Rudi and I passed a pleasant Sunday night out in Greenbelt at my friend Amani’s wedding to Marcus. The bride and groom both seemed happy, if exhausted. Amani was beautiful in a dress she loved, the toasts had been effusive and loving, and the dancing had pulled most people out onto the floor before the end of the night. It had really been a nice wedding.

It was close to midnight as Rudi and I bid farewell to the happy couple and walked out of Martin’s Crosswinds to the parking lot. As we were strolling across the driveway to the guest carpark, I spied movement in a clump of decorative grass — a cat!

Rudi and I see cats everywhere, but I have to admit that a deserted banquet hall (and, admittedly, a Holiday Inn) amidst an office park behind a shopping center seemed an unusual place for one. We were concerned, but even more so as we got close enough to realize that it was a kitten.

I bent a frond down from the grass to tempt the kitten to play while Rudi pulled up a map on his iPhone to see where the nearest residential area was. It was far enough away that we became anxious. Was it really a good idea just to leave a kitten out in the middle of nowhere overnight?

You can guess the answer. I’m not sure if it would have been your answer, as well, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it, too, would have been to pick the cat up and put it in the car. We checked with the Greenbelt police, who hadn’t received any lost cat reports, before heading home to the District. [Since then we've also checked with the Greenbelt PetSmart, who followed up with their pet adoption people, with the one vet in town, and with the county animal shelter. No reports of missing kittens have been filed.] Rudi drove carefully as I held a drowsing kitten tucked into the red plush Nationals blanket I keep in the back seat.

Rudi set up a spare litter box and bowls of water and food in the bathroom when we got home, which is where this little guy has been sequestered since late Sunday night:

Isn’t he adorable? He’s got very smart brown eyes with a ring of green around the pupil. He has a little brown nose and brown pads. His face has white tiger markings and his belly is the color of a dusting of cocoa powder.

Our plan was to find a cat rescue group who would take him, but we also hoped Sarah, who just lost her cat Dingle last week, might be interested in a kitten; we understood completely though when she said it was just too soon. John had just said on Saturday that his allergies seemed to have gotten worse and that he probably wasn’t going to get a cat. Rudi and I started talking about maybe the little guy could stay with us.

But last night he saw Posey through the crack of the door as I opened it and started growling and hissing. That would have been fine and understandable, but the next time we opened the door, he launched himself out of the bathroom and threw himself at her, hissing and yowling. Luckily, Posey is a long-haired cat and we didn’t see that the kitten had made contact through her fur, a relief since we know nothing about his health, other than that he was wearing a flea collar (and doesn’t seem to have fleas) and that it looks like he may have had ear mites at some point.

Tearfully, we reverted back to our original plan of handing the kitten off to a cat rescue organization.

This decision has been reinforced each time we open the bathroom door, when he tries to run out and chase our other cats. He escaped me this morning, chased Posey all the way through the living room, with me yelling bloody murder behind them, until he ran into Jeremiah, who cowed him. Apparently he recognized Jer for the alpha cat he’s always hoped to be. Belly to the ground, he yowled, but stopped advancing. I grabbed him up and locked him back in the bathroom.

So we spend a lot of time like this — with one or the both of us sitting on the edge of the tub, hanging out with him. He likes to play with glasses and braids and thinks it’s great fun to chew on the handle of my toothbrush. He has the pull tab from a milk jug, a rattly ball, and, now, a toilet paper roll to play with. He likes the little bed we set up in a paper box lid lined with my red Nats blanket and a holey tshirt of mine.

But mostly he likes to do this:

And so do we.

Tomorrow we’re going to take him up to the Washington Animal Rescue League (a no-kill shelter), where we hope they’ll find him a forever home. It kills us that we cannot be that place, but we have three older cats and a small amount of space, and it’s just unfair to all four of them. The kitten needs to go to a home where he can be the only cat — or where there is the space for him to be able to feel safe in becoming socialized to other cats. Posey, Jeremiah, and Della deserve not to feel stressed and threatened in their own home.

