Alien Spouse

Singing My Baby to Sleep.

The bedtime routine for Eva involves singing appropriately soothing songs for about twenty to thirty minutes - And "Twinkle Twinkle" is only a couple of minutes long, no matter how slowly you sing it, so you either have to sing it on repeat, or come up with something else.

I remembered a fair number of other lullabies, but not a huge repertoire, so then I moved onto a selection of songs from "The Sound of Music" - This is odd because it's not one of my favourite musicals and never has been, and yet I know the whole "Favourite Things".  Doc C has never seen the film (or stage version), so he thinks my rendition of "Edelweis" is lovely, and it seems to have a suitably narcotic effect on the kidr.

Now I've gone a little more classic jazz musical by adding a few Cole Porter standards ("You Do Something to Me", "Miss Otis Regrets", "Don't Fence Me In" are the most frequent) along with "One for my Baby (and One More for the Road)", which is perhaps not the most traditional of nursery rhymes but it does the job.

This evening out of nowhere "Diamonds are Forever" made an appearance.  It's come to Bond themes now?  Oh dear.

Dancing = Crying?

For some reason that I simply cannot explain I get tearful  when I watch choreographed dancing done by people or animals who have a lot of enthusiasm but no professional training.  I have no idea what that is about, but all three of the following videos have made me well up.

Mary Ray on the Underdog Show. Music :Scissor Sisters "I Don't Feel Like Dancing"

 

 

Nasa scientists doing their own take on "Gangnam Style"

 

 

Father and Daughter Dance (Choreographed by Kathleen Hahn) to "Everybody Dance Now"

 

 

 

 

Beer City Video.

Apart from moving house I was also very pleased to see the launch of a video that I've been working on for a couple of months now.

 

I am the project manager for production company that made this - which in this case meant I did everything from comissioning custom etched beer glasses; including child-care of an adorable little girl whilst her dad climbed into a beer vat; to sewing a teeny tiny kilt for a beer bottle.

It was a very unusual project I think, and I sort of doubt that anything is going to touch this for the having-fun-at-work factor - I mean really I got paid to hang out in bars and discuss jokes!  How much better could it get?

A Tuesday in Asheville.

I had anticipated a relaxed start to my day, because I was going to a meeting round the corner at 12 instead of going to the studio at 10.  So naturally I woke up with a splitting headache, a vomitting cat and a baby in need of a bath - None of those things were connected, except that they all seemed to happen at once.

Still, my day itself was good.  We are filming in local bars at the moment, and one of the guys in the video has needed to bring his year old daughter with him to the sets.  As project manager I see my role as including taking care of any issues that might delay filming, so I've been the on-set British nanny as needed!  It was actually really nice to play with a toddler and get a glimpse of where Eva will be in a few months.  Apparently there will be a lot of climbing up and down stairs, as well as a fair amount of toothy grins.

Whilst I was trying to source props for Thursday (how hard is it to find DJ decks in Asheville on two days notice?), Doc C was taking Evalyn to her six month check up.  She's very healthy and now weighs nearly 16 pounds, so she's almost tripled in size since she was born.  I'm told she still hates having vaccination jabs, but then who could blame her for that really?

"Whadda You Got?"

Saturday is my only day off at the moment (which sounds worse than it is!), and we have a nice little routine going.  I love listening to NPR's "Car Talk", "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" and "The Splendid Table" with Doc C and Eva whilst we eat a leisurely breakfast, play silly baby games and generally sit around in our pyjamas.  It's very civilised.

The afternoon varies depending on our mood; so today we got out the scooter for a short scoot and a short photo shoot.

The weather wasn't very nice today so I really didn't do much more than ride up and down in front of the house at a top speed of about 12 miles an hour.  It was exactly like something out of "The Wild One".

After that we went out for a lunch of burritos, a walk around the UNCA Botanical Gardens (Eva loves it there!) and then we went to three different motorcycle dealers to look at helmets.  A helmet was included with the scooter - but the previous owner was quite a heavy smoker, so it does smell of cigarettes and besides I have no idea how old it is and therefore how sound it still it is.  So I want a new one.  No luck today, but there's no rush.  I want to buy something that I really like the look of, co-ordinates with the scooter (obviously!) and that keeps me safe.

Today has been fun and we even have some frozen yogurt for desert.  Yum!

Job Satisfaction.

I had actually forgotten how nice it is to be looking forward to work the next day.  Tomorrow I have a 9 o'clock meeting about a film project, before going to open the shop at 11.

Um. I am LOVING this.  Is that weird?

Of course this is still week one with the production company and week two with the shop, but it has to be said they are both off to absolutely cracking starts.

Working Hard for the Money.

Thursday was my first day back in retail, and it was good!  

Well, ok it was raining so hard ALL day that precisely eight people came into the shop & only two of them bought anything.  So not the best day for sales, but actually there was so very much to learn that it was probably no bad thing (for me anyway).

