The UBIQUITOUS telling of Jane Eyre....

Interesting thing is the story of Jane Eyre and the repeated amount of times it's been made into a movie...almost as bad as Jane Austen books made into movies, ad nauseum. Funnily enough, I've had the pleasure of watching various versions of both, including the more recent Jane Eyre, which missed a lot from the book, thus not including the parakeet (see King of Queens, "Educationg Dougie," on youtube). So from my experience I've compiled a small list of the best and worse versions of Jane Eyre. Of course, this is entirely my opinion:


1983 Jane Eyre
Timothy Dalton as silly Rochester
Zelah Clark as bored Jane
11 part series(Yes, 11!), and it was unfortunately boring or as I like to say, as exciting as watching paint dry, which is unfortunate as I adore Mr. Dalton and hated he only hade a very minut bit of time in the Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie fun flick "The Tourist." Dull, dull......OY dull.

1996 Jane Eyre
William Hurt as Rochester. William acted bored, uninterested and not willing to give his all for the roll which made him do a Kevin Kostner ala Robin Hood IE: losing his English accent here and there.
Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane; she seemed perpetually bored, exhausted, unwilling to give a bit of passion as....well, Jane did become passionate about Mr. Rochester and the parakeet (kidding....just watch that episode of King of Queens).
Zeffirelli’s version is pretty & has the cutest Adele, but lacks passion. The poster is the most passionate thing about it. Skip it.

1997 Jane Eyre
Ciaran Hinds as Rochester. Loud, boisterous, his mustache was a bit too "meh" and reminded me of Dale Earnhardt for some reason
Samantha Morton as Jane who, IMO over-acted the part. Another dull one, IMO.

Crazy coupon lady on the loose brought back to earth!

So, this weekend we made a pilgrimage to our local big SUPER store that matches prices. For the past week starting last Saturday, I've been on Extreme Coupon Planet as I clipped and saved coupons, organizing them according to what we needed, PLUS as our local ads come in the mail on Tuesdays/Wednesdays, I waited w/bated breath as they came in and I made my list for what I needed w/the ads(which I brought to my SUPER store despite they stated they didn't need them. Uh, yeah; they claim they don't need them there ads, but I brought 'em anyway). So, w/kids in tow and two carts, we did our shopping. It was late, the kids were cranky, sleepy, punchy, hungry despite we had just fed them half off fast food goodies. They were just being kids. We used two carts; one for match-ups and one for just stuff we needed. This was a great idea as you can have the cashier ring up one cart or the other, whichever you want to get finished up first. I chose to have the match-ups last to show the ads, etc... What took so long in regard to getting the coupons together and what gave me a flippin' headache all week and made me an incredibly cranky, crabby mommy ( and it wasn't even "moon time" for me!) was I put together a general list, then made ANOTHER list to coincide w/the match-up products and attached them to the coinciding ad. This, IMO ended up being a bit of a waste of time; hindsight. Anyway, what I did then was store the coupons w/the coinciding product on each ad; and I took about four ads. Glad I did because I had to prove it regardless of the fact the SUPER store said their match policy doesn't require this. What I believe would help and make things not soooo insane is this(which I plan on using next time): Make a list, period! Keep products and coupons listed together according to product type, (IE, "health/beauty" coupons, "laundry" coupons, etc...). If you have coupons for some items, then seperate them from your list by either listing them seperately or putting a big "C" next to the name of the product. Be sure to research your ads if you're planning on having them matched at your SUPER store, but distinguish them by putting next to the product name where the ad is from, page number and the price per item w/size. Example? Peanut Butter Grocery Store J, ad page 3. 3/$5 {3-C/.50 off} I have the "C" noted as I have 3 coupons for this item. Use a highlighter too if that'll help. Then, have your coupons together in the order of your list. Be sure to put how many coupons you have and the price. This will make things easier to keep track at the check-out. Then type up on your computer or write up a final list, put it w/your coupons and ads. Be sure to bring every ad you want matched as this makes things go so much faster and you won't have a cranky cashier, whom you want on your side. I understand certain stores mention they don't require the ads, but it will save you and the cashier aggravation in the long run. Also, use a seperate cart for your matched ad items. This too will make things easier so have the cashier ring up the "regular" stuff first, then pull out the "matched-ad" stuff and mention that to your cashier and have the ads and your list at the ready to prove your weight in gold, so to speak. If your cashier makes a mistake, gently and very nicely inform them of this and point out the error. I usually am very nice and extra sweet, cordial, etc...as I'm spending a lot of time w/these ladies/gentlemen. Plus, you want them on your side. Being a cashier ain't easy work, yo! W/all that repatitive hand motion ringing stuff all day, cashiers can develop arm/hand injuries that may require surgery. Trust me, I've had surgery for such "injury." I also have had extremely rude cashiers and what I've even done was grabbed my merchandise and marched up to "Customer Service," asked for a manager and told them of the rude dude/dudette. Believe me, these retailers do NOT want to piss us off but they too need the mutual respect to be bestowed upon a fellow human being. Customer service is a tedious, difficult and at times a soul draining job, but when we (me in the past tense) would get that customer who was chatty, funny, attentive, nice, etc...it made the job worthwhile. And...that's pretty much it! Let me know if any of these tips are useful and if you've done so. My back still kinda aches which is most likely due to my bad posture as I lurched above my laptop and ads on our dining room table for a few hours a day for over a week.....but my headache is finally gone..well, it actually went away as soon as I sat in the passenger seat of our rental and pulled out of the parking lot. I felt I had accomplished so much! I felt wonderful! Like that proverbial weight being lifted off not only your shoulders but your head, butt, etc... NOW I KNOW why cashiers mention to me how nice I am and how some coupon chicks are actually quite...bitchy. This is a time consuming, tedious task....BUT in the long run it is worth it. And applying the "golden rule," it makes it even more enjoyable! BTW, what did I end up saving at the SUPER store? Well, including dog food, a cute black hat for my son that resembled Mickey Dolenz's hat from the Monkees 2011 tour we went this summer, about six jars of great pasta sauce, and other accoutrements: W/coupons and matched ads I purchased $582.27 and only paid $231.11. That is over half off my grocery/accroutrement bill even at the cheapest grocery store. Put THAT in your folder and save it

