*comes in shaking off snow* (well, actually that would have been a few days ago, but there is still plenty on the ground). I think we got a foot + of snow. I love snow, but why must it always snow when I have to drive in it? I don't like driving in the snow. I got stuck in two parking spaces (one on Sunday and one on Monday). A nice person in a plow got me out of the parking space at work. It was a little nerve racking at first because this plow was coming straight at me and I was afraid it was going to hit me but it but its blade down in front of my car and pulled the snow away. I had to park in a parking lot at my apartment complex because my sister's car was in the garage. It took me 30 - 40 minutes to get out of my spot (a nice man gave me a push) and into my garage. It probably wouldn't have taken quite that long if I had pulled into my garage instead of trying to back in. My sister was visiting this weekend and got snowed in at my apartment. She was going to leave Sunday afternoon but ended up staying until Monday. I enjoyed having her that extra time (especially since she folded laundry, vacuumed and washed dishes for me), but I had been really looking forward to having Monday all to myself and being able to sleep in. Oh well, *sighs* We made pancakes for breakfast so that was a nice treat.

Out of those I like the Incredibles, Monster, Inc, and Ratatouille the best.

Hey, those are my favorites as well.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not sure how to interrupt the "hey" ...

I'm a rat. I think that might be worse than a pig.

If it helps at all, according to wikipedia (and other sources ), the rat is rather clever.

It does help a little. I'm betting "clever" isn't the first thing that comes to most people's minds when they hear "rat."

Cooool Peanuts drinking glasses Pattertwigs Pal! Yep, a Peanuts fan here.

I actually knew that you were a fan based on your post about your username. My whole family likes Peanuts. When there were Peanuts statues around St. Paul, we would take trips up there to hunt for them. We didn't find all of them but it was fun. The first year there were Snoopy statues, then there were Charlie Brown ones, followed by Lucy, then Linus, and then Snoopy and his dog house. Then they stopped. I was really hoping they would get to Rerun (my favorite character). I would have liked a set of the glasses too but my sister gets a little testy if I have too many Peanuts things. She says I have Narnia and Peanuts should be her thing. I keep telling her that she is more than welcome to collect Narnia stuff too, but I'm not making any headway. Never mind that I started collecting Peanuts stuff first. I had Peanuts lunchbox in elementary school. I traded it for the privilege of reading her Peanuts books whenever I wanted (after she had read them of course). That was several years ago. I finally just this month got permission to start reading some of her books. She has books that contain all of the strips from given years. Right now I'm reading the 1950-1952 volume. (That's the first two years of the strip). It is really interesting to see how it all began. Charlie Brown doesn't have a stripe on his shirt yet!

Pattertwig's Pal and Valia, isn't it The Spiral Bridge and The Haunted Fort? In the Hardy Boys series? Not that I have the original of either of those either, but...

Yes, those are both Hardy Boys books. The Mystery of the Spiral Bridge is number 45 and The Haunted Fort is number 44. Those books only have one version though but several editions of course. I have them in new blue covered ones.

Hello everyone!

I'm afraid I've been a long time away. I don't get to post in here much, though I'd like to. But not much happens to me, and so I never really have anything to say.

I was baptised recently, though!

Last time, I was here, I told you I got a kitten. I'm afraid I don't have it now. It didn't die or anything, but we had to get rid of it.

I'm sorry I can't catch-up on what has gone on with all of you, but I'm afraid it's been pages since I posted last. I hope you are all doing well!

~Riella

Gah. I hate losing posts. (Lazarus! Lazarus!)

Anyway, I don't have the time to write everything out again, so I'll just post a something short and small to let the Square know I'm still alive.

On a sidenote, I could use prayer right now. I'm going through a lot of stress, plus my grandpa had a major stroke last night. The doctors are keeping him on a ventilator until his kids all get there to say good-bye, and then they'll stop it. He'll pass away quietly, surrounded by his family.

My dad left at 2:00 this morning to head down there (it's an eight hour drive). We'll likely be joining him over the weekend for the funeral.

Prayers would be appreciated.

*Cor and Vern quickly stop by the Square on their way to classes*

Thank goodness for sociology being cancelled today! A bit more free time before history class.

Unfortunately, I do not have time to write a catch-up post just now. We just wanted to stop by and let everyone know that yes, we are still alive. The reports of our demise have been greatly exagerrated.

@ Rose. You and your family will be in our prayers. *would use the hug emoticon, but a smiley just doesn't fit.... so, HUGS* As you know, I lost my grandfather about 4 years ago. I know it's tough to lose a loved one. I'm sure you'll make it through, though.

