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...Got up at 6:30 AM. AUGH. (I am doing emergency teenager-sitting for my downstairs neighbor.) Second night in a row of only six hours of sleep, too.
I have to do various work-related things today, including teaching a class. I will have to think of something nice to do to celebrate later. Perhaps a visit to Chantilly lies in my future...
I cannot believe that I am thirty-seven! I keep counting up from 1973 to see if perhaps I am mistaken. I feel about sixteen (all the better to write YA with, my dear,) or maybe thirty at the most. Maybe because sixteen was the point at which I was most certain that I was completely responsible and mature and a real grown-up, and I have never felt that certain since.
For my birthday, please comment with a book recommendation (with reasons why I would like it), description of the most awesomely bad thing you've encountered lately, link to music, photo of a baaaaby animal or cakewreck or exquisite vista, amusing anecdote, or some such pleasant item.
I have to do various work-related things today, including teaching a class. I will have to think of something nice to do to celebrate later. Perhaps a visit to Chantilly lies in my future...
I cannot believe that I am thirty-seven! I keep counting up from 1973 to see if perhaps I am mistaken. I feel about sixteen (all the better to write YA with, my dear,) or maybe thirty at the most. Maybe because sixteen was the point at which I was most certain that I was completely responsible and mature and a real grown-up, and I have never felt that certain since.
For my birthday, please comment with a book recommendation (with reasons why I would like it), description of the most awesomely bad thing you've encountered lately, link to music, photo of a baaaaby animal or cakewreck or exquisite vista, amusing anecdote, or some such pleasant item.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Also, did you hear about how Glenn Beck got bumped from his rightful No. 1 slot on Amazon by a bunch of geeks and webcartoonists?
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Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
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This is a video about a baby hummingbird. It's pretty dang adorable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvrcdQWzH-8
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How about some baaaaaby doves?
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And for a book rec - I am a broken record, pretty much, especially with those who read YA. But have you read The True Meaning of Smekday? It is profoundly wonderful - funny, intelligent, incredible. Which is also an excellent description of its main character and narrator.
(Definitely go to Chantilly. There is no better way to celebrate a birthday than with magic in pastry form!)
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Happy Birthday!
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Music! Have an acoustic version of Mumford and Sons' Sigh No More: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1PpeDRfxp4
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In the meantime, have big cats playing with pumpkins.
I hope you have a lovely birthday!
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Also... the tigers! So great!
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I'll write up a dreadful book today in honor. :D
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I used to have a bulldog, so a friend sent me the following link, in which a male bulldog first meets his puppy. It's funny at first, his body language evocative of 'what's this thing?' but poignant later when he wants to play, has a paw upraised to swat the puppy, then obviously rethinks the swat as maybe not a good idea. I was thinking about all the subtleties there, with respect to what we learned about horses a couple weeks ago.
http://cuteoverload.com/2010/10/25/doggie-daughter-debut-delights-dad/
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High tea is, of course, one of the "somethings nice." Should I meet you all there at noon?
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This isn't the most awesomely bad thing to have happened to me lately, it's the most awesomely bad thing to have happened to me ever and I can't remember if I ever told you about it.
This was about 20 years ago, so I don't remember a lot of the details, but way back when I was in the SCA, I and a few friends went to a monthly Baronial meeting. Afterwards, when standing around discussing where to go to eat, the Baroness came over and said "We all have to go to the Waffle House from Hell. The service so bad!"
As it was nearby, we said "Sure!," piled into our cars, and went.
When we get there, about seven or eight of us, the restaurant is empty except for a couple of (most likely) regulars drinking coffee at the counter, talking with an older waitress whose name ought to have been Flo. We stand around for a while until she finishes her conversation and leads us to a couple of tables and dumps menus on the tables.
We sit there for a wile, perusing the menus. Nobody comes. We peruse some more. Nobody comes. And still some more.
Eventually a busboy wanders out of the kitchen with a pen and some paper napkins and asks us to write our orders down.
We do so. Eventually he comes back, gathers them up, and disappears into the kitchen. He comes out a while later, comes over to me, and says "We're out of Coke."
I order a Dr Pepper. He returns to the kitchen.
He comes back out a while later and says "We're out of Dr. Pepper."
I say, "So, what do you have?" He disappears into the kitchen.
He comes back a while later and says, "We have Sprite."
I ordered a Sprite.
I don't remember any more details, except that the service continued in exactly this vein for the entire meal, and we ended up laughing hysterically every time something new happened, I think scaring the busboy. When the whole thing was over, we overtipped him for providing the most entertaining meal we'd ever had in our lives.
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We (five or six of us) ordered from a rather extensive menu. The waiter listened to our entire order, then informed us that nothing we had ordered was available. (He might have gone back to the kitchen first; this was a long time ago and has faded into the depths of memory.) We reconsidered the menu and ordered again, and he informed us that none of that was available either.
At that point we wised up: "What do you have?"
"We have tandoori chicken!"
Six orders of tandoori chicken later, we were still trying to figure out if he was fucking with us or had merely figured that if we all happened to want the tandoori chicken, there would be no problem.
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I would recommend Marjorie Liu's "Hunter Kiss" trilogy, if you have not yet read it (I see you have read other Liu books that I have not). I have just finished it. The heroine, Maxine Kiss, is badass and loyal and has good taste in men (she would never fall for a sparkly vampire) and has vulnerabilities the way Onime-no-Kyo has vulnerabilities. And there is a very broken but awesome family-by-choice, and no one is what he or she seems, not even the crazy little old lady who grows pot under lights in the basement.
Also, lots of 80s rock makes its way into the book - for reasons that it would be spoilery to reveal.
It also made me laugh out loud on the Metro. Jame would appreciate Maxine.
(I am going to be writing this up soonish, I hope.)
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I cannot believe that I am thirty-seven! I keep counting up from 1973 to see if perhaps I am mistaken. I feel about sixteen (all the better to write YA with, my dear,) or maybe thirty at the most.
And this, too. I thought it was utterly ludicrous when I turned forty last year - I certainly don't feel it. Sixteen sounds about right.
I have been reading a lot of things you recommended recently, which doesn't help, but one thing you might not have read is Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord. It has an amusing and unusual (in my experience) narrative voice which I rather enjoyed. I can't promise you will like it, but I am hopeful.
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Have you read James' description of the first Flavia de Luce novel? It's about an 11 year girl who is an aspiring chemist solving mysteries in 1950, so if done well, it should be awesome. My copy is due to arrive today, so I should know by early next week if I'd recommend it to you, . http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/2711571.html?thread=51331091#t51331091
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Since I've already recommended (at length) Journey to the West,* I'll link you to this video of various random but very impressive stunts. It starts with a backflipping wheelchair and goes from there. (Pogo stick flips! precision soccer balls!)
* Includes canonical m-preg.
ETA: And now I can't remember if I told you my awesomely bad experience with the age of thirty-seven. That was the age at which I reread Lolita.
The bad part being that thirty-seven is the age at which Humbert Humbert meets Dolores. Face to face with the fact that I'd reached the age where I am a creepy older guy.
---L.
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If you haven't seen the site before, I also highly recommend the monthly posts in which one of the bloggers breaks down Flowers in the Attic, chapter by chapter.
ETA: Happy birthday! (duh, me) I hope there is deliciousness and fun in your day.
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