MOONDANCE ALEXANDERI watched a neat little movie yesterday

MOONDANCE ALEXANDER

I watched a neat little movie yesterday called "Moondance Alexander," which I got from my Blockbuster Online rental account (I get one movie a week). It was dated 2007 but I don't remember if it ever was in theaters or not. It's the story of a young teenage girl named, natch, Moondance Alexander, played nicely by Kay Panabaker, who finds an obviously-neglected horse that she calls Checkers and takes him home with her. She and her widowed mother live in a country town and although they have a pretty large bit of property for being in town, she must put Checkers in her mother's art studio. She is disappointed when the actual owner is located.

Moondance has a part-time job making deliveries for a local saddlery store and on making a delivery the next day, she literally stumbles upon the farm where Checkers is located. She goes to check on him and meets his gruff owner, Dante, played by Don Johnson. She negotiates a trade with Dante whereby she will clean out his horse stalls in return for riding Checkers -- originally Tinkerbell, but renamed with Dante's okay to Checkers after all.

Moondance has been the victim of snobbery and cruelty of older teenage girls at her high school and as she gets into riding Checkers, later on with Dante, she finds that a couple of them are serious horse-riders, too. Dante has been down on his luck but agrees to train Moondance and Checkers to jump, although he's a pinto and pintos aren't supposed to be able to jump.

I won't have away the ending but I will say that it is based on a true story. It was rated "G", which is refreshing, although I know that -- unfortunately -- a lot of people won't watch "G" movies. I thought it was a cute film and was great for whiling away the afternoon. I have always thought Don Johnson to be handsome, and although he has aged like the rest of us, it was nice to see him in this movie. Young Kay may have a nice future in films.

*****

I heard from my Dell saleslady, Linda, last night and today, and she answered some questions I had (there is plenty of RAM for the Vista program; J.D. or Jeff should be able to easily set up the computer -- don't call Geek Squad, as they are way too expensive). I appreciate her continued assistance.

I saw an ad for the Video Professor on the NW Newschannel last night and I noticed he had a disk instructing how to use Vista. I didn't get a chance to write down the phone number so I will keep watching for it because I want to order that disk. I will check online, too, to see if I can find a phone number for the company.

I have a few other online orders to place today so hope to get to that shortly.

*****

There was news that my friend in Brisbane, Les, has been moved from ICU to a ward. We, his friends, are all very happy about that! I don't know how long it takes to heal from a neck fracture so I have no idea when he will be going home. I do hope he will accept assistance when he gets there. In the meantime, we have sent him flowers through my new friend (and his old one), Mary. I don't remember how long Les and I have been corresponding but it seems like we started in 2000. He has certainly been interesting to exchange e-mails with -- I have learned a lot about Australia through him.

STRANGE FITS OF PASSIONOne of my favorite authors is Anita

STRANGE FITS OF PASSION

One of my favorite authors is Anita Shreve. I believe I have read nearly every book she has written. They are contemporary works, often including romance and conflict, but definitely not of the "romances" genre. They are very intelligent and well-written. So it was that when I picked up her novel,"Strange Fits of Passion," to start reading it yesterday afternoon, I was quite filled with anticipation, although the title had put me off a little bit and that's one reason why I hadn't gotten around to reading it earlier.

The story begins as a young woman with a baby goes into a small store in the tiny town of St. Hilaire, Maine, to purchase a few items. She has a scarf wrapped around her face and head but it slips off and the others in the store can see that her head is in very bad shape, with terrible bruising. Her lip is deeply split as well. She inquires about a place to stay, and is directed to a small motel in the area, where she stays the night, and then the motel owner, who is very sympathetic and guesses how the injuries happened, directs her to a woman who owns an insulated cottage (it's the dead of winter) on the ocean. The young woman with the baby says she is Mary Amesbury and she claims to have been injured in an accident. The time frame for most of this story is 1970-1971.

As the book unfolds, the various chapters are told through the vantage point of a number of characters, but mostly Mary. Shreve masterfully builds the characterization and the plot suspense, as it becomes clear that Mary is trying to hide from a brutal husband. She knows she can't go to the police -- in those days, not much was known or understood about domestic violence.

There is a sweet romance and quite a bit of tragedy, as well as sickening betrayal, in this story. I was riveted by it and couldn't put it down; I finished it last night. I feel it is a very worthwhile read and I recommend it and Anita Shreve as an author very highly.

I am finding that I am getting low on books now. I do have a movie to watch later on today, so that will be a nice distraction from boredom. I am finding that my sore arm doesn't like Jeff's computer station very well, although it is generally better due to the PT. Perhaps I will be able to find more books when I shop Wednesday morning. I hope so! It's not all that often that I am in the mood to read! Still, I very much appreciate being able to use Jeff's computer on evenings and weekends -- it means a lot to me to be able to write and be instantly in touch with my online friends and my family!

COMPUTER DIED, STEPH'S STATUS, GREAT BOOKI wasn't sure I was

COMPUTER DIED, STEPH'S STATUS, GREAT BOOK

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to blog, as my old computer died and I am using my son Jeff's at work on evenings and weekends. The old Dell was 7 years old, although son J.D. upgraded the memory a couple or three years ago, and so I got good service from it. I have ordered a new Dell and it is going to be shipped on July 15th, so I imagine it will get here the 3rd week in July.

I have unfortunately lost all of my computer graphics, and especially my many fonts used for signature tagging. I have offers of help on that when I get my new computer from members of my tags list, which I very much appreciate! I have lost my graphics programs, although I may be able to reinstall them as it occurs to me that I have them on disks. Whew!

