Gift certificates and e-readers

First, update on Mother-in-law: she's home from the hospital so that's good.

Second, got $150 gift certificate to Amazon from work. Already ordered Torchwood Season 2, which I'm missing. Tempted to get Caprica 1 and 1.5 but still balking at $70 plus in cost. Even if it's not my money.

Third, cashed in my rewards from my credit card and will be getting $25o in gift certificates to Barnes and Noble. Why, that's enough for a Nook Color e-reader!

So, I've been thinking of getting an e-reader. Kindle is more affordable but doesn't interface with the public library. Nook is more expensive but it does interface with the library. And I still like paper books...

Not making any decisions yet, but I love knowing I have enough free money to get either one!

Unexpected Christmas 2010

This weekend we went to Wisconsin to visit Husband's family. We got there Dec 23, had a lovely time at the neighborhood dinner. It's a very nice tradition 4 families on the street have. The different courses of the meal are spread across the different homes.

What's interesting is that there are 3 generations now. Mother-in-law talked about "the young people" and I kept asking her if she meant the middle generation or the youngest generation. She meant the middle generation.

And speaking of M-i-l, on Xmas eve, we were to drive 90 minutes away to visit her sisters and relatives. But 20 minutes into the drive, she asked us to turn around and take her to the emergency room. She was dizzy, sweating, hyperventilating.

We got to the ER and she was so dizzy she fell back into the car when she tried to stand. They took her in a wheelchair and it turns out that she had irregular heartbeat. She was quickly stabilized, but since she went in on a Friday, the doctors wanted to keep her in the hospital until Monday and run some more tests.

On Xmas, we visited her in the morning and then again at 8pm. We brought her a plate of xmas dinner and a bottle of whiskey. She couldn't drink any of the whiskey of course, so we did so for her.

A family friend is a doctor and he came with, so that was nice.

We left Dec 26 and didn't have time to visit her before leaving. But our xmas gift to her was to buy her a ticket to visit us in the spring.

The silver lining, for me, was the fact that I got to spend more time with my sister in law (Husband's brother's wife). On Dec 24 evening, while M-i-l was first taken into the hospital and stabilized, Brother-in-law took his wife and me back to m-i-l's house to wait it out. We played gin rummy, ate leftovers, and generally just hung out.

I don't think that in the 18 years we've known each other, that we've really talked and spent time together. We don't really have that much in common and I don't think we'll ever be best buds, but it was very nice to get to know her better.

And tomorrow's her birthday and now I know what to get her: a real purse. Tomboy or not, I think a 39 year old woman needs a real purse. And there are lots of sporty ones available.

How Much for Caprica?!?

Caprica 1.5 comes out on DVD today. Amazon.com is selling both 1 and 1.5 together for $73.48 (what kind of pricing is that?).

And what kind of pricing is that? Nearly $74 for less than 15 episodes? I liked the show; it was appointment television for me. But I'm balking at the price. I'm gonna have to Netflix it instead of buying it.

Which makes me wonder: what's the economics at play here? By not buying the DVDs, am I confirming that there was no audience for the show? That there's not chance that another network (oh, like AMC) would pick it up?

Or should I just enjoy it and accept that it was a good show.... and there's only one season. Like it's just one novel, not part of a trilogy, as much as I would like it to be.

I'm getting to that point with Firefly. I keep following Whedonesque and am rewatching Dollhouse Season 2, so will stay interested in the 'Verse, but not hoping that it will continue on the web or in comix.

I feel that Buffy the Vampire Slayer the comics have (has?) wander far, far afield from what I enjoyed about it as a show. Granted, I need to rewatch it, but more slowly, and really pay attention. I'm happy to have Shepherd Book's back story, finally, but I think as a periodical medium, comics don't work as well for me.

I contrast this to graphic novels, like Fun Home, or Persepolis, or Maus, which are written as one piece, and meant to be read as one piece.

Okay, I'm not sure where I'm going this train of thought. It's wandered a bit from the price of Caprica DVDs.

Oh, back to the economics/logic of the Caprica 1.5 release: why do it now, when Syfy won't air the last 5 episodes (presumably on the DVDs) until January? I understand the buy-it-for-Xmas push for pretty much any sale, but it still doesn't make much sense to me.

One step forward, one step back

Bad news: the US House of Representatives voted to pass the DREAM Act that would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented children if they go to college or serve in the US military. However, it did not pass the Senate. Damn!

Good news: both the House and Senate voted to repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. So soon, gay, lesbian, and bisexual women and men will be able to serve openly in the military. Hooray! This makes me weep with joy.

Burst Pipe

On Wednesday, a standing pipe on the roof of the condo burst, flooding the elevators, shorting them out. I had to walk up the stairs from the 3rd floor where I park to the 23rd. Had to stop a few times to rest. So Husband and I got a hotel room for the night.

