Alien Spouse

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!

 

 

DPNs.

This is the second leg of Yoda's trousers.  Please keep your fingers crossed that I have enough yarn to finish a whole pair of breeches, or Yoda may be wearing leg warmers.

Also I'm pretty sure that Kerplunk had to have been invented by someone who knitted on Double Point Needles.

 

Tuesday Night Me Time.

Doc C has stuff to do on campus this evening, so I'm making lentil curry for dinner and watching "Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express".  I am also going to convert a knitting pattern for toe socks into a pair of trousers for the Yoda I'm making.  I'll probably read a couple of chapters of the Dorothy L. Sayers whodunnit, possibly whilst drinking a glass of red wine.

It's a non-stop 24 hour party around here!

TV and Movies.

I keep forgetting that Doc C has never seen any of "Blackadder", which makes it's being available to watch through our PS3 Netflex access all the more welcome.

Also we went to see "RED" this evening, and I am once again reminded that Helen Mirren is totally fabulous in all ways.

Bad Halloween Movie Festival.

In the spirit of Halloween we watched a couple of cheesy movies from my "Legends of Horror" box set.  The first was "Silent Night, Bloody Night" (1974) which is as terrible as the title suggests, but did star Mary Woronov and also featured Candy Darling as a party guest which is fascinating. 

How on earth did Warhol Superstars get involved with a low budget horror movie?  Ok, Mary was married to the director, so that's sort of understandable, but maybe it was intended to be art; in which case the incoherent script and really bad acting might have been a performance piece.  That makes it much more interesting!

Countdown to Halloween: Ten Days

I don't really understand why this nice old man dummy was in the Halloween section of K Mart, I think he looks rather sweet.  

If he was carrying a tray in one hand and could actually hold drinks or snacks on it I would have bought him home to serve gin and tonics with nibbles; but as it is, he just has an electric candle and a very fake looking bird on his shoulder.  So he'd really just be a big inconvenient dust trap for 11 months out of the year.

Probably my fondness for animatronic elderly butlers is based on a film I inexplicably loved as a teenager called "Ghost Chase".  It's a very odd little film, and I have no clue who the intended audience was, but it does feature a Yoda like puppet that becomes possessed by the ghost of a butler as a major plot point.

Countdown to Halloween: Sixteen Days

Somehow I completely failed to go to the Coraline website until this week.  How did I allow this to happen?

As you can see I have given the Green Queen black button eyes, and I think she looks really quite sinister.  The Beldam must have an alien cousin, don't you think?

I've yet to make the buttons to go on my Coraline amigurumi, so what I might do is take a photo and then upload them to the Coraline website to try different buttons out before I get out the polymer clay.

Countdown to Halloween: Twenty Days

One thing I have never really understood is what Minnie even sees in Mickey.  He's sort of squeaky and annoying to my mind, but at least he makes an effort to put on an actual skeleton suit.  

Just adding a headband with feelers to it does not make your polka dot dress into a proper costume Minnie, that is very weak sauce.

This post is brought to you today by the letter M, and by Cultural Hegemony!

 

Monday Night Movie.

After work today we went out for dinner and then to see a movie being screened as part of the queer film series, it was "Were The World Mine" which is a modernised musical interpretation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" set in a boy's school.  As such it was quite fun, and the central character was adorable but not quite cheeky enough for my idea of Puck.

 

 

Weekend of Cat Walks, Bank Robbers and Books.

This is not an original observation on my part, but still; Where on earth does the time go?  When I was a child I distinctly remember their being acres of time that I had no idea what to do with, and now there is barely any spare time at all for just lolling around.  I seem to remember spending a fair amount of time as a child watching black-and-white detective movies, or following our two cats around the garden, and I was most often trying to get them to drop the rabbit or bird they were carrying in their mouths.  This was not always successful, but it kept us all amused and out from under my parents feet for a while.

This weekend has once again zipped by, but I have at least managed to socialise with friends who we went to the cinema with.  We saw "The Town" which is set in Boston, and the first bank you see robbed is Doc C's!  Well, from the outside anyway, the inside is nothing like that really.  I was most interested by the casting and it's always fun to watch a film set in a city you know at least slightly.

This afternoon I spent about forty-five minutes wandering around outside behind Edith as she sniffed things and ate grass, but she was wearing her smart blue harness and lead so the local wildlife was fairly safe.  Both cats now have their own harnesses, because we wanted to be able to walk them at the same time and it's a pain to have to keep resizing the harness when swapping it between cats.  Nancy shouldn't be able to back out of hers anymore, not that she's tried to actually, because she's too busy lolling around on the grass and watching the world from a new and exciting view point.

Apart from tending to my cat's recreational needs (I am definitely going to be a batty old cat lady, aren't I? sigh) I have read quite a bit today.  Which is good because in my anxiety about there not being a decent bookshop within 2 hours drive, I have developed a tendency to hoard reading matter.  There are between 25 to 30 books on my "To Be Read" shelf now, and I know there are a couple of others on their way from Good Reads' bookswaps.  Today I have read most of "Changeless" by Gail Carriger, which Laura leant me, and which I find to be very entertaining to spend a Sunday, snuggled up with a cat and a cup of tea.

Now all I have to do is find an extra few hours to catch up on my knitting, particularly as I seemed to have agreed to knit a sweater for someone else as well.  Damn it!  Where does all the time go?

Atlanta's Pubs Welcome Dragon Con!

Isn't it amazing how creepy and wrong the addition of a cheap C3 PO makes a dwarf statue in a pub?

*shiver*

Vice Versa.

I was well enough to go to work today, with a travel mug of tea and a further back-up thermos of tea (not a joke), and I had a timetable spreadsheet to show who was boss; so the day flew by.

At 4:40 Doc C rang to ask when we could leave... Because he was feeling ill... Nice one Germs, that is just hilarious.  Ha. Ha. Ha.  I still had data to input to my spreadsheet, but I called upon my inner strength and had it finished by five.  We stopped only to buy soup, vitamin C, cough sweets, tissues, painkillers and (English) muffins.

As soon as we got home we had a cup of tea, then Doc wrapped himself up in a blanket and fell asleep on the sofa for two hours, whilst I did my best to not make too much noise and keep Edith off him.

He seems a bit better now, I think the "Lord of the Rings" marathon on TNT is helping.

Where Sunday Went.

How did it get to be 9:40pm on a Sunday?  I haven't baked the cookies for our office's student worker birthday or done any laundry or played any video games at all!

Well, today we visited the humane society with David and Cameron to visit the cats I've been trying to persuade David into adopting.  Then we all went to the cinema (well, we didn't bring the cats) to see "The Expendables" which was just awe inspiringly terrible, as I had fully expected and hoped.  I mean if you get 10 action movie stars together in one film, then the audience should not expect Ibsen.  They should expect 'splosions and bone snapping, and those things "The Expendable" richly delivers.

Fortunately David also reminded us that Doc C had a department party to go to this afternoon, so we swung home to get changed and then headed over to that where we ate some great food before coming home for a nap.

That was our Sunday.  Damn it!  I want a three day weekend to be standard issue.  Is that really so much to ask?

Star Wars: A New Lamp.

After work today we browsed for lamps and soft furnishings, and Doc C pointed out a really nice petrol blue lamp with a blue-and-brown shade.  When I got home I thought about how that would fit in our bedroom, and suggested he have that lamp on his bedside table.

Doc said that actually what he'd like is the same lamp that I have, but full of Star Wars figures.  Which I'd suggested, ooh, when I bought my own lamp 18 months ago, so of course Kmart don't sell them any more.

So he googled for "Martha Stewart Terrarium Lamp" and the top result was Alien Spouse, with a photo of my bedside lamp.  Which is funny, especially because that post even mentions the Star Wars figures, but not terribly helpful in finding one for the Doc.

We Just Need a Title To Create Some Buzz.

Over the summer the University campus plays host to a number of different associations and camps.

This week we have both Cheerleader Camp and the Eastern Apicultural Society Conference (a helpful e-mail explained that this would involve beekeepers, and several swarms of their charges, congregating on a lawn close to my office).  This means we have both overly excitable teenage girls and hives of bees within fairly close proximity to each other.