This is one of the most adult decisions Rudi and I have ever made, and we know it’s the right one. I just feel like such a let-down.

Copyright sprite writes. If you are not reading this at http://www.spritewrites.net or in an RSS feed reader, you are viewing stolen content.

the strangest wedding favor ever

1. My trip is bookended by darkness. My train trip to the airport offers glorious pink hued skies which later are reflected on the Atlantic below the plane. On the flight back, we fly through haze that eventually clears just at the Delaware Memorial Bridge. I can see down south to the coast, and cotton candy clouds reflect the sunset on the other side of the plane.

2. My parents’ house is surrounded by gardens and trees and they work hard to make it an attractive place for the local fauna, being especially successful this year with goldfinches and hummingbirds and butterflies. One evening, as I sit on the back deck, chatting with Rudi on my cell phone, a little brown hummingbird whirs around my head and peeps at me before flying off over the roof.

3. My parents have a hammock along the side of the house, tied between two shady trees, within easy reach of a handy table where you can put a drink or a book or a knitting project. I lie there in the afternoon for a nap, rocking gently in the breeze, and wake feeling utterly refreshed.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

Copyright sprite writes. If you are not reading this at http://www.spritewrites.net or in an RSS feed reader, you are viewing stolen content.

red sky, curious, and rock-a-bye

Even though it’s usually a mistake (grin) … do movies made out of books make you want to read the original?

There are three situations where I have found that a movie inspires book reading:

1. The movie is coming out of a book I’ve been meaning to read but hadn’t yet gotten around to or that I know is based on a book that I’ll probably like. Usually I’ll hold off on seeing the movie until after I’ve read the book, which sometimes means it’s ages before I see the film. Running with Scissors was such a combination.
2. The movie was particularly good — and I’ve heard good things about the book. My recent foray into The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one such example. I’d also like to read Coraline, the movie of which I really enjoyed.
3. And the final category are movies based on books that I didn’t realize were books until I looked them up to do more research. The best (and possibly only) example I have is Helene Hanff’s 64, Charring Cross Road, a delightful epistolary story chronicling the author’s decades-long correspondence with a London bookseller.

How about you? Do movies ever inspire you to pick up a book — and are you usually glad you did?

Copyright sprite writes. If you are not reading this at http://www.spritewrites.net or in an RSS feed reader, you are viewing stolen content.

booking through thursday: film to paper

With some additional clues (some more clever than others, I admit), raidergirl3, Jenn, Rudi, and Grey Kitten correctly identified three more:

1. “My father had a face that could stop a clock.” — The Eyre Affair

3. “The year began with lunch.” — A Year in Provence

9. “It was a dark and stormy night.” – A Wrinkle in Time

The only quote no one could identify:

7. “I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine’s father over the top of the Standard Oil sign.”

My additional clue: When driving across the country to Tucson, you want to be very careful about picking up reptiles at rest stops. It just might change your life. [I later asked in the comments if capitalizing reptiles would have helped anyone guess, but the resulting silence suggests that no, that wouldn't have been useful.]

The answer? The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver.

Admittedly, the opening line of the story does not have much to do with the rest of the book, but I was hopeful that the reptiles bit of the clue might trigger your recollection of Turtle, who enters the tale during a rest stop in Oklahoma.

Thanks for playing along, everyone!

Copyright sprite writes. If you are not reading this at http://www.spritewrites.net or in an RSS feed reader, you are viewing stolen content.

one last look at those weekly geeks quotes

1. Not feeling well on Friday night, I canceled plans with Julia on Friday night and came home and slept. By Saturday morning I felt a lot better. And Julia was able to join us for a post-beach dinner that night instead.

2. Prior to Sunday, the extent of my exposure to Great Big Sea was streaming an album of theirs earlier this year. But people have always said that based on the bands I like that I’d appreciate them and Sarah‘s a big fan. They were all correct, and I spent Monday morning playing videos of songs they had performed under clear, moonlit skies and before an enthusiastic Wolf Trap crowd. I predict a few new cds in my near future. (If you aren’t familiar with Great Big Sea, but like Barenaked Ladies, Eddie from Ohio, or Moxy Früvous, you might consider some, too.)

