28th Annual Mooning of Amtrak

28th Annual Mooning of Amtrak

2nd Annual Mooning of Metrolink

All Day Saturday, July 14, 2007, Laguna Niguel, (Orange County) California, U.S.A.

Annual Mooning of Amtrak!

What a hoot!

Wonderful world of Advertising....

This one on Ventura Blvd. in the San Fernando Valley (L.A. California) and one more time only in L.A. With the heat wave we have had of course the logical thing is to have some shade and a advertising shade umbrella is the perfect ticket.....




And this one of course is a absolute only in L.A. ..... my personal favorite....



Now this idea may work in L.A. but the only people walking around here are the transients, but we could dress them up... oops I didn't say that, I meant to say rollerbladers on the beach..... earn money while exercising.....there are many many possibilities..

Movie Review: Mr. & Mrs. Smith.....

The only thing that sort of saves this DOG is the two of these so good looking actors. And of course the fact that they were falling in love while making this terrible movie.

What in the world are these people in Hollywood thinking? Obviously it cost a lot of money to make this movie and the idea is so great, but what they do with it is just a ridiculous bunch of shoot them up blow them up debris full mess.

I only give it one star because of the curiosity factor.

don't' bother, and if you must only watch it if you could fast forward... you will really need this feature for those parts that get so tedious.

So just announced today that Jolie and Pitt will star together in a new movie: "A Mighty Hear: The Brave Llife and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl,"

Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan.


Jolie will star as Pearl's wife, Mariane Pearl, in an adaptation of her book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl," it was announced Thursday. Pitt will produce the film, directed by Michael Winterbottom.


In an ironic twist, the movie will be produced by Revolution Films and Plan B, the production company Pitt and his former wife, Jennifer Aniston, founded. Pitt and Aniston, who were divorced last year, remain co-owners of the company.

Already then, this sounds kind of familiar, Jolie starred in a movie called "Beyond Borders" sounds very much similar.

We will see....

A book Review: Shantaram

Actually I just downloaded this novel from Audible. This should give me plenty of tedious knitting to do, the book unabridged is 43 hours yes this is not a typo I said forty three hours long! Wow!

So as I started listening it grabbed me right away. The reader is very talented actor and does a superb job reading this book to me as I knit along.

I feel that I am in Bombay, India. Riding the bus and walking the busy streets and visiting stores, restaurants and hotels. The descriptions are vivid without being overdone. Characters precisely described that I feel like I know them personally.

I am thrilled that it's a long long book (43 hours), it's a perfect accompaniment to a Hanne Falkenberg project. Lots of stitches knitted in garter stitch.

I originally saw that Johnny Depp is signed on to make this novel into a movie in 2007 and being a Johnny Depp fan I was curious. But they are so wrong this character should go to Russell Crowe! Hands down no bones about it. But I guess it's too late, Johnny paid 2 million dollars for the rights of this book so, I will be looking forward to see his interpretation.

And maybe Johnny will do a good job he certainly has the talent, and Russell Crowe is sort of predictable for the role. I'm dying to see this movie.

This is supposed to be a "true" story.....well most of it is almost believable but a hell of a ride.

Who is this author?

He is a brilliant writer I think. Here are some information I was reading about him.

He was studying philosophy when his marriage broke up. He was imprisoned as punishment for a series of toy gun robberies that earned him the name “Gentleman Bandit”.

He went on to escape from Victoria’s maximum-security prison in broad daylight, thereby becoming one of Australia’s most wanted men for what turned out to be the next ten years.

After some startling adventures and escapes in New Zealand, Greg travelled to Bombay, India, where he set up a free health clinic in the slums, acted in Bollywood movies, worked for the Bombay mafia as a forger, counterfeiter, and smuggler and, as a gunrunner, resupplied a unit of Mujaheddin guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan.
He was captured in Germany in 1990, was imprisoned and extradited to Australia where he completed his prison sentence.

Apart from having this highly unusual personal background he is fluent in several languages, he has studied philosophy, comparative religion, psychology, particle physics, politics, anthropology, and ancient history. His experience ranges from the slums of Bombay to the palaces of the city’s movie stars, from prison torture to being front-man for a successful rock group, from the battlefield to the boardroom, and from jailbreak to international success as an acclaimed novelist.

