Poem for Friday

LXXIII
By Emily Dickinson

I'll tell you how the sun rose,
A ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran.

The hills untied their bonnets,
The bobolinks begun.
Then I said softly to myself,
"That must have been the sun!"

But how he set, I know not.
There seemed a purple stile
Which little yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while

Till when they reached the other side,
A dominie in gray
Put gently up the evening bars,
And led the flock away.

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Spent my one hour of non-insanity this morning watching Russell Crowe on Martha Stewart's show, thinking I was recording it, but the freakin' disc won't close and now the menu doesn't show up so I can't ever see it again! <russellsquee>Russell showed up with a bottle of wine from an Australian vineyard owned by a Lutheran church -- he had brought Conan a bottle of wine too, presumably to hype A Good Year but the wine wasn't from Provence -- and Martha came as close to gushing like a fangirl as one imagines Martha can do...she even told him he should do a cooking show, which made him giggle. He refused to flirt with her, though, pointing out that his wife was watching (he did the same with Kelly Ripa...I'm starting to get the sense that either Danielle is very insecure or Russell is really terrified of her). Because his wife was watching, when an audience member asked Russell how he felt about kissing scenes, Russell said he had to say that they were terrible to do and the worst part of his day as an actor, winking all the while. He said that Ridley Scott told him that he and Russell were both "marginally grumpy men" but in each other's company, "we become significantly lighter." He also denied pulling out of the movie he, Nicole Kidman and Baz Lurhmann were supposed to make together over money, saying he was ready to film in fall 2005 but Baz wasn't ready so it was complicated...he and Baz are still friends and neighbors and their kids play together, so he figures they'll do a movie together eventually.

Martha said she suspected the audience was there for Russell -- she said even she was there for Russell -- and talked to him about his mother having been a caterer, Russell having been a short order cook in his father's pub, his current interest in organic farming on his ranch and their common interest in clean food sources, at which point Russell made the incredible statement that if you treat the animals better, they will taste better. She got him to help her make a Thanksgiving turkey, which of course they don't celebrate in Australia, and he said that though some people do turkey for Christmas there, seafood is more common because Christmas is in the middle of summer in Australia. He took off his wedding ring so he didn't lose it inside the turkey while stuffing it, and took off his suit jacket, too, as the women in the audience whoooed, but he couldn't figure out which end of the turkey was up, which was quite hilarious and Martha was trying to be dignified about it! ("That's the neck? Silly old me! I thought the cavity was a bit small!" Then Martha flipped it and he said, "There we go, that's the end I thought we were looking at. Thank you for this experience, Martha!") She taught him to truss -- tie up the wings against the body -- as he tried to wrestle them under the bird ("Give up, you bastard"), and you could tell he wanted to make a tying-up joke but knew he had to behave. Ahh, Russell.</russellsquee>

In other fannish news, The Leaky Cauldron says Jason Isaacs said Gary Oldman wanted to kill him when they were shooting Order of the Phoenix! He revealed that Sirius and Lucius fight each other in the battle at the Ministry and Gary was threatening to stab someone with his wand. I am much more excited about scenes involving grownups in this movie than scenes involving kids, and I want just one shot where Remus and Lucius are near each other during the Ministry battle so, as I told , I can make an icon of Jason Isaacs and David Thewlis from Dragonheart, Divorcing Jack and Order of the Phoenix that says "OTP 4EVA" or something.

Other than this fannishness, my morning was mostly just trying to get chores done for when the kids got home from school early. I had a bunch of things I had to do at the mall -- go to the bank, get a new watch battery -- and I dragged both kids (who had a half-day of school) and with me after the latter came over with stir-fry and Happy Feet promo stuff for the kids! We found younger son a shirt at Hot Topic that says The Penguin Made Me Do It (photo here at ), everyone got Dippin' Dots and I discovered that Spencer Gifts sells...well, the perfect holiday gift for my spouse. *giggling* We also found out that Build-a-Bear now has Build-a-Penguin from Happy Feet so guess what younger son wants to do ASAP?

