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puddlelilies.com / proofreading negates the immediacy of feeling

  • I, Lindsie, cleaned my house today.  This included using the vaccuume.  I feel like this is an annual event, but I’m sure it is not.  It has been a while, however, since I used the vaccuumme.  I discovered that I think I need, despite the misuse, a new vacuume, as this one was old when I got it and it starts to smell like burning after using it for a while.  I even checked the rolly thing on the bottom to see if there was something caught.  I will put vacume on my like of things to save for and buy (I use it three times a year so I have time for this).

    My dad gave me a cedar trunk for xmas and I have put bed linens and craft supplies in it.  It’s a big trunk.  And my sheets are going to smell like cedar.

    I have spent the three days before this moping around, which is something one has to do on occasion, but I’ve stopped doing that now (thus the cleaning of the house) and I hope the moping feelings stay away for awhile as I find them annoying and not the best use of my holiday days, but oh well.

    I stayed up late for two reasons last night: a) I had tea tea around 5 and b)Return of the Jedi was on TV and I had a strange urge to watch it.  It was the new one, though, so the Ewok song at the end was wrong.  I wasn’t vexed as I might be, but the new song isn’t as celebratory as the old one.  I have the old one somewhere in my cache of songs so I can find it and listen to it if I really want to.

    I have knit one fingerless glove.  I have noticed a problem with knitting gloves ( and this will apply to any kind of glove) which is that once you finish one, you have to make another,  and that other one has to match and stuff?  WTF, I say.  Only I don’t say what it stands for, I pronounce the letters, and cross my arms in front of me, and hope I have enough yarn left for the other glove as I wasn’t really paying attention, and I accidently read the pattern wrong so I’ve used more yarn than is called for just in making the one.

    Also annoying is the 800 page book I have out from the library as a “fast read” that has to be returned after only a week.  There’s no way I’m going to finish it.  It’s dense and takes me 1/2 to read just a couple of pages.  I exaggerate, but it’s not going to happen.

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  • Happy Holidays, Everyone.  Following is my Christmas letter for the year for you to enjoy (if you can bear the patience of downloading it– it’s a PDF)

    Lindsie’s Xmas Letter 2009

  • I’m reading “Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel (that’s MaNtel, Susan – I was telling Susan about it and couldn’t remember the author’s name, despite having spent much time gazing at the front cover). I don’t know if I will be able to finish it before the due date as it’s due Monday and I may not be in town then due to Xmas holidays. And of course (duh) I can’t just renew it as it’s got a waiting list.

    Now that I have all that off my chest I can make a couple comments. The first is that this is a gorgeous book. Mmm. Lovely prose I just want to sink into – like a thick feather duvet or chocolate cake. Perfect, thick and warm midwinter reading.

    The second thing I’ll note is that the author has crazy fun with her pronouns. The thing’s in third person, and she totally uses her “he”s like one might use “I” when writing in first person. It’s a little confusing at first, because unlike first person, where there is only one “I”, in third person there is usually more than one “he” and the author only occasionally gives you a “he, Cromwell” to denote who is saying or doing what. For the most part you have to remind yourself that the “he”s coming out of the random blue denote the main character (Thomas Cromwell). For a while you’ll do this, but then you’ll forget about it, and you’ll reread the sentence before, because you’ll think you’ve missed the denoting proper noun. But you didn’t, and you’ll giggle to yourself because you’ve never read anything like this and you feel clever for figuring it out (eventually, and then again because you forgot).

    Oh, and Thomas Cromwell hung out with Henry the Eighth, and details of the time period are slipped in meticulously, as are those entertaining historical anecdotes regarding the people involved. Good fun good fun.

    I also like Cromwell’s (or the author’s, or society’s) opinion of Anne B (or at least how is is written):
    “At New Year he had given Anne a present of silver forks with handles of rock crystal. He hopes she will use them to eat with, not to stick in people.”

  • It’s rainy today and I don’t want to go out. My feet are cold. I have books to finish from the library that have to be returned next Monday (the due date slipping a few days due to the Xmas days). The longest darkness is today or tomorrow? I can’t find what day it is but I can feel it: I am turning on myself. I don’t appreciate the betrayal! I will leave all the lights on.

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  • I saw a guy talking to himself.

