Guest Post by Jenna: Fiddler on the Roof

Hi everyone!  Jenna here.  Two Saturdays ago Mama took me with her to see a local production of "Fiddler on the Roof".  It's been ages since I've seen a live musical, and "Fiddler on the Roof" is one of my absolute favorites, so I was thrilled that Mama invited me along.  Grandmama, Mimi, and Mama's mother-in-law also came with us.

Here I am beside one of the posters outside the theatre.

The inside of the theatre was quite lovely, with beautiful metal artistry on the ceiling.  

It had two huge staircases on either side of the lobby.  I just posed for a picture here.  We had orchestra seating, so we didn't need to use the stairs.

The staircase had this pretty wooden curve at the end of the railing.

Here I am in my seat!  We were able to get a playbill and were able to keep our tickets, so I have a few souvenirs.  I'm not sure where I'm going to be able to put my playbill, though.  It's a little big. ;)

The play itself was just brilliant, especially considering the fact that it was a community theatre production.  What made it even more fun for Mama was that the man who played Perchik was someone she used to babysit when he was a little boy.  He had a beautiful tenor voice and did an excellent job.  Tevye was incredible as well.  The props, staging, and lighting were all very effective.  And of course, we all cried at the end. ;)  Grandmama and Mimi were especially touched.  Mama has a thing about crying in public, so she tends to try to hold it in.  She jokingly told me that she'd probably burst into tears over something silly later that day. :}  

I'm so glad Mama was willing to let me join her.  I had a fabulous time and have been humming "Fiddler on the Roof" songs ever since.  Mama said that later she might try to get me "Perchik's" autograph (he attends Mama's church).  How wonderful that would be! ;)

Have any of you ever been to a local theatre production?  What did you see?

P.S.  I nearly forgot!  I should probably mention a slight change to our schedule here at Mama's house.  The Literary Ladies Society has been temporarily disbanded while we figure a few things out.  For one thing, I discovered that I'm a bit like Mama.  I get excited about things at the beginning but have trouble following through. :}  I also recently discovered that Hayden agreed to be our secretary basically because she didn't want to offend me.  She's been majorly stressed about it, though.  She prefers making up stories to taking notes during meetings.  Tess was embarrassed that she got so long-winded at the last meeting and is sure that everyone hates her now. ;)  Of course, none of us hate her.  But to be perfectly honest, the meeting did go way overtime in March.  I'm so burned out on Jane Austen now that I've considered choosing a different LLS name for myself. ;)  Emma is still completely on board for meetings every month, but she's not necessarily interested in being in charge.   To make this happen, all four of us will need to work together and decide what will be best for the group.  We'll probably get together sometime soon and figure out where we should go from here.  At the very least, we'll cut down the meetings to once every two or three months.  We'll try to keep you informed as we figure all of this out. :}

Maggie's Memos: Thorin Oakenshield Action Figure Review

What's up, everyone?  Apparently no other members of this blog are into posting, so I'm taking over again with my promised Thorin Oakenshield review.  Their loss. ;)

So Mama suggested that I should start with pictures of the original packaging, since that's what she normally does.  I'm not the type to do something just because Mama thinks I should, but I had to admit it was a pretty good suggestion.  I had to borrow these pictures from her because she took him out of the package before she gave him to me.  Here's the front...

...and here's the back.  If you want to see more detail, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger. 

Here he is out of the package...just the perfect size. :)

A closer look at his awesome detail.  I mean, it's not perfect or anything, but pretty good for a $5 action figure.

He comes with his "oaken shield" that earned him his name.  (Is that proper English?  Somehow that sounds weird, but I can't figure out a better way to say it.)  At least, that's the movie's explanation for his name.  I don't remember that from the book.

Unfortunately, his shield isn't very impressive.  It's held in place by a little plastic peg, but it falls off if you look at it sideways.

Here he is standing up.  It's always nice when you have an action figure that stands properly.  

He is articulated at the knees, elbows, head and wrists.  This is as far as his knees will bend...I think he's warming up for the limbo. ;)

Some of his articulation is pretty limited.  Most of this is caused by his outfit or his hard plastic hair getting in the way.  

He comes with a small sword that is worn in a hilt on his belt.  I'm assuming this is his original sword that he starts out with.  I'm annoyed that he can't actually get it out of his hilt.  This picture shows the closest he gets to drawing his sword.

