The thunderous noise heard throughout the house was not due to the winds howling through bending palm trees during our recent storm, but to my overjoyed son jumping up and down screaming , "I'm gonna be a Boilermaker!!"after reading an acceptance e-mail which landed in his In box at 7:48 PM PST from Purdue University.

Tears of joy, mixed with gratifying emotions of knowing someone likes him as a student and being able to plan where he'll be sleeping in September, all came together at once - and was quite overwhelming. We hugged, we cried, we took deep cleansing breaths knowing the suspense was finally over. The loss of control over our kid's future home is finally back in the driver's seat, and it's a good feeling.

Now, reality hits. Financial reality that is. The joy of possibly attending a Big Ten school is quickly overshadowed by the tuition costs we must resign ourselves to pay for this quality education, whether we like it or not.

College tuition is a hot topic these days, especially in our difficult economic times.  According to USA Today, "tuition, fees, and room and board per year at four-year public schools jumped 46%, from an average of $10,440 in 1999-2000 to $15,210 last year, when adjusting for inflation. For private four-year schools, costs rose 28% in that period, from an average of $27,740 to $35,640 (per year). " 

Paying for a college education is almost equal to the price tag of an average home in our home state. For many,  it's simply  impossible to happily part with this kind of money, or risking re-mortgaging the family home when home loans are scarce.

Luckily, I remembered I have the latest press release from The Princeton Review's (TPR) 2010 "Best Value Colleges" survey and I quickly went down the list to find out if  Purdue University was listed  as a 'Best Value' school among the top 100 colleges in the country.

First, let's define 'Best Value College' according to TPR, shall we?

"The Princeton Review selected these institutions as its "Best Value" choices for 2010 based on its surveys of administrators and students at more than 650 public and private colleges and universities.   The selection criteria covered more than 30 factors in three areas:  academics, costs of attendance, and financial aid, using the most recently reported data from each institution for its 2008-09 academic year."

Said Robert Franek, Princeton Review SVP-Publisher, "We know many families and students have serious concerns about paying for college in these tough economic times. Among the nearly 16,000 respondents to our 2009 'College Hopes and Worries Survey,' of college applicants and parents, 85% said financial aid would be 'very necessary' for them this year.  However there are many first-rate institutions offering outstanding academics at a relatively low cost of attendance and/or generous financial aid, including some that may surprise applicants.  We’re pleased to have again teamed up with USA TODAY to identify and commend the 100 colleges that do just that and do it best in the nation."

The Princeton Review "Top 10 Best Value Private Colleges for 2010" are:

1. Swarthmore College (Swarthmore PA)

2. Harvard College (Cambridge MA)

3. Wesleyan College (Macon, GA)

4. Princeton University (Princeton NJ)

5. Yale University (New Haven CT)

6. Williams College (Williamstown, MA)

7. Rice University (Houston TX)

8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)

9. Amherst College (Amherst, MA)

10. Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA)

The "Top 10 Best Value Public Colleges for 2010" are:

1.  University of Virginia (Charlottesville VA)

2.  City University of New York – Hunter College (New York NY)

3.  New College of Florida (Sarasota FL)

4.  Florida State University (Tallahassee FL)

5.  University of Colorado (Boulder, CO.)

6.  State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton NY)

7.  Univ. of Georgia (Athens GA)

8.  Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA)

9.  Texas A & M University (College Station, TX)

10.University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK)

It turns out Purdue isn't on the list this year, but it was consoling to know it was one of The Princeton Review's "Top 100 Best Value Colleges in the Nation" in 2009, and "The Princeton Review has named Purdue among the top 20 colleges in the nation in a number of categories including best athletics, best college newspaper and best campus food in TPR's "371 Best Colleges".

This bit of information gave us hope that we might be able to send our future Boilermaker to study at his new home in the Midwest after all...without becoming homeless ourselves!

A man was sick and tired of going to work every day while his wife stayed home. He wanted her to see what he went through so he prayed: 'Dear Lord: I go to work every day and put in 8 hours while my wife merely stays at home. I want her to know what I go through. So, please allow her body to switch with mine for a day.'    more »

I saw the movie first, and then had to read the book. The movie Julie and Julia tells the true story of a temp-turned-blogger-turned-best-seller-writer, and was just too good to end with the credits. So, for my birthday my hubs gave me the book and Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (MTAOFC), quite an imposing tome, too. (I have yet to try cooking with this food bible, but maybe I'll try making something fancy for our anniversary)

Julie Powell seems like the ordinary girl stuck in a rut working as a temp secretary for an agency in charge of selecting the design for the memorial after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. She longs to have a passion for something, a clear direction for her life since she married and moved to a small, cramped apartment in Long Island with her devoted - and very patient - husband Eric. Julie's friends have power jobs, and her mother is on her case about never finishing anything when she picks up her mom's MTAOFC during a visit to her hometown in Texas. She 'borrows' the book, takes it back to her oppressive apartment and peruses the pages one fateful evening as she's having another existential meltdown with her husband. Eric suggests she start a blog where she can put her talents as a writer to work. But, what to write about? The brainstorming gives way to The Project: Cooking 524 recipes in 365 days from Julia Child's epic cooking guide. (Click link for the actual blog).

And so it begins. The blog starts off slowly, but then garners enough readers that Julie feels indebted to them and has to finish this project no matter what. This is where the meat of the book is; she encounters unexpected obstacles, frustrations, cooking disasters and challenges that she wants to give up on the project which was taking over her life.

