Catching up on Falltime

Man! Am I behind on posting! Oh, well . . . life has been rather busy, so my blog is always one of the first things to fall behind. This time it was because of books, clearing out the house, and colds. Let's see . . . where to start. After doing all these books sales this year, Mom and I looked at the stacks of books boxes waiting to be shelved and realized that there was no possible way to cram them onto the already bursting shelves. We also had a discussion about the structure of the house. So, we started going through all the books and doing a massive weed job. Scanning them and deciding if we wanted them, if we were interested in having a book on the particular topic, if we got a better replacement, etc. We are hoping at the end to get back to the approx. 10,000 volumes we had several years ago. We've done a good chunk of it already. Dad has been taking loads down to the Knox County Friends of the Library Book Sale.

We have also been going through the house and all the stuff we have accumulated over the years. The house has gotten way out of hand and we all decided it was time to get rid of a lot of stuff. We have four grown people, living in one house for many years, collecting a lot of stuff. Too much stuff. So, we decided that we are going to pretend that we are moving. If we really moved, would you really want to pack and move each thing you pick up? One day a couple weeks ago, while Mom and I did a lot of books, Sarah did the walk-in closet. Man! Is it nice! Even went through the games and puzzles!

I am afraid the the end of September and all of October haven't been very fun for me. Six weekends ago, I caught a cold, right at the beginning of canning tomatoes. Well, I was hoping it was just a quick cold, but it turned out to be an awful thing. The typical flu-shot-time-of-the-year cold, but terrible. Mom ended up getting it right after I did, so we spent a lot of down time. We were actually going down to Cincinnati to visit Walt and Janice, but we had to cancel the plans and postpone the weekend. Well, I had trouble shaking of the remains for a couple weeks. Then, to top it off - I got another cold two weeks ago! I was really depressed. I mean, this isn't a banner October for me. Actually, it will be fabulous when it ends.  So,  suffered through some more symptoms, and sadly Sarah came down with it last Monday. Well, our plans for Cinci had been changed to this past weekend. We played it loose, hoping we would feel better by then. Then Mom sprained her back lifting books. Man! We were beginning to wonder whether it was a message about going down to Cinci. Problem was, should we go, or should we not? Well, our colds are down to terrible sounding coughs, but that is about all.

We ended up going down on Saturday. Walt and Janice had some friends over on Saturday night and we played cards. It was really fun! It was really fun to play games with so many people. Even if I was so nervous I probably looked like a scared rabbit! Ah, well . . . Terrible being shy. But, it was fabulous. Wish I had felt better, too. Sunday we all hung around and played some more games. We left after dinner and stopped at Whole Foods on the way home. Got some olive oil and coffee. It was a terrible drive, rained all the way home. However, I didn't see much of it. I slept the whole way. First time I've been able to sleep since coming down with this cold. I think I am suffering from sleep exhaustion!

Yesterday, we made some coffee in the morning and took it nice and slow. Then we went down and visited Buddy and Kay for the evening. They were home for half a day, and it might be the only time we get to see them for the rest of the year, except Thanksgiving and Christmas! They have a super busy schedule.

We have gotten some fun fan mail back these past two months. I think the first was Ann Blyth. Something happened to it, and it got wet along the way. Not just damp, but soaked! I think it was on the way to her, because my letter had been stuck to one of the photos. However, she signed them very nicely and I was able to get the paper pulp off and the photos look great! Amazing printer! They are fabulous photos and she did a beautiful job signing! As she is one of my all-time favorites, I was really excited! Here is my very favorite song she ever sang (that I've heard so far, that is!)

Next, we got back Linda Evans, who was Audra in "The Big Valley" TV show. We already had Peter Breck and Lee Majors, so she was our last "Big Valley" cast member. I really thought she did a great thing with signing, because she wrote "Love Audra" instead of her normal signature! 

Just last week we got back a really fun one. From British actress Joanna David, who played Mrs. Gardiner in the 1995 mini-series of Pride and Prejudice. She not only sent our photos back signed, but a nice note as well apologizing for the delay in replying and that she included newer photos of herself, and ones of her daughter, since we mentioned we liked her, and she sent us autographed photos of her son - who is also an actor. So cute! Well, that was a surprise and a really cool success. I love her daughter (who we wrote too, as well, but haven't heard back from yet), so I was excited to get an autograph of her, as well.

