I wouldn't kick this Bond out of my bed...

(This post was written on January 1st, 2007)

2007 – It’s a New Year with a clean slate & a fresh start. That’s the way I like to look at it anyway. Still, I awoke today and it felt like every other day. Actually, when I woke up this morning, I felt one of my dark days coming on…my head felt weird and I just wanted to stay hidden under my covers. For no reason at all I felt like bursting into tears. Brian made me pancakes with fresh sliced bananas. I ate them gratefully but I still wanted to hide. I convinced him to sneak under the covers and snuggle up close to me. Feeling his arm around me in our warm bed made me feel slightly better. Gatsby (our cat) was nice enough to jump up and pile in too. That made it perfect. Brian holding me and me stroking Gatsby’s soft fur helped me cope. Finally I kicked us all out of bed and forced myself to deal with the rest of my day.

I cheated a little bit…I asked my Mom to take the kids off our hands for a couple of hours. Brian and I started off the New Year with a “date.” We went to see the new James Bond film, “Casino Royale.” I must admit that I was hesitant to accept this new Bond. Daniel Craig just didn’t seem to be a Bond man to me. He looked too old, too rough and too blonde! I’m here to admit, however, that I couldn’t have been more wrong. He was awesome…maybe my favorite of all the Bonds! If you haven’t seen this movie yet, stop everything and go!

Casino Royale was an excellent film with lots of man-candy to drool over. God bless the person who decided it was necessary to get Craig and his perfect biceps wet in this film as often as possible. Grrowl! The opening sequence, void of the usual high speed car chase and mid-air explosions, was exhilarating. The whole film seemed more gritty and realistic than previous ones. It was fun watching this ‘prequel’ show us how he got his car and signature drink – but they weren’t afraid to shake things up either. In one of my favorite scenes, a bartender asks Bond whether he would like his martini shaken or stirred – to which our hero declares, “Do I look like I give a shit?” LMAO!

Despite my hesitation, I couldn’t help but love Craig’s version of Bond. He had me at his sexy smirk! Craig’s dark wit won me over instantly. There was no “prissiness” in sight. Plus you’ve got to like a man with an ass like that! Meow! ;o) Don’t worry gentlemen, there are still plenty of “guy things” to like about the movie. Hot girls in very little clothing and hot cars driving fast…the male members in our audience gasped audibly when we first get to see his classic Aston Martin. They also cried out in shared pain when Bond’s new Aston Martin gets totaled – apparently they would have preferred he run over the girl in the street to seeing the gleaming piece of steel marred in anyway. I give it 3 ½ stars out of 4. (It gets a few points shaved off for poor editing near the end of what seemed to be an endless film.) Check it out for yourself; I think you’ll love it too!

I finished my book today! My faithful readers will recall from a previous posting that I had been reading, Maria Headley's “The Year of Yes.” I must admit that I did not fall in love with this book. The main character (the author) was just too into herself to really like or empathize with. Most of the book seemed like an excuse for her to show off her intelligence about obscure literature and plays. Yawn! Yes…you are so great. Whatever! What kept me reading were the parts regarding the men (and a couple of women) she agreed to date in her year of yes. There was an incredible assortment of them. Some stories were humorous and others were kind of sad. I liked being able to learn from the author’s mistakes and gain some perspective about the search for love without having to put myself through a year of yes myself. I was mad that she didn’t end up with Zak too – even though early on in the book you know she doesn’t. Still, I couldn’t help but hope. If you’ve got the patience for her grandstanding and name dropping…you might give it a try (or at least a skim).

I’m finally reading the new “Danse Macabre.” Actually, I’ve been attempting to read this particular book for several months now, but I’m always in the middle of another book and never get to it. I’ve checked it out from the library many times and it always ends up just sitting on my dresser staring at me. (483 pages of “Hey! Did you forget about me up here?”) Enough guilt…I’m on Chapter 3.

Honestly, I don’t know why I’m reading this book. The last two times I read one of LKH’s books, I got so disgusted that I vowed never again to read another word she had written. I even went on her official website and flamed her with my hatred. Yet here I am again…so I guess she got the last laugh. I think it is because I’ve read the previous 13 books in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter collection, so I feel like I can’t stop now.

It was bad enough that she wrote a series of successful books which basically mirrors the book I’ve been writing forever (note: I had no knowledge of her or her books as I did this so I’m convinced she ripped me off somehow). Now she is just cranking out crap. The characters basically just have sex for ¾ of the book, the remaining ¼ is just filler to make it look like a novel and not just fantasy porn. She stopped writing good stories many books back and now she is just an erotic novelist in my opinion. I can’t even stand the novel’s heroine – Anita. She’s just become this bitchy whore with way too many superpowers. Yet…here I am reading the newest book anyhow. Argh!!!!!!!! Stupid LKH…stupid weak-willed me - only 463 pages to go. Sigh!

Well, it’s time for me to crawl into bed with my sleepy head hubby – it’s almost the 2nd of January now. (Happy Birthday Mom!)

I’ll post again soon.