'twas the second day ...

Christmas Eve falling on a Saturday made it basically just like Christmas. We had a lovely roast beef and Yorkshire pudding dinner with the famed chocolate-peppermint pinwheel cookies for dessert. Yesterday's gifts included a biography of 19th-century Boston by Dark Tide's Stephen Puleo, and Assassin's Creed II.

This morning, we made the kids stay in their rooms until 8:30, opened a few presents (Baldur's Gate, the whole series! I believe I'm about to fall down a rabbit hole for a few months), and now I'm catching up on the world while Lou plays with his magic wand TV remote and gets ready to make pancakes and the boys are playing their new Star Wars Wii game. Veronica's hanging with her Daddy, cuddling her Fur Real panda baby.

chronicling the gift list

Yes, it's been a quiet little blog for a while. But I think I'll spend the holidays chronicling the gifts I've received.

Firstly, I had a story written for me in a gift exchange. It was a nice story, with my favorite romantic pairing from Dragon Age.

Secondly, I got a big book of stories of restored classic pickups from my wonderful husband.

My middle child gave me the gift of his company for a day in Boston two weeks ago - lunch at Faneuil Hall, an hour's worth of a free performance of Into the Woods, and the Boston Gay Men's Chorus Christmas concert (wasn't quite as fun as their press indicated, but it was a great day with my little boy!).

Tomorrow should bring a few more presents and then some on Christmas Day, and who knows if we'll have finished them all by then! Maybe we'll go into next week.

book reviews

Stephen Puleo, Dark Tide. The most recent in my somewhat morbid obsession with disaster stories, this one is about the Boston molasses flood in 1919. It was definitely an easy read, the story of the molasses grounded in both the larger story of how it fit in the rest of the world and the smaller stories of how it fit into the daily lives of normal Bostonians in the North End. I found it a bit on the short side - some of the details about the legal case and the aftermath were rushed and could have done with more fleshing out - but what was there was gripping and informative.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince. A reread, of course - I just finished reading this aloud to the kids. They enjoyed it, although I think many of the concepts went over their heads. Still, it was special to me to read it to them, and that part I think they got.

Frederick Douglass, A Narrative of the Life ... Another book that was shorter than I expected. William Lloyd Garrison's introduction seemed nearly as long as the narrative itself. Douglass's narrative was well written and well paced and the incidents of his life were vividly described, but he himself seemed missing. The "I" character seemed to have little or no personality, and as such, I found the narrative lacking in intimacy. Worth reading, and worth keeping as reference, but I admit, I would have liked more depth.

Dan McNichol, The Roads that Built America. Really well done book. Following the birth of the American highway system from inception to 'completion', the book provides details and background and description of every step along the way to building the highway system we now enjoy. For a relatively slim volume, it feels very in-depth. Highly recommended.

book reviews

Thomas Lowry, The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell. A very frank look at the seamier sides of the Civil War: sex and the diseases thereof. It's a little on the sparse side - I might have liked a slightly more in-depth look at the issues - but as the author points out, primary sources are rare, as much of the discussion of these things has been cleaned up by ensuing generations. It's a well-organized, highly readable book, and a good addition to the bookshelf.

Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days. I've read this one several times before, but it's always entertaining. Phileas Fogg is truly an enigma, his purposes and desires completely hidden - a fine example of the use of point of view to reveal and obscure and to alter the interpretation of a character or plot point.

Alberto Angela, A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome. Informative, entertaining, highly readable, this long day's journey into Rome brings to life a long-vanished world and makes it accessible to today's reader. Definitely a keeper!

Lord Macaulay, The History of England, vol. 1. Despite its length, I found this book surprisingly interesting. Partly, I admit, for the added historical perspective that comes from it having been written in the nineteenth century, but also because Macaulay's passionate writing carries the reader along, providing an immersion in the lives of people and places. Definitely not a stuffy, dusty recitation of facts and dates - Macaulay had opinions on these events, and wasn't afraid to share them.

book reviews

Russell E. Erickson, A Toad for Tuesday. I read this one way back when I worked for Houghton Mifflin, and was charmed by the indomitable toad and the grumpy but lovable owl. It's a simple story, but well-written and with memorable characters.

Brian Jacques, Mossflower. I picked this one up at the book fair last year - it's the prequel to the long-running Redwall series, and I thought I'd try it out. While I thought it was well-written, I couldn't get very far because I couldn't quite imagine the animals in the fantasy setting. It's odd, because I like Disney's Robin Hood, among other animated animals in fantasy movies/shows, but something about this one was too realistic for me to see it properly.

Isaac Asimov, Puzzles of the Black Widowers. I've always enjoyed the Black Widowers - the different personalities sifting through the possibilities of a mystery, moving enough extraneous details aside that Henry, their esteemed waiter, can see the answer. The stories are a bit old-fashioned (the guests' continual negative and snobbish attitude when the waiter is turned to at the end of the discussion is dated and occasionally annoying), but still clever and well-turned.

Steve Dublanica, Waiter Rant. I've been reading this guy's blog for a while now, finally picked up and read the book, and I definitely enjoyed it. He's got an honest, take-no-prisoners style, but he includes himself amongst his targets and manages to be surprisingly intimate but anonymous at the same time. It's an interesting view into a world most of us don't think too much about, the inner workings of a restaurant.

book reviews

Kate Summerscale, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. This sounded like it was going to be pretty cool - the subtitle is "A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Victorian Detective" - but it fell flat. Yes, the murder was shocking, and yes, it undid the reputation of a detective ... but the detective had a very small role in the murder and in the book itself, and the ruination of his reputation was more a footnote than anything else.

Diane Wilson, Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past. This was a gifted book, not one I would have chosen myself. It's the story of a woman searching for her ancestors, juxtaposed with scenes from those ancestors' lives. I found it disjointed and nonlinear. While the ancestors' stories were interesting, there wasn't enough in any time period to truly get to know the people involved, and the narrator herself seemed uninteresting.

Margaret Sidney, The Five Little Peppers Abroad. The title, of course, is a complete misnomer - it's really Polly and Phronsie abroad, but then, Polly and Phronsie are the most memorable and interesting of the Peppers. It's not one of the best installments of the series, but it's filled with all the traditional Pepper innocence and earnest good-heartedness.

Sally Gunning, The Widow's War. My book group pick of the month - loved it! It's the story of a woman in 1700s Massachusetts whose husband dies, and how she deals with the aftermath. I liked the detailed setting and the depth of the immersion into the society of the time. I also appreciated that Lyddie, the protagonist, wasn't an exceptionally talented woman - she was just a woman who suddenly found herself in an untenable situation, who took the exceptional step of standing up for herself. I'm not sure I was wild about the ending, which left some threads untied, but the book itself was very good.

testing something

book reviews

Yay, more books finished!

Kenneth Tingle, The Girl in the Italian Bakery. This is a local-boy-makes-good book about a kid growing up in the projects in a Massachusetts suburb and the various twists and turns of his life. It's told strictly from the child's point of view, with the result that the reader never truly understands what is happening around the kid - only what the kid himself knew, and the adult narrator never fills in the gaps, leaving a confusing story behind. The writing is passionate, the author clearly very motivated to tell his story, but it needs work that it's never going to get.

Johann Wyss, The Swiss Family Robinson. This is, of course, a reread - I've had this book since I was little and read it countless times. But this time I read it to my kids, which highlighted some of the fundamental implausibilities of the book, chief amongst them being the fact that the father is a walking encyclopedia who is completely capable of wresting civilization from the wilderness single-handedly and that the island they land on has every natural resource possible. Nonetheless, it's still an entertaining and interesting book with lots of excitement.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. Caesar had a lot to say. One wonders if he actually lived by his precepts, or if he simply expected everyone else to. Overall, while it wasn't boring, I wasn't stirred by the writing, either.

Mabel Barbee Lee, Cripple Creek Days. An account of a little girl growing up in the Colorado mining camp. She pulled no punches about her childhood and the various hardships and issues involved in growing up in such a perilous location, but ultimately her experiences left me unmoved.

book reviews

I can't believe how long it's taking me to read these days! I suppose it isn't such a surprise, given that in addition to the reading I'm also reading fanfiction and have a number of writing projects filling up my desk. So here are the latest book reviews:

Mari Sandoz, Miss Morissa: Doctor of the Gold Trail. I'm on the fence as to how accurate I think this is, but it was certainly a moving and entertaining view of a woman who starts a medical practice in a place she had never intended and how she becomes instrumental in building a community there.

