(no subject)

[cleolinda]

Horoscope of Intriguing Ideas:

Quickie: Today, follow your instinct for music and art. They hold answers you're looking for.

Overview: If you don't have plans to travel, you probably will soon enough. Someone new, interesting and skilled at taking chances will entice you to take off for an exotic locale you've always wanted to see.

Daily extended (by Astrology.com)
Get out your list of places to see in this lifetime and add those new ones you keep thinking about -- the ones in your personal zeitgeist, which keep coming up over and over and sound just amazing. Now maybe it's time to reprioritize. If you could go right this instant, which one would win out? Move it to the top. Then maybe there are some others nearby you could hit. Now on to finding the time -- as soon as possible.


I love December. In fact, I love it so much that I had to go look over last year's entries to make sure I didn't repeat myself. We were going to decorate the tree tonight, which is my FAVORITE PART EVER except for maybe the part with the presents, but I think we're holding off until tomorrow night. Which is a bit problematic, as the Lovely Emily and I had planned to go see Aeon Flux tomorrow night, and even if we did try to cram the tree in tonight, I still have miscellaneous paperage due tomorrow. Also a pound cake. It's our last day of non-exam class, and so we're bringing food, which... does not really make it any different from any other class we've had this semester, but this time the food has to have appeared in one of the books. So I'm frantically flipping through The Morgesons muttering about pound cake, because I am not in the mood to take a stab at apple fritters or sponge cake or "Indian bannock," whatever in five hells that is. ("Thin cornbread baked on a griddle," apparently.) I could fire up the wafflemaker and make a pile of Belgians, since the Morgesons do serve waffles at tea, but... I'm not thinking they're going to keep too well. Actually, it would be hilarious if I brought the batter and the wafflemaker with me and made them to order during class, but... I don't know that I have the energy for that right now. 

That's the problem with December--the first part of it, you're too tired to do anything fun. I do sort of dread the first couple of weeks a little, because they usually mean feverish procrastination and the desperate burning of midnight oil, but fortunately most of that is over before my birthday. It's usually pretty tight, though, and I've had a few exams on my birthday before. So December is usually a very busy month--term papers, nervous breakdowns, my birthday, my sister's birthday three days later, frantic powershopping, last-minute wrapping (ALL the wrapping is last-minute, quite honestly. Well, 70% of it. Mom likes to wrap a few things early and have them under the tree to look pretty. She got in trouble over this last year because she accidentally put out a few packages marked "From Santa," and Sister Girl never let her hear the end of it. "THANKS FOR STABBING MY CHILDHOOD IN THE HEART, MOM!"), 783 viewings of A Christmas Story (although last year we substituted Monty Python and the Holy Grail for midnight wrapping--first time I'd actually seen it, if you can believe it), a round of Christmas parties and, if we're lucky, three or four of those corporate gifty-foody baskets. I love those baskets, man. They're always full of things you would never have occasion to buy for yourself, like strange cheeses and summer sausage and weird honey-butter-mustard-jams and tins of Danish butter cookies (and tea and chocolate, if you get the really fancy baskets). Speaking of cookies, I think Sister Girl's making Christmas sugar cookies tonight--she even has fresh lemons for the icing, which seems a bit Martha to me, but hey, she's the one in cooking school.

Oh, and while we're on the topic of Christmas, Sister Girl has decided that she only really wants three things between that and her birthday, and they're all killers. Like, the Vosges truffles aren't hard to find, but we're not giving her a $500 subscription to the Chocolate of the Month Club, so I'm weighing my Haut Chocolat options for something less, uh, haut. I think I know what I'm getting, but I'm not divulging that here.

The other two things she wants are a little harder to find. She wants a set of Oz books--they're apparently written by Baum and then a woman after his death--but they need to be a matched set. The best I could find was the fifteen Baum books in a single volume, and she didn't like that, so... I don't really know what to do about that one.

The third thing? A pair of ruby slippers.

You can get them, you know. There's a guy who makes $250 custom replicas, but even if you blow off the price (which I can't), he'd need six weeks to make them and six weeks until Christmas there ain't. So I'm looking at more down-market replicas (which Sister Girl said would be fine) in size 9-1/2 (what? We [Jones] women, as it were, have hobbit feet). So... I'm on the lookout for that.

Meanwhile, I've spent the day cataloguing every. single. reference. to clothing in The Morgesons. It feels a bit futile, because even I know I won't have room to use them all in the paper even if I could figure out a way to do so, but it has been fun to make connections I hadn't noticed before (both Veronica and Cassandra wear merino dresses when they're in love). I can probably squeeze out a quick five-page version for the workshop tomorrow, and then I have a solid week to see midnight Narnia zomg write the full 15-pager and review the other books for the exam. And I am not allowed to play Neoquest II until I have done it, and I have even managed to hold off all day, less ye have little faith in my resolve to not have a nervous breakdown starting the paper the day it's due.

(By the way: I'm a dumbass, you guys. The point of posting the White Witch icons the other day was that I have a whole folder of them for y'all.)

