The Faun in This Movie is Not Mr. Tumnus
Yesterday I watched Pan's Labyrinth which won some Oscars but apparently not best foreign film. I thought it did.

It was very well reviewed and it's a great movie but I think marketing it as a fantasy is a huge mistake. The setting is post-civil war Spain and there are some grim and brutal things going on in this film. It pushed the limit of my violence threshold. I needed a hug after it was over. The Wikipedia article is really good with interesting notes about casting but there are spoilers so don't look at it until after you've seen the movie. I do recommend, if that's not clear.

Yesterday I spent a huge part of the day on the couch with the vampires. That's three consecutive Saturdays, if you're keeping track. My reviews are here. I loved the books but I'm glad I'm done. Well, at least until Fall of 08. I have some reservations about these books but I loved the characters and was willing to follow them through all 1600 pages. I was just going to confess what a nerd I've been about these books but changed my mind. If you'd like to be a nerd, too, you can read a chapter of the first book written from the vampire's point of view. I read all 20 pages as slowly as possible, thinking, "only 9 pages left," "now, only 4 pages left. Must make this last." Well, now I've told you what a nerd I am. Like you're surprised.

I think it's time to do some updates on the main books page. I need to update my recommendations and write some descriptions. The list that's there hasn't been updated in eons.

I have 2,000 other things on my list for today but I'll add this to the bottom and maybe in 2010 I'll get to it.

My arms are sore today and at first I couldn't figure out what was going on because I skipped yoga yesterday and hung out with Bob, instead. I did his big hill walk which is a nice workout. Yesterday I did some hedge clipping and the hedge hog (electric clipper) isn't heavy but I was holding it over my head and between that and the raking, I got my upper body workout in. Meanwhile, every corner of the yard I worked on yesterday had a giant spider sitting in the middle of a giant web. Where do all these spiders come from? Have they been growing all summer? Did they come out because the weather got cooler? I felt bad destroying all their work.