urggh

↵ I've never petted a sheep! Even though we have lots of them in Pargas near Ängisbacka, where by 'we' I mean Finnish people who... live there, but they're not so, er, common (existant) this close to downtown Åbo.

↵ There should be more green velvet in the world. Like this.

↵ I am not my mother, and my kitchen is tiny, and I need to find a Channukah meal that doesn't require preparation in three or four separate dishes because scheduling won't permit it. The only separate one will be the potatoes. And wax_jism will probably be in charge of it, because I don't feel up to the stress of deciding.

↵ Georgette Heyer slash that there should be more of: The Unknown Ajax, Richmond/Vincent

↵ My mom's and dad's extended families are both starting to question about whether I will be able to visit the US soon. "I don't know - will you be able to visit Finland soon?" seems like an unfair rejoinder, but seriously, as much as I would like to see them, several thousand euros don't just appear. That trip would cost more than the total amount we spend on the holidays every year, for example. More than we spend on books and DVDs in a year too. And it's not like I'd be willing to just stop buying books and DVDs to afford it, either. An aunt who had a hard time getting it together to visit Alabama from Kansas (11 hours by car) more than, what, three times in my entire childhood should have no trouble grasping these concerns. That's the total income, excluding the rent but not anything else, of several months.

a heel that even a clumsy person could walk on

These shoes are much more my speed than the ones posted yesterday - unlike the heels I occasionally save pictures of, they would definitely get foot time, if I had them. Someone should notify modcloth.com that there is no such thing as a good time for acid washed denim, though. Someone should also notify them that it's polite to include the actual manufacturer and item name somewhere in the description, even if you are determined to make up your own cutesy names for everything.

are you out of your vulcan MIND?

∞ It's seriously unnerving when a combination of tea, Ferrero Rocher and Xanax (aka alprazolam, aka benzos if you're a doctor...) fails to completely soothe my distress/anxiety. I mean, what other methods could I employ? One of those giant, living fur blankets that purrs like Miles buys in... um - is it The Vor Game? One of the early Vorkosigan novels, anyway. I could use one of those.

∞ One thing that I do frequently do, when distressed, is flip open my phone and look at the wallpaper, which is ( this, and it never fails to reassure me at least a teensy-weensy bit, because at least I'm not as stressed as Spock. )

∞ I grew up a fan of Cynthia Felice's collaborations with Connie Willis, Light Raid and Water Witch and the more recent but even better Promised Land, which is hands-down one of my favourite sf novels. But it wasn't until the past few years that I had the opportunity to read any of Felice's solo work (Willis is of course well-known). Iceman was... funny. The one I picked up recently second hand - these are from the 70s, both - is called Down-Time and would actually, with very little work, make a pretty great movie screenplay, I think. In spite of some confused thematic issues and some messages about romantic love that might possibly be sketchy, the plot is really cool, the pacing and pov shifts good; it's almost a screenplay already, in fact. And the main protagonist, a short, fiesty, 50-something female military commander of common birth and risen to the rank of General, afflicted with arthritis and allergies to most common medicines, famed for her brassy hair... she's really, really cool. It's too bad Judi Dench is now too old to play her, because that is awesome casting in my head (Judi Dench with a wig of copper ringlets!). And the time-dilation part of the premise of this universe is also really interesting, and allows for a relationship of unequal age where her lover is scandalously older when they meet in The Land of Rose-Coloured Flashback, but she's twenty years his senior when they meet again for the main action of the novel. ...In spite of all these attractions of story, the novel itself isn't very good, paradoxically. The idea is there and much of the structure; but the writing itself is workmanlike, not truly prepossessing or enchanting - there's none of that glimmer of genius; and the pacing is uneven, a little uncertain. It's always both sad and intriguing to read a great story that's become only an indifferently good book. (Also, I was kind of amused by some of the similarities to the denouement of Water Witch. Someone has a thing for caves...?)

∞ I have this bad feeling about having volunteered to make roasted potatoes for Christmas... Because that's seven adults and four children, which means like... 20 potatoes. Oops.

∞ I wish someone would invent a widget to strip the vapid commentary out of RSS feeds that consist mostly of newslinks. I'm constantly at war within myself: "MUST UNSUBSCRIBE" - "No! I need the news!" And apparently, I can't just teach myself to skim...

Jamie Oliver @ Tefal

Has anyone else noticed these pale [it's more of a] robin's-egg blue enamelled cooking pots by Jamie Oliver for Tefal all over the place lately? We're not just talking the department stores, here; even the corner store has a display of them. They're so sweet-looking, and the colour - to die for! WANT.

(I don't think I need a special tag for kitchenware, so I'll stick this under interior design for now - I can always change my mind later...)