Comments

[mouseykins1.livejournal.com]

Man, I would adore a pair of ruby slippers. But, yeah, they are pretty hard to find if not custom-made.
I don't know about Aeon Flux. It's gotten some horrible reviews and people are calling it "Charlize Theron's Catwoman". They didn't even preview it for critics, and that's always a bad sign.

[allichaton.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for the time-honored tradition of last-day procrastination, from the girl who is just now getting to work on her 10-page paper that is due tomorrow.

[m4mitchell.livejournal.com]

Yay! You give me hope that I can crank out a 15 page research paper by Tuesday morning. ;)

[bluemarie.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, Vosges is such love. My friend Gwen was one of the original crew of employees at the store that opened on Spring St. last year (two years ago now?), and she would leave work every night with chinese-food-type-cartons full of leftover truffles and bark and such. I still haven't forgiven her for quitting; there's no way I can afford that stuff at the rate I'd like to consume it.

[ambiguousreason.livejournal.com]

It's okay, my feet are huge too. I'm a size 10; sometimes 11, depending on what kind of shoe it is.

What's the topic of your paper? It sounds interesting.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

How characters change their identities by changing their appearance in the book. : )

[sapphires13.livejournal.com]

"Thin cornbread baked on a griddle,"

Mmmmm, that reminds me of something my mother makes. Hers is just made with thinned out biscuit dough (so it's more of a batter) and fried up. Basically they're like pancake style biscuits, but OMGSOGOOD.

Best gifty-foody basket I ever got? Six-pack of Sprite (20oz bottles), a bag of trail mix, a pack of Ritz Bits cheese crackers, candy bars, and gum. It was perfect for kicking back with some DVDs.

And wow, Neoquest 2. I was really close to beating it for the second time around. But then I stopped going to Neopets for like six months. I logged back in today for the first time since June. Maybe I'll get around to beating it again.

[stareyednight.livejournal.com]

I might have a pair of ruby slippers for you. My work sells costumes and I think we have a pair in a 9-10. They're not really fabulous in the $250 way, they're only $30 CAD, but they're cute and if you wanted to, I could send you a picture.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, let me take a look at those. That'd be great. : )

[seeksadventure.livejournal.com]

Barnes & Noble can order (if a larger store doesn't already stock) a matched set of special edition hardback copies of all the Oz books. (At least they could last year, when I worked in a store and had to order the entire set for a customer.) It can be difficult to find them all, and it would take a bookseller some time, but as long as he or she matches the publisher and keeps an eye on the sample pictures, it's possible to find it.

Beautiful books, too, would make gorgeous gifts.

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

You know, ever since the first trailer came out, I can't help but see the White Witch as a bizarre (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v118/cleoicons/narnia/jadis016.png) mix (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v118/cleoicons/narnia/jadis30b.png) between Cate Blanchett's Galadriel (http://www.warofthering.net/quintessential/movieshots/galadriel_celeborn_tn.jpg) and the Borg Queen (http://startrekpics.tripod.com/Borg/borg-queen2.jpg) from "Star Trek: First Contact".

[galaxianomiko.livejournal.com]

...that's a disturbingly accurate description!

[miyabiarashi.livejournal.com]

I decided to look around, and found this site (http://www.customsparkles.com/page769.html), which makes custom quality ruby slippers. I'm not sure what the prices are, but looking at the other stuff that this seller has up on eBay, it's probably below the price you've just quoted.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was poking around there earlier today...

[silent-sybil.livejournal.com]

God, those icons are gorgeous. The White Witch is the only real reason I have for wanting to see the Narnia movie, though I would probably have gotten around to seeing it eventually anyway.

And 9 1/2 isn't that big. Imagine trying to find the slippers in an 11. -_-

[delle.livejournal.com]

OZ books! My mother has my grandmother's set (circa 1918) and I'm slowly collecting my own set, as I don't anticipate getting Gagan's copies anytime soon (and that's a Very Good Thing!)

Getting an entire matched set may be very difficult. The books float in and out of popularity and I'm not sure when they were last published (I want to say 1970s but I'm probably wrong). Also FWIW, I don't like the non-Baum books. The other authors just didn't do justice to Baum's world and characters.

Anyway, to the point. You may be able to get a partial set of newer books, but I'm not sure even B&N could pull an entire matched set together for you in time. Or would SisterGirl like a copy or two of antique books? They run about $50-$125, depending on the title. And you *want* the color plates, if the books still have 'em. Lots of people cut (present tense) them out and sell them seperately. Makes me sad.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Right now, she's got her heart set on... well, I don't even want to say what it is, but the bidding is gonna get rill, rill ugly, let me tell you what.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

I just re-read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but after that link you posted on the subject of Harry's wang, I couldn't even get through Narnia with a straight face.

"You have forgotten to clean your sword," said Aslan.
...
"Hand it to me, and kneel, Son of Adam," said Aslan.
...
"Rise up, Sir Peter Wolfs-bane. And, whatever happens, never forget to wipe your sword."

