Better Suited for Halloween...

This certainly isn't what I want for Christmas, but it's pretty dang cool!

'Ghost Face' In Human Skin-Covered Book

By Gerard Tubb
North of England correspondent
Updated:08:19, Wednesday November 28, 2007

A 400-year-old book covered in a sheet of wrinkled human skin is going under the hammer in a bizarre auction.

It is thought the skin was cut from the corpse of one of Guy Fawkes' fellow conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

And if you hold the novel in the right light, you might even see a ghostly face on the cover, it is claimed.

It was published in 1606, just months after the Jesuit priest Henry Garnet was captured and executed for his part in the plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

The book's owner, who does not want to be identified, told Sky News he hopes it will go to a museum so that people can see it.

He believes that marks on the leather are evidence of torture, and says a Latin inscription on the cover which reads "severe penitence punished the flesh" was written to make sure people knew what had happened to the victim.

Sid Wilkinson, of Wilkinson's Auctioneers in Doncaster, says the ancient human skin feels smooth "and a little bit strange to the touch."

Several other books covered in dead people's skin are held in museums around the world.

The practice, known as Anthropodermic bibliopegy, had a novelty value hundreds of years ago. The most popular were court reports of murders that were covered in the skin of the perpetrator.

Ok, you can all call me creepy now.

The Season of....Asking.

OK girls, (and boys, if you have advice) if you want something from your boy for Christmas, but can't ask for it specifically, (because it's rude to say anything besides "Oh you don't have to get me a gift!" or "I'm sure anything you think of will be perfect!") how do you go about getting it? I've never been particularly good in the area of dropping hints...I suppose this blog will be enough to let him know that there's something, just not what. (Assuming he reads this.) It's not really something that's appropriate for me to purchase for myself, otherwise I'd just go get it. Let the advising begin!

Aside from that, Levelland is where a whole pile (yes, I know the correct term is flock) of Canada geese end their seasonal migration. I don't know why they choose to stop here, because it's freakin' cold, but they do, and every few hours I hear lots of loud honking and flapping as they move from one lake to the other, obviously on some goose schedule that they didn't tell me about beforehand. Not good for napping. There are several hundred of them, which looks pretty cool in spite of the noise, so hopefully this weekend I'll get out to the lake to take some pictures of them, and let Maybe do a little chasing.

Almost Forgot!!

I also put up my Christmas tree, in my brief blogging hiatus. It looks pretty much the same as it does every year, white, silver and gold ornaments, and one new ornament for every year that Justin and I have had Christmas together. I bought an ornament at the zoo in San Diego for the tree, but that isn't really significant of anything that has happened to both Justin and me this year, so this weekend we're going on the hunt for this year's special ornament.

I can't really think of anything remarkable that's happened this year though, except for Justin's toe surgery (which has, by the way, finally completely healed-almost). I wonder if I can find an ornament that looks like a toe and is some neutral color...hmm. Anyway, here are pics:


Oh yes, Justin doesn't have the flu. (Thank goodness!) He has a nasty stomach virus, which should be better between 3 and 7 days from now. The doctor also gave us enough drugs so that when I'm struck down by this plague, we don't have to go back.

Sorry it Took So Long

I'm finally posting pictures from my trip to San Diego. This will have to be quick because Justin has the flu and I am taking him to the doctor in about an hour...This is my friend Shannon with me after dinner one night. We were wandering around the winery in an area where I guess they have weddings and trying to teach her husband, Matthew, to dance. Me and Matthew (Shannon's husband, my friend) at the zoo. Me at the zoo, koala in the background.At the San Diego zoo, they do this thing called "enrichment" where they provoke the animals into thinking and not getting stuck in some sort of routine. It's really just animal torture, sort of. Here's an example. Koalas really just want to sleep for 20 hours a day and eat eucalyptus and be left alone. Occasionally, they grab the koalas out of their cozy trees, and take them to another koala's tree. It really stresses them out and they have to then mark the tree with their scent all over, and it looks like this:We were lucky to be there on enrichment day though, because otherwise, we would never get to see a koala move around this much. It was really really cute!

And now for a string of pictures of various apes:
We were able to get so close to the gorillas, just a glass partition between us. It was amazing. The next trip, we're going to the wild animal park, where we will actually be able to feed a giraffe. *squeal*
We could have actually touched this bird, (a peacock, I think). It was right in front of us and there was nothing to stop us except a fear of bird bites and the possibility of being banned from the zoo for life. The sign with a finger pointing at me says 'These animals BITE." Hehe!

The Airplane Plague

Someone one one of the planes that I flew on last week had the plague, and now I have had the plague for nearly 5 days. The first day, Monday, not so bad. I had a little sore throat in the morning but attributed it to sleeping with my mouth open all night to combat the pre-existing congestion. Tuesday pretty sick, but not sick enough that I wanted to give in and actually go to the doctor. Little cough, little hoarse, not that big of a deal, but by Wednesday and Thursday, it was the full blown plague. I had zero voice, or rather, the voice I had, if I forced myself was either a tiny whisper or a croak to rival broken glass. It was bad enough that finally on Thursday I went to the doctor and waited around for an hour in order to be diagnosed with Laryngitis and Bronchitis. Yeah, it's never enough for me to just have one thing at a time. They gave me a shot of Rocephin and sent me on my way.

If you've never had Rocephin, please know that this is pretty serious business. It is just an antibiotic, but it comes in a gigantic needle and has to be given into a muscle, so my hip was sore for 2 days. In the grocery store about half an hour after my shot (yes I'm Typhoid Mary) I was almost passing out dizzy and tired. (The tiredness is not an actual side effect to Rocephin, but is a side effect of the plague.) Anyway, I haven't posted because I've been sleeping about 14 hours a day and trying to feel better. I thought I would feel better on Friday, and if not, definitely by today, but this has not been the case so far. I have been coughing up lots of interesting things though...gotta keep it entertaining.

Hopefully I will have the pictures from my trip, and the will to live outside of my bed again by Monday and we can continue this happy journey in bloggerland. Until then, drink lots of juice and don't let anyone breathe on you. Especially me.

Be It Ever So Humble

I am home from San Diego. The trip was so amazing in so many ways that I could never even begin to tell you all about it here. I will say that the Houston airport is way too big and that they should totally rethink the layout, particularly if they are going to have short 45 minute layovers. I have blisters on the bottom of my feet from running across the airport to catch my connection....AND on the trip home they managed to lose my luggage. (which they just returned) Yes I would love some cheese with my w(h)ine.

San Diego is so beautiful, and my friends kept telling me that the weather I experienced there wasn't real SD weather, but whatever, it was fantastic. Like the outside had central heat and air. The zoo is famous for a reason, and I will post all about my time there, but I want to wait until I have some pictures to post here. My current camera is really terrible, so Shannon took all the pictures and will mail me a disk with them in a couple of days. Then I can tell you about the koalas.

Anyway, I'm glad that I'm home, I missed Justin so much and Maybe totally had a seizure of joy when she saw me, which was quite fulfilling. I didn't realize it, but I missed my bed, and for the first time in nearly a week I got a full night's sleep. I do miss my friends though... OK, I'll post more about the trip when I get the pictures....

Out of Town

I know I haven't posted anything of value (is any of it of value?) for awhile, but you're going to have to wait a little longer. I'm leaving at 5am on Thursday for San Diego to spend some time with friends. I'll be gone for 5 days, and when I get back, I promise-promise that I'll have something worthwhile to say. I just haven't felt very inspired lately, everything has been pretty great around here, and how boring is it to just read about how fabulous someone's life is all the time? Some time away from here will give me something to talk about, I hope.

In the meantime, entertain yourselves here.

Boo!!

Happy Halloween!

Rice

This is fun and for a good cause. For every correct answer you get to vocabulary questions, this organization donates 10 grains of rice to a world food organization. Go and play, it's not like you have anything better to do.

www.freerice.com

On Aging

Justin tells me that I haven't been posting enough. I did take the opportunity to point out that he hasn't posted anything to his blog in months, but he says this isn't the point. Anyway, I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but other things kept coming up, or I'd just forget, so here goes anyway.

Things that make me feel old.

1. I've become really offended by teenage boy hair. How is it possible that they are all born with wavy, big, hair that they choose to grow long(ish) and then top with a hat? I always think it makes them look like bozo the clown or something...hair puffing out all around the sides. Ugh. When I was in high school, there were boys with long hair, but it wasn't all big like this....Yes, I know I just sounded like someone's grandmother saying "in my day..."

2. I love NPR. Except here, here it's only classical music, all the time and hardly any talk. I'm not old enough yet to want to listen to symphonies for 14 hours a day...yet.

3. I want everyone in whatever house I happen to be at, to be in bed at the same time.

4. Every room in my house has curtains.

5. Television shows that I watched the first time around,like The Cosby Show, are now on Nick at Nite. I find myself saying things like :"why are all these new programs (yes programs!! gah!!) on this channel? What happened to I Love Lucy?"

6. I keep an afghan over my legs when I watch TV on the sofa.

7. Yesterday, it was 60 degrees and I had the heater on. (And the afghan over my legs, if you were wondering.)

8. I don't know what songs are cool...or what radio station to find the cool songs on, or how to download music onto my mp3 player.

9. I believe that they should raise the driving age to 18, and go to a year round school schedule. (I just lost Amanda, hehe)

10. I have no idea who half of the people in the tabloids are. Fine. More than half.

Anyone else starting to feel like a grown up? And not in the "can buy my own alcohol" kind of way?

Love This:

Live wide-eyed in the mystery of life and dare to love wastefully.

Saint Victor

Research

So, I'm doing an informal survey among my married friends, mostly because I'm curious about their answers (is there really any other reason?) but also because I kind of want to know where my relationship stands on the This is Perfectly Normal Meter. If you want to take part, repost on your blog, like any other meme, or you can just email me. Unmarried/divorced/just livin' together friends, you can do this too, just alter the question to fit your needs. Leave me a comment if you do this so that I know. I'm gonna go ahead and post my answers to the questions here, because that's only fair.

Love, S

1. So...how'd ya meet? Online. This used to really embarrass me, and I'd make up some story, but whatever. Lots of people meet online now and I've gotten over myself.

2. How long did you date before you slept together? Hmm maybe I shouldn't have asked this question, or at least volunteered to answer, my mom reads this site sometimes. Oh well, dive right in. Justin and I slept together the first night we met. He tromped over to my house in the middle of the night and at first, that's all there was, sleeping, but you know I'm just so freakin' irresistible. Hear that sound? Yeah, my parents just had strokes.

3. How long before you became engaged? This is a sort of tricky question, there was never any like giant proposal with a hot air balloon ride or anything, at some point, it just became clear that we were either going to get married or continue living in sin for the rest of our natural lives. Either one would have been fine with both of us, but we think that deciding to get married was the best choice we've ever made, most of the time. We bought the ring though after we'd been together for about a year and a half.

4. Did you live together at any point before you tied the knot? Yes. I know it's not really the popular opinion among politicians and parents these days, but I really do feel like it made us better prepared for marriage. I could expound on the virtues of Living in Sin for pages but I'll leave it at: Yes, we lived together for nearly 3 years before our wedding.

5. Whether you did or didn't, how do you think this affected your relationship? Oh look I get to talk about it after all! Living together before the big day was helpful in a lot of ways. I didn't have to suddenly wake up married and realize that I was spending the rest of my life with someone who leaves his underwear in the kitchen because hey, I knew that already and I had decided to be ok with it. I didn't have the notion that somehow marriage would change Justin from Gamerboy to Husband Who Mows the Lawn Every Friday in a Golf Shirt. He knew that I wake up every morning and behave like a lunatic who can't stand to be touched or talked to for at least 7 minutes. He was also aware that on weekends, if we don't have plans, I like to sit around in my nightgown without combing my hair for 3 days and watch reruns of CSI, and he decided for himself that it was fine. No surprises.

6. How long was your engagement? About a year, if I'm being realistic. We bought the ring in May of 2005 and then we were married in May of 2006. However, we hadn't planned to get married until October 2006, so we didn't actually start planning until oh...February and then when we suddenly moved the date up I had to run around like a maniac getting things together. You can read all about it here.


7. After you got married, were you surprised by anything that your new husband/wife did? Nope. By then we'd been living together for a long time, like I said, no surprises.

8. Have you had or do you want to have kids? How many? The short answer: We don't know. The long answer: I have kind of started to feel like kids can't make things better. We're already happy now, so we don't need a child to make us happy, and what if it made us unhappy? It's not a risk I'm willing to take, you can't return a baby to the mall. If we weren't happy, a child could only make things more stressful than they already are. We certainly can't afford a baby right now, and even if we could, wouldn't that money be better spent on more pairs of shoes, video games and vacations? If we do decide to become parents, in the (far) future, we only want one.

Thanks in advance to anyone who fills this out for me, and I look forward to seeing your answers! I may post more questions later, I'll label that Research 2 or something equally clever *grin,* you can answer all of them or none of them or 2 of them, whatever. Thanks again!

Munchies

I've been watching the Food Network for 2 hours, and I'm not even ashamed.

Mostly, I keep it on for background noise, as I'm completely intolerant of anything that I have to let rest, or rise, or freeze for x amount of time, because all of those things just mean WAIT, and we all know that I have the attention span of an overstimulated toddler. I could barely stand to wait even the one minute for my microwaveable, canned gravy (did you know there even was such a thing? miracle.) to be done before slathering biscuits in it and calling it breakfast. So I'm not very inclined to pull my pork chop off the stove and let it sit around for 10 minutes. Hello? I have a dog, yes, she can reach the stove top. I don't really mind things that take a long time to cook, as long as I'm actively doing something during that time. (Except defrosting. I loathe defrosting.)

Anyway, as I was saying, I don't have the option to partake in what has become my usual hobby these past few months (which I won't be discussing here), so instead I'm sitting on the sofa, with the laptop, reading blogs and watching Food TV. The thing is, I really love to cook, and what with my love of infomercials, I have lots of gadgetry with which to experiment in the kitchen, and there are lots of things that are fast, or at least entertaining to make, so I want to be in the kitchen, being all domestic, I just can't right now.

I do not have a great love for my kitchen right now. There's not enough counter space, and the floor is, frankly, a little scary. You'll remember that I redid the kitchen floor in my last house, so, even though we went without a shower for nearly 2 years of our lives, there was a sparkly, shiny kitchen floor and I spent considerably more time in there than I do in the kitchen of our house now. It's fall now though, and very shortly I will be bitten by the baking bug, so I'm thinking that maybe I should ask the landlord if perhaps I can put in a new floor here.

Also, I just now learned what a parsnip is, (stop laughing at me) and now I really really want to do something with them. What do you make with a parsnip? And why the hell is that woman grilling orange slices?


Editors Note: I just searched for a picture to put on this post, did you know that if you
Google the word "pot" the first 5 pictures that appear are of a certain illegal plant?

Someone's Secret.

I know it's not, but I wish this was for me.

Todd.

Oh my!!
They're (whoever is in charge of this sort of thing) making a Sweeney Todd (The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) Movie! (yes, I know there's a version with Angela Lansbury and Kelsey Grammar, but that's just a recording of the play, this is a *real movie*) AND it's got JOHNNY DEPP.

Things could not be happier. I'm so glad that there's this sudden resurrection of the Great American Musical among the Hollywood types. I could just well....sing!!

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.
His skin was pale and his eye was odd.
He shaved the faces of gentlemen
who never thereafter were heard of again.
He trod a path that few have trod
did Sweeney Todd
the demon barber of fleet street

Swiped

From Terroni

Hi, my name is Susan

But you can call me Pretty much whatever you want to. I've heard it all.

Never in my life have I kept a plant alive for more than a month.

When I am nervous I try to be as entertaining as possible. This usually ends in disaster.

The last song I listened to was Hallelujah by John Cale

If I were to get married right now, it would be to Well I'm currently married to Justin so we'd have to work something out with the government in order to include anyone else. At least legally.

My hair is not good at all right now. It's been brushed so it's fuzzy and pulled back into a slept in ponytail. However, in general, it's better than it's been in years, most of the time.

When I was four I was enjoying my last months of being an only child, and trying to convince my mom to name the twins Tom and Jerry.

Last Christmas I got very depressed and actually took down the tree on December 23rd. This year will be better.

I should be washing dishes, or something equally productive.

When I look down I see the laptop, and an afghan that's sort of ugly, but really warm.

The happiest recent event was seeing how happy Maybe was when I came home and saw her for the first time after working two double shifts. She acted like I'd been gone a year. It was very fulfilling.

If I were a character in Friends, I'd be out of a job, wasn't that canceled?

By this time, next year, I really have no idea how to answer this question. Usually I have more of a plan than I have at this moment. It actually sort of feels good.

My current distress is that we're a little broke right now. Just for a couple more days though.

I have a hard time understanding why I've been feeling so unmotivated.

There are these girls who are new at work, I really want them to be my friends, but I have no idea how to achieve this.

If I won an award, the first person I would tell is Justin

I want to buy lots of things, most notably, a lavender button down shirt and the new Calvin Klein perfume, Euphoria.

I plan on visiting San Diego, in 5 weeks *squeals*

If I could spend the night at any house, it would be Matthew and Shannon's, in 5 weeks. I'm also pretty fond of my own house right now. There are clean sheets on my bed.

The world could do without George W. Bush

The most recent thing I bought myself is umm...I don't remember if this is the most recent thing, but I have new green velvet ballet flats that I haven't worn yet.

The most recent thing that someone else bought for me was Justin bought me dinner from Taco Bell today.

My middle name is Bell, now, sort of.

In the morning I call my friend Matthew at some ungodly hour, his time, and then, satisfied that everyone I know is awake, I go to bed.

Last night I was falling asleep at work.

There is this guy I know who uh...yeah I don't have an answer for this.

If I was an animal, I would be something with a long tail. I always feel like that's what I'm missing.

A better name for me would be I don't know that it would necessarily be a *better* name for me, but I like old fashioned names, like Fiona and Delia, and Hazel.

Tomorrow, I am having a really stress free day, including dishes and naps and hopefully donuts. The power of positive thinking.

Tonight, I am going to make a dent in the huge list of things on my Tivo, snuggle Justin, and go back to bed.

IN WRITING

Just to make things perfectly clear, these are my jobs in this marriage:

Do the dishes.
Do the laundry.
Make sure the house is tidy.
Check the mail.
Figure out the bills.
Make sure Justin's clothes match when he leaves the house.
Cook
Christmas shop.
Decorate (in general as well as for various holidays).
Keep track of people's birthdays.
File things with the insurance companies.

These ARE NOT my jobs:

Mow the lawn.
Take out the trash.
Vacuum.
Check the pockets of Justin's pants before putting them in the wash.
Feed the dog.
Program the Tivo.
Go pick up the take out.

In case of illness or injury, occasionally I will take out the trash and occasionally Justin will be in charge of dinner.

Okay. Now this is all in writing and there should be no questions. If I pull a shirt out of the wash covered in the remains of a receipt, Justin IS NOT ALLOWED to say "didn't you check the pockets of my pants?" That is not my job.

He Is On TV Right Now!!

For anyone who doesn't know this, I worship at the Alter of Alan Alda. I love him. I would crawl across the floor and lick his loafers if he wanted me to. And He is on tv right now. I could just cry.

Granny

On Saturday my sister got married. The wedding went off without a hitch, except the pastor seemed to forget his lines early on. We weren't sure if she was going to be given away or if her dad would just remain at the front of the church for the duration. I worked the video camera, so unfortunately I do not have a picture to post here. However, lots of the pictures that could have been taken weren't because her grandmother (Granny) insisted on standing in the middle of the aisle to take her own pictures. I'm not at all sure why she thought this was appropriate behavior but had she done this at my wedding (which she thankfully did not attend) I might have stomped down the aisle and sat her down. Or at least had some sort of security on hand.

This is not the first time Granny has caused drama. She is from Germany and has the most overbearing personality (to say it nicely) that I have ever come in contact with. When my dad married D'Liesa's mom, for the first several years I endured visits to see that side of the family a few times a year, I felt consistently judged, she never said anything nice to me, and frequently made nasty comments and implied mean things both behind my back and to my face. It was perfectly clear that she thought I was lower on the evolutionary scale than pond scum. When I got old enough to make my own decisions, I opted out of further trips to experience this sort of torture.

It's not just me either. She makes everyone she meets supremely uncomfortable. She causes more trouble in my family than an out break of anthrax would cause in a subway station. The particles in the air freeze at the mere thought that she might walk through the door. This is one scary little woman.

So, up to Saturday, I had not seen my step-grandparents in 10 years. I can happily say that another 10 years will not be long enough. When I walked into the church and was forced, out of obligation, to say hello to Granny, she looked at me as if I was cockroach crawling across her kitchen counter. When introduced to Justin he shook her hand and she behaved as if she had been burned. You'd think that after 70 plus years on the planet she would have learned to at least hide her contempt. The woman has no social conscience. Justin told me when we got home that he had thought that everyone was exaggerating the extent of her evil, but now, after spending less than 2 minutes with her, he sees it. I think his exact words were something like "She sort of burns your soul." Yup. That pretty much sums it up.

Vintage

So I've been looking at old pictures from my childhood and I found this one.

Several things about this picture make me say "What was I thinking?!" Here's the list:

1. Look at those horrible rubber sandals.

2. Notice that I'm wearing socks with the horrible rubber sandals. And not just any socks, men's athletic socks, pulled all the way up my leg. Do you see how long my legs looked? Why on earth did I insist on covering them up like this?

3. Look at how heavy my eyebrows are. Hello tweezers?

4. And this is really the most important, I thought I was fat. I mean, I suppose every 14 year old girl thinks she's fat, and looks back astounded at how foolish they were, but the thing is, other people were also telling me that I was fat. So now I'm wondering if perhaps someone had told me back then "you look great" that I would have developed a better relationship with food, and not been so fat now...or maybe I'd be fatter without the constant worry about my weight hovering over my head for the past 15 years. Anyway, I like the picture. I like that Once Upon a Time, I looked like that girl.