I has blueberry pie!

Sadly, it is Ugly Pie. Oh, I could see it coming; the dough for the crust refused to stick together, probably because I didn't have enough shortening (I used butter to make up the difference, but have no idea how close to the correct quantity I put in), and then I forgot it was a pie crust and rolled it out twice. As a result, while I did get a decent, if slightly patchy, bottom crust, for the top I gave up and made a lattice. Which was not pretty.

But it tastes delicious, and really, that's the important thing. My pie has character.

* Post 3 things you've done that you believe nobody else on your F-list has done.
* If anybody responds with "I've done that," add another thing.
* Encourage your friends to paste this into their own journal to list the unique things they've done.


1) Went out drinking with Captain Kangaroo

2) Walked the furthest-west point of Great Britain

3) Seen an actress get choked up from performing something I'd written

Only the first one's particularly interesting, but there you go.

Rain

I love all films that start with rain:
rain, braiding a windowpane
or darkening a hung-out dress
or streaming down her upturned face;

one long thundering downpour
right through the empty script and score
before the act, before the blame
before the lens pulls through the frame

to where the woman sits alone
beside a silent microphone
or the dress lies ruined on the grass
or the girl walks off the overpass,

and all things flow out from that source
along their fatal watercourse.
However bad or overlong
such a film can do no wrong,

so when his native twang shows through
or when the boom dips into view
or when her speech starts to betray
its adaptation from the play,

I think to when we opened cold
on a rain-dark gutter, running gold
with the neon of a drugstore sign,
and I'd read into its blazing line:

forget the ink, the milk, the blood--
all was washed clean with the flood
we rose up from the falling waters
the fallen rain's own sons and daughters

and none of this, none of this matters.

--Don Paterson, published in The New Yorker

I stopped by Barnes & Noble after my meeting with the director this evening and bought LSAT books, because I've been meaning to for a week now. So that should give me something to do tomorrow, aside from attending the annual picnic for the prestigious Ivy school I did not go to (though I did get in) because I am their club admin through my day job. Which means that it will probably be about as uninteresting as the events for my schools are (which is why I never go), but I get paid to be there.

On the other hand, I also picked up two historical adventure novels and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, so there's a good chance I will have things to do tomorrow that aren't beginning to study for a test that's still more than three months off. But I will make myself anyway, and Sabatini and Dunnett will be my reward. The movie, on the other hand, I'm watching tonight, because my Tivo is sad and empty. Okay, well, it's got a few episodes of Sherlock Holmes via Masterpiece Theatre, but that's work.

Oh, and I bought a two-pound container of blueberries at Whole Foods this morning for eight bucks, so it is possible I shall be making pie this weekend. Mmm pie.

I am not entirely certain how I missed seeing Weird Science back in the 80's. I mean, I saw most of the other John Hughes oeuvre at the time (including one night at a slumber party where we watched The Breakfast Club three times in a row (and Hiding Out twice, because those were the only two movies my friend A's parents had rented), which is why I've never really been fond of that film since, and also seeing Some Kind of Wonderful in the theatre with the same group of girls and then going out for ice cream (at Gorin's! I miss Gorin's) afterwards and being completely freaked out by the group of motorcyclists who showed up). I remember these things. But Weird Science I never saw. And I'm really, really wishing I had someone to watch it with now, because oh my god, it's terrible. I mean, it makes Hackers look good (well, the complete misunderstanding of how computers work, at least), and that's saying something.

This is not the fault of Anthony Michael Hall, who is hilarious, or any of the other actors.* And hell, I'm only twenty minutes in. Maybe it improves? Maybe? In any case, I'm laughing my ass off, which doesn't happen nearly as often as I'd like, so I can't complain too much.

*ETA: No, I lied. They all kind of suck. But with the parts they're given, it's not really like they can show off much in the way of acting chops.

ETA2: Aaaaand... it continues to be a terrible, terrible movie. "There are motorcycles in my house!" "Wyatt, there are killer mutants in your house, okay?" Said killer mutants looking like they belong in a gay fetish club, btw.

ETA3: Also, the tv word substitutions really don't help, though I'm certain the outtakes, if they exist, are fucking hilarious.

ETA4: General Public ahahahahaha!!!!

ETA5: Yeah, no, that never got better. Hot damn. It makes Short Circuit look like art.

