Whitlingham Country Park

John and I picked up a cycling map of Norwich a while ago thinking it might come in handy. This morning I pulled the map out, pointed to the large park on the opposite side of the city from us, and said to John, "I want to go there."

John cycled in the lead and we stopped occasionally to consult the map on the most traffic-free route. On the way we discovered that Norwich has its own ski slopes.

At the park we walked around for a little while reading the informational signs. The broads (bodies of water more shallow than a lake) in the park formed from people mining the area for peat.

We saw the site of wood henge. (The henge isn't actually there anymore.) Now, if there is a stone henge, and a wood henge, my question is: where did the first little pig build straw henge? Since straw doesn't tend to last for a long time, we may never know. If I wanted to get all philosophical I might conclude from this that time is the big bad wolf.

But I digress. There was a cafe in the visitor's center so we had lunch there, cycled around the park, and then came home. John had to do some more fancy navigating because the road by County Hall was very busy due to a football game.

We live in a nice area that is good for exploring on foot or on bike and I really enjoyed the park. I am glad we were able to get out today, even though we will probably be very sore tomorrow.

Another London Trip

John has really wanted to see The Magic Flute for a while. So we saw it and we both enjoyed it and birthday accomplished!

I am a bit wiped out today. John booked us a bargain hotel room which ended up meaning that the "hotel" was sort of half hotel and half residence in what must once have been a dorm. There were people living there. And there were communal bathrooms. We didn't know any of this before we arrived.

But we both laughed it off. This is an adventure! And then, lest we escape irony, my stomach picked this hotel, of all places, to be unhappy. The hotel where the nearest bathroom was on another floor.

I didn't get much sleep and then we walked around all morning until it was time to catch the train. I am looking forward to a bath and uninterrupted sleep.

John keeps talking about The Magic Flute, though. And I can tell he's really happy we got to see it. And that makes me happy.

The Magic Flute

John wanted to see The Magic Flute for his birthday so we are off on a short trip to London. I'll report on our adventures tomorrow!

Happy Birthday to John

Today is John's birthday! We celebrated by going to lunch and a movie (our usual date format these days).

Just to mix things up I also let John buy some electronics. Don't worry, nothing too pricey.

The significance of John's birthday:

I'm not a hard core believer in astrology, but I did like hanging out in the astrology section of the book store when I was a teenager. I am a Cancer, and the books say that the best match for a Cancer is a Pisces. By coincidence (not by my own doing) the only people I have dated have been Pisces. I'm using the word "dated" liberally here, because officially I've only dated one other person besides John. But if I include my junior prom date (who did go with me to the prom as a date) it makes the statistic a little more compelling. Anyway, after the first two Pisces relationships ended I wondered if astrology had let me down. Perhaps a Pisces wasn't for me. Then came John. Another Pisces. What was I to think? Well, I'll tell you what I think. I think the fact that he is on the cusp of Aquarius balances him out. Sort of takes the edge off the less desirable Piscean qualities. (No offense meant to other Pisces. Every sign has good and bad qualities.) So it is very important that John's birthday is on February 25th.

Hibernating

I remember when, over the summers, as a child, once I got into a rhythm of sleeping when I was tired and waking up when I wasn't I would naturally wake up around 8 in the morning. Now I have to set an alarm to get myself up even when I don't have anything scheduled or I will practically sleep all day. I have decided that since I am in a colder climate my body is trying to hibernate.

Although I can turn into a bear in World of Warcraft, IRL I am NOT A BEAR. Do not be fooled.

In spite of oversleeping I did manage to update the website and write a book review.

Can bears do that?

That's what I thought.

I Can Haz Mousecules?

After the novelty of having bikes wore off, John and I went back to walking most of the time. It's hard riding up and down hills, locking and unlocking the bike, bungee-cording stuff in the basket, but mostly - riding up and down hills.

But there is a big difference in the amount of time it takes to get places. It can take 30 minutes to walk down town. And only 12 minutes to bike there.

When I walk down town, then my trip into town is pretty much the only thing I get done that day. But if I bike, well, I still have time to do other things.

So, in the name of time-saving, I've been biking more. The thing is, I just don't use those muscles for anything else. Biking hurts! I keep telling myself that if I keep doing it, eventually it won't hurt anymore. So far that hasn't been true. But someday...someday I will be able to get up a 6 degree incline without wincing.

