Folks...the comments are still going strong about Downton Abbey. Melinda has made her appearance and has brought her strong opinions along with her :o)
I am surprised more of you did not comment on the Kid President's video.
Katie and Emma and I think it is the best thing in the world.
Our little girl is playing club volleyball. She plays for a small team called OTT.
Club volleyball is an 'out of school' team. You pay to be on a club team. Tournaments are held on the weekends. Around here, girl's volleyball is very very competitive.
Making the high school team and staying on it is very difficult!
Katie is playing because she loves volleyball and she wants to improve.
For now, she learns, she plays, she gets exercise and makes friends.
We shall see what happens in the future...a lot depends on if she grows :o)
And then there are hours and hours of school work...
Some people don't have to work very hard.
And some people do.
Do you see Ginny?
Here is a quote for Branson and any other gloomy Irish folks among us.
"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy."
Last night the Screen Actors Guild awards were on as was Downton Abbey.
I missed half of the SAG because I was watching DA. But I think you would like to know that Downton Abbey won this year for Best Drama Ensemble.
In a little bit....there will be spoilers.
Beware.
You have been warned.
Don't look!
*****
Oh my. Last night.
Terribly sad.
Great acting all around.
Cora who I have felt is not a very good actress in the past has been surprising me this year.
Now. Toxemia.
I had this with Katie. I was told that the cure was the delivery of the baby.]
I have not heard of women having attacks after the baby was born. Before, yes. A day later, no.
Dear Nurses,
Was this an accurate portrayal of the condition untreated?
Lord Grantham. Could anyone have been placed in a worse position. I do understand not trusting the other Doc. He made some wrong decisions. I understand that. He felt he was doing what was best for his daughter. How awful to have made that decision.
He is looking like a fool this year. That is too bad. I know the writers can turn it around for him as they are expert at this.
You know, Jessica Brown Findlay/Sybil wanted to leave the show. What else could they do?
They could have done a switheroo like they did with Darren on Bewitched or all those soap stars....
"The part of Sybil is now being played by ___________."
But they did not.
Our elegant soap opera just lost a main character.
I know you all have much to say.
Please add your cries to the comments.
This movie, Beast of the Southern Wild, is nominated for an Academy Award.
This little girl, Quvenzhnae Wallis, is the lead actor. She is seven. She is a miracle.
This earnest, beautiful child carries this movie like Tom Hanks did with Castaway.
She is nominated for an Academy Award also. I think she should win. It seems wrong for one so young to win such a big award. But, I am telling you, she does something none of the other women do, she is Hushpuppy.
If you would like to read Roger Ebert's column follow the link below.
Last night Patrick and I went into town (Madison) to watch the Badgers play the Spartans. The traffic was horrendous. Everything else about the night was great! But I tell you. City traffic jams just take the fun out of things. It makes me never want to go down there again.
We do have the option of taking a bus...but the bus I saw, that was loading fans at a bar on Regent was behind us and we were five minutes late. A lot of people were late. Maybe other people don't mind. But I do think that is the first time I have ever been late to a game. In my life.
And well. I survived.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
We are accustomed to leaving early. We are pros at that.
Thank you Joe for the tickets!
Great seats! Fun game!
Here is a photography pointer for shooting at an indoor sport like this with crazy light differences.
Because of the dark all around the camera wants to balance the light so most times I see very very bright floors in basketball pictures. I wanted my basketball floor to look right so here is what you do;
tap your screen on the basketball court. This will tell your camera in your phone to focus and adjust the light where you have tapped. You are overriding the auto in your camera by doing this.
Try it with your phone camera.
Look at the bench. Do you think there are enough coaches/staff?
Rosa, I looked for your hubby but did not spot him :o)
***
Back to the quiet life.
We went to see The Silver Linings Playbook. Did I tell you that?
It's very good. I'd like to see it again.
It's rated R. So beware.
Photography tip two.
Make them spit out their gum.
Monday we all went to Chicago to see Emma. Patrick Sr. had not seen her new place yet and well...he had the day off and Katie did not have volleyball so away we went.
I drove down and Patrick was able to keep watch of his phone.
At one point, around Hoffman Estates, there was a man in front of me who was driving irrationally.
Do you want to hear what he was doing? He must have had a lap top sitting on the chair next to him because the whole time he was looking down to his right. Swerving. Looking up. Looking down to the right. I could tell he was reading. It was driving me wild. Finally we passed him and I could stop obsessing. He was an accident waiting to happen. What an idiot.
After lunch at Hamburger Mary's in Andersonville we walked down Clark to get a coffee for Emma and a stop in at Brimfield.
Of all days to walk around Chicago. Burrrr. Patrick was so cold we could not get him to leave the Starbucks.
I think these are fish pails. What do you think?
I was so excited to use my Nikon with the Lensbaby in Chicago.
When I picked it up to take a picture, I realized that I forgot to put in the Card. No card. No pictures. Boo hoo. Well...at least, no pictures with a good camera.
The iphones are good for moments. But clarity and focus and backlighting. Not good at all.
I did what I could and recorded our fun day without fancy flare and blur and bokeh.
