Wasn't hodgepodge a category on Jeopardy?

Do want

Clearance shopper extraordinaire Swistle posted about buying a really stinking cute quilt at Target for a rock-bottom price. I went to ogle the quilt online and sigh over the fact that it would be silly for me to buy one in case I have a girl next time, and discovered TWO full-price sets that I would love to buy for Nico. Sadness! If anyone sees either of these on clearance, please text me right away:

Victim of the classic overhype

Several people recommended Bridesmaids, including one friend whose opinions on books and movies I can almost always trust, so I rented it from iTunes last night. I have to say, although I loved just about all of Kristen Wiig's scenes (especially those with Maya Rudolph) and enjoyed the charming and sexily-accented Chris O'Dowd as love interest, the movie overall was not as good as I expected. I realize it's "just a comedy," but is it really not possible to write a witty adult comedy without diarrhea as a punchline? I wouldn't say I disliked it overall, but I'm very glad I did not pay to see it in the theater as I'd originally planned.

Lives up to the hype

I don't actually know if it was hyped a lot, but I finished the NYT Bestseller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children this weekend and I really liked it. The somewhat open-ended conclusion made me wonder if the author had a sequel in mind, but even if he doesn't, I'm not left feeling unsatisfied. (It looks like his publisher has encouraged him to write one...I hope it lives up to the first.) Apparently the film rights have already been sold, and I suspect it would make a really good film in the right hands. It's a weird mix of sci-fi and sideshow, historical photos mixed in with the text, and I do recommend it. Here's a book trailer if you're into that kind of thing, and also a neat short video about the author's trip to find footage for the trailer. (Apparently there are spoilers in the comments, so be cautious.)




Warning: (cute) snake photos

One day this week, a woman walked into my office at work and handed me a tiny snake in a popcorn tin. It was a king snake, a very cool native species that we didn't yet have represented in our menagerie, so the boss declared we could keep it (we usually don't). The very next day while I was out in the field, someone else came in with a second tiny king snake in a shoebox, so now we have two. King snakes are really kind of bad-ass, because they're immune to the venom of native venomous snakes and therefore can eat just about any other snake they want. They're also supposed to be pretty calm and low-key in captivity, so that should be nice.

So far the first one is ridiculously feisty and tries to chew on our fingers when we pick her (it?) up, and the other one is really calm and will just relax in your palm. The teeth on these guys are so small that a bite literally does not hurt a bit, I promise.

To make up for the snake photos

A crappy phone pic that I love for it's hilariousness - Nico striking a sassy pose in a pair of vintage pajamas:

They don't fit very well, but they have cars on them and they're painfully cute, so he wore them anyway.


Reading:  Hunting Unicorns by Bella Pollen

Playing:  various mix CDs that live in my car