Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Davey -- Fortunately, since it's a work computer, I can let our
sys-supp guy worry about that.  But I will NEVER tell anyone ever ever
ever if it develops a crack in the plastic covering.
  

    
P.S.  I got an iPod for Christmas!
  

    
Many belated HAPPIES to everyone for Christmas, Yule, and lovely down
time with friends...  Things were pretty crazy with Thingies and then
family and friends visiting, and I cooked (I *cooked*!) for two days,
so there were virtually no spare moments to spend online.   But I hope
it was a wonderful and ful-filling and renewing holiday time for
everyone.

It was utterly grand to have a Thingie/Wellie reunion in our little
corner of L.A.  And I *did* inflict the Endless Christmas CD on
Michelle.  While she, despite visions of hippos dancing in her head,
seems to have survived the experience intact, I'm afraid that her Boi
will never, ever forgive me.

But Adriana, *I* laughed until I cried when we listened to it the
first time.  And kicked my feet, too.

Davey: Alsatian?  Wow.  Sounds "dead nummy."  And I'm glad that you
passed along hellos to the Vespa.

Christy: Congrats on your iPod, lucky girl!  (I, unfortunately, am
required to figure out how to use the Palm Pilot I got when I left work
before I can get any more new techno toys.)

Hugs to all.
  

    
Ooh, ooh, what did you cook?

Neil -- An importer of Scottish salmon right up in Olney?  Thanks for
the tip!  I shall have to investigate....
  

    
Pam, PalmPilots really aren't that complicated, I can walk you through
the basics if you like (from here, by phone--it's as good an excuse as
any to call, if we need one...).
  (Gadget-geek gerbil that I am, I'm posting this note from my
phone-PDA because I realized that with the new version I probably could
so of course I have to try, don't I?)
  

    
exxxxxcellent.
  

    
A little belatedly wishing everyone a beautiful, bountiful, happy and
love-filled New Year.

I spent a lovely, lazy New Year's Eve day (that always sounds so odd)
devouring Gene Wolfe's new THE KNIGHT, so that all the cool people will
not laugh at me, and because it's purely beautiful.

And then spent the Eve eve feeling very, very happy about a great many
things... most especially my husband and marriage.

Davey... thou shouldst not offer to help me with technical assistance
without truly understanding what you're getting yourself into. ;-)  But
thanks ever so muchly.  I'll try to call soon, about PDAs or other
subjects.

Christy: A mix of traditional (turkey with chestnut stuffing, candied
yams) and slightly less traditional (potatoes with gorgonzola gratin,
maple-mustard-balsamic green beans) fare.  Just 'cause it made me
happy.  

...running off to see a chick movie with my husband, because it was my
turn to pick and I'm a bit tired of epic battles just now.
  

    
Pam -- Sounds like a wonderful New Year's!  Yay for gratitude and
hubbies.

And here I wondered if I'd have the first post of the new year, on
Monday morning!  Good to see ya here.

Happy New Year, everyone!

-Christy

P.S.  Just read Neil's journal entry, and am all aquiver about films
and song lyrics.
  

    


Holley Nowell writes:



Was on vacation last two weeks and am just back to work today. Sigh.
Packed. And packed some more. Went to se LotR during a weekday the first
week. Was good.

Had a fight with my son day before Christmas. Sigh. I should know better than
to bring up some things with him ever.
The good thing is that instead of going to Christmas day at his mother in
law's house (my daughter-in-law's mom) and listening to all the
unpleasantness he gets up to whenever he's around them, I went to my adopted
family's house and spent three days. (You don't choose your family; you only
choose your friends.) We went to see LotR again. Watched some nice movies on
Pay-Per-View on their big screen TV. Then got up day after Christmas - I
can't BELIEVE I did this - at 6:30 am to make the sale at Joannes (fabric
store). We got there at 7 am and it was crowded. It opened at 6:30 am. Geez.
Talk about dedication. Found a few good deals though. Vegged when not doing
this stuff. Was great.   Then went back home and spent the next week packing
again.

Moving in 5 days and counting.

Gave Wolves to one of the children at friends' house. Had given her Coraline
before. She yelled across a room full of people when she ripped it open that
she knew who THIS was by! She hadn't even read the title and author line, she
recognized the McKean artwork. All the books she got and this one was the
only one she really got excited about. (aged 12) I'm so good at knowing who's
the bestest.

Finished the 5th Harry Potter book. It got better close to the end. Saw
previews for the next movie. Don't recall when it's coming out but that's my
next biggie. Though really want to see Calendar Girls. Watched the 1st 2 HP's
during packing.

And that was my holidays and vacation.
  

    
A word to Tori fans (and I know you are many)...

You may want to go see "Mona Lisa Smile," even if you weren't planning
to.

Just 'cause.
  

    
Saw a bit of her in an ad for the soundtrack; she looks lovely!
  

    


Holley Nowell writes:

Just a quickie note:
Went to Amazon.uk and preordered A Hat Full of Sky (Wee Free Men Pt. 2) by
Terry Pratchett.
They also have it listed ready to preorder on Amazon.com - US.
It will be out May 2004.
Sadly. There is no Discworld Diary this year.
  

    
Like a bottle of '54 Strathisla, a new pseud appears just when I was
beginning to need one! Thanks, Neil.

And congrats on another Nebula nomination!!  Aren't you something!  :)

-Christy

zeugma:verb::polymorphism:method -- Now my geekitude is complete.
  

    
I want to marry that Steve guy on the journal and have his little
babies, just for those few sentences.  Even if he was cribbing HST.

