a post without any angst in!

[ontology]

And so ends what will go down in family history as The Week Without Mum. (Right, it was ten days, but I say if the French and English can have their hundred-and-sixty-year Hundred Years War, we can have our ten-day Week Without Mum.) Weeks Without Mum, by the way, have been nonexistant until now. Dad's been gone for two weeks at least twice (three years ago when he was in Bangladesh, and last summer when he was in Colorado), and both of the parents have been gone for several days in order to attend conferences, church interviews, and (on two occasions) a marriage retreat. Mum has been gone over maybe two nights for a retreat. Working out life with Dad for over a week is weird, yeah? Especially when he isn't even cooking. (Dad's an excellent cook. I could've done with some of his calzones. Mum can't really cook yet, not being able to stand up for very long, so perhaps I can persuade some out of him this week.) 

Anyway, we brought Mum home, set up the schoolroom (which has a hide-a-bed couch in it) for her to stay in while she's still mostly on bedrest, and are now trying to drag our lives back into some kind of normalcy. Leandra is in excellent condition, by the by; she's safely in Pittsburgh, but she hasn't had to go on the special respirator they sent her over for yet, and she's very active. (She's a stubborn one, that girl. Takes after me. ^-^ She's not about to let something silly like being small get her down.) If she keeps progressing like that, she could be back in our hospital this week, but they want to make sure everything's going to be okay before they do that, because it would be awful to bring her back and then have to send her away again. 

Oh, and ALSO. :DD YES. Dad and I watched 'Rose' yesterday, and it was fantastic. (Also cracktastic, of course.) The editing was a little awkward, I thought, and the photography of it isn't nearly as good as what I saw of Season II, but blimey, it was awesome. Nine is kind of darling in his own way, I think. Not as brilliantly fangirlable as Ten, of course (I honestly don't know if anyone, ever, could be more marvellous than Ten, with the exception of Remus Lupin and possibly Professor Bhaer) but still awesome. And snarky. And kind of awkward. I really wanted to hug him. Also, Dad liked it. I'm still trying to process this. Dad has not liked science fiction or fantasy much since the seventies, unless it's got some interesting twist to it (Gattaca, for example, or The Abyss, because they were both character dramas before being sci-fi, and the former because it had excellent social commentary; Galaxy Quest because, er, it was hilarious.) I'm reckoning because it was clever and funny, because he did laugh an awful lot, but it's still weird. He's actually interested in watching more. (Don't know if he'd stick out for a whole season, though; the notion of serialised television is sort of alien to him, as he's lived longer without a television than he has with one, I think, and hasn't been devoted to any particular show since--high school, probably, though I don't know what he watched other than Monty Python's Flying Circus. Hee, but he also says that he watched an episode or two of Old Who, sometime back in the day, though he didn't know there was a new series and seemed pretty unfamiliar with Doctor Who in general--didn't know it went on for a few decades, for example. He thinks the bits he watched were black and white, which I'm dubious about--was some of the original Who in black and white? It was "stagey" and "sounded kind of like The Twilight Zone", which I can totally understand. Sixties television. Hee.) 

Speaking of Doctor Who, I have a rather peculiar question. Are there any tie-in food products, in Britain, say? Cereal, maybe? Gummy snacks? Only Dad said something about Doctor Who cereal as a joke when we were food-shopping today, and I thought how eerily possible it was, especially as there are, somewhere, Lord of the Rings gummy snacks--either in England or New Zealand, I can't remember where. And, you know, Doctor Who cereal would be kind of awesome. I'm picturing little round sugared corn cereal bits with TARDIS-shaped marshmallows, or something. The sad thing is, I would absolutely buy some, even though my official stand on marketing exploitation is negative, and I would probably hate the taste.

Comments

[avendya.livejournal.com]

Re. black and white Who: yes, there was. First and Second Doctors, IIRC.

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

Dear little Gryffindor. (Well, she's got to be with a name like that, hasn't she? ^-^) Keep fighting, Leandra.

XD Yes. Nine is awesome. He can't be quite as awesome as Ten because Ten is, you know, Ten, but still. He's angstier, too, which is fun (you even got a little preview of that in "Rose," before he ever told her what happened to Gallifrey). There's also a bit more of an over-arching story in S1 than there is in S2--well, that's mainly the whole Bad Wolf thing, I suppose, but information about Nine's background is revealed gradually over the course of the season. And I don't know how much you've read about Bad Wolf, but do try to watch for it. Makes things more interesting.