Hippy Dress

After getting up early the past two days all I felt like doing today was being a bum. Pathetic, I know, but I'm out of practice with that whole being a productive member of society thing.

Here is a picture of me in the retro dress I bought in London. I wore it for the 1960's event at Ancient House. It is a shame that you can't make out the two tiny braids in my hair.




















Peace out!

Storytelling at Ancient House

Yup, Ancient House events two days in a row.

Today's event was International Story Day. Each person was telling stories from a different part of the world. I opted to tell stories from America. I knew that this event would be a little bit of a challenge for me, because I am one of those people who really feeds off the energy of the audience and because of the nature of the event there was pretty much no chance of my having a large audience at any given time.

The first young man who wandered into my room actually turned out to be the most difficult. I asked him before I began my story if he was willing to participate. He said "yes." So I proceeded headlong into "The Foolish Frog" only to find that he was willing to participate, but not to sing. I, of all people, can't blame him for that, but I did feel a little awkward carrying on by myself.

After that I asked children if they were willing to participate, AND if they were willing to sing. (I did prepare more than one story, after all. No point telling one that didn't suite the audience.) The other children who came all had siblings, and I think that made them braver. I got plenty of singers and told "The Foolish Frog" a few more times with much better results. One girl actually said aloud during the story, "This is too funny!"

At the very end two boys who looked like they were school age came in and so I decided to try out my "older" story on them. It's called "How Jack Came to America" and I got it from a collection of Jack stories by Donald Davis. I planned to introduce the story by talking about how we have Jack stories in the part of the world I come from and also over here in England and why do you think that is? I thought the children might realize that people who moved from England brought Jack with them. But that is not the answer I got. I got, "Jack is a pretty common name." If you haven't told your audience what to say, you really have no idea what kind of response you are going to get.

All the kids who came in were really great listeners and were a pleasure to tell stories to. And as long as the audience is made up of listeners, it doesn't really matter how many of them there are.

1960's at Ancient House

After all that research, today was the day! I talked to museum patrons about '60s protests some of the time. But I did a lot of listening. I especially enjoyed talking with the ladies who lived in Thetford during the town expansion. This is actually the reason that the '60s are significant to Thetford and it was really interesting to learn more about it.

I was quite impressed that so many of the children understood the concept of making a protest poster. Once I said "think of something you don't like and talk about how you want less of it, or think about something you do like and talk about how you want more of it," they came up with some great posters. We had protests of baked beans, tomatoes, and hunting cheetahs, and we had kids promoting recycling, rabbits, guinea pigs, and flowers.

What's with the mustache? I finally recorded "The Ballad of John's LLM."



A small piece of advice: When doing a large recording and editing project, save often. Because if imovie crashes and you haven't saved, you might want to throw Lappy out the window. And that's not really good for you. Or the laptop. Or the window.

Mustache

It was actually really difficult to draw that mustache, 1) because it was hard to get at the inside of my finger, and 2) because I'm right handed, but I wanted the mustache on my right hand, so I had to draw it with my left hand.

Why is there a mustache on my finger? That will soon be revealed.

Renegade Eyebrow Hair

John has this one eyebrow hair that, like, doesn't stop growing and is curly and is.....a RENEGADE!

I finally convinced him to let me pull it out several weeks ago because it had grown so long it was poking him in the eye. It's not that I need John to have perfect eyebrows or anything. It's just that it's distracting. You know, I'll be trying to look lovingly at him, and there is this renegade eyebrow hair staring back at me. Anyway, I pulled it out and I thought that was the end of it.

But no. The hair has grown back. At first it wasn't obvious. It looked like a normal eyebrow hair. But it has shown it's true colors. Long and curly. It's going for his eye again. I can tell.

Posers

In further preparation for the upcoming '60s event I read the Communist Manifesto. I had learned that the people who participated in the debate "Students in Revolt" seemed to have Marxist leanings, so I thought I should read some Marx.

And I can't help but kind of laugh about the university students acting like they can relate to the plight of the industrial proletariat. There is an entire section of the Manifesto dedicated to describing Socialist groups who aren't true Communists. Posers, if you will. None of the groups described are actually made up of the proletariat, which makes me think Marx doesn't think you can really be a Communist without being a proletarian. These students of the '60s who seem to idolize Marx (they took a picture by his grave after the debate) are surely middle class.

