I didn't like the wolf til now

OK. I'm kinda impressed Jacob. Kinda. Don't let it go to your head. I'm still Team Edward all the way.

I'm in love with The Time Traveler's Wife...

I cannot wait for this movie. I'm only 120ish pages into the novel and it is FANTASTIC. So fantastic that all I want to do is read. Devour it until it is done. Why have I not read this before? Someone please tell me why no one told me to read this exquisite novel?

As soon as I finish reading it I am going to see this!

Harry Potter & The Fangirls of Won Won

Man it's nice to have such dorky fangirl friends. We got to geek out over our love of "Won Won" at the midnight premiere of Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince last night. We took pictures with our tickets, the movie poster out front, the life size display inside, and of course with Krysti's Griffindor scarf. The boys even managed to have a good time despite our craziness.

The movie itself was fantastic! They had to cut a considerable amount from the book, but they still ended up with a strong, cohesive movie that was visually stunning. And they kept one of my favorites scenes from the whole series: Hermione sicking the birds on Ron when he and Lavender hook up. Despite the dark nature of the story, the movie managed to achieve many laugh out loud moments. I kinda want to go see it again. Like now.

Book title freak out

Over the past few months, I've been furiously working on "the book". Copyediting, rewriting, cutting, rearranging. I've been reading books on structure, scene, character, how to get published, what not to do, etc. Now I've hit the proverbial wall. The book has had a name for eight plus years. And I love the name. But after all of my reading, I'm not sure the name is doing the book any favors. It may be time to edit it too. Would any of these names capture your attention on the book shelf?

• Reminders Of Them
• Dwell
• The Nature of Things Come & Gone
• Tended
• Kindred
• The Weight of Silence
• The Downside of Love
• The Color of Solitude
• Placeholders
  

We have neices and nephews?

So after traveling to TN and arriving at 3:00 am for a action-packed weekend of family fun, we ended up with more pictures of Stewart and Olive (Karen's new kittens) and fourth of July fireworks than of the family. Sad.

A Wax Lion of my very own

A few months ago I found the quirky, lovable, incredibly fantastic show, Wonderfalls. Like all of the shows I adore, it was canceled well before its time. (Only three episodes aired, but luckily a full 13-episode season was released on DVD.)

While browsing ebay, I came across a Wax Lion, one of the main figurines from the show that talks to main character Jaye and convinces her to do things to help people. I immediately plunked down the money and snatched this little gem up. Then I received an email from the seller to tell me when it would ship. This is what his email said:

"Your lion will be shipped via USPS First Class Mail first thing in the morning. However, should he start talking to you when he gets there, I would strongly suggest that you seek professional help immediately!"

Rocking our socks off

Paramore and No doubt were phenomenal in concert last night. Since Krysti was unable to go with us at the last minute, Erin had a genius idea of making a sock puppet of her to bring her "effervescent" personality with us. Thus Sock Krysti was born.

Erin, her brother Joe, Sock Krysti and I braved the mud and the teenagers to rock out to some seriously good tunes.

New Moon rising

This is how I spent my evening last night with the girls...

TBR

This is my To Be Read (TBR) pile (in no particular order):
Vision in White - Nora Roberts (not pictured)
Made in the U.S.A. - Billie Letts
Belong to Me - Marisa de los Santos
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County - Tiffany Baker
Firefly Lane - Kristen Hannah
Prep - Curtis Sittenfeld
Writing the Breakout Novel - Donald Maass
The First Five Pages - Noah Lukeman
Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
The Annunciation of Francesca Dunn - Janis Hallowell
The Bright Forever - Lee Martin
P.S. I Love You - Cecelia Ahern
Hooked: Grab Readers at Page One - Les Edgerton
Veronica - Nicholas Christopher

This does not take into account the two Jane Austen novels, the two Mark Haddon novels, Middlemarch, Anna Karenina, and Wuthering Heights that are still on my bookshelf.

Death By Demin day

I have a stack of books over two feet tall that are waiting patiently for me to read. They've been sitting there staring at me for weeks. Months even. And they'll have to keep waiting. Death By Denim by Linda Gerber came out on Tuesday and my copy arrived from Amazon today! You may remember my post from a month ago about her first two books in the series. If you haven't read them, stop reading this now (I mean now!) and go get them. They are fabulous.

The author is having a virtual release party in addition to the one I can't go to in OH. So in an effort to get more people to read these books and go to her blog, I'm Tweeting and posting to Facebook. Please check them out. You will not be disappointed.

Now my weekend will be taken up by Aphra and Seth. No better way to spend it. Cannot wait!

"You Can't Do That On Television" strikes again

Three: the number of times this week I've said "Honey, don't encourage the children" in reference to Mark meowing at the kittens in the morning when they want to be brushed.

Talk: a photo diary

We're redesigning the Talk website to better showcase who we are as a creative communications company. And Shawn and I were tasked with photographing the office to show it in all its glory. Here are some of the shots we're most proud of...

Southern Belle

The painting on the wall

For my birthday all I wanted was art. One Mandy Johnson painting to be specific. So my parents and grandparents gave me money to get what I wanted. Then bright and early on the big day, my lovely husband gave me this awesome painting, which he bought for me at Azalea fest. He did good. Real good.

Which just made me want more really awesome art. So I bought these two. One from Etsy and the other from Mandy Johnson. My house looks so damn good now all I want to do is walk from room to room looking at all of my beautiful art!

This is why I love my friends

Just received the following text:
"OMG. Am in the car, daydreaming about Twilight and am totally blanking on the 'dad's' name. Is it Carlisle? Help!"

The fact that I totally understand the daydreaming and the need to text someone to get a name when your mind shuts down is why I love my friends. They're not scared to be fan girls. And they totally rock for it!

Me and my teenage super sleuths...

As you all know, I am obsessed with Veronica Mars. Well, now I have a new teenage super sleuth to occupy my time. In the Young Adult series by Linda Gerber, Aphra Connelly must help keep her mom's ex-CIA-witness-protected-family safe from The Mole. The one big problem, Aphra and the family's teenage son, Seth, are falling for each other and the bad guys are not stupid. They know if they "follow the girl, [they'll] find the boy." Silly teenage hormones. Always causing people to get shot at, poisoned, followed cross country, etc.

If you're looking for a quick, fun, on-the-edge-of-your-seat read, I highly recommend this delightful series. But you better get reading. The next book in the series, Death By Denim, comes out May 14. (I've already ordered my copy!)

Stick in bloom

Here's to the girls of the GPS

Managed to leave my camera in NC for my 10th GPS reunion. Luckily Sarah had her's. At least for dinner.

Spring has sprung

I mean it's, like, really good...

This is the response I received from John Allen after threatening to explain the appeal of Twilight: "i understand they are well written books, but come on! "OMG I, like, really like this guy, like and like he's a vampire!" It's like Judy Blume's Stories from the Crypt. HAHAHA"