Yeah, It's all I write about...

New to the Book List:

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
The Broker by John Grisham
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History/Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
My Jim by Nancy Rawles
My Life in Orange by Tim Guest

I’ve just finished Andrew Greeley’s Irish Cream. This is “not the worst of them” in the Nuala McGrail series, but far from the best. Still, a fun read and it makes me think and speak in Irish-English for weeks afterward. 320 pages

9/50 2971/15000

Weekend and Other Stuff

Over the weekend I was driving through a new subdivision near my home and saw a family moving into their newly completed home. The curious thing about it --they had loaded up horse trailers as the means to move all their belongs into the brand new house. Is this gross? Is it just me?

When I built my brand new house (3 years ago yesterday) I had a difficult time even bringing all the crap from my old house. I wanted everything (yes, everything) to be new and shiny and nice. New furniture, new dishes, new everything...since this was (obviously) impractical, I begrudgingly rented a moving truck and brought most of the old stuff into my bright and shiny new house. In fact, I didn’t want anybody mucking up my lovely new carpet so I bought big rolls of plastic sheeting and covered the new carpet. It never would have crossed my mind to stick my stuff in a horse trailer. A horse trailer, where, presumably, horses have ridden, and eaten and well, shit all over everything.

On a happier, less gross note, I got my blinds hung over the weekend. I really can’t believe the difference it made in the lighting. And while, yes, I’m happy to finally have the blinds up, I have a gigantic problem with them being open after dark. One of my roommates seems to have some sort of vitamin D deficiency where she MUST have the blinds open (whether she is there or not). I have explained my discomfort of coming home after dark to find the blinds still open and passersby being able to look in. “If you cannot be here to close them when it gets dark, I explain, then kindly close them before you leave.” I think it is a simple enough request, but perhaps a bit above her head. (She doesn’t seem to get a lot of things that don’t involve giggling and making cookies....don’t get me wrong, she is a very nice girl and I like her; I just don’t have anything in common with her.)

So, we’ll see how that goes. I have decided that she will get one *pass* and then I will simply close the blinds and remove the wand so they cannot be opened again. Too harsh? Possibly, but I cannot describe how much I hate knowing that people can see into my house. Hate it. Hate it. Hate. It. I believe that single girls, living alone, with no real means of protection should be extra careful about their safety and security. One way to do that it to close the damn blinds! (Also to keep the doors locked, which also seems to be a tad above her capabilities...) I should mention that my lovely neighbor, Meth-Addict Steve, has been seen lurking around my backyard on more than one occasion, and while he (specifically) is now is jail, there are many more of him (generally) around and I’d rather not have “him” looking in my house deciding what will fetch the most money on the black market so “he” can score the next fix.

And lastly, Rat Bastard (how long has it been since my email to him (nearly a month) sent me this yesterday, “Hey, Been meaning to call, but have been out of control busy lately. I am alive and would love to get together to hand off the wall item. Can I call you tomorrow afternoon? I am more available then and could call you at work?”

Yeah, haven’t heard from him today...this may be why we are not together any more.

I finished Mississippi Trial, 1955 by Christopher Crowe. An excellent historical fiction novel about the murder and trial of 14-year old Emmett Till. 231 Pages.

8/50 2651/15000

50 Books Update

I've had a cold all week long and that was not the time to read Between A Rock and A Hard Place by Aron Ralston. This is Aron's account of the time he spent trapped by a boulder in the Blue John area of Southern Utah and his successful amputation of his arm to free himself.

There were a lot of tears while reading this. Most came from the video taped messages to his family, his favorite memories and his prayers, specifically when, certain he would die, he prayed for "the steadfastnests not to do anything against my being..." He was worried that in a moment of confusion or irrationality he would take his life. To me, wow!, would I have the that kind of strength?

353 pages


7/50 2420/15000

50 Books

I’ve just finished (finally) Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. It’s a lovely little book about punctuation. Most of the basic rules I already knew, and the more complicated ones...well, I doubt I’ll use. The absolute funniest part of the book:

I’m sure people did question whether Italian printers were quite the right people to legislate on the meaning of everything; but on the other hand, resistance was obviously useless against a family that could invent italics.

Honestly, I laughed and laughed. It reminded me somewhat of the Star Trek Borg, “Resistance is futile; you will be assimilated.” 204 pages

I’ve been reading Aron Ralston’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Currently, still Day One, he’s trapped and quickly sorting through and eliminating ways to get out of it, with all his limbs intact.

6/50 2067/15000

Busy, Busy Week

Good Grief, it has been a busy week around here. We had a regional 2-day staff meeting extravaganza this week and it was all I could do to keep up. We have these meetings about twice a year, and since I work for the “big boss” in this region, I end up working very long hours to make sure everything is put together and comes off without a hitch.

I thought it went well, overall. Hopefully, the other attendees will agree. We are doing some new feedback stuff this time and the responses we’ve received have been interesting. One thing I didn’t like about the event. (I didn’t have anything to do with this part or it never would have happened!) We always take everyone to dinner at a nice restaurant. This time, one of the supervisors decided we needed to have a “team building” activity. Yes, yes, I can hear all of your collective groans. It sounds just like the noise I made when I heard. So, Captain Team Builder (CTB) was put in charge of the activity.

Now, CTB is the biggest procrastinator I have met in my entire life. Nothing he’s involved with ever gets finished on time. Imagine my surprise when I reminded him of his assignment and he looked at me with astonishment. “You mean D was serious when he assigned that to me?” Yes, CTB, yes he was.

This shocking revelation led him to putting together a scavenger hunt (Uggh, groan, NOOOOO!) the night before the event was scheduled. Now, I am perfectly honest when I say, “I hate this shit!” I do. I hate this shit. I don’t think these things are entertaining, fun or useful for anything other than building my hatred toward the organizer. (In this instance, I use the word organizer very, very loosely.)

I was named one of the Team Captains and immediately I was trapped. There was no way out of it now. I would have to participate. The goal was to walk around downtown Salt Lake and take pictures of team members doing extraordinarily stupid and embarrassing things in front of local attractions whilst wearing stupid hats. I imagine that if you like a good scavenger hunt, you’d be pretty pleased with the activity about now. However, let me mention that we were told to wear regular business dress to these meetings and nobody was dressed anywhere near appropriately to be running around town (literally, running) in nice suits, dress pants, heels (Yes HEELS) after dark when it was freezing cold! (FYI...I will never kneel on the ground, form a human pyramid or sit in the middle of an ice rink in a skirt!)Put it all together and it was NOT FUN! My feet still bear the scars of what happened in those shoes.

My week has been long and tiring, and I am happy it is nearing an end. Also, because of all the extra hours I worked on this extravaganza I am way behind on my reading. I was scheduled to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay this week, but it is 600 pages and it won’t be accomplished. I’m trying to make it through Eats, Shoots & Leaves and perhaps, Between A Rock and A Hard Place by Aron Ralston. Aron is the hiker who cut off his own arm after being trapped under a boulder while hiking in Southern Utah.

On a completely unrelated note...Blogger has a fancy new page to add a comment.

New Links

I'm pointing out 2 new links on my blogroll. Stephanie and John. I've read their blogs for quite a while, but for some crazy reason never got around to adding them to my blogroll. Visit and enjoy!

Sacrifice

Ash Wednesday is right around the corner falling on February 9th this year. Every year I observe the tradition of giving something up, sacrificing, something for Lent. Regardless of religion, I see Lent as a wonderful time of year to break a bad habit. It is far easier for me to keep my goals when pre-determined dates and times (outside of my control) are imposed. It is not a New Year's Resolution and so doesn't get caught up in the holiday time of year or shoved aside, quickly disregarded when real life catches up with me.

I've been struggling this year to think of what my sacrifice would be this year. Generally, I've given up caffeine or soda or something of the like, but I have cut way back on both my soda and caffeine intake and it seemed kind of pointless to set that as my goal. Finally, I've come up with something and it seems appropriate as it is definitely a bad habit and may affect my employment. So, being purposefully vague I'll actually begin a couple of days early. Wish me luck...I'll need all the help I can get. :)

50 Books

I finished Michael Chabon's The Final Solution, and I'll start The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (also by Michael Chabon) today.

I'm adding Andrew Greeley's latest Finnuala McGrail novel, Irish Cream, to my list....I'm very excited to read her latest adventures. Also adding The Finishing School by Muriel Spark and In the Shadow of the Ark by Anne Provoost.

Other than that I've been really busy at work and not a lot going on. In Rat Bastard news, I emailed him a few days after I heard from him, just saying that we could maybe work something out (to talk), but I haven't heard back from him.


5/50 1863/15000

Annie Are You OK?

It's also the Michael Jackson I remember and try to explain to my younger brothers and sisters...

This, That & The Other

Saturday, I went to a small birthday celebration for my neice, Louise, who just turned 8. Cake, Ice Cream and a "My-Size Barbie" pretty much says it all. I talked to J about my concerns with her ex-husband suddenly being all fatherly and we both agree that while it is worrisome, his current girlfriend is probably the driving force behind the child support checks. J indicated that her current boyfriend may want to adopt Louise someday and they think her dad would be willing to sign away his rights in exchange for forgiving all the back child support, daycare, health insurance etc. etc. that he was supposed to provide his daughter and never did. Anyway, cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Sunday, my parents had a birthday celebration for my brother, N. We are a big family and have a total of 4 birthdays in January. It is always nice to see the family and hear the ridiculous excuses my older brother comes up with to excuse his wife's absence. She has spent an inordinate amount of her married life being "sick" or "taking a nap" or "buying meat" which was her latest and lamest excuse.

Monday, I lamented the fact the my new neighbor has drums and apparently no job. I also finished Therapy and Hubener vs. Hitler. Bringing my total to 4/50 and 1732/15000.

I'm starting The Final Solution by Michael Chabon today. It's a quick 131 pages so I'll be finished by tomorrow at the latest.