Best Christmas Gift of 2010

Now that the holidays are behind us, I find a moment to think about the best gift I received.

For me, it was the time spent with family. Many of my extended family members I only see at the holidays or the occasional wedding or funeral. We just don't get together that often.

Spending the holidays with family members has always been a blessing to me. I grew up a military brat so even our immediate family wasn't always together for Christmas, and the times we came home and went to my grandparents' houses were that much more special.

As I get older, the times together become even more precious, as I have lost grandparents, my dad, my cousin. Christmas brings all of us together, and that's the best part of the season.

Men: Dress Sharp to Get Women

Photo from MensWearhouse.com

A man who dresses well seems more attractive than he really is. At least, that's the view of 91% of Americans polled. Most women, 83% of them, said that a sharply dressed man is sexier than one with a lot of money.

Of course, this survey was conducted on behalf of Men's Wearhouse, who would certainly benefit if more men wore suits and ties. I can't say that my heart would be broken never to see another man wearing baggy pants that look like they're about to fall off with a grunge-skater-graffiti t-shirt. I'm not alone; 65% of those polled agreed that you can determine a man's maturity level by what he's wearing.

The men's responses show that they're thinking about what they're wearing. A little, at least. The survey found that 72% of men feel underdressed most of the time. About the same number responded that men in general don't dress as well as they did 20 years ago, even though they also saw a good wardrobe as an important part of financial success.

Men's Wearhouse has published the complete survey online, if you'd like to see more results. Before I sign off, one final hint to the guys: 32% of women polled said they have thrown away some of their men's clothing without telling him.

I met a famous filmmaker today.

I'm jumping the gun just a little. Brett Haley isn't a household name, but judging by the reviews his new feature film is getting, he probably will be very soon.

Trieste Kelly Dunn and Brett Haley

Brett grew up in Pensacola, Florida. He went to college in North Carolina then moved to New York. The year my super short film Payoff was in the Pensacola Bay Area Film Festival, Brett had a short film in as well. His cost a lot more than mine and his was longer (he wasn't cutting his movie for screenings on cell phones). I missed it; I was in New York, thanks to a sweepstakes I'd won. My husband attended, and he says while my film ended up too short, Brett's was a little too long. The other difference is, I haven't made another film, and Brett has.

His newest film is a feature. The New Year. It's been getting rave reviews at prestigious film festivals around the country. The film was actually shot a couple of years ago, here in Pensacola, for a budget of about $8,000. (Hey, my four-minute film cost just a bit more than that! Huh.) Today, I learned that he finished editing in time to submit it for festival season in 2009. Unfortunately, none of the festivals picked it up. Finally, the Sarasota Film Festival screened the movie, and the audience loved it. So much that it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. Suddenly, everyone in the film community sat up and took notice, and he was invited to screen the film at a dozen-plus top festivals. Here's the trailer:



It's a great kick-off for a promising directorial talent.

The New Year is booked for a two-week engagement at the Gulf Breeze Cinema 4 starting Friday, January 7, 2011. In the meantime, you can read an interview with Brett at IndieWIRE and check out the latest news on the film's Facebook page.

Brett and I have something else in common, besides our films screening together at the Pensacola Bay Area Film Festival. We both cast the extremely talented Carol Kahn Parker in our movies. You can see Carol in Payoff at MTV.com, and to learn more about how that movie got made, look for the Unofficial Payoff website link in my sidebar.

New Year - New Blogging Resolution

I am resolving to post more on my blogs in 2011. I really want to build this into something really useful. I want to expand my product reviews and giveaways, and I hope that I can get the support of businesses. PR Welcome!

You may have noticed that I have a new look and a new title to go with this resolution. The name has changed from Musings to Rhyme Schemes and Daydreams. I chose the Musings name when I first started the blog several years ago. I hadn't been to many blogs at that time, I wasn't sure what I was even going to do with this other than try to create a non-private personal journal. Now, I have visited dozens if not hundreds of blogs and I have a better idea of what I want to do with it. I never really liked Musings; it's kind of dull, actually. I wish I had put more thought into it when I first started because I had a great notion only to find that it was so great, someone else is already using it. C'est la vie.

Rhyme Schemes and Daydreams alludes to my love of writing and my tendency to "imagine the possibilities," aka daydream.

I have two other blogs, and I'm trying to decide if I should pull them all together or continue to maintain them separately.

A few years ago, I started my Hurricane Safety blog with the intent of providing tips to people who might need to prepare for a tropical storm or hurricane. At the time, I was really frustrated that after a couple of really busy and devastating storm seasons, people here on the Gulf Coast, at least in my part of it, seemed to be blasé about preparedness. It also provides a quick reference for me to find supply lists and phone numbers. Of late, I have expanded it to include some other safety information, such as home fire prevention and readiness.

