Lloyd Alexander, January 30, 1924 - May 17, 2007

Lloyd Alexander passed away on May 17, 2007. He was the author of the Chronicles of Prydain series, a fantasy series about an assistant pig-keeper names Taran who becomes a hero. Disney made the movie "The Black Cauldron" from one of the books.

When I was writing my undergrad thesis I wrote a bit about Lloyd Alexander. My thesis was on representations of girls and girlhood in children's fantasy fiction and though I think he tried to insert a strong female character into the Prydain stories, I didn't think it worked out so well. But he tried. I always pictured him as this benevolent grandfatherly type. Kindly, if a bit patriarchal.

So, rest in peace Mr. Alexander. I really enjoyed the tales you told.

I could be so happy...

I want this job. Someone get rid of the current guy so I can take it! Please.

yummy and oh so pretty

I picked up a four pack of Sophia sparkling wine at Trader Joes today. It comes in these pretty pink cans and has a little pink straw to sip from. This is totally the most girly drink I've ever had. I think I'm in love.

She leaves fire and destruction in her wake...

So the Georgetown library where I would have worked had I taken the DC Library job burned down today. Also on fire early this morning was the historic Eastern Market building, where Michelle and I happened to be all of yesterday. Coincidence or arsonist stalker?

Didn't do much this past weekend aside from the trip to Eastern Market and helping Michelle pick out an awesome bike. I did get to see Hot Fuzz with Josh and Erin on Friday which was hilarious. I rarely laugh out loud in movies and I did in this one. Oh, and I managed to redo the wristband I was trying to knit for Josh's niece so you can actually tell what it's supposed to be! Much better huh?

Librarians are trouble...

Police Find Pot At School Librarian's Home

I saw this on the news last night and it made me giggle because the news made this huge deal about how the guy was a librarian. Like they couldn't fathom a librarian breaking the law.

Kinda goes along with this quote posted on a library listserve:

"Librarians like to be given trouble; they exist for it, they are geared to it.... Give her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle."
-Catherine Drinker Bowen

Weekend Update

The weather was finally beautiful this weekend. Unfortunately for me nobody wanted to go play outside with me. (Finals are coming up and Josh is having an affair with the library.) But Saturday night Erin came out and we had hookah and drinks at Soussi. I had a martini there that seems tailor made for me. It was basically olive juice with some vodka in it and these big juicy olives. Finally a martini for the girl who likes the olives more than the martini. Then I had to work on Sunday which was excruciating because Old Town was sunny and blooming.

I also managed to knit up a wrist band for one of Josh's nieces. I haven't knitted a thing in forever so be nice about this one. I think you can kinda tell what it was supposed to be.

Yes Valeska, I know I suck

So, I am taking a break from the weekly uploading of pictures required by project 365. It's a fun project and I have enjoyed doing it but lately every time I try to upload more than 1 picture to blogger, my computer crashes. This makes me very grumpy. So my compromise is this. I will continue to take pictures. If I end up with a good one, I'll upload it. But no more trying a million times to upload seven picture of my office or my apartment. At least not until I get a new computer.

New Haircut!

Update: Passover Pics

Passover 2.0

We had Erin and Michelle over last night for an abbreviated Seder with a PowerPoint hagadah. I made the PowerPoint by pulling my favorite parts from our old Maxwell House hagadah, this great liberal/feminist/vegetarian hagadah I found online, and one written by our old Rabbi. Then I cut out everything except the required parts. This allowed us to finish the Seder with time to spare before Michelle and Erin had to go to Black Cat for a show. Michelle called it passover 2.0 in reference to library 2.0 and I have decided that this will be the new official name for my Seder.

As for the food, I think we did a pretty good job. Erin made the best vegetarian matzoh ball soup that I've ever had and some very yummy charoset. I made spinach squares with matzoh meal. They were good (I brought the left overs for lunch today) but I think I over baked them a bit. I also tried my hand at a noodle kugel which was tasty but fell apart. I think I should have used a smaller pan and more egg.

Oh and Emerson had to find the afikoman. He wasn't very good at it, Apparently matzoh doesn't really smell like much. But it was awfully cute!

I wish I had pictures to post but, alas, I must rely on Michelle for that. So send me some pictures already Michelle!

March 25-31

This week pretty much all I took pictures of were cherry trees. So instead of doing a picture a day for this week I'm just posting the best of the batch.

Week of March 12

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Week 6

Sun

Mon

Tues

Wed

Thurs

Fri

Sat

My Birthday

I had a really nice birthday this year. It started with a nice morning jog with my mom. Then we went to the zoo and saw the pandas and the gorillas. Then we went shopping around Georgetown for a bit. Later Josh and I had dinner with Derek and Ann, who came down from their science nerd conference in Baltimore. We ate at this Greek/Lebanese tapas place called Zaytinya. The food was soooo good. We had these marinated olives that were amazing and cabbage dolmades and spanakopita and so much more delicious food. It was seriously the best dinner I've had in a long time. Now it's back to work. I did feel a bit guilty about not working yesterday since my boss has seemingly been working non-stop. But I got over it. I am sure I will have to make up for it later anyway. That's always the way, isn't it?

Lost and Found

The camera was found in my purse. I will comence with the picture taking.

I can't find my camera so instead I give you this quiz

Create your own Friend Test here

Week 5

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Death and children's books

More about Terabithia from Slate.

Terabithia on screen

So I just read the Horn Book's assessment of the new movie version of Bridge to Terabithia. Now, when I first saw the commercial for this movie I was horrified. It seemed totally different from the book that I remembered reading and loving. It looked like some awful CGI fantasy. Then I read in the Post that the screen writer is actually Katherine Paterson's son, the "real life" Jesse. Combine that with the warm reception from the Horn Book and I actually think I might see the movie. Aside from the Harry Potter movies, I really don't think I've seen an adaptation of a children's book that I loved in a long time. But there's The Golden Compass coming soon and I remember hearing rumblings about a Where the Wild things Are movie. At the very least, those should be interesting book to screen adaptations.

Week 4

Sorry I'm late. I haven't been that inspired lately with the photographs. I forgot to bring the camera when we went skiing this weekend (Michelle should send me some of her pictures) and I know should go take pictures of the frozen over Potomac but it's been so freakin' cold. I didn't wanna go outside. That's why there's lots of Emerson pics this week.

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday