This is Not Exciting

Sometimes during the school year I think to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice to get sick, and not feel obligated to do anything productive for three days?" But then when I do get sick I remember how boring, frustrating and vexing being sick really is. Being able to watch four hours of The Office is not so much consolation when it feels like your body has turned against you. I will say that the most I have ever enjoyed being sick was two summers ago when I had a stomach bug and I spent two days rewatching the first season of Battlestar Galactica. Maybe that was because I got out of French class for those two days, but the world may never know for sure. Either way, as I lay here with my Kleenex, medicine, and one of the cats, I am thinking very fondly of those stomach flu days.

Since the theme for today is laying in bed with only Vera (ie, pink laptop) to entertain me, now would seem to be an appropriate time to introduce one of the best friends you could ever find on the Internet:

The Office! Firefly! Chuck! Ghostbusters! The Fifth Element! Buffy the Vampire Slayer! It's all there, it's all legal, and it's all brought to you with limited commercial interruptions! As an added bonus, I checked today and now you can watch all of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog! Awesome!

And on a final note, I just watched the new teaser for Half-Blood Prince and it was so great that I'll have to make a separate blog just about that. Sweet!

Oh, the Craftiness of Me!

Last night I found myself gluing buttons to a picture frame. It was very exciting, but even more exciting was gluing buttons to magnets (courtesy of La Dolcezza). Who knew there was a whole word of one-of-a-kind magnets, waiting to be made with only glue, buttons and my brain? This got me thinking about some of my other crafty exploits, and while they are not many, they are all pretty memorable.

First, here are my magnets. The heart magnet is fitting in very well with the crowd of wedding announcements on the fridge. And if I refer to the knight as "Sir Cadogan" well...is anyone surprised?
Now, here is something really special. Few people know that I like to make things with foil candy wrappers. In the past, "things" has always just meant legs that stand up, with the occasional full figure, complete with a Hershey Kiss paper scarf. This past Saturday I branched out and made myself some killer bling. Yeah, that girl on the TV is blown away too (if you know what I was watching I will make you a foil person of your very own. Except Marcue because she was there.).
As for the rest of my craftiness, well, it is pretty much used only to make Harry Potter costume accessories. My favorite is probably the Rita Skeeter bug that I made for the Goblet of Fire movie opening. Ingredients are as follows: a jar intended for painting, a fake plant from Wal-Mart, a fake bug from the Bean Museum, my roommate's acrylics, and superglue. Sadly, opportunities to carry this around are few and far between these days.
My latest bout of HP craftiness was for Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows. I had a friend who dressed up as Luna Lovegood, and of course she needed some earrings. The best part about these earrings is that the radish bodies are bells. Hello, pretty camera.
Now if only I had a picture of my Mandrake plant.

Also, if anyone knows the movie I'm quoting (in an adapted fashion) in the title, then you are very smart and smarter than all of these people (#3).

I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts

I don't know why I'm using random movie quotes for blog titles lately.  Enjoy it while it lasts, I suppose!

OK, this is just a quick note, partly just to remind myself later when I don't remember it as well, but I had three dreams last night.  They were separate but the ones that followed the first would refer back to the others and it was all kind of strange.  But here are the things that were involved in them:

My Little Pony: the country, the castle and the most awesome pool ever (for sea ponies, of course)

Kingdom Hearts (2?  It doesn't matter)

Steven Spielberg and his nameless rival

Tony Stark

My old roommate and her niece

Fancy dresses that I do not own

Earrings that I do not own

A trip to St. Louis

Breakfast burritos from McDonalds

Chingachgook (but he was played by Wes Studi/Magua!  No!)

The Bog Monster (also known as the "Next Great American Novel")

Love triangles

Jeeves!

Last of the Mohicans

And yes....it was AWESOME. 

This is a messed up country

Did I make you think this was going to be a blog ranting about the government and politics? Well, it's not. I was actually just quoting The Mummy because that's what came to mind. And, just for the record, I'm going to see the third one even though 1) I think it's an unnecessary sequel 2) No Imoteph? Sad. 3) No Rachel Weisz? More sad. 4) Mario Bello? Most sad. Luckily it still has Brendan Fraser and John Hannah and I'm sure it will be over the top and fun. Or it SHOULD be.

Wow, I was not planning to say any of that. Back to the subject! An hour and 46 minutes ago it was still Independence Day, which I love. Early American history is my favorite American history, which is why I watched Last of the Mohicans...twice. And while part of me wishes (just a tiny bit!) that England had won the war, thus making us all British citizens, I am quite content with my American citizenship.

Now of course we have hot dogs, fireworks and blockbuster movies to celebrate this momentous occasion, but I decided we all need something extra this year. And that something extra is...Hugh Laurie.



(You're welcome.)

Yikes!

Last weekend I made my first trip to Ohio to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. And there were lots of things to look at, like Lego cities and a taxidermied polar bear. But this guy was hard to beat. Behold!

CRUNCH

He's an enormous alligator snapping turtle that is over 150 years old. And he was just hanging out in this tank, with his mouth open. Perhaps he was hoping someone would stick an arm in there? Let's have a closer look at that pretty face.

Indiana is not a Plane

So, as some of you may know and most of you may not, I was thisclose to applying to a study abroad program in England this summer. And once I finally listened to the internal advice that was beating me over the head, I decided not to. But if I had, I would be on a plane today, headed over to England where I could achieve some life goals and possibly kidnap Gerard Butler. But since I'm just sitting in Indiana instead, I figured a blog that celebrated England would be appropriate. Here are some things I love about England:

• The accents! You knew this was coming so I decided to get it out of the way.
  
• It's the birthplace of how many of the authors I love? A lot. Including Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, JRR Tolkien, James Herriot, CS Lewis, Thomas Hardy, JK Rowling, JM Barrie, and the Bronte clan.
• Besides authors, think of all the other great things that came/come out of England: Coldplay, scones, Robin Hood, Jeeves & Wooster, Orlando Bloom and an appreciation for dental care
  
• It's little.
  
• It has such lovely names: London, Manchester, Wolverhampton, Weymouth.
  
• It's the setting for all of those books written by all of those authors I just listed.
  

It's harder than I thought to make a list because there are just so! many! things! that I love about England/that came from England/that are part of my VERY BEING. Also, why talk about England when you can look at it? Let's look at it.

There are goals, and then there are goals: things you absolutely must do. I absolutely must go to an English moor and run around on it.
The British Museum. Pretty!

John Singleton Copley. OK, so he was an American colonial painter, but he eventually hopped the pond and settled in England. Part of me says "Way to ditch your country, Mr. Copley" but mostly I think "Yeah, I don't blame you, Johnny."
And my favorite painting? Painted by an Englishman. Thank you, Edwin Landseer. And thank you, St. Louis Art Museum, for buying it.

*sigh*