All Eyes on Me

I am now obsessed with this picture.

Look at that snoot.

It is now my Twitter avatar and the background on my phone.

Piglet baby. <3

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Had a productive weekend, I am pleased to say. This past weekend was the first I've had in a month that wasn't totally committed, so I used the much-needed free time to do whatever I needed or wanted to. Spent a lovely Saturday getting my hair cut and hanging out with friends playing games at the house. Sunday was devoted to chores. The house has been in need of a good cleaning for a while now, and I took care of some things that probably don't get done regularly enough, like polishing the wood and scrubbing the grout in the shower. I am proud of my hard work. This evening I finally got around to parking the mini-fridge in my bedroom out on the back porch to let it defrost. The tiny little freezer compartment has over time become consumed with frost, which is now encroaching on the rest of the space, so it's high time that got taken care of.

Also washed my hair for the first time after the new cut. As I predicted, negotiating where to part it such that my new sideswept bangs lay properly is proving tougher than I would have liked. The place I customarily parted it doesn't quite distribute them the way the stylist had them. It doesn't look bad that way, but I liked the new way too, and I want to figure out how to execute that look on my own if I so choose. I'll have to mess with it some more.

On a final note, on my way home from the gym today I came across two of the biggest turkeys I have ever seen walking around as I went down South Street. I noticed them because a fellow runner had stopped to take pictures of them, so I whipped out my phone and happily snapped a few shots of my own.



Meet MR. AND MRS. GIANT TURKEY.



PLEASED TO MAKE YOUR ACQUAINTANCE.

Though there are quite a few of this sort of bird hereabouts, and I always greet such a sight with a delighted cry of "TUR-keys!" these two were particularly remarkable because they are so big and so flashy-looking that I'd swear they weren't the regular old wild birds you usually see around here. They look to me like they were domestic turkeys escaped from somebody's farm. If so, I wonder how they got there, and what's going to become of them. Quite a surprising sight, and one that made me very happy to come upon.

My parents just got a new dog!

After our old dog Carmen passed away at age fourteen, my mom has really missed having a dog around the house, and she finally determined she was going to get another one. She decided she didn't want a puppy with all the accompanying puppy behaviors, so she thought it might be nice to find a rescue dog, who would be slightly older and in need of a good home. We'd had wonderful experiences with Brittanys because of Carmen, so she thought they might get a similar type of dog. So she contacted the Mid-Atlantic English Springer Spaniel Rescue Service and they connected her and my dad with a sweet, energetic six-or-seven-year-old boy that they just brought home yesterday. They went to meet him yesterday, saying they would get to know him a bit and decide if he was the right dog for them, and it turned out that they loved him, so he is now our newest animal family member. They didn't know what his real name was at the rescue and had given him some placeholder name, so Mom decided to call him Merlin. She always wanted a dog named Merlin. :-)
 

( Picture of Merlin behind the cut. )

The family of turkeys I saw at the top of the secret passageway leading into East lot was in my backyard this morning! At least, I think it was the same family, seeing as it was so close, and there was also a mommy turkey, a daddy turkey, and NINE little baby turkeys. That's a big family! They were surprisingly brave little guys, allowing me to get really close to them and not even startling when I delightedly yelled out "Turkeys!" on seeing of them. I love seeing animals, especially wild ones just out and around. I always gush over them like a little kid.

I watched one of my old favorite movies, Babe, today. I'd forgotten just how good it was. There is an indefinable loftiness and sweetness to it that just warmed my heart, but it's more than just a sweet little film. It's smart, it's well-written, has a strong story, great characters, is filled with those lovely little touches for which I live, and a great cast.

There were little moments that are so simply beautiful that I couldn't help but tear up a little. But there was one moment that just broke me up. It was when the farmer was trying to get Babe to drink from a bottle, but Babe won't. So you know what he does? He starts singing to the little pig. He sings the loveliest little song you can imagine in this soft, sweet voice. "If I had words to make a day for you, I'd sing you a morning, golden and new. I would make this day last for all time, and fill the night deep in moonshine." And then he dances a jig! It was so sweet and beautiful that I couldn't handle it. What a lovely moment. I'll be singing that song for a long time.

And in the cast department, I got a lovely surprise. Since it involves animals, there is a great deal of voice acting in it. I've developed a rather impressive talent, if I may say so myself, for the identification of voices. It is a very rare occasion that I can't figure out who the actor is from voice alone, without looking at the credits. You see, I found myself quite enjoying the character of Rex, the handsome sheepdog that carries with him a half-buried brooding anger. That particular character trait never fails to fascinate me-- I have most recently dealt with it in the character of Bucephalus, whom I mentioned earlier. In addition to finding the character most interesting, Rex had the greatest voice; stern, deep, rough, rich, with a sort of rumbling, growling undertone. I have a definite weak spot for speakers with that undertone. Upon hearing it now, I realized to whom this most delightful voice belonged to-- my newest love, the king of Rivendell himself, Hugo Weaving! What a lovely surprise! That voice is just wonderful, and perfect for conveying a stern fellow bearing an old anger. Just one more reason to love my Elrond.  Babe rocks.