Bruce, and a movie review

Just trying to add this little graphic to my "Books, Comics, Movies and TV" section. Paul and I watched Live Free or Die Hard the other evening. Good Stuff! If you need an "action movie pick-me-up" its highly recommended. Lots of good action, laughs and sweet cyber-spy stuff. Watching Live Free or Die Hard made me think of all the other Willis movies I like, so I added the only three I have not seen to my Netflix list (Sin City, 16 Blocks and Color of Night). Tears of the Sun was good, Unbreakable, Hart's War is sad, but good, The Sixth Sense - awesomely spooky and then the other Die Hards are all good Willis flicks. I own Bandits, Hudson Hawk and The Fifth Element. That said, one of my top-10 favorite movies would definitely have to be The Fifth Element. Bruce Willis AND Milla Jovovich - with the fate of the universe in their hands - Chris Rock for comedic relief and Gary Oldman as the evil Zorg, how can you possibly go wrong? If you have not seen The Fifth Element I implore you to find it and watch it this very instant! Right now! GO! You can read the rest of this post later...

You back yet?

Action movies are my favorite genre - especially action with some fantasy and a smidgen of comedy. The world is to serious all the time. I like taking a break from reality for a couple hours. Its rather nice to let your mind dip swell and hover in a well crafted fantastical world of a movie for a while. Reality will be waiting again once your done.

Well with 2008 finally in sight there are ton of cool movies coming up with my favorite action heroes! The two best FBI agents ever - Mulder and Scully are finally going be in the 2nd X Files movie (Summer, 2008 hopefully). My favorite archaeologist is gearing up for a new Indiana Jones movie - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (May 22nd, 2008) Off the top of my head - some of my favorite lines... "Junior?!" "Snakes, why did it have to be snakes?" "We named the dog Indiana!" "And X never ever marks the spot." And I just found out that Dark Knight (a Batman movie) is coming to the big screen too (July 18th, 2008) - although I can't quite picture Heath Ledger as the Joker, or as a bad guy for that matter. But I'll trust in the same writers and directors that made Batman Begins a "I wish I had seen this in the theatre" rental. It was a very pleasant surprise from the flop of Batman and Robin. Sorry George, I like ya - but you were a dorky Batman. And way too many ridiculously silly bad-guys. My favorite line in that movie was Chris' - "Holy rusted metal batman!" Which has been known to pop into my head and out of my mouth without thinking from time to time.

And then there are a couple movies from books that I'm rather ecstatic to see. From one of my all time favorite book series - The second Narnia movie - Prince Caspian (May 16th, 2008). If they do as good a job with it than they did with The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe - its going to be jaw-dropping! And then one of my recently read, well liked fiction books is coming to life with the handsome Brenden Fraiser (who narrated the books on CD) as Mo in Cornelia Funke's InkHeart (September, 19th, 2008) And then of course - Harry Potter and the 1/2 Blood Prince (November, 21st, 2008).

So mark your calendars folks. Paul and I will be in the darkened movie theatre, hopefully in our prime spot - back row, center - for the 1st showing of each of these movies. I'll be bouncing up and down, and Paul will probably be falling asleep (if its a midnight movie I have to drag him to). And I'm not even going to touch on all the cool books I'm not-so patiently waiting for in the new year. Mr. Butcher, Mr. Nix and Ms. Funke - you guys better hurry up!

Turkey Day!

George Jensen stainless designed by Arne Jacobsen (1957), Towle & Waterford crystal, wine glasses and champagne flutes from William Sonoma and Target holiday table runner, placemats and napkins.

The table was beautifully set!

We'd cooked the turkey(s)...

All we needed was the people to eat all the yummy food!

Paul, Paul's brother Glenn and his wife, Karen.

Karen enjoying her strawberry champagne and pumpkin pie for dessert.

Glen and his slice.

Gobble Gobble Gobble...
Happy Turkey Day!

Another Ode to Flagler Days

I just read Karisse's post on "An Ode to Flagler Days" - and I highly recommend it for everyone who went to Flagler with us - or is just curious.

I have to add to this batch of memories -

Chris, Joy and I adding our names to the fort a few months into our freshman year - when we discovered a patch of nice wet concrete on the wall next to the water. Last time I saw it you could still read "SSS" and "CS" but Joy carved very lightly - just in case her initials could be traced back to her...

On the food "decorations" that I'd leave for the kitchen crew - I am particularly found of the replica I made of the fort - bastions and all - out of leftover mashed potatoes. I wish I had taken a photo of it. It really was a piece of art.

Sneaking into the art building to work on design projects after 11 when it closed. (they had cameras installed after that semester) Sneaking around the basement and up to the 4th floor. Checking out the "mirror door" room - the room that the ghost of Flagler's wife was supposed to haunt.

Watching my first black and white print magically appear in the developer in the dark room from a photo I took myself. Sad to say they tore out the dark room when they redid the art building and studios - and have gone to all digital photography now. I think the students have really lost something there.

The story I left in Karisse's comments about the fire we had late one night.

Having a picnic, and doing cheerleading moves on the grassy hills by the fort with Karisse, Travis, Jerm, Laura, and a bunch of other folks one sunny fall day. I have some great photos from that day!

Visiting AM at Cousins (a sandwich shop on St. George Street), eating bagels at Schmagel's Bagels. Getting candy apples from Savannah Sweets, and cuban sandwiches and plantains from The Columbia.

Interning and later working at HUE Design.

Picking up packages from my folks from always cheerful Flagler mailman Terry, getting notes from friends and little treats in by little mailbox.

Helping with several archaeological digs around the city. There's something to be said for finding a piece of history that hasn't seen the light of day since the 1500s.

Watching my bestest roomie Laura throw herself down on her bed and roll around yelling " I have to get organized!" Catching wayward lizards in our room while she either ran away or went eewww. Listening to her complain about my stinky cheese that my folks would mail me. Coming up with plans for our door decoration and putting them together.

*sigh*
Good times.

When did I get to be such a boring grown up?

Sondra's Birthday Cave

I have to laugh at our reminder note because if we had lost it and someone else had found it I'm sure they would have thought something kinky was going down in room 155.

Dave has been systematically combing karst areas in Huntsville for features and possible new caves every time comes into town from Atlanta to research at the NSS Office. Last weekend Dave invited Paul and I out for a little jaunt on Huntsville Mtn. He had found a few karst features while he was by himself that he thought were worth investigating later. So this time he brought some back up - Paul and I!

Paul pulling out some gear.

Dave gave me the honor of descending one particular karsty feature first - and as it turns out - its looking like it will just qualify. Dave read instruments & pulled tape, Paul helped with tape and I sketched the new little cave.

Dave in the entrance.

Me, sketching away....

Dave pulling tape.

Then we had to think of a name. Dropped Pencil Cave was a possibility - because I dropped a pencil and then Scorpion Cave was another because while I was sitting propped up on a ledge, a scorpion came out and decided to tell me I was disturbing him. I apologized and quickly got out of his way. I didn't even know there were scorpions in Alabama!!! (They are smaller and less poisonous - but just as spooky looking as their western cousins) And then I thought gee, I wonder if my Mom would like a cave named after her - since we found it on her November 11th birthday? So we landed on "Sondra's Birthday Cave" will be coming to an ACS near you!

Some pretty fall leaves during our ridgewalk.

A fantastic old cedar patiently rearranging rocks.

Eye Candy

Found this great site in a round about way this morning. Its called てんこもり。保管庫（写真まとめ）And since I have no idea what that actually means - I'm going to call it Eye Candy. If you have a few minutes for a virtual vacation - let your eyes soak up something beautiful - go check it out!

And here's a handy guide to the links page:
The first row of 7 links are photos of kitties,
The second of 4 links are dogs and puppies,
The third line is misc. animal photos,
The 4th and 5th rows are of all sorts of dramatic clouds and skies,
The 6th row is of various nature scenes - the second photo of which looks pretty darn familiar - and would venture to say it might be Neversink?


The 7th row is scenes over water - lots of beaches and boats and dwellings on the beach,
The 8th row is winter snow scenes - all of them feel so calm and silent,
Row 9 is all sunsets,

And Row 10 has three links to architectural features (I think I need to go work on a colored pencil fence like this one! Isn't it awesome?)

