how not to prepare for a christening

I need this peaceful view now to soothe myself. After waking up rather early due to a couple of nightmares, I lost track of time in my headphones while Wax napped and overslept her alarm. I didn't wake her up until 4:30, and all the shops close at 6 Saturday. The noobs' christening's tomorrow morning and I promised to bring a double batch of Toll House cookies, plus we were planning to print them t-shirts and hadn't bought the shirts yet. So we basically ran downtown through the dreary, steady curtain of rain, and went in and out of two stores after shirts and groceries, and then stopped to see The Bourne Ultimatum on the way home. It was still raining when we got back and it was time to print and cut out stencils, paint shirts, and then bake like 80 cookies. I'm exhausted, but I can't go to bed until we've fixed the paint on the wee shirts and located wrapping paper. We don't even know what time the christening is.

it's verging on hysteria

wax: Your teabag doesn't have a string on it. When it's done, you'll have to use my [wax walks out of the room and all that's audible is "oo"].
cim: Did you say your boo?
wax: My spoon.
cim: Oh, I was going to say - but I'm your boo! Have I been replaced by a spoon?
wax: That would suck.
cim: It doesn't even have retractable thumbs!
wax: Baby, are your thumbs retractable? I never knew!

And then I laughed until I couldn't breathe, and also I couldn't stop laughing, and finally I had to hold my breath for a really long time until I could calm down. More because that just happens to me when I'm this tired than because it was really that funny.

wax: Did you mean prehensile? (my note: ahahhahaha) Opposable?

that is fucked up.

My Dad has a theory to explain why it took the cruise five days to get from Miami to Orlando in my Disney Cruise Nightmare the other night.

Dad to cim 3:26 pm (3 hours ago)

Now I have read your post about the other dream and I have to say I
think the cruiseship was probably going round and round in circles
because the werecats had tied up the steersman or something like
that.

in honour of the day's activities

Even though this picture of Ciara & Loke was taken last Tuesday, since we rushed out the door without my camera today. There was a little delay caused by Wax not thinking about how she didn't have anything to wear until ½ hour before the christening.

comparing adaptations

I am extra fond of the fairytale "Tam Lin" because of the things it has in common with Cupid & Psyche/ East of the Sun & West of the Moon, which is my true favourite folktale. (Even fonder, I mean, than I am of fairytale-styled and -inspired fantasy in general.)

So when I went to the US I collected my copy of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin and bought my own copy of Diana Wynne Jones's retelling Fire & Hemlock. It's DWJ's only non-YA novel, as far as I know, but I still retained an impression in my memory of it as less sophisticated than Dean's version. That's probably because so much of the book deals with the heroine's childhood. I've discovered on the last reread that Fire & Hemlock has improved on my memory, which is the case with many of my favourite DWJs; but Tam Lin, so far, has somewhat disappointed, although Dean's narrative voice is elegant and slightly, pleasantly lyrical. I remember being really impressed the first two times I read it, but this time it comes off as rather more a) self-absorbed (memoir-like, injoke-filled) and b) dated. It says copyright 1991, but I feel it's set in the late 70s, perhaps.

The last Georgette Heyer book I got was Charity Girl, which was a ( solid, light-hearted and fun, engrossing read. )