Still More Jane

While I was in the process of placing my reserves at the library on more Darcy Diaries, I wandered through the stacks and found an unusual book in the realm of Jane Austen spin offs. I love the premise of Lost In Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure . Based on those choose your own adventure books that we grew up with and the addition of a game element thrown in, you are Elizabeth Bennet and you are commanded to marry well. Potential husbands include Darcy, but also other Austen men; heros and cads. There are arch comments sprinkled throughout your attempts to navigate the social mores of the regency period. Be prepared for quizzes so you can gain points in intelligence, fortune, connections and accomplishments. Watch out or you may make the wrong choice and end up married to Mr. Collins! While the concept is fun, this isn't really a book that you need to own, but it's well worth checking out from your library.

Summer Reading

I clearly haven't been paying enough attention. It all started while perusing the Best Worst Book discussion on Library Thing. They mentioned Linda Berdoll's Mr Darcy Take A Wife, and I was interested and the next thing I knew I'd read both of her "sequels" to Pride and Prejudice. I won't go into them in detail here (Todd and Jason have already heard me tell them enough of about them already) but they are fun, they are ridiculous, they are sexy, and they are absolutely not Jane Austen. And they most definitely do belong on that Library Thing discussion topic. I gulped all 429 pages of the first one down within 24 hours and once I located the second, Days and Nights At Pemberly, among the stacks at the library, I read it just as quickly. When I picked it up at the library, (I was surprised that it was in the "fiction" section, an not "romance") I noticed another book just a few feet away - An Assembly Such As This by Pamela Aiden, which is part of a trilogy of books retelling P&P from Darcy's point of view, and grabbed it as well. Since then I did a quick look on Amazon and apparently there are many, many, many retellings of P&P (beyond the most famous Bridget Jone's Diary and Clueless) and several that are from Darcy's point of view. I had no idea how insanely popular Austen was (I mean I knew she was popular) and that there was this much fan fiction has actually been published and is available in my library. I guess it's a whole subgenre of ChickLit. I'm wondering just how many of them I'll be able to slog my way through before the faux regency speak kills me or completely rearranges my vocabulary. While I know Todd isn't going to take me up on this (and probably not Carol either) but I'm suggesting you all give Berdoll a try, especially if you are headed to a beach.

Fortunately, at the same time I'm making my way through Charlaine Harris', Sookie Stackhouse Vampire series so I have a little balance. The Sookie Stackhouse books are a lot of fun, especially for folks familiar with the ARKLATEX area. Harris is from Magnolia, Ar, and she really does a good job of creating a sense of place and bringing the setting alive, even if it is populated with the undead. Harris is of course compared to Anita Blake and Anne Rice, and while there are sexy ancient vampires (and other things that go bump in the night)she's sort of doing something else too. Like that other vampire creator, Joss Whedon, she's well aware that the mundane can be horrifying as well, and she also does a good job of picking at themes of race, sex, and class. Her characters are both funny and heartbreaking, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she does with them. If you do decide to check them out, you should probably read them in order. I started in the middle, but I've gone back to the beginning and while I never mind being spoiled, some folks do and there are alot of revelations about previous situations that come up again in later books.

Return to Posting

It's been forever since I've posted (as no doubt you've noticed) and since someone recently brought that to my attention, I thought I'd better do a roundup of what we've been up to.

Possibly the biggest news is that Jason has finished the big D and will be defending it on August 21 at 10:00 am. I'm so proud of him for finishing! And you all put that day down on your calendar to send him good vibes at the 10:00 hour. Fortunately, he doesn't have to sit in a Colosseum and wait for anyone and everyone in the university to come challenge him, but it's still a big deal.

Memorial Day weekend we traveled to Arkansas to see Jason's family and make sanity pit- stops at Bob and Sarah's on the way in and out. Hendrix is a monster that is slowly taking over all of Conway (which is rushing out at the seams anyway). The amazing news is that you get get a beer in Conway now. Yeah, I know we always could, but in a restaurant as opposed to a dorm or open field/warehouse. Like Fayetteville and Jonesburo, Conway has now authorized "private clubs" to sell liquor. So for a $5.00 membership fee, there you go. We had a nice time in Hot Springs, soaking up all the heat and sunshine that St. Louis had been missing and made a quick trip to Magnolia to see Jason's grandmother. All in all we logged over 24 hours in car time, and discovered both that Nora gets car sick and that Dramamine is our friend. Bob, Sarah and Zelda were all in fine fettle and we enjoyed the fabulous Mexican food of La Hacienda (of Conway not Hot Springs) which could only be improved with them getting a private club license, but probably not likely since they are not downtown. We even managed to squeak in not one but TWO trips to Dixie Cafe (one of the few places where Jason doesn't need 5 refills of his coke before the meal comes).

