My birthday...and a review

Well, I had a very nice birthday! :) I was working on Thursday, so we celebrated yesterday instead...which was good, because I was exhausted when I got home Thursday. I went for a walk with the baby and there are lots of hills in the neighborhood, so I got a good workout and my legs and feet were tired. I couldn't get the baby to go down for her nap at one point, so I finally put her in the carrier and walked around the house with her until my feet couldn't take it, at which point I sat down and when she fussed about that, I told her I simply couldn't walk around and she'd have to deal with it. Funny thing is, she seemed to understand! :p

So anyway, Dad took yesterday off and we had pizza for supper and Grandma and Grandpa came over, and Mom made me a cake...an un-conventional cake. It's a gooey butter cake (I think that's what it's called), and it was really good. I didn't really want a whole cake with icing and all, so I asked her to make this instead.









I got some neat presents and five gift cards! :)






Opening one of the green presents Colin gave me...he and Dad went to Dollar Tree and I think he must have gone through the store and gotten everything green that he saw! :) I got a water bottle, clip-on book light, and a note pad:












About to blow out the candles:












We had a big political discussion with my grandparents, and I opened presents, and Colin thought I was opening them all too slowly, and I tried on the clothes that Grandma gave me. Some of the stuff didn't fit quite the way I like usually, although I wasn't trying to complain, so Grandma was sighing about that. Why do grandmas 80% of the time get the wrong size? I'm just wondering. I figured out finally that the two things she got me just won't work together, she got me a green t-shirt with a green plaid woven shirt to wear over it, and the two just don't work together, which is why it felt funny. And she also got me a cute tan jacket that I really like, but is the sort of thing that I wouldn't have thought of buying. When they were leaving Grandpa said, "Well... I just have to say that I think you're a pretty cute nineteen-year-old" and I believe I said, "oh!" because I thought for sure he was going to say he thought I was picky! :p

Then after they left and Mom and I got the kitchen all cleaned up and everything, we watched "Sense and Sensibility". We didn't get started on it until about 10:30 though, so we were up really, really late last night!

It was the new version that we watched. We got it at Costco on DVD in a set along with "Persuasion", and "Miss Austen Regrets" (which Mom and I watched last week sometime). I really, really liked the new "Sense and Sensibility"!! I think it's much better than the older one, although that one is good too. I think in this one, the characters were much better portrayed, except for Willoughby. In general, all the characters in the '95 version seemed too old.

Good:
Mrs. Dashwood: in the old one, she mostly seems old and tired, not terribly emotional, in this one she seems more romantic like Marianne (which she's supposed to be).

Eleanor: Much better as well...in the book she's only 19 or 20, and she comes across more as that age in this version. She has sense, but she doesn't seem like she knows everything and like she's carrying the burden of the whole family. She's acting as advisor to her mother.

Marianne: I don't know, she seemed a bit more believable I'd say.

Colonel Brandon: Also much better, in the other one he seems way too old, older than 35 and just gloomy. In the new one, you see him as actually having some feelings, and find it more likely that Marianne could love him and he love her. And he didn't mumble! Alan Rickman sounded like his mouth was numb.

Edward: good...in the book he's not supposed to be terribly good-looking, but at least he doesn't seem to wimpy in this version. Hugh Grant was not a good Edward in the other one.

Ann Steele: well, she wasn't even in the other movie...in this one, she's hilarious! :p

Sir John, Lady Middleton, and Mrs. Jennings: all true to the book...which is very good. :)

Bad:
Willoughby: On this one, I'd have to say the older version was better. Dominic Cooper as Willoughby in this one was too solemn, too obviously sneaky, and not really romantic enough for Marianne to have liked him...he didn't look romantic, he looked like a spoiled brat. He also looked ill. Actually, as far as looks, it was rather like, "Frodo Baggins plays John Willoughby"...which is just weird. Nope, not the right look.

Lucy Steele:Mmm...not very good. She wasn't portrayed as, I don't know, the sort that would get engaged secretly, or that would confide in Eleanor. It was all rather cold. She was much better in the old version.

Oh and Mr. Palmer wasn't right either! I mean, he was okay, but Hugh Laurie as Mr. Palmer is great! :)

So anyway, that's what I noticed as being good or bad in some of the characters. I think the film was very well-shot, the camera angles, and the way it switched back and forth between scenes, and previous events and such. I also think the duel was a great touch! It's mentioned briefly in the book, but without details and it's not in the other movie. I think it helps show Brandon as truly having emotions, and being gallant and manly enough to track Willoughby down and fight him. In the other movie he just seems to mope about...goes and carries Marianne in when she's out in the rain, rather like it's just another thing he has to do.

The only strange switch in camera shots is when they switch back and forth between Marianne writing her letter and the guys dueling...it shows Brandon defeating Willoughby, and then it shows the red sealing wax dripping onto Marianne's letter. I think it was supposed to give the impression of blood, but the sealing wax looks like ketchup, so it looks like Willoughby bleeds ketchup. No wonder he looks ill! :p

So, both movies are good, but I like the new one better...it's longer for one thing, so they can show more of the story.

Um, anyway, I got off on a review of the movie there...my birthday was very nice!!

And my new insurance information came today, so I can sign up for camp now...I was worried it wasn't going to get here in time. So that's good!