Sunday, October 31, 2010

End of October reading update

We still have a couple of hours of October left, but I'm not going to be finishing any books during that time, so might as well blog my list of October books. I read 10 books this month, which leaves me 15 to read in November and December. Sounds easy, except that I'm going to spend all of November frantically writing a novel of my own, and December is, well, December. So I'm really thinking I may not be able to pull off this 100-books thing. But we'll see.

Here is the list for October:

76. Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky. I used to like Sara Paretsky mysteries but hadn't read one in ages -- and now I don't plan to read another for ages. It was fine, just not very interesting.
77. The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell. The sixth book in the (12-book) series, this one takes place just as WWII is starting. Terrible title, but one of the better books in the series so far. The next three books are set during WWII, so that will be different. Book 7 is waiting on my bedside table.
78. Blood Lure by Nevada Barr. A reasonably exciting mystery set in Glacier National Park. The nature stuff was great, the mystery less so.
79. Cold Case by Stephen White. A so-so White mystery -- I guessed whodunnit way ahead of time -- but he's still a very good writer.
80. This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson. I waited so long to read this book -- I was on the waiting list for it at the library for 3 months -- and then it was kind of a disappointment. The author says she was motivated to write about librarians because when she was writing her previous book, about obituaries, the most interesting obituaries were those of librarians. Trouble is, the librarians she describes in this book are all online all the time, spending their free time in virtual worlds. I realize that's the life we're all more or less living now, but what will their obituaries say? An interesting book, but not what I wanted it to be.
81. Manner of Death by Stephen White. Another not-his-best White mystery, kind of silly actually, but I do like his writing so it wasn't bad.
82. Kill Me by Stephen White. A very unusual mystery, about a man who signs up with an agency that promises to kill him if he becomes very ill or disabled -- and then he suddenly becomes very ill but isn't ready to die -- and he can't cancel the contract. It was more of a meditation on life and death than a mystery, but quite gripping nonetheless.
83. Ghost by Alan Lightman. OK, I wanted to read some ghost stories because it was almost Halloween, so I got this book and the next one out of the library. What a disappointment! Not a ghost story at all, but a novel about the concept of belief in the supernatural. I didn't like the book at all. It should have had a different title.
84. Lost Boy Lost Girl by Peter Straub. This one at least tries to be a ghost story, but isn't scary at all, or maybe just a tiny bit here and there. Very disappointing. I should have just reread Shirley Jackson.
85. Providence of a Sparrow by Chris Chester. This was one of my birthday books and I'd been reading bits of it since August. Finally I decided to get with it and finish it. A charmingly whacky book about life with a tame house sparrow, then also some finches, then another house sparrow, then some canaries, then two more house sparrows... The writing is baroque, hard to read quickly, which is why it took me so long, but very enjoyable when you put in the effort. And then just now, when I looked on Amazon to see whether Chris Chester had written anything else, I discovered that he died in 2007. Not long after this book was published in 2002, Chester's first sparrow, B, died. Apparently that propelled him into a deep depression and he stopped writing, his marriage broke up, and eventually he developed tongue/throat cancer and died at the age of 54.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Colonoscopies R Us

Today was a challenging day. Rocket Boy had a colonoscopy. In Lancaster.

I have heard that they do colonoscopies at the Ridgecrest hospital, but Rocket Boy's doctor doesn't do colonoscopies there, he does them at his special colonoscopy warehouse in Lancaster. Colonoscopies R Us it's called, something like that.

What this meant was that I spent the morning keeping the twins out of Rocket Boy's way (because he was so weak and hungry from the "preparations"), then dropped the twins off at daycare at 11:30, got gas, and rushed home. Rocket Boy and I left for Lancaster at 12 noon sharp. His appointment was for 1:45 and it normally takes about 90 minutes to get to Lancaster, but I drove like a bat out of hell, just in case there was a traffic problem somewhere along the way or Rocket Boy needed to stop to use the facilities (at the Carl's Jr in Mojave or perhaps behind a creosote bush), so we got there early, at 1:15. But better early than late.

