Hitting the Books

Tuesday night I skipped out on Irish and Ballet to go hear Leahy play at the Birchmere.

Omigosh. They are good. No, better than that. Superb. Excellent. Amazing. Incredible.

They were already my favorite group just from their CDs (Leahy, Lakefield, In All Things). Live they are breathtaking. My mother’s jaw literally dropped when Erin (the pianist) turned her fiddle upside and proceeded to play it that way.

And the dancing…I can do some stepdancing, but not while playing the fiddle.

They’re also the Punkin’s favorite group. Even though she’s only 22 months, she starts to laugh and dance around when I put Leahy on. She loved the concert. We sat over in the corner so she wouldn’t distract the rest of the audience, and let her dance her little heart out.

The cool thing is, they saw her dancing and commented on it. Said it was wonderful to see little ones enjoying their music.

Okay, enough raving.

We bought a DVD player for our minivan. I’m not a big fan of the Boob-Tube as it is (I watch, on the average, about 10 hours of TV a month…if that), and I swore a might oath that I would never let my child rot her brain (and fatten her body) sitting in front of one. Especially not in the car.

But it’s for educational reasons!!! I promise!

We’ve got series of Spanish language DVDs coming. The car is where we’ve started listening to a bunch of different language CDs, so watching the DVDs in the car when there’s nothing else to look at sounded like an efficient use of time (not to mention keeping the Punkin’s attention whilst on the 3.5 hour trip to Memere’s, or the 9 hour trip to Grandma’s).

No, we’re not expecting the Punkin to be speaking fluent anything before she hits kindergarten (although at the rate she’s picking up vocabulary, she might surprise us). We’re just trying to keep her language pathways open to as many different sounds as possible. That way when the time comes to learn a foreign language, she’ll not struggle as badly as her parents did/do.

I love languages. Always have. But I have absolutely no ear for them. I struggled through 3 semesters of Russian, squeaking by on my written work since I usually did quite poorly on the oral exams. I can speak decent German, mostly because it’s so close to English.

Memere (my mother) tries to speak French to the Punkin (though the patois of Quebec certainly isn’t your typical classroom French.)

My hubby can handle a bit of French and German, but he is insistent that the Punkin learn Spanish. Says it’s the most useful language to have in the U.S. It’ll be real interesting trying to teach a language neither of us can speak. Maybe we’ll learn by osmosis.

But what I really want to learn is Welsh (Do you know how many Welsh albums you can download off of iTunes? I was surprised.). Or Gaelic. Perfectly useless over here in the colonies, but extremely high on the cool factor.

Or we could get some Sign Language DVDs. Just so long as I don’t try to practice while driving….

Almost forgot one of my coolest finds–a 5-volume illustrated set of Jane Austen’s works, published in 1924.

Persuasion, The Watsons (never heard of that one; it looks more like a short story or novella), Emma, Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, and, of course, Sense and Sensiblility (which is one of the very, very few “chick” flicks I’ll watch willingly. The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain is another, but that has nothing to do with this post).

The books have obviously seen better days, but there’s just something about an old book. Especially one with illustrations.

And I got them for somewhere around $1 apiece

Our library system has a biannual booksale, where all the discarded and donated books from the previous six months are sold at marvelously cheap prices. It’s a real zoo (especially on Opening Night, which you have to be a Friend of the Library to get in. We used to do that, but don’t anymore–too much hassle with a Punkin on board). 1200+ square feet of books piled on tables, under tables, in boxes, on top of other books. Definitely a hunt for buried treasure.

What I found today:

• Riverdance on VHS (with Colin Dunne, not the oh-so-arrogant Michael Flatley)
• “Muzzy” (the BBC’s excellent language system for children) French addition
• Some books for the Punkin
• Japanese dictionary
• Spanish dictionary
• The Story Behind the Word (word origins)
• Names & Nicknames of Places & Things
• An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English
• The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
• Writing Books for Children by Jane Yolen
• The Craft of Revision
• A Short History of Australia
• Parallel Universes (non-fiction, written by a physicist. Also covers time travel)
• Wild at Heart by John Eldredge (we just did Captivating at our women’s retreat, so I was curious as to what he has to say about the male side of things.)

I don’t think I got any “pleasure” reading books, except Ben and Me by Robert Lawson, a kiddie book, but an old favorite of mine. Oh yeah, and Dave Barry Does Japan

Jiggity Jog.

Was away on a Women’s Retreat this weekend. Bunch of ladies from my church rented two lovely, huge beach houses. And I do mean huge. The main house had 9 bedrooms and 7.5 baths (not counting the two master suites we didn’t rent), an indoor pool, home theater, pool table, ping pong, beachside. Luxury…sorta. The house was brand-spanking new, and felt thrown together–doors didn’t latch and lock, gaps in the windows, and the WiFi didn’t really work (which is why I didn’t post like I’d planned to).

Our first night was very…um…exciting. We arrived in the middle of a nor’easter. We got sandblasted (literally) with 40+ mph winds. The sand covered the cars like snow. I had sand in my ears, in my hair, in my pockets, just from unloading the car. The wind was so strong that the house I was in, which was built up on stilts for flooding reasons, swayed so badly that I got seasick. On land. The tide came within about 25 feet of the house (if you click the link, look at the sandfence in the background. The waves were up to there).

At the same time, it was awesome. I’ve never seen the ocean so wild. The waves had to be 15-20 feet tall. And so loud. And my room had a Jacuzzi

I’d finished Fire in the Mist before leaving for the weekend (hopefully I’ll get to my review on it soon), so I read Piper at the Gate, by Mary Stanton instead. I loved Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West (it’s one of those I go back and read at least once a year), but wasn’t as impressed with Piper. Especially since information given in the first book was changed in the second. That Argh-ivates me to no end.

The retreat ended Sunday, but we had the house until Monday morning, so my husband and daughter came down for Sunday night and we got to let the Punkin run around on the beach for a bit. She loved the sand–laughed, kicked at it, wiggled her toes in it–but hated the water itself. Didn’t like the pool either. Thought playing pool was mighty fun though.

Nice sunny day today…as we were leaving. On the way home we stopped to let me get some scenery data for my book, which opens outside of Richmond. But once I got home I realized I might not have been in the right place. Which means I’m not sure, once again, where my action is taking place. ARGGHHH!! Drives me nuts. So now I get to spend the rest of the evening trying to pinpoint where Stonewall Jackson had his HQ on June 26, 1862, and whether or not there is a stream nearby.