...how lovely that the weather gods gave me snow today
...even cooler that today will likely mark the day we go over 100" for the season
...I cannot believe that I still have not mailed my two dearest friends the little Valentine gifts I made them
...on a related note, I sooooo need to write some emails
...mmmmmmm, the coffee is so good this morning
...and I just adore this mug, the very mug that Mom used to make hot cocoa for me in when I was sick as a kid (hot cocoa and warm buttered toast almost made it worth being sick)
...sometimes I worry that this damn anxiety is going to kill me...stupid, stupid brain please shut off and stop the hyper-worrying over every little thing...and please please please let me sleep again...please
...I think I shall watch the first episode of the second season of Jericho before anyone else gets up
*****
...I can't believe how much I love reading on my new Nook, and I wasn't sure I would ever say that (thank you Rich!)
...after 50+ pages of Little Women, I think I'm going to set it aside...it's not that I dislike it, it's more that I just don't think I'm in the right mood for it
*****
...oh my, but this show makes me cry...nearly every episode...why did they have to cancel it...
*****
...damn good chocolate cake, but whew, am I full now
...I have soooooooo frickin' much to do tomorrow to get ready for our little "vacation"
...wonder if I'll ever get around to turning this into a scrapbook page...yeah right, like I ever have time to scrapbook ;)
...oh Bacon, you can be such a pig sometimes
...and Aldo, how can such a dainty little thing snore so loudly?!!
...I can't wait to listen to the CD mix Annie made me for my birthday
...sooooo tired
...yeah, so I thought making this list was a good idea, but it turns out I do a lot less thinking than I thought :P
Monday, February 21, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
winter break, the first 24 hours (Friday afternoon through Saturday afternoon)...
*kiddo's doctor's appointment, where big decisions were made
*pizza night
*2 Edgar Allan Poe stories: "The Descent Into the Maelstrom" (didn't care for) and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (much better)
*40 minutes of exercise while watching the penultimate episode of season one of Jericho...think what you will, I still freakin' love that show
*load of laundry...always always laundry
*a bit of reading and note-taking on the Early Roman Republic
*a lot of smiling due to eavesdropping on Max and his friend Abby
A sample conversation...
Abby: Don't you wish we had all this money for real? (They were playing Dogopoly at the time.)
Me (interrupting): What would you do with that much money?
Abby: I'd buy a baby!
Me: A baby?!!
Abby: Yeah, a baby from the hospital.
Me: So, would you want a baby brother or a baby sister?
Abby: A baby sister, definitely!
Max: Yeah, well I'd buy a half-pipe.
*pizza night
*2 Edgar Allan Poe stories: "The Descent Into the Maelstrom" (didn't care for) and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (much better)
*40 minutes of exercise while watching the penultimate episode of season one of Jericho...think what you will, I still freakin' love that show
*load of laundry...always always laundry
*a bit of reading and note-taking on the Early Roman Republic
*a lot of smiling due to eavesdropping on Max and his friend Abby
A sample conversation...
Abby: Don't you wish we had all this money for real? (They were playing Dogopoly at the time.)
Me (interrupting): What would you do with that much money?
Abby: I'd buy a baby!
Me: A baby?!!
Abby: Yeah, a baby from the hospital.
Me: So, would you want a baby brother or a baby sister?
Abby: A baby sister, definitely!
Max: Yeah, well I'd buy a half-pipe.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
at this moment...
...listening to Folk Underground's Buried Things, and enjoying it immensely. (A very lovely early birthday gift from a very lovely friend.)
...savoring another cup of incredible coffee.
...battling my over-active salivary glands which are in full swing due to the aroma of the bread roll dough I've got started for supper...oh how I love that yeasty bread smell.
...smiling every time I glance up and see this. (Part 2 of my lovely birthday gift from that lovely friend. :) Technically, it is a magnet, but I just love having the little bear on my desk hold it.)
...procrastinating rather effectively on that horrendous to do list by writing this blog post instead.
...gleefully anticipating winter break...which :D :D :D officially begins after school this Friday.
...savoring another cup of incredible coffee.
...battling my over-active salivary glands which are in full swing due to the aroma of the bread roll dough I've got started for supper...oh how I love that yeasty bread smell.
...smiling every time I glance up and see this. (Part 2 of my lovely birthday gift from that lovely friend. :) Technically, it is a magnet, but I just love having the little bear on my desk hold it.)
...procrastinating rather effectively on that horrendous to do list by writing this blog post instead.