Of course this also gave me a great opportunity to really check out the stock thoroughly, and this has always been one of my favourite shops, so that is really quite dangerous for our budget. There's at least one necklace with my name on it already, and several really nice coats.  I do not need another coat.  Remind me of this.

I was exhausted by the time I got home, because you are just on your feet all day when you work in a shop.  You get used to it fairly quickly, and it's not a problem once you are back in condition, but the first few shifts are quite brutal.  It also hadn't helped that I didn't get much sleep the night before - I tried, I really did but it was not to be.  We went to bed at 11, which was later then intended but not awful, but then Doc's phone rang at midnight (it was the university's emergency broadcast system and it was a bloody test.  At midnight.  On a Wednesday.  Ugh.)  After that I got three hours sleep, before Eva woke up and requested feeding; this is a new thing, and I really don't approve.  She went back to sleep immediately, I dozed and eventually got back to sleep shortly before she woke up again at 5 to be fed again.

Whilst I was earning some money, Doc C was looking after Eva for the day.  She was very well behaved all day apparently, and was perfectly happy.  In fact she didn't seem to notice that I hadn't been there for seven hours; which is great obviously...

On Friday afternoon I had arranged to have coffee with the owner of a local video production company, because they happened to be looking for a part-time project manager.  It was a really good meeting, and reminded me of exactly why I love working with creative people and on film projects.  Keep your fingers crossed on that one, because it seems like it would be a perfect fit for me at the moment and I WANT IT!

All in all, Asheville has just been fantastic to me this week. *contented sigh*

Sound of Laughter

Today was pretty good actually - I got a call to set up a job interview, and it's somewhere I think I'd really enjoy working.  I was so excited by the phone call that I was dancing around the living room in a fairly silly manner, and that made Eva laugh for the first time!

Doc and I have been in friendly competition over this and I won. According to Eva I am hilarious, or at least my dancing is. We then discovered that if we put Eva on her play-mat and rocked her gently from side to side she laughed again, and we have video of that.

Please enjoy!

 

 

Christmas 2012.

Here is our Christmas!

Our (clearly fake!) tree is the tree from "A Charlie Brown Christmas", which we've had for a couple of years now.  It fits in nicely with the very simple decorations for this year, and I also like the juxtaposition of the sad little tree with the Queen's portrait in that corner.

One of the inspirations for the ornaments was our atomic clock, and I am pretty happy with how that wall looks as well.  I do sort of wish that first green ball in the photo was a touch more over to the right, but I'm not bothered enough by that to get the steps out again.

Non-Black Friday.

As if to make up for the grumble-fest that was Thanksgiving, Eva woke up in a really adorable happy mood.  It was like the extended director's cut of the video I posted yesterday, she only had one proper strop all day but that one was pretty damn impressive.  My word but that little muffin can scream when she wants to.

Americans swarm the shops in the day after Thanksgiving for the Black Friday sales; which sounds hellish to me, so we avoided it.  Instead we walked down to our local artisan video shop, which I joined so that Doc C could borrow their copy of "The Elephant Man" for his class on Monday.  I also took my CV with me, because a part-time job there would be kind of perfect for me at the moment - a video store that specialises in classic and art house films?  Within walking distance of the flat? AND it's next to a really good ice cream shop? I have no idea if they need anyone right now, and it's not something I want to do forever but, for right now, I would like that a lot!

Happy Thanksgiving Baby!

 

We still haven't got her to actually laugh yet, but as you can see from this video she is pretty close and it's probably going to be one of us blowing a raspberry that finally gets her.  Because clearly fart jokes are absolutely hilarious.

Time Change.

The clocks went back an hour last night; so, in theory, I should have had an extra hour of sleep last night and be feeling well rested.

Ah hahahahahahahaha ha ha!

No.  

For one thing I made the decision to watch a scary movie with Doc C.  I'd watched "Session 9" (2001) sometime last year, and I remembered it being atmospheric and creepy, with some interesting ambiguity and just a touch of gore. It's got a great cast (ok, ok, if you overlook David Caruso... I actually think he's not bad in this, but once you've seen enough episodes of "CSI: Miami" it is tough to take him seriously) and it was filmed in the Danvers Mental Hospital just outside Boston, so I knew it would have some interest for the Doc. Plus I thought that as I'd seen it before I wouldn't get freaked out, but funnily enough because I knew what was going on I was much more aware of some of the subtle touches that really start to build up the tension.  As it turned out Doc was mildly entertained and thought no more about it after the closing credits.  I, of course, couldn't stop thinking about the film, got myself all freaked out and slept fitfully.