I found a page about Doctor Who merchandise on Wikipedia, but no mention of food, so there isn't any that I know of. I still want a Ten action figure, though.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

Hee! She is a Gryffindor! :DD Which reminds me, I finally managed to Sort my family: Dad and I are Ravenclaws, Mum and Heidi are Hufflepuffs, and Timmy is a Slytherin (he's not particularly ambitious, but he's always trying to manipulate situations and conversations to suit his interests). We would've been an amusing family in Hogwarts, with all of the children in different Houses. (Except that I will have graduated long before Leandra even gets to go--um, I am putting too much thought into this. o.O)

you even got a little preview of that in "Rose," before he ever told her what happened to Gallifrey

OMG, yes. Like I said, I wanted to hug him. Doctors, why are you always so awesome?

We should get each other Ten action figures for Christmas or something. Or we could just buy them for ourselves and say they were presents to save on shipping. ...Yeah, that made more sense in my head. Not a lot more, though.

[ressie-noldo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm glad things are working out. &heartsl


All Doctor Who is cracktastic. And awesome. And a lot of Old Who was indeede in black-and-white, so it is entirely possible that your dad saw it; it was also fantastically camp, on amazing amounts of crack, and completely lacking in any special effects and plausibility, and yet I love it so. :D


I have never heard of a tie-in food product, but I shall look around when I'm in England next.

[ressie-noldo.livejournal.com]

It would help if I could do HTML properly. ♥, damn it.

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

I'm loving it too. I just finished "The Pirate Planet," which was awesome (I mean, nothing tops Ten, but it was still awesome), even if Romana I can be a tad Sueish at times.

[ressie-noldo.livejournal.com]

YAY. Now go watch some Five. (I must really upload some of him for you. He is fabulous and cricketer-y.)

Romana can be a bit Sue-ish occasionally, but I do like her rather a lot.

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

I do too, especially when she kept nattering on about all kinds of psychobabble she learned at the academy, none of which was actually any good, of course. I was quite amused.

Also liked the fact that even though Ten is still better, he and Four were pretty obviously the same person--there are differences, of course, and Four doesn't have Ten's angst (certainly not Nine's, but he has an excuse, considering the circumstances in which he regenerated and all), but they're still very similar. Both more or less in control of the situation even when it seems like they're not, generally, which is always cool.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

My dad didn't even know about the bubble-wrap aliens, which I thought was sad. I mean, he watched an early episode or two and didn't come away with memories of funny special effects? (Not like he doesn't notice thes things, either. For a good use of household objects as special effects, watch Ed Wood's classic Plan Nine From Outer Space: it's got hubcap!spaceships, aliens in gorilla suits with the heads off, stock footage, and dead!Bela Lugosi. Dad bought this, and he usually only buys music-related DVDs. o.o)

YOU KNOW THAT ALL CHILDREN IN ENGLAND HAVE TARDIS TOASTIES FOR BREAKFAST EVERY DAY. WITH TEA-AND-MILK IN. :DDD

[vana-tuivana.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, hurray. I mean, I can't comment on the Dr. Who (haven't yet been sucked into that fandom, which my schoolwork feels is a relief, but I fear it's only a matter of time), but about your mother and your little Leandra. I'm so glad your mother's at home again and recuperating, and that your small Lioness is such a fighter (my brain wants to say "scrappy little thing", so I'll let it). I hope everything continues to get better and better and better for you all.

Also, there are LoTR gummy Elves and Dwarves and things? o_O

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

♥!

The fandom will suck you in. It will, and there is nothing you can do about it. It will HAUNT YOU. (Seriously, I was angsting about not being able to watch, and then I got some eps uploaded in iTunes format for me, and then my computer's sound died, and I angsted some more, and then Netflix fell into my lap. DOCTOR WHO CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE.)

Also, there are LoTR gummy Elves and Dwarves and things? o_O
Not Elves and Dwarves, so far as I know, but there were, at some point, gummy!Sting, gummy!leafpin, gummy!Eye of Sauron, and gummy!Ring. I am still reeling from this.

[midenianscholar.livejournal.com]

BTW, I love what you did to that windy picture in the field. :) Very pretty.

(Now I want to steal you again so I can use all my photography technics on you. :D Yeah for Depth of Field!)

[un-titled-love.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to hear that your mom is home now and Leandra is doing well. I hope she gets to come home to you all soon. ♥

Also, Tardis-shaped marshmallows sound fantastic.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

♥ So do we. We're planning to visit her in Pittsburgh on Sunday, though (BIG CITY OMG I HAVEN'T SEEN ONE IN YEARS A LONG TIME).

...I have this sudden urge to nick one of the marshmallows we've got wasting away in the cupboard, paint it with blue food colouring, and cut out window-bits. And then it would sit on my dresser for weeks and my mother would be all "Why is there a blue marshemallow rotting on your dresser?" and I'd be all "LEAVE IT ALONE IT'S THE TARDIS!" and she'd be all "*backs away*". :DD