I knew I would love it. Fallen stars, unicorns, a shining Claire Danes, a dashing hero disguised as a dork, evil, conniving, witty witches, a gaggle of dryly comedic dead princes, and a cross dressing, can-can dancing Robert DeNiro. Who could ask for more?

Well, I can.

I did love it - absolutely loved it! It's a "Princess Bride" for the 21st century, a kooky faery tale - which really are the best kind. One of my favorite lines says something like, "When you start to fit in there's something wrong", or "Be very afraid of normal"....just go see it. But I have just one quibble...where was the red-leaved talking tree modeled after Tori Amos, I ask you?

A bit of trivia: The movie is based on the novella Stardust by Neil Gaiman, a personal friend of Tori. The same "Neil" she refers to in some of her songs, i.e. "Tear In Your Hand": "If you need me, me and Neil'll be hangin' out with the dream king" (Neil also wrote a graphic novel series about dreams called The Sandman) and "Neil said 'Hi' by the way".

Neil loves Tori so much he wrote her as a talking tree in Stardust. She references this in the song "Horses" on her album Boys For Pele. She sings "And if there is a way to find you I will find you/but will you find me if Neil makes me a tree?" Now this I would have LOVED to see especially since I haven't read the book yet. I imagine this tree would have spoke (or sang?) in symbolic riddles steeped in mythology and history causing our heroes to relish the richness and depth of her message which would have warned of betrayal, basked in the complexities of love, preached of woman-power or demonstrated how to kill a waitress. Either way it would have been a revelation!!!

Perhaps they had Tori as a tree all planned for the movie, but she was too busy writing the brilliant Digital Ghost.

Here's to an almost complete movie.

*cheers*

And here's to my red-leaved talking Tori. Gah! I love her!

-Britten

This Little, Black Cloud

So Andy had to get another surgery. (What number are we at now?) I'm not refering to the one he had 3 weeks ago to get his morphine pump inserted. Nope. Out of all the pumps that Medtronics has made in the last 10-15 years, Andy's is the only one to break and go haywire. This would be his luck. I knew there was something screwy with it when he wouldn't feel any morphine go into his spine for an 8-hour span at night when it supposedly pumps the morphine in on a periodic basis, but the doctor just thought he should keep upping the doseage.

Andy started beeping (and by this I mean the pump) last Sunday and then we knew something *was* really up. The doctor just thought the pump was almost out of medicine. I said they were probably going to have to reprogram him at least. No. Another surgery to replace the broken pump (which is inserted behind the skin on his stomach). Someone hand me my medical liscense and get this over with already.

My poor, poor husband. We just can't get out from under this little, black cloud that's been over his head for about the last half of his life now. The stream of medical bad luck this guy has could make a good book at least. He said, "It's sad when you no longer freak out before a surgery. It's just like getting blood drawn - after about the 6th time it's no big deal." He's a real-live pin cushion and his body is starting to resemble Frankenstein's monster. We've started calling him "Bionic Man" since he has his mechanical stimulator, the two screws in his spine and now the pump. Maybe this half explains why I'm subconsciously captivated by Darth Vader? Maybe not...

However, he seems to be doing well right now. They will activate the pump with morphine on Monday and hopefully we'll see good times roll. (knock on wood, spin three times and do a little jig for good luck.) And pray too - don't forget that. He needs all the good vibes he can get.

-Britten

Viva Las Vegas

So I met up with some of my colorguard friends from high school at Kristal's parents house in Las Vegas a few weeks ago (minus our lovely Rachel who got stuck in San Fran with her sick cat - we love you Rachel!). Just like old times when we would hang out at Kristal's, laugh, watch movies, eat good food and chill and her parents would be there to chit chat with (if you could keep up with Jim's mile-a-minute little comments every now and then - heh!) Jim and Sheila are still cool as ever, and hey, so are we! It was amazing how tons of time can pass by, but when we get together again it's like nothing has changed. May it always be that way...

Sorry, there's a few inside jokes on here, but it's smokin'!

Vegas Remix

And no, we didn't see my favorite part of Vegas - the Bellagio fountains. Errr... That's about the third time I've been there and missed them for some dumb reason or another. One can not miss the spiritual experience of it all! It's blasphemous! Next time I'm there I'm going to stand and watch them all dag-nab day!


