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blogging: a once a week occurrance
apparently, anyway :)
I don’t know what I’m doing instead of blogging, since I’m on the computer all the damn time. (That’s not true. I know what I’m doing instead of blogging: watching the fall of the American nation in real time.)
We had a college friend visit in early May. We had a wonderful time with her. We saw a steam train in Dublin, and went to the zoo (where, as we were lecturing/answering Indy on some topic, switching back and forth with providing information, and ending by saying exactly the same words, together, I was reminded of going to a concert with her when we were in college and somebody telling us what a cute couple we were (we said thank you), and I said to her, “You remember that? Those same people listening to us right now would be delighted we were still such a cute couple,” and she laughed :)), and ate fudge (“This,” she said, in raptures, “this is like the chocolate in a perfectly baked chocolate chip cookie straight out of the oven,” which she knows about because one of her superpowers, thanks to growing up in a bakery, is an ability to eat chocolate chip cookies while molten. She can literally eat them straight out of the oven. “NOOOOOOOO!” she tells other people as she shoves cookies out of the oven and into her mouth, “YOU’LL MELT YOUR MOUTH INTO A CAVE OF BURNING PAIN!”
“Pah!” say other people. “YOU’RE eating them, they must be fiOH GOD OH GOD MY MOUTH IS A CAVE OF BURNING PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN”) and she struggled with Irish bread bag “twist ties” (which are not twist ties, but stickers that you wrap around the closed neck of the bread bag), so I showed her how to open them and she muttered, “We need never speak of this again,” and I said, “Sure, by which I mean, I’m totally posting it online,” and she told me about Amish superhumans and she and Ted went out to dinner at our favourite restaurant, the Lebanese one in Dublin, where, when Ted came in with another woman, they were like “ER WHAT’S GOING ON HERE WHERE’S CATIE?” and Ted was like “Catie made the reservations! SHE KNOWS I’M OUT WITH ANOTHER WOMAN!” and this was a very long sentence which I feel touches on how much fun we had. :)
Then Trump fired Comey and I didn’t blog any of this because (see above, re: fall of American nation).
And then Trump revealed classified information to the Russians and I (see above).
After that it was our anniversary and we got to go to a movie together for the first time we could remember in at least a year and possibly almost three years (the last movie we’re SURE we saw together was GotG1). We went to King Arthur: Legend of the Sword which was better than I expected it to be. It had roughly as much to do with the Arthurian legend as Disney’s Pocahontas had to do with Pocahontas, but it did a couple of REALLY nice things with the sword-in-the-stone aspect of the story, and the magic was really quite good. Also–don’t get me wrong, I loved the bad guy’s design, but–every time it came on screen I thought “So Guy Ritchie spent his formative years staring at Frank Frazatta paintings and thinking I totally want to make one of these a bad guy in a big movie someday,” and he by god did. I could have done with a bit more explanation in a couple places and about, mmm, fifteen minutes less movie overall, but by the end of it I was like, “Yeah, I’d go watch another one of these,” so it’s too bad it’s made absolutely no money. :)
And then some asshole blew up a concert in Manchester and etc.
That pretty much brings us to this week. I’ve been going to the gym, more or less. I wanted to be able to bike there, so I was looking for a second-hand bike, and a friend said “lo, I have one!” so I collected it last night and now I have a bike! ♥! I saw the PT yesterday who crunckled and twisted and tugged and pushed on me and it was great and amazing. I went to Colossal, which is a pretty good movie that is *not* what it says on the tin. I’ve gotten all the ATLANTIS FALLEN Kickstarter rewards sent out, and I’ve sent BEWITCHING BENEDICT to the editor for line edits and I’ve gotten line edits for REDEEMER back from her, so things are moving along there.
So how have you been? O.O
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sunday summary
I made scones this morning and opened the maple apple butter to try it on them.
oh my GOD that stuff is good
Holy crap. Completely different delivery of flavour than the caramel, which is all tart apple and then slow roll of caramel. This is rich sweet maple with a low apple base, much, MUCH more maple-y than I expected from the taste I had when it was still warm. Oh my *god*.
Ted’s all like: you need to start a fudge and apple butter cottage industry and sell it for millions in five years’ time.
