A Really Cool Thing

I am having a pretty good day today.  It's good enough to draw me away from the post that you were going to get today (on "The Weird Week That Was") and decide to post this for you.

I received an email today from Christina Harris, the Public Relations Manager of Special Olympics Wisconsin.  She had, evidently, checked out my other blog Learn to Crochet in Minutes a Day and wanted to thank me, and YOU, for our efforts with Scarves for Special Olympics.  The other blog mentions SFSO regularly, as well as the participation of the subscribers of BOTH blogs.

Specifically, the "Thank You" to me was for providing readers with information and regular updates on SFSO.  The "Thank You" to you was for your participation.  On that note, I thank you as well.  I really can't thank you enough.

In addition to the "Thank You", I received permission to publish an article that Special Olympics Wisconsin had on their website about another crocheter who is participating in SFSO this year.  I think that it's encouraging.  And endearing.  And well worth my time in publishing the article.  I hope that you consider it worth your time to read it.



The following article and photo are published courtesy of Special Olympics Wisconsin:

102-Year-Old Treasure Shared with Special Olympics Athletes

Gertrude sits with the five scarves she made in her room at the Highland House

02.08.2011– Athletes, coaches, and volunteers huddled together around a crackling fire at Nine Mile State Forest ski chalet to heat up between competitions, but all it took to warm the heart of Alex Guild--a 20-year-old athlete from De Pere, Wisconsin-- was hearing the priceless story of the 102-year-old woman who crocheted the sapphire blue scarf that lay nestled around his neck. 

“She’s a treasure,” said Mikki Dempsey, a Resident Assistant at the Waterloo Highland House Assisted Living Center, who spends much of her day with Gertrude Medenwaldt. 

Medenwaldt spent more than a month carefully crocheting five scarves for athletes like Guild who competed in snowshoe, downhill, and cross country ski races at the 2011 Special Olympics Wisconsin Winter Games on January 29th and 30th in Wausau. 

With each stitch of wool she hooked together, Medenwaldt unraveled a lifetime of memories. 

“When I was a little girl, after I finished herding the cows, I sat down by a haystack and learned to crochet,” said Medenwaldt, who spent her childhood stacking hay in Hankinson, North Dakota and her adulthood raising nine children.

Twenty grandchildren and forty great-grandchildren later, Medenwaldt has perfected her craft, making handmade baby blankets, hats, and scarves for her friends and family.

“I witnessed Gertrude [crocheting] a beautiful baby afghan in about three days, which is why I asked her to help out with the [Scarf Project],” said Karen Bigelow, a Registered Nurse and Special Olympics volunteer. “That was two weeks ago. She just kept going!” 

Medenwaldt joined thousands of knitters in 33 states who participated in the Special Olympics USA Scarf Project. In Wisconsin, hundreds of supporters knit nearly 1,000 scarves for Wisconsin’s State Winter Games and forever interweaved their lives with the athletes. 

“I thought about the athletes while I crochet. I hope they can make use of them,” she said modestly. 

“They’re amazing!” said Guild, admiring his new accessory. “She did a fantastic job. They are nice and warm.”

Medenwaldt may have shared her passion for crocheting, but when it comes to giving away her recipe for a long and healthy life, she’s keeping her lips sewed shut.

“I wish I knew what the secret was…I would write a book,” she said with a bashful smile.

Born in 1908, Medenwaldt could certainly fill a novel with her life experiences. This chapter is just one of many where she has interlaced her life with others and shared the timeless source of happiness – philanthropy. 

                                                             -  Published courtesy of Special Olympics Wisconsin


Again, I would like to thank Special Olympics Wisconsin for their permission to publish this article.  I would also like to thank them for reading this blog.

I would also like to thank Gertrude Medenwaldt for getting involved with SFSO.  I think that her story is as interesting as it is inspirational.

But, most importantly, I would like to thank you, the readers, first for getting involved in SFSO and second for reading this blog.  And, for both, I am truly grateful.  Thank you so much.

Don’t own a Kindle, but would like to?  The latest generation of Kindle is available at the following links:  with WiFi only   or with WiFi and 3G.

Christy Parker is the author of two blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind and  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day.

Mrs. Parker is also the author of an eBook of patterns entitled Seven Special Scarves, as well as the eBook Learn to Crochet in Minutes a Day:  The First Twelve Lessons

For comments, questions, notes, or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.

