Atonement

First, let me begin by saying that James McAvoy is dreamy.  I should also say that I adored this novel.  When I finished it, I had to re-read part of it because I was sure that I had misread it in my fervor to find out what happened.  I hadn't misread it and upon that realization, I cried.  Apparently, Ian McEwan's wife did the same thing, which makes me feel a bit better.  Knowing what happens takes away from the movie a bit, because the kicker in the story is rather important.  However, I predicted that I would cry like a baby and I did.  I spent the entire movie with a sense of dread because I knew what was coming and yet I couldn't help but hope for a different outcome.  I'm struggling to determine whether I felt that way because of the quality of the film or the quality of the novel.  A bit of both, I think.  There are times when I think Mr. McEwan writes the perfect sentence.  And there were moments in the movie when I thought the acting was flawless.  A couple of scenes stood out for me.  The library - for the obvious reason that Ms. Knightly and Mr. McAvoy have tremendous chemistry and the coffee shop.  Their interaction and his breakdown was incredibly moving.  It was worth the $10.25 and the red puffy eyes...

Shatter

Just naming the puppy isn't enough. She needs nicknames too. One of them is Shatter Pupinski. Long story, which I won't bore you with. However, given Shadow's penchant for running full speed and especially full speed into things, the nickname kinda fits. Especially since she destroyed her "e-collar" or cone after she got spayed a couple of weeks ago.

This is Shadow the first day in the cone...



This is Shadow on day 6 of the cone...


As you can see, she had been busy. Later that evening she completely cracked the thing open and even more duct tape had to be used. And because she's so exuberant, she's got to wear the cone for another week. We got a new cone for the final week...