There is no introduction, only a beginning.

There is a couple from the sending center visiting at the moment. We had dinner with them last night--Becca came too-- and it was everything a dinner should be--good food, good wine, chocolate, and finished with several different whiskeys and hours and hours of conversation.

I love these dinners, when we sit down at seven and don't get up again for good until after ten. The ministry of hospitality makes me cringe a bit, but I like the ministry of dinners, and of congregating in the kitchen while they are prepared.

But anyhow, the important part isn't really what is consumed (except maybe the whiskey). Last night we talked about lots of things but one of the more interesting topics that came up was what clips from films have most affected us or have stood out to us. Ruth Anne mentioned the scene where Arwen says to Aragorn "I am the better rider" and out rides those big black dementor-type things (I'm clearly not a good nerd because I don't know all the nuances of LOTR and what those things are called) to save Frodo. Ruth Anne said it incapsulates everything she wants to be in a woman and now I am thinking I need to go back and watch that clip. Dad--or mum--I can't remember, because the three of us all love the clip-- mentioned the scene in Emma when Mr. Knightly confronts her for being mean to Miss Baits. Mama and I had been talking about that clip just last week--how Mr. Knightly is not afraid to confront her, how he loves her as she is but also sees who she can be and wants her to grow to be that person.

Forget Mr. Darcy, why do women obsess about him? Mr. Knightly is a man worth having.

Anyhow, I brought up the scene from Mystic River near the end where Sean Penn's character is clearly bothered by his own horrendous actions and his wife eases his guilty conscience by straddling him and saying, "...it's like I told the girls. Their Daddy is a King. And a King knows what to do and does it." It is a really sick picture of a woman supporting her husband in whatever he does. It made me recoil as I watched. It was brilliant.

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I don't like verbally affirming people. Usually when I do it I feel horrible about an hour later and wish it had never happened. I often avoid interaction with the person involved for a short while after. I'm not sure if this is a problem or not but I will look into it further.

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After yelling at our puppy Franko for attempting a romantic episode with the manky green blanket he drags around I said,

"Franko, it's either sex or food for you. You are always in pursuit of these, and if you can't have one you retreat to the other. You have issues."

"Actually," commented someone else in the room, "I think he is pretty normal. Sounds like average, run-of-the-mill behaviour."

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That's all.