I am moving very, very slowly this morning. The fact that I told my boss I had no idea what time I'd be coming in today (I wasn't sure if I needed to be at another event, or what time that event was) is not helping matters, nor is the part where I just checked my work e-mail and found that I have to deal with a number of annoying things when I get there.

Sigh. I'll aim for getting there around lunchtime. I can already tell I'm not going to enjoy the next few days...

So: some plays by A. A. Milne.

I like Pooh. I'm not fanatical about him (I know people who are Pooh obsessives), but the original books are well-written and full of that sensawunda it's hard to come by nowadays, and all in all I think the world is a better place for having a Bear of Very Little Brain in it. I was very excited to find Milne's novel The Red House Mystery a number of years ago--while not quite Sayers, it's at least as good as most Christie, with the special bonus of grownup Pooh-like characters in it--and even more delighted to find Once on a Time, which he described as a fairy story for adults, and it is exactly that, though without the contemporary associations we would make with that description.

His plays, on the other hand... Well, I don't want to use the phrase "deservedly forgotten," as that implies that they're bad. I wouldn't even use "dated," as the heroines in two of the four are modern-minded enough about their relationships with men that they would have few problems in today's society. (In the two other plays, of three main women, one is barely present, one is intentionally nonsympathetic, and the third is more of a symbol than anything else.) Though "dated" might work in a different sense, as even though these are all products of the Jazz Age, they feel like they were written before WWI; I felt once or twice like I was reading lesser versions of plays by Barrie. Success, my least favorite of the set, especially felt subject to this flaw--it reminded me heavily of a self-absorbed Dear Brutus. I'll admit, I was half-hoping to find a hidden gem--I do work in theatre, after all--but aside from a few sparks in To Have the Honor, which is about a separated pair of amiable con artists, none of them are really interesting enough to make the effort. Ah, well, they can't all be classics, and if nothing else, these are a unique addition to my collection.

I just discovered this morning that Earthlink has been continuing to charge me on a monthly basis, even though I cancelled my account with them a year and a half ago.

I feel sick for not noticing this earlier. I usually check my statement and make sure there are no crazy charges, but on the whole if it adds up to what I'm expecting to pay, I don't look at the details, and $22 a month is not such a large amount that it would stand out. Still, I have the e-mail proving my cancellation, so while at the moment I've only been able to get the last three months refunded through my credit card, I have every intention of fighting them on this. I mean, the e-mail address associated with the account no longer exists. What the hell have they been charging me for?

I am currently using my muffin tin for good and not evil by baking tomatoes in it. They're filled with fresh basil and mint and garlic and a little pecorino romano and I can't wait. The only thing that makes me sad is that I didn't feel I could safely use the unlabeled tomatoes I bought just before the salmonella scare; I ate two of them with no ill effects before the FDA made its announcement, but it's probably safer not to gamble, so I picked up a couple from Whole Foods the other day. Ah well.

I found out Friday from a friend that the show I want to dramaturg (and design, obviously) is being directed by someone who loves working with me, so I told the friend I would call and tell him I was interested, to up my chances of getting it. While I haven't spoken to him yet--work's been nuts and I don't have his cell number to call in the evening--my friend passed along the info Monday morning while they were driving downtown, and told me today that the director almost crashed his car because he was so excited. So that's some good news--it'll be a teeny paycheck, but sometimes that's okay. Also another friend told me that he's not designing the show in the same slot at the big theatre as the one I designed there last year; while this does not automatically mean they'll hire me, it's a potentially good sign, as it's not necessarily a slot they can afford to hire an out-of-towner for. Still, I'm going to treat it as a long shot until I actually hear from them.

Apparently Disney is streaming Monsters, Inc. on its website this week for free. Hmm.

Just made a batch of zucchini muffins (I didn't make them last week because I had to make Emergency Bread Pudding instead) and they are flat. Wah. I remembered to add both the baking powder and the baking soda this time, damnit! (Of course, I forgot to add the raisins until after I'd already poured the batter into the muffin cups, but I added them to the leftover loaf, and their lack should not affect the rising of the muffins.)

Oh, well, as long as they taste good, I won't be too upset. But still.

Had a small panic this evening because the machine at the grocery store wouldn't accept my debit card, and I could not for the life of me figure out how I had less than $700 in my bank account, and what the hell was going on that it wouldn't let me spend fifteen dollars? Fortunately, a quick check of my account revealed that I actually have a lot more in there than I thought I did, so it must have been an issue with the machine. Thank goodness--the last thing I need right now (or ever, really, but summertime is slim pickings) is to have someone drain my account. Including me.

