and that really pissed me off...

I find this song amazing....and it is probably 50% of the reason I'm going to see Dear John. I read (actually listened to book on CD) driving between Illinois and Florida sometime the last couple of years. I loved the book and I bawled like a baby at the ending. Now that I think about the fact that Mr. Jetplane will be deploying within the next year or so, it means so much more.

Anyone else out there going to see Dear John? Do you think it will be as good as the book?

Do I have a great giveaway for you? Well its not my giveaway, but it is a great giveaway nonetheless provided by MilitaryAvenue.com.

Its a Valentine's Contest, where you could win a Sony Touch for your Active-Duty Spouse. How great is that?? Please check out and enter the contest here....

The contest ends January 30th!

If you win, you'll received a Sony Touch pre-loaded with 10 top titles (selected by Borders) for your active-duty spouse. Winners must provide the APO or an on-base / post address to ship to upon winning as Borders will facilitate shipping readers to the winners.

Good Luck and a BIG THANK YOU to MilitaryAvenue.Com and Borders!!

It was a great book, atleast I enjoyed it...and I believe Mr. did alittle bit as well.

I feel for Julie and her desire to find something that inspires her. I'll be honest, I would love to create a challenge for myself like she did and be able to see it through completion. And she has a wonderful sense of humor, albeit is slightly dirty... which I find even more endearing.

One other point worth mentioning is that the book is associated with the blog she created to document her journey through Julia's cookbook. I think this my have given Mr. a look inside why a woman like Julie (or his wife for that matter) started and continues a blog. I hope it let him understand why I enjoy my blog and my readers (or as she calls them, her bleaders).

I recommend this book at any and all of us culinary hopefuls who search for recipes and try to make ourselves better in the kitchen. I would love for my children and grandchildren to remember me the way I do my grandmother... the best cook in the entire world. She could create a wonderful dinner with whatever was in the pantry and we could never get enough.

And as Julia would say.... Bon Appetit!

P.S. I also read Jennifer Weiner's new book last week... review to follow...I enjoyed it but it wasn't my favorite of her books that's for sure...

Paulie



Alex


Lilly Ann
Buster

I picked it up during my lunch hour yesterday and started reading after dinner. Mr. Jetplane wasn't around during my immersion into the Bon Temps world, he doesn't understand how it can suck a person it. So he was a little confused when after we returned from eating tasty Thai food, I quietly jumped into bed under the covers and read until he came to bed at 10pm. He came in a couple of times to see if I was sick, I assured him I wasn't.

I only got about 110 pages in, but I can't wait till lunch, I'm hitting up Subway and reading...

For those of you that know the series you completely understand, for those of you that don't..well... you should get in the know. These books are 1000% better than Twilight, trust me...well if you're a woman over the age of 20 then they are definitely better.

I finally got to watch Grey Gardens last night... And I adored it...



It was beautiful, heart wrenching, and wonderful The clothes, the crazy characters, the love, the everything... Oh honey...darling... please watch.


I have mad love for Drew Barrymore (pun intended if you picked up on it) and in my eyes she does no wrong.... Posion Ivy and Long Island Lolita included.

By the way... I finished Revolutionary Road and Are you there Vodka during my trip... reviews coming.


And I was also forced to watch Fast & Furious 4... no review required... car chases, half dress girls, and angry men. nuff said... Paul Walker looked hot though... but never took his shirt off :(



Happy Earth Day to ALL.

I'll be honest, over the last 5 years or so I have really gotten into reading again. During the wedding planning process reading books took a back seat to wedding craziness, but I do thoroughly enjoy reading again.


I try to read a book every 2 weeks. Since I work in an office, I try get out of the office and read for an hour a day. It gets me away from my desk and allows me to de-stress. If a book is really good, I'll read at night and on the weekends.


