I Just Want You To Know

That I chose this Kleenex package solely because it has monkeys in it.

books & bugs

I finally made myself finish the French-Canadian-in-French book I was reading: Nikolski. It's won a ton of awards and good reviews, and was recommended by a bookseller who reads everything under the sun, but... I never got into it. I really had to push through, and finally had to speed-read the last 1/4, which is hard for me to do in French! But I learned.

Maybe I'll take a glance through the award-winning English translation and see if there's something about the language which elevates this book, and which I missed out on. When I read Jane Urquhart's Away, I didn't love the story and characters, but the language was beautiful enough to make it worth finishing.

Or maybe I would have liked it better as an art-y movie.

At least it's done, and I can go on with my Connie Willis re-reading, and the continuation of the Georgia Nicholson series.

[Speaking of her little sister, who has once again crawled into bed with her.] I really love her. I kissed her on her forehead and without opening her eyes she slapped me and said, "Cheeky monkey." I don't know what goes on in her head. (Thank God.)

In other news, I finally got back to editing my story tonight. Sitting in the kitchen, with about 100 wee fly-bugs sitting up on the ceiling criticizing my writing. The weather's been so weird this summer, that everyone's having bug invasions. One talk radio dude was woken by his budgies, whose cage had been invaded by earwigs; and another radio host had a centipede crawling across her thigh while she was working one morning.

I've seen a couple earwigs, which we don't usually get in the apartment; a couple silverfish, which are normal; some flying-beatle-ing looking thing, many spiders (though they all disappeared this past week... maybe found more to do outside), a series of flies who hang out in the cool of the tree outside my window keep finding their way into my room (gap between screen and window) and then can't get out again, there's been the usual swarm of mosquitos, and then the little green flying bugs that look like tiny mosquitos-sans-stingers (maybe male mosquitos?) Plus one wasp, which Fernando had to trap and release (they're my biggest fear--I can share the same room with anything except bees and wasps), and then the moths.

The nights have still been cool, so we leave the balcony door and kitchen window open to let in the air, and so the cats can hang on the balcony--and these giant mothra moths keep getting in. Haley and Nombly lurv to eat them. She didn't know how to hunt when she got here, but learned from watching Nombly, and now she's a pro. Tonight she lept up on a screen window, had a moth trapped under one paw, and munched on it while hanging there, so she wouldn't lose it when she jumped off. A little moth snack. Like me with a bag of chippies.

Oh wait, there's a spider above my lamp. My brother and I once knew a guy who, everytime he saw a spider in his apartment, circled it with a pencil on the wall, and named it. We were at a party when he told us this, and someone said: What if it's the same spider, and now you've given it a complex?

...
Forgot to mention, I rented Becoming Jane from the library. Not very good, which is why I'd long avoided it. I would have preferred a biopic, rather than a sort of made up tragic love story.

The ABCs of Moi (a new facebook classic)

A - Age: 36

B - Bed size: twin

C - Chore you hate: the definition of a chore is that it's something you don't enjoy doing

D - Dog's name: Haley

E - Essential starts your day item: the toilet

F - Favorite color(s): at the moment, that nice deep bright blue that's in fashion

G - Gold or Silver: gold

H - Height: 5'10''

I - Instruments you play/played: voice, spoons, my grandfather's organ, my mother's piano when I was little

J - Job title: bookseller

K - Kid(s): 0

L - Living arrangements: apartment

M- My Mom's name: it doesn't start with M

N - Nicknames: Miss Mabel, T-Scone, and one that's too close to my real name to share on the intersnets

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: jaw surgery

P - Pet Peeve: rudeness

Q - Quote from a movie: "That Hansel, he's so hot right now." "The transport is away. Hurray!"

R - Right or left handed: Right

S - Siblings: brother Pablo

T - Time you wake up: 1 PMish

U - Underwear: cotton

V - Vegetable you dislike: still not partial to lima beans

W - Ways you run late: reading in bed in the morning

X - X-rays you've had: broken toe, teeth/jaw

Y - Yummy food you make: guacaminole

Z - Zoo favorite: zoos are bad... but I lurv every animal

A nice day

- 9 hours of uninterrupted (by kittehs) sleep
- did a little work for The Boss (not Springsteen)
- did 2 loads of laundry
- cleaned up the completely messy kitchen
- chores done! napped
- went to library:

-> KT Tunstall, Harry Connick Jr

-> Aya graphic novels

-> 3 more volumes of Georgia Nicholson

-> movie in Arabic (don't remember the name)

- instead of doing groceries, did empty-out-the-fridge cooking:

-> broccoli not rescuable
-> core of Boston lettuce still good
-> 4 peppers in perfect condition
-> English cucumber still fine
-> package of square pizza crusts past their date, but still alive
-> a bunch of pears I'd forgotten I bought

resulted in:
- a green salad with Jae Steele dressing
- Jae Steele chick pea salad
- pizzas
- pear and walnut pie (from Dolce Vegan - very good)

- watched part II of not-bad TV movie, with husband

- now sitting in bedroom, playing with toys

Homes of the day

Both of today's homes have finished basements.

This first one (first 4 pics) is mid 200 000, but would require more pulling up of carpets. But it has good, shall we say, bone structure. (I mean nice big windows etc., good room shape, etc.)




The second (last 2 pics) is much prettier, with all the right paint colours. But it's closer to 300 000.

Both of them have humangazoidically large back yards. I believe the one pictured is zoned for two lots, so I guess you could sell the back part and make up some money! Heavens. HUGE.

Treat books like tv?

Fun article from the Washington Times on how much of a book should you read before you abandon it--or should you do so at all?

One of her online friends reminded her there's even an abandonment rule: The "Deduct Your Age From 100 and Read That Many Pages Before Giving Up on a Book" rule. The older you get, the less inclined you are to waste your time on something that doesn't grab you.

So I can give up at page 64.

I have to admit, I'm trying to apply more of my speed-reading techniques learned in Poli Sci, to fiction. Speed reading isn't reading fast, it's just judicious skipping. Lately I've been taking teen books out from the library and skip-reading, just to get a feel for them and increase my product knowledge. Until I hit something wonderful like Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging, and then I read the whole thing.

Right now I've got a French book I half-abandoned. It was recommended by a bookseller in another store, but I'm having trouble getting into it. There are 4 characters, and each one is separately introduced, which always creates the problem of having to get into a book 4 times. I know from past experience that this can pay off--A Fine Balance starts with separate storylines, but it's worth the wait to see them all come together. (Lurved this book.) But Nikolski? ...I don't know. I'm on page 94 and I still don't feel sucked-in-a-fied. (Which is why I wandered into the Angus books. And now I've sidelined from that into Connie Willis, while I wait for my next Angus book from the library.)

I'm still not sure, however, if we should treat books like TV (as someone in the article says) and flip away as soon as we lose interest. I've read books that took awhile to get into, but by about 1/3 of the way through finally hooked me in, and I loved them. So maybe I should have a One Third rule. That would mean Nikolski has to get me in 10 more pages.

Man I wish we carried this book in our store

Slovenian book on pooping (click picture to see the rest of the book.)