Herbs and Art

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday weekend. I had a great time but the weather was a little disappointing. Yesterday I did a good bit of tidying up at my place and finally decided to take some pictures to post.

Here are my herbs...
(left to right): basil, flat-leaf parsley, basil, thyme and sage. I should have taken pictures when I first got them so you could see how much they've grown. I've cooked with all of them so far except the thyme and I'll be using that in a roasted zucchini and potato dish this week.

Here are some pictures of all my artwork and framed photos around the house. Some are missing and I think they may be crammed in a spare room at my mother's house. Or, all the vermin at the vermin palace carried them off while I wasn't looking and are still laughing about it to this day.

Living room...

Kitchen...I already posted several of my kitchen when I first moved in. I don't think I included this fascinating angle.

Office...

Hallway...yes, I thought everyone would want to see this too.

Bedroom...

I finished The Last Olympian last week. It was very good but I'm sad that it's the last book. I saw Terminator Salvation and it only confirmed my dislike of Christian Bale--not because of his f-bomb tirade that was so well publicized but because his acting is bad. I also did some fishing two seperate days last week. I caught a total of four fish, three catfish and one brim--all tiny. I didn't have my camera with me but I'll try to remeber for next time.

It's Here!

We just received several boxes of new books. The Last Olympian (the last in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Riordan) and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Demigod Files were in one of the boxes. Oh, Happy Day! This has made my week. I can't wait to get started! Also, I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine last week and Star Trek last night. I thoroughly enjoyed them both. I must say that Trekkies make the movie viewing experience very fun.

Random Thoughts And Images

This post is a bit of a hodgepodge. Our spring faculty assembly starts in a few days and I thought a blog post might take my mind off the events to come. Obviously not too well because here I am blogging about something I'd like to forget for 10 seconds. Anyhoo, I've started a new young adult series by Nancy Springer. It's called the Enola Holmes Mysteries and the main character is the fourteen-year-old younger sister of Sherlock Holmes. I find it cute and intriguing. We do not own the kinds of adult books I like to read (other than the classics) so I shall continue with the young adult literature for now. On with the images. Most of these were taken a few weeks ago. This first set involves the always entertaining Sandi.


First you see a couple of ducks casually swimming in the (nasty colored) lake. That white box thingy is a target for a cross-bow.

Now you see the ducks waddling up the steps...

They have made it safely to shore in search of corn kernels (yes there are corn kernels in the yard).
Here comes Sandi (bottom left corner), Queen of the Yard and thus proper owner of aforementioned corn kernels.

And the ducks are back to the lake. Now what I won't be showing you is Sandi walking down the steps into the lake devouring the presumptuous ducks. Just kidding.

I visited a local herb farm a few weeks ago and purchased a couple herbs to pot and keep on my back porch. Here are some pictures from that trip.

We were admiring a cement fish pond when my friend asked if anyone wanted to see a snake. It was a very tiny snake and it made a great nature photo-op nestled on the colorful berries.

I took this picture just before we left.

More dog pictures you say? Well, you are in luck. A week or so ago a stray dog began hanging around the library where I work. It doesn't want to be touched or even approached but I did sneak a picture in the other day.

Finally, I give you...Yogi. Yogi is a miniature, cute as a button, full of spit fire chihuahua (thank goodness for spell check). He's the new puppy of a friend of a friend.



As you can see he's wearing a tiny little sweater.









The poor little guy wasn't used to all the flashes from the camera and got a little shaky. He'll have to get over the paparazzi stuff because he's too cute not to photograph.


This concludes my nonsense posting...until next time (scary laughter in the background).

The Point Is Patience

I'm getting ready to hit the hay after a very busy and wonderful weekend. The weather was perfect, the company was lovely (as usual) and I was only off my feet to eat and sleep. I ran some errands, did some gardening (yes, Miss Brown Thumb worked in a garden), and played in a creek. I helped plant corn, squash, zucchini, okra, cucumbers, pumpkins, jalapenos, oodles of varieties of peppers and tomatoes and even some zipper peas. The creek trip was made with my friend who is skilled in finding arrowheads (or "points" as they are called by those in the know). I've gone "creeking" (not a term used by those in the know) on several occasions just happy to go along for the ride. It's a chance to get out of the house, enjoy the outdoors, try something new and spend time with my friend. Well, this weekend...I found a point!! I found it all on my own and man, oh, man was I excited.

I saw a straight line in the creek, turned it over slightly with my poker stick and saw the curved bottom and snatched it out of the water before I could think.

I never expect to find anything on these outings and this was a very pleasant surprise. It's really hard to pick out a certain shape of rock in a pile of rocks under flowing water while the sun is casting a rather strong glare. It's a little broken but I think it's beautiful. In other news, I finished the last Percy Jackson and the Olympians book last week so I'll have to wait impatiently for the next one to be published. I've also started an herb garden of my own. They are in pots on my back patio. I'll post a picture soon before they all die.

