Tonight I found Gandalf in my family tree.

You may be wondering about his curiously long life (700-1579).
This is obviously because wizards live longer than humans.

And curious that there is no death date or place...

This find does a lot to explain why I feel compelled to do things like this.

Other notable finds of the evening:

• Earl Malcolm II MacHeth of Moray, who lived in the Orkney Islands (yeah Orkney!) and was killed trying to regain the Scots throne.
• St. Margaret Queen of Scotland, who died in Edinburgh Castle (been there!)
• Duncan I King of Scotland who (and I quote) was "killed by Macbeth in Bothganowan, Elgin in 1040"
• Vivill "the Snow-King" from Ringrike, Norway
• Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Emperor. (Love how they say Emperor twice. Like, "Charlemagne...as in the Emperor-of-the-Holy-Roman-Empire Emperor.)

In other words, check out Family Search if you want to have a rockin time.

gimme the love of an orc, ent, dwarf

had a text message exchange (more like a lord of the rings showdown) with camille tonight.  it started with her sending this picture:

camille:

carolyn: The day will come when the hearts of men will fail them.  TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY.
camille: FOORRRR FFRRRROOOODDDDOOO!!
carolyn: Do you remember the taste of strawberries?
camille: And the sound of water?  Or the look of the Shire in the spring?
carolyn: It is mine to give...like my heaaart.
camille: Woah. New scene. Elvish: Thomah lea mein.  English translation: I choose a mortal life.
carolyn: Oh sheesh.  Please tell me you knew that off the top of your head.  Okay, Entish: whaaahhohrrrghh...
camille:  Very nice.  Not nearly as good as my ring wraith though.  Eeeeeeeeeee tleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
oh how i love having funny sisters.

(yes, the post title is an allusion to this song from who else but noah and his whale of a tale.)

that's how we get down for the holiday

here at my home we like to have parties. because my parents were on holiday in hawaii this week (yeah, we're all angry they didn't take us with), we decided to make our own holiday...

a lord of the rings holiday.

that's right. we're awesome (and overly enthusiastic about anything to do with lotr) like that.

my cousin raymon babysat the family for the week, and thanks to his enthusiasm for cousin-parties, for lord of the rings, and for wearing white robes and grandma wigs as beards (see above), we had probably the best lord of the rings costume party since the fourth age of man.

here's them:

and here's us:

look alikes? i think so.

and in case you were wondering, i was originally supposed to be a nazgul what with my hood and sinister face, but as our frodo didn't show up on time (no worries, des, we still love you), i had to fill in. nazgul-frodo. wouldn't that do interesting things to his already conflicted self.