He went on to establish a small multi-media company, and is now a full-time writer living in Melbourne. His novel, 'Shantaram', based on his wild and wicked life, has been described as a masterpiece. The Hollywood movie version of the novel is set to begin in 2007 and stars Johnny Depp. The film rights, $2 million dollars, set a new record!

A Movie & Book Review...Memoirs of a Geisha...

I loved the book, but the photography killed this movie!

Why oh why do they make these dark dark movies? Heavy shadows poorly lit, parts of the movie is so dark you can't even enjoy the scenery. I think this movie would have been allright had the director of photography not tried to be so "artsy". He really ruined this movie, I guess they think it's art.

My other bitch was the blue eyes! They could have used contact lenses at least. Her eyes did not look blue to me in the movie, or maybe it was just so dark that I could not tell from blue or dark brown. Her eyes were the whole pivot of the story. That is what made her stand out and what made her so special. The promo picture has blue eyes but not in the movie....

Oh my

No matter how you slice it, it is sad...sad...sad...

She has gone a bit overboard with the botox! She looks scary! And that skimpy hair that she tries to hide her face...sad ... sad... sad....She was so pretty....

I just saw her with the Japanese prime minister and she looked like a lunatic trying to keep her hair our of her eyes so she could see what was happening.

And those lips, the cupi doll look? Doesn't she own a mirror, I guess like her ex son in law all the mirrors lie ... and the plastic surgeons profit. Somebody needs to tell her to stop. Before she is more grotesque.

A Book Review: Tara Road

One of Oprah's pick's, and is a good one.

I give it ***** five stars.
I really liked this story it was a wonderful way to spend 18 hours and 28 minutes. I don't remember what I knitted while listening to this wonderful book but I do remember that I was sorry it ended.

Publisher's Summary

Ria lived on Tara Road in Dublin with her dashing husband, Danny, and their two children. She fully believed she was happily married, right up until the day Danny told her he was leaving her to be with his young, pregnant girlfriend. By a chance phone call, Ria meets Marilyn, a woman from New England unable to come to terms with her only son's death and now separated from her husband. The two women exchange houses for the summer with extraordinary consequences, each learning that the other has a deep secret that can never be revealed.


Drawn into lifestyles vastly differing from their own, at first each resents the news of how well the other is getting on. Rita seems to have become quite a hostess, entertaining half the neighborhood, which at first irritates the reserved and withdrawn Marilyn, a woman who has always guarded her privacy. Marilyn seems to have become bosom friends with Ria's children, as well as with Colm, a handsome restaurateur, whom Ria has begun to miss terribly. At the end of the summer, the women at last meet face-to-face. Having learned a great deal, about themselves and about each other, they find that they have become, firmly and forever, good friends.

A Book Review: The History of Love

*****I loved it
**** Pretty good, I liked it
*** Still ok but nothing to "write home about"
** Kind of ok but tough to finish
* A total bore a dog, can't even finish, I really disliked it

I liked this book and give it **** "Pretty good, I liked it."

If you are Jewish you will love this book, at first I thought I was listening to Jackie Mason, actually extrememly funny, had a couple of LOL moments.

What the Critics Say

"An intriguing books-within-a-book narrative....Venturing into Paul Auster territory in her graceful inquiry into the interplay between life and literature, Krauss is winsome, funny, and affecting." (Booklist)
"Writing with tenderness about eccentric characters, [Krauss] uses earthy humor to mask pain and to question the universe. Her distinctive voice is both plangent and wry, and her imagination encompasses many worlds." (Publishers Weekly)
"If for no other reason than the range of voices she has persuasively created, Ms. Krauss would stand out as a prodigious talent....Ms. Krauss's work is illuminated by the warmth and delicacy of her prose." (The New York Times)

Publisher's Summary

Nicole Krauss' first novel, Man Walks Into a Room, was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and her short fiction has been collected in Best American Short Stories. Now The History of Love proves Krauss is among our finest and freshest literary voices.

It has been decades since Leo Gursky first surrendered his heart, then wrote a book about it, at the tender age of 10, and he's been in love with the same person ever since. Leo believes his book is lost to time, but what he doesn't know is, not only has it survived 60 years without him, it has also been an inspiration to others. Fourteen-year-old Alma was even named for a character from the book. When she realizes how deeply the story touched her lonely mother, she embarks on a search for answers.

