The King

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J

It was morning, Lilli woke to the bells ringing back in the town. She couldn't help thinking that the thing with her father had to all have been a dream. that was the only thing that made any sense. Except that there he was standing next to her spinning wheel. "Papa?"

"Lilli, I'm glad to see you've woken. did you sleep well?"

"very well but how?"
The king nodded, "How did I get here?"
Lilli nodded.
"I don't really know. the last few days have been a blur, but I remember searching for your mother's spinning wheel." he looked at the spinning wheele. "Purhaps your mother's magic has passed down to you."He smiled.
She returned the smile with one of her own, "How do we get out?"
Her father held the cord she had spun. "with magic." he said and took from his belt a drop spindle. he attached the spindle to the cord and let it spin, the spindle floated int he air and spun there was a shimmer over the roll of cord. suddenly the cord twisted itself into a rope.
Lilli gapped as she watched the cord. "I don't understand.
the king was still smiling, "You knew your mother had magic when it came to fiber, I have some too. and now that the curse was lifted I can use it again."

Next Lies

Reading: The Two Towers

So about a year ago I decided to take my time and read all of Tolkien's books. This began with with the Silmarillion, then the Hobbit, Then the fellowship of the rings. I will be starting the Return of the King after I have finished reading Beowulf. I find that I need a little something different to read between books.

really I have enjoyed reading these books. it has been a long time sense I had read the Lord of the Rings. I've read the hobbit more times then I can count and it was the first time I had read the Silmarillion. However I have watched Peter Jackson's Lord of the rings many many times. In fact I know those movies so much that I used to turn them on when I needed back ground noise. and re reading the books has brought up something that makes me sad. First let me say that I love the movies, they are some of the best books to movies there are.

But here is what makes me sad, all my favorite parts of the books have either been cut or completely re written in the movie. Like the Ents. Wetta gives the ents a wonderful aesthetic, but I don't think jackson and company got the Ents. in the book they are wise and cautious, in the movie they are slow and stupid.  then there is the Battle of the Hornburg, I get what they did in the movie, I get it's purpose, but I like the book better when the elves don't show up.

The big one of these is the Frodo giving into the whispers of Golem and leaving Sam behind. I hate that in the movie, but in the book as Frodo and sam make their way up the stair and through the tunnel their friendship makes the whole thing something different. they know that Golem is up to something. in the movie at this point Frodo comes across as an idiot who is blow about by the opinions of someone that he knows is evil.

So I like the movies, I watch them about once every so many months, but I like the book better. All I can say to those who have been brought into the world of Tolkien by way of Jackson, what the heck are you waiting for?

till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

Knitting: Fun Times

my main concern with my knitting lately is about trying to get my stash down. Partially to try to make more room on the book shelves for other things, and to make room for baby. and Partially to get ride of the massive amount of Acrylic yarn that I have.

Acrylic is fine yarn, I am just sadly becoming more and more of a yarn snob and more and more I am preferring natural fibers. my answer to this is to make toys. Toys are great things to make, first because they can use a lot of yarn, second because they almost always have fun construction. So sunday during game time I cast on the Cute-as-can be Baby Seal found in he winter 2012 issue of Creative Knitting.

this thing is cute and easy! I am almost done with it, I just need to make the little flippers then I can get it sowed together. also I'm making it out of eyelash yarn which means this little guy is going to be crazy fluffy.

Other then that I am as far as I can be on the Shipwreck shawl because I don't have beads yet, but I will hopefully get it done fairly quickly as soon as I have a chance to get the 5,000 beads the pattern calls for.

Sorry I don't have any pictures for you today.

That is all I have to talk about for now. Till next time God Speed, and Open Roads.

19 weeks,

So last week baby Mog was the size of a sweet potato, this week he or she is the size of a mango. the thing is I thought sweet potatoes were bigger then Mangos. at least as far as length goes anyway. But you know these things are helpful but not necessarily true.

so mog got bigger, and me? well I'm mostly just weird feeling. like seriously you can feel the muscles moving for the baby to get bigger and stretching. I also haven't been sick in a while. though now that I have said that I will probably be sick in the morning. or you know the curry beef that Greg made could just come up. Wont that be pleasant.

But really Pregnancy hasn't been bad, really. Sure I was sick a lot, and tired a lot, but it's not so bad. Oh and I have the ultra sound this week so we will get to see pictures.

J is for Jaws

(I haven 't forgotten, just lazy)

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I,

"Scarlet no!" yelled Hunter from the tree he dangled from.

the moon was out and it's silver light was covered by a passing cloud. a snarl was heard and when the moon light shone once more Urgar no longer saw a simple girl before him. his eyes when wide with terror as a large wolf jumped at him. Jaws snapped down on his arm and shook his small body about.
Urgar shoot eldratch magic at the wolf and there was a yelp. the jaws opened and released the little dwarf who ran away.

