![\"Bridge](\"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/kussebrucke.jpg\" "\\"Bridge")
<\/a>Bridge over Mist<\/p><\/div>\n
Up at 0630 and walked a 10K around the local lake; got some halfway decent pictures, by which I mean I took more than 250 and kept maybe 9 of them. I was most pleased by the simple fact of getting to the spot I wanted to be with 2 minutes before sunrise – it took 43 years to master timing like that. Mind you, I got there and a dog ran over and started barking at me. I told him I was just taking pictures, go away. He told me my arm looked a lot like a centerfold pin-up in “Meat Sticks I Have Known.” Luckily, his idiot came along a moment later and we did not have to finish that conversation. <\/p>\n
<\/a>Tree Fog Reflections at Dawn<\/p><\/div>\n
Back from around the lake, SOBUMD made a wonderful breakfast and we opened presents – and by we, of course, I mean me. There was a nice bottle of Tequila, and a church key that looks like a church key, and a book. And another book. And a few more books. All told, there were 22 books, with two showing up in the mail a day or two later. SOBUMD confessed that she’d gotten sick of looking at the books on my Amazon wish list – some of them had been there for 5 years or more – so she bought them all. Luckily, most of them were used and didn’t cost a fortune, but still – I need to be careful what I wish for. Of course the neat part is that many had been on the list for so long, I had completely forgotten about them. Without further ado, my pending reading list:<\/p>\n
Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
\nBowl of Cherries, by Millard Kaufman
\nBriar Rose, by Jane Yolen
\nCharles Fort Never Mentioned Wombats, By Gene DeWeese and Robert Coulson
\nDa Vinci’s Ghost, by Toby Lester
\nOld Masters and Young Geniuses, by David Galenson
\nPollinator Conservation Handbook, from The Xerces Society
\nSearoad, by Ursula LeGuin
\nShadow & Claw, by Gene Wolfe
\nSword & Citadel, by Gene Wolfe
\nTam Lin, by Pamela Dean
\nThe Bestiary, by Nicholas Christopher
\nThe Big Switch, by Nicholas Carr
\nThe Book of Jones, by Ralph Steadman
\nThe Egyptologist, by Arthur Phillips,
\nThe Eyes of the Overworld, by Jack Vance
\nThe Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen
\nThe Kat Who Walked in Beauty, by George Herriman
\nThe Tin Forest, by Helen Ward
\nTo the Chapel Perilous, by Naomi Mitchison
\nWhite as Snow, by Tanith Lee
\nWild Nights, by Anne Matthews<\/p>\n
To say that I can’t wait would be to court understatement, to say nothing of being inaccurate in tense, since it’s already Wednesday as I write this and I’ve read two of them and started a third. Most of them had been recommended by someone or I’d been hearing about them for a while. I may review some of them – watch this space.<\/p>\n
Tequila with breakfast, 22 books, and the day was just getting started! Being as I am a Big, Cheap, Ugly Man Doll, we had conspired to use not one but two Groupons for my birthday – one for cake and ice cream at the local Swiss Bakery, and one for the International Spy Museum downtown. We wrapped up breakfast and headed cakeward to the bakery, acquired same with no fuss, and went down to get our intrigue on. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve never been to the Spy Museum, I have to tell you \u2013 find it on a weekday in winter. Saturdays in spring are evidently the time to go if your body shape leans toward the cumbersome and you tend to read very slowly. If, once you have managed to read a few words, you have a proclivity for yelling \u201cHey Marge, grab Little Towheaded Billy and come look at this one!\u201d at the top of your lungs, man, Saturdays at the Spy Museum have your name on them. The actual exhibits are interesting, but the traffic flow brings to mind the old spy technique of placing explosives inside a cow with horns \u2013 that is to say, abominable. <\/p>\n
We exited through the gift shop (it\u2019s the law!) while managing to avoid buying anything, and headed to the Very Clever Grandparent\u2019s house for traditional St. Patrick\u2019s Day fare of corned beef, beer, cabbage, beer, potatoes, beer, and soda bread. There was also some beer. To my immense surprise, there were also presents \u2013 mercifully, none of them books. There were wonderful bottles, wonderful food, and friends old and new \u2013 we got to meet my sister\u2019s new squeeze, who\u2019s a techie in addition to being a Monty Python fan, so all\u2019s well there, and my parent\u2019s friend Reinhold, who\u2019s a delight. Arriving home again, there were dozens of well wishes on Facebook awaiting before bed. <\/p>\n
All in all, a most satisfactory birthday. The next day dawned in time for sleeping in and seeing the largest Disney flop in years \u2013 Number One Son and I went to see John Carter. It doesn\u2019t suck. We were, in fact, two of only 10 people in the theater, but I quite enjoyed it. Then again, I was excited about it having read the book \u2013 this is the guy who brought you Tarzan. They\u2019re great books \u2013 it was always going to be tough to bring this to the big screen. Also, I think it actually suffers as a Disney movie \u2013 it would have been more widely watched if they hadn\u2019t shied away from the gore and violence (and there was some, don\u2019t get me wrong) and the sexuality. Mind you, Thuvia isn\u2019t wearing much, but I suspect Peter Jackson would have had her wearing a damn sight less. <\/p>\n
Regardless, good movie. Rounding out the weekend was an email from Mindy. If you haven\u2019t heard from Mindy, you might \u2013 I think she works for the tooth fairy. She asked that I copy the following link onto my blog so that teachers (and presumably parents) can provide printable, personalized tooth brushing charts to your students and kids from www.LoveYourTeeth.net<\/a>. I was all set to ignore this completely, since I\u2019m not your Big Ugly Dentist, and then I realized that the lovable loons in my office had gotten me a birthday present as well: <\/p>\n It exists. I don't know why.<\/p><\/div>\n The Justin Bieber BrushBuddy Singing Toothbrush. Because that\u2019s<\/strong> what you get for the BUMD who has everything. <\/p>\n Clearly, this is a sign from the Tooth Fairy. So please, go to LoveYourTeeth.net and print your personalized tooth brushing chart.<\/p>\n<\/a>