alexx_kay

Nineteen, or, a bit over a pint. We're getting at least some sunshine today, which is good, though the overall forecast for the next few days is clouds and rain. Ripeness is beginning to spread out from the top corner of the garden, but hasn't yet become general.

Had some sun yesterday, bringing today's haul up to 15. Sadly, cloudy today.

An even dozen.

Attention gyzki, juldea, and all other fans of Norse mythology:

An unbiased review of the Marvel “Thor” Movie

An Unbiased Review of the Marvel “Avengers” Movie

(h/t james_nicoll)

Seven large-but-unevenly-ripe-and-watery, as is typical after rain.

What with the overcast yesterday and rain today, only got 4 fully ripe strawberries, though about a half dozen more of the "take a bite and throw the rest away" type. The birds have noticed them :( Between that and the rain predicted for the next several days, I think we're going to lose most of the first wave.

Woke up around 5:30 to go to the bathroom. Didn't notice much bird sound, but still couldn't quite get back to sleep. Alarm went off at 7, and when I got up, I realized that I was still *really* sore from yesterday's exertions, which seemed to account for the lack of sleep. Had soe food and some ibuprofen, then called in sick and went back to bed. Although the birds were still audible at baseline, white noise and earplugs, combined with the new Wall Of Paper muffled them enough that I slept for about 2.5 more much-needed hours.

Got 4 strawberries this morning. Also seen, a fresh snake skin. I had wondered if our garden snake had died when I didn't see one last year, but I guess he's still around.

Time for more food, then I think into work for at least a half-day.

Busy, long day. Woken at dawn by noisy birds, as I have been for a week or so now. Spring definitely has downsides. Got annoyed enough to (try to) do something about it. Spent much of the morning moving furniture around, so that the window to my bedroom is not just blocked but really thoroughly blocked, by about 6 inches of paper in most places. I generally like to keep my shelves loosely packed, for easy access and insertion, but I'll sacrifice that to create a noise buffer. Hope it works...

Unexpectedly got access to the car in the afternoon, so filled it with (digitized) comic boxes to trade back to Outer Limits. Had a god conversation with Steve about the nature of the evolving market.

Also of note, picked the first 2 strawberries today. Sue, our gardener is complaining that the garden is six weeks ahead of schedule. I make it more like 1.5, but it still does seem likely to be a bumper year.

I'm in the middle of reading a book kestrell got me for Xmas, _Shakespeare and Amateur Performance: A Cultural History_, by Michael Dobson. Recommended for those who, like many of my friends, have an interest in the subject.

While it is thoroughly researched and footnoted, the jargon is rare and authorial tone is light. The author occasionally lets his inner ham out to play, as in the following delightful sentence, discussing a man from Geneva who spent many years in England, performing amateur plays in French, then on returning home, produced a bunch of amateur Shakespeare performances in English:

A combination of Nick Bottom and the Scarlet Pimpernel, Lullin clearly knew all about the potential cultural cachet to be gained from being the right kind of foreigner in the right wrong place at the right time: as the old maxim has it, 'when in Rome, do as the Greeks do'.

Been meaning to post these for a while; just now getting around to it. Last weekend, kestrell and I went to see Avenue Q at the Lyric Stage. It's a great show, highly recommended. There are two characters who you might not be familiar with from the soundtrack, as they don't have any songs of their own: The Bad Idea Fairies. In appearance, they are teddy bears with high, squeaky voices; their character is that of the 'friends' who tempt you into doing incredibly stupid things. After the show, one of them (and her puppeteer) was posing with people for pictures, so I got a shot of them with Kes. Incidentally, Kes thought the puppeteer sounded a lot like former roommate/terror-twin, B :-)



On he way back, we remembered that Kes wanted a photo of herself in good sunlight, to show off her eye color, so here's that: