• Incommunicado

    Work, book stuff, family gatherings, more work … I’m swamped right now. So, I’m going to be incommunicado on the blog for a little while, probably until after Christmas when things will hopefully slow down and get back to normal.

    I’m also going to try to update the Web site some between now and then, so please bear with me.

    Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. If you celebrate other holidays, I hope those are wonderful too.

    Open presents. Eat cookies. Enjoy your friends and family. Snuggle up with someone you love. Just be happy. Peace.

    Jennifer 🙂

  • 13 shopping days left …

    One more trip to the mall. One more trip to the mall. One more trip to the mall … 

    That’s what I keep telling myself. It’ll probably end up being like five more trips to the mall. Plus Wal-mart. And Amazon. And maybe the gas station if I get truly desperate on Christmas Eve. 😉

    I’ve just got so many people to buy for I can’t ever get all my shopping done in one trip — or at one place. Parents, stepparents, grandparents, a significant other, and an uncle in a pear tree.

    This isn’t even counting all the cards I need to send out to work people and book people and … the list goes on.

    What about you? Done with your shopping? Or putting it off? Inquiring minds want to know …

  • Fall finales

    I’ve finally had time to watch the “fall finales” of some of my favorite shows this week. Some were good, some were so-so, some were a little confusing. Here’s what I think. Warning: There be spoilers ahead.

    Heroes: I knew Sylar was going to kill Eden the moment she suggested that she “persuade” him to commit suicide. And really, Mr. Bennet, don’t you think you should off the guy who wants to cut out your daughter’s brain so he can absorb her power? Instead of following orders from your shady higher-ups? Just a thought.

    Other than that, a great episode. Loved the painting of Hiro battling that dinosaur and Ando wishing that “destiny would lose their number.” I have no idea how they’re going to bring Niki, DL, and Micah into the mix with the other heroes, but I hope they do it soon. I think it’d be fun to see Niki’s alter-ego face off with Nathan again.

    Then, there’s Peter. Oh, Peter. Seeing a future in which you spontaneously explode can not be good for your mental health. I’m wondering if that was really the future or Sylar (or someone else) playing some kind of mind game with Peter.

    Hmmm. So many questions to ponder over until January …

    Prison Break: A rock ’em, sock ’em finale with lots of twists and turns, including Kellerman’s surprising about-face. I thought the oh-so-guilt-ridden Mahone would be the one to help the brothers escape custody (yet again). Instead, Kellerman put a bullet in the FBI agent. I hope Mahone makes it to next season.

    T-Bag finally found his lady love — after seducing and killing a postal worker to get her address. He’s sooo creepy — and sooo fascinating at the same time. No C-Note or Haywire, though, and very little of Sarah or Sucre. Ah, well. At least it’s coming back in January instead of March.

    If the show goes for a third season, I hope the writers have the former convicts band together to uncover the conspiracy. That would be a great way for everyone to interact more. Just a thought …

    Veronica Mars: I gotta say that this one was a little disappointing. Mercer is the rapist, helped by the dorm supervisor all because they did a psychological experiment together back in the day. What’s up with that? Plus, there were no flashbacks to show us how they pulled it off. They really should have done more with the experiment episode to tie it together like that.

    But what bothered me the most was Veronica. The girl is just reckless. She’s going to a dorm room to confront a rapist, and she doesn’t call her dad, Logan, Wallace, or even the police. That was dumb. And it always seems like someone has to save her. It was her dad the first season, Logan last year, and Parker this time.

    I enjoyed seeing Parker confront Mercer, but Veronica, please, do me a favor — take some self-defense classes. Because your Taser isn’t helping you much these days. You only weigh like a hundred pounds. If you’re going to go around confronting bad guys, you should be able to take care of yourself. 

    I did enjoy one of the last scenes with Logan bashing the police car so he could get thrown into the same cell as Mercer. Classic Logan. 🙂

    And, I’m interested to see what they do about the dean’s murder. How much you wanna bet that Lamb blames Weevil?

    What about you? What shows are you loving or hating this year? Inquiring minds want to know …

  • Bond is back, baby!

    First of all, let me say that I am a HUGE James Bond fan. I have all the books. And I mean ALL the books, even the ones written by someone other than Ian Fleming. I have all the movies. I even have some of the soundtracks. And I can bore scores of people with Bond-related trivia.

    This weekend, I finally got to see Casino Royale, the new Bond movie starring Daniel Craig.

    It. Was. AWESOME.

    The movies have gotten sillier and sillier since Goldeneye, the first one starring Pierce Brosnan back in the mid-1990s. The last one, Die Another Day, had an inivisible car, done with very cheesy and obvious special effects. Yikes.

    But Casino Royale was a reboot of the series — a chance to look back at Bond on one of his first missions. And it was almost perfect. The style, the gritty tone, the lack of cheesy one-liners and the return of some real wit. It was everything that a Bond movie should be. And then some.

    The movie followed Fleming’s original book pretty closely, which I appreciated. And Craig was an excellent Bond, the right mix of ruthlessness and determination and sophistication. Very close to Fleming’s original character. Judi Dench rocked the house as M. The scenery was breathtaking, the fight scenes were well-done, and Bond was in his favorite car — an Aston Martin.

    It was wonderful. Sigh. 🙂

    Even my significant other enjoyed it, and he’s not a Bond fan at all.

    Okay, enough gushing from me. Although I have November 2008 marked on my calendar — that’s when the next Bond movie is due to hit theaters. 😉

    What about you? Have you seen the new Bond movie? Love it? Hate it? Inquiring minds want to know …

  • They shoot authors, don’t they?

    I did something last night that I’m not particularly proud of. I decided to put aside the book I was reading — without finishing it.

    It was a paranormal romance, and I just didn’t get it. Didn’t understand how the magic worked, and didn’t really care about the characters. I worked my way up to page 90 before I decided to call it quits.

    Normally, when I start a book, I finish it. No matter how absurd or outlandish or unbelievable the plot might be. No matter how stupid the heroine is. No matter how bad and cliched I think the writing is. But I just couldn’t get through or into this one, try as I might.

    So, I’m going to take it back to the library, furtively drop it in the return box, and slink away before the Book Police come and put me away.

    What about you? Do you always finish reading what you start? Or do you put it aside after a few chapters? Inquiring minds want to know …