poll: reading frenzy

I can't recall if I've ever posted the photo at the top of the page in my Blatherings before. It's a picture of Jeff in the cottage lake at ice-out years ago. Yes, that's real ice floating around him in the water (hence his agonized expression). I think he was only in for about a second or two, but I'm amazed that he was able to stand the icy temperature for that long!

I also took the picture below that same week, looking out the front of the boathouse at the ice drifting slowly by.





Dead tired this morning, and it's Jodi's fault! :-) She loaned me her copy of Passage by Connie Willis. I usually have two reading projects going at the same time. Right now, I'm reading Tolkien as well as one other.

I started Passage last night, and couldn't put it down until it was past midnight, when I was halfway through. Even then, I had to fight the urge to keep reading. I'm always torn when that happens...I desperately WANT to keep reading, but I know that I'm so tired that I'm not appreciating what I'm reading as much as I would be if I was awake, and wouldn't it be better to close up the book and continue later?

How about the rest of you?

Poll: When you can't put down a book...

When's the last time you felt the same way I did? For what book? Have you ever read an entire book at one sitting? When do you do most of your reading? (just before going to bed? in line at the grocery store? etc.)

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Jeff in icy agony/ecstasy. His dad's kneeling on the dock nearby.
	View from the front of the boathouse at ice-out.

bananas

Click on the image above to see a larger picture of our bananas. They look pretty green, don't they? I tried peeling one this morning, but found it too hard. I bought these bananas via Grocery Gateway almost TWO WEEKS AGO. Where the heck did GG get these mutant bananas from? I sent the photo to them this morning with exactly that question. Well, almost exactly. I didn't use the word "mutant".

I recently sold an article about how to store fruit and vegetables to Dollar Stretcher, but I have to confess that the secret of bananas still eludes me to some extent. I know they're a good ethylene producer (a ripening agent), and that putting them in a bag with another good ethylene producer will help speed up ripening. Storing bananas on a hook is supposed to help the fruit last longer because it avoids "resting bruises" and encourages ventilation.

Then why don't I ever have bananas ripen when I want them to? They're green and hard one day, brown and mushy the next.

Or apparently green forever, like our current bananas. In another couple weeks, I'm going to contact the people at Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Maybe they'll give me money for our mutant bananas, enough for a down payment of a new house.

Hey, miracles do happen. Like bananas that are still green after two weeks.

cottage

Quiet, relaxing weekend. Jeff and I are doing a lot of reading and napping. After a sauna and brief dip in the lake yesterday, we lay on the dock and watched the clouds drift by for a while. The leaves are just beginning to turn; in a few weeks, the fall colours should be at their peak.

It's wonderful to have unscheduled time like this. Jeff and I might go for a hike this afternoon.

Then again, we might not.

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Today's Blatherpic:

The boathouse, in the morning.

bookcrossing.com

Jeff and I are at the cottage right now (photo above was taken a few minutes ago). The air was chill enough to warrant a fire this morning, yay! I love it when it gets colder like this. The lake water is cold enough to turn the surface of my skin numb as soon as I jumped in last night, and this was after a lengthy bake in the sauna.

Real estate update: Jeff and I are continuing to check out places in Toronto. After wandering into a few open houses at random over the past couple of weeks, we've been discouraged, so finally decided to start talking to real estate agents. We've found one we really like: Kathy Gordon, Parki's agent. In addition to being really nice and good at what she does, she's also Internet-savvy.

Thanks to Chris Conway for mentioning Bookcrossing.com in Blatherchat earlier this week. What a wonderful idea for sharing books! The basic idea is that people take a book and "release it into the wild". The site provides you with a label or bookmark you can stick in the front of the book which has a unique Bookcrossing ID and a message that encourages the person who finds it to check the site. Bookcrossing logs any journal entries for the book, tracking the path of ownership as it passes from one person to another.