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The other day, at the hot chocolate cafe in Dublin:
Them: Where’ve you been?
Me: We moved to Drogheda.
Them: Oh! We should open a shop there!
Me: Don’t. I’ve lost 10lbs since moving.
Them: Oh dear.***
I got my ART OF ELFQUEST from the Kickstarter a couple of days ago and will wax rhapsodic about that on a recent reads post, but one of the perks was an ElfQuest coloring book.
*incoherent noises of squee*
Seriously, I can’t believe it never occurred to me to photocopy pages from the original B&W comics and color them (ESPECIALLY since my sister (age 9 or so) once colored in one of my originals! this got brought up for some reason in the last year or two and Deirdre for the first time looked actually pained and said, with genuine remorse, “Yeah, I’m sorry about that,” whereas at age 9 she really couldn’t understand why I was SO FURIOUS that she’d done that *laughs*), but now that the idea’s been put in my head…
…now that the idea’s been put in my head I’m regretting, pretty much for the first time, getting rid of all the non-original-quest B&W originals I owned when we moved to Ireland. Anyway, I assiduously scanned the entire coloring book before starting on it, because then I can color pages AGAIN in NOT BOOK ACCURATE COLOR SCHEMES (maybe) (theoretically) (possibly) (why does the idea make me twitch?) and then I couldn’t decide what picture I wanted most to color so I just started at the beginning. I may end up coloring the whole thing in order, in fact, which would be unheard of. So would coloring an entire coloring book, for that matter, but I see it happening. :)
Anyway, I had a perfectly splendid time coloring the first picture. Leetah sure has a lot of hair, though. I mean, I knew that, but it’s particularly noticeable when you have to color it all twice to get the right color. And I also already want a different coloring book with more of the minor characters, as this one is heavy on The Big Three.
Ted, immediately after I got the book: do you have enough colored pencils for an ElfQuest coloring book?
Me, thinking about it: probably
Me, opening pencil box & book: definitely notAt the least I need more pencils because I have an insufficient variety of browns for the Sun Folk, nevermind various shades of pale for the Wolfriders and Gliders (the Go-Backs, sadly, are almost entirely absent from this book, although really there aren’t very damn many Gliders either).
Still: *INCOHERENT SQUEE*!
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So Deirdre and I were walking along, and Deirdre was singing something that I half knew the words to, and I sort of came in a bit on a word, then said, apparently with great solemnity and consideration, “I know a lot of vowel sounds in songs.”
Deirdre laughed for literally five minutes. She had to stop walking twice to laugh. It rang true, she said, she’d just never heard it expressed that way. “Usually,” she said, “we call that ‘not knowing the words,’ but I guess your way is a more positive spin on it.”
“Well,” I said, “I’m a very positive person.” :)
Relatedly, having just before that sung our way through Jesus Christ Superstar (hooray for lyrics websites, altho we sure knew a lot of them in the core of our souls) and having listened to her scat, I would totally pay money to watch her do a one-man show of JCS.
***
I can’t think of a fifth thing for five things make a post. Close enough.
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TV & Movie Roundup
A week ago I went into Dublin and had a Movie Day. I went to see The Martian, Everest and The Intern, and decided not to go to Macbeth because I wouldn’t have gotten home until the heat death of the universe, or something a lot like it, like, eleven-thirty at night. :)
The Martian was, somewhat astonishingly, as good as everybody’s been saying it is. In so far as I had any objections to the plot, it was that their eventual solution seemed obvious to me from the moment the problem was presented, but I assume I’m part of a relatively small subset of people who went “well, obviously.” :) But it’s a really terrific movie, and people keep saying it’s nearly as good as the book, so I’m apparently going to have to read the book now, too.
Everest was also good, although not nearly as much fun as The Martian. The scenery is spectacular, and verified for me (as if there was any doubt) that I wouldn’t even be able to get to the mountain, much less actually climb it, as there are death-defying heights and rope bridges ON THE WAY THERE, never mind the actual mind-blowingly terrifying climb itself. In case of zombie apocalypse, possibly. Under any other circumstances, nope. But it’s a good film with a lot of good actors, and worth watching.
