Charmed: Dead Man Dating

If there was a season that would be perfect for the tv show Charmed, it would be Fall. (Although Spring seems like a great season too, as it reminds me of house sitting for my sister, watching the show, and trying to get the perfect "red lips" look to match Rose McGowan.) A few weeks ago I was cleaning my room, when I found myself dusting off my Charmed DVDs (and thinking about how long it's been since I've watched them). I decided that it's about time to pull them out again. When I saw Holly Marie Combs mark the anniversary of the Charmed premiere, I finally grabbed the first season and watched the first episode.

As I made my way through the first season, I ran across an episode that I love, mostly because of the pairing that it plays with. Who is that pairing? Piper and Mark. I know that everyone and their dog loves Piper/Leo, and while I enjoyed watching their relationship grow they have never been my favorite. I've always had a special place in my heart for the possibilities that the Piper/Mark relationship presented. Of course, I never held out hope for the relationship, it was doomed from the start. Mark was a ghost when they met. But I liked the idea of what could have been.

Let's take a look at some of those special Piper/Mark moments:


Piper reads from the book Mark never got to finish.


Mark gives Piper recipes from his grandparents.


The touch.


The kiss.


Piper protects Mark from Yama.


The funeral.


The goodbye.


Mark leaves.

Another one of my favorite Piper pairings? Piper and Neighbor Dan, who also had a pretty doomed relationship from the start. What were your favorite pairings?

Charmed: Dead Man Dating screencaps are from Screencap Paradise

A Wonderful October Weekend

It's been an unusually hot October but maybe the nice, chilly Fall weather is coming. It was a little on the chilly side yesterday, though still beautiful. Today, I was wearing sweatshirts and socks, and made a mug of one of my favorite cold weather drinks, chai. {Of course, I had to drink it with a cookie straight out of the freezer, my favorite way to eat them! My mom always wondered how the cookies disappeared from the freezer when she'd make a batch and put some in there until recently when she saw me taking one out.}

How was your weekend?

Mine was actually quite fun! It wasn't productive school-wise but I did have a great weekend for writing. I had Friday off so after class on Thursday I came home, made a pot of coffee, and spent the night working on my novel. I made a lot of progress, which felt really good! I also created a full outline for the rest of the book this weekend, so it's nice to finally have a little template to follow.

On Friday I met with Sarah for lunch where we spent a few hours talking about our books and planning for the Sanctuary season premiere. For the premiere, we had a classy meal of pizza, Pirate's Booty and Twizzlers, accompanied by wine. The wine is what made it classy. ;)

After work on Saturday, my friend Mary and I stopped in at the wedding reception of an old friend from our high school days. Our high school days BEFORE graduation. In our before graduation high school days the three of us were like the Three Musketeers, so it was fun to catch up! We talked about the crazy times--running around outside wearing only socks in January, stumbling upon one of their brother's stacks of... well, erm, questionable videos... while looking for a cartoon. When the time for the Dollar Dance came we left and went to the mall for a bit of quick shopping, dinner {with a cute waiter!}, and a run through the bookstore to look at what's there.

Today brought church with Sarah, lunch with my mom at an Indian restaurant we've been interested in trying out and studying. Lots of studying. However, studying time was cut into by a headache that I slept through to get rid of. Sleeping for awhile this afternoon will probably present a problem when I try to go to bed tonight. At least I might be able to complete some of that homework that I missed working on!

I hope everyone out there has a great week ahead!

The Start of a New Class

It's October and I haven't posted once yet. So, what I have been doing? Not much! Basically studying, studying, studying, writing, writing, writing with TV, work and swimming with my niece and nephew thrown in.

A new class started tonight. It's with the community college I was at before moving to the university. Basically, in order to avoid taking another science class with a lab at the university I need to complete the transfer curriculum with the community college, so I'm taking one last general to get that out of the way. Since I really don't feel like making the drive all the way to the college itself once a week, I'm taking a course that meets off campus. In a location about fifteen minutes away from my house. The best part? It's less than five minutes away from my favorite Ethiopian coffee shop. My dad pointed out the building to me the last time we were in the area but I wanted to be sure it was the place I needed to go to. So, last night I mapquested the address, glanced at the directions to make sure a few streets were on it, and that was that. (On a side note, the teacher tonight discussed the days before mapquest. Can you imagine? I sure can't! Think about finding all those little pesky little roads on the map by yourself... it would take forever!)

Today, after my usual Thursday lunch at my favorite Colombian restaurant, my dad came to meet me. On our walk back to the school he and my mom volunteer at, we had this conversation:

Me: Last night I mapquested the address to make sure you pointed out the right building.
Him: You didn't believe me? When have I ever let you down?
Me: There was that one time you told me to take the bus in one direction and it turned out I needed to go in the other.
Him: Did I lead you astray this time?
Me: Well, no...

I'm sure with that little conversation you can see where this story is going. I drove to the building and, when I saw two cars in the parking lot, felt like something might be off. Luckily, the janitor was cleaning near the door and was able to point me in the right direction.

My teacher had to attend a conference this week so he sent his wife (who also teaches) to give us the introduction to the class. She was hilarious and I'm kind of sad she won't be our teacher for the semester. We also got out really early--we basically spent a half hour in class tonight. The best part about my new class? It's a ten week class and three of our class periods are canceled due to teacher conferences and holidays. I had to stop myself from doing a little dance when I heard the great news!

What else have I been doing while I have not been updating the blog? Playing Dark Nebula on my iTouch. Let me just say, it's as on the edge of your seat addictive as the article says it is!