Teresa Edgerton, Goblin Moon. The most recent in Lou's attempt to educate me in good fantasy, I found the characters and plot enjoyable and the world-building very interesting. On the negative side of the column, I felt that Edgerton punted a bit in her world-building by making the names very altered-Earth: Scandinavia was "Nordmark", India was "Inde", etc. Also, it was clearly only half of a book, as many, many plot points were left unfinished at the end. But it was effective enough, as I've already scrounged the sequel off of Lou's bookshelf.

Tim Gunn, Gunn's Golden Rules. It's extremely rare that I pick up a book while browsing in the bookstore - usually I'm much more disciplined about what I read and where. It's even more rare that I like the book enough to buy it on the spot and finish it that night, but that's exactly what happened. I was utterly beguiled by Gunn's candid openness, his gentle remonstrances at bad manners and admission of his own lapses, and really of the man's overall sincere and friendly tone.

Joseph Bedier, Tristan & Iseult. Blah. An overly simplistic retelling of a story that has the potential to be sincerely moving and poignant. Tristan and Iseult come across as a pair of impulsive idiots who have no idea what they're doing, but somehow manage to foil all the plots against them largely through sheer good luck and the loyalty of their servants.

book reviews

Hello to my poor neglected blog! Apologies for the long silence ... I blame it all on summer. And writing; so many stories, so little time! Both are also why it's been so long since I finished enough books for a book review post. Alas, my reading rate has taken a big hit this year as the writing rate increases.

Marilyn Irvin Holt, The Orphan Trains. This is a history of the process of placing-out, by which charitable institutions sent orphans from Eastern cities into the farmlands of the Midwest for resettlement. It's very clearly a book put out by a small press, with the attendant issues of proofreading and depth of information, but it's a good overview of a little-studied phenomenon.

Lillian M. Gilbreth, As I Remember. I'm a huge fan of the Gilbreths, early twentieth-century industrial engineers who were pioneers in their field. (And incidentally, raised a tribe of 11 children, two of whom went on to write the lovely romp of their adventures, Cheaper by the Dozen.) This is Lillian Gilbreth's autobiography, which is notable among other things for having no chapters. It runs on relatively unbroken all through, but it flows well enough that it's not that hard to get used to the lack of breaks. It's also written in the third person. I very much enjoyed seeing her life in her own words - Lillian Gilbreth was an exceptional woman of great intelligence who broke a lot of barriers in her efforts to carry on her husband's life work and raise their children the way he would have wanted.

John Jakes, Heaven and Hell. It's an epic saga, a bit of a soap opera, but still a gripping tale with characters who are vivid and interesting. I've also read it a number of times since I was a teenager, so it has that piquant nostalgic flavor to it.

Tom Cotter, The Cobra in the Barn. This is a book I picked up at an antique car museum in Vegas, all about finding old cars hidden in barns and garages all over the country and fixing them up. It was fascinating to read about the different ways people came across old cars, the steps it sometimes took to acquire them, and the fates of the cars once found. Makes me look at old barns differently, wondering what secrets they hide.

book reviews

Summer's a slow blogging time, apparently! And a slow reading time. Glad to finally have a short stack to review. (And it's been so long, I've forgotten how I usually format these things. Egad.)

Fog Magic, Julia L. Sauer - This is an oldie but a goodie - a simple story of a girl who finds the past come alive on foggy days. I enjoy the story, the carefully built worlds of the past and present and the girl who bridges them both.

Blue Moon Rising, Simon Green - One of Lou's recommendations when I decided I should read more fantasy. This one was particularly good. The tension wound tighter and tighter, the world darkening both figuratively and literally, but it wasn't oppressive. The characters themselves kept the world lit for the reader. There were some plot holes, some threads left hanging, and the identity of the final villain was obvious from the get-go, but overall it was a tightly and interestingly written book with a lot of action and great characters.

Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick - The complete story of the lives of those who came over on the famed ship. Not just what awaited them on land in the first year, where most tales stop, but in the years following as they developed their homes and dealt with those who were here first. It was tightly written but not overly dense. I didn't find a lot of depth, and the characters weren't particularly vivid, but I found it an informative and interesting read.

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Margaret Sidney - Truthfully, the Peppers don't translate into the modern age. The children are both far more capable and far more innocent than children of today, so many of their actions and reactions are nigh unbelievable. Minor incidents such as a stubbed toe are treated as the worst of disasters, while major incidents, such as the near death of a character from measles, are glossed over within a page. Still, there's always something fresh and attractive about these whole-hearted, sincere children and their refusal to be daunted by any challenge.

things that make me ask "why?"

1. Car alarms. Honestly, why do people still use them? No one pays attention to them, including the car owners, and - especially in a residential neighborhood like mine - they're more annoyance than use.

2. Faxes. Why use a fax machine and send someone a grainy, blurred image, when you can send a nice sharp clear pdf that doesn't require any external technology?

3. Birds flying into my window. Okay, maybe they can't tell it's a window, but why are they flying so close to my house in the first place? Aren't wild animals supposed to keep their distance from humans and their dwelling places? (Same goes for the doofus birds that make nests right outside my door or on my patio chair.)

4. Why do the blueberries all get eaten as soon as they're ripe, but not the raspberries? Do birds and other animals prefer blueberries? Are the raspberry prickers that effective a deterrent against marauding animals? Or is it because there are fewer blueberries than raspberries?

thoughts on texting

As of now, I don't text. This is careful thinking - I rarely use my phone as a phone, mostly for email/Facebook, and to be available if the school needs to call me. The person I get the most phone calls from? The superintendent's Alert Now system, and I'd rather that didn't come via text - a text doesn't wake me up at 6 AM to tell me to turn off my alarm clock. (Now, if the phone call could somehow automatically turn off my alarm clock without my having to wake up, that would be something ....)

But in general, I find texting to be much like online chatting - too immediate, and thus too stressful. Talking with people is difficult enough for me, but having to conduct a conversation in real time online is even more so. Emails can be carefully crafted, gone over, and reviewed before sending (which is why I tend to be more comfortable and a better conversationalist online), but there's no time for that in a text. And I'm pedantic enough to feel a real distaste at the idea of using textspeak.

And of course, there's the famed AutoCorrect, which would drive me nuts. I get that people don't think they can use language without an electronic corrector, and I also get that people would rather be able to blame their mistakes on AutoCorrect than having to admit they can't spell whatever word they would misspell, but I couldn't take having an automatic 'corrector' that screws up my words.

I know my text-free life is coming to an end - sometime in the next three years the kids will start getting cell phones, and hello, texting. But for now, I can do without.

school hour

Since my young'uns are getting older, helping them retain some of their education over the summer seems like a good idea. So I'm instituting an hour of various school- (and learning-) related tasks every day that we're home this summer.

So far (on the first day), we had a fairly successful hour. The boys worked on math and on tying their shoes, and Veronica and I worked on letters. Good news, she knows them all. Bad news, only when they're in order. She can't name them out of order. Have to give that one some thought.

5 things I like about summer vacation

Second full day of summer vacation - no plans today!

1. No alarm clock! I hate that thing, despite the efficiency with which it does its work, and I wake up so much better rested when I don't have to use it.

2. 100% unscheduled days. No drop-offs, no pick-ups, no need to be anywhere or do anything at any specific time. I could actually go a whole day without looking at a clock!

3. Kids who play together. I'm blessed with three kids who can actually play on their own and together with a minimum of fighting. Yes, there's some, but I rarely hear anyone whine that they're bored, and they're fairly easy to redirect away from whatever causes the issues.

4. Hot sunny days. (This one is wishful thinking today, which is cold and rainy. But I hold out hope for better!)

5. Have I mentioned no alarm clock? Oh, how I love not waking up to that thing!

just barely made it

So today is the last day of the school year - a school year during which I was very pleased to be able to say that no one in my house had vomited. Sadly, I won't be able to say the same about the summer. Oh, stomach flu, you wily coyote! But at least we had the school year. *sigh*

new questions

A new meme that was sent to my by email. No, I was lazy and didn't forward/send it back, but I'm putting it on the blog. Does that count?

1. What color are your socks right now? No socks - it's sandal weather!

2. What are you listening to right now? iPod - Ricky Nelson's "Travelin' Man"

3. What was the last thing you ate? Cheerios

4. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Lou

5. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes

6. How old are you today? 36

7.What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Football
8.What is your favorite drink? Tea/coffee
9.Have you ever dyed your hair? Yup. Might do it again.

10.Favorite food ? Steak. Or dessert!

11.What is the last movie you watched? The Butcher's Wife

12.Favorite day of the year? My birthday, natch!

13.How do you vent? Talk to friends/husband
14.What was your favorite toy as a child? paper dolls

15.What is your favorite season? summer

16.Cherries or Blueberries? cherries

17.Living situation? house full of kids!

18.When was the last time you cried? really cried? sometime in January, I think

19.What did you do last night? games and writing

20.What are you most afraid of? going blind
21.Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? plain, sometimes cheese, better with bacon!

