My New Favorite Polka

At Tina's birthday party this evening I danced my new favorite polka with Eric. The song was Just a Little Bit which I've heard for years as a hustle but somehow never thought to polka to. That was just brilliant on Eric's part. It even has the heel clicks built right into it. Wow.

Other highlights of the evening were a hyperactive little furball of a dog, and lots of amusing, improvised music by Jeff. Fun fun. Happy birthday, Tina!

Oh Boy! Lectures!

I don't usually spend a lot of time in the video section of the library but I checked it out last week and tonight, looking for travel videos on England. (I'm heavily into the anticipation phase of the trip right now.) Turns out there are lots to choose from, so I'll have fun with that. I even found that Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island was made into a video series, so I got the first of those to try.

What really excited me though was the discovery of half a shelf full of videos called the Capstone Lectures in Western Culture. It's a series from the Stanford Alumni Association, and each video is an hour long lecture from a professor on music, literature, history, politics and other subjects. Jackpot! I started this week with "Music as a Mirror of Society," by Prof. Leonard Ratner, and I'll probably check out one a week for a while. I'm not taking any continuing studies classes just now, so this will be a good (and free) way to indulge my inner nerd.

England

I just got the plane tickets for my next* trip! I've wanted to go to England ever since forever, and this summer it will finally happen, so I'm very excited. Miriam is going to be my travel buddy this time around. We'll be there for two weeks, at the end of June and beginning of July (so I can add the 4th of July holiday to my vacation time).

So now we're at the planning stage, trying to figure out what we'll actually do while we're there. The stack of books and videos I brought home from the library is sort of intimidating -- so much cool stuff to cram into two weeks. But whatever we manage will be fun. We'll definitely spend some time in London, and then I want to make sure to get out to Glastonbury and Stonehenge. It looks like there's some neat stuff in Southeast England, too, but we're certainly open to any suggestions. Tips on where to go dancing while we're there would also be nice (I think we're looking at you for this one, Borden).

Anyway, more details later when things are more figured out. In the meantime: yay!

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*Okay, so "next" isn't entirely accurate, since I'm going up to Portland to see Lacey in March. But "next" in the sense of "using up all my vacation time in a foreign country." Yeah.

H2G2 Trailer

I just saw the trailer for the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie that's coming out in late April. The Vogons look appropriately Vogony, and Zaphod Beeblebrox seems the right sort of character, though I think it's odd that they're hiding one of his heads. I like how the electronic thumb was actually a thumb. Looks like there should be a lot of other fun stuff in the movie, too. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
(Found via Google Blogoscoped.)

Oh, and I'll get around to actually write-blogging rather than link-blogging eventually. Whenever I feel like concentrating enough to do some actual writing.

My Yahoo! My Yahee!

This video made me laugh harder than anything I've seen recently. Who knew lip syncing in front of a web cam could be so entertaining? The eyebrow was what just completely did me in, though.
(Found via the Yahoo! Search Blog.)

Wanna see something spiffy?

Click the comments link on this post. Blogger comments have been revamped. Congratulations to CW and the rest of the team. It's pretty cool.

Berkeley Book Buying

I spent yesterday up in Berkeley with Mom on a shopping spree through the used book stores up there. (This is one kind of shopping I actually enjoy.) I stocked up on some Bill Bryson books, though I couldn't find any of his about England, which I wanted to get because I think that's where my next trip is going to be. But I did find a different book about London to make up for it. Then there was also some fiction I had on my list and some miscellaneous other stuff. All in all, I came away with a dozen new used books, so I feel very rich right now. Here's what I got, for any other bibliophiles interested in such things:

• The Mother Tongue, by Bill Bryson
• I'm a Stranger Here Myself, by Bill Bryson
• A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson
• The Ivory and the Horn, by Charles de Lint
• Nights at the Circus, by Angela Carter
• Gould's Book of Fish, by Richard Flanagan
• The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin, by Idries Shah
• The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume One, by Anaïs Nin
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
• Walking London, by Andrew Duncan
• Qabalah, Tarot & the Western Mystery Tradition, by Clifford Bias
• The Tarot of the Magi, by Carlyle A. Pushong