Queenmaker

3 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Women /

I have a love hate with Biiblical fiction. Nothing is as a good as The Red Tent, which is to be expected, but they all sound like they’re trying to be The Red Tent. Weird. I don’t compare vampire fiction to Anne Rice, how come I do that with Biblical fiction? Whatever.

Queenmaker wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad, either. King David = jerk. Queen Michal = awesome, mostly. No surprises.

Taking a break from the “FtS” Challenge – Breaking Dawn and The Seduction of the Crimson Rose are up next. Yay!

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TW’s Apple Festival Birthday

4 Comments / Daily Dose, Family Funk, Holidays, Travel Log /

Years ago, when I lived in the Upstate and TW lived in Florida, she brought the little kids up for her birthday. I searched the internet for some place fun and interesting to go and celebrate her birthday and I found the Hendersonville Apple Festival. So we jumped in the car and we drove up. It was fun but more importantly it started a birthday tradition – that’s what happens around here… you do something once and suddenly some people consider it a new tradition. So, every year I’ve struggled to come up with “apple festival” ideas for TW’s birthday.

It hasn’t been easy. Florida doesn’t really have a helluva lot of apple festivals! One year the kids painted still life apple paintings and we had our own apple festival with bobbing for apples in a bucket and stuff like that. Another year I took her to St Pete, to a quilt shop, and we looked for “apple” fabric (as well as other fabric.)

This year, I again turned to the internet and found Apple River Canyon State Park, Illinois and discovered they were in fact having an old fashioned family festival. I sent the driving directions to my iPhone and sent secondary driving instructions to my phone for another possibility just in case that festival was a dud…

We started the morning with breakfast at Hamilton’s which is right across the street from us, and a restaurant we had not visited. We all enjoyed it, RJ in particular. While paying the bill, I got a work related emergency phone call and had to run back home to resolve a problem – then we started our drive (about an hour later than I’d originally planned.)

We drove. And drove. And drove. And never thought we’d find it – but then, we did. Except there was no festival! It was just a park with very few people in it. WTF??? How frustrating to drive that far and then … nothing.

So we drove out of the park and proceeded to get lost. Driving around the “mounds” while amusing was really not anyone’s idea of a fun birthday and we were all pretty grouchy about being locked up in the car with no payoff when suddenly we stumbled into Elizabeth Illinois. Since we have an Elizabeth, that perked us all up. We perked up even more when we discovered Apple Valley Fort… which was apparently where the festival had been held.

Who knew there was an Apple River State Park and an Apple River Fort? We didn’t but we know it now, damn it.

We arrived at the fort about 15 minutes after the festival ended but the reenactors were nice and showed us around, one of them shot his gun for us (hah.) and we watched the special little Apple Valley Fort movie. And then it was back in the car for us.

Not quite the apple festival birthday I’d envisioned but whatever, we went with it and it was amusing. We also stopped at Beefaroo on the way home, for dinner. Interesting. Worst food ordering experience we’ve ever had, but interesting and everyone was happy enough with their food.

The next day, I decided we’d take a chance on the other apple birthday festival I’d considered before settling for Apple River…. we headed to Long Grove for their Irish fest.

Long Grove is a little like Helen, Georgia (not the Bavarian part but the theme touristy town idea) so I thought everyone would be both amused and entertained, even if they weren’t really interested in the Irish fest part of it. (though we did enjoy the Irish dancers.)

Long Grove has a shop called The Apple Haus and we all had apple donuty type things, apple cider, apple smoothies and we bought a couple of cookbooks (ask TW to blog about those, on Retro Food – they’re very amusing and very retro…)

They have a yarn store that we all enjoyed and an interesting craft store. There was a gift shop where we found a ton of great gift ideas for just about everyone and another gift shop that had some gourds that Liz and I really liked. I think Liz would like to try her hand at some gourd design.

Even with the confusion between Apple River Canyon and Apple River Fort, it was a pretty successful apple festival birthday weekend.

