avrelia

The particular picture on which Sam Weller's eyes were fixed,
as he said this, was a highly-coloured representation of a couple
of human hearts skewered together with an arrow, cooking
before a cheerful fire, while a male and female cannibal in
modern attire, the gentleman being clad in a blue coat and white
trousers, and the lady in a deep red pelisse with a parasol of the
same, were approaching the meal with hungry eyes, up a serpentine
gravel path leading thereunto. A decidedly indelicate young
gentleman, in a pair of wings and nothing else, was depicted as
superintending the cooking; a representation of the spire of the
church in Langham Place, London, appeared in the distance;
and the whole formed a 'valentine,' of which, as a written
inscription in the window testified, there was a large assortment
within, which the shopkeeper pledged himself to dispose of, to his
countrymen generally, at the reduced rate of one-and-sixpence each.
***
[...]
'I've done now,' said Sam, with slight embarrassment; 'I've
been a-writin'.'

'So I see,' replied Mr. Weller. 'Not to any young 'ooman, I
hope, Sammy?'

'Why, it's no use a-sayin' it ain't,' replied Sam; 'it's a walentine.'

'A what!' exclaimed Mr. Weller, apparently horror-stricken
by the word.

'A walentine,' replied Sam.
'Samivel, Samivel,' said Mr. Weller, in reproachful accents, 'I
didn't think you'd ha' done it. Arter the warnin' you've had o'
your father's wicious propensities; arter all I've said to you upon
this here wery subject; arter actiwally seein' and bein' in the
company o' your own mother-in-law, vich I should ha' thought
wos a moral lesson as no man could never ha' forgotten to his
dyin' day! I didn't think you'd ha' done it, Sammy, I didn't
think you'd ha' done it!' These reflections were too much for the
good old man. He raised Sam's tumbler to his lips and drank off
its contents.

and, of course, my first introduction to the celebration:

OPHELIA

Pray you, let's have no words of this; but when they
ask you what it means, say you this:

Sings
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.

You know, I need to re-learn to talk to people. Or learn it finally for real. Because I suck at starting conversations with people I don't know. I always has been, and maybe it is as a good time to stop sucking.

Yesterday I went to a Sony Reader Meetup, co-hosted by Sarah Wendell, of the http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php. It was pretty awesome. I've got to see actual people, talk about books and finger shiny red Sony Readers. Now I kind of want one. But they don't support Russian, and cost money, and I don't really need one. Besides, I'd rather have blue one. Still, they are nifty.
D behaved himself, but was bored. I had to use non-pedagogical means of keeping him quiet, because I just that didn't want to leave.
After that I took him upstairs to see Sony Wonder Technology Lab. It is fantastic, but D is too small to get it all. He liked all the touch-screens, we played with robots and such, but most of all he enjoyed chasing the colourful circles on the floor.

And in a subway I saw a mutant rat. Nothing to write home about. Subway mutant rats in Moscow are RED! (not)

At home D invented a game of tennis that is played with a wooden spoon and a beach ball. Wooden spoons are his favourite toys these days. They go with everything.

Re: latest LJ kerfuffle. I think they are stupid, not evil, as usual, and didn't think what they were doing. It doesn't excuse them, of course, but I hope they will clean up the mess eventually. The possibility of joining of one's virtual life in different places isn't bad by itself, for those who want it, but those who want to keep their virtual lives virtual, and separate also shouldn't depend on good will of their reading list to do it.

I keep my LJ separate from anything else, even though I am happy to connect with the same people here and there. I obviously won't be having my comments on LJ showing up anywhere else, and trust you won't as well.

I don't see myself permanently migrating anywhere, though. The community here is too important to me, but I start to ponder cross-posting with Dreamwidth more. I know many of you love it there, but it feels still kind of alien to me. BTW, if someone needs DW codes, I have some.

Smart Bitches did an important announcement:

come 1 July, you can bring joy and contentment to everyone on your list with the audio recording of Richard Armitage reading Georgette Heyer’s Sylvester.

It's the perfect combination I haven't even dreamed of. Ok, if RA will read The Grand Sophy or Frederika later on, it will be even better, but... you know, this news cannot be improved much, it's that good all by itself.

and I don't even have an appropriate icon at the moment!

btw, if you follow the link you'll get some Alan Rickman to sweeten the wait. ;)

I remember the time when we had regular kettles: first a white one, then a cheerful red with white polka dots, then super-cool Japanese one with a whistle. We used to fill them with water and put then on the stove, and wait patiently till the water boils so we could have tea.

Then, the new era began: the era of electric kettles: you don’t have to wait for it, watching it carefully so that water wouldn’t spill over gas burners, you don’t have to be afraid that you forget to turn them on and burn the house down. You can just come closer, push the button, and go away, safe in the knowledge that the water will be ready soon. Very soon without you help or interference. And you can make tea or coffee and enjoy the best fruits of the technological progress.
Electric kettles have been a part of my life for so long now, that I feel really strange now, when ours kettle is broken. It served us for four years, and we hoped we could be together forever. My husband restored the kettle to perfect health in the spring once, but now he seems to not being able to do anything. I’ll probably need to buy a new one. Does anyone know if polka dot kettles exist in Canada? Cheap polka dot kettles?

My day so far:
Got up
Drank coffee
Woke up
Went to work
Wanted to eat
Had lunch
Want to sleep. Now. Still. Even more than before.

Efficiency is my second name – which I don’t have.