| Poem for Monday |
[23 Nov 2009|12:55am] |
( Anecdote of the Field )
November seems to be a bit lost -- or, rather, September seems to have arrived -- and we had yet another gorgeous day of sun and warm temperatures, so we went to Huntley Meadows. The animals there, at least, seemed to know what season it was, since all the reptiles were either hibernating or hiding and there weren't any herons or egrets out fishing, though there were fish and geese and ducks and songbirds and insects. I usually start to feel light deprivation around this time of year so it's been really lovely having so many brilliant sunny days to spend outdoors.
( Huntley Meadows, November )
The Redskins and Ravens were both doing well against the Cowboys and Colts when we got into the car to drive home, but when we got there, they both managed to lose. Rather than suffer through any more football in the evening, we watched Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day, which has instantly become one of my favorite movies -- if you want to see Amy Adams be fabulous in a film from last year, spare yourself Doubt and watch this! It stars Frances McDormand, who is also terrific, and Ciaran Hinds, who is always delightful, but I had no idea that Pushing Daisies' Lee Pace was in it (playing a Brit!) and Shirley Henderson, who plays Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter movies, has exactly the same annoying whiny little-girl voice. ( Spoilers. )
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| Poem for Sunday |
[22 Nov 2009|12:37am] |
( Watermelon in the Afternoon )
After volunteering at Hebrew school, Adam was invited by a friend to Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary to help take care of the animals and take part in a vegan Thanksgiving feast, so we took Daniel to Little Bennett Park to see if we could find the Mound Builders Trail, which we missed last time we were there because we parked in the wrong parking lot. This time we found the correct lot, but we had a different problem: the trail we had planned to hike to reach the Mound Builders Trail went through Beaver Valley, and the beavers have dammed up the stream and flooded it! So we took a slightly longer route, which ended up being delightful since we went past a property that once housed a mill and still hides the ruins of a farm in the woods, following the creek to the enormous nests that the Allegheny Mound Builder ants have constructed. Then we circled the long way around back to the car. It was a cool but not cold day -- overcast, so it never got as warm as forecast -- and there were still plenty of insects singing even though it's late November.
( Little Bennett Park )
Here is my belated review of "I, Borg" which I appreciate all the more after seeing more recent Star Trek. In the evening we watched what I believe is the last two-part Sarah Jane Adventures episode of the series, "The Gift" (I haven't heard whether it's been picked up for a fourth season, does anyone know yet?). I think the wedding two-parter was the biggest of this series, and I'm surprised they didn't save it for the end, but I can't say that I'm sorry, because I really think Sarah Jane stands on her own without the Doctor and proved it to myself by watching the often-bad and purely delightful K-9 and Company which I obtained from a generous soul who did a transfer from videotape of the episode made when it was broadcast as a Christmas special. The fact that I'm saying I loved it despite the atrocious witchcraft storyline, which makes Eastwick look downright progressive where Wicca is concerned, ought to tell you how much I love Sarah Jane Smith. ( Spoilers. )
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| Poem for Saturday |
[21 Nov 2009|12:31am] |
( An Enigma )
I saw two movies today -- one in the theater, one on DVD. Both of them are installments in huge fandoms and enormously popular with lots of people. So I just want to warn people now that I thought one of them was not very good and one of them was not very appealing. If you are a rabid fan of the Twilight books or the Star Trek reboot, you may not want to ( click behind the spoiler tag. )
That is all I am ever going to say about the reboot. Lest all this criticism should make it sound like I did not have a nice day, I want to say that I really did -- I met ![[info]](http://piktures.deadjournal.com/userinfo.gif) perkypaduan early and we waited for the theater to open so we could get seats, and she gave me an early birthday present -- the crystal from Sedona that I'm wearing in the photo below. Then gblvr joined us and we howled through New Moon at inappropriate moments, then we all went out to lunch at Potbelly with gblvr's former boss whom I've met many times, then gblvr and I walked to Target together where I found penguin socks, plus Smallville season eight on sale for $18.99, and I got her Star Trek as an early Christmas present, which is how we ended up watching it together (watching it with her was really fun for me, both because her affection for Pine, Urban and Yelchin is infectious and because she didn't snap at me for harshing her squee, which I am certain I did).
