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Dream of the Dolphin
a.k.a. Confessions of a Post-Graduate Pity Whore |
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Free Story!A Christmas MiracleThere's a Virgin birth expected at Christmas. The mother's name is Flora.She's also a komodo dragon. I love nature. ( 4:18 PM ) Sarah Jane ~ Happy Birthday to Me!Thank you to everyone who sent me e-cards! Though I have to say, my absolute favourite was Karina's, which she has graciously given me permission to share with you.::ahem:: From: Karina Sumner-Smith See? :o) Also, for anyone who can find the place, my birthday snippet is on my newsgroup. Okay, it's also on Julie's, but mine could use the traffic. It's a bit from RAVEN SHADOW, and it's pretty much all anyone is going to see (with the exception of my writing partner) until the book is done, so if you're curious as to what the book is about, check it out. :o) ( 1:56 PM ) Sarah Jane ~ Geek Alert! And help with Geek Mix 2!The Geek Alarms have been sounding fast and furious lately, mostly with the release of the new TMNT trailer. As a card-carrying geek, that movie was one of the defining points of my childhood (heavily influencing my secret dream of running away to join the Creature Shop), and as this movie is the creators making a sequel to the first movie and "the bits of the second that didn't suck", I'm cautiously optimistic.On the slightly more cautionary "will they or won't they rape my childhood" end, they've also posted a new Transformers trailer. Sure, the effects look cool, but given that the man behind the movie is also responsible for The Rock and Armageddon, part of me wants to run screaming. Also, I'm having a lot of trouble telling if Happily N'Ever After is going to be more like Shrek (i.e. I'll like it), or Hoodwinked (I won't). But, if all else fails, there's always Pan's Labyrinth! And finally, I need suggestions for Geek Mix 2. Geek Mix, for those who can recall, contained such classics as "Doctor Who on Holiday" and "Doctorin' the Tardis", DDR's "Butterfly", "Lazy Sunday", "Neverending Story", "Ghostbusters", "Star Wars Cantina", and other classics of geekery. Well, I now need suggestions for the sequel. These must be songs that not only reveal your geekiness, but are also fun to listen to. So far, I have "Snakes on a Plane", "Chilly Down", "Turtle Power", and "White and Nerdy". I need more. Lots more. Lemme have 'em. ( 10:20 AM ) Sarah Jane ~ So Much To Do...And yet so little time!The Christmas season is upon us, and with it comes my 7-day work weeks and the never having enough time to do shopping. But I've managed to get almost everything I need for everybody (and come up with suitable alternatives for those for whom I ran out of time), and with the arrival of my birthday, I may actually have time to relax a little. Time spent with friends last night was great fun, and Stranger than Fiction turned out to be a really enjoyable movie. I was afraid for a moment that it was going to be one of those great movies I can never watch again (I still can't bring myself to re-watch Serenity), but it wasn't, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Though I absolutely cannot wait for Pan's Labyrinth after Christmas.... ( 9:35 AM ) Sarah Jane ~ Thursday, December 07, 2006 Tools of BakingIt's that time of year again -- the Christmas Baking, during which I end up trashing the kitchen during a marathon (this year it was 6 hours) spree of baking Christmas shortbread. I ended up with six batches all told -- traditional, sugar & spice (a new experiment), 2 batches of peppermint (the most popular), cocoa (last year's recipe), and chocolate (a new experiment involving bricks of baking chocolate).However, making all that shortbread (and those who've seen my kitchen know there's not that much space to begin with, given the two required mixing bowls, two cooling racks, and containers in which to store all of these cookies) isn't easy. Especially when one needs to pulverize a box of candy canes into tiny pieces. Which is why I require some interesting tools while baking. On one of my trips to throw the butter and candy cane boxes in the recycling, still toting one of my tools, I ran into the neighbour bringing in her dog. "Oh, hello," she says, "Umm... you sounded like you've been busy. What have you been up to?" "Baking," I say cheerfully. I thought the head-to-toe flour was a good clue. "Oh." She pauses. "With a hammer?" I glance down at the large claw hammer in my hand. "Sure." I give her an innocent look. "What do you use?" ( 10:55 AM ) Sarah Jane ~ A Baroque Christmas  The Toronto Choral Society presents "A Baroque Christmas", Wednesday December 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Eastminster United Church. Tickets are $20, and are available through me (by giving me the money in advance and I'll have the tickets waiting at the door for you) or at the door. The choir will also be accompanied by the Talisker Players orchestra. There will be trumpets! Ooooooh. We are also giving a benefit concert for Street Haven Women's Shelter this Sunday, December 10, 2 p.m., at St. Paul's Basilica. The program features selections from the Baroque Christmas concert and the Street Haven Women's Choir program, and admission is donation-based, with all proceeds going to Street Haven Women's Shelter. ( 10:03 AM ) Sarah Jane ~ Sunday, December 03, 2006 Stellar MagpieOkay, I've got Chris' but if anyone else has Christmas Stellar Magpie commissions they'd like from us, now's pretty much the last chance you have to get them in if they're to be done before the holidays. Smaller things are also way more likely to get done.Also, if you're ordering anything from the website (and keep an eye on the journal, as there are a couple of pieces not yet on the site that I'll post there if our webmistress can't get them up), Canada Post notes that the last mailing dates guaranteed to arrive before Christmas are December 9 in the U.S., and December 18 in Canada. We can arrange for expedited shipping (such as for things you commission now), but it's more expensive. That doesn't mean we can't do it. ;o) My, this icon's getting lots of mileage! ( 7:18 PM ) Sarah Jane ~ Friday, December 01, 2006 'Tis the SeasonYep, it's officially December. I have a shiny blue metropass, it's finally calling for snow (which would be a distinct improvement on the rain), and with the arrival of December, I'm allowed to start listening to Christmas music (no, this isn't a hard and fast rule, but in my family, Christmas music before December meant there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe).My favourite Christmas CD ever is the Eclectic Christmas Mix, which I put together a few years back, and it has brought me no end of joy since. The track listing is as follows:
And speaking of music, Erin and I went down to try to see Wicked last night. As you'll recall from my previous post, I tried to get people to help with the lottery, as we'd never been able to get tickets before. Well, nobody showed up, but that was okay. Mine was the second name called. Erin's was fourth. We found it strangely hilarious that both our names were called (Erin's repeatedly and loudly until she ran from the box office to the top of the stairs to tell the girl with the megaphone that she could draw someone else because I'd already got her ticket). And we kept laughing up until we were seated in the box. And box seats? Pretty sweet. We could see facial expressions! And costume detail! I mean, I knew Elphaba changed dresses several times over the course of the show, but as they're all theme and variations on black, you'd never know it from the mezzanine. But more of that later -- this is not the Wicked post. So after a much needed night out after getting all my teacher's college applications in, we came home to Miles the cat, whose mode of transportation really is hilarious. We've watched video of other three-legged cats, but none of them do the butt-dragging thing that Miles does. So here you go. ( 10:10 AM ) Sarah Jane ~ |
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