Yesterday, I wrote about Pascal's favorite movie, Alexandre le Bienheureux. It seems that my husband likes every story where the man gets to be "left alone". Another favorite is the movie Cast Away. Pascal says that it's one of his lifelong dreams to live on a private, deserted island. One Frenchman's heaven is another Bon Bon Queen's hell. I prefer not to imagine going more than 24 hours without things like hot water, electricity, down comforters, refrigerators, and books. The closest I would ever want to come living the deserted-island lifestyle would be a role as Ginger, the movie star, in a Broadway production of Gilligan's Island: The Musical.On Monday I mentioned Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts: Using the Power of Pleasure to Have Your Way with the World. I said that it would be one of the ten books I would take with me if indeed I did have to go live on a deserted island. If I were packing for that fated trip today, here are a few other titles I'd take along:
Cork Boat: I love this inspiring true story of how John Pollack, a former Clinton speechwriter, pursued his childhood dream of building a boat made entirely of wine corks. It might inspire me to find a creative way to get off the island!
The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love: If I'm going to be stranded on a deserted island (wouldn't it be so much nicer to be stranded on a dessert-ed island?), I'll surely be in dire need of some laugh-out-loud comedy. Any book by Jill Conner Browne always does the trick.
Creating Money, Attracting Abundance: I'm a new-age kind of girl, and one of the most thought-provoking books that lives permanently on my nightstand is Creating Money; Attracting Abundance by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer. Its about the Law of Attraction and abundant thinking. There is so much depth to this book, I've been studying it for years. Of course, I probably wouldn't need money on a deserted island, but the principles are universal and apply to just about everything. This duo has written other great books like Spiritual Growth: Being Your Higher Self and Living with Joy: Keys to Personal Power and Spiritual Transformation. Since they're all by the same authors, can three titles count as one?
War and Peace: I have yet to read this 1200-page classic "masterpiece" penned by Leo Tolstoy. I suppose I'd have plenty of time to do so on the island. As an added bonus, the book is so big it would come in handy as a footstool.
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The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love: If I'm going to be stranded on a deserted island (wouldn't it be so much nicer to be stranded on a dessert-ed island?), I'll surely be in dire need of some laugh-out-loud comedy. Any book by Jill Conner Browne always does the trick.
Creating Money, Attracting Abundance: I'm a new-age kind of girl, and one of the most thought-provoking books that lives permanently on my nightstand is Creating Money; Attracting Abundance by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer. Its about the Law of Attraction and abundant thinking. There is so much depth to this book, I've been studying it for years. Of course, I probably wouldn't need money on a deserted island, but the principles are universal and apply to just about everything. This duo has written other great books like Spiritual Growth: Being Your Higher Self and Living with Joy: Keys to Personal Power and Spiritual Transformation. Since they're all by the same authors, can three titles count as one?
War and Peace: I have yet to read this 1200-page classic "masterpiece" penned by Leo Tolstoy. I suppose I'd have plenty of time to do so on the island. As an added bonus, the book is so big it would come in handy as a footstool.
Gone with the Wind: Of course I have read this classic (required reading for every Southern Belle), but a deserted island might be a good place to re-visit the feisty character of Scarlett O’'Hara. With God as my witness, I'll never spend time on a deserted island again!
I've still got a few more titles before I hit my ten-book limit. And although I have no immediate plans for a retreat to a deserted island, I am looking for a few good titles to read. Any suggestions, dear readers?
I've still got a few more titles before I hit my ten-book limit. And although I have no immediate plans for a retreat to a deserted island, I am looking for a few good titles to read. Any suggestions, dear readers?
Pascal's favorite movie is a French film entitled Alexandre le Bienheureux (Alexandre, The Very Happy Man). It's about a hen-pecked, over-worked husband whose life takes a turn for the better when his nagging wife and her dour parents are all simultaneously killed in a car crash. At last, Alexandre will be left in peace!