The waiting room had several rows of chairs, all lined up facing an enormous TV set which was showing a program called "Divorce Court." Many of the chairs were taken. Rocket Boy checked in and then we went to sit in the one little row of chairs facing AWAY from the TV (but you could still hear it). While attempting NOT to listen to a black lesbian couple try to get divorced, I read an article in a copy of the Atlantic that I'd brought with me about how 90% of all medical research is bogus and wrong. That was reassuring.

Rocket Boy was called in around 2 pm, so a bit late, which made me nervous, because of course when he was done we'd have to drive like bats out of hell BACK to Ridgecrest to pick up the twins from daycare before it closed at 6 pm. But what can you do. I set down the magazine and picked up my current book, which is about birds.

It was hard to concentrate on the bird book with the obnoxious TV program roaring along behind me, and my mind started to wander. On the way to Lancaster, Rocket Boy had confessed to me that the reason for the colonoscopy was not his age, but rather some "symptoms" he'd been having. Uh oh.

Always the optimist, I began to think of how our lives would change after he was diagnosed with colon cancer.

Probably all his appointments for chemo and whatever would be in Lancaster and I would have to drive him there constantly. The twins would have to go to daycare fulltime so that I'd have time to do all that driving.

I would try to get him to write his Life Story, so that he could leave that legacy for the twins.

After he died, the twins and I would move back to Boulder and live in our house again. I probably wouldn't be able to find a job, so we would have to sell a property. The most logical one would be the cabin in the mountains, which has a lot of land associated with it. I wouldn't have a clue how to take care of that land after Rocket Boy is gone. I'd have to sell it. But Clifford left us that land. If I sold it, I really ought to give all his nieces and nephews some of the money. I decided I'd give each of them, and each of their kids, $13,000 each, or whatever the maximum gift amount is now. But then there wouldn't be much money left, so the twins and I would be broke again.

I was mulling over that problem when I heard the nurse call my name. It was 3:30 and Rocket Boy was done already -- in an hour and a half? I went out to move my car over to where they bring patients out in wheelchairs. Rocket Boy was in good spirits when they brought him out and he told me they didn't find a single thing wrong with him.

We stopped at the Carl's Jr in Mojave for milkshakes and as we drove on, sipping, I told Rocket Boy about my worries and plans for after his demise. "You always look on the bright side, don't you?" he said, and I had to agree.

The twins are fed and in bed, the Giants won Game 2 of the World Series, I've been to the grocery store, Rocket Boy has gone to bed, and honestly, I should sew but I'm thinking maybe bed is a good idea for me too. It's been quite a day.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Off to the fair

Tonight was the first night of the Desert Empire Fair, and since we'll be pretty busy this weekend, we thought we'd better go now.

This is the 3rd or 4th time we've been to this fair, which is held every spring and fall. I remember having a lot of fun when we went last fall, then not so much fun when we went this spring. And this visit would have to be rated as even less fun, though perhaps that was due to the fact that we went on Thursday.

The fair runs Thursday-Sunday. Saturday is the day most people go, I think. Thursday isn't a popular day. There was almost no one there. Plus it was kind of chilly. It's been raining cats and dogs the last few days, and it's still cloudy and cool. Not really "fair" weather.

The first thing we did after we arrived was eat dinner. I got spaghetti for me and a grilled cheese sandwich for the boos from the Salvation Army booth. It was quite inexpensive, plus almost nobody was buying any food. I wondered how the Salvation Army could be making any money off their booth.

Rocket Boy got "shrimp on a stick" from the Chinese food booth.

There was hardly anyone else eating at the picnic tables. Of course, for us this is ALWAYS a good thing.



After eating, we visited the model railroad building. The boos remembered it from last time, and clamored to go in.

Last year there was a garden railroad out in front of the building too, but this year nothing. However, the trains inside were not a disappointment. We had to drag the boos out of there kicking and screaming.



