( Ian Hamilton in Florida )

My first day of December was much better than my last day of November. I didn't have a vehicle, but gblvr came over and took me to the mall for Subway and shopping, and played Pink for me and brought me an early birthday present, a necklace with Klimt's Tree of Life (I must remember to post a photo tomorrow), so that was all wonderful. And I managed to get my now-sans-McAfee desktop working long enough to print my holiday card address labels, plus Adam's homework from yesterday which had to be reprinted because he failed to double-space it (and then I had to print it yet again because his paper said "populous" when he meant "populace" -- spell-check fail). And it also let me burn TV episodes to DVD so I can soon watch more Merlin, plus the awesome-looking The Real Merlin and Arthur special. And the van ended up having nothing serious they could find wrong with it, so it didn't cost a fortune like we feared. So Tuesday was really free of petty annoyances, for which I am extremely grateful.


( Silver Spring Holidays )

Evening TV here, after the beginning of the fabulous Terps game in which Maryland beat Indiana, was the new Celtic Woman special on PBS, Songs from the Heart -- not my kids' first choice but Daniel has sung several songs they've recorded in chorus, so he was tolerant, and Adam was working on making hikaru dorodango, whose existence he discovered in school. I know that someone is going to insist that Celtic Woman's music is not authentically Celtic, so let me quickly point out that I don't care -- my two favorite recordings of theirs are their versions of "Nella Fantasia" and "You Raise Me Up" (the former based on The Mission soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, the latter a rearrangement of "Danny Boy" composed by Secret Garden). ( Do concert sets need spoiler cuts? )

( Last Call )

It was a generally sucky Monday -- rained all day and was dark and chilly for starters, but on top of that, my computer gave me lots of grief that prevented me from printing my holiday address labels (I have finally uninstalled McAfee and installed AVG, but that only makes it marginally faster; I think it doesn't have enough memory to run Firefox and MS Word at the same time, period, and it would cost almost as much to get more memory as it would to replace the computer, but I'm nervous about getting a new Windows system before the bugs are semi-worked out and I don't have a version of Photoshop I can run on a Mac). Then the kids came home and needed things printed out -- my computer is the only one currently hooked up to a working printer -- and while I was fighting with that, apaulled called from a local gas station to tell me that the van had started smoking as he was driving home from work, and he pulled in there and was going to have to leave it overnight. One more problem (and expense) we don't need.


( Meadowside Nature Center )

I liked Heroes, because I still like the Petrellis and the Bennets -- well, I don't always like the former so much but I vastly prefer pathetic Nathan to selfish bastard Nathan, and we've had more of the former than the latter lately. ( Spoilers. ) We watched the New Orleans-New England game between Heroes and Jon Stewart -- I am so glad he and Colbert are back! The segment on emigrating to Mexico had me howling. Now Colbert is ranting about the fact that news happens so rudely while he's away...

( Aubade )

November is ending the same way most of the month's weekends have gone -- unseasonably warm, absurdly beautiful. We went downtown to the Smithsonian to see exhibits at the Freer and Sackler Galleries and had to avoid stepping on grasshoppers in the parking lot behind the American History museum. The Freer Gallery had a tour of the Peacock Room that also visits several other exhibits, including some of the Japanese scrolls collected by Freer that influenced his aesthetics and several paintings by Whistler that characterize his style and in some cases reflect his interest in Asian art. We walked through the lower-level gift shops and into the Sackler Gallery, which has a current exhibition, Falnama: The Book of Omens, about the art of divination in the Islamic world and how the illustrated Falnama, or Book of Omens, of the 16th century were used to tell fortunes and reflect the culture in the Persian and Ottoman Empires. This exhibit is particularly interesting because many of the stories used as augurs are familiar in Western culture as well (the exile of Adam and Eve, the piety of Abraham, the wisdom of Solomon, the virtue of Mary) but the focus in terms of what's important about the stories is somewhat different particularly in most branches of Christianity.


