Books Books Books: Buttons and Foes (Mandy Dyer Mystery, Book 6)

So, before I go into this book review (yea! I'm on a roll right now as far as book reviews and reading in general goes! woot!!) I really need to make a correction about my previous book review. I wrote the title in wrong!!! It is The Fault in Our Stars NOT souls! My apologies go out to anyone who was offended by this or who noticed this...I'm so sorry! I promise that I will do my very best to ensure that this will not happen ever again!

Moving on, I just finished a book (this Sunday) called Buttons and Foes. I picked it up because it sounded interesting at the library and the other books that I was looking to read were no where to be found in my library. I did finally get around to ordering the second Phryne Fisher book and that should be in and I will pick it up next chance I get to go to the library (which is now closed until Tuesday :c) called Flying Too High. But I'm getting off topic, this book that I just finished was one that I rated as being alright, not my favorite but not too bad. I gave it three out of five stars on Goodreads and here's my review:

"Mandy was the type of character who could, at points of the story, annoy me to no end, but in the end she was always right when it came to her suspicions and even if non of the men (and yes, the majority seemed to be men...) around her supported her in her endeavors to learn the identity of her loyal customer's murder. The story was predictable but was well put together and ok. The opinion might be a bit off considering I realized just now that I started with the 6th book in the series....fail on my part..."

Yes, that was all in my review. I hope that you all find this helpful or at least a bit amusing considering I made such an amateur mistake as not checking the order of the series! I feel quite silly about that whole bit... Well, my cat is begging to be given attention so I shall scurry off to play with him a bit before he breaks my computer....sigh. I hope that you all are reading good books and having a good back to school time! It's so weird not going back to school this year....huh....weird!

Love,
Sara :)

Beans and Barley

I have been looking around for a nice cafe in the Milwaukee area that is great for vegetarians, such as myself. For my upcoming grad party (Sunday! Scary!), we found a place called Beans and Barley where who specialize in vegetarian and vegan meals. Don't panic, you meat-lovers, there is chicken offered there as well. Located in Milwaukee on 1901 E North Avenue, this restaurant also doubles as a deli where you can buy delicious and healthy food or order catering or pick up containers of food for your next party.

The restaurant is very neat, with an open feel to it and a friendly atmosphere presented by friendly staff who know the food and drinks like the back of their hand. I will share with you what I had to eat there because it really made a lasting impression on me! There are pictures to accompany my review. I'm feeling organized today :D

They have a good assortment of teas and smoothies, as well as espressos, coffees, ciders, and juices. However, unlike most restaurants, they only carry root beer, lemon lime soda, and ginger ale as far as soda is concerned. I tried the Citron Oolong tea and it was quite good.

Moving on to dinner itself, I had one of the most delicious burritos I've had in a long time. When I first looked at the menu, this item caught my eye and when the waitress was recommending food, this one came up as having a following of customers. It sounded like a good choice so I chose the Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burrito. OMG! If you ever go to Beans and Barley, this is something that you HAVE TO TRY, assuming you like black beans, sweet potatoes, guacamole, corn, and rice. It was absolutely delicious! You could taste every aspect of the burrito and it was filling but healthy so I didn't feel bad eating nearly the entire thing, along with all the nacho chips and salsa on my plate. I highly recommend this dish! I am thinking of trying to replicated this dish sometime...when I get a handle on cooking...

As soon as I saw the desert menu I knew that I couldn't leave without trying some dessert. So, between my parents and I, we ordered a slice of Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie and a Mango Smoothie. These were also both well worth getting. The pie was interesting because instead of dicing up the rhubarb, they actually left it in large chunks but cooked it down enough so that it was not bitter much at all and was quite sweet, tasting more of strawberries. The Mango Smoothie was a combination of mango, banana, and mango juice and tasted as such.

Summary: I recommend anyone who is in the Milwaukee area to try out the restaurant or at least some of their food when you get the chance :) It is completely worth it!

Also, sorry for being absent lately, I'm working on a very strange schedule that involves overnight shifts three nights a week while working days and planning for a grad party with over 50 people on Sunday and trying to find more jobs, and thinking about moving and yea....it's getting kinda crazy, and I was under the impression that things got easier after college. That would be a no go my friends! It's just as complicated and crazy, if not more so in the real world. I find myself already missing that college bubble I had...

Love,

Sara :)

Musica Monday and a Challenge

Today was the last day of Monday classes of my undergraduate career. How crazy is that?! I suppose I should find some music for celebration? I'm not sure, I'm a little worried about the real world since I have been living in a sort of bubble this entire time. But I'm ready for what life is going to throw at me!
Pretty much, I'm in quite a good mood right now, I've been crafting this afternoon, making some cards that I'll show later on once they're finished :P Nor particular holidays in mind, just wanting to make some. Anyways, going on with my creative mood, I'm gonna play a song that in my opinion is just kinda fun. It's called "She Blinded Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby.

