Library Discovery

The library I normally go to is the Mid-Manhattan Branch, but when I feel like going to one in my neighborhood I go to the Parkchester Branch.

Now I've lived in my neighborhood for a total of 15 years.  5 years in the early 90s and recently for the last 10 years. And I've been on numerous walks over the years and I have never ever realized there was another library so close to my home.  I am happy to know I have another option.

Thanksgiving Movies & Books

Thanksgiving Movies

 

I am filling up my DVR with Holiday movies.  It is November after all.  I came across a Thanksgiving movie that is new, so I thought I’d pass it along.

 

Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade

Premiere:  Sunday, November 4, 2012

Time:  8pm

http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/loveatthethanksgivingdayparade

 

I get excited when I come across Thanksgiving movies. There are not many out there.

 

If you surf around you will see that there are a lot of movies that claim to be Thanksgiving movies, but I don’t feel are really.  Movies like ‘Pocahontas’.  I think of Thanksgiving movies as movies about Families and Thanksgiving.

 

Hannah and Her Sisters

Soul Food

Who Made the Potatoe Salad? (the e is not a typo)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Dutch

Thanksgiving Family Reunion

An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving

Miracle on 34^th Street (It encompasses both holidays so I put it for both)

A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion

The Thanksgiving Treasure

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Ice Storm (depressing)

A Time to Remember (depressing)

 

These are others, which I didn’t like, but still are Thanksgiving movies:

Home for the Holidays

Pieces of April

The Myth of Fingerprints

 

Thanksgiving Books

 

I’m only going to read one Thanksgiving book this year I think:

 

Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich.

It’s a romance novel, which I usually don’t read, but it is short and it is Thanksgiving themed.

Of course the Libraries in NY have to go back to full power before I can see if it is even ready for me to pick up. Hopefully they will extend the pick up time.

 

 

TV

I can’t talk about much since news has been on all day since Monday and many shows have not aired.  I managed to catch some of them on Free on Demand.

 

Revolutions:  OK now this is getting interesting

Upstairs/Downstairs:  I wonder if we can write a petition to have Amajad killed off.

 

That’s it.  I haven’t watched “World Without End” yet, I’ll watch it this weekend.

Two and a Half men didn’t have sound last night, we had very bad cable last night, so I’ll try and watch that and “The New Normal” on Free on Demand.

 

We finally got WPIX (The CW) back on our cable service, but of course, nothing has been on. But I’m happy because with WPIX gone we also lost Antenna TV. How am I supposed to live with out all of my shows from the 1970s???  I was going through withdrawal.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween 

 From one scary Zombie Ballerina

 

Hurricaine Sandy Aftermath - Picture Heavy

This tree fell on the graveyard by my church.  None of the headstones seem to be damaged, but the sidewalk out front and the gate are destroyed.  This is the worst uprooting I've ever seen.

We got a new Applebee's opening up next week, but unfortunately they lost part of their awning.  I am not sure who dragged it out of the street over to the island, but not only were they ripped from the facade, they were mangled beyond recognition.  I'm sure they will have this repaired before they open on the 5th.

Precariously perched traffic lights. The one on the bottom is roped off to cars and pedestrians, however, the one on the top is not.  It seems just as dangerous to me.

The playground is closed.  A branch managed to get caught on the gate and the grounds are a big mess.  Clean up will be needed before the kids can enjoy it again.

Christmas links

I am sitting here waiting for Sandy to hit us. No work, no school, no transit. At least we have cable and electricity. So I have some time to actually surf the web. I thought I'd put up my favorite Christmas links.

As much as I like Christmas, I do think that it is too early for stores to have Christmas ornaments and trees on sale. And I'm not in to this years trend. Teal.  Nope.  I'm not to thrilled with the fuchsia either.  I either like the traditional red, green, gold and silver.  I like darker blue ornaments too.  My theme is pastels.  Other than that, I'm not feeling it.

OK so now on to books. I have my Christmas reading list ready. It is very long. I anticipate getting to about 5 of them.

I read every Christmas book Richard Paul Evans writes. This year is "A Winter Dream".  This is one I WILL read 100% this year.  Probably within the next 2 weeks as I am next in the library queue.

From Goodreads
Based on the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors. Joe is forced out of the family business by his jealous siblings. Moving on to another company, he soon becomes chief advisor to the CEO. But when the economy turns, Joe’s siblings need his help to save the family business.

      Based on the Old Testament story about Joseph and the coat of many colors and including a love story, A Winter Dream can be embraced for its message of forgiveness by believers and nonbelievers alike.

This is a book written by Father Andrew Greeley.  He is best known for a series of books about mystery-solving priest Blackie Ryan and the fey, amateur sleuth Nuala Anne McGrail.

But this book is not about either of those characters. 

From Goodreads
It's beginning to look a lot like an American Christmas: unpleasant relatives, miserable travel, a slobbering dog-and one "harmless American of Irish origins," Jack Flanigan, who is reluctantly falling in love with a young Russian woman studying at Harvard.

She's spending Christmas alone in a foreign country, so he invites the dark-eyed beauty home to Chicago for the holiday. Even though it isn't Christmas in the Russian Orthodox calendar, she accepts!

What happens when she gets to Chicago and caught in the maelstrom of commercialized Yuletide? Enough to say, there's a tree, and a feast, and midnight Mass, and a gaggle of contentious Flanigans of all ages-who have the merriest Christmas ever-and nothing will ever be quite the same for any of them.

Especially for Jack.

*  *  *

I'll post more of the books I may read later down the line.

Gearing Up - Nanowrimo 2012

This year I am not flying by my seat.  I am outlining. This is a new thing for me, I like not knowing where my story is going, however, this year my story is a little complicated and I need some structure. 

I have created my outline on colored index cards.  So far I have 23 chapters and 4 parts.  I've done as much research as time allow.  I am sure I will have to do more during Nanowrimo, because I am going back to 1962.

I honestly don't know how writers write Historical Fiction.  The research that must go into it boggles my mind. I'm only going back 50 years and I have more information than I ever thought I would need.  However, to be reliable, I have to have my facts right.  I don't mind doing the research, but time is running out.  Next Thursday is T-30.

If the storm prevents me from going to work, I will spend much of the day researching.

I wish everyone who is participating this year the best of luck.  50K here I come.

Notebooks

I decided to gather all of my notebooks and put them in one place. New and used.  It turns out I have 27 of them.  most of them are Molskines, but those were bought recently.  I have some spiral type journals which i realize I don't like, but those are old. I have one Red & Black too.  Some of them are art journals and have paintings/drawings.

I have work in one of these from 1986. They are typed poems.  However, I didn't start the book until 1994.  I didn't always write in notebooks.  I stepped away from it for many years.  The main reason is that a lot of the stuff I was writing was very depressing.  I only started writing in them again recently. 2006 was when I went back to it. Although I still was not doing it daily.

I currently have 5 notebooks going at once.  One big one which I leave at home because it is too cumbersome to carry, one hard cover smaller one that I carry to work and a soft cover one which I also carry to work sometimes.  I have the little red one for taking notes in transit and a soft cover one for my dreams.  It sounds like I am ADD but I'm not. 

I have also put table of contents (on the last page, so is that an appendix?) So I can find things much easier. 

I don't think I'm an 'addict' but I do like them and will be using them probably for the remainder of my life.