The Aviary

When I opened this, I was going to make another crabby complaining post*, but that's boring. So instead, I am going to make a list of things that are currently making me happy:

- My dumb DC superhero shows are all back, hooray! And The Flash is doing ridiculous multiverse stuff and there's Jay and his goofy hat and I'm so happy.

- I got to write stuff today with my favorite pen, it is always such a joy. Seriously, this is my advice for people who are insecure about their handwriting: get a pen with a 1.1 italic nib. (I like the Pilot Plumix - it's cheap and comes in purple and you can buy a converter to make it use prettier ink. Mine currently has Diamine's Ancient Copper, which is gorgeous.) The italic nib makes basically anything look prettier.

- I ordered new tea from the internet yesterday and it shipped this morning. I love buying tea.

- Tomorrow, my mom, my sisters and I are having a crafternoon, where we each bring a different craft project to teach the other three. I am bringing a simple chain maille bracelet pattern I just learned and a bunch of multicolored jump rings. Very exciting.

- Because I am a giant nerd who can't get the songs from Hamilton out of her head, I started reading the Hamilton biography by Ron Chernow it's based on. Which is honestly pretty great - if you want to read an 800-page biography of Alexander Hamilton, I recommend it. (I say that with the caveat that, y'know, I haven't gotten to the end of the war yet. It is a long book.)

- I have a new podcast! It is Wolf 359 and it is full of pretty great space adventures and creepy space mysteries. (As a Trekkie, it does slightly confuse me every time they say the title, though, because they say three-fifty-nine and it just sounds wrong.) I am about 10 episodes in and I love everything about it.

- I am really looking forward to the grilled cheese sandwich I'm planning to make for dinner tonight. It's going to have Hawaiian bread and spices and it's going to be delicious. I love grilled cheese sandwiches.

So that is a short list of things that are making me happy today. What's making you guys happy today?









*OMG, lady, when I warn you that the library printer is broken and so you can't print, that is not something I'm doing to you maliciously to ruin your day, and it's not going to magically fix itself if you're mean to me. I'm sorry you came here just to print something and wasted a trip because that sucks, but it's not an excuse for you to act like that.

Things:

- I haven't posted since my little mini-vacation in Longbeach, so let me tell you about it! It was great. I did a lot of hiking in beautiful forests near beautiful beaches, I looked at birds (some of which I had never seen before), I watched a lot of tv, I knit a sock, and I did not converse for more than five minutes with another human being for three whole days. That is pretty much my ideal vacation - an activity that gets you out of the hotel room (or whatever) for part of the day and then the rest of the day to stay inside by yourself. The only way the weekend could have improved would have been to have actual wifi.

- The tv I watched was about half of the first season of Prison Break. Because I figured, if that's where all the Flash villains are going to come from, I might as well watch it, right? It was an excellent decision.

- Speaking of The Flash! You guys, I am so impressed with this show's commitment to its whacked-out source material. If you had told me before the show started that we'd be getting ( spoilers ) at all, let alone in the first season, I would not have believed you. That is amazing. What is less amazing is the idea that now I have to wait a month for the next episode. The next episode is going to have ( spoilers )! I don't want to have to wait a month for that!

- Also speaking of the Flash, for the last several days, I have been reading comics from the 70's. Oh man, Bronze Age Flash comics are amazing. Iris is from the future, Sinestro teamed up with the Weather Wizard one time, the Rogues apparently have a yearly convention with awards, the Top died of spinning too hard plus speed vibrations and there was a memorial service full of the worst puns ever. So great. Plus, now I have actually read the first issue with the Golden Glider and she is, as expected, the most amazing. It is honestly a problem reading these comics on my phone because I find myself giggling with glee in public.

- The best thing about having a Monday off (as I did this week, thanks to President's Day) is that the work week following seems so short. Tomorrow is already Friday - amazing!

And then I watched the pilot for The Flash (because of course I did).

( Spoilers (that assume that you have some knowledge of the comics). Also capslock. )

Media consumed today:

- Dracula (1931 version). I hadn't actually watched this for several years. Spoilers: I still love it. The boring bits are still boring, of course, but the bits that aren't just Mina, Jonathan, and Dr Seward are still great.