I don't know who is in charge of scheduling these things, but clearly they have never seen a low budget horror movie.

Where are you pigeon? I am looking for you

It was ridiculously warm and humid, and it was just too stuffy in our bedroom for us to be able to sleep there.  So we slept on the futon in the study-slash-spare bedroom, actually Edith sleeps down there quite often because it's the coolest room in the house.

We had the windows open, and Nancy hauled herself onto the window frame to have a nice stare out.  Just after we turned off the light and were settling down, I caught the unmistakable whiff of skunk.  It was really strong, so it must have been just outside the house.

I think that the Pepe Le Peu cartoons were in actual fact wildlife documentaries, and that last night Monsieur Skunk, besotted with Nancy, was trying to woo her with his distinctive aftershave.  Nancy was having none of it, and ran away from the horrible stench as fast as her stubby little legs would carry her.  Poor skunk.

And poor us.  It was not at all easy to fall asleep in the circumstances.

Muggy Sunday = Horror Movie Marathon.

It's too warm today, and there is a thunderstorm hanging around that just won't break, so it's really muggy as well.  There's nothing to be done, other than sit underneath a ceiling fan and watch cheesy horror movies.  Fortunately I've got plenty of material on hand because I bought a 50 film box-set of "classic" horror movies in DC, which is delightfully haphazard in it's quality.  There's roughly a dozen early Hitchcock's mixed in with really random schlock; I just watched Tod Slaughter in "The Dark House" which was a really melodramatic adaptation of "Woman in White", and I'm currently watching "The Long Hair of Death" which is even worse than it sounds.

The only one in the house who enjoys this weather is Nancy, who is lolling around in attitudes of stumpy cat joy.

Three Weeks from Tomorrow!

The rental agent today called Doc C this morning to confirm that our credit check was fine, and so we can pick up the keys on Friday 30th of June.

So we can start moving in three weeks from tomorrow.  I've made up a song about it, which goes:

"Three Weeks Tomorrow! Three Weeks Tomorrow! Three Weeks Tomorrow! Three Weeks Tomorrow! Three Weeks Tomorrow!"

The Doc is also excited by the prospect of moving, but he has said he hopes that the new house is "...everything we hope it is."  I think he's worried that I'll get over excited and expect one of the built in cupboards to lead to a magical land of adventure.

With this in mind, I haven't really liked to mention to him that the whittled cockerel effigy that he found on the porch railing is just a touch "Wicker Man"(1973 - I am aware of no other version); but then, as I mentioned this morning, I have thoroughly considered the zombie escape routes from my office, so let's just call this little stick bird charmingly rustic instead.

Inglorious Dream.

We watched "Inglorious Basterds" last night, because somehow we hadn't seen it at the cinema when it came out and it seemed perfect for a paper Doc is writing.  I liked it a lot, however it is really quite a violent film.  I know, I know, a violent Tarantino film?  How shocking!

Unusually for me, the screen violence led me to have a nightmare where I murdered someone, in retrospect in a manner very similar to the film, and spent the rest of the dream on the run and on edge.  There was a funny part to the dream though; after I'd killed my victim, I ran off to find my Christmas presents and I opened them early.  They hadn't even been gift wrapped yet, that's how prematurely I opened them.

Isn't that weird?  Clearly my subconscious thinks opening your presents early is a really bad thing to do.

Humid, With Scattered Outbreaks of Natural Disaster Movies.

Today has been bad movie day.  

First I watched "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" instead of the USA v. GB match, and then the SyFy channel played a blinder with "Category 6: Day of Destruction" followed by the marvelously named "Stonehenge Apocalypse".  After this it's "Annihilation Earth", which I don't think we'll be watching actually, but I do appreciate the whole Armageddon theme they are going for this evening.  I bloody love the SyFy Channel.

That may sound like a very lazy day, and it's true I've done very little today.  In my defence it's been warm and humid with thunderstorms, which means Edith and I have been listless and sleepy because neither of us do well in muggy weather.  The pair of us flopped in the living room with the ceiling fan on all day.  I've napped and knitted, Edith has napped and tried out every possible piece of furniture in the quest to find the coolest seat in the room.

