Waiting And Reading

I have been getting antsy about not hearing about this job. My friend who works there said the lady didn't even tell them she was interviewing OR going on vacation but the IT guy showed up at her office and installed a new computer in the empty office so I feel like I might still be in the running (since we're not sure if she has actually interviewed anyone else). So my fingers are still crossed. Because she hasn't told me no yet either.

So to curb my antsiness, books!

I just finished book 3 of the Song of Fire and Ice series. I had to take a little break in the middle because Good Gravy These Books Are Violent. I am not big on violent movies so I think it is official that there is no way for me to be watching the HBO version, no matter how many good things I hear about it. But I heard a great comparison for this book in particular: somebody called it the Empire Strikes Back of this series, and that makes (hopefully for future books) total sense. Horrible things happen to characters you like and it ends on a very uncertain note. But I will definitely be continuing this series. It also helps to remember that it is based on the wars of the roses and there was quite a bit of royalty then that didn't get happy endings. History books just usually aren't as gory.

However, I needed a palate cleanser. Stella Gibbons wrote one of y favorite books of all time, Cold Comfort Farm, and when I was at the used bookstore with my mom a couple of weeks ago, we found one of her other books, Nightingale Wood.

It still has the same atmosphere and style, but somehow the humor is not the same. I like the way she creates a character, but none of these characters spoke to me like the fabulous Flora Poste.

Cold Comfort Farm is a hilarious book, and has to be one of the best book-to-movie conversions ever. The cast is beyond perfect, with Kate Beckinsale, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, Eileen Atkins, Ian McKellen and Rufus Sewell. It boggles my mind that somebody made this, and that it was a TV movie and that they got these actors, and that they are SO WELL CAST. I don't even want to explain it too much, everybody should just go read it. And watch the movie. Nightingale Wood is very much less exciting and fun in comparison.

Still Waiting.

The lady I interviewed with (LAST Tuesday) is on vacation. So hopefully I will not die of impatience before she gets back.

That said, it has been very peaceful around here. I finally succumbed and got Game of Thrones from the library - it was available for the Kindle but book 1 had several dozen people on the hold list while books 1-4 were available right away as a bundle. So I have been trying to make a dent in these suckers ASAP.

They are very well written, I love a good swords-and-sorcery epic and I haven't read one in a while. The nearest comparison I have been hearing is the Lord of the Rings books and that is a good idea of the scale of the world-building going on. There are some parallels drawn to the wars of the Roses in some reviews I've seen and that also makes sense. I enjoy that the perspective switches to a new character for each chapter (and there are plenty, of both characters and chapters), and there are some strong, interestingly written female characters (which you can't really say for LOTR, Eowyn aside). A lot of it follows the same family and the three main female characters in the family are really enjoyable because they are so different and interestingly written.

To be fair, there is a lot of sex and violence. However, I find it pretty easy to self-edit with this kind of writing. Rape is a common weapon for subjugation of whoever and the violence is pretty prevalent, but there is a reason I am not watching the tv shows. When it's in a medieval setting I can tune it out. When it's in a book like Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and it is very realistic and detailed I find that excruciating and unreadable but this stuff I can basically just *bleep* over in my head. And his writing of all the sexy sexy sexytimes is kind of hilarious after a while. Probably the weakest part other than his need to perpetually list knights and their colors when you know they're just going to die. I'm in book 3 now and I need about three mentions of the same knight or some actual character development before I'm going to try and remember his name.

I finished the first two books and there was no wait on hold for book 3 so now I don't have to finish the whole bundle in three weeks. So I can put my Kindle down for a breather now. But odds are I will probably pick it right back up as soon as I am home from work.

It has been too hot and boring to work much in the yard - weeding and futzing with irrigation are two of my less favorite activities. I have been working my butt off in the front yard (no groundcovers in yet and the bermudagrass really wants to get in there, I can't let it get any ideas) so the backyard (a.k.a. where the tomatoes are) has been neglected. I still have ideas about blueberry bushes and lots of transplanting back there so there should be some more action out there eventually, but right now it is too sweltering to dig anybody up and try to move them so not much excitement. And I needed to baby my tomatoes for the first couple months and failed to so now they have some fruit that is tasty but they are only 1-2 feet tall. I guess every garden has a learning curve.

