http://www.ladyvulcan.com Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:42:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en After five months, the house hunt continues. [caption id="attachment_378" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Venice"][/caption] This is the kitchen of the house we bid on in December. Because short sales make random number generators look predictable, we are still waiting for the banks holding the current mortgages to tell us whether or not they ... http://www.ladyvulcan.com/2010/03/02/potential-kitchens/ We don't get trick-or-treaters here at the apartment, so we had another quiet Halloween at Casa de Pug. I wanted to do something in the spirit of the evening but I don't generally care for thrillers or horror movies, so what we wound up renting was the 1931 Dracula, ... http://www.ladyvulcan.com/2009/11/06/movie-review-dracula-1931/ At first glance, a more unlikely pair of re-reads would be hard to find. The Thirteenth Tale is very much a reader's story, a book for people who love books -- and in this case, old books in particular.  It's the sort of tale in which you know your heroes by ... http://www.ladyvulcan.com/2009/11/02/book-log-prisoner-of-trebekistan-and-the-thirteenth-tale/ Here's one of my crazy ideas about books. Some books grab you by the throat and say “Read me NOW!” But other books simply eye you and say, “I would be the perfect read for June.” Or October. Or January. January -- that was Bleak House, ... http://www.ladyvulcan.com/2009/08/11/book-log-on-agate-hill/ By the time I saw the latest Harry Potter flick last weekend, I had already heard mutters of disappointment from various friends and other reviewers, so I went in forewarned and had a good time. But the mutters were right: Like the previous Potter movies, this one moved ... http://www.ladyvulcan.com/2009/08/02/movie-review-harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince/ Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith Even the cover design reflects Grahame-Smith's general method. The copyright page attributes the portrait of a young lady to the Bridgeman Art Library, but also credits the book designer for “cover zombification.” Clearly, the cut-throat marriage market of Regency England needed more literal ... http://www.ladyvulcan.com/2009/06/20/booklog-pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies/ Here's the disclaimer, folks:  this is me blathering about a couple of lesser-known books by one of my long-time favorite fantasy authors.  I first picked up some of Patricia C. Wrede's books some time in middle school, and have been lending them to all my friends ever since.  (Seriously.  ... http://www.ladyvulcan.com/2009/06/13/book-log-of-harps-and-rings/ Pug and I discovered this week that we have a dollar theater across the street.  (For a loose definition of "across the street," but you know, whatever.)  It's in the same complex as our neighborhood Target and a former mall that's now a private school (yes, weird).  For months, we've ... http://www.ladyvulcan.com/2009/06/05/movie-review-watchmen/ Pug and I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night, and I am declaring it a Good One. And I'd say the Trek community was overdue for a Good One, so thank you, Great Bird of the Galaxy. My biggest worry about this film was that the characters ... http://www.ladyvulcan.com/2009/05/08/whats-old-is-new-again/ Brutus: Remember March, the Ides of March remember: Did not great Julius bleed for justice’ sake? What villain touch’d his body, that did stab, And not for justice? What! shall one of us, That struck the foremost man of all this world But for supporting robbers,–shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes And sell the mighty ... http://www.ladyvulcan.com/2009/03/15/the-ides-of-march-remember/