I had to rush home to go to the fall conference with younger son's teacher, which was utterly gratifying, as she really likes him and appreciates exactly how smart he is. It is always so wonderful to have a teacher who really groks your kid and sees all his good qualities. The only reason he did not get straight As, despite having 100% on all his math tests? Failure to turn in his homework and classwork in math, which is taught by a different teacher who had written a note showing the discrepancy between homework and tests. (Which is no longer supposed to count in this county, but for one marking period I don't think it will hurt him to see that his 74% on homework pulled down what would have been a high A average and kept him from a perfect report card...he needs to understand how important homework will be in middle school.) The kicker is that I know he does his homework, because I keep an eye on him when he's in the kitchen doing it, but he shoves it in his backpack or finishes it at school and crams it in his desk and loses it or forgets about it. I think his teachers will write him very good recommendations for the middle school magnet programs if he ends up wanting to apply, so I feel very good about that and just have to get on his case about being more organized.


Realized I never posted the rest of my Frederick Fun @ the Farm pictures. Here are alpacas at Chestnut Hill. They're as soft as sheep and don't feel as oily because they don't produce lanolin.


Stunkel's cows. These animals really were not helping the reputations of cows as not very bright; every time younger son waved his hand in one direction or another, they would fall all over each other trying to follow it.


One of the horses at Chestnut Hill, not in a very good mood...


...because his stablemates were out pulling the hayride.


A chicken at Stunkel's. They had a big bucket of feed so visitors could feed them.


Penguins at Brookfield. Not real ones, but younger son was happy to see them anyway.


In theory, this is a Stunkel's sheepdog hard at work.

It's Thursday, meaning we watched Smallville, then the Trek episode I have to review tomorrow ("Dagger of the Mind", which is terrible but features both dueling Shatners and Spock admitting that he thinks of Kirk as a brother), then Shark. As performances by Star Trek actors go, Jeri Ryan won the evening handily, but my screaming, shrieking fangirl moment of the night was reserved not for her nor even for slashy K/S bonding but for Lionel Luthor and Martha Kent. Every time I think meh, maybe I should give up my Smallville habit the way Oliver should give up his insta-cure drugs, they come along and TEASE ME WITH LIONEL ALMOST KISSING MARTHA OMG. How come that non-kiss was hotter than any actual kiss I've seen on TV this season? That was a sitting at the edge of the couch hyperventilating shrieking "KISS HER! KISS HER!" moment for me that made both my husband and my children laugh at me...ahem. Anyway, the minute Lana fainted, I said, "She's pregnant," even though I made it through two pregnancies without ever fainting...just seemed like that show's kind of cliche, especially where Lana is concerned. When she asked Lex why people think they have to protect her, my son and I both called out, "BECAUSE YOU'RE A BIMBO!" Ughblaargh.

At least we got plenty of Lois, and she did a bit of ass-kicking before the inevitable trouncing by a superhero and trip to the hospital which seems to be par for the course with women on this show. (Yeah, it is as bad for me as Oliver's drugs...must remember to stop thinking and be as mindless as Lana for enjoyment purposes.) Lois had my second favorite line of the night when she thought Oliver was playing Kinky Hide and Seek with her and said, "Ollie Ollie whatever!" And really, the writing wasn't bad, the storylines came together nicely when it turned out that Lex wasn't being particularly overprotective but knew that Oliver's wonder drug was being tested on kids from the foundation where Lana wanted to work, and we got such a nice exploration of Oliver's crush on Clark! "I wanted to have the ability to bring justice to the world without getting killed in the process," Oliver admitted, but then said he realized that Clark Kent would never take another man's life. "I'm not even in your league." Oh it's so sweet! For his part, Clark conceded, "And Lois isn't Lana. If you two are meant to be together, then who am I to stand in the way?" No, no, you two were meant for EACH OTHER! ...ahem, again. So how come they ran the Thanksgiving episode at beginning of November instead of at Thanksgiving? Ah well, at least we don't get a rerun next week (it is sweeps month) and I liked that song they played at the end.

As for Shark, like I said, Ryan gave a good performance though she had a couple of moments looking to Stark for moral support that rather irritated me...she's his boss, it's ridiculous that SHE would do the leaning-on-him routine the way the young female lawyers on his team can get away with. I did like him telling her that she was as much of a shark as he is, given the Jagged Edge meets CSI storyline. And I really enjoyed the scenes with his daughter...the effects of divorce on children even when the parents have done their best to shield her. I don't seem to be not-watching the show the way I had planned a few weeks ago. *g*

Friday the kids have yet another half-day! How am I ever going to catch up on things! How do parents who work full time deal with all these county days off!