For example, our little nephew-to-be already owns his first car, a VW pedal car my brother found on Ebay. It may have felt like a splurge, but it was a huge bargain compared to these luxury items featured on PoshTots.com. The site features toys, furniture and décor for children with silver spoons in their mouths. You can buy a pirate playhouse, a shoe armoire, or a covered wagon bed - just $52,000, $49,000 and $13,995 respectively! As for cars, there is a veritable lot to choose from; test drive the kid-sized BMW at $8,000 or think big with a Mini Off Roader priced at just $32,350.00. The site is a fabulous source of inspiration for our little prince, but rest assured that we'll be creating his royal kingdom on a pauper's budget.
Here in the Carolinas, school has officially started. Being the Lisa Simpson of the family, this causes me to stare wistfully at all of the pristine notebooks and unsharpened pencils in the stores, a part of me wishing that I were joining all of those students in the halls of their hallowed institutions. Being the Bart Simpson of the family, Pascal shudders as he walks by those same school supply aisles, relieved that the only backpack he will carry this fall will be full of supplies for kayaking and going to the beach. I was the type who would have been devastated by a "B" on a book report; Pascal was the type who would read the first chapter of the book and make the rest up as he hammed it up for laughs during his in-class presentation. One time, his presentation on Sherlock Holmes' The Hound of the Baskervilles was so outrageous the teacher gave him a "C" for creativity. Here are some other answers that Pascal might have given as a student. 
Over the years, Pascal's English has really improved and my French isn't too shabby either. We don't get tripped up very often on foreign vocabulary words and translations, but the other night Pascal yelled from the living room where he was watching Throw Mama From the Train: "Charlene - what’s a Mallomar?" I explained, and he went back to laughing at Danny De Vito and Anne Ramsey. He loves that part where Danny clobbers Billy Crystal with a cast iron frying pan. It got me thinking about the funny mistranslations we've laughed at over the years (our own and those of others). One of my all-time favorites is from the Russian singers who sang phonetically on the cruise ship where I worked. They interpreted Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" lyrics as: "I should have changed my stupid lock; I should have made you brush your teeth". Here are a few more silly ones:
In high school, my brother took a pottery class and gave me the final masterpiece that he created. He called it "The Ketchup Bowl". It is a deep jagged-edged bowl with red, navy and teal blue streaks running down the sides. I treasure this eclectic bowl because he made it. "How fun it will be to create a similar piece of artwork that he can now love and cherish", I thought, visions of vases like the ones pictured here dancing in my head. By the time I called up RDG Designs and Glass Blowing Center on Castle Street to make my first appointment, I had downgraded my ambitions to making a colorful paperweight. How hard could that be, right? Apparently much more difficult than I imagined. My teacher, owner Jane Greer, suggested that I start with a clear glass ornament. Adding color to glass is a whole other skill that would be introduced in Lesson Two. The first thing I learned to do was light the torch. Even this proved difficult for me; I can't even start a simple cigarette lighter without burning my fingers! But under Jane's deft guidance, in no time at all I was melting glass rods, pressing them, rotating them, and twisting them into shapes. I started to learn the rich vocabulary of the trade: acronyms like "POOP" and descriptors like "the snake that ate the mouse" - something you don't want to happen to your glass. Guess what? It happened to mine.
There’s a hummingbird living in our garden. Pascal first discovered him a few weeks ago. Since then, I've seen him daily, right outside my office door, fluttering around all of the potted flowering plants that surround our palm tree. The bird's wings move so fast, the movement always catches my eye. It's fascinating to watch this tiny little creature hover in mid-air, wings flapping frantically, long beak drawing out the nectar nestled deep within the flowers.
!["Bad Table"](http://www.phpblogmanager.com/files/229/206/badtable7vcdd4rn34.jpg ""Bad Table"")
The jam spoon is designed so that the handle of the spoon can rest on the edge of the jam jar - that way the handle doesn't get sticky. Or, you can dip the spoon in honey and then rest it on the edge of your teacup so that honey drips right into the cup. 