Speaking of Smallville, I have fewer complaints about the roles for women on that show, which seems to me a very sad reflection on the Star Trek franchise, because while I will be the first to agree that Tom Welling can't act any better than Robert Pattinson, all three of the female leads are wonderful. Yes, it is possible I am rationalizing because I adore Lois and Clark together, the same way I know people who love Bella and Edward together rationalize loving Twilight, which really does not bother me! The fact that we don't get a new Smallville episode again till January 22nd is forgivable because ( of these spoilers. ) We watched Sanctuary too, not my favorite because Magnus seemed so much not to be a player for so much of the story and the ending felt like a cheat, but I really like Kate and I love Will's loyalty.
gblvr designed the buttons we're all wearing in the photos below. I made them using the button maker that is my one remaining souvenir of having run Kate Mulgrew's fan club; I forgot that it was in my house when we dissolved the club, so it was still there when I found it two years later, and it has been put to excellent fannish use in the years since.
( My Fangirly Day )
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| Poem for Friday |
[20 Nov 2009|12:08am] |
( Psalm 104 )
It's already 11 p.m. and except for watching the Star Trek episode I need to find time to review tomorrow between New Moon with perkypaduan and gblvr, lunch with the two of them plus another friend, and dinner with my parents, I accomplished none of the things I planned to get done today. In fact, I overslept, having been woken up by a sick cat at 3 a.m., thus causing me to miss getting the rare Superpoke Pet chicken plushies for myself and younger son, and I'm way late on e-mail and comments and stuff because I was playing with AO3.
So I still have not rewatched "The Waters of Mars," and am going to shamelessly pillage things I already said in conversations with my kids and ethelking, but before I forget, I need to declare my undying love for Adelaide Brooke and express confusion why the Doctor did not simply grab her and abduct her on the TARDIS the minute he laid eyes on her, which is what I would have done. Why did the producers have to cast a 12-year-old companion for the upcoming 16-year-old Eleventh Doctor instead of Lindsay Duncan? Of course they'd probably write her with all the limitations with which they saddle Sarah Jane Smith, since apparently older men can be cool though not older women, but I'd take it: it's no secret that I love Sarah Jane more than I love any of her Doctors, and this latest installment just cements it. ( Spoilers. )
I did like tonight's FlashForward despite no Janis; I like the philosophical musing behind the question of whether finding out that someone was going to love you and change your life would make you fall in love with them before you'd even met them, no matter who they were or what they looked like, and I like the way even what looks like a happy vision of the future can lead to a hellish present, particularly for a parent.
( Maryland Animals )
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| Poem for Thursday |
[19 Nov 2009|12:42am] |
( Exercise )
Wednesday was supposed to be my catch-up day, but the wonderful gnomad provided me with an Archive Of Our Own account code early in the day, and I spent far too many hours figuring out how things worked there. In the afternoon I had four loads of laundries to fold, and because of a conversation with ethelking about "The Waters of Mars," I ended up watching "Tooth and Claw" and "School Reunion." I'd forgotten how good that season was -- I was still in mourning for Nine, I wasn't ready to fall for Ten (nor to have Rose fall for Ten), and ironically he seemed almost lightweight compared to Nine then -- hah, what a change in perspective watching now! I had remembered "Tooth and Claw" being quite dark, so I hadn't recalled, for instance, the Doctor's line about thinking Sir Robert was probably happy to have his wife away and be surrounded by tall muscular men. "School Reunion" is just wonderful from beginning to end, not just bringing Sarah Jane back to the franchise, but giving us Anthony Stewart Head as a giant conniving bat who wants to rule the universe with the Doctor at his side, and who can blame him?
