Saturday, January 13, 2007

“If ...the zoo is closed, come over to the Senate. You'll get the same kind of feeling and you won't have to pay." - Bob Dole

Movies I want to see:
“Miss Potter” with Renee Zellweger (not that I am a huge Beatrix Potter fan particularly, but this got good reviews)
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (which I am seeing Tuesday evening and CANNOT WAIT. The still with the creature with eyeballs in his palms….chilling. CAN. NOT. WAIT.)
My new DVD of “Love Actually”

TV shows that are sucking me in:
Arrested Development
The Office

People I would like to have tea with, if by TEA you mean, well, um, TEA. Nice and hot and strong, Irish Breakfast or Ceylon, with milk and sugar, and maybe some homemade chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies on the side:
Colin Firth
Alan Rickman
AS Byatt
Madeleine L’Engle
Jessa Crispin
Lucinda Wyman
Marc-Andre Fleury
My Australian blogger buddies

Books I am finishing:
One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson.
MUST own this as well as Case Histories which I must now reread as well.
I am just the wee littlest bit in love with Jackson Brodie, whom, if I recall correctly, made my list many eons ago of fictional characters I would like to, erm, bonk.

Books I would love to find in a used bookshop somewhere, as they are sort of - or in some cases, prohibitively - expensive on Amazon and/or half.com:
Miss Buncle’s Book – DE Stevenson
Miss Buncle Married – DE Stevenson
Refuge of a Scoundrel: The Patriot Act in libraries – Herbert Foerstal
Surveillance in the Stacks: The FBI’s library awareness program – Herbert Foerstal (these are research for my at-the-moment-stalled novel)
Father Christmas/Father Christmas Goes on Holiday – Raymond Briggs (I know they’re listed cheaper, but every time I order one, I’m told it’s out of stock “at that price.”)
(And the copy of JRR Tolkien’s Letters to Father Christmas was not AT ALL what I was expecting, and I am greatly disappointed. I wanted the copy with the letters that come out of the envelopes, a la Griffin and Sabine. Speaking of, did you know about these, Gryphon and Alexandria? Saw them on the bargain table at B&N last week and am thinking of returning to buy them, to complete my G&S collection…)

What people were reading on the 6:15 500 last Tuesday:
The Wall Street Journal, Introduction to Japanese Linguistics, an article from some medical journal, and A Spot of Bother (me). All men, this time. Except me, of course.

Websites I return to again and again:
The Personal World Clock, so I don’t call Suse or IM Rogue Librarian at three in the morning their time.

The British Library, Turning the Pages (Be warned, it takes up a lot of bandwidth, and you need Shockwave, but it is so worth it!) I especially am liking Jane Austen’s history and Alice.

More Comics Curmudgeon, on political cartoons.

Language Log, the fault for this particular addiction lies squarely on the shoulders of Hair-in-his-Eyes Guy.

I am not sure exactly how or what I feel about these things:
A book vending machine

The Swedish Librarian Fashion Show (courtesy of Mr Darby Dixon)

An issuing of Ellen Raskin's newly-found manuscripts, including a seuqel to The Westing Game, and a reissue of one of my favorite children's books EVER, The Tattooed Potato. I mean - the new manuscripts could be brilliant. Or they could be abysmal. Who can know?

Puffins cereal - or rather, I should say, I like these, but my boys? Not sure. They do NOT like these however. But H has put the kibosh on their beloved Honey Nut Cheerios due to its high sugar content.

People I would thoroughly enjoy pushing under a bus right about now:
George Bush Jr.
Britney Spears
Angelina Jolie
H (who rearranged the Thursday babysitting so he could go to band practice while I was at work, said he’d take the day off so I could still do my thing on Thursday (this week it was a haircut and some Half-Price Books shopping…) and then at 745 that morning told me he had a mandatory meeting at work at 9am. To which he went. And my babysitter did not arrive until 2 pm. I went to work at 3, and, yep, you guessed it, H went to band practice. Also? The Honey Nut Cheerios thing.)

Things that worry me:
People who think it is acceptable to answer and talk on their cell phones while using the bathroom, and more importantly, while *I* am using the bathroom.

Kids today!

Polar bear root canal - let’s face it, it’s not as if the Pittsburgh Zoo has such a stellar reputation for care of their animals.

Having to explain to Segundo how and why the polar bear died.

8 comments:

sara said...

Ooh! Ooh!

Madeline L'Engle would be *perfect* to have tea with.

And The Office is sucking me in, too...we watched the UK version and loved it, so I didn't think I'd like the US version...but I am being proved wrong every week.

TLB said...

I would like to have tea with Alice Munro, and Jessa Crispin would be fun too, especially so I could ask her what about The Thin Place she loved so much.

Also? Just about to start One Good Turn and Can't. Wait.

Suse said...

I would still take your calls at 3am.

Sarah Louise said...

WOW--I may have to steal this as meme...(and yes, I mispronounced it in my mind the first time but now I'm pronouncing it correctly--meme rhymes with dream)

Except I have no bus stories--drat!!

But the news about Gryphon and Alexandria--wowza!! I still have some $$ left on my B&N gift card...on the way to work, mayhap...

Caro said...

May we also push Donald Trump and Rosie O' Donnell under the bus? I'm tired of their stupid feud.

SJ doesn't like the rice puffins by themselves. They are gluten-free. (I love them.)

But they make a wonderful graham cracker-like pie crust.

Kathy said...

I'm ambivalent about the book vending machine. Does that mean I'd only get to read the book if I could afford to buy it? That kind of defeats the purpose of a lending library.

kilowatthour said...

that bob dole quote is just about the best thing EVER.

also, a warning: pan's labyrinth is VIOLENT. very.

Anonymous said...

When you're done having tea with Colin, please send him to my house so I can have sex with him.