3. Finally, we’ve had an absolutely fantastic week of summer weather. (I can’t say how weird it feels to write that in August!) The highs have been in the 70s and 80s. The lows have been in the 60s. Some days were cloudy. Others were clear and blue and sunny. But either way, it doesn’t matter; it’s just been glorious.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

Copyright sprite writes. If you are not reading this at http://www.spritewrites.net or in an RSS feed reader, you are viewing stolen content.

sleep, great big sea, and temperature

From the jacket: “All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds of a victory are grim. Kronos’s army is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, the evil Titan’s power only grows. While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it’s up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.”

My take: As the end of the Harry Potter series neared, a number of people mourned the fact that they’d never again have that amazing feeling of being able to crack open a new book in the series. I sympathized with the sentiment, even as I stood in line at midnight hoping for a fitting conclusion to a beloved series.

Obviously, though, I took it to heart. Although I was an early fan of The Lightning Thief and read the second book as soon as it came out, I slowed my pace down when I found out the Percy Jackson series would only number five. I didn’t read the third book until several months after it came out and the fifth book was imminent when I read the penultimate novel. But then I stopped. Sure, I’d periodically scan the library shelves to see if Book 5 was available, but I didn’t put in a request or anything like that. I just didn’t want to have the series end.

However, when I went to hear Rick Riordan speak this spring, he mentioned that he was working on a related series of books destined to take place at Camp Half-Blood. Knowing that even if the main story about Percy and Grover and Annabeth came to a conclusion that I didn’t have to leave the world behind made it okay to read the final book. Plus, my friend Shelley’s son, Daschel, told me that it was excellent. If you can’t trust an 11 year-old boy on the matter, who can you trust?

I picked the book up a couple weeks ago when I saw it at the library and have been saving it for a day when I had the time to immerse myself into Riordan’s well-crafted world. I packed it to take to the beach Saturday and finished it up Sunday afternoon before the concert.

It did not disappoint.

Filled with all the familiar characters from earlier in the series, we join Percy as he frets about how to stop Kronos — who’s taken over the body of demi-god Luke — before the Titan (the gods around before the now-familiar Olympic Greek gods took power) is able to return to full strength and destroy Mount Olympus and Manhattan along with it. A prophecy foretelling doom and a mission gone awry suggests the Oracle may just have known what she was talking about. Now Percy must embark on the most dangerous of all his quests — into the realm of Hades — in order to lead a hodgepodge army of demi-gods and woodland spirits attempting to prevent the ultimate destruction of the Olympic gods.

And if that’s not enough, the nearly 16-year old must figure out who he likes more — fellow demi-god Annabeth, daughter of Athena, or mortal Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who can see through the Mist that prevents most humans from seeing the supernatural.

It’s going to be a rough couple of days for Percy. But as Dasch promised, it’s so worth it.

Pages: 400

Copyright sprite writes. If you are not reading this at http://www.spritewrites.net or in an RSS feed reader, you are viewing stolen content.

into the stacks: the last olympian

You have correctly identified six of them:

2. “Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.” The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

4. “Dear Sidney, Susan Scott is a wonder.” The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

5. “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.” To Kill a Mockingbird

6. “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

8. “Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow…” Anne of Green Gables

10. “On the fifteenth of May, in the Jungle of Nool, in the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool, he was splashing … enjoying the jungle’s great joys … when Horton the elephant heard a small noise.” Horton Hears a Who

Well done, Jenn, raidergirl3, RandomRanter, and Allegra!

This leaves us with four quotes, at least three of which I bet many of you have read. These are the four I expected there would be the most challenging, so let’s see if anyone can get them if I offer a clue:

1. “My father had a face that could stop a clock.”
You’ll think about this quote the Next time you get sucked into a good book.

3. “The year began with lunch.”
Spend some time with Annie and Peter near the Mediterranean. The food is excellent. The house is a bit of a mess. Watch out for the pastis.

7. “I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine’s father over the top of the Standard Oil sign.”
When driving across the country to Tucson, you want to be very careful about picking up reptiles at rest stops. It just might change your life.

9. “It was a dark and stormy night.”
There is a thin line between religion and science, and another between life and poetry.

Copyright sprite writes. If you are not reading this at http://www.spritewrites.net or in an RSS feed reader, you are viewing stolen content.

weekly geeks — quiz update

On Saturday we’re heading to the beach. Sun and sand and sea, here I come!

On Sunday, I’m hoping to get across town to join some friends for a brunch celebrating their second anniversary. However, I also need to get to the garden and to the farmers’ market before heading out to Wolf Trap with Rudi and Sarah to see Great Big Sea. Hopefully, there will be time to fit everything in!

What are you doing this weekend? Anything fun?

Copyright sprite writes. If you are not reading this at http://www.spritewrites.net or in an RSS feed reader, you are viewing stolen content.

weekend plans

I have chosen Trivia Time, which asks participants to:

So take a moment, don’t stress about it all, and write down five to ten questions that pop into your mind. You could center all your questions around a particular theme or genre, maybe something in which you specialize. Or ask questions about one certain book. Or teach us about your favorite author through your questions.

You could do really easy ones that you know we’ll all get or really hard ones that will challenge even the best of us.

Once you post your questions and add your link here, be sure to go around and answer the questions posted by everyone else. Remember, no fair Googling! At the end of the week, don’t forget to do another post with the answers to your questions.

And most importantly, have fun!

Below you’ll find the first lines of ten novels books [one of these, while fiction, is not a novel] I particularly like. Some are quite easy, but I think others may pose more of a challenge. Your job is to guess the books (without Googling, remember!) and leave your thoughts in the comments:

1. “My father had a face that could stop a clock.”
2. “Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.”
3. “The year began with lunch.”
4. “Dear Sidney, Susan Scott is a wonder.”
5. “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.”
6. “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”
7. “I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine’s father over the top of the Standard Oil sign.”
8. “Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back int he woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through the woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.”
9. “It was a dark and stormy night.”
10. “On the fifteenth of May, in the Jungle of Nool, in the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool, he was splashing … enjoying the jungle’s great joys … when Horton the elephant heard a small noise.”

Good luck!

Copyright sprite writes. If you are not reading this at http://www.spritewrites.net or in an RSS feed reader, you are viewing stolen content.

weekly geeks

Here are three things from my past week that struck me as beautiful:

1. Way back in the spring, Sarah and I went to a yarn festival, where we also bought some soap. Mine has been sitting on my bookshelf waiting for us to need a soap refill — a moment that finally arrived over the weekend. The scent I chose, Fluffy Pajamas, is mild and comforting and makes me extra excited to perform my daily ablutions.

2. Erin McKeown was this evening’s Millennium Stage performer. Since I would gladly pay money to see her (and have), I was delighted that I could get out of work and over to the Kennedy Center in time to catch her set. I’m even more excited to hear that she’ll be performing locally again in October. (Also, you can watch Erin, too, if you’d like in the archived version of her performance.)

3. As I was trying to get some unruly plants to stay in my garden plot rather than straying into the common paths, I looked down and found that one of my plants had grown this:

One of my plants has a baby peanut! I covered it up to keep it nice and toasty until harvest time in the fall.

ETA: I forgot one! I worked from home on Monday waiting for a perishable package that had been mis-routed to Little Rock and delayed. While portions of the experience were frustrating, I was highly impressed when the mail carrier telephoned me to say that she’d seen all the notes I’d left saying I was home but that I clearly wasn’t hearing her knocking on our outside door and could I please come sign for the box. Institutions may sometimes fail, but people come through in the end.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your life this week?

Copyright sprite writes. If you are not reading this at http://www.spritewrites.net or in an RSS feed reader, you are viewing stolen content.

fluffy pajamas, free show, and growth (and service)