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Category: Misc.

The puppy, a woeful lack of willpower, and Christmas gifts

Jasmine M. Puppy is getting bigger and bigger.  Soon I will have to call her Jasmine M. Dog.  Every time I see her, she seems to have gotten bigger.  Her nose is longer.  It is harder to support all of her feet when I scoop her up, and indeed I am scooping her up less and less, as my parents are trying to train her to be a standard-poodle-sized dog rather than a lap dog.  Here she is at seven weeks, with her toy koala bear: And here is a picture of her with her koala toy from eleven weeks…

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Small things that are making my life better

(in the mornings) (since the holiday ended) 1. Abandoning the use of my alarm clock.  Who needs ’em?  When I set my clock, I only hit snooze a zillion times because I don’t want to get out of my warm warm bed.  So I’ve got my clock set for the latest possible time I could get up and still make it into work with my hair and teeth brushed (around 8:30), and I find I’m getting up around the time I had set my clock for originally (around seven). 2. The last three mocha chocolate drizzle biscotti from Madame Grand…

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Wrapping up 2009

Everyone else in the blogosphere seems to keep track of their reading stats far better than I, but I have stolen a meme from Savidge Reads.  Check it. How many books read in 2009? 200.  More or less.  I counted from my books read page – some books I didn’t finish, and some I reviewed all at once (like Fables), and some I read but didn’t review.  200 is a nice friendly number, isn’t it?  I’m sticking with it.  Hooray for approximations. How many fiction and nonfiction? This was trickier to count than I was expecting.  Do Noel Streatfeild’s autobiographical…

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I don’t know why I lie to myself

All these past weeks, when everyone has been deciding on their challenges for the New Year (is anyone else totally ready for 2010?  This has never happened to me before, but I find myself wanting to write 2010 as the year for everything, and then when I have to write 2009 instead, I feel cranky and cheated), I’ve been saying, I am not joining any.  No challenges for me, I have said.  I’m not joining the Women Unbound Challenge; I’m not joining Haloes and Horns, or Alyce’s Time Travel one, or the Graphic Novel one that Chris and Nymeth are…

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Review: Can Any Mother Help Me?, Jenna Bailey

In 1935, a mother wrote in to a British motherhood magazine saying this: Can any mother help me?  I live a very lonely life as I have no near neighbors.  I cannot afford to buy a wireless. I adore reading, but with no library am very limited with books.  I dislike needlework, though I have a lot to do!  I get so down and depressed after the children are in bed and I am alone in the house….Can any reader suggest an occupation that will intrigue me and exclude ‘thinking’ and cost nothing? In response, a group of women formed…

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Miscellany

We had a sad end of Thanksgiving – my family dog died quite suddenly on Sunday.  She was a lovely dog, really just the best dog you ever met.  We got her when I was eleven, and she was three months old and very fluffy.  For the longest time we couldn’t think what to call her – we called her Porcupine as a placeholder nickname, and my mother finally came up with Nora.  Nora was extraordinarily beautiful if difficult to capture in photographs (but here’s a picture of her anyway), and even when she was an old dowager dog, she…

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A person so useless even Aaron Sorkin can’t be bothered with him

I know this is the second time I’ve mentioned Aaron Sorkin in the past few days, but that’s only because I’m rewarding myself for applying to grad school by letting myself watch episodes of Sports Night and The West Wing.  Anyway, I’m watching Sports Night and this is the dialogue that just went by: Jeremy: This, you’re gonna love!  This is maybe the most important piece of boxing writing ever done. Casey: And what with all the important pieces of boxing writing to choose from– Jeremy: The Marquis of Queensberry Rules…written by? Casey: The Marquis of Queensberry? Jeremy: No, boxing…

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Love

Go watch “The Waters of Mars” and then come back here so we can have spoiler-filled comments about all how bleak and scary and crazy it all was, and how excited we all are that John Simm is coming back again.  (I am very very excited.  I would even go so far as to say very very very excited.  I love me some John Simm.) You may think that you have seen David Tennant put on some crazy eyes previously, but in fact you have never seen David Tennant do crazy eyes until you have seen “The Waters of Mars”. …

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Bonfire Night

I like a bonfire!  Sadly, the American fall holiday is Halloween, which does not entail bonfires.  Candy, yes.  Slutty costume versions of really strange things like bumblebees, yes.  But no sparklers, very few sausages, and rarely fireworks or bonfires.  And no burning effigies at all, unless Bonfire Night happens to coincide with the Bama game. Whenever Bonfire Night rolls around, I get nostalgic for the Little Grey Rabbit books.  Did anyone else read these?  They are charming – all about a rabbit and a hare and a squirrel that live together and have little adventures.  In one book they go…

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I love my grandmother

All of them actually.  I have three.  Because I’m just lucky like that.  And they are all fantastic in different ways.  But in this case I am referring to my mother’s mother.  For one thing she is beautiful – we are always inspecting her wedding pictures and things when we come to visit her, and then we tell her that she is more beautiful than Ingrid Bergman.   And she laughs at us but dude, it is so true.  Ingrid Bergman would cry like a little girl and slap on gallons of makeup if she saw how beautiful Grammy was on…

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