fajrdrako | Entries tagged with friends

Today was a day of utterly unexpected activity.

It was weirdly warm - by which I mean, temperatures above the freezing point.

fairestcat was walking around out of doors without a coat; I found it chilly because it was damp, but it certainly wasn't your typical January day. The streets were running with water from the melting snowbanks.

Morning: went to see my doctor, then went to the drugstore to get the medicine she prescribed, then went to the gym.

Afternoon: Met

fairestcat at the Silver Snail for comics - it was a really prime pile this week - and then we met up with

commodorified at Pho Bo Ga 2 for lunch, which was really delicious - as always. I'm addicted to their soup #13.

Then

fairestcat and I went back to my place to read comics, and catalogue another box, and while we were working on that, my friend Lyn dropped by, exhausted by walking in the wet, slippery weather and in need of a cup of tea. So we sat and chatted a bit.

We particularly liked Hawkeye vol. 4 #7 by Matt Fraction and guest artist Steve Lieber. Of course we did: for six months now, Hawkeye has been the best comic on the stands and then some. But this was a special issue devoted to the crisis in New Jersey when the megastorm Sandy hit, and the proceeds from the comic go to relief efforts. Highly, highly recommended.

Evening: Supper with Pim and

maaseru, while we watched the final episode of Fringe. We all really like the actor who played September, Michael Serverus, who, it seems, has been in a lot of things - but I don't think we'd ever seen him before Fringe. I have a lot of thoughts about Fringe as a series - sometimes or often brilliant, but suffering from the curse that all J.J. Abrams shows seem to have, of changing its mind what it's about. I much preferred the first season, and the situation they set up before we started hopping universes. I also thought Walter was much more interesting (and fun) before he became sane and responsible.

maaseru made Stovetop Ribs for supper, which were utterly delicious. But in the course of eating I managed to drop my plate of ribs upside-down on the carpet... what a waste! Note to self: shampoo the carpet. And make the recipe some time soon.

An appointment with my doctor today - my GP. It cheered me up no end. She said:

My thyroid, which has always been low, is now absolutely normal - without medication.
I have lost 9 pounds since November.
I am in a low-risk category for diabetes.

I did a lot of walking today, and a beautiful day it was, too. Mostly sunny, no rain and only a very little snow, and enough of the sidewalks and roads clear of ice that it was easy to walk. Walked about four miles or more - and that's a lot for a day in Ottawa in January.

Had lunch with

gamergrrl at Temptation Tea Shop on Bank Street. Talked mostly about Golden Globe Awards; movies and TV we have seen.

In the evening, discussed questions from Cheryl Richardson's 2013 newsletters with Lisa and Lynne over tea and cookies. I just had tea, no cookies. So happy about those nine pounds.

Made wheat-free Acorn Squash Breakfast Bake, which I am happier calling Pepper Squash Breakfast bake, and had it for breakfast while watching Casino Royale with maaseru and Pim. Had some trouble tearing myself away from the movie.
Then I made the Civilized Caveman's Paleo Banana Bread, and was surprised how delicious it turned out to be. Finished cleaning out my fridge, and fixing up the kitchen.
Worked on genealogy a bit. Still can't find much about the elusive Peter Grant, or the infamous pirate Black Peter. Read part of Genealogy Online for Dummies, but it isn't as useful as I'd hoped it would be.
Went to lunacy_gal's place and watched a good part of Downton Abbey, series 1, with her and funkym3485. Lovely pot roast for dinner.

Had a lovely post-Christmas dinner at Tasia's place, with her, Peter, StarWolf and Chrystine, Ysolde, Beulah and Paul. Ysolde's wonderful soupe aux legumes, Tasia's lamb roast, and my plum pudding. Beulah's wine. All lovely.

After supper, we watched the Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Snowmen". ( The story... )

Butterflies Dance in the Dark is a novel by Beatrice MacNeil, which I read for Lisa's Book Club. Our meeting was tonight.

I hated it, pretty much. Of six of us there, four people liked it, two didn't. One person liked it because it's about a little girl growing up in a small town in Cape Breton Island in the 1950s and beyond, just as she did. Mari-Jen, the protagonist of the story, has a learning disability, which leads her teachers to think she is stupid.