The History of Love is an imaginative tale of love and loss that is at once funny, mysterious, and deeply passionate.

Book Review: A Painted House by John Grisham

*****I loved it
**** Pretty good, I liked it
*** Still ok but nothing to "write home about"
** Kind of ok but tough to finish
* A total bore a dog, can't even finish, I really disliked it

A Painted House gets a ** "kind of ok, but tough to finish"

I kept waiting for this book to get better, but it does not. A long suffering tale about Cotton Farmers who are trying to eek out a living...lots of suffering....lots of "Southern Baptist, Methodist" Americana in the south taking place in the 1950's. All told by a seven year old, who is wise beyong his years. Wise my foot I've never met a seven year old this sophisticated...

Thank goodness it was an MP3 file listened to on my iPod because if I had to read this book I would never have finished it. The narrator was kind of nice to listen to, It was ok while I was riding my bike and or knitting. I certainly am not putting this one among my favorites. It is on the Best Seller List.... you would think that John Grisham book would be better than this.

I've enjoyed his other books but this one is a dog.

What the Critics Say

"The kind of book you read slowly because you don't want it to end." (Entertainment Weekly)

Well I'm going to have to watch the review's by Entertainment Weekly because they are way off on this one..

Publisher's Summary

"The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with three weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist-high to my father, over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper whispering words that were seldom heard. It could be a "good crop."

Thus begins the new novel from John Grisham, a story inspired by his own childhood in rural Arkansas. The narrator is a farm boy named Luke Chandler, age seven, who lives in the cotton fields with his parents and grandparents in a little house that's never been painted. The Chandlers farm eighty acres that they rent, not own, and when the cotton is ready they hire a truckload of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks to help harvest it.

For six weeks they pick cotton, battling the heat, the rain, the fatigue, and sometimes each other. As the weeks pass Luke sees and hears things no seven-year-old could possibly be prepared for, and he finds himself keeping secrets that not only threaten the crop but will change the lives of the Chandlers forever.

Beach Road book review.....

"Beach Road" by James Patterson, Peter de Jonge

Boy it took 2 people to writed this dog!

If I didn't get this on Audible I can not imagine being able to finish reading this dog. The writing is maybe on 6th grade level, the story is ho hum boring. Barely kept my attention but listening to a book is different, while doing dishes and folding laundry, it sort of went along with the ho hum job to listen to a ho hum book. The ending is so predictable that I actually listenend right to the end to validate "just as I thought" moment.

Another "cookie cutter" book. When I first started listening to this book and realized that it was not just read to me but has been "dramatized" by different readers, I was put off. Actually it kind of worked for this book, however the content is very poorly written and so predictable that at best it was barely a mere 2 stars. The only reason I gave it 2 stars is because I somehow managed to finish listening.....

The DaVinci Code...

When I read fiction, I'm expecting a fictional story not a history lesson.

I listened to Dan Brown's books on my iPod from Audible and had a great time knitting while listening. It was entertaining I thought, a fictional story with just enough of "that could happen" in it for me to follow the story. I also liked the travel aspect, touring the Louvre and Paris, driving through Europe was a lot of fun.

I actually liked Angels and Demons too which in my opinion shoud be read first, Dan Brown refers back to last year and if you did not read Angels and Demons you don't know what he is talking about. So in my opinion The DaVinci Code is a sequal to Angels and Demons. Now as far a real? Well it could happen and not being a science genious I didn't know or care if the story was all fiction and well researched or not. It's a story not a science lesson.

Then there is the Deception Point, different subject same "ride", formula writers, Grisham, King etc. are all entertaining some more than others. So I thought I'll go for it and get Dan Brown's third book Digital Fortress, but this one was so predictable, the same premise and so the same old formula that I wasn't even able to finish listening even though I have a great project to knit.

My dogs have an attitude...

If they weren't so cute......they would be out on their behinds. They are a pain in the neck sometimes. This is Mickey the boy and his sister Feri, totally run the household. The bitch has my husband totally conned.

Grandma's Gossip...

I went with Adele’s Hadassah group to a matinee of “Cats,” at the Civic Arts Center in Thousand Oaks. For years my kids have been trying to get me to see this musical, but I figure something I wouldn’t have in my house what with the shedding and the hairballs, I certainly wouldn’t pay good money to see on the stage.

The show had actors as big cats, crawling across the stage and licking themselves, singing songs I never heard before except for “Memories,” but not the Barbra Streisand one; that was “The Way We Were.”

Luckily, Adele and I sat on the aisle, so when they had the special extended intermission for all us seniors, we made a beeline for the ladies’ room, which was already crowded. As soon as I got in a stall, the toilet flushed itself like it had a mind of its own. I got so fartootst I could barely do my business. Then the worst happened. I got up, and the toilet wouldn’t flush again. There’s no handle because it’s automatic. So I bounced around a little, hoping it would get the idea. Nothing. So I backed over it and swung from side to side. Still nothing.

Now I was in such a panic. I couldn’t very well leave and let the next person see my business in there, so I paced back and forth, hoping all of a sudden an idea would hit me.

There was a rap at the door and an “Are you all right in there?” I opened it to see none other than TV star Bonnie Franklin , of “One Time or Another,” the show with the two wisecracking daughters and the shnorrer handyman. For her age she looks good, though she’s still cross-eyed, and from the facelifts, bug-eyed like the meshuga runaway bride, but she’s very nice. We left the stall, then marched right back in, and miracle of miracles, the toilet flushed. For this I have to thank Bonnie Franklin .

I've said enough already.

********************************
Grandma's Gossip Column courtesy of Rick Detorie's Commonwealth Newsletter, Venice, California

My Dentist Retired!

My fears of many many years have come true. My favorite dentist of 30 years has retired! Oh no my teeth, he is the best! But I wish him well. It is hard when you so totally trust a dentist for such a long time and it ends. Our teeth are so precious they have to serve us for a long time (hopefully). Some of my friends have lost teeth and what a nightmare not to be able to chew well.... Shish that is the worse.

So young people out there take the advice of this senior citizen: TAKE CARE OF YOUR TEETH!

You won't be sorry.

Dr. Rota, a former UCLA professor and now retired dentist, has lectured around the world and appeared on television regarding his 30-year investigation of illnesses related to dental mercury filling.
Check out his current project at FreedomSpring.com

How old is Mike Love?

Saw him on the Today Show this morning and was shocked! I think we are the same age, he went to my High School! Shish it's my birthday today and I did not need this vision. He looked like he is going on 100 and not in his 60's. But at least he is alive!

How much "work" did he have done? He had some kind of shiny oil or gel all over his face as if he had some kind of acid peel or something. Oh my, that old saying that you are as old as you feel is bull. He may feel like he's still young but he does not sound or look it. Time to retire this Beach "Boy".

I am so impressed with this woman ...

As commander Eileen Collins brought the orbiter to a stop on runway 22, the two sonic booms at 5 am woke me up out of a sound sleep. The noise seemed scary this time, I've hear this noise many times but somehow this morning it scared me.

Then later on as I was watching the news on television, and am amazed how great Eileen Collins looked. After being up for 24 hours and whatever she went through is space, her hair was perfect make up on and looked as fresh as if she had gotten a great night sleep and sat in hair and make up before she appeared. My hat off to Ms. Collins! Smart and pretty.

From that moment until today, she has lived in a fishbowl. There were 23 astronauts in the class of 1990, but only one was both a woman and a test pilot. From the day she arrived at Johnson Space Center, she was destined to become the first woman to pilot the space shuttle.
"I've got a $2 billion spacecraft on my hands. I don't think about what's happening outside."

But she yields little information about her children, Bridget, 9, and Luke, 4, or her husband, Pat Youngs, a former Air Force pilot now flying for Delta Air Lines. Her telephone numbers -- and Youngs's -- are unlisted. She does not appear to like being called Mom by adults. She guards her privacy like a celebrity, because that's what she is.

Eileen Marie Collins was born in Elmira on Nov. 19, 1956, the second of four children to James Collins, a surveyor and postal worker, and his wife, Rose Marie. Her parents split up when she was 9, and she lived in public housing, graduating from Elmira Free Academy in 1974.