Book sales are over for the year (Um . . . maybe. Mom just found another that might be good!). Three weeks ago was the largest Ohio library book sale up in Elyria. Dad even went us with us. They had approx. 70,000, and I found the book that I had been searching for all year! A nice, old library-bound copy of Pitcairn's Island, which is the last of the Bounty Trilogy by Nordoff & Hall. I was so thrilled! I have been looking at every sale! We had nice library-bound hardbacks of the other two in the set, but only an old, cheap paperback of the last one. 

Throughout the book sales, I have really worked at collecting nicer (and more) Christie books. Slowly but surely, I now have 61 titles and four trivia books. Some really nice hardbacks of titles I like. Even got the movie tie-in cover hardback of Murder on the Orient Express. A nice hardcover of Ordeal By Innocence. Even found copies of Cards on the Table and N or M?. We got a new shelf for them (while we have been rearranging) and I thought it would give me plenty of growing room, but it is almost filled! Really fun, though.

 

Oh, before I close, I discovered a new favorite singer and favorite song. A friend down in Australia, who also likes opera, asked me about my thoughts of Anna Netrebko. Well, I had only ever listened to a few tracks of hers, so I didn't really have any thoughts. So, I ordered in four cds from the library and started listening. I liked her last half of La Boheme (Always my starting point). She was very good. However, when I heard track 13 of her album, Souvenirs, I was sold! A traditional Jewish lullaby, it is one of the most gorgeous things I have ever heard. Dad even loves it! My new favorite. Then I listened to her highlights from La Traviata album, which was so fantastic! I love highlights and this is one of the best. You never realized when they skipped sections. Very well done and beautiful!

Well, that pretty much catches up to the present. This morning we woke up to a bit of snow on the ground! It is really, really windy and cold. So, I think Winter is close! More house cleaning/sorting and book weeding is on the agenda for the next few weeks. 

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven . . ." - Ecclesiastes 3:1

"My heart is, and always will be, yours."

Every day, around 2:20 in the afternoon, I make sure to go check the mail. Most of the time we only get junk mail that gets thrown out or recycled immediately. Sometimes I wonder why I am so excited and wait for the mail to arrive. Well, Monday dawned grey and cold and I patiently waited (again) for the mail. Went out at 2:20 and filled my bird feeders before opening the trusty metal mail receptacle. Two things, neither was to become recycled material in the next batch of cereal boxes. One was a secret, which I still don't know about, and the other was an oversized envelope addressed to me in my own handwriting. As I am not in the custom of writing myself letters (I'm not that desperate to get mail!), it had to be fanmail. Sarah and I have slacked off of writing it (need to get back at it!), but there are still a few that we sent out there. Well, this was an interesting envelope because it had the US stamps which I had put on it and it had a UK stamp below the US ones. I figured out which one it was by the time I was halfway back to the house. Only one person had I sent fanmail to in the US who was a British person. When I opened it, I saw that I was right.

They were from British actress Emma Thompson who starred in the 1995 film of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. Ooooooo, was I excited! I have been waiting (patiently) for these. Slightly surprised that it only took ten months. I had kind of expected over a year. Well worth whatever wait. We each got a photo and I got a bookplate to mount in my copy of her Sense and Sensibility screenplay.

The funny story about the screenplay goes back to the first times we saw the film. My very, very favorite scene in the film is when Edward comes to the cottage and proposes to Elinor. So romantic.

ELINOR rises suddenly, EDWARD turns and they stand looking at one another.

ELINOR
Then you -- are not married.

EDWARD
No.

ELINOR bursts into tears. The shock of this emotional explosion stuns everyone for a second and then MARIANNE makes an executive decision. Wordlessly, she takes MARGARET'S hand and leads her and MRS. DASHWOOD out of the room. ELINOR cannot stop crying. EDWARD comes forward, very slowly.

EDWARD
Elinor! I met Lucy when I was very young. Had I an active profession, I should never have felt such an idle, foolish inclination. My behaviour at Norland was very wrong. But I convinced myself that you felt only friendship for me and that it was my heart alone that I was risking. I have come with no expectations. Only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be -- yours.

ELINOR looks at him, her face streaked with tears of released emotion, of pain, and of happiness.

