In the Winter, In the City

     Flew into NYC today.  There was a toddler behind me on the flight but he was adorable.  He grabbed my shirt while I was reading and then we played Peak-a-boo.  Luckily he fell asleep right before we descended so he didn't ruin his good impression with lots of screaming from aching ears.  I am only wearing three layers outside, I'm rather proud of myself: a long sleeve shirt, a short one atop of that and a trench coat.  My toes were numbing by the time we stopped in at a restaurant for lunner (lunch/dinner) so I think I need a second pair of socks for now.  Me and my wimpy extremities.

     Tomorrow is the Chinatown Chinese New Year parade so Tad and I are going to head over that ways tomorrow morning. I was going to say more but really, I will talk about it tomorrow.

     On a random note the only books I brought with me to NYC are Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson and a book of poems on NYC that my mother gave me.  The Mars trilogy is an award-winning trio of books mapping Mars from its start as a scientific colony to its own political and social force.  I'm about a hundred pages in and I really have enjoyed it.  I admit it isn't on my list of 501 books but sometimes you can't get everything.  This was recommended to me by a guest at Target one day a good year or two ago after we got talking about science fiction and Asimov and who knows what else.

Migration Patterns of Annoying Birds

     Here I am at my parents enjoying my last day in Florida in the only good weather in the country (71 degrees) and what do I wake up to? Drunk birds.  What? Never heard of a drunken bird?  Every year on their way up to the North the cedar waxwings stop on by and eat the fermented berries from the cherry laurels.  They come in droves and are deafening.  Absolutely deafening.  Well, after eating enough berries they start staggering.  I won't lie, I remember watching my cat as a child just sit on the porch, anticipating them falling onto the ground.  Unfortunately she was in a screened-off porch and when the birds fell they just bounced off and laid dazed and drunk out of their little birdie minds.  It definitely feels like that today. 

     It is also overcast and I get the great joy of flying into the Big Apple during 'intermittent snow.'  I hope that doesn't mean my flight will be intermittently canceled.  I can't wait to see Tad though.  He promised to meet me right off the AirTrain so that will be nice.  Yay for cold weather I guess.  It is supposed to get down to 14 degrees Tuesday night so I won't be missing out on all this freezing weather.  Oh darn.

     Packing some clothes is all I'm really up for today.  I have to return a game which decided to riddle my hard drive with errors.  All I wanted was a cheap, silly ten dollar game.  That will teach me.  Oh well, that's all for today.  I don't know what I'll be doing in NYC quite yet but we'll see.  I'll try and keep this up.

Egypt is Hot HOT HOT!!

     Yea, so now Egypt is burning and it is crazy over there.  Pro- and Anti-Mubarak protests are getting even more violent and now the army is joining in.  At least the violence has settled down since dawn has broken.  With the Army beginning to side with the protesters and their intervention last night who knows what will happen in the next couple of days (reference).  I wonder though, which side should we back.  I have my own opinions but I ask, should we side the pro-American dictator of 30 years or the democratic but religious-based protesters?  As America we should want democracy everywhere but we also want a stable and nonthreatening Middle East.  Hm.. Who knows?

     Spinning around the world Australia has been hit by a Category 4 hurricane.  They have been very unlucky with the weather but if you have some spare change please donate to a major (and not specific) relief organization to help all these unfortunate people.  I will post a few links at the bottom.

     On a lighter note, here issomething I bet you didn't know about Australia.  An Unknown Australian Danger: The Drop Bear

Doctors Without Borders
Queensland Government Disaster Relief
Red Cross

***One last thing.  I am tagging Stephanie Sanderson from House for Two. just for being so wonderful!***

I'm leaving... In a Moving Truck

It doesn't harmonize quite as well as on a jet plane but there you have it.  I'm headed out of the state of Florida to the big city.  I mean, the really big city, New York New York.  Why? Why would I choose to go there?  Husband.  Also I got a transfer at work there so at least I will have something to do.  Plus it will help pay for everything.   Moving in three days.  I packed everything up but it looks like I have to parse it all down.  I have used the word parse every time I talk about this.  Parse it down, parse parse parse.  Worst of it is I've only said it once to each person I've talked to but I know I have been overusing it.  Ho ho, hum de dumm... Let's see, what have I been up to.  Oh right! Aprons.

 

     This first one was for a friend.  It's based off of Harley Quinn from the Batman comics and series.  Honestly I was bored one Tuesday and spent a good four to six hours just cutting and stitching and debating.  She loves it though and her sister, a very close friend of mine as well, has declared that it is in fact hers.  I was going to make a matching Joker one but I don't have the green to really make a good one.  I don't know how I would do it either but a matching set would have been awesome.  I'll put up an awful sketch of what I would probably do for the Joker one.  Just don't laugh too hard.  Ok, just don't leave me lame comments mostly.

     This one on the other hand, is a kitty apron.  Meow.  This one is for one of my closest friends and she loves cats.  A lot.  I made it mostly yesterday and stayed up til about 2 AM just to finish it.  Aww, I just realized I never put whiskers on the cat faces!  And now my sewing supplies are packed away.  Hmm.... maybe I will just do it anyways, I have nothing to do for the moment.So the fabric is the breeds of cats with paw prints and the cats are made to resemble some of B.'s kitties.  They are that strippey mottled cat look, hmm, which one is that.  Not really calico or tortoise. I haven't presented it to her yet so this is the first announcement, well, this and facebook.  But really, what am I supposed to do when people ask me to post up cute pictures of my craftings?  That's right, bend to their every whim.  Booya.

err... I guess this would have been a hiatus?

     I kept telling myself I should write but the next thing I know is it has been six months.  Tad was gone and back and gone and back since then, having completed the Hong Kong trip and also having completed a semester.  I've missed at least three major holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas) and have read a good number of books and overfilling another bookshelf.  I've been using the Project Gutenberg library for access to some of the more well known texts and have added to my belt Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Hounds of the Baskervilles and working through A Thousand and One Nights slowly.  I may even join up with LibriVox and read some aloud.  We'll see.
     Over the Christmas hols I gave myself bronchitis and spent a good day reading the Seventies sci-fi To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Phillip Jose Farmer.  If you don't mind some trippy counter-culture meta stuff this is good.  It's the first of the Riverworld series and won a Hugo in 1972.  Aliens landed on Earth in 2002? and most all humans were killed in 2008 for defense reasons.  Everyone is resurrected in a "Riverworld" that stretches across the planet and is some sort of experiment/social melange.  Our protagonist is Sir Richard Francis Burton and although not a 'good' guy he is a man who is trying to get out of this bizarre place.  I suggest reading it if you don't mind Phillip K. Dick and the like.  I hope to get the second of the series soon.
     Speaking of Phillip K. Dick I tried to get an anthology for Tad for Christmas just to discover they have never made such a thing!  I mean, how dare they!  I have anthologies for Harlan Ellison and have read parts of Roger Zelazny's short story collections but this well known prolific author is a no show.  How sad. 

     501 books count: 54