...

Denny Crane.

Summer Reading.

Finished another book! I've read more books recently than I ever have before.

Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay

I think a lot of women fear having the in-laws in this book! I would say the author of this book is v. skillful at creating stifling and oppressive atmospheres and characters, but so much so that I was irritable while reading it and never want the book mentioned to me again! I think it ends...hopeful, though, even though there's not much of a resolution. I guess that's why it's a hopeful--not happy--ending. While it takes place during the early 70s, the plot, of a woman feeling trapped and having to struggle to break free, can certainly be relatable today.

Well, I have some paperwork to fill out before my interview Thursday, and I have to find somewhere to fax it from, so I best get on it.

Another Finished Book!

I finished another Oprah's Book Club book: River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke.

I thought it was kind of boring, actually. It's about a young black girl dealing with the drowning of her sister, and is set during a time when there was still legal segregation. I just kept waiting for something to happen. I'm all for character studies normally, but this one. Eh. A whole lot of nothing.

I can't log into my e-mail. I think they must be performing maintenance or something, because I can't log into any of my university stuff, but how annoying! I have important e-mails to read, people.

Grey's Anatomy and Mystery! with Miss Marple are on tonight. Woohoo!

In case you were wondering, I did buy my "Pretty Pink" dinnerware. So cute!

Ack!

I have my first interview on Thursday! Ack. Actually, I'm not sure if it's an interview or just the assesment test I have to do that day. Either way, ack!

I've never really driven much to anywhere, so yesterday the parents and I got directions from Map Quest and took a test drive over there...My dad drove. We were in the car for, seriously, about five hours! Because we drove there one way, then drove back another, and my mom thought the way back seemed easier, so we drove to the place from the way we went home, then we had to drive back again. Urgh! Too much time in the car.

So I have to drive there on Thursday, and my mom has decided to come with me. Because she's paranoid like that. Can you even imagine the two of us trying to drive to Cleveland! I told her she better not even stress me out while I'm trying to drive, she harasses me even on a drive to town!, because I will be stressed out enough with having to take an exam. I thought I was done with those!

I've been bringing the Brat inside of the house a lot lately. Have I mentioned this? Oh, he's driving me insane. He keeps wanting to go to the very places he knows he's not allowed to be, such as upstairs and in my parents' bedroom. He hasn't gone to the bathroom while inside yet, so that's a good thing. The only time he behaves is if he's sleeping, I swear. This morning he left me a present of a dead mole on the porch, so that was lovely.

_In Cold Blood_ by Truman Capote.

After months of being on a wait-list, I was finally able to check out and read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

I'm not sure I can respond to this book objectively, since, like detective mysteries, true crimes are not typically "my thing." But I would recommend this book simply because Truman created a new genre when he wrote it, that of a nonfiction novel. There must have been something that gripped me, though, because I read it within two days and it's about 350 pages long. I'm sure it's the best written, researched, and detailed true crime novel. Truman is a brilliant writer. There's something suspensful about it, even though you know what happens right off. You are drawn into everyone's lives, like you know the people (the victims, the townspeople, etc). Even the murderers are human and not just charictures of evil. We are inside their minds.

Although, I don't have much use for them. Bad childhood blahblahblah. Lots of people have bad childhoods and don't grow up to be cold blooded murderers--and isn't that the rub? That the killers even admit that this family had never done anything to them, that they even seemed like decent people?

Don't read that as an indication of Capote making excuses for them; he doesn't. Capote's bias, if he had one, is invisible. It's not...sensational in any way. It's v. straight forward, here's what happened.

But mostly I came away with the feeling of how...I don't know. I felt depressed. An entire family was murdered for no reason, two children, and these senseless killings happen every day. Every day. I've heard that the two movies about the book kind of ignore the Clutter family (the victims) but Capote presents a vivid picture of them in the book, and it's hard not to picture the girl Nancy baking pies with a friend on the day of her murder and not feel hopeless about the world.

This book would be good to read in a book club, to see what kind of discussions arise. It would be interesting to see how people feel about the killers and about responsibility. Because while Smith actually pulled the trigger, he is, for many people, the more sympathetic of the two, and so many people feel Hickock is actually more responsible for the murders. I'm not saying whether or not I agree with that feeling, but to see how that seemingly crazy kind of reasoning can develop, read the book. ; ) ...okay, I do admit that, even for me, Smith was more sympathetic, but I'm not sorry both of them hanged.