The other thing is that the clocks going back is not a concept that a baby, or indeed cats, have any interest in trying to understand.  Eva has established a morning routine, I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to suggest I had a thing to do with it, and she stuck to it (As did the cats - They are used to breakfast before 8 these days).  That was fine, but Evalyn must still have sensed something was off because she has been fractious all day.  She's been just a bit whimpery, it's not been enough to be worrying but it's certainly enough to be exhausting.  I'm so glad that Doc was here today, because by mid-afternoon I was feeling a wee bit whimpery myself and he was just great!  And he cooked egg fried rice for dinner! I love that man!

With any luck I'll sleep better tonight, and Eva will be in a brighter mood tomorrow.

A Quiet Halloween.

This is the first halloween since I moved to the States that I haven't had a costume, but I just didn't have time to make anything for myself this year because Eva's costume took priority!

It's a very very simple costume, just a brown hoody with ears (Thanks Moth!) with a little blue fez and a pair of tiny wings tacked onto it. I crocheted the fez and wings, and I'm really pleased with how the fez turned out but the wings really aren't as good as I'd like.  Fortunately Eva is carrying the costume off with charming aplomb, so I don't think the wings are too glaring an issue.

As for Trick-or-Treaters, we haven't had any so far.  I was looking out of the kitchen window as did the washing up earlier and I saw a lone Egyptian Mummy with a plastic pumpkin walking down our street, but that seems to be it, no other diminutive ghosts, ghouls or goblins have made an appearance unfortunately.

With Doc C being away this evening I don't want to watch anything too scary, so I chose to spend the evening in the company of Vincent Price.  I decided on watching "Theatre of Blood" because it's got such a ridiculously camp plot, with such a fabulous cast, that I don't think I'll be scared too badly by it.  One of the central roles is played by a young Diana Rigg, and I do wish I'd seen the stage version which was on a few years ago with Miss Rigg's daughter, Rachel Sterling, in the same role and Jim Broadbent in the lead.  Damn it, that looked like it was SO much fun!  Oh well!

Fused Lights and Horror Flicks.

Last weekend the light in our hallway blew, so, obviously, Doc C changed the bulb.  It still didn't work, so we reasoned that the light had fused, and it was at this point we realised we hadn't seen a fuse box in the apartment.

On Monday I rang the letting agents and explained the issue, they asked if we had tried changing the bulb and then if we had looked for the fuse box in all of the cupboards.  To be thorough I said I'd double check and then call back; which I did.  This time I spoke to the guy who takes care of maintenance, and he asked if I was sure the fuse box wasn't in the apartment.  I explained that as there are only 4 rooms in the apartment I was actually pretty damn certain we would have noticed it if it were there.  In that case, he said, it's probably in the basement.

Oh.  Oh Dear. There was no way I was going down there alone, the problem is that the basement in this building would be the perfect set for a horror movie, and I've watched too many scary films.  So I explained my husband was away, and that I'd just had a baby so I couldn't check straight away, but that once Doc C got back we would have a look.  When I talked to Doc about it I told him that I'd happily go down there with him, but not be myself.  He laughed.  When he got back and had a look in there himself, he came back up and asked me to come with him because it looked like Buffalo Bill's hide-out.  I disagree, I think it's Freddy Krueger's den.

However we are grown ups and we need the hallway light, so we got our torch (american translation : Flashlight), strapped Eva to Doc's chest and down we went. 

The garage part is where the recycling bins are kept, and that's  a bit smelly but fine; however at the back of that room is a doorway and it's once you go through that doorway that things get proper spooky.  There is only one light down there, and it's all the way to the right of the cellar.  In between you and the lit area is a u-shaped wall that creates a completely pitch black chamber, and when I shone a torch into it, there was an abandoned sofa in there.  Um hello, serial killer's heaven, I've seen enough police procedurals to know that.  Alone I would have stopped right there and just run; but with Doc there, I was brave enough to look for the fuse boxes.  Naturally they were right at the very back of the cellar, so we went to have a look, found the fuse box for our apartment and discovered that none of the fuses were blown.  sigh.

So basically there is still no light in our hallway and we are both scaredy cats as far as dank, dark cellars are concerned. Ok then.

Polka Dots and Bad Seeds.

Before Evalyn was born we put together little gift packages for our neighbours, and we tied those underneath the mailboxes in our hallway when we brought her home.  

It's just a mini take-out style box with a couple of pairs of hot pink ear-plugs wrapped up in tissue paper.  We attached postcards with a note saying that we had brought Eva home and that we hope Evalyn'll be a good neighbour, but she's a new-born... So, ear-plugs for all!

The cards were really hard to choose - but we went with postcards of a 50's cover of William March's The Bad Seed.  The book is about a murderous little girl and the havoc she wreaks; the book is ok, but the film based on that book is a camp classic and well worth watching for the central performance of Patty McCormack as evil little Rhoda.

Yeah, we don't really do "sentimental" about our daughter.

 

Cheese-Fest.