The Weird Week That Was - Part Three

So, we’ve talked about the weird weather of the last year.  We’ve talked about barely breaking even.  We’ve talked about working off and sacrificing.  And we are still not yet to the Weird Week that Was.  I really meant to start that topic in my first post of this series.  But my mind is unkempt, as you know, so I got off on a tangent when trying to give you a little background.

I guess that I ended up giving you a lot of background. 

I meant to start on the topic in  the second post as well.  And I don’t really think that I need to expound on the title of this blog any further to explain what happened there.

I really wasn’t dragging in out to create suspense.  I just wanted you to have all the necessary information to be able to grasp the gravity of bizarreness (gravity of bizarreness - that would make a great band name).

Now we reach the third post.  And I think that I might be getting down to it.

You see, the first two posts were relevant.  They were relevant to explain the first weird thing that happened during the Weird Week that Was.

Because of the weather, we barely broke even last year, that meant that if my husband didn’t work off, we’d need to borrow money just to get by.

So, you can imagine my surprise when my husband came to me on Sunday night of the Weird Week that Was to tell me that he would like to buy a new tractor.

My first response was that I heard him wrong - “Um, could you repeat that?”

He repeated it.

My second response was simply, “Gulp.”

Don’t get me wrong.  I didn’t really have anything to fear.  We have a system in our family.  No purchase over $100 is made without the consent of both my husband and myself.  We discuss every purchase over $100 in depth, then make our decision together (the larger the price tag, the more “in depth” our discussion becomes).

There was never a danger that I would come home and find a large green and yellow surprise in my back yard.  Still, the statement was daunting.

I suppose that I should have seen that question alone as a harbinger of weirdness.  I didn’t.  I just saw a seriously long and very in depth discussion in my near future.

A new tractor.

In a post-drought year.

A post-drought year that also happened to be a post-blizzard year.

What was he thinking?

Don’t own a Kindle, but would like to?  The latest generation of Kindle is available at the following links:  with WiFi only   or with WiFi and 3G.

Christy Parker is the author of two blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind and  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day.

Mrs. Parker is also the author of an eBook of patterns entitled Seven Special Scarves, as well as the eBook Learn to Crochet in Minutes a Day:  The First Twelve Lessons

For comments, questions, notes, or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.

Bad Movie Review - Leprechaun

A while back, I talked about how bad movies could make for good fun.  When I did, I promised you some reviews.  Well, now, welcome to the first one!

Leprechaun (1993) is a dog of the first order.  I really mean that.  It's fabulously bad (instead of just plain bad).  It starts Warwick Davis and Jennifer Aniston.  What most reviewers would focus on in this movie is the presence of Jennifer Aniston.  It DOES deserve noting, so I will get that out of the way first.

This movie was pre-Friends era.  It was actually released only about a year and a half before the first Friends episode aired.  In it Aniston is cute and fresh-faced (albiet postively FAT by Hollywood standards - meaning that she was probably a size 2 back then, rather than a size ZERO).  Her acting in the film is marginal, although the script doesn't leave her much to work with.  So, check out Leprechaun if you want to see the pre-Friends Aniston in action.

OK, that's done.  Now to the real business at hand...

This movie also stars Warwick Davis, an actor who would often be overshadowed by Aniston's celebrity.  Before I hear a rash of jokes about "overshadowed" being used here, let me be clear:  MOST actors are overshadowed by Aniston's celebrity.  I mean, really, Friends was a show of epic proportions, and Rachel was one of the most popular characters.  So, many actors are cast diminutive in Aniston's glow.

That being said, Davis is diminutive in stature, but not in talent.  So, I'd like to talk about him.  Many of you may not have heard of Warwick Davis.  You may be surprised to know that he has thirty-three films to his credit, as well as just as many (if not more) TV shows in his CV.

He really is quite prolific and talented, but he is a not your standard Hollywood cookie cutter celebrity, so he is unlikely to ever become a household name.

It might interest you to know that he plays not one but four small roles (including Wicket) in the Star Wars series of films.  In this vein, he also plays Wicket in the Ewok TV movies.