Have you de-boned a duck before? How about boiled live Lobster after working eight hours? Neither have I, and I have no intentions of doing any of this. Why, for heavens sake, when I can buy these animals cooked and seasoned?

Page after page of her trails and tribulations with cooking and her personal life, start to get attention from 'foodies'  and the 'bleeders' as she calls them. Soon, Julie gets noticed for being very open and explicitly descriptive about her encounters with uncoagulated aspic and her marital problems as she tries to stick to her goal of cooking while keeping her marriage together.

The book and the movie are also a delicious tribute to the one and only Julia Child who, in real life, was not amused by Julie's 'Project' or her writing (a few too many expletives, perhaps?), as much as Julia wanted Madam Child's approval. Never the less, Julie gets recognition for own merits, and her story is now out for all of us to enjoy.

I highly recommend both the movie and the book to anyone who is looking for direction, inspiration or confirmation to keep at this thing called a purposeful life. You never know what you'll learn in the process like Julie did; she discovered she had the internal fortitude to grab a knife, stab an innocent animal, dismember it, gut it, cook it and eat it. Then, write about it while having dessert...

Watch American Idol tonight to see if my video made the 60-second spot featuring eight bloggers (out of 16) who were selected as finalists for this ad!   more »

Wanna hear me, sing? How about dance? Well, I got an e-mail this week from the good people at "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" that the gag order has been lifted and I can finally open my mouth and let you in on a top secret project I got myself into.    more »

I haven't been consistent about keeping up with 'Smile Of The Week'. Here's one I heard yesterday; it's gross, but a propos!    more »

It seems babies are born with their clocks turned around; they sleep during the day, and are determined to stay awake all night when WE need to be asleep.   more »

Hooray for Hollywood! The score for three movies I watched with my family over the Holidays is a 10!!

Having the opportunity to catch up on a lot of movie going experiences was pure joy, especially when the offerings are of the quality I witnessed in The Blind Side, Invictus and Sherlock Holmes. Though we usually flock to the Cineplex for mindless paid entertainment, these three movies gave us more bang for our typically squandered-on-crap-movie buck.

THE BLIND SIDE

Audience: Middle School

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for one scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual refrences.

Based on sport novelist Michel Lewis' book "The Blind Side", the true story about how the Baltimore Raven's offensive lineman Michael Oher made it through the apparently insurmountable obstacles stacked against him,  the movie is a gem of a life changing story and an example of compassionate-person-turned-hero story. The film doesn't rely on sap to pull at our heart strings either. 

A homeless black kid is taken in and later adopted by the very wealthy and very white Touhy family, and the parents do this  in spite of having two children of their own, a pre-teen son and a teenage daughter about the same age as "Big Mike",  without giving it a second thought or charity-work feel to their benevolent actions. I'm not going to retell the details of the movie, but Oher's tale of rags to athletic fame is a great film kids should watch with their parents because I think there are a few valuable lessons to discuss afterward.

First, compassion and grounding.  Our kids today enjoy so many spoils it's ridiculous. We parents self-indulge them for the smallest reasons, and then are disappointed when our offspring don't seem to grasp the impact becoming productive, compassionate members of society can have on others. This movie, if watched together and later discussed, can be an eye opener for those who have a life of privilege and lack the connection with the unequal reality others live.

The other reason to watch this film is to see a depiction of how hard work in school and athletics might affect your future college athlete. Not every kid is born with 'Big Mike's' attributes, but a few get to be in his same position should a college athletic scholarship be the goal. The real-life-to-movie depiction of what high school athletes go through is a good lesson about how much talent vs. drive is needed to make it in the big leagues - in this case the Big Ten. (Before watching this movie, I registered my aspiring golfer with the N.C.A.A., but had no idea how grueling and competitive this side of youth sports can be!)

The Blind Side is a splendid feel-good movie for  the Holidays!

INVICTUS

Audience: Middle School

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for strong language

Invictus is the title of a Victorian poem by William Ernest Henley which Mandala would find refuge in while in jail, and serves as the title for this great movie. The film not only offers a very brief history lesson about apartheid and Nelson Mandala's (played by Morgan Freeman) journey to become President of his country after 27 seven years of incarceration, it also gives us a glimpse into the character of a leader  and the Rugby teams' captain (Matt Damon), a leader in the making. 

Leaving the movie's political view aside, the sports theme could be reduced to a micro situation where inspiration for young leaders can be found. There are good lessons in this story about how a national sport, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, united a country in the process of eliminating the barriers years of segregation had divided. But, more importantly the lessons about the charisma, responsibility and nerve it takes to be a leader can be applied to many situations including teens at the high school level who sometimes need inspiration or affirmation about why  there's a need for leaders - even at their age.  

Parents, though the movie does a good enough job of showing Mandala's situation before he became President,  you might have to explain the pre-existing situation of apartheid in South Africa so the kids can understand the hate that was behind the importance of the Springbok's win.

SHERLOCK HOLMES

Audience:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some startling images and a scene of suggestive material

Sherlock Holmes was pure delight for the senses. Action, scenery, costumes, adventure, and wit all in one extra-long movie left us wanting more - and the ending indicates there will be a sequel in the future.  This movie might be too violent for the little ones, but teens will enjoy the action sequences, London's gray and 'Goth' like sets, and the humorous exchanges between Watson (Jude Law) and Holmes (Robert Downy Jr.), although adapting the ear to both actors' heavy British accents may take a few minutes.

I hope 2010 will bring us more quality films for families who are always looking for activities to do with their older teens, and can enjoy together.

Thank you 2009, it was nice knowing you. Overall you were good to me and I’m grateful for that. I ...   more »