More recently I started Crazy Kitty Chick. My intention was to post cat-related articles, personal stories as well as information found online, reviews of products, ideas for DIY projects, and that sort of thing. I pretty quickly broke my own rule and included some non-cat content. If I maintain that site as a separate blog, and I'm going to do that for now, I will probably move those non-cat posts over to this one.

What do you think? Do you like the new look of this site and what you're reading here? Should I keep all three separate sites or try to merge any or all of them? Are you a blogger? I would love to hear your success stories and whether or not you've ever faced a decision about maintaining multiple sites. I've also been trying to convince my husband to blog about the things he's interested in. I keep giving him ideas. Have you been able to convince someone else to take up the task? Do tell!

Not in the house, Luke!

This video demonstrates what really happened when Luke Skywalker turned on his father's lightsaber for the first time. Priceless!

Blizzard video - Oscar-worthy?

On December 26, 2010, New York filmmaker Jamie Stuart spent a few hours documenting the blizzard that hit New England. The next day, he edited together a short film, uploaded it to YouTube, and he emailed the link to a number of people, including Chicago movie critic Roger Ebert.

Ebert loved the film and wrote a column about it. He thinks it's a masterful example of film-making, deserving of an Academy Award for live action short subject. Here it is:

 

What do you think?

For the most part, the visuals are beautifully shot. I liked some of the editing, but not all of it. I don't mind that it doesn't tell a particular story, but I thought that parts of it, particularly the first half, was cut very choppily. I don't know what the deadline is to submit a short film for consideration by the Academy, but if there's still time, Stuart should certainly go for it. I'm sure he wasn't aiming for an Award when he posted it, but he will certainly get a job offer or two based on all the attention he's getting, and that probably is what he's aiming for every time he uploads a short film to YouTube.

One of the reason's Ebert liked it was that he considered it an homage to Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov's 1929 feature "Man with a Movie Camera." Ebert posted the complete silent film, just over an hour long, on his website. I watched a few minutes of it, and it seems like an interesting experiment and a nice documentation of life in the young Soviet Republic. The film is respected, at least in part, because of the variety of in-camera effects, trick photography, and cinematic techniques developed and/or used by Vertov. Stuart's short really doesn't have a unique style that really stands out.

You can read Ebert's complete article, including a Q&A with Stuart, and watch Vertov's film at Roger Ebert's Journal on the Chicago Sun-Times website.

For myself, I was just as entertained by this timelapse that shows the blizzard's effects in New Jersey. Photographer Michael Black set his camera to take a photo every five minutes for about 20 hours.

Watching this video makes me glad I live in Florida!

12 Days of Christmas and the Weather

My Grandma Hahn held with the old superstition that the weather during Christmastide predicted the weather for the coming year. For a long time, I mis-remembered the legend as being the weather on the first 12 days of the new year, but it always seemed to make sense. January 7 would be July, and it was usually a little unseasonably warm that day. I think it was last year, maybe year before last, that my mom had said it was the 12 days of Christmas, starting with December 25th that predicted the weather.

I've always had the best intentions to compare the appropriate prediction dates to the actual weather, but I lose my notes or I'd forget to check it once the summer got here, that kind of thing. This year, though, I found that the National Weather Service has some excellent tools -- such as a chart of the average high, low and cumulative rainfall for each month of the year; a chart for each month of the year showing the average high, low and rainfall by day; and a chart that shows the 30-year average for each month (1971 to 2000). So I went back over all of last year's data so I could check the accuracy of the old legend.

The first box shows for each day of Christmastide 2009-2010, the high, low and rainfall amount in Pensacola, Florida. The second box shows the average high, low and rainfall for each month of 2010. You can follow each row straight across to see if the Christmastide weather predicted the actual weather.

As you can see, the temperatures in January, February and March are spot on. One could argue that December 31, being unseasonably warm, predicted the higher temperatures in July. Sort of. I'll be following this for next year, and I'm particularly curious to see if we get snow this February, since we had a few snowflakes fall on the day after Christmas.

I've thought about going back a few years, but it is a little time consuming. One comparison I would like to make is what Grandma recorded in a diary some thirty years ago. My mom has the book, but at the time, I didn't know how to compare it with any actual temperatures for that year. That'll be interesting.

Something else interesting is the comparison of last year's temperatures with the historical averages for a 30-year span from 1971 to 2000. With the exception of April's low, 2010 temperatures were colder than average in winter and warmer than average in the other seasons. While some months of 2010 had drastically more rain than average and others had drastically less, by the end of the year, we were about an inch-and-a-half below average for the year.

At least we didn't have any hurricanes. Knock wood.

