Day 12

Feb 6 - Waitangi Day

Today is Waitangi Day, which commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, where the Maori were pretty much screwed by the Europeans. Happy Waitangi Day!

I woke up to find my chocolate milk and last piece of pizza had been stolen out of the disgusting kitchen overnight. Grr. We got underway at 9 and drove towards Greymouth. About thirty minutes in, while stopped to drop off Steve-o's son's helmet, we realized that we had left all out breakfast stuff and our cooler behind at Fern Lodge. The last people to eat breakfast had not brought the box back to the van. We decided not to go back for it and continued on as going back would have added an hour to the journey. We headed on through New Zealand's second largest national park, Kahurangi Park. It's all native forest and is overwhelming. After a while of admiring the scenery I again fell asleep, waking when we stopped for a swim break. Well, it was supposed to be a swim break, but the bridge was way too high to jump off of, and it was virtually impossible to climb down the banks to the kiver. It became a scenic photo opportunity break instead, and Steve-o met some guys who were on their way to the starting line to compete in the Coast-to-coast race, which is a one-day triathlon of running, cycling, and kayaking from the west coast to the east coast of the South Island. Sounds gruelling - I'd love to see it on TV.

We dropped Fran, Joe, Steve, Jess, Ronnie, and Norrie of at "On yer bikes" for some 4-wheeling and the rest of us headed into town. We went to the Jade Boulder Trail - a greenstone museum. Well, it was actually a very large giftshop and cafeteria, along with a nice little museum, and two glassed in carving rooms. Noone was carving today, probably because of the holiday. By the way, when we stopped earlier of lunch we found out that because of the holiday the restaurant was adding on a 15% surcharge.

After the jade place, we headed out to the grocery store, and I peeled off the go to the "Warehouse" in hopes of cheap books, as I am running low. I found three I actually already wanted to read for %5 each, so I was happy. After all the shopping (we're doing a communal dinner tonight) we headed 40 minutes north to a retreat nestled in the rainforest called Te Nikei. It's gorgeous - little cabins placed throughout the forest. Susan, Andrea, and I are in Rata, along with some Swiss couples, a Japanese guy, an American woman, and an English girl named Hannah who's about to head over to Canada for three month working on organic farms across the country with the WWOOF program. We're upstairs in a loft area with six mattresses on the floor - surprisingly comfortable.

We headed down to the cabin with the most of the group in it to begin cooking dinner - the kitchens here are lovely. We made salad and burgers and sausages. After dinner we headed out for the beach. It's too dangerous to swim there, but it's the most amazing beach I've ever seen. It's all very small rounded pebbles which feel really neat, and the rock formations and waves crashing and sunset all made it so beautiful. We watched the sunset from the beach and then walked back up to the retreat. We missed the turnoff of the shortcut on the way back and ended up taking the long way, which is called the Truman Track - a native bush walk. It was gorgeous (I'm running out of superlatives). Susan and I relaxed in th upstairs lounge with Hannah, and Andrea was as happy as a clam chatting in German with th Swiss downstairs. So far this in my favourite place that we've stayed by far.

Day 11

Feb 5 (Tuesday)

Today teh group is supposed to go to Abel Tasman Park for the afternoon but Susan and I have decided to stay in town and shop. Steve-o took off for parts unknown with all the breakfast stuff still in the van last night, so it's leftover pizza for me! Susan had a n unopened litre of orange juice stolen out of the fridge sometime overnight. We headed into town about 9:30 and Susn decided to be touristy and brought along her little rolly luggage so we could put our purchases in it as we went. We were very dorky tourists - I even bought a bag and a skirt from a street vendor. We also went to the Nelson Provincial Museum as they had an exhibit of Da Vinci's inventions. It was pretty neat and you could actually play with some of the models, like the Archimedes Screw and the bridge made out of short logs. We found a Dutch Cheese shop and Susan stocked up on salty dutch licorice for her fiance, and I went to a bakery for a chicken, camembert, and cranberry panini. There's a lot of good food here :)
We also went to another grocery store to stock up on non-perishables and water for the next leg of the trip. Interesting note: In Nelson, Shopping carts are called trundlers.

We got back to the hostel and made dinner (butter chicken and a 1/2 pineapple for me). The rest of the group was back by then - turns out they didn't go to Abel Tasman, just to a closer beach, so I'm very glad that we stayed in town. Nelson is really nice - the architecture is a mishmosh of various European and old west American styles. Very odd and charming.

Jess and I talked about the fact that she's been working in a Vietnamese orphanage for the last few months (and is going back after this trip). It very depressing. She's working with little kids who have a variety of developmental problems, and the ones that don't will probably be sold into the sex trade when they hit 7 years old or so. Jess is an amazingly strong person (as well as the most energetic party girl in the group). We began talking about microloans and NGOs and by sheer coincidence I happened to have in my bag a book called "Banker to the Poor" which I picked up at ALA, written by a Nobel Peace Prize Winner that she had written in her notebook to research. She is now the happy owner of that book. To illustrate her other side, Ronnie and Norrie saw a t-shirt in the shops that they had to buy for her with the following slogan on the back: "In order to be old and wise you must first be young and stupid"

Day 10

Feb 4, Monday

We woke up at 6:15 in order to be ready to go catch the Interislander ferry to Picton. Today we're leaving the North Island and heading South. Left late, as usual, but did make the 8 am ferry. The ferry is huge! It has 10 decks (including car decks) and a movie theatre, bar, a couple of cafes, and a cafeteria. I stood on the sundeck and watched Wellington disappear and then headed down to the reclining chairs and had a nice view of the sound in front of us. Of course, I then fell asleep for most of the three hour trip :)

When we got off the ferry we had the choice between a straight fast drive or a scenic windey drive to Nelson. Despite the motion sickness sensitive people in the van we went for scenic. We took off along the Queen Charlotte Drive and it was definitely windey. It was also beautiful, with amazing views of the Marlborough Sound. We stopped at a scenic hike. I did not go all the way up it as there were too many stairs. Instead I took pictures of plants, the very odd looking outhouse, and my knees. My right knee is starting to turn interesting colours from the bang it took during sledging.

After everyone got back we went to the Pelorus Cafe for lunch. They're really big into meat pies and quiches here. I had a venison pie and a custard slice. The pie was quite delicious - the first time I've had venison. The slice was interesting, it's got the phyllo layers like a napolean, but the inside is pudding and the topping is cream cheese icing. We took the food down to the riverside and had a bit of a picnic. As I did not have my bathing suit on I sat in the shade with my food and a book and watched some of the rest of the group hurl themselves off rocks into the water. Then it was on to Nelson. We arrived around 3:30 and checked into the Fern Lodge. We then walked into the town centre, only to find that it was Nelson Anniversary Day and most businesses were closed for the holiday. We did find an open pharmacy and I got some hair clips and more earplugs and one of mine disappeared in Wellington. I've discovered that earplugs are a very good thing to have when sleeping in noisy hostels. Susan and I found a Countdown (grocery store) and stocked up on food for dinner and then it was back home. The kitchen in the hostel is disgusting. Ther's no dishwashing liquid so you don't know if stuff is clean. There's not enough cups and mugs and cutlery. Flies everywhere and the fridges stink. I made (after waiting for free oven space) a smoked chicken pizza and I bought a fruit smoothie made with a fruit I know nothing about - Feijoa. I have no idea what it is, but it's delicious. Then I finished my book and went off to bed. This is my first time on a top bunk and it was kind of wobbly when I climbed up there, so I was a bit scared. Of course - Ronnie, who was below me - then decided that shaking the bed to startle me was quite alot of fun :)

Oh, and while we were walking about town Susan found a $20 bill on the ground!

Day 9

Had a great sleep in the lodge and then had toast and tea while sitting at the railing looking at the hills and waterfall. We got picked up for horseback riding at 9:45 and rode up to the top of the hill to the stables. It was 5 people on the trek - me, Susan, Fran, and two women from the Kiwi Experience Bus - Allison and Diane. I got a horse named Chestnut (very creative) and Denise got Turk. Chestnut is a follower and loves Turk, so if Turk was in front Chestnut would stick his nose right next to his ass and not move from that position. Since Turk didn't feel liek running and I was keen to take off, Janie (one of the guides) held Chestnut back until Turk got to the end of the meadow we were in and then then let him go and I was able to go really fast - up until the point when Chestnut reached Turk and then it was a full stop and back to the status quo. Eventually what we did was hold Turk back and get Chestnut in front of him and I was able to go a bit faster. As long as there was at least one horse in front of him, Chestnut was happy. So Susan on Gypsy and Allison on Buster and I cantered up a few hills, which was fun. At the top of one of the hills Pedro came trotting by without a rider. Turns out he has spooked and thrown off Fran and took off. Fram landed really hard on her bottom and arm, but she was otherwise fine. She got back on Pedro after Nicola (Janie's mom and another guide) caught him. Oh, there was also a little dog called Poppy who came with us for a run.

We got back to the lodge just in time, for it started pouring for about half an hour. We all curled up on couches to wait for the white-water rafters and I found a copy of "Monstrous Regiment" by Terry Pratchett which I grabbed from the swap library ( I did leave a book in it's place).

We headed out at about 1, and quite a few of us were getting carsick on the windey road back up. We stopped for lunch at the Flat Hills Cafe (chicken satay burger) and then off to Wellington. Napped again, of course, and woke up when we pulled into Wellington at 7 pm. We checked into the Base Wellington hostel and ended up sharing a room with some strange Canadian guy. I picked up a Fringe Guide as the Wellington Fringe begins on Feb 8th and we'll be back in the city on the way north later on in the tour. I'll try to catch something then. Susan (who hs a cold) and Andrea and I went to Malaysian restaurant called Satay Kajang and I had a really nice Nasi Lemak. Dinner conversation turned towards Germany and the war (again) and then what Japan did as well. After dinner we ended up at Artie Bee's, a used bookstore. I got a book of short stories called "Nights at the Embassy" because I figured that I should have at least one New Zealand book. New Zealand authors don't really write light fluffy books, I've found out, so not that much choice for vacation reading. Books here are amazingly expensive. A Mass Market (regular paperback) book might go for $25.00. Even my little trade paperback used book was $15.

Once back to the hostel I wandered a few floors looking fro a shower that wasn't out of order (very annoying). I was very paranoid as two people on the tour had already had things stolen out of the shower earlier that day. Nothing was taken from me, thank goodness.

Day 8

Well, today I bowed to peer pressure. Our fearless leader Steve-o talked me into signing up for tandem skydiving. Now, I have absolutely no problem with heights or controlled descents like rapelling or such, but I have a deathly fear of falling. The hardest parts of the canyoning and caving were the parts when I had to jump off cliffs (even very small cliffs) into water. So why I agreed to jump out of a plane from 12 000 feet I have no idea. We got picked up at 8:10 for the drive to the Taupo airport and Taupo Tandem Skydive. I was pretty terrified but determined to face my fear of falling. I was paired with a German tandem master called Albert and asked him to take it easy on me because I was so scared. We got in the plane with Sarah, Kieran, Sarah 2, Ronnie and Jess and flown up to 12 000 feet (Ronnie went up higher to 15 000 feet, crazy man). Albert was really good about reassuring me all the way up, even though that part didn't scare me. Once we got to 12 000 feet the door opened and all the people in front of me started disappearing out the door. Finally it was our turn and after a quick exit photo we were out. Since I wasn't the one making the decision to scoot off the edge of the plane we actually did fall out. After a very brief moment of terror, I was fine. You're so high up that there are no real points of reference to tell you that you're faling to your death. The ground is s far away that it does not feel like an immediate threat and it feels like your floating, even though your going at about 200 kilometres per hour. We fell 7 thousand feet in about 45 seconds. At 5 thousand feet Albert deployed the parachute and we were suddenly jerked upright. At this point my left ear popped really badly. We were floating down over Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand. It was gorgeous. Albert scared the crap out of me by undoing one buckle and loosening the harness - thought he was going to drop me! Thankfully, I think it was just for comfort. We did some spins and banks and took all the scenery in. We came down fast at the end and did a nice three point landing (his feet and my butt). It was so much more fun than I expected and not at all as scary. There are photos, but I'll have to get them off Norrie at the end of trip to post.

After skydiving the group picked us up and we headed out to River Valley Adventure Lodge. We stopped for lunch just outside of Taurangi at a place called Licorice Cafe (yes, they sold lots of licorice). I had a bacon, brie, and avocado phyllo packet and a "melting moment" - two shortbread cookies sandwiching a passionfruit icing filling. It took a nap in the van (I keep falling asleep in this van - it's like the magic bus in Israel) and woke up when two stupid sheep wandered across the road in front of the van and startled us all. Along the way we passed the mountain that was Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movie. Very cool.

Down a very narrow windy gravel mountain road is the River Valley Adventure lodge. A bit of a mix-up about who was horseback riding and who was white-water rafting led to only half of the horse trekkers going this evening, and the rest of us are going to go tomorrow morning. Instead, Sarah, Susan, Norrie, Ronnie, Joe, Fran and I went up to a homemade 9-hole golf course (pitch and putt - a really small gold course, but not mini-golf). We had to dodge sheep dung and play across the road and had an audience of somewhat curious sheep. It was a lot of fun. I did okay for a complete firt-timer, but still came in dead last in our little foursome of Susan, Ronnie, Norrie, and me. Norrie smoked us all.

Afterwards I worked on some postcards (yes, some of you will be getting postcards) and then went for roast dinner in the lodge. We had roast chicken, potatoes, and pumpkin (pumpkins have green skin here!) as well as stuffing and gravy and cranberry sauce. Spent some time chatting and then off to bed.

Day 7

Taupo -

Susan, Ed, Ronnie, Norrie, Joe, and Fran left at 5:30 to do the Tongariro Crossing. This is a day hike that crosses Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings. It's supposed to be the best dayhike in New Zealand. Thanks to the earplugs I didn't hear anyone and had a fabulous sleep-in. This was a day off for me with no activities lined up, so Andrea and I went for a walk around Taupo's downtown. There are some great art galleries here. Andrea bought a beautiful bronze figurine of a girl sitting cross legged and reading. We asked the gallery lady to suggest some good New Zealand cuisine restaurants and she gave us a brochure for the Brantry Restaurant - which has gotten a ton of awards and just happens to be owned by her two daughters. We collected Susan after her hike (bone tired and hungry) and headed out there, stopping at the world's poshest McDonalds along the way so Susan could have an ice-cream cone. The restaurant was beautiful! It's one of those where the waiperson puts your napkin on your lap for you. I had a pumpkin soup and ostrich fillet with artichoke lemon mash. Andrea had the ostrich and a plum tart tatine, and Susan had baby squid and a lemon ice souffle. We skipped out on a sail on the lake to do the dinner and I think it was a fantastic choice. It was so nice to eat in a nice restaurant with phenomenal food. After dinner Susan and Andrea went to do email and such and I went off with some of the rest of the group to another hot pool. This one had a hot waterfall running into a small lagoon. Very nice. I also learned what the southern Cross looks like.

Afterwards we went possum hunting. Steve the tour guide asked if we wanted to see possums and we said yes. We found them all around the Taupo bungy jump site. They look like a cross between a koala and a racoon without the stripes or mask.Very cute, but a real pest in New Zealand. They're not indiginous and they're eating kiwi eggs and such, so New Zealand is trying to get rid of them.

Day 6

Dateline Rotorua:

We got picked up for sledging and white water rafting this morning. I've decided to go sledging because I've seen them do it on The Amazing Race (my motivation for quite a lot on this trip). Pretty much you get a wetsuit, a lifejacket, and a helmet, plus a big plastic kickboard. The sledges are really heavy, and we had to hike about ten minutes down a trail with them. Once at the river we had to jump in with the sledges, and I flipped over immediately. I did get pretty good at turning myself over again, since I kept flipping upside down :) It was really hard as we had to fit our arms in the sledge and the arm rests were too long for me so I didn't reach the end where I could rest my elbows. I pretty much had to keep myself hitched up to the top of the sledge with upper body strength alone. Ha! Plus, I had to keep kicking with my toes pointed in my flippers to move and centre myself, which was really hard on my legs. The worst part was that I bashed my knee on a rock going over a rapid, and it really hurt, plus all the kicking gave me a cramp in my leg. While some of the group was doing river surfing, I hung back because I honestly didn't think I had enough energy or strength to not get swept down the river and over a 6 meter waterfall. I was very happy when it was over. It was kind of fun, but the only activity I would not repeat.

After the water sports, we headed back to where the Zorb was to watch Joe bungy jump. It took forever for them to take him up on the crane, so I hung out with some sheep and ostrich. The farm show demonstration sheep are let loose between shows, so they have free reign of the carpark.

Back to Rotorua for lunch at the Fat Dog. They have really cool custom plates made for the restaurant - I believe I have a picture somewhere - and very good food. Since I finished lunch early I had a wander around the downtown and finally found some earplugs - definitely a necessity in a 6-bunk hostel room.

Onto the bus again for a road trip to Wai-O-Tapu, a geothermal area with craters and boiling mud and sulfur pools and such. It has a geyser also, but we missed the 10:15 AM eruption. Susan and I motored through the stinky park trails and were back out by 5. She says it's just like Yellowstone, so now I don't have to go there :) On the way out of Wai-O-Tapu we went to a hot river. It looks just like a regular river, with vegetation and everything, but it is hot like a hot tub. We lolled about a bit in the river (and saw a couple with the most amazing dreads - the guy's were down to his knees!).

We then headed out to Taupo, on the shore of Lake Taupo - New Zealand's largest lake. We stopped at Woolworth's (a grocery store) to let the people doing the Tongariro Crossing the next day load up on snacks and such. I found Tim Tams, which is a rectangualr chocolate sandwich cookie coated in chocolate. Evidently what one does is bite off each end and then suck up hot chocolate through the resultant chocolate straw. Must try that soon. Susan and Andrea and I ended up at an Indian Restarant called "Mr. India", had a delicious Indian dinner, and then headed off to bed.

Day 3-5

Monday - We drove to Whitianga on the Coromondal Penninsula is a teeny van that was made for 12, but we are 14. We're getting a new van tomorrow. Steve, the tour guide, is driving back into Auckland tonight and picking up a new van for us.

We stopped at Hot Water Beach for lunch and then went to a place that lets you do your own bone carving. We all made little tiki necklaces. It was a lot of fun - I got to play with power tools and ended up with a lovely little fishhook carving.

Since Steve went back to Auckland, Roger, the proprieter of our hostel (Turtle Cove Backpackers) drove us out to Hot Water Beach again to dig for hot tubs. Indeed, the water there is very hot. If you wiggle your toes just a few inches in the sand you can burn your toes. There is boiling hot water just under the sand. You can actually see it boiling. Unfortunately the low tide was still pretty high, so no matter how hard we digged the sea kept filling in the hole. Since it was Auckland Anniversary Day the beach was super full of people. After playing in the water Roger took us on a little tour to see kiwifruit orchards and Cook's Beach, where Captain Cook landed to record the Transit of Mercury. The ladies at the hostel had a big meal of spag bol (spagetti Bolognese) and garlic bread waiting for us. After that Ed and I took on Ronnie and Norrie, the Scottish guys, in doubles pool. Since neither of us were very good it was a lot of fun, and we ended up winning! Yay!

Tuesday - We woke up at 7:30 to find out that the girls had all spent the night in the boy's room - nice and quiet in our room :) Since Steve was in Auckland we got more beaches. Yippee. Roger took us out to Cathedral Cove. He neglected to tell us that the parking lot was 45 minutes away at the top of a cliff, so we had to hike down to the cove in the scorching heat. For those of you who know me and heat you're probably already aware that I was pretty cranky by the bottom. I took some pictures and then took a nap in the shade. After hiking back to the top of the cliff, Steve picked us up in a shiny new van - bigger seats, more headroom, less windows that open and no air conditioning. He wanted to get some surfing in, so we ended up back at Hot Water Beach for lunch as he surfed for an hour, and then on the road to Waitomo. We gor stuck behind a timber truck for miles on a single lane highway, so our progress was pretty slow. We finally hit Waitomo at about seven-ish, checked into the hostel, and then met at the pub to discuss how the next few days would be going.

Wednesday - Massive day! It's cave day. Susan and I signed up for the Ultimate Caving Adventure, so the two of us, along with Norrie and Ronnie, Steve #2, and Joe were picked up at 10 am by the Legendary Blackwater Rafting Company. We got taken to the caves and kitted out in wetsuit, boots, and helmet and then got a few minutes of practice abseiling (rapelling) before abseiling 30 meters down a hole into a cave. There was a lot of walking though underwater streams, jumping into a river with an inner tube, floating down and seeing glowworms, and climbing up waterfalls. Then they gave us bagels and soup. It was fun!

We then hopped into a van and headed to Rotorua. Then came my absolute favourite bit so far! We stopped at the Zorb and went rolling down a hill in a big hamster ball. I was screaming with glee all the way down! It was so much fun. The inner chamber is filled with water so you go slipping around inside as you go. I went twice :)



We got to Rotorua, checked into the hostel (Base Rotorua) and headed out to a Maori village (a recreation) for a hangi (a traditional Maori meal). Norrie dressed in his kilt, and he got elected cheif of our group, so he got to participate in the challenge/welcome ceremony. There were dancers and singers and it was realy interesting. The village itself was more like a series of tableaus with Maori peolpe demonstrating and explaining aspects of Maori life. We then saw a concert with songs, stories, and a haka (war dance). Then it was dinner time. The traditional method of cooking is underground, so we had a ton of food cooked underground - we had lamb, chicken, carrots, two types of potato, fish, and some Western sides like coleslaw and egg salad. Everything was delicious, and for dessert there was pavlova, which I've never had before - it's yummy - and steamed giner pudding (cake) with custard. Yum. We then went back into town and while some of the group partied, Susan got to drive the van to the grocery store for breakfast stuff - it was so much fun to be in the van with her driving on the wrong side of the street!

Pictures are up on Flickr but I haven't have time to label them yet, as I have to head out soon for sledging. More later!

Day 2

So far today has been great. Ed was going rollerblading and promised that he'd teach me how to stop without just aiming for the nearest tree, so we went out along with Vickie and Jess and walked a good long while down to the waterfront and rented rollerblades (rollerskates for Jess). It was really sunny and hot and I've managed to get a burn already, even though I used sunscreen. After blading a whole group of us met up and we went to Piha for canyoning, and we absailed (I don't think I spelled that right) down a waterfall, waded and swam through pools, jumped off small cliffs, and generally had a great time. We then went down to the beach briefly - took a few pictures, and headed back into town. Susan and Andrea (and possibly Ed) and I are going out for donairs in a few minutes and then I'm coming back to take a shower and crash. I'm so tired after a completely physical day.

One really neat thing is that our driver spent some time in Edmonton for the Police Olympics in 1990, so we had a great chat about Edmonton and everything he did there. Plus, he got silver in marksmanship, which is cool.

Tomorrow we head out to Mercury Bay. I don't know what the internet situation will be once we leave Auckland, so posting might be sporadic. Flickr pictures are up, for those of you on my friends list.

New Zealand, finally!

It's been a long few days of travel - I headed out to the airport in Philadelphia at 7 am on Thursday morning, and arrived today (Saturday) at 2 pm. I had no idea how far away Las Vegas is from the East Coast and was quite shocked by how long that leg of the flight was.

Of course, the really long haul was Los Angeles - Fiji, which was supposed to be 10 and a half hours, but turned into 12 and a half because we sat on the tarmac for two hours before taking off.

Fiji is hot and humid and full of extremely expensive duty free items and deep fried food. As you might have guessed, we did not make it out of the airport - but the walk from the plane to the waiting room was outdoors, so I at least experience a but of Fiji.

We then flew to Auckalnd, which is only 2 hours, so that was an easy trip. I watched "Balls of Fire" - high culture indeed! Susan and I landed at 2 pm, and quickly grabbed the airport bus for the hour long trip into the city. We're staying for the next few nights at the Auckland Central Backpacker's hostel. We met up with our tour group, which is comprised of a bunch of young British girls, a couple of older guys from Edinburgh, an English teacher from Germany, a young couple from England traveling the pacific for a few months, and some other guys I haven't really talked with yet. We all went for dinner tonight to a pub so we had an opportunity to get to know each other a bit, but the table was so long we ended up just talking with the people nearest us. Not much in common with the gap girls - they are the dancing and drinking all night types, and I am old. Luckily Susan and I are in the old lady room with the teacher, so we won't have to deal with drunk giggly girls all the time (hopefully).

Tomorrow the adventure begins as I go canyoning with most of the group for half a day at Piha. I think I'm going to sleep in tomorrow morning - actually, I'm probably going to go to bed soon.

Oh, and books are insanely expensive here - yes, I checked :)

Hello and goodbye

Dear Blog,

It's been two weeks since I last posted. It's been a crazy few weeks as I've been busy at work tying up loose ends and at home frantically getting ready. Yes, it's finally time! After years of talking and saving and over half a year of preparing, I'm finally flying off to New Zealand! Tomorrow morning I fly out to Los Angeles and meet up with my artist/chef friend from Edmonton and we're flying to Auckland via Fiji. We're going on a 26 day adventure tour of both islands with Haka Tours.

I leave at 9 am tomorrow and get in at 2 pm on Saturday - thank you International Dateline.

So even though I've been lax in posting this past little while, it's not going to get any better in the next month. I might post along the way, depending on internet access and busyness. If you're one of my friends on Flickr, I'm going to try to post pictures as I go.

See you when I get back!

Love, Dena

p.s. Hee hee, I'm so excited!

Global Warming

It's January 7. The dead of winter. And it's a blistering 16 (61 fahrenheit) degrees outside. Tomorrow it's going to get to 20 (68 fahrenheit). Now that's just wrong!

Disposable society

My humidifier is broken. The little refill light stays on even though the tank is half full and the machine won't boil the water to create the steam. I could throw it out and buy a new one, or I could try to fix it. Guess which direction I'm leaning towards...

On the other hand, if anyone knows how to fix this type of humidifier, help!

A bit belated

For those of you who still don't know what Jewish Christmas is, here's a quick explanation :)

Happy New Year!

A new year and it's time to tally up the results of my 50 Book Challenge for 2007.

Last book completed in 2007: The Continuity Girl, by Leah McLaren.



Last book started in 2007 (but definitely won't be finished until 2008 because I have things to do tonight, including seeing Sweeney Todd): Bank by David Bledin



I've completed 225 books in the past 365 days. I was going to stop recording everything I read after the year was up, but I quite enjoy keeping track.

Mea Culpa

A few weeks back I posted about my friend going through brain surgery. Well, I made a teeny mistake and referred to her as my best friend - as if I only have one. One of my other best friend's wife then started teasing her about being demoted in my friend hierarchy. I totally meant to write "one of my best friends". I'm sorry to everyone who might have felt slighted by my accidental poor choice of words - I still love you all just the same. Here's some cuteness to show you just how much I care:

Snicker followup

When I laughed at the cringe-worthy title "Virgin Slave, Barbarian King" I was pretty sure I was not the only one. I did not know, however, that my favourite bitches would take up the challenge, along with some friends.

The Bitches, along with two other blogs, are going to read and review and snark on the book.

I'll keep you updated...

Mom shout out

This is just a quick shout out to my mom, who makes the world's best chicken soup. Thanks to my well-stocked freezer of the stuff (which she makes for me every time she comes to visit) I was able to bring some to my friend in the hospital today, where it worked it's magical recuperative powers. Thanks, mom!

Thursday book title snicker

The Vampire Shrink. The title says cheap amateur fan fiction, the cover is dark, broody and kind of classy - which one will win?

Snicker of the day

Part of my job involves reading the reviews for new romance books. I was reading the Romantic Times Book Reviews magazine today and ran across this title: Virgin Slave, Barbarian King. Hee! I don't really care what the book is about, I just love the title.



"Julia Livia Rufa is horrified when barbarians invade Rome and steal everything in sight. But she doesn't expect to be among the taken! As Wulfric's woman, she's ordered to keep house for the uncivilized marauders. Soon, though, Julia realizes that she's more free as a slave than she ever was as a sheltered Roman virgin.

It would be all too easy to succumb to Wulfric's quiet strength, and Julia wants him more than she's ever wanted anything. But Wulfric could one day be king, and Julia is a Roman slave. What future can there be for two people from such different worlds?"

Hipster music funniness

Happy Thoughts!

Just a quick note to ask for happy thoughts and good wishes to be directed towards Philadelphia, where my best friend is having brain surgery today.

200!

Since starting my 50 Book Challenge back in January, I've been keeping track of every book I've read since then. As of today I finished my 200th book, The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman.



This is a sequel to Swordspoint, which I somewhat enjoyed. My issue with that book, as well as this one, is that the authors spent so long laying out the details and setting and characters that the plot seemed to take a backseat. I liked reading them (even though it took me far longer than most books, although that might also partly be explained by having a TV in my bedroom room now) but I wanted something to HAPPEN already. Plus, they both had fairly downbeat endings, and I like a good happy ending. Nevertheless, good books and I'm going to read the third, The Privilege of the Sword, soon as well.

p.s. Happy Thanksgiving, I hope all your smoke alarms in the house don't go off all at once from baking pies like ours just did.

Oh, my poor innocent childhood...

I think a little piece of me just died. Of course, the rest of me is rolling on the floor laughing. Caution - don't turn the sound up at work :)

Poutine!

I just found out that Kildare's, a pub near my place, has started serving poutine. Gravy and cheese curd deliciousness!

I sense a field trip coming up...

Mudflap madness

I know I'm coming late to the game on this issue, but I just read a cartoon that made me giggle and it needs some back story for those of you who were unaware of the roiling controversy.

A little while ago Wyoming Public Libraries unveiled a new campaign to get people thinking about the library. The designed bumper stickers and ads and such, but one particular bumper sticker caused an uproar:








Yes, it's the iconic mudflap girl telling people that she has a book and isn't afraid to read it! I actually think it's brilliantly clever, but many people think it's sexist and inappropriate. Anyhow, this is really just preamble to showing you the following cartoon, which made me snort Dr. Pepper out my nose.

Princess Bride Quiz

I am Buttercup (the first time I took this I was Vizzini, I don't know what changed)



Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

Sacrilege!

I just found out that McG is going to be doing an American version of one of my all-time favourite shows, Spaced. I sense train-wreck.

Crafty Goodness

If you're around the Edmonton area on November 10, check out the fabulousness that is the ArtFest Christmas Fair:



Artfest Christmas Fair, Saturday, November 10 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
features teddy bears, paintings, jewelry, papier mache sculptures, pottery,
prints, mixed media, candles, wreaths and much more. Come to Bellevue
Community Hall, 7308 112 Avenue, for artistic, one-of-a-kind Christmas
gifts. While shopping, enjoy hot food and drinks, baking, cotton candy, and
buskers. Cash only at most booths. To find out more about Artfest or to
volunteer, contact Susan Chin at schin90@hotmail.com, 780.220.0659.

Dancing shoes

Aw!

These shoes are for dancing with your child balancing on your feet.



Isn't that adorable?

TV poll

Stolen from Little Drama Boy

- Bold all of the following TV shows of which you've seen 3 or more episodes.
- Italicize a show if you're positive you've seen every episode.
- Asterisk if you have at least one full season on tape or DVD
- If you want, add up to 3 additional shows (keep the list in alphabetical order).

America’s Next Top Model
Angel
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Are You Being Served?
Arrested Development
Babylon 5*
Babylon 5: Crusade
Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
Baywatch
Beavis & Butthead
Beauty and the Beast
Beverly Hills 90210
Bewitched
Blackadder
Bonanza
Bones
Bosom Buddies
Boston Legal
Boston Public
Boy Meets World
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Buffy the Vampire Slayer*
Bug Juice
Caitlin’s Way
Carebears
Chappelle’s Show
Charlie’s Angels
Charmed
Cheers
Clarissa Explains It All
Cold Case
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Corner Gas*
Coupling (UK)*
Coupling (US)
Cowboy Bebop
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dallas
Dancing with the Stars
Danny Phantom
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
Davinci’s Inquest
Dawson’s Creek
Dead Like Me
Deadwood
Degrassi Junior High/High
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dharma & Greg
Digimon Adventure 01
Digimon Adventure 02
Dinosaurs
Different Strokes
Dirty Jobs
Doctor Who (1963)
Doctor Who (2005)
Doctor Who (2006)
Dragnet
Due South*
Early Edition
Earth 2
Emergency!
Entourage
ER
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Facts of Life
Family Guy
Family Ties
Farscape
Father Ted
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly*
Flash Forward
Flash Gordon
Flipper
Forever Knight
Fraggle Rock
Frasier
Freaks and Geeks
Friday Night Lights
Friends
Futurama
Get Smart
Ghostwriter
Gilligan’s Island
Gilmore Girls
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Greek
Green Wing
Grey’s Anatomy
Growing Pains
Gummy Bears
Gunsmoke
Hannah Montana
Happy Days
Hardcastle & McCormick
Heroes
Highlander
Highlander: The Raven
Hogan’s Heroes
Hill Street Blues
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House
Hunter
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Instant Star
Inuyasha
Invader Zim
Invasion
JAG
Jackass
Jeeves and Wooster
Jem
Joey
John Doe
Just Shoot Me
Keen Eddie
Knight Rider
LA Law
Land of the Lost
Laverne and Shirley
Law & Order
Lexx
Life on Mars
Life With Derek
Little House on the Prairie
Little Mosque on the Prairie
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost
Lost in Space
Love, American Style
M*A*S*H
MacGyver
Magnum PI
Malcolm in the Middle
Mama’s Family
The Man from U.N.C.L.E
Married...With Children
Max Headroom
Melrose Place
MI:5
Miami Vice
Midnight Caller
Millennium
Miracles
Mission: Impossible
Monk
Mork & Mindy
Mr. Ed
Murphy Brown
My Life as a Dog
My Little Pony
My Name is Earl
My So-Called Life
My Super Sweet 16
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
NCIS
Nash Bridges
News Radio
Night Court
Nip/Tuck
North Shore
Numb3rs
NYPD Blue
One Tree Hill
Oz
Perry Mason
Phil of the Future
Pokemon
Power Rangers
Prison Break
Profiler
Project Runway
Psych
QI
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (UK)
Red Dwarf
ReGenesis
Relic Hunter
Remington Steele
Rocco’s Modern Life
Rescue Me
Road Rules
Robin of Sherwood*
Robotech (although it's up for debate whether this really counts since, as I understand it, Robotech was a North american repackaging and redub of three different Anime series that had nothing to do with each other in their original Japanese contexts...)
Robot Chicken
ROME
Roseanne
Roswell
Salute Your Shorts
Saved by the Bell
Scarecrow and Mrs King
Scooby-Doo
Scrubs
Seinfeld
Sex and the City
Silver Spoons
Simon & Simon
Six Feet Under
Skins
Sliders
Slings and Arrows*
Smallville
So Weird
South Park
Spaced
Spongebob Squarepants
Sports Night
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
Strange Luck
Superman
Supernatural
Surface
Survivor
Taxi
Teen Titans
That 70’s Show
That’s So Raven
The 4400
The Addams Family
The Adventures of Pete and Pete
The Andy Griffith Show
The Apprentice
The A-Team
The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Bionic Woman (the old one)
The Brady Bunch
The Cosby Show
The Daily Show
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
The Dead Zone
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dresden Files
The Famous Jett Jackson
The Flash
The Flintstones
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Golden Girls
The Honeymooners
The Invisible Man
The Jeffersons
The Jetsons
The L Word
The Love Boat
The Lucille Ball Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mighty Boosh
The Monkees
The Munsters
The Muppet Show
The Mythbusters
The Nanny
The O.C.
The Office (UK)
The Office (US)
The Pretender
The Real World
The Sentinel
The Shield
The Simpsons
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Sopranos
The Suite Life of Zack and Cod
3rd Rock from the Sun
Third Watch
This Is Wonderland*
Three's A Crowd
Three’s Company
Top Gear
Torchwood
The Twilight Zone
Twin Peaks
Twitch City*
Two and A Half Men
Ugly Betty
Undeclared
Under the Umbrella Tree
Veronica Mars
The Vicar of Dibley
The Waltons
The West Wing
Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?
Who's the Boss?
Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)
Will and Grace
Wings
Wiseguy
Without a Trace
WKRP in Cincinnati
The Wonder Years
The X-Files
Xena: Warrior Princess
You Can't Do That on Television

Procrastination and frustration

After a lovely afternoon at the Faeriecon and the Harvest Festival, I returned home to piles of boxes. I'm moving in two weeks and really need to get my ass in gear on the packing front. I ended up spending many hours with a scale drawing of my new bedroom, scale cutouts of all my furniture, and a little scale cutout of myself so I could interact with all the little furniture cutouts in my two dimensional room. Yes, I was procrastinating. Packing goes a lot better when my mom is doing it for me.

I am also heartily sick of trying to sell stuff I can't bring with me. I think that if I can't sell it in the next week I'm going to just call Uhuru and have them haul it away for me. At least I'll get a tax receipt.

If anyone want stuff, I have an Ikea Poang chair and ottoman (dark green cushion), A locking wood media tower, an entrance bench with shoe storage and coat hooks, an Ikea Aneboda night table, a blue area rug, assorted household items like a wood picture box, a computer speaker and subwoofer set, a 20 GB external hard drive, some fans, etc...

I just want them gone :(

Big old moving sale part 1

Right, so I'm moving into a house (yay!) and contrary to common sense I will have less room. So I have to get rid of a few things. Here's round one:

Like-new entrance bench with hooks to hang up your coats and a shelf above along with shoe storage below. It's black metal with a padded bench, measuring 36" x 16" x 68".
$50 OBO


Norcent DP-220 slim DVD player with DIVX and MPEG-4 playback. Used but in great condition. $20




Roomba robot vacuum player - seldomly used, in good condition. Comes with power cord and one "electronic wall"
More fun than a pet rock, less messy than a cat. Now if only they invented one that did dishes... $50

Odds and Ends

Today I tried an asian pear for the first time. Wow, they're delicious!

I went to drop off some cookbooks at the cookbook swap in order to pare down my collection. It didn't quite work the way I intended. I dropped off three and came home with eleven.

And finally, this morning there was a squirrel in the tree outside my bedroom window who was quacking like a duck . I got a bit of video of it. Most of the time in this the squirrel is expanding his repertoire to other birds, but there's some quacking in it.

This one's for Sebethis

Happy National Punctuation Day!

Bad grammar is my pet peeve in books. Nothing throws me out of a story faster than a badly placed comma. Nit-picky I know, but when the flow of language is interrupted I get cranky.