We looked at some exhibits (quilts, art, baked goods) and also spent some time in the carnival section. Most of the rides had no one riding them. Rocket Boy was convinced that the boos would want to go down the giant slide. I was convinced they wouldn't, but I finally agreed to buy some tickets so that he could take them on the slide. Meanwhile the slide operator told him that the boos were too little to go on the slide.

So then we took our tickets over to the merry-go-round, but it was still being set up, tools everywhere.

We took a break from the rides and went over to visit the livestock -- sheep, pigs, goats, cows, rabbits -- all 4H projects that will be auctioned off later in the fair. Piggies were especially lovely. Baby B was interested but nervous, until we came across some girls holding baby goats. The goats were so darling, Baby B was finally convinced to pet one. I petted it too. So soft.

It was getting late, so we decided to head for the car. On the way out we passed the ferris wheel and considered it -- but it was pretty big, pretty tall. Rocket Boy and I would have enjoyed it. Boos probably would have been scared. Boos probably also would have been deemed too little to go on it. So much for our $7.50 worth of ride tickets. I looked around for someone to donate them to, but there just weren't very many people around. As in none.

We went to the car to go home to bed. The parking lot was crowded and we couldn't figure out where the owners of all those cars could be. Was there some section of the fair we'd missed entirely?

The moon was almost full.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Christmas in October

I remember this from last year. October is such a busy month in Ridgecrest that it starts to feel like December. Everyone either comes home from vacation or comes out of hibernation, and dozens of major events are organized. I think this year is especially bad because there are 5 full weekends in October. I can't remember anything major during weekend 1 (but the last weekend in September we had the Family Fun Fair at the park). And then...

weekend 2 we had the Star Party at the college and the Gem-O-Rama in Trona,
weekend 3 we had the Friends of the Library booksale and the Maturango Junction,
weekend 4 will be the Desert Empire Fair, Thursday through Sunday out at the fairgrounds,
and weekend 5 is of course Halloween -- there's a haunted house put on by the theatre group, and all the churches have their "Harvest Festivals" to try to prevent people from celebrating Halloween.

In addition to busily attending all these events (we do our part), I am also attempting to sew 2 little Halloween costumes. Also, there are 3 birthdays in my family this month (conveniently held on weekend 3, weekend 4, and weekend 5, which helps me keep track of them). And I really should buy, write, and send out a few Halloween cards. And of course I'm busily planning the novel that I'm going to write during National Novel Writing Month, which begins on Monday, November 1st, and trying to figure out how I will get the house clean for the houseguest we're expecting on November 2nd.

Not to mention the fact that Rocket Boy is trying to find a Democratic phone bank to help with, before the election (he might have to go to Palmdale, or beyond).

All I can say is, it's a good thing I don't have a JOB or anything like that. Who has time to work????

This weekend was pretty fun, I will say that, if a bit overwhelming. On Saturday, we got up early (the twins are in charge of making that happen EVERY SINGLE DAY, capably aided by our cat, Pie Bear, who has the advantage of having access to our bed). Our first destination was the park and the library -- Rocket Boy and the twins played at the park while I attended the Friends of the Library booksale. I went at a good time and found many books I couldn't live without. Then I played with the twins at the park while Rocket Boy went to the sale. Then he drove his car to Sizzler, where the Democrats of the High Desert were having a meeting with 8 of the 11 candidates for City Council, and he took notes so that he could fill me in later on what they all said. The twins and I, meanwhile, went to the grocery store and home for lunch (Rocket Boy ate at Sizzler). After he got home, we packed ourselves back into my car and went to the Maturango Junction, which is a sort of fair -- with booths and live music and the inevitable bounce houses. There were booths selling things, and booths distributing information about nonprofit organizations, and booths for each of the City Council candidates. We visited the Tortoise Club booth, of course, and Rocket Boy went to talk to a City Council candidate who he'd heard speak that morning, and we listened to a band play, and we wandered around. The most interesting sight at the Junction was, hands down, the large Sulcata tortoise on a leash, being walked by a kid who had a sign supporting a City Council candidate. Rocket Boy saw the kid feed the tortoise some nachos.

And after all that, what was left to do but drive to Olancha and have dinner at the Ranch House Cafe? (where nobody said "Shhhh!")



