Show us your key chain. How many keys are on there?
Submitted by Strive2Be.
Just two - one for the house and one for the car. Not sure what happened to the PO box key. I ahare this car and these keys with my husband. It is for the non-preferred car which I always seem to end up with. I think I will have to start putting embarrassing ornaments (eg, pink fluffly animals etc) on the other set so my husband is too embarrassed to carry them and I end up with the preferred car more often.
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUT BOTH BOOKS BELOW
I found Emma to be a more perfect and complicated novel. I knew she was not going to end up with Frank Churchill, but I did not have a clue how Miss Austen was going to transfer my strong affections from Mr. Churchill to Mr. Knightly by the end of the novel, so that I would be satisfied with the ending. However, transfer them she did, and I was pleased with the result. Mr. Knightly is no Mr. Darcy or Captain Wentworth, and it is a bit creepy that he's so much older than she is and has loved her since she was 13. But not nearly as boring or as wishy-washy as Edmund in Mansfield Park. It was also exceedingly funny; Mrs. Elton is perfectly horrid and all the more humorous for it. But I think what I like most about the novel is Emma herself.
She is such a great character - bold, funny, smart, good tempered andacutely aware of her failures and shortcomings (after the fact). She’s so sure of herself that it makes it all the more interesting when her plans go awry.
It was very easy for me to love Northanger Abbey. Catherine is so fond of novels and it affects her thinking and has humous consequences. However, Isabelle and John Thorpe were the most loathsome characters I encountered while reading any Jane Austen novel. They weren’t comically terrible (like Mr. Collins, Mrs. Elton, or Mary Musgrove), they were just completely horrid. I really like Henry, he’s an excellent love interest. But the resolution was underwhelming, considering how painful Catherine’s removal from Northanger Abbey was. Also lacking was the final culmination of Henry’s declaration of love. It did not hold up compared to Captain Wentworth’s letter, or Mr. Darcy’s second confession of love to Elizabeth. Despite all this, I greatly enjoyed the book. I liked that it moved quickly and was pretty suspenseful. (I did have to google “pump room” though, and find out exactly what it was. The name sounds horrifying.)
Words and phrases I now use too much, as a result of spending over a month engrossed in three Jane Austen novels: exceedingly, loathsome, irksome, pray tell me, upon my word, obliging and indeed. If only I could always stay immersed in Jane Austen’s world. :)
Walkscore.com recently ranked America's most walkable neighborhoods and cities. Where does your hometown land in the rankings? And how much do you actually find yourself walking instead of driving?
I don't think this was very accurate for my neighbourhood as it doesn't include proximity to public transport. It came up with a score of 38 or "car dependent" just by measuring distances to various facilities such as a 7-11 (who needs one of these when the corner stores are so good?). We have tenants in the flat behind our house who get by quite well without a car. We probably could too except for the need to (or should I say added ease of?) ferry the kids around in one. Even then we could probably manage if we sent them to the school closest to our house rather than to the one across the highway from where we live. Our only extra curricular activity at the moment Kung Fu which is a five minute walk away or a train ride into the city (the kids attend classes at two locations). Will be more difficult when the kids start swimming again as there is no public pool within our neighbourhood (a travesty in my view).
Who needs a 7-11 when you can get everything you need (including fresh and cheap fruit and vegetables) here? Photo from Sydney Daily Photo blog.
Do you ever read the "Acknowledgments" at the beginning or end of a book? Why or why not? Bonus points: What book contains your favorite acknowledgments?
Submitted by Strive2Be.
I do but then my husband jokes that I am such a compulsive reader that I would even read the phone book (or, Heaven forbid, the Sports pages!) if I was stuck with nothing else to read (and yes, I must admit that I have done both these things). I don't normally remember them though so wouldn't be able to pick a favourite (not that tragic!).
My finals are done, well except for two papers I have to do over the next two months, and I have time now to delve into fun books again!
Currently I´m reading The Time Machine because I remember that I enjoyed it but that´s about it. Also I finally decided to read The Poe Shadow which is interesting and fun so far.
And to celebrate the end of this term I´m going to see the new The X-Files film today with a friend from uni, I guess I´m a dork but I loved that show :)
My son also won a ribbon yesterday. He came third in the Kindergarten skipping race! (If you know my son, this is actually kind of funny and very apt).
Show us the last thing you bought.
I can't. I've already eaten it!
She came third in the 200 metres! My son also wandering around with a ribbon but my husband thinks someone just gave it to him as he hasn't seen him in any races yet.
Note complete lack of shoes this time! I feel like such an inadequate parent.
Think my daughter can forget all about an Olympic running career right now (or maybe we had just better buy her better shoes)!
