Sunday, December 28, 2014

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot



While the plot closely followed the movie - I watched the movie first, at least 20+ times so far, to be exact - the book grandma, or pardon me, grandmere, is no Julie Andrews. Even though I was appalled by the book version of Mary Poppins (another grump who was turned into a sweetheart by Julie Andrews), I actually found the egotisitical, chain-smoking book grandmere to be delightful, and I especially like what happens to her at the end of the first book. 

Mia happens to be freaking hilarious in an angsty, snarky woe-is-me kind of way. She also abuses the heck out of italics and capital letters, which totally works for her, and I'm not just saying this because of how much I LOVE italics and capital letters. And she is a very lovable girl so I was constantly pulling my hair and biting my nails in response to all of her woes. 

Even if you find that this book is not your cup of tea or sidecar, you must flip to Mia's list of The Ten Women I Admire Most in the Whole World. And if you shoot me an email I can send you a beautiful rainbow spread of Hilary Clinton in all her pantsuit glory courtesy of a page I ripped from an Oprah magazine a few years back. 

I will leave you with some angst, courtesy of Mia.

"Hmm, hold on a minute, let me see... My mom is going out with my Algebra teacher, a subject I'm flunking, by the way; my best friend hates me; I'm fourteen years old and I've never been asked out; I don't have any breasts; and oh, I just found out I'm the princess of Genovia. 'Oh, sure, " I said to Principal Gupta. 'Everything is fine.'"

Saturday, December 27, 2014

BusyBusyBusy


I've borrowed Robert's theme song, BusyBusyBusy, this past month.  It's from Sandra Boynton's Philadelphia Chickens.



I've been playing a lot of catch-up from the weeks when the bum knee kept me on my bottom, and I'm officially 100%, biking and playing tennis and all that jazz, just a mere three months after the injury and two months after the surgery.  Go me!  

Honestly I owe a big part of that 100% to Robert.  He was supportive, encouraging and the good kind of pushy, not to mention super caring and attentive.  Go Robert!

I also made a trip to Tucson to visit family.  These are my favorite pictures!

Chilling at Noble Hops


Scott and I went to afternoon tea at The Chantilly Tea Room for my birthday!  We picked out our teacups, drank about 6 pots of tea, ate finger sandwiches and scones and were on our very best behavior.


While Scott and I were at afternoon tea the rest of the family  was planning a giant surprise birthday party, complete with princess accessories, which was VERY appropriate because I was in the middle of The Princess Diaries.



We took a lovely stroll through Tohono Chul Park .



We celebrated Christmas, and because I mailed my presents I had lots and lots of bubble wrap so naturally we decorated Rusty aka James for Christmas.



Heather liked the present I made for her, which was inspired by the Fancy Nancy books. 





And Scott was mobbed several times by their menagerie of dogs (the two pictured here are Bernie and Louie) and our niece, Harper, who has really taken to him.