Thorin with sword drawn.   

His bigger sword, Orcrist, is perched on his back and can be angled to look like it's hanging over his shoulder in the hilt.

Like his shield, it's held in place by a little plastic peg.  You can see the hole in the middle of his back where the peg is inserted...

...and in this picture you can see the peg on his sheath.

Orcrist comes out of the sheath very easily.

I was pretty impressed with the detail on the sword.  Of course, it's flimsy and wouldn't hurt a fly, but I suppose it wouldn't do to sell toys with authentically sharp swords.  Too many kids would stick themselves. ;)

A look at the sheath.

And here's Thorin with his sword, which brings me to another disappointment.  Because of the limited articulation of his arms, he can't hold the sword with both hands, which is totally how he used this sword in the movie.   

I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some of my other action figures with you since it kind of fits the theme.

Strider/Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings was my first action figure and is also my biggest.  You'll notice he's still missing his sword.  We never found it after Little Gal lost it on the coast trip. :(  Never let human kids play with your stuff.

Mama just recently found this Jack Sparrow at Goodwill, along with...

...Will Turner.  I'm not so much a Will fan myself, but Rachel really likes him.  She insisted that I include him in this post.  Whatever.  Jack's way cooler.  But Rachel's a softy and she likes the boring, romantic heroes.  She and Tess are alike in that.  I have to admit that I'd still take Will Turner over Mr. Darcy, though!

Mama also found me a bigger Hiccup from "How to Train Your Dragon" and a Peter Pevensie from the Narnia stories at Goodwill.  I'm not a real fan of the Narnia movies, but the action figure is still pretty cool, even if he's missing a lot of his pieces.

Of course, the ultimate action figure is my awesome Iron Man!  He's a way cooler hero than any of the others combined!  Not that I'm biased or anything.  But hey, snarky yet lovable hero with his own flying metal suit...what's not to like? 

So, back to Thorin.  I'm glad I have him, and for the most part he's pretty cool.  I'd give him a 4 out of 5 because of his limited articulation and his shield that has a hard time staying in place.  I think I'd still  recommend him overall as long as the doll or person I recommended him to was aware of his flaws.

I hope you enjoyed my first official review.  If you liked it enough, I might try to do a few more in the future. :)  Let me know what you think.

Laters...Mags

Breaking News with Maggie: We've Been Awarded!

This is Maggie Wilson of Breaking News with Maggie, here to report that we've been awarded by our friend Reese from Reese's Pieces of Life.

Okay, so it's not exactly "breaking news" since I already mentioned it last week, but just go with it.  I needed another "Breaking News with Maggie" post. ;)

Before I get to that, though, I wanted to mention that I rather stupidly forgot to mention my birthday last week.  It was the 3rd, and Rachel and I celebrated by watching "The Hobbit".  FINALLY.  I cannot TELL you how long I've been waiting to see it.  We watched it in regular 2-D.  Mama gets kind of seasick watching 3-D.  We also hadn't heard great things about the spiffy-however-many-frames-per-second filming that they did, so we stuck with the "normal" version.

I came to the movie with mixed feelings, and after watching it, I felt the same way.  I think there were some parts that were really awesome, but some of it was overly huge and big and epic for a little story that was more of a fun, lighthearted children's book.  Granted, it's been a while since I've read it, so there were some things that might have been from the book that I just didn't remember.  And yes, I know that Peter Jackson pulled extra material from "The Necromancer" and all that (trust me, I know my Hobbit movie trivia!).  Some of the film was great and some of it seemed to drag on a little more than necessary.  And for some of it I was just thinking, "Really?"  (For example, Bilbo running after the Goblin and defending Thorin towards the end of the movie.  Where did that come from?  And who on earth was the weird goblin guy anyway?  I don't remember him from the book!  And while we're at it, didn't the Goblins set the trees on fire, not the dwarfs?  Okay, I'd better move on before I get stuck here forever.) ;)

I will say this:  the Riddle scene was AMAZING!  It was just like I'd pictured it.  Andy Serkis did such an incredible job of bringing the split personality to Gollum.  He managed to pull off a character who was completely creepy one minute and someone to be pitied the next.

