April 23, 2005

• Mayflower has shown us her messy room, as has Alice, and Chanthaboune has told us about hers, preferring to leave it to our imaginations. Actually, I have seen hers myself, and it looks a lot like Mayflower’s, although most of the time when I was in it, Chanthaboune’s also featured various girls draped decoratively on the floor. My house also is rather messy at the moment.Well, if I tell you that I just noticed that #1 son’s cake, from April 8th, is still on the kitchen counter, you will get an idea.

  
  

  In a perfect world, we would all have someone like Jeeves or Bunter to look after us. We could put all our energy into our work and crafts and arts and study and I suppose sometimes just lolling around being useless, and Jeeves or Bunter would make sure that our daily lives continued to be pleasant. Jeeves and Bunter would each also have a Jeeves or Bunter, of course, which is one of the things that makes this whole idea impossible in the real world.

  
  

  However, even in the real world there are occasional experiences that approach the imaginary splendor of having Jeeves or Bunter at hand. Rice cookers, slow cookers, and bread machines, for example. You do a minimal amount of work before leaving the house and when you come home there is food waiting for you. Pizza delivery is also pretty good, and the Schwann’s man. And Netflix. I totally love Netflix. Movies simply appear in the mail, you watch them when you happen to have time, and then you send them back when you feel like it. You even pick them out when you happen to be in the mood. Time means nothing in the world of Netflix, which makes it even better than the Schwann’s man. We often miss the deadline for an order with him, and then must suffer without strawberry ices for weeks at a time.

  
  

  So I determined to find something like Netflix, but for music. It seems likely that such a thing exists, because it would be a good idea. You could download MP3s, confident that you were not breaking laws or letting trojan horses into your virtual city walls, and pay a subscription fee that would support the artists without your having to buy the entire CD every time you wanted one song. I did not find such a thing.

  
  

  However, in the course of searching, I found and was tempted by this: Booksfree. It is just like Netflix, but with books. I realize that it is a lot like a library, but not free. In fact, I think it is the original arrangement for libraries, before the free library. Booksfree actually has an amusing little chart showing how they are superior to, and a savings over, things like libraries and bookstores. Frankly, it is such a small percentage of my monthly book budget that it seems worth trying, even though I have already established that they do not have books on either knitting or science. I’ll let you know if it turns out to be wonderful.

  
  

  If anyone knows of a similar service for MP3s, please let me know.

  
  

  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I got up this morning determined to catch up on all the things I’ve been slacking at. It is a beautiful day, a perfect day for gardening and cleaning and suchlike, following which I will continue the T-shirt. Chanthaboune pointed out that my colorwork yesterday looked like lips, and today I think you could see an animal’s muzzle in it.

  
  

  I think it likely that neither Jeeves nor Bunter will appear to help me, but I have every intention of persuading #1 son to join me in putting down strawberry netting and planting tomatoes and peppers and possibly torenia and impatiens as well. And #2 son, who cleverly spent the night at a friend’s house, will have to come home eventually, and then there will be some dog-washing going on. What ho!

  • 8:30 am
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