Books and Haunted Mansions

Current Mood:

- Not feeling very well today, and Blogger has been a total pain in the you-know-what. For days now it wouldn't let me write a new entry, but thanks to reading a post on the Help forum I know two ways of kicking Blogger's constant maintenance errors. I still can't log in via the normal route, but through the Google homepage and Mozilla FINALLY I can.

Not that there's anything interesting to ramble about. Need proof? Just keep on reading.

- At the antique gallery the other day imagine my surprise when they had books there that were actually on my list. I mean they had THE books from MY LIST! Do you have any idea how monumental that trip was for me? While tossing book after book into that little arm basket I was actually wishing I would stop seeing familiar titles from my list on those shelves because the cost just kept increasing... but then I'd see Heaven all over again in the form of a book title and I heard myself praying they'd have more titles to add from the same author.

I wound up buying 10 books total; 8 which were on my list and 2 which I just picked up out of curiosity.



Alert... Alert: After MONTHS of reading no more than a few pages of random books which were total bores, I FINISHED A BOOK TODAY! This reading slump has lasted so very long, and I started to feel like I'd never get out of it.

The book which jump started my 'bookwormishness' back into existence was "You Had Me At Goodbye" by Jane Blackwood. It was the first book my greedy hands grabbed hold of. It wasn't on my list, and I'd never even heard of the author.

The first half of the book was okay. Nothing fantastic, but it held my interest. After that, I couldn't wait to finish it. This story would have been better if it had been 100 pages less. There just wasn't much going on except me waiting... and waiting... and waiting for these two knuckleheads to confess their feelings and stop assuming things. It was just the same thing over and over again; like watching a hamster running on a little wheel, getting nowhere for hours and hours. If this book was a hamster on that stupid wheel, I would have wished for it to have fallen off, just to break the endless monotony!

It's a romance novel. The reader knows there's going to be some happily-ever-aftering going on by the end, but halfway through it seriously felt like I was watching paint dry. Orange paint dry. (My least favorite color. I know that's a poor example, but it's all my pounding head can come up with for now).

- I had no idea, but a few months back Disney added an interactive queue to The Haunted Mansion. It's optional, and it is cute, but I prefer it the old way.



What's so sad to me is that from here on out the atmosphere of The Haunted Mansion isn't "haunting" at all. The way it used to be is the closer you get to the mansion, the far off sounds creep up on you from the distance: the organ playing, THE DOG HOWL, etc.

But now it's all kooky and playful, and leaves no doubt in a person's mind that this is going to be a silly ride. When my family and myself first rode The Haunted Mansion back in the 80's, we had no idea what to expect. Was it going to be funny or frightening? Now, whenever some newbie sees the mansion, there will be no hesitation whatsoever in riding it. Seeing all those kids in that interactive queue will be a huge spoiler. (I really don't enjoy spoilers).

Even though the interactive queue is optional, being bombarded by this new zany and silly atmosphere is not. That's what bugs me about the whole thing. For that reason alone, I do wish they'd change it back.

One thing I DO like is the updating of the hitchiking ghosts near the end of the ride. I think it's pretty cute.



- I really want to paint my bedroom. I am sick to death of the BLAH! tan walls. In the meantime, I just put a band-aid over it if-you-will. I gave Mom the white chair that was in my room, and I took her green one. The green chair is a lot bigger, which I don't like, but it really does match my room a lot better.

And since Mom redid her room recently, the white chair goes in there a lot better too. We also took the white computer desk out of the guest room and then put it in Mom's room for her laptop. It looks really nice.

Of course, now the guestroom is pretty bare.

- Kinda mad at myself for what I bought with my Michael's gift card. Now I only have $6.45 left.





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Just so you know,