22.Favorite dog breed? big ones - Newfoundland/St. Bernard
23.Favorite day of the week? Thursday

24.How many states (list) have you lived in? 8: TN, OH, TX, MI, NY, VA, NC, MA

counting the hours

Until summer vacation! It's a five things kind of day - five things I look forward to about summer break.

1) No alarm clock. Hate that thing, despite its usefulness. Just knowing I have to be up at a certain point that's earlier than I would naturally get up keeps me from getting a restful night's sleep.

2) Kids home! Yes, in August this will be on my '5 reasons I'm glad school is starting soon' list. But right now it's June, and I look forward to getting to spend time with my kids, and having them home enough that I can get some individual time in with each of them.

3) Heat. Egad I'm sick of cold.

4) Opportunity for more playdates. The end of the year is bad for playtime, what with end-of-school stuff and baseball, etc. So once summer starts it's easier to get together with people.

5) Lack of schedule. No need to be anywhere in particular, no drop-offs, no pick-ups, no nothin'. Just long stress-free blocks of time. Ahhhh....

end of an era

Tomorrow, my last baby has her last day of preschool. This is the end of six solid years of preschool, each child completing theirs and moving on while the next one came forward. All three went to different schools ... but each school was in the basement of a church; each had some teachers who were difficult to relate to and some who were easy; each child came out prepared just as well for kindergarten as the others.

Next year, I'll put all three kids on the same bus and send them off to the same building, for the first time. No more splitting my attention between schools, no more juggling who gets picked up and who dropped off and where. (At least, not for a couple of years!) No more paying for school for the foreseeable future, other than the gouge that is my property tax. My schedule will be the same every weekday, meaning I can really try to organize my time and get some things accomplished.

Granted, it's only half-day kindergarten - she'll be home well before noon every day. But it's a start, and the personal relief of no more drop-offs where I have to be 'on' before 9 am; no more crafts; no more strange preschool teacher issues that I've never figured out how to deal with. (Although to be fair, this year's teacher had none of those, and was hands down the best any of my kids ever had, which was a nice way to go out.)

Very excited!!

book reviews

Margaret Sidney, Five Little Peppers Grown Up. I love the Peppers. They're all so earnest and so sweet and oh, so very good. They're also a bit over-dramatic - the smallest thing is the end of the world. And Phronsie (the youngest) at 13 acts very much the same way Phronsie did at 3. But once you've acccepted that, it's nice to make a visit to such lovely, innocent people.

Mrs. Molesworth, The Cuckoo Clock. Another piece of classic children's literature. But unlike the charmingly over-sweet Peppers, Mrs. Molesworth's Griselda is sulky, demanding, obtuse, and petulant pretty much all through the book, and with no reason, obvious or otherwise, to justify such behavior. And since there's no reason for the original flaws, there's no lesson to be learned when she finally (on the last page) learns to conquer them.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Midnight Harvest. Sadly, Saint-Germain simply doesn't translate to the modern era. The elaborateness of his ruses to disguise his vampiric identity, the separation of his various holdings ... it just doesn't hold up in the more connected world of the mid-20th century. Nor, frankly, does his Old World courtly manner. And with those gone, so is much of the character's magic.

Louis L'Amour, Comstock Lode. I tend to like L'Amour's longer books slightly less than I do the shorter ones, and this was no exception. But there was a lot of interesting mining detail in this one, a fairly complex plot with a decent payoff, and the characters were solid L'Amours.

movies revisited?

I'm thinking it may be time to revisit my favorite movies list, posted here several years ago. It would be interesting to see what kinds of shake-ups have occurred ... and even more interesting to see if I can come up with a full list of all the loved movies I don't have on DVD right now.

Yes, in this digital age it's passe to own DVDs. But I love mine - I like to look at them all lined up on the shelf, and I like to know that if various digital storage systems collapse, I still have my movies.

Currently, I'm rewatching The Butcher's Wife. Demi Moore's accent is pretty laughable, but it's a sweet movie, filled with love, and it's one of the movies that made me want to move to New York back in the day.

last meal

Don't ask me why I was thinking of this, but I got to thinking about my last meal, were I to order one.

I would choose a lovely rare steak, a couple of fried chicken drumsticks, and a big fluffy biscuit, with black coffee. And for dessert, a carton of Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar crunch, a bowl of Brigham's peppermint stick ice cream, and a perfectly prepared cappuccino.

Yep, I think that covers it.

the internet: a dance

I like to think of the internet as some kind of intricate old English country dance, where you whirl and twirl about the floor, changing partners regularly. (I'm lying. I came up with this metaphor mere seconds ago. I like it anyway!)

Over the course of the dance the tempo and style of the music changes, as do the allowable moves, and each partner has their own rhythm you have to get to know before it's time to move on.

(The partners here being the various discussion groups/bulletin boards/listservs you move between, and the music being the general topics of conversation on same. At the moment, it's very fantasy esque, with a bit of wild tearing-out-your-hair writer angst, and a more general set of undernotes brought in by Facebook and Twitter. Those particular tones vary by the day, depending on who's more vocal in the stream. Fortunately, as I get older the music hits fewer sour notes, because I know to stay away from the more discordant discussions. Usually.)

Ten years ago, it was more of a sad lullaby, as I lived then on BabyCenter and other bulletin boards for mothers-to-be and mothers who had suffered losses. Today's music is far more upbeat and positive.

Wonder what it'll sound like 10 years from now.

why I'll never be a famous blogger

I think it's pretty clear that I'll never be known for my blogging skills, and I've come up with a few reasons why that's the case.

1) I'm not funny. At least, not all the time, certainly not every day. And I'm rarely funny on purpose - I can't just sit down and be funny.

2) I try not to be outraged. It's a lot of effort to be outraged, angry, or even worked up, and I prefer to spend my energy on other things. But it leaves me without that particular well of emotion to draw from at blogging time.

3) I'm too caught up in my day-to-day life to wax philosophical every day; not unhappy enough in said life to whine about it; and not abnormal enough to think my day-to-day is all that different from other people's.

4) Too many bloggers, and people on the internet in general, post the same things over and over and over. I don't want to be that type of blogger, and I would be if I tried to post on a daily basis.

5) Too much other social media. I try to be interesting on Facebook and Twitter, I try to keep up with email and various other social sites. By the time that's done with, plus the writing I'm trying to do, honestly, I have little energy left for blogging. Unless something particularly interesting is going on, or I feel a need to get something down on ... screen.

All of which is not to say I'm planning on changing my blogging habits - I'm here, I'll be posting, but I don't ever expect my little blog to take off and change the world.

another rainy Monday

And I have a few random thoughts.

.... Why does my iPod insist that "Gee, Officer Krupke" is my favorite song? It comes up so often I'm not sure I even like it anymore.

.... Next fall I need to remember how much I enjoy quiet days with nothing scheduled, and volunteer for very little.

.... Have I mentioned before that I'm very tired of cold rain? I used to love rain, but I think I've seen enough recently to hold me for a while.

.... The strawberries are blooming up a storm. Hoping for another bumper crop this summer!

.... 10 more days of preschool and 20 days of elementary before the end of the school year!

.... As of today, I've been happily married for 13 years. That's over a third of my life.

.... My daughter went to school in the pink leggings again today. I can't stand those pants. I think this is the last day she'll be wearing them - they may be heading for a terrible laundry accident.

.... And I think that's all for today. Tune in tomorrow, same random time, same random channel.

stolen from Facebook again

Four things...

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Today at 5:03 pm

Four names that people have called me:
1. Amasa
2. Shay
3. honey
4. Mommy

Four jobs I have had:
1. car hop
2. assembly line worker at a fire alarm factory
3. waitress
4. proofreader

Four movies I have watched more than once:
1. Love Actually
2. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
3. Dirty Dancing
4. Earth Girls Are Easy

Four places I have lived:
1. New York, NY
2. Richmond, VA
3. Houston, TX
4. Andover, MA

Four places I have been:
1. Sorrento, Italy
2. London, England
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Victoria Island, BC, Canada

Four People who e-mail me (regularly):
1. Lou
2. Fanfiction.net
3. the editors/authors I work with
4. my mother-in-law

Four of my favorite foods:
1. ice cream
2. fried chicken
3. steak
4. mashed potatoes

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. on a warm beach
2. New York City
3. out to dinner
4. Italy

Four things I am looking forward to this year:
1. summer trip to Vegas
2. summer vacation
3. all three kids in the same school next fall
4. writing

Four TV shows that I watch:
1. How I Met Your Mother
2. The Big Bang Theory
3. Castle
4. Leverage

Four books you could (or have) read more than once:
1. These Happy Golden Years (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
2. The Stand (Stephen King)
3. The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins)
4. The Secret Adversary (Agatha Christie)

weather report

It continues to be grey and gloomy and COLD in New England, halfway into May. This makes me unhappy. It makes me dream of sandy beaches and places where it's never cold. It makes me want to stay inside with hot chocolate/hot tea/hot coffee, and lots of pastries.