I'm not exactly sure what it is about this song that makes me smile so much, but it is seriously quite a lot of fun!

So, my task for you guys this week is to find some fun music and to just enjoy yourselves for an hour or so. How about this: tomorrow, whenever you start getting to that point where you are over stressed, be it because of school work, finals, work, family, friends, whatever, just take a moment to pause, catch your breath, and then play your 'fun song' (this one or one of your own) and stand up and just dance! It doesn't mean that you should dance well, I mean come on, I don't do that at all, just shake and jump around and let yourself loose for a bit. Take a break and forget about the stress for a little while. Have some fun, guys! We in this world are way too serious at times, so let's change that and add some fun in place of the eternally stressful. What do you think? Worth a try?

Love you all!
Sara :)

Recent Life: Nearing the End of Undergrad and a Broken Foot

There's a bit of catching up to do here on my part, and yours too I suppose. Quite a bit has happened since I was last here, I mean in general a lot has happened in the past week as well. To start off with, there are 17 DAYS until graduation!! I mean undergrad, at the end of which I will be receiving a degree in Exercise Science.

On that topic, I have finished my Senior Seminar paper. This is a study that I propose, but don't go through with since I did not do departmental distinction, although I am now wishing that I was so I could learn the results of my study. It is called 'Protective Gear: A Comparison of Head Injuries In Collegiate Women's Field Hockey Vs. Collegiate Women's Lacrosse. Yea, I know a long title, but at least its all words that people understand. I decided to look at whether or not protective gear for the head and face could assist in decreasing the amount of severe and non-severe head injuries received by field hockey players at the collegiate level in the United States. A few fun facts for you about this topic: did you know that field hockey is the second most popular team sport in the world (beat only by soccer) and field hockey is considered by many to be the original ball-and-stick sport (meaning it lead to the development of lacrosse, ice hockey, floor hockey, golf, and other games that involve a ball/puck and stick). If I could I would post it up here my friends, however, I'm still not exactly an expert when it comes to blogging or the computer in general, so I'll work on that for possible later use. Is it even possible to do that? To post PDF files directly onto a blog? Anyone care to share with me? Thanks!

Another update, one that I suppose is just as important, but more for short term. I broke my foot. More specifically, I broke my 5th metatarsal and received a 2nd degree sprain on my left foot. I have been in a boot and on crutches since last Wednesday, technically I'm not using crutches anymore because they annoy me and make getting around not nearly as easy, but they are an intense cardio workout for those of you who have never used them before (especially when going around campus to classes). Anyways, I was informed on Monday that I will be requiring surgery in order to repair the bone (they are going to screw my bone back together), but am waiting to see if I can wait until after graduation to get the surgery done, that way I can for sure graduate and stay on top of school for the last 6 days until classes end and 17 days until graduation, when I can go home and get the surgery done. I'm hoping that it can wait!

Anyways, that was a very long post, but you're pretty much caught up on my life now, I think. My last note is that it is finally nice outside!! :D I mean, not today, it's kinda rainy today, but I've been wearing shorts/capris for the past few days which is pretty damn exciting, we might not have to be inside on graduation due to snow :D

I leave you with some music to listen to :)

Enjoy, my friends!
Love,
Sara :)

'The Godfather': A Very Quotable Movie

I saw 'The Godfather' for the first time this past week, both parts one and two. I would have to say that I do prefer the first part, but the second was again pretty well done. When we were discussing in class on Friday, I realized one thing about The Godfather: Part I; it is a very quotable movie. The most popular of these being "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." which has become the tagline for the series of movies. Some others are as follows:

"A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man."

"Leave the gun, take the cannoli."

"Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes."

"It's not personal; it's strictly business."

"In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns." (Goes along with a quote I saw a while ago claiming that there is nothing more dangerous than a pissed off woman!)

Anyways, those are a few quotes that I think are quite memorable. Feel free to leave more in comments if you have any :) If you haven't seen The Godfather, you really should. It's a gangster, film noir, western film with some melodrama thrown in, making it an interesting mix for sure!
I hope you all had a great weekend!
Love,
Sara :)

Musica Monday

It is nearing the due date for my final senior seminar paper (pretty much the paper that combines all that I have learned in my entire major), the capstone for my entire major. In essence, this means that I am reaching a height in my stress levels on campus. Also, it's still snowing....as much as I love snow, it's the middle of April, it can stop snowing now or we are going to set a record for being the first time graduation was put inside due to excessive snow. I'm a little sour about this in case you can't tell :P

Anyways! On another note, on with the music for today (which I apologize has been lacking for the past while...sorry)!!

