October 2005

Zipporah

Zipporah

OK, it’s not The Red Tent. Let’s get that straight right up front. Zipporah is also not as good as whatever the other book I read at some point in the last two years about Moses & Zipporah. (It was really about Moses but the Zipporah character was better written than in this book). Now if I could only remember what the name of that book was… maybe it will come to me at some point in the next few days.

I did enjoy it. TW seems to have liked it more than I did because when I said “It’s ok.” She got sort of bent out of shape and said “I liked it more than just ok.” I also have to say that of all of the Marek Halter books we’ve read, this has been my least favorite. The story of Moses and Zipporah is an interesting one and I found myself skimming an awful lot. That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

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Ghost Town

Somehow I found myself reading three books at once, I never do that and it was pretty troubling to find myself in that position. I settled down and finished About My Sisters and then finished Ghost Town, a book of short stories about NYC.

Three short stories that were just long enough that I couldn’t finish a complete story during a 15 minute work break. HMPH. I prefer my short stories a little shorter. The stories were, uh, weird. To put it mildly. The first set in the revolutionary war period, the second about the time of the civil war and the third – you guessed it, 9/11. Weird stuff.

I thought they were going to be “ghost stories” but they weren’t. They were stories about weirdness, bad things happening, people just a little short of a full deck. Weird stuff, did I mention that? Now, back to Zipporah…no weirdness there at all, lol.

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Daily Dose of Birthday – Clean Sweep

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I mentioned in my Random 10 post that it was my birthday and I was cleaning my office and I mentioned pictures. Well here’s one… I got too busy cleaning to remember to take more, darn it.

I got a lot done, even though I was distracted by taking TW to work, picking her up, little kid madness, email and AIM. I’m not finished but after five hours of it today, another hour tomorrow should do it.

TW came home from work midday, it’s Gator Homecoming – whoppeeee … Go Missisisippi! 😉 And as soon as we walked in the door, she left to “run a birthday errand”. She came back just as I was about to feed the little kids their lunch. No birthday gift in hand. Hmmm.

The little kids finished their lunch and then TW rounded them up to take them out “birthday shopping” again. Uh oh. TW and 3 small kids unaccompanied on a shopping trip is dangerous. I stayed focused on cleaning the office and doing laundry and within a couple of hours they were home. RJ came in carrying an orchid. Hmmm, nice but odd. TW handed me an envelope. I open it. Gift certificate? Hmmm odd. I look more closely, wondering why TW got me a gift certificate. I do not really like to shop. Ha, a gift certificate for a tanning salon. Hahaha! I often say I wish we could move into the new townhouses that have tanning salons free for use in the exercise room.

Weird that she took the kids out for two hours and came back with just a gift certificate and an orchid. Oh, craft project is about to begin. Uh oh. TW and 3 small kids doing a project is even more frightening then the shopping trip.

I stayed focused on cleaning the office and late in the day took the second bag of trash out to the can and found 3 odd things in the yard. 3 paper pots with plaster hardening and a metal stake sticking out of each one. TW appeared at the door, sure I would know what creation they were making. I was clueless. It wasn’t flamingos again, thank goodness.

The afternoon passed. The girls were in the living room working on part of the project and I did not peek as I passed in and out of there. J was “busy” working on his part in his room for hours and hours. Hmmmm.

Jenn called after she got off work and asked if I was doing something special for my birthday. I told her I spent 5 hours cleaning the office. She said “ohhhh did you do the tarp thing?” (Some of you may not know that TW and I have a TLC thing. Everytime we go on a trip, we spend hours in hotel beds watching Clean Sweep, Trading Spaces, What Not to Wear and Property Ladder. We were just in Charleston last week and had such a marathon) I laughed and said “No, I was mostly by myself and couldn’t take everything outside alone, not to mention it rained most of the day.” She laughed and suggested I should have held off and just done the Clean Sweep thing because there was surely more to get rid of than the 2 bags I took out. Hmph.

After dinner, TW and the little kids went outside for a few minutes. There was a lot of giggling outside of my bedroom window. Super Glue was mentioned, as was bamboo. Hmmmm. TW yelled, “OK, go into the living room.” I did, held the evil dog so he didn’t get out and watched the little kids parade into the house with these umm pots with some signs sticking up on them. Hmmmm

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I looked closely at E’s. It had a big 42 on it, gee thanks kid. And the word keep spelled front ways and backways in nice neat handwriting and lots of the beanie baby stickers I had found in my desk this morning all over it. I told her it was cute as I was laughing and asked why it said “keep, peek” on it. She said, “You’ll find that out later.” Hmmmm.

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I look at RJ’s and it had the beanie baby stickers on it and the word Sell. Ha, it hit me.