It seems to be affecting my youngsters, as well, who seem whinier, more fragile, and more stressed by things like school and homework, which they usually take in stride.

I would like this stretch of gloomy cold to end.

book reviews

Been a while!

Elizabeth Hardwick, The New York Stories of Elizabeth Hardwick. This was an extraordinarily rare impulse buy, and about as successful as you might expect. Elizabeth Hardwick turns out to have been one of those writers who writes extended slice of life character studies that are all about extremely superior people who learn nothing over the course of the story, and end the story suspended in the same purgatory they began it in. All of which renders the stories generally as dull and pretentious as the people they're about.

Elizabeth Peters, Lion in the Valley. The next installment of the delightful adventures of Amelia Peabody Emerson and her rather madcap troup of friends and family. This one had entertaining new characters, but the reveal of the Master Criminal and the subsequent scene between the MC and Amelia left me cold. I expected both more and less from it. It doesn't keep me from wanting to move on with the series, but it makes this entry's ending my least favorite so far.

Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. For something blurbed as a "comedy of manners", I found it decidedly lacking in both. Most of the characters come across to the narrator, Major Pettigrew, as more or less rude, and while the comedy picks up a bit toward the end (largely as Major Pettigrew loses his patience and becomes more acerbic), much of the story is more serious, following the life of an aging British gentleman and his view of the world. It's a shifting kaleidoscope where it's hard to tell who's more out of touch, Major P. or everyone else, and that certainly may have a lot of truth to it. Overall, I found it a fine book but not a keeper.

Caleb Carr, The Alienist. I was bowled over by this book when I first read it, many years ago. This was my first reread in a long time, and I still find it an extremely successful book, both as a mystery and as historical fiction. I enjoy Carr's detailed writing style and the portrait he draws of turn-of-the-century New York.

7 things that make me happy

It's been a highly unproductive and not entirely positive couple of weeks, and since I've just crossed 700 posts, I think I'll have 7 happy thoughts today.

1. Sunshine! It's about freaking time that there's some sunshine and warmth outside. How I've missed it.

2. Miranda and Steve; Harry and Charlotte; Samantha and Smith. I'm doing a Sex and the City retrospective, and I love that the writers got those three couples so very right in the final season.

3. The end of preschool. It's a month from Sunday that my youngest child finishes her last year of preschool (and mine), and I am so excited. I am ready to say good-bye to that portion of my life (and theirs) and move on to being an all elementary mom!

4. Coffee. Can't have a happy list without it!

5. A decade and a half (almost) of a happy relationship. We've reached a point where we can even talk finances in a mostly civilized manner. Constant communication FTW!

6. New bras. I don't think I need to go into detail here - either you know why it's important to have bras that fit, are comfortable, and aren't stretched out, or you don't.

7. Dragon Age 2. I admit, I was worried it was going to be horrible, and that management of expectations may be why I really like it, but still, I really like it.

nagging malaise

So if 35 was a year of joyous discovery, as I made writing into a part of my everyday life and expanded my abilities in that area (mostly) in the way I've always wanted to, it seems that 36, so far, has been a year that has brought all the other areas of my life (diet, exercise, budget, household and time management, friendship, etc.) into sharp focus. Like the tablets you sometimes get at the dentist, that show where you haven't brushed thoroughly. Depending on the day, it's a manageable challenge or a daunting one - some days, it seems I fail to execute in most areas of my life. Others, it all seems a new-leaf change away from being in control.

Mostly, it's a nagging weight with a variable balance of guilt piled on top of it depending on how many entries on that list are currently earning failing grades. A proactive change is definitely necessary to move at least some of those entries up into a passing, or better, excelling, grade.

thoughts on diet

I'm writing this down for, you know, accountability. Important stuff, that.

Tempting as it is to consider the idea of one of those major dietary change in the short-term for quick weight loss diets, I don't actually think they work.

Ergo, the plan is this: small meals, three times a day. NO SNACKING. Careful attention to portion control. And a focus on eating more slowly - fast eating is a constant problem for me, and leads to my eating a lot more than is necessary. Simple, but theoretically effective. And, more important (but also theoretically), sustainable.

5 things that make me happy today

It's been a pretty lackluster and unproductive week, so I think it's time for a happiness affirmation.

#1 Bet you can't guess. All right, you got me. It's coffee. Coffee-maker gave me a scare this week, but it seems to be back on its feet now.

#2 Good books. I'm rereading Trixie Belden #2 right now and just finished a new (to me) Louis L'Amour.

#3 iPod on shuffle! I find music inspiring, and the duration of a song tends to be a nice bite-size work unit.

#4 Heat! The mornings are still too chilly for my taste, but now, wellllll into May, we finally seem to be having spring in New England. 'Bout freaking time.

#5 Lovely understanding husband who puts up with my complaints and supports my hobbies. That's the best one!

ever have one of those days?

It's the kind of day when I feel that my performance is underwhelming in pretty much every aspect of my life. That my goals are going unmet; my responsibilities shirked; relationships unsupported; and those parts of my life that require discipline met with a melting puddle of goo instead.

Not all of those things are true, of course - I know that. But enough of them are to make me feel I need to pay attention to days like this and make a concerted effort to do more things in my life to the utmost of my abilities.

cake

I had an interesting idea last night. For some reason, I was thinking of what it might have been like if Matthew had been born a normal, healthy baby (not a line of thought I usually travel these days - over the years I've come to accept what is, and to value the changes in my life that came about only because he was who he was). I thought of the person I was then, of the mother I was set to become, and I thought there was every chance I'd have gone down a parenting path Lou wouldn't have wanted to follow.

And then I thought of a metaphor for our family that really amused me. If Lou and I are two layers of cake (chocolate and lemon, I think), then Matthew is the raspberry filling that cements us together. Greyson is the rich buttercream icing; Charles the inventive decorations; and Veronica the exotic flowers that complete the presentation. I find those roles entirely apt, and highly entertaining. And now I'm hungry for cake.

the trouble with blogging

Well, one of them, anyway ...

... is that I'm never 100% sure if I've said something before. I think I've come up with an interesting topic, and then it tickles at the back of my mind that I think I mentioned it at some point. But, of course, I never actually get around to going back through the archives to confirm this, so my good idea languishes while I try to remember for sure whether it's an already-covered topic or not, and ultimately disappears. I suppose this is why people use labels/tags/whatever you want to call 'em, but I can't say that I find my own ramblings so important that I feel the need to do so.

I suppose I'll just have to apologize to my reader(s?) for saying the same things over and over again ... but then again, he's married to me, so he must have resigned himself to that fate years ago.

more memes from Facebook

This one isn't my usual style, but it's sort of entertaining.

Here’s how it works: Google “[your first name] needs” and share the first 10 results.
That's it: simple, no?. But be honest! Tag the person who tagged you, and pass it on to as many or few as you like...

1. Shay needs ... 800 H.P.

800 hit points sounds like way not enough.

2. Shay needs ... surgery.

I am saddened for that Shay, and glad that I do not.

3. Shay needs ... a publicist.

Well, who doesn't?

4. Shay needs ... this hat!

I bet I don't.

5. Shay needs ... to get off his ass and play lax.

Never played lax, don't much want to, and am not a guy.

6. Shay needs ... them.

I bet I do, at that.

7. Shay needs ... our help!

I think that depends on who "our" is.

8. Shay needs ... to text me now!

That would require me learning how to text. Seems unlikely.

9. Shay needs ... some.

Well, that's a little private, I think.

10. Shay needs ... a new home.

I think my husband would disagree. Vociferously.

stories

It occurred to me yesterday what a wonderful time this is to be a person who lives in their imagination. Books, movies, TV, an entire internet filled with the work-product of creative people all within easy reach - it's a smorgasboard of fiction. A hundred years ago, the mind might take flight, but alone. People who spent their days imagining other lives and other worlds had to keep those thoughts largely to themselves (unless they were extremely lucky) ... if they had the luxury to imagine in the first place. (Makes you wonder what they thought about - walking behind a plow, running a machine, scrubbing someone else's house. Nowadays we'd do all those things with iPod/podcast/internet radio hooked into our ears and consider it 'boring' if we had to do it without one of those distractions.)