And TW, this year… you are 39:

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Rosemary and Juliet

2 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Feminism, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Queer, Women, Young Adult /

I should have known what I was getting into with a book called Rosemary and Juliet but I didn’t pay enough attention. Ah well, I’m a fan of YA and I don’t mind a YA problem book from time to time, either.

Regardless of what the title might lead you to believe this book is about – it isn’t that at all. It’s a basic YA lesbian problem book with more problems than most YA straight problem books.

Two kids die and neither were our star crossed lovers. (oops I guess that’s a spoiler, sorry.)
Electric shock therapy was tossed in there for good measure.
And of course, the predictable unhappy ending because in the end teens are required to do what their parents tell them to do – even if their parents are idiots.

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Things Fall Apart

6 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge /

The first question I have about Things Fall Apart is why was this on our shelf to start with? Who bought it and why? Or did we lift it from my mother’s bookshelf a long long time ago?

The next question I have is… why, why, why do we get so excited by books like this. And when I say we, I mean the people who decide what’s a classic, what’s a must read, what’s a prize winner, what should be in a high schooler’s curriculum? I don’t get it. OK so it was written in the late ’50s, before Nigerian independence. I can see why it might have received acclaim way back then – but now? I feel like there are better books, better stories and better characters.

It was interesting. But I don’t understand the rave reviews or why it’s on all sorts of great book lists.

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Yes I’m talking about the Prius again

5 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Money Talks /

Ya know if Toyota was social media friendly, they’d be paying me for this shit but they aren’t so I’m doing this just because it’s fun and I really do love my Prius. (If Toyota ever wakes up to social media and offers me money, I’ll let ya know – transparency and all that ya know.)

Anyway, I got y’all all excited with my 62.9 mpg photo last week and that was sort of unfair… it was the highest I’d ever seen my mileage and I knew it would go down – and it did, so let me tell you about that.

Right after I filled up, TW went to the doctor which is really close to our house and the next day we went to Starbucks which is also really close to our house. Then on Saturday we picked up Joy in Skokie which is not close to our house. When Joy got in the car, she can attest to the fact that the MPG had dropped significantly from where it was on Wednesday night – it was at 46.7 or 47.2 or something like that. Big drop right?

If you read my blog regularly, you know that we went to Evanston for brunch and then we drove around all over the place on Sunday. And then Monday was coffee day. Tuesday was a trip to the post office and to take the little kids back to their dad’s house. Wednesday was coffee day too… and today, I made my weekly trip to Great Lakes Naval Base for cheap gas & groceries…. and when I pulled into the gas station, this was what was on the display. Not 62.9… just my average 50ish MPG.

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Hood

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Queer, Women /

When I started reading Hood I felt like I’d read it before but quickly realized that all of Emma Donoghue’s books feel that way to me. Her characters seem familiar, like I’ve read more of their stories in some other book. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or if it means she’s recycling characters and I should be annoyed.

I lean toward not being annoyed but that might be due to my willingness to give authors who write good lesbian fiction a break – there are so few good lesbian fiction writers, Donoghue is one of them.

Seems sort of kharmic or something that I finished Hood on the day Del Martin died, doesn’t it?

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We don’t get lost anymore

3 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day /

I think that’s going to be my response to people who are still asking me how I like living in “Chicago” or how the move is going. Because really, that’s a high point in any move to a new place. When you don’t really get lost or you can pretty much manage a detour without thinking you’re never going to find your way to where you’re going – or home again – you’re settled.

On Saturday when TW and I picked up Joy and headed for Le Peep to have brunch with Lara I was worried about the construction. I knew Emerson was closed and parts of Ridge and sure enough, there were detour signs so I thought I might not be able to make it all of the way up Church. I asked Joy (lifetime resident of the area) if we could go x, y to z and she said yes! We didn’t need to do x, y, z but I was glad I knew what to do if we had to. (Brunch was terrific and I am no longer a gooey bun virgin. Next brunch, I hope more Chicagoland bloggers can attend.)

