I watched The Fountain last Friday night. I don't know what to think of it. It didn't quite work for me, and I wanted it to. The conquistador part didn't fit in with the rest of the story.

Autumn is inventing her own language, even as she tries to mimic mine.

When I repeat what she says back to her, she pauses and gazes at me with a scrutinizing crease in her brow: "But that's not what I said!"

I hate to say it, but most librarians do fit the stereotype (I'm pretty sure that any librarian stereotype that any one of you can think of, I saw at the conference).

About a month ago, I applied for a scholarship to attend a library technical services conference in Bowling Green May 17-19. I found out that someone else got it, and forgot about it.

Then I got a call last Tuesday inviting me to come. The first thing I thought was: "Oh great, now I have to meet people."

But then, amazingly enough, immediately (the fact that this was immediate is what makes it amazing) after that thought I told myself to get over it and returned the call to accept it.

I've realized that most people I will meet are not the Lord God Emperors of anything, except maybe their backyards. I've grown up and realized that people are normal--imagine that!

I don't think this story will have any significance for anyone except my parents (my Dad, when asking me how my day was at high school, asked, 'But did you talk to anyone?' and I thought about it for a minute and said 'No.')

As always, Autumn continues to grow. It is astonishing how quickly babies grow--now she isn't plumping out so much as growing longer. When you cradle her, her legs stick out from under your arms. She is getting old man jowls, plump cheeks drooping slightly on either side of her mouth, giving her a rather serious look.

Thursday night I made Asparagus and mushroom bread pudding, from Barabara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It was delicious--even Jon, the bona fide cook of the household, he who instinctively knows what kind of spices, and how much of each to add to even the most mundane dish, told me so. If anyone is so inclined, they can probably look it up at the website for the book (listed in the post below).

Asparagus is my most favorite vegetable. I hope we can grow it here.

Dad, speaking of vegetables, have you seen the latest V8 commercials? Maybe someone needs to knock you on the head. When Ben and I were growing up, we (oddly enough for kids) accepted that Dad didn't have to eat vegetables, even if we did. We recognized that Dad was exercising his adult privilege to do whatever he wanted, and that someday we, too, would have that power. It was only a matter of waiting... Though I haven't used it to banish veggies from my life.

Pope is my doorbell notifier. He normally does his job just fine, perking up and rushing to the head of the stairs to see what's going on. Monday night, I missed a friend at the door because he didn't do anything when she rang--perhaps he grew tired of the task. Or didn't feel like it.

I'm currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Her writing style is irresistable, and the subject matter is inspiring. She chronicles her family's attempt to eat only local foods as much as possible, either by growing it themselves or getting it from the area, and eating in season. So no fresh fruit in the middle of winter (unless they acquired it locally beforehand and froze it), that kind of thing.

Here's her website, by the same name.

We signed the lease on the Victorian-ish apartment. It was either that or a smoke-saturated house in a neighborhood not quite ghetto (there are a string of widows living one by one down at one of end, which pulls its status up) or a strangely partitioned apartment in Chevy Chase--quite charming, but such an inefficient use of space that we couldn't see how two unmarried people could live there without tripping over each other all the time.

Pope still has a hall for his mad dashing gallops.
I have a reading nook.
Jon has space to cram his bike stuff.

It is finished.

Last night I celebrated finishing the last final by watching Dancing with the Stars.... which I would have watched anyways. I like to watch it and think about my cousin Rosie teaching dance to the typical middle-aged couple--a little shy about being there, but curious nonetheless.