Now I have an incredible urge to take a trip to some far away place and see some of these views in person...especially these...

Bluff River Cave

Huntsville Grotto's November Horizontal Trip: Bluff River Cave
Date: 11/10/07
Attendees: (left to right) Roy, Paul, Jimmy, Mike, Michelle, Steve (Michelle's neighbor - 1st time caving), Tommy, Billy, Don, Blake, Vonnette, Kelsey, Gene, Allen, Fred and I (taking the photo)

Bluff River is a highly rewarding, fun cave, for minimal effort. Its really straight forward with no real side passages to speak of; its a little under a mile in length and the 16 of us did the whole cave in about 3 hours. A 4-wheel drive isn't required to get there. You park on the side of the road and head out into the woods of a pleasant a 10-15 minute bushwhack. The small entrance spits you out onto a long mud slope in a spacious decorated room. Just follow the wandering river for some fantastically large scale flowstone formations, cave critters such as mudpuppies, crayfish and salamanders and some grand borehole passage. No crawling, just a bit of breakdown and the water level only got thigh-high. Well, at least for those people who didn't charge headlong through a muddied "puddle." Then they'd get wet up to their bellybuttons. (uh....yeah, that'd be me with the soggy bellybutton)

Kelsey, Blake and Allen going in.

Roy skirting the edge of the "puddle."

Don and Tommy in the river.

Steve passing by one of the huge formations.

Mike helping Kelsey accross.

Roy holding up the passage for us. Phew. Good thing he was there!

Some of the pretties.

A really nice column.

A sleepy hibernating pip. I was so close I could hear him snoring.

Some more pretties.

The breakdown mound at the end of the cave.

I was shooting away in the last little room of pretties when Fred offered to take a photo of me with my camera... thanks Fred!

This dry rimstone pool with crystals was what I was photographing at the time. It was right in front of me.

Fred, Gene and Jimmy talking and waiting for the rest of the crew to exit Bluff River.

Roy and Mike.

The woods on the bushwhack back to the car.

And lastly Michelle's improvised coffee stirring technique on the way to Mud Creek Bar-B-Que for dinner.

Mamasita

Happy Birthday Mom!!!
I love you!!

Jolly Green's Keys to the Lincoln

One of Paul and I's geocaches is being featured on the geocaching website! This is one of a series Paul and I created pertaining to Jolly Green - as in the Jolly Green Giant. Seems as though Jolly Green is constantly dropping or leaving things all over the mountains here. This is Jolly Green's Keys to the Lincoln. My Dad drew the pattern for the key and Paul cut it out, I crafted and painted and made the buttons on the key fob - which is actually part of a dog carrier we found at Unclaimed Baggage. We also have a flexi straw (that's about 10 feet long) , a button (which is a table top) , a toothbrush, a watch, safety glasses, a micro, a pico and several others. Here's the geocaching album for all the Jolly Greens.

Paul's trying to take a bite out of the newest one that was published a few days ago - Jolly Green's Surprise for Sprout

Fall

The Coin

Into my heart's treasure
I slipped a coin
That time cannot take
Nor a thief purloin,-
Oh, better than the minting
Of a gold-crowned king
Is the safe-kept memory
Of a lovely thing.

~Sara Teasdale (1920)

Touching the Past

So I left off with Sunday morning at the Great Salt Petere Cave Preserve.


Andy had shown Jennifer and Angela some local petroglyphs Saturday afternoon and told us about it that evening. I really wanted to go see them. So Sunday morning before Angela and I took off for Alabama Andy took us over so I could view them.

Talk about touching the past. These petroglyphs are located on a little sandstone outcropping up the hill from a spring. Its wild to think how deep they must have been carved to have lasted this long in sandstone. They were simply fantastic.

Andy and Angela - patiently waiting while I took about 50 pictures...

Here's a close up of the book Andy was showing Angela and I - Rock Art of Kentucky. It that has a nice diagram of the Daugherty Bear Track petroglyph site.

This is the central "figure" of lines.

The circle to the left of the figure.

There's a bear paw print ont he left side - and an odd inverted "V" with another line to the right hand side. They aren't on the diagram, but I think they must be a part of the petroglyph too.