And if you have a few more minutes after this loooong post, you should go check out Sarah's blog. (Yep, she's the same Sarah from Alex and Robin nights--which are, sadly, over now that we've finished Moonlight--and the oatmeal mask.) Her Strangers in the Library post is an exceptionally good one if you're in the mood for a fantastic crazy person story. Can you guess who her best friend in the story is? That's right! C'est moi! So go read and find a little story that I haven't told you!

Beauty Break

Yesterday I invited a few friends over for a Beauty Break. My sister came with the beauty products she sells so that my friends and I could try them out. I made strawberry cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes for the night and served them with coffee and strawberry blooming tea. No pictures of the drinks, but I do have pictures of the cupcakes and making of. And if you have a chance this fall to spend a night with your friends eating sweets and playing around with make-up, I highly recommend you take advantage of the opportunity!

Yogurt & Book Banning

I love plain Greek yogurt. Throw in some fresh fruit and I'm good to go for breakfast, lunch or dinner. (And, apparently it's one of the Best Healthy Foods You Aren't Eating.) So when I was wandering through the grocery store one day and discovered Greek yogurt with chocolate my eyes instantly lit up! See, I also have a thing for ice cream. I try not to eat it often because it's an overload of dairy, fat and calories but... it sure is good! So when I saw Greek yogurt with chocolate I thought that maybe this could be an acceptable replacement for ice cream and bought the pack of four cartons, which is the only way it came.

I took one bite and passed it off to my mom, who took one bite and passed it off to my dad. Who loaded it up with peanut butter. And then with even more peanut butter. And after topping it off with a little more peanut butter thought it was acceptable and finished the carton. (He likes mixing peanut butter with different things after reading an article about a local Lebanese restaurant owner who makes his own--delicious, I might add--hummus for his restaurant. He is now in process of making hummus mixes--such as hummus and guacamole--after mixing hummus and peanut butter in an attempt to get his daughter to eat it.) Now we have three cartons sitting in our refrigerator, waiting to be eaten.

So, tell me your stories! Is there a food you once bought thinking it would be healthier substitute for a bad food? Was it as good as you expected or did it completely flop?

In other news, people who know me are aware that I am not a fan of banning books. Take a look at this list. I am often shocked when I look through lists of banned books to see exactly what people are banning. Some of the books banned include the only classics that actually interested me when I was assigned to read them in high school as well as other books that just confuse me. Why was The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway banned? Could it possibly be for putting students to sleep when forced to read it?

Over the weekend the YA literary world was outraged when a man in Missouri requested that the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson should be banned from a school district, along with Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler. I won't go into too much detail here because others have discussed this topic much better than I could. Instead, I will direct you to Laurie Halse Anderson's blog on the topic. In this post she gives many links to some of the discussion that has taken place about the attempted banning of her book, including links to the original complaints made the man trying to ban the books.

This weekend I'm off work and I haven't been feeling well so I'm planning to spend the weekend in, drinking lots of tea and water and resting in an attempt to get better before I get really sick. This means plenty of time for reading! I'm hoping that, along with homework, I will finish reading Speak and will be able to get through at least half, if not finish, Twenty Boy Summer. Look for more on those two books in the near future!

I also feel like I should add one of the more interesting Hemingway books to my reading list for the weekend after that comment above. I do like Hemingway, just not The Old Man and the Sea.

Quotes from The Diving Pool

Quotes from The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa. I copied them down this morning.

"Her lips were like two maggots that never stopped wriggling, and I found myself wanting to squash them between my fingers."

- - -

"He would come down from the diving board and return to the Light House, where his muscles would warm and soften like silk floss, and then he would soak up all the things that set my nerves on edge—Naoki’s raspy voice, the scraps of food flung about by the children, my mother’s endless chattering. It seemed strange that he could be so good when life had treated him so badly: a father who ran off when he was born and a mother who had abandoned him for the bottle. I prayed desperately to be bathed in his kindness."

- - -

"I was sure that Jun would dive into only pure water, and I wanted his dive into to me to be perfect. I wanted him to enter with no splash at all.

Once we’d finished talking about that morning so many years before, we couldn’t think of anything else to say. The sound of time flowing between us became the sound of the water trickling quietly from the faucet until dawn."

- - -

I'm going to a one year old's birthday party tonight, which actually should be a lot of fun as all of my coworkers will be there. It is rumored that my former boss will be showing up and, most of all, I'm excited to see the one year old's mother (and him, of course, he's a cutie!).

But someone needs to remind me that I need to start reviewing French grammar! Tutoring starts on Tuesday and I'd like to be able to tell him that I actually do know a little bit of French!

The Diving Pool: Three Novellas, by Yoko Ogawa

I decided to take a break from studies to post a book review.



As with Hotel Iris, Ogawa highlights three quiet girls. In the title (and first) story, a high school girl obsessed with her foster brother watches him during his diving practices while looking for ways to release the frustration she feels at being the only child of parents who own an orphanage. In the second story, Pregnancy Diary, a young woman writes about her older sister's pregnancy in a diary. The final story, Dormitory, follows the story of a woman who returns to the dormitory she stayed in throughout college and befriends the manager.

Ogawa is an interesting writer because she introduces these shy, quiet characters and begins to spin a story that is somewhat disturbing. She provides her readers with great character studies. Following along with Hotel Iris, the writing itself is absolutely beautiful. Particularly in the first (and most disturbing) story, there were some gorgeous quotes. I haven't copied them down yet so I don't have any to share with you today, but maybe soon.

(Book cover taken from bn.com.)