-Britten

Observations...

Two things I gather from this picture:

1.) Ari's a total ham.

2.) It's a shame my boobs are only this big when I'm overweight.

Size 10-18? A Recommendation...

So I have this friend whom I finally met in person at Celebration 4 this year. Her name is Mary Jo but she goes by many an alias, i.e. lazypadawan, MissPadme, and greenfaerie. We have been posting on some of the same Star Wars related threads on theforce.net . I also follow her Star Wars fan fiction (she is the best when it comes to filling in the blanks between scenes and episodes, IMO!) and her live journal (scroll down to "Silly Fic: Maury Povich's "The Empire Strikes Back" - you'll laugh your socks off, even if you aren't a Star Wars fan!).

She started a new blog on blogger not too far back that I know many of my friends and family who frequent my blog (and may not frequent enough *cough*) would love! It's for all of us size 10-18ers that have a hard time finding afordable, up-to-date clothing that doesn't end up making us all look like walking boxes. She scopes out the stores and fashion sites and reports on anything that may be a hidden treasure to anyone who needs more info and ideas on where to look. So far, I have found it extremely helpful in that she and I seem to share similar taste in clothing (see us in our Star Wars duds below). I started to get into a serious rut only shopping at NY&Co and it's starting to make my wardrobe go blah, so this is great for me! (and so far, I'm the only one commenting, so share the love!) You can view it here .

Happy shopping!

Action Figure Fun - Episode I

Click-a-roo

Contact

"Earth to Britten. Come in Britten."

Yes, I know....it does seem as though I have fallen off of it, but my world is full of measurements and rah-rah's right now so I have sadly had to stay away from Blogland, but this news has caused me to come back into orbit for awhile and spread this amazing word!

FOUND, A PLANET LIKE EARTH

Yes, folks. That of which we LDS people have always said is true is now in the process of being discovered by scientists.

It's about time.

It is known for the time being as Gliese 581c, is about 1 1/2 the size of our planet and has all the right conditions thus far in the research to contain liquid water on the surface and possible rock formations. And where there is water, there may very well be life.

Here are some quotes from the aritcle I thought were particularily interesting:

"Just because Gliese 581c is habitable does not mean that it is inhabited, but we do know its sun is an ancient star - in fact, it is one of the oldest stars in the galaxy, and extremely stable. If there is life, it has had many billions of years to evolve."

Sweet! Bring 'em on!

"The fact that almost as soon as we have built a telescope capable of detecting small, earth-like worlds, one turns up right on our cosmic doorstep, shows that statistically, there are probably billions of earths out there."


Hmmm, you don't say?


"Interestingly, Gliese 581c is so close to the Earth that if its putative inhabitants only had our level of technology, they could - just about - pick up some of our radio signals, such as the most powerful military transmitters. Quite what would happen if we for our part did receive a signal is unclear.
"There is a protocol, buried away in the United Nations," says Dr Shostak. "The President would be told first, after the signal was confirmed by other observatories. But we couldn't keep such a discovery secret."
It may be some time before we detect any such signals, but it is just possible that today we are closer than ever to finding life in the stars."

Beam me up, Scotty!


How much you want me to bet those scientists they won't find aliens with extra-long limbs and bug eyes?

Oh! Maybe this earth will be in it's own dinosaur age or maybe it will be in it's own age that our planet has never gone through....maybe it will represent the state of our planet thousands of years from now! Oh, the possibilities!

You can check out the whole article here . It's sooooo interesting!

I'm telling you, these scientists, although brilliant, are far behind truth, but they're getting there.

And I just heard this - correct me if I'm wrong, that they have just come to believe that the Mayan Ruins were actually built by a people that settled there before the Mayans. Hmmm....now who could that be?

duh.

But I like us Mormons, we just sit back and say, "Um yeah....old news."


Time for me to once again go to light speed.

Mission: Broadway Cheer. And I will see you all back here in a few millenia.

Maybe I should have been an astrobiologist....