It reminded me of Winter's Bones, in that the people around Mari-Jen are almost all nasty. In Winter's Bones the characters are nasty because they are drug dealers and addicts. In Butterflies Dance in the Dark they are nasty because they are bigoted, insular, poor, and, well, just nasty by habits. The nuns teacher at her school are bullies who seem to enjoy using corporal punishment, and humiliating the children. Her mother is shunned because she has three illegitimate children; they live on welfare. Her only friend is a Polish holocaust survivor, who is shunned by the community because he isn't Roman Catholic; and when she reaches adolescence, she is forbidden to associate with him.

So the older kids bully the younger kids, and the younger kids bully each other, and the men beat their wives, and the women beat their kids, and it's all a vicious circle. A particularly nasty example is Aunt Clara, who is delusional and irrational, and still beaten and raped by Uncle Jule on an ongoing basis.

There were three characters I liked, and enjoyed reading about: the thoughtful immigrant Daniel Peter, and Mari-Jen's two rambunctious older twin brothers.

Most of all, Mari-Jen annoyed me. She wasn't much nicer than those around her, and I found her passivity frustrating. I don't think she grows or changes through the novel, though she grows up. I wanted her to do something, or even to want to do something.

The story is beautifully written, in terms of words and phrases and scenes. My favourite moment (and it almost moved me to tears) is when the man who had survived the Nazi concentration camps is tending Mari-Jen's hands, immmobile, swollen and cut because she was strapped by the Mother Superior. "Bloody, bloody Nazis," he murmurs, and he puts on the salve.

But the story hasn't much structure; it wanders and meanders, and in the end, I didn't think it had much of a point to make.

Next month, we're discussing one of Steven Jay Gould's books.

What a great day.

(1) Breakfast with

maaseru at Tim Horton's. I had their chicken soup, and enjoyed it.

(2) Worked at her place for a bit.

(3) Went to lunch at Casey's and then went to see The Bourne Legacy with

fairestcat. Enjoyed it very much indeed: a good, fast-moving adventure-action film with good characterization and interesting locales. I particularly enjoyed seeing Jeremy Renner fight a wolf bare-handed, but it was also great to see chase scenes in Manila. David Strathairn was in it - and so was Albert Finney, though it took me a while to recognize him.

(4)

fairestcat came back to my place and we watched fan vids from various fandoms - Avengers, Captain America, Doctor Who and multifandom vids. Several of them were delightfully self-referential: fan vids about being a fan.

(50 Went to Lisa's place for supper - a vegan supper prepared by Margot. Then we played Boggle, Balderdash, and Quick Word. Great fun. We didn't want to stop, and I ended up coming home too late to take the bus, and took a taxi instead.

It was a Vorkosigan sort of day, since I was listening to Komarr when I was walking today.

At suppertime,

random,

fairestcat,

auriaephialia and

deakat came over and we ate chicken, cheese, salad, and some amazing fruit, and watched Leverage episode 4x13, "The Girl's Night Out Job", which I thought was loads of fun.

Then afterwards we sat and talked about Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. I made my ( own list )

This evening my friends and I talked about 'things which cheer us up'. We'd looked online for lists of suggestions, and were not impressed at many of the the answers - a lot of ideas just looked silly to us, like "Wear a fake moustache all day". We agreed that this wouldn't cheer us up.

So we each made our own lists, and because we happen to be surprisingly alike, our lists turned out pretty much the same, even though we'd written then separately. There were some things that cheer us up which we can't control - like hearing from friends, or a sunny spring day - that is significant, but I made my list things I can actually choose when I'm having a bad day. My list:

Puppies.
Flowers.
Certain movies - usually but not exclusively musicals.
Certain books.
Dancing.
Writing.
Looking at a large body of water. Or walking alongside one.
Boating.
Listening to birds.
Singing.
Looking at art and architecture.
Redecorating, or moving furniture around.
Looking at trees and rocks.
Exploring a place I haven't been before.

Do you have any further suggestions?

Marion and Vickey and I went to dim sum at Beijing Palace - we didn't know they had dim sum till we got there. Agreed that it was good, but not as much variety as at Mandarin Ogilvie. We talked about home and childhood memories and Steven Pinker.

We went back to my place and watched:

The first episode of the British Being Human. I got all excited because I've been to the pink house in Bristol.
The first episode of the American Being Human. I enjoyed seeing the Montreal houses.
An episode of Criminal Minds called "The Big Wheel", which featured Alex O'Loughlin as Vincent, the OCD serial killer.

Seeing Being Human reminded me that I really don't like vampire stories, even though I quite like the show despite that. The American version seemed bloodier, and less intense... hard to say why. I liked the similarities. For me, the big difference is that I think Aidan Turner (as Mitchel) and Lenora Crichlow (as Annie) are utterly gorgeous and I didn't think anyone in the American vesion was very attractive at all - and really disliked Sam Witwer's looks. (He plays Aidan.) On the other hand, I like Sam Huntington more than Russell Tovey, but then, I like just about anyone more than Russell Tovey.

While watching, I made the fabric I bought yesterday into a Christmas tablecloth, by hand. Enjoyed it.

Today Tasia and Beulah came over for the last three epidoes of the HBO series Game of Thrones. I enjoyed it as ever, especially the very ending, ( with... )

Must get back to reading A Dance With Dragons.

I found a paleo recipe that looked really good: lamb meatballs made with fresh oregano, in a tomato sauce. Sadly, they didn't have any minced lamb at the Metro today, and I didn't have the time nor the desire to go elsewhere, so I got organic bison instead. It cost more than beef, but no more than the lamb would have been. I served the meatballs with cauliflower and a mixture of plain rice and wild rice. Beulah brought some really delicious pumpkin tarts. Tasia brought red wine. A lovely time was had by all. We sat for a while after supper, talking about books. Tasia recommended the Victor Carl series by William Lashner.

So many books, so little time, and mountain of them in my 'currently reading' pile by my bed.

I had a lovely Pho lunch with

fairestcat, after climbing over the construction on Somerset. We went to Perfect Books, where we were faced with a great deal of temptation - including Steven Pinker's latest book, and a novel about Sparta.

Then I went home and watched four episodes straight of The Good Wife, loving every moment. And I slept.

No new episode of Fringe tonight, but since I seem to need infinite sleep, that isn't really a bad thing.

Fifty years since the publication of The Game of Kings, one of the books which changed and shaped my life. Fifty years today, exactly. It isn't that I wouldn't have loved history anyway, or dramatically epic romantic heroes; I already did, back when I first read the book. But I would never have travelled, probably, to gatherings in Malta and Philadelphia, Dublin and Paolo Alto; I might never have been to Orkney. And I would never have known some of the wonderful people I have met through Dunnett fandom.

The Dorothy Dunnett Society suggested that fans the world over should get together and drink a toast to Dorothy Dunnett at 1 p.m. local time. So we did. Seven of us, at The Tea Party Cafe on York Street, Ottawa.

The Dorothy Dunnett Society proposed the text of toasts, but I made up ours: To Dorothy Dunnett, the best of the best.

And we toasted her.

I passed around my photo album of pictures from the first Dorothy Dunnett gathering in Edinburgh, in 1990. Beulah's comment: "We were so young, then." Tasia and

josanpq replied, "We still are."

Beulah passed around cards with contact information for the Dorothy Dunnett Society. I showed them the latest issue of their publication, Whispering Gallery, and let them browse it - but made sure they gave it back. It's precious.

I had proposed that we each bring a favourite Dunnett quote, and some of us brought more than one.

josanpq quoted Thorkel's advice to Thorfinn in King Hereafter: "Accept the consequences." She also quoted Groa's line about 'five minutes'.

Tasia quoted Pawn in Frankincense when Lymond is talking to Philippa:

She also quoted a lovely passage from King Hereafter, which I don't know where to find. It begins, "You have only to lift your hand".

