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.

I dig Julie Kenner's vampire books -- one series is YA, and the other is adult. They're kind of fluffy, but really fun, and the quality of her writing really improves as the series go on.

Also, Alyssa Day's Warriors of Poseidon/Atlantis books are TOTAL fluff, but they're like what the Anita Blake books *should* have been. There's plot, and witches and were-people and dudes from Atlantis, and The Sex, and vampires and other paranormal shit.

But mostly, what makes them way better than the Anita Blake books is, as I mentioned, the plot. They're not just excuses to write implausible (and un-sexy) sex scenes.

I thought Twilight was awful , except for the end. People keep telling me it gets better. I read the first book in the Kenner series for adults - but I got tired of the emphasis on keeping evreything from her husband.

I read the first book in the Kenner series for adults - but I got tired of the emphasis on keeping evreything from her husband.

beth, they do get better. The first one felt clunky to me, but the writing gets a lot better as the series goes on.

I read the hot new teenlit vampire sensation Twilight' a couple of months ago, and it just about made my head explode.

The Mormon vampire book!

They're never going to have sex. Interestingly, it was the exact same annoyance I felt with Anne Rices "erotica" -- JUST FUCK ALREADY

(after about a hundred pages I started skimming... does anyone ever actually have sex? or even an orgasm? or do we just find new ways to tease/torture them forever and ever? dear gawd, someone rub one out. Please. this is not titilating, its just making me tired.)

Werid Dreams: Last night I was seeing my cousins' play in their band (not unusual) but Gerard Way was there wearing a horrible red track jacket and we went for a walk afterwards (quite unusual). We were talking and trying to stay out of trouble in this too-quiet part of Jersey City and there was some smooching. Dream!Gerard (is there any other?) is a very good kisser.

Wait, no, that was an awesome dream.