Enjoy the cuteness!! :D:D
I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Sara :)

Movie Fun Facts: 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (a1956 film)

I'm going back to the fun movie facts! Starting with the 1956 black and white horror/sci-fi film, 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. This film was interesting to watch, and was definitely an early horror movie, and I will give it the few times that I was quite disgusted and creeped out. It is in general a creepy movie at points, based off of a book, and in 2008 it was ranked as #9 on the American Film Institute's list of the top 10 greatest Science-Fiction films, pretty impressive! Now onto the fun facts :D

~There was on $15,000 of the total budget for the movie spent on special effects.
~The entire movie was filmed in 23 days, which was three days over schedule!
~Several movie titles were thrown away before director Don Siegal finally settled on 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'.
~During initial screening of the film, the audience laughed at parts that were not supposed to be humorous, and Siegal ended up removing sections of the film also because the story was hard to follow.

SPOILER ALERT! DON'T READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE MOVIE! Unless you don't plan on watching it at all...then you're really missing out on a classic!
~The book's ending is left out of the movie. The book's ending has the aliens giving up on the plot for world domination and returning to their home planet.
~The film originally ended with Dr. Miles running down the highway  shouting "You're next! You're next!", but the studio wanted an ending that seemed happier, so the hospital scenes at the end were added in hopes of adding some hope to the audience's feelings towards the possibility of the end of the world as we know it.

I hope you guys enjoyed it! I will say that I did find this movie to be a bit of a thriller, that being said, I'm not one to ever watch most thrillers or horror, so my opinion might be a bit biased. I would recommend this version (I can't recommend the newer version of this movie since I have not yet seen it!).
Happy Tuesday!
Love,
Sara :)

Raining

Whenever it rains, I tend get two things:
1- a stuffy nose (from allergies)
2- excited!!

The first is self explanatory, since most people with allergies can relate. The water in the atmosphere brings down all the pollen and dust and stuff that's been in the air and causes all us allergy-ridden folk to become slightly unhappy (yes, I'm trying to sound smart here, idk if it's working but that's my basic understanding...)
As for the second, well I can't put my finger on one reason as to why rain makes me happy, but I can attempt to give you a sort of guess. One big thing is that I really do enjoy thunderstorms as well as times when it rain super hard and we are left with puddles everywhere the next morning. No matter how many times I've watched a thunder and lightening storm, I never really get tired of them, in fact I can usually fall asleep to them quite easily. And no matter how often someone tells me that it's just a reaction in our atmosphere I can't help but feel like it's a magical sort of thing (a little...ok a lot corny, ik, but hey! I'm being honest here!). I know I've also been lucky in that I've never been stuck in a tsunami or hurricane, which I have no doubt would not be fun in any way, shape, or form! But when it comes to being on campus or really anywhere, doesn't matter if I'm inside or outside, I try and always make time to go puddle-hopping with anyone who will come with me! It's also the fact that after a rain, it means that the ground (when spring finally gets here) will look so much brighter and the flowers start looking not so dead. It's like the rain brings the world back to life in some way. I'm not really sure how else to explain it.
And after, a shower and I get to curl up and read a book for the rest of the day, usually something that I enjoy (not homework). For instance this morning I was reading A Sea of Trolls, which is coming along quite nicely! :D
So, that's my little word vomit (for lack of a better term for this) about rain, and in case you were wondering, yes, it did rain this morning, but sadly it has stopped :(. Maybe that means that spring is on its way!
Love,
Sara :)

Jamacian, the 4-Hour Chef, and 'Rise and Shine'

Today was a fun day, I got to sleep in and then after work I headed to the Hideaway with a few friends where I learned to play rummy! Last time I wrote about the Hideaway, I talked a little bit about a drink called a Cubano, which came in a small shot class sized cup. To summarize that was essentially a double shot of expresso with sugar coated in it. Today, I was suggested something different, called a Jamaican, which is a Cubano with a pinch of cinnamon to add some more flavor. Let me tell you that I am much more likely to have a Jamaican than a Cubano, I'm not a big expresso person usually, but they are growing on me I won't lie. Another comment about drinking a Cubano or a Jamaican, I always feel like I should be sitting outside on a spring day with a croissant and a hat reading a good book while drinking one of these...anyone else ever have that feeling?
Speaking of books; I got two books this week that I'm working my way through. The first is called The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer, I'm only about 40 pages through it, but I'm getting there! It's a fantasy and that's about all I've gathered at this point, sorry, but I'll get more into it hopefully within a few weekends of reading time! The other book I got is called The 4-Hour Chef: The simple path to cooking like a pro, learning anything, and living the good life by Timothy Ferriss. It is a different kind of book, one that will definitely take lots of time to get through, but even just looking through it this evening I've already become a bit hooked on it! It seriously has so much in it that I would suggest it to anyone who wants to learn about learning or cooking! :D This is a friend's copy so I may end up buying my own, that or one of his other books that I've heard very good things about!
I also might be painting my toe nails for the first time in a long while, the color is called 'Rise and Shine' (hence the title of my post, I'm going to try and be a bit more creative on these...I've come to realize I'm being a bit boring...apologies!).
Currently listening to: Late Night (check it out mis amigos!).
I hope everyone is having a safe and fun weekend! I promise I'm sober, just coming down off a caffeine rush I think :P
Love,
Sara :)