So speaking of Sarah Jane, I promised notes on "Mona Lisa's Revenge," although I don't have a lot because on further consideration I don't think the episode deserves the attention. ( Spoilers. ) And I also promised notes on "The Waters of Mars," but I will save those for tomorrow since I need to talk about tonight's Glee, at least for long enough to say that I am sure it is wrong how much I loved the ( spoilers. )I must confess that my favorite part of the entire hour was the Burger King ad with the old ladies and the construction workers fighting over Team Edward vs. Team Jacob. I am Team Buffy all the way, and couldn't care about that franchise, but I hope it's true that burly guys are arguing about Robert vs. Taylor!
I've always liked Johnny Depp, but I've never thought he was the sexiest man alive, though I much prefer him in his 40s to his 20s. Here are a sitatunga pair at the Maryland Zoo enjoying the gorgeous November weather:
( Maryland Zoo Marshbuck )
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| Poem for Wednesday |
[18 Nov 2009|12:54am] |
( Sad Verso of the Sunny ____ )
I am still totally behind on everything because Adam wasn't home anywhere near the time he usually arrives, prompting a flurry of phone calls, first to the parents of his friends (who didn't know where the kids were), then to the school (which wasn't answering the phone), then to the county to see whether something happened to the bus, before Adam finally got around to calling himself to tell me that he'd stayed after school for a couple of hours for viola sectionals but he was going to catch the late bus home. So the laundry did not get folded. Then we went out to dinner at California Tortilla (and Baskin Robbins for the kids) because the middle school was doing a spirit event where local restaurants were donating a percentage of profits, so I was chatting with people and didn't get anything done in the evening either.
I did finish designing and ordering my fannish holiday cards, which involved spending lots of time hunting through photos on my almost unusable desktop computer, then copying them to my portable hard drive so I could make use of them on the laptop. My family holiday cards have arrived, but they're a big disappointment for the first time from Shutterfly -- I wanted a photo from the Bar Mitzvah and used one taken by a friend, but the image looks much more blurry and overexposed on the cards than it did on the web preview. Adam wanted to see the Penguins of Madagascar, so we watched the Merry Madagascar Christmas Special at 8, which was silly but entertaining, like the movies. So the laundry-folding has been postponed till tomorrow along with e-mail, comments, etc. Apologies!
( Maryland Zoo's African Mammals )
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| Poem for Tuesday |
[17 Nov 2009|12:48am] |
( Stolen Moments )
I spent a delightful Monday with dementordelta, who came to visit on this warm, sunny November afternoon. We had vague plans to go out to lunch and watch lots of Due South, but the weather was so gorgeous that we decided we really should enjoy it and went to take a walk at Great Falls down to Olmsted Island and the river. Then we met my mother at our synagogue's annual holiday boutique, where we looked at lots of gifts and jewelry and shared a tuna salad sandwich in the cafe there. And then we ate chocolate moose pops while enjoying "Starman" through "Body Language," meaning that we got to howl through "All the Queen's Horses" with my kids who stuck around to see Leslie Nielsen. Here are some birds from the zoo yesterday:
( Maryland Zoo Birds )
Watched Heroes, which keeps reinforcing my sense that no matter how irritated I've been with other shows that were just making crap up as they went along, ignoring or distorting their own backstories and changing the characters to fit the storylines, this one is in a class of its own. How is it possible that everyone has forgotten Matt's brief moment of fame wired as a bomb, even if it wasn't his fault -- even if he's been taken out of all the police databases, aren't there people who would recognize him from TV and react to him accordingly? I could go on and on and on and on. Tomorrow I will go on and on about Doctor Who but I am still playing catch-up from the weekend so I am going to put that off tonight! At least the Ravens won!