However, that meant I had to pack an overnight bag for 2 nights (just in case) and carry it down 23 floors. Downhill still much easier than uphill. But still tiring. And it was below freezing so I slipped and fell once crossing the park to the hotel.

Yesterday the elevators were working intermittently and I got to use the elevator up home, thank goodness. However, to go out to the Thrashers hockey game, I had to walk down 23 floors.

My legs are killing me and I am so tired. I'm taking the morning to sleep in and watch a Sanctuary marathon.

Buffy reboot movie? Okay.

Certain corners of the interwebs are up in arms about the proposed new Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, to be done without Joss Whedon. The director of the first movie, Fran Kazui and her husband Kaz Kazui were executive directors of the TV series.

They own the movie rights, not Joss Whedon, even though Buffy is really Whedon's baby.

I have all the Buffy DVDs and the comics. Even so, I have no problem with the reboot.

1. Whedon was not the only creative and celebrated mind on the show and comics. Jane Espenson and Tim Minear are two of the well-regarded writers who have come out of the Whedon writing stable. So it's not like Whedon's got a lock on Buffy.
2. Therefore: It might actually be good. Who knows? The writer for the reboot is a fan of the show so it could be good. I'll go see it and then judge.
3. If it does well, then there's a new group of people who will go looking for more Buffy, then they'll find the DVDs, and there will be more fans. Think of it as more publicity for Buffy.
4. And if they like the TV show, and want more Whedon, they'll find Angel, Firefly (my personal fave of them all), Dollhouse, etc.

Ultimately, I think if it's done well, then it's all good. If it's done badly, then it'll be just another example of reboots gone badly, not Buffy gone badly. I mean, I never saw the original Buffy movie but clearly that didn't stop the show from happening and from doing well.

And it's a sign that Buffy is bigger than any one person and I think that's good.

New Browncoats and a lovely day

Today was a really good day. in the 50s F. Husband and I walked 4 miles round trip from our place next to Centennial Olympic Park, through part of Old Fourth Ward, to Inman Park for lunch. We pretty much took Baker Street the whole way. We started in the heart of downtown, walking past skyscrapers, passed over the interstate that goes through the middle of Atlanta, past revitalized neighborhoods and into Atlanta's first suburb.

We had lunch at Pure Taqueria which was very good. We shared an appetizer and an entree and that was quite enough for both of us. We did the same thing at dinner last night too. I think this will be our habit from now on. We both turned 40 this year. We know we have to try harder to take care of ourselves. We haven't been to the gym much since summer ended so today's walk and the sharing one entree is a pretty nice way of doing it.

Plus, this workweek, I did not eat one dinner at home. I had evening meetings or I went out with friends or with Husband.

Wed night I watched Four Days of DragonCon, produced by PBA, Public Broadcasting Atlanta. They're selling it to other public broadcasting stations. So if you want to see it in your city, call your local public broadcasting station and ask them to buy it and show it.

Sneek peak on you tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQcW65nzQUY

I have a friend who works at PBA so she had a copy and invited friends over to see it. It was fun and she reminded me that I was supposed to lend her my Firefly DVDs.

Thursday, she and I went out for dinner at the Stone Bowl House/Woo Nam Jeong Korean restaurant. I gave her the DVDs then. May convert yet another fan.

And I added a link in my side bar to Mark Watches. He apparently is wrapping up his first viewing of Firefly and will start Dr. Who next. He's also a Harry Potter fan, so what's not to like?

Ellen Ripley Saved My Life

No, the article is not about me. but I love it anyway.

The author, Sady Doyle, looks at strong women like River Tam, Buffy Summers, and Ellen Ripley and how they help her understand her own life and how culture has a difficult time with strong women.

http://www.theawl.com/2010/12/ellen-ripley-saved-my-life

What everyone's getting this winter gift season

I love to eat. I think food is one of the great pleasures in life. Over the last year or so I have also started cooking more.

Based on a Wall Street Journal review I bought One Big Table: A Portrait of American Cooking, 600 Recipes from the Nation's Best Home Cooks, Farmers, Fishers, Pitmasters, and Chefs.

Just randomly flipping through it, I looked at about a dozen recipes. Of those, about 5 were by SouthEast Asian refugees, one was Persian, and the rest were Latino and European. I love that mix!

There are also stories about the places, the people, the histories behind the foods.

I think I'm going to give it to everyone I know who cooks. Or eats.

And in that spirit, since I couldn't make it to Sister's house for Thanksgiving, I finally made her a sushi toilet roll cover. It's something she's wanted for a while.

It's the embroidering for this that made me want to take up crewel work. I did buy some muslin and a hoop, and got some books from the library. But have yet to do any embroidering beyond this sushi thing.

I started knitting a scarf instead with the gorgeous red/orange/gold silk yarn I got in Savannah a few weeks ago. It's the perfect antidote to all the grey winter weather.

The Villain's side of the story

Great webcomic that turns the good son vs evil father on its ear.


http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0763.html