I've been reading this fantasy novel, The Stolen Child (by Keith Donohue), and I'm finding it quite interesting (though I am, of course, having the usual problems with falling asleep while reading). It's about a changeling, but it's also about the child with whom the changeling is changed, and that second kid's ensuing life as a replacement changeling among the other fairy changelings. It's a fantasy novel, but it very much takes place in the real, modern world. The tribe of changelings live in the woods, but they clothe themselves by stealing clothes from human people's laundry; the new changeling kid acquires paper to write/draw on by stealing human people's mail; etc. The changeling who has taken his place in the human world is becoming a piano virtuoso, returning to a passion he left behind when he, in his turn, was abducted by the changelings in an earlier century.

I'm really enjoying the fact that the story follows both characters, and thereby explores this culture of changelings who were all at one point stolen, and who all endeavor to return to the human world by stealing other human children.

I'm not even 100 pages in, yet, but thus far I would recommend it. The basic concepts might sound a bit "Charles de Lint," but the writing is better.

Today I found myself (influenced by a link in a comment in someone else's journal) watching videos of young kids (of the goat variety, not the human variety) leaping around and acting like absolute morons ... of the adorable variety. In a weird way, they reminded me of our cat Lucy, with all the jumping for no apparent reason, manic running, liking for "getting high" (jumping on high places), and general Jackie Chan antics. I never thought of goats as particularly cute before, but now I think they rock. Here's the video that got me hooked:



When he lived in Wyoming and we would visit him during the summers (when I was, say, 9-13 years old), my dad had an adult goat named Mabel, and she wasn't particularly cute. Mostly all I remember about her is that my dad kept her tied her to a tree, but she always chewed through her rope and went wandering. And she wasn't very friendly. (They kept her for her milk.)

There was a new episode of "Top Chef" tonight, and I was very happy with who was eliminated. I have some strange, contrary love for this one contestant, Marcel, who everyone else (especially the other contestants) seems to hate. He's arrogant, self-absorbed, sometimes rude, a bit of a loner, but also very funny in a dry, smart-ass kind of way, and he does his own thing regardless of what everyone else thinks of him. Plus, his food is always interesting and beautiful (though he is rather too fond of "foam"). He likes to mess with "molecular gastronomy," which I think is cool. It's like a science experiment!

Okay, maybe he's kinda cute, too.