Today, we went to our beloved Skokie farmer’s market (Cheese Curds!) and then found our way to the Half Price Books in Edgewater Park Niles. (edited to add: WTF is that Leaning Tower of Pisa YMCA??? What’s the story? Suzanne, do you know??) From there we went to the Northbrook Apple store where the Apple website SAID they would have iPhones. They did not.

We hit The Container Store because I’ve never been to one and I was heading down Skokie toward Old Orchard. That was interesting. Overwhelming also. (To sales people required to ask for phone number when making a sale, don’t be so surprised when someone provides you with a Florida area code. In the land of cell phones, we don’t always have to change our phone number to a local – no roaming plans are more common than not. Sheesh.)

From there, I kept going down Skokie and found myself somewhere that I’d never been. I really didn’t have a clue – ok I had a small clue and sure enough, I ended up on East Lake with only a tiny doubt that I wasn’t where I thought I was. I wasn’t lost, just a little tiny bit unsure.

And, we can mostly navigate the Old Orchard Mall now. That’s a huge accomplishment. That thing is a madhouse and it’s confusing as hell. Or maybe we just avoid malls and no longer inherently understand them? Whatever. Apple Store near Macy’s, next to the very bright Pink Vicky Secret and in the wing where the rabid children play in the funky dragon looking park. Though now that I have Chris’s iPhone in hand, I hope to not visit the Apple Store again until Christmas. Damn Apple for forcing you to go into a store for the 3g. I much preferred being able to order my original iPhone online and activate it in the comfort of my own damn home. Oh well, at least I know my way around two malls.

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The Magic Toyshop

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Women, Young Adult /

There I was, happily enjoying The Magic Toyshop when suddenly, I wasn’t. That suddenly part happened in the last three pages of the damn book. I really hate that. I think I’d rather read a bad book all the way through than read a good book only to have it disappoint me in the end.

I just don’t think that ending was necessary. I didn’t need a happy ending, but I did need SOME kind of ending. Wait, there isn’t a sequel right? Surely not… I’ve read The Bloody Chamber and it is not related to this. Is there something else I’m missing? Nah. The author just wanted to annoy me at the end. Gee thanks. By looking at the Amazon reviews, I see that I am not alone. Someone should re-write the ending, 50 pages should do it. Get busy with that, and let me know when you’ve finished. Thanks!

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Murder Most Crafty

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, short stories /

Darn it. I enjoyed the Murder Most Crafty short stories quite a bit but I’m disappointed because I’m dumb.

When I put the book on my From the Stacks challenge list, for some reason I thought it was one of the Maggody Murder Mysteries. Boo! TW has been enjoying that series for ages and I’ve never read one – I was looking forward to FINALLY getting a crack at one of them. Oh well, another time maybe.

Anyway, about these short stories, most of them were pretty good. Some were dumb. Some were good but felt rushed but that’s what happens with some short stories, isn’t it? I had some weird dream about candles last night after finishing the book – probably related to the one about wax being poured down the chick’s nose and throat. Yuk, not a good way to die, ya know?

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The House on the Rock

9 Comments / Family Funk, Friends & Family, Holidays, Kid Talk, Travel Log /

Since we didn’t have an opportunity to take the kids away for a summer vacation prior to the move north, we thought we’d use Liz’s 10th birthday as an excuse for a mini vacation. The problem we had was – where should we go that wouldn’t cost a fortune, we are after all still recovering from the move.

