Fun Stuff

My friend Jenn over at The Rebel Chick wrote about her four favorite romantic movies. Her choices were really good, and it made me think about what my choices for favorite love stories would be. So, here are the first ones that came to my mind.

1.As Good As It Gets

Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson are as mismatched as lovers as you could get, and the characters they play in this movie are people who are far from perfect. Each one has their craziness about them.I like this movie because it shows that even if you are not the most beautiful, or the kindest, or even the sanest, you can find love in this world.

2. Forrest Gump

While you wouldn’t think of this as a love story at first, the whole movie is Forrest talking about his lifetime of loving Jenny. She has no great love for him in return, and she is not portrayed as someone who deserves his love really, but in the end, she does come back to Forrest, even if it for the wrong reasons. And that is also something I can see happening in real life. Plus, the soundtrack has such good music.

3. Heaven Knows Mr. Allison

This movie came out in 1957, when I was only 5 years old. I remember seeing it when I was a little girl, and falling in love with Robert Mitchum. He was my first movie actor “heart throb”, and I know it was because of this movie. He plays a marine who is  marooned on an island in the Pacific with a nun. Stranded in the island, but with water, fish and fruits, their paradisiacal life ends when the Japanese arrive to build a base, forcing Allison and the nun to hide in a cave. The crude marine provides the necessary supply for their survival and falls in love for the nun.

5. Shrek

OK, so it is the most unbelievable love story ever, with the most predictable outcome, but come on! Didn’t you love that movie?

Pig In Pen photo by Kim Newberg

We went to Hillcrest Farms this morning to pick up some New York strip steaks we had ordered a couple of weeks ago. While we were there, we started talking with Gayle, the owner, about pigs. She was telling us how docile the pigs on her farm are, and it made the think about when my father had a pen full of pigs when I was growing up.

We lived in the country, in a little town called Austell, Georgia. Back then, more than 50 years ago now, it really was country. For those of you who live in there now, Thornton Road was a two lane gravel road, and I-20 did not exist when I lived there. Somewhere around 1960 or 1961, contractors started working to build I-20 about a mile or so from our house.

My brothers and cousins and I used to go over there and play on the earth moving machines after the workers went home for the night. What was to become I-20 was just an immense place where they had scraped down all the trees and other vegetation, and then started the work to make it into a road. It was a child’s delight–mud and machines and all.

My father had a pig pen in the woods behind our house, where he  usually had about twenty five or so pigs, fattening them up to take them to market to sell. One day a sow that was ready to have a litter of piglets broke out of the pen, and ran away. Daddy told us to track her down and let him know where she was. When we found her, she had gone through a huge drainage pipe to the other side of I-20 and birthed those babies.

We went home and told Daddy where the old sow was. He gave us a five gallon bucket, and told us to go back over there, and catch one of the babies and put it in the bucket, and run like hell back to the house. Let me tell you, a mama pig WILL chase you all the way home if you have her squealing baby in a bucket.

January found us in Alabama at Payne Lake Campground, serving as volunteer camphosts. We met up with this Armadillo in our yard one morning. He was a tough little guy!

February was a happy month. Our daughter got married, and added a wonderful son-in-law to our family.

In March, Fabgrandpa turned 62. We celebrated by going out to lunch for a catfish plate, then to Moundville to the Indian Mounds there. This is the Black Warrior River in Moundville.

We headed back up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in April. It doesn’t open to the public until May 15th each year, but Fabgrandpa helps get things ready for opening day.

A snowstorm in May brought winter back to the North Rim for a couple of days. The snow was blowing up out of the canyon here.

By June, the sun was out but it was still chilly enough for a sweater during the day. The view was hazy due to several fires burning in the area.

July brings monsoons to the Grand Canyon. This storm was scary, with lots of wind, thunder and lightening.

All the rain and snow rewarded us with a gorgeous array of wildflowers in August!

Nope, not smoke. That’s fog in the canyon. September’s cooler temperatures brought many foggy mornings.

October turned the Kaibab National Forest to gold. These aspens were at the height of color on this beautiful fall day.

A short road trip to St. Simons Island, Georgia in November brought us this view of the Atlantic Ocean.

And after all that traveling around, we closed on our new house in December! We aren’t giving up the nomadic life just yet, though. I can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store for us.

Fabgrandpa and I are ringing in the New Year here in Georgia, and going to the Cyber Masquerade Ball. Come on in and join the fun, and party til you drop, or the ball drops, or the peach drops, or until the wee hours of the morning!

I am wearing my standard disguise: Sunglasses. Rocking it like a Rock Star!

There has to be food at the party! I’ve got this veggie tray all ready! Enjoy with your favorite dip!

Mmmmm, we need some gluten free treats, too! How about some gluten free crab cakes? I could make them into crab balls te eat as finger food!

How about a pie. Coconut Cream Pie is delicious at any party!

Don’t forget the beer!

Let’s Dance! and party til the New Year is here!

To join in the party, see the linky at Geogypsy

My good friend, Geogypsy, is planning a New Year’s Eve Masquerade Party, and YOU are invited! Just let your imagination soar, and link your story of being at the Cyber Masquerade Ball complete with an image of your costume (not necessarily you). You could elaborate on the ballroom, musicians, decorations, food, liquor, champagne fountain, flowers, games and/or topics of conversation. Let your party imagination soar. Come on in and join the party. Click on the link above to find out more about participating in this party of the year!