Oh.  And congratulations, Neil!  (I'm afraid you'll just have to
understand that Nebula nominations--even for you--have to come after my
violent abhorrence for That Man.)

As a side note on CORALINE: I was so excited to buy it for a Cmas
present for an actual 8-year old girl, and then realized that her
recent experience of having been through a custody battle, and then
relocated to live with her father and his new fiancee made the "Other
Mother" subject matter a bit tricksy.  When I called her "new other
mother" (a friend of mine), though, she said that she thought the
8-year old could handle it.  So there you go.
  

    
Good, I hope so.  Kids don't read into things the way we do sometimes.
 It's much more face-value (which is why _Coraline_ doesn't scare kids
in the first place).

nr:  _Neuromancer_, Gibson
  

    



Holley Nowell writes:


Moving this weekend. Three Men Movers coming at 10 am. Daughter-in-law coming
at 10 am. I'm feeling a bit nuts. Packed all the boxes and have a whole
closet I haven't looked at. Nothing heavy in it so I could move that Sunday
myself. Mainly picture frames and posters and games. The place is a wreck!
There are 500 boxes and I can't pay past 5 or 6 hours of moving but they
think it'll take closer to 4 or less anyway. I hope. And... And... Well. You
know. Just hysterical. I'm taking Monday off in an attempt to get a little
situated in the new place. My ex-pal landlady has been bugging me to make
SURE I'll be out end of the day Sunday. I'm not used to having an absolute
short deadline. I figured if I needed to fudge a little I'd just pay her for
an extra day or so. It's not like she's got someone moving in Monday or
anything. Blow that friendship off. Shame. We had a lot in common. I'm going
to be useless today I know. It's so hard to work when your brain is still
turning on something else. I did walk the new place and make a floor plan and
I know where every piece of furniture goes but you know that will have to be
flexible. And all the boxes! Geez. Ereee Ereee Ereee!
  

    
Soothing moving beams to Holley.
  

    
Holley, best of luck with your move. I hope the movers don't break
anything you value, and that Cleo doesn't make an unmitigated nuisance
of herself. (Everything smooth beyond that is gravy.)

Pam, put your PalmPilot into the charger and plug the charger in.

It's gotten cold here this past week. Really cold. Colder than that.
This is New England, dammit, we're supposed to have winter tempered by
this large ocean mass just off the coast. If I wanted to live in a
place where we could have a week straight of days when the temperature
didn't get up to 25 degrees, I'd move to the Midwest. Brrrr. Hope I
mulched the roses heavily enough.

Have bought my Minneapolis-in-April trip tickets, for not as many
frequent flyer miles as I'd expected--for once, one of those glossy
special-offer inserts in a previous ff mileage statement was applicable
to what I'm doing, _and_ I found it before I booked the trip so I had
the Secret Code Number available when I went online to buy the tickets.
Hope that doesn't use up my serendipity allowance for the year.
  Maybe by the time I get there (April 23) it won't be winter in
Minneapolis either.
  

    
Um, I have nothing of interest to say, but I wanted to say hello, so
here I am.

Holley, best of luck with the move! May nothing be lost!

Davey, eek! that's too cold!

Neil, Nebular goodness to you!

Must tend to a bored cat now.

-squeaks
p.s. wish me luck with the delivery of the 'new stove' tomorrow.
  

    
Good luck with the delivery of the 'new stove' tomorrow.  Why is it in
quotes?

Davey, you will have to bring East Coast greetings to Neil for the
both of us.  :)  I'm too broke to plan on going anywhere for a while.
  

    


Holley Nowell writes:


Sorta moved. There were problems. Family ones mostly involving money. I have
learned my lesson lending money to family. They don't think you mean it when
you tell them you'll need it back by X time (moving day) so I couldn't allow
the movers to stay the extra 2 hours they needed to complete the job. They
nicely made sure everything heavy or too big to put in my car was removed but
it was still an audacious lot. Now piled in the dining room floor and my
landlady said it was ok to take it out a bit at a time since Son is mad at me
and won't help. Sigh. Why is it that when you are doing something stressful
anyway, everything else goes wrong at the same time?

But like the new place. A little smaller. Have to get used to the new night
noises. The ac/heat unit does exactly what I tell it to instead of what the
board says it should. I was most comfy in my new place when if I'd spent that
night in the old one I'da frozen. Gotta go now. At work. Had to give up this
day off for something that didn't get done and needs to be soon. And, of
course, my boss instantly demanded I do something ELSE for 4 hours instead of
the critical thing. Must go work on expenses now.

Am stiff and hurting a little. The world is a pissy place right now.
Shouldn't continue talking. Might start pissing and moaning instead. By for
now. Beams to everyone who needs it.
  

    
Ah, now I see Joe Koch's 10-dollar _Goldfish_ book (two of them, in
fact) on abebooks.com.  Turns out that when I refined my search to
include a title with either "Two" or "2" in it, the terms were getting
ANDed instead of ORed all this time.  I shoulda known.

And yet, these books show up in my "hardcover" search but say
"softcover" in the description.  I've sent his bookstore a question
asking which is it already.  Maybe abebooks mis-indexed it.

Meanwhile:

There's a new edition of _Goldfish_ coming out?  With a CD??  Neil,
can you elaborate pretty please?
  

    
Speaking again of the Journal, should I know what LSMFT means?  It
looks like a cross between ROTFLMAO and RTFM, posted while drunk on a
malfunctioning keyboard.
  

    
Used to stand for "Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco" on old radio ads.
  

    
Ahhh.  That makes sense, in the context.  Thanks, Ron!

-A Radio Ignoramus