- Mad Love. Oh god, this movie is amazing and confounding, how the hell did it even get made? I tried to explain the plot to my parents and they both stared at me as though I had grown another head. (Dad started staring at "and then Peter Lorre grafts the hands of a recently executed murderer onto Colin Clive" while Mom held out till "then Peter Lorre pretends to be the recently executed murderer, who has had his head reattached.") I love everything this movie chooses to be. (Except the random American newsman - him, I could do without.)

- The first two episodes of Fargo. Billy Bob Thornton's character is either a murder wizard a la Hannibal or the actualfax devil. I have yet to decide which.

Things:

- Today, I am making cantaloupe pickles! Technically, I started making them yesterday, as they have to sit in a vinegar-and-spice mixture overnight. Now the pickles are simmering on the stove and the whole house smells like vinegar. I'm not actually canning them, which is nice, as I find the process of canning somewhat scary and also I don't have any new lids.

- Yesterday, I went swimming! And kinda sucked at it, since I hadn't gone swimming in about a decade, but it was still fun. Today, my arms are sore, but it's a good kind of sore. And I will be going again on Wednesday.

- I've started working on my quilt again, so that possibly it will get finished sometime this summer, before it's too lightweight to be the main bedcovering. I have discovered that, if I keep the laptop actually on my lap, I can watch subtitled episodes of Sailor Moon while sewing. Which is easier than doing so while knitting, so the resurgence of my desire to work on my quilt was well-timed.

- I am enjoying Sailor Moon to a somewhat ridiculous degree, btw. Last night, I watched an episode with an evil tennis demon. It was great.




ETA - The pickles are now in jars, waiting for the pickling liquid to reach syrup consistency. I poked one of the pickles to check on consistency and texture - I wanted them to be soft but not mushy - and then licked my fingers and, wow, you guys, these taste awesome. If you like cantaloupe and pickles, you should totally make these.

I halved the amount of pepper in them and found them exactly spicy enough for my taste, for those of you who want to play the home game, but YMMV.

So, a couple days ago, I decided (for reasons I do not now recall) that it would be a good idea to start watching Game of Thrones. Tonight, I am on the penultimate episode of season 1.

Thoughts (somewhat spoilery, I guess, but season one did come out a couple years ago, so...):

- Y'know, I remember really loving Ned Stark when I read the books and being totally on his side, pretty much. Watching the show, I still love Ned Stark but oh gods, sir, why are you so dumb? I remember Robb and Jon being dumb but good lord, Ned, why the hell does it matter if Joffrey isn't Robert's kid? Lannisters on the throne > complete civil war. This is not a difficult equation.

- I think it comes from not being solely in the POV character's head all the time, like you are in the books. Inside Ned's head, Ned makes sense. Outside, I want to smack him sometimes. But, on the other hand, I enjoy the Lannisters a great deal more on tv that I did in the first book.

- On the subject of enjoying the Lannisters, sometimes I have to rewind scenes in order to actually listen to the dialogue after having been distracted by the amazing hotness of Charles Dance. Good god.

- The excessive nudity is also distracting but more in an "Oh, show, I am so embarrassed for you right now" kind of way.

- Daenerys = totally great and so does Drogo, but I seem to recall the Dothraki in general being a lot more engaging in the book. Possibly, that is because some of them had names. I realize that we have to compress, though.

- The show pronounces Catelyn and Tywin really differently than I do in my head and it's jarring every time it happens.

- I spent about five episodes wondering what else I knew Iain Glenn from (other than Ripper Street) until I figured out that he's the guy who played John McMurdo in the BBC radio adaptation of Valley of Fear.

- Speaking of Ripper Street, I'm not going to lie, at least one of the reasons I finally started watching Game of Thrones was because I knew Jerome Flynn was in it. I have not been disappointed by this decision. And, as of the episode I am watching now, I have decided that if the rest of the show wants to be Tyrion, Shae, and Bronn having ridiculous drunken slumber parties, I am not going to complain. I am aware that this development is highly unlikely, but it's kinda fun to think about.

- The problem is that watching the show has made me want to read the books again but they are so enormous and it is such a huge undertaking. Possibly, I will watch the first two seasons and then start with Storm of Swords? Is that a workable plan?

Yesterday, I watched the first couple episode of Ripper Street. Which is a police procedural set in Victorian London, in Whitechapel, a few months after the last of the Ripper murders, during which people are Inventing Forensics. So, y'know, that's right up my alley.

Now, of course, my brain being what it is, I kinda want some sort of historical true crime about Inventing Forensics and the Evolution of Policing. And, since there is a part of my brain that is still stuck on Les Miserables*, I am horribly tempted to try to read Vidocq.

