The It's-the-Middle-of-the-Week and I-Don't-Have-Much-to-Say Post

For your entertainment:

You Are a Plain Ole Cup of Joe But don't think plain - instead think, uncomplicated You're a low maintenance kind of girl... who can hang with the guys Down to earth, easy going, and fun! Yup, that's you: the friend everyone invites. And you're dependable too. Both for a laugh and a sympathetic ear. What Kind Of Coffee Are You? Take This Quiz :-)

I'm not feelin' it...but it was still a fun momentary diversion. And please don't ask why I felt the need to run out to Starbucks this afternoon and order a mint chocolate mocha frapuccino -- I took one sip and realized why I have avoided them for years. It didn't taste like coffee. It tasted like chemicals. Blech. That experience should keep me away for another few years.

Sirsasana for What Ails You...

...so I hadn't gone to a yoga class in something like, um, 3 months until this past Thursday. I had started practicing at home a couple of weeks ago -- in part because the thought of having to stay on asthma medication any longer than necessary makes my stomach clench in knots -- and if yoga is about anything, it's about breathing. But the other part of practicing yoga again was something undefinable -- a recognition of lack of life-balance, and a lack of movement. I was sitting on the floor in the bedroom one night when the thought "Instead of sitting against this wall, I bet I could do sirsasana leaning against the wall..." occured, completely out of the ether. And I did, for the first ever on my own. Some part of me must have known that being upside down can help one move towards balance in life...

Weekend Reviews...

I had quite the weekend, between hanging out at a BBQ, seeing the new "Willy Wonka," and devouring the latest Harry Potter novel. Here are some quick thoughts:

1. I think the New York Times' A.O. Scott got it right when she wrote that "the sumptuous, eerie look and mood of the movie make it possible to ignore this dispiriting and superfluous adherence to convention." (See the entire review here) The "superfluous adherence to convention" is a wholly unnecessary and maddening psychological "back story" about Wonka's relationship with his dad. I'm all about sorting out one's dad issues -- but not in my escape movies, thank you very much.

2. I love Harry Potter. Love, love, love, love, love. I love ripping open the specially-branded Amazon box (I like to pretend that it was delivered via Owl post), the smell of the brand new book, the density and smoothness of the never-touched pages. I love being allowed to dive into the story and pretend -- just for the time that I'm reading it -- that I have no responsibilities or cares other than what happens in the book. I finished reading the latest installment at 11:40pm last night and think I might just have to start reading it again because it was over too fast. As many of the reviews have said, it's the darkest of the books so far, and it's very clear that any innocence Harry retained up until this point has been torn away by the end of this book. This makes for a deeper, richer reading experience -- but at the same time, I find myself nostalgic for the lightness of the earlier books where the worst thing (for the most part) Harry had to worry about was the Dursleys. I don't know what I'll do when the series ends -- there's really nothing else like these books. The writing isn't always stunning, and the 5th book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) could have been edited with an axe, but there is always humor, compassion toward her characters, as well as amazing plots and characterizations that set these books apart.

3. I am now officially done with summer. I do not get along with heat and humidity, and the weather for the upcoming week portends temperatures in the 90's and very high humidity. Summer - done. Now.

More soon...

MIT Blog Survey

Sometimes my brain hurts. This morning I was reading a discussion of the juxtaposition of an ancient craft (knitting) with modern technology (blogging) on one of my favorite knitting blogs (Yarn Harlot) when I see in the Comments section a link to a blog research survey sponsored by MIT. Normally, I would have ignored it, but curiosity got the best of me. The survey seemed to be trying to suss out who uses what forms of communication (blog, IM, SMS, phone, etc.) and to discuss what topics. I'll be interested to see the results when they're posted.

SO, all my Friends With Blogs, check this out: http://blogsurvey.media.mit.edu/request (they have nifty buttons, too, so now I have to figure out how to post that code into my template. I'm ready, I'm ready....)