For my regular visitors, if you find that this blog hasn't been updating much lately, chances are pretty good I've been spending my writing energy on my companion blog. Feel free to pop over to Moving On, and see what else has been going on.

Saturday, June 30, 2007

new library list

A small list this time. We had plans for afterwards and I didn't want to be lugging around a lot of books.

Then Eldest goes and picks a book that weighs about 5 pounds, all on its own! *L*

Youngest didn't pick any books at all this time. Having finished and returned the Song of the Lioness series, she went looking for more books that continue the story, but couldn't find them. Since the library system lists these books only as "youth pocketbook," we can't even look up the titles to see if they're carried at all.

Eldest found more books on comic books to take out.
The Golden Age of DC Comics - 365 Days: This tome is the heavy one. Each two page spread has a comic (or portion of a comic book page) on the right with a short blurb about it on the facing page.
50 Great Comic Book Action Heroes: Plenty of graphic reproductions showing various comic book heroes with their histories.
Women in the Comics, Vol 3: Actually, I found this one while looking for something else and thought Eldest would get a laugh out of it. She ended up keeping it. This volume covers the years 1990 -2000. Should be interesting to find the earlier volumes. Pretty amazing to see how women were portrayed in comics over the years.

In my continued search for historical fiction to fill the gap left by having read all the Brother Cadfael books many times over, I found Murder Most Medieval; Noble Tales of Ignoble Demises. It's a collection of short stories from a variety of authors. I've finished it already. Some good, some not good, some... er... weird. Like the one with Robin Hood and Marian.
The Beautiful Beaded Home: This is a collection of beaded projects for decorating both inside and outside the home. Can't say I like all the projects - I mean, why would you bead your oven mitts? - but it inspires a few new ideas.

That's it for books, this time. We also picked up a couple of videos.

Octopussy (vhs): I had to grab this one for Dh, our resident Bond fan. We haven't seen that one in years! It's so hokey, by today's standards.
Hair (vhs): I've never seen this musical, and I decided it was time to rectify that. :-D
Why Wal*Mart Works and Why That Makes Some People Crazy (dvd): I know a bit of the story behind Walmart, and wanted to find out more. No question Sam Walton changed the face of retail business, and people are still screaming about it.
The Great Warming (dvd): Before there was Al Gore and his Inconvenient Truth, there was Alanis Morissette and Keanu Reeves, narrating this 3 disc, three episode series. The episodes are titled The Human Fingerprint, Age of Uncertainty and Our Children's Planet. I'm hoping to see at least some balance, but I really don't expect it, what with the very first line in the back is a myth. We're quite looking forward to seeing it.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Oh, the horror!

Today, the girls and I experienced a great and terrible thing. I'd heard of such things before, but had never seen one. While taking part in some festivities, deciding to stop for a snack, we beheld an item on the menu I never thought to see.

Deep fried chocolate bars.

Now, one of the things I try to encourage the girls to do when we take in these events is to try new things.

Eldest insisted that this was something to try.

How could I say no?

It turns out that not only was the chocolate bar coated in batter and deep fried, but it was served with chocolate sauce and whipped cream!

Behold, the monstrosity!

Eldest thought the neon green slushie was a nice touch.

Upon finding someplace in the shade to sit and... enjoy? ... the concoction, I left the girls to take some photos.

When I came back, it was gone. If the container hadn't been cardboard, they probably would've licked it clean. They loved it!

Then, since I hadn't even tasted it, they insisted we get another one.

I had two bites.

Much to my amazement, it actually tasted good! There was something about the salty batter (the same as a corn dog, from what I could tell) and icky sweetness of the chocolate bar that just worked. *shudder* How could something so be so disgusting and so good at the same time? I still get the creeps, just thinking about it!

Who on earth even thought of putting a chocolate bar on a stick, coating it in batter, then deep frying it? Then adding the chocolate sauce and whipped cream, to boot!

Probably the same sort of person who thought of deep frying cheesecake, another surprisingly good combination that we tried last year, and I'll never try again. LOL At least that didn't have corn dog batter on it.

Just so long as I never see someone selling deep fried Coke. Because I'd have to try it.

Ah, the adventures of culinary experimentation!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

A new library list

I haven't been posting our library lists lately. Mostly, we've been returning things but not taking out any more. Between what we'd already collected at home and not wanting to lug books around while doing other things, we just sort of skipped things. We did get the entire 4 dvd collection of What We Eat, though. I highly recommend it. Interesting stuff. Youngest also got Alanna, the first book of the Song of the Lioness series. Once she got into it, she was reading it obsessively for the next several days. *L* I read it myself when she was done and found it quite enjoyable, too. Youngest then asked if we could go to the library to get the next book in the series, so we head out today instead of waiting until the end of the week, when we usually go.

We finally returned the last of what we had out today, and promptly took out a bunch more out. Youngest ended up getting the remaining 3 books of the Songs of the Lioness series, In the Hands of the Goddess, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man and Lioness Rampant. She's had her nose buried in the 2nd of the series ever since she found them. *L*

Eldest found Wonder Woman: The Complete History. I think she was interested in that one more because of what she's seen at superdickery.com than anything else. LOL She also took out:

Guilty Until Proven Innocent; The nightmarish true story of a pastor falsely charged with the sexual molestation of children. Yes, that's the actual sub-title of the book. I think I've heard of this case, actually.

Sexual Violence; Opposing Viewpoints Series: From what I've seen so far of the chapters and titles in the book, it looks like a no holds barred look at the facts and myths surrounding sexual violence. I look forward to some of the discussions that this one will bring up.

My list is a bit longer... ;-)

The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: This one I actually spotted by accident while looking for something else. I find some very neat things that way.

Medieval Households: This should be enlightening - it seems to trace the evolution of the family unit into what we are now consider "traditional." One of the interesting things about "traditions" is that they often aren't all that traditional after all.

Food Civilization; How History Has Been Affected by Human Tastes: It's amazing how huge a role food has played in developing human history. I look forward to this one.

The Raven in the Foregate and The Potter's Field are two books from the Brother Cadfael series that I haven't read recently. I'll have to start using the hold service to get others, since we seem to have worked our way through the local selection.

The Queen's Man: With a shortage of Brother Cadfael books to choose from, I decided to try this medieval mystery, part of a series of books from Sharon Kay Penman. I'm hoping it's better than my other attempts in the genre. I really like the Ellis Peters writing style, and how she portrays people in the medieval time period. Other books I've tried to read are for more about portraying the "Dark Ages" viewpoint, and it's downright depressing sometimes. Here's hoping...

The Satanic Gases; Clearing the Air about Global Warming: The authors of this book, both climatologists, take scientific distortions on global warming head on. Speaking of which...

An Inconvenient Truth; The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It: I haven't found the movie at the library yet, but I did find the book. From glancing through the mostly pictographic pages, it looks like they've simply taken his movie and powerpoint presentation and put it in book for, then added a really long Introduction by Al Gore.

Then we got a few movies. I went about it backwards this time. Usually, I start on one end and work my way through, often reaching my limit of dvd's before I get half way. This time, I started at the opposite end and reached my limit about a quarter of the way through... *L* I found Nature's Pharmacy; Herbal Medicines, Arabian Dance Fever - Belly Dance, The Italian Passion for Life, Jamaica (Destination Travel Guide series) and The First Civilizations.

Yes, my interests are a touch eclectic. ;-)

Monday, June 04, 2007

K, this one is even better

This song is my favorite part in The Fifth Element

hope this works

I've never tried to embed a video in a blog post before. I hope this works for you.

Very cool what this guy can do with his voice.




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