The birthday

So...my birthday weekend. I went home Friday night--my mother came up and picked me up after work. When we got home I watched a little of "House of Flying Daggers" (good movie, a few FFW scenes) and then realized I needed to go to bed.

Saturday we worked on getting the house cleaned up a bit and food made. Two frineds came over about 11:30. We talked a bit and then ate lunch. Bratwurst or hamburgers, potato salad, tomatoes, pickles, and carrot sticks. My father was working until 1:00 so we played Taboo and Clue until then. When he got home we had cake and I opened presents. Rested a bit, talked to my sister, and went to Vespers and Matins. It was a really nice day, full of good things and people who love me.

Today we went to church, came home and then I left about 2:15. It was a great blessing to have communion.

The day ended nicely with dinner (at the cafeteria, yes I am lame) with friends, Mulan, and white chocolate raspberry truffle ice cream. *falls over* That stuff is amazing!

And now....the presents! (Click on the pictures to see them full-sized...I can't fiddle with them right now as I need to go to bed.)


My father made me spoons. Which is just super cool! I'd been hoping he would make some for me sometime but it was nice to get them now.


My friends gave me an English tea. Scone mix, Twinings Earl Grey, Nutella, digestive biscuits, mushroom pate, lemon curd, rolls, an English cucumber, Devon cream, smoked salmon, English cheddar cheese with carmelized onions. All in a lovely basket!

Close-up of the basket


My sister painted me a picture! Isn't it lovely?


Books...yes, my brother gave me the King of Attolia.


Second hand baking pans.


Origami


My gag joke from my friend Nick--he made the cover to fit on some random book...because he likes to get me mad by talking about Jane Eyre as if Jane Austen wrote it.

And! The gift that you can't see because it was taking all of these pictures...a digital camera! It was really sweet of my parents to get it for me.

Not pictured: a red sweater (YAY!), a cream shirt, and a traveling skirt.

So...some good, some bad. At the moment I'm tired which is not helping my attitude. Hopefully sleep and a new day will.

I also realized when I got back that my alarm clock would have gone off at 8:30 am both days. Ooooops. Sorry neighbors. Maybe I should give them some of the cookies I made last week.

Huzzah!

I drop in to say I have a job! I'll be calling local businesses for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. It lasts for eight weeks, although I'll be taking a week off to go to the My Life in Christ Youth Conference. So anyway, that is great news and very relieving.

Let me say in passing that I love Megan Whalen Turner's books. Seriously.

And I shall return with book reviews very soon.

Part of a story revealed

I admit that I get most of my news from the front page of Yahoo. (In my defense, I don't believe everything they say and more often than not, my response is probably not what it "should" be.) Anyway, this morning they had an article about the mysterious boy that Anne Frank wrote about in her diary. It seems that they've found a photo of him. According to the article:

The photo of Peter Schiff was donated to the Anne Frank museum by his former childhood friend Ernst Michaelis who realized after rereading Anne's diary recently there were no known pictures of Schiff, a museum spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

If you're a history buff, or just like Anne Frank, check it out!

Linkage

It's a cold, grey Saturday here, and I've been out of it all day. Perfect time to link to some other pages!

Blogging Friends
Krista writes about Beauty in the Mistakes.
Mrs. Wilt examines the ideals of Christian art.

Orthodox Christianity
On Giving Children the Sense of the Beautiful.
The feeling of loneliness is in our nature.
Beautiful pictures from St. Seraphim's 25th anniversary.

Tolkien
Tolkien lectures at University of Washington--January and February 2008
Tolkien quote.
Terry Jones will talk about Tolkien.
Why the new "Dark is Rising" movie is awful. I agree.
This is funny and sad at the same time.
Tolkien lecture in Perrysburg, OH, Oct. 11.
Peter Jackson "Hobbit" may be a possibility.

Other
Jeeves and Wooster fun.

Goodbye

Probably most people know by now, but Madeleine L'Engle died yesterday. She was one of the best writers I've ever had the pleasure to read. It's a bit sad to know that she's gone, although it is a comfort to know that her writing will still be a clear and lovely as ever.

The final controversy

Evidently Tsarevitch Alexei's remains may have been found. From the article:

Prosecutors said Friday they have reopened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the last Russian czar and his family nearly 90 years ago after an archaeologist said the remains of Nicholas II's son and heir to the throne may have finally been found.

The announcement of the reopened investigation, while a routine matter, signaled that the government may be taking seriously the claims that were announced Thursday by Yekaterinburg researcher Sergei Pogorelov. [...]

The find comes almost a decade after remains identified as those of Nicholas and Alexandra and three of their daughters were reburied in a ceremony in the imperial-era capital of St. Petersburg. The ceremony, however, was shadowed by statements of doubt — including from within the Russian Orthodox Church — about their authenticity.

That's the truth! Probably most people accepted the story about the remains that were found in 1991, but there is definitely doubt about whether those remains are actually the saints'. "Bones of Contention" from the Orthodox journal Road to Emmaus is a good exposition of those doubts.