Bought light bulbs

Thanks for coming shelf shopping, b2!

Yeah, I'm going to have to do two things tomorrow.

Sometimes I miss LA. Just for the dry brown air. Maybe I'll take the train down there sometime, breathe the air, get over the nostalagia...


Today's earrings: mice, pumpkin coaches

Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis

Got all the random crap off the floor

In other news today, bad earthquake off Japan, with tsunami.


Today's earrings: mice, pumpkin coaches

Bedtime reading: The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

To the bookstore!

I picked up some books for Tiger after work. I hope he doesn't already have the one about the little red lighthouse.


Today's earrings: mice, other mice

Bedtime reading: Rat Race, Dick Francis

Today in book boxes

Paperbacks, King-Maron; hardcovers, Henderson-Nordoff&Hall; mixed box of Gorey and vintage paperbacks, including some armed services editions.


Today's earrings: mice, moonstones

Bedtime reading: Slay Ride, Dick Francis

Happy Twentieth Quakiversary

I was standing in my doorway, gossiping with my landlady. I had been on my way to get cash and then buy food when I ran into her. The building shook, stilled, and then revved up to the serious shaking. My landlady yelled, "Bill!" and bolted for her apartment. I braced myself in the door jam, and it shook, and shook, and shook...

15 seconds takes a while when the ground is moving.

It finally stopped. A painting of M's that I had perched on a molding had fallen off, and the power was out, but that was the extent of the damage in my place. I called Dad; he had a similar damage report. I thought about driving down there, but the garage where I stored my car had closed up and the attendants had gone. The larder was still bare and I still had no cash, so I went to the bank, where it finally sank in that the power was out, and therefore, ATMs wouldn't work. It took a while to find a store that was a) open, and b) willing to take a check. (The store that took my check got my business for the next year or so.)

The power came back on two days later.

Where were you at 5:05 PM Pacific Time on October 17, 1989?


Today's earrings: mice, other mice

Bedtime reading: Making Money, Terry Pratchett

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head

Down came the Good Fairy, and she said:
"Little Bunny Foo Foo, I don't want to see you
Scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head."

What does it mean?

Wikipedia tells us, "Little Bunny Foo Foo is a children's rhyme, involving a rabbit harassing a population of field mice. The rabbit is scolded and eventually punished by a fairy."

But why would a rabbit be molesting the mice? It makes little sense. Perhaps it's a political allegory to which we no longer see the key, like the Mother Goose rhymes. Or, if not, maybe we could make one up? (A political allegory, I mean.) That would be more fun than "origin unknown."

Today's earrings: mice, rabbits

Bedtime reading: Annals of Klepsis, R.A. Lafferty

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

- - William Butler Yeats


Today's earrings: mice, crows

Bedtime reading: Feet of Clay, Terry Pratchett

Back to work

Nose re-applied to grindstone. I think they missed me.


Today's earrings: mice, typewriter keys

Bedtime reading: The Daffodil Affair, Michael Innes

Pretty good day

I hit Green Apple after work, and discovered
:) - a present for Tiger
:) - Pomegranate has reissued the Fantod Deck
:) - they had penicillin in stock
:( - you have to spend $150 to get a free bag. No free bag for me.

Then there were pot stickers. :)


Today's acquisitions: Life on the Mississippi; Mark Twain; Bantam, 1990
Winnie Ille Pu; A.A. Milne, Alexander Lenard, trans.; Penguin, 1991
Men and Gods; Rex Warner, trans., Edward Gorey, il.; New York Review of Books, 2007
The Fantod Pack, Interpreted by Madame Groeda Weyrd; Edward Gorey; Pomegranate, 2007
The Culture of Fear; Barry Glassner; Basic Books, 1999
The Three-Martini Playdate; Christie Mellor; Chronicle Books, 2004
How To; Jennifer McKnight-Trontz; Chronicle Books, 2004

[some presents]

Today's earrings: mice, men

Bedtime reading: Owl's Well That Ends Well, Donna Andrews

Not a Peep

Today's earrings: mice, turtles

Bedtime reading: Silence Observed, Michael Innes

Election Day

As of this writing, the incumbent mayor, district attorney, and sheriff are winning in landslides.


Today's earrings: mice, men

Bedtime reading: Aesop's Fables, Townsend & James, trans.

Picnic on the beach!

We got sandwiches & went out to the Great Highway and lunched on the beach. I taught D to say "I dipped my toes in the water." He was fascinated by a giant cargo ship heading out to sea. After lunch, we encouraged D to run circles around us.

Then we went to look at the giant metal dinosaurs in Half Moon Bay. They are most excellent. Some of them harbor birds' nests.

We drove on to San Jose and dropped off K&S&D at their hotel. M and I headed back to her place so I could raid her refrigerator. We did rock/paper/scissors for the most desirable items; I won the avocado and lost the spready cheeses. She was walking me to the BART station when I fell down and scraped my knee. Embarassing, but not otherwise very damaging. I placed my feet very carefully the rest of the way home.


Today's earrings: mice, dopamine molecules

Bedtime reading: Rats, Lice and History; Hans Zinsser

Tempest

Top Chef 2-nite. I still hate Dave, and my precious Tiffani is vindicated! In fairness, I should say that however whiny Dave is, he's whining while doing his best to pull his weight for the team. Not like the morons from S2, who know how limited Ilan is and still stuck him with the duck. And didn't bother to coordinate their menu at all. And didn't even try to talk Marcel out of the pre-puddles he calls foams and gelees. Twerps.


Today's earrings: mice, teapots

Bedtime reading: Foundation, Isaac Asimov