Fun Facts About Lana Tuerner

Lana Turner was born Julia Jean Turner in Idaho, February 8, 1921. The first tragedy in her life occurred when her family was forced to move to San Francisco, where her parents separated and in December 1930, he father was killed after winning a game of craps. Due to her mother's health, they then moved to Los Angeles for a dryer climate, which is where Lana started her film career. She was first discovered when she was sixteen-years old when she skipped class to buy a coke at a drugstore, and at that point signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, after she was cast in They Won't Forget (1937). This movie got her the nickname "The Sweater Girl" due to the form fitting attire she wore. After graduating from Hollywood High School, she switched her contract to MGM Studios when the studio director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer believed that she wouldn't amount to anything. After appearing in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), the studio became convinced she would become the next Jean Harlow, a sex symbol in film.
Starting off as a glamour girl in the last 1930s and 40s, she quickly gain popularity and hit her peak during World War II, when she became a pin-up girl (a model whose mass-produced photographs see wide appeal as popular culture, similar to Marilyn Monroe). The 1940s were very good to Lana Turner,  and it was during this time that she made the switch from pin-up girl to serious actress with the movie The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). Her comment on this was:

"I finally got tired of making movies were all I did was walk across the screen and look pretty. I got a big chance to do some real acting in The Postman Always Rings Twice, and I'm not going to slip back if I can help it."

While she never game up her glamourous image, she did end up staring in movies that did not have her dolled-up, such as Green Dolphin Street (1947). She was commonly paired with actor Clark Gabel, and the two were named "the team that generates steam". She continued her success in the late 1940s, including staring across from Gene Kelly in her first technicolor movie, The Three Musketeers (1948). By 1948, Turner was MGM's biggest star and one of the ten best paid women in the United States.
However, the 1950s were not so kind to Turner. She ended up staring in several flops and due to the increase in the popularity of Television instead of movies, MGM did not renew her contract in 1956. However, Lana Turner was not knocked down for long, she got more attention when she stared in the 1957 film adaptation of Peyton Place, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, but did not win. However, when news of her daughter's killing of Stompanato (Lana's lover at the time) got out, her career was nearly fully derailed. Lana did continue acting in movies until 1966, with big hits like Imitation of Life (1959), Portrait in Black (1960), Bachelor in Paradise (1961) her final film with MGM, and Madame X (1966) her last leading role.
From 1969 through the 1980s she did some work in film, but none of it was as memorable as her work in films.
Turner was well known for her personal life and a few of her movies were said to have reflected it. She dated often and switched partners frequently, was married eight times to seven different men and had one child: Cheryl Crane. Cheryl was the daughter of her second/third marriage to Steve Crane, and wrote a book about her mother's life called Detour: A Hollywood Story. About her marriages, Turner was later quoted as saying:

"My goal was to have one husband and seven children, but it turned out to be the other way around."

As mentioned earlier, she had many relationships, many lovers, one of whom was Johnny Stopanato, who met Turner in 1957, not long after her fifth marriage fell apart. It turned out that Stopanato had connections to the gangster Mickey Cohen, and Turner tried to break things off when she discovered this, only to be forced into an abusive and unhappy relationship with Stopanato. In April 1958, the two had a violent argument at Turner's home in Beverly Hills, and Turner's daughter, fearing for her mother's safety grabbed a kitchen knife and proceeded to stab Stopanato, killing him. While this was later deemed to be an act of self-defense, it still took its toll on Lana's career.

Lana Turner was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1992, and proceeded to stop her long-time smoking habit, becoming cancer free a year later. However, in 1994 the cancer returned and she died June 29, 1995 at the age of 74 at her home in Los Angeles.

I hope that you guys enjoy this info! Happy Friday!!

Love,

Sara :)

Musica Monday

Return of the Musica Monday! So, I have been quite lucky as far as my new car since my accident this past December. With my new car, I was lucky enough to get a 'used' car, which turned out to simply be a pre-owned (dealer owned), meaning I get free satellite radio for a while :D, super exciting!! Over the past few months I have experimented with different Sirius radio stations, and have collected the names of several new songs that I find awesome (or funny!). This is an example of a more funny song. It is by Thomas Dolby, and is called "She Blinded Me With Science". I'm not exactly sure why I like this song so much, I think it is possibly because it is so random :P Anyways, here it is! I hope you enjoy!

Not an exciting video sorry, but I hope you all appreciate it!
Shout out to Matt! It's his birthday today!! :D Happy Birthday!!
And now I'm off to bed, good night all you lovely people.
Love,
Sara :)

NYC Day 4

The fourth day of our New York trip was quite busy, and involved lots of pictures being taken and a bit of frustration, and a fair amount of walking (though not quite as much as yesterday I feel). We slept in a bit but then headed to the Rockefeller Center in order to catch a tour bus to take us to the 9/11 Memorial which was on the route. The trip itself was nice, the top four pictures are taken from our view on top of the tour bus. It was so high up that the taller people did have to duck when we came too close to stop lights or signs hanging above the roads.

The pictures below are from the 9/11 Memorial. The memorial itself is almost done, but I think that it will be even more moving when the museum itself is done, which should be 2014. It was a really neat place, although for any who plan on going there, the security is quick but extensive for a free ticket. I would suggest going there. The pictures below are of the pools that have the names around them of those who died and gave their lives on that historic day.

The big drama of the day happened when we tried to come back on the same bus, which was supposed to stop by every 30 minutes, and we waited for over an hour and by the time it got there, they didn't have any room left to take those of us left, so my mom, sister, and I just ended up walking the 50-ish blocks back to the hotel. It was actually a pretty nice walk and I'm glad that we did walk because we got our exercise in for the day that way as well. :)
For dinner, we went to Potbelly, where I got their loaded baked potato soup, and then we headed to the Rockefeller Tower which we climbed at 8:30 pm. The pictures below are of the Rockefeller Building and the view from the top, which was pretty incredible!

I've also come up with the idea of getting a group of friends together this summer and us heading to Chicago and doing some parkour/free running along with our touring, just for fun. Any suggestions for this?
Have a great night friends! It is our last night in NYC :( I will miss the city, but look forward to going home and getting ready for graduation in May.
Love,
Sara :)

NYC Day 3

Our third day in NYC (well technically we are in Manhattan all week, but NYC sounds cooler :P), was pretty long and we actually spent time planning out some of it! We got up pretty early and had breakfast at the same place as yesterday (eggs and cheese on a bun) from the street vender who remembered us, which was pretty neat. We then headed out to the Guggenheim Museum, which was a little over a three mile walk (I understand why New Yorkers are all in such good shape, they walk everywhere! Another good reason to live in the city). The pictures below are from the museum, the first being the museum itself from the outside (pretty awesome looking right?!), the second is a part of a large canvas on which all guests could color on with crayons, so of corse I did! :P The third and fourth are inside the museum, pretty sweet! I would recommend this museum even if it is just to look at the architecture of it!

We then headed back to central park for something we had been craving since yesterday: Belgian Waffles. I think that the picture below speaks for itself. THEY WERE DELICIOUS!!!

We were pressed for time in a way since we had a musical to go to that afternoon: 'The Phantom of the Opera', which none of us had seen on stage (I've seen the movie, but the play was definitely better!). We walked through Times Square on our way which is where this first picture comes from. The play itself was amazing! I loved it, even if the people behind us were complaining about the singing (that there was too much singing.....it is a broadway MUSICAL about an OPERA....silly people!), and would be more than willing to see it again! We even got some souvenirs, including a t-shirt that I plan on wearing on Friday for the trip home.

We went out to dinner and ate at T.G.I.Friday's, which was another place where we hadn't been before. I am glad that I eat fish (even as a vegetarian) because otherwise I would not have found much (as would be expected). It was good food, but they were understaffed and really busy so the service was slow, but worth it. Afterwords, we headed back to Times Square and wandered around in the dark for a while, finding our way into the M&M store, Toys R Us, and the Hersey's store. It was a good night! I even ran into Luigi, and got a picture after having to tip him (weird...).

I've noticed a lot of Jazz being sold around here, as well as French and Italian music around, and am thinking of increasing my collection of these musics due to how popular they are and how much I like them! Also, going to the musical tonight has rekindled my interest in my music and I am looking forward to continuing playing in summer pit orchestras, maybe someday getting to play with a traveling broadway show O.O that'd be super crazy! :P
Well, another day come and gone, have a great night, dear readers! Gwnite!
Love,
Sara :)

NYC Day 2

Day Two of our five day adventure and I must admit I'm getting that familiar feeling of being a city person again (I get this feeling every time I visit a big city; meaning that I could stand living in one for a while, not sure about permanently, but it would be possible). We started off the day by sleeping in, in our defense we did go to bed quite late last night! But around 11 am we got out of the room and were on the hunt for some brunch. We found this small street cart/stall called Primos Cafe, where we got some pretty good egg and cheese on a bun sandwiches for $2.50, and it tasted a lot better than breakfast yesterday!

After getting our food, we made our way to Central Park. No it's not green in the pictures, but it was still really pretty and we walked around about half of it, still feeling like we were getting our exercise as we ran onto the large rocks they have there and eventually found a merry-go-round where my sister and I rode once :P. My strange face in the picture is because my horse was angry (you can tell by the ears!)...