I actually saw the movie for years before ever reading the book. Decided that I would try the book, so during the last quilt project, I got the book-on-tape of it. Really enjoyed, waited for the proposal and when it finally came . . . she passed over it! Never a word! She just says that (to paraphrase) everyone knows what happened so no need to tell what actually happens. She skips to dinner that night. Well! I had to stop the tape and think. Maybe I missed it. Rewind. It's still not there. Can't have missed it. Rewind again. Positively it isn't there. Man! I was stunned! My favorite scene. One of the most romantic proposals ever. It sounds just like Jane Austen. It isn't! That meant there was only one option. They wrote it for the movie. I thought about it for a moment. Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay. I really liked her playing Elinor, now I really liked her screenplay! I became an instant fan of hers. If you have ever read the book, you know how Sense and Sensibility is not written for film. Emma Thompson did a fantastic job adapting the book to film. In my opinion, she sooooooo deserved the Oscar for Best Screenplay. I would have sent her my screenplay, except postage to mail it would have made it outrageous. So, a bookplate will suffice. I couldn't be happier!

Ann Blyth and Richard Bonynge Autographs

We cam home yesterday from the Chiropractor's and waiting for us in the mail box were two fan mail responses! We haven't gotten any back lately and Sarah and I were just talking about that saying that we should really write some more letters. Now, to find two waiting for us! Thrilling! The first we knew was one of our US actresses who we had mailed last month (because it came in our SASE envelope. Brilliant deduction isn't that?) but the second was a mystery. Actually, Sarah got the mail while I was getting stuff out of the car and she shows me this little white envelope and says it's from France. (Actually, it was from Switzerland) I couldn't think of anybody who I had sent to in France. The mystery fan mail . . .

The large envelope turned out to be from Ann Blyth. She sent our photos back beautifully signed and personalized. We couldn't be happier. She is in one of my favorite stories, "The World in His Arms". She is the perfect Russian princess. If you haven't seen the film yet, it is worth getting! The book is a little harder to find. Actually quite rare. I did finally get a copy last month. Really fun! Sarah and I were really excited to get her autograph as she doesn't always sign your photos, so this was a fun surprise. She is a great actress and has a very pretty singing voice.

The small white envelope turned out to be from Opera Conductor Richard Bonynge (Dame Joan Sutherland's husband). I had found an address for his agent in New York and figured it couldn't hurt to write a letter. He sent back a beautiful 4x6 photo that was signed and personalized. So very, very exciting! I had written to Joan Sutherland several years ago and she had sent back a beautiful photo. So now I have both of them! I am going to put both photos together in my scrapbook. I am so thrilled!

A Letter from Amanda Root

I am SO happy. Last week, I went to the mail box and came back in with a pile of packages and a small stack of mail. As Mom and Sarah are already working on my Christmas present, I wasn't allowed to open the packages, but the mail! That is another story. Usually it is junk mail which I have the fun of ripping open and then throwing in the filing receptacle (commonly called the "garbage can"). Well, this time there was a nice little white envelope that had a British stamp on it and no return address. This means a fan mail response! We opened it and it was a reply from actress Amanda Root, who played Anne in the 1995 Persuasion! Oh Boy! I was thrilled. No, I was more than thrilled . . . I was ecstatic! She was the one I had been hoping would answer, of all the people that we wrote to.

I had had to really search for her address and we had written to her in June. I wasn't even sure that she responded. We couldn't have been happier with her response. She sent us each a lovely signed photo and she wrote a note in answer to our letters which was just wonderful. She really is a wonderful actress. Although Pride and Prejudice is my favorite Jane Austen story and film, Amanda Root's Anne is my favorite film heroine. She really captures the character and the emotion of the part. The scene at the Italian concert never fails to send me sniffling in the corner of the sofa and the end where she reads the letter is so wonderful. You just have to see it!

So, right now I am working on the scrapbook page for her. She is right next to Ciaran Hinds (who played Wentworth) and they will have a spread with a bunch of Persuasion photos. Ohhhh, I couldn't be happier. God knew the perfect way to make my beginning of the year happy!

"Shout joyfully to God, all the earth . . . " - Psalm 66:1

Christmas, New Year, Auction, Lord of the Rings, Poirot, and Scrapbooks!

Our Christmas / New Year's events are all over! Now comes the time that we call "After Christmas". At least, during the year that is what we always call it. You know, "After Christmas I am going to do . . .". We had a very fun December. Sold a lot of stuff on eBay earlier in the month. This year, on New Year's Eve, we all went to the Auction house for their big auction of the year. They didn't have lots of box lots or anything. A lot of guns, a lot of glassware. But there was fun stuff to watch. It started at 10:00 in the morning and we left at 5:30 before they were quite done. They had some really nice furniture. Sarah got a sheet music cabinet that is really nice.

