Home and back again.

This past weekend I went home to Assiniboia. I am happy to be back in S'toon, but I really like going home to visit family and friends.

I took the "shortcut" through Regina, and picked up my Grandma. The "shortcut" actually adds almost two full hours to the trip. And Remember, I don't have air conditioning in my beast of a car!!

It was a great weekend. Tara and I went to the Grand village of Wood Mountain on Saturday afternoon. It's about 45-50 miles from Assiniboia, so it's a nice day trip. We went to see an old friend of mine, Jody. She has opened the JH Quarter Circle Restaurant in Wood Mountain. The food was great, and the visit was, in my humble opinion, far too short.

Jody, if you read this, I am so happy to have seen you again. I think of you often. We had such good times together. (No one could cause trouble together like you and I did!) I am very proud of what you have done, and I will defend you until I die. I love you girl, and I meant what I said about meeting more often. It's not going to be another three years before I give you one of my famous hugs!!!

In some sad news, last night, my In-laws Pomeranian puppy died. Her name was Britney Lynn Spears (don't ask why she was named that) and she was truly loved by Mom and Dad. Britney is already missed terribly and she leaves a hole in the family that will never be replaced. She was tiny, and cute, and is in doggy heaven.

Revealed!!! The ending to the Harry Potter book 7!

Click here to read the fantastic ending to the new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I never would have guessed that this is how it all wraps up. I'm still going to read the whole book though :-)

EDIT: June 17, 2007 - Apparently some people think that I'm really a lame arse, and that I would post the real book spoiler. First of all, I would probably be sued by Ms. Rowling and at the very least heavily questioned on how I received such information. Second, I usually warn before I spoil an ending, and post it in white or something sneaky like that. Not everyone loves spoilers and I am careful how I present such information. :-)

To those of you who were either reluctant to read the link, or most specifically, to the person who sent me a mean email about this... It's not real. It's a joke, based on the Sopranos ending. It was supposed to be all in good fun.

Tracey and Tara doing the facebook thing

Tonight, Tara and I were on Facebook at the same time, so She called me and we went through people's profiles and added new friends together for over an hour...

This is how technology brings people together!

Or how you know that you need an Intervention.

The Soprano's Finale

Well, after eight years, six box sets and Hours spent in front of a tv, it's over. In a way that I kind of expected... the David Chase Un-Ending. I liked it. My husband HATES it. I quote, "I'm gonna write a letter to the writer! That sucked!"


Major series spoiler below: Via HBO comment thread: (Highlight to read)

That horrendous sound you just heard was a couple million "Sopranos" fans, throwing shoes at their TVs and frantically dialing their cable or satellite providers screaming about how they'd lost the signal in the pivotal last minute of the show.

But they didn't. The show was transmitted just as creator David Chase intended. The last five minutes were entrancingly filled with knee-jiggling tension. Tony went to a diner where his wife and son joined him. Daughter Meadow pulled up outside and struggled to parallel park. For someone who'd never seen the show before, it was a mind-numbingly banal scene of a family gathering in an inexpensive restaurant, popping down onion rings.

But for a "Sopranos" fan, every movement seemed to suggest something. A guy took a seat at the counter -- was he there to take out Tony? A guy walked in with A.J. -- was he there to whack Tony's son? Someone walked slowly to the men's room -- would there be a repeat of the famous "Godfather" scene where Michael went to retrieve a gun hidden in a bathroom stall, walked out, shot two men, dropped the gun and left? Meadow struggled with her car -- was someone watching her, gun in hand? Or when she pulled out to try to repark, would she pull into a car accident? Or would she alone be saved by her sad parking skills while the rest of the family was killed in a diner explosion? Viewers came up with a million scenarios, but the one that no one but Chase came up with was...nothing happened.

The episode definitely had its moments, but few of the possibilities viewers had been discussing for weeks came through. How many of these theories below had you heard bounced around in weeks past? None of them happened.

Tony was not whacked. Nor was Carmela, or either of the children.

A.J. did not take over the family to avenge his father.

Adriana did not pop out of Witness Protection or some other spot, still alive.

