nlbarber

For quite a while I've had this vague project of improving on my little knowledge of German left from 2 semesters of 'reading German' in grad school. My idea was to buy translations of a few books that I know very well, and try to read through them without (hopefully) needing a dictionary for every other word. This project had only progressed to the purchase of Bujold's Mirror Dance a few years ago (did I buy that on the family trip to Germany back in 2001?) and a handful of children's books. Then when I got involved in PaperBackSwap, I decided to add Der Kadett (The Warrior's Apprentice) to my wishlist. You never know what might turn up on PBS.

Sometime later, I got filkferengi into PBS when she expressed the need to reduce her book inventory. She spotted Der Kadett on my list and got the tale of my project. Now in retaliation appreciation for telling her about PBS, she has just sent me a box of books in German. 12 Georgette Heyers, 3 Mary Stewarts, 3 Marion Zimmer Bradleys (one's an edited anthology). Oh joy, 3 Dorothy Sayers. (Gaudy Night! The Nine Tailors!) And 8 Bujolds--including Der Kadett, with what I consider the worst Bujold cover. So deliciously bad....

If anyone out there has a similar wish for reading in German, I'd be willing to share some of the Heyers, or the Mary Stewarts. A few of those are not favorite reads, and I've now got plenty of material for my self-education project.

Vielen Dank, filkferengi!

If any Atlanta Bujold listees didn't get the word, the MiniLoisCon will be squeezed in on mbernardi's last night in town, which is to say tomorrow. My place, we're ordering in Chinese. Send me email offlist for the address if you need it...

It seems my office is in need of a forensic plumber. We've had numerous toilet backups at this place all the time I've worked there (12+ years), but lately the problem has gotten worse. ( More history, declaration of vandalism, and proposed consequences )

So, no dead bodies in the sewer yet, but if this keeps up and the person is identified, the rest of the office personnel might try to stuff him down it.

I've just posted an updated list of LJ usernames for current and former Bujold listees. I'm still accepting corrections, additions, and deletions--either comment here, send me email, or post to the list.

We had a nice MiniLoisCon last night at Crescent Moon at Northlake (easier access and parking than the Decatur one, site of many other MiniLoisCons). The occasion was the visit of toraks with Tom and the oh-so-adorable Sean all in town for a neuroscience conference (Tom gave his poster session yesterday with Sean on his arm--I think it must have added a nice touch <g>), toraks's cousin Vani, filkferengi and Marty (Happy birthday, filkferengi! I didn't know it was coming up, or we would have gotten you a candle in your dessert last night...), and Dawn B. and her mother. We took over a couple of tables and camped there for the evening--luckily the restaurant wasn't that busy, so I don't think we hurt our waiter's business too much.

We talked Bujold list, made faces and played games with Sean, gave our general non-spoilered feelings on TSK:B (not everyone had read it yet), I gave the kitchen remodeling update and toraks compared notes with her pre-baby bathroom remodel, and on and on. filkferengi successfully pushed books on Dawn, but had less success with me--Dawn got a few I might have taken, and most of what was left I already have or don't read. She did talk me into one, though--filkferengi is a world-class book pusher, after all!