March...In Like a Lion -- Fri., Mar. 1

Wow! New blog followers are popping up like Spring flowers (in like a lion!) on my blog. In the last three days, five new readers. I'm thinking I can thank Karen and New Age Nomad for linking to my blog. Welcome to: Sue Castle (no blog site listed), w6pea (no blog site listed), Julie and Tom of Outdoor Adventures with Julie and Tom, Julie of Osage Bluff Quilter, and bsg (no web site listed).

Last night our Netflix movie was "Midnight in Paris." Normally I'm not a Woody Allen film fan, but this movie sounded like it was up my alley, being about time travel to 1920s Paris and meetings with Ernest Hemingway, Salvidor Dali, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fiztgerald, Pablo Picasso and other famous writers and authors. However, I was tired from not enough sleep the night before. "Midnight in Paris" had beautiful music, but the plot was a slow and the music lulled me to sleep. I admit, I slept through most of it.

Today, I wanted to really watch the movie. Refreshed with lots of sleep, I put the movie on and enjoyed watching Owen Wilson as a wannabe novel author on his trip to Paris with his fiancee. From the beginning, it is obvious that his fiancee's life is a major mis-match to his romantic notions about Paris in the rain.

Midnight in Paris refers to his walks around Paris at night. When the clock strikes midnight and he's sitting on steps in one neighborhood, an antique Peugeot drops by and the occupants invite him to party. He ends up in 1920s Paris meeting the above-mentioned luminaries. By morning, he is back in his current reality with his fiancee and in-laws. Each midnight rendezvous begins with a different inviter.

The movie, though slow, is enjoyable. I liked the relationships and the thoughtfulness of the dialogue, the self-reflection of Owen Wilson's character, the realizations made by all parties as to what they want in life. The richness of the representation of the era, the authors, artists and editor made the roaring 20s in Paris come to life. But I must say, even though I had enough sleep and was committed to watching the movie, I found myself starting to doze off with music playing like a lullaby through most scenes. I did manage to stay awake. The movie made me think Woody Allen put a lot of himself into it. I rated it three out of five stars.

Tonight's TV was Nikita and Shark Tank. 

Tomorrow we will do a Volkswalk in San Antonio that we haven't done yet. Sunday we are going to the Austin Kite Festival with Jim and Peri. We'll sneak in a Volksmarch and lunch too. We're looking forward to spending more time with them.

That's it for today. Safe travels to our friends who are out on the road.