I did like the casting of the other characters, too.  Martin Freeman made a great Bilbo, and I did like Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield too.  Even if he was in *gag* "North and South".  I won't hold it against him. ;)  At least he was in "Captain America" too.

And speaking of Thorin, guess what I got for my birthday from Mama?  That's right, my very own Thorin Oakenshield action figure!!

Isn't he cool?  

She found him on sale at Kmart, so she was able to get him for me.  I'm planning on doing a review post later.  I figured if Mama can do review posts on her blog, I should be able to do one on mine. ;)

But enough of that.  On to the best blogger award!

For the first part, Tess and I get to answer 5 questions.  Oh, wait a minute.  Tess says that since it's a reward for our whole blog, it's only fair to have everyone who's contributed answer the questions.  Goody.  This won't take all night or anything.

Here are the questions we're supposed to answer:

1. What is your favorite post that you've ever created?

   I'd have to say that my favorite post was my Avengers Discussion post I did with Rachel.  

   Tess said her favorite was her "Tea with Tess" post (the only one she's done so far).  Just a warning:  Emma and Tess spent this entire post discussing their Jane Austen favorites, so if you're not a fan, I'd skip this one.

   Emma's favorite was her series of posts on her trip with Mama that she recently did.

   Hayden's favorite post was her post about her vacation from last summer.

   Jenna liked her post about Thanksgiving with Papa's family.

   And Rachel and Charlie chose their series of posts on their coast trip, also from last summer.

   

2.  What is your favorite photostory that you have ever taken part in?

   We all particularly enjoy our Christmas posts with the photo stories.  We especially liked the Christmas posts from 2011.  You can see a couple of them HERE and HERE.

3.  Why do you blog?

   Tess and I started blogging to get more writing experience, Tess because she wanted to be a writer and I because I wanted to be a journalist.  Since then, we've continued for the same reasons but also for the social aspect.  It's great meeting other doll bloggers out there. :)

4.  How many followers do you have?

   We currently have 95 followers (just 5 more until we can do our giveaway!).

5.  Do you like being nominated for awards?  

   Um, yeah!  What's not to like?  It's always nice to know your writing is being noticed and appreciated.

And now, we get to nominate 5 other bloggers for this award.  After a bit of discussion, we decided to nominate:

1.  The Bolton Girls from The Bolton Girls Travel Journal

2.  Kiki from Kiki's Corner

3.  Jenny from A Doll's Life

And that's as far as we got.  Many of our favorites had already been nominated (in fact, I think even some of the ones we nominated were already nominated!), and a lot of our favorites haven't been actively blogging for a while.  If you've already been selected and you'd rather not participate a second time, we understand.

Tess wants me to insert here that we were primarily trying to stick to other doll bloggers since Mama also received this award and will be nominating human bloggers.  She also wanted me to be sure to mention that just because we didn't nominate you doesn't mean we don't like your blog or anything.  She always gets really worried about "offending the readers". ;)

I guess that's about all for now.  I've got to get to bed.  We'll be back later with more awesomeness. ;)

Oops, I almost forgot this was a "Breaking News with Maggie" post.  So, to keep it all official, this is Maggie Wilson, signing off. ;)

Maggie's Memos: A Quick Hi

Hey everyone, Maggie here.  So, you're probably waiting for an amazing post or something, but you're going to have to wait a little longer.  Mama's 3 girls have been around constantly this whole week since their school is out for Easter break.  Normally, when Little Gal is the only one home, we can sneak out to the computer during her quiet time.  With all three of them here, though, it's just too risky.  If they discovered we were alive, they'd never leave us alone.  Besides, they're not supposed to know.  Really, it's against doll code even having Mama, Grandmama, and Mimi know about us.

But on to the point.  We've been awarded with the "Best Blogger Award" by our friend Reese and are hoping to get a post up about it soon, but it will most likely have to wait until next week when the older girls are back in school.  Thanks, Reese.  It's nice to know someone appreciates our talents.

It'll be nice to have free reign of the house again!  I'm sick of being stuck in my room, especially now that it's up so high.  Rachel and I are getting a huge case of cabin fever!  

