Utils in Bat Country

Dog walk drama (or how my fear of birds sprang to life)

Ordinarily, my walks with Tilly are pretty routine.  Follow the outer drive around the complex, pick up the trail to come back to the leasing office - a mile a loop, repeat.

Last weekend though.

I was walking around the outer drive crossing one of the entrances into the area parking lots and I see a big, blue truck coming up the road, no blinker, not slowing or giving any indication of turning.  Was already midway through the opening so I kept going and the truck starts turning and...does not slow down.  The first thought that went through my head was that it was one of my friends from the complex screwing around.  Then I see this tiny blonde girl throw her hands from the wheel to her mouth and slam on the brakes.  I was more bemused than shaken up.  How do you not see a person, with a dog, in the middle of the road?  Tilly had no idea anything was going on and was just looking around at the squirrels.  I kept walking and she rolled down her window and apologized and all was fine.  Thinking that'd be the adventure of the day, we kept walking.

Later, we were going around a corner in a wooded area so TS was in front of me poking around in the brush.  All of a sudden she stops dead but I hear rustling.  Then, this gigantic goose comes racing out of the trees, straight towards us in full on attack mode.  Not only are these suckers big but they're freaking fast.  I chose flight over fight and took off at a dead sprint.  Of course, some basset instinct was awakened in Tilly and she was trying to stand and fight so my sprint was rather hampered by the digging her heels in dead weight dog.  THANK GOD the tennis court was right there because I bolted in, pulled Tilly in behind me and slammed the gate.  Thankfully, the goose didn't lie in wait for us so I was able to get out the other side but I've now taken to flinching every time a goose crosses our path.

Am choosing to view this as a potential positive, perhaps it'll increase my speed.  So long as I don't run screaming from the Tippi dress next time I'm in Anthropologie...

Wordless(ish) Wednesday

After seeing it marvelously styled, when the Tuilieries dresss went on sale, I snapped it up.  And it arrived like this

Oh Anthro. Of course this would be how you do a tube dress.

Watched and Read in April

In a complete reversal of January, I didn't watch a single movie in the month of April. I saw some episodes of Buffy with The Guy, because he's never seen them. But he fails to understand the way I watch them, he'd rather talk through them and ask questions that are going to be answered about 30 seconds later. So we don't see many. I'm still plugging through BSG, but I've slowed down. If I watch one a day, that's fine. Because I've been reading vampire books, yo!

I am now caught up with the Sookie Stackhouse series. There's a new book being released in a couple of weeks, but I'll wait until some used copies are available via Amazon before buying it. Now that I'm caught up, I'm a little sad because coming late to the party gave me a glut of things to read. Now I'm like everyone else, and I have to wait. I did the same thing with Harry Potter, coming in just before book four was published. So I got to read the first three in quick succession, and then start the hurry up and wait process for the last books.

I'm reading The Swan Thieves right now. It's by Elizabeth Kostova, and I read her other novel (The Historian) last year, because it was about...Dracula. She mixes history into her stories, in a da Vinci code kinda way, but different, as her's don't deal with, you know, Christ or giant world conspiracies. I'm not sure if the swan book will be like the Dracula one yet, as I'm about 60 pages into a 561-page tome, but so far it's looking good.

I also have Steig Larson (did I spell that right?) Millenium series books waiting for me. For those who live under a rock don't know, these are the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books. There are three and they are giant. So I don't know that my reading list will be rife with nine books in May.  I'm also planning a foray back into James Clavell, as I have three more of the five books from the Shogun series to read. I've done Shogun and King Rat, but the other three are just sitting there, waiting.

Oh, and so is Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. Hells to the yes.

Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris (Finished 5 April 2011)
Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris (Finished 7 April 2011)
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris (Finished 11 April 2011)
All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris (Finished 14 April 2011)
From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris (Finished 19 April 2011)
A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris (Finished 19 April 2011)
Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris (Finished 21 April 2011)
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (Finished 29 April 2011)*
Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris (Finished 30 April 2011)

Books read in 2011: 15

*I threw Cold Mountain in there because I was out of Sookie books, and needed something. I was GLAD when the last Sookie book showed up, so I could bounce back after the Most. Depressing. Book. Evah. Really good. Really really sad.

Princess...Burlesque?

Along with most of the rest of the world, I was looking forward to the Royal Wedding.  I set the DVR (but not the alarm), went straight to Tom and Lorenzo when I got up to see the dress and sighed swoonily when I heard about the second kiss.  As the day went on though, I got progressively more sad.   Will fast forward through that portion of the day and after awhile I transitioned from woe to introspection.

Somewhere on the Internet I saw it said that all the hype surrounding Kate (are we supposed to call her Catherine now?) wasn't entirely bad if it got people to see her as a role model as opposed to Snooki or Paris.  Which I agree with.  The more I thought about it is when the introspection occurred.  When people think of/meet me, I'd rather be likened to Kate (Duchess of Cambridge?) than Paris.  When I think of myself I'd certainly rather be more like Kate (Her Royal Highness?) than Snooki.  Am I? 

I spent most of the weekend in a contemplative funk.  The music on my ipod isn't right, how do I comport myself, is Anthropologie not classic enough, am I too brash, am I an idiot and on and on.  Many a mile in my faded yoga pants was traversed while I systematically dismissed everything in and about my life.  Way to be, self.  I tried to shake it off and went to some of my usual pick me ups.  Tried to dance to Glee (Britney episode) - bet the princess doesn't shake it to an 8 count.  Grabbed a book - bet the princess doesn't break her Kindle, bet the princess doesn't read romance novels.  Picked out outfits for the week - my clothes suck, I look like a bloated tit mouse next to every stunning picture of the princess.  Once I got through the epic shallowness of the morning, I started thinking about things that actually matter in life - sort of.  I moved from clothes and books to am I poised, do I handle myself intelligently and with a modicum of decorum in public?  Do I care? Do I want a life of proper? Does that mean an exclusion of fun?

So on, so forth, ad naseum.  In order to shut my mind up, I said to hell with it and rented Burlesque. Which is now one of my new favorite things.  Spent most of last night trying to learn the choreography to the final number and aside from one moment when I spun into the lamp, I've got most of it.

And who knows, perhaps once she dismisses her ladies in waiting the princess (Princess?) busts out the hairbrush as microphone and gets down with her bad self.

And even if she doesn't, that's I'll be okay too.