At dinner this evening I was finally able to put my finger on what bugged me so much about ‘Revenge of the Sith’.

R2D2.

I love R2D2. When ‘Star Wars’ came out, when everyone was drooling over Mark Hammil and Harrison Ford, I had a crush on R2D2.

Yeah, I know. I’m weird. Always have been.

But the point is that they took an established character and then out of nowhere gave him all these bizarre powers he’d never had before–and more importantly–never had later. It made no sense.

They took my favorite character, randomly made giant and unexplained (and unexplainable) changes, and we were supposed to accept it without question.

Bah!

Good grief. I didn’t think that kittens were allowed to be this cute.

If I were Tom I would find myself unable to concentrate in the face of such overwhelming adorableness.

Saw the Fantatic Four today. I liked it–not as much as I liked Batman Begins–but I liked it.

Unfortunately, I realized why people pay extra to go to the movies in the evening. There were a LOT of children. In fact, there were a lot of YOUNG children, including one child, who couldn’t have been more than four or five, who started screaming and yelling about two thirds of the way through the movie. And of course her mother waited for quite some time before removing her from the theater.

Do people not READ ratings any more? This movie is PG-13. It was loud. There were explosions and scary bad people. When I was four I remember the Wicked Queen in Snow White scaring the crap outta me. I can’t see someting like this being LESS scary. Yet the mother seemed irritated at the kid more than concerned as she (finally) took her out of the room.

Jeesh.

But back to the movie: I liked it. It was cute and fun and not annoying. I didn’t even mind how obnoxious Johnny Storm was. (Though if I was his sister I probably would have attempted to kill him long before then.) I’d go see it again if someone else wanted to go, because it was fun. But I don’t think I’d talk Michael into going again all on my own.

I’m curious, did it follow the original story? Is that how they got their super powers in the comics? And couldn’t they put other people in the machine Reed made? Or would it only work for them because they’d gone through the space storm?

Just wondering.

Next movie to see: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But it’ll probably be a couple of weeks. I have no desire to sit through a sold out show. And I may be willing to pay full price and go at night, to avoid the throngs of kids. Maybe.

Okay. You’re right. I admit it. The wicked queen in Snow White STILL scares me.

I laughed out loud listening to the radio this morning (I’m paraphrasing here):

Scott Simon was interviewing a band called Brazilian Girls. One of his first questions was, none of you are Brazilian and only one of you are a girl. Why the name Brazilian Girls?

One guy responded: Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copland were not policemen. None of the Rolling Stones were actual rocks.

Just did another redesign of the front page.

I couldn’t come up with a way to use the full page image and get rid of the boxes–which I’m starting to get tired of. But besides that, I’m pleased with the way it turned out, especially when it’s resized.

Feel free to check out the latest flower pr0n.

The daylilies by the driveway are blooming–tons of blooms, which makes up for the fact that they only bloom once. I still need to look up the cultivar–I think it’s candywine or something like that. But I really like the color.

Also, my hydrangea has finally bloomed! When I got it, I didn’t realize exactly how much water it would want. Jeesh! It’s as if the thing has no roots! Then last year, despite the constant watering, it still didn’t bloom. But this year, I’ve got gorgeous blue blooms, so I guess it has been worth the effort. (Of course the blooms are blue! This is West by God Virginia, land coal mines, clay soil, and acid min drainage.)

It’s a new fiscal year here in West Virginia.

Which means that I’m now making less money that I was last paycheck.

You see insurance changes occur July 1, which means that insurance increases or changes appear on the first paycheck of the month.

It’s at times like this when I wonder why I work at WVU. Yeah, 6 hours of free tuition are fantastic, but thanks to the economy tanking, raises have been near to non-existant since W took office.

Money isn’t everything I know, and Michael has gotten regular raises, but it’s still frustrating. Bills are paid out of checking–the account that my paycheck goes into; Michael’s paycheck goes straight into savings, and the morgtage and car payment come directly from there. All of which means that as prices rise while my pay remains the same, we are more likely to pull money from the savings account to pay bills than we were even a year ago.

It’s frustrating. We aren’t really spending more money than previous years, yet I keep having to dip into money that is supposed to go into savings. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not such a huge thing. We’re still accumulating savings–like I said, Michael is getting raises–but it feels like we’re falling behind.

I know that I shouldn’t complain. We have a home, a car, food to eat, books to read, no credit card debt, and money in savings. All of this is far more than so many people have. Yet still, the feeling of falling behind is unsettling.

Killing Orders (1985) Sara Paretsky

In Killing Orders V.I.’s bitter and unpleasant aunt asks her to look into a matter for her–securities have been forged at the church where Aunt Rosa works, and as everyone who had access to the safe is under suspicion, she is on leave from her job at the church. Worried, and wanting to clear her name so she can return to work, she bullies V.I. into looking into the case for her. But things aren’t nearly as simple as they seem, and soon one of V.I.’s friends is dead, attempts are made on V.I.’s life, and another friend is hospitalized, all for asking questions about securities fraud.

I’m starting to remember what frustrated me so much about these books.

Read More about Killing Orders

Indemnity Only (1982) and Deadlock (1984) Sara Paretsky

I used to own the V.I. Warshawski series, but in a fit of pique–and shelf space squeeze–I sold them all. I recently decided that I wanted to give them another chance, which means that I needed to reread them, which means I had to find all the books again. Luckily, I’ve found most of them used.

Read More about Indemnity Only and Deadlock

Check out Tom’s latest flower pr0n!

The Last Templar (1995) Michael Jecks

This was an interesting book. The mystery was good, the story was good, and I quite liked the historical setting and the history lesson. The writing was, for the most part, very good, with one glaring exception. In this book Michael Jecks switches point of view abruptly and sometimes painfully. I was confused several times when I thought the point of view was one character when it had switched to the point of view of another characters.

Read More about The Last Templar

I know that we go to Newport Aquarium every time we go to Cincinnati, but I really like it.

Only problem this time was that we went on a Friday afternoon. On a stroller day. Future note. Avoid summer Friday afternoons. Mornings early in the week are MUCH better.

Michael again managed to get some really gorgeous pictures at the aquarium.

No. Really. I couldn’t eat another bite.

Another trip to Cincinnati, another trip where we seem to spend the majority of our time in restaurants.

It was lovely.

We had dinner three times with Andy and Heather, in addition to having every meal with Susan. And for the most part the food was excellent. For some reason the food at Uno’s in Cincinnati seems better than the food in Morgantown’s. Of course the fact that Michael can get his Bianca (garlic) pizza might have something to do with it. And we went to Thai Café, of course. And we had a small dinner at Don Pablo’s, which has very delicious sweet cornbread (I need to figure out how to replicate it). And some excellent seafood at the fishmarket by Newport Aquarium. Susan and I both got garlic shrimp, which were excellent. One night we ended up at P.F. Chang’s, which was okay, but I’d just as soon have take-out from the Great Wall. Especially for the price.

And Graeter’s. We went to Graeter’s for ice cream four times, and brought home ice cream as wel–two pints for my parents (black raspberry chip and fresh peach) and one pint of peanut butter chip for Michael. Better yet, no one mocked me for only eating chocolate or strawberry.

I probably should subsist solely on salads and water for the next month to make up for the absolute decadence of this week.

And I got to shop in the kind of stores we don’t have at time, for the kinds of things I don’t necessarily want to mail order. We went to Sur la Table where I got a mortar and pestle and lemon oil and ceramic pie weights. I also saw a pink Kitchen Aid mixer. Now I’ve drooled over the cobalt blue Kitchen Aid before (clashes with my kitchen unfortunately) but pink? It was a nice enough shade of pink, but for me, pink is the color to wear to funerals. I also picked up some other kitchen odds and ends including an electronic scale to replace my current scale, at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, but most of my drooling was at Sur la Table. I could easily spend an obscene amount of money there, if given the chance. But I didn’t. And we didn’t even go near William Sonoma.

Which is too bad, because I didn’t find an 8″ sauté pan I liked.

Plus, I got to go to Wild Oats, Trader Joe’s, and best of all, Jungle Jim’s. Even trying to be good I spent just over $100 at Jungle Jim’s. Of course I did get two kids of beer for Michael. And a significant amount of chocolate. And some lemon lime English marmalade. And cheese. Lots of cheese. Thought we got a fantastic sharp cheddar at Wild Oats we ate with a loaf of bread and bunch of grapes for lunch. (It was dairy and fruit! It was all kinds of healthy!)

Books. Cooking Stores. Aquarium. Dinner with friends. What more could I ask for from a vacation?

(Pictures from the aquarium will be forthcoming.)

The Dust Jacket
3200 Linwood Ave
Bright atmosphere, with books on every surface, boxes of books were covered with sheets and cloths to create displays for book. The building was obviously originally a home that had doors removed and every room filled with bookshelves and books. However, stock was hardback books, collectible books, expensive books. Not for me.

Duttenhofer’s Books
214 W McMillan
Front of the store was hardback books and old books, but in the back were lots of science fiction/fantasy and mystery paperbacks. Found a number of mysteries I was looking for, didn’t find too many fantsy books I wanted/needed. However, the building was in not the nicest neighborhood, and whole place smelled strongly of cat pee, while the staff was either mute or afraid to talk to strangers. The cat was very friendly though.

Half Price Books
8118 Montgomery Rd
Tons of books, all categories. Place was well lit, clean, and neat, more like a traditional bookstore. Huge paperback science fiction/fantasy section and lots of mystery paperbacks. Books were well-organized and alphabetized, and anthologies were placed together at the end of a section, which I found very helpful. Found lots of books I wanted and was looking for, as well as plenty of books I wasn’t looking for.

As for new book stores, we visited Joseph-Beth, which was, as always nice, but didn’t see much that I haven’t found at home. Strangely, they have divided up their mystery section into different types of mysteries, like “cosy mysteries” so I had to search a bit before I could find some of the authors I was looking for. I picked up a new mystery, and a fantasy anthology. Unfortunately the fantasy anthology looks to be not at all what I want.

We briefly perused a Barnes & Noble, but their stock seemed to be the same as the new Morgantown store, so nothing was purchased.

As usual we’ve managed to spend more on books than anything else, so all is right with the world.