Paulie did not reveal himself to be a turncoat.

Sil was not secretly working with the feds, and remained on the edge of death in the hospital. He was neither shielding an uninjured Ade, nor wearing a bulletproof vest.

There was no terrorist attack, nothing involving the Middle Eastern men that Christopher had befriended.

Carmela never found out that Tony had indeed had Adriana killed, and she did not leave her marriage.

The Russian from the Pine Barrens did not resurface. Neither did the Canadian Mounties show up, tracking now-deceased Bobby for leaving a bit of his clothes behind when he whacked a guy in a laundromat north of the border.

Melfi's rapist was never punished. She and Tony never made up.

And Tony never spent those final moments with the ducks in his yard, the ducks that were such an important part of the early seasons.

That's not to say that major events didn't go down in the episode. The most major: One of Tony's guys finally, finally whacked Phil Leotardo, as he pulled up in a car with his wife and twin grandbabies. And those who longed to see Phil pay for having Bobby and Sil shot last week got their revenge, as Phil was not only shot, but had his head run over by his SUV, leading a passerby to toss his cookies at the sight.

And one might say that Christopher, Carmela's nephew, made a return of sorts. Tony's crew adopted an orange cat they found lurking around their safe house, a cat who focused his vision on Chris' portrait, wherever it was moved to, and freaked Paulie out big-time.

Meadow seemed to be moving ahead with marriage plans to Patrick Parisi. A.J. announced he wanted to join the army, but Carmela and Tony seemed to distract him with a job on a film.

Tony did manage a final goodbye with Uncle Junior, a tear coming to his eye as he seemed to, perhaps, finally realize that his uncle no longer knew him. And A.J. pulled another typical bonehead A.J. move, accidentally setting his SUV on fire in the woods while making out with his high-school-age girlfriend.

What was most important in this episode, other than the haunted, hunted feeling of the final scene, was that Tony was told that Carlo had flipped, and he's likely to be dragged into court again. The Sopranos crew have discussed before how there's no easy way out of their life -- death or jail are the likely options, with very few mobsters retiring to Boca to sit in the sun. And so perhaps viewers left Tony with the idea that he knows his life is forever not his own, that he'll never be able to stop looking over his shoulder. (Or, to be cynical, maybe viewers left with the idea that David Chase wants to make a movie, and couldn't kill off Tony this soon.)

If Tony was indeed an anti-hero, the show he helmed came to an anticlimax. There's no question fans will be frustrated. Those who've defended the show all along will claim Chase is brilliant, leaving fans to finish the plotlines in their own minds, while those who had other expectations were likely be furious. (Vote here as to whether you found the show's ending frustrating or fascinating.)

Many viewers are already claiming that the show fading to black was because Tony was (silently, offscreen) shot at the same time as Meadow entered the diner -- the black screen popped up as his life was extinguished, is their thinking, reaching back to the first episode of the season, where Bobby and Tony discuss how death can sneak up on you. Not buying it myself, just as I never could buy the argument that Ade didn't die, that Sil somehow miraculously let her crawl safely away.

One thing's for sure: "The Sopranos" rarely gave viewers exactly what they wanted -- the show had its own path, and always trod it without nodding to popular pressure. The series ended the same way.


I couldn't have said it any better!

Certifiable...

It's 3:41 am, and I am watching Xanadu on the Movie Channel...

I wish I could roller skate. I wish I had neon orange light streaking from behind me every where I went. I wish that my life were a cheesy 80's musical.

Well....on second thought, maybe not.

BTW, the most famous review for Xanadu is "In a word, Xana-don't."

Tara and Kim should appreciate this one...

Tonight at work, we were listening to some older music. The Boys decided to go the metal route in celebration of Ozzy Osbourne's new cd.

As I was alphabetizing a display of dvd's, I heard some real gems that took me back to 1997. We had Rob Zombie's greatest hits, Ozzy's Crazy Train, riding in the red mini-van that Tara's parents had, cruising main street and heading out to the Co-op bulk fuel tanks and back, then going to Limerick... Those were the days!