By the way, while I'm here, I just had to give a big thanks to all of our followers...91!!  Seriously, it's about time we started catching up to Mama.  Yeah, I know she has 226 followers.  But just you wait.  We'll catch up to her as the word spreads about our awesomeness...and I'd better leave it at that or Tess will start complaining. ;)

We're planning on doing something special once we hit 100 followers, so keep it up!  Just 9 more to go.  Come on.  Click that "follow" button.  You know you want to. :)

Be back soon with more amazing stuff.  Laters.

Maggie

Breaking News With Maggie: A New Room

This is Maggie Wilson of "Breaking News with Maggie", bringing you the latest news from Beast'sbelle's Gals.  Hah...you thought I forgot all about these posts, right?  WRONG!!  There just hasn't been anything worth reporting for a while. ;)  Okay, and maybe I've been a little lazy recently...and a little overly ambitious in earlier posts. I mean, come on.  Some of the "breaking news" I've reported in the past has not been all that interesting.  But you know what they say: if there's nothing interesting to report, fabricate it!!  Or try to make something uninteresting seem more interesting than it is!  And no, I have no clue who the "they" are.  In fact, it's quite possible that I just made that all up. ;}

And can I just take a minute here and say that we REALLY need to be better at coordinating our posting schedule?  I mean, almost an entire month with nothing and then three posts in one day?  Really, guys?  Has anyone heard of the word communication?  Sheesh.  

Anyway, moving on to the subject at hand:  Rachel and I have a new room!  Well, to be strictly accurate, Tess and Hailey also have a new room:  our old one.  Some of you might have picked that up in Tess's last post.  I'm kind of surprised she didn't say anything about it...although the tone of her post didn't really match with a cheery "by the way, we have a new room" message. :{

So Mama decided that she needed a little more room and she wanted to have all of her doll rooms in one spot.  She decided that Rachel and I would do best on the very top.  And I do mean very top.  See our ceiling?  That's actually the ceiling of Mama's room!

We thought you might like a little tour. ;)  Here's Rachel on our bed (you can see her Muppet posters and our Jack Sparrow and Will Turner posters behind her on the wall).

Our dresser is now next to our bed.  We still have our radio on top.  By the way, isn't our floor cool?  It's a quilted wall hanging that Mama found at Goodwill.  It the perfect style for Rachel and me. :)

And in the back corner we have our nifty corner shelf with all our doo-dads on it.  Now you can see our awesome Avengers Squinkies a lot better. ;)

Here I am chillin' in our chair.  It's nice to have a place to sit besides the bed again.  We put our tub of books next to the chair so we could reach them easily.

I thought I'd also show you a picture of the same area without me in it so you can see the rest of our nifty posters.  We had a lot of fun hanging them up. :)

Ooh, and you can also see my new Hiccup from "How to Train Your Dragon" and Peter Pevensie from "The Chronicles of Narnia" (thank you, Goodwill). ;)

At first, I wasn't too sure about the move.  I mean, we were used to being at floor level, and now we're at the very top of the doll rooms.  I really liked having the easy access to the rest of the house.  And...well...easy access isn't really a feature of this room...

...as you can see from my bird's eye view here.  Not sure why Blogger randomly decided to put this picture sideways, but at least you still get the idea.  

I haven't quite perfected the art of getting down gracefully (without stepping in someone's lap or on their bed), but I'll get it eventually.  Staying in our room forever is NOT an option. 

I guess that's about it for this post.  Nothing else to report...except that our new digs give us the unhappy advantage of overhearing EVERYTHING from the Book Ladies Meeting with the four nuts.  Seriously, I was about ready to start chucking pillows down there if I heard one more word about Jane Austen or whoever's curly hair or awesome facial expression in that one ballroom scene.  Ick.  Get a plastic life, girls.  And please stop torturing the rest of us with your period drama drivel. >:(  

Hmm, maybe next month we should hold a rather loud "Avengers" discussion at the same time!  Hee hee.  I keep telling Tess that Thor is basically like Mr. Darcy as a super hero.  Only way cooler.  Like, WAY way cooler.

So, talk to you guys again later.  Maybe next time we can be better at spacing these posts out so you have something to tide you over throughout the week.  Until then, this is Maggie Wilson, signing off. :)

Tess's Tidbits: The Missing Piece

It was late when I got back to our room from the Literary Ladies Society meeting, and Hailey had already fallen asleep.  I tiptoed into the room so I wouldn't wake her.  