Of course, as I go about my daily life with scenarios from fictional lives (my own or someone else's) playing in my head, I generally can't talk about those things with the people I come into contact with ... but thanks to the wonders of the internet, I've met people I can talk to about those things ... and it's given me a greater appreciation for what might be going on in the minds of the seemingly normal people I interact with in 'real life'. Who knows - maybe one of them is writing in their head, too.

sick days

Middle child is home sick today. It was a bit of a grey area this morning, whether he would go or not ... but he came home from school pretty miserable yesterday, he was miserable this morning, and he was both pleased to stay home and okay with taking a nap (those are generally the tests of whether they're really under the weather, as all of my kids usually enjoy school and don't like missing it). Of course, once he got some cold medicine in him, 'sick day' turned into 'play Wii and watch TV' day.

But is there really anything wrong with that? One of my most vivid childhood memories is of spending a sick day cutting out paper dolls and watching TV in my nightgown. Had I gone to school that day, would the memory have been equally as vivid? I doubt it. My high school did two 'free day's a year, where school would be unexpectedly cancelled - I remember many of those, as well, with special fondness.

It's easy to overdo such things, take it from 'special occasion' to 'expected', but I think an occasional sick day is a good thing.

back from vacation

Feeling a bit discombobulated on the first day back from vacation. How could I tell? It took me four tries to figure out if I was putting my watch on upside down or not.

Dunkin' Donuts Toasted Almond coffee is over-flavored. Not as enjoyable as I'd hoped. *sigh*

I'm so disorganized today I'm making lists of my lists, and then sublists and microsublists below that. I can't keep track of what I've actually done!

Least favorite part of this whole 'housewife' business is coming up with what's for dinner every day, and then cooking it. I like to cook occasionally, but not when I have to. (I accept this as part of my job, so not complaining exactly, but I'm not good at it, which makes me feel guilty.)

It's less than a week from being May, and I still haven't accepted that spring/summer are coming. It's been grey and rainy and cold and I don't even know where I am in the kids' clothing changeover.

book reviews

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The least annoying installment of the series so far - there were no obvious points at which an unreasonable refusal to talk to people they trusted got the kids in trouble, they actually listened and made intelligent conclusions, and there was a fair amount of interesting action.

Herman Wouk, Winds of War. This was half of a massive epic covering the events of World War II. It was well-written, highly detailed, and the author had his history absolutely spot on. The main character, Pug Henry, is an interesting, intelligent, sympathetic character. His wife and children, however, are painted with a very broad brush and are either shadowy or irritating, which makes the chapters covering them difficult to enjoy. Overall, not a bad book, but I've read many better epics.

Jean Anderson, The American Century Cookbook. A detailed coverage of the way food and cooking changed over the course of the 20th century, with lots of recipes, as well as insets and a timeline of food-related events. Really interesting overview.

Anne Perry, Long Spoon Lane. The latest installment in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries (er, the latest one I've read, anyway), this one continued the grand overarching conspiracy of the Inner Circle. In theory, the Inner Circle may have been abolished in this book - it would be nice to think so, to get our characters back to the kind of detective work that made the earlier books so good. But still, an enjoyable book, and the characters and writing continue to be interesting.

pet peeves in fanfic

I've been writing, and reading, fanfic pretty steadily for the past year, and I've developed some pet peeves, tropes and errors that have me clicking away from a story immediately.

#1, of course, are typos and grammatical errors. The occasional one doesn't bother me, but when a story is riddled with them, or an author leaves punctuation off on a regular basis, it's a major deal-breaker. It's simply too painful to read.

#2 is when an author gets the in-world spellings wrong. If you're writing for a fandom, the terminology is important. It matters that you don't put an "e" on the end. Acting as though it doesn't matter is disrespectful to the creator of the world in which you're writing, and to the fandom that cares for it.

#3 is names that don't fit the time-frame. Sorry, but if you're writing in a medieval world, a character named "Brayden" is going to break the illusion.

#4 is boring dialogue that doesn't get the voices right. This one is harder to judge - and I give it a lot more leeway - but if all of your characters sound alike, the story becomes both difficult and unrewarding to read.

#5 is out-of-world references. If a character worships a "Creator", don't have him say "Oh, my God." Doesn't fit, breaks the illusion, displays a lack of creativity. This works cross-world, as well - unless there's a legitimate reason for one character to pick up another's speech patterns, don't have them both use the same curses and epithets.

There are larger issues of stories that are overall poorly written and conceived, stories that are banal and offer nothing new, stories that put the characters into impoosible-to-believe scenarios or make the characters act in unbelievable ways, but those are less 'peeve' than criticism.

High School memories

Yes, another meme stolen from Facebook. This is about the senior year of high school ... not my best time, I'm afraid. But not my worst, either, so that's something.

1. Did you date someone from your school?
No

2. Did you marry someone from your high school?
No

3. Did you carpool to school?
Lived there (boarding school)

4. What kind of car did you have?
None

5. What kind of car do you have now?
Toyota Sienna

6. It's Friday night....where are you now?
home enjoying the quiet while the kids are in bed

7. It's Friday night...where were you then?
reading a book

8. What kind of job did you have in high school?
carhopped, but not my senior year

9. What kind of job do you have now?
kid-wrangling and proofreading

10. Were you a party animal?
hardly

11. Were you considered a flirt?
hardly!

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
choir

13. Were you a nerd?
something along those lines

14. Did you get suspended or expelled?
no

15. Can you sing the fight song?
It wasn't really a fight song, but I think I could come up with at least part of the anthem

16. Who was/were your favorite teachers?
Mr. Breuker and Mr. Doe

17. Where did you sit during lunch?
assigned seats

18. What was your school's full name?
Western Reserve Academy

19. When did you graduate?
1993

20. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
No!

21. Did you have fun at Prom?
didn't go

22. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with?
N/A

23: Are you going to your reunion?
might go to my 20th

24. Do you still talk to people from school?
yes (largely thanks to Facebook, which makes the idea of going to a reunion much more interesting)

25. What are/were your school's colors?
green and white

I can't help it

I have to complain about the weather. And April Fool's Day. And the cold. And having had to get the snowpants back out, just when I'd finally put them away.

On the bright side, there was a two-hour delay, which meant I got some extra sleep, and school wasn't canceled entirely, which means we don't have to go a day longer in June and they get to get all their stupid April Fool's Day tricks out of their system before they come home.

book reviews

John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I've read this one before, but it never fails to entertain. Berendt's love letter to the city of Savannah showcases the good and the bad about the city, but shines the brightest spotlight on the unique.

Melissa Wiley, Beyond the Heather Hills. This final installment in the Martha series showed her growing maturity and awareness of the world outside her little village. It would be nice if the series went on, but this was a good capper.

Kathryn Kenny, Trixie Belden and the Mystery of the Whispering Witch. The upper numbers of this series (this is # 32) tend to feel rather rushed. They don't show the care and the character development of the earlier stories, which is a shame. They're still enjoyable, however, and I look forward to acquiring the (fairly rare) volumes at the end of the series.

Deborah Copaken Kogan, Hell Is Other Parents. This one started off interestingly - it's a series of essays on life and parenting, and began from a perspective that I sympathize with ... but then it devolved into more a series of tales of the author's life, which I found less interesting. Not a bad read, but I wouldn't read it again.

random thoughts

My five random thoughts for this peaceful Monday afternoon.

1. I find for background entertainment while I'm working/writing/doing laundry in the afternoons, I like CSI, Numb3rs, and Cold Case reruns and old episodes of Kitchen Nightmares. The American version of the latter is more dumbed down than the British version, with the voice-overs telling you everything you need to know. Also, generally the American restaurant owners are far more belligerent ... although whether that says more about the actual temperament of American chefs vs. British or more about the kind of chefs chosen by American production teams, I don't know.

2. I just started rereading the Trixie Belden series. I had forgotten what an impatient, rude girl she starts the series off as - but she improves rapidly. I doubt I'll review each installment as I go, since I've read them all already.

3. My oldest child is sprouting up like a weed. His pants and pajamas are outgrown faster than I can keep up with, which means if I get behind on the laundry, even a little, he runs out.

4. I should figure out what to have for dinner.

5. Trying to get back to an exercise routine - working out every morning after I put the boys on the bus. It's usually time I don't do a lot with anyway, so it seems like a good opportunity to get back on the treadmill.

good playdates

It's a relief to have all three children old enough for one-on-one playdates. Nice for them, bonus time to play with their friends, and nice for me, because the extra child in the house often provides a distraction from my own children's numerous demands.

Of course, not all playdates are created equal. Sometimes I have to listen closely to the conversations, monitor the activity choice, or even engineer the activity choice if there's a serious disconnect between the two children's interests.

