Thanks, Diana!

So I woke up to 8 inches of water in my basement yesterday. Which is the kids' play room. Faulty sump pump. And my 7 year old brought her Queen Elizabeth report back to me today after handing it in to her teacher because it didn't have a cover on it (a cover was NOT in the instructions, thankyouverramuch, and they're presenting them in class - in costume. A cover was the last thing on my mind). She then informed me she had to move her fish because one of the boys was poking her on the carpet when they were supposed to be paying attention - and of course, she retaliated and poked him back. (I'm half "YOU DID WHAT?" and half "THAT'S MY GIRL!" at this news). And to top ALL of that off, my courses will be dropping in on me any second, now, and I feel like I need a good cry.

Which is why I was floored, touched, flabbergasted and all-around thrilled to find out our Outlander videos have made it to Diana Gabaldon's Youtube page.  Look under "Favorites" and "Book Review Videos".

jedecec Meets Peter Facinelli!

OK I have to share something huge that happened to one of our readers today.

My cousin, Jenn D, who follows My Outlander Purgatory as JeDeCe met a certain someone named PETER FACINELLI today. If you don't know who that is, he plays CARLISLE CULLEN in the Twilight series films... and is also a regular on Nurse Jackie.

Not only did Jenn meet "PFach" and get her picture taken with him... but he had someone take a picture with her on his iPhone and then TWEETED about meeting Jenn. And about 7 hours later, the tweet is still up! 

It was an amazing day for Jenn and I just had to share. Go check it out!

Outlander Chit Chat Between Sisters

SPOILER ALERT: Dinna read unless ou have finished chapter 66 in A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES.

Email: Carol to Tracey:

How is it possible that in ONE WEEK Claire seems to have lost her ass 
and is reduced to skin and bones. And in three weeks of dieting, I'm 
lucky if I lost three pounds.

My prediction: Malva poisoned Claire and Tom Christie. That way, 
she'd be free to have Jamie. Why isna Claire seeing this??? She still 
thinks she and Tom C. had some odd illness. NOT. Malva's BAD news. I 
can smell it.

Email Reply: Tracey to Carol:

You should copy that email and paste it right into your blog. LOL  

 Malva is verra interesting. I thought so right from the start. 

Oh and BY THE WAY - I just read the end of Chapter 66 where Claire finally invites Jamie back into the marriage bed after almost dying (from being poisoned if I'm right.) And all I have to say is: Thank you, Diana. Thank you verra much. LORRDDDDD thank you very much!

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

SPOILER ALERT: Dinna read unless you've gotten 3 or 4 pages into chapter 65 in A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES. 

Dear Diana, 

What's with this Wedding at Cana writing style of yours? I love it! Just when I think things are slowing down, you change the water into wine and start serving up the deliciousness!

Yours in Christ (and Jamie Fraser),

Carol 

Seriously - I CANNOT believe what a turn this book has taken. Then again, I suppose I can believe it, after previous books that went along their merry way until PRESTO! They took off like a bat out of hell. 

I am going back to reading now because this part is SO good and I only have a short free time window in this insane asylum I call my house. But I'll tell you this: I am at what I believe to be one of the most powerful - if not THE most powerful - moments in this series.

Photo credit: philadelphia.about.com 

Jamie just declared himself for liberty. That is HUGE. Put yourself in his position. He's an honest, hard-working man who spent years at the mercy of English rule - fighting for Scotland and suffering subsequent punishment - and has finally found some peace. And he now has to put every ounce of faith and trust into his oddball, time-traveling wife's notion of a Revolutionary War -  and declare himself a rebel. When all he really wants to do is stay out of trouble and avoid fighting like the plague. It's mind-blowing how huge this is.

Photo credit: planetware.com

I am more than nostalgic for where I grew up right now. No shocker as I've waxed on previously about my hometown bordering Valley Forge. I used to drive to my friend Katie's house and pass cannons and log cabins along the way - and think absolutely nothing of it. Dinna get me wrong - I respected the hell out of what took place at Valley Forge. But it was what it was; I lived there. I had to drive through the park (Bitterman) to get to the local shopping center!  Seriously though - I went through a Revolutionary War obsession in the 4th or 5th grade... and even had wedding portraits taken at Valley Forge Park in front of a log cabin (Tracey is right now going "OMG I totally forgot about that!) And now - wow.  Reading this book...I'm dying to go back. Tracey - Shannon - Jenn M. - and anyone else who wants to join us, I have one thing to say:  ROAD TRIP!!!!!! 

PS - Check out these pictures taken by a fellow named Adrian from England who lives in PA now and has a personal website at adrianc.com. I have posted one of the inside of a cabin, below. Can you imagine Jamie, Claire, Bree, Roger and Jemmy all sharing ONE?!