( Whistler's Peacock Room )

We stopped at the Smithsonian Castle briefly, where we had a snack and looked at the representative collection there from all the museums, plus Smithson's crypt. When we left the museum, the Redskins and Eagles were tied, but the Redskins had managed to lose before we crossed the Maryland-DC line. We came home for dinner -- Paul made jambalaya -- and watched the fourth episode of this season's Merlin, "Lancelot And Guinevere," which is definitely my favorite so far this season though people keep telling me the newest one is excellent -- for all the anachronisms and absurdities of this series, its version of Guinevere is so much more interesting than just about any other in pop culture, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's -- I love just about all her women but not Gwenhwyfar is really hard to like -- that I can forgive almost anything. And Merlin and Arthur are delightful. ( Small spoilers. ) Now the Ravens and Steelers are in overtime and I'm exhausted!

( Monday )

We spent most of Saturday at the Maryland Science Center, which has the phenomenal Da Vinci - The Genius exhibit, an enormous traveling collection of reproductions of machines, artwork, writings, and devices either designed and produced by Da Vinci or proposed in his notebooks. My personal favorite part was a roomful of exhibits concerning the Mona Lisa, which was photographed extensively by a French photographer who designed a camera specifically to take high-resolution images without needing light that would damage the canvas -- he was able to prove, for instance, that the sky was originally painted with lapis lazuli, meaning that when Da Vinci painted it, it would have been a deep, glorious blue. There were reproductions of the painting showing how it looks under infrared and how the colors would have looked during the Renaissance, which makes the painting seem much more contemporary. There's also a reproduction of the back of the painting, which has some inexplicable marks on it, and an entire wall of close-ups of the Mona Lisa's eyes to show how the photographer proved she had eyebrows and eyelashes when she was first painted. But the entire exhibit, which has hands-on machines that kids can try, movies on the Sforza Horse and Vitruvian Man, and a long feature at the end with Mark Rylance playing Da Vinci.

Since we were in the museum, we also went to the planetarium show on dark matter, which talked about new theories about the Big Bang and the Large Hadron Collider's work in figuring out whether we can create particles whose existence we can't yet prove. Then we went up on the roof to the observatory, where the telescope was aimed at the sun, which had visible prominences but no sunspots that we could see. The Science on a Sphere projector was showing a film about the sun too. We visited the Chesapeake Bay exhibit, the dinosaurs, the weather station, and the hands-on science lab on the first floor before leaving for Silver Spring, since Daniel was going to his robotics team's alumni dinner at the Macaroni Grill there. Originally we had planned to drop him off, but we ended up parking in the lot connected to City Place Mall since we arrived early, and we decided we should go to Lebanese Taverna and shop while waiting for him (Burlington Coat Factory is still having a big sale and wasn't very crowded, and the mall has a terrific holiday display with model trains, Santa, and exhibits on Chanukah and Kwanzaa).


( Maryland Science Center )

We missed today's football games entirely but I understand that Maryland lost and Georgia beat Georgia Tech, so no big loss...and Notre Dame lost again! If anything else happened in the world or online, I missed hearing about it. Will try to catch up tomorrow.

( Ocean )

We spent Black Friday as far away from the mall and box stores as possible -- we went hiking along Rock Creek Park and Lake Frank at Meadowside Nature Center. It was pretty chilly when we left home, since it was overcast and windy all day with occasional fits of rain, but the sun came out just as we reached the lake, so we had some gorgeous views of the winter trees and ducks. The park has some building ruins in the woods and some reconstructed cabins near the outdoor education buildings, and we walked the long loop since it was so nice out. We also stopped at the Oriental Market because younger son wanted to get red bean paste for sandwiches -- most of his friends at school are Asian and they all share food, and he prefers their lunches to his own.


( Meadowside Nature Center )

fannish5: ( Holiday Gatherings )

Speaking of holiday gatherings, we had dinner with my parents and my sister's three daughters -- my sister and her husband always go stay in a hotel the day after Thanksgiving, having had enough of family togetherness -- most people had leftover turkey, stuffing, etc., I had half a bagel with tuna fish and sweet potatoes without the melted marshmallows this time. Having watched the end of Auburn's sad late-game loss to Alabama, we opted to skip more football and watched Princess Mononoke instead -- environmental-themed stories with strong women being much more my thing anyway, and my kids never saying no to a movie where wolves, elk, and boars are major characters!