Review: Law and Order - Conviction

Several months, maybe a year ago, we acquired Conviction: The Complete Series on DVD. We watched the first four or five episodes and kind of lost interest. We were not compelled to continue watching, until this week.

The series focuses on a team of young attorneys working for the state prosecutor's office in New York. The boss is ADA Alexandra Cabot, who was a regular character on the original Law and Order series, and L&O creator Dick Wolf also created this series. In the first three Law and Order series. each episode focuses on one case, maybe two. With Conviction, each episode covers three or four cases, so you only see a few minutes of any one storyline.  In addition, the first few episodes seemed to focus more on the attorneys' private lives and sexual escapades than on the cases. What Tim and I like about the other Law and Order series is that we can follow along on the investigation and prosecution, discuss various legal procedures, agree or disagree with how a case is handled, and see if we were right about who committed the crime. Conviction didn't give us enough of that.

After several months of not watching, we decided to finish watching the series this week. We weren't sure where we stopped, so we ended up missing a few episodes in the middle and watching those out of order. The show actually got a lot better as it went along. We still had some personal drama, but it didn't seem to detract as much from the cases. They had some interesting cases that we didn't always agree on. Here's an example:

The cast of Conviction.

In one episode a young gang member had disappeared after his arrest for selling drugs. The other gang members involved had all been prosecuted. They finally nab this last guy, but it turns out he has joined the Navy, and his defense attorney asks for leniency. The prosecutor originally assigned to the case has passed it off to Nick Potter, one of the new guys in the office, and she wants the kid to go to prison. Potter wants to give him a break; the kid is due to ship out to Iraq in a few months, and his CO says he's an outstanding sailor.  Unfortunately, ADA Cabot agrees with the case's original prosecutor. It's a gang crime and he needs to be punished. The drug conviction is a felony and he'll have to serve a year in prison, meaning his Navy career is over. I agreed with Potter. The drug sale (two ounces of crack cocaine) was not a violent crime. The kid seemed genuinely glad to have found a legitimate career that makes his mother proud. Prisons are overcrowded, and in my mind, service in Iraq is just as good a rehabilitative tool as a year in prison. When he gets out of prison, he'll turn back to his life of crime because he won't have a job and he'll be bitter. My husband says the kid probably committed violent crimes before, even if he didn't get caught, because that's what gangs do, and he should be punished. He also said that he'd probably be one of those service members who turn the gun on his own troops or who'll come home more violent than ever. I can see his point, but from the information I had to go with, I would have given the kid the benefit of the doubt.

If you like the other Law and Order series, you will probably enjoy this one as well. If you don't get into the first couple of episodes, just give it time and allow it to develop. In the beginning, I thought I could see why the show didn't get picked up past the first season. By the end, though, I felt like it had gotten a raw deal, and I was really disappointed not to be able to see what happened to these characters in the future.

You can watch full episodes of Conviction on Hulu. The complete series is also available for purchase at Amazon.

Doctor Who Christmas Special + 2011 Preview

A dozen years ago, I never thought I would be a fan of Doctor Who. I was never into the show. I watched a few episodes with my husband, who's been a fan since the '80s, but I just didn't get into it.

When the BBC revived the series in 2005, I sat by my husband to watch. We didn't have cable, so here was something new to see, even if it was a show that I didn't give a hoot about. If you're wondering how we were watching without cable, a friend of Tim's was sending him DVDs of the episodes that he downloaded. Never fear, we purchase all the legal DVDs when they are released; we just don't want to wait a year to see the show.

After watching a few episodes, in particular the two-part story of "The Empty Child and "The Doctor Dances," I was pretty well hooked. When Christopher Eccleston regenerated into David Tennant, that's when I really started considering myself a fan. I still hate to say the words, but I'll type them here: I love Doctor Who.

The new Who anyway. I'm still not inclined to sit and watch Doctors 1-7. No offense to William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy - I'm just not that into you.

It's somewhat of a tradition for the BBC to air a Doctor Who story on Christmas Day, and even though BBC America aired the Special on the 25th, we still don't have cable. So, Christmas Day found us searching for someplace online to watch Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol. No luck. We did find it the next day, and I have mixed feelings about it. It was a good story, with great use of the potential of time travel.

In the story, a space cruise ship is about to crash on a distant planet colonized by Earth in the far future. A crotchety old man controls the device that keeps the planet's frozen skies clear. At the point our story begins, the skies are not clear, and that's why the ship is about to crash. The old man refuses to use his device to clear the way and save the 4,000+ passengers and crew. It's up to the Doctor (#11, Matt Smith) to change his mind.