"Close your eyes and I'll kiss you...." Yes, we saw Paul McCartney here on 8/1/11

Yes! My wonderful husband relented but not too unwilling as he took me to see Paul McCartney on August 1st for the 4th time(well, 4th time for me, 1st for him, IE, he was a Macca concert virgin). It was almost 20 years ago to the date I saw him last at Soldier Field, which blew me away despite I had just seen him in December of 1989. My husband was completely starstruck as soon as Paul sang, I was in awe as usual despite this was "old hat" and the first time I saw him as an adult I cried like a child as I saw him first as a child, and cried like a baby as Wings Over America thrilled me and my aunt and a boyfriend of hers to see him at the old Chicago Stadium, aka the place where the Blackhawks and Bulls USED to play.

So, we trekked from one baseball field(the good one) to the other one(the "not-so-good one") via CTA's Red Line and were smashed between Macca fans and Yankee/White Sox fans as the Sox played the Yanks that night as well. It was sweltering outside; yes, hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk if you like your eggs that way. After meandering around the Wrigleyville area trying to get our butts in after I indulged in a coffee shake, we finally made it in, still sweating like a couple of Hebrew slaves waiting for Moses to make his appearance and of course to closest thing to being with God was having the most heavenly voice of former Beatle, aka my favorite Beatle.

Walking up to our seats we noticed the pre-concert music was an amazing mix of Wings/Macca and Beatles' tunes set to various styles of music, especially club-esque style which was actually pretty cool. They also had a slide show of sorts showing Paul in various eras, IE, pre-Beatles, Wings, solo, WITH the Beatles, with his family, etc...very lovely and I really wanted to dance to some of the tunes.

After the show and getting a kick out of the incredibly happy and slightly intoxicated patrons who showed not a single bit of aggression whatsoever as...well, it's one of the happiest places on earth....as Paul McCartney concert is literally like being in heaven; everyone is joyous, happy, thrilled and just full of love for this wonderful human being who has brought so much happiness to many all over the universe(yes, I believe in ET's and know they listen to Paul and the Beatles), we made our way to get a quick bite and took our happy yet incredibly exhausted booties back on the CTA Red Line toward Dan Ryan/95th only to find out at the last minute the 35th Street bus stops running after 12 midnight.

?????

Yeah, so we finally walked about 2 1/2 miles to get home, happy yet extremely exhausted, literally sleepy and slightly scared at the heinous odor that emitted from the south branch of the Chicago River, aka "Bubbly Creek," which smelled like rotting meat...it was so pungent my eyes teared up and we both had our gag reflex kick in, thus waking our sleep-walking butts right up, boy-howdy!(Tejana comes out in me occasionally, bear w/me please, y'all).

So, please enjoy the vid of the best song of the show, and the loudest....and bless your hearts if you were there(HEY! I hear ya!), and I'm so sorry if you couldn't go but if he tours again, get thee out there and see this man!!!!! He's 69, he's still cute and yes, he STILL can jam!!!! Look out Mick!!! He's giving ya a run for your money.



