Many thanks to an alert reader--my mother--who pointed out that my domain name had expired. Oops. I renewed it and therefore you can return to this mish-mash of stories and odd observations about life. If you enjoy these unrelated entries, thank my mom for her help in getting me back up and running.

Speaking of getting back up and running, I donned my Adidas Supernovas and went for a 30-minute jog today. It's been a while. I've been using a stairclimbing machine in my basement during these frigid winter temperatures, and it just isn't the same. After that hiatus from pounding the pavement, I've grown soft. I just couldn't keep up the distance and pace I had been only a month or so ago. If I want to do more than crawl across the finish line of the Spring half-marathon I'm signed up for, I'm going to have to pull on the cold weather layers and get out there more often to train. Brrrr.

A college-aged guest who likes movies visited us for a few days, so I loaded her up with my four kids and bought tickets to Narnia. Oh, wouldn't that be nice if we could all buy tickets to Narnia? I meant tickets to the movie, of course. We weren't sure how the youngest would do, so we prepared him that we would be covering his eyes through some of the scary parts.

[no real spoilers, but if you haven't seen it and want to be completely ignorant, skip a paragraph]

Early in the movie the children are exploring the professor's house playing hide-and-seek. Nothing happens, but they are slipping around corners and it's possible that the music was adding tension. At any rate, my youngest was cringing and worried, "oh...ohhhhhh...." I looked at our guest with wide eyes--if he was this upset over a game of hide-and-seek when nothing at all happens, what is he going to do when some really scary creatures emerge? Well, I did hide his eyes from some of the more hideous and evil creatures, and during one of the climactic sequences when things were very dark and horrible, I also shielded his view. But by the time the battle sequence begins, he was rooting for the hippogryphs as they soared overhead and dropped stones on the enemy army! Maybe when he knew he was in a fantasy world, it was less scary than the real-life sequences? Or maybe it's just a frog-in-the-kettle syndrome, where he was exposed to suspense in the movie and grew accustomed to it.

Okay, then I realized that the only way I was going to get out to see "Pride and Prejudice" before it disappears from theaters was to drag them all out to see it with me. It's already gone from the closest theater, and there were only three time slots left at the theater we drove to. I think "Kong" is kicking it out along with "Cheaper by the Dozen 2."

We walked into the theater late due to Christmas traffic, and about a dozen older ladies were settled into their seats. Seriously, I think everyone in that room received a Senior Citizen's discount. I didn't think of the film as being for an older audience. Maybe it was the time of day. Anyway, our guest bought us all popcorn as a treat. The youngest immediately spilled his all over the floor, and during the quiet scenes, the theater seemed filled with the rattling and crinkling of my children messing around with their popcorn bags. They whispered loudly that they needed drinks of water, and after shushing them, I made them wait for the next ball, when things would be noisier. They would crunch-crunch-crunch over the spilled popcorn each time they moved along the row to the aisle. I was so embarrassed and felt so bad for the people sitting in front of and behind us.

[Spoiler alert--don't read if you don't want to know the end, but surely you already know it from reading the book? Or from watching one of the other twenty cinematic attempts at capturing the heart of the novel?]

Our youngest liked the end. The marriage is implied--they show before and after, but not the wedding itself. "Are they married?" he asked loudly as the credits rolled by. "Yes, they got married," I answered. The ladies behind us smiled and laughed, so I felt that if they may have forgiven our clamor at least a little. My youngest particularly liked the way he kissed her first on the forehead, then one cheek, then the other, then the nose...then I think eventually on the lips. Preceding each kiss, he said, "Mrs. Darcy." So as my youngest tried to explain that scene to my husband when we got home, it was a little confusing. The romantic element was lost.

I am delighted that I got to see it, however. I'll rent it again and force my husband to stay awake through it. I'm also reading the book again. It's been so long, I'd forgotten some of the details. This review is great. Go see it before it is completely overshadowed by the big ape:

http://lookingcloser.org/movie%20reviews/H-P/prideandprejudice.htm