And on the way home there was another beautiful sunset.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Misbehavior in restaurants

My babies are growing up so fast. They are 2 years 7 months now, and their speech -- though still lagging -- is improving daily. At daycare, Baby A's teacher was amazed at one of his words: diarrhea. A very useful word if you happen to be Baby A, poor sweetie.

I am amazed by how quickly they pick up on "licensed" characters, despite not watching TV or videos. They've learned Sesame Street characters -- Elmo, Big Bird, Zoe, Cookie Monster -- from a couple of books, a puzzle, and a box of bandaids. Recently I got them a puzzle that has Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet in the picture, and the second time I brought the puzzle down they knew all those names. They call Piglet "Pigget" which I think is very cute.

They ride tricycles, they go down slides, they eat with a fork or a spoon. They are my big big boys. But sometimes I forget that they are really still very little.

So tonight, it being Friday and me wanting a break from cooking after having made dinner all of FOUR nights in a row (my grandmothers are turning over in their graves), we decided to go out to dinner. After we picked the boos up from daycare, we took them to Lugo's, which is a typical Ridgecrest restaurant serving typical whitebread food. Rocket Boy and I go there for lunch sometimes. It's not SUPER baby friendly, but you do see little kids there. And we thought dinner was probably a low-key time -- it's more of a lunch place -- so it'd be safe.

So we went in, and I stupidly suggested we sit at a booth, instead of at a table, which would have put us far from the other guests. Boos charged over to an empty booth by the window, between two occupied booths, so we sat in that one. It was very quiet in the restaurant. We soon took care of that. Both boos began pointing at interesting things out the window and announcing their names, loudly: "bike! truck! people walk! wow-wow!" and so on. And inside the restaurant there were lights and fans to point at and name, loudly. The waitress brought crayons and pages from a coloring book, so then there was an argument about who got which crayon, and she also brought crackers, leading to much ado about who would open up the crackers: "Let me help you with that." "Me do it!" "OK, you do it then." "Mommy do it!" etc.

My point is that they were not being quiet, they were being two and a half, but I didn't think it was going that badly. There was no screaming, no gratuitous yelling, nobody fell under the table, nobody ran away and jumped on all the other booths.

But then, after serving us, our waitress stopped by the booth to the east of us and asked the elderly couple there how their meal was going. "It would be fine if that kid would shut up," the elderly lady said, quite clearly. "Oh dear, I'm sorry about that, well, they're eating now," the waitress said, and then there was some more discussion that I couldn't hear. It ended with the waitress apologizing again for the noise and the elderly lady saying "well, it's not your fault."

Oh, we felt terrible! And of course, there we were, in the middle of the meal, what could we do? I started eating as fast as I could, but of course boos had no idea there was a problem. They stole the toothpicks out of my club sandwich and began using them to eat their dinners -- stabbing their grilled cheese sandwiches and eating the itsy-bitsy bits of cheese that stuck to the toothpicks. Baby A kept standing up on the seat and looking at the elderly couple on the other side of the booth wall, and then he began saying "hi!" to them. "Don't say hi!" I whispered fiercely. "Me hi!" he said indignantly, and did it again.

When the elderly couple FINALLY got up to leave, I quickly looked out the window so I wouldn't have to meet their gaze. They did pause at our table, but I continued to avoid eye contact (and Rocket Boy was still frantically eating his salad), so they went on.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "They're gone," I told Rocket Boy, who hadn't noticed. But then ANOTHER elderly lady, who had just come back from the salad bar, stopped at our table for a moment and said "Shhh!"

That did it. I stood up, grabbed Baby B, and threw some money at Rocket Boy. "I'll take them outside, you pay," I said. He handed Baby A across the table and I started for the door, gripping two little hands. And then, of course, all hell broke loose. "My bed!" Baby A screamed. Rocket Boy had a roll that he hadn't eaten yet and Baby A wanted it ("bed" = "bread"). Baby B began to cry about something else (we never figured it out). I dragged two screaming two-year-olds to the door, outside, and then into the car, where I gave them a long, pointless lecture about how to behave in restaurants. They listened to it with tears on their cheeks.