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| Poem for Monday |
[16 Nov 2009|12:59am] |
( Prayer )
We spent nearly all day Sunday in Baltimore, first at the Maryland Zoo, then at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The zoo closes for the winter months since many of the animals can't tolerate being outdoors, and the indoor enclosures there aren't designed for large numbers of visitors -- today, however, the weather wasn't a problem for anyone, since it was 70 degrees and sunny. We went through all three major areas (Africa, Chesapeake, Arctic) and saw the penguins, giraffes, elephants, chimpanzees (who were very playful), polar bears, otters, and dozens of other animals. Then we went to the art museum, which has an exhibit on Matisse as printmaker -- not my favorite, I must confess, as it's lots of very simple line illustrations of faces and nudes, none of the brilliant use of color that makes Matisse's paintings interesting to me -- and an exhibit on Baltimore's Edgar Allan Poe and the artists he inspired, which is brilliant, not only because Gauguin, Manet, Dore, and many other illustrators did brilliant adaptations of images from Poe's writings, but because there are brief summaries of his stories and poems to accompany the illustrations that are quite entertaining in their own right.
( Zoo Pairs )
We missed football in its entirety, which is probably why the Redskins won -- well, that and the Broncos losing their quarterback at the half -- and we spent the evening catching up on evil aliens with The Sarah Jane Adventures' "Mona Lisa's Revenge," which I did not love -- lots of stupid gender issues that this show usually avoids, and way too much adolescent behavior, from the adults as much as the teens -- then Doctor Who's "The Waters of Mars," which I really loved, even though I need to watch it again because I thought there was a significant inconsistency at one point and even though it both exemplifies and doesn't quite provide proper exposition on pretty much everything that bothers me about New Who; it suggests, at least, that the producers are aware of all the problems with the way they've constructed the character and his relationships with companions, particularly humans, particularly women, and may not let him or themselves off the hook. Plus the preview for the Christmas episode made me very happy. Proper commentary tomorrow, as I am really exhausted...oh but I don't want to lose David Tennant's Twittersode so here it is.
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| Poem for Sunday |
[15 Nov 2009|12:24am] |
( November 11 -- 2004 )
My family spent nearly all of Saturday celebrating the Bar Mitzvah of the son of my oldest friend, Linda, whom I have known since we were both six years old in first grade -- I was the new girl before she was the new girl. This is the friend whose family Super Bowl party we attend every year, and though I don't know many of her neighbors except for conversations held that one day a year, I've known her parents and local cousins for most of my life, plus her husband's parents and siblings since they got engaged nearly two decades ago. The service was at a big Reform suburban congregation, pretty sanctuary, lots of similarities to other such services I've attended (perhaps a bit shorter than my own kids' Bar Mitzvahs but my kids also had longer Torah portions). Afterward, there was a kiddush luncheon -- bagels and whitefish and cheeses and fruit and rugelach, all of which were delicious -- where I chatted with Linda's sister Alice, whom I haven't seen in the past five years, and many other family members and old friends.
We came home and relaxed for a couple of hours, then went in the evening to the reception which was held in one of the hotels on the lake at Washingtonian Center. The food was endless -- at least ten hors d'oeuvres, then a big dinner buffet with sushi bar, carving station, pasta table and salad bar, then dessert including cake, a sundae bar, and a chocolate fountain with a dozen dippable items -- and the party was a lot of fun, with a big game room for the kids with skee ball, table hockey, basketball toss, and other games including a big screen with some version of Rock Band including drum and guitar. There was a deejay, though we didn't dance much -- I was sitting with two friends from high school, Stephanie and Allison, and chatting with them when I wasn't hanging out with my kids -- and lots of light-up souvenirs and balloons. I am very sleepy, so here are some photos:
( Bar Mitzvah Party )
And Penn won the Ivy title over Harvard, yay!
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| Poem for Saturday |
[14 Nov 2009|12:52am] |
( Ghosts )
I went to the doctor Friday morning, forgetting my blood pressure monitor which was the main reason I was supposed to have an appointment this week -- so she could download the readings and make sure it was calibrated right -- but she took my blood pressure three times while I was there and it was around 120/85 each time, so that was all good news. She had my CBC and had some recommendations based on that -- more vitamin D and calcium, multivitamins with iron because I was borderline anemic (I used to be the opposite, but I haven't eaten red meat for more than 10 years), and she wants me to have a liver ultrasound because some enzyme level was marginally boosted, which she suspected was from fat buildup that will go away if I lose weight but wanted to check just to be sure. I'm supposed to avoid both alcohol and caffeine, which fortunately is not great loss -- I miss sharp cheese much more than I'd miss either.