The new monitor has a web cam on it -- cool, eh? I'm not sure if I will use it because I don't always look the best when I'm on the computer. Hee hee!

I have also heard mixed reviews about Vista. I am hoping and praying that I won't have problems with it. I won't have Publisher, but I just used that for correspondence, as the computer will come with Word, so that will be all right.

I have to say my salesperson, Linda Clark, at Dell, was great! I recommend her if you want to buy a new Dell home desktop computer.

I will let you know when it is up and running!

*****

Jeff sent me news yesterday about daughter-in-law Steph and her thyroid cancer. The details are on his blog but basically her nodule is very small. There is no available time for the surgery in August so she will have it in September. That should be no problem. My friend, Sheila, who had this same cancer many years ago and had successful surgery for it, said she was told it was a "benign cancer." That is good to know! Many, many prayers continue -- thank you for yours!

*****

I finished "The Miracle at Speedy Motors" by Alexander McCall Smith yesterday evening, after reading it gradually over the last few months. (I now have time to read at home!) I believe it is number 9 in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which I have loved so much. This book was no exception. It was such a pleasure to read! Mma Ramotswe, the aforementioned detective, in Botswana, continues her adventures, assisted by Mma Makutsi, her interesting helper in her endeavors. There are many notes of humor in these books as well as a picture of what this area of Africa has been like and is now. The books show human nature in a true light and yet are extremely positive. I hope there will be future ones in this series as well! I recommend them all very highly!

CREATURES AT MY

CREATURES AT MY PLACE LAST NIGHT

A cute little neighbor cat who has been here before. I think she's a girl -- don't know that for sure, but it's my guess. I like her.



Here was Silver, looking out the utility room window at her. Is it love?



Not long after that, this fawn appeared near my back door window. I shot the picture through it.



A few minutes later, a scraggly orange cat showed up out back. I didn't get a good picture of him. (My guess is it was a male -- it looked like it had gone through many a fight.)

Interesting critters!

THE DIAGNOSIS ON MY FRIEND, LES, SO FARI have just gotten

THE DIAGNOSIS ON MY FRIEND, LES, SO FAR

I have just gotten word about more on the situation with my friend, Les, who is in the hospital in Australia. He fell and fractured the C7 vertebrae in his neck. He is having surgery to insert a pin today, and he should recover fully from this without any difficulties. There is concern about what caused the fall and other symptoms that he exhibited that have worried us, his friends who were corresponding regularly with him. We have wondered if he could have had a stroke. I also have thought perhaps he was having some difficulties because of his Parkinson's -- perhaps not taking his medication as directed, which was discussed here by commenters on a previous entry about him and his Parkinson's. He has been in the hospital for just a couple of days. We don't know who found him or how long he had been lying there before he was found. His friends in Brisbane now know of his situation and are visiting him. He is alert and trying to talk despite being on the ventilator.

The story I mentioned that he had told of a developer taking his house was totally false, and his other friends are recognizing that now. I'm glad it's not the case, but I am concerned that he was so convinced that it was fact. Hopefully someone will be able to get to the bottom of why he had that idea. I am hoping that he is able to be checked on regularly from now on -- perhaps there are government health services in Australia that do that sort of thing. Of course, it will be a little while before he is able to go home. He is still in ICU but will be moved to a regular room when he is ready.

Les has a little dog, Katy, and Les's nurse friend, Jenny, in Brisbane, and the other friend I have been corresponding mostly during this process, Mary, in Missouri, have been working on finding out where she is and making sure she is being cared for.

I have to credit Mary with her determined pursuit in finding out what had happened to Les. She was a regular detective! It is so good to have this much information, and hopefully more will be coming out as time goes on.

THE FAMILY MEMBER WITH CANCERJust a note to say that my son,

THE FAMILY MEMBER WITH CANCER

Just a note to say that my son, Jeff, has posted on his blog today a short entry regarding his wife, Steph's, thyroid cancer. If you have been reading my blog very long, you will know that I posted an entry a few days ago about a family member who has this cancer, but who I didn't feel I could name at the time. Son J.D. has also written and posted an entry about Jeff and Steph's cancer situation, namely insurance, on his Get Rich Slowly site. The couple's appointment to find out more details is Thursday afternoon. I am quite anxious to find out what their schedule for surgery and treatment will be. Many prayers are going up for them, of course including mine.

EL TIGRENot too long ago,

EL TIGRE

Not too long ago, I noticed the following picture propped up on the window sill of my utility room, where I expect my housekeeper had put it. It has sentimental value to me, so I took a picture of it for my Flickr site and wrote about it, and I wanted to also expand on that here:



This plaque was my first and last decoupage project, done when I was first married to my late husband, Steve. He really liked it and was the one that named it "El Tigre." I told him it was a leopard. He didn't care. LOL! It hung in son J.D.'s room in our old house in Portland, Oregon, when he was a baby. The hanger has come out of it; thus it must be propped up. I love it, regardless!

*****

I saw on the AOL welcome screen yesterday that there is speculation (at least by AOL) that Mitt Romney is the likely choice for John McCain's running mate. I have been resisting the temptation to contribute to Obama's campaign (not much, but something); if Romney is selected, I will definitely do so! There was speculation in the AOL article about Romney that one of his strengths and appeals was that he could raise a lot of cash from Mormons, fast. Does anyone else find this rather scary?