I guess it does pay to eat veggie.

First song of the set...one I kinda go "meh" when I hear it on the radio actually made me giddy, as it did my husband who was COMPLETELY star struck! LOVED IT~! Too cute....so, yeah...he did sing a great amount of his hits from both Beatles and Wings, he played for over 3 hours and did TWO encores, including "Golden Slumbers" which was his actual finally. The man is 69, he's still a cutie, and he can still get it on.....on stage(weeell, I'm certain he can otherwise...UH! Vulgarity rearing it's ugly head!)

Divorcing....Jack?

So, yes my fellow Jason Isaac junkies; I have FINALLY sat down...and watched....

"Divorcing Jack."

Based on the book by Colin Bateman, who wrote the screenplay as well, it's a crazy trip to Northern Ireland with a drunken columnist who happens to cheat on his wife with a young girl who happens to be related to a politician who knows the current elect prime minister of NI. After spending his second night with the young girl who gave him a "D" tape as a present from the collection of classical music tapes from A to Z her father sent early for her birthday, Dan Starkey(like Ringo, btw and played incredibly by the amazing David Thewlis) returns after getting junk food to find his lover murdered. As she tells him in her dying breath, the words that Dan gets is "divorcing.....Jack" as she gurgles on her blood.

Uh, euw.

Dan realizes his wife had caught him with his lover, so he assumed she did it but she only tossed a handful of potaotes into her window. As Dan is speaking to his wife on the phone asking why she murdered the girl Dan's wife Patricia is suddenly kidnapped by IRA thugs, their leader being Patrick Keegan, aka Jason Isaacs who plays the bad guy/thug part quite well. Uh, watch "Brotherhood" if you don't believe me. So, basically, poor Dan then goes on this wild goose chase trying to figure out who would murder his lover Margaret and why she said "divorcing Jack" which...is not what she meant to say as well as trying to avoid the police, IRA thugs w/one of them looking like a reject from the extra actors off the "Sopranos" as well as trying to entertain a Boston Globe reporter named Charlie Parker who was there covering the so-called Belfast "peace talks" and getting a bit of help from a nun, who isn't quite what she seems.

This is basically a black romantic comedy that pokes a bit of fun at all things Irish, and in particular, all things in Northern Ireland, IE, the so-called "peace talks" and the contradiction of their politicians, the usual Irish drinking, Catholics and Protestants against each other and is just overall completely ridiculously yet extremely funny and entertaining. It reminds me of a Guy Richie movie and I would not be surprised at all if Guy got a bit of his filming influence from Colin. You can also see a bit of the Monty Python influence here with it's slapstick, it's off the wall bit and just overall silly British humour. I added a "u" to humor for the mood of this article. Whatchya think?

Now I want to read the book!

You can rent "Divorcing Jack" at Joe's "Video Strip" on Archer Avenue, or via Netflicks, or you can watch it on Comcast "OnDemand" under the "Encore" channel selection.

By the way....this is most certainly not a flick for the kiddies. Get them to bed, have a couple of cocktails and munchies and hang w/your adult sig. other or buds and have a great laugh! You may want the subtitles up to get what the Irish/English actors are saying as it's a bit tricky to figure their accent out if you're not privy to an Irish brogue or an English accent.

Sigh....yes, I know....been a long time...

So, we're finally moved from our slumlord from hell but from wonderful neighbors(it's both a curse and blessing) and we're slowly but surely unpacking as much as we can as we're now in a house! I've also had to deal w/a sick toddler who had a fever of 102 for the entire Fourth of July weekend. Turned out it was viral, nothing more could be done, IE, we "force-fed" the baby Pedialyte, water, vitamins, ibuprofen, etc... She's finally fine, coming around beautifully and is her usual, screaming, beating up on my son and the dog self.

I've also been working with the most beautiful, blond Polish basket case. Well, SHE calls herself a basket case. I call myself her handle for her basket case. She's my mother from another, a wonderful woman whom I have the pleasure of being allowed to call her "mom" as well. LOVE you Momma Mary!!!! Now if she can only lay off the bananas as she's bananas about bananas!

BTW, she's the beautiful blond in the leopard coat on the far right in the B&W photo circa January 3rd, 1948.

Extreme couponing: a real money saver or a psychological disorder?

You know there's this amazing show on TLC called "Extreme Couponing," which follows a couple of individuals across this fair land of ours who really take couponing to an entirely different level.

This level is so up there and high it has me somewhat scared of it's heights.

