Anita Rowland

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Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2006
"So today Jack, Jane and I went to see the doctor. He asked me a few questions, did a very quick pelvic exam, and then we all met in the discussion room."

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Anita's LOL

Last Post
This is Anita's husband, Jack William Bell, making the final post to her weblog (excepting a possible coda regarding a memorial service). As most of you reading this know, Anita has been battling cancer since 2003. Even her doctors thought we had six months or more left.

We didn't. Anita passed away today at 4:40 in the afternoon, December 10th. She died quietly in Seattle's Swedish Hospital after a sudden decline over the last few days. I was holding her hand as she passed.

There is a memorial post on my weblog. Please go there to leave comments and memories about Anita. Spammers will be hunted down and their entrails fed to crows.

Posted by Anita @ 05:57 PM PST [Link]

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Old Tales to New Ears
Jack tells grandson Riley a new, twisted version of the Three Little Pigs every time he puts him to bed. But I got a big laugh out of this story told by badbadivy to her son Spiderman.

"Well, the next thing you know, ol' Jed had become a millionaire. His family told him to move away from the hills. They said California was the place he wanted to be," I said. SpiderMan started jumping around and chanting, "California! California!" Spidey's impressed with California. It is where my mother-in-law fortunately lives. I say fortunately because we live 2,000 miles away. Yes, California is a perfect place for a mother-in-law to live when you are living in Tennessee.
"So, what happened?" asked Spidey. "Did they move to California?"
"Yes," I said, barely able to contain my laughter. "They loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly. Hills, that is."

She says the next story will be about a tiny ship that took a fateful trip.

Posted by Anita @ 04:03 AM PST [Link]

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Pride and Prejudice at Jane Austen Movie Club
Today at Risky Regencies, Pride and Prejudice 1995 version is being discussed at the Jane Austen Movie Club. It's definitely one of my favorite videos of all time! I think I had it on VHS, then laser disc, and now DVD and I've watched it oh so often.

So, whether you've seen this recently or a long time ago, tell us what you think! Who did you like? Dislike? How did you feel about the script? Costumes? Direction? Historical accuracy? How true to the book did you find it?

(tags: JaneAusten, RiskyRegencies, PrideAndPrejudice)

Posted by Anita @ 03:33 AM PST [Link] [1414 comments]

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Halloween Flickr
We have pictures from Noogiefest, the kid's party at Gilda's Club, Halloween lunch at Riley's Preschool. and the decorations at our house, all in my Halloween 2007 set at Flickr.

Posted by Anita @ 11:23 AM PST [Link] [5851 comments]

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Peg Bracken
I was sorry to read of Peg Bracken's death (but like Deborah Kerr, it's a case of not knowing that she was still alive at 89). Her cookbook, The I Hate to Cook Book, published in multiple editions over the years, is astoundingly funny and always made me laugh. I think I've read most of her other books, also! She may be out of print right now but used copies are widely available. Maybe I'll make some Slug-a-bed Stew in her honor.

(tags: PegBracken, Cookbooks)

Posted by Anita @ 04:32 AM PST [Link] [5504 comments]

Monday, October 22, 2007

Empire of Ivory
I stayed up much too late last night (3 am!) reading Naomi Novik's latest Temeraire novel, Empire of Ivory. Great! I really enjoy this series (dragons in the time of the Napoleonic wars) and this new installment lives up to the previous books. There are three earlier novels in the series, with plans for more.

I was able to hear Novik interviewed at Nippon2007. She was very interesting, talking about her tech writing and fan fiction roots. The only drawback was her interviewer was her Japanese editor (I think) and so there had to be translation of everything that was said on both sides.

Novik has a website with a wiki that has lots of fan participation with details about actual history vs her alternate history. Plus, she's got a livejournal!

(tags: NaomiNovik, Termeraire, EmpireOfIvory)

Posted by Anita @ 03:35 PM PST [Link] [5416 comments]

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Brainlog on Pens
My old buddy Dan Sanderson at Brainlog gets titlelessly geeky about pens. I don't write enough by hand to have preferences here but I find it entertaining to read folks giving their opinions about topics like this. "I'm still on the fence: It's clear gel pens have benefits over traditional ball point pens in terms of consistency and reliability, but I haven't met a gel pen that didn't slather the page too much. Every time I use a gel pen I feel like I'm making a mess. Rands disqualifies the fine point gel early in his trials, but I'm eager to try one after his review, because a fine point might win me over."

Dan was inspired by Rands and the joy of pens.

(tags: BrainLog, DanSanderson, pens, gelPens, Rands, RandsInRepose)

Posted by Anita @ 04:44 AM PST [Link] [3390 comments]

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A Child's Persistance (Sic) Can Save Your Life
I love this story from Love Shak, Baby:

Two years ago, the fire department spoke at my son's school for fire prevention safety week. They spoke about many fire safety rules and stressed the importance of changing the smoke detector batteries in your home. My son John took to heart the fireman's words. He came home and started in on his dad about checking the batteries of our smoke detectors. My husband told John that he would check them but he put it off for "later". My tenacious son kept after my husband for two weeks straight. Finally, he checked the smoke detectors and was shocked to discover that the batteries in every single detector in our house was dead. He took John to the store and bought new smoke detectors with backup systems for the entire house. Two weeks later on Thanksgiving morning, we woke up at 4:00 am to the sound of smoke detectors going off. We had a fire in our family room which was at the other end of the house from the bedrooms.

(tags: SmokeDetector, LoveShakBaby)

Posted by Anita @ 04:39 AM PST [Link] [5153 comments]

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