Life, Fannishness, and Thespic Infatuation

I'm very excited. One of our friends is going to Texas for Christmas, and he asked George if there's anything he could bring back for me. Geo, being the sharp thinker he is (and maybe missing the nice zip that his lamingtons usually have) told Friend that I'd really like a bottle of La Vencedora vanilla. This is the best vanilla (this, and the vanilla I got in Honduras years and years ago) I've ever used. The bottle of La Vencedora my MiL brought back from Texas many years ago finally ran out, and we haven't found anything to match.

So after the new year, I'll have a new bottle of Mexican vanilla. Yay! \o/ And my baking will be zippy again!

Had a belated birthday celebration on Saturday (after a staged reading for our new community theater group we're getting started). Just a few friends over for cake and ice cream.

Since this year I'm the answer to life, the universe and everything ( . . . or rather, my age is . . . ), my geek friend gave me a towel. Light and dark blue striped, for the record. Several folks had to leave for various reasons (overworked toddler, teen had to be somewhere, etc.), but Geek Friend and occasional Cat/House Sitter stuck around, and we watched an ep of Ghost Adventures, which is nothing but mock-worthy, and "Hell House."

All in all, a fun evening.

More kudos for Geo. My mom sent us the January copy of Ohio Magazine, the issue entitled "Best of Ohio." On pages 57 - 58, one entry is called "Movie Talk."

Movie Talk

Everybody loves to talk about movies, but nobody does it like the gang at Filmically Perfect. Every Friday aftrnoon on WYSO-FM (91.3), the public radio station in Yellow Springs, movie nuts J. Todd Anderson and George Willeman joined by host Niki Dakota, spend 30 minutes poring over favorite classic films that meet their four rules for movie perfection. As Anderson, a Hollywood storyboard artist, and Willeman, a government film archivist, hold forth on how everything from Jaws to The Misfits to White Zombie met these criteria, they don't just teach--they make you laugh your socks off, too. You can find their podcasts at perfectmovie.net.

Or you can find the link on my links list.

Friday:

Geo and I got the house cleaned up for my Tastefully Simple party. The weather was gorgeous, and I think everyone had a good time.

Saturday:

The weather continued to be gorgeous for the charity walk. Unsurprisingly, Geo and I were the only people from our church to walk. We didn't know anyone else there, and we were surrounded by a sea of Baptists. We walked at our own pace through various groups, and I said to Geo, "Let's see. So far today we've been Baptist, Catholic, Assembly . . . who's sign are we walking behind now?" I think next year I'm going to encourage our church people who live in Madison to join the Culpeper walk, and then Geo and I will host lunch for them after.

After the charity walk, Geo and I roamed the town street fair that was set up for the day. I met a Tupperware consultant who is willing to replace a piece of Tupperware that the company told me they no longer make. \o/ We also went to the farmer's market, but it's a little too soon for the produce I want.

We went on a bike ride in the afternoon, then to dinner at a friends' house. Delicious Italian food and good company.

Sunday:

It was good to get back to Sunday school, which I've missed for the past several weeks. And instead of a standard service today, we had an a cappella group from UVA perform. They were great. I love a cappella music.

Then Geo and I participated in a book reading for the kick-off of the sale of the local writers' group's new book. I read 5 selections, Geo read 6. There were six readers in all. It was a really nice presentation, and the writers loved hearing their work performed. The woman who wrote most of my readings stood up at the end of the program and said that as one of the editors, she'd read the stories over and over, but they'd never been as well written as they were today. She came up to me after and was very complimentary. I told her that it was the first time I'd ever performed anything with the author actually in the audience.

I love doing oral interpretation and readers theater and staged readings. This was a lot of fun, and we got some people interested in our new theater group.

Unfortunately, Geo and I had to miss the Easter play cast party at church, but such is life.

Back from ( the weekend conference )

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends! (And to my non-American friends, may you have a blessed and thanks-filled day just the same.)

As I made mention earlier, I'm home with family right now, and it's so very nice. Today will be spent with Geo's fam. Then on Saturday, Little Bro and SiL are hosting a day of leftovers and my side of the extended family.

I'd also like to thank the generous f-listie who gifted me this morning with one of my Christmas wish list items (and by default, a second item as well). Thank you! *hugs*

( Visiting the Performing Arts Center )

( Spreading the SPN love )

So a Happy Thanksgiving to all. May you have all the pumpkin pie you want, but not more than you need.

God bless!