And in the very back of the store...an Airstream!!!
We showed Patrick around DePaul a little bit. Emma is going to Grad School there. She will get her Master in counseling.
Then we went to the warmest place in the city.
Warmest and freest place in the city. Is that how you spell free est?
Or is that not a word? Perhaps you can not be freer than free.
Well. The small bit of light in last night's Downton was the hiring of the handsome footman.
Do it for the girls. Too funny.
It was like seeing Brad Pitt standing there, wasn't it?
I'm glad Bates and Anna got their letters, it made them both so happy.
Tom. Branson. I have never liked him. I am mad at him. I never liked how he forced himself on Sybil.
Why couldn't someone talk sense into her? Foolish.
If he wanted to be a rebel so badly, he had NO BUSINESS marrying anyone.
Go ahead and rebel and put your life at risk. But he is wrong to drag a woman into this with him.
yuck.
I like that Matthew is Edith's cheerleader.
Ethel and Fantine. So much alike. Sad story.
Many clever jabs and barbs this week. Please feel free to shout them out in the comments.
I'm not so good at remembering them.
No whining says tough and no nonsense Dowager Countess. Find something to do.
How I love her pluck.
(Maggie Smith is coming back for season 4 after all. Good. News.)
Oh! And Daisy finally gets what she has been wishing for....
but Ivy is very pretty...
Isn't that rotten luck for her?
A sad show, I think.
Not my favorite.
Matthew's mother goes from awful to sweet in a blink of an eye.....
This was a #latergram.
It was taken over Christmas but I didn't post it until week...when I was especially missing Asher.
I called this one GinTinTin.
Thursday I went to Steph's Bible Study group in Baraboo. This 'semester' we are studying 1Peter.
The method of studying scriptures is called Manuscript Bible Study or Inductive. As you read thru the passage you mark up your paper with little notes.
1. Observation
who, what, where, when
2. Interpretation
what does it mean?
3. Application
This is Stephanie's paper. She has done this for years and loves studying this way. I had never even heard of it before but I am game :o)
My paper just had a few scratches on it.
I stopped at Bagels Forever and bought a dozen salt bagels.
I took a few pictures of Katie.
She has long legs.
One week until OTT's first volleyball tournament!
A sweet leaning doggy.
Thank you for the lovely and kind comments you have left this week.
They mean so much to me.
I poured a Tablespoon or so in the bottom of the pan. I placed the thawed tilapia
on top of the oil.
Bake 425.
Six minutes first side.
Flip
Two/Three minutes on second side.
While baking fish, melt 1/2 stick of butter in a pan.
Add the a few teaspoons of lemon pepper and the juice of 1/2 a lemon.
I may have used a clove of garlic, but I can't remember for sure.
Salt as needed.
When the fish was finished I put it on a plate and poured the sauce over it.
The recipe says to use either one pound of chicken, pork or turkey. I chose pork.
So I browned the pork, added this bottle of chili starter.
Added one cup of water.
Let it cook for 20 minutes.
And done.
I am very picky about soups in jars and cans. I usually prefer making them myself.
But this one is really delicious. The flavors are just right.
I loved it.
Highly recommended.
****
Two shows to watch.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
This movie was wonderful. I think I liked it better than any other light romantic comedy I have seen this year. It was pretty and interesting and sweet. It's not that funny.
It's just a good story.
Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt star and were both nominated for Golden Globes. The movie was also nominated for a Golden Globe.
I didn't know anything about it....but watched it on a whim.
Highly Recommended.
****
I caught this show on PBS just the other night. It was one of the most interesting and delightful things I have seen on television....ever.
Prince Charles sits and watches home movies. He talks about his mom, the Queen.
He giggles over and over while watching himself a a little boy.
He tells stories about his parents.
The movies are charming.
Hey! Look. I found the whole thing on YouTube. We shall see how long this will be available....
but if you would like to see it. Here it is.
It is an amazing (to me) to peek into the lives of the Royals.
I especially appreciated how jolly Prince Phillip was in the movies.
(I have many new thoughts on Charles and Diana after seeing this movie.)
On Monday Janet and Susan were obsessing about a particular cake. (We won't talk about the cake as it is Wednesday and I want to keep the comments free of Downton Abbey Spoilers on every day other than Monday. Monday we talk Downton. The rest of the days, I want to let everyone read all the comments :o) )
But I still want you ladies to see the gorgeous cakes I have pinned over the last two years on Pinterest.
I like flowers...and natural looking cakes, don't I?
I thought you would like to see those! I had many of them pinned on my "Beautiful" board.
On Saturday I tried a cake
at a grocery store opening in Madison. The baker was Carl's from Sun Prairie. Katie and I tried a piece of the vanilla with raspberry with vanilla butter cream and it was out of this world delicious. We will be heading to Carl's next time we need a cake! Yum.
It was not pretty. It was just delicious. And that's okay too.
Here are a few pictures I have taken this week.
It's so dark lately when Katie is home and well...Ginny only has one expression. ha.
But I did notice that it was a touch lighter at 5:00 last night and that gives me hope!
But until the sun stays around longer in the evenings I will be lighting my family room with twinkly lights.