Over and Out,

-Britten

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Muppet Baby

So I'm beginning to believe I have a true little muppet on my hands. Kaiya is definitely the fairy, Trooper is Grandpa's mini-me, but Ari...she's the muppet. Somewhere along the way it was inevitable that I, Britten, would begat a muppet much like myself.

Ari has started giving this cheesy grin, or a looks-could-kill scowl, depends on the time of day but I don't have a picture of that yet.

But how is she a muppet, you say? Well, she is the spitting image of those muppet babies, but I don't mean cute and pudgy little Miss Piggy and Kermit in their early years, even though, wow, total cuteness.






No, I'm talking about those muppets from the orignial Muppet Show that actually look like babies - those genderless, toothless old people in little packages with the whispy, just-stuck-my-finger-in-a-light-socket hair coming out the top of their little round faces.

Observe here:

The pictures do not do the craziness of her hair justice. It consists of every length imaginable and still does not exist in some patches. She has derived serveral nicknames from this including some that are nicknames of nicknames, which Andy is famous for. The first was "Chickie" or "Fuzzhead" for the tuft of fuzz that was her hair when she was born, then "Chickie Fried" for the longer, fried effect and then this turned into "Chicken Fried Steak" which actually has nothing to do with the tastiness of her arms, legs, and cheeks we like to nibble on occasionally. To communicate she barks little high-pitched screams and when she is tired she lays her head down on her blanky and makes a noise that is much like a teeny, tiny motorcycle revving its engine. And it looks like she may have a temper that's worse than Trooper's and would rival Miss Piggy in a jealous rage.

I'm predicting raising this muppet will be pretty norm....just do the muppet dance and everyone's happy, but one has to remember that some muppets have a bit of a darkside. But then again, most everyone has a darkside including kids and mommys...and mommy's
usually directly proceeds the kids' darksides.

Speaking of darksides...

-Britten

Calling All Females...

So this is a screen shot from the animated series "Clone Wars" on Cartoon Network. This is Anakin after going through an ancient Nelvaan warrior ritual of getting tattooed before he goes on a quest to find the missing Nelvaan warriors. We fangirls like to say, "a cartoon has never looked so hot!"

Well, my friends....he's not just a cartoon anymore!!!!

*faints*

**THUD**



"wha...?"

Oh, yeah.... Thanks to me, this Anakin look-alike now has his own fanclub on theforce.net boards to the grateful eyes of all my single fangirl friends. Um, yes, I gave myself the "audaciously grueling" task of hunting this guy and all his stats down on the internet. I was so relieved to find his myspace .

Ladies - You are so very welcome... (evil smiley)

So Andy know's a way to a Star Wars fangirl's heart for Valentine's Day...I got the Star Wars Battle Pack: Attack on Illum with Snow Bunny Padme!!! I'm the only mom I know who's five-year-old son is jealous of her Valentine's present.

-Britten

Dreaming of Spring and Summer

It's raining as I write this. I meant to post this picture last summer, but never got around to it. It's of my porch garden, which was so lush and beautiful this summer. We had vines and flowers everywhere. It could have been in Better Homes and Gardens on a good day ("good day" meaning I finally got out there and cleaned up the toys and junk and swept, and perhaps killed some of the many black widows that are secretly mounting an army so that they can take us by surprise one day.)

Last night I was surveying the damage the recent freeze did to my plants. It's not looking pretty, people. I'm hoping some are only playing dead. Can plants do that? Do they perhaps go into self-induced comas to avoid further damage from the nights upon nights of frost? If not, I will be pretty devastated. Come Spring, one will be able to find me sitting next to the Tea Roses, rubbing a crispy leaf and trying to coax it out of it's slumber. Then come Summer, one will be able to find me sitting next to the Geraniums, rubbing another cripsy leaf and trying to coax it out of it's slumber. Then fall will come and one will be able to find me sitting next to the Bougainvillea rubbing a black, crispy leaf and trying to coax it out of its slumber.

Then mom will come over and say, "I'm sorry, dear....they are not coming back." Then she will pull the plugs and they will all become one sad pile of dirt in the trash can. More money gone down tubes in hopes of a glorious garden. This is going to suck.

But at least I have my pictures...and the memories....

-Britten