Merry Christmas!

Ah Christmas-time. This week I did all those traditional things that make you feel all twinkly and filled with cheer. You know, attended a party where Die Hard was playing in the background, attended a menorah lighting ceremony, ate waay too many cookies, wrapped presents poorly, drank wassail, went to the liquor store, stayed up late watching movies with old friends, and of course made a gingerbread Tardis. Here are a few photos of those happenings.

My dad is super classy, picking his nose in my firetruck mittens.

Hipster pups

Nick doesn't dress warmly enough

The humble beginnings of a Type G Tardis

Tardis Blue icing

These York Peppermint Patty pieces were perfect!

Made some stars to be the Time Vortex

These were lighthouses originally, but I shortened them and made them Daleks

Daleks attack the Tardis while it is flight in the Time Vortex

The Doctor confronts the Daleks

Very proud (also, these are my 'Woodland Creature Eyes'

See, my mom does it too!

Tomorrow and Sunday will bring more fun traditions, food and lots of BBCAmerica on the television. But I don’t know what could top making my Gingerbread House and making the Tardis! Oh wait, my sister comes home tomorrow! 🙂 Hope your Christmas is as wonderful as mine!

Merry Christmas!

TARDIS Laptop Case

So, earlier this week I referred to a craft I’d made using puff paint and someone (Nick) pointed out that I hadn’t blogged about it before. So here it is! One day I realized my laptop case is TARDIS blue so I whipped out a ruler, a sharpie and some silver puff paint. And voila!

It's (say it with me now) bigger on the inside!

B3DA 26

Guys, I am so burned out on the blogging! I don’t know what the deal is, I love all the prompts but lately nothing has seemed interesting enough to write about. BUT I shall continue to push through.

A few random things:

• The new dog seems to be suffering from separation anxiety, feel bad for the kid and I hope we can train it out of him
• Does anyone else think/hope that Mark Sheppard’s character’s name is a reference to Firefly? (Everett Canton III v. Jayne the Hero of Canton? Or am I just reaching? Sheppard and Adam Baldwin have worked together in 5 projects…)
• My teens judged the poems in our poetry contest today, one poem contained this line: “Baseball is awesome like a lion eating a possum…” LOVE.

~~~~~~Jane Austen 30 Day Challenge~~~~~~

25. Favorite family connection (i.e. sister-sister, mother-daughter, brother-sister, etc.)

I really need to reread Emma, but my favorite at the moment is Emma and John Knightley in the new Emma. He’s so persnickety!

26. Favorite casting cameo from the films.

Duh

****Miles Run to Date****

9.5

B3DA 23

My poor sister. When I get tired and easily offended I respond with biting sarcasm (worse than usual, they don’t call me ‘Razorblade’ for nothin’). And when she gets tired she is easily upset by said sarcasm. Sigh. And yes, I always think of the quote from A Separate Peace “It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak” (Knowles, 29). Then I remember what my mom said when I read that line to her, something along the lines of, “That’s just what people say when they can’t think of anything mean to say back.” That doesn’t make me feel any better or worse about it, it just always makes me think of that. Anyway, luckily Katie doesn’t hold grudges too long.

Today I worked on what will be a baby shower gift that’s going to be pretty epic, then I left to go shopping with my mom and sister and my dad pretty much finished it….

New Doctor Who tonight! I loved it. I cried and I was petrified. No spoilers though because I know some people haven’t been able to watch yet. I do want to know if Mark Sheppard’s character’s name is a Firefly reference…also it’s weird that he has an American accent and *isn’t* playing a bad guy…*

~~~~~Jane Austen 30 Day Challenge~~~~~

22. Favorite Austen female casting decision.

Terribly underutilized

Though I did prefer her as Mrs. Fairfax in Jane Eyre…

23. Favorite Austen male casting decision

This guy in both Emma AND Mansfield Park

***Total Miles Run to Date***

7.5

*Okay so I was going to post a picture of Mark Sheppard but I just got sucked into looking at pictures and gifs of him on tumblr. And it made me realized how many of my favorite shows he’s been on. Firefly, The Middle Man, Leverage, Chuck, Burn Notice, The X Files  including shows from back in the day: JAG, Sliders! And shows I’ve been meaning to watch like Battlestar Galactica and Supernatural.

B3DA 18-The People Pictured Are All British

Right out of the gate, I want to post this for Lisa because I know she’ll squee at it:

And some of the rest of you squeed too, didn’t you?

