Avenant or Bete or Ardent?

I had a hard time falling asleep lat night (the fact that it was 4 in the morning is beside the point) I kept wondering if I had put in the correct dates for my vacation request. Were they going to expect me in today instead of next Monday?

**

I went into the city today to pick up some loose leaf tea as well as see if it would be possible to purchase the series from a real time vendor. I tried ordering on line but for some reason they refused to believe that m method of payment was really what I said it was. Makes you think doesn't it? Just because our card calls itself AmerigoQuick*** or DominantCard or Freedom doesn't mean it is. It's really just a clever disguise. It's a Credit Card Carnival Masquerade!

Stupid on-line ordering monopolies

So I went to the mega-shop where I found out that yes I could order it from them but only three volumes as the others are discontinued (?!) and it would take 3 - 6 weeks and I would have to leave a deposit which would be refunded to be used as a credit for a purchase with that particular store.

okaaaay. I said, "I need to think about it."  

I browsed instead. Found a copy of Stardust and A Hard Days Night on sale then wandered looking for Amelie. Didn't find it. But I found the Criterion section. Oooo a section to buy criteria who'd have thought! Wonder what a criteria looks like when it's not being scientific? 

Turns out it's a label for a selection of films that are supposed to be the criteria of filmmaking. Yeah but whose? I don't think it's the criteria of all film makers everywhere cause some of them... it ranged from Pandora's Box to Brazil to the 400 Blows to Samurai Trilogy to Slackers, Time bandits....

BUT they did have La Belle et la Bete and the aforementioned Pandora's Box.

Guess what I watched tonight as I continued to knit the forever flare? :)

***

Since I was doing the public commute I also started the Sky Sock from Cat Bordhi's book. Finished one cuff and I'm on the second of three repeats for the leg. I like the fact that she has baby sox as first experiments before starting with an adult sock. Not only do I get an idea of what I'm letting myself in for but, since one of my team members is expecting and two staff recently got married. I can start a prezzie stash ;)

****CV

check in

In the Light of the Moon, Carolyn McVikar Edwards (172pp) This is a collection of thirteen stories based on various myths from different cultures around that world. The author also includes pesonal experiences and insights before each story. There's a companion volume about the Sun.
**
Thunderball, Ian Fleming and K McKlory, J. Wittington (258pp) A literate version of the film. I did find it tended to drag in spots but the underwater scenes are wonderfull.
***
Boots and the Seven Leagues, Jane Yolen (159pp) A teenage troll determined to see his favorite band winds up seeking his kidnapped brother instead.
****
So I finally started writing for NaNoand of course I am waaay behind where one "should be" near the end of week one. Oh well. If anyone is willing to look at what I have so far and give feedback I'd appreciate it.
****
The children set their goals today and have already started writing. Most are doing it in longhand so Isuggested that they count the words per page and then we could tally them at the end of the week. CV

errata

Reading has been a bit off lately. I am still making my way through the Anne series and I'm almost finished with Anne of Windy Poplars. Last night I picked up some new books including volume 10 of Hikaru no Go which I read all the way through (aaah manga :). I started Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue this afternoon during our lunch break and I'm almost halfway through that. It wasn't utlil I reread the back copy that I saw it was recommended ny Fracesca Lia block - she of Weetzie Bat fame.

I can see why she would be a promoter of this volume. It's retold Fairy Tales with a feminist edge. However, it is also a collection of stories in which one character asks another character how they came to be the way they are and this character's reply leads to the next tale and so on. So far I have met revisions of Ashenputtle, Bluebeard, Snow, White, Beauty, Rapunzel, The Goose Girl and now am in the midst of Rumplestiltskin.
**
Speaking of books I decided to start three reading groups in class. For Fiction we are reading the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury; Biography is Listening to Crickets about Rachel Carson and Non Fiction is The Book of Forms or anglo american poetry.
***
We started office hours at my school (which is times on a particular day for parents to sign up and come and talk with one of the adults for a half hour). A sort of check in. First day the sheet went up someone signed themselves up for once every month (and now wants more), another wanted to do the same but was persuaded to do one and then see if every month was really necessary; then I didn't check but another parent signed up the morning of office day and then someone needed different arrangements for this week.

Why yes I am glad Monday is a holiday.***CV

Moving Right Along

Okay I was wondering when it was to be this year: June 9th is KIP day. And the night before that the Yarn Harlot will be at Powell's. Appropo, no?
**
Yesterday when I took in my allotment to sell the buyer said, "I see you've been bringing in a lot of books. Are you selling your own?"