I chose, from Checkmate:

A lie is a broad and spacious and glittering thing, sweeping belief before it from its very grandeur. But the truth fits, like an old man cutting cloth in an attic.
And from The Spring of the Ram:

Calmness was a weapon and a defence; beauty was only a weapon and best left alone. He was to face the Emperor of the eastern Greek world, and he employed his only real rule. Put yourself in the other man's place. War and trade; love and freedom from love - it was the way to success in them all. When he failed, it was because he had forgotten it. Or, occasionally, because someone was better at it that he was. But only occasionally.
One reader chose the very beginning of Dolly and the Doctor Bird, which I would quote if I had my copy to hand.

Gemma chose the final verse of the wonderful rhyming game played by Lymond and Philippa in the House of the Revels in The Ringed Castle:

We voted on who had the best hat; three votes went to Tasia, three to Gemma, and someone just voted "Everybody", so

josanpq flipped a coin to break the tie, and Gemma won the prize - a coffee table book with pictures of houses of Scotland, called The Scottish House.

And all the time we were drinking delicious tea from beautiful but mismatched cups, since it's a Mad Tea Party: spiced chai, Earl Grey, Lady Grey - or drinking coffee; or delicious mushroom soup, or eating cucumber sandwiches, or grilled cheese and veggies, or dahl over rice; and for dessert, pastries and scones. Mine was pumpkin scone with clotted cream and raspberry jam. I shared it. Mmm.

And though the Tea Party Cafe chef couldn't have known it, raspberry jam is a great Dunnett reference.

Top of the list of things that I believe essential for world peace, personal health, and true happiness, is the notion of civility.

Lisa, Lynne and I were talking about this last night. As with so many things, we were of like mind - we are three INFPs, if that means anything to you, and often agree on approach if not substance.

So we were talking about an online book review Lynne have found, of a book called Choosing Civility by P.M. Forni. Forni himself is a professor at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, and has his own website.

None of us have read the book, and we might have had different reactions to his advice if we had. We liked the Wright's synopsis of it, for all that the writer's presentation is rather extremely American in style. Nothing wrong with that, of course, especially as he is American and comes by it honestly; just that us non-Americans are then likely to relate less. I tend to think of civility as being for the whole planet, and to focus on the ideals of one nation seems like thinking small. I thought at first that Wright must be religious, but no, on browsing his site, I see that he's a Libertarian. I have mixed feelings about that: I had the impression that Libertarianism, at least as practised in the States, is a right-wing, rather elitist philosophy not at all like my own happy sense of socialist anarchism. But what do I know of other people's political spheres?

( Wright calls civility a core value... )

Morning: I was at work. As so often happens, the unexpected kept happening. I think, I hope, I stayed on top of it all.

When I left work, I went to the Silver Snail and picked up my comics. It was one of those weeks where a bunch of comics I read came out all at once, including a hardcover graphic novel I'd pre-ordered, so it cost a bundle. There were comics by my three favourite writers in comics: Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, and Warren Ellis. ( I got... )

And the hardcover graphic novel: Castle: Deadly Storm, a Derrick Storm Mystery by Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue Deconnick. I hope this is as good as I'm anticipating.

Then I met

duncanman for lunch, and we had a nice time chatting.

I had to meet

maaseru on Eddy Street in Gatineau so we could go together to our chiropractor in Kanata. It's been years since I've been to Gatineau by bus (if ever) and I had to switch to the Outouais bus system. I asked the driver, in French, if we were at the right stop for where I wanted to be, and he said, not. He explained how I had to get off the bus and take a pedestrian overpass into one of the buildings on the big government complex there, then catch another bus behind the building, which would take me to Eddy. On the one hand, I was proud at my ability to handle this full complicated discussion in French. On the other hand, I was completely confused by his directions, and I'm sure hearing them in English wouldn't have made it any easier.

So I set off on foot through the government buildings there, and it's a maze of seemingly endless food courts, all closed up after 5 p.m. I couldn't even find an exit to get me back to ground level or out of doors. I tried phoning

maaseru but got only her voicemail on both work and mobile numbers. So I wandered further. I found an exit and a stairway at last, that let me back onto the street at the junction of Laval and Portage, face to face with a statue of Samuel de Champlain.

My Blackberry rang. "Where are you?" asked

maaseru.

"Lost!" I wailed. "At the corner of Portage and Laval."