More often than not, however, I listen as the playdate's activities and mine revolve around each other and appreciate the glimpse into my own children's lives and minds. They play with their friends differently than they play on their own or with each other, topics come up that I otherwise might not know they were thinking of, and it's a great opportunity to really see how my kids come across to their friends.

lunch

It's an interesting concept, lunch. Everyone in my house deals with it differently.

Lou buys his, going out for something hot.

I eat leftovers, peanut butter sandwiches, or whatever else is handy, as I try to fit lunch into the various things I want to do while Veronica naps.

The boys either buy lunch at school (and I will never understand why the school's computerized system can't let me know they're running low on funds before they run out instead of after), or they take their lunch. It's a limited list of items they're willing to take, since they can neither heat up food nor keep it cold, they can't take (or in Charles's case, eat) peanut butter anything, and the only lunch meat they'll consider is turkey.

Veronica tends to eat cereal or yogurt and fruit ... or, like today, frozen waffles. Still frozen. With frozen blueberries on top. (While watching it snow ... seriously, it makes me cold just watching her.)

book reviews

Charles Wainwright, A Diary of Battle. Lou picked this book up for me because of the author's name, but it turns out to have been an excellent choice content-wise, as well. Wainwright rose to the rank of Brevet Brigadier General of Artillery in the Civil War, and his diaries are detailed, thoughtful discussions of battles and political machinations behind the scenes and the daily life of camp and travel.

Melissa Wiley, Down to the Bonny Glen. This third book in the Martha series was much more upbeat than the previous installment, thankfully. Martha's growing thoughts and feelings were realistically drawn and the plot was interesting.

Garry Fisher, Rebel Cornbread and Yankee Coffee. This was a short but interesting book on Civil War food, complete with tested recipes. It also included chapters on songs and other camp entertainments of the war. For a book as densely packed with interesting information as it is, it's also engagingly readable.

Larry E. Morris, The Fate of the Corps. This book tells the story of what happened to the members of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery after they (mostly) returned to civilization. I was looking forward to it, as I don't know much about that era. Sadly, the book is written in a very disorganized style. Each chapter nominally follows a certain set of events, but they are all so peppered with references to each other that it's almost impossible to follow them linearly. Morris seems to assume that anyone reading his book is familiar with most of what he has to say already - he seems mostly to be compiling the stories, rather than laying them out clearly for the reader. A disappointment.

the return of the 8-sided die

Once upon a time, there was a woman who required systems to get anything done. But the systems didn't work, because she just skipped anything on her list that seemed too time-consuming. Then one day she went to a game store with her husband and discovered gamer dice! She came home with a whole new system - 7 dice with various numbers of sides. Productivity was achieved! When she couldn't decide what to do next, she simply rolled the dice.

Then - horrors! - she lost the 8-sided die. Suddenly, the numbers 8 and 7 were fraught with danger, because there was no longer a handy randomization tool to help her past them. Productivity dropped sharply.

And then, the wonderful husband stepped in again, and bought a new 8-sided die - copper, to match the rest of the set. Now the woman is happy and productive again. Thanks, honey!

the video game diet

One bonus to new games: it doesn't seem worth stopping the game play to go eat. This seems to lead to a general slowdown in overall appetite. If I can maintain it correctly, I can actually achieve my goal of eating smaller portions, less often - my considered and preferred method of dieting.

In other news, Dragon Age 2 nowhere near as disappointing as I expected. :)

Bucket list

Another Facebook meme dragged over here. To be honest, I've considered the idea of an actual 'bucket list', but it doesn't appeal. There aren't that many unusual and interesting things I'm anxious to do - mostly just enjoy my life, watch my children grow, read a lot of books, spend a lot of time with my husband and my friends, and die quietly in my own bed at a remarkably advanced age. Nonetheless, this is an interesting list.

(X) Skipped school.
( ) Watched someone die
(X) Been to Canada
() Been to Mexico
(X) Been to Florida
( ) Been to Hawaii
(X) Been on a plane
(X) Been lost
(X) Gone to Washington, DC
(X) Swam in the ocean
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
(x) Played cops and robbers
(X) Recently colored with crayons
(X) Sung Karaoke
() Paid for a meal with coins only
( ) Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
() Made prank phone calls
(X) Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(X) Danced in the rain
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus
() Been kissed under the mistletoe
(X) Watched the sunrise with someone
(X) Blown bubbles
(X) Gone ice-skating
(X) Gone to the movies
() Been deep sea fishing
() Driven across the United States
(X) Been in a hot air balloon
() Been sky diving
() Gone snowmobiling
() Lived in more than one country.
(X) Laid outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets
(X) Seen a falling star and made a wish
( ) Enjoyed the beauty of Old Faithful Geyser
() Seen the Statue of Liberty
() Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle
() Been on a cruise
(X) Traveled by train
() Traveled by motorcycle
(X) Been horseback riding
(x) Rode on a San Francisco Trolley
(X) Been to Disneyland or Disney World
(X) Seen whales in the ocean
() Been to Niagara Falls
(X) Ridden on an elephant
( ) Swam with dolphins
( ) Gone to the top of Mt. Washington
(X) Been to Europe
( ) Been on a Helicopter

book reviews

Slow month this month, I'm afraid. Still, getting a fair amount of reading done!

Charles Busch, Whores of Lost Atlantis. A funny little romp about a down-on-his-luck actor who puts together a little play that brings together an entertaining cast of characters and spirals into a much bigger thing. Light and campy, but a lot of fun.

Jane Ziegelman, 97 Orchard. Excellent book! It brings together the stories of five immigrant families who lived in a New York tenement building over the course of a century, focusing on the foods they ate. But it doesn't stop there. The author weaves the food history together with the greater history of the countries the families came from, the America (and New York) they came to, and studies how the foods they brought with them changed America, as well as how America changed the families' eating habits. It's an ambitious scope, but she makes it work in an extremely engaging and readable way.

Melissa Wiley, The Far Side of the Loch. While this has the same engaging and detailed stories of daily life as the rest of the series, the author's decision to have the main character be unhappy through most of the book takes away from the feeling a bit. The Little House series as a whole is about stronger characters than that, and this book felt very ... confining. You could sense the character's frustrations, but I didn't really see how the frustrations advanced her character or the overall plot. Not as good as most.

Agatha Christie, Partners in Crime. Secretly, I have always wanted to be Tuppence Beresford. This set of short stories showcases Tuppence and Tommy in all sorts of little mysteries of the kind Agatha Christie does so well (and a bit lighter than Christie's usual fare, which is fun). They pretend to be various fictional detective in the midst of each case, and use their own personal brand of deduction to great effect.

more weather

I know, I'm a bit obsessed recently. But the weather is warm and the rain is beginning to wash away the snow. My driveway is ice-free. My roof is ice-free! My back porch? Ice-free. The massive snowbanks at the end of my driveway are shorter - I can almost see to turn out of my driveway now. There are patches of grass and pine needles visible. We can see the 3-foot-tall candy canes along the front walkway. And for the first time since December, I can see the diving board of the swimming pool. VERY exciting stuff!

book reviews

Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Glamorous Ghost. This was a good installment - Della Street got a bit more to do than usual, the case was a little bigger than the standard murder. On the other hand, the ending was a bit rushed, the district attorney more shrill than usual. Not Perry's best, but enjoyable, nonetheless.

Martha McIntosh, ed., Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader. I'm a fan of the Mitford books and of the down-home meals served in them. The cookbook was interesting and the recipes largely tasty. Not sure I'd buy it again.

Louis L'Amour, Chancy. Chancy's an unusual character for L'Amour - not a natural or experienced mountain man, but a young man from the hills, self-taught. There's a bit more coincidence than you'd expect, and he tends to be more capable than you would imagine he might be, but it's L'Amour, and he makes it work.

John and Abigail Adams, The Letters of ... This is a compilation of all the letters between these two great friends and partners during the Revolutionary Period. Homey, intelligent, loving, they outline the great love story that was this marriage. Well worth reading.

vacation!

I do enjoy February vacation! Unlike many of my fellow moms, I don't have to scramble around looking for activities for my kids - the week is just long enough for us all to get our fill of indoor activities, games, and family time but not so long that we all get sick of each other. So it's a week off from obligations and schedules, no alarm clock, and lots of rest and relaxation for all the kids and Mommy. (At least, that's all true when Mommy isn't sick for February vacation!)

book reviews

Armistead Maupin, Mary Ann in Autumn. Definitely better than Michael Tolliver Lives, which I found disappointing and canon-altering, but failed to entirely capture what made the original six boosk so interesting. Maupin's writing has become more serious and less madcap, less freewheeling and fantastic, over time. Which doesn't make it less good, but it's a different book. It may well be his commentary on the times - perhaps he found the '70s more freewheeling and madcap than the 2000s. I liked the book, but I didn't love it.

Caleb Carr, The Italian Secretary. I couldn't do it. I like Caleb Carr a lot, but I have strong opinions about authors writing in other authors' universes. Essentially, it's fan fiction, and therefore, should not be publishable. Sherlock Holmes belongs to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and anyone else would do better writing a Victorian mystery with their own detective.

Melissa Wiley, Little House in the Highlands. This is the first in the Martha series, about Laura Ingalls Wilder's great-grandmother growing up in Scotland. It captures the feeling of the Little House books pretty well and is a lively and detailed read.

Elizabeth Peters, The Mummy Case. The third installment in the Peabody/Emerson mysteries, and highly entertaining. It's not entirely realistic - their son, for example, is precocious beyond the level of disbelief - but still well written, their relationship and personalities are vivid and amusing, and who doesn't love a good Egyptian archaeology mystery?

the thaw

Am I bit obsessed by the weather right now? I am. Am I oppressed by the unblemished white expanse of my back yard, by the 5 foot tall snowbanks on either side of my driveway, by the inability to keep the ice off the front steps? I am.

So we're in the midst of the late-winter thaw - temperatures in the 40s and 50s most of this week. The back yard? Still white, except (grossly) right over the septic tank. Back deck? Still has ice covering about 60% of the boards, including an ice dam across the walkway to the steps. Front yard? We can now finally see the red glow from the 3 foot tall candy cane lights. Not the lights themselves, just the glow. Snowbanks? Still too tall to see over, too deep to see around without having your car actually in the road. Driveway? Mostly clear, but still has patches of ice. Front walkway? Mostly ice. Front steps? Completely iced over.

Better than nothing, I grant you ... but I expected more from you, late-winter thaw.

system failure

SUCH a relief not to have anywhere to go today! I have not gotten the hang of multischeduled days and retaining my systems' integrity in same. It seems likely that my promised reward for a month of sticking to my system (a haircut) isn't happening this month. *sigh* Sadly, we've also gotten fairly lax with the kids' chore charts. Looking forward to next week (school vacation week) as a rest, relax, and reboot opportunity for all of us so we can all restart our systems and face the rest of the school year (less than 80 school days) with renewed energy.

the day I have been dreading

has arrived. My 7-year-old first-grader has come home with a math assignment I can't help him with. Granted, the 7-year-old first-grader appears to be a genius with numbers, and he did ask his teacher for more challenging homework ... but if his assignments are already stumping me in first grade, what the heck will I do when he's in middle school?

oh, this freaking snow

I am sick of the snow.

I am sick of the never-ending shoveling.

I am sick of not being able to see around the massive and poorly placed snowrifts to get out of my driveway.

I am sick of the ice all over the driveway.

I am sick of watching it thaw little by little only to see it all covered over again.

I am sick of the ice at the edge of my roof.

I am sick of being practically run off the road every time I pass another car because the snowdrifts have it down to a lane and a half and the other car never seems willing to get over.

I am sick of the ever-loving snowpants I have to cram into my kids' backpacks every day.

I am sick of all the white, white, white everywhere. I want GREEN!

the surprising stages of a tattoo

Last week, I took the big plunge and got my first tattoo. It's been an interesting experience, and has gone through several stages I hadn't expected.

First stage, decision. I'd been searching for a good mother's ring that I could put all the kids' names on, but no one makes exactly what I want. Nelle and Lizzy come close, but they don't have anything for women with four kids. I makeshifted one of their rings, but it fell off on an exceptionally cold day and was lost. So I thought, why not get something that can't be lost, or worn out, and that will be exactly what I want? The more I thought about it, the more I liked it.

Second stage, research. I didn't want to just walk into some random place and ask to get a tattoo, so I asked around, and got a recommendation. I called them, and was quickly told that what I wanted (the names in a band around my wrist) wouldn't work because the wrist is too sensitive for a first tattoo, the names would have to be extra big in order for the letters not to run together, and the wrist is such a high-movement location that there would be a good chance for the tattoo to wear off over time. So I had to give serious consideration to where I wanted it.

Third stage, convincing. My better half was strongly opposed to the idea of a tattoo. I pointed out that a) I am 35. b) There's no question that those four names will always be special to me. c) I was determined to choose a part of my body that will not make the tattoo look droopy as I age. Eventually, he came around enough to not bother to try and talk me out of it, at least.

Fourth stage, getting there. The tattoo parlor is about an hour away, doesn't open until noon, and I didn't know how long it would take, so I needed a day when there were no other plans. Finally, I settled on a day when my in-laws were in town, so they could watch the kids for me. (Fortunately for me, that did not turn out to be one of our many snow days!)

Fifth stage, tattooing. I arrived at the parlor, explained what I wanted. We determined the inside of my arm seemed like the best place. The artist drew up some ideas, we settled on one, and she made a template that she applied to my arm. Frankly, it wasn't bad. It burned, more than anything. I was surprised at how much the ink welled up and how often she had to wipe it off - it makes sense, but I'd never really thought about it.

Sixth stage, redness and aftercare. Again, hadn't considered what it would be like right afterward. The area was a bit swollen and red, tender to the touch, and required a lot of antibiotic ointment applied to it the first couple of days. Also, I slept with a gauze pad taped to the site the first couple of days, and when I woke up in the morning, there was a surprising amount of ink on the pad.

Seventh stage, showing it off. Only the family has seen it so far. The husband said if I had to get one, he thought this one turned out well. Greyson thought it was cool, Charles thought it was weird, Veronica was confused, and my mother-in-law did not approve.

Eighth stage, flaking. Apparently the dead skin is all going to come off, and it's imperative that I don't scratch or I'll have the ink off with it. Who knew?

Overall, a highly interesting experience, one I'm very happy with, and one I doubt I'll go through again.

Pat a Pan

Stolen from my Facebook page again. I find this one infinitely entertaining!

RULES:
1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, ipod,etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.



IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?
Battle Hymn of the Republic

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
What Mattered Most (Ty Herndon)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
I Can Still Make Cheyenne (George Strait)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
A Few Words Too Many (Billie Myers)

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
Home (Daughtry)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Papa Don't Preach (Madonna)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Bring Me Some Water (Melissa Etheridge)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Having Trouble with the Language (Billie Myers)

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
Santa Monica (Savage Garden)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
The Love Boat

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
The Stranger (Billy Joel)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Crocodile Rock (Elton John)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Venus (Bananarama)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Movin' Out (Billy Joel)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
One Night in Bangkok (Chess)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Unwritten (Natasha Bedingfield)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Bye-Bye Love (Everly Brothers)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
You Send Me (Sam Cooke)

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
Babe (Styx)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
The Heather on the Hill (Brigadoon)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Pat a Pan (Mannheim Steamroller)

book reviews

Scott Turow, Ordinary Heroes. Usually, I like Turow. His books are gritty and well plotted. But this one dragged. I found the main character dull, his situation improbable and not that interesting, and overall, I think historical fiction is not Turow's forte.

Sterling North, Rascal. I love this book. I've read it countless times, but the simplicity of the writing has never lost its sweetness. The story of a young boy in World War I, his love for the raccoon kit he raises for a year, and the ways that the events of the world impact his life combine to make a lovely book.

Louis L'Amour, Showdown at Yellow Butte. This was an interesting twist - the protagonist rides into town as a member of the wrong side and has to decide for himself which faction he's going to back. There were a few too many characters, a little more complexity (and injury) than absolutely necessary, but overall, it's a solid book.

Mike Resnick, Hazards. This merry-go-round was not at all what I expected. Take Indiana Jones, Mickey Spillane, and James Bond, give them some serious drugs, spin them around a few times, and set them down in a South America that never actually existed, and you come close. (The closest analogous author I can think of is Barry Hughart, whose Bridge of Birds series has a similar level of antic lunacy.) Well worth the reading!

insecurities

Here I am, on the cusp of turning 36 years old, and I still feel like an outsider in any given community. I'm jealous of other people who are more easily accepted, my feelings are easily hurt by being overlooked and otherwise not included, and I don't know how to make myself a part of the group. Now, I'm doing better than I used to ... but I'm still insecure. I wish I knew how to stop.

Monday!

Between the house, still mostly tidy from my weekend alone, and the peace and quiet of having everyone at work or school and being back to my routines, and the sunshine that allows me to pretend we aren't about to have another storm, Monday feels good today. (Hence the exclamation point.) I've got some new systems in place to help me accomplish some goals I look forward to, have some incentives in place to make me want to keep up with the systems. Altogether, it's a pretty positive day. Happy Monday!

5 things I like about being home!

Just back from sunny warm Florida - welcomed home by cold and snow. Nonetheless, I'm glad to be back, for the following reasons, among others:

1) My own bed and pillow. I seem over the last year to be sleeping increasingly less well, which makes me even more sensitive to uncomfortable sleeping arrangements while traveling than I used to be. Being home in my own comfortable bed is a major improvement.