The Doctor has a personal stake in all this; his current companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams are on their honeymoon aboard that very ship. One of the story's shortcomings, I think, was that we never really felt any tension that the ship was actually going to crash. I didn't quite understand why the ship couldn't change course, why or how they got caught in the atmosphere(did they not request clearance to land?), and so I wasn't quite buying all that. The scenes on the bridge didn't always ring true. Amy and Rory send the Doctor a distress signal, which shows up on the ship's instruments. But it's not really a proper distress signal, I wouldn't think. They use a huge old-fashioned looking mobile phone device to talk to the Doctor at one point, but any mobile phone will work to call the TARDIS anymore. Well, at least mobiles that the Doctor has zapped with his Sonic Screwdriver. Near the beginning, in response to the distress signal ostensibly, the Doctor puts a message up on the ship's screen that says, "Come along, Pond," but how can they come along? The ship is completely out of control. That's why I never felt any sense of urgency, I think.

The story on the planet is more compelling. When the Doctor shows up (down the chimney on Christmas Eve), the crotchety old man, Kazran Sardik (the great British actor Michael Gambon) is Scroogely refusing a Christmas wish for a poor family. The Doctor tells Sardik what's happening, then locates the sky controller device and tries to operate it himself. It's isomorphic, though, and will only work for Sardik. The Doctor notices a few details that make him realize that Sardik's attitude began in childhood, so he goes back in time to make Sardik a better person. Through the magic of the TARDIS, old Sardik watches it all play out in front of him, and we see him reacting to what's happening and to his changes in memory.

The Doctor seems to be succeeding, then something happens that turns Sardik bitter again. Finally, he has one last chance to save the ship, but it threatens the life of Abigail, the young woman Sardik fell in love with during the Doctor's visits.

Overall, I thought it was a well-done take on the Dickens' classic.

**VERY BIG SPOILER ALERT**

The episode shows us a countdown to Abigail's last day, but doesn't explain what the countdown means until near the end. Her family, the ones who were begging to see her for Christmas at the start of the episode, seems to think she's only cryogenically preserved because she's the collateral on a loan. Do they not know the truth? What's wrong with her that she seems perfectly healthy every time we see her? Why doesn't the Doctor check in all of time and space and bring her a cure? It's all very vague and it makes the ending unsatisfying for me.

**END OF SPOILERS**

Now, we wait.

The next few episodes, the first half of the 2011 Season, are supposed to air in the Spring. Here's a preview:

Two Romance Trilogy Winners

My latest two giveaways have ended and the winners have been emailed.

Merry Widows Trilogy Giveaway: Randomizer picked post number 2, which was Shala_Darkstone's Twitter entry.

Ladies' Fashionable Cabinet Romance Trilogy Giveaway: Randomizer picked post number 7, which was Erin G.'s single entry.

Thank you to everyone who entered. I appreciate your reading my blog, and I am happy to know these books are going to good new homes. Come back soon for a new giveaway!

Merry Widows Romance Giveaway

In Regency England, the most independent women of the ton are members of the Benevolent Widows Society. Having lost their husbands, they've gained control over their fortunes and their lives. They have no intention of marrying again, but they don't want to give up the pleasures of the marriage bed. They vow to take lovers and to share their experiences with the other widows.

The first book in Candice Hern's Merry Widows series is In the Thrill of the Night. Marianne Nesbitt loved her late husband, and before listening to the other Society members' talk, she'd never considered taking a lover. Once her mind is made up, she asks her husband's best friend, Adam Cazenove to help her find the right man with whom to begin her affair.

When Beatrice, Lady Somerfield, enjoys a passionate interlude at a masquerade ball, it's Just One of Those Flings. Gabriel, Marquess of Thayne, is the catch of the season, and dozens of debutantes are vying for his hand. When he catches the eye of her niece, Beatrice intends to end the affair, but Gabriel has other ideas.

In Lady Be Bad, John Grayston, Viscount Rochdale, begins a seduction of bishop's widow Grace Marlowe with a dark purpose. He's been challenged to prove he can entice any woman in London into his bed, and his most prized possession is at stake. Grace's intelligence and her passion win his heart, but he soon discovers he may not be the only one playing games of seduction.

Candice Hern writes beautifully, weaving intricate plots that really keep you wondering how the hero and heroine will ever overcome the obstacles they face. You can learn more about Candice and her books at CandiceHern.com.

I really enjoyed reading these books, but I am running out of space on the bookshelf, so I am giving them away. One winner will receive all three novels in the trilogy. I purchased the books used and have read them once. They are in good condition, although the spines are creased.


FIRST ENTRY: Follow this blog on Google Friend Connect AND comment here on which period of English history most fascinates you. If your email is not visible on your GFC profile, please leave it in your comment.

EXTRA ENTRIES: For each item you complete, leave another comment here and be sure to include a link to your comments and tweets.

