Princess Bride

If you love the movie, you have GOT to read the book. I read it several years ago (with my best friend and mom--we read it out loud round-robin on a road trip from Michigan to Virginia) and really enjoyed it. But for some reason I've never read it again. I adore the movie, and happened to remember about two weeks before Christmas that I had liked the book, so it went on my list. As you can guess, I got it. I'm now more than halfway through it and am enjoying it immensely. It's going on my favorites list (I've updated it, you can check).

Let me reiterate--if you like the movie, you MUST read the book!!

It was then that she realized, maybe he DIDN'T want the Cheerios...or juice.

Two Blogs in One Day!

Aaron and I watched "A River Runs Through It" the other day, and there was this great quote at the end of the movie. I felt it needed to be part of a blog, but didn't have the blog to go with the quote. I sort of do now...

The quote is, "At sunrise everything is luminous, but not clear. It is often the same with those we live with and love and should know: they elude us. Yet you can love completely without complete understanding". The blog that goes with the quote is Jackson's, as well as Rishi's comment at the end.

We do not have to completely understand each other to love each other. And we do not have to completely understand our God to love Him, either. We can love completely with who and what we are in our imperfect understanding. We don't always do it, but we can. And as our perceptions crash and meld and sharpen and grow--as we grow--our love continues to grow, too, and its completeness is even more complete. It's a little like the last chapter in C.S. Lewis' "The Last Battle"--the further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets.

So, there it is. You can love completely without complete understanding. Now go and love.

Ode To Mista' Whiskas

For those of you who don't know, Rishi and Amanda's quasi-cat had an unfortunate run-in with Ravi & Diane's dog, Rosie. Rosie won, and Mista' Whiskas, or Cat, as Rishi called him, is no more. This news has saddened me, especially since SOME PEOPLE think it's funny (Aaron and Richard, shame on you), so I thought I'd work through my grief with a poem.

"What is it?" we asked when he first arrived,
Hairless and funky and half-alive.
"Is he abused or just diseased?
Is it even really a he?"
And then, of all people, Rishi came to the aid.
Fed him and pet him, and a special bond was made.
Even Tyson liked him, and that's saying a lot.
(Although, we must admit, Amanda did NOT.)
And though he looked gross and a little bit weird,
Though every time we saw him, we cringed and we jeered,
We came to accept him as the Sriram cat.
His domain was their front porch, where on the cushion he sat,
Until that fateful day when Cat and Rosie met.
Now Rishi and Amanda are back to just one pet.
While we didn't want to touch him, somehow our hearts he touched,
Mista' Whiskas, you were special, and we'll miss you very much.