We considered one of those nifty chain hotels that has the indoor water park. We considered one of those funky towns around here that are trying to turn themselves into tourist destinations by having tons of mini golf and mini water parks. We thought about a lot of things but when TW said “How about House on the Rock?” and I said “Huh? A house? On a rock? Fine, whatever you want” I thought maybe we should just stay home. What kid wants to go to a house on a rock for her 10th birthday and what teenagers would want to accompany her on such a trip. Hah. I changed my mind as TW started explaining it and the minute I loaded the House on the Rock webpage I knew it was perfect. I booked the hotel immediately. Creepy, interesting, relatively close (though I did have second thoughts when I saw it would take 3 1/2 hours to get there) and inexpensive (less than $300 for a 2 room hotel room that sleeps up to 8 and full tour packages for 5.)

On the Saturday morning of Liz’s birthday weekend, we loaded everyone into the car and started to drive toward breakfast. None of the kids have even mentioned breakfast and none had mentioned a stop at Starbucks either. So, as we were approaching the last turn toward our breakfast destination… “Anyone want breakfast?” All three replied that they did. TW asked Liz what she would like to have for a birthday breakfast and she said “Pancakes or waffles” Huh. Weird. So I asked “If you could have ANY breakfast in the WORLD for your birthday, what would it be?”

KRISPY KREME

Hah, that’s more like it. I told her to look to the left and there it was… Krispy Kreme, her favorite. I think we could have eaten our doughnuts and turned around and gone home and she’d have been happy. But we didn’t. We carried on down the freeway until we reached the first rest area in Wisconsin. We used the facilities and then wandered around their travel brochure area where Prince J and I discovered the PERFECT tourist attraction for us… The Mustard Museum where the King of Condiments lives. Hahaha. Since I know the Prince would rather stay home for his birthday than drive 3 1/2 hours, even for condiments, I decided we should take a bit of a detour and head to the Mustard Museum before House on the Rock. TW indicated it was pretty much on the way so we were set.

Almost to Madison, we started thinking about lunch and TW said “Ella’s!” This is the restaurant TW talks about all of the time. It’s the restaurant she wants to recreate someday, but do better. So, we took another detour and headed into Madison for lunch.

Ella’s was totally packed but it was exactly what TW always said it was. Full of toy gadgets and fun things and we all enjoyed the food (and some of us enjoyed the desserts) and the girls enjoyed the carousel.

Then, it was condiment time! A mustard vending machine! All the mustard tasting a boy could ever want! Crazy mustard puns. And lots and lots of old fashioned mustard jars. They even gave us a little mustard song booklet when we left.

Onto House of the Rock hotel, boy what a long drive. The last “six miles” were hell. Pure hell. The kids were ready to get out which means they were touching each other and yelling and screeching and just being generally idiotic and ridiculous. Once we released them from captivity and went in, they were fine. Thank goodness.

The hotel room, much to my surprise, was very large and very clean. 3 queen beds and a pull out couch. Microwave, fridge, very large bathroom. Only two problems – only 5 channels on the TV and no wi-fi in the room. The kids pool with the submarine – HUGE hit.

Finding dinner wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be – we ended up at Culvers and I got Culverized with a butter burger (never heard of it and don’t even want to think about how to “journal it”.) Fried cheese curds! Custard for the kids. Everyone was happy.

Next day – House on the Rock. I’m not even going to attempt to describe it. It’s not possible. It’s like Ripley’s Believe it or Not but better. The infinity room – the dude must have had some great drugs to come up with that. I didn’t really stop to think about what I was walking on (air) until TW mentioned the swaying and then RJ started to bounce and then… OMG amazing and frightening all at the same time. The Prince didn’t even get halfway and started backing up, which is good since I’ve seen him barf in tourist attractions before – it ain’t pretty.

We toured the whole place, we ate more fried cheese curd, we had to tear RJ away from the carousel. We had a super super time – obviously since as we were leaving the Prince said “We did a LOT of walking for fun and exercise and it REALLY was FUN.”

On the way home, we took another detour to Peck’s Farm Market, which we had passed on the way to House on the Rock. It’s a farmer’s stand with a petting zoo. Llamas! Goats! Pigs! and Carriage rides!

It was a fun weekend and a good birthday for the little one. (more photos here)

Preparing to enter the house on the rock

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