So Happy National Punctuation Day, everyone!

If the oldsters can do it...

I still want a Wii. It's not at the top of my list, but every once in a while I see an article like this and remember how much I want one.

Holiday

Happy New Year, y'all!

Edward Gorey's "Trouble with Tribbles"

Click on the picture and then scroll down a bit to see this amazing Edward Gorey adaptation of the classic Star Trek episode.

RIP Madeleine L'Engle

It's been flying around the internet that Madeleine L'Engle (author of "A Wrinkle in Time" among many others) died last night at the age of 88.

I am sad.

Yay!

Computer all fixed! I'm a genius!

Now I'm toying with idea of installing Linux, just because.

The (not-so-perfect) end to the weekend

Yesterday after coming back from Boston I decided to fix my computer. It had been running slowly and randomly giving me the blue screen of death for the past few months, and I decided that a complete reformat and reinstall was the way to go. More fool I.

I backed everything up and reformatted the partition, and then reinstalled Windows XP. After a few hours of various installation stuff, I was prompted to log in. Once logged in the screen went blue. Not the blue screen of death, but a lovely robin's egg blue background with nothing on the desktop. I had a mouse pointer but nothing to point to. The mouse buttons did not work. CTRL-ALT-DEL did work so I was able to access the task manager, but that didn't help me any.

I'm going to try to reinstall the reinstall tonight, but I don't have high hopes. This kickstarted my decision to purchase a new computer, but it will be two weeks before getting it.

If anyone has mad computer skillz and can help me out, please let me know.

And heck, if anyone has a spare laptop I can borrow so I won't be computerless for two weeks, that would be much appreciated as well!

Lesson learned: Don't mess around with the computer - I'm not smart enough for it.

Food equivalents

It seems to have been a stress filled weekend for some (I'm very happy you're still alive, Sebethis), so here's something to make everyone happy - at least the everyones that read romance. Enjoy:

If Romance Writers were Food

Flowcharts

The good folks at BoingBoing have been having a grand time posting funny flowcharts over the past few days. They make me giggle, so I'm passing the first few on to you:

Tactical usage of the phrase "Oh, snap"


Fuck-up flowchart

Oh, and in happy news, Superfresh now stocks Total Greek Tzatziki. Yummy!

Book of the week

I was given a prepub of a new book today called Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library. It's always fun (and ego-stroking) to read books about your own profession.



Like any public service profession, librarians and library assistants deal with the weird, the smelly, the surly, and the deranged on a daily basis (along with the pleasant, the enthusiastic, the polite, and the people with good hygiene). Guess which make for better stories...

Chocolate update

I have tried the chocolate bacon bar and it is a revelation. Who knew chocolate and bacon went so well together!? It's a milk chocolate with bacon crumbs in it, as well as salt. You definitely taste the bacon, and the saltiness compliments the chocolate very nicely. I feel like I should have been revolted by everything about the chocolate bar, but I actually really liked it and it would probably be dangerous to leave me alone with it.

Friends and enablers

I have such nice friends who feed my unhealthy cravings when I ask them to. Sebethis just got back from Chicago and before she went she showed me the website of a chocolate place she was going to visit - Vosges. She was going for the bacon chocolate bar. I wanted to try the curry and coconut bar (evidently I'm not as adventurous as she is). She came back yesterday with chocolate in hand! I haven't tried the bacon bar yet, but she says it's delicious. I also haven't tried my chocolate yet as I only have one, it's fairly small, and I want to make it last. But I am now a proud owner of a Naga Bar - milk chocolate with coconut and sweet curry.



And no, I'm not sharing.

Dancing man

I have this friend, and she has this fiance, and when he feels the music, he dances. Until now I have been unable to film the dancing man in his natural habitat, but this weekend that all changed. Enjoy this (low-res, fairly dark) video:

In honour of Edmonton

Here's a snarky and slightly bitter (yet funny) search for a new Edmonton slogan, since "City of Champions" seems rather obsolete to some:

New Edmonton slogan

Leaving on a jet plane...

...hopefully it will take less time to get back then it did to get to Edmonton.

It's been a fabulous week back home, almost too full of running around and visiting with friends - I did not really sleep in once my whole holiday. I'm looking forward to my next full day off with no obligations so I can nap.

Highlights and one lowlight:

1. My flight from Philly was canceled, so they rerouted me through Cleveland and then Minneapolis. Then that first flight got delayed and I missed my connection to MPS so I go shunted back to Toronto from Cleveland and then across to Edmonton. My zigzag route across the continent ended up in 14 hours of travel time instead of 8 1/2. I was one sleepy Dena by the time that was over. But the day ended with Taste of Edmonton with the Family, so it was a happy ending

2. Discovering that Joe from The Real Canadian Superstore is indeed a great clothing line, and pretty inexpensive too

3. Birthday dinner with the fam and finally meeting the sister's very lovely boyfriend

4. Hanging out on campus with old friends and very old friends

5. Thanks to the power of Facebook, meeting up with high school friends I haven't seen since I graduated

6. Giving my dad a new obsession - digital camera shopping!

7. Hairspray - can't stop the beat!

8. Playing with babies all day on Wednesday - thank you to my friends for producing such adorable offspring

9. Catching up with the drama group and finding out what they REALLY think about the new Fringe ticketing system (and getting a list of book recommendations for when I get home)

10. Playing Guitar Hero (I suck) and hanging with the Ninja

11. Planning my New Zealand trip!

12. Quality time with the shvester, dad, and mom, individually

13. The Downtown Farmer's Market and the Whimsical Cupcake stand

14. Heritage Festival!!

Thank you Mom and Dad for my birthday trip home!!

Birthday Post

Yesterday was my birthday, so I did appropriately birthday-like things even though I did have to go to work. At lunch Jen and I tried a Venezuelan restaurant called Sazon, which was really good once someone actually came to take our order. We both had deep fried everything, which is just by nature delicious.

After work we hung around Reading Terminal Market until dinner time and I bought some marzipan for my sister (who evidently believes that marzipan only comes from one specific store in the world which happens to be in Philly).

Then we went to Vietnam Palace for our birthday dinner (Jen's birthday was on the 24th) with a bunch of friends and had the ever delicious "Seven Courses of Beef" appetizer and a huge amount food and drink (and an avocado milkshake). We finished everything off with an uber-delicious red velvet cake with sour cream frosting from Brown Betty compliments of Micaela and Liz and Sally.



Then it was time to go home and chat on the phone with those people who remembered to make the birthday phone call. That list does not include my parents, however. They either figured that since I'm coming to Edmonton tomorrow they will say Happy Birthday then, or just plain forgot. They did not call my sister on her birthday either. I had to call them and chastise them for not calling. Bad parents, no cookie!

Tomorrow I take off super early and fly home for my annual food festival holiday - hope to see many of you while I'm there!

Cannon in action

Here's a brief video clip of the Pirate Duck Book Cannon in action.

Booktruck bitterness

We wuz robbed!

Last night was the big library block party/Bling my Booktruck contest. Our little band of teammates led by sebethis and captained by Jim, and ably assisted by me and Grimmgirl, made the most kick-ass booktruck evah! We spun on the ubiquitous sight of the "Ride the Ducks" truck/boats that you see all over eastern Center City:



We figured that since sebethis likes pirates and Jim wanted to build a big gun, we were going to make a Pirate Duck with a cannon that shot books. Behold the Pirate Duck in all her glory:





You can't really make it out because of the reflective lettering, but the cannon reads "books to go" on the side. There was a lot of work put into the pirate duck - sebethis built a whole frame out of PVC and actually screwed it into the cart - we all inhaled more than out fair share of black spraypaint, and the cannon, which is a modified slingshot, actually works most of the time.

And we didn't win anything! And objectively (in my subjective opinion), we rocked the competition! I've been told that we didn't win because it took a few tries for the cannon to work in front of the judges. Grrr! I am not a happy pirate today.

