The Dark Is Rising

Ok, when I get going, I get going! Anyway, I was browsing books online at the library and I saw, "The Dark is Rising: movie tie-in addition." For those who don't know what I am talking about, The Dark is Rising is a book/series by Susan Cooper that have long been a favorite of my who family. It combines the stories of a family of three kids and the story of a young boy, all led/supervised by a strange man, Merri (Merriweather). You come to find out, he is based on the character, Merlin, from Camelot (That whole story comes in later.) Basically, Will finds out on his 11th birthday (ring a bell with anyone else) that he is a member of "The Old Ones" and has to find out the six symbols that will "save the world" in the battle between Light and Dark. That is a very poor explanation, but going to various websites (or better yet, reading the books!!!) will provide more and better plot synopsis.


Ever since The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter have been turned into movies, I have thought that this series would make a great movie series. Well, going back to the first sentence of my blog, The Dark is Rising is finally being made into a movie! It is to be released in October, but the "reader reviews" are mixed and I have doubts that it will be made properly. But I am excited that if nothing else, it might get more people to read the books, which are awesome. The fourth book in the series, "The Grey King" won the Newberry Award and The Dark is Rising won the Newberry Honor. To repeat myself, and needless to say after that, THEY ARE WONDERFUL, AWESOME, GREAT books, so please read them if you haven't.

Camping and Mosquito Bites

So I have been training for a half marathon in August and have done a few runs down Butterfield Canyon, about 15 minutes from our house. It has been great to be out in nature and away from everything loud and crazy here. It has me VERY excited for our upcoming camping trip to Flaming Gorge with the Dahlgren family this weekend.

That is until last night... We went over to The Wrights (Shannon and Michael's family) and James came up from his bedroom requesting some Benadryl. I questioned why and he proceeded to show me the approximately 125 (yes, he had tried to count them) mosquito bites covering his body. He had been on a scout camp-out at Twin Lakes in the Uintas and said that one of the lakes was just a boggy mess, so there were swarms of mosquitoes everywhere. As I looked at him covered in little red bumps, I literally got the chills and announced to Pret that I don't think I want to go camping anymore.

In the end, I am still very excited to go camping--I love being out in nature, but I do hope that I don't get too many mosquito bites. I will give the update upon our return...

Paul Potts

So I copied this from my aunt (Knight Family), but I was too impressed not to, so sorry for you within the family who may see this twice.

Great Britain has a show similar to American Idol called Britain's Got Talent. It even has Simon Cowell on it. You will get the story from watching the clip, so I won't take all the time here explaining it. I will let you know, though, that Paul ended up winning the competition, so that is exciting. I love the song that he sang and he performed it so well!

Anyway, it takes about 4 1/2 minutes to watch the whole clip, but it is worth it to at least listen to him sing. Good on ya, Paul!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

Cat or Dog?

So I am sitting at Shannon and Michael's house waiting for Pret's homework to finish printing (if anyone has high blood pressure, I know a drug to tell you about (I don't know that I would recommend it, though, but that's only because I don't really know that much about it...)) and their family cat, Sushi, is bugging me to throw "her mouse" for her. Now, most cats will have a toy or two that they will bat around when they are feeling playful or bored, but Sushi is not like most cats (some of you may have been around her and experienced this first-hand and know what I am talking about.) She not only likes to play with little mice (fake at the moment (although she has been known to chase around a live one now and then...)), but she loves to retrieve them when thrown. I have now thrown this particularly disheveled looking one (as Michael said earlier, "They just don't make mice like they used to, do they Sushi?") about 15 times and she is jumping up on my wrist as I type, trying to coax me into throwing it again. Alas, I am more interested in getting this post typed before the printing is done than entertaining this cat, who I truly love! But it makes me wonder, is this a cat that likes to bat around a mouse, or a cat that wants to be a dog and fetch the mouse? (I did this in gray to match Sushi's fur.)

On the other hand, some friends of ours have a dog, Nali, that acts much like a cat. They have a laser pointer that Nali loves to chase. We have watched in hilarious facination as Nali has run back and forth across the back yard through rain, snow, and dusty dirt, following the "light" for long periods of time. She would do it endlessly if only we could keep up with her. The promise of the "light" will get Nali to do almost anything for them. If she sees it sitting on the counter or just being held in your hand, she will nose or nip at you until you start pointing it for her. I have even see her "pounce" on it, stealth-like approach and everything. So now the question is asked, is Nali a dog that likes to chase things, or a dog wanting to be a cat and chase bright lights, such as lasers? (I would have done this in white to match Nali's fur, but that wouldn't have worked to well, would it?)

I got this finished before it was done printing! (I even had to do some of it over because the internet shut down on me and it didn't save it all.) (And I did this in green because it is my favorite color.)