At that moment more voices were heard "Over here" said one "we have you surounded," said another.

The wolf that was scarlett growled.

Queen invida's men came out of the shadows. some were on horse back and others were on foot. they were armed with swords, spears, crossbows, and tourches. "surrender." said the comander.

Hunter tried to reach his knife but Scarlet was too fast. the moon light glittered off her fangs as she made fast work of the guards. They were all dead or dieing by the time Hunter got himself out fo the tree.

He rushed to the red cloak. Scarlet growled at him and started to prepare to pounce him. just as she jumped he through the red cloak and it caught her int he face.

The magic worked quickly and by the time she hit the grown she was human again.

"Oz." hunter called as he released his companion, "are you okay?"

There was a snort that was followed by a groan, "I didn't know He still had that much power over me." Oz had taken his human form as well.

"Don't worry about that.' hunter passed him a pair of trousers, then turned his focus back to Scarlet,
"Scar? we have to move."

"I know," Scarlet's voice was weak, "I'm ready."

next King

Kiya: hope of Pharroh

I received this book as a gift from the author though a blog post competition. And i will say that I probably wouldn't have read it if I hadn't been given it.

that being said here are my thoughts on the book.

1. Katie Hamstead is a great author. I can't believe this is her first book. Seriously people who read YA be watching this chick she has talent. I was really blown away by how well the story was crafted. the word usage, characterization, plot all revel someone who to the time to make sure it was right. Katie I laud your craftsmanship! you are awesome!

2. This book does exactly what a historical fiction should do, inspire someone about a historical period. I devoured Historical fiction growing up, the civil war, the revolutionary war, world war 2, the Tutors anything i could get my hands on I read. it is no surprise that my goal was to go get my phd in church history and then teach and write about it. but I can totally see giving this book to some teenage girl and then latter watching that same girl begin researching Egyptian history for herself.

3. Now sadly I must revel my one criticism of the book. I don't really worry too much about historical accuracy in a good historical fiction. (even though my favorites include their bibliography and a little bit about the actual events.) In a historical fiction the facts serve the story more then anything else. but there was one thing that was like a record scratch in the whole thing. It was the portrayal of the Hebrew people. there were really only two things but they were kind of plot critical.

One was the dietary laws. The dietary laws don't really exist before the Mosaic Law. it is a fundamental part of Modern Judaism, and of biblical Judaism, but when we look at the patriarchs we don't see anything about any kind of dietary restrictions.

the second is the practice of Sabbath. now thanks mostly to the christian reinterpretations of of Sabbath a lot of people get the wrong idea of how Sabbath is celebrated. If I understand correctly Sabbath is the day of rest, no work and no travel on these days. the religious services (Which I don't believe really started up until the synagogue showed up during the Babylonian captivity after the Temple of Solomon was destroyed) take place on friday night, not saturday. The Christian reinterpretation (by either the puritan or the reformers in general) is that the holy day of god is the day they go to church. So first Naomi would have no problem participating in Sabbath because it would be a day of rest not a day where she needed to find a 'synagogue' to worship at. The other thing is once again we are dealing with a practice which is also part of the mosaic law. The understanding that they should have a day of rest does not show up in the religious life of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.

now I hate to really talk to much about these things because it really is the only criticism that I have, and on the one hand it's not a big deal, other other though it will probably keep me from reading the rest of this series.

On the whole I still give it 3 stars and a B+.

Writing Goals

For those of you who haven't heard July is a time for camp nano. but things are different at camp then they are during November for the official NaNoWriMo. during camp you can officially make your rule breaking goals.  for example maybe you don't need a push two write 50,000 words, maybe you need a different goal.

My goal during camp is to simply write everyday. I can write anywhere from 250-1,667 new words. now at the end of the month i would love to look back and see that I wrote 50,000 new words and finished a novel, but really I will be very happy if I can look back at the magic spread sheet and see that I have not missed one day of writing.

to those participating in Pitchmas best of luck maybe next year I will be able to join you. Also I was wondering how many of you readers are participating in camp nano? and if you are what are your goals?

till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

18 weeks

little Mog is now the size of a Sweet Potato. the last couple weeks have been good. I am sleeping more, sick less, and I have more energy. Oh and I think I have felt little mog move, which is pretty cool. I also spent saturday afternoon with a friend getting my baby registry put together. there is so much stuff in the for babies. Not only like categories of stuff but also multiple types of the same thing. I mean how many different types of pacifiers are there. and then there are cribs, or pack and plays, or moses baskets or bassinets. so many things.

the other fun thing going threw my mind these days is figuring out where the baby will go when it gets here. of course it will probably sleep in our bedroom for a while but after that it is going to take some fun rearguing to make our curent place work for such things.

on the other hand I am starting to be a little insecure about other things that are not exactly in my control. the job hunt is going well and hopefully soon that area of my life with calm down, and things will become more stable. and once things become more stable maybe I will get back to posting about more then just baby stuff.