February 2007

The Toys of London

If you ever find yourself in London, you should DEFINITELY visit Pollack’s Toy Museum.  It is apparently off the beaten path because there were almost no people there – like two other families and that’s it.

It’s a tiny little museum but full to overflowing with fantastic toys.  Really great stuff.  My “new step-father” would be in heaven there.  It was full of everything he loves.  If you go, look closely because every corner of the place has something to see and it’s easy to miss something behind you or above your head because you don’t expect there to be MORE or something hidden under a stairwell.

The gift shop, also fun.  Lots of tiny little toys and wooden toys and miniatures and just fun stuff.

After that, we headed to Piccadilly Circuse to the “biggest toy store in London” – Hamleys.  Huge.  Much better than FAO Schwartz in either NYC or San Francisco.  The kids were beside themselves.  The young folks who are paid to demonstrate the toys are very good at their jobs.  I was impressed with their enthusiasm.  So impressed that we bought a UFO and I’d have bought more of the goods they were hawking but these darn kids prefer their old stand by faves – Sylvanians and Game Boy games.  Boring!

Toy day was a hit.

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The Deception of the Emerald Ring

The third in this little series was not quite as good as the first two. Something was missing from The Deception of the Emerald Ring. Maybe it was the lack of interaction between Elise and Colin? I’m not sure what the problem was because I certainly liked Letty better than I did Amy. And I loved Miss Gwen in this one.

It was rather amusing to read this while in London.  That in itself added a little twist of interest that I didn’t have when I read the first two.

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We need a wii!

Yep, we do.  We didn’t think we needed one until we visited the Game On exhibit at the London Science Museum today.  5 minutes of playing wii tennis and we were hooked.  All five of us have said “we need a wii”.

Game On was a huge hit.  Too many games, not enough time.  All of the old commodore and atari favorites we know and love.  Not to mention Activision and Pong!

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Getting Rid of Bradley

Do you remember when I blogged about “Anyone But You”?  It was last year, about women and men and dogs.  It was a good read.  That’s why TW picked out “Getting Rid of Bradley” when we wandered around the Hospice thrift shop in search of throway books to take on our trip to London.  Jennifer Crusie writes a good throw away, beach, vacation read.

Getting Rid of Bradley might have been even better than Anyone But You.  Man. Woman. Weird love story. Dogs – lots of dogs.  Better presentation than last time, I think.  Better sex scenes too.  Great beach read or airplane read.

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Rain or shine?

Our first full day in the UK – London to be specific. We’ve walked more in the last day than we have all year and we’ve done a good bit of that walking in the rain. Damn weather! It’s a little annoying to walk with an eight year old who loves the rain. She’s a nutcase, but we knew that before this rainy walking started.

We’ve explored a multitude of grocery stores – Tesco, Costcutters and Sainsbury – plus a good many mini grocery convenience stores. We’ve been to several pharmacies and a few hardware stores.

We’ve purchased our special oyster cards and explained, or attempted to explain, the phrase “the world is your oyster” but I’m not sure the children actually “get it”.

We’re playing some gameboy, surfing some internets and reading some books before we head out to Holland Park for an afternoon stroll before “tea time”. It will probably start raining just as we walk out the door. hmph.

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Choke

I finally finished Choke, by Chuck Palahniuk. Finally. For such a short book, it sure took me a long time to finish. That’s not a reflection of the story or the writing – it’s a reflection of my crazy life!

It was a good book, as expected, but it was uhhh sort of disgusting at times. Sex addicts are a little scary and a lot messy. And the fact that the “hero” makes his money “choking” in restaurants just adds more queasiness to the mix. I loved the entire “Jesus Christ” storyline, that was fabulous.

I’ve decided that I need a Palahniuk break so don’t expect to see anymore of his books appear on the blog for awhile. As genius as he is, a girl can only take so much.

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All Michelle, All the Time

We woke up this morning to discover everyone celebrating Michelle’s 17th birthday.  How did she manage that?

First, we have the NY Times running a story about Tiffany’s.  Long time fans of Flamingo House folks will know why this is a Michelle thing.

Then, we find the folks at “I didn’t know that yesterday” sharing the secret behind the candles on birthday cake.  Huh? Why today?  Oh, because it is Michelle’s birthday – duh.

Then, several rules are broken and Michelle opened her gifts at 9am and has spent several hours making an awful lot of noise.

Dinner will be Farah’s on the Avenue – no hookah but lots of falafel.

And then, Survivor.  And then, a late night jaunt with “the boy”.

Thank goodness she’s the one who is 17 and not me. I’m exhausted.

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Lambda Literary

The nominees are in – Lambda Literary Awards – I haven’t had time to peruse the list so I’m not sure how many (if any, ha) I’ve read or have had on my TBR list. If you’ve read any of these, let me know your thoughts or link me to your review. I often have to do an ILL to get queer reading and that can take time, so the sooner the better.

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Busy, Busy, Busy

image1.jpgI’ve done absolutely nothing more on this little blog. I thought for sure I’d have the images moved from Books in Bed by now. But no, life got in the way. Plus all of the fun distractions the Tablet PC has to offer… crossword puzzles, Kou-Jong with a stylus!, Hexi whatever it’s called and Ink Art – fun stuff.

Maybe tonight, I’ll have more luck getting things moved and sorted. Maybe.

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More books by color

You all know that my bookshelves are organized by color, right? And you all know that I love them organized this way. Wouldn’t it be even better if you could look through the card catalog and choose books based on the color of their covers? Hell yea it would be. Check out good ole webcat! Awesome!

I am thankful, once again, that Ed puts his delicious bookmarks out there for the world to see.

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