...gleefully anticipating winter break...which :D :D :D officially begins after school this Friday.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day
Wishing you all a sweet and happy Valentine's Day...
chock-full of love and laughter and your heart's greatest longings.
(One of these days, I really will get the hang of this blogging thing again. Maybe.)
chock-full of love and laughter and your heart's greatest longings.
(One of these days, I really will get the hang of this blogging thing again. Maybe.)
Saturday, February 5, 2011
weekend plans...
Make this sad looking little tree a little more festive with some handmade heart ornaments.
Start dealing with all these recipes. I'd eventually like to empty the top shelf on the bookcase, so I can use if for homeschool stuff. And why I've held on to all these cooking mags for so long is beyond me. I just need to go through them and pull out the recipes I want to keep. And I need to weed out those folders of recipes I've pulled from other magazines. And I also have two other stashes of recipes not pictured that I need to deal with as well. Big project. But if I can just get started...
Turn this into something that I hope will put a smile on a very dear friend's face.
Turn this into Valentine cards.
Start making my way through the selected stories I need to read for school.
Yep, I lead quite the exciting life, don't I? :P
Friday, February 4, 2011
this week amidst the pages...
.
Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse. I mentioned last week how incredible I was finding this book. Well, now that I've finished it, I can say it stayed that way right until the end. It's told from the perspective of a young man by the name of Toland Polk. A young man struggling with his sexuality. A young man growing up in a small Southern town in the early 1960s. A town divided over integration. Toland's awareness of the injustice and ugliness of racism grows, as does his awareness of his own inner feelings. It sounds like a lot to be tackled in one book, but I assure you it works extremely well. Probably because Toland is so very human, so flawed. As are the other characters. Contained in these pages were moments of beauty and acceptance and love, and moments that threatened to rip the heart right out of my chest. One of these rip-your-heart out moments was particularly hard, for a very strange reason. Something unspeakable happens to one of the characters that I adored. But right before this event took place, this character himself did something that upset me. It in no way made me stop liking him, but it did upset me. And as I said earlier, this is part of the real power of this book--the complete humanity of the characters. Thank you, Chris, for your wonderful review of this one...not sure if I ever even would have heard of it otherwise.
I also finished up Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino. This collection of stories, told by a "being" named Qfwfq, relate various aspects in the evolution of the universe. That makes it sound pretty straightforward, huh? Well, I assure you, it is anything but. Tales about the moon finding its orbit, the sun coming into being, life moving out of the water, etc.--all told more as stories of Qfwfq and his family and acquaintances than as any sort of scientific explanations. Calvino plays with time and space and matter in ways completely unique to anything I've ever encountered before. It's as if you're constantly trying to grasp something solid, but it's all too ethereal to give you a firm grip. Yet on another level, you're fully grounded in the reactions and emotions that are common to our human experience. There were stories I really loved and others that used every bit of concentration I could muster just to follow along. But in the end, I think I'd actually try more of his works sometime. And I thank you, Ana, for giving me some suggestions on what to try next!
Next, I read Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Oh my. How I loved this book. It is one of those books that makes me want to hug it. And you know what, I can't quite put my finger on why. I think it's really because it felt so. damn. real. Not that the main character Raleigh's story is my story. But it's someone's story. And I suspect that there are pieces of Raleigh that nearly everyone can relate to, especially as they're growing up. And you know, there are pieces that I can *still* relate to. Oh yes, I loved this story so very much. And I want to mention, too, how very much a part of this story the art is. It's a quiet sort of story, a sad sort of story, and the art is so charming and sweet. It's just a beautiful, beautiful combination.
And then there was The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan. When I read Chris's review, I immediately went and put it on hold at the library. Such a unique concept, a novel told through dictionary entries, how could I resist?!! I didn't realize until I started reading it that it was even set up alphabetically. So...as I start reading my way through the "a" entries, I'm thinking to myself, "I like this book. A lot, in fact. But I'm not loving it like I thought I would." And I wondered if that was my problem--that I was expecting too much. But the thing is, I kept reading, and it eventually hit me that I *was* loving it. :)
Finally, I started, but just barely, The Face of Death by Cody McFadyen. It's the follow-up to Shadow Man--but whether it is as intense remains to be seen (like I said, I've just barely started.