Doc C has to go to campus tomorrow for some start-of-the-semester stuff, so he had to make sure he'd done all of his homework today.  Whilst he was doing that I read and tried to find a comfortable position to sit in, because my lower back is killing me.  Ahh, the last couple of weeks of pregnancy!  So much fun!

The book I grabbed off the shelf was Jacqueline Susann's "Once is Not Enough", and it is unbelievably tacky and entertaining.  There is more plot in the first fifty pages of this paperback than in a year of any soap opera you care to mention, and I've just discovered there is a film version starring Kirk Douglas!  OMG!  Well, I'm going to have see that now clearly, I can't imagine it being anything but fabulously dreadful.

A Very Warm Weekend.

I am very glad that we had plenty of time to pack for this move, because it is TOO HOT to pack more than one small box before stopping for a large glass of water and, possibly, a restorative two hour nap.  At least  I am not whining about it too much and I know this because Doc C has commented several times about how my tolearance for warm weather has improved over the years we have lived here.

This weekend was actually pretty good for heat avoidance.

Saturday we spent at Randy and Laura's for Jasmine's send off to Australia, which was lovely.  There was a cake with a map of Australia on it and everything!  Jasmine is going to be spending a semester in Oz, but her visa is for six months so she might stay a bit longer to explore under her own steam.  I am so excited for her, it is going to be a proper adventure whilst still helping her to get her undergraduate degree - Bonus!

On Sunday it was as hot as the surface of the sun.  I am sure of it.  It was desperately uncomfortable in the house, and we basically both ended up fitfully napping under the living room ceiling fan, until Doc C finally snapped and demanded we go to the cinema just to get some air-condtioning.  There was nothing we really desperately wanted to see, but "The Amazing Spiderman" will always be pertinent to our interests so we watched that.  Eva seemed to particularly enjoy it, and was extremely wriggly through out; for once she actually carried on bumping around after Doc put his hand on my tummy so he got to feel her moving too.

Star Wars Baby Shower.

On Saturday our lovely lovely friends Laura and Randy held a baby shower for us.  Baby showers are not something we have in England, so this was a very pleasant new experience for me.

Again, people just giving you the things you need for your baby?  Amazing! I am so grateful for this tradition!

As you can see the cake had a Star Wars theme, and the little blobby things in the bottom corners of the picture are these super cute little Star Wars figures that Doc C has already claimed for his office (neither Eva northe cats should be allowed near these little guys, so this seems entirely reasonable and safe.)

A Field of Buttercups.

When we were in Winston-Salem for the ultrasound we couldn't park right next to the clinic we were going to, so Doc C dropped me off and went to park the car somewhere else. It turned out to be next to a field full of buttercups!  So pretty!

For some reason Doc laughed when I suggested Buttercup as a middle name - Which is weird, because I know he loves "The Princess Bride" as much as the next card-carrying geek.

Weekend in the House.

It's Spring Break - And I've taken the week off. There will be a lot of sleep.

This weekend Doc was getting over a cold, so we spent two days in the house. I had a bath, napped (a lot), watched some great television mixed with some fairly awful horror films, and I read a bunch of books.

Doc is feeling a lot better, thank heavens, so we did leave the house today.

Fly My Pretties!

On the way home this evening we saw a bumper sticker that read "Protected by Flying Monkeys", which is a great bumper sticker.

It immediately started me thinking about making a Flying Monkey mobile to hang in a baby's bedroom, I have an Amigurumi pattern for a monkey in a waistcoat with a fez already. All I'd have to add would be a pair of wings, possibly the ones from the Cthulu pattern!

Doc C liked that idea, and noted that Flying Monkey would be a great Halloween costume for a toddler. I could make a balaclava with monkey ears, and sew the fez straight onto it!

I think I've found our nursery theme (not that we are likely to have an actual nursery, but you know what I mean).

Rosemary's Baby (1968).

The DVD of "Rosemary's Baby" arrived from Netflix yesterday, and we started watching it the minute we got home. What a great film! Of course we spent a good deal of our viewing time admiring their apartment and I drooled over some of the fab outfits (not that red velvet trouser suit though. Ugh.) that Mia gets to wear through out. Naturally we had a brief discussion about how on earth the Woodhouses can afford such a great apartment in the Dakota, but Doc C's theory that Guy's acting career was doing reasonably well is spot on the money according to an IMDB commentator's exhaustative comparison of the film to the book. 

Doc C mildly suggested that, perhaps, we should stop watching films about evil babies now. I don't know about that, if only because we've got so many more to catch up on! I also realised that although Rosemary is bearing the child of Satan, which can't be any fun at all, she clearly doesn't have to worry about maternity leave because she's not working, or the cost of health care, or any of the stuff that I'm trying not to stress out about (Stress is bad for the baby, as we all know, and yet there is a surprising amount of it waiting to nobble you when you get preggers.) One of the few things I'm really not worried about producing an evil kid, so actually some demonic gestation drama is a pleasant change of pace to the real life boring nonsense.

