Then I tiptoed downstairs to try to sleep on the couch, only to discover that was worse, because apparently at 5:00 a.m. the birds are waking up and starting to sing

Believe me, if the plants are having sex, so are the birds.

Signed,

Saw what looked all the world like a duck three-way while up in Maine.

Saw what looked all the world like a duck three-way while up in Maine.

Ah, but was one of the ducks dead?

Believe me, if the plants are having sex, so are the birds.

Heh. Good point. Just wish they'd do it at a more civilized hour. C'mon, birds, try an afternoon delight! Let the humans get some sleep!

Ah, but was one of the ducks dead?

and Billytea was just posting somewhere about carnivorous ducks... (can't find it though!)

Ah, but was one of the ducks dead?

No - they were all definitely moving (and honestly, I'm pretty sure the second male duck was just trying to cut in/drive off the male in the saddle, but at times it really looked like something else was going on).

The ducks better get (more) busy, because some of the Canada goslings have already hatched! I love seeing the geese families waddling around, although I get all anxious when the babies are in the street.

I just passed a house for rent. For only $6750/month. It is not a nice house. It is an unfinished McMansion on a barren lot that overlooks the Toll Road connector on one side and I-66 on the other.

People, if I could afford to give someone $6750/month, I wouldn't be so stressed about buying a house!

second male duck was just trying to cut in

There's always something kind of pathetic/"You're too late, dude, find your own girl already!" aboutg that behavior.

Or I should take a closer look at my anthropormorphosizing of animal behavior.

Aimee, that sounds like loads of fun!

I read the hot new teenlit vampire sensation Twilight' a couple of months ago, and it just about made my head explode. It's sort of like Season 1 Buffy/Ange...if Buffy had never been chosen, and if she had a total personality transplant - all Bambi-eyes and Victorian 'Angel of the Hearth' style values. Seriously - the only agency she shows in the whole damn novel is in her determination to throw away her life to protect her lovely new vampire boyfriend. Other than that, she's Little Miss Passivity. And for HER to act upon her impulses of lust is shown as dangerous, whilst for him it's all sexy and okay - she has to be damn sure that she doesn't make him hot for her, because then if he rapes her drinks her blood, it will clearly be all her fault for being a flirt.

Ack. And it's enormously popular, this book and its sequels, afaics - which is unsurprising, because that whole vampire-metaphor thing is a great way of cranking up the sexual tension without ACTUALLY writing about fucking, so all the young girls are swooning for the hottitude of the Byronic vampire hottie without actually registering that, hmm, maybe Our Heroine needs to have value as something other than an object of desire/adoration for her man.

I was reading the book at the same time as my 16 year old fellow cast member at the time, and we had several discussions about the book (...er, most of which involved me saying the above, with added 'Maybe you guys should watch 'Buffy') and it made me feel pretty wistful about being able to teach A Level Literature, rather than working with six year olds. So GO YOU, Empress! You get out there and make 'em think about grrrl power!

I read the hot new teenlit vampire sensation Twilight' a couple of months ago

K-Bug was talking this up to me last night. I haven't read it and knew nothing about it, so was all - yeah, maybe I'll read it. She did say that now all the boys are school are reading the book, which seemed to surprise her. Again, haven't read it, so no clue.

I started it but didn't finish it. I loved the premise of vampires hiding out in Forks because it's so cloudy (in a "hey! I've been to Forks!" way). But I didn't finish it because about 2/3 of the way in it started to feel overwrought, and the vampires were just TOO perfect and special.