I wonder if anyone saw the irony.

Hints of Spring

It was warm today. Okay, it was in the 40s (Fahrenheit). But it seemed warm. Especially while I was running and had to shed several pieces of my cold weather gear. I think everyone was really excited about the nice day because the park was packed! And it was a school day so school age kids weren't even in the mix.

I've been practicing my storytelling and I've realized that I somehow speak differently when I'm telling a story than when I'm just talking to people. I know this because I talk a lot. I can talk to Amanda for hours on the phone. But if I practice storytelling for an hour or two my voice feels kind of raw. It takes almost an entire day of non-stop regular talking to do that. This may seem worrisome since my voice is sort of important to my storytelling, but I have found in the past that frequent practice builds up tolerance. My throat actually gets stronger. Strange but true.

Weekend In

After the excitement of last weekend this one has been exceedingly slothful. But it has been good to spend time with John being lazy.

Not lazy things I have accomplished this weekend:
Cleaned our bathroom, and the parts of the downstairs bathroom that we use.
Filled out an application with Fulton County.

I was so focused on getting the certification out of the way, I almost forgot what pushed me to get it done now. Fulton County accepts applications all the time, but they only consider you for jobs that you meet the minimum qualifications for. Many of the job postings I have seen for other libraries in Georgia require certification OR the ability to get certified within six months. This is why I was not previously in a hurry to get it done. But if you submit an application with Fulton and aren't certified I don't think they consider you for the professional positions. So, here's hoping this helps me get a job.

Valentines 2003

Mumsie mentioned in the comments that John and I started dating just before Valentines Day six years ago.

I think what sticks out in John's mind most about our first Valentines together is that he took me out to dinner and then realized he had no way to pay. We got it sorted out.

What I remember most is how I agonized over whether I should get him a gift. I even asked our friend Miller for advice (but I won't tell you what his advice was). I finally decided to go ahead and get him something.

Well, it turns out he got me a gift, too. We both gave each other books and I would say they were books that show how well we already knew each other. My gift to John: Roverandom. John's gift to me: Cattus Petasatus.

Just in case this entry wasn't mushy enough: John is my one and only Valentine! Literally, he is the only person I have ever celebrated Valentines Day with.

Awww.

Valentines

John and I celebrated Valentines Day today to beat the crowds tomorrow. We had lunch down town and saw a movie.

Since I complain sometimes about the bad weather I thought I should let you know that today is the second day in a row that we have gotten light snow in the morning and then had blue skies all day. Beautiful!

<3

Swans

I went into Thetford today for a volunteer meeting at Ancient House. The meeting started at the same time that the museum opened and since I was there half an hour early (due to the train schedule), I couldn't get in. So I went for a walk by the river. There were several swans in the river and I was impressed by how they could stay in one place if they wanted to even though the current seemed strong. As I walked along I came upon a pair of swans that decided to follow me. They just swam along beside me. And one swan let out a short "merp" every few seconds to make sure that I had noticed them. Alas, I did not have any food so my friends eventually lost interest.

On anther note, now that the website is up and running I have arranged for http://www.voxfabularum.com to be the home address. If you have saved the address I was previously linking to, it will no longer work.

Certifiable, or at least, Certified

I forgot to tell you one of the cool things about the London trip. I had just finished reading this book in which London statues come to life and then I saw some of the statues while we were there. It was like meeting your favorite characters in person!

Anyway, my big news of the day is that I am now a certified Georgia librarian.

I've had my MLIS since December 2007, but Georgia requires professional librarians serving a population over a certain size to hold a certification from the state. I was not working in a professional capacity in my last job so I didn't bother getting certified earlier. But, since I'd like to be employed as a professional in the near future, I forked over the money. I just received an e-mail today telling me that the State of Georgia does consider me a librarian.

I'm glad we cleared that up.

Tempus Fugit

(click for a larger image and you can read what it says)

Thames Cruise

Houses of Parliament:














Underneath London Bridge:














Actually I don't know what this building is, but I thought it looked neat with its lights in the gathering dark.

Night at the Opera

John told me to pose:




















I told John to eat his hat:

British Museum

Sorry for being so slow to get these up. Our trip must have wore me out because I was feeling pretty run down yesterday and didn't even realize I hadn't posted on the blog until I woke up this morning.

The front of the British Museum:

Marble statues from one of the Parthenon pediments:














Socrates:

London Weekend

Thursday:
We traveled by train to London, Liverpool Street and took a cab to our hotel. Dinner at the Texas Embassy. After Texas gained independence from Mexico and before it was part of the US it was it's own country and had an embassy in London very near the location of the restaurant. So says the menu.

Friday:
The British Museum! We spent a long time in the Roman and Greek areas. I got to see the Elgin Marbles. After lunch we ran through the "must see"s including the Rosetta Stone.
Friday night was at the opera (in my black dress) to see La Boheme.

Saturday:
The Original Tour. Did you know that Trafalgar Square has no pigeons because a hawker and his hawk are there all day? Did you know that if you sit in the top of a tour bus in freezing weather for a long time your legs can get numb from cold without you realizing it until you stand up?
We added layers before going on the Thames river cruise. We also stopped by a retro clothing store we discovered and I got a dress for the upcoming 1960's Ancient House event.
Saturday night we saw Avenue Q. It spoke to me as a college graduate (especially a college graduate with a "BA in English.")

Sunday:
Leisurely lunch with Gray (a dear friend from UGA who is studying in London). We ate at a restaurant that serves dum sum. Shared food in small portions that keeps coming as long as you keep ordering. Perfect for catching up and reminiscing. Then the train ride back to home sweet home.

Pictures will follow after I unpack.

London

We are spending the weekend in London.

John says there is no internet at the hotel, so Lappy is staying here.

You probably won't hear from me again until Monday, but I should have a lot to say!

I've Got Style!

Well, I finally sat down and made the style sheet for the website today. Now I've got font, color, and fun times with the links. I also added that icon that shows up in the address bar, but not on the style sheet. I had to put that on every page. I suppose I'll keep tweaking the site as I learn how to do fancier stuff, but it is more or less done for now.




That's pretty much all I've done today. But here is a random picture I took for Amanda of the panda on the side of the tobacco shop.

Georgia Download Destination

I am sorry to say that all the audio book suggestions I got are books that are not available in mp3 format on Georgia Download Destination. I will keep your suggestions for some future time when I have more access to audio books.

I have to say that it is great that I can get audio books with my PINES card even though I'm all the way over here in Norwich. But, user needs are not truly being met. The vast majority of the books are not available in a format that will allow you to put them on an ipod. And the vast majority of the books that will work on an ipod are checked out. Because the vast majority of GDD users have ipods.

I know, I know. It's not GDD's fault. The people who hold the rights for the books decide which formats they want the books to be available in. And many of these people are wary of Apple because Apple makes it harder to keep people from stealing stuff.

And this seems to be true. Books downloaded from GDD are supposed to automatically delete themselves from your computer after 7 days. I have an Apple and the book did not delete itslef. When I downloaded a new book, I got a message notifying me that I should delete the old book (and I did).

So I guess, if you allow your book to be downloaded by ipod users they might be able to keep it indefinately. But if you don't, you've very likely created an audio book that no one will listen to.

The first book I checked out from GDD was Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley. Yeah, I got it just because the main character is named Socrates. Pretty good. I wonder if there are comparative lit classes out there reading this along side Plato's Socratic dialogues.

Now I'm listenting to Treasure Island becuase I haven't read it in a long time, it's fun, and out of five pages of "classics" it was one of only three books that were checked in.

Snow!

It actually snowed pretty much all day today. I went running in the snow this morning, which was mostly powdery and not too slippery.

Then John and I went in the garden to play in the snow this afternoon. John made a tiny snowman named George. And I made a snow cat.

Nelson Museum

This is a picture of John in front of the Norfolk Nelson Museum in Great Yarmouth. It's a pretty neat place, and very kid friendly, which meant there were things for me to touch! We learned all about Nelson as a leader, a strategist, and a husband (not sew gud on dat count, akshully). I really enjoyed the explanations of how he won some of his big sea battles. I was not, however, thrilled that a "sleeping rat" was in one of the Georgian room feely boxes. We now own a Nelson encyclopedia so that we can look up anything relating to Nelson we might want to know at any time. And John picked out set of ship book ends.


Here are some pictures from yesterday's trip to the Imperial War Museum. I was too lazy to go upstairs to get the camera when I was writing in my blog last night.