For Narnia fans, he plays Nikabrik in the Prince Caspian (2008) film.  He also played Reepicheep in the 1989 TV series Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

But right now, probably the most likely place that you may know him from is from the Harry Potter films.  In those movies, he plays four roles (one of which is pivotal in the final two films).  He plays Flitwick and Griphook, both of whom are major characters, as well as two "extra" minor roles:  "bank teller" and "wizard".

Many fantasy fans may also recognize him from Labyrinth.

He is quite talented, although his less-than-mainstream appearance keeps him from getting more major roles.  Enter Leprechaun.

Leprechaun (and the five sequels that followed) allowed Davis to have a chance at a starring role.  So, I don't blame him for picking up on this dog.  Nor do I blame him for continuing on with the sequels.

I've talked about the major stars of the film, now it's time for me to really get down to the meat and bones of what makes this film a floater.

Let's start with the laughable premise.  It's not just a leprechaun who wants to protect his gold.  It couldn't be, that would make the protagonists thieves.  Their being thieves would make audiences root for the "bad guy" leprechaun more than the "good guy" kids in the film.  But let's face it, while watching this film, you really ARE rooting for the leprechaun the whole way.  So, they probably could have made the kids thieves.  It wouldn't have changed the audience outlook.

The laughable premise is really HOW the leprechaun is released.  It has something bizarre to do with sneezing three times in a row without anyone blessing you.  Evidently, that "blessing" keeps leprechauns away.  Who knew?

That part is right in the opening of the movie.  Which really sets the tone of the whole film.  You see that ridiculousness, and you prep yourself for the entire movie to be ridiculous.  It does not disappoint.

The movie is ridiculous from start to finish, yet the audience doesn't mind.  Because you WANT it to be ridiculous.  From the cheesy special effects to the bad make-up, ridiculous.  The bad script and bad acting are just icing on that cake, baby.

The film was estimated to have been produced for less than a million dollars, but not much less.  Which one finds amazing.  I mean, really, look what Kevin Smith did with Clerks on just twenty-five grand on the front end and just over $200K for the post-production (once he was able to get shop around his rough-cut to gain studio envolvement).  And they were produced about two years apart, so those figures can be compared easily without adjusting them for inflation.

Leprechaun actually grossed just under $2.5 mil during it's opening weekend.  That's pretty impressive given the kind of film that it is (poorly produced) and did over $8 million during it's brief box office run.  And, again, it managed to spawn five sequels.

Do yourself a favor and see this tacky bit of stuff.  Just remember to think of it as kitschy and campy, and not a serious horror flick.  If you go into with a serious mindset, you're bound to be disappointed.

Don’t own a Kindle, but would like to?  The latest generation of Kindle is available at the following links:  with WiFi only   or with WiFi and 3G.

Christy Parker is the author of two blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind and  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day.

Mrs. Parker is also the author of an eBook of patterns entitled Seven Special Scarves, as well as the eBook Learn to Crochet in Minutes a Day:  The First Twelve Lessons

For comments, questions, notes, or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.

The Weird Week That Was - Part Two

I mentioned in my last post about the blizzard and the drought, but I didn’t really manage to explain how they relate to the Weird Week that Was.  Don’t worry, we’re getting there.

So, the drought was bad.  Epic and arid.  And our irrigation allowed us to break even.  Just barely.  When I say barely, I mean it.  There was actually no money left over after paying our bills for the year.  That means that there wouldn’t be any groceries or new shoes for this year if my husband didn’t work off. 

Well, that may be an exaggeration.  We could have bought on credit (although a year of groceries might have strained our credit limit a tad) or taken out a loan to cover our living expenses for the year.  We didn’t have to, because my husband works off.

I can hear the question from the non-farm community (and don’t feel badly, twenty years ago, I would have had the same questions - I was a city girl when I met my husband.  My knowledge of farm life comes from having lived it for the last fifteen years) “What exactly is ‘working off?’”

Working off is what farmers call it when you have a traditional job working for someone else in addition to your farming operation.  Back in the day when my father-in-law was alive, he encouraged my husband to work off, so that he could start building a nest egg young.  He felt that farming was losing some of it’s security (many family farms have been driven out of business), and recommend to my husband that he work off.

