The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[Lil'freeper]

Sorry to hear you're leaving AZ. Prescott is one of my favorite (not-so) little (anymore) towns in northern part of the state. Where are you off to?

[HairOfTheDog]

Ahh... did you see that osagebowman? - The atlas has the LilFreeper stamp of approval!

[SuziQ]

I've got my collards and black-eyed peas to do

Ack, spit, ptewey! You can keep the collard greens! I may be a GRITS, but I never could abide, collards, turnips, or mustard greens. They were always WAY too bitter for me! I'll have to see if I have any black eyed peas hanging around. I was gonna do steak on the grill before the next snowstorm arrives.

We're supposed to get another 6-9" this evening and overnight! We seem to be getting all the snow we didn't get last year, plus this year's! That's ok, I don't have anywhere to go, so I'll just watch it fall, and maybe bake some cookies!

[Lil'freeper]

Was just doing research over at Amazon.com and the author of both atlases is Karen Wynn Fonstad.

The amazon editorial review says the following:

Amazon.com The publishing world is full of Tolkien spinoff products, some trivial and ephemeral--but some, like this thoroughly researched atlas, are genuinely classy. Karen Wynn Fonstad is a qualified geographer and cartographer who first mapped Middle-Earth in 1981 and has since added much new detail based on those endless volumes of drafts, abandoned passages, alternative versions, and laundry lists published since Tolkien's death. She fills in gaps and details in the familiar Third Age maps from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, goes back in time to map Middle-Earth's First and Second Ages, and reconstructs the route and timescale of every important journey in the stories. There are local maps of key places like the Mines of Moria, Lothlorien, Isengard, Minas Tirth, the Tower of Cirith Ungol, and the volcanic Mount Doom. War maps cover the saga's notable battles, up to the hopeless last stand at Mordor gate and the tiny later skirmish known in Shire records as the Battle of Bywater. Thematic maps show Middle-Earth's distribution of climate, geological features, vegetation, people, and (most importantly to Tolkien) languages.... It's all done tremendously seriously and would make a fine gift for enthusiastic Tolkien fans, except that they'll have bought it already. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

This link will take you to their excerpted pages which highlight the supplemental text but don't really display the brilliance of her work.

[SuziQ]

Matthew turned to me and said "Isn't this the life?" I said "It sure is."

It sounds like a lot of fun to have him around all the time! Imagine what you'd be missing if you had to cart him off to school each day!!

Give those boys a hug for me and tell them HAPPY NEW YEAR! And may this year be the Happiest ever for you, Steve and those cutie pies!

[2Jedismom]

Yep, supposed to start snowing around supper time! And I'm supposed to work, unless I get cancelled, which I doubt on a New Years Day! But I get $45 an hour to work a holiday, so snow or no snow...I'm going in!

Balancing the checkbook, which requires online banking...sneaking a peek into the Hole!

[Samwise]

Happy 2003, my friends.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

The kid and the dog outlasted the adults here. :^) We did ring in the new year with sparkling grape juice though. Wild hobbits we are.

[Samwise]

"The actress' dad is AEROSMITH frontman STEVEN TYLER.

Knock me over with a feather.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Knock me over with a feather.

No kidding!

We know for sure where she didn't get her looks from. Let's just say she doesn't take after her dad in that department...

[ecurbh]

Heading back to MN (twin cities area). Most of my family is in this area, but there just aren't enough decent-paying jobs to go around here, what with the massive population influx from CA, and the drought, forest fires, and pine beetle epidemic decimating the economy.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Good afternoon all, and Happy New Year!

Rose and I watched the extended edition last night, then we watched the first disk of the Appendices... spent about 6 hours immersed in movie Middle-Earth, pausing only long enough at midnight to ring in the New Year. Now we're getting ready to go and see TTT (second view).

Hope you all have good luck and happiness in the new year... may it be better than the last!

[HairOfTheDog]

HA! - You hadn't heard that before, really? Well, Surprise! :~D

[HairOfTheDog]

Enjoy view two! And I hope you and Rose have a very Happy New Year!

[osagebowman]

LF: Thanks very much, looks like that is a keeper. Will check it out at Border's, we actually have a bookstore in town now.

[osagebowman]

Hair: yes indeed; high recomendation marks. Especially interesting was the fact there were plans for the battles. Hmm. that might G'nad interested as well.

[HairOfTheDog]

It might help me follow the battles!

[SuziQ]

We know for sure where she didn't get her looks from

LOL!!That was my first reaction on learning several years ago that her Dad was the lead singer for AEROSMITH. But if you look at him, when he has that HUGE mouth of his SHUT, he's actually rather good looking, and she DOES look like him!

[HairOfTheDog]

If you say so doll! This is a fairly good picture of him though.... at a premier or something! It was hard to find a picture of him with his mouth even partially closed!

[Rocko]

With Dad and Mom:

[Corin Stormhands]

I have to go to a friend's house and watch the first Harry Potter movie.

Have you read the books? That will help. It's no LOTR (by any stretch), but we've enjoyed the Potter series...heretics that we are...