Reading: Dava Sobel, Galileo's Daughter

Not yet given up on: John Milton, Paradise Lost

On deck: Invisible Man; Don Quijote

Moving:

24 March 2002: Wheeeee! Also, not wheeee.

(Yesterday, I was hot working in the sun in a tank top and shorts. Today it snowed.)

We bought a couch. Wheeeeeee! It's comfy, it's deep but not really big because it doesn't have a thick back, it has curved arms, its slipcover can be machine washed, it goes with the walls and the dining room upholstery, and I like it.

Also we bought a small table for RDC's side of the bed. The wall wasn't quite wide enough to accommodate another nightstand like mine, although if the nightstand was a little shorter or the buttresses if the headboard a little higher, one could have just fit. Instead we bought a discontinued piece just enough surface area for a lamp and a pair of glasses. Also we found a lamp. So the next Goodwill box will have that torchiere in it as well as the one I forgot to bring yesterday.

Also we looked at rugs. I'm taking a poll:

This one is my favorite, but I might be mistaken. That dark color is black, which I avoid.

There is a chair RDC likes that I agree is comfy but that absolutely does not go with the Arts & Crafts tone we're setting. Telling him it's called a 1952 recliner has not dissuaded him. Damn. At least it would be well away from the sofa. The clerk in that store said she liked things to be eclectic, which I could tell from looking at her outfit, and I like visiting such houses but not living in them. I like harmony. It's black leather, and so the black in the rug might help. However, if we get this rug, that's one less reason not to get that chair.

The ivory-cream-olive range is just right, and I like the border. But the interior pattern also has right angles, another thing I avoid.

This has red in it. Red's no good, except here it didn't stop me taking a picture of it.

About red being no good. We met in person the china we both liked in a catalog, and neither of us liked it as much this way. For me, the berries resolved themselves into a maroon shade of red that I don't like. Also a dishwasher won't break the pieces but increase their crazing, and if I'm going to ruin dishes I'd rather ruin the ugly Service Merchandise stuff.

This might be too bland even for me, which is saying something. The walls are sage, the new couch slipcover is called "sand," and even I can tell we need some bright cushions to liven things up. I put the paint swatch against the couch in the store and asked the clerk if she would be able to find the latter against the wall. She wasn't going to insult such a large sale and spoke instead of how well the colors complement each other, which they do.

Definitely a patterned rug this time, not a solid. Well, it's weeks or not months away, but which do you like? Or I should say, is there one you dislike less than the others?

Last week Minne and Lou and I went to Ross because Minne had to return something. I found a long chambray dress, button front, tooled? perforated? along the hem. Lou, who has a fantastic--and-eclectic--wardrobe, said tactfully but dubiously, "Don't you have something like that already?" I don't, but the fact that someone who knows me thinks I do means it's me. (Which I understand isn't necessarily a good thing, but a statement is not what I want to achieve with my wardrobe.)

---

Last night we saw "Iris." I have no hope for Judi Dench being given the Oscar she so earned in this role, but if it goes to Renee Zellweger for "Bridget Jones's Diary" or even--do I risk the wrath of Haitch?--Nicole Kidman for "Moulin Rouge," I will be really pissed. Sissy Spacek is the favorite, though, isn't she? And I haven't seen "Monster's Ball," either, though I've never thought of Halle Berry as an actress. But perhaps the Academy feels guilty for giving it to breasts instead of keen skill last year and will correct itself this year, although that kind of pity vote got Russell Crowe the prize for "Gladiator" instead of for "L.A. Confidential" or even "The Insider."

I love Jim Broadbent. He's now one of my favorites. Whoever played the young John Bayley very nearly held his own among the other three, high caliber actors. Kate Winslet was charming as ever, and Dame Judi absolutely phenomenal.

So wretched. So sad. So very, very good.