*leave a relevant comment on any non-giveaway post on Musings (1)
*visit my Crazy Kitty Chick blog and leave a relevant comment on any non-giveaway post (1)
*visit my Hurricane Safety blog and leave a relevant comment on any non-giveaway post (1)
*follow Auriette on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (1)
*follow CrazyKittyChick on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (1)

You can earn a maximum of six entries per household. Eligible comments must be made no later than 11:59pm ET on December 18, 2010. Entrants must be 18 or older, with shipping addresses in the United States or military APO/FPO addresses. One winner will be selected by random drawing on December 19 and notified by email. Winner must respond to this email with mailing address within 72 hours or another winner will be selected. Books will be sent media mail.

Romance Trilogy Giveaway

The Ladies' Fashionable Cabinet isn't a piece of furniture. It's a magazine, one that differs from other publications for women living in Regency England in that it encourages thoughtfulness and an independent spirit in its readers. The Cabinet also forms the backdrop for a trilogy of romances written by Candice Hern, an avid reader and researcher who imbues her work with fascinating details.

In Once a Dreamer, one of the Cabinet's young readers takes the advice in the Busybody's advice column to heart and runs away with a handsome young suitor. Her aunt Eleanor learns the secret identity of the Busybody and enlists his aid. As Simon and Eleanor pursue her niece, they end up finding much more than the wayward couple.

The second book, Once a Scoundrel, finds the Cabinet in the hands of new owner Anthony Morehouse. Anthony is an old friend and rival of editor Edwina Parrish, and the two enter into a wager that will decide the future of both the publication and their relationship. Adding to the challenge, Edwina is hiding a secret that could ruin them all.

Edwina's brother Nicholas helps run the magazine out of their home, but he pays little attention to the mousy assistant editor Prudence Armitage. That changes in Once a Gentleman. When Pru falls asleep at the office, her titled father demands that Nicholas marry her. Pru is already in love with Nick, and she'll do anything to turn this marriage of convenience into a love match.

Candice is a wonderful writer, who places very realistic obstacles in the path of true love. Her descriptive writing is no doubt influenced by her study of art history, her love of novels written in the Regency years, and by her personal collections of historic artifacts. Learn more about Candice, her books and collections at CandiceHern.com.

I am giving away all three novels in the trilogy. I purchased the books used and have read them once. They're in good condition, though the spines are creased.

FIRST ENTRY: Follow this blog on Google Friend Connect AND comment here on which period of English history most fascinates you. If your email is not visible on your GFC profile, please leave it in your comment.

EXTRA ENTRIES: For each item you complete, leave another comment here and be sure to include a link to your comments and tweets.

*leave a relevant comment on any non-giveaway post on Musings (1)
*visit my Crazy Kitty Chick blog and leave a relevant comment on any non-giveaway post (1)
*visit my Hurricane Safety blog and leave a relevant comment on any non-giveaway post (1)
*follow Auriette on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (1)
*follow CrazyKittyChick on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (1)

You can earn a maximum of six entries per household. Eligible comments must be made no later than 11:59pm ET on December 18, 2010. Entrants must be 18 or older, with shipping addresses in the United States or military APO/FPO addresses. One winner will be selected by random drawing on December 19 and notified by email. Winner must respond to this email with mailing address within 72 hours or another winner will be selected. Books will be sent media mail.

Talking about Death and Dying

I’m always surprised when people don’t talk about what they want done after they’re gone. My mother’s parents were in their 60s when I was little, and I remember them talking about which child or grandchild would get certain of their possessions; they put masking tape on the bottoms of things with names written on them. When they passed, my mom and uncles knew who Mam-ma and Pap-pa wanted to do the service, what music and verses should be performed, and they’d owned their funeral plots for years, decades maybe.

When my dad died of cancer, he and my mom had already picked out coffins and pre-paid for the funeral home, and we all worked together on the obituary (with me sobbing, but it had to be done).

In contrast, an acquaintance of mine lost her mother, and a few weeks later, she took half a day off work to go with the rest of the family to pick out a headstone. It seemed inconceivable to me that someone who was seriously ill for a long time hadn’t picked out her own headstone. Maybe she didn’t want to face her own death, or her husband didn’t think it was fitting to talk about; I don’t know.

Recently my cousin’s common law wife passed away suddenly. That’s a little different. You don’t expect to die when you’re in your 20s. A couple of weeks later, an old friend of the family, who had been ailing for years, passed, and I commented to my mom about the way his life story was written for the funeral program and how generic his service seemed. And then I said that she and I need to sit down and write her obituary now.

It’s not an easy thing to think about, and even though my mom is in good health, I know I’ll sob my way through typing out what she wants to say. On the other hand, it would be much more difficult to think of what to say about her long and varied life, to know what she would want included, without her there to guide me. Because our family has always talked about death, accepted it as inevitable, and discussed it when the subject came up, we are able to plan for that unavoidable eventuality, in a way a lot of people cannot or will not.

