Barbara Hambly's Blog, page 54

Tea

Well, the tea went marvelously. I set up the tent and the little tables, my friends brought all sorts of amazing little goodies, my mother and younger niece helped with tying ribbons around napkins, and the female members of the two families that are going to be joined when my older niece marries her sweetie all had a marvelous time. Because, of course, one DOESN'T just marry one's sweetie... one marries his or her family, and conversely, by taking a look at some of the prospective's family, ...

The Bees' Knees

The evening Western Civ class got run out of our classroom last night because of a bee-swarm that decided to form up right outside the door earlier that afternoon. I'd seen LOTS of bees around when I taught my morning class in the room next door, and thought, Hmm,  wonder if they're getting ready to swarm? I'd guessed they were nesting in the space between the roof and the ceiling-boards of the walkway that shades the doors of the rooms. (It's a college, but it looks EXACTLY like every elemen...

Dead and Buried

Word is that Dead and Buried is available for order (I'm not sure about bookstores - definitely go look!). The first Benjamin January novel in six or seven years is out from Severn House Press (thank you, Amanda! THank you, Fran!). It takes place only a few months after the end of the previous one (Dead Water), when January - attending the funeral of a musician friend - discovers (when a drunk pallbearer drops the box) that the corpse is, unexpectedly, a white man with a knife-wound in his...

Gray Quiet Day

A gray quiet day, after a lovely evening watching the Academy Awards with friends.

The previous evening - Saturday - I drove a very long distance in the pouring-down rain to pick up china for my niece's Bridal Shower Tea. My Harley-ridin' friend does teas professionally, so was able to lend me 16 sets of pink-and-white Limoges, lighter than eggshell, plus four pink-and-white teapots; I will enlist most of my female relatives in the making of cucumber sandwiches Saturday morning. Beautiful weat...

Love Among the Greeks

Whew! I'm feeling much better this morning, after a very tiring day yesterday - and am looking forward to quests tonight.

Peloponnesian War last night, and explaining what life was like in ancient Athens. As always, LIVELY interest when I said, the Greeks were mostly bisexual; the reason Achilles was so furious when Patroklos was killed was because in the book (as opposed to "Troy") he and Patroklos were lovers - several gasps of shock. Most of the class had never heard the origin of the term ...

Food poisoning

Food poisoning? A touch of stomach flu? Some kind of previously unmanifested allergic reaction? In any case NOT what I need with a day of work (and laundry) ahead of me.

Spent most of yesterday pulling together the Sherlock Holmes story, with which I'm wholley delighted. I have the denouement yet to do, but it's all set up - I thoroughly enjoy doing a non-fantasy, totally Holmsian cigarette-ends-and-wheeltracks detective tale (though my fantasy Holmes stories have been great fun, too). It's fo...

WoW

An evening cut slightly short by storm in another part of the country.

Moss - We missed you! When you disappeared we collected the rest of the car-parts and then went to camp in Ratchet. Shall we meet up there next Thursday as usual?

Many thanks

Wow, MANY thanks for the links and explanations of the staircase system. That is enormously helpful. I had the feeling - piecing together references from Gaudy Night - that it was like that, but having the confirmation is excellent. In the 1906 history of Harvard that I have, it mentions that the original "sets" were divided into single rooms during the Civil War, so obviously Abigail's nephew (in the book) has a 2-room suite-lette.

And, the link someone gave me to the pdf map of New College w...

Just remembered...

Can anyone explain to me the arrangement at Oxford, up until at least the early 20th century, of students living on "staircases"? What does or did that look like? How were the halls at the old colleges arranged?

I understand the same system prevailed at Harvard in the 18th century and I can't find any pictures or floor-plans or anything (though I've come across some really interesting stuff about riots in the Harvard dining-hall because the food was so bad).

Running Through Trapped Hallways

That's exactly how I feel when I'm coming up on a Long Day - as if I'm in a game of Tomb Raider, getting ready to run through one of those dodge-the-spear-traps, leap-over-the-flaming-pit then swing-on-the-chain things that you have to do at full speed... with a couple of extra hours added on this occasion due to circumstances I'll talk about later. And no lunch. (And the smoothies at the campus coffee-shop leave a good deal to be desired... like anything resembling food value...) And the lik...