Poem for Saturday, A Family Day, 'The Circle'

Third Charm from Masque of Queens
By Ben Jonson

The owl is abroad, the bat, and the toad,
    And so is the cat-a-mountain,
The ant and the mole sit both in a hole,
    And the frog peeps out o' the fountain;
The dogs they do bay, and the timbrels play,
    The spindle is now a turning;
The moon it is red, and the stars are fled,
    But all the sky is a-burning:

The ditch is made, and our nails the spade,
With pictures full, of wax and of wool;
Their livers I stick, with needles quick;
There lacks but the blood, to make up the flood.
    Quickly, Dame, then bring your part in,
    Spur, spur upon little Martin,
    Merrily, merrily, make him fail,
    A worm in his mouth, and a thorn in his tail,
    Fire above, and fire below,
    With a whip in your hand, to make him go.

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I had a nice, relatively quiet family day around finishing and posting a review of "The Circle". Paul worked from home so he could cook and drive mid-afternoon to pick up Daniel in College Park so the latter could be home for my mother's birthday. Adam of course was home already, since strep throat requires a full day for the antibiotics to be effective, and anyway he was pretty droopy and sore when the Advil wore off. I did take a walk (there are bunnies in the neighborhood again!) but otherwise I mostly hung out and did chores with my men.

My parents came over for dinner -- cheese fondue, potatoes, coq au vin for the meat-eaters, tofu au vin for the vegetarians -- and very yummy chocolate mousse cake, made by my husband. We watched the end of the Michigan game (Maryland's playoff hopes having ended earlier in the day, when UNC trounced the men in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament). After my parents went home, Adam went to bed early to recuperate and Daniel watched the last three episodes of Blackadder with us, plus Blackadder Rides Again. Here are a few photos from our day:


Mom and her cake. We forgot to get birthday candles so she got stuck with a recycled one from a kid's party.


Mom and her slightly taller grandsons.


Adam and Rosie relaxing earlier in the day.


Our neighborhood is bright now with crocuses, snowdrops, daffodils, emerging forsythia...

The Friday Five: Bedtime!
1. What do you wear to bed? Cotton sleep shirts or nightgowns.
2. What side of the bed do you sleep on? Left.
3. Are you back, side, or stomach sleeper? Left side.
4. How many layers of bedding are on your bed? Just the sheet in the summer, a cotton comforter in the winter.
5. Are you a bed hog or a covers-thief? Not that anyone has ever told me.

Fannish5: What are your five favourite sibling relationships?
1. Buffy and Dawn Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- a lot of realistic give-and-take following the best character insertion of all time.
2. Boromir and Faramir, The Lord of the Rings -- two very different men who enhance each other's best qualities.
3. Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, A Wrinkle In Time -- a pair of unconventional brilliant children who look out for each other in terrifying situations.
4. Katniss and Primrose Everdeen, The Hunger Games -- I wish Prim could save Katniss back, but the family devotion of the sisters still makes me happy.
5. Moses and Rameses, The Prince of Egypt -- a very old story in which all the Old Testament sound and fury makes less of an impression than the bond between brothers and the pain of having to break it.