For that, I am grateful.

Gift Idea - Jingle Bell Rocks!

Jingle Bell Rocks are a quick and inexpensive gift for co-workers, teachers, and family members who like novelty items.

First, you need some flat stones, maybe silver dollar sized. Not too small and really you could go as large as you like. Maybe you have these in your driveway or garden, pick up some by a nearby river, or buy them at a craft store. They're often used in floral displays so they're readily available and not very expensive.

Next you'll need some jingle bells. I used small ones for my Jingle Bell Rocks. Choose bells based on the size of your stones as well as how much you want to spend. You can get more small bells for the same amount of money.

The only other thing you need is hot glue or Epoxy. Make sure the rocks are clean if you picked them up outside. Glue one bell on each rock. There you have it - the Jingle Bell Rock.

When we had a craft store about 15 years ago, I sold these at Christmastime for a dollar or two each. I don't remember exactly how much. People would look at it oddly for a minute, then they would see the sign or I'd say, "It's a Jingle Bell Rock." Once they got it, they'd laugh and a lot of times they would buy one or two or half a dozen of them.

Expect to sing or hum the old song to yourself while you're making these!

DVD Review: Taken

I've been wanting to see Taken starring Liam Neeson ever since it came out. It looked like the kind of story I would enjoy. On Black Friday, Wal-mart had the DVD for $5, so I bought it, and Tim and I watched it on Saturday. The DVD has two versions, and we chose to watch the theatrical release version.

This movie reminded me of the movies I enjoyed when I was in my 20s, back in the 1980s. Yeah, I'm getting old. The plot is simple. Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a retired intelligence agent who is trying to spend more time with his 17-year-old daughter Kim. No matter what he does, his ex-wife and her rich new husband seem to overshadow him. When Kim asks for his permission to go to France for the summer with her 19-year-old friend Amanda, Bryan is concerned. He knows how dangerous the world is, especially for two girls traveling alone. Kim gets angry and upset, and the ex-wife is mad, so he gives in, but he buys Kim an international cell phone and asks her to call him at every step of the way.

When Kim and Amanda arrive in France, Kim realizes that Amanda wasn't entirely honest with her, and she's starting to get a little worried. She forgot to call her dad when the plane landed, and he calls her, and she starts to tell him her concerns when several men break into the apartment and grab Amanda. Bryan gives her some instructions, and she is able to get him a little bit of information about the men before they abduct her, too. One of the kidnappers picks up the phone and Bryan warns him that he will come after them if they don't let his daughter go. The man says, "Good luck," and then smashes the phone.

From that point on, Bryan has one goal, and that's to find and save his daughter. He uses his old contacts in the U.S. and Paris, as well as the skills he gained in years of covert work for the government. He is warned that he'll have 96 hours, at most, to locate his daughter before she disappears forever, and that countdown clock is in his mind all the time.

One thing I really liked about this movie is that Bryan doesn't pull punches. These are bad guys he's after, and he doesn't hesitate to fight, torture or kill them to get the information he needs. All the time, we're wondering if he will be able to get to Kim in time.

It's not a long film, just under an hour and a half. The ending seemed a bit abrupt; maybe it's because I'm used to all the "twist endings" and fake-out endings that are common nowadays. I wonder if they could have taken another 10-15 minutes to develop the characters of Kim and Bryan a little more, but then again, I'm not sure it needed it.

If you like action movies, especially movies like Die Hard and other movies from the '80s, I think you'll enjoy this one.

"Gentlemen Rogues" Trilogy Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered. Congratulations to LKnott, who'll be receiving all three books in the Gentlemen Rogues trilogy.

I should mention that there were six posts, and here's why I only randomized from 1-5. The mandatory first entry is two parts: follow my blog AND leave a comment about why you like historical romances, but Ms. Knott (or Mr. Knott) left two posts, one for each part, so I didn't count the second one (comment #6). Someone did the same thing in the Star Wars giveaway, but there were more entries before and after, so I removed that comment before assigning the numbers.

I'm sorry if the explanation isn't clear enough, and I'll be thinking of a new way to phrase it that might help everyone to understand.

I will be emailing LKnott to get the shipping information.

Keep watching this blog for more chances to win!

What did you score on Black Friday?

At 12:33am on Black Friday, I finished going through my emails, entering the sweeps that were about to expire, and making out my shopping list, and I decided that with two hours to go until I needed to get up, I might as well not sleep at all. So, I went to:

When I walked in the store, I was quite pleased to see a tasting booth offering bottles of 5 Hour Energy in pomegranate flavor. I gulped down half the bottle right off the bat. Ewww. Artificial sweetener aftertaste! I saved the rest for later.

