At Least Give Us Some Music!

I know I'm bad but we've have our niece and nephew in town and so all our spare time has been spent with them. But here's some music at least to take you through the weekend. I pretty much love Sufjan Stevens. He's amazing and here are just a couple of his songs I could find online. His songs are beautiful by themselves but I think they're best when heard all in a row on his CD. They just build on each other and ebb and flow, if you know what I mean.

Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day


Sufjan Stevens - For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti


Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy Jr


Go out and buy "Come On Feel The Illinoise!"

Family Reunion!!!

Leaving in 7 minutes exactly for home to get Nate and be on our way to the Bennion Family Reunion. Way fun!!! Here's some Feist to keep you happy. This song actually reminds me of the Bennion clan out in the country in Missouri.

PS This is not the official video. I couldn't find it on Youtube with the embed link.

Feist - Mushaboom

Stalker Mix

So my sophomore year in college I had a roommate who had a stalker. Not a real bad stalker (at least that we knew of) but he did leave a mix tape (CD actually) of songs on her chair in one of her classes. At first we all thought it was a practical joke by some of our guy friends but after they promised it wasn't them she started to freak out. We listened to the whole album and this song was the last on the album. LISTEN TO THE WORDS!!!! She freaked out even more and wanted to destroy the CD but I LOVED the music. So I kept it, never knowing who most of the bands were (I still don't know some). Then a year after that I was playing this song and one of my roommates knew who it was. It was Coldplay! They were just starting to hit it big on the popular music scene and a creepy stalker had led me to them. It was wonderful.

Coldplay - Shiver

Favorite Author Fridays - Kelly Armstrong

Kelly Armstrong is another modern vampire/werewolf fantasy author. I really like her books. I would say they were another step in maturity above Patricia Briggs but still well below Laurel K. One of the things I love about her is her use of her website. She has monthly contests and journals, discussion boards and just over all tons of stuff. She's very available to her readers without letting them take over her life. She used to have several short stories up online but her publisher decided to put them into a book and so made her take them down.

Another thing she does that I really love is that she switches lead characters. Her first two books are from the perspective of the werewolves but in the 3rd book she switches to the perspective of a witch you met in the 2nd book. It's a really cool way to keep the same universe and not have your story lines get really boring or overly dramatic or sexual. In fact, the witch Paige who narrates the 3rd novel is someone you didn't particularly like in the novel before. What a great idea!

She is also releasing her first YA novel this year (July 1 in fact). There's a contest here to win a copy of it. You just have to share if you 'got' the ending of the Sixth Sense movie. I'm pretty excited. I have a feeling she won't 'dumb down' her YA lit and I always appreciate that.

Bibliography:

Otherworld Novels
Bitten (narrator: Elena)
Stolen (narrator: Elena)
Dime Store Magic (narrator: Paige)
Industrial Magic (narrator: Paige)
Haunted (narrator: Eve)
Chaotic (novella in "Dates from Hell", narrator: Hope)
Broken (narrator: Elena)
No Humans Involved (narrator: Jaime)
Twilight (story in "Many Bloody Returns", narrator: Cassandra)
Stalked (story in "My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon", narrator: Clay)
Personal Demon (narrators: Hope & Lucas)

Nadia Stafford Novels
Exit Strategy
Made to be Broken (Spring '09)

Darkest Powers Trilogy - Young Adult
The Summoning (July 1, 2008)
The Awakening (May 2009)

Spiderwick LOL Contest

Holly Black is having an contest on her LiveJournal site. You need to make an LOLcat about:
-writing
-any of [her] books
-faery folklore

The prize is a trunk with the Spiderwick books and journals and a copy of the movie. 5 DVD's of Spiderwick will also be given out for the runner ups.

Here's mine:


Enter! You could win!!!

P.S. I miss my Kit

Maybe I should write him...

Fences, Plates and My Poor Snuggly

So on Saturday we helped our friends Spencer and Laura

tear down their fence (they were the friends who watched all 4 of our dogs at their house while we were gone for Thanksgiving last year so they could ask me for a kidney and I'd be happy to give it to them). Anyway, we'd only been there a few minutes when Nate was trying to jiggle a post we had to take out and it broke off. He went flying and hit a metal post in their neighbor's yard. He has this to show for it.

I didn't get any bruises or even a sunburn but it's been so long since I did any sustained physical labor I went home and slept for like 4 hours. It was sooo nice.

Right after the fence project Nate and I went to see the new Hulk movie. I don't know what to say about it except that I thought it was just ok but Nate liked it so I guess it was worth it.

I also just harvested our fist yellow squash out of out garden. YEA!!!!


Ok and now here is really the best story from the last couple of days...

