2007 Update

I haven't written in so long! The last two months have been devoted to wedding planning. Everything is going well, I just don't want to be rude to those who aren't joining, or spoil surprises for those who are. Sufficed to say that we couldn't be more excited about all the plans we've made so far, and now we're just flushing out the smaller 30,000 decisions to be made.

The rest of my spare time has been devoted to my usual passtimes - books, movies, and excuses not to work out. It's been a decent year so far:

Books to recommend:

• The Lake of Dead Languages - a great murder mystery set at a prep school for girls in the northeast.
• Beneath a Marble Sky - Historical fiction about the intrigues of the royal family in India during the building of the Taj Mahal. Very unique and engrossing.
• Pride and Prejudice - How did it take me this long to read a Jane Austen novel? Of course it's a magnificent romance, but I was thanking my lucky stars that I was already familiar with the cast of characters, or I wouldn't have been able to keep track!
• The Birth of Venus - Currently reading. Took me a bit to get into it, but now I love it. Also historical fiction about Florence, Italy in the early 1500s, told from the perspective of a girl from an aristocratic family there. Fun details about art and architecture.
  

Movies to recommend:

• The Painted Veil - My favorite of the year so far. A beautiful and unique romance with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. An unexpected surprise.
• Casino Royale - Watch it for the opening chase sequence, and after that just to admire the new James Bond. He's fabulous. Of course the movie itself is laughable, and the "heroine" is a complete wimp, but I can live with it. :)
• Who Killed the Electric Car? (rental) - Fantastic documentary about an electric car that GM released in the late 90s to great public acclaim, and what the heck happened to it. The word "documentary" has kind of a negative connotation of homework, but the best ones tell a story just like a fictional movie, and this one is right up there.