2) iPod. Yes, I could have brought it with me, but I couldn't really have sat listening to music at any point on the trip, so there wouldn't have been a lot of point. It's nice to be back with my own music playing quietly in the kitchen.

3) Ownership of the TV. I get a say in what's watched, and equally important, when the TV gets turned off.

4) My own kitchen. I know where everything is, how everything works, and I'm not messing with anyone else's systems when I get myself something to eat or drink.

5) Homeyness! Yes, it's cluttered and messy and often dirty, and there are toys everywhere, but it's also colorful and bright and cheery and I don't feel like I need the kids to clean up after themselves every hour.

So, overall, it's nice to be back in familiar surroundings with my own stuff, etc., even if the weather isn't necessarily what I would have ordered!

book reviews

pre-vacation book reviews! Some of the best kind ...

Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Restless Redhead. Not a bad entry in the Mason series - the plot moved along nicely, was relatively convoluted, and you certainly couldn't guess who the bad guys were. None of the characters was particularly memorable, however, and Mason's legal shenanigans were a bit closer to the line than usual for him. I'd say this one was solidly middle of the pack.

Jean M. Auel, The Clan of the Cave Bear. I remember reading this for school, and I remember thinking it was pretty good. I also, however, remember thinking it was fairly well researched and historically accurate (so far as it could be). This time through, I found the book a disappointment. Ayla, the human girl, is less like an early human and more like a 20th century woman dropped into a cave filled with neanderthals. The neanderthals themselves possess secrets and wisdom that mankind wouldn't have for thousands of years after this book was set. The characters were interesting, but overall, it just wasn't quite good enough, and certainly not as good, or as respect-worthy, as I remember.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Roman Dusk. I find Yarbro's Saint-Germain books fall into one of two categories - compellingly well written, or overly complicated and dull. This one didn't achieve either extreme. It was pleasant, it was interesting, but it failed to truly grab me. I'm keeping it for the amazingly detailed glossary and gazetteer in the back, not because I expect a year from now to remember what happened in it.

Louisa May Alcott, The Journals of ... Truthfully, I found these a bit disappointing. You hear so much about Alcott's journals, and her family's habit of reading and commenting on each other's journals, and I found Alcott's journals to be very Jo March-like: businesslike, largely unsentimental. They were interesting, but less so than I had expected.

the initial game

Due to a completely blank brain today, I'm stealing this meme from my Facebook page. The idea is to answer all the questions with the first initial of your name. In the spirit of reposting, I'll use all new words for this one.

1. What is your name: Shay
2. A four Letter Word: stop
3. A boy's Name: Simon
4. A girl's Name: Sabrina
5. An occupation: server
6. A color: scarlet
7. Something you wear: sweater
8. A food: salmon
9. Something found in the bathroom: soap
10. A place: Siberia
11. A reason for being late: slow children
12. Something you shout: shush!
13. A movie title: Say Anything
14. Something you drink: sweet tea
15. A musical group: Savage Garden
16. An animal: Shetland pony
17. A street name: State St.
18. A type of car: Sonata
19. A song title: Seasons in the Sun
20. A verb: skid

5 things that make me happy today

It's a highly grumpy day today (yes, even despite starting it off listening to my children argue constantly, and despite spending half an hour squeezed into a seat listening to 3rd-graders play recorder!), so I think a happiness reminder is in order.

1. Hot coffee. (Or other hot beverages. It's the 'hot' that makes the difference!) Need I explain? I'm sure I already have, many many times!

2. iPods. Music is very motivational, and helps compartmentalize tasks while remaining productive. Plus, my personal music selections are diverse enough that it's a joy to have them all in one place.

3. School. Despite subjecting me to a third-grade recorder concert, school occupies my children for hours, makes them happy, educates them, gives them friends and other adults who care for them, and generally makes them far more interesting people.

4. Christmas cards. I have them all hung up around the kitchen and living room (haven't started taking them down yet because they haven't stopped coming in!), and it's cheery and festive, and so nice to get updates and pictures from people I don't see or hear from that often.

5. Sun! One reason I can't seem to move my computer back to my desk and off the dining room table is that my office gets zero sun, and the dining room table gets lovely hot sunshine all day long. Sitting here almost (well, except for the snow-covered back yard) feels like it isn't midwinter.

children at play

One of the most interesting things about having kids, I think, is listening to/watching them play. When they were babies, I loved to watch them try to figure things out - you could really see them thinking as they turned toys over in their hands. As they got older, it became more interesting to listen to their running commentary as they played. The younger two have a particularly rich imagination, and the things they put together are fascinating.

Having a playdate adds to the interest level, because then you get two sets of imaginations and two meshes of interest meeting. (When it goes badly, it goes badly!) But when it goes well, it's really fascinating to see how it works. Right now, my bunny girl and her friend are playing with the Bat Cave and Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Cafe, and there's all sorts of thievery happening. Interestingly, there appear to be lots of robbers and no actual cops. Although it's possible that Rapunzel is a private detective.

I know it's not long before all the imaginative play is internalized (or computerized), so I'm enjoying this peek into their busy little brains while I have it!

rechanneling my discontent

Today's Facebook status (mine) was that I find happiness is easier to achieve and maintain than contentment. Response to this comment was mixed - there was agreement, there was "Contentment is blah", there was a note on how many places happiness is to be found vs. contentment, and there was a mini-lecture on why I need to find God in order to be content. (The person who wrote the last one has genuinely got some tough things going on in her life, and she truly believes what she said. No hard feelings on the lecture, even if she did conflate happiness and contentment.) (Also, this is something I love about Facebook. Comments and responses came from current Mom friends, current writer friend, older gaming friend, and one of my oldest childhood friends.)

Overall, I am very happy with my life, but there are certain aspects with which I am discontented. Notably, and unfortunately, my discontent settles in things that I cannot fix, and does not manifest itself with things that I really should fix. So the challenge is to find a way to take the discontent I feel with certain aspects of my life, and apply that discontent to things (such as diet and exercise, writing, etc.) that I need to change. Or, to put it another way - discontent can be a synonym for ambition, if used properly. How to do that, however, is another topic that I'll have to stew on for a bit. I'll let you know what I come up with.

book reviews

My first book reviews of the new year! The final book count for the new year - 109 books on the to-be-read shelf. Hoping to reduce that number significantly this year!

Irene Hunt, No Promises in the Wind. I picked this up on impulse, unusually enough, because it was written by the same author as Across Five Aprils, which is a simple but profoundly moving book about a young boy's experiences growing up during the Civil War. No Promises in the Wind is about a young boy in the Depression, but I felt it was far less simple. The main protagonist was aggressively unsympathetic, which felt as though it was meant to make him seem relatable, but actually just made him seem headstrong and foolish. The experiences seemed overly fortuitous, and the ending failed to pay off emotionally. Quite a disappointment.

Janette Oke, Love's Enduring Promise. This, again, is a simple book. But it's also a lovely book about the growth of a family on the frontier. I've read it many times, and it continues to speak to me.

James L. Swanson, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. A very informative and enjoyable book. It contains the clearest and most vivid description of the events surrounding the actual assassination that I've ever seen, and the account of Booth's long-drawn-out escape attempt is suspensefully told. Well worth reading.

Sandra L. Oliver, Food in Colonial and Federal America. This book is an exhaustively detailed look at food and foodways all over America in the colonial and Federal eras. Not just what people at, but how they prepared it and how they got it, as well. For me, the most disappointing part of the book was the abysmally poor proofreading. For a university press book (which had quite the hefty price tag when new), it was remarkably large number of errors. I itched for a red pen!

the year in sentences

Well, 2011 sure showed up fast! The past year has flown by. Let's see what went on here on the ol' blog.

January: Time to go retrospective and see what 2009 brought to the blog.

February: The content of our TiVo is always in flux, although the kids' tastes change a lot faster than ours.

March: That was my house growing up.

April: This spring has brought about a bit of a lovely surprise - the advantage of sharing a personality with someone.

May: I find I'm not very sentimental these days.

June: Today my giant blond kid turns 8.

July: Summer does tend to mess with my schedule, which is why the blog is getting updated even less often than usual.

August: Oh, it's good to be home!

September: I just finished reading Anne Fraser's Gideon Redoak.

October: Oh, my poor neglected blog, how lonely you must be sitting out here in cyberspace unupdated.

November: I was low-energy for Halloween this year.

December: Apparently this is reality TV week over here.

What do we learn? I like books and TV, I don't update my blog often enough, and I spent 2010 at a low emotional rev. And there we have it! I doubt any of those will change much this year, but we shall see!