And this is just for me:

Okay, moving on. To some big, life changing stuff. Seriously. About a month ago I agreed to run a half marathon with my friend Brittney (and some of our friends) the week before her wedding. I’m not sure I was in my right mind, I’d just had several (several) cups of coffee and biscuits at Ol’ South Pancake House so I was obviously feeling good, and the endorphins swept me away. Well I told myself I’d start training for it once I’d run the 5k at TLA (which turned out to not be a full 5k, but who’s judging?). So this is to be the first week of training! I’ve got 24ish weeks so I’ll be taking things slow. Lisa suggested I log my total hours at the end of each blog entry. What do y’all think?

In other news:

Happy 40th Birthday David Tennant!

~~~~~~Jane Austen 30 Challenge~~~~~~

18. Moment that made you smile/happy while reading

Captain Wentworth’s love confession, just about every snarky thing Mr. Bennet says, the Middletons, when Wentworth takes Anne’s nephew off her back…

B3DA: I did it again!

Argh! I promised I’d be more faithful in general and more specifically that I’d post some pictures yesterday.

Then I spent the day shoving tables and library info and a dog into Action, my tiny car, sitting in the sun and in coffee shops and on my couch watching Bones and jogging and I completely forgot. Whoops!

Okay, so here are those pictures I promised. There aren’t very many. I got too caught up in the conference to take a lot…

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There ya go!

Also, this amazing poem by Chicana writer Carmen Tafolla in front of the Texas Capitol building:

In happier news, less then a week before the new season of Doctor Who!!!

~~~~~~Jane Austen 30 Day Challenge~~~~~~

16. Least Favorite Film Adaptation….

It definitely used to be the 2005 Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice. But having seen it a billion times since then, it’s grown on me.

B3DA-What day is it?

Don’t you wish you could time travel? I know many of you do, at least based on the tv shows you (we) watch. Unfortunately, you’re not supposed to cross your own time stream, unless it’s the end of the world or the Universe as we know it.

Like this

Since I can’t travel back and write by blog for the last few days I’ll just have to apologize.

Sorry!

Things have been a bit crazy, as I’m sure you saw in my previous entries and each night I’ve been in bed when I’ve realized I didn’t blog but I was too exhausted to get back out of bed! But I’m back in Houston now, or rather I’m in Friendswood sitting at the Circulation Desk (if you want to check anything out, come to me!).

It was a pretty great week in Austin. If you were following my onslaught of tweets you know a lot of what went on. Lots of walking up and down hilly Austin streets in beautiful weather, some yummy food, lots and lots of librarians, wearing a cape and mask, meeting great authors, talking up the Maverick Graphic Novels list, and learning lots of new and exciting things. I’ll post some pictures soon, including a picture of Keith with a 1lb hamburger and me with David Levithan!

Tonight I’m going to see one of my favorite comedians, Kathleen Madigan. Below is a link to part of her stand up dvd that I have memorized. I think she might be my spirit animal to quote people on tumblr. 🙂

