i could offset some business income.

so i ordered a case of paper from office depot. it was less than $20.

then i made the mistake of going to walmart.com. and i saw a digital cam on sale for less than $70. it came with a 1GB memory card and something called XtraDrive, a little device that turns my extra SD/MMC memory cards into USB thumb drives.

i thought, "wow. what a deal."

i wanted a new camera but couldn't justify (to myself) spending $100 or so on a new one when i already had one. i also needed a flash drive but couldn't decide which one to get. i also didn't want to pay a lot for one because as tech savvy as i am, i didn't really understand how they worked.

the paper i ordered came yesterday but we weren't home. mr. bliss had to get it from the office this morning. whoever packed it wasn't the brightest bulb in the bunch. there were 9 packages in one box and one package in another box all by itself. and some of the packages had split. thank God none of the paper was damaged.

the camera, memory card, and XtraDrive came today. in a big ole box with the giant bubble packs. the merchandise was slam on the bottom of the box and the bubbles were on top.

baby bliss inherited my old camera and she's happy as can be.

i'm also expecting a new printer i ordered from walmart.com. i'll have to pick that one up from the store cuz i wanted the free shipping. it's one of the all-in-one fax/scan/print/copy models. i'm hoping i like cuz it will save me from having to leave home to send and receive faxes.

i won't be using the new printer right away. (but i will hook it up to make sure it works.) i got the printer for a lot less than the $99 i'd previously seen it for.

i still have ink for the old one so i'll keep using it until the ink is gone. but once the ink is done, i'll be donating it to Goodwill.

if baby bliss gets a laptop for Christmas (as she's hoping), we can get rid of the old desktop 'puter in our office. that's going to Goodwill too.

my printers and cameras are all HPs. i've not had any problems with my HP products ever. i should have bitten the bullet and gotten the HP laptop. this Gateway has given me a few problems and i've barely had it for 6 months. it's still under warranty tho so anything major and i'll be sending it back for a full refund.

gotta run y'all. baby bliss is forcing me to take her to the gym. '-)


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273: i was gonna vent...

about my grandma but changed my mind.

it's not that my thoughts were uncharitable. i was just gonna complain about her attitude.

but i think i'll pray about it instead. '-)

so what did y'all do for the holidays?

we were busy.

on wednesday, baby bliss and i drove to get a friend so he could go with us to T-day dinner at our church. he treated us to lunch at his job then we all hit the mall where he picked up a few uber-expensive (for my budget) pieces of clothing at ultra-trendy shops.

some time ago he had promised baby bliss a top and he told her it was her day to collect. i could not in good conscious allow her to pick out anything in the stores he got his stuff from. he's a good friend and all but i don't want baby bliss to get a taste of that kind of lifestyle.

not that our friend makes a million bucks or anything. but he's waitstaff at a popular restaurant and i'm pretty sure his weekly tips are substantial.

i steered baby bliss to a store that was more reasonably priced and let her loose. i tend to like clothes that appear classic but she's a trendy gal. she tried on a few tops in styles that are all the rage nowadays. she ended up with one in her favorite color and a few matching accessories. everyone was happy and we skedaddled on back to the pad.

(our friend is young enough to be my son if i'd had him at the same age my mom was when she had me. (we met him thru another young friend.) he loves to get his shop on and i'm not sure he understands the concept of "spend some, save some". good mommy/big sister/friend that i am, i did tell him that our friendly gov'ment will want their cut of his cash come tax time. but i'm not sure the message sunk in and he is an adult so i didn't belabor the point.)

so back to turkey day.

baby bliss grabbed the cake she baked, i grabbed a box of graham crackers, and we three headed to the church for grub.

about 25 people showed up and everyone brought something to eat. we stayed for about two hours, eating and socializing. one of baby bliss's friends showed up and they played with the puppy. (one of our members has a new puppy that she brought in with her.)

when we left church, we went to eat again at another friend's house. we stayed there for a few hours as well. friend #2 rode with us to take friend #1 home (a one-hour drive, round trip.)

baby bliss and i didn't make it to grandma's, our usual holiday haunt. the family was disappointed.

i think that was what led to the "church invasion" on sunday. LOL

my relatives have never approved of my choice(s) of spiritual practice and they still don't.

saturday, #1 auntie told me she wanted to visit my church one day. then she said she wanted to visit "tomorrow". okaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy...

sunday morning, baby bliss and i overslept. but thanks to a phone call from #1 auntie, we still made it to church on time. it involved a lot of fancy footwork, but we did it.

mr. bliss was on his way in as we were leaving. i asked him to go to church with us, since #1 auntie was going. he said no because he'd heard that #1 auntie was taking her daughter and #2 auntie as well.

i'm thinking mr. bliss thought there might be some kind of family altercation of biblical proportions, one he had no intentions of referee-ing.

two aunties and a cousin? as we headed for church, i wondered what they had up their sleeves.

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