Several weeks ago Nate got us a bread maker off of freecycle.org. At school I used to make my own bread and rolls pretty often but with school and work and the lack of kneading space in my kitchen I hadn't been making any for Nate so he decided while bread maker bread isn't quite as good as homemade bread it is better than store bought bread.

So the day before yesterday Nate made bread. He added all the ingredients and it ran through the whole cycle and then finally yesterday we got around to actually trying to eat it. We were watching a movie in the living room and Nate grabbed the bread maker pan to get out the bread. The problem is this:

See that weird blade thing in the bottom? that's what stirs/kneads the bread but it also makes it very difficult to get bread out. the baked bread sticks to that blade and so you spend a lot of time pulling and thumping and being very irritated trying to get your bread out. Anyway so Nate struggled with it for several minutes and finally got it out. He set it down on a plate on the couch. He was really excited to have an egg salad sandwich on his super yummy bread. But...it was time to switch the laundry at his parent's house (yes we still do laundry at his folks one day I will have the amazing ability to do laundry in my own home but that day has not come yet). He asked me to make the egg salad out of the eggs he had just boiled and have it ready for him when he got back.

I made the egg salad, put it in the fridge and then went to take a bath. A while later I heard Nate pull up and the dogs bark because they're glad he's home. I hear Nate open the door. I can hear the dogs pretty loud so I figure Nate decided to let them in. But then I hear the yelling...

Turns out Nate did not let the dogs in. They got excited and pushed open the back door that we hadn't completely closed. Cali ran in to her favorite spot by the love seat and lo and behold there was a treat just for her - a whole loaf of bread. I mean it had to be for her because human food is usually on the table. So she grabbed it (before the other dogs could) and ran for the back door. Nate saw her and was way mad. He was so sad he lost his bread and his sandwiches he was looking forward to. He actually got the bread from her but wasn't going to eat it now. Here's a pic of what was left for my poor snuggly.

I of course thought it was pretty funny but don't tell Nate. :)

Now for fun a cute, blurry pic of one of the kittens.

They are just started to get playful and wrassle with each other. I love it!

Sometimes you just need some Weezer...

I love this song. I love this video. Really the only way to get through a Monday.

Weezer - Perfect Situation


PS I've added quite a few links to friend and family blogs. Check them out. Most are way better at this blogging thing than I am.

Favorite Author Fridays - Patricia Briggs

Patricia Briggs is one of my favorite 'comfortable reading' authors right now. This means her vocab isn't too high (but not too low either), her stories are engaging, there's not too much gratuitous sex or violence and I find myself drawn to the characters. She's not a writer of literature really but she does tell a good story.



I love her Moon Called series, which is modern set werewolf/vampire fantasy. They're a step up maturity-wise from Stephanie Meyers but way tamer than Laurel K. Hamilton. Her publisher has recently been re-releasing some of her earlier novels which I've really enjoyed. My favorite of her stories is probably The Hob's Bargain. It's one of her older stories I discovered years ago and I find myself rereading it surprisingly often. It's a love story I guess but just a little left of normal so it's not too boring.

Here's her bibliography (once again ones in red I've read and would recommend):

Novels

Sianim Series

• Masques (1993)
• Steal the Dragon (1995)
  
• When Demons Walk (1998)

Hurog Duology

• Dragon Bones (2003)
• Dragon Blood (2003)

Raven Duology

• Raven's Shadow (2004)
• Raven's Strike (2005)

Mercedes Thompson Series

• Moon Called (2006)
  
• Blood Bound (2007)
• Iron Kissed (January 2008)
• Bone Crossed (expected February 2009)

Alpha and Omega Series

• Story started in Alpha and Omega in On the Prowl
• First novel, Cry Wolf (2008)

Stand-alone novels

• The Hob's Bargain (2001)

Anthology Contributions

• The Price in Silver Birch, Blood Moon (by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow)
• Alpha and Omega in On the Prowl (2007)

Baptism and the Garden

I was just looking through the photos on our camera and I can't believe I didn't post about these things already! I'm a slacker!!!

First, on June 6th Nate got to baptize 2 young men and their mother. These boys had been coming to our primary class for a couple of weeks before (although they're actually in young mens). Nate got to baptize all 3 of them and next Sunday will be giving one boy the priesthood. ***** Correction. Nate ended up confirming both boys to the Aaronic Priesthood. It was super cool!*** It was really amazing.


Victor, JoAnn, Clarence and Nate

Secondly, I harvested most of my sugar snap peas. I brought one to my coworker, Chris, and I tried to take a picture of it but it was really hard to get my camera to focus on it for some reason. Isn't it beautiful? We also have a yellow squash growing that is getting pretty big. YUM!

Wordle

Decided to play with wordle.net today. This was Nate's song of choice:

And mine:

The video for mine:

Damien Rice - Volcano


I can't decide if I like this louder, more passionate, version or the original, more soulful, one.

