Weekend Report

Ok, so Jeeves & Wooster have eaten my brain. I sent season one back by Netflix this morning only because I couldn't send it on Sunday. If only it meant that season 2 would be waiting for me when I got home!! And even thought I need new books like I need a hole in the head, I'll probably be getting some of the Wodehouse books when I'm in Dayton next weekend for the writer group get together. This is the only reason that I haven't scampered off to amazon.

So after I finished devouring my dvds, I bought some more bento gear online. No insanely cute boxes like twigcollins has or anything, just some prep-type stuff like some cleaner-scrapey things, little bottles for sauces.... And of course the Multipurpose Silicon Pot Monkey. Because what kitchen is complete without a pot monkey?

Sunday evening I went to the city next to mine, to translate the welcome ceremony for the new exchange students who've just come for a week in the deep Ohio country. All the people seemed really nice, so I think the kids will all have a good time. I was a little amused that the local pageant queen was there in a godawful denim mini dress, towering heels and her tiara. I'm not sure if she was there in an 'official' capacity or because she was the daughter of one of the host parents. Either way I'm sure her new Japanese brother will be happy.

Then I went home and fired up the TV, looking for my usual assortment of geek entertainment. (Why is there no Geek cable package that would have all the educational type channels, SciFi, Comedy Central, etc???) But like the old saying goes, a hundred channels and nothing on. So I fired up Netflix on the laptop while I did some story notes on 3x5 cards. I love their streaming service. Since I couldn't have my British comedy, and I couldn't have my documentaries, I decided to watch a British Documentary by a Comedian.

'Faces' hosted by John Cleese & Elizabeth Hurley is really excellent and interesting. One of the bits from the first half of it that really caught my attention was about facial expressions and lying. They did a test to see if people could tell when someone was lying. Normal people did no better than chance. Judges, Lawyers, Police Officers & the experts that give Lie Detector Tests did no better than chance. Secret agents got it right 80% of the time.

And I got to talk for awhile to twigcollins and eramundo. All in all a very satisfactory weekend. If only it were longer!

Sparkling Prose

When I lived in Japan the lack of books in English was really a blessing in disguise for me, I think. When your pool is limited you're a lot more willing to try new things. So while I went over a hardcore fantasy reader, I came back reading mysteries and romances, ya and whatever else I could get my hands on.

Like I said in my last post, I'm totally head over heels for Wodehouse's 'Jeeves' books at the moment. I read one in Japan, and now I'm trying to catch up. But bookstores are thin on the ground in St. Marys (the entire greater area phonebook lists five, and two of those are Hallmarks, so that gives you an idea). The nearest decent one's about an hour and a half away. So today I hied me off to the St. Marys Library and got myself a card. The library is very nice, and seems to be pretty well stocked. We'll see if it can help me curb the need to make all books I see MINE. (Magic 8 Ball says : Fat Chance)

There wasn't much Wodehouse to pick from, but I did find 'Aunts Aren't Gentlemen.' I also picked up another Dorothy L. Sayers mystery, another writer I tried out in Japan. To tell the truth, I enjoyed the book I read, but I wasn't totally grabbed by it. I think the large swaths of French that I had no way to muddle through were a part of it. And I couldn't tell you the name of the book off the top of my head, just that it's the one where Lord Peter Wimsey marries Harriet Vane.

I decided to have another go at it and found a collection of the first three books, so that should give me a better starting point. I'm kind of glad I did because how can you not love a line where a man finds the dead body of a stranger in his bathroom and tells the intrepid detective:
All I said was: 'It might have been burglars,' I said, 'remember that, next time you leave a window open all night; this time it was a dead man,' I said, 'and that's unpleasant enough, but next time it might be burglars,' I said, 'and all of us murdered in our beds.'