Get ready to chuckle

After much laughing I am finally in control enough to type this.

So I am sitting here surfing the internet (we'll get to that later) when my sister comes out of the shower in just her bath towel. She stopped to talk with us for a moment and both of my brother's dogs jumped up and started barking ferociously at her. We told her to hurry into her room and put some clothes on because the dogs were afraid of nakedness. And she did!

My brother is staying with us right now until he finds a place to rent. With him comes his two dogs; Tank and Chopper. Since he works all day mom and I end up spending most of the day with the dogs. By the way, I am not a fan of dogs - at all. We put the dogs outside right before we started teaching lessons. A student shows up at the house and while I'm answering the door mom goes out to check on the dogs. She looks all over and calls his name, but Chopper is nowhere to be found. We check the house, the yard and the neighbor's yards. Mom ends up calling my brother and he hurries home. In the mean time I take the car and canvas the neighborhood. When my brother gets home he starts looking and my mom follows after she's finished her last lesson. I stay at home, with the other dog, and wait to relay any messages. (Personally, I felt bad that the dog was lost and that everyone was upset, but to be honest, I was rather relieved. One less dog. Too bad it wasn't the stinky one!) I played on the internet and I heard a dog bark and scratch on some wood. I run outside to look by the wood gate but there is no dog there. So eventually I move to the sofa to finish reading my book club book when I hear the sound again. I run outside and still no dog. I stand by the back door, which is also by the basement stairs, waiting to hear the sound again. Maybe I'll be able to better locate the origin of it. Then I hear it again and it sounds like it is coming from the basement. So I run down the stairs and try to think where some wood would be that dog couldn't get out of. I think closets, cupboards, bathroom and then it occurs to me. Perhaps the dog is in the fruit/storage room. I open the door and what do you know? The dog was in there the whole time. It was so dark it probably fell asleep in there and that is why it didn't hear us when we called his name. So all's well that ends well.

I went to the library today and there was a theme for the patrons. (I love themed days!) The theme of the day was cross-dressing, transgender people. Yeah, there were some interesting souls that came in today. I am going to tell you my favorite two. On person wore a mini skirt, tights, high heels and a nice sweater. They had blond hair, but their was something wrong with the face. It was very masculine! It was weird because he/she had a very womanly figure. Either they had surgery or stuffed. Regardless, it was rather freakish. Then another person came in wearing a lovely feminine pants suit. I would have bought it. So you know it was nice. Then I looked at the face and it was definitely a man. He had a nice figure, but I just don't get the women's pant suit. What was weird was that it looked pretty good on them. That's a little bit frightening I think. Also, on a slightly different note, another man came in and spent several minutes telling me how the earth was made up of iron. I didn't ask any questions. I didn't even initiate the conversation. He just came right up to the desk and started this discourse on iron in the earth's core or something. I really didn't listen intently, I didn't want to lose brain cells. It was bizarre - but about par for the library. There is is also a patron who is stealing magazines. She goes into the browsing library, picks out the newest edition of her favorite magazines and then rips off the back cover and takes them home with her. (The back cover is where the security patch is.) I'm thinking that I should start doing this too. It's a lot cheaper than a subscription! I also noticed as I put my scan card up to the machine to get into the parking garage that once it reads my card the screen says 'Welcome Anneliese.' Isn't that cool? Personalized parking services. The other grand thing today was that I was able to go and visit the book sale. For two weeks before the actual book sale volunteers and staff get to browse the sale and get whatever we want. For $19 I purchased 7 organ and piano books, 1 computer manual, 7 paperbacks and 1 movie (that was two videos). Pretty sweet! And I can go again next week. Oh happy day!

I also found out today that my friend Victor is a pilot for SkyWest Airlines. (Which is a part of Delta.) So some time if you fly on SkyWest you might have my friend as your pilot. How great would that be?

Yahoo! Movies has up the trailer for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Which, by the way, looks wonderful. So I am watching it thinking that this is going to be so cool. Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Helena Bonham-Carter and it's a musical. I make mom watch it and she says that she has heard of the story before, but doesn't know how she knows it. This makes me even more curious. I get on the internet and search for Sweeney Todd and I came up with some fascinating stuff. Disclaimer: I am going to tell you all the cool information that I found. If you are not interested in historical data skip down several paragraphs.

On Wikipedia I found out: "Sweeney Todd is a fictional villian/antihero whose actual existence, whether under a different name or not, is disputed. A barber and serial killer, the character appears in various English language works starting in the mid-19th century. His weapon of choice is a straight razor, with which he cuts his victim's throats; in some versions of the story his lover, friend, and accomplice, Margery (sometimes Nellie or Claudette) Lovett, bakes the carcasses into meat pies. Todd's first appearance could have been in a British penny dreadful called The People's Periodical, in issue 7, dated November 21, 1846. The story in which he appeared was titled "The String of Pearls: A Romance," and was probably written by Thomas Prest, who created a number of other gruesome villains. He tended to base his horror stories on grains of truth, sometimes gaining inspiration from real crime reports in The Times. An episode in the legend of Saint Nicholas may represent a yet earlier version. This episode, which likely developed in the eleventh century, sees three clerks seeking accommodations for the night. In the night, their host murders them and, on the advice of his wife, decides to dispose of the evidence by baking the clerks into meat pies. The saint eventually resurrects the young scholars. The cannibalistic trait of the story goes back as far as the myth of Pelops, while the moralistic symbolism of eating one's fellow man appears in social satire such as Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. The myth's imagery of meat pies made from people is almost certainly an allusion to the finale of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and the original Roman tale on which it was based. There is thought to have been a Jacobin barber who cut the throats of his customers during the French Revolution, though for politics rather than profit. Likewise, the 15th-century Scottish figure Sawney Bean led a family of thieves who are believed to have feasted on their victims. It may be relevant that 'Sweeney' could be considered a typically Irish name, just as 'Sawney' is a Scottish one; ethnic prejudice could underlie both legends."

Then I also found out some interesting historical data about Sweeney Todd and the musical at Court TV's Crime Library. There is a lot to wade through here, so suffice it to say, if you're interested check it out. I will put down my favorite quote from the musical though. It is:

He kept a shop in London Town
Of fancy clients and good renown
And what if none of their souls were saved?
They went to their maker impeccably shaved
By Sweeney
By Sweeney Todd
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

I also came across an actual copy of the original copy from Project Gutenberg. (I love Project Gutenberg. If you haven't heard of it you need to check it out. Hundreds of books online for free. It's amazing!) If you are interested in reading it click on the link. I am going to start it tomorrow, so if you want to talk about it . . . I'm all over that. Truly I have found all of this research interesting. I love researching on the internet. Mostly because I think I have magical abilities with search queries. If you don't know what I mean, just ask me. My very presence is magical, not to mention my fingers.

Now for some other news. Jane Austen fans I just want to whet your appetites a little and start getting you hyped up for PBS and Masterpiece Theatre's The Complete Jane Austen. This begins January 13, 2008. They will be showing movies based all of Jane's novels. Many of you have seen the ones that I have downloaded off the internet, because they have already aired in Great Brittan. Now we are getting them, plus the new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. This is very exciting!

And lastly, I want to leave you with my favorite joke of the week:

Do you know what happened to the dyslexic devil worshiper?
He sold his soul to Santa.