*snicker*

[drpeprfan.livejournal.com]

*is a total fantasy nerd so she has ten out of the fourteen Frank L Baum Oz books and has read all of them (all 14) several times* Oh yeah, the newer ones were written by his neice or something, Ruth Plumly Thompson. I think I only read one of her books, Kabumpo in Oz, and then I stopped because I couldn't take any more of it, it just wasn't good at all compared to the originals.

They're so hard to find, I'm missing four and I don't expect to find matching ones unless they decide to capitalize on them as movies and they come out with new sets.

[drpeprfan.livejournal.com]

I just found a two volume leather-bound set of the stories, if you're interested.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6584062498&category=29223

[theferrett.livejournal.com]

Got a link for the all-in-one Oz? I've been looking for something like that.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Not on me, but search "oz baum" on Amazon and it's the first thing that came up for me. Possibly "oz baum 15"--you'll know it when you see it.

[koritsimou.livejournal.com]

I would like to point out that 9 and 1/2 is not that big - I'm at least that big, in wides no less. Our population as a whole is getting larger feet because of better nutrition and medical care. Or so I'm told.

[syneblue.livejournal.com]

In the vein of Memoirs buzz, here's an interesting little essay on geisha in American culture:
http://www.zmag.org/ZSustainers/ZDaily/2001-04/14thrupkaew.htm

[bardintraining.livejournal.com]

My bannock experience sounds different from thin batter on a griddle. (Is a griddle a pan or just a flat metal surface on top of an oven? Not sure what we call them in Canada, but I can picture it.)
Bannock in my family is camping bread. What you do is you knock together a block of dough which is pretty much flour, water, and salt and maybe some other stuff. The whole process of making the dough is mysterious because mom too charge of that. Then us kids would leave the circle of the campfire to pick a decent-sized stick that you prayed wasn't too buggy or gross and wrapped the dough around the stick like a malleable marshmallow, then roast that sucker till it was cooked. Then eat it hot with butter and homemade strawberry jam from a jar. The camping rules are as follows, according to my mother and her family's seemingly sick traditions: "no matter how shitty the weather, I don't care if the tent washes away down the river during a thunderstorm and bears maul the minivan in the night, we do not go home until we finish this jar of jam!"
So yeah. Bannock. Hmm.

[kittygopounce.livejournal.com]

Bannock, huh? That sounds like damper to me, lol.

[kittygopounce.livejournal.com]

Mmm, sugar cookies. Christmas sounds so much more exciting at your place. Well any place, really, does when you compare the "Christmas? What's that?" attitude of my family to someone else's. Your sister wouldn't happen to have a copy of the recipe for the biscuits? I might try and make some, if she does/is willing to share/doesn't have to type it up (or make you type it up). :)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'll ask her about it. : )

[dramedy.livejournal.com]

i like how there is otcry that the white witch's hair is blonde, not black, like in the concept art.
when in fact, she ought to be a red head.
:D
we decorated our tree today, and i got a new ornament of the "horse of a different color" scene.

[rebel-waltz.livejournal.com]

i e-mailed the guy who makes the $250 replicas, but they aren't really exact. he does his best, though. he goes out and finds a pair that best fits what the person he's making the shoes for wants. they're definitely worth it if you're not like me and completely crazy. also, i have the blue print(as it were) for the Ruby Slippers if you or your sister would ever like to look at it. my biggest obession in life is The Ruby Slippers(i bet you gathered that) and hopefully one day i'll be able to take it to a costume shoe maker and have a pair made(if it's not illegal). but again, obsessed, probebly more than Sister Girl...or anyone else on the planet. and there are exact replicas made that are for sale, but there's only a couple(and i really mean just a couple) and they're $5,000 a pair XD

[adventurat.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who made her own ruby slippers - red high heel pumps (or shoe as appropriate), and multitudes of red sequins, either stitched on or glue-gunned on. (They come in 'strings', if you understand me; you don't have to stitch them on individually.)

Good luck with the search!

[edda.livejournal.com]

I saw Aeon Flux Friday night and honestly, it's the kind of thing that's better enjoyed on cable, Saturday afternoon or so. Well, IMHO, anyway--meaning, if your schedule gets wrecked, don't feel like you missed the movie of the year (although the art direction/overall style is nice).

Also I sympathize, feet-wise--I take 10WW, 10 1/2WW, or 11W, depending on the make of the shoe. Roaches ph33r my approach.

[girlbyjuly.livejournal.com]

I wear 9 1/2 and I'm fifteen, dude. I hear ya.

[megdalina.livejournal.com]

Size 10's since 8th grade. *sigh*

[thornae.livejournal.com]

Narnia wise, here's (http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1657759,00.html) an interesting opinion piece on the whole religious subtext thing.
Not actually wanting to start any religious debates, just thought it worth a look.

[ladyvoldything.livejournal.com]

*sniff* We're not getting a tree this year.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Aww, that's terrible! Why not?