Sunday night thoughts
On Sunday nights: I guess I don't like Sunday nights very much. I mean, they're just as good as other evenings for getting together with friends--and I did have a lovely afternoon and evening with EB--but I always get a little blue past about 8 PM on Sundays. The weekend is over, and once the sun rises on Monday, my time stops being my own in 8 hour chunks over the next week.
On the King Tut exhibit at Pacific Science Center: Nice exhibit, well put together. Some beautiful stuff is included and I'm glad EB and I went. It's not the really spectacular, big stuff from the excavation; it's beautiful smaller things that one doesn't often get to see. I spent quite a bit of time studying the inlaid canopic coffinnette and the beaded collars, reverse engineering the things and thinking about how I could recreate them with the bead-weaving techniques I've learned in the last couple of years. It can be done. It will be time-consuming, but it is certainly doable. The captions throughout the exhibit are quite fine. The hour we went--late in the day--meant that the exhibit wasn't dizzyingly crowded, which was a blessing. Overall it was a small exhibit but pretty satisfying, a nice way to spent a late afternoon. EB and I had Indian food together afterward, excellent time and I'm happy to have had it.
On Sophie and Ezekiel: Woke with them both on the bed this morning. Caught them sleeping under the ottoman together this afternoon. And lots of wrastlin' with each other. Ezekiel mews piteously when Sophie has him pinned, but then he extracts himself and provokes her again. It's classic little-brother-big-sister dynamics in action. YAY!
On the Europe trip pictures: I took 800+ pictures on the trip, only to discover that my lens was dirty. Every picture with a clear blue sky shows spots here and there, so I'm going through, one by one, and cleaning them up in Photoshop. It's taking more time than I would prefer, but I'm the kind of perfectionist that needs to do it . . . so I'm doing it. ::sigh::. It means the pix won't be showing up for a while. I'll post as they're up on Flickr and ready to go.
On the election: I voted within a week or so of receiving my ballot, so my part in the election is pretty much done. I'm worried for this country. The partisanship that has infected our way of doing government has gotten so vile that it's hard to be confident about our future no matter who is elected. I don't understand how the Republican party can do business the way it does; I don't understand how they can ascribe to the positions they espouse. I don't understand how a party can make, as its first order of business, a plan to prioritize the president's defeat over actually governing the country. It's a fundamental difference of philosophy and perspective, and it baffles me. I love my country, but I don't like it very much right now. I hope that the election brings about some positive change. We've got to get this nation moving in a positive direction with a little more velocity.
On books: I mentioned recently finishing reading "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl." I also recently finished the absolutely brilliant "John Adams," the biography by David McCullough, which I keep meaning to thoroughly review and failing to do so. It's wonderful; everyone with an interest in biographies, in history, or just in good nonfiction should read it. It's remarkable, every single page. I keep trying to start other books and just not having the concentration to do it, even though my "to read" pile by the bed continues to get taller with both fiction and nonfiction. Nothing is charming me right now. I don't know if it's that McCullough has spoiled me or if I'm just tired or what. I may need to take a little reading hiatus and try some other book in a couple of days--but only a couple. I need my reading time.
On the King Tut exhibit at Pacific Science Center: Nice exhibit, well put together. Some beautiful stuff is included and I'm glad EB and I went. It's not the really spectacular, big stuff from the excavation; it's beautiful smaller things that one doesn't often get to see. I spent quite a bit of time studying the inlaid canopic coffinnette and the beaded collars, reverse engineering the things and thinking about how I could recreate them with the bead-weaving techniques I've learned in the last couple of years. It can be done. It will be time-consuming, but it is certainly doable. The captions throughout the exhibit are quite fine. The hour we went--late in the day--meant that the exhibit wasn't dizzyingly crowded, which was a blessing. Overall it was a small exhibit but pretty satisfying, a nice way to spent a late afternoon. EB and I had Indian food together afterward, excellent time and I'm happy to have had it.
On Sophie and Ezekiel: Woke with them both on the bed this morning. Caught them sleeping under the ottoman together this afternoon. And lots of wrastlin' with each other. Ezekiel mews piteously when Sophie has him pinned, but then he extracts himself and provokes her again. It's classic little-brother-big-sister dynamics in action. YAY!
On the Europe trip pictures: I took 800+ pictures on the trip, only to discover that my lens was dirty. Every picture with a clear blue sky shows spots here and there, so I'm going through, one by one, and cleaning them up in Photoshop. It's taking more time than I would prefer, but I'm the kind of perfectionist that needs to do it . . . so I'm doing it. ::sigh::. It means the pix won't be showing up for a while. I'll post as they're up on Flickr and ready to go.
On the election: I voted within a week or so of receiving my ballot, so my part in the election is pretty much done. I'm worried for this country. The partisanship that has infected our way of doing government has gotten so vile that it's hard to be confident about our future no matter who is elected. I don't understand how the Republican party can do business the way it does; I don't understand how they can ascribe to the positions they espouse. I don't understand how a party can make, as its first order of business, a plan to prioritize the president's defeat over actually governing the country. It's a fundamental difference of philosophy and perspective, and it baffles me. I love my country, but I don't like it very much right now. I hope that the election brings about some positive change. We've got to get this nation moving in a positive direction with a little more velocity.
On books: I mentioned recently finishing reading "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl." I also recently finished the absolutely brilliant "John Adams," the biography by David McCullough, which I keep meaning to thoroughly review and failing to do so. It's wonderful; everyone with an interest in biographies, in history, or just in good nonfiction should read it. It's remarkable, every single page. I keep trying to start other books and just not having the concentration to do it, even though my "to read" pile by the bed continues to get taller with both fiction and nonfiction. Nothing is charming me right now. I don't know if it's that McCullough has spoiled me or if I'm just tired or what. I may need to take a little reading hiatus and try some other book in a couple of days--but only a couple. I need my reading time.