I guess I'll post them both so you can decide on your favorite. :)

Damien Rice - Volcano

(sorry for the annoying buzzing in this one)

Damien you are amazing!

Favorite Author Fridays - Holly Black

Sorry I skipped last week- it was busy! Anyway today's author is Holly Black.



I decided to talk about her since Nate and I went to see the Spiderwick Chronicles movie last night. I'll be honest, I didn't love it. I don't usually love movies based on books I've read or actually even reading books I've seen the movies of first. This movie left out a lot of the intro stuff that makes you love the characters. Even Mary Louise Parker couldn't save it for me and I love her in a not quite platonic way. I just didn't care about the family and wasn't even very caught up in the action. Sad for me. :(

However I did really like the books. I loved the style of them (similar to Series of Unfortunate Events) where you have small hardbound children's books that are just a little nicer (and more likely to hold up) than the average children's book. I have also long been a fan of her older young adult fiction. I really think that is really her strength: gritty modern realistic fantasy. She excels at showing teenagers as they quite often are, well-intentioned but making stupid choices. They are however very questionable. She did not choose to write about the average, mostly boring, lives of the teens you probably know and love. She chose to write about teens in bad situations making really dumb choices and encountering magic in a modern environment. If you have big concerns about the material you allow your young adults to read these are probably not the books for you.

But I do love them. I love her realistic characters and her portrayal of modern life meeting magic. She does it beautifully. And I especially love that her protagonist are not always right and good. They are often wrong and stupid- very much like us.

Here's her Bibliography. Ones in red are ones I have read and recommend.

The Modern Faerie Tales

• Tithe : A Modern Faerie Tale (2002)

• Valiant : A Modern Tale of Faerie (2005)

• Ironside : A Modern Faery's Tale (2007)

The Spiderwick Chronicles

• The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide (2003)

• The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Seeing Stone (2003)

• The Spiderwick Chronicles: Lucinda's Secret (2003)

• The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Ironwood Tree (2004)

• The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Wrath of Mulgarath (2004)

• Arthur Spiderwick's Notebook of Fantastical Observations (2005)

• Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You (2005)

• The Spiderwick Chronicles: Care and Feeding of Sprites (2006)

• The Nixie's Song: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles (2007)

WARNING!!! - Slightly Questionable

Ok so I promise I really do like good music but sometimes you just have to go slumming.

Here's a song I fully expect to become the most played at drunken sorority parties. It's completely - ok slightly - questionable (I mean really it's just kissing) but also way fun. You can't keep yourself from smiling in a little bit in shock and moving to the beat (strangely the beat reminds me of Marilyn Manson- I know weird). Anyway enjoy! (or if you're worried skip this one- I won't be offended).

Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl

My Garden and Our Not-So-Smart Puppies

Ok so I've been meaning to post about my garden (because I'm crazy proud) but it's not weeded so I'm too embarrassed to put up pics. But I really need to because it's amazing! Things are growing that I planted. We've been harvesting our own spinach for a while but I think it's being close to being done (it's a cold-weather plant) and we just started getting out first sugar-snap peas. We've got blossoms on our tomato plants and our squashes. And our melons and corn are looking really good. I love it! *extra note- Nate felt I left him out of the garden info. He did help plant and often does the watering* Here's the one pic I have which Nate took (I'll give you a hint he was not focused on the garden...).

Plus I saw this cute little spider carrying around an egg sac the other day. Yea for spiders that eat the bugs around here!

And just for fun here are my not very smart dogs. This is Hoss wanting to get inside (even though he knows if the baby gate is up he's not allowed) and getting his head stuck. So funny...

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday Nate sent some flowers to my office. I've never thought of myself as much of a 'flowers' girl but he got Gerbera daisy's which are my favorite - and they did brighten up my desk! Thanks Cute-Face.

Tokyo Pot

On June 4th Nate, his parents and I went to a restaurant called Tokyo Pot. It is a shabu-shabu style restaurant. It's also part owned by the guy who owns our favorite sushi restaurant, Sushi House. It was way fun! We were celebrating Nate's parent's anniversary and my birthday.

This is how it works. They give you a plate of veggies and a plate of very thinly-sliced meat. Then you have a pot (or pots in our case) of boiling water in front of you.

You put all the veggies in the water (they take a while to cook) and then you dip the meat in the boiling water to cook it (6-8 seconds).

You eat the meat as you go: cooking it, dipping it in sauce and eating it with rice.

After all the meat is cooked your veggies are done and you eat the 'broth soup' that's been created by cooking your meat. It was way yummy! And really fun.

We had originally heard about this style of cooking because Brad (Nate's dad) had had this when he was in Japan on business. It was well worth it and not as expensive as I had feared. I would love to go again!