Nancy on the other hand loves this weather, she has been rolling around in a classic display of small cat hedonism.

Dinner and a Movie.

It's Sunday.  

I have eaten my dinner, which included the first smores of the summer, and now we are settling down to watch "All The President's Men".

This is made slightly problematic because of the seventies sound (which won an Academy Award, that seems a little ironic), so Redford and Hoffman are having difficulty competing with the dishwasher in our kitchen despite the TV being wired through our stereo for the best possible audio quality.  Marry a former sound engineer and you too can hear a pin drop on any reality show you fancy.

Still, it has been a very pleasant evening.

Back to Asheville.

Last weekend we went to Asheville with Laura and Jasmine, and, after a lovely day, we drove by the cinema on our way out of the city.  As we passed I saw a poster with a Banksy rat on it and I realised that "Exit Through The Gift Shop", a title that I just hadn't recognised, was the documentary about street art that I'd been reading about a few weeks ago.

So Doc and I drove back today to see it, and it was a really amazing film well worth a two hour drive to get to (That's actually not much of a yard stick for me - When I lived in Brighton I was only round the corner from the local Odeon but it cost eight quid to see a film there; whereas if I hopped on a train to London and went to the NFT it was free, because I worked for the British Film Institute at the time.  Traveling for two hours just to see a film is completely fine to me). We also had a delicious noodle lunch, and I bought discounted yarn, a vintage Ngaio Marsh with some groovy cover art and the new Goldfrapp album.

Doc C didn't actually do any shopping himself, but he did get to see a film that will most likely be useful to show in one of his classes and he discovered that Dunkin' Donuts have perfected our donutty grail; I speak of the Chocolate Butternut.  It is glorious.

When we stopped for donuts we caught the eye of a gentleman sitting outside the shop, who noticed the Union Jack in our car and asked if we were British.  On the way out he spoke to us again, and we got a long rambling travelogue about his hitch-hiking through Europe as a teenager.  After that he had something else to tell the Doc, but it wasn't for my ears apparently so I got into the car.  Doc told me afterwards that he'd been told two dirty jokes, neither of which he heard the punch-line to, and the confession that the guy had been drinking since 6 in the morning.  It was around 4:30 in the afternoon by the time we ran into him.

Ahh Asheville!  You never, never, disappoint.

Stationary and A "Return of the Jedi" Reference.

My first week in this job has been really good, and today I had a celebratory breakfast of a cinnamon roll and a soylatte at my desk.

The final shiny thing that I found in my desk drawer was this extra large golden paperclip.  I immediately re-filled the paperclip holder on my desk with normal silver paperclips, and then added it as well.  I like to think it is C3-PO to their Ewoks.

Parental Warning: Contains Strong Language. (No, really there are As, Cs and Fs in this post)

Last night Doc and I went to see "Kick Ass". The plot follows a teenage boy who reads so many comic books that eventually he starts to wonder why no-one has dressed up in a costume to fight crime in the real world.  And violence and hilarity ensues.

The film has caused some controversy because of the colourful language employed by the 11 year old character, Hit-Girl.  Not for the huge number of thugs she bloodily dispatches with great glee, no that seems to be totally fine, it's because she says fuck, cock and cunt along with many, many, other rude words.  In interviews the actress who plays Hit-Girl has said that she would never say any of these words in her normal everyday life, because she would get into serious trouble, and one of the screenwriters, Jane Goldman, has also said that this is not a film for children and they shouldn't be watching it.

I find this hilarious, not least because the cinema that was screening the film wouldn't even put the word "ASS" on their titles marquee.  The film was listed there as simply "KICK A", how funny is that?

 But it gets better, even the tickets can bring themselves to actually name the film they are for.  To the pure mind of the ticket machine, last night Doc C and I saw "KICK A**".  How adorable is that?  The ticket quite clearly says Adult on it as well, and the adult who has purchased it was well aware that it would grant admission to a film which uses much stronger swearwords than ass (British Translation: Arse)

So to re-cap, guts and gore are fine, but the use of bad language in circumstances that undoubtedly call for a well placed and clearly enunciated expletive is not.  

Oh America! You are so very peculiar sometimes.