I have to say, I was a bit disappointed by Gypsy Rose Lee's second mystery, and I can understand why she only wrote those two. The first one takes place backstage at a burlesque theatre, and is not only a reasonably competent mystery, but also (and more interestingly) fully captures the flavor of working in burlesque. And who better to tell it, really, especially as narrated by herself as the main character? This one... well, "Gypsy" and her new husband have bought an RV and have been travelling all over the country in it, with some of their friends, until they find a dead body below the bed in backwater Texas. Without the burlesque setting, it loses a lot of interest--though some of that is made up for by having her mother as a new character. If you know the musical Gypsy at all, you know the character, though she's not nearly as softened for this book as she was for the musical; unlike the stage version, you can see this Mama Rose turning a gun on sister June when she tried to run off (which is what happened in real life). Considering that Mama Rose was still alive when this book was written, I can only imagine how badly she comes off in the memoirs (which I haven't read)--though even as Gypsy points out her flaws, she still makes it clear that she loves her mother. So yeah. Not a waste of time by any means, but not really a good book either.

As for the Wodehouse, I'd be enjoying it a lot more if I hadn't already seen it adapted in the Fry & Laurie tv version. It's still fun, but not as much as when you don't know the ending.

The muffins may not have tops, but they are otherwise moist and delicious, so they're not so much a failure as not quite what I was expecting. I can live with that.

Finally saw Sweeney Todd. On the whole, I thought it was a pretty decent adaptation of the play--though Tim Burton definitely likes his blood--and aside from half the cast simply not having the vocal strength/ability to do Sondheim (and Sweeney ranks as hard Sondheim), I liked the casting. That said, I had some major quibbles. They didn't necessarily ruin my enjoyment of the movie, but that didn't keep me from noting them:

( Cut for major spoilers; don't read if you haven't seen it )

A number of years ago, I met the actor who played the original Toby, and he gave me a story about being in the play; I wrote it down in his words that night. Maybe tomorrow I'll share it. In the meanwhile, I have to admit I'm kind of craving a meat pie...

A practice taking of the LSAT reveals that my score is good enough for the fallback school on my list, but a bit lower than I'd like for anywhere else. Since I pretty much bombed one section, this is not entirely surprising, but it means I'm definitely going to need to study a lot harder than I'd hoped. Oh, well. Motherfracking logic questions, we hates them, precious.

Hee hee. This is the best review of a lame movie ever, and is why I will not be seeing Shyamalan's The Happening. Massive, massive spoilers, but really, were you planning to go?

Told my parents about the law school idea. (Note to self: I have no poker face.) Mom's ecstatic; dad will support it if I think it'll lead to career happiness. So, yeah. I'm still waiting for the law student I'm in touch with to write me back with answers to the questions I asked her, but I guess I might as well start gearing up to apply...

Things I have decided: I'm not applying to Emory, or any other private school; I simply can't afford the debt--and since I have no plans to work at a big firm or aim for a six-figure salary, I don't see the need. That said, I do need to figure out some options besides UGA and Georgia State!

Oh, hi, boredom! I remember you! Wow, it's been awhile. I'm not really surprised to see you at this point, now that I've stopped having anything to look forward to for a couple months. This always happens--I look forward to having free time, finally, and then have nothing to fill it with.

I did manage to make a couple pairs of earrings last night, but I'm not feeling very inspired, unfortunately. Finished the shawl I was knitting, too--it needs blocking, but I don't have the space for that here. Though I'm never knitting lace again, that's for damn sure--too much counting. I guess I could keep working on my unfinished sock, but soothing mindless knitting is not particularly exciting when there's nothing interesting to compensate for it.

I can't even make this entry interesting. Sheesh.

What I really want to do is reread all the Lymond books in an attempt to pick up all the details I wasn't clued into the first time around, but I kind of feel like I have enough unread books in the house that I ought to read those first. (I've always been confused by people who buy new books and don't read them immediately, though I'll admit I'm starting to see the point.) I'm also dying to see Iron Man again, but will wait until frostedelves has time. I could do with a good computer game, though, if I could find one I was interested in, and I'm awfully picky.

Ehh, I'm going to have some ice cream (I remembered last night I had a card for a free quart of Brusters). And maybe bake zucchini muffins.