We then headed to the Museum of Natural History, not far from Central Park and were able to get into two different special exhibits there. Since it was the site of the movie Night at the Museum, we had to stop by and take a look around. It's a lot bigger than I remember, and if we didn't have a map I would have gotten lost and missed the times for getting into the special exhibits. The two exhibits we went to were "Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture" and the Planetarium for "Journey to the Stars Space Show". Both can be found at the website here. The dinosaurs are yes, a necessary picture :P

On our way back to our hotel and the Rockefeller building for dinner, we made a detour to the Guggenheim Museum, but we will be stopping there tomorrow morning to look at it. So there should be some pictures up from there tomorrow because it is a very cool looking place! We got a few card games there that we will be trying out over the next few days and I may have a post and will definitely be trying one or two at further Hideaway get togethers! We also made a stop at St. Patrick's Cathedral after dinner. It's currently under construction, but the architecture and the art there is still beautiful! We even made a few offerings at the alters.

Overall, it was a very good day and we got quite a bit of walking done. I will admit that my feet hurt by the end of the day, but my arms are looking for a workout of some sort, so push-ups might be in order later on tonight, just to balance out the two halves of my body. I also had the question while walking through Central Park of whether or not parkour (street running) was legal or practiced in New York. While my limited search revealed a New York Parkour organization, I came to no conclusive answer on that so further searching seems to be necessary!

On a very different note, I'm going to be looking for spring clothing soon, I'm trying to stock up on clothing now while I have money and before I graduate and have to figure that out (going to be hard to choose where I want to be, so the job I get might be the deciding factor...). So, be on the look out for a post within the next week or so of some cute spring picks that I have been finding lately :D

For now, dear readers, I say adieu! :)

Love,

Sara :)

The Hideaway

For the past two weekends, I have been spending some off time at a café downtown in Northfield called The Hideaway. A friend invited me last weekend and we have since decided to head there most Saturdays for cards and coffee.
The place is cute, a sort of retro look to lots of it, not to mention it serves really good coffee and lattes! Not to mention this was the first place I had an actual Cubano, which I must say if you are looking for a pretty tasty expresso buzz, this is what you want to have! It was quite delicious. There are two sections, if you will, inside of it, the front part, which has wifi and comfy couch-like chairs, and the back part, has mis-matched chairs and retro tables. We tend to sit in the back, or have the past two times we have gone and have played cards there. Quite a lot of fun if you ask me :P

What kinds of places do you guys go to in order to escape your life? This is our place to get off of campus and not do work (usually).
Love,
Sara :)

Fun Facts about Howard Hawks

Howard Hawks was born May 30, 1896 in Goshen, Indiana. He was the eldest of five children born to his mother and father, however in 1911, the youngest of the siblings, Helen, died from sudden food poisoning. They had moved to Pasadena, California around 1909, in hopes of improving Helen's health and began spending their summers in Wisconsin. After Helen's death, the family moved to Glendora, California. Hawks was an average student throughout school, but thanks to his family's wealth, he was sent to an elite private school in New Hampshire right after his junior year in high school, where he lived between 1913-1914. While living there, Hawks often attended theatre performances in Boston, which was quite close by. In 1914, Howard Hawks moved back to California where he graduated from Pasadena High School. Later that year, 1914, he was accepted to Cornell College in Ithaca, New York, where he majored in mechanical engineering and became a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. He was still an average student, and friends remember him spending his time drinking and playing craps rather than studying, yet he was also known for being a big reader of American and British literature.

In 1916, Howard Hawks met Victor Fleming, who at the time was an auto mechanic but would later become well known for directing/producing The Wizard of OZ. Meeting Fleming led up to Hawks taking his first job in the film industry: a prop boy for a film, In Again, Out Again, in which Fleming was the choreographer. He ended up redoing the set for the movie himself since the set designer was not available. Int 1917, Hawks was drafted to fight during the First World War, yet before he was sent off, he managed to work on the Mary Pickford film The Little Princess as well as The American. While in the army, Hawks never saw any action, but eagerly returned to Hollywood after the war.

Howard Hawks source: Wikipedia

Howard and his brother and Yale graduate, Kenneth Hawks, moved to Hollywood. Howard's first important job came after he used the family wealth to lend money to studio head, Jack Warner. In return, Warner paid back the loan quickly and hired Hawks as a producer for a new series of one-reels staring Monty Banks, an Italian comedian. When Hawks left the series, he formed his own group called Associated Producers, which created fourteen films between 1920-1923. The group drifted apart in 1923, when Hawks decided he wanted to direct rather than produce.

