Brassed Off

I know the picture is dark. Regis tried to lighten it but it didn't work very well in the translation. I tried to take pictures with the flash, but Ella has learned that the light is bright so she would shut her eyes as soon as she saw me with the camera.

She's so funny. I had Prairie Home Companion on the radio and anytime she heard the music, she would stop right in her tracks and dance for a couple seconds. She does this pointing thing, which I suppose works when you don't have language to tell what you want. She points at things, and if you don't get it, she makes a grumpy face and points with more emphasis. Ha! She also loves her books and we read them over and over. She knows a few words from the books: toes, baby, boots, ducks. She especially loves ducks. She has the book The Wheels on the Bus and Emily has taught her some of the motions like swish, up and down, and move on back. As soon as I started to read, she would do swish, swish, swish. So cute. We had a wonderful time.

We watched a movie Friday night called Brassed Off. I saw it recommended in Roger Ebert's review of Waking Ned Devine, one of our favorite movies. Brassed Off is a British comedy, well, at least Netflix calls it a comedy. I'm not sure that you can call a movie about the closing of coal mines in England that includes: an attempted suicide by one of the main characters, his wife taking the kids and leaving, his dad dying of black lung disease, his beating by a loan shark, and repossession of the contents of his house. There are some funny lines and we enjoyed the movie, but it was dark. Brassed off is a British expression that means the same as pissed off, but the movie is also about a community brass band that's the source of a lot of the humor and sweetness.

I'm making Valentine cookies today...rolled sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles. I have a box ready to send some to Tiffany and I'll take some to Peter. Regis loves them, too, and I'm making two in dog bone shapes for you-know-who. Not my idea.