( Wood )

Like many U.S. residents, I spent most of the day celebrating Thanksgiving -- Paul's parents arrived at our house early in the afternoon, we spent a few hours with them, then went over to my parents' house where my sister and her family had arrived the day before yesterday. It was a pretty traditional meal -- turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce. I ate only minimal stuffing and potatoes to avoid excess salt -- one thing for which I am profoundly grateful is not having had a migraine for the past six weeks, a situation I did not wish to ruin by overindulging -- not a big sacrifice for me anyway, since roast turkey isn't my favorite, and I made up for it with lots of sweet potatoes, which are my favorite Thanksgiving dish (my mom makes the kind with melted marshmallows on top). Here are some photos of the festivities:


( Thanksgiving Dinner )

We missed the beginning of the Paul McCartney concert, which was very abbreviated anyway due to all the commercials and interview clips -- I am planning to buy the DVD, since it's the same set he did in D.C. minus "Michelle" and with the addition of Billy Joel singing on "I Saw Her Standing There." His voice didn't sound as good at Citi Field as it did at FedEx Field -- maybe he gets better the more he plays. He sure didn't sound like he planned to retire any time soon, which makes me happy! On Friday the funeral for the owner of the Washington Wizards will take place at my synagogue. I met Abe Pollin once when I was a kid, when the Washington Bullets won the championship -- he walked around letting people see his championship ring. He was one of the good-guy team owners, and he will be missed in Washington.

( Thanksgiving )

My kids had a half-day of school, so I didn't get a lot accomplished on Wednesday -- by the time I finished reading the paper, buying the SPP Scottish sheep farm for myself and Adam, figuring out where I saved last year's holiday address label file, talking to the vet (who said that if Rosie's appetite had returned, she was probably fine through Thanksgiving...and her appetite has returned with a vengeance), and talking to my doctor (who said my liver on the ultrasound was normal, huzzah!), Adam was already home. Both kids were in and out during the afternoon playing with friends. I still don't have printed address labels, but I haven't bought stamps either, so I need to do both next week! I had no time to fiddle with photos either, so here are some older pics from Seneca Creek State Park a couple of weeks ago...


( Seneca Afternoon )

Musically, this week's were my favorite episodes of both Glee and Eastwick, though I remain utterly unmoved by the characters on the former -- there are the ones I don't like very much, and the ones I totally can't stand, with the ones I like best (Mercedes, Artie) getting very little air time, and the ones who most make me want to smash something (Terri) doing the same stupid things over and over. ( Spoilers. ) As for Eastwick, I still can't warm up to Joanna, but Roxie more than makes up for that, and I'm so glad Penny is playing a bigger role though I'm also sad because how far can it go with so few episodes left? My big accidental revelation, though, is that the guy playing Jamie, Jack Huston, is Anjelica's nephew, John's grandson! How did I not know that! ( Spoilers. )

Happy Thanksgiving!

( The Big Sleep )

I had lots of plans for Monday, but Rosie was sick from 3 a.m. on, so I got very little sleep and then decided around 10 a.m. that it was time to call the vet, since she not only hadn't eaten her food but was showing no interest in trying to steal Cinnamon and Daisy's food (usually she heads in the kitchen to look for more food mere seconds after throwing up). So I took her to the vet, who wanted me to leave her for a couple of hours so they could get some fluids into her and do a more thorough exam than merely concluding that she yowled when someone pressed on her belly -- something I could have told them anyway. They said she would probably be ready to go home by 6 unless they found some reason she needed to stay, so I ran out to Office Depot to get address labels for holiday cards, then came home and spent the rest of the afternoon working on our family 2010 calendar now that Shutterfly is finally having a buy one, get the rest for half price with free shipping sale.