"Where's that?" asked

maaseru, as mystified as I was.

"I don't know!" I wailed. "I just hope it's close to Eddy! I'm standing beside Samuel de Champlain."

Luckily, she remembered the statue, and picked me up. Then after a traffic jam on the Queensway, which we avoided, and traffic lights on Carling Ave., which

maaseru hates and complains about mightily, we got to the chiropracter absolutely spot on time to discovered they were in the middle of a power failure, total blackout. Well, intermittant blackout.

Then when the belated chiropractic treatment was over, we went to Panda Gardens for Chinese food, and met up with Marion and Vicky, and then went back to their place for presents and birthday cake - a candle each for

maaseru and I, since they hadn't seen her since her birthday in August.

It was all quite wonderful. They do good birthdays. They gave me a book I've been seriously wanting: Shadowplay by Clare Asquith, about Shakespeare's hidden beliefs and how they are expressed in his plays. Will I be convinced? We shall see.

They also gave me a letter opener of incredibly beauty, which, without in any way being a real knife, has the heft and aura of a serious work of blademanship.

Finished reading Jilly Cooper's L'Appassionata, which has been my book for reading on the bus for the past few weeks. Very satisfying.

Lisa and Lynne came over. Lisa had found an interesting set of questions, 20 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Every Sunday, which I see are all over the web. We discussed both the questions and the answers.

I had hardly any sleep last night, being too dizzy to lie down. Tired now. But it was still nice to see Lisa and Lynne.

Dim Sum with gamergrrl at the Yangtze restaurant on Somerset at Cambridge. Delicious. Then we went back to Can-Con.
Went to a panel on gender issues in Speculative fiction, with people I like and admire on the panel: Shelley Rabinovitch, Julie Czerneda, J.M. Frey, and Janet Hetherington. There was much participation from the audience, took, and all of it interesting and intelligent - for all it kept veering off into orientation issues, which interest me too, so I didn't mind.
Went to J.M.Frey's reading of a scene from Triptych - which was fascinating, now I want to read that book - and from a short story she will have coming out next year in an undisclosed publication.

I was interested in Triptych already, because Frey said that the poly/bi community had received it well - I believe it features aliens who are not sexually dimorphic, hetersosexual, or monogamous. Then on the strength of the passage she read, I'd have gone and bought it in the dealers room on the spot, except that the dealer was already sold old. There goes my chance to get it autographed by the author, which I rather like to do. Ah well. I'll put it on my Amazon wishlist.
Had a cup of coffee and half a salad with Claire at Rockin' Johnny's. Talked mostly about books.
Went to the closing ceremonies. Everyone there seems to have enjoyed the con very much - it was a bit of a love-fest. Which was great. The rapport between guests, attendees, Con-Com and staff really did seem good. It was a small but intelligent con.
I went home feeling all fired up about writing, and I wanted to study French. Shortly after that, I started to feel extremely dizzy and unwell. I have no idea why. Lay down for a while with a book. Eventually felt better, but got nothing done.

Kind of demoralizing.

Went to the Farmer's Market with deakat and had a lovely time looking at beautiful organic vegetables, and meeting wonderful dogs. Marvelled at her earrings - a nice counterpoint to my glasses frames. We ate healthy popsicles and admired mini-eggplants.
We met up with the people at Ottawa Slashers for brunch, which was fun. My eggs benedict dish was delicious, though the potatoes were peppered - I hate pepper on potatoes, but I didn't mean to eat the potatoes anyway, so it was all right.
Went home and visited and talked with redmtl, who was tweaking my computer. I phoned Rogers to see why my wireless connection to the Internet was so weak. Called four times, actually. The first call got a dweeb who said he changed a connection at their end, but the signal was no better. So sorry, he said, guess you have interference, nothing we can do, good-bye. When I next called back I got a much brighter soul called Nick, who caught my Cyberdyne-Skynet jokes, and eventually we found the source of my problem - my model was missing parts. So I got my panda umbrella (it had, just at that moment, started to rain) and tromped over to the nearest Rogers office, where a laconic young woman switched my old inferior modem for a new one with all parts intact.
Now all my wireless devices connect to the Net well. Yes!
Went to dinner with redmtl and maaseru. A good time, and a good meal, was had by all.
Came home and downloaded or restored a bunch of programs to my lovely new computer. I think I will call him Lysander.

