I'm determined

Some days posting on my blog seems like a lovely little way to share what I'm thinking...and other days it feels like one more thing I *need* to do.

To make it easy on myself, I'm going to leave this post-in progress up for a while, and as things pop in my brain I can add them and then let them get out of the way of the work I'm doing.

- I really enjoyed the movie of RENT. Having listened to the soundtrack countless times and having seen the stage show only one, I was able to spot a few things that were changed (reinterpreted), but I'm sure I didn't get them all. And the fact that I mostly listen to albums now on shuffle on my iPod meant that it was harder for me to tell when song order changed. But I did notice a few words changed here and there.
I thought there were some issues with the direction - mostly the Roger/Mimi scenes and a few of the dialogue to song transitions. But they weren't disruptive enough to ruin my enjoyment of the movie. The movie fit the "world" that I have imagined when listening to the CD over and over again, and I thought that the things that were altered for the big screen were done well. It seems to me that it was a good stand alone movie, although I have an extremely biased perspective and I know what was going to happen (or be said) before it happened (in most cases)...so I could be totally wrong on that one. And given that musicals are just generally not popular anymore, I don't really expect people who aren't fans of the show to go see it.

- There is no need for us to purchase any more toys for Stewart (unless we need a new cat dancer or laser pointer - the interactive toys he likes). Lately, all of his "playing alone" energy has been spent on the plastic rings and former rings from milk jugs. On Sunday morning, he was even fetching...we kept throwing it from bed, and he kept bringing it back. He also still enjoys "helping" while I knit.

- A late review of the set I designed in July. One of my college professors saw it and just told me that I did an "amazing job". Aaaaahhhhh. :-)
Full disclosure - he's also a friend of the family. He and my mom were good friends in high school. But that didn't mean that I got A's on everything when I took his classes...and he didn't have to use the word amazing if he didn't want to...

- We had a nice visit with family in Ohio at Thanksgiving. All three grandparents seem to be well and we had a great time with friends that lived across the street from me growing up. My friend Heidi and her husband have two adorable boys. Bobby is 3 and Brendan is 6 months - we haven't seen Bobby for two years, so the change was pretty amazing.
Lots of time to knit in transit and while we were there. I might be ready for Christmas after all.

- It seems as though R and I will be dumping our gym membership in favor of putting together a small "gym" at home. We both have some hand weights, so a treadmill is first on the list. I find myself surprisingly excited about this plan. The only issue at this point is figuring out how we can afford a new TV for the exercise area (or a new one for upstairs so that an old TV can move down).

I'm sure that more will come to me this evening, but it is nearly time to go get the bus.