I am pretty sure that is a bad idea.





*Which, yes, I still haven't finished. Look, Javert died and I told myself that I got to take a break to digest that, and then a week or so passed and I realized that I was stuck with no one but Valjean in full-on martyr mode, Cosette, and Marius Pontmercy, King of Goobers. I have not been able to face it yet.

I am going to finish the damn book, though. Eventually.

Things:

- Today, I was stuck in traffic for approximately 2 hours. And thus, an hour and a half late to work. This is what happens when you work on an island and people have car accidents by the bridge. This is also why I always have at least one book (and probably more) and a snack on my person at pretty much all times.

- I really don't hate children but I do kinda wish that they wouldn't shout directly outside my bedroom window. Though hearing people yell "Malachi, I know you're faking! I'm going home!" "Wait, no, I'm dead!" is pretty funny.

- Okay, I probably would have at least tried the pilot of Arrow anyway, but this almost makes me actively excited.

- I have gone from being vaguely afraid of lapsang souchong to basically thinking it is the best thing ever. In a minute, I am going to go find the largest mug we own and make myself some more.

Things:

- Tonight, I made this for dinner. (And broccoli. Man doth not live by macaroni alone.) It is maybe the best macaroni and cheese I have ever eaten and so I recommend the recipe to all of you. (Notes: I made twice the amount of pasta that the recipe calls for because the box was a pound and hell, I made the box. However, the sauce covered the amount of pasta I had completely to my satisfaction. But, if you like more sauce on your pasta, you may want to only make half a pound.)

- I have finished my green lacy socks! They are beautiful and I'm quite pleased with them. And now I get to start a new pair - I'm going to make these with this absolutely gorgeous yarn my mom bought me. It's a subtly variegated black, with shadings of red and purple and green and, mostly, looks like iridescent crow feathers. I'm terribly excited about it.

- I am nearly caught up on Haven (I have one episode left and then I will have watched all the Haven there is till Friday). One on hand, I am happy to have watched it. On the other hand, now I am out of knitting tv. Can you recommend me some new knitting tv? Preferably something not too heavy and definitely something that does require me to pay a lot of visual attention to the screen (so anything with subtitles is out, alas). Anyone?

Things I have accomplished thus far today:

- Bought a soap dish. (Because, see, I bought these soaps from this place and they are lovely and smell fantastic and thus they needed a place to be near the sink. And my mother was tired of me stealing her ramekins.)

- Watched the Going Postal miniseries. Which I was a little hesitant about, because I didn't much like the Hogfather one. (I have not seen Colour of Magic. I hated the book, after all.) Going Postal isn't perfect, but it's a lot of fun and I quite enjoyed it. After all, there was Moist and Adora Belle and they kissed. And Charles Dance's Lord Vetinari is fantastic and perfect and I want his coat. (I do have trouble taking David Suchet seriously as a villain because, y'know, he's Hercule Poirot.)

- Taught myself to knit in the round. Knitting in the round is ridiculously complicated and requires far too many implements, but it's necessary for socks and gloves. So I am knitting these (the ones without thumbs, because I don't need that sort of hassle yet). I tried very hard to make myself stick to easy flat things for learning purposes, but I am terribly impatient when it comes to yarn craft and with flat things you only have three options: 1) washclothes, which I don't really need more of, 2) scarves, which I don't wear, and 3) large things like sweaters, which I would like to make eventually but not today. Round things can be small and interesting and useful. We should all be glad that I didn't decide to jump straight into cabling.


Pretty good crafty day, really.

Dear library AV buying guy,

Ahahaha, you bought the Raffles tv series. So now I don't have to attempt to acquire it some other way.

::places hold like the wind::

Possibly, it is time to reread some Raffles.

(Also, I'm sorry I missed movie night at Bainbridge this month. I wanted to come! We were watching Vertigo! But I had Christmas pageant rehearsal. I will totally be there next month.)

So, today I went to church and then to work and then I came home. And, as my sister is coming back from her studying abroad tonight and everyone else has gone to the airport and won't be back till very late, I am having a quiet evening alone. I would have liked to have gone to pick up Katie but it didn't work out and I am never going to begrudge a nice evening at home alone.

So I downloaded the first episode of that BBC Sherlock thing and have just finished watching it. ( About which: )

Now I am going to watch more Doctor Who.