As some of you know I've long held grand plans to dress as a heavily pregnant Rosemary Woodhouse for Halloween, but now I realise that her third trimester is during a blazing hot New York summer so I'd have been running around in a thin cotton dress in October. Good call on my kid's part to be a summer baby and therefore avoid that freezing debacle.

A Festival of Film.

This weekend we were planning on watching "Rosemary's Baby", but the disk was cracked so we had to send it back to Netflix. Instead we watched a very entertaining Spanish super-natural thriller called "The Baby's Room".

There is a definite theme to my film preferences at the present moment.

Light Bruises.

This morning I had laser treatment on the scars from my mole removals this summer, the worst part about it was having to get to the dermatologist's office for 7 in the morning - The treatment itself took about five minutes and wasn't too painful. The doctor described it as being flicked with a rubber band repeatedly, and that's fairly accurate. Apparently the scars will be darker for about a week, because the laser bruises the area but then, once the bruising goes down, the scars should be less visible and less sensitive. Yay!

Afterwards Doc C asked what colour the laser was, and I said red; Doc said "Oh no!", because this must mean that my dermatologist is a Sith Lord. Once again I am reminded that I married an intelligent and articulate man who, none the less, remains totally unable to pass up an opportunity for a Star Wars reference.

Thursday Summary.

It's really annoying when you have news to tell someone, so you e-mail them to say "There is gossip to dish" and then they call you and say "Is it blah?" No hello or anything, just right in there with the correctly guessing your fresh intell. Humph!

Work continues to be very quiet I was pretty much alone all day but David did need to come in so he brought his dog Buster with him and that was a rare treat. I think more people should bring dogs to work with them, preferably those that are hypoallergenic (Not that I'm allergic to dogs myself, but I know that's an issue to be aware of when bringing animals to the office)and like to shake paws. I love shaking paws.

One particularly great thing about being alone at work is sigining into our netflix account and streaming movies that Doc C has no interest in, whilst I also get all sorts of housekeeping tasks done before the spring semester kicks off. Today I sorted the evaluations to be processed whilst watching cheesy 80's horror, it was a productive and entertaining day.

2012.

Happy New Year!

We spent yesterday evening at Randy and Laura's house with a small grop of friends. It was a very nice way to end 2011, and start 2012.

Today I slept late; finished playing "Arkham Asylum"; got half-way through "Genius Wars" and had a most satisfactory afternoon nap.

Doc started playing "Arkham City" (Catwoman! Squee!); made vegetable stock form the HF-W cookbook; looked on-line at houses for sale and has now settled in for a "Star Wars" marathon.

2012 is off to a cracking start!

'tis The Season!

Christmas Day!

We celebrated with a late breakfast followed by the traditional playing of video games (Doc C - Arkham Asylum, normal mode); a long walk followed by coffee and cherry pie; the traditional playing of video games (Me - Arkham Asylum, easy mode) and now we are watching "Metropolis" whilst I cook risotto for dinner.

It's practically Dickensian, isn't it?

On the First Day of Christmas.

We have enjoyed the first day of our Christmas holiday, celebrating by on Doc's side by finishing his grading and on my part by watching several films of varying quality. Then we went out for lunch to reward Doc C's having submitted the grades by today's deadline. Yay!

Toning Down Christmas.

It occured to me this morning that I had not yet decorated the house for Christmas, but at the same time I'm right in the middle of reading "Miss Minimalist" (on my Kindle) and it just feels wrong to glitter the whole house.

So I compromised and hung up the faux vintage ornaments I bought in Boston last year on the twig arrangement from Halloween, then I added in a couple of other ornaments to balance those out and that's that.  

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 I love the faux vintage ornaments almost more then I did when I bought them last year, they are delightfully tacky and rather adorable in their own very plastic way. Doc C is a particular fan of the angels, who are all holding their hands out in front of them in the manner of fisherman describing the one-that-got-away. They also all have black eyes, which gives them quite a creepy alien-being ambience.

Finally, on the dining table, I've put up the sad little Christmas tree beloved by Charlie Brown and all those who get a bit tearful when watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965) ...*cough*Doc*cough*...

Stupid Head Cold Thingy.

Today I stayed at home and drank a lot of warm drinks, mostly ginger tea but also hot water with fresh lemon and a squeeze of honey it.

I think I feel better, but then I thought that on Friday and spent my weekend paying for it! We met Randy and Laura for brunch on Sunday, and I was only slightly more chatty than you average Romero zombie; most of the time I'd mis-heard what people were saying anyway, so in the end I just focussed on eating my potatoes.

Today I lay on the sofa with Edith and read, and also watched two delightfully cheesy sci-fi movies that TiVo had randomly taped. I didn't realise that it was the first and the third of a trilogy until quite a way into the latter, but I honestly don't think it made too much difference to my enjoyment. There were random explosions and occasional witty banter, and that was good enough for me!