Breaks Make Me Lazy

A couple weeks ago (yes, weeks) we (the library) were closed for Spring Break. Don't think "Librarian's Gone Wild!" think more "Getting boring grown-up things done during the day". I visited the High Museum and saw the Louvre Exhibit and the Terracotta Warriors. The warriors were very impressive. However, there were too many kids there that day, at least 6 school buses were parked by the museum. All their annoying voices were amplified by the high ceilings and their audacity to show up on the same day I was there. Zoo Atlanta was next on the agenda after the museum and I got to see the baby panda, Xi Lan. He was so cute I wanted to puke. The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I caught up on some sleep and my finances, as well as some cleaning around the house. Last week was my first full week back since the break. I have not wanted to get out of the bed for anything. I hit the snooze button at least 3 times (that's 30 minutes) and I dragged my feet most of the day. I thought this week would be better but I was wrong. I've had 8 classes this week already and I'm dying for a nap. This is also part of the reason I have not posted in so long, it seems like such a draining task--so is keeping my eyes open. Will post again soon.

Erin Go Bragh

When I was in elementary school all the kids used to taunt me with this saying, like it was something dirty. I'm proud of my name and I now know that Erin Go Bragh means "Ireland Forever". I'm not Irish but with the name Erin (which means girl from Ireland or just Ireland) I kind of need to show some enthusiasm. Below is a picture of the front of my official St. Patrick's Day shirt. I'll be wearing it today after work.

I hope everyone has found a small or big way to celebrate this wonderful day, Irish or not. Maybe you had green eggs or pancakes for breakfast, a steak and Guinness pie for lunch or plan to have Irish soda bread with your corned beef and cabbage for dinner. I decided to do some random research about Ireland; mainly actors and writers born there and movies filmed there. Some noticible actors include Colin Farrell, Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, Kenneth Branagh, Stuart Townsend and Daniel Day Lewis. Authors include Oscar Wilde, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Bram Stoker. If you have not read Stoker's Dracula you must put it on your 'to do' list. It is a beautifully written tale. Some great books written by Maeve Binchy and Marian Keyes take place in Ireland.

The Matchmaker starring Janeane Garofalo was filmed in Ballinagra. It is a very funny movie and I recommend watching it today. The Quiet Man, PS I Love You, and Laws of Attraction also take place or have scenes in Ireland. Ella Enchanted, The Princess Bride, and Braveheart (I know, shocking) were all filmed or had scenes filmed in Ireland. Ballykissangel is kind of an Irish soap opera that you can get through Netflix and Falling for a Dancer was an interesting Irish miniseries. Whether you plan to celebrate the day by going out or staying in remember to wear green!

Rainy Weekend

All last week we had beautiful weather. Then when Friday afternoon hits it became cold, windy and dark. It only rained on Sunday but the weather Saturday was just as miserable. There were plenty of things that needed to be done. None of which were done. I did eat at a new Mexican restaurant that was very good and I also went to see Watchmen.

The movie was terrible! It was so long and the plot was stupid. I did select the movie but choices are slim at the moment with such gems like Fired Up!, Madea Goes to Jail, and Jonas Brothers raking in the dough. Maybe if I was a fan of the graphic novel I might have found something to appreciate. Instead the only thing I appreciated was the chance to see trailers for X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Terminator 4. I still haven't seen Terminator 3 but I have it at my house. I'll most likely watch it this evening since the weather is still dreary. Speaking of Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), I saw Australia last weekend. I thought it was pretty good.

Reviews

I've seen almost a dozen movies in the past few weeks. A couple have been at the cinema but others have been through my Netflix queue--a couple I even watched on my computer! Some were good some were bad and some were really bad. I saw Love & Other Disasters with Brittany Murphy. It takes place in London and what made it good was her nutty gal friend--very AbFab-esque character. Hoot was better than I expected but I still don't want to read the book. The little owls sure were cute though. I went to the cinema to see Confessions of a Shopaholic which was similar to the book and also different. Isla Fisher did a very good job. I also saw He's Just Not That Into You at the cinema. It had an amazing cast but I didn't leave the movie feeling very good about dating as a whole. Jennifer Aniston's character was great though.



I watched some girl-heroine-kicks-butt action flicks. The first was Elektra (dumb) and then there was Ultraviolet (which was Ultra-dumb). I watched two Jessica Simpson movies. I know, a waste of time right? Not exactly, plus I've been feeling pretty bad for her because of all the negative talk about her figure. Blonde Ambition started off okay but then when they vamped up her character (a.k.a. made her look slutty) it got stupid. Private Valentine started off dumb but got better after her slutty character changed into a focused army type person. In conclusion, Simpson can be pretty funny when she's not being a diva. I also watched Monsoon Wedding--it was a little difficult to follow because the characters spoke in English and Hindi (I guess) with subtitles thrown in every other sentence. It was a sweet and sad story. I saw two comic book movies---The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and The Punisher. Both were dumb but entertaining nonetheless. I watched The Messengers which is a horror flick (that kind of made sense!). It scared the crud out of me but I only watched it during the day.



I've started a great new young adult series. It's Percy Jackson and The Olympians. It's kind of like Harry Potter meets Greek Mythology. I finished book one last week, The Lightning Thief, and now I'm reading book two The Sea of Monsters. There are five in the series (as far as I know) plus a companion book. The fifth book is scheduled to be published in May of this year. I'm learning a lot and eager to read as often as I can.





Images found at imdb.com and amazon.com (obviously--look inside!).