On My 34th Birthday, I Am Given a Bow and Arrow Set

Because I am a very mature, adult woman, my husband naturally gave me a bow and arrow for my birthday today. How he did it was fun.

Since I had the day off, and he didn't, he gave me my gifts last night: a new mess kit (very much needed), a pair of earrings, and a lego set (a very cool wizard and his pet dragon). So I wasn't expecting any other gifts tonight.

When we got home from dinner (sushi) tonight (about an hour ago), I went upstairs to change into something more comfortable--which, eh, is a sweatshirt, not what that phrase implies. Came back downstairs to watch last night's Daily Show, and Den says to me, "So, did you get everything you wanted for your birthday?"

"Yeah, I had a good one."

"Good." Looks behind me, to the bookcase. "What's that? What's behind you?"

So I whip around, and see, half-hidden behind the bookcase, a long package. "Huh--looks like Birthday Santa left an extra package!"

"Oh. My. God."

Because this should sound a little familiar, at least for Americans:

Yep--he Christmas Story'ed me. I couldn't be happier.

TWC drama--Hurricane Sandy makes people testy.

Saw this this morning on the Weather Channel; Steph and Mike are on shaky ground, guys...

(Video made by my husband. Hooray for working iphones.)

Aftermath of the storm? Not what I was expecting.

So after all that, getting through Hurricane Sandy, never losing power, what did I do? I dropped my iphone into the bowl of french toast mix I was making, to celebrate the hurricane being gone. And now it has no sound unless you plug in headphones--speakers aren't working, and I can't hear anyone if you call me. So it's sitting in a bowl of rice, and hopefully I won't have to buy a new phone, because apparently "liquid damage is not covered under warranty".

And if I do have to buy a new phone, I need to wait two weeks before I'm eligible for the subsidized upgrade from Verizon.

New Resources Hit the Net

The British Library Journal is now available for you to read; and lucky for anyone interested in Celtic subjects, there's a brand new article on Lewis Morris and the Mabinogion.

New Chartres Tablets!

Via the Continental Celtic language list, I've learned that two new Gaulish-language tablets have been found in the city of Chartres. This is quite exciting--really, any new finding of Gallo-Brittonic, anything that can fill in the gaps, is worth celebrating.

P-Y. Lambert will be publishing a study on it soon; this article looks like a preview (unfortunately, I read it through Google Translate, because my French is pretty terrible). It's largely a list of names, and aparently might be a defixio, which is a magical curse tablet.

Here's a video--in French, unfortunately, but the only one I know of--about the new tablets:

A Crash-Course in the Druids

Just in time for Halloween, the Radio 4 program In Our Time--a round-table discussion program that focuses on topics of history or the history of an idea--spent the September 20th program on a subject dear to my heart: DRUIDS.

Melvin Bragg's guests were Barry Cunliff, Miranda Aldhouse-Green, and Justin Champion. Cunliff, and Aldhouse-Green are well-respected archaeologists, the latter also known for her popular histories on the subject of the Celts, and Champion is a historian of early modern Britain, when the druids reemerged in the public consciousness.

The program itself sticks to an overview of the druids largely in the context of Greco-Roman records due, obviously, to the lack of contemporary records by the Celts themselves--though they did touch on the lingering of druid beliefs and myths in the bardic traditions of Ireland and Wales, a subject I wished they'd have gone into further. And unfortunately they really didn't speak much to the existence of druids in Ireland potentially into the seventh century; the program was largely focused on druids in Britain. 

There was no sensationalism in the subject matter; lurid stories of bloody human sacrifices were treated as what they likely were-fairly rare, but also not abnormal (with the note that the Romans themselves only outlawed the practice in the 90s BCE).

Over all, it was a good, fluff-free introduction to the druids. The format itself is, by its nature, a bit dry (which In Our Time can often be), but the subject matter makes up for that.

Why I Fell Off the Face of the Earth

While it's hardly the first time I went a long time without posting, I feel like I should explain that I'm having an incredibly exhausting year.

In February, my husband and I went to California, followed by a trip to Ireland in April. I was intending on posting about the trip to Ireland, since it's in this blog's wheelhouse. But then in late May, we suffered a tragedy: my stepfather, with whom I was very close, suffered a stroke. He'd been with us in Ireland, and the stroke came as a shock. He lingered for a couple of weeks in a coma before dying. And to be honest, I haven't been the same since.

Meanwhile, I started a new job--a full-time job at that--a week before the stroke, and that's taken up a large chunk of my time.

I still intend to post about the trip to Ireland; aside from visiting places like Newgrange and Inis Mór, we also met my mom's cousins, who still live on the farm my great-grandfather left to come to the States. It was a wonderful trip, and I have some pretty cool pictures to post, but like I said, my heart hasn't been into it.

But I guess the depression is starting to lift, and I'll be able to start posting again.