Throughout his career, Hawks made a name for himself in silent films as well as in sound films. Between 1925-1929, he worked on silent films including: The Road to Glory (1926), Cradle Snatchers (1927), and The Air Circus (1928). When the talkies came out, both Howard and his brother, Kenneth, who was also a director, jumped on the bandwagon and began directing talkies. Kenneth, however, died January, 1930 while filming Such Men Are Dangerous, during which filming was taking place up in the air with three planes, two for cameras and the third for the stunt man, when the two camera planes crashed killing ten people, including Kenneth. This was considered the first major on-set accident in Hollywood and made national news. Howard's career continued with the talkies, though he first had to re-prove himself to studios who believed he would be no good after his silent film career. in 1930, Hawks reentered the film career with his first all sound film, The Dawn Patrol, which became one of the biggest hits on 1930. He hired by his previous rival Howard Hughes in 1930 to direct his film Scarface (1932). Other early talkie films from Hawks include: The Criminal Code (1931), The Crowd Roars (1932), Tiger Shark (1932), and a three-picture film composed of: Today We Live, The Prizefighter and the Lady, and Viva Villa! after which Hawks walked out on his MGM contract without completing the last two films, due to studio interference during his filming.

In 1934, Hawks made his way into a contract with Colombia Studios and continued filming here. He directed four films before getting fired in 1936, during the filming of Come and Get It, by producer Samuel Goldwyn.

In 1938, Hawks directed the screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby for RKO Pictures, which was called "The screwiest of screwball comedies" by a film critic. While this was unpopular at first, over time Bringing Up Baby became known as Hawks' masterpiece film. He continued to produce films, mostly in the screwball comedy but some in other genres, up through 1970. Some of his bigger hits included: His Girl Friday (1940) which won him 2 Academy Awards in 1941 for Best Actor and Best Editing, Ball of Fire (1941) playfully based off of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Outlaw (1943) with Howard Hughes staring Russell Crowe which was originally set to be released in 1941 but because of the Production Code had to be continuously re-edited until 1943, Air Force (1943), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Red River (1948), A Song Is Born (1948) as a remake of his earlier film Ball of Fire, I Was a Male War Bride (1949), The Thing from Another World (1951) his first science fiction film, The Big Sky (1952), Monkey Business (1952) staring Marilyn Monroe and called Hawks' "most organic comedy", Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) in which Marilyn Monroe famously sings her song 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend', Land of the Pharaohs (1955), Rio Bravo (1959) starring John Wayne and one critic claimed that if he "were asked to choose a film that would justify the existence of Hollywood...it would be Rio Bravo"(Robin Wood), Hatari! (1962) again with John Wayne, Man's Favorite Sport (1964) was his final comedy, then Red Line 7000 (1965), and his final two films also starring John Wayne were El Dorado (1967) and Rio Lobo (1970).

For awards, he was nominated for Academy Award for Best Director in 1942, but he didn't receive his only Oscar until 1975 when he received an honorary award from the Academy. He does have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to the film industry. He also has three films on AFI's (the American Film Institute's) 100 Years...100 Laughs, including Bringing Up Baby (#14), His Girl Friday (#19), and Ball of Fire (#92).

Howard Hawks was married three times and had three children, two children, a daughter, Barbara, and son, David, with his first wife, Athole Shearer, and the third, Kitty, with his second wife, Slim Keith. Hist third wife was actress Dee Hartford. He died December 26, 1977 due to complications from a fall he had taken several weeks earlier in his home in Palm Springs, California.

Hawks was well thought of throughout his life and even after. Jean-Luc Godard, a French-Swiss film director, screen writer, and critic called Hawks "the greatest American artist". Another critic, Leonard Maltin, calls Hawks "the greatest American director who is not a household name".

Musica Monday

Alright, so for those of you who don't know, I am in the St Olaf Handbell Choir. Yes, I play handbells. And yes, it is awesome! We went on tour a few weekends ago, which was the weekend when I posted absolutely nothing (sadly which has been happening quite a bit lately :(, working on that sorry!), but I did want to share with you our home concert and a few of the pieces we played. A full concert can be found here. Otherwise I will post a few of the videos that made their way onto YouTube :). We have to go through the proper copyrights in order to put the different pieces we play up on YouTube, so there aren't a lot of them, but some of them were pretty easy to get rights for, so those few are up online. We also have another home concert that I will do my best to post up when it happens closer to the end of the semester. Our conductor explains our pieces during the full concert so I won't get into that, but here are some of the YouTube approved songs (actually some of my favorite as well :P).

Above is Scottish Festival Dance, which was a lot of fun to play and learn :P If you listen you can hear the 'fiddling' parts :D
Below is 'Idyll', another good piece, it was more complicated to learn and play, but once we got the hang of it, it sounded really neat! :D

Alright guys, I hope you enjoy my music choice today :D You really should watch the entire concert, it will show you that anyone can have a mishap during a show, and that they show truly must just go on (even if you are now minus a C3).
Love,
Sara :)

Movie Fun Facts for 'Double Indemnity' (a 1944 film)

*warning: possible spoiler alerts!*
For those of you who are not fans of film noir, you can skip this post. I, however, am a fan (I admit). All the way down to the at times incredibly cheezy dialogue and over-dramatics presented by said genera of movie. Double Indemnity is one such movie. I couldn't  stop watching it throughout the entire movie, which is quite rare for me, since I get distracted by many things even when a scene comes that is just a little boring. This 1944 movie is all about insurance fraud and murder. It brings up some interesting thoughts about human nature and the emotional toll that money and actions can have on a person, not to mention what money can make a person do. While it takes place in America, it really does not put America under a good light, showing how our own insurance people can be influenced by the reward of money just as much as anyone else can! It shows the head of a major insurance firm solving a murder simply because he doesn't want to pay out the money to a client, and a client willing to commit murder just to get the insurance money from their death; not exactly the American dream that everyone thinks of.

