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I've had a lovely few days, both fannishly and familialy (Is that even a word? I thought not.) So I thought I'd share a bit of the joy.

First, my Ladder of Swords DVD arrived on Friday, from the Danish DVD store recommended by

lady_meander. The speed of the shipping almost makes up for the exorbitant shipping fee. (Nearly 6 times the cost of the DVD! Luckily the DVD was cheap.) The film itself looks lovely, though I'm still poking about for a way to turn off the subtitling. Still, I'm very glad to have a replacement for my dodgy VHS copy.

Love the movie, but wow, they could have done a better cover.

The Sweetie saw the DVD lying about, prompting this exchange:

Sweetie: What the heck is this?!
Me: A Martin Shaw movie I love.
Sweetie: What's it about? A bear attack?
Me: He's a circus bear.
Sweetie: And what the heck is Shaw supposed to be? He looks like he wandered out of a bad panto.
Me: He's a circus performer, okay. He's actually pretty gorgegous in most of the movie.
Sweetie: Okaaayyyy. ::backs away slowly:: ::stops:: ::turns:: Ya know how the movie could be better? If Martin Shaw was a panto performer, stuck in the woods. And he was being attacked by a bear. And he had to kill the bear.
Me: ::backs away slowly::

Yeah, the Sweetie is a nut, but he's my nut.

Second, it seems a-ha did an in-depth interview for Q, the CBC Radio arts and culture program. The interview is available to stream here (look for the May 19 file), and is everything I'd hoped for from the band. They're smart, articulate, and clearly kept their heads in the face of both their early fame and their failure to ever crack the North American market properly. My affection for Morten has increased tenfold, knowing how much he despises the fact that he's known in the mainstream media primarily for having a pretty face.

Mind you, that face is rather pretty. Here, have a gratuitous pic of the Toronto a-ha concert:

Actually, have one more, just because I love this shot:

Finally, we've had an especially awesome week with Ros. She's physically growing an insane amount (about 1 cm every 2 weeks), and seems to be growing in maturity by the day. You can have real conversations with her, and she gets way more than I would have expected even a few months ago. And she can just do more stuff. Including operate our real camera, as opposed to the kid digital camera we gave her for her birthday last year. In fact, she's now responsible for one of the best pictures of me and the Sweetie I've ever seen.

I'd love this pic of the two of us anyway, but the fact that Ros took it makes it even more special.

There was also a lovely visit to a park with some uni friends and their kids on Saturday, and a get together with our (sort of) adoption group today, where the kids had a fab time and so did the adults. It doesn't get much better.

Hope everyone else had a similarly awesome weekend.