I picked up a few DVDs for $1.96 and one (Taken with Liam Neeson) for $5. I bought two electric blankets on sale for $19, because my mom mentioned that she wanted to buy a couple. I also stocked up on water and cat litter for the week.

I was home by 2:00am, drank the rest of the 5 Hour Energy, and bounced off the walls until 2:45am, when I called my mom to make sure she was up. Then I bounced off the walls some more. I put my diet pill in my purse so I could take it later, ate a Lärabar, and cleaned up Trickster yak until she arrived just after 3:30am.

First stop: Target. I had hoped to pick up some of the Chefmate Sandwich Makers for Christmas gifts, but all they had left in the assortment were Hand Mixers, so I loaded up on those. Mom wanted to look at a couple of larger appliances, but it was too crazy, so we checked out. While waiting in line, I noticed a pair of Star Wars gloves on an outwear display, so I'll be getting those for Christmas.

Then we headed over to University Mall, where Mom and I picked up a few things for Tim, and I bought a sweater and two fleece pullovers for myself.

It was time for Best Buy to open and I wanted to get The Tudors: Season 3 for $14.99. The line was wrapped around the building, and while it was moving right along, Mom suggested we head across the street to Kmart. We couldn't find the $5.99 shirts we were looking for, so I found an employee who looked all around, scanned a few things, and decided that the $8.99 shirts were supposed to be marked $5.99. She made a note on the tag and gave us her name so we could check out. I grabbed a two-gallon wet-dry vac. Mom offered to get me the two Star Wars LEGO clocks that were $19.99 each. It seemed a bit steep for what it was (I'm not all that into LEGO, even Star Wars LEGO, because they're so expensive and kind of funny looking), so I said she could get me the $19.99 vacuum instead, and she was cool with that.

Oh, look. The sun is coming up!

Back over to Best Buy, where the line was gone outside the building because everyone had lined up inside the store to check out. Mom was waiting in the car, and I debated stashing my "Tudors" DVD behind something that was not on sale, but the line wasn't all that long.

20 minutes later: Oh, I see, you have two lines that start on opposite sides of the store and now we're moving side by side.

20 minutes after that: Ah, now we're being merged into one line. "One from line A. Now one from line B. Line A. Line B."

::sigh::

By the time I got back out to the car (I think I was in line about an hour), I was starving. Mom gave me a cookie and suggested we head over to Wal-mart to have a deli corn dog for lunch. At 9:00am. Also she wanted to get more electric blankets.

Then she brought up printers, which we had talked about Thursday night, so we decided to go to Office Depot, which is basically in the Cordova Mall parking lot. They didn't have the HP Color Laser Printer that was on clearance for $149.99 and the associate said he was not allowed to call another store. Really. That's very strange. But he was able to give me the number of the Fairfield store, and I called over there, and they had two of them, but they weren't able to put Black Friday specials on hold, necessitating a mad dash across town.

It took them a few minutes to actually find the printers, but they did, and Mom bought one for herself and one for me for Christmas, plus the three year extended warranty on both. I'm excited; we haven't had a working printer at home in a while.

Lowe's was right next door and Mom bought poinsettias to go on Daddy's grave and a bunch of stuff for family Christmas gifts. I got a couple of things for Tim and a couple of different things for family gifts. Our get-together for my dad's side of the family is at the beginning of December, so I needed just a few more things to make sure everyone was covered.

After that we went to Wal-mart. We were planning to go to a different store than the one I'd been to nine hours earlier, but that's the one that was closest. On the way in, we ran into an old friend and colleague from Channel 3, collecting for Communities Caring and Christmas, and Mom made a donation. Once inside, she bought another electric blanket and a heated throw. She's giving her old electric blanket to the cats and she'll use the new one. I bought some "bandage strips" because I have been tearing up my fingers lately, nervous habit. And we got corn dogs and soda, which we ate in the car. Mom's car. Not Tim's and my car, in which no one is allowed to eat.

At that point, Mom was really starting to slow down, but she wanted to go to the new Big Lots, and I wanted to check out the DVDs there, plus I wanted to go to Anna's Linens in the same plaza, and to Petsmart, in the next plaza over. I didn't find any DVDs, but Mom found a Perry Mason set that she wanted and a couple of other things. I spotted a Star Wars calendar for $7. At Anna's, I bought some fleece throws, which completed my shopping for the big family shindig. Over at Petsmart, Mom bought Purina Cat Chow on sale for $9.99, and I got nothing, because Iams isn't making cat food right now, apparently.

Then I dropped off Mom at her house, went to lunch with Tim, went by a different Big Lots near my house, where I found a few different DVDs, and then I came home. I took my purse inside and started to go back out to unload the car.