I haven't seen the movie Capote, and I don't have any real desire to. I don't care for Philip Seymour Hoffman, and I think that voice would grate on my nerves fast. The movie is supposed to follow his writing of In Cold Blood, but it's not actually all that accurate. For one thing, Capote became close with Perry Smith, one of the murderers, during his research, and while Capote was present at Hickock's hanging, he couldn't bear to watch Smith's and left the scene before it happened. (This occurrence is not detailed in the book, however. Capote does not make himself present in the book, except for in one instance you know it's him when he refers to a journalist that meets with both Smith and Hickok in their cells.) In the movie, though, he stays for Smith's execution. I don't know how it's played out in the movie, but even with changing that detail, you change Capote's character, because him leaving the scene is actually v. telling. (Now I am to understand that, in the movie, Capote is "broken" after watching Smith's execution and people are led to believe he never wrote again? Well, he did.)

Hmm. I love this novel more after reading it than I did while reading it. I don't think you can truly appreciate it until you set it down and step away.

Job News.

Eek. While the Brother and I were in town, a place I had applied at actually called me back! There's a first. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure who it was. My dad had answered the phone and just took the lady's name and number. Urgh. He thinks it was an editing position. If so, I think I know which one he means, but even I couldn't tell you the name of the place, because it's something weird. But if it is that place, then it's the place that requires knowledge of computer software that I, uh, have never used before or even heard of. So negative points for me. Anyway. I'll call whoever it is tomorrow. I hope I don't have to do the interview (I hope there will be an interview, anyway!) right then because whoah, I'm so unprepared.

I just sent out a resume to someplace else, too. Blahblahblah.

Turtle Icon of the Day:

Literature Online.

If you can't find a novel at the library, you can read literature online at different websites. Obviously these websites mostly house classics, not modern novels. But the classics are better anyway! But how cool! Sometimes libraries don't have the lesser works of authors, so these sites are useful.

Some of my favorite online literature sites:

Bartleby (Contains literature, reference, and verse! You can spend days there!)
The Literature Network
Literature.org

Other sites:

Bibliomania
Project Gutenberg
Read Book Online

Books Read, 2005.

For my own edification, a listing of all of the books I read in 2005.

# = recommended

Fiction

Home Away From Home by Lorna J. Cook
# The Bright Forever by Lee Martin
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
# Sula by Toni Morrison (discussed here)
# Midwives: A Novel by Chris Bohjalian
# The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (discussed here)
# Life of Pi by Yann Martel
# The Myth of You and Me by Leah Stewart
# "Brokeback Mountain" by E. Annie Proulx (discussed here and here)

Nonfiction

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Essentials of Corporate Finance by Stephen A. Ross, Randolph W Westerfield, Bradford D Jordan, and Bradford Jordan
Managerial Accounting, 11th Edition by Ray H Garrison, Eric Noreen, and Peter C. Brewer

Books Read, 2006.

For my own edification, a listing of all of the books I've read this year. Hopefully updated regularly!

# = recommended

Fiction
# The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (discussed here)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (discussed here)
The Treasure Hunt by Bill Cosby (discussed here)
The Best Way to Play by Bill Cosby (discussed here)
The Meanest Thing to Say by Bill Cosby (discussed here)
The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank (discussed here)
Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay (discussed here)
River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke (discussed here)
Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts (discussed here)
Digging to America by Anne Tyler (discussed here)
Pepper Pike by Les Roberts (discussed here)
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage (discussed here)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (discussed here)
# Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (discussed here)
A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton (discussed here)
The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve (discussed here)
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz (discussed here)
Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
The Giver by Lois Lowry
# To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
# The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (discussed here)
# Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Superfudge by Judy Blume
Tunnel in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein
1984 by George Orwell
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
# Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
# Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
# Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Tunes for Bears to Dance To by Robert Cormier
The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Nonfiction

# The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (discussed here)
Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir (discussed here)
# In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (discussed here)
Night by Elie Wiesel (discussed here)
# Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (discussed here)
# Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (discussed here)

Entertainment.

Yesterday I beat The Lion King for SNES and finished the novel Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts. That novel was weird. I have nothing else to write about it.

I have three new favorite shows lately, but two of them haven't been on lately because of basketball, boo: Grey's Anatomy, Boston Legal, and House, M.D..

It's weird because I usually hate medical shows, and two of these shows are about doctors. But all of them are so smartly written (with awesome soundtracks, which is v. important!) and funny that I got over it. Also House is kind of different in that it's about diagnostics and not surgery, which is interesting.

An exchange from last night's (repeat, but I had never seen it) episode of House:

Dr. Gregory House: "You bastard. You invited my parents to dinner."
Dr. Wilson: "Geez, Cameron's got a big mouth."
Dr. Gregory House: "Ha! Not as big as yours."
Dr. Wilson: "Hey, you used me to avoid seeing your parents."
Dr. Gregory House: "Well, what do you care?"
Dr. Wilson: "I don't. I just thought it might be interesting to find out why."
Dr. Gregory House: "You could have just asked."
Dr. Wilson: "You would have lied."
Dr. Gregory House: "And you would have believed me. Which would have kept us both happy. Do you want your money back, is that what this is about?"
Dr. Wilson: "No! Wait, what? Have you got the money?"
[House starts to write check]
Dr. Wilson: "If you have the money, then why did you need the loan?"
Dr. Gregory House: "I didn't. I just wanted to see if you'd give it to me. I've been borrowing increasing amounts ever since you lent me forty dollars a year ago. A little experiment to see where you'd draw the line."
Dr. Wilson: "You're - you're trying to objectively measure how much I value our friendship?"
Dr. Gregory House: "That's five grand, you've got nothing to be ashamed of. So what do you say, one little phone call, one big check?"
Dr. Wilson: "Fine."
[takes check]
Dr. Wilson: "Thanks."
[gets in car]
Dr. Wilson: "Now, be a grownup and either tell mommy and daddy you don't want to see them or I'm picking you up at 7:00 for dinner."
Dr. Gregory House: "What do you mean? You just said... "
Dr. Wilson: "I lied. I've been lying to you in increasing amounts ever since I told you you look good unshaved a year ago. It's a little experiment, you know, to see where you'd draw the line."

Hilarious.

Another one of my favorite shows, Monk, starts in July. But eh. Last season wasn't all that fabulous, so I'm not as excited as I usually would be. Monk's been going down hill since they replaced the character Sharona with annoying Natalie. Also they've been making Monk so dumb when he's not. He's just obsessive compulsive.

Summer Reading / Brat's Antics / Music.

I recently finished the novel Digging to America by Anne Tyler. Two different American families, one Caucasian and one Iranian, both arrive at an airport the same day to pick up their adopted Korean babies. The families become linked after that, and the novel follows their interactions through the years.

Interesting concept, but I never felt connected to any of the characters, which obviously killed some of my enjoyment of the book. None of them ever seemed to embody a definitive personality, because the narrative jumped around so much.

***

The Brat left me a little present on the porch again. This time it was a dead frog. Lovely. Last night he jumped up on the bird feeder--which is taller than I am! I was not amused and told him to get his ass down from there. Then he climbed a tree and tried to get to a bird's nest. Then he attacked the black & white cat, then he etc., etc., etc. Lord save us from terrorist kittens.

***

When will my diploma come?!?!

***

The template I want finally works! On my computer, anyway. I'll have to check it out on the Brother's, because that was the one I had problems with.

One thing I dislike about Blogger is that there's no option to include "Current Music" or "Current Mood." I'll just have to include it on my own.

iTune: Tegan and Sara--"I Won't Be Left"
iMood: bored

***

"I won't mistake you for problems with me
I won't let my moods ruin this you'll see
I won't take everything good and move it away
I won't be left dancing along to songs from the past
Would you stay home and keep our memories warm with me
Would you give all your love for a run at the past with me
I know you're sad even though you say that you're not
I know you're scared even though you say that you're not
I won't get mad when you say things are getting too hard
I won't make all of your love so scared to come through our yard
I won't scream in my head and let it isolate me
I won't be left dancing alone to songs from the past"

--Tegan and Sara, "I Won't Be Left"

One Point for Intolerance.

Huh. I started to write a simple blog entry, responding to an article I read on the Internet, and I must feel more passionate about the issue then I realized, because it turned out to be quite the combative post. And that's why I'm not sharing it with anyone, because I wouldn't have the patience for anyone who disagreed with me (not that I know if anyone would). But it's one of those rare times that I feel like, if you disagree, you're an ignorant moron (yes, bad, I know). The more I would get upset about it in comments to people who felt otherwise, the more incoherent I would get, and so anyone who disagreed with me would feel like they "won."

I'm only sharing this story, because it's just interesting how simple things affect us. Like, why do we care so much about things that are mostly just theory, that don't even actually affect anyone all that much? Like, if you like the Steelers and I like the Browns, why should I feel like punching you in your smug face, when it doesn't really matter which football team you like, in the grand scheme of things? (And the issue was something political, not this silly thing! But no so silly to some people.)

Remembering.

I can make you believe any lie. I can make you pick a fight with somebody twice your size.

I been known to cause a few break ups...I can make you new friends or I can make you say bad words...

helping white people dance! I got you in trouble in high school. But college! Now that was a ball. You had some of the best times you'll never remember with me...

I got blamed at your wedding reception for your best man's embarrassing speech. And also for those naked pictures of you at the beach...

Zelda.

So I just beat Zelda on SNES.

Damn, I'm good.

I'm a bit miffed, though. It doesn't save that you beat the game! I was hoping after I beat it, I could wander around the world and the townspeople would be like, "you rock, man!" Or at least my "character" would be marked on the main screen as having completed the game 100%.

But no! After I beat the game, it went through this spiel and says "The End," and I had to reset. And when I went to play the game with my character again, to see if anything had changed, it sent me to beat the final boss again.

Asshats.

Also? The Brat has been impossible lately.

AFI's 100 Most Inspirational Films.

Last night I watched the television show about the American Film Institute's list of 100 inspirational films

The top five:

1. It's a Wonderful Life
2. To Kill a Mockingbird
3. Schindler's List
4. Rocky
5. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

All movies that I love, except for Schindler's List, which I saw too young to really remember (and possibly understand?), but the clip they showed for it was...I don't know what word to use. It's the scene with Schindler so upset, thinking he could have saved more.

I watched To Kill a Mockingbird again the other day. That movie--and the book--is so spectacular. Wasn't Atticus Finch voted the greatest American hero somewhere? Because he so is.

Sidney Poitier was the actor who appeared in the most movies on the list, with five (In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Lilies of the Field, The Defiant Ones, and Raisin in the Sun).

Why doesn't he act anymore? He was good. I always wanted to see In the Heat of the Night and haven't yet. (Actually, the show pointed out that Poitier was in the most, but Gary Cooper was also in five of the movies on the list.)

Pretty Pretty.

Um. I just bought this ring. Whoops?

(pictured removed because it's huge)

4.00 carats cushion cut smoky quartz sterling filigree ring. Whew. This baby could take someone's eye out. I love, love, love it.

Icons.

At one of my old blogs, I was able to upload a bunch of icons to use with my posts. Blogger doesn't have that feature. We just get one icon. :( But here are some icons that I used, because maybe I'll just do the coding myself and occassionally stick one in a post! You may notice that all of the "titles" I gave the pictures are from songs (except the first and last ones). I used to have more Vivien Leigh ones, but I think they're lost. More turtles, too, come to think of it. : ( Animal photos are from Getty Images.


Turtle Island


Into the Blue


Such Great Heights


Learning to Fly


We're Going to Be Friends


Don't Panic


Can't Smile Without You


Case of You / Take My Breath Away


Building a Mystery


Fool of Me / Me, Myself, and I


You're Not Entitled to Your Opinion

Latest Book, Black Squirrels, and Etc.

Bopbopbop.

((le soja)) loaned me Pepper Pike by Les Roberts to read. I'm not generally a detective-mystery fan, but this series is unique in that it takes place in Cleveland--and how. There are so many details about Cleveland, so much Cleveland "mind set," that I had to enjoy the book. If it hadn't been placed in Cleveland, I'm not sure that I'd bother reading anymore in the series--not because it wasn't well written, but because I'm just not a fan of the detective novel style, generally. Anyone homesick for Cleveland should def. read it, too--just remember that the series was started in the late '80s!

And, oh, The Absurd Pickle Jar asked about my black squirrel photos. I was studying outside last spring at my college, and I see a little baby black squirrel coming down from the tree. I start making baby talk at it--it's so cute--and it suddenly comes running toward me! I was a bit freaked out, actually. I thought it'd bite me or something. But no. It sat on my blanket, and I tentatively touched its tail. And when it didn't attack me, I pet it. And it wanted to lay in my lap and cuddle by me--seriously. It actually fell asleep on my Management book--it found it as boring as I did--so I just covered it with a page and kept on studying.

The Absurd Pickle Jar is posting novel fragments on his blog. Possibly his productivity will inspire me to start working on my "fragments," too! No other job is coming along--might as well be a failed novelist, too! ; )

Fun (and sad) Things.

Ahahahahaha.

If you get the Plain Dealer, open to the back page of the PDQ section and look at the bottom cartoon and its captions.

!!!

I was shocked when I saw they had selected mine. I just sent it in as a joke last Sunday, and I had completely forgotten it until I read the newspaper this morning.

If you don't get the newspaper, here's the cartoon at the website, but the winning entries aren't up yet.

My caption:

"Dracula had no way of knowing if he looked hot for his big date."

I bought three SNES games yesterday: Legend of Zelda, The Lion King, and Toy Story. V. fun. Well, Zelda is. I haven't played the other two yet.

...

The Brat killed one of the baby bluejays this morning. : (

Nature.

I was bird watching this morning, and I noticed that two bluejays were acting weird. I can't describe why I thought they were acting weird; it was instinct on my part. I got out the binoculars, and what did I spy hopping around the base of a tree but two fat little baby bluejays! They were adorable. (The Brat was with me own the porch, so I had to make sure he didn't notice them. I think the parents would have pecked him to death, though.) I don't know if they fell out of the nest or if the parents decided it was time for them to fly or what. I was v. concerned about the little babies. The kept hopping up the trunk of the trees and flying off--but they only could fly a few feet. And then one went in the ditch. Oy vey. The parents were looking out for them--they attacked any bird that went near the trees they were around, etc. Bluejays in general are mean little things. I had to go get ready inside to leave, and when I came back out, the little babies weren't in the yard (or ditch!) anymore, so I am assuming (and hoping) they made it back up the tree.

And shit. I was looking at templates the other day, and checking them out on my blog, and I swear I didn't "save changes," but for some reason my blog-look has changed, and all my sidebar info and links are gone! Aah! And I still can't get the one I want to work.

And oh--the other day when we were finding out info about renting a pontoon boat at Pymatuning Valley? Guess who rented one for the day, and were just pushing offshore? A family of Amish! On a pontoon boat! Who would ever think you'd see that? It was quite the picture.

Idiot Book.

I finished another book in Oprah's Book Club: What Looks Like Crazy On an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage.

Um. Yeah.

This book made me angry, actually, with it's (im)moral reasoning. It's about a black woman with AIDS (and there's no indication of that from the summary on the back or the cutesy, bright colored cover, so I wasn't expecting it!), and she falls in love with this ex-crack dealer/muscle man (she's actually a v. successful woman, we aren't supposed to get the impression that she's from "the streets," etc.). He went to prison for 10 years for killing two people (although it's implied he's killed more, but he was only caught for the two), and the book seriously makes it out like we aren't supposed to care that he's a murderer--like we are so judgmental if we don't want her to get involved with him--or even question whether she should--that's the big problem I have. That we aren't even supposed to care that he's killed people.

A passage (emphasis mine):

"Listen, little sister," Joyce said, shifting Imani to a more comfortable position and sighing like she couldn't understand what was the problem. "Ain't none of us sixteen years old anymore. We've done some good stuff and some bad stuff, but it's all our stuff at this point. I figure the best we can do for each other is try to understand and move on the best we can."

"I never killed anybody, Joyce."

"That makes you perfect?"

I hesitated. She had me there.

WTF crazy reasoning! She does not have you there! There's a big difference between killing people and being perfect, thank you v. much.

Look, it's not that I don't think criminals can be reformed or whatever, it's that this book says we aren't even supposed to be concerned a little bit, we're not supposed to have a moment of doubt whether she should be with him--we're supposed to just immediately accept and not care that he's killed people! And it'd be one thing if he completely reformed, but later in the book, he's prepared to so casually "take care of it," meaning kill some punk kid for the women--who is a troublemaker, but hasn't necessarily hurt or killed anyone.

I don't know. I just don't like that this book is so preachy--like if you are a bit leery of a convicted murderer, you're the one with the problem. I don't think so. Ending someone's life (multiple someone's) isn't on the same level as getting busted for drugs when you were a teenager, or even stealing a car or etc.! Yes, he's "paid his debt to society," but there's something inside of people that will allow them to murder someone--and he's shown that it's still inside of him, because he's willing to kill again--and v. cold bloodly, too. Fall in love and marry him, okay, I believe he's decent, too, and am glad for her at the end, but don't act like it wasn't a problem she had to think about, or that murdering someone is perfectly acceptable behavior, especially if it happened when he was young (which it didn't, actually), when it's okay to completely wipe the past.

:(

...and the hopeless job search continues.

Garage Sales!

The parents and I went garage saling today, one of my favorite things to do. We stopped at 21 of them. Yes, 21. I think I got some good deals!

What I bought (I'm not v. good at descriptions, so bear with me.):

$2.00: One of those square cloth purses, usually you see them with Asian designs? Mine has a design of turquoise-colored flowers. Good for if you don't want to lug around a purse, like if you're at an amusement park or something.

$1.00: A flower, silvertone bracelet from Avon. Adorable.

$1.00: A ceramic elephant, a little less than a foot in height and length. V. cute decoration. The color of it reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

$1.25: Funny Face DVD (starring Audrey Hepburn). New! With lots of special features. What a deal!

$.50: Wooden cat figurine.

$.50: Old-fashioned fabric, stuffed cat.

$.50: Set of Christmas dish towel, kitchen towel, and pot holder.

$1.00: What-used-to-be a 12-setting silverware set, now has about 11-each of two different kinds of forks, two different kinds of spoons, butterknives, and two serving spoons, serving fork, one of those little butterknives, etc. In good condition, just needs cleaned. Yes, $1.00. Now I feel less guilty about the $50 dinnerware set I plan to buy, since I got a silverware set for $1.00. Yeah, I won't be using them my entire life, but they'll last until I (hopefully) have a bridal shower.

I think that's everything. The parents found some deals, too.

We also went over to Pymatuning Lake, to check out the prices for boat rentals. Some time soon we're renting a pontoon boat for a couple of hours, and then have a picnic.

And I'm irritated at Blogger. I want to change the look of my blog, the format, but the one I want to change it to isn't working right! Argh.

The Brat & His Antics.

For two days in a row, the Brat has left me little presents on the porch.

Dead birds.

I'm not-so-much amused that I will prob. be catching bird flu because of him.

He's such a terror.

Summer Reading.

I've read three more books! Yes, that's pretty much all I do.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
I love books about different cultures (esp. books in which someone enters a culture different than their own, but that's not this book), so this is a pleasurable read. It's interesting to learn about the secret language the Chinese females developed. And, yeah, miscommunication sucks (how eloquently put!) ** 1/2

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
This book is fabulous. The language is so beautiful, as are the descriptions. You can vividly picture South Carolina and the three black bee keeper sisters in their pink house. This book made me remember that the world and life can't be just randomness and science (and how sad for you if you think so)--but I wouldn't say that was the book's intention, maybe I just picked it up on my own, although it could have been. I'd recommend this book to people, for sure. It's weird because I tried to read Kidd's The Mermaid Chair, and didn't like it, so I thought I wouldn't enjoy this one. I'll have to give The Mermaid Chair another chance. *** 1/2

A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton
I started this book last summer and abandoned it. I do that sometimes, and it's no reflection on the quality of the book, because this one was enjoyable enough. It's an Oprah book. I've noticed that Oprah's Book Club books must contain at least one of these things: cheating husband, child molestation (or at least an accusation of), rape, questionable death, or incest. This book has three of those things. **

Dixie Chicks.

Remember in 2003 when the Dixie Chicks made some remark about Bush, and some country music fans freaked out, and stations actually banned Dixie Chicks' songs?

They have a new song, "Not Ready to Make Nice," which I love. Of course, there's a big to-do going on. And I just read a quote by some radio station person that made me laugh my ass off.

A person's excuse for not wanting to play the new song (from this article): "'But what concerns me about this song is it's backward thinking,' he added."

The Dixie Chicks are "backward thinking"? Oh, you so funny.

"I made my bed, and I sleep like a baby,
With no regrets and I don't mind saying,
It's a sad sad story
That a mother will teach her daughter
that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world
Can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I'm not ready to make nice,
I'm not ready to back down,
I'm still mad as hell
And I don't have time
To go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is
You think I should"

--Dixie Chicks, "Not Ready to Make Nice"