Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day, these are a few of my favorite romantic movies. 25 to be exact, both comedy and drama. I've included some great quotes from these movies and a couple of links to YouTube.

Have fun stormin' the castle.

"I want to do something for her... but what?"
"Well, there's the usual things: flowers... chocolates... promises you don't intend to keep ... "

Tale as old as Time: "… there may be something there that wasn't there before."

"Remember, when you go out not to put on too much makeup otherwise the boys will get the wrong idea and you know how they are ... They're only after one thing."
"What's that?"
"I don't know. Nobody will tell me."  

"I think you're a hopeless romantic who's discovered that romance is hopeless." 

"So close to reaching that famous happy end …"

"Face it, Rose. You're no picnic."

"A woman's heart is an ocean of secrets."

Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind …
William Wordsworth

"I felt that it was my heart only that I was risking … but my heart is, and always will be, yours."

 "All great beauties must suffer and sacrifice."

"After all the stops and starts, we keep coming back to these two hearts …"

"You know what's wrong with you, Miss Whoever-you-are? You're chicken, you've got no guts. You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, Okay, life's a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness."

"Do they still really have prizes in Cracker Jack boxes?"
"Oh yes."
"That's nice to know... It gives one a feeling of solidarity, almost of continuity with the past, that sort of thing."

"This is true love. Do you think this happens everyday?"
 
"Death cannot stop true love, it can only delay it for a little while."

"You'll never find anyone as good for you as I am, to believe in you as much as I do or love you as much."
 "I know."

"Do you believe in love at first sight? Nah, I betcha don't, you're probably too sensible for that. Or have you ever, like, seen somebody? And you knew that, if only that person really knew you, they would, well, they would of course dump the perfect model that they were with, and realize that YOU were the one that they wanted to, just, grow old with … ."
 
"If you fit into my pants I will kill myself"

"Okay, um. What do you mean by the leaning thing? You mean because he gave me flowers?"
"And then you leaned."
" …Okay, how did I lean when I leaned?"
"It was a lot different from hugging. Hugging's very different. Hugging, that involves arms and hands; and leaning is whole bodies moving in like this …
Leaning involves wanting ... and accepting…"

"Rhett, don't. I shall faint."
"I want you to faint. This is what you were meant for. None of the fools you've ever known have kissed you like this, have they? Your Charles, or your Frank, or your stupid Ashley."

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a great fortune must be in want of a wife."

"I am determined that nothing but the deepest love could ever induce me into matrimony."

"Perhaps I didn't always love him as well as I do now, but in such cases as these a good memory is unpardonable."

"I wanted it to be you. I wanted it to be you so badly."

Movie's Ending: most memorable sequence 

"Can a man and a woman be friends, without sex getting in the way?"

 "When you realize You want to spend
The rest of your life with somebody,
You want the rest of your life
To start as soon as possible."

"You've ruined it for me, you know."
  " Ruined what?"
  " Being alone."

"That's your problem. You don't want to be in love. You want to be in love in a movie."

"That's a chick's movie"

"I've been taking pictures all my life––long before I had a camera."

"More isn't always better, Linus. Sometimes it's just more."

"So, I'm not a theatre buff."
"Buff? The most difficult tickets to get will be for a Broadway musical."
"Okay."
"That means that the performers will periodically dance about and burst into song."

"I love you, Loretta." 
"Snap out of it."

"Democracy can be a wickedly unfair thing, Sabrina. Nobody poor was ever called democratic for marrying somebody rich."

"A gentleman fits in anywhere."

"A sponge fits in anywhere."

 

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
"Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake."
"I don't know what you mean, Miss Ilsa."
"Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'" [not Play it again, Sam]
"Why, I can't remember it, Miss Ilsa. I'm a little rusty on it."
"I'll hum it for you … Sing it, Sam."

"Who are you really and what were you before? What did you do and what did you think, huh?"
"We said no questions."

"Here's looking at you, kid."

 

"The likelihood of one individual being right increases in direct proportion to the intensity with which others are trying to prove him wrong." 

"She loves me, Mr. Jordan."
"Joe, you must abide by what is written."

"You're the quarterback."