New Year's Day dawned grey and rainy, but warm. 57 degrees actually. Heat wave! Perfect day for our traditional movie marathon. "Trilogy Tuesday" is what we call it, no matter what the day is. We all sit and watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy all the way through. This year we started earlier than last year (We didn't even get to watch the last disc last year.). As always, the movies were wonderful. My favorite scene is the Flight to the Ford in Fellowship, however, the one that Sarah and really wait for is "Scene 56" in The Return of the King. Which is were Eomer finds Eowyn on the battlefield and she is in the Houses of Healing. We waited so long for it to come out on the extended DVD. We actually finished before 1:00am! It was very fun.



The next day, Sunday, we went to church at Providence, then we stopped and picked up a set of Scott's Stamp Catalogues from Steve. Goody, goody. That was a Chritsmas present for the family. They are 2009 and in colour! Then we went to Panera for lunch. That is always fun. When we got home, it was upstairs for me to start wrapping presents! As I had not wrapped any yet, I had a stack. Sarah needed up in the back room with me to put the finishing touches on Mom's present, so I wrapped all the presents and then put the ribbon on while she was with me. Actually, she even helped!

It was so nice, relaxed, no rush. (I have a feeling that that is "On account of, because"). Sarah and I had been working on a present since March. Mom had been wanting a felted doll since Sarah made the first ones, so we decided on a little Poirot. We finally found a box at a thrift store that was perfect! It opened the wrong direction, so I cut the velvet lining and the styrofoam insert out and re-glued them in the other direction. As well as re-padding under the velvet so that the doll would fit correctly. Then I got a gel pen and drew the Poirot logo on the top. It really looked swell! Sarah did a fantastic job on the doll and we even got a real sterling silver chain to make his watch chain! The lapel pin is a little company tag off of a chain that I had to cut up for parts. Sarah and I had sent for an autograph from David Suchet back in May and he had been kind enough to reply. However, that was before we had the box and the photos that we had sent were way too big! So, we sent a new photo the size of the box, hoping that it would get here in time. If it didn't, we decided to print a plain photo, but the effect wouldn't be the same. On December 28th, a plain number 10 envelope arrived, and Sarah recognized it right away! We couldn't have been happier that day. It was perfect! He did such a nice job signing in the space we left. Really, really nice. Mom was totally surprised and thrilled! God really blessed us in the fact that everything we needed fell together at just the right moment. The box, the lapel pin, the autograph!

Sarah got her Secondhand Lions pull toys that I had started last December. I had really dreaded having to paint the giraffe, as there is not cartoon of the giraffe. Dad just drew it in the style of the others. Well, once I really got started he looked so nice that he quickly became my favorite and I was sorry when I was finished. He, however, is too tall to be a pull toy, so we are going to make him into a table lamp. They turned out really cute. Couldn't be happier with them. Dad's cut out jobs are so nice.



I will do a post about my scrapbooks later! Too much for this one. On an ending note, we went up to Mansfield on Monday and took a bunch of metal things to a coin store (they buy precious metals. Like recycling!). Single earrings, broken chains, Dad's old gold crown, etc. Well, Dad and I dropped Mom and Sarah off and we ran a few errands. When we got back, they had finished looking and were adding it all up. We all expected about twenty dollars. Sarah and I started looking at some of the coins, and when we saw them start ringing up on the cash register, we headed over to see the final amount. She was counting out the money on the counter and we couldn't have been more shocked when it turned out to be $138! You could have knocked us both over. Not bad for a little pile of junk lying around the house. So, our year went out with a bang! Although, I am Praying that God gives us a slightly less eventful year this year!

"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen"

A Grateful "Thank You" to Deanna Durbin, Who Turns 89 Today

Singer Deanna Durbin celebrates her 89th birthday today! One of my all-time favorite singers, she has a beautiful lyric soprano voice. She appeared in her first film Every Sunday, a short which costarred the then-unknown Judy Garland, when she was only fourteen. The same year she starred in her first feature film, becoming an overnight success. Her career lasted twelve years, in which she produced 21 films and a handful of shorts. In 1949, at the age of 27, she suddenly retired and continues to live privately in France. She had a classically trained voice, usually singing opera-style songs, although she did do some pop numbers. Her films were usually a little light on plot with the accent being on the music (she described her roles as Little-Miss-Fix-It who suddenly bursts into song), although she did try her hand at serious drama later on in her career. It was actually one of her movies that got me started on opera!

Mom found a a tape of her film, Because of Him, at the library one day. We had never heard of her, so she got it to try. Well, we tried it and the film wasn't good (we actually didn't even finish it) but I fell in love with her rendition of the classic song "Danny Boy". So, back to the library we trundled and this time got two more. The next one we tried was It Started with Eve, which costars Charles Laughton. It was hilarious and even Dad liked it, although she actually doesn't sing much. The second was First Love, which I fell in love with. For the finale, she sings Puccini's "One Fine Day" (with a wonderful English translation) from the opera Madame Butterfly. I was really interested. Back to the library again, this time for For the Love of Mary. A fantastically funny film, this is still one of our family favorites (it was also her final film before she retired). Here she sings "Largo al Factotum" from The Barber of Seville and I really, really liked it. So, I got a recording of the entire opera. I started listening to it, but it was slightly daunting and it went back to the library unfinished.



However, it doesn't stop there. The next one was His Butler's Sister, which has her singing "Nessun Dorma" at the climactic ending. I was really smitten. This was too beautiful to ignore! We went back to the library and got two cds, The Three Tenors 1994 Concert and The Ultimate Opera Divas Album. Driving home we listened to the Three Tenors, and I was amazed that Mom could tell who was singing by just listening - not even looking at the disc booklet! They all sounded the same to me, I certainly couldn't tell! I liked it, but I was really interested in hearing "One Fine Day", which was so far my favorite opera song (still is one of my favorites). So, that week while I was cleaning our room, I listened to the Divas cd. "One Fine Day" was beautiful and, feeling adventurous, I decided to start at the beginning and listen to the whole disc. When it came to "Casta Diva", I couldn't believe it. A minute into it and I knew that I had never heard anything quite like that! Looking at the disc case, I found out that it was somebody named Joan Sutherland singing the number. Never heard of her, but . . . WOW! I practically wore the disc out listening to it. When I played it for Mom, she didn't seem half impressed and she told me that Joan Sutherland had been around and she had seen her on TV and everything. I wasn't so easily persuaded that she was something to be shrugged at. So . . . (if you can't guess what came next, you haven't been paying enough attention! )

. . . Back to the LIBRARY! This time for the classic complete recording of Turandot, which features the legendary teaming of Dame Joan, Pavarotti, Montserrat Caballe, and Nicolai Ghiaurov. Still a beginner at the entire opera thing, I sat one evening and listened to the entire opera, waiting to hear "Nessun Dorma". (Imagine . . .I even sat through the entire Act 3! Annoying thing.) Well, it certainly fulfilled all my expectations. That cd set was actually the very first opera item that I purchased.

Ever since, Dame Joan has been one of my favorite opera singers. I have bunches of her records and cds, and several years ago I wrote her a letter and she was kind enough to send back a very wonderful personalized autographed photo. That was the second autograph I ever asked for. The first was . . . Deanna Durbin.

Now, I am an opera nut (and can tell the difference between the Three Tenors myself!), overwhelming the family with opera movies, music, books and magazines. So, "thank you" Deanna Durbin for opening a whole new world of music to,at least one little girl fifty years later!

Opera books, opera records, even an opera autograph!

The three of us went to an estate sale on Friday. What an estate sale. A 70 yr old lady had to liquidate her parents house (Father died in 73, Mother died in 84. We don't know why it took so long). The daughter actually studied opera and spent 10 years in Austria. Actually, her half-sister (25 years older than she is) was an actress back in the 40s. Jane Randolph.

Anyway, we got a cabinet full of vocal scores and music. Sarah found it (the entire house was set up as a sale, with a lot of the furniture still where it had been and not emptied!) and Mom asked the guy who was running the sale how much the sheet music pieces were. He said that normally he would charge $1 a piece, but if we would take the entire lot we could have it for $10! I couldn't believe it! She had the two scores that I had been thinking about buying, so I was thrilled even if I only got the two books. So, Sarah and I spent an hour packing it up. Five full boxes! Also, she had a collection of opera records to die for. Just my era, too. Mostly 50s, and tons and tons of Renata Tebaldi. Boxed sets, complete operas, recital singles. Well, we got four large boxes for another $15. I am thrilled because, aside from having lots of complete operas I don't have already, there are some titles where mine got ruined when our plumbing burst.