Now I'm making a big stew pot of lentil soup with as many vegetables as I could throw in it. It's also ot garlic and ginger in it, so I feel positive this will have me operating at full power in no time. I expect I'll go to work tomorrow, my general rule of thumb wih head colds is as soon as you can breathe with your mouth closed again, then you are passably fit for human interaction.

Recouperating.

Stupid stitches. I wasn't able to get much sleep last night, the problem was that if I slept on my left side it put pressure on the stitches, but sleeping on my right wasn't an awful lot better. In the end I discovered that hugging a pillow gave me some support, but I didn't realise that until about 9 o'clock this morning.

Considering I was really tired and, after reading the possible side effects of the pain killers I'd been prescribed, I decided to stay at home today. Edith kept a close eye on me, and we watched "Inception".

Maude in Progress.

I don't generally post pictures of works in progress on-line, but I offered to make a pair of "Harold and Maude" (1971) amigurumis for Megg back in freaking NOVEMBER, so, you know, I thought I'd make an exception. 

This is Maude, I actually made her head when I was in England, so she's been percolating for a while now, and, after seriously months of internal debate, I finally decided to dress her in the outfit she wears to the second (I think?) funeral; so a classic trench coat with a pink silk scarf (not made yet) and a big yellow umbrella.

I still haven't quite decided how to dress Harold, should he wear the clothes he is in for the second funeral, or should I go for one of his more colourful and therefore fun outfits? He has a particularly great pinkish tweed suit that keeps jumping up and down in my mind, but I have no earthly clue how I would do that. Maybe baker's twine? I don't know. Fortunately I do know for definite that Harold will have very long legs, and they will definitely be clad in flares.

The Lodger (1944) - Pictures with Notes!

There were two main reasons for watching "The Lodger" (1944), first of all I watched the Hitchcock silent version a couple of weeks ago so I wanted to compare them, and secondly the police inspector in this version was played by George Sanders and I adore George Sanders.

I took screenshots of my favourite scenes - Sometimes because they were utterly ridiculous, but sometimes because they were really quite impressively atmospheric.

I'll continue after the jump because, whilst I think this is extremely entertaining, I do understand that not everyone wants to look at random still images from a film they probably haven't seen. 

Please note that after the jump will be spoilers, but as there is absolutely no plot twist of any kind in the film I don't feel revealing the lack of them would actually spoil anyone's viewing experience. The thing with films made in the forties is that they were barely allowed to sneeze without the censors taking offence, so a plot that deals with the Jack the Ripper case becomes, well, a bit silly in places really and if the plot itself isn't being then the heroine is just wilfully good hearted and ludicrously trusting. There is being nice, and then there is just being bloody stupid.

Derby Day.

I was so tired last night, and that translated to me sleeping for something like 14 hours. Ridiculous.

This afternoon we went to watch our local Roller Derby team play their inaugural bout against a team from another city. Our girls were creamed, but it was very entertaining to watch. I may have even wooped once or twice.
Hopefully Doc C and I will be able to go to the next match which is in Charlotte, but Doc has a conference that day so it all depends on the timing.

After the match we went for burritos and then rented some video games from Blockbuster. Doc got "L.A. Noire" and I got "Portal 2", I can never resist rummaging through the ex-rental DVDs so we now own "The Brothers Bloom" and "In The Loop" for 99 cents each. I also got some cardboard speakers for 69 cents that Doc is highly skeptical of, but might do for when I'm workin in the store room at the office and I need some tunes.

All in all, a very successful Saturday.

Migraine Avoidance Techniques.

Today I sat quietly at home, read a couple of chapters of a nice soothing murder mystery and drank mug after mug of tea.

I successfully avoided getting another headache that made my teeth feel like they were throbbing, and I'm celebrating by introducing Doc C to Russian horror sci-fi.

Movies and Migraines.

I was having such a nice day, we went out for lunch and then saw "X Men First Class" (which was just freaking great. Loved it.) but after the movie I had a headache. We got home and I lay on the sofa watching another film on DVD, "Tunes of Glory" (1960), which was very good; perhaps, in retrospect, watching a movie heavy on the bagpipes when you have a headache was not the best of ideas.

As I was watching the film my head started to feel like it had a really tight band round it and I felt queasy. I was determined to watch the whole film, but about five minutes before the end I stopped the disk so I could go to bed for a couple of hours because it had gone from a headache to a migraine. Which really freaked Doc out, but once I woke up again I didn't feel queasy anymore and I watched the end of "Tunes of Glory".

And I'll be going back to bed shortly, with more pain killers.

One Two, One Two, This is Just A Test.

