Twilight

On Friday night, like pretty much everyone else, George and I went to go see Twilight. Overall, I enjoyed the film. I am always a bit skeptical when it comes to adapting a novel to the big screen. I know that it is impossible to capture every nuance and detail without having a five hour behemoth instead of a feature film. It is (in my opinion) a job well done when the spirit and essence of the book is preserved and the characters stay on the paths intended for them by the author. The Hardwicke adaptation of Twilight did an adequate job (with moments of greatness interspersed throughout) of preserving the dreary splendor of Meyer's book. The acting was pretty good and most of the casting was very well done (Rosalie??). I had only one major beef with the Twilight film, regarding Edward's pivotal moment when he removes James' venom from Bella's hand. This is supposed to be a metamorphic moment for Edward, when he realizes that there is no physical compulsion that can overcome his love for Bella. This was lost in the film, with Carlisle nearly having to pull Edward's fangs out himself to stop Bella from being killed. My displeasure with this one part of the film did little to detract from my overall entertainment, especially when compared to the obnoxious teenage girls who kept laughing hysterically every time Bella and Edward had a serious/romantic moment. I was somewhat annoyed by that. It was all worth it, though, because about half way through the movie, I heard the words "Stawp Laughing" -the nasal intonation of a 40-something Team Edward member who was tired of having her fantasy disrupted by giggling. The comic relief of that moment alone was worth the price of admission.

Taggie Blaggie Slaggie.....

Natasha tagged me. Here goes.

Rules:
1) Post rules on your blog
2)Answer the six "8" items
3)Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving them a comment

8 Favorite TV shows
1-Big Bang Theory
2-Lost
3-24 (Jack Bauer is my boyfriend)
4-CSI (except NY)
6-Desperate Housewives (ugh, I know!)
7-Myth Busters
8-How It's Made

8 Things I did yesterday
1-flu shots
2-played with the kids in the McDonalds play place
3-shopped online at Gymboree (addicted!)
4-ate ice cream
5-curled my hair
6- stopped in at the mall
7-made dinner
8-Discussed pathogenesis of influenza H5N1 with Kate and Sarah

8 Things I look forward to
1-Girls Weekend end of April (ditto Tasha!)
2-Twilight the movie (OMG EDWARD!!!!!!!!)
3-George finishing school
4-Juliette turning 18 months so I can actually go to sunday school and not sit in the hallway
5-George and my 11th anniversary on 12/6/08- he always surprises me with something really nice. Lately he has taken to making me use cryptography to unlock my gifts.
6-Christmas!!!!
7-Starting a new research project (still finishing up with the HIV one, ready for something new!)
8-Starting grad school (can't until after #3 above!)

8 Favorite Restaurants
1-Outback
2-Macaroni Grill
3-Fats Asia Bistro
4-Mimis
5-Plaza Hof Brau
6-Quiznos
7-Chevys
8-The Fish Hopper (Monterey, CA)

8 Things on my wishlist
1-New Louis Vuitton bag (just fulfilled!)
2-Juicy Couture boots
3-Twilight soundtrack
4-Edward Cullen (ha ha)
5-New 52 inch LCD TV (so I can move the 42 inch into my bedroom)
6-Vacation with George (anywhere!) without kids
7-Someone to do the laundry for me. I detest laundry. Love clothes, hate laundry.
8-Time to get my hair done

8 people to tag
1-Staci
2-Rebekah
3-Amy E
4-Andrea
5-Jethro
6-George
7-Eli
8-Stephanie

Cal Homecoming 2008

Last weekend I had the opportunity to dance with the beautiful women of the 2008 Cal Dance Team as part of the Cal Alumni Dance Team. Thanks to the very beautiful and talented jovauna Currey, the CADT was able to be a part of all game day festivities- March to Victory, Sproul rally, halftime show and all!

The entire 2008 CDT with the CADT.

Some pics of me on the sidelines during the game....

CADT with Oksi!!

It was really great to have the chance to be a part of the Cal-ASU game and to show some Cal spirit! The only thing that bothered me was that I could not see the game very well from the sidelines. I was used to being up on the "boards" in front of the student section, where you can get a very good view of things. Oh, well, that is why we have a DVR. The band was fantastic as usual...."CAL BAND GREAT!!!"

Go Bears! Beat the Sun Devils!!

Sarah's Baptism

Yesterday George had the opportunity to baptize our oldest daughter, Sarah. I am so proud of the beautiful, talented and kind young lady she is growing up to be.

I can't believe that Sarah is eight years old. Not that she does not seem mature (she seems very mature) but that the time has flown by so fast. I know that virtually all parents say this, but she has grown up so fast!! (sniff sniff)

Above is a picture of her on her baptism day. Compare that to the pictures below- the first one was taken when she was four years old.

This one was taken when she was six years old.

This is Sarah when she was three years old on the day little baby Kate was blessed. Sarah has been such a wonderful big sister to Kate and now to Juliette. They both look up to her and watch everything she does.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Sarah, taken when she was two years old. She has such a glowing spirit, I always liked the way the light falls on her in this shot because it reminds me of the light she shines on others by the power of her testimony and her pure love. I am honored to have the opportunity to be her mom and to watch her amazing transformation from a cute little baby into a young lady who can set such a great example for others.

The Big Read

I saw this list on Staci's blog. I have only read 23 out of the 100 books. Maybe someday I will have time to read a few more.

The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of this list of 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six.

Here’s what you are supposed to do:
*Look at the list and bold those we have read.
*Italicize those we intend to read.
*Underline the books we LOVE .Share this list in your blog, too, if you like.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo