My final Olympic feelings

The Olympics ended tonight and I am sad, but I can now look forward to Sochi, Russia in 2014! I want to say I thought Canada was a wonderful host country, the Opening and Closing ceremonies were amazing, and I cried way more than I like to do... ever.

Final Woo Hoos
The USA broke a record for its winter Olympic medal count and topped the board with 37 total, but Canada took it home with the most Gold medals (14) in these games and came in third for total medals with 26. Germany was second with 30 medals. All told, I think there were 87 countries participating and 24 of them took home at least one medal, so just one big Woo Hoo for the 21st Winter Olympics.

All Curler's everywhere - Woo Hoo! (An homage to my dad who curled once upon a time)
All the 50km Cross country skiers - Wow - just to ski that distance is really something

And of course the ice hockey... it did end up being Canada vs USA for the Gold and it was a cliffhanger of a game that went into overtime. Both of these teams wanted this one really bad but to paraphrase Bob Costas, Team USA wanted this but ALL of Canada needed it. And the Woo Hoo goes to....
Team Canada - The Gold

More Olympic Woo Hoo's

OK - more well earned Woo Hoo's for the world's athletes!

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir (Canada) Ice Dancing - The Gold - Way to go for the home country.
Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway) Alpine Skiing Events - 1 Gold / 1 Silver / 1 Bronze - So he added another two medals from the last woo hoo. Seriously- could his dad just be any cuter?
Ashleigh McIvor (Canada) Ladies' Ski Cross - The Gold - Ski Cross (and Snowboard Cross) are just really fun to watch.
Team USA Nordic Combined 4x5km - The Silver - Oh, AND Bill DeMong and Johnny Spillane of Team USA also took some individual medals: a Gold and a 2nd Individual Silver respectively. Now we have a whole bunch of medals in Nordic Combined where until this Olympic we had none. Yay us! (We still need to conquer that pesky Biathlon)
Erin Pac & Elana Meyers (USA) Women's Bobsleigh - The Bronze - Well done. And yay to Canada's teams who took Gold and Silver.
Alexei Grishin (Belarus) & Jeret "Speedy" Peterson (USA) Men's Aerials - The Gold and Silver respectively. Another very cool sport to watch.
Team Canada & Team USA Women's Hockey - Gold and Silver respectively - You know...hockey...Canada...need I say more? I think not. Also - we may see another Canada vs USA in Men's Hockey (we'll see...)
Yu-Na Kim (Korea) Ladies Figure Skating - The Gold - She is THE athlete for Korea and had so much pressure on her to win and she did - boy did she - by such a margin that it's amazing what this young lady can do - truly amazing - she's beautiful to watch.
Mao Asada (Japan) Ladies Figure Skating- Wow! She did two (count them, 1-2) Triple Axels (that's a jump - a difficult jump) in her Free Skate and one in her Short program. The first lady to land (perfectly, I might add) two, let alone three, in one competition.
Joannie Rochette (Canada) Ladies Figure Skating - This young woman fought back through some incredible pain to medal here. Three days before her short program skate her mom died very suddenly of a heart attack. Joannie and her mom were very close. As my dad died very suddenly last year, I can tell you - I was doing good to just be functional in the first few weeks after my dad died let alone phenomenal and win an Olympic medal just days after such a horrific event - so amazing, inspiring and strong. Very well done, Joannie.
Team USA "The Night Train" Four-Man Bobsleigh - The Gold - These are some way cool guys.

So there we go - only a few more events to go and we'll wrap this up. By the way, I did not say this yet, but I want to send out my best wishes and sympathy for the family, team, and country of the Georgian Luge athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died in a terrible accident during a training run on the opening day of the Vancouver Olympics.

On "Persuasion" and Jane Austen

Color me HAPPY. I just found another version of Jane Austen's "Persuasion" to love.

Some might call me obsessed - I'll call myself passionate. I currently own movie versions of all six of Jane Austen's stories:
Pride and Prejudice - I have the 2005 version with Keira Knightly and Matthew Macfadyen and a 1980 BBC version with Elizabeth Garvey and David Rintoul (*Note: Must acquire the 1995 Colin Firth version).
Sense and Sensibility - I have the 1995 version with the stellar cast: Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Tom Wilkinson, Imelda Staunton, and Hugh Laurie (but their are more versions for me to get - yay!)
Emma - I only have the 1996 version but it has a great cast that includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeremy Northam, Alan Cumming, Juliet Stevenson, Ewan McGregor and Toni Collette (but there are sooooo many versions from me to choose from for further acquisitions - yay again!)

Mansfield Park - I have a 1983 BBC version which is good. Sadly, there are only two other versions out there, so far... I really want the 1999 version.
Northanger Abby - I have one of the two versions available (I think it's the 1986 A&E one) though to be honest I really do not care for this one so much, but am compelled to own at least one as I do not wish my Austen collection to be incomplete....you understand.

Finally, Persuasion - I currently have the 1995 version with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds which I also LOVE (and there are several versions out which I would like to view). But, today I watched a 2007 version made for TV that I was completely entranced by and now am compelled to acquire (as soon as able). It was shown on Masterpiece Classic on PBS and starred Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones (wicked cute).

I think what we can all take away from this is - Clancy does not own nearly enough of the many versions of these movies available! I mean, I do own three versions of Jane Eyre, so how can I not represent Ms. Austen better - right? And fear not reader/writers...I do also own all six novels as well.

I LOVE the Winter Olympics

The Olympics rock, but the Winter Olympics really really Rock! I love practically every event and watch almost every minute of it - the missing minutes being the really late show that doesn't start until almost midnight. And in the name of national pride I want to acknowledge that we are seriously leading the medal board (at this moment we have 24 medals with the next closest being Germany with 18). But in the name of international pride in all Olympic athletes I want to give out some big Woo Hoos for the following outstanding medal winners (needless to say ALL the Olympians - medal or not deserve a Woo Hoo for just being there). So here are some wins that had me on the edge of my seat! Sorry this is long BUT it is worth reading : )

WOO HOO
Bode Miller (USA) Alpine Skiing Events - 1 Gold / 1 Silver / 1 Bronze (and he's not done yet).
Michael Schmid (Switzerland) Men's Ski Cross - The Gold - Wowser was he fast.
Mark Tuitert (The Netherlands) Speed Skating Long Track - A Gold - He was so excited it makes me smile just thinking of it.
Shani Davis (USA) Speed Skating Long Track - 1 Gold / 1 Silver
Simon Ammahn (Switzerland) Adam Malysz (Poland) Gregor Schlierenzauer (Austria) - Ski Jumping Long & Normal Hills - 2 Golds / 2 Silvers / 2 Bronzes respectively - they are just THE ski jumping guys.
Lindsey Vonn (USA) Alpine Skiing Events - 1 Gold / 1 Bronze (and she's not done yet either)
Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway) Alpine Skiing Events - A Gold - this guy came back from a serious injury the year before and has an adorable dad behind him.
Evan Lysacek (USA) Men's Figure Skating - The Gold - He has just been beautiful this year
Evgeny Plushenko (Russia) Men's Figure Skating - The Silver - He retired for 3 years and returned just for the Olympics - the man is such an amazing and powerhouse skater.
Diasuke Takahashi (Japan) Men's Figure Skating - The Bronze - He is fabulous and theatrical - a joy to watch.
Torah Bright (Australia) Ladies Half pipe Snowboarding - The Gold - with an awesome trick - so worthy. And go USA for getting the Silver (Hannah Teeter) and Bronze (Kelly Clark) here.
Maria Riesch (Germany) Alpine Skiing Events - A Gold
Shaun White & Scott Lago (USA) Men's Half pipe Snowboarding - The Gold & The Bronze - of course.... helloooo....it's Shaun White!
Marit Bjoergen (Norway) Cross Country Skiing - 1 Gold / 1 Bronze- she ruled and it was an exciting finish for the Gold.
Petra Majdic (Slovenia) Cross Country Skiing - The Bronze - Serious props for this gal who skied way longer than anyone who has several broken ribs and a punctured lung should ski. I am going to forgo any opinion on the politics of the accident that caused the injuries. I will only say that it takes some serious mental and physical strength to finish the long skiing event let alone finish fast enough to medal.
Julie Mancuso (USA) Alpine Skiing Events - 2 Silvers (and she's not done yet either)
Hongbo Zhao & Xue Shen (China) Pairs Figure Skating - The Gold - Here's the deal - they have been skating together for 18 years, were recently married and have medaled at the Olympics before (they're 36 & 31) but never been able to grab the Gold, so they put their marriage on hold in order to train and try once more for a Gold medal and it paid off - they were phenomenal.
Seth Wescott (USA) Snowboard Cross - The Gold - this was a come from behind exciting win.
Alexandre Bilodeau (Canada) Men's Moguls - The Gold - Not only Canada's first Gold on home turf but an excellent story about Alex being motivated by his older brother, Frederick, who has Cerebal Palsy.
Hannah Kearney & Shannon Bahrke (USA) Ladies' Moguls - The gold and The Bronze respectively. Moguls are just cool.
Apolo Ohno (USA) Short Track Speed Skating - 1 Silver / 1 Bronze - he is now the most decorated Winter Olympian in USA History with 7 total Olympic medals over 3 Olympics.
JR Celski (USA) Short Track Speed Skating - A Bronze - this young man came back from a horrific life-threatening accident in the not too distant past.
Johnny Spillane (USA) Nordic Combined - A Silver - This was one of two winter events we had never medaled in...UNTIL now - yay us! (Now we just have to conquer the Biathlon)

Honorable Mentions
Chris DelBosco (Canada) Men's Ski Cross -He came in 4th but he was so close and it was heartbreaking when he crashed on the verge of getting a medal.
Nobunari Oda (Japan) Men's Figure Skating - He's a great skater. I expect he'll medal in Sochi, Russia in 2014.
Johnny Weir (USA) Men's Figure Skating - Johnny finished 6th but he skated clean and did two terrific programs. He can be proud of what he did in Vancouver.

On a final note - I am always in awe of these athletes who get seriously injured in the course of their sports and yet fight to come back and do it again - it takes some kinda courage to my mind!
And I'll stay on top of this so the next updates won't be so long : )

"Cool Daddy Rat" is pretty darn cool

"Cool Daddy Rat" is a children's picture book written by Kristyn Crow and illustrated by Mike Lester. It is full of crazy rhymes and a very jazzy, very cool - daddy rat. It's won awards and deservedly so. It's "jazzy spazzy zee zat".

Go to the Library or your local book store and find it and read it - out loud.
It's fun to listen to and fun for the mouth to say...so Clancy says!

JA Konrath's Jack Daniels novels

I just read the first two books of JA Konrath's Jack Daniels novels. I'm in!

They are about a police detective, Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels. It's in first person, so you always are in her head, or the bad guy's, and it really works. Mr. Konrath is a guy who really knows how to write a strong female protagonist and is also able to write super creepy, and I do mean Super Creepy, bad guys. And the books have great names - "Whiskey Sour", "Bloody Mary", Fuzzy Navel"....you get the idea.

Jack has relationship issues, an obnoxious ex-partner, a funny current partner, a mom she loves and respects but makes her a little crazy, and a wicked bad case of insomnia. Each book, at least the first two, takes you from beginning to end of a case involving a serial killer. I am not a fan of horror and rarely read mysteries or thrillers, but I like these. There's enough grisly to make me wince, but not so much I don't want to read it and the tension and pacing keeps me up reading late into the night. They are an easy and entertaining read that I think is worth the time. (I'm diving into the third one tonight!)

Sorry I was MIA this last week...

My computer got a virus and I was completely at a loss. I got it back today, so tomorrow I will post something (of substance - not like this)!

Woo Hoo....Clancy

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!!

Yes - it is Super Bowl Sunday troops! I am sad and happy. Happy it's here and the two teams I really wanted to see play are playing - since my boys didn't make it - Giants : ( And sad because football season is over and we now have a drought until September (sigh).

So, I will be happy if either the Colts or the Saints win as I like them both (it IS OK). And since the Pre-pre-show has just started - that is all I will say for today. Oh - I do want to say I am also looking forward to the many new commercials - always a treat! And to hearing The Who at half-time - also always a treat! YAY SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!!!!

Is it just me...

Disclaimer - I am going to keep these 'personal thoughts' to a desperate minimum - I promise.

I have begun to notice as I go through my day that I talk to my pets. Most pet owners that feel as though their pets are like their children will understand this - I understand this -as one of those people. What worries me is that I am now having full conversations with them and have also begun talking to Dante. Dante is a large goldfish (I think you can see my concern).

My dogs and my cats have full personalities and do not hesitate to share their opinions with me - all - day - long. Mostly, I appreciate their input. Topaz is a little pushy and Apache is a little whiny, but we all have our little issues. It is disconcerting though when I realize that I just held a five minute conversation with my dogs and I feel like they won whatever discussion may have been being debated. To be fair - they are really persuasive and I have little self control when it comes to them - so sue me.

It would be nice, dear friends, to be reassured that I am not going crazy in my isolated writing existence and others also "talk to the animals" to quote Doctor Dolittle. Give me a shout out and let me know I'm not alone - or give me a shout out and let me know my isolation is surely getting to me (either will strangely put my mind at rest). THANKS

What about Jeremy Renner...

With the Oscars coming in March and the nominations just out, lets look at one of the, perhaps, lesser know nominees for Best Actor (he was also up for a Golden Globe Best Actor). His nomination comes for starring in The Hurt Locker which I have not yet seen, but will soon - very soon.

I remember seeing Renner in North Country, S.W.A.T., The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Unusuals, and even an appearance on House, M.D.. There is something compelling about Renner that makes him hang out in my mind and jump at the opportunity to see him in something - anything.

He's really cute but not necessarily a classic hottie like George Clooney. In really good shape, but not necessarily mega-buff like Brad Pitt (Troy or Fight Club). But he is a good actor, a memorable actor that subliminally stays with you. He seems like just an everyday kind of guy you could easily hang with or have a lovely blind-date with (H - I do not want to hear about the sentence ending with "with").

I'm glad he is being recognized because this will bring him to light for an even greater audience than he has thus had which will hopefully then bring him even more great roles f or me to seek out. If you are not aware of Jeremy Renner, I suggest S.W.A.T. as an introduction or The Hurt Locker (since it's up for Best Picture and it really does look good).

Can we talk "The Thin Man"...

Who hasn't see a "Thin Man" movie? All who said raised their hands - gold stars for you! The rest of you - shame, shame, shame....rush right out and rent one now. Hurry - it's never too late meet Nick and Nora Charles!!!

There are six of the 1930-40's films to choose from - in order, they are: The Thin Man, After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home, and Song of the Thin Man. And the best part - wait for it - they all star Myrna Loy and William Powell - if you just said 'Who?' - look them up on IMDB and never admit that out loud : (

Nick used to be a private detective before he married wealthy Nora. But when they return to Nick's old stomping grounds, they are constantly running into the colorful characters that used to populate his world and getting sucked into investigating criminal activities. Nick is always reticent to help solve the crime but Nora always wants to be involved because she finds the seedy underworld fascinating and exciting.

Every 'Thin Man" film contains loving witty banter between Nick and Nora, lots of cocktails, physical comedy, and classic get-togethers of the sort that reveal our criminal-du jour. Trust me on this one - watch them, watch them all!