(no subject)

Lots of randomosity:

Vladimir is gone again--to Susak to visit his mother this time. It's an island, so that's nice. I keep trying to go out and swim, but the moment I put on the sunscreen the sky darkens and thunder rolls. Then I go back inside, and half an hour later the sun's out. And now it turns out we've got algae coating the bottom of the deep end, so the pool's going to be out of commission for a week while we administer a chemical shock.

Last night we had another ordeal trying to order pizza. ( Its charred remains set off the smoke alarm )

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get through my library books, having finished Crimson Petal. In fact, I'd put off reading them for so long that I had to renew the lot before I cracked the first one--I couldn't even remember, besides Crimson Petal, what I'd checked out. As far as I can tell, I got that, Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace, and some old-school Louisa May Alcott thrillers, which are awesome. I tucked into a large collection of shorter stories last night--I think I got A Long Fatal Love Chase as a separate volume--and have gotten through about four or five of them. You know how Jo earns money in Little Women by writing really lurid stories about masked villains and contessas and poison and betrayal and stuff? Yeah. This is them. I mean, if you go in with your Serious Student of Literature hat on, you end up saying, "Well, shpfff, that ending just came out of nowhere, and you could see the whole 'Hindoo' plot coming from page one, and the whole thing is just melodrama to the max," but--dude, those are the conventions of the genre. That's what I'm telling you: in terms of Gothic melodrama, it's good stuff.

(I know Alias Grace is a much better, quality piece of literature, but Crimson Petal took over my life for nearly a week, and I need to get some work done before I surrender to a book like that for a while.)

Saw the greatest comeback ever on JournalFen yesterday: "If you'd read any of my books, you'd know that." Like, seriously, we should all go around saying that. It's even funnier if you don't have any books published. I want an icon that says that (and as soon as I find a picture of a snippy enough librarian, I'll make one).

Speaking of JournalFen, I have decided that my fluffybunny pagan name is going to be either Pewter Marmotseal or Golden Pandamouse. (The general formula for making one, we have decided, is to pick either a metal or an element off the periodic table--clearly, there is some overlap--for your first name and then squeeze two random animals together for your surname. Silver Ravenwolf, of course, is the ideal. In the game that we played, I think I was proudest of "Bismuth Dolphincow" and "Ununquadium Tigertit.")

Also: This is so true.

Mugglenet's caption contest strikes again. Eh, not worrying about it anymore, so if someone else does it, don't tell me.

( Harder than the average meme )

I'm going to try something new--I think buneater does this on her entries, or something like it. Basically, if I update one of my crazy godforsaken sites, I'm going to put a little link/tag at the bottom of the entry. This'll be most useful for the weblog and--when I can get back to it--the Digest, I think.