We have snow. It's supposed to keep snowing into tomorrow. The only concern with this, aside from falling on slick sidewalks or slipping off the el platform, is that slemslempike is trying to fly home today. I am not sure she's going to make it.

While I was visiting, Husband got himself an Xbox. We tried to do the motorcycle racing game, but neither of us could get out of the training module and you can't race until you do that. I managed to get air, but couldn't do a trick while getting air without crashing. It was amusing, but got quickly boring since one person had to watch instead of playing.

So he loaded up the Lego Batman and Robin game, and we whiled away a few hours trying to figure out how to catch the bad guys and get the most points without falling into the green ooze or accidentally jumping into chasms. It was hilarious, the two of us trying and failing to master a game designed for under-10s. We got stuck in this place where bad guys regenerate and come kill you, and eventually we gave up and went to bed. But we had a lot of fun accidentally killing each other, jumping off rails, and trying to figure out how we'd gotten Batman and Robin to send up a rope and climb up to the balcony. There was much giggling.

I can't imagine how miserable I'd be if I had to be a grown-up all the time.

So I'm driving down 93 this morning (around 7:30am), traveling south from Medford and approaching the downtown tunnels, when on the lower deck I see the LED sign at the top say OVERHEIGHT - STOP AND WAIT FOR POLICE. I looked in my rearview mirror and, sure enough, there were 2 or 3 large trucks behind me (a few cars back). I kept glancing back to see if any of them were pulling over, but they just right on truckin'. They probably thought "Oh, must be the other guy's truck, not me."

Anyway, since I was a little ahead of them, I got into the tunnels but I didn't hear a loud 'bang' or 'crash' sound. I'm just looking at Google Maps traffic now, and 93 South is very backed up from Medford to the tunnels, which is a little odd for 10am.

Does anyone know if a truck DID crash into the tunnel entrance? I can't find anything about it online, but figured one of you fine, beautiful people might have been commuting around that time.


Possible discussion topics:
- jokes about getting your tunnel backed up
- "It was probably a BU student in a U-Haul, derp derp!"
- the "I don't drive, I take the T since it's better for the environment" kids who think that the universe ends 1 mile from any T stop

Aaaaaaand GO!

Halfway mark!

Book 23: The Select by F. Paul Wilson. 394 pages.
Genre: Psychological action thriller, perhaps. Medical thriller, anyhow.
Plot: From the back of the book: "Quinn Cleary is smart, idealistic and poor. She's been accepted at The Ingraham, a prestigious medical school, where a select few receive the finest education free of charge. But something is terribly wrong at The Ingraham. Quinn notices subtle changes in the bright, hand-picked students. Then she stumbles upon the silent, staring patients in locked Ward C."
Good, but predictable as heck. Quinn fits into the perfect stereotype of women protagonists in this sort of fiction. She's tall, stunning (but doesn't know it) and smarter than everyone else. I enjoyed the character of Dr Emerson, as well as Tim. The twist with Ward C was a little surpising, but that was the only thing about the book that I wasn't able to predict after the first chapter.
Rating: 5 of 10.

Book 24: Cover Her Face by PD James. 206 pages.
Genre: Mystery.
Plot: From fantasticfiction: "Headstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill." The debut novel for PD James, I figured it was a good place to start, as I'd never read any of her stuff. It follows a very classic British mystery plotline with all of the suspects gathered in the room at the end waiting to find out whodunnit. The action is all very passive, you don't really realize how quick it's going. I like that, but it's hard to get used to after reading something a lot more modern where everything is happening at once. It was enjoyable though, and I'll be keeping an eye out for more of her books.
Rating: 7 of 10.

Book 25: We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee. 261 pages.
Genre: Memoir.
Plot: Benjamin Mee and his wife, his mother and his brother buy a failing zoo in Dartmoor. Told from Mee's perspective, the story covers mainly the before and during aspects of buying and setting up the zoo, which is at risk of being shut down permanently. Even though I knew going into it what the outcome was, I still felt a sense of relief at the end when they successfully managed to open to the public. Mee has a habit of jumping back and forth in time when telling the story, which is a bit confusing. The animal anecdotes were fun, moreso than his occasional ego trips in which he talked about his DIY prowess. I've put a visit to the actual zoo, the Darmoor Zoological Park, on my to-do list.
Rating: 6 or 7 of 10.

25 / 50 books. 50% done!

7094 / 15000 pages. 47% done!

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Jan 10th at 6:50p for Sherlock Holmes at the AMC Boston Common 19 . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

( Film Synopsis )

I'm looking for endearments that a father might use for his young children - especially his sons. They're under the age of ten.

Thanks in advance!

ETA: The dad is going to be Harry and it's present day.

I'm running two consultations at the moment. TWO! Like one isn't enough stress?

Number two is running though the industrial printer outside my office right now, and the printer fumes... OMGWTFBBQ. I have flu-like symptoms. It is not fun - I have taken myself off home for lunch, and may use the fumes as an excuse to leave work at the end of general core hours (I normally have to work an extra half an hour to cover the on-line helpdesk). I suspect this evening will be a "fun-packed rollercoaster of teenage fun", as it is Spawn #2's 13th birthday today.