Mini Update Because I Have To Share

Cross all your digits, my opposably thumbed friends, I just booked a flight for a second interview for a much more exciting job. Like, a job using my degree and experience to do science and help people job. Can you cross fingers and toes, please? Also, the interview is far away, but the job is 10 minutes from my house. Can you ask all your friends to cross their fingers and toes too?

Until there is further news, here is a rabbit stealing a cookie.

TerriBlogger

My apologies, I have been busy with not-terribly-exciting things. Thus, not much to write about. However, I have gotten my Kindle hooked up with the local library. So my junk reading is now free and back on the schedule (I have been too lazy to go to the new library since they closed down the one that I went to since I was tiny). I promptly mainlined several of the most recent Alexander McCall Smith #1 Ladies Detective Agency books. These are pretty much ideal summer reading. Reflective and charming without being as annoying as the mystery ones he does set in Edinburgh. No massive twists and turns, just relationships between people and lovely writing about Botswana. Also, intermittently, the Edgar Rice Burroughs Princess of Mars series. Ridiculous and quite fun, but they require breaks due to excessive alien battles.

Also I am attempting a different workout regimen. My job was really active but now it has become a lot less so, and so on the days when I am not too pooped to pop when I get home, I am trying to run through this pilates video a friend gave me. There are points for being able to get home and run through it before getting in the shower. Very low pressure. So we will see if I can stick it out. I have only done this stuff in class form before, I had a great teacher but it was hard on the budget and once I got home after work I didn't want to leave again. I'm a bum that way.

Also there was never a final official jam head count (we started eating it too soon), but we ended up with apricot jam, apricot chutney, cherry-apricot jam, plum jam (with and without cinnamon) and two little jars of what was supposed to be apricot syrup for waffles etc. but turned out more like apricot simple syrup. Potentially for mojitos or mixing with champagne. So not bad so far for this summer's haul.

It Must Be Summer

Because my kitchen is full of free fruit. One of my mom's book club ladies had an overactive apricot tree so she put the word out... After about an hour climbing around in the tree I came home with 32 lbs. of apricots. My mom gets jam for being an enabler. Jam in the style of my grandmother - mostly fruit, not too much sugar, like summer in a jar.

The next stop will be my mother-in-law's peach chutney. With apricots. We'll see how it translates. But I think it's worth trying just because you don't have to peel the apricots. I can't stand peeling peaches.

Interlude

Sometimes you just need a break from projects. Last Saturday it was Filoli, just because I haven't been there yet this spring (and it's almost summer)!

And yesterday it was the San Francisco Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, as well as the Botanical Garden. The Botanical Garden is more of a giant park where the plants happen to have labels, there were lots of people going for walks or picnicking. Matt liked the Botanical Garden more because they had the big exotic weird stuff from Australia and New Zealand. But the Tea Garden is much more my speed. 

They are both in Golden Gate Park and we met some friends for lunch afterwards (only had to wait 45 minutes, aah San Francisco I am so glad I don't live in you). All in all a lovely day.

Skipped A Few Steps

So the first of the plants are in. This is not the best picture but it is a very general start. The stuff in front is a creeper so it will get maybe three feet tall and should fill in that corner. The little tree is a navel orange. Because I couldn't move to California and not plant an orange tree. There will be much more, but plants are expensive so this is just the very first round. Also, the neighbors offered to rip out the yuccas (see: nasty spiky hedge, back left) so we will be recalculating what goes in on the left side of the path. 

 But there was a break in there between leveling the big pile of dirt in the last post and getting the first of the plants in.

 Yes those are new windows.

 When the landlord wants to get something done, it can pay to not argue.

 The kitchen corner is much brighter now. We still need to finish the interior trim but the house is SO MUCH QUIETER now that it is weird.

Gratuitous office picture. Yes that is my exciting view. I consider this the reward for making it through the fumigation bits. And leveling the giant pile of dirt (that killed a weekend).