August 2006

The Stolen Child

2006, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I really thought I had reserved The Stolen Child on audio but apparently not. I wonder what it is like on audio. Has anyone listened to this one, rather than read it?

Not that I didn’t enjoy reading it. I did enjoy it. I had heard so many good reviews about it, I was worried. Particularly in the first few chapters when I found it just a little slow and it wasn’t holding my attention very well. I think by the 4th chapter (which really isn’t very far into the book) I was hooked.

Changelings. Hobgoblins. Faeries. Humans. I think I prefer the changelings, how about you?

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Daily Dose of Life

4 Comments / Day to Day /

Ack! I’m tired! Ack! I’m busy!  Ack! My ankle hurts.

I’m tired of being tired.  I’m tired of waking up an hour before the alarm goes off.  I’m tired of knowing if I didn’t get up an hour before the alarm goes off, I’d never get everything done that needs to be done.  I’m tired of getting up an hour before the alarm goes off and still never getting everything done that needs to be done.

Work is busy.  And not the normal busy.  It’s all of the unusual things that have to be done that are kicking my rear.  I prefer the humdrum normal everyday busyness, not this special busyness.

I’m tired of hobbling around on an ankle that still hurts, even though it is definitely "better" it is not well.  And the hobbling to baby the ankle causes the bad knee to yell at me for treating it unkindly.  I can’t win with the left leg and that is annoying.

And Michelle, she goes to college today.  And she is nervous.  More than nervous.  Which makes me very very nervous.  (Updates regarding Michelle will appear at Fast Times if you’re interested.)

There you go, today’s update.  I’m tired.  I’m busy. My ankle hurts.  My kid, she’s nervous.

Life.

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The Sculptress!

4 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Mystery /

I love book blogs. Without book blogs I would not have been introduced to tons of great books. Books like The Sculptress! Awesome. If only I could remember, or easy find, the book blog where I heard about The Sculptress. But it’s hard and I’m tired so I have given up for awhile. Whoever you are, if you are reading this and you blogged about Minette Walters sometime in the last six months – THANK YOU.

Did Olive do it or didn’t she? Does it matter?

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Daily Dose of Kids and Computers

3 Comments / Kid Talk /

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By jove! I think he’s got it! I walked all of the way up there and completely forgot to take another picture of his monitor. He says he modified his monitor frame to have his initials in it. Maybe I’ll get Michelle to take a photo of it because I am surely not hobbling all the way up those stairs again anytime soon.

I think I’ll get Chris to pull the cover off of the old Compaq and we’ll see what Prince J can do with legos. I’m thinking we’ll see a really elaborate design from him now that he’s got the idea down pat.

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Daily Dose of Cool and Confusion

Kid Talk /

Prince J brought down a new lego creation, which was sort of cool in the typical way. I suggested he make something BIG with his legos rather than something small, like he usually does. TW suggested making something round with those other “block thingies” up there and then we both suggested he make a PC Case Mod. He thought that was interesting and headed up to give it a try. Half hour later, he says he’s done it.

p1010001_1.jpgWell, ummm, not quite. As you can see, it’s cool but it’s not a case mod. The boy, didn’t quite understand “case mod”. Still cool. And now that he knows what we meant, maybe we’ll see another creation up there again soon.

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The Year of Magical Thinking

2 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Finally! I finally managed to pick up The Year of Magical Thinking and read it. Finally! I’ve only reserved it six times from the library and it’s officially one day overdue as it is. But I read it and I’m glad.

I’ve always been a Didion fan and I was a little bit afraid I would not like this. I was afraid it was going to be too weepy or too whiney, something out of character for Didion. Thank goodness, it wasn’t that at all. It was pure Didion and I hope to goodness I’m a cool customer like her if/when I’m faced with death or a child’s illness or heaven forbid, both at the same time.

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Daily Dose of Religion

2 Comments / Religion /

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TW took the kids to church today.  I stayed home and tripped over the dog.  I guess some god or another was trying to tell me something.  It sounds like a good sermon and a good learning experience was had by all.  From the picture of E, you can just tell you missed out on something good, can’t you?

For the adults, it was a Christian sermon – that’s a big deal, people.  Our little UU has had a shortage of Christian spirituality over the last year or so.  For the kids, it was Albert Schweitzer – a UU – thus the bandages.  They talked about his trip to Africa and his compassion toward the African people.  And, they acted out the doctor/patient relationship. 

Darn, I should have gone to church.

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Tamburlaine Must Die

2006, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I reserved Tamburlaine Must Die from the library because TW and I had been talking about The Cutting Room and I realized we had never read any of her other books, even though we really enjoyed that one.

This one – better than The Cutting Room. Louise Welsh’s fictional account of what happened to Christopher Marlowe (remember, he’s the one some people think wrote the better Shakespeare pieces). I liked it. It could have happened that way. And of course, Welsh handles gay sex better than most. There’s nothing worse than poorly written gay boy sex.

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The Crying of Lot 49

2006, Books in Bed, Classics, Don't Read This, Favorites /

Because I couldn’t make my way through Gravity’s Rainbow and because Gravity’s Rainbow was one of my Summer Reading Challenge books, I decided to take a recommendation from someone at “work” and read Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 instead. About the only thing I can say is I managed to make it through the whole book

Conspiracy theories, bah who cares. And can someone tell me why this guy insists on writing incredibly long sentences? He’s much worse than I am. Look, this is how it starts:

One summer afternoon Mrs Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware party whose hostess had perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue to find that she, Oedipa, had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, of the estate of one Pierce Invararity, a California real estate mogul who had once lost two million dollars in his spare time but still had assets numerous and tangled enough to make the job of sorting it all out more than honorary.

I mean really, was that necessary? The whole book is like that. The whole book is unnecessary. No more Pynchon for me, thank you.

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Daily Dose of Hair – Boring

1 Comment / Kid Talk /

Michelle has colored her hair, again.  I have been expecting it for awhile – there were only a couple of small little streaks of black left, in the front.  And, it’s back to school time.  I thought for sure we’d see a blue or a green, but no.  Alas.  Boring just a shade or two darker than her "normal" color.  A color that’s not quite blonde but close enough to blonde.

  Here I sit wondering what happened to me along the way to make me sigh over "blonde" and wish for the days when I had colorful haired kids.

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