What a bizarre weekend. Saturday the skies were sunny, the breeze was almost nonexistent, the temperatures were in the 70’s and we spent the day outside. Sunday the temperatures were much colder and the entire day was filled with strong winds, brief severe thunderstorms, and hail. Today it is only supposed to get up to 48 degrees and the wind is tremendous. The March lion has finally arrived.
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I was slightly under the weather this weekend but I used that to my advantage and had the first truly restful weekend that I have had in a long, long time. After the rapture of sleeping in late on Saturday we spent almost the entire day out on the back deck reading. We had a brief visit from the newest member of our family, Abby and Mike’s new child, Moses. A very large puppy…German Shepherd…who was very sweet and makes a very funny brother to Motley.

I read the entirety of The Book of Flying by Keith Miller.

This book was given to me a week ago by my friend Pat who knew that work had been very rough for awhile. As books always are, it was a welcome gift, and it turned out to be a book that really got to me emotionally. I have chosen not to do a full review for two reasons. First The Book of Flying is a quest tale about a young man who goes on a journey to get his wings. Revealing anything about the cast of characters he meets on said journey would really ruin the reading experience. The main character, Pico, is a librarian who loves books and loves the written word and I found a kindred spirit in that character that was very, very identifiable. I would have loved this book simply for the fact that this character and others demonstrated such a love of reading that I felt like I was among friends. The second reason I am not doing a full review is that I hesitate to fully recommend the book because of a few very brief, but very disturbing ideas laid out in the story. I felt they were unnecessary. Overall the book is a fine read. A quest tale that seems made up of some of the more dark and traditional fairy tales. I couldn’t stop thinking about it after I put it down and contrary to my usual habit I haven’t picked up another novel yet to continue reading. The book was all the more incredible considering it was Keith Miller’s first novel. The writing style is very different and is similar in presentation to the writing of Patricia A. McKillip.

To allow The Book of Flying to linger in my mind I decided to pick up Jeff’s copy of Kingsgate: The Art of Keith Parkinson.

Keith Parkinson was an incredible artist whose artwork is well-known in the fantasy book and gaming worlds. His art has graced the covers of Terry Goodkind’s novels and his most famous gaming work is the creation of the look and artwork for the Everquest games. This was one of the better art books I have read lately in that Keith talked about the creation of each piece. Reading the book was very melancholy, however, because Keith Parkinson passed away from leukemia on October 26th, 2005, four days after his 47th birthday. Keith Parkinson will be missed and I hope in tribute that his publisher will put together a worthy hardback collection of his works.
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Sunday I felt slightly worse and so I played hookie from church and the afternoon shopping trip and laid on the couch with Razz. This was very heartwarming as Razz has taken to not enjoy laying on the couch with me lately for some reason and I really enjoyed the time with him. The two of us watched our borrowed copy of Love Actually.

I had always meant to see this and just never had. I was excited when I discovered that it was written and directed by Richard Curtis, the writer of some of my favorite British comedies: Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley as well as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bridget Jones’ Diary. This was a very funny, sometimes very adult, ensemble romantic comedy and I really enjoyed it. I laughed, I cried and I liked it so much I watched it again in the evening with Mary. The story follows several different couples through the 5 weeks leading up until Christmas and there are some very wonderful, touching stories. I particularly enjoyed the romance between Hugh Grant and the lovely Martine McCutcheon. I also found the interaction between Liam Neeson’s character and his stepson to be marvelous and also really liked Colin Firth’s discovery of the love of his life. All the characters were interesting and enjoyable in their own way. The stand-in porn actors were very funny (and a part of the adult content) as was Bill Nighy as an aging has-been rocker.

The bulk of the rest of the day was spent watching KU win the Big 12 tournament, watching the weather to see just when the next storm would hit, and watching various home shows on A&E and HGTV. That combined with my all day diet of Sprite and Saltine crackers while I curled up with my favorite blankie on the couch made for a very relaxing day.
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And finally, because I am a space geek, I will mention…forgoing the standard butt humor…that today marks the day in 1781 that the planet Uranus was discovered. Uranus was the first planet discovered in modern times and the first planet discovered by the use of the telescope. The planet was discovered by William Herschel and was later named after Uranus, the Greek diety of the heavens, a predecessor to the Olympian Gods.
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And now its off to work to do payroll and deal with the aftermath of last week! I hope everyone has a wonderful week this week and that Monday turns out to be a quiet, meek beginning day of the week.