Perhaps it is better not to take care of ones books so that they look as if they have never been read? Admittedly almost every YA was a hardcover first edition with the paper covers completely in tact. Still.
***
I have finished reading After Dark by Murakami and if you like resolutions to mysteries stay far, far away from this book 'cause resoloution there ain't. Still it's Murakami so why would you read it if you wanted something that made sense? Wasteland, by FLB, is definitely a retelling of a fairy tale. One of those brother sister ones where all is not what it appears on the surface. And Girl Goddess #9 is a very sweet collection of fey Valley tales.

I'm currently reading A Harlot High and Low by Balzac****CV

A Query

What to say about a person who goes into a shop for one thing:

Wonder Tales: Six French Stories of Enchantment, Marina Warner

walks out with the above, and:

Ironside, a Modern Fairy Tale, Holly Black

Necklace of Kisses, Francesca Lia Block

Echo, Francesca Lia Block

The Light-Bearer's Daughter, O.R.Melling

after putting back:

New Moon: the Special Edition, Stephenie Meyer

Ruby, Francisca Lia Block

?

***CV

Troll Toll

Harrowing the Dragon, Patricia McKillip (308pp) A collection of short stories some of which have been printed in other anthologies. For the most part I enjoyed these shorts and had a pleasant revist with a variant on the Snow Queen. There is a short based on Romeo and Juliet told from the point of view of an investigating soldier after the suicides have been disovered; there is a Baba Yaga tale which was cute and a few stories such as The Stranger which I found forced but then there was The Witches of Junkett and a Troll and Two Roses (Troll Toll!) which made up for the weak spots. I could see Troll (with a little editing at the end) being performed as a monologue so easily.
**
Mortal Love, Elizabeth Hand (364pp) If you can imagine Algernon Swineburne as a hero, well, then you are halfway there with this book. Absinthe, crazed artists with a seriously surreal streak, more absinthe, Bloewdd, The Owl Service, lots of green, and why it might be better not to go home with someone you just met 'cause they might, you know, be an immortal primary source or an escapee from he local mad house down the moor are all present. The narrative style reminded me of Possession but more disjointed and less landscape oriented.
***
Snow-Walker, Catherine Fisher (505pp) I don't know why but I do seem to be reading an awful lot of Snow Queen stories lately. Snow-Walker which for some reason I had thought was set in Russia is in fact set in Norway. The America edition is actually the collected three volume series originally published in England and this explains why there seemed to be an inordinate amount of recapitualtion and a slight disjointedness in the narrative. However that minor hiccup aside each of the tales is a good read and reflects a different source: volume one The Snow Queen, volume two Beowolf, volume three East of the Sun and West of the Moon. They are based lightly on these tales and are definitely evolving quest stories. Snow-walker is the "youngest" feeling tale I have read so far of Ms. Fisher's work and I am curious how The Oracle Betrayed will be. I did like that Raven Wraiths. I wonder what would happen if they and the Crow Girls met?
****
One of the children learned today why rolling a skein of yarn into a ball is best done after carefully placing the skein around something before winding first. After an hour and a half he still had a tangle to sort out. At least it smelled pleasantly of oranges, as it had been dyed with Koolaid the previous week for our school auction :)
****
Oh and Angel Sanctuary, GodChild and Cain Saga (all the latest volumes are at the Powell's watrehouse! So I'm going to order them to have something to read on my way to Prom! If you're on the plane I'll be the one reading the book about angels being mean to each other and Gothic Lolitas loose in Victorian England poisoning people***CV

transformations

The Transfigured Hart was published in 1975. I've seen this on the shelves in Powell's for a while and finally decided to pick it up.

I should be on a book budget but I couldn't resist Straw Into Gold by Jane Gould today. I am finding her interpretations of fairy tales as they relate to stages of female development a bit forced at times. But then I've read so many fairytales and their variations that I think I may be able to sort the wheat from the chaff, which is what convinced me to finally get it. I keep reaching for a pencil to make comments in the book as I read.
**
The Dark Light, Mette Newth (246pp) Set in the early 19th entury during the Napoleonic wars this is a story about a young girl in Norway who discovers that she has leprosy. She is taken from her mountainside village to the merchant town of Bergen and placed in the Lepers hospital. How she grows as a person, the people she meets: including a particularly angry young woman, make what might otherwise be a depressing story one of hope and affirmation. There is one scene I found particularly disturbing and would consciously censor in reading aloud. The author does explain it within the context of the story which I was very happy to see. ***CV