The Intern was a good unicorn chaser after those two movies, though, jeez. I chose to see them in the Correct Order. It’s a cute movie, with Robert de Niro playing fairly close to peak charm, and Anne Hathaway in a role that I found pretty sympathetic. The supporting cast tragically includes that guy I don’t like from Pitch Perfect, playing the same kind of role (albeit without singing) as in Pitch Perfect, which is kind of too bad because I have a suspicion he’s probably better and potentially a lot more likeable than that role. Still, though, overall a pretty cute movie, and an excellent choice to see after the above two. :)
I’ve also just finished watching Grace and Frankie, a Netflix Original with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin playing women who don’t like each other very much but have known each other and been married for forty years to Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, who at the beginning of the first episode, announce they’re in love with each other and will be divorcing their wives so they can get married themselves, now that it’s legal. It’s pretty damned terrific, and it ENDED ON A CLIFFHANGER, which I totally didn’t expect (I thought I had two episodes left!) and now I’m clawing at the TV for the next season. Which will drop sometime in 2016, apparently, as it *has* been renewed, but agh! I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!
Seems like maybe there are a couple other things I’ve watched lately that I was going to mention, but that’s probably enough for now. :)
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Cyber…Tuesday…late… o.o
I am doing a MID-WEEK ROUNDUP of AWESOME CYBER STUFF!
1. Judith Tarr’s HORSES OF THE MOON Kickstarter is 80% of the way to funded! I personally *dearly* want it to hit the 6500 mark and get us THREE novellas, which might be just enough to satisfy my grabby little hands! :)
2. SIX BY SIX is a fantastic looking anthology with 6 stories each by 6 authors. I admire the whole idea of it and, uh, am jealous of the people doing it, if you wanna know so much. :)
3. Cats Laughing–you know Cats Laughing; they were the band who did the soundtrack for WAR FOR THE OAKS–are doing a 20 year reunion concert/album. Fourteen-year-old me is delighted. :)
4. I have FINALLY got a 2015 calendar up, if people wish to purchase one! Zazzle likes to give me a fancy link for the version with US holidays on it, so I’ve got a fancy link, but THIS is a less fancy link for a version with UK holidays on it. :)
5. This Secret To Writing mug is so admired amongst the word warriors we may declare it our Official Word War Coffee Mug. :)
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too busy to post
I’m at that stage again where I’ve got a backlog of posts I want to write and am apparently never going to get to them so I should let it go
(let it go, can’t hold me back anymore / which reminds me that yesterday Young Indiana pulled all my hair over one shoulder so I would be “like Elsa” and so this morning I said to him “should I braid my hair like Elsa’s?” and he said yes and I did and he said “That’s not like Elsa. Elsa’s braid is on the other side.” And I was like “…yes. yes it is, now that you mention it. CLOSE ENOUGH.”)
and make posts on other topics instead of mooping about the ones I haven’t done. Or maybe I’ll do a quick round-up:
I have read some good books lately. One was Chrysoula Tzavelas’s WOLF INTERVAL, 3rd in the Senyaza (MATCHBOX GIRLS) series, and right now you can get all 3 books plus all her Senyaza short stories at that Kickstarter link for only $12!
Another is Deborah Blake‘s debut novel WICKEDLY DANGEROUS, which I totally failed to read in time to blurb and am sad about. It’s a splendid modern twist on Baba Yaga with some terrific characterisations and funny funny lines. Well worth reading.
And UNMADE, Sarah Rees Brennan‘s third Lynburn Legacy book is out, and ended the trilogy very satisfactorily.
I’ve watched the first episodes of Gotham, Agents of SHIELD, Arrow and The Flash. So far I like The Flash the best by a country mile, as it seems to be having *fun*, but I was thinking about this season’s TV and thought “I like Person of Interest best of the new stuff this season” and then realized I’m watching PoI season 1 on Netflix, not on tv. Oops.
My s9 Supernatural finally arrived. Now I just need time to sit down and binge-watch it. :)
Pretty sure I’ve given up on Elfquest: the Final Quest. My failure to give a damn is turning to active dislike of the story. I just…yeah. Don’t like it. I actually don’t like it, and that’s sad.
I have got so many things to do. Over and out.