Morning coffee at Bridgehead. In a wild and reckless moment, I bought and ate one of their Morning Buns with my latte. Mmmm good.
Went to the Farmer's Market at Lansdowne and bought some elk liver (wonder what that will be like?) and lamb. And some veggies. And some incredibly good fresh local ripe red strawberries.
Went to Dim Sum at the Mandarin Oglivie with maaseru, Marion and Vicky. Then we went back to my place and watched an episode of Moonlight, #12, "The Mortal Cure". Enjoyed it, though I still don't like Beth - and I think Mick's ex is more beautiful and more interesting. Too bad she's untrustworthy. (But then, so is Beth.) While watching, I altered maaseru's new Chinese Dim Sum T-shirt to fit her better.
I walked over to Hildegarde's place for the Ottawa Science Fiction Society annual picnic. I haven't been to an OSFS meeting in years, but it was fun to be at the picnic for a bit. Chatted with my friends there for about half an hour, then walked back home.
Made lamb stew from the lamb I bought in the morning, and banana bread.
maaseru and Pim came down to my place for supper and we watched three episodes of Supernatural - bringing us to the end of the sixth season. Enjoyed them very much indeed. Why wasn't last season this good? Or all of this season? Though I got a little bored and impatient in the sequence where Sam was hunting himself. (Maybe it didn't last long, but it felt long.) I was happy to see Lisa and Ben again, and though I don't approve ( of what... )
Cleaned kitchen, scrubbed floors, cleaned the bathroom a little too. Well. Someone had to do it.

From time to time I like to have lunch with Jacques, one of those friends who dates from High School. Last time we lunched I was somewhat annoyed with him for misogynist talk, brought on by some nasty behaviour on the part of his sister-in-law, who is probably his ex-sister-in-law by now. I didn't ask. That awkward conversation made me avoid seeing him for a while.

Today, we had lunch together on the patio at the Westboro Bridgehead, and it was lovely. We taked about politics, Tv shows old and new, and many other things, and for a while we talked in French. That part was terrific, because I could understand everything he said, and he told me about some French-Canadian soap operas and comedies to look for.

Couldn't have been nicer. The Bridgehead salad was lovely too; not a kind I've seen at the Bank and Third branch. But then, I haven't been looking.

He has a gorgeous new car, too: a blue 2012 Honda Civic. Cars seldom impress me, but this one did.

Yesterday, I went to see All For Your Delight in Constance Bay with a crowd of Apaplexy friends, because

gamergrrl is in it. For my money, she stole the show as Arnold, the bratty orphan. But maybe I'm biased. I did think her singing was superb. Melodic and clear.

There isn't much plot in this show. It's a silly farce about a Music Hall around the turn of the century, with a feckless Lord, diamond which are about to be stolen, and dancers with boyfriend troubles. One of the mini-subplots involves two comedians who have been teamed forever, but desire of one for new jokes, and the desire of the other to make no changes at all, leads to them splitting up. Since they kept referring to each other as 'partners' I happily thought of them as a gay couple, and kept hoping they'd resolve their differences and get together again. They didn't.

I also felt I got a peek at a new bit of culture - that of an area called North Carleton, the area around Woodlawn, Ontario. It's close to Ottawa but distinct enough to be a place apart - it feels rural, despite its proximity to Kanata.

auriaephialia and I both wanted to look at the library, which was at the same community centre as the theatre. Sadly, they're closed on Wednesday.

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World Enough and Time

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Entries tagged with friends

Wednesday...

Monday...

Sunday...

The Doctor, the Dinner, and the Snow...

Butterflies Dance in the Dark...

Friday...

Tuesday...

(no subject)

Sunday TV watching...

The Game of Thrones again...

Friday...

International Dorothy Dunnett Day at the Tea Party Cafe...

Civility and other important matters...

Wednesday...

Reading, talking...

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Lunch in Westboro...

All For Your Delight...

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