This morning I was testing out a new microphone in the office, and I had just started recording when a group of students walked past. Much like the Brian De Palma film "Blow Out" (1981) I inadvertently recorded a conversation. Unlike "Blow Out" it wasn't evidence of a murder, but a more mundane student discussion about their intention to skip class tomorrow.

The microphone worked just as it should and I got a crystal clear recording, which I think would make a particularly excellent ring tone for disillusioned academics.

A Relaxing Friday Night At Home.

After work this evening Doc C had some work to do (the man always has work to do, should anyone think that academics don't do anything over the summer they are very very wrong), so I watched "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" (2008).

Then we played petanque/boule/bocce/ on the lawn in front of our house whilst we drank a bottle of Corona each. I think Doc beat me, but we weren't very precise about keeping score, so I'm not 100% sure. We chatted with one of our neighbours, and her lovely dog, before playing one final round of bocce before Doc cooked burgers and sweetcorn on the BBQ.

All in all, a rather pleasant almost summer evening.

To Much Historical Accuracy in Fiction.

One of my previous jobs was Archival Footage Sales officer for the British Film Institute, so I'm always interested when I spot an obvious archival clip in a film. Today I watched a truly bizarre Bela Lugosi film called "The Phantom Creepa" (1939), and when the villain, hammily played by Lugosi, was making a bid for freedom in a bi-plane (piloted by his heavily accented henchman, naturally)it was interesting to note that the damage he caused by dropping test tube bombs was documentary footage.

In fact one of the things he destroyed was the Hindenberg, but it wasn't mentioned as a plot point later so I don't think the film makers intended for the villain to be specifically guilty of the that particular disaster; it was more like they just thought the footage looked, well, cool.

It was actually sort of horrifying, because really how callous is that? Imagine going to the cinema to see a cheesy action flick and seeing news footage from, say, the earthquake in Spain spliced in instead of shelling out for CGI? To be fair, the height of the special effects used was a ray-gun that shoots what was clearly scratches made directly on to the negative. Now that is low-tech ingenuity!

Cookie I Make.

Our lovely friends Randy and Laura gave us a set of fabulous Star Wars cookie cutters as a house warming present when we moved, and we were both thrilled with them!

My immediate response was to want to whip up a batch of cookie dough to try those babies out, however Doc C wouldn't let me take them out of the packaging because he is a nerdy collector at heart. So these fabulous cookie cutters have stayed in their box on display in the kitchen, and I have just gazed at them. The obvious answer (apart from simply waiting until Doc wasn't looking and busting out the coveted springerle-esque moulds) was to buy another set, but I didn't know where they were from.

A few weeks ago I noticed the box of cookie cutters on the bookshelf in Doc's office and I demanded to know why they were there. He told me that this was a second box of the cookie cutters that he'd been given by Kim and Jill to say thank you for cat-sitting over spring break.

Which means...

...Yoda Cookies!

 

The Story of the REAL Brains Behind SPECTRE.

It would appear that my parents' cat, Ruby, is preparing to audition human actors for the supporting role of Ernst Blofeld in her feline-centric re-imagining of the Bond films. I broke it to her that Donald Pleasence died 16 years ago, but she's still trying to get in touch with his agent. Cats never bloody listen to casting advice do they?

(Also I finally snapped a photo of her with her eyes open, but you can only really see how blue they are if you click through to Flickr and look at a larger image.)

Shopping.

I bought two really great sixties style dresses from Next today, I got them in navy blue - So when we have that "Mad Men" party just be sure to get the red or the camel; that way we'll co-ordinate but not match. Perfect! It'll be like that restaurant scene in "Down With Love" (2003) when Barbara and Vikki swan in looking fabulous together.

I also bought pewter ballet pumps, a red patent shoulder bag and a navy duffle coat. My wardrobe for 2011 is shaping up to be navy blue with beige and red.

Stop Motion Animation of Crochet. It's Very Sweet!

This charming stop motion video shows an Amigurumi being made and each shot is a new crochet stitch. This is pretty much exactly how I make my little manikens, but I don't have any of those handy looking clamps and stands. Also I am rarely listening to music this perky, it's far more likely to be the TV on in the background with a nice gory detective drama or, in the case of last night, an oddly predictable Oscars.

At-Home Saturday.

Today's carousing has started in grand style with a bowl of porridge, a large cup of green tea and "Two Thousand Women" (1944) on Netflix.

It's a rather splendid film set in a Parisian luxury hotel that has been converted into an internment camp for women during the German occupation, with a cast including Phyllis Calvert, Flora Robson and a young Thora Hird. One of the women is a mole for the Germans, so there is a nice air of a detective drama and the very early clue that the film makers give to her identity is utterly charming.

Green for Danger (1946)

How great is the cover art for the Criterion Collection's DVD of "Green for Danger" (1946)?  The reason I mention it is that Netflix has just suggested I might like to watch it.I have to say Netflix is completely correct in that speculation, because I happen to be very fond of that film!  

