I'm going to take a pass on this swap...I am still trying to get over the Thanksgiving that was supposed to be elsewhere....but ended up here anyways....and now onto Christmas LOL....and if that wasnt bad enough, someone decided to trash half of my outside Christmas ornaments tonight(some people are just sick, they tore up my elderly neighbors display as well!)...I almost lost the little bit of Christmas spirit I had, but I refuse to let some idiot spoil it for me AND I am determined to get into the full spirit just to spite them LOL! So if I don't talk to you all again before the season ends(I am sure I will)... I hope you all have a Happy Hanukkah and/or a Merry Christmas Donna

Well, I also won a "completely restored" John Deere lawn tractor from the local Old Engine club a couple of years ago. It ran for about 15 minutes then blew up. LOL And now, the real prize. Elery and I went to a Taste of Home Cooking Show, he got tickets as a gift from his sister. One of the sponsors was a woman's shelter and a local builder donated a $1,500 island, beautiful handmade cabinetry with some kind of composite counter top that looks like granite. Raffle tickets were sold, proceeds went to the women's shelter. Elery bought 3 tickets, gave them to me. Yup, the island will be delivered to Elery's next week, we tried to sell it back to the builder because there's no place in either of our houses to install it. I think we've decided to keep it and put it into the new house when we build in a couple of years. It's a very, very nice prize but who the heck wins a kitchen island? Annie

My SIL and I saw it yesterday. 2 people with no previous experience-neither of us had seen a theatrical performance, or a previous movie. I vaguely knew what the plot was, she vaguely knew it had been released as a film sometime awhile ago. So. Neither of us liked it much. Sorrysorrysorry, but this is a very honest reaction from a non-Les Mis fan. We didn't quite realize it was literally a filming of a musical theatrical production. So the fact that there was almost no spoken dialogue, that the sets were clearly CGI generated, and that there was an utter lack of any film-style narrative, character development, or explanation of backstory meant that for us, it was mostly a very long couple of hours listening to a lot of singing of songs we didn't know interspersed with trying to figure out what the heck was going on with the plot. We both thought Anne Hathaway was fantastic, but again had no idea that her role was, in film terms, little more than an extended cameo. She was brought in, sacked, humiliated, mutilated (although how come she had her front teeth back in when she sang the Dream song?!?!?), belted out a showstopper, and died. It was nice to see her later as a ghost, especially with her hair combed. The other performers: Hugh Jackman is adorable and sang well. Russell Crowe was in the opinion of my SIL pretty sexy. Amanda Seyfrid's singing voice is SOOOO high pitched; I kept waiting for her to veer off into Minnie Riperton territory. Neither of us really understood what the heck was wrong with Javert; at one point my SIL whispered to me 'that dude needs to get a hobby or some therapy'. Why did he suddenly appear out of uniform toward the end? What was that group of young guys fighting about? How did Jean Valjean become a mayor, and then where the heck did he hide out all that time? How could Cosette and Marius fall in love just by looking at each other? Why was Eponine suddenly in drag? When will it be over? Oops, last question was rhetorical. However, unfortunately the report from this Les Miz virgin is a pretty frank thumbs down. I truly don't mean to offend the fans, but neither of us were impressed. Oh wait, we did enjoy the Helena Bonham Carter/Sacha Baron Cohen characters; now that was some funny stuff. It did accomplish one of my goals, which is to see as many of the presumptive award nominee films as possible. So there is that to report :). Ann

Lady gag-me, I don't get her appeal and I suspect I never will. She is NOT musically talented and she is NOT attractive. I equate her to the circus sideshow; a lot of people want to watch because she is an anomaly; put her in a room full of actual talented musical artists who are at least moderately attractive and no one would ever notice her. I don't begrudge her success, I would do the same if given the chance BUT, she is a moderate singer with less than average looks who has ridden a tidal wave to success. As a stand alone, she doesn't pull the weight she is afforded and she took on the diva complex before it was earned; calling her followers her "little monsters" She strikes me as the latest celeb trying to cash in before everyone realizes what a fraud she is. Did anyone catch her "tribute" to David Bowie?!? His son was offended, as I was.