My husband got a pretty good gig working for another agricultural company (a large poultry production company), and he’s worked his way up the ladder there over the last fifteen years.  He’s now in charge of the company’s feed production facilities in the northeast portion of the country.  Dobby’s a hard worker, and pretty damned smart, so his rise through the ranks was inevitable (if I must say so myself).

OK, I hear you, back on track.  Working off allowed us to have enough money to live off of for this year.  It will allow us to scrape by for another season (many farmers talk about working off.  I often hear them say that they work off so that they can afford to farm - many years, as much of 70% of farmers don’t show a profit.  When they do, it is often not enough to live off for the year).

And now I slip off track again.  You may wonder why farmers do it.  Why do they continue to farm if they have no guaranteed job security and no guarantee of showing a profit?  Well, that’s an easy question to answer, but the answer is complex.

Most farmers, at least the ones that I know, will complain from sun up to sun down about never making any money.  They will complain about the weather.  They’ll complain about the price of seed, chemicals, fertilizers.  They will complain about not making much money.  They’ll complain about being underappreciated.  They will complain about a myriad of other things.

But, they will not stop doing what they are doing.  It’s all true.  We can’t control the weather.  The cost of doing business continues to rise, while the price of the goods we produce rarely rises enough to offset inflation.  We DO tend to be underappreciated.  And the job security is, well, not very secure.

The fact of the matter is that for most farmers, it’s not just a job, it’s a way of life.  More than that, it’s not just a way of life.  It’s a mission. 

There is something inherently romantic and honorable about providing for others.  About working hard to provide a basic need for mankind.  And every farmer that I know, regardless of how much they do or do not complain, regardless of whether or not they work off, regardless of how much money they make, is an honorable person.

They work hard doing something that they love.  But, the fact of the matter is, they love it because of how it benefits you.  And your family.

The romance, the nobility, the honor, and the simplicity of farming get into a farmers blood.  It gets into their soul.  It becomes a part of them.

So, please, the next time that you get stuck behind a tractor in traffic and are forced to drive 15 mph in a 50 mph zone, don’t curse them in your head.  The next time that you see a farmer and his or her family out wearing well-worn clothes that came from a thrift store, do not mock them (even mentally).  Remember, they are driving that slow for you.  And their family does without new things because they are willing to sacrifice for the greater good.

And, again, how does this relate to the Weird Week that Was?  I’ll continue on in my next post.

Don’t own a Kindle, but would like to?  The latest generation of Kindle is available at the following links:  with WiFi only   or with WiFi and 3G.

Christy Parker is the author of two blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind and  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day.

Mrs. Parker is also the author of an eBook of patterns entitled Seven Special Scarves, as well as the eBook Learn to Crochet in Minutes a Day:  The First Twelve Lessons

For comments, questions, notes, or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.

Book Review - A Chink in the Armor

As subscribers will know, I have a fascination with Marie Belloc Lowndes.  So, when I was looking for a nice, somewhat creepy read after finishing the fourth book of the Chloe Boston series, I turned to my old friend Marie.

The Chink in the Armour promised to be a creepy one; I mean really, it started off with a visit to a fortune teller.  That visit didn’t reveal a pleasant fortune either.  It was an eerie fortune, steeped in suspicion of the soothsayer.  It was a nice start.

Now, I won’t reveal whether or not the suspicious oracle was honest or a hoax.  That would ruin the story for you.  I hate spoilers.  I don’t want to be the personification of one.

I did find that the story was less creepy than I expected.  It was not the full beginning to end inducer of willies that The Lodger was.  But it did start off making my hair stand on end a bit, so that was nice.

The book then turned into many things.  It was part voyage of self-discovery.  It was part liberation of the female lead character.  It was part buddy joint.  It was part mystery.  It was part thriller.  It was all well-written and well-done.  So, while it wasn’t the creep-fest that I was expecting, it was a book well worth reading.

It, again, leaves me wondering why it is that I had never heard of Lowndes until I got my Kindle.  It makes me wonder why she isn’t taught in the school system.  And she’s not considered worthy of that, why she hasn’t at least developed the popular following that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has received.

Please, do me - and yourself - the favor of reading Marie Belloc Lowndes.  I would recommend starting with either The Chink in the Armour or The Lodger.  And please let me know what you think about the author.  I would love to hear your opinions.

Don’t own a Kindle, but would like to?  The latest generation of Kindle is available at the following links:  with WiFi only   or with WiFi and 3G.