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I started to laugh, looked at J and said “TRASH, You’re TRASH!!!!” hahhaha. A large bag of tarps was presented by TW. A Clean Sweep Birthday, woohooo!

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The small children are not thrilled with the idea that we may Clean Sweep their room. E in particular is worried about her beanies. She should have realized by the signs that no beanies are every trashed, they’re either kept or sold and I don’t think anyone would want hers, they’re well loved. I, on the other hand, have a good 100 well cared for, clean in acrylic cages, beanies that should definitely wind up on the sale tarp soon.

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Daily Dose of Music – Random 10

Happy Birthday to me! Here are the last 10 songs that have played while I sorted through the madness that is my office… would you like pictures too?

* Young at Heart – Joss Stone
* You Make Me High – Sophie B Hawkins
* Calamine Lotion – Abi Tapia
* Pennyroyal Tea – Nirvana
* Undertow – Suzanne Buirgy
* Redheaded Woman – Bruce Springsteen
* Who Knows Why – Melissa Ferrick
* Me and Bobby Magee – Janis Joplin
* I was Hoping – Alanis Morisette
* Ophelia – Natalie Merchant

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Sisters

I finally finished a book, yea me! About My Sisters by Debra Ginsberg and it was a pleasure to read, as I suspected. What an odd family. I’d like to see them in action at a family gathering.

I only have one sister and when I was a teenager I spent an awful lot of time taking care of her, like Debra and Deja, but we definitely don’t have the type of relationship that the two of them have. Maybe we would have if I hadn’t moved so darn far away and stayed away for all of those years? Who knows but it was interesting to think about.

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I Need Penguins

TW and I spent some time daydreaming about the complete set of Penguin Classics but as of yet, we haven’t won the lottery so the 25 boxes that they are shipped in (and take 12 hours to unpack) aren’t clogging up ur already clogged office. (not that 77 linear feet would fit in this office…but that would motivate me to clean it) I am afraid that ownership of these will always be an unfulfilled dream, just like having my very own library. Sigh.

Penguinpock
But this little set is totally doable, don’t you think??? Free delivery in the UK. I don’t live in the UK. What do you think delivery would be to the US????

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Daily Dose of Health – Lupus Awareness Month

Survivinglupusribbon

I know most bloggers are talking about Breast Cancer Awareness Month but I like to be different so I’m going to blog about the often overlooked Lupus Awareness Month instead.

1 in 200 Americans suffer from Lupus and 9 out of 10 of those are women. Lupus is an auto-immune disease and symptoms can vary widely. Everything from chronic fatigue to joint pain and mouth sores to severe nervous system problems.

People with Lupus often don’t look sick and I’ve heard many a story about family members, friends and coworkers who refused to believe Lupus was a real illness. If you’ve got questions about Lupus, there is a great Support Group on WebMD where you can find answers.

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Weetzie Bat

TW tracked down the Weetzie Bat quiz for Michelle.  I think I really need to catch up and read more of these books.  Maybe in my spare time?


You’re the Lanka. You’re dark and mysterious, mainly because it helps keep others from seeing just how much pain you feel.  You try to create ways to escape from the torment, but it ultimately all catches up to you in the end.

Which Weetzie Bat character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

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Daily Dose of Family – Daughters

jenn.jpgTW, Michelle and I drove UP to Charleston for the weekend to see Jenn (and Ronnie too, I guess) and her new house (well I guess it is his too but he’s not the important one there). I was reminded of three things during this trip, three things I hope I will not ever forget:

1) I will not EVER book a room at the Red Roof Inn, on Northwoods BLVD, for any reason. NEVER. AGAIN. We stayed there for one night last month and hated it but apparently the learning curve is steep and it took a second trip to really make it sink in for me.

2) I’m getting too darn old for this 12 hours of driving over a 2 1/2 day period. It’s hard to believe it wasn’t more than a couple of years ago that we were driving all over the south following Melissa. This weekend trip is making me rethink the whole Melissa in Atlanta thing at the end of the month, even if TW is healthy enough to go. I AM OLD and TIRED!

michelle_puzzle.jpgAs much as my daughters adore each other, and they definitely do, they do not do well together when I am around. It’s not horrible but there’s some weird undercurrent thing that bugs me to death. I don’t remember it being there all those years ago when were all a big “happy family”. It happened after Michelle and I (and Chris) moved out and left Jenn (who was all grown up and going to college) with her dad (and boyfriend who is now her husband). Michelle was always jealous and wanted me to herself but she’s 15 1/2 and this is getting really weird. Maybe it’s time to reconsider that therapy thing again??? Maybe we could do some double sessions so that when we are all together for Thanksgiving it doesn’t feel crummy?

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