![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee341. Painting is hard. This is a calm, understated sentence, but PAINTING IS HARD! CLEANING IS HARD. I have muscles I didn't even know I had. It is going more slowly than I wanted it to go, but the house is looking so good. I am so proud of us.
2. Previous owner finally came to pick up his shit--after we conveniently piled it up for him in the garage. I am trying not to be pissed; this is a small town, and I'm not going to be an asshole to the hot-shot real estate lawyer, but OMG, y'all. He didn't have the house cleaned (his cleaner's grandson got e-coli the day it was supposed to be cleaned), and he made us wait two weeks after closing instead of us taking possession immediately after closing, and he left all this shit in the house that we had to corral. I am so fucking mad at the amount of time we had to waste cleaning and getting his shit together; fortunately, some friends came and helped us clean and get his stuff together, but AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH! I hope we'll have all the painting done by this weekend, and then we can move belongings next week.
Accepting any and all appeals to deities, the cosmos, and elemental persons of import. Also Thor. Maybe he'll show us and be all shirtless and have an eye patch and it's not like he'll volunteer to tape off the ceiling or anything but damn those abs could be motivating.
3. I finished the Earth's Children series. (Josh and I have started referring to ourselves as Ayla and Jonadalar; it's a problem)
The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book. I expected to hate it, but I found a lot to like. I get why people find the first 3/4 of the book boring; I didn't, but I get why others might. Ayla takes a tour of the spiritual places of the Zelandoni, which amounts to lots of spelunking. Personally, I enjoyed her tour of the local caves and her musings about the cave painting and spirituality in general.
I also really like that this book (and to a certain extent, the previous one) is about work/life balance. Ayla doesn't really want to be a zelandoni (shaman) of her people, but her skills with healing and innovation mean that she's been called to that profession. She's interested in the spiritual; she feels drawn to the spirit world, and she definitely wants to continue to be a healer. But training takes her away from her family; she's constantly guilty about not being with Jondalar and their daughter.
Jondalar decides to start sleeping with an ex while Ayla is busy with work; it's completely out of character and ridiculous given his history and his previous jealousy. I hate this plot point; it's stupid. In retaliation, Ayla sleeps with the town loser to get back at him. I actually don't find this out of character for Ayla; she's hurt and angry, and she wants to hurt Jondalar back. Her sleeping with Laramar is gross, but not out of character.
Ayla's insight that men are also responsible for creating children sucks. I mean, it's true, but Ayla ruins the world. This info brings about the patriarchy; it eventually kills the mother goddess worship; more importantly, it makes Jondalar lose his mind! When he beats up Laramar, Jondalar drags him off Ayla and starts screaming, "That's my baby! You're making my baby!"
We've spent a whole series with Ayla inventing awesome shit like the bra, and now she invents the subjugation of women. We go from a sexually open society to one that's rigidly monogamous. *sigh* I actually had a dream in which I warned Ayla not to share her epiphany. LOL
We don't get any interaction with the Clan in this book. I so desperately wanted Ayla to see her son again, but I get why she doesn't encounter him. He believes she's dead; it would be way too much handwaving for Auel to get Ayla's son to a place where he'd believe she's even alive and not an evil spirit. But I really wish that had happened.
Also, the book just sort of ended abruptly after the huge conflict with everything smoothed over immediately.
Worth a read if you dig the rest of the series but not otherwise.
View all my reviews
I'm not even reading dw/lj. We are at the house before 8 and working through dinner, and I just don't have time. But I love y'all, and I'm grateful for y'all, and if anything momentous is happening, let me know.
*hugs hugs*
2. Previous owner finally came to pick up his shit--after we conveniently piled it up for him in the garage. I am trying not to be pissed; this is a small town, and I'm not going to be an asshole to the hot-shot real estate lawyer, but OMG, y'all. He didn't have the house cleaned (his cleaner's grandson got e-coli the day it was supposed to be cleaned), and he made us wait two weeks after closing instead of us taking possession immediately after closing, and he left all this shit in the house that we had to corral. I am so fucking mad at the amount of time we had to waste cleaning and getting his shit together; fortunately, some friends came and helped us clean and get his stuff together, but AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH! I hope we'll have all the painting done by this weekend, and then we can move belongings next week.
Accepting any and all appeals to deities, the cosmos, and elemental persons of import. Also Thor. Maybe he'll show us and be all shirtless and have an eye patch and it's not like he'll volunteer to tape off the ceiling or anything but damn those abs could be motivating.
3. I finished the Earth's Children series. (Josh and I have started referring to ourselves as Ayla and Jonadalar; it's a problem)
The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. AuelMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book. I expected to hate it, but I found a lot to like. I get why people find the first 3/4 of the book boring; I didn't, but I get why others might. Ayla takes a tour of the spiritual places of the Zelandoni, which amounts to lots of spelunking. Personally, I enjoyed her tour of the local caves and her musings about the cave painting and spirituality in general.
I also really like that this book (and to a certain extent, the previous one) is about work/life balance. Ayla doesn't really want to be a zelandoni (shaman) of her people, but her skills with healing and innovation mean that she's been called to that profession. She's interested in the spiritual; she feels drawn to the spirit world, and she definitely wants to continue to be a healer. But training takes her away from her family; she's constantly guilty about not being with Jondalar and their daughter.
Jondalar decides to start sleeping with an ex while Ayla is busy with work; it's completely out of character and ridiculous given his history and his previous jealousy. I hate this plot point; it's stupid. In retaliation, Ayla sleeps with the town loser to get back at him. I actually don't find this out of character for Ayla; she's hurt and angry, and she wants to hurt Jondalar back. Her sleeping with Laramar is gross, but not out of character.
Ayla's insight that men are also responsible for creating children sucks. I mean, it's true, but Ayla ruins the world. This info brings about the patriarchy; it eventually kills the mother goddess worship; more importantly, it makes Jondalar lose his mind! When he beats up Laramar, Jondalar drags him off Ayla and starts screaming, "That's my baby! You're making my baby!"
We've spent a whole series with Ayla inventing awesome shit like the bra, and now she invents the subjugation of women. We go from a sexually open society to one that's rigidly monogamous. *sigh* I actually had a dream in which I warned Ayla not to share her epiphany. LOL
We don't get any interaction with the Clan in this book. I so desperately wanted Ayla to see her son again, but I get why she doesn't encounter him. He believes she's dead; it would be way too much handwaving for Auel to get Ayla's son to a place where he'd believe she's even alive and not an evil spirit. But I really wish that had happened.
Also, the book just sort of ended abruptly after the huge conflict with everything smoothed over immediately.
Worth a read if you dig the rest of the series but not otherwise.
View all my reviews
I'm not even reading dw/lj. We are at the house before 8 and working through dinner, and I just don't have time. But I love y'all, and I'm grateful for y'all, and if anything momentous is happening, let me know.
*hugs hugs*