Anyways, I shall now move on to my fun facts about the movie instead of my analysis of what can be learned from/seen in it :P

~The scene where the car doesn't start after disposing of the body was aded by the director after his own personal car wouldn't start that day.
~Fred MacMurray was actually married at the time and if you look during the scene where him and Phyllis first kiss, you can see it on his hand.
~It was ranked Number 29 in the 2007 American Film Institutes rankings of the Greatest Movies of All Time. (It really is a good movie, if you haven't seen it, do it now!!)
~The movie was based off of a novel by James M. Cain, which was in turn based off of the true story of Ruth Snyder, the subject of a 1920s murder trial.

So, there ya go :P A few fun facts about a pretty awesome movie :D. Again if you guys haven't seen it yet, you really should!
Love,
Sara :)

Musica Monday

Hey guys,
So it's been crazy around here for the past week and I am feeling terrible about not posting, but that's what tomorrow after class is for :P I plan to get a good post up here tomorrow! You will have to excuse my poor writing skills right now, I'm working on compacting everything....thanks to a 2 page paper that is due tomorrow...that is 2 pages, doubles spaced about women in Ancient Rome. I normally don't complain too much about the length of my papers, however, for this one, I am wishing he had allowed us 3 pages because 2 pages just aren't enough!
Anyways, music this week is from Olly Murs, called 'Troublemaker'. I really enjoy both this song as well as the music video. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do, and yes, I might have pre-ordered his CD coming out later this month (?I believe?). Let me know what you think! And I also wanted to update that I'm thinking of taking a few years off after undergrad (I graduate in MAY!!!! WTF!!!???!) and saving up money before traveling Europe for a while then coming back and possibly grad school otherwise figuring out my life from there :P I'll keep you updated on that plan (may never happen, considering I don't want to travel alone...). Anyways, music!

Love,
Sara :)

Climbing Update and MAC

Hey, this past week was my second week of my rock climbing course for second semester. Monday's class was full of relearning belay techniques, practicing knots, and boldering. I feel like I'm starting to get better at boldering again, some parts are difficult because you can only go so far up the wall when bouldering but otherwise it's still pretty fun and good practice for working on holds and moving your hands and feet together.
For those of you who don't know, bouldering is a style of climbing that requires two people, a climber and spotter, where no ropes are used where the climber will climb up to about their spotter's shoulder height and then climb horizontally. When inside, this is usually done over a mat ("bouldering mat") in order to soften the fall. Most new climbers will start with bouldering in order to get the hang of holding onto rocks before climbing a wall. Now, don't get me wrong, bouldering isn't always easy! It can always be made more difficult and in some cases it's harder than actually climbing due to limited holds. Give it a shot! :D
Anyways, on Wednesday, I finally got recertified to belay, so I can climb with friends whenever now which makes me quite happy I'm not going to lie. I get a sort of feeling of freedom when I have this certification, I'm not exactly sure why, but it's still a super nice feeling. For the test, three people are required: a climber, a spotter (someone already certified), and the "belayer" (the person who wants to get certified). The spotter holds the end of the rope that is normally on the ground for a belayer in case they need to help hold the climber when they fall. The test here involves the "belayer" explaining everything to the climber (all the commands and such) and then tying the climber in and getting themselves attached to the belay device and the floor (if need be and the climber is heavier than they are, so they don't shoot up into the air), while climbing the climber does three falls and the "belayer" has to catch each one properly, then lower the climber back to the ground safely. The three falls include: an announced fall, an unannounced fall, and an unannounced fall where the "belayer" doesn't look at the climber but feels them fall. It sounds more complicated than it is, but it's really to make sure that the "belayer" knows what they are doing for safety's sake.  So, yea, that's that :P

Onto another subject, I joined a club this week! The Martial Arts Club (or MAC), which is a really relaxed club on campus run by students where we learn the basics of martial arts. Yesterday (Thursday) was the first time that I went and we did kicks and shoulder pushes. It was quite fun, I need to get used to kicking at the right height because I did over stretch my iliac muscle so that's one thing I need to work on. I do plan on going back next week, so that's something to look forward to :)

What other activities would you guys do in college? Happy Friday!
Love,
Sara :)