Pu Pu Platter for Two

I forgot to mention this in my previous Boston post, but it's so hilarious it deserves it's own post. We were looking for a place to eat Friday night in Dedham, where neither of us really knew anywhere to go (easy for me, since I know nothing about any Boston suburbs). The plan ended up being to go to a restaurant where they cook the meal in front of you and were told that it was called Tahiti. Well, it's not. We went there and immediately walked into a time warp - Tahiti is the Chinese restaurant that time forgot - it looks like something that the Cleavers would go to if they had a Chinese restaurant in their lily-white town. The waiters were in bowties and the menu included items like "strange flavored chicken" and special cocktails in tiki cups. The decor was 50's wood-paneled basement meets diner. The restaurant was pretty empty and the bar was full of suburbanites drinking cheap drinks and playing Keno (I played my first game). We got something that evidently is a staple at Boston Chinese restaurants but what I had never heard of - the Pu Pu Platter for Two.



Deep fried almost everything! Chicken balls, chicken wings, egg rolls, spareribs, and beef teriyaki (it's already eaten in the picture - you can see the sticks they were on). I almost couldn't eat as I was giggling so much.

Boston, the Edmonton of the East

I have to say that while I was in Boston (and suburbs) this weekend, I was struck by how much I felt it was like walking around Edmonton.

The streets were clean (especially relative to Philly)

It's a university city, so walking around some of the neighborhoods felt just like walking around Old Strathcona - Harvard Square has a bit of a Whyte Ave feel.

The houses actually have yards and aren't all connected to each other

Walking around the financial district on a Sunday is like walking through downtown Edmonton on an evening or Sunday - dead.

The have a really nice park right in the middle of the city called Boston Common where throngs of people congregate to suntan, hang out, play in the playground and fountain. It has a little lake in it where you can take boat rides and has many buskers (including a bagpiper). It reminded me a bit of Hawrelak Park during a festival, but with more benches and paths and trees.



Faneuil Hall is like Street Performer's Central. It's the old city market turned into a big food court with lots of stalls selling stuff all around it. And even more street performers. We saw breakdancers, escape artists, hula hoop/yoyo/unicycle performers, and even more elaborate living statues.

Silence broken, and FOR SALE!

Let's see - Last time I posted I was in Washington DC at ALA. Time got away with me, and many things have happened since then, but because I have an atrocious memory I can't remember much of them. A quick summation:

Winning fabulous prizes with Ray courtesy of Overdrive. If anyone wants to buy a 30 gb video mp3 player (Creative Zen Vision M) let me know. I already have my wonderful Archos 504 so I do not need it. Still new and sealed in the box!

3rd of July barbeque with Micaela's magical lamb and mostly the whole gang

Blueberry picking at Linvilla

Discovering that I cannot take Topamax. That brings drugs that give me scary side effects to two in the past three months (I'm lookin' at you, Reglan)

Getting hooked on "The World Series of Pop Culture"

Visiting Boston for the first time and actually doing some touristy stuff. What a great city. And I discovered that if you happen to have a utility knife that folds up and looks like a key, like this:

And you happen to forget to remove it from your keyring before flying, that's okay! My mini bottles of shampoo and such get careful perusal, but concealed teeny knives pass through the x-ray machine no problem.

Busy comme une beaver

Can't write much, can hardly stand still - Day 3 of ALA in Wahington DC and I've accumulated my own body weight in free books and stuff. This is my one chance at a computer since Friday, so I'm going through withdrawal. It's been the glamourius life of shlepping tote bags full of books (and a bobble-head Darwin) around the exhibit hall (I think I've been compressed a few inches, I'll have to measure myself when I get home), back to the hotel, the going out to multiple cocktail parties all evening. Yay!

Talk more when I get back.

Dua Khalil Aswad

I'm sure many of you know about this already: On April 7th a 17 year old Yazidi girl in Iraq was stoned to death by a mob containing members of her own family. This was supposedly an "honor killing" as the girl had being seeing a Sunni Muslim boy. It all caught on cell phone video by the participants and posted on the web.
I saw the video, but I should have stayed away - the idea that people could do that to anyone with no intervention from the police (who were there) is repugnant. I could go into a long rant, but I won't, as Joss Whedon has already done it so well in Let's watch a girl get beaten to death. Go read it. I'll wait.

Whedon's post inspired Skyla Dawn Cameron to put together “an anthology of responses to Khalil’s death and the issues Whedon raised in his original essay ([the] culture of misogyny, violence against women, and the need for equality). It will be printed through Lulu.com, with all proceeds going to charity.” Head over to Nothing But Red to learn more about the anthology and how to make a submission.

Use me, abuse me

I've been sitting on this post for almost a year now, but the time is ripe for a rant. About what, you might ask? Why, about authors who suck you in with a good book, which leads to a good series, which inexorably devolves into one bloated blood-drenched sex-fest after another instead of the fine plots and decent writing of the first books in the series (I'm looking at you, Laurell K. Hamilton).

And then there's those authors whose epic fantasy series become so epic that the 4 books they planned originally somehow become 12, plus assorted prequels and such. And they come out so infrequently that when the new one is released you have to go back and reread the whole bloody series because so much time has passed you've forgotten everything that happened before. This has led to my Robert Jordan Rule: I will only read an epic fantasy series if it is completely finished and I can read all the books in a row, or if the author is dead. One way or another I'll read the Wheel of Time series, but not unless either of those two things happen.

Speaking of Laurell K. Hamilton (not the only one, but definitely the worst of the lot): I used to love her Anita Blake books. But somewhere along the line (maybe when Anita started getting freaky with were-animals as well as vampires) the books changed from being fun dark fantasy romps to wall-to-wall sex with only enough plot to blow your nose into. Really! I'd say the last few books were 400 pages sex, 50 pages story. And that's not even getting into her new series about a fairy who has to get pregnant to gain the fairy kingdom. At least in that series there's no illusion that there's anything other than sex moving the plot along.

And yet...

And yet I still read the series in the hopes that one day the author will remember the type of book she used to write, the ones that sucked me in and made me love them. I have in my possession her latest Anita Blake book, The Harlequin, and I shall read it in the fervent hope that some of the old magic will reappear. My expectations for that have pretty much been trampled and then spat upon, but there are a few gasps of hope left.

There's a great article about this phenomenon over at Bookseller Chick, and Smart Bitches Trashy Books talked about their favourite use me, abuse me authors as well

This is my life

Go Yankees!

I went to New York this past weekend and went to a Yankees game at Yankee Stadium and got a Yankees cap. No, I'm not about to turn into a fanatical sports nut, but I have to say that it was a whole lot more fun than I thought it would be. Of course, the company I was keeping probably had something to do with that, but I did get into the game and was quite happy when the Yankees won! Plus, I got crackerjacks and a baseball cap! Whee!



And for more fun:
I am worth $2,107,000 on HumanForSale.com
How much are you worth?

And country music makes three!

So I've just read two books about music stars using the heroine for inspiration and I thought that was coincidental. Now I received a copy of Tides of Time by Sonya Kate Childers which is about...wait for it... a heroine who inspired the songs of a famous country star.



Sigh. I don't think I'm going to read this one based on my completely biased dislike of country music and romances set in Texas. But still - that's three in a week. What are the odds they would all just happen across my desk?

1 theme, 2 books

In the past few weeks I've run across two sets of books that deal with the same basic premise or theme. Of course, that meant that I had to read them all :)



Succubus Blues and Hell's Belles both deal with the romantic adventures (and Hellish misadventures) of their main characters, both of whom happen to be succubi. They are both also first novels in anticipated series. I thought both books were surprisingly good, but did like Hell's Belles better - I enjoy cheerfully amoral heroines quite a lot.

On another theme, 2005 saw the publication of Off the Record, the plot of which follows a woman who discovers that she was the inspiration for a smash hit pop song called Janey 245 (think Jenny 867-5309).