I immediately felt compelled to try it out of course. My Bookcrossing id is "inkygrrl", and I registered and released three books in my neighbourhood. We'll see what happens; I'll check on their progress from time to time, and probably release more over time. You can find out more information at the Bookcrossing.com site as well as this SeattlePI.com article. And you can see my "bookshelf" here.

I left one on a newspaper stand, one on a restaurant table, and one on bench. What's also great is that if I wanted to, I could also go hunting for recently-released books in my area. Reminds me somewhat of the whole Geocaching trend.

Anyway, I think this Bookcrossing.com is a wonderful idea, but I have to wonder how long they'll survive since their database is likely to grow exponentially over the next while (they're getting a huge amount of press). Hopefully they've found a sound financial model which will keep up <fingers crossed>.

Meanwhile, I'll keep releasing books into the wild...

poll: romance books/movies

Congratulations to Bryan and Elizabeth! Their baby's due next March.

I saw Possession with Allison and Jodi last night at Sheppard Centre. I liked it; I'm such a sucker for romance, especially romance in the face of adversity. Really liked Jennifer Ehle, who played Christabel LaMotte. Allison and Jodi said she was also very good in A&E's version of "Pride & Prejudice". I've really got to rent P&P someday; I've heard so many women say how much they liked it.

I think I was turned off Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice because of an attempt to make us read the book in Grade Six or Seven. We all hated it, so the teacher gave up. I've steered relatively clear of reading Austen since then, mostly because of the kneejerk negative reaction I experience whenever I consider or someone suggests reading one of her books. Must get over that. For those interested, by the way, there is a Pride and Prejudice reading project starting up in the Electric Penguin message boards.

My favourite Victorian romance novel is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Wow, do I ever love that book. I have a battered-looking copy that I picked up in a used bookstore years ago that is even more worn-looking now because of how many times I've read it since. I've seen various movie versions as well as a live musical, but haven't liked any nearly as much as the original book.

Some of my favourite romantic movies:

Romeo & Juliet: version with Olivia Hussey & Leonard Whiting

Casablanca

Singin' in the Rain: mostly because of the last major scene

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: heartbreaking

The Princess Bride

Braveheart: hey, Mel carried around that handkerchief forever!

Sleepless In Seattle

Ladyhawke

Pretty Woman: stop gagging, Andy!

Roman Holiday

The Truth About Cats And Dogs

Truly, Madly, Deeply: I liked Ghost, too, but enjoyed this much more

The Sound of Music

Somewhere In Time

Hm. I know I'm missing some; I'll think of more later.

Don't forget to check out Fillmore tomorrow, a new Disney cartoon for which Rand and Adam wrote the theme music! Jeff and I will be at the cottage, but Allison has kindly agreed to tape it for me (thanks, Allison!). According to the announcement on the Ookla message board, Fillmore debuts on Saturday, September 14 at 9:00 AM on ABC.

Poll: What are your favourite romance books/movies?

Answer in Blatherchat





Links/News:

There's going to be a webcam on the STS-112 space shuttle mission that launches on Oct. 2nd. (Spaceref.com)

Back to the Starship Enterprise, as the Franchise Goes Where It's Gone Before (New York Times) **Don't read this if you don't want any hint of plot spoilers for Nemesis, the new Star Trek movie.

Someone's got hold of the extended script for Fellowship of the Ring (remember the extra 30 minutes footage that will be included in the Special Edition DVD released in November?). Here's the review, which has ***MAJOR PLOT SPOILER WARNINGS***.

Thanks to the TheOneRing.net for mentioning my Hobbit/LOTR Revisited personal reading project.

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Today's Blatherpic:

	Ultrasound picture taken yesterday of Bryan's and Elizabeth's unborn child.
	Martin Short as Jiminy Glick, being interviewed in front of our building last night. I took this picture as I passed by on the way home. Lots of star-types in our area these days because of the Toronto Film Festival. Jeff said Denzel Washington was across the street earlier in the evening.