Another very cool thing . . . on Saturday night I was going through a stack of Met librettos (to see if there were doubles) and I found one that is autographed by Renata Tebaldi! I was thrilled as she is one of my favorite opera singers. I couldn't believe it when I found it!

Well, CHEO is over . . .

This Friday Mom spoke at CHEO. The new Akron conference center was really nice and we preferred it to the old Columbus one. Mom had a good sized crowd and we actually met some nice people afterward. So, as a friend wrote in a card to Mom this weekend, we are Praying for "seeds to be planted and roots to go down deep". Sarah and I spent some time in the Vendor's Hall looking at the Lamplighter Publishing booth. I got "The Lost Clue", an old mystery story that looks really interesting. Old mysteries are so different from Christie's.

This week we received two more great autograph responses. On Friday we received them from Jane Powell (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers). We sent a photo and piece of sheet music for each of us, and they came signed and personalized! We couldn't be more thrilled. I think they are so much more special when they personalize them. She has a beautiful signature too, with how the "J" loops down to become the "P".



The other ones we got back were from Joan Fontaine (Olivia de Havilland's sister). We sent two photos on June 1st and on the 10th we received our SASE back with only my photo which was signed and personalized. So, we sent another photo and two pieces of sheet music back the next Monday and yesterday received them back all signed.



Actually, we were kind of happy that she was the one that had a mistake because after we sent the first photos, Sarah decided to do her scrapbook on this line of papers that looks like old wallpaper. So she is matting all her autographed photos in picture frames. Well, when we went to reprint her photo for Joan Fontaine, she decided that it would be easier to print the frames on the photos (in case someone signs all the way to the edge). Also, I hadn't thought about sending pieces of sheet music from our collection until after, so that was nice that we got those autographed as well. We are both really happy about all the autograph responses that we have gotten so far!

Doris Day autographs

What a surprise! We came home from the Chiropractor and Dad told us that there was a surprise out in our mail box. A manilla envelope from the Doris Day Foundation with two lovely 8x10 autographed photos (one for each of us, of course)! This is very exciting! There are not a ton of people left from our favorite film era that still sign.

Who can ever forget Doris Day in "Calamity Jane" or "Romance on the High Seas"? Although her recordings of "Que Sera, Sera" and "Secret Love" are great, my favorite is "Tacos, Enchiladas, and Beans". If you've never heard her sing that song before, you should find it! (Click here to hear a sample of her recording.) Another great song of hers is "Put 'Em in a Box, Tie 'Em with a Ribbon & Throw it in the Deep Blue Sea" from her first film "Romance on the High Seas".
So, this is a very exciting response for us. We couldn't be happier! :o)

Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. - Psalm 81:1

Lauren Bacall Autographs!

It has been an absolutely gorgeous rainy day today. Actually, the tornado sirens were going off in town for over an hour, but it was after the whopping storm that hit us. Well, when the weather cleared this afternoon, I went to rescue the mail from our leaky mailbox and guess what! There was an envelope from Lauren Bacall, with the three photos that Sarah and I sent last month signed and personalized! We couldn't be more thrilled! What a cool autograph to have - and personalized! Way too cool! Such a legend of Hollywood.

We sent photos of her with Humphrey Bogart from their wedding at Malabar Farm. Since we have been to Malabar many times, we thought that it would be cool to get those autographed! The other one is a publicity still from "The Big Sleep" which is classic Bogart and Bacall and one of their best films together.



"Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD." - Psalm 31:24

An Autograph from Prince Albert of Monaco

Sarah and I have been sending autograph requests to famous people we like. Last night, I got my first response. A signed photo of Prince Albert II of Monaco! Prince Albert is the current ruling Prince of the Principality of Monaco, and the son of the late Prince Rainier and actress Grace Kelly. I have been collecting Monaco stamps from Princess Grace's era for years now, and thought that it might be a neat idea to try and get her son's autograph! So I am really thrilled with this success!

Only twelve days after I sent a letter. It is a really cool photo of him at the Palace and I got a cool envelope that has two Monaco stamps on it! I am going to put the photo and envelope in my stamp collection book. It is pretty cool to get the autograph of Grace Kelly's son!