It’s cold outside, but we bought flowers to make the inside more springy.
This little potted ranunculus that’s now living in a blue glass goblet, and some snapdragons.
I have Cadbury Mini-Eggs, the true sign of spring.
And I’m having computer network issues that I am ignoring in favor of chocolate & flowers & springtime.
A few days ago I got some firmware upgrade for our Airport/TimeCapsule and my internet went from happy to grumpy and slow. Just figured out how to downgrade the firmware and my internet is back to happy. Still not sure exactly what went wrong, mostly just glad to have pages loading at something other than a glacial pace.
Took pictures of kittens in the sunshine.
That’s Bucket, being extra special dramatic. There’s a less dramatic one of her and a couple of Tessa up on Flickr.
Mostly spending today drinking tea and knitting, gearing up for the epicness that is the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade tomorrow.
Really this entire post is just an excuse to post dramatic lighting Bucket.
*Today is not that day.
Two Friday the 13ths in a row! They are one of my favorite types of day. I got married on a Friday the 13th, which probably adds to the fondness, but I liked them before that, too.
I’m wearing BPAL‘s latest 13 blend today, too.
A sweet, comforting base of dark chocolate and brown sugar with thirteen herbs of good fortune, including nutmeg, Tonka, allspice, star anise, Jamaican and African gingers, devil’s shoestring, lucky hand root, and thyme.
It’s a dry, spicy, gingery scent on me with just a little bit of sugar sweet kicking around the edges. Very different from my only other 13 from BPAL, the original white chocolatey version that I wore for my wedding.
Mostly layering paint on a custom painting today that keeps wanting to be darker. I like it better today than I did yesterday, so I think it was right about the dark. Going to let it dry and see how I feel about it after that.
Tessa just jumped in front of the computer, so I assume that means she says hello.
This is my new tea mug that I promised pictures of, on my desk with my statue of Thoth hanging out in the background:
It’s from khphillips on Etsy. (This mug, link has additional angles.) I’ve had my eye on this style of his for ages, I love the tones and the decals, but this is the first one I’ve actually purchased. It’s even lovelier in person. I’m tempted to start collecting them, replace my mass-produced mugs with unique pieces of usable art.
Getting Indian food for dinner, nom nom tandoori salmon. Mulling things over more than editing, I tend to switch back and forth from painter to writer and back again. Today is a painting day.
Thanks to my friend Steph and her Seen on Flickr blog, I am thoroughly besotted with this Australian performing arts company called Strange Fruit.
I sometimes have difficulty explaining the tone of my fictional circus. It’s not a traditional circus. It’s not clowns and elephants. It’s stuff like this. I love that there are people out in the world doing things that I sit in front of my computer and imagine.
I just wish they weren’t on the other side of the world.
I am not much of a knitter. I like the actual rhythm of knitting, I love pretty yarn. But I don’t absorb patterns well, so anything that requires a chart is usually too much for me.
Also, I’m a slow knitter. I’ve been working on the same scarf for the boy for about a year. In my defense, it is 1×1 rib on size 5 needles. It’s gorgeous, but it is taking forever.
But I do finish things occasionally, and a couple weeks ago I knit myself another Calorimetry. I did one a couple years ago in this green Noro yarn that I had sitting around, but I never wear it since it doesn’t match anything. So this one I did in this grey/pink Malabrigo called Pinot.
It’s marvelous and it keeps my hair out of my face. I’m not one for full hats anyway (my hair is problematic, even at this length) so it is a good alternative headwarmer considering the never-ending winter wonderland. It’s sunny today, at least.
Back to the boy’s scarf again, knitting-wise. Someday it will be finished. Really.
In other news, I have e-mails to catch up on but my gmail is being cranky. I shall blame the full moon. I have Yorkshire Gold tea that I found at Whole Foods over the weekend and did a little happy dance in the tea aisle. I don’t know if they had it before, I’d looked a few months ago and didn’t find it, and this time it was hidden behind cinnamon sticks or some such. And I ordered a new tea mug, because I realized I didn’t have a special mug for, well, not for anything in particular other than tea, I just thought it would be nice to have something handmade. I’ll post pictures when I get it.
Editing today, and should be finished with my general editing within a couple of hours. I’ve been going through section by section doing minor edits and taking notes for major changes, and I’m on the last sections now. I have three that need overhauling and outlines for three or four additional ones. After that I think it should be done. It’s been sort of tedious but I think I’m making it better and stronger (and longer) than it was. But I’ll be glad when it’s finished and I can work on something else.
The boy had Friday off from work so we took the train into Boston to see Watchmen and go out to lunch. It was still snowy but not terribly cold, which was nice. (Yesterday was downright tropical. 60 whole degrees!)
I’d been eagerly anticipating Watchmen for awhile. Not nearly as long as most people who read the graphic novel years ago since I only first read it recently, but longer than I usually anticipate film releases.
I loved it. Really. Really really loved it. It’s not the book, but no film can ever really be the same as a book. They’re two different experiences but I think it does a lovely job of capturing the essence of the book and you can feel the respect for the source material on the screen.
The opening credits are brilliant. The 80s-ness of it hits just the right notes, without looking silly or dated. It just kind of seems classic and a little bit retro and timeless. The slight changes to the plot make sense in the context of the film, and I think they work very well and didn’t feel forced or disingenuous. And at almost 3 hours it didn’t feel long at all. Really, it got to the last act and my first thought was “we’re here already?”
The casting was spot-on almost across the board. Having seen both Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children I was a teensy bit skeptical (particularly of Wilson, since the Nite Owl is my favorite and he usually looks very golden-boy) but they were both wonderful, and the hair & makeup team did an amazing job on both of them and several other actors in making them look exactly like the pen & ink versions.
Have I mentioned that I loved it? I did. I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews but I really think it’s impressive and I struggle to imagine how they could have done it better. Two thumbs up, lots of stars, I may need a Nite Owl action figure, this film is Erin-approved and all that jazz.
After the movie we went and had black&tans at Ned Devine’s and wandered around town a bit. We walked through the North End and spotted all the stores and restaurants and cafes that had changed in the year and a half since we left. I don’t miss it, really. I miss aspects of it but not the whole. I’m glad we lived there for as long as we did but I’m also glad we moved.
I did take the opportunity to use my new(ish) Canon PowerShot while we were walking around. I like having a smaller camera to keep in my bag to catch random snapshots and such. Some of the better ones are up on my Flickr photostream.
This birdie was hanging out with the seagulls in Christopher Columbus Park.
I like being close enough to Boston to visit, still. I’ll like it better when it’s even warmer and has less snow.
Home now, with books to read and work to do and coffee. MacBook was fixed yesterday by nice Apple Geniuses. Going to bake banana muffins later.