If you've never seen the film it's not life changing, but it's certainly well worth 91 minutes of your time.  It's a hospital soap opera, crossed with quirky detective drama, and a WWII spy thriller.  What is not to like?  AND it stars Alasair Sims, Trevor Howard and the fabulous Megs Jenkins.

Even better Netflix has it available to watch instantly on-line, that is absolutely perfect viewing on a wintery Saturday afternoon with a fire, a cup of tea and some knitting on the go.  Ooh, lovely!  (Yes, I'm an 75 year old woman trapped in a 35 year old body.  What of it?)

New Year's Eve 2011 - In Brief.

We started the day with a plan, which was to go to the Science because I have intended to visit it on every trip to Boston and we've just never been able to fit it in.  

This time we went!  And we got all the way into the foyer! Before we saw the giant queue of people who'd had the same idea as us, and so we turned round and left again!  What we hadn't anticipated was that the Science Museum would be linked to Boston's First Night festivities, so that the first 500 people with a First Night badge got in for free!  Damn it!

So then what should we do instead?  Hmmm... We walked through the park to a cinema complex, and watched "Black Swan" because it looked like it would appeal to our taste for both depressing dramas and spectacular costuming.  It was very good, I described it as "The Red Shoes" (1948) for a new generation of girls yearning to be tortured dancers and Doc C agreed but preferred "Black Swan" for it's more visceral approach.  I suppose that is the difference between Aronofsky and Powell/Pressburger, not to mention 62 years of changes to cinematic conventions.  I do hope that Natalie Portman gets the Oscar nomination that the internet has been mumbling about for her performance as Nina Sayers.

After that beautiful downer we walked down Newberry Avenue and browsed the shops on our way to having cocktails and curry for dinner.  Clearly the curry houses of Boston are where all the best people watching and listening can be done, because on this occaision a woman announced in ringing tones to the waiter that "Well, you see, I am European...", which, according to her at any rate, meant that Americans wouldn't know spicy food if it slapped them, so how hot should she request her curry be prepared?  The waiter was understandably flummoxed by this line of questioning, and I have become very fond of saying in a suitably dramatic manner "Well, you see, I am Euro-Pee-Aaaan..." before asking Doc C a question about anything at all.

As has become quite the tradtion in recent years we visited Bob's flat for the midnight celebration of gourmet snacks and television coverage of the fireworks displays.  Being old and sensible we were back at the B&B by 1 at the latest, because we started the long drive back home the next day and 8 hours in a Mini would have been no fun if either of us were hungover and/or sleep-deprived.

"This little green one here seems to need a home"

Doc C has always insisted on buying a live tree in a pot, rather than going to a tree farm and choosing one to be chopped down.  He then tends the live tree throughout the year, and is very disappointed if they die.  The little tree we've had for the past couple of years is still doing very well, and has grown to an impressive two foot high.

This year we've left it outside on the veranda and decorated it with white lights that we've put on a timer, so it's lit when we come home and turns off when we go to bed.  It's very pretty.

This year we also bought another new fake tree(I've put up the tiny black tinsel tree as well!), which actually explained a lot about Doc C's attachment to little fir trees.  

It's an officially licensed Peanuts product, and I understand that this is a reference to "A Charlie Brown Christmas".  Charlie Brown finds a very scruffy looking tiny fir tree, that he decorates with a single red glass bauble which pulls the branches down even further.

Doc C was apparently deeply affected by the film as a small child, which I will get to see for the first time when it gets shown on TV next week.  And, I promise, if Doc C cries I will be tweeting about it at some length.

The Complete Yoda.

Instead of partying this evening, I got out the number 3 crochet hook (it's the light blue one, and it's my favourite) and finished Yoda's hands and cane.

Ta-Dah!

I have to throw false modesty to the wind and say he turned out far better than I was expecting him to.  Yoda himself is crocheted in cotton, with hair made of strands of cotton rug-hooked in and polymer clay button eyes.  His clothes are all knitted, the top and trousers from brown cotton, and the robe from new wool.  I also crocheted a cane from beige cotton, and made loops from his fingers so he can hold the handle.  The cane and the robe are removable, and of course Yoda can wear his hood up or down.

I made him for my friend Laura to give to a friend of her's who is a huge Star Wars fan, but Doc C is already starting to get quite attached, so I hope I can smuggle him out when the Doc isn't looking.

Yoda 1 and Yoda 2.

I spent most of today watching films with Yoda.  The one on the right is my current project, and today he got his eyes and ears.  

This is the mid-way point, as I still have to add the top of his head, hair, hands and his Jedi robes, but having him be somewhat recognisable at this point is very reassuring.

A Previously Unthinkable Use of Time.

I'm still working on Yoda's trousers, whilst watching "The Damned United".  I'm pretty sure that a teenage me would be horrified by that.  Knitting and football?  Ugh!