In the afternoon I posted my review of Next Gen's "Imaginary Friend" -- not one of the fifth season's best -- and took Adam and his friend to another friend's birthday party at Shadowlands, the laser tag place where both my kids have had birthday parties in the past. I was going to drop them off and let the friend's mom pick them up, but traffic was bad getting up there and the party was only an hour an 15 minutes, so instead I browsed in the used bookstore run by friends of our county library where one always finds treasures for $2-3 (in today's case, all three issues of the Magic Flute graphic novels, a low-sodium cookbook, a couple of books for the kids, and -- no laughing -- the Rankin-Bass Lord of the Rings and Return of the King on DVD for $3).
We had dinner with my parents (stuffed flounder, there can never be too much seafood), then came home and watched Smallville, which other than ( spoiler ) was enormous fun, highly reminiscent of Superman II in some ways and ( spoiler )! Plus I always love seeing Doug Witter from Dawson's Creek (and John Sheppard's brother too, as I recall). Then we watched Sanctuary, which I liked because it was a Henry episode with werewolf storyline, but found creepy otherwise, and it definitely wasn't one of Helen's finest moments not to have seen what was going on with her staff before it turned violent.
( Calvert Cliffs )
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| Poem for Friday |
[13 Nov 2009|12:32am] |
( I Heard You, Solemn-sweet Pipes of the Organ )
Adam again had a half-day of school -- it's end-of-term week, the kids got report cards (straight As in Adam's case, an A average in all honors and AP classes in Daniel's case, so it was all good news), and the elementary and middle schools close early for parent conferences. Meanwhile the old middle school building, which was also my junior high school, is being torn down, so there were trucks going up and down the main street in the neighborhood with stuff from that. Since he was out early, I took Adam out for Thai food at the mall. At least, he had Thai food, and I had a peanut butter sandwich that I brought from home. I can only deal with yogurt so many times a week. My blood pressure has been pretty good all week, though, so no real complaints.
Loved FlashForward this week though I'm ready for them to stop the tease already about what caused the blackout -- I get that the government doesn't know yet, but Dominic Monaghan obviously knows, so instead of taunting us with that, I wish they'd just say it -- though I adore getting to see Merry Brandybuck playing poker with James Norrington. Also, I adore Janis. I got a wonderful present in the mail from valis2, who makes jewelry -- a necklace and earrings with a pewter Tree of Life pendant, with rhyolite beads and faceted pearls strung together on a gorgeous delicate silver chain -- I will have to take photos when I'm wearing it (maybe to the Bar Mitzvah we're going to this weekend) but I had to take photos in the box right after I got it:
( Necklace Gift )
Happy Friday the 13th!
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| Poem for Thursday |
[12 Nov 2009|12:44am] |
( The Burglary )
It was an unexciting day here -- Adam had a half-day of school so I had a bunch of chores I had to do in the morning, then I took him to the orthodontist when he got home, where we waited longer than expected as usual, but there is a new bubble tea place that opened in the same stall where the old bubble tea place closed a couple of months ago, so it was a good trip! Otherwise I have little else to report; I was reminded today in several different places why I no longer talk about politics except in locked entries where I trust everyone who is reading them, and moreover I was reminded that I can't trust everyone I tend to assume I can trust just because they've never said anything that upset me before, and even people who make perfect sense in blogs and journals tend to sound thoughtless when they only get 140 characters or the visible length of a status update.
Watched Glee, was relieved by the absence of several characters from this week's storyline, but I don't think I've ever been less emotionally invested in a gay character on a TV series before -- I miss Jack on Dawson's Creek, he seemed so much more real to me -- and I am so tired of the Jewish girl being nothing but the self-invested diva (am I supposed to find a way to read her ambitions as feminist empowerment, because it's not working). I love the musical numbers a lot, but I find myself wishing it was more like "Once More With Feeling" and the songs really struck home for me because I cared so much about the characters. Of course, I am cranky because Eastwick was not on and this will soon be a permanent situation on Wednesdays.
Here are some more photos from the Swedish festival we visited last weekend. I am not sure why wooden penguins are Swedish, since I thought they lived closer to the other pole, but of course Adam was pleased!
( Swedish Bazaar )
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| Poem for Wednesday |
[11 Nov 2009|12:50am] |
( Fireflies )
I finally managed to have a birthday lunch with vertigo66 -- practically a month late for her birthday, but it was the soonest we could both do it. We went to our usual hangout (The Corner Bakery) and afterward I went to Target, where I bought exciting items like new laundry baskets, a plastic container for storing dry cat food, and two summer shirts on sale for about $5 each. I think everyone in the store decided to check out at precisely the same moment I did, because the cash register lines were insane considering it was neither a weekend nor a holiday. Then I got into another delay driving home, because a gas leak had made people sick inside my local grocery store and caused the shutdown of the entire shopping center -- the police had roped off the entrances, there were several fire trucks and ambulances surrounding the buildings, everyone was trying to get out of the parking lots, and there was general chaos with people making u-turns and honking. I only barely beat younger son home.
I am very sad to report that we have now watched all of Due South, having decided that we weren't impressed enough with V to keep watching (we are in mourning for Eastwick, which we liked much better and which ABC axed last night, though they're going to finish filming the last three episodes and air all 13). As sad as I am not to have any more Due South, though, I cannot be sorry that the show left me wanting more instead of wishing the whole last season never happened, like with Voyager, La Femme Nikita, X-Files, etc. And I could not have asked for a nicer ending for those characters -- well, obviously they all ended up hanging out together at a cabin above the Arctic Circle having lots of sex, including Francesca (immaculate conception hahahaha), but that said, ( spoilers. )
( To Calvert Cliffs )
The DC sniper was killed tonight by lethal injection after being denied clemency by Virginia governor Tim Kaine -- a Catholic who personally opposes the death penalty, but vowed to uphold Virginia law if elected, and I'm not sure how to object to this because I want Catholics who personally oppose abortion to treat the law similarly. I don't understand how an execution is supposed to bring peace to the families of the victims. It doesn't bring me any peace at all. It sure doesn't bring any of the victims back. I have no idea how to talk to my children about why it's supposed to be acceptable for the state to kill someone to show that murder is wrong.
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| Poem for Tuesday |
[10 Nov 2009|12:43am] |
( In the North (Westerbork) )
I had a quiet morning doing laundry and tagging photos, then I went with my mother to the mall, where I was looking for a birthday present for perkypaduan (who is in Sedona, so it is safe for me to post this) and where we got frozen yogurt with granola, which is my new favorite thing that I am actually allowed to eat in the mall (sushi, Thai food, and Qdoba all being off-limits nowadays -- on the bright side, though, all my rings are loose and I haven't had a single migraine in five weeks, though I cannot say for certain whether there is a direct relationship between avoiding sodium and the latter). She also got me Brighton's fabulous Washington, DC charm bracelet as an early birthday present! I only got half of Perky's present but since I don't expect to see her on her actual birthday, I have until the New Moon premiere to track down the rest.
I folded laundry while watching the two episodes of Dawson's Creek from the end of the second season -- oh shut up, I had a Mary Beth song stuck in my head and was in the mood to see the Outer Banks, and anyway it was the one where Grams agreed to let Jack move in with her and Jen even though he's gay and she's a Bible-thumper. We watched Heroes, which I liked better than the last couple of weeks -- ( spoilers. ) Then we watched Due South's "Hunting Season," which wins in every way -- ( spoilers. )
( Solomons )
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