Dirty Secret Pleasure

I can't hide it anymore! I love this song. Every time I hear those first weird notes on the radio I get excited. I know it's embarrassing. I know I should be disgusted. But I can't help it. I'd even say he was cute if it didn't make me feel like a pedophile...



P.S. It's better than last year's secret pleasure, Justin Timberlake...

Kittens!!!

We have kittens!

Our hussy kitten got into the backyard and lured a boy cat into her trap (this happened a while ago obviously). Nate came home on Friday to 5 baby kittens born in his chair.

Don't worry they will get cuter.

Just don't get too close.

Birthdays and Anniversaries

So Friday we did go out to the Sushi House as promised. It was wonderful! We ended up going with some friends and their daughter. I don't think they were really 'sushi people' but they at least tried stuff. Here's our meal.



Here's the meal for the little girl, Destiny. Notice the cute carrot flowers.



Then we went and saw Iron Man. It was so good. I now have a major crush on Robert Downey Jr. Mmmmm.

Favorite Author Fridays - Robert Asprin

This is a somewhat subdued Favorite Author Friday because Robert Asprin has recently passed away (June 28, 1946 – May 22, 2008). I loved his 'MYTH' books. They were hilarious and full of puns. He had some personal issues that led to a wide gap in the publishing of his books in the 90's and then to all new books being co-authored. I am sad that now that he'd finally gotten things back together he died. Apparently he died peacefully in his home with a sci-fi book in his hands. I would recommend any of his MYTH books.

Bibliography (from Wikipedia):

• Tambu (1979)
• The Bug Wars (1979)
• Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe (1979) (with George Takei)
• Catwoman (1992) (with Lynn Abbey)
• License Invoked (February 2001), (ISBN 0-671-31978-7)
• For King and Country (July 2002), (ISBN 0-7434-3539-7)
• E.Godz (March 2005), (ISBN 0-7434-9888-7)
• Dragons Wild (April 2008), (ISBN 0-4410-1470-4)

Series

• MythAdventures

1. Another Fine Myth (1978)
2. Myth Conceptions (1980)
3. Myth Directions (1982)
4. Hit or Myth (1983)
5. Myth-ing Persons (1984)
6. Little Myth Marker (1985)
7. M.Y.T.H. inc. Link (1986)
8. Myth-Nomers and Im-Pervections (1987)
9. M.Y.T.H. inc. in Action (1990)
10. Sweet Myth-tery of Life (1993)
11. Myth-Ion Improbable (2001)
12. Something M. Y. T. H. Inc. (2002)
13. Myth-told Tales (2003) with Jody Lynn Nye
14. Myth Alliances (2003) with Jody Lynn Nye
15. Myth-taken Identity (2004) with Jody Lynn Nye
16. Class Dis-Mythed (2005) with Jody Lynn Nye
17. Myth-Gotten Gains (2006) with Jody Lynn Nye
18. Myth-Chief (2008) with Jody Lynn Nye
19. Myth-Fortune (forthcoming) with Jody Lynn Nye

• Omnibus editions

1. MYTH Adventures (1984)
2. Myth Adventures One (1985)
3. Myth Alliances (Myth-ing Persons, Little Myth Marker, M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link) (1986)
4. The MYTH-ing Omnibus (1992)
5. The Second MYTH-ing Omnibus (1992)
6. M.Y.T.H. Inc. in Action / Sweet Myth-Tery of Life (2002)
7. M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link / Myth-Nomers and Im-Pervections (2002)
8. Myth Adventures Three (2002)
9. Myth-ing Persons / Little Myth Marker (2002)

• Duncan and Mallory (with Mel White)

1. Duncan and Mallory (1986)
2. The Bar None Ranch (1987)
3. The Raiders (1988)

• Phule's Company

1. Phule's Company (1990)
2. Phule's Paradise (1992)
3. A Phule and His Money (1999) with Peter J. Heck.
4. Phule Me Twice (2000) with Peter J. Heck.
5. No Phule Like an Old Phule (2004) with Peter J. Heck.
6. Phule's Errand (2006) with Peter J. Heck.

• Time Scout (with Linda Evans)

1. Time Scout (1995)
2. Wagers of Sin (1995)
3. Ripping Time (2000)
4. The House that Jack Built (2000)

• Cold Cash

1. The Cold Cash War (1977)
2. Cold Cash Warrior (1989) (with Bill Fawcett)

• Wartorn (with Eric Del Carlo)

1. Resurrection (2004)
2. Obliteration (2006)

Other short fiction

• "The Ex-Khan" in Angels in Hell (1987), part of the Heroes in Hell series
• "Two Gentlemen of the Trade" in Festival Moon (1987), part of the Merovingen Nights series
• "A Harmless Excursion" in Smugglers Gold (1988), also from Merovingen Nights
• "Mything in Dreamland" with Jody Lynn Nye in Masters of Fantasy (2004), part of the Myth series