Kivrin

I will not troll.

...but I am SO TEMPTED by the blog of this ridiculously naive, yet self-important, American in London, who is all OMG THE BRITISH ARE DIFFERENT FROM AMERICANS! AND THERE ARE MUSLIMS IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD!!! WOMEN WITH COVERED FACES, AND SOUNDS OF PRAYER FROM A MOSQUE, I AM ASKEERED!

She just finished an MA at Oxford; I don't know whether to be disappointed in the university's lack of standards, or heartened that I would have a better shot than I thought at getting into such a program if I wanted to.

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In happy knitting news, I am over three-quarters done with my second Elder Sibling Crown of the summer. I hope it's as well-received as the first was. For those interested, the pattern is "Loved" and the yarn is Comfy Bulk from knitpicks.com, and I could easily have made two crowns with two skeins (though I've used three because I wanted different colors for each.)

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Last weekend I went to the beach for what might have been the first time in nine years, since I rode out a hurricane in Panama City Beach, FL with some friends, drinking hard lemonade and reading aloud from book three of A Series of Unfortunate Events. breadandroses and I went to Ocean City, NJ with the World's Cutest 3-year-old and her parents. We lunched on crepes, then set ourselves up on the beach and jumped over waves, dug in the sand, ate lots of frozen custard and fried dough, and went on a few rides on the boardwalk. And then had dinner at the world's slowest Chinese restaurant, and the kid and I were briefly trapped in the ladies' room by a sticky deadbolt. I had her on my hip because she wanted to switch off the light, but I had to dissuade her without freaking her out because I could not get the door open. All ended happily, though.

There was a hilarious moment in the car coming home. All four adults were trying to get the kid to sack out and sleep, and she was trying to resist, of course. She insisted she needed my sarong from the swim bag as a blanket "because it has stars and moons for nighttime!" I covered her up, asking if her bunny and giraffe wanted to be tucked in too. "I think... I think they want to be left alone," she said, shoving them down by the door. I tucked her in and said good night. Literally a moment later, she sat bolt upright and said "I don't think it's working." "Sweetie, you need to give it more than a nanosecond, okay?" I said. I tucked her in again, and by dint of everyone in the car except the driver pretending to sleep, we got her to drop off.

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In televisual news, Merlin set reports, pictures, and cast interviews make me both happy and annoyed beyond all reason. Happy because Colin Morgan is still an adorable studious good-natured little squishyface and Bradley James is the world's first successful nerd/jock hybrid and Tony Head giggling is like frickin' champagne and I want Richard Wilson to be my extra grandfather. Annoyed because where the hell is Angel Coulby, people? Katie McGrath is perfectly lovely and all but I want more Gwen in the show and more Angel in behind-the-scenes stuff. (More Gwen, but not more Gwen/Arthur, or at least better Gwen/Arthur than last time.)

In other televisual news, breadandroses and I have begun watching White Collar and are well and truly hooked.

Also, Patrick Stewart in MacBeth will be on PBS in October. Markez-vous vos, um, calenders, tout le monde.

First, Shana Tova to all celebrating! *passes apples and honey*

Second, ARRRRR!

Third, Merlin!

( Merlin 2x1 )

Yesterday was a snow day, which was EXCELLENT. The accumulation wasn't snow so much as nasty icy slush, so I had no conflict about sticking to indoor pursuits. (Had it been beautiful with fluffy white snow, I would have wanted to go walk in it, if not actually play in it, and would have had regrets in any and all directions.) I went to some friends' house for pancakes, then came home and did laundry (including experiments in getting deodorant crud off t-shirts), tidied my room, scrubbed the kitchen sink and slew some encrusted grime in the bathroom*, read more of Honor Moore's memoir The Bishop's Daughter and watched the Anthony Head version of Persuasion and drank a lot of tea.

Today is cold and bright, and I spent the morning careening between enjoying that (and enjoying feeling rested, and enjoying supervising a congenial volunteer who's doing some data entry, and enjoying anticipating an upcoming visit from my parents and this evening's choir rehearsal), and feeling anxious about the people in the reading room, the mess in my office, this evening's choir rehearsal, the upcoming visit from my parents, my grandmother's health, my long-distance friendships, and my general existential/vocational okayness or lack thereof.

So. Some media blather.

( The Bishop's Daughter )

( Persuasion (200X film) )

Tangentially, here I shall enumerate

WHY I WATCHED ALL OF MERLIN

( Read more... )

Coming sometime: Why I Watch Hustle.