ALSO - click this link for some fascinating information and links regarding Valley Forge and George Washington's troops camping there (what was left of them) for 6 months.

Dying is a Lonely Business...What are your Thoughts, Hobson?

SPOILER ALERT - Dinna read unless you've finished Chapter 64 in A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES.

This is sortof post script from last night's post. Claire is now fully awake - and has shared some much-needed alone time with Jamie. From what she says, it's been a day or two since she woke up. And no mention of Bree coming-a-calling. I suppose this is one of those times Tracey and Shannon always point out is "assumed"? Because if not, WHERE THE HELL IS BREE???

Here's another thing - why on god's green earth was Jamie SKINNING HIDES IN THE WOODS whilst Claire was upstairs dying in the big house? I mean, dinna get me wrong, I'm happy he was - because he was able to save my beloved Fergus. But it strikes me as VERRA odd that he would leave that room for one second if Claire was dying. I'm having a hard time from keeping the following from spewing forth from my lips: "Edward would never have left". 

And speaking of my beloved Fergus - I think it's a grand idea to send him off to live the life of a city mouse with Marsali and the weans. He needs to build his confidence back up, aye?

Now THAT'S a bad hair day!

SPOILER ALERT: Dinna read unless you hve read through the third page of Chapter 64 in A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES. 

Jesus god they shaved her head. THEY SHAVED CLAIRE'S HEAD!!!!! Oh I'm dying. Absolutely DYING!!!

Do you know what my profile quote is on Facebook? "What's wrong? Is it my HAIR?!"  And it's completely superficial and stupid, I realize. But it's because I have had CRAZY hair since the day I was born. And when you have CRAZY hair, it almost seems like your life sortof revolves around your hair. And you act like a complete dumbass about your hair. Hair is my life. Everyone I know has asked me to do their hair - fix their hair - hell, I've even cut and colored hair when I had no CLUE what I was doing. Seriously. I just love hair, OK?  (See yesterday's post mention about Robert Pattinson for backup.)

THEY CUT OFF HER HAIR!!!! She had no SAY in the matter!! She never saw it COMING!
Hell....*I* never saw it coming!!!  Wow, Diana... you have outDONE yourself in the "GOTCHA!!!" department, seriously.

It's not like she was Demi Moore and starring in GI Jane and did it on purpose. She woke up - AND IT WAS ALL GONE. 

OK going back to reading now... but all I have to say is this: "WHO is the dark haired GIRL leaning into Jamie??? (Don't answer that!) MALVA??? IS IT MALVA??? I will KICK HER ASS from here to KINGDOM COME. GET her ass OUT of that surgery and BACK to the cabin with TOM ASSHOLE CHRISTIE where she BELONGS!!!!!

OK I'm a little freaked out right now. Sorry for the shamefully crass language. But DAMNIT I am pissed. Poor Claire is DYING of dysentery and MALVA (or someone else?) is MOVING IN on JAMIE - and CUTTING OFF ALL HER HAIR!!!!!!! I need to process this. Seriously. Did this ever happen on Little House on the Prairie?? Did they ever shave off Mary Ingalls' hair because she was sick???

WHY??? WHY??? (screamed like Nancy Kerrigan)  And here's poor Claire - about 4 seconds back from the dead - and she is worried about Jamie seeing her. As if he'd give a rat's ASS about her hair, especially now that she's out of the woods and going to live. Oh the poor thing. God bless her.

OK Back to reading. More to follow....

Flocks of a Feather

SPOILER ALERT: Dinna read unless you've read Chapter 60 in A Breath of Snow and Ashes. 

I canna believe how much I've come to love Bobby Higgins. That letter from John Grey killed me.  It was verra sweet of John to go to bat for Bobby like that. "Well, Jamie, please talk Lizzie's dad into letting her marry Bobby. And if that falls through, give it a shot for Malva with Tom Christie".  And what then? Who is low enough in the totem pole for poor Bobby?! And he is better than all of this! And isn't he sweet, putting on his Sunday best to speak with Jamie and Mr. Wemyss? And then what happens?! SHOT DOWN!!! With a slight little "I'll think about it but most probably not."

OK so let's back up a little bit. Flora MacDonald. Don't think I like her. A little too important to be captured for my taste. And WHAT was with the odd look she gave Claire when she first met her at River Run? Maybe that wasna the first time she met her. Or maybe she'd heard stories. Or maybe she's got a sick crush on Jamie even though he's like a million years younger than her. Kindof like Rob Pattinson is a million years younger than me. Yeah. Let's let that one go for now.