All in all, not a bad week for me
Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse. I mentioned last week how incredible I was finding this book. Well, now that I've finished it, I can say it stayed that way right until the end. It's told from the perspective of a young man by the name of Toland Polk. A young man struggling with his sexuality. A young man growing up in a small Southern town in the early 1960s. A town divided over integration. Toland's awareness of the injustice and ugliness of racism grows, as does his awareness of his own inner feelings. It sounds like a lot to be tackled in one book, but I assure you it works extremely well. Probably because Toland is so very human, so flawed. As are the other characters. Contained in these pages were moments of beauty and acceptance and love, and moments that threatened to rip the heart right out of my chest. One of these rip-your-heart out moments was particularly hard, for a very strange reason. Something unspeakable happens to one of the characters that I adored. But right before this event took place, this character himself did something that upset me. It in no way made me stop liking him, but it did upset me. And as I said earlier, this is part of the real power of this book--the complete humanity of the characters. Thank you, Chris, for your wonderful review of this one...not sure if I ever even would have heard of it otherwise.
I also finished up Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino. This collection of stories, told by a "being" named Qfwfq, relate various aspects in the evolution of the universe. That makes it sound pretty straightforward, huh? Well, I assure you, it is anything but. Tales about the moon finding its orbit, the sun coming into being, life moving out of the water, etc.--all told more as stories of Qfwfq and his family and acquaintances than as any sort of scientific explanations. Calvino plays with time and space and matter in ways completely unique to anything I've ever encountered before. It's as if you're constantly trying to grasp something solid, but it's all too ethereal to give you a firm grip. Yet on another level, you're fully grounded in the reactions and emotions that are common to our human experience. There were stories I really loved and others that used every bit of concentration I could muster just to follow along. But in the end, I think I'd actually try more of his works sometime. And I thank you, Ana, for giving me some suggestions on what to try next!
Next, I read Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Oh my. How I loved this book. It is one of those books that makes me want to hug it. And you know what, I can't quite put my finger on why. I think it's really because it felt so. damn. real. Not that the main character Raleigh's story is my story. But it's someone's story. And I suspect that there are pieces of Raleigh that nearly everyone can relate to, especially as they're growing up. And you know, there are pieces that I can *still* relate to. Oh yes, I loved this story so very much. And I want to mention, too, how very much a part of this story the art is. It's a quiet sort of story, a sad sort of story, and the art is so charming and sweet. It's just a beautiful, beautiful combination.
And then there was The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan. When I read Chris's review, I immediately went and put it on hold at the library. Such a unique concept, a novel told through dictionary entries, how could I resist?!! I didn't realize until I started reading it that it was even set up alphabetically. So...as I start reading my way through the "a" entries, I'm thinking to myself, "I like this book. A lot, in fact. But I'm not loving it like I thought I would." And I wondered if that was my problem--that I was expecting too much. But the thing is, I kept reading, and it eventually hit me that I *was* loving it. :)
Finally, I started, but just barely, The Face of Death by Cody McFadyen. It's the follow-up to Shadow Man--but whether it is as intense remains to be seen (like I said, I've just barely started.
All in all, not a bad week for me
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
in the "life isn't fair" department...
Yesterday, as we spent 20 minutes out at the bus stop in below zero wind chills waiting for a late bus, the boys and I talked hopefully of the possibility of getting a snow day today due to the big old storm system. But that 20-24" of predicted snow didn't materialize because the storm track shifted about 100 miles north of its predicted path. We only got about 8" of snow--not. even. close. to enough to make them cancel school here. EXCEPT!!! As the snow shifted to sleet and freezing rain this morning, we got a lovely coating of ice. Thus bringing the miracle of a day off of school.
Oh, but poor Gray. :( A miracle day off of school, and he can't even enjoy it. He went to school yesterday feeling fine. Shortly after he got there though, he started feeling lousy and his teacher sent him to the nurse's office. She took his temp (no fever), so she just had him lie down for a bit and then sent him back to class. An hour later, in gym class, he started shaking uncontrollably and the coach sent him back to the nurse. He now had a temperature of 102.8. Obviously, he was sent home. Where he added vomiting to his list of ills. And after a not so restful night of non-sleep, his temp was up to 104 this morning. So this "weather day"...he's not even getting to enjoy it.
Now, his brother, on the other hand... :D
Oh, but poor Gray. :( A miracle day off of school, and he can't even enjoy it. He went to school yesterday feeling fine. Shortly after he got there though, he started feeling lousy and his teacher sent him to the nurse's office. She took his temp (no fever), so she just had him lie down for a bit and then sent him back to class. An hour later, in gym class, he started shaking uncontrollably and the coach sent him back to the nurse. He now had a temperature of 102.8. Obviously, he was sent home. Where he added vomiting to his list of ills. And after a not so restful night of non-sleep, his temp was up to 104 this morning. So this "weather day"...he's not even getting to enjoy it.
Now, his brother, on the other hand... :D
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