Just this week Dedication, by the authors of The Nanny Diaries, comes out. It concerns itself with a woman whose teenage relationship with a soon-to-be rock star has led to him mining their relationship for hit songs, thereby publicly humiliating her every time one of them comes on the radio.



I just finished reading both the books and I liked Dedication better (and a whole lot more than the uber-sophomore slumpy Citizen Girl). I thought the characters were more realistic and it was a bit less chick-lit-y than Off the Record.

And now that those are done with, I can re-devote my time to Tanya Huff's Blood series, which has spawned one of my new favourite tv shows of the season, Blood Ties.

Pretty girls do not fart...or do they?

They fart not, nor do they sweat.

Daring? Not so much

You Are Bold And Brave

But daring? Not usually? You tend to like to make calculated risks. So while you may not be base jumping any time soon... You are up for whatever's new and (a little) exciting!

How Daring Are You?

Fanfic

This article was a feature in this month's Locus Magazine. I read a bit of fanfic in my day (Kirk/Spock for-evah!) Oh god, I did not just write that.

Anyhoo, it's a really insightful look at one way fans take their favourite characters to heart.

Jerry Falwell

I know I'm a little late on this one, but I don't think I can top what Christopher Hitchens says about the man:

Quiz day

I am a huge sucker for online quizzes.

You Are 35% Left Brained, 65% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

On the bandwagon

One of my favourite books, The Golden Compass, is coming out this year as a movie. If you've read it, you know that everyone in Lyra's world has a daemon. Now you too can have one! Check out mine, and for the next twelve days you can have input as to what the final animal will be:

New Obsession

My sister got me hooked on Facebook the other day. Oh goodness, is it addictive! It's like Myspace, only much more aesthetically pleasing. It's not the place to go for new bands and celebrity pages and stuff, but it's amazing for reconnecting (or just connecting) with friends. I'm finding tons of old friends and acquiantances from junior high on up.

Of course, It's also making me have yet another angsty moment as I realize how many of them are still working in theatre, while I gave that all up for the bright lights and glamourous lifestyle of being a librarian. But on the other hand, I absolutely love my job and I can afford to eat regularly and well. But still - it makes me sigh and go "What if...?"

And on that note, here's something fun:

Random stuff

I was walking up to the bus stop this morning when I heard a guy yelling behind me. I couldn't see what was happening, but I assume it had something to do with a car that was blocking a lane, as the phrases "blocking three lanes" and "fucking asshole" were thrown about. As the annoyed person drove by me, he stuck his head out the window and said "Pardon me for disturbing your beautiful morning". Ah, Philly.

Also,last night marked a rare occasion where I put down a book with no intention of ever picking it up again. I started "The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters" by Gordon Dahlquist because of a positive review in Locus. I tried for days to get into it, but never made it past page 33. It's just too dense and Victorian for my taste. I have now switched over to "Ask a Mexican"

Sassy!!

Way back when I was but a wee young rebellious teenager, my mom bought me one of the first gifts I can remember her ever getting me: a subscription to Sassy magazine. I read that magazine religiously - it was a pop culture/counter culture somewhat alternative kind of smug us-vs-them teen girl magazine with models that were just slightly different from the typical (they had freckles!). I read it for years and then the magazine folded and I kind of forgot about it as I got older.
A little later on Jane came out with the same editor-in-chief as Sassy and I thought "Aha - Sassy for grownups! I must subscribe to this" I read it for a year trying to get into it, but the attitude that Sassy had just didn't translate as well into an adult format for me. It seemed more like a typical beauty mag with some "we must be smug and edgy" content thrown in. So I stopped reading it and forgot about both magazines.

Today I read about this book:



And I remembered how much I loved Sassy and how much it informed my teen years. So now I'm thinking wistfully of the halcyon days of Sassy, wishing I had some back-issues to browse through. Not much about my teen years makes my wistful, but evidently this is one of them.

Beyond the Spelling Bee

Clipped from Shelf Awareness on May 2, 2007:

"More than 200 people packed the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass., recently to watch a Define-a-Thon in which eventual champion Katherine Bryant, a science textbook editor, grappled with a definition for the word "usufruct.”

You've heard about spelling bees and crossword puzzle contests, but how does one Define-a-Thon? The New York Times recently offered the following definition: "Houghton Mifflin [publisher of the American Heritage Dictionary] created--and trademarked--the Define-a-Thon, which is modeled after a spelling bee but instead asks contestants to match words to definitions (and gives them a helpful list of words to choose from)."

It's Balderdash on a competitive level!

Sickies unite!

Since three people called in sick today at work, I figured now would be an appropriate time to post this, a webpage that shows who is sick in your neighborhood and with what:

Who is sick in your neighborhood?

Are you smarter than a spelling bee champ?

Odwalla has a new online game for everyone who loves spelling bees (I know you're out there). Hosted by a little animated Ken Jennings (of Jeopardy fame), it's surprisingly challenging once you get past the easy words. Check out the Soy Smart Spelling Bee.

Daisy update

Mike Daisey, the monologuist that I posted about the other day, got in touch with the guy who destroyed his notes. Here's what he has to say.

Theatrical Madness

On April 19, monologist Mike Daisey's performance was interrupted by 87 students and parents getting up and walking out - and one of the people poured water all over Daisey's notes. I read about this, and watched the video (below) and read Daisey's reaction on his blog.

I admire the grace that Daisey showed under the circumstances. I would have been devastated (okay, I would have laughed it off, and then gone home and been devastated) if that happened at one of my shows (and I have had people walk out of shows that I've been in or directed - no one ever sabotaged anything, though).

I don't understand how anyone could do that to a performer. If you don't like the subject matter, don't go to the show. If you don't like it midpoint in the show, wait for intermission and leave if you must. For god's sake, heckle if you feel especially compelled. But to do what these people did, and to deface and destroy as they did it without explanation or comment, that is incomprehensible to me as a performer and as a person.

Book of the day

I was just going through some new books and ran across this guidebook for micronations:



How wonderful is that?!

Book donation of the day

We get many donations at the library, but today one book stuck out (pun intended).

What if the Beatles were Irish?

Oh, BoingBoing, you bring me such joy. This week I found this video:

Passover Peeps

I know it's a bit belated, but I just ran across this at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and I needed to share. Because the 10 plagues are always more enlightening (and funny) when they come in Peep form. Trust me, check it out!

I know I've had too many blood tests when...

...I can judge the skill level of all three phlebotomists at the lab. Sigh.

Supermarket 2.0

Bump!

Girl's night last night was at Bump, the lounge with pricey food and $3.00 martinis. Much fun was had by all and much drinking was done by most. Not that unusual occurrence, but what makes this night different than all other night (hee, Passover reference) is that sebethis was approached by the waiter and asked if she was from Kansas City. Turns out he lived there for six years and was on a radio station called "The Buzz" as Scoops, the morning guy. Holy coincidence, Batman! sebethis used to listen to him all the time - and they knew the same clubs, the same people. Here they are, reunited at last:



After some power martini drinking, some clumsiness from a participant who shall remain nameless, and much laughter and inappropriate conversation, Liz, sebethis, and I ended up at Capogiro for delicious gelato and conversation that skewed a bit more disturbing than I was expecting.

If you're one of my Flickr friends, you can see the photos online (Passover seder pictures coming soon, as well)

Sheer genius

I found this on Boing Boing today - a brilliant way to recycle those empty CD spindles lying around the house:



On another note completely, I've been told, yet again, that 300 is fabulous. I decided not to go last night with some friends because after a wonderful seder Tuesday night, and a week of having the amazing climbing_junkie visiting from Edmonton, I needed some quality me time watching the last few episodes of Project Catwalk Season 1 and going to bed early. Besides, my shoulder to bury my head in during the gory scenes couldn't come, so I'm going to wait for him.