http://youtu.be/wudtMKF2efE

~~~~~Jane Austen 30 Day Challenge~~~~~

10. Most frustrating family member.

 Mary Elliott?

11. Least favorite book.

Probably Lady Susan, but that could just be because I’ve only read it once…

12. Least favorite Austen heroine.

Sometimes it’s Emma, but not really

13. Least favorite Austen man.

Willoughby

14. Favorite love confession from the books.

“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W.

I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening or never.”

15. Favorite love confession from the films.

Looking through images of those scenes from various movies, I don’t think I have a favorite! They’re all so sweet! I even found this picture from The Jane Austen Project (which is awesome)

B3DA Day 1- Introductory Notes

One of my favorite features about WordPress is the stats, this might point toward a need for validation and to be loved but I don’t really care, I just like to look at the little chart! I saw that I had 15 views yesterday, which surprised and delighted me. I hope you all keep returning, for the next month at least, because I am anticipating some crazy Texas Spring Time antics (that’s because I live in Texas, where it is not snowing you poor northern/midwestern people)!

For initiates, this is Day 1 of Blog Every Day April. The title is pretty explanatory, because yeah I will be blogging every day this month. With the help of these lovely prompts- http://becky-jean.blogspot.com/p/beda.html

If you’re new here,

Hello!

I’m Christina, or Sti, or @librariansti. I’m a Young Adult Librarian. I love my job, all things British (Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter and Jane Austen especially-in fact the name of my blog is a British reference, if you can name it in the comments you get extra points!*), reading, art, music–all that good stuff everyone likes. I love long, run on sentences, and commas, so bear with me! This is my third year to do B3DA with Becky, Autumn, and Nicola my dear BEDA Buddies who I would not have met without the insanity and unconfined strangeness that is Maureen Johnson. So thanks, Maureen (though you’ll never read this) for introducing me to some lovely people and for making me stretch my writing muscles once a year!

To all my returning friend and readers

I think my new ‘thing’ will be lots of gifs. I hope this won’t slow down your computers, you’ve been warned!

Okay, this was just a short intro into my life. If I think of more I’ll add them in later today…

DFTBA,

Christina

*These points don’t mean anything, but it’s fun to have incentives, isn’t it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

P.S.

Also, as a companion to each B3DA entry I’m going to try my hand at the 30 Day Jane Austen Challenge from foolishpreparation’s tumblr

So today is ‘Favorite Austen Heroine’ which is, of course, a tough one.

But here she is:

Anne Elliot!

 

3 Day Weekend Heralds the Beginning of Summer for Some

Well, school (at least in Friendswood) is out. This brings mixed emotions for me. I’m glad my kids are happy to be free, but the new junior high is opening several miles away which means my school year crowd is going to be very different next year. Not sure what will happen there in the Fall.

My 2 day long marathon of Doctor Who is over, and so are the last of our ‘quiet’ days at the library. Now the days will be full of families searching for a cool way to spend a few minutes/hours with books or the variety of programming we offer or picking up prizes from the summer reading club. It’s totally exhausting but so very fun and I’m excited but nervous as always.

But before that begins, we have a 3 day weekend! I’ll be spending it in New Braunfels with my sisters. So far, our plans consist of vague ideas to go antiquing and floating the river and Monday we’re seeing the Barenaked Ladies perform in Austin, which I’m so psyched for! This will be my 3rd time to see them, and I’m curious to see how they’ll perform as a foursome.

I had to take off the afternoon so I don’t go into overtime (I’m going in for our kick off party in the morning), so Robin and I met my mom at the high school and then went for margaritas and fajitas and I was so tired when I got home around 7, I read some and actually took a nap! Again! And only for half an hour again so I’m not in a bad mood, miracle of miracles! But when I woke up the weather had turned, from clear blue skies to overcast and pouring rain. The temperature has gone down to 79 but the humidity is at 77% so it feels soupy outside. Gross. Hope it lightens up for tomorrow!

BEDA 16

Okay, gonna make this quick since Katie, Rachel(hi Rachel, you’re not really a creeper!) and I are  going to drink wine and watch the first two episodes of the new Doctor Who! You’re so jealous, I know.

Today was my last day at TLA and it was a good one. Started the morning off with a panel of some Maverick list authors Mariko Tamaki (Skim), Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet), Ellen Schreiber(Vampire Kisses), and Chris Schweizer (Crogan’s Vengeance). It was great, lots of great questions answered in a great manner. Lots about the process of writing and/or illustrating graphic novels, the joys of writing for younger audiences etc.

Got to watch a few of the book talks by the teens who were attending TLA for the Texas Teens 4 Libraries day. Then I was dragged to the Bluebonnet Award luncheon which is fun but takes a loooong time, so I left after an hour (they hadn’t even gotten around to presenting the winning author and illustrator yet.

Anywho, I moved onto a panel called Books and Technology with Cynthia Leitich-Smith (Tantalize, Eternal), Cory Doctorow (Little Brother, For the Win and kinda sexy in his thick framed glasses and wicked intelligence), Jay Asher (13 Reasons Why), Jude Watson (aka Judy Blundell: several of the 39 Clues books, What I Saw and How I Lied) AND Maureen Johnson (13LBE, Suite Scarlett etc.). And it was fan-FRICKING-tastic all about how these writers utilize technology in their writing and in connecting to their readers. Maureen reference her fake internet award 🙂 And afterward I screwed up my courage to talk to her. I told her that my BEDA buddies wanted me to say hello, she said Hi! in a high pitched squeaky voice and talked about her seagull voice and then she made a seagull noise. It was awesome. Got a pic too!

Someone got out of their jar!

After that I went to Maureen’s signing and chatted with a lot of manic excitement with the people next to me in line (the girl in front of me had her sign a jar!) I had her sign it like a tweet! 🙂 Afterward I hung out at the YART booth and chatted with people about the books on the Lone Star, Tayshas and Maverick lists. Much fun.

Skipped out on the general session and the book cart drill team because- oof too many people! Exhausted just thinking about it. Instead came back to Katie’s went out and had a hamburger with a fried egg on it…tasty, but it needed some veggies on it.

Okay, the 11th hour is almost over which is ok since i’ve seen it twice already but we’re going to watch the second one soon so I’m going to bid you adieu!

p.s. Did I tell you I got swag from the Unshelved booth? I did!