The vet said she thinks Rosie has pancreatitis, though apparently it's hard to diagnose without a sonogram, which is both expensive and time-consuming (they couldn't work it in today, though they'll do one tomorrow if she isn't keeping food down by then). Her CBC was normal except for an elevated liver enzyme which the vet suspected was from the pancreas pressing on the liver. She gave her antibiotics and an anti-nausea medicine, and sent us home with more medicine that we must give her twice a day orally (joy). Since Daisy was due for her rabies shot, we brought her with us to pick Rosie up, so now we have two cats who think we are evil and cruel. Meanwhile I have not heard back from my doctor about my tests, but the calendars have been ordered and the holiday address labels are a work in progress, so I will just try to catch up on everything else over the long weekend.


( Huntley Meadows Park )

( Reading Between Points A & B )

I had an early appointment for an abdominal sonogram whose results I won't have for a few days -- possibly till after Thanksgiving -- and for which I had to fast, so although it was completely comfortable compared to a pelvic sonogram (no full bladder, worst I had to do was hold my breath for ten seconds), I came home lightheaded and very thirsty and have felt sort of sleepy and off all day. The fact that it was a very gloomy, rainy Monday probably contributed to that; I don't mind the rain or the chill, but it felt like it was never properly morning, let alone afternoon. So I did laundry and worked on holiday cards, and when the kids came home, I watched Adam spend hours struggling with his math homework while discussing the pitfalls of Animal Farm.

I feel like I need a refresher course in Heroes even to have an opinion on whether anything is making sense these days...no one in my family could remember how Arthur Petrelli died, for instance, or how similar Peter's power is to his (Peter's has changed over time, yes, in how many powers he can have at once and how recently he has to have touched someone, since he lost them all and got it back again twice?). So while I was happy to get Petrelli and Bennett family drama over the Thanksgiving table, which will certainly make any family annoyance with my own relatives seem extremely minor, at this point I'm just watching for a couple of characters and really hoping this is the last season so they can make some attempt to wrap up their many loose ends.

I watched Buffy's "Surprise" and "Innocence" while folding the laundry, which I blame partly on cidercupcakes and partly on New Moon because I'd remembered being irritated when the episodes were new at the "lose your virginity and your boyfriend will turn into a soulless demon!" theme, and given all the Bella-bashing, I wanted to see whether Buffy looked better by comparison. Buffy curls up and cries when her boyfriend dumps her, too, but she has a wonderful support system that Bella lacks -- a mother who loves her, friends who will do anything for her, a Watcher who believes in her and is completely devoted to her. Bella has a dad who doesn't understand her, an absentee mother, and a best friend whose lust for her gets in the way of whatever support he can offer her...a terrible situation, of course she's no Slayer, and I don't think the films are suggesting that Bella should cling to her virginity as the last vestige of her self-esteem -- it's more that she can't get Edward to do what she wants.


( Little Bennett Park )

( Anecdote of the Field )

November seems to be a bit lost -- or, rather, September seems to have arrived -- and we had yet another gorgeous day of sun and warm temperatures, so we went to Huntley Meadows. The animals there, at least, seemed to know what season it was, since all the reptiles were either hibernating or hiding and there weren't any herons or egrets out fishing, though there were fish and geese and ducks and songbirds and insects. I usually start to feel light deprivation around this time of year so it's been really lovely having so many brilliant sunny days to spend outdoors.


( Huntley Meadows, November )

The Redskins and Ravens were both doing well against the Cowboys and Colts when we got into the car to drive home, but when we got there, they both managed to lose. Rather than suffer through any more football in the evening, we watched Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day, which has instantly become one of my favorite movies -- if you want to see Amy Adams be fabulous in a film from last year, spare yourself Doubt and watch this! It stars Frances McDormand, who is also terrific, and Ciaran Hinds, who is always delightful, but I had no idea that Pushing Daisies' Lee Pace was in it (playing a Brit!) and Shirley Henderson, who plays Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter movies, has exactly the same annoying whiny little-girl voice. ( Spoilers. )