"I came to Hollywood over 60 years ago, and immediately fell in love with motion pictures. And it's a love affair that's lasted a lifetime. When I first arrived in Tinseltown, there were no cineplexes or multiplexes. No such thing as a Blockbuster or DVD. I was here before conglomerates owned the studios. Before pictures had special effects teams. And definitely before box office results were reported like baseball scores on the nightly news … Iris, in the movies, we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason, you're behaving like the best friend."

"You knew what a frightful girl I was when you married me."

"Take love, multiply it by infinity and take it to the depths of forever … and you still have only a glimpse of how I feel for you."

 

Beau, Beck and Bowling

  

 

 

 

Wish I had gotten the picture when Beau crossed his eyes.

Fabulous Friday. The twins came to our house for lunch, ice cream and to fly balloons with Poppy.

Beck ate the cherry is why he looks so happy.

Chris, Erin, James and I went bowling tonight. So much fun. And I didn't come in last.

We had to wait for a lane but the bowling alley is now a smoke-free zone. I scored 120 my second game. w00t

Jazz hands

Erin and I discovered that Yoga breathing does not improve our bowling.

James quickly recalled his technique.

Chris got a groove and hit the most strikes.

Where's the ball, Paden?

The Dude still abides.

A word about other blogs

My granddad and I shared the same birthday

Faithful Readers,

Reportedly, there are now more bloggers than blog readers.
If you are still reading, you may have noticed the blogs I follow. Looking at that list may strike you as a bit eclectic. It is. I am.

The Pioneer Woman and Bakerella

While most of my blog reading trends toward writing, you will see that The Pioneer Woman and Bakerella relate to cooking and photography.

What's not to love about The Pioneer Woman? Creative, upbeat and humorous, Ree Drummond provides the perfect antidote to the sky is falling. If the sky did fall, Ree would find a way to make something wonderful out of the pieces.

Bakerella, just in time for Valentine's Day, is new to me. Already my daughter has made cake pops. And I love that this clever girl just does what she loves and takes the time to share with others recipes, pictures and her ideas.

Nathan Bransford

My son, the reader, suggested I check out Nathan Bransford. He's cool. Nathan, not my son. Oh well, my son is cool too but he has yet to launch a blog because he spends so much time reading.

Today Nathan wrote about writers, in particular their striving to make something change. Referring to The Great Gatsby, which Nathan has just reread, "there has to be a pretty intense fire burning inside you to devote the amount of time it takes to write one [a book] … writing is an act of getting down on your hands and knees and hoping the world spins on a slightly different axis. It's the art of not taking life for granted and trying to make something, anything change."

That pretty much says it for me, the hands and knees part, and about not taking life for granted.

Aspire2 and RetroChristianity

Two of my favorite professors from Dallas Theological Seminary blog.

The blog Aspire2, written by Sandi Glahn, who besides working as an adjunct professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, she nears completion of a PhD from UTD.

Sandi taught a couple of the writing classes I took at DTS: Journalism and Advanced Creative Writing. Both classes gave me a much-needed sense of direction and redeemed my time at DTS. Sandi also co-taught the Preaching class my Master's degree in Media and Communication required. There, she played an even more pivotal role as friend.

Sandi also writes regularly for the Tapestry blog on bible.org, a site that has world-wide readership. I took the pictures of doors used on the Women's page, and occasionally I blog as a substitute.

Mike Svigel, who teaches in the theology department recently updated his RetroChristianity blog, accounting for his long absence because he has written another book. Can't wait to read it. This guy is brilliant and grounded. A student of real life, not simply ideas in books, he doesn't blow smoke.

Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent

While I keep working to complete a manuscript, I follow Rachelle Gardner's blog. She's an agent. Don't have an agent. Don't know if I will ever need one. Don't know if I will ever finish this book. But Rachelle offers lots of good advice for writers, would-be and otherwise.


Chip MacGregor

Agent Chip MacGregor wrote a blog that I read for ages, and when he up an quit a few months ago, I thought, whoa. Blogs are so yesteryear. That post combined with the holidays derailed my blogging engine.

Keepin' it simple, I stop short of endorsing a bazillion other blogs. If I blog too much or read too many blogs, I will never finish writing this book. It's easier to blog, because deadlines tell me when to stop.