Yes - UG and I are now the parents of a teenage girl. UG is sharpening all the knives in the house, and downloading the application for a shotgun license.

O.o

I decided to do the 50 book challenge again in 2010. Mostly because my reading has been tapering off, due to theatre, video games, knitting, and various other pursuits, and I am trying to motivate myself to read more.

1. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

This is quite different from the other two books of his I've read (Cloud Atlas and Ghost Written), but I still loved it. It's basically a coming of age story, but it's done really well. It appears to be semi-autobiographical, and Mitchell really captures adolescence and the ways people hide themselves to fit in better, without sinking into being maudlin.

2. Survivor by Octavia Butler

This is part of her "Patternist" series, which is not my favorite thing she's ever written, but is still intriguing. Butler also says that this is her least favorite novel she ever wrote. Overall, I liked it well enough, but I do think it lacked the depth and freshness of some of her other works.

I am a total bookworm, although some people would argue that I don't count because I don't read classics. What can I say? Moderns fantasy is just so much more intersting:)
I saw this community and thought it was a great idea. I've been neglecting my reading for the internet a little this past year, and now I can combine the two. Hurrah! So without further ado, my first 3 books of the year.

( No spoilers. Cut because it's a bit long. )

So far, I'm doing well-three books in one week. But that's probably not going to continue, because most of the books I read aren't part of a series I started reading four years ago, and take longer to finish than two days. My next book is Homeland by R.A. Salvatore,  which will probably take closer to a week.

1. Jeff Lindsay, Dexter by Design, 285 pages, Thriller, Hardback, 2009.

The 4th book in this series about the loveable serial killer/blood splatter specialist who only kills bad guys finds Dexter returning from his honeymoon with Rita and settling into domestic life, including teaching his new step-children the Harry Path, the code of conduct his adoptive father taught him. At work, he finds Miami has a new criminal who likes to leave dead bodies as art – and who puts Dexter in the cross-hairs after he makes a snap judgment with deadly consequences. But now Dexter has a family to worry about, a fact this adversary has no problem exploiting.

I enjoyed the book – no more supernatural musings on the nature of the Dark Passenger, for one thing. I like the way the books have developed Rita’s children, very different from the Showtime adaptation of the series. But Dexter seems to be less a killer than a confused loner this time around. And it seems he isn’t likely to find a balance in his life any time soon. I look forward to the next book, due out sometime in the next year.

FINALLY finished working my way through the archive (great job, EVERYONE!) and posted a list of 48 recs in my journal.

30 Fandoms:
Alien: Resurrection, The Baby-Sitters Club, Back to the Future, The Big Bang Theory, The Boondock Saints, Bridge to Terabithia, Castle, Chuck, Dollhouse, Eureka, Fairy Tales, The Fifth Element, Glee, Greek Mythology, James Bond, Leverage, The Middleman, Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman, Night World - LJ Smith, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, The Princess Bride, Quantum Leap, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, RPF - 20th c Arts & Sciences, Sahara, The Scarlet Pimpernel, TV Commercials, The Unusuals, Warehouse 13, Zombieland

Recs in Bridge to Terabithia, Bridgerton series (Julia Quinn), Dirty Dancing, Dollhouse, Ghostwriter, The Handmaid's Tale, Horatio Hornblower (TV), How I Met Your Mother, Leverage, Like Water for Chocolate, Oregon Trail (game), The Royal Tenenbaums, The Simpsons, and Wallace and Gromit at my journal here.

I'm working on Steggie, from Knitty, and I can't quite figure out if I'm making mistakes on the sleeve edging or not. The pattern calls for YO increases at the edge between the MC and CC, and I feel like I should somehow not have any holes there in spite of the YOs. Anyone who's made this- ARE there supposed to be holes between the MC and CC, or is there some way of doing a YO that I'm not aware of that doesn't make holes? Pattern is here:
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring09/PATTsteggie.php

Note- I am properly twisting the yarns when I switch colors, so the holes aren't from that.

Title: Darkfever (fever series 1)
Author: Karen Marie Moning
Pages: 309
Genre: fantasy, romantic suspense

MacKayla Lane’s life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she’s your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman.

Or so she thinks…until something extraordinary happens.

When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death–a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone–Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed–a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae….

As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane–an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women–closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac’s true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book–because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands….

My thoughts: I thought this book was good. The story kept me interested until the end of the book.

I am pretty sure I will reach 50 books by May which is my deadline for my book challenge.

Books read: 37 books
Pages read: 15,819 pages

hey everyone! Someone just recommended this group to me and I joined right away with a question!

My mom was describing to me a mystery/thriller that she read in the early 1980s (between 1980 and 1982). The basic plot is that a mentally damaged man snaps and kills his (abusive) mother. He then goes across the country stealing people's identities and killing women in whom he sees his mother - basically killing his mother over and over again. My mom recalls (although she may be incorrect on this one) that the muder weapon was a stiletto. She would have sworn that the book was called "Stiletto," but since we can't find it anywhere, that is obviously not the title.