Christy Parker is the author of two blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind and  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day.

Mrs. Parker is also the author of an eBook of patterns entitled Seven Special Scarves, as well as the eBook Learn to Crochet in Minutes a Day:  The First Twelve Lessons

For comments, questions, notes, or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.

The Weird Week That Was - Part One

OK, so last week was weird.  Not just your run of the mill week where something happens and you say, “Hunh, that was weird.”  It was a full blown week with one weird thing after another.  Hence, my lack of frequent posting last week.  Now, weirdness usually isn’t enough to keep me away from you, but this compounded weirdness made it impossible for me to post.  I’ll explain as we get further in the story.

I fully intend on taking the next few days to completely inundate you with stories from the Weird Week that Was.  Don’t worry, there are some nice book reviews and scarf updates to pepper my postings, but I really must recount the bizarreness.

Let’s start the zany stories right now with a bit of background.

First, let me start off by saying that 2011 was not a bumper year for farming in our area.  We had a blizzard last winter (winter of 2009-2010) that flooded out our winter crops.  I think that most parts of the country saw some of this blizzard, and there were certainly parts of the country that got it much worse. I’m not complaining.

We then had a three month drought that prevented us from seeing green over the summer. 

For those of you who aren’t farmers, “seeing green” means having live, productive plants.  We call it “seeing green” because drought often causes the plant to turn brown early, thereby decreasing, or in this case completely preventing, crop yield.  Sometimes, when non-farmers hear it, they think that it means “making no money.”  To be frank, in that context, while not seeing green will keep us from seeing any green, the colloquialism actually comes from brown plants rather than a lack of greenbacks.

Fortunately, during the blizzard (not that the blizzard was fortunate, mind you), we lost power.  We were part of the hundreds of thousands in our area that did.  And, no, losing power was not really the fortunate part.  What was fortunate about it was that we had time, without any work to do on the farm (couldn’t really do farmwork, as the ground was covered) besides using the bobcat (a type of front end loader) to clear our driveway and all of those in our neighborhood. 

Clearing driveways turned into clearing the streets in our area.  The state and county roads were overwhelmed by the blizzard (not surprising, we got more snow over a few days than we had ever had on the ground in recorded history).  That meant that local farmers brought out their heavy equipment and cleared roads for their neighbors.  My husband spent a full day doing just that. 

I spent the full day following him around on our Gator (sort of a gas-powered golf cart for farm use) monitoring his safety and checking on our elderly neighbors (of which we have many, we‘re the youngest people in our neighborhood), to ensure that they were all keeping warm and were uninjured.

**Note - as I write about last winter, suddenly the Weird Week that Was is starting to seem less weird by comparison**

So, back to the point.  There was little that we could do around the farm, besides “pushing snow”, which is the country way of saying “plowing snow”.  In the evening, we huddled around the woodstove for warmth, and snuggled by candle light.  This may sound a bit more romantic than it was. 

Our house is a large farm house, and the woodstove was only designed to heat one room (out of 15), although it does warm up the rest of the house somewhat, it doesn’t really make the rest of the house fully liveable.  We had no electricity, and the only warm room in the house was the living room.  We curled up on the couch and slept there.  And, yes, we cooked on the woodstove as well.

Without electricity, there was little to do but talk.  So, Dobby and I talked about our future.  We made plans and thought about implementing them.  That’s right, folks, we’ve finally gotten to the “fortunate” part.

One of the things that we decided was to add irrigation.  I don’t really remember how the decision was made.  We’d talked about it on and off for years.  For some reason, sitting on the couch in the dark, curled up with the dog under our blanket, we finally made the decision.

Once power was restored and life started returning to normal in our area, Dobby called about irrigation.  He researched it and set the plan in motion.  He did it well.  And we picked the right time to do it.  Luck?  Karma?  Providence?  All I can say is we were blessed.  And lucky.  And we’re grateful.

Because, as I mentioned, this year we had a huge drought.  It was bad.  Really bad.  I have a fairly extensive vocabulary, and I can’t really come up with a word to really convey just how bad.  Epic doesn’t even get close.

But we had irrigation.  So, we were blessed.

Irrigation did NOT make us rich this year.  What it did was help us to break even.

Wait, what?

That’s right.  Irrigation helped us to break even.  We don’t have it on all of our land (yet – it’s very expensive) but the fields that we had it on produced high yields which in a normal year might have been profit.  This year, it turned out to be enough to offset the losses on the non-irrigated fields (some of our fields that routinely produce 150 bushel per acre came in at about 4 bushels per acre last year).

Usually, a farmer who just breaks even will say it with disdain, or remorse, or anger.  I can say it this year with joy.  Because there were many farmers in our area (irrigation is not particularly widespread here) who really struggled to keep their farms this year.  There were a few who lost them.  Others were selling off equipment just to pay the bills.

So, when I say that we broke even, I am overjoyed.

(How does this relate to the weird week that was?  I’ll tell you more about it in Part Two.)

Don’t own a Kindle, but would like to?  The latest generation of Kindle is available at the following links:  with WiFi only   or with WiFi and 3G.

Christy Parker is the author of two blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind and  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day.

Mrs. Parker is also the author of an eBook of patterns entitled Seven Special Scarves, as well as the eBook Learn to Crochet in Minutes a Day:  The First Twelve Lessons

For comments, questions, notes, or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.

  

Another Shameless Plug

Recently, a subscriber to my other blog (Learn to Crochet in Minutes a Day) suggested that I should publish my archived lessons as an eBook.  The idea was that this would allow new subscribers to catch up with current subscribers, as they could get the archived lessons (which are auto-deleted from Kindle after a certain amount of time).

I thought that this was an excellent idea, so the eBook Learn to Crochet in Minutes a Day:  The First Twelve Lessons is now available in the Kindle store.  If you are interested in learning to crochet, I'd love for you to check it out.

Thanks.

Don’t own a Kindle, but would like to?  The latest generation of Kindle is available at the following links:  with WiFi only   or with WiFi and 3G.

Christy Parker is the author of two blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind and  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day.

Mrs. Parker is also the author of an eBook of patterns entitled Seven Special Scarves, as well as the eBook Learn to Crochet in Minutes a Day:  The First Twelve Lessons

For comments, questions, notes or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.

Shameless Plug

My first eBook is now available in the Kindle store.  It is a pattern book for some of the scarves that I designed for the Scarves for Special Olympics campaign.  It contains seven original scarf patterns, each of which is a two-colored scarf design.

If you'd like to check it out, here is the link:

Seven Special Scarves

Also, I expect the eBook of the first twelve lessons from this blog to be available later this week!  Thanks.

Don’t own a Kindle, but would like to?  The latest generation of Kindle is available at the following links:  with WiFi only   or with WiFi and 3G.

Christy Parker is the author of two blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind and  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day.

Mrs. Parker is also the author of the eBook Seven Special Scarves.

For comments, questions, notes or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.

Bad Movies = Good Fun

It's true confession time.  Dobby (my husband) and I love bad movies.  I mean, I'm not talking Howard the Duck bad - that's two hours of my life that I'm never getting back - I'm just talking kinda bad.

This disorder stems, I believe, from our wedding.  You see, Dobby and I got married in October.  And we are madly (and bizarrely) in love.  So, every year, we celebrate our anniversary for the entire month.

Somewhere along the way, it became snuggling up to watch one movie every night for the whole month.  Sometimes, we do the dinner-and-a-movie out thing, but usually, we just curl up on the couch and watch them on our DVR.  That means that I start searching the TV and cable listings at the end of September.  I use my DVR to record at least 31 movies, so that we will be stocked up.

Early on, it became horror movies.  Obviously, there are a ton of them on during the month of October.  Then, over time, you've seen all of the good ones.  So, you start watching some of the bad ones.  And, you start to really enjoy them.

We enjoy some of them for the inherent (and accidental) humor.  We enjoy some of them for the gratuitous gore.  And we enjoy some of them for their quirkiness.

Over time, this love of bad flicks has expanded from the horror genre to suspense as well.  In the last couple of weeks, we've been watching them again.  Maybe it has something to do with the impending Valentine's Day holiday.  Whatever the cause, we've been really craving them.

You can expect some movie reviews over the next few weeks.  You can also expect that I will admit that the movies are bad.  And then, I will tell you why they are good.

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Christy Parker is the author of two blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind and  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day.

For comments, questions, notes or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.