Monday Miscellany

Great things about having a puppy:

She graduates from puppy school with flying colors (doesn’t like her cap, though.)

I am seriously considering using this photo as a tag for Tap & Gown announcements.

Bad things about having a puppy:

Her tail caught Pantalaimon’s cord today and dragged Pan off the coffee table. Pan survived (thank goodness!) but the cord did not. Hello, trip to the Mac store. Hello new $83 dollar cord. Wah.

Speaking of T&G, I’ve been asked to hold off on posting the cover until we get a few minor tweaks in. But I really love it, and I hope you will too.

In writing news, I’ve finished up the synopsis of the second killer unicorn book and I’m jumping into 70 Days of Sweat with both hands on my keyboard. Are you signed up? Come join us!

The weird thing about book publishing is that the author is always a book or two ahead of her readers, so if you’re writing a series, you always have to remind yourself that whatever you are thinking of is not where the story is for most people. For instance, I’ve finished writing Tap & Gown, and it’s so difficult to not mention the fact that in the final book in the series, Amy has a sex-change operation and runs off with Jenny, while George drops out of school to open a hot dog stand and Poe starts a ska band. These are the types of things I always have to remember to keep under wraps.

And of course, no one has read Rampant yet. so as I struggle to help the characters deal with the aftermath of the events in that book (as they pertain to the second, still-untitled book), there’s so much I can’t really talk about on the blog, for fear of causing spoilers.

The weather was gorgeous this weekend, as you can see from the previous post of Rio in the creek, but I’m still suffering from a cold I’m pretty sure i got standing int eh rain at the polls all day last Tuesday, so I spent a lot of time indoors watching movies. And here’s my verdict:

Made of Honor: Yawn. Like, seriously yawn. Maybe this movie was supposed to coast on the charm of “McDreamy” but as I’ve never seen the show, I wasn’t exactly rooting for the womanizing, jobless-rich jerk (reminded me so much of Hugh Grant’s aimless rich boy character from About a Boy, except he actually grows up and is forced to confront his wretched lifestyle over the course of the film) who has been stringing the fascinating, beautiful, hard-working (she’s fixing art on a Sunday!) woman along for ten years,who then goes to great length to destroy her wedding to the fascinating, interesting, fabulous Scottish nobleman who sweeps her off her feet. Wait, I take that back. The woman was a dud, too. What kind of woman has been “dreaming about [her] bridal shower since [she] was five years old?” Her wedding? Okay, fine. But her bridal shower? Are you kidding me? Blecch. The Scotsman can do way better than her. Also, I have a thing about movies where people are supposedly getting married but don’t want to and we’re supposed to root for that person? Blecch. That’s why I loved My Best Friend’s Wedding and am very iffy on this season of HIMYM.

Sex in the City: I kind of fell off watching it that last season, so I wasn’t clear on everything that had been going on, but I liked where they took the story. It felt like a super, super long episode. (REALLY long, I had no idea!) I was kind of surprised Steve cheated, though. I really like where Charlotte’s life has taken her, and I like that they didn’t compromise on Samantha being Samantha. Carrie always kind of bugged me, so this felt no different, and I felt like they wasted Jennifer Hudson yet again. I did love the apartment redesign, though!

Get Smart: I thought it was hilarious. I love Steve Carrell, I’m always impressed by Anne Hathaway, The Rock is fun to watch, and I was a HUGE fan of the show as a child, and felt like they really did capture its spirit (though it was a lot more action packed than I remember the show being –Sailor Boy said the final car chase scene reminded him of The Matrix Reloaded, and it reminded me of the ridiculousness in The Island, but other than that…) I felt like 99 should have put two and two together earlier about the identity of the villain, however.

Iron Man: Sigh. Seriously, what happened? Halfway in, I was positive this was the best superhero movie I’d ever seen. Robert Downey, Jr. was incredible, the script was tight, the special effects were fun, Gwyneth Paltrow failed to annoy me (no, really, I thought she was good), I wanted to marry Terence Howard, and I bow at the feet of Jon Favreau,who obviously knows my cinematic preferences — and then the whole thing fell off a cliff. I honestly do not understand the ending of the film. At all. I watched it again, because that’s how little sense it made to me, and I still don’t get it. I don’t understand how the battery thing could fail at the rate it was and still work as long as it did (or work after being encased in acrylic, but whatever), I don’t understand why the villain didn’t just kill Tony when he had the chance (and let’s not even talk about the stupid Glowing Keychain of Death trope so popular in sci-fi these days — yes, Firefly, I’m looking at you), I don’t understand why if the Glowing Keychain of Death works on some kind of sonic frequency thingamabob (the reason the villain wears earplugs to avoid it) that when it is aimed into a man’s ear who is holding the cell phone, the person on the other end of the cell phone doesn’t also feel the effects. I don’t understand how the villain and hero can catapult themselves in battle through several city streets then up into the air for a big aerial fight, then free fall and still manage to magically land on the roof of the building they originally came from. I don’t understand how a blue death ray blast can safely blow the hero out of harm’s way while simultaneously incinerating the villain, who is standing much farther away from it. I don’t get it. And not in a “I don’t understand how the Death Star can explode without killing all the Ewoks with a nuclear winter” way — in an “I’m watching this and it’s impossible and makes no sense right at the moment that the images enter my ocular cavity” way. It’s bizarre. Jon, baby, what were you thinking?

That was disappointing. I’d heard it was so good, too.

We also got the first season of Mad Men, which I’ve heard only excellent things about. So far, I’m enjoying it (two episodes in) though I can’t stop thinking of Zoe from The West Wing as Zoe from The West Wing, and Connor from Angel as Connor from Angel. I am, however, getting over Saffron from Firefly.