I sighed as I removed my feathered headband.  I wasn't sure what to think about the meeting.  Emma and I had enjoyed a simply thrilling discussion about different Jane Austen film adaptations, but I was worried that we'd overdone it a bit.  Several times I'd caught glimpses of rather blank expressions on Jenna and Hayden's faces.  I had to remember that this was a Literary Ladies Society, not a Jane Austen Society, and that not all of our members were as in love with Austen's work as Emma and I.

I was amazed that I'd been able to speak at all.  When Jenna had asked me to come up, I'd literally felt sick to my stomach.  My mouth was so dry I might as well have been made of sawdust instead of vinyl.  I couldn't look at anyone without feeling like I might faint, so I chose a spot on the floor and stared at it while I struggled to find words of introduction.

Before long, however, the words had come.  As I spoke about the characters as dear to me as my own friends, it was as if the whole world melted away.  I was Lizzy Bennet, sharing about my life...and why I preferred Colin Firth to Matthew Macfadyen (no offense, Mr. Macfadyen...I adored you on "Little Dorrit").  When Emma joined the conversation, I was elated.  We always love discussing Jane Austen together.  

As we spoke, the haze suddenly seemed to clear, and I was merely Tess the doll once more...and Hayden and Jenna were on the verge of either sheer boredom or a long nap.  I've never been more embarrassed in my entire life.  The last thing I wanted was to drone on and on and bore my audience.  This is why I wanted to be a writer, not a public speaker.  As I said my goodbyes and headed down to my room, my plastic heart sank.  What if my writing was just as bad?  Would I bore my readers to tears as well?  Perhaps my blogging is not all that interesting.  You would tell me if it was horrid, wouldn't you, my dearest readers?  If I have no future in writing, it would be much better to know it now than after years of toiling over stories that no one will care about. :(

With these thoughts weighing heavily on my mind, I opened the top drawer of my curio cabinet to put away my headband.  Then I stopped in my tracks.  How had the picture gotten there?  Hailey must have thought this was where it belonged.  

I put my headband away, picked up the framed picture almost reverently, and slowly took a seat on the bed, being careful not to wake Hailey.  Pemberley purred behind me, but I didn't respond to my kitty.  I simply stared at the portrait.

It seemed so long ago.  In some ways, it had been a lifetime.  A little over two years, to be exact.  Two years since my baby sister left us.  I fingered the picture gently.  There were times when I missed Ella so much that I physically ached.  I knew that she had chosen to leave and that we were fortunate to hear from her sporadically via email, but it didn't take away the pain of losing her.  I always felt as if a piece of me was missing.  And every day, I vowed that someday, somehow, I would try to bring the three of us together again.  I wasn't exactly sure what I could do, but I had to try. 

Until that day, I'd have to keep going and bury my loss.  I knew Mama had said that I could talk to God about how I felt.  Sometimes He just felt so far away.

"Dear Father," I whispered slowly, "Mama says we can talk to you about anything."  I hesitated.  "I really miss my sister, Lord.  I miss her more than I can say..."  I had to stop to get my tears under control.  "If there's any way you could help me get her back, I would be forever grateful."  I stroked the picture frame lovingly.  "Mama says that sometimes You don't have the same plan that we do and I have to trust that You know what's best."  I wiped my eyes and glanced over at Hailey to make sure I hadn't woken her.  "It won't be easy, but I'll try my best to be content no matter what happens.  Thank you, Lord...Amen."

A tear slipped down my cheek and landed on the glass of the picture frame.  I carefully wiped it away with the hem of my gown and then put the picture back in the drawer.  I didn't know what would happen in the future, but it helped knowing that God did.  

Meanwhile, I'd have to try to be content, making the most of each day, and pray that one day the missing piece of our lives would be restored.

Hayden's Histories: Literary Ladies Society March Meeting

Hi everyone!  Hayden here with another...um...slightly late...report from our 3rd Literary Ladies Society meeting. :}

Last Saturday was the 3rd Saturday of the month, so the four of us all got dressed up in our fancy dresses.  Jenna and I did a quick declutter job on our room before Tess and Emma got there.  Not that we're overly messy, but we both collect a lot of stuff, and our collections have a way of overflowing from the shelves. ;)

The topic for this meeting was a comparison of the two most recent movie adaptations of "Pride and Prejudice", presented by Tess (or I suppose I should say "Miss Bennet"). ;)

I was really surprised when I found out that Tess was going to speak.  She's so painfully shy that I wasn't sure she could handle getting up in front of us, even though it was only an audience of three.  She did a great job, though.  I could tell she was nervous when she started...she spoke really quietly and didn't make eye contact with any of us.  After a while, though, her love for "Pride and Prejudice" gave her an unnatural boldness.

In fact, she started talking so fast that it was all I could do to keep up in our meeting minutes!

As she continued speaking, she seemed to come alive.  Her eyes sparkled and her cheeks were flushed as she pointed out the many flaws she saw in the 2005 version with someone named Kira or Keira...it's in my notes somewhere (Tess spelled out the names for me). ;)

My sister Emma was thrilled with the topic and often interjected a few points of her own.  Tess always welcomed them graciously.

Before long, the two of them were in a deep, fan-girly discussion which had grown from just "Pride and Prejudice" to adaptations of all of the different Jane Austen films.  You know how Emma gets when she gets excited. ;)  The two of them were completely lost in a world of Austen, discussing pros and cons, costumes, lighting, screenplays, and even whether Mr. Knightley or Mr. Tilney was a better hero.

I have to admit, I kind of glazed over during the course of the conversation.  I'm a fan of Jane Austen's work myself (it's great "scope for the imagination", to borrow a phrase from "Anne of Green Gables"), but this conversation was a bit beyond me.  I mean, I didn't know enough about JJ Feild's smile or Colin Firth's hair to have anything to contribute.  And while I didn't mind a discussion of film adaptations, I wasn't expecting something that delved this deep.  I do have a bad habit of drifting off anyway, letting my imagination run away with me.  I'm glad I don't have to go to school, because I'd probably always be getting in trouble for daydreaming. :}  Basically, what I came away with was the the 1995 version of "Pride and Prejudice" was "spectacular" and the 2005 version was "horrid", at least according to Tess and Emma.  Um, I mean Miss Bennet and Miss Woodhouse. :}

Several hours later, Jenna and I were alone in our room again.  

"Well, I think I know more now about Jane Austen film adaptations than I ever needed to know," Jenna declared wryly as she pulled off one shoe.

I blushed at her direct comment.  I didn't want Tess or Emma's feelings to be hurt.  "It was informative," I began weakly.

Jenna chuckled at the uncomfortable expression that must have been on my face.  "Don't worry, Hayden, I'm not going to say anything more."  She wiggled her foot back and forth.  "I do appreciate all the preparation Tess put into her presentation, and I know how excited your sister gets about Jane Austen."  

She reached down to take off her other shoe.  "I'm wondering if we should rethink our meetings a bit."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

My friend dropped her shoes on the floor.  "To be honest, I'm getting a little bit overwhelmed trying to coordinate a meeting every month.  I'm wondering if we should switch to every two months, or maybe even every three months."

"We'd have to put it to a vote," I reminded her.

"Of course," she agreed.  "I just think it might be a little more relaxing for everyone."

I wasn't sure if the others would feel the same way, but I was fine with whatever Jenna was fine with.  Especially if it meant I didn't have to make any decisions or take charge. ;)  I could dress up anytime I wanted, and fewer meetings would mean more time for making up stories or acting out plays with Jenna (our favorite pastime together).

"Maybe I'll talk to Emma and Tess tomorrow," Jenna mused as she rummaged through her dresser for her pajamas.

"Let me know what they say," I responded, heading to my own dresser.  "We can always have a quick meeting if we need to be formal about it."

As I climbed into my bed that night, I thought over Jenna's suggestion.  I wondered how much of it was because she was overwhelmed, and how much of it was because she didn't want to have to sit through another long discussion next month.  Jenna is creative and has a lot of great ideas and leadership qualities, but she's not always very patient. ;)  Either way, I was okay with fewer meetings.  I was definitely feeling overwhelmed with my blogging.  I don't mind writing, but I'd much rather tell a story verbally than type it out.  And if I'm being completely honest, I prefer making things up to documenting actual events.  Maybe that's why I stress about these Literary Ladies Society meeting posts so much. :}  I suppose I should tell someone eventually, but I don't want to rock the boat.  I am still kind of the newbie around here.

So, you might hear from me next month, but you might not.  I'll try to keep you informed on what we decide. :)

Hayden