Once we made it back home, we were greeted by the return of the rainy season, that seems to be lasting all spring and into summer. We were rained out of a picnic with Todd and Natascha at the Shakespeare festival's Richard the III, although we bravely tried to sit out a full hour in light showers, before we realized that it really wasn't going to stop. Jason, Nora and I made a mad dash to Kansas City for me to do a work related training, but we also got to sample some excellent Mexican Food and Nora got to swim in the hotel pool. Nora and Jason checked out the KC zoo while I did my training.

Despite all of the rain, Nora and Jason have been active. Checking out the zoo, parks, and science center weekly in addition to their Gym and Swim class at the Y. Nora did her first somersault and has been enjoying the water, especially since holding on to Jason means she doesn't have to interact with all those other children.

That brings us up to date, and since we head to Chicago this weekend to visit Miriam, Andreas, Anouk and Christophe, you'll have to wait for photos for when we get back.

Gardening

It's spring and I'm finally done with our big conference, but I'm not gardening. Despite having had an internship in highschool at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and having worked for both a nursery and a state park, I don't garden. I lack the follow through necessary to maintain a garden throughout the heat of the summer months. I am, however, interested in gardens and I certainly enjoy visiting gardens and eating the bounty of other people's gardening work. If I did get around to gardening (and I hope someday I will), it will probably just be a vegetable and herb garden. But I wish I had the skill to undertake a really amazing garden. I recently finished reading Martin Edward's mystery, the Cipher Garden, and I'm intrigued by the idea of a garden with a hidden message. I'm familar, as probably many of you are, with the Victorian idea that giving flowers was an opportunity to send a secret message to the recipient by choosing specific varieties. And many plants have taken on other meaning over time as well. After reading the Cipher Garden, I was sure that this idea wasn't orginial to Edwards and that surely there must be other Cipher Gardens out there planned out by genious gardeners. However, my non-exhastive, minimal google search has turned up nothing (but I did see some amazing photo's of the Innisfree Garden in New York). Does anyone else remember reading about gardens with messages hidden in their layout of plantings? I'm thinking there must have been a Rosemary and Thyme episode about it as well, but I can't track that down either. If anyone comes up with something shoot it my way. In the meantime...watch out for those rhododendrons, they mean danger.

Earthquake!

So the earth shook a little early this morning.  Jason and I woke up and said "what was that?" Maybe a sonic boom we thought?  Nope, the Post Dispatch confirmed this morning that we had a 5.2 magnitude.   Interestingly, this wasn't the New Madrid, but the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone.  You can read all about it here.  

So anyone else get woken up?  

To Market

To Market, To Market, To buy a Fat Pig
Home again, Home again, Jiggety-Jigg

To Market, To Market, To Buy a Fat Hog
Home again, Home again, Jiggety-Jogg

To Market, To Market, To Buy a Plum Bun
Home again, Home again, Market Is Done

This is Nora's favorite nursery rhyme right now (along with Baa Baa Black Sheep, which must be recited at top speed). She tends to substitute Dog for Hog and Jog, and she leave off the last verse but that's to be expected.

Anyway, my point about markets is that the Tower Grover Farmers Market opens May 10 with their big celebration. Since it's after the giant, monster conference I'm planning, I'm looking forward to it. Mark Your Calendars!

Photo Shoot

On Saturday, my mother prevailed and we broke down and went to the Portrait Studio of a giant chain of discount department stores and took photos of Nora against our choice of backgrounds and with various props. I had been resisting because the last time something like this happened, I ended up being photographed with my hands clasped against my cheek and my brother's photo superimposed as a dream bubble over my head.

Nora was very good, and I think I was too, since I heard a litany of complaints regarding our procrastination throughout this endeavor. The photographer was a nice young woman who works in special ed during the week and wants to open her own studio some day catering to special needs kids. Nora was enchanted with the various chairs, stools, cubes, and cubbies for her to sit and lean on - although she was denied the opportunity stand on them because that is Not Allowed. Nora decided (as you can see below) that Meowey Boom-De-Ay needed photographing too, and fortunately Meowey went along with the process without complaint.

After an hour of coaxing Nora to smile and look, not at the monitor, but at the three women jumping up and down in front of her, I dutifully paid for some package with a metallic title and we walked out with promise of more photos than we could possibly give away in 7 to 10 days and a glorious CD which cost way too much. I'm showing you the highlights here, but rest assured you will be getting your own little wallet sized version soon. I know you all will be disappointed that we did not opt for the giant poster sized version of Nora Fine Wall Art or have her face woven into a tapestry. Although, I was assured that it's not too late and we can come back at any time, but especially for the special princess photo shoot sometime in June. Mom's on her own for that one.

Here's Nora and Meowey looking adorable.


Jason has called this one Twombstones, given its memorial feel.


I haven't decided whether Nora is practicing positioning Meowey for the catshow circuit or if she is strangling him. Nor have I decided which is preferable. (For some reason this one wouldn't upload in the vertical and I don't know how to change it - suggestions?)