*My deepest condolences, miss Rose. I hope you will be well or as well as can be expected in the upcoming days. Vern sends his friend a dragon-hug*
--------------------

I'm afraid we must be off. Talk with everyone later!

P.S, pardon the misspelled words. I'm on a computer at the library and I'm not sure how to do spellcheck.

All right, here's the catch up.

*sends a hug to QS* Hey, how have you been doing lately? Glad to hear your Valentine's Day went well. And what a drag, driving to the orthodontist's only to have to reschedule. We've done that several times over the years. Ah well, free cookies are a plus!

Jewish music is neat, Louise! I especially like it on the violin.

*waves to Mel and stargazer*

Good to see you as well, Bella. Hurray for rain! Even walking in it can be fun. Oh, and I like your avatar btw. It's pretty.

Chamber of Secrets is a fun movie, Ruby. The first two are definitely the brightest and most colorful of the films. From Prisoner of Azkaban and up, they just get darker and darker. Did you watch Goblet of Fire? That one was quite intense. And what do you think of Order of the Phoenix so far? I remember liking it well for the most part, except for... one bit. Well, you'll see.

All the best in the Camp auditions! I'm sure you'll do wonderfully.

Thank you, Cor. He passed away this afternoon, and we're going to go down there on Saturday morning for the funeral. Thank you for the prayers and hugs. And you as well, Vern.

Btw, I approve of your avatar. I don't think it's new, but I like it!

*waves to Elanor* I saw a few pics of that "Annie" play, and it looked like it was a lot of fun!

Miss Rosa: Will be praying for you.

---

Well, that was rawther short... But I think our breakfast of french toast will be ready soon. Mmmm.

*lazily wanders in*

Firstly, I apologise... a few days after my last post, I attempted a catch-up post covering all the posts after mine. But I lost the dratted thing, and was too annoyed and distractable to try again.

And I would at least read everything since my last post, but I'm too tired right now. And who knows how many pages it's been anyhow.

Why am I so tired, you ask? Because of my characters. I'm thrilled that they're talking to me again. *hates writer's block* But, what I don't understand is why they think they have to tell me all this stuff when I should be asleep! Can't they wait til daytime?! They've done this to me for at least two or three nights in a row now.

Anyway, I hope you all are doing well... miss you! I'll try and pop in again soon, alright?

Hello, SquareOnions!

Glad your characters are talking to you again, Princess Anna! I know what you mean about hearing from them at night. Invariably I get ideas as soon as I climb into bed at night. I keep a notebook nearby just in case there's an idea I don't want to let go.

Right now my characters are fairly yelling at me as I work through a sequel to last year's NaNo (which still needs editing ).

More snow tonight! About 20 more inches and we'll have our snowiest winter on record. Might as well go for those extra bragging rights.

Sorry to hear about your grandfather, Miss Rosario. May you find comfort between the paws of the true Aslan.

My goodness, the Square has been so slow lately! A far cry from the days when five or six pages would go by in a single day.

Anyhow.
Thank you QS and stargazer, I appreciate the prayers and encouragement.

*waves to the wandering Anna* Ugh about losing a catchup post - that's such a pain. Do pop in once in awhile, though! We enjoy your "hello, I'm still alive!" posts just as well as the long ones.

At least you are still getting new ideas for your novel, even if they do come mostly at night. Hopefully your sleep won't be bothered too much.

Mortereve, all!

I'm off vacation and back to regular studies. My characters have been talking to me, too, but trying to find time and motivation to actually do some writing has been... not easy.

Prayers go out to you, Miss Rosario. And also your sister, since he's her grandfather too.

Random stuff in spoilers below; nothing's actually being spoiled, it's just so that the above stuff remains the "main content" while the random stuff is there for those who feel like reading it. Again, though, there are no actual spoilers here, so go ahead and click it if you want to know more about the being in my avatar.

So.. I've been away for almost a month, and less than four pages go by?? Is that.. normal? *wonders what's going on*
I've come up for air from the business at school, right now, at the beginning of my weekend. I've missed the Square.
Oh, last Friday, VDT finally finally finally came out in Japan. Yay! I went to see it, and enjoyed it far more than I probably should have, sheerly because my expectations had been so lowered by lurking on all the spoiley thread for the past 2 months. Oops? But really, it wasn't as bad as I'd been expecting. I think. Still can't make my mind up. Some of the acting, though..
Anyway. *stops rambling*

Haha, yes!!! That sounds like me! Haha. I haven't written since, like, January. But I copied down something that I wrote on Feb. 1... When I write next I'll probably write about my birthday or something... That's the only exciting thing in the past week or so.

January? The shame.. I try to write every day, but it's usually a few times a week. Mostly it depends how tired I am when I get to bed, because it would never occur to me to write at another time of day, would it?
Oh, and a very late happy birthday, since I wasn't around.
(okay, well technically I was probably around for your birthday. I just didn't, you know, realize. )

How well I know - but it's what I want to forget! Agh . . I really need to start editing. I have to be done by then, I'll be awfully ashamed of myself if I don't! Good luck!

Ahh.. and now it's March.. have you started yet? Yesterday I haltingly double-clicked my file for the first time since the term started back up, and closed it after about 5 minutes. Now I'm getting to the stage where I'm afraid I'll never get to it.

Heehee, the funny thing is I wouldn't be half so intimidated if we were moving out to the backwoods where we'd have to practically fend for ourselves. That I can handle.

It's the idea of moving to a completely different community that terrifies me, and the wondering of, "Will we be happy there? Are there lots of friends just waiting to be made? Will it be a good move? Will I rue the day I ever saw that real estate listing"?

. . . I stress too much.

lol, I know what you mean.
Really, I'm probably not the best person to come to for words of encouragement, seeing as my own outlook on moving is so pessimistic. I do worry about each and every thing in my life, though, so I know how you feel.

I'm doing really well! It's great that your school load will lighten up soon. I know exactly what you mean by just going and going and not stopping. My school's been going pretty well, not too busy, but busy enough. I'm struggling a little in Algebra, with quadratic functions. But I think I'm starting to get a grasp on them somewhat.

Did I mention school load lightening up? *scratches head* I was mistaken. But it's amazing to have my project out of the way, still. *shudders at the mention of maths* You just reminded me of the test on Monday. I don't think I understood much of anything in the chapter we've just covered.

Hey, how's your HP-reading going? Through all the books yet? You probably are, given that I'm currently dwelling in the past month of Town Square archives.

Oooh! Well, Toy Story 3 was fantastic. I really love that one. The storyline is straightforward enough that you really don't have to have had watched the other two to enjoy it. Although, they do stick in references to the other Toy Story movies occasionally, so seeing all three adds to the experience.

Ok, I'll watch all the Toy.. Storys? Stories? Story's? someday.
Wait, so are there any Pixar films you don't like? (I see the WALL-E cake further down in your post, so evidently you didn't hate it. Neither did I, btw. )

That was too short, for a month. Well, that, and the product of rapid skimming. I guess there's nothing more to say, though. Have a good mortereve, everyone.

Mortereve all!

*waves to Aiden* How are you?

Hey, Bella! I'm doing great, thanks! How are you?

Or perhaps, NOT too fond of the Packers. There's quite a rivalry there. Yet, especially among older people around here, there are some Packer fans - I think they were football fans before the Vikings franchise appeared here 50 years ago.

But since the Packers represented the Vikings' division, it didn't bother me much that they won.

Whoops, that's what I meant. That's interesting that there are some Packers fans there, but I guess it's not too surprising considering they're one of the oldest current franchises.

Heh, it would bother us if one of our division rivals won the Super Bowl.

Those were amusing as well. The 'plush prison' Audi ad was funny too.

Yes, that was another of my favorites. There were lots of good ones this year.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not sure how to interrupt the "hey" ...

It was a good thing! Sorry if it came across incorrectly.

Mortereve all!

Wow! It's been a month since I was last here, and you folks have only gone through 4 pages? Surely you can do better. Still, that gives me the opportunity to do ketchup, which I thought was out of the question before I checked.

Actually, I had another post written up not long after my last one, but alas, it disappeared. (I am sometimes tempted to start using Firefox again, just because I miss Lazarus. Otherwise, I prefer Google Chrome.) I believe gazer was talking about the weather in my part of the country when I last posted? It was crazy -- crazy, I tell you. To top off all the ice, the day he posted, we had a big snowfall. It was quite beautiful, really.

But that was only the beginning of my crazy two to three weeks. That night -- Thursday, February 3rd -- I went to bed shivering for no reason at all that I could tell. Then Mom woke us all up at 2:00 am because a pipe had burst and our downstairs was flooding. We got the water turned off before any real damage was done, but it was a mess mopping it all up, and I was feeling so bad that I was sent back to bed.

I had a cough and chills the next day, but ran no fever. I thought I was doing better over the weekend, but had started to run a fever by Monday. I was still coughing at that point too. A week later (do you hear? -- a week later) it was the same. And that Tuesday, I finally went to a clinic, and was diagnosed with pneumonia and an ear infection.

And get this. Well, actually, I think it would be more interesting if I just related a Facebook status I posted around this time:

[lysander] is officially an impressive person.
johobbit comments: As in ... EPIC?
lysander comments: I should probably offer up an explanation for this statement: this weekend, while coughing like ... (similes fail me) and experiencing occasional bouts of fever, I managed to write a "thinking paper," do 1/3 of my Spanish homework for the semester, take a test for that course, study for both my quizzes today, and make my way through a HUGE load of reading for English, when really I just felt like vegging on the couch.
johobbit comments: Definitely Epic, [lys]. You need to go on the Town Square to let everyone know that this Title is really true. It's not all just in jest.

So ... I just did.

I have been able to do a few fun things over the past month. Because of my school schedule, I haven't been able to attend my writer's group, but I was able to go to a party they threw, and even got to see one member who's since moved away there! And then, I got to experience a splendid vocal recital in the lovely Bass Performance Hall, as performed by one of my favorite singers, Joyce di Donato. She even signed one of my CDs! Aaaaand I've been attending a reading group of dystopian novels at my church. It's lovely to have intelligent conversations. I get far too little of that at community college.

And to clarify things, I'm not really sick anymore. Still have a cough, and the vestiges of ear infection, I think. But I'm functioning.

On to other things....

Please oh please?

Not unless something very unexpected and untoward happens, like -- I dunno -- a pretty girl wants me to watch it with her. I simply must read the book first. How about this? I'll try to take off a month or so between finishing the book and watching the miniseries. That way, I won't sweat the small stuff. And ... I'm afraid that's as far as I'll compromise.

And there is a slight chance I will like the miniseries, maybe even as much or more than the book. It happened with Daniel Deronda.

By the way, I noticed As You Like it at our local library. I know you highly recommended the score, do you also recommend the film? *hopes he got the name correct...)

Well, if that's the only way you'll listen to the score, then yes, I do recommend it. Seriously, I give a hesitating recommendation. The score is really excellent and works beautifully within the context of the movie, the scenery is lovely, and Bryce Dallas Howard (from The Village) is perfect as Rosalind. There are some big names in the cast (and my beloved Romola Garai ), but for the most part the rest don't impress me, and the style of direction is rather over-the-top and slapstick in nature. If you really want to see an excellent Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare film that also has a great Patrick Doyle score, Henry V is still my top choice. But then again, As you Like It is of course more fun, and if it's the one you have your heart set on, by all means watch it!

EDIT: Did I ever tell you that I listened to the Wrath of Khan soundtrack, on your recommendation? I loved it. Easily my favorite Horner score after Braveheart.

That's an awesome shirt.

I know. My mother's convinced that it's far too small, though, so I only wear it when she's not around.

most people I know like Up, but not WALL•E.

A lot of it probably has to do with the fact that Up has a more conventional storyline, dialogue ( ), and tries less hard to be "artsy." But I'm not especially fond of either of them. I did, however, very much enjoy Toy Story 3.

I'm not a fan of the [Toy Story]films.

Why, may I ask?

Sorry, you know, with your favorite books, they can't be made into movies, and you can't read the books of your favorite movies.

This is not always true. Whereas there are some adaptations of my favorite books that drive me mad (the Narnia franchise, I'm afraid, fits the bill here), there are others that I find simply marvelous, such as the LotR films, the Liam Neeson Les Miserables, and To Kill a Mockingbird. All of those would make my top ten books and movies list. So you see, it is possible.

Well, that wasn't too painful, for a month's worth of ketchup. I think I'll actually head over to the Past Movies thread now, before I drop off for the night.

*pops in after a LONG time away...*

How is it these days between the Tower and the Castle???

So...it looks like MN is coming first, huh? *grimaces* Ah, well- better that then nothing!

Lu

If it's at all like PC or VDT, I'd rather have nothing.

Ooof. I am so tired. Have been all week. I don't think I'm 100% yet, because while I have no symptoms besides an occasional cough, I seem to be drowsy 24/7. I'd go to bed, but I want to get my history homework knocked out tonight, and maybe my English too. That'd just leave a little Spanish for tomorrow morning. And then maybe, maybe I'll be able to finish reading The Iron Heel in time for reading group tomorrow night.

Ummm, just saw my epically (what else? ) long post in Past Movies from the other day somehow never ... well, never got posted. Huh? Luckily I saved all the mini-reviews and can reconstruct the post. Tomorrow, of course.