We're never going to Lugo's again. OK, at least not with the twins. But probably just never.

But then as we were driving home we saw the most incredible sunset. It was only about 6 pm, but of course the sun is setting earlier these days. As soon as we got home we grabbed the stroller, plunked the boys into it, and took off for the field north of our subdivision. We spent about half an hour wandering around in the field -- took the boys out of their stroller and let them run.



We'd already missed the best part of the sunset -- sunsets are really hard to catch on film, you know? Here's a shot from a couple of weeks ago:




Tonight wasn't that dramatic. But Ridgecrest has such a glorious big sky. As it got darker we could see the moon and Jupiter. And eventually I felt OK again.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Star party

Tonight we attended the annual Astronomical Barbecue and Star Party up at our local community college, Cerro Coso -- it was sponsored by Cerro Coso and also had something to do with the China Lake Astronomical Society, which normally sponsors star parties each month from March to November. I have been wanting to go to one of these star parties ever since we moved to Ridgecrest. What a great use of the phenomenal night sky we've got out here. But it never seemed possible, what with baby twins and all.

This star party sounded more do-able -- for one thing, food was involved. And since it's getting dark earlier, we could see some stars and be home by bedtime. Still, we dithered.

Last night when we were talking about it, I was googling astronomical things and I came upon a mention of Jack Horkheimer's death in August. I don't know how I missed that before -- well, yes I do. Jack Horkheimer died of a lung ailment on August 20th, the same day Rocket Boy went into the hospital with his own lung ailment. We were not paying a lot of attention to the news for several days there. But I was so sad to read about Jack's death last night.

Maybe that's the reason we finally pulled ourselves together to go to the star party. We didn't buy tickets in advance, just drove up to Cerro Coso to give it a try.

Cerro Coso is a small, but oddly constructed school -- I always get lost trying to find my way around. The "astronomical barbecue" was held on the lawn between the library and the main school building. The ticket-sellers looked at us and the boos and decided to charge us for only 1 child -- $25 total.

We took our tickets and went to the food line. The ticket-taker was not happy that I had 3 tickets for 4 people, even when I explained that it had not been my idea. I offered to let the boos split a hot dog, but she just shook her head grimly. We ended up with 4 enormous plates of food. Rocket Boy and I both had massive tri-tip sandwiches, even though we don't eat beef. Cole slaw, beans, chips, cookies. Greedy boos stuffed their faces with chips and cookies, then sampled their hot dogs and beans.

The Cerro Coso Community Band played throughout the dinner -- outer space-related pieces, mostly. Boos, who still don't quite understand how orchestras work, stared open-mouthed at the musicians.

Sitting at our table in the cool evening air, eating a large beef sandwich, listening to the band play the theme from Star Trek, I had a great sense of well-being. I was so glad we'd decided to come.

I bought $5 worth of raffle tickets, to make up for not having paid for a 4th barbecue ticket, but we didn't stay to find out whether we'd won anything. Instead, we started walking up the hill to the Observatory, for the star party portion of the evening. Boos began to complain about the hike, but fortunately just then a couple of golf carts whizzed up to us. Members of the Cerro Coso baseball team were ferrying people with "mobility issues" to and from the Observatory. Baby A and I climbed into one cart; Rocket Boy and Baby B boarded the other; and we whizzed up the hill to the Observatory.

At the Observatory there were several telescopes set up so that you could look at different parts of the night sky. One huge telescope was pointing right at Jupiter and you could see THREE MOONS around it, plus the shadow of another moon on it. That was cool. That made my night right there. We tried to get the boos to look through that telescope, but I don't think they understood that they were looking at Jupiter. They like to look at Jupiter with their naked eyes, but how to explain that the object in the telescope is also Jupiter...

Last night when we were out for a walk after dinner we saw a bright object in the northwest sky and wondered whether it could be Mars or Saturn. But according to the China Lake Astronomical Society's column in the local paper, Mars is low in the south southwest sky, and Saturn is visible just before sunrise. So tonight I spotted that same bright object and asked one of the roving astronomers about it. "That's Arcturus," he told me.

Oh, of course. Arcturus. That rang a faint bell in my mind.

"See the Big Dipper," he pointed out. "Follow the arc of the handle over to Arcturus. And then below it is Spica."

"Arc to Arcturus! And speed on to Spica! Oh, I remember Jack Horkheimer teaching us that!" I got a little choked up, remembering that Jack Horkheimer won't be teaching us anything else ever again.

But the stars and planets and other "evening objects" are still out there, and here in Ridgecrest we can see them all. It's exciting to think that we get to teach our little twins all about the night sky (I will be learning right along with them).

As Jack would say, keep looking up!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Glendale and Griffith Park

Today, it being Sunday and our home being Ridgecrest, we decided to go on a journey. We were sick of Palmdale and all that, so we decided to drive 145 miles to Glendale. You may ask, "why Glendale?" and the answer would be, "to visit a bookstore."

There's a used bookstore in Boulder that Rocket Boy and I are quite fond of, called the Bookworm. It's always been a great place to pick up cheap paperbacks, but in the last couple of years Rocket Boy discovered that they also have a good selection of children's books in foreign languages -- including German, which is what interests him. RB's parents were both native speakers of German, though I'm not sure how much German they actually spoke to him as a child -- but he can get by in German pretty well, if he has to. And he would like our twins to know German as well.

Of course what he should be doing is speaking German to them all the time, while I speak English to them all the time. But of course he's not doing that. Instead he reads them German children's books. He also will tell them the word for various things in German, but not consistently. And sometimes I tell them the word for things in German too, and then I say "and in English we call it X." Who knows what they're learning or not learning.

Recently RB taught them the German word for foam, schaum, and now they don't know the word foam, they just know schaum. They wash their hands with soap and say "schaum!" They look up at the clouds in the sky and say "ky! coud! schaum!" (translation: sky! clouds! (look like) schaum/foam!)

OK, anyway, whatever, so we wanted to find a bookstore around here that would be as fun as the Bookworm and would have German children's books. We got on the internet and looked for used bookstores in Los Angeles and we found a lot of posts about how there aren't any good used bookstores in Los Angeles because people around here don't read. That was depressing.

But there were a few bookstores mentioned as being pretty good, though not anything like bookstores in San Francisco or Boston. And one of these was the Brand Bookshop in Glendale. So that was enough for us. We got in the car and headed for Glendale.

We of course got a late start, so we had lunch at the Denny's in Mojave, and there we nearly had a disaster. Baby B would not sit nicely in his highchair, he kept unfastening the strap and climbing out of the chair and perching on the edge. A couple of times I jumped up from my seat to grab him because I thought he was going to fall off. Finally, for about the 100th time, I said to him "Sit in your seat, you're going to fall," and whoops, over he went. Along with the highchair. Crash. Rocket Boy was out of his seat a second later, rescuing him and comforting him, and of course Baby B was wailing away, but RB and I could not stop laughing. I mean, it was actually very scary, for all we knew Baby B had broken his neck, but there was just something about that WHOOPS -- CRASH that made us both get the giggles.

We're such bad parents.

And then I realized I'd spilled ketchup on my pale pink shirt, and even scrubbing it with soap in the restroom did not remove the stain, and as we sat in the Denny's parking lot, getting ready to get on the road again, I said to Rocket Boy, "Do you want to just go to Palmdale?"

But the fact was that we didn't want to go to Palmdale, we wanted to go to Glendale. So off we went.

The Brand Bookshop is on Brand Boulevard in Glendale, which I guess is kind of the main drag, because a little further on you come to not one but two huge shopping malls. I wouldn't call Brand Boulevard charming, but it was OK, quite pleasant to walk along. The Brand Bookshop is also not exactly charming, but it's a really nice, extremely well-organized used bookstore. With not a single German children's book. Oh well. But I found 4 books for myself, and if I'd had just a little more time to browse I probably could have found 20.