Basically, each episode we follow a couple of people who talk about the why's and how long's re: their couponing obsession(not quite the how's on how to obtain so many coupons which was common sense to me as I noticed paper inserts and computer printout coupons) and how they get their stuff for free, and some do mention their unethical methods of obtaining their coupons, via dumpsters, stealing them from Sunday papers and other's stoops, etc..), and personally, I think it's a bit of an obsession. Some of these people go through insane methods of obtaining coupons, as forementioned via dumpsters, foreclosed homes that still get Sunday paper delivery, recycling centers, etc.... Some of these ladies own anywhere from 10 to hundreds(yes, I said hundreds) of coupon inserts. Some of these here women go on about how they love their coupon folders sooo much and if anything happened to them, they'd literally kill someone. And then you have the couponers who take those hundreds of coupons and use them to purchase 50+ items they really don't need to save on other stuff, like purchasing over 60 bottles of mustard(this happened in one episode where one woman proudly sporting her Coach handbag most likely purchased at an outlet w/the money she saved on mustard) where the husband said, "I don't even eat mustard, 100 packs of croutons in one episode, another one who purchased over 100 pairs of discounted jeans from Target(via printed e-coupons off Target's website. I wanted to know how he printed out over 100 coupons for jeans. My computer only allows 2-4 printouts per week, so...), over 100 vitamin infused H20...you get the idea. These people literally empty shelves(which I think is extremely rude and quite inconsiderate IMO) and walk away with three to four shopping carts filled to the gills with 100+ of each item on their coupon itinerary. I've stood behind some of these here coupon junkies and along w/their hoard of goodies they guard like a Doberman Pincher, they can be quite rude to fellow shoppers and cashiers, which IMO is a no-no, especially if you want things done in a nice, quick way. Then you see them drive off after their amazing purchases where they only pay cents on every dollar spent(some pay nothing at all) and you have to wonder how can they drive with all that piled into their car. Funny thing about most of these people don't mention about donating the mass amount of extras they have falling out of closets, bathrooms, kids bedrooms, garages, etc...but are not hesitant to show their amazing yet ridiculously huge stockpiles of everything you'd see in your local grocery store, and then some. It's as if they're waiting for some sort of apocolapse and brag about how they don't have to buy anything for a couple of years.

Now don't get me wrong, I am a couponer...not an extreme one yet but I've done quite well for our family saving anywhere from 30-80 percent on our grocery bill. I recall one occasion where my husband came along and as he watched the bill go up and up, ending at over $180, a tell him "watch the magic" and our bill went down to $63 bucks. Not bad for a newbie with coupons, no? But when it gets somewhat...odd, IE, 100 bottles of soy sauce and 50 packs of taco seasoning, it kinda reminds me of the show "Hoarders," and I start to think; is this an example of organized hoarding?

They have so much stuff...to the extent of families being slightly displaced, they're rude to shoppers and cashiers, their somewhat unorthodox methods of obtaining the coupons where they just don't care who it hurts or bothers.....

.....it's a bit of a disorder, me thinks.

I've been on the TLC blog/message board site where people are constantly asking where to obtain coupons and I'm thinking, "uh, don't you see the show? They say where they get them." It's interesting as I'm asked all the time where to get coupons(I get the paper and print offline) and I tell them proudly, sharing my wealth of wisdom in regard to that issue. What gets me is how they can get the items for free as I have yet to do that...and they won't be entirely free as our beloved governor has not only imposed a tax on using coupons here in Illinois, but for some reason stores in ChiTown aren't allowed to double except for the occasional Le K Boutique coupon double session, which doesn't allow you to use more than five coupons on one item, then the coupon cannot be over a dollar to double, so there are too many restrictions it is just not worth the trip, so it's a hard task here in ChiTown to get your items for free without a lot of stragedy and the possibility of getting double the value of your coupons.

But I'd like to get close to that goal, and I shall one day here in this great city called Chicago...with our without the government intervention, and without being rude to my fellow human being and the cashiers at my local grocery stores whom I love to begin with as they give us so much respect w/the fact we have our son's service dog along for the food run and know all of us by our first names...and I'd like very much not to alienate my family by not using up valuable real estate space or our kids' play space.

I would also donate as much as I could to my local food pantry, because there was a time when we had to rely on food from the local pantry. Not a pretty sight, and boy does it do a number on your spirit, and psyche.

But for the record we WOULD use those 60 plus mustard bottles as my family goes through a couple of bottles of mustard a week. We'd have the room then, no?


Check your local listings for TLC's lineup.

If mud is dirt + H20; what is clay?

....That guy who was second place to Ruben Stoddard in American Idol?