Now, I'm not going to lie and say that I read only the classics or thought provoking self help books, or whatever else would make me sound incredibly deep because that would be a flat out lie. I do read biographies, non-fiction, fiction, a little poetry, chick lit, a little sci fi... I have read all the Harry Potter books (so has Mr. Jetplane) and all the Twilight books (so has Mr. Jetplane). But I do like to mix it up a bit. I've read a lot of Stephen King and Thomas Harrison, but I've also enjoyed Steinbeck and Jon Krakauer and a little Jennifer Weiner or Janet Evanovich for good measure on holiday. Since I drive ALOT going back and forth to the Midwest, Mr. Jetplane and I tend to listen to books on tape, I've listen to almost all of Nicholas Sparks books (atleast the ones on sale..) and Candace Bushnell books.


Well, as I've gushed about my undying (no pun intended) love for the Sookie Stackhouse series, I purchased the 8th book yesterday, and I am sad that I have to wait unti May to read the 9th. So that being the case I also picked up these 2 books to keep me occupied.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates



I heard this book and movie were fabulous and I refuse to watch the movie before I read the book.





The Witches of Eastwick by John UpdikeI have wanted to read this book and its sequel for quite some time but just haven't. I loved the 80's movie and now they are going to make a television show based on it so I thought I'd give it a read.

What are my favorite books.... Well my favorite book in the world... its kinda strange, but Dante's Inferno. I also like Ordinary People and Of Mice and Men. I read all of these in my high school honors English classes.

Some books that I have liked very much and would recommend:


1. Into the Wild
2. Under the Banner of Heaven (about fundamentalist Mormons, and is highly criticized)
3. Water for Elephants


Well and of course Sookie Stackhouse series... like duh....


And I must comment on one book that I absolutely hated and it took me forever to finish...


Eat, Pray, Love


I'm sorry to the millions upon millions that loved it.... I liked Italy but couldn't stand the rest of it. It wasn't awe inspiring to mind blowing to me... maybe I need to be older and be going through a divorce, not sure.

What are your favorite books? What would you recommend? Summer is coming up and my reading kicks into high gear with vacations, laying on the beach, etc.

This weekend I finished the 6th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series and it was wonderful. It was suspenseful and entertaining all at the same time. If anyone is interested in starting a new book series, I highly suggest starting this series.

In the 6th book, Sookie has to go down to NOLA to close on her cousin's (who she hadn't been close with for a long time) estate. Turns out, she had become a vampire and was a very "good" friend of the Queen of Louisiana. Betcha didn't know there was a Queen of Louisiana, well in the make believe world of vampires that I'm currently submerged in there is.

Someone is trying to kill Sookie (nothing new), Sookie is dating someone new who's a real tiger in the sack (that's b/c he is a tiger, for real....), and Bill is a total a-hole.


Oh Sookie... so many supernatural hunky men and so little time.


Which leads me to my question for this post... While I'm reading a book, I visualize the characters, what they look like, their voices, etc. Sara and I began discussing who we thought should play these characters or atleast who we envision playing the characters.


Since HBO True Blood is based on these books (Season 1 is pretty much Book 1) I already had a visual on Sookie, Bill, Eric, Jason, Pam, Sam, Arlene, etc. (Tara in the show is totally different than in the books).


But for all of you out there, who do you think would be the best actors to play the following:


Alcide
Quinn
Claudine
Claude
Calvin Norris
Crystal Norris
Debbie Pelt
Chow
Queen of Louisiana


For those of you that haven't seen the television show yet.

Here is Eric - I find him to be very close to the book, except is hair isn't as long as it should be. He was a Viking and over 1,000 yrs old. Looks pretty hot to me.



Bill - who I don't like right now, so I can't find anything nice to say about him.Thoughts?

Thank you all for entering my giveaway.... I'm excited that so many people are interested in starting a new series of books.


So I put all the names into my favorite green vase and selected one lovely lady...








And the winner is......





Kelli - who I believe is now Mrs. D.


Congrats!


Please email me at leavingandloving@gmail.com with your name and address.


Update: I adore my big ass watch, I did a post about it a while ago. That pic actually makes it look bigger than it is. It was a Christmas gift to myself.

But after this, I'm not buying anything more this month that I don't "need".