Cannas, papers, bubbles, Xena, and wizards

My sister's sick again, which made it harder to work on papers today, but at least I had D's nap for it. In the morning, while they were at the nursery, I returned to Monroe St. (per August 3) and took pictures of those exotic flowers for R. to identify (they were cannas). During D's nap I worked on the IRT paper a bunch and wrote 320 words for the other one, and then after R. got home I went on another walk, this time to the neighborhood private pool. At the intersection of Mill and Pearl, a bubble floated across the road in front of me, and then another! With no visible or audible source! Freaky...

Also today I watched the second half of "What a Girl Wants" (I admit to it) and bits of two humorous Xena episodes, "A Day in the Life" (the one with the notorious bath scene) and "For Him the Bell Tolls" (where Joxer gets all gallantly swashbuckling each time he hears a bell). The funniest part, in the first, was when Xena caught Gabrielle using her chakram to cut up a fish.

Gabrielle: "What was I supposed to use, huh? You threw our only good cutting knife at a warlord last week. I bet it's still sticking out of his thigh."

I'm looking forward to reading a book I read about in the New York Times: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. First chapter here.