In which we discover Meg is not a lefty

This morning during breakfast, we had Meg on the kitchen floor in her Bumbo seat. She started stretching and squeaking, in that "I can't reach. Want! Want!" sort of way. So I asked Jonathan if she'd dropped her pink monkey and froggie.

"She has," he said, "but what she really wants is this." He pulled over the giant green paper towel bag into her reach - and sure enough, that was it! She started grabbing at it and playing with it - right-handed.

So after a minute or two, he turned her Bumbo around so she'd have to use her left hand instead. That didn't work so well, and what she initially tried to do was figure out how to get her right hand over there. Her parents were mysteriously uncooperative about turning her back, but she did finally get it with the left. We also mysteriously wouldn't let her eat it once she had it.

So: Meggie is not a lefty, and she's starting to notice things in her environment (and want them). Cool!

A cheesy post

Not speaking of mythical creatures, the other day we bought a Magna-size tub of ricotta cheese. This is rapidly becoming one of my favorite foods. It's somewhere between cottage cheese and whipped cream, and I've had a lovely time experimenting. We put it on crepes, with strawberry jam and without; we piled it on a (disintegrating) omelette; and I've been eating it by the bowlful with blueberries and maybe a little honey or agave, like yogurt or ice cream.

I also have spinach in the freezer and pasta shells in the pantry, and mean to make stuffed shells out of it this week. Yummy!

Haggis is a real critter

...according to 18% of Britons in this poll. Either that, or a Harry Potter character.

Ack!

Training dragons

Jonathan's parents were kind enough to come babysit Meg last night, so Jonathan and I went on a date! We saw How to Train Your Own Dragon (in 3D, so for an extra $3.50 each. Surprise!). It was, if not actually a fun movie, at least a movie with fun parts.

The 3D was great. It added a lot. You'd look over a hill, and a dragon would really jump out at you. Ack! The animation was very nice - beautiful, in places, and quite detailed, right down to the limpets on the ship. And that meeting hall, with lovely carvings - ahh. I'd live in Burk happily.

The story editor failed, though. And the guy in charge of characters. The plot hit a whole rainbow of cliches: villains are misunderstood rather than actually evil, the (also misunderstood) teenager will keep secrets from his parents but that's okay, teenagers know best and will save the world for the grown-ups, Dad will apologize in the climax, etc. The characters were also pretty cliche'd and shallow, with a couple exceptions. We had a fat fanboy, two really annoying bickering siblings, a warrior chica, and a fawning rival for the chica's hand.

Said chica... sigh. There is, in fact, a place for lady warriors. Eowyn from Lord of the Rings has a rather good one. But I don't see why every movie needs a girl wearing (ferret?) skulls on her belt who needs to prove she's Just As Good As Any Stupid Boy At Boys' Activities. I want to see a heroine who has feminine qualities, somewhere, somehow. If women aren't allowed to be women, but have to be men, isn't that kind of denigrating to women? Just asking...

The most interesting character was the dad's friend, the blacksmith and dragon-fighting-trainer. He was a sensible person, fun to be around, and gave good advice (except for his unenlightened prejudice against dragons who after all had only been trying to kill him his entire life, but oh well). There was one really good scene where the blacksmith and the dad have an actual conversation about what to do with Hiccup (main character). The blacksmith advised they let accident-prone Hiccup learn to fight dragons like he'd been begging to, on the grounds that he would get into trouble one day and really should be equipped to handle it. The dad actually took this advice. I only wish the plot hadn't then invalidated this sensible decision by making the training totally unnecessary.

The dad and the blacksmith had a great relationship. They're obviously both brave and great guys. There's a lot of medieval instances of such friendships, from Roland and Oliver on down, so I thought that really fit in this movie. In the last scene we get to see them working together (oh yeah!). It would have been much more fun to have lots of scenes with those two, rather than so many with the selfish and puerile teenagers. Also, possibly then the dad could have spent most of the movie showing his virtue rather than apparently being dumb.

The biggest gaping plot hole was the ending. Spoiler! We all come together, men, teens, and dragons, by fighting the ginormous other dragon. I'm really not clear why we should make friends with normal dragons but it's great to kill the big one. Er? Surely the giant dragon was only wicked because someone had kicked him as a dragonling? But except for being wildly inconsistent, that was a good scene, in which nearly everyone got to be heroic.

So. Overall, it was a perfectly adequate movie. Technically it was great, but it could have used a lot of refining.

The secret past of Berryville

"Close by was the hamlet of Battletown. The name did not refer to any clash of arms, but to the fact that this town's one street was lined with saloons where the Scotch-Irish settlers got drunk every Saturday night and, roaring with alcoholic rage, revived their ancient feuds with shelalaghs and broken bottles till their blood spattered the wooden sidewalks and muddy roadway. In more peaceful and decadent times, Battletown was innocuously rechristened Berryville just in time to become a real battleground, as Yankees and Confederates took and retook it, over and over, during the Civil War."

The Byrds of Virginia, Alden Hatch, pp 226-227.

Life in pink and chocolate

Good news! Great news, actually - I have a job again! I'm going to work for a Christian nonprofit researching actors and essentially be doing background checks on them. I'm really excited. That should start in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I've been able to do a few fun projects around the house. The other day I made this mobile for Meggie and hung it over her crib. It turned out pretty cute. I think she's even noticed it once or twice.

Wow...

Jonathan is researching alcohol regulation for his big project this week. It turns out there are three exceptions to the "must have warning on it" rule. These are:

-Alcohol for export
-Alcohol for ships' supply on international trips
-Alcohol for the armed forces.

So apparently the three groups of people who don't need to hear about the dangers of drinking are foreigners, sailors, and soldiers. Um, okay...

A few of my favorite things

Aww! Modcloth named one of their shoes after Color Me Katie! Here's the post about it.

Modcloth is awesome because they have cute clothes and shoes. Also, they advertise on Lolcats. And Color Me Katie is delightful because she's always doing bright papery things that even an impoverished law-school wife can imitate. :-)

Ogden Nash strikes again

This is one of the more outlandish (and funny) parodies of Marlowe's Passionate Shepherd that I've come across. It was posted here.

Come live with me and be my love

And we will all the pleasures prove

Of a marriage conducted with economy

In the Twentieth Century Anno Donomy.

We’ll live in a dear little walk-up flat

With practically room to swing a cat

And a potted cactus to give it hauteur

And a bathtub equipped with dark brown water.

We’ll eat, without undue discouragement,

Foods low in cost but high in nouragement

And quaff with pleasure, while chatting wittily,

The peculiar wine of Little Italy.

We’ll remind each other it’s smart to be thrifty

And buy our clothes for something-fifty.

We’ll bus for miles on holidays

For seas at depressing matinees,

And every Sunday we’ll have a lark

And take a walk in Central Park.

And one of these days not too remote

You’ll probably up and cut my throat.

Hat tip to Semicolon.

At the Saturday night cookout

"Andi, do you have any squirt bottles of water, like to squirt a cat with?" David
"Sure, here." Andi hands it over. "Why?"
"The grill's on fire." David