Ho, hum. For now, I will keep reading, writing and stretching my creative muscles to build a blog. Whether or not I have that intense fire burning inside, these few blogs serve as my Energizer to keep going.

Nikki Heated

Continued from yesterday's post, my Nikki Heat story has a happy ending. Usually try to save the best for last, but this iPhone photo tells a better story than all the rest.

Beau and Beck have to wait for Gran's rolls

Lightly flour work surface and rolling pin

Plop out the dough and start rolling into a rectangle

An imperfect rectangle, I might add. Then slather with REAL butter, room temperature.

Mix high quality cinnamon and sugar, about half and half.

Spread to within an inch or half-inch on all sides.

Start rolling along wide side of rolled-out  dough.

Gently, so the sugar and cinnamon stay put.

There you go. Press seam into dough before cutting.

Cut about one-inch wide slices and leave room for rolls to rise. Cover with a towel and let rise overnight.

In the morning, voila. Ready to bake.

350 degrees for 15–18 minutes. Do not over bake.

Baby Bear porridge: just right

Glaze: 2 T. butter, 2 T. milk, 1 t. vanilla, 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

Keep stirring

Stir until smooth and not a bit grainy.

Start icing while rolls are still warm.

There will be "orpha-lans"–end pieces and ugly rolls that don't fit in the pan.

Luscious

Share these delectable rolls so that you don't wind up on The Biggest Loser.

Care and Feeding of Nikki Heat

Nikki Heat needs stirring every day

When a friend gave me some of her family legacy sourdough starter several weeks ago, I had no idea how much attention this would require.

Cover sourdough with a towel as it needs to breathe.

After naming this creature Nikki Heat for detective Kate Beckett on the television series, Castle, I even had to arrange for a friend to care for and feed the beast when I went out of town. Miss Nikki Heat, sourdough starter, has made a place for herself on my kitchen counter.

My family is starting to love her. 

Already I had to move to a bigger bowl, and the plastic lid on top of the towel keeps the dough from drying out. 

The down side is also the upside. Lots of yummy rolls, as often as I want to make them, so long as I plan ahead. Down, because our weight could go up. Up, because Nikki makes magnificent rolls.

And at last, after numerous iterations, I have perfected cinnamon rolls made from this sourdough.

Here's how to make the dough for either dinner rolls or cinnamon rolls. 

Measure 2 c. all purpose flour into bowl

Add to flour 1 t. salt

Next add 1/4 c. oil

then 1/2 c. water

to this you will add sourdough mixture

scoop out 1 c. of sourdough mix

goopy looking stuff

That's it. Just 5 ingredients

Mix well

See how clean the sides of the bowl look. Smooth the dough with spatula. Such an easy dough to work with.

 

Cover and let rise in a warm place

Next post, I will show how to make rolls.

The starter my friend gave me has been in her family for more than 25 years. Imagine stirring and feeding a starter for 25 years. I thought that had to be a record until I read that the Boudin Bakery in San Francisco still uses its original starter, used there since 1849 (see sourdough link above).

This recipe calls for feeding with 1 c. flour, 1 c. sugar and 1 c. milk, twice a week. Whisk and add to original mixture. Unless you use a lot, you have to give some away, which is how Nikki came to live at our house.

Tiny TOMS

Tiny TOMS

Teenie tiny TOMS

Teenie tiny TOMS on tiptoe

Read about TOMS, the shoes that with every pair purchased a pair of new shoes is given to a child in need. "ONE FOR ONE."

Seven-year-old Ava just got a pair of the smallest TOMS made. When her mother pulled back the covers to awake Ava yesterday, she still had on her TOMS.

Ava, the girl who hates to wear shoes, has found her shoe-mate.

Super Bowl XLV: How 'bout Them Cowboys

Really looking forward to watching the Cowboys play at Cowboy Stadium tonight. Wait a minute. Those players will be in the stands or at home to watch Green Bay play the Steelers.

Is it my imagination or does football season last longer every year? Pretty soon the Super Bowl will compete with the Academy Awards. No, that will never happen. Too much money at stake.

Whether you watch the game or not, this Volkswagen commercial tells a story without a single word uttered.

At work, a cultural force.