Oh, look. it's raining. I got an umbrella and ran to the mailbox, then settled into the house for a little while. I wrote out the bill that arrived today, and during breaks in the showers, I managed to unload everything that was coming home with me today and change the litterboxes. Then I went by Office Depot for the things I forgot ($5.99 spindle of DVDs for making restore disks for our computer and my mom's, and some video editing software that's free after rebate) and headed over to mom's house, where I unloaded her haul, changed her litter boxes (well, her cats' litter boxes), backed up her files, and created the restore disk.

By the time Tim arrived, I was starting to drag. We stopped by the vet (about two blocks from Mom's house) and bought some dry cat food there, then came home and took the bag off the chimney so we could light the furnace, because crimeny, the temperature was dropping fast. I moved my tomato plants under the back porch and we tacked up some old shower curtains around to help block the wind. It's so strange that they didn't do anything all summer, and suddenly in the fall, they got huge and are making tomatoes hand over fist, even as their leaves are all dying off from the cooler weather.

So, now I need to go enter the rest of the sweeps that are expiring at midnight tonight, finish looking through my emails and hit the sack for some much-needed sleep.

Happy Holidays!

Caridad Pineiro Banner

Best-selling author Caridad Pineiro is giving away some great prizes at caridad.com. Visit her site and click on "Contest" for details.

Historical Romance Giveaway

Three self-made lords are looking for love in Linda Needham's "Gentlemen Rogues" series, centering on a trio of men bound together as children and as close as any blood brothers.

In the first book The Pleasure of Her Kiss, Jared, Earl of Hawkesly, is returning home for the first time since he married Kathryn in a whirlwind ceremony right after her father's passing. He finds that she hasn't been waiting patiently all those months; she's been very busy. His hunting lodge has been turned into a hotel, his home stripped of valuable paintings, and just who are all the children his wife is mothering? He soon discovers that he'll have to work hard and risk everything else he's won in life, if he's to keep his spirited bride.

A Scandal to Remember finds Andrew Chase, Earl of Wexford, struggling to protect a willful princess in the days before her coronation. Princess Caroline is fiercely proud of her country, but it hasn't really existed since she was born. Her parents were killed in a revolution, the country divided, and its treasures cast to the four winds. Now that she is of age, Boratania's borders are being re-established and she is to be crowned queen - if she isn't assassinated first. Andrew learns that Caro is keeping secrets, but even she doesn't know the scandalous truth about her family tree.

Ross, Earl of Blakestone, is investigating the disappearances of several high-born ladies in Marry the Man Today. His inquiries lead him to intelligent, outspoken Elizabeth Dunaway, whose political activism has earned her many enemies. Ross admires her independent attitude and her beauty, but he knows that she is harboring dangerous secrets and seditious materials. Elizabeth finds Ross attractive, but she fears his constant surveillance will uncover the secret of her most important work. When her choice is prison or marriage to the Earl, she reluctantly says, "I do."

WIN THE TRILOGY *****We have a winner!*****

I purchased these books used and have read them once. The spines are not broken, but they are creased. Corners and edges are very lightly worn. One winner will receive all three books in the "Gentlemen Rogues" Trilogy.

FIRST ENTRY: Follow this blog on Google Friend Connect and comment here on what you like most about historical romances. If your email is not visible on your GFC profile, please leave it in your comment.

EXTRA ENTRIES: For each item you complete, leave another comment here and be sure to include a link to your comments and tweets.

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You can earn a maximum of six entries per household. Eligible comments must be made no later than 11:59pm ET on November 27, 2010. Entrants must be 18 or older, with shipping addresses in the United States or military APO/FPO addresses. One winner will be selected by random drawing on November 28 and notified by email. Books will be sent media mail.

A Love of Reading

I love to read. My mom read storybooks to me, I think starting before I was born, and I have always enjoyed books and reading. I don't have time for reading as much as I'd like, actually, but I try to get in a few pages most days. I can't usually afford to buy as many books as I'd like to read, and I don't get to the library very often.

A couple of years ago, I hit the jackpot. We stopped at a yard sale that a local bank was having to raise money for Relay for Life. My dad, both his parents, and at least three out of four of his grandparents all died of cancer, so I am happy to support the American Cancer Society. At this sale, it was easy, because one of the ladies had brought a huge number of romance novels. I had read some of the authors before, but many of them I only knew from visiting their websites and receiving their newsletters. The books were 3/$1, the woman had complete sets of a bunch of series, and I loaded up.

I'm only about halfway through the bag, and I'm finding I don't have any bookshelf space left. Not only that, but because I don't have as much time for reading, I guess, I don't re-read books the way I did when I was a kid. So, I've decided to give them away, starting today. Keep watching my blog for details.