Boo bears did not like the inside of the bookstore and kept saying "Bye-bye car!" and "Go way!" so eventually we left. There were some of those Japanese cats in the window, the ones that wave their arms at you, and those were the hit of the day, as far as boo bears were concerned. We walked down Brand Boulevard a bit more, but wherever we went, boo bears kept saying "Kitty! Go back kitty!"

Our next stop was Griffith Park, which is an enormous park that I guess is actually in Los Angeles proper, but borders Glendale and other cities around there. I had vaguely heard of it, but it really wasn't on my radar. What a cool park! The Los Angeles Zoo is there, and a big museum, picnic areas and places to hike, a merry-go-round and a miniature train and pony rides. Since we didn't have a lot of time, we chose one activity: the little train. Here's a rather blurry (sorry!) photo of it.



We drove straight to the train area, parked, bought our tickets, and rode the train. And then left, before anyone had a chance to get too tired, cranky, etc. It was delightful and I definitely want to go back to that park. For one thing, we didn't even SEE the merry-go-round.

On the way home we stopped in Palmdale after all, to buy food at Trader Joe's, and then we found a Hometown Buffet and had dinner there. Baby B sat very nicely in his highchair and ate his mac & cheese and made absolutely no attempt to get out, so that was a good thing.

We were home by 8:15 and boo bears went right to bed. And now I must do the same.

Friday, October 1, 2010

End of September reading update

So, September is over. Thank goodness for that. It was not a good month in so many ways, including, unfortunately, reading. I only read 7 books, which brings me to 75 for the year. That means I need to read 25 in the next 3 months, which is kind of a problem because those are busy months. I'm starting to think I won't make it to 100. I must throw off all this negativity and think good thoughts about reading. We shall see.

Anyway, here is the list:

69. One True Thing by Anna Quindlen. My first Anna Quindlen book ever, and no, I didn't like it. I did not find the main character at all believable, nor the town, nor her parents, etc. I've decided that I don't need to worry about Anna Quindlen's books -- she's not my type of writer.
70. Firestorm by Nevada Barr. A mystery set in Lassen National Park, which interested me since we spent part of our honeymoon there. But the story's not really much about the park, more about a fire that takes place there. OK, nothing special.
71. Casanova's Chinese Restaurant by Anthony Powell. The fifth book in the 12-part series. Not his best. I already have the sixth book out of the library.
72. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. This was one of my birthday books. It's definitely not my favorite of Sedaris's collections (that would be Holidays on Ice). But there were a couple of laugh-out-loud moments, and the piece about his brother's new baby was really touching. I also found myself identifying with the piece about when he was a kid and it snowed a lot, and he and his sisters were off school for a few days, and their mother went out of her mind and locked them out of the house. Sounded just like something I would do. It cheered me up to think that if I ever do, boos will probably be OK, maybe turn out to be famous comedy writers.
73. That Monster by Daniel Stallings. This is a collection of mostly poetry, self-published by one of the younger members of my writing club. Although I have strong reservations about self-publishing, I have to admit there are some really affecting pieces in here. For instance, there's a poem about having his backpack stolen in middle school -- that sounds like a silly topic, but the actual poem is very moving. His writing is best when he taps into childhood angst.
74. Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer. I gobbled up this interesting biography, but as with most biographies, it left me wanting to know more. Maybe the best thing to do would be to read her books again, or perhaps there's one I never read -- will have to check through my old lists.
75. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I exchanged one of my birthday books for this one, wanting to know what the hype was all about. I did enjoy the book, though I thought she missed the opportunity in the "Eat" section to point out that the Italian food supply is probably much cleaner and more real than the American food supply and that's why she felt so good after eating it for a few months. I think it's interesting that the book has been a big hit in the US, since it's basically a paean to Eastern religions and the value of making up your own religion out of bits and pieces of this and that, which is total anathema to fundamentalist Christians. Who I was under the impression were running the country. But maybe I have been in Ridgecrest too long.

Well, I have stacks of books piled up by my bedside -- we'll see whether I can read any of them in October.