    “That guy is talking to himself,” I said to myself.

  • Hi.

    The book “The Ask and the Answer” has raised some questions in my head. Or at least comments, if they aren’t actually questions. The first is that I don’t know if the book was really good or if I was too caffienated, but I stayed up into the wees finishing it the other night. It is a page-turning adventure. What kept me turning those pages was that I was wondering how the characters were going to get themselves out of their problems: it’s a young adult book, so the teenage heros should be working their way out of their problems independent of adult help. The thing is, though, they didn’t do this. The whole book they are dealing with hopeless situations, and at the end of the book, things are still hopeless. “Arrrrg!” I said, since the next book in the series is not out yet. While it seems that the characters are making progress, they spent the most of the book being yanked around by adult antagonists. Mostly the teenagers just solve the problem of realizing that this is happening, that the adults are using them to get what they want, so I guess there is a little of that YA spirit, but mostly, the story is more reflective of ‘real life’ teenagers, who are often not actually in control of their own lives, still dependant on adults. I hope the characters get to grow into actually solving the problems of the plot in the next book or I shall be vexed, as I have just read two books showing me that they are capable of it.

    Lindsie’s review of Harry Potter (the latest one) in IMAX: Fun and all but only a couple of shots that really take advantage of the size of the screen. Most of the movie, therefore, is just really huge talking faces! But I had fun because mum and dad came down to watch and we went for dinner beforehand. Oh! And I also have a pattern for the hat that Hermione wears in the snowy scenes that I’m going to make. Another distracted movie reiveiw by Lindsie!

  • I just slept a lot. Around 8 last night my eyes got sleepy so I closed them and didn’t open them until 5:30 this morning. And then I slept some more! I don’t feel especially chipper or anything now, but it’s good to have rested so long if I needed it, I suppose.

    My plans for today include reading, writing, cleaning the bathroom and going for groceries. Maybe by listing them here they’ll get done. I keep being unproductive with my days… Mostly due to being ill for several of them.

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  • I don’t like how Old Navy has been using the term “cardie” in their ads. Now when I use that term, as I do, others will think that I am mimicing Old Navy. For the record I am mimicing that scene from “Notting Hill” where Hugh Grant’s sister says that Hugh’s shop assistant has a “nice cardie”. I like Hugh Grant’s sister in that movie. So zany. My dad calls Hugh Grant “dirtbag” and Julia Roberts “horseface” so “Notting Hill is one of his favorite movies to disrupt whenever anyone is watching it.

    I got a new cardie last week at H&M in Vancouver. I love it but haven’t been able to wear it until today because I didn’t want to wear it while I was sick. I’m still sickly today but I wore it anyway to see if it would make me feel better. I think it did. I felt quite smart in it: smart like “Notting Hill” not like Old Navy.

  • There are tiny birds just outside my apartment making a lot of noise. It’s tiny, chirpy noise but noise anyway. There are a lot of them. I’m frightened… Ok, it just suddenly and completely stopped and I’m back to just the sound of traffic. Ho hum.

  • Amusing anecdote about Lindsie # 1: I occasionally am baffled by the element guides on my stove. As in, I look at them and can’t tell which knob is going to turn on a particular element. I usually take the few seconds needed to decipher whether I am about to turn on the front or back element, but once or twice I have put on the wrong one, resulting in a sad pot of non-boiled water and me having to wait longer for my pasta.

    Amusing acecdote about Lindsie # 2: My mum makes good pickles. I usually keep these in good stock, but I have lately run out and needed to go buy some store-bought pickles for my hamburgers. I feel a little guilty when I do this, and also a little annoyed at having to pay for pickles. Added to this is the fact that I don’t entirely trust store-bought pickles. Not about the taste, which is fine if not as good as my mum’s, or the cost or anything. They just seem suspicious and smug to me. Also, at the store they have the jars labled “GARLIC” and “NO GARLIC” adding to my stress since I didn’t know that garlic was even an issue when it comes to pickles. Also, why would they say “NO GARLIC” if there is no garlic? Why not just leave that label off? Vexing. No peanuts, maybe, no dairy would be cool. “THESE CRACKERS HAVE NO DAIRY IN THEM WHATSOEVER.” Yes.

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