Odds and Ends

On Saturday and Tuesday I again rented a bicycle and rode the 6-mile loop in Central Park. I'm so pleased that I can handle it without feeling fatigued or sore the day after especially as I didn't dismount once to walk up a hill. I think my body is in shape for my upcoming trip to Fargo as we often go hiking. The only problem arose on Saturday when, as I was switching gears, the chain slipped. As we struggled to reattach it, getting our hands nice and greasy, a good Samaritan passed by and easily reattached it. I still have a spot grease under one fingernail that I can't get to and will just have to let it grow out.

Did you hear about the true case of a "Home Alone" incident? An ultra-Orthodox couple in Israel left their 3-year old daughter behind at the airport when they boarded their flight to Paris with their four sons!! They remained unaware they had boarded the aircraft with only four children instead of five until they were informed by cabin staff after 40 minutes in the air. What kind of parents are they that they would forget to check they had all their children? Was it because she was a girl and not as important as their sons? Read about it here.

For anyone out there having trouble with trolls I'd like to  present this:

A Favorite Fic: Three Lions

Reading spikendru's beautifully introspective Regrets...I've Had a Few brought to mind an early favorite that I encountered while I was still discovering fanfic on the internet - in fact I found it on FanFiction.net (which I haven't been on in years) in the summer of 2002 just after the end of S6. We fans had no idea what ME planned for S7 but that didn't stop writers from speculating. A British fan named Lesley aka paratti wrote Three Lions and she had me hooked from the first chapter - I absolutely loved it. As I wrote, it was June and no one had any idea what would occur in S7 but I hoped the first few episodes might actually incorporate a bit of the happenings in what would later be the first sequence of "Three Lions". It had everything I loved in a BtVS fic - great characterizations and that wry British humor. The chapters moved amidst several viewpoints including those of Giles, Spike and Wesley (the three lions).

Giles:
I've got three of them now. It's only a three bedroom house, and I'm not sharing a bed with Spike. In fact, I'd like to know what I did in my last life to deserve this. I bloody well hope I enjoyed it, coz I'm paying back karma faster than Michael Owen running for a ball in the Argentine penalty area.

Great, another lost soul for the Rupert Giles Home for Distressed Sunnydale Residents.

Wesley:
I'm sleeping with a vampire. No, not in that way, and not that he isn't attractive, but neither of us is that way inclined. He's got the bottom one of the bunk beds we're currently sharing. Yes, Wesley, there is a monster under the bed.

I'm sitting on the sofa doing my homework and discussing my ABCs with a HADD vampire with post re-souling depression.

If you've never seen a watcher and a vampire air guitar to Jimi Hendrix you've missed one of the most truly bizarre sights of the new century.

Spike:
I think I should have checked to see if there was a "Dummies Guide to Souls" available, before I got out the old Lonely Planet East Africa guidebook.

There are also POVs of Dawn, Buffy, Anya (I loved her snark) and others. The fic basically takes a newly re-souled Spike and brings him to Giles' house in London where Giles is already sheltering Willow. Later there is a knock at the door and it turns out that Wesley too is seeking refuge with Giles. Events happen and things turn dark (this is not an easy fic for fans of Wilow and Xander) but the story remains dead on in regard to the character voices. The author later divided the story into three sequences and I believe the stories in the first sequnce constitute my alltime favorite BtVS fic. Someone could easily create a soundtrack for this fic as a different piece of music is mentioned in each (if I recall correctly) chapter. All in all an old classic that deserves to be read by newer readers.

Lesley aka paratti later wrote The Pre-Raphaelite Punk, a discerning character study of our favorite vampire.