I. LOVE. DONNER!  Why on earth did Bree and Claire just sit there and let them haul his arse off to jail? Yeah yeah - he escaped - and now we don't know where he is. But still! They just SAT there. They go to bat for everyone and everything - but for him, they just sit there. I get it - he ran around with the band of thugs who kidnapped Claire. But he was trying to help Claire. True, he's a wimpy little shite who watched a heap of walking filth just go around killing people at random - but again - I think he did enough to try to help Claire that they should have at least spoken up for him, even though it probably wouldna have done any good. And he's from the future. They canna just let him die without pumping every last bit of info out of him that they can (which I believe they were trying to do until Claire dragged poor Jamie's ass into the brothel where we heard even more stories of his good deeds.) And if nothing else, Donner actually uses terms like "gnarly". I'd keep him around for the conversation alone.

Tar and feathers - awesome. Jamie at his finest - and it just showed me that Jamie is going to be verra influential and so sitting down to a meeting with John Adams in about 30 seconds. I'll bet Abigail is brewing the acorn tea for the Fraser womenfolk as I type. And Hel-LO - when Ian and Fergus came to his side (sighhhhh Fergussss... that man is so sexy it's shameful) and did their little hop-up number to pull down the mattress? Priceless. Absolutely priceless.

OK that's it for now, lest I make you yawn with all my chatter. I'll leave you with this thought:

If those Ridgers don't leave poor Roger's preaching/singing/sweating alone  - I'm going to grab that snake out of Jamie's shirt - no, make that Claire's pocket - and whack them over the head with it. Although, might I say that when that snake came up under Jamie's chin,  under his shirt, I truly almost coughed up a lung from laughing so hard. Seriously.

Funny Outlander Parody

Sorry All - crazy week. I promise I'll be back at it tomorrow!

Until then - check out this verra amusing Outlander Parody from "CrunchyMonkey777" I found linked to Diana Gabaldon's Youtube page. I cracked up when she went through the stones. Lorrdddd please don't let Tracey make me do something like this! ;)

PS - Tracey asked me to mention that she also saw this on Outlandish Observations today. She's the Tweeter; I'm the blogger.  (We are sometimes not in sync!)

Who is Your Claire?

SPOILER ALERT: Dinna read unless you have read Dragonfly in Amber.

Since we were talking about "our Claire" in tonight's chat - I have to mention mine. This is my Claire....Emma Samms. Young Claire - Older Claire - doesna matter. I think she's perfect.

What do you think?

My Outlander Movie or Series Ramblings

Just read this blurb in an interview with Jim Caviezel about "that other Outlander"... and found it interesting that he would say this:

Outlander is...kind of like Braveheart and Highlander mixed - and really not.”

Wow. Interesting Scottish references to this sci-fi alien vs. viking film with the same name as the book series we're all reading which is about Scotland and therefore conjures up visions of, uh, well.. Braveheart.. and uh, Highlander.

OK so moving on - I just posted this comment to Sirena regarding my humorous pipe dreams about Channing Tatum playing Jamie Fraser:

Word on the street has been that Randall Wallace would be writing the screenplay (he wrote Braveheart)...but lately the talk is mini-series related... so we'll see what happens.

Did you happen to see Dear John? Channing Tatum is the star of the movie and I recently read an interview where he said Randall Wallace wrote him a letter... and has since become his mentor. Ask Jenn, Shannon and Tracey - I spent days on end absolutely convinced that RW wanted Channing to play Jamie. We went to see the movie and I thought "Wow - if this guy could pull off a Scottish accent, I'd be happy as a clam. He's that good in the film". But.. alas... that's just another one of my little Outlander dreams...

So I read another article today and realized Channing Tatum has mentioned he's reading a Randall Wallace-written book entitled "Love and Honor" about the eve of the Revolutionary War. Hmmm.
So I suppose a) I'm dead wrong on RW possibly wanting CT to play Jamie Fraser and b) Randall is farting around with his own historical fiction instead of working on a proper screenplay or better yet storyline for a cable series for Outlander... and I have to wonder if c) he ganked the idea for his 2004-published book from Diana, Herself! Mmmppphhm! (Dinna worry - I promise I'm kidding as I truly adore Randall Wallace and will absolutely buy this book when I finish the Outlander series. I don't care if I'm the only person on the planet who loved The Man in the Iron Mask, which Mr. Randall wrote the screenplay for - as well as directed.)

OK so lastly - a post from Diana's "Voyages of the Artemis" blog. The post is from 2008 - and readers like Karen and Laura already know this all and will most likely be like "Oh Carol, aren't you cute with your 2 year old information" LOL! But some of you more recent Outlander groupies - like me - might want to see some of the film adaptation info that came from the mouth of Herself. Enjoy! (And PS - ask Tracey - I have maintained since Day 1 that Keira Knightly is my ultimate Claire if she'd just eat a few Pork roll, Egg and Cheese sandwiches and throw bad a bunch of chocolate shakes. LORDDDDD that girl is skinny! I think I'll have to stick with Rachel Weisz.)