As you may have noticed from my musical set yesterday, where W was for Xena, Warrior Princess, Xena is one of my favorite fictional characters.
My husband and I named our late dog after Xena. She was our warrior princess, all right.
We were blessed to have her for our dog, and in the year since she's been gone, it's been a gradual healing process for all of us--my husband, my mom and me. We all live together. We were all Xena's pack. She was a cherished member of our family. It's taken awhile, but we're all starting to feel drawn toward getting another dog. I'm certain that by the time we ring in 2014, there will be a new member of our family to help us do that, and we'll once again be members of a pack. Here's to Xena, with love.
1 - A tall drink of water with a passion for rescuing damsels in distress - furry four-footed damsels, that is. Jared Padalecki is a hero on the small screen and off.
2 - Jared Padalecki - currently appearing as Sam Winchester on Supernatural
3 - Jared grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and concentrated on acting though he'd once made plans to attend college.
Appeared on Gilmore Girls for five seasons (2000-2005)
Portrayed painter Thomas Kinkade in the made-for-television film The Christmas Cottage (2008)
Like his Supernatural co-star Jensen Ackles, Jared has done a lot of genre work, including:
Friday the 13th remake (2009) Cry Wolf (2005) House of Wax (2005)
Next photo is straying into Not Safe For Work territory...
4 - Jared keeps in tiptop shape for the grueling stunt schedule required of his role on Supernatural.
5 - No matter how delicious Mr. Padalecki may be, he's strictly eye candy, ladies - he belongs to Mrs. Padalecki, Idaho-bred actress Genevieve Cortese.
Also an actress, Genevieve met Jared on the set of Supernatural, when she had a featured role as an is-she-or-isn't-she-helping-Sam demon named Ruby.
6 - Jared has appeared for the past six seasons as younger Winchester brother Sam. Along with his older brother Dean, he follows in the footsteps of his father, a hunter of the paranormal. When vengeful spirits, ghouls, angry pagan gods and all manner of gruesome beasts start taking down humans, the Winchesters step in and start taking down monsters.
7 - Sam looks so adorable when he's sad. Just sayin'.
Sam's sensitive nature sometimes pits him against his brother Dean as he tries to find alternatives to destroying the monsters they encounter. Of course, there's a reason Sam needs to believe that monsters can somehow be freed from their own natures.
8 - Remember my soft spot for a man in chains?
...well...
Supernatural gives us a tied-up Sam with wonderful regularity.
9 - And then there's the fact that Evil Sam is disturbingly attractive.
10 - I'm also quite fond of Sam's staring-down-disaster expression.
11 - But it's his straight-man-to-Jensen's-wisecracking role that is Jared's biggest strength.
These two actors hadn't met before being cast as brothers on Supernatural, but the producers played cupid to a real life bro-mance between them. They got along so well, they even lived together before they each married, and they were both there for the other on their wedding days.
Here's a clip that showcases their easy chemistry with each other. The clip has fun with the premise of the show when Dean and Sam need to become patients in a haunted mental health facility. Sometimes it pays to simply tell the truth...
Champion of the Arts - I write historical and paranormal fiction, as well as poetry. I love to showcase creative works by artists of all stripes. Blogging from Nova Scotia, Canada