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Another busy week. Good things happening.

Friday:

• Dinner with maaseru at Sushi 88. I love that place. Once again I had the unagi rice, and my intent was to have nothing else, but how could I resist a dish called "squiddy tempura"? So I had that too. Loved the chewy "squiddy".


• Great mail: Christmas cards, many from the Piffle crowd, and a wonderful, wonderful present: The Return of the King Extended Edition DVD from gem225. I am just so happy to get this. What a great gift.


• Started reading a biography of Alexander the Great by Ulrich Wilcken. It was written in 1931, so it isn't the latest word, but I'm enjoying the way it presents the different approaches to Alexander's life and reign, and makes me somewhat familiar with the orignal sources. I want to read more recent books too, but they're still on request at the library. Why are so many of the books about Alexander which the library holds, written for children?


• I'm also reading Greek Homosexuality by K.J. Dover, which is fascinating, but not answering the questions I had in mind. I note that most (or all) of his written sources are Athenian writings or Athenian law. Athens was not all of Greece. Am I to conclude that the Athenian customs and attitudes were indicative of the rest of Greek culture? No, clearly not, since the point is made over and over that the law was different for Athenians and non-Athenians, and that standards were different. Anyway, it's interesting reading just for a look at the time and place. Once again I am impressed by the scarcity of evidence and the way a small body of information has been made to provide a bigger picture - whether that picture is accurate or not.


Saturday:

• A run to the stores at South Keys, where I got Christmas candy moulds and chocolate, and some gifts at Chapter's, and cat-design rubber stamps for Margot (aged 9) at Michael's.


• Christmas baking: I made ginger cookies in Christmas shapes. Haven't done that for years. The recipe I was using turned out not to be the one I thought it was - I wonder where I put the old one? It was good anyway, but now I'm in search of ginger cookie recipes.


• A visit to blackbyrde with maaseru, maaboroshi and lmondegreen to watch The Return of the King Extended Edition and eat delicious snacks. We liked everything but Shelob, especially the Faramir bits.


Sunday:

• I made candy in the candy moulds, and a grasshopper pie. Went to Pat and Sandi's place for a Christmas dinner with them and other friends: turkey with all the trimmings (I brought the cranberry sauce), mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes, homemade bread, homemade wine (extraordinarily good), and for dessert my grasshopper pie. Complete with jokes about catching and mashing the grasshoppers.


Monday:

• maaboroshi sent me the URLs for some good sites about Josh Holloway - Sawyer in Lost, the bad boy with dimples. I then wasted - I mean, spent - several hours browsing them and looking for good Lost pictures, especially wallpaper and icons.

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"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." - Carl Gustav Jung, 1875 - 1961

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I'm stalling about leaving work and catching my bus; hoping to leave when rush hour is over. I'm not used to the business of taking a bus to and from work, but currently I'm compelled to by the cold weather. I like to be able to sit down; can't read standing up on the bus.

My lovely new icon is by teh_indy.

I'm getting hungry. I think that means it's time to go home.

(no subject)

An interesting site... prognosticating future history?
http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/

TV Meme

I got this from ceruleancat who got it from kryptonsite.... And I plan to cheat, and not just talk about TV (which is hardly my area of specialty) but books and movies too. So there. ( Cut in case of spoilers for goodness-knows-what )

Christmas cards...

I'm having a wonderful time with my incoming Christmas cards this year.

Most years, I don't know what to do with them. I've done all the usual tricks - hanging them on the wall, putting them on bookshelves, even once threading them through the strings of my harp.

This year, I decided to make a scrapbook. I paste the cards in, with a note as to who it's from and when it arrived - sometimes specifying how I know the person, or what pseudonyms I know the person under. If they send a letter or a photo I put that in, too. Sometimes if the stamp is foreign or interesting, I add that, and I paste their return address inside the card.

Don't know why I'm enjoying this so much; I think I must just be a naturally born scrapbooker. My mother was, too.