I'm dying to read this story and we just can't find it. It was probably published in the 70s or early 80s. I doubt in the 60s, but who knows. Has anyone read or heard of this book and knows what the title is/who the author is/where to find it?

Thanks so much :)

FOUND! Mirror, by Graham Masterton

This is a book I read sometime during the early-mid '90s. It was a weird sort-of horror/thriller set in LA and the main thing I remember was a child star from the '30s/'40s named Boofles or Booflz who I think was dead, possibly haunting a place. Boofles was an adorable little boy with, as I recall, curly blonde hair who turns out to be some kind of evil spirit--I think he might've been murdered. Someone (a man?) was investigating the haunting or at any rate discovered he could somehow enter Boofles's world by going through the mirror--I seem to remember there was an Alice Through the Looking Glass sort of them, or it was referenced. The mirror-world is completely freaky (evil). Also, I remember the word "glitterati" was used a couple of times because I picked up the word and my Mom commented on it. (The weird story was set against the glittering movie industry.)

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Has anyone here made the Snakebite Hat from the book "Pints & Purls"?? You can see a photo of it here on Ravelry:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/snakebite

The pattern calls for a circular size 10 and then some size 9 DPNs. I don't know if I'm crazy or what, but I've read and reread the pattern a zillion times and can't find anywhere where she wants knitters to switch to the size 9s. You start off the rib brim with the size 10. I know that sometimes you switch to the smaller size after the ribbed brim, but then again sometimes it's with the hat decrease. She doesn't say anywhere, unless I'm blind as a bat (are they really blind?) and I've written her on Ravelry and at her yarn store and haven't gotten an answer. I want to start this thing! So what's your guess, knitters? Switch to size 9 after the initial ribbing and when the stockinette starts? Or switch once the decrease starts? Or don't bother, and knit the whole damn thing with the size 10? Inquiring minds want to know. ;)

And thanks in advance!

So I have this simple pattern for a hat that calls for bulky yarn. I have lots of worsted in my stash I'd rather use than run out and spend money. What changes do I need to make to use worsted weight instead of the called for bulky? (assuming that I can)

TIA

Every so often someone (ok, usually me) will ask if a business or location is handicapped accessible, and boston  is generally helpful, so I'm giving back to the comm with this link...

Traveling Wheelchair! This local guy in a wheelchair (and his friends) review and rank the accessibility of Greater Boston businesses, according to meeting ADA requirements. It's not systematic, basically wherever he ends up (theater houses along with bowling alleys) - but I find that especially helpful, since it's a cross-section of businesses and Panera ain't gonna mention their accessibility online.

(BTW, Hollister at Patriot Place gets 3 stars, with no stairs guarding that stupid fake tiki hut entrance. So now everyone can get madras boardies for their bro, yo!)

Book #2: The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder - Rebecca Wells (2009, 395 pages)

Rebecca Wells strays from her famous YaYas in her 2009 novel The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, and while it is often hard for authors to pick up a new set of characters, Wells does it wonderfully.

As a young child growing up in La Luna, Louisiana, Calla Lilly Ponder realizes that she has a unique gift, that she's only ever seen before in the hands of her mother. Not only can she produce beautiful hair, but she can help soothe the souls of those who come utilize her beautician services.

The book follows Calla Lily throughout  the first thirty-some-odd years of her life, stopping at all of the major points such as her first love, the death of her mother, going to beauty school in New Orleans and marrying. Throughout her life, she is watched from above by the Moon Lady, a spiritual guide Calla Lily's mother taught her about as a young child.

Wells tells Calla Lily's tale beautiful, giving the readers a wonderful narrative that is often hard to put down. The only part of the novel that I struggled with was the ending, which seemed a bit too easy, especially considering what Calla Lily had experienced. But that little niggle aside, this is a wonderful story, which is why I give it a strong four out of five moonlit skies.

Total Books Read: 2 / 50 (4 percent)
Total Pages Read: 718 / 15,000 (5 percent)

The Magical Christmas Cat, by Nalini Singh, Erin McCarthy, Linda Winstead Jones and Lora Leigh
Okay, so I vaguely knew these were romance authors and the picture on the cover is all sweet and fluffy - a white cat with a snowglobe. So I thought this would be light romance novellas with a dash of fantasy and a Christmas theme. Something cheerful and fluffy for the holidays. No, no, no, no. Paranormal romances, mostly VERY hot and heavy, featuring changelings, demon cats, etc. (yes, each one is vaguely Christmas-related - that's the only thing I got right from the cover/title.) Goodness gracious!! I could not have read it on public transit without feeling uncomfortable (I guess maybe that is why the cover was so innocuous). That said, I do think I will read some more Nalini Singh one of these days (good characters, fun fluff) and the others were quite competent. Not sure I would've enjoyed all of them if I was healthy enough to notice the plot holes and clunky writing - but the one that felt clunkiest was also the one with the hottest sex... *fans self, changes subject*.
(5/200)

The Art of the Snowflake, by Kenneth Libbrecht
Very beautiful pictures of snowflakes. With just enough text that I didn't completely zone out staring at all the pretty pretties.
(6/200)