FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  I guess am settling into being 60 now.  I actually piped up and asked for the Senior Discount at
Walgreens yesterday - 10% off every Tuesday!


2.)  We went to see American Hustle last Saturday - what a powerhouse cast of amazing actors.  It was second only to Blue Jasmine on my movie list for the year.  We also saw Inside Llewyn Davis  a week or so ago - a bit slow moving but the music was great.  Tom wants to see Nebraska this weekend - anyone seen that one?

3.)  Having 10 days off work was great and really made me look forward to having every day off work...


4.)  We took our new bike rack out for the first time last weekend - we drove to Martinez and then rode our bikes over the Benicia Bridge, all around the downtown and marina and then back to Martinez.  It was about 22 miles altogether.

It was another amazingly warm winter day - we don't know how much longer this weather is going to hold but plan to take advantage of it while it is here.


5.)  Finished our book club selection Cukoo's Calling, which was very good and dove right into The Goldfinch which is sooo excellent.  I have read one good book after another this past year.  So satisfying.

6.)  One of the owners of the company I work for had a hissy fit a few months ago when the flu started going around and made a big deal about everyone getting a flu shot.  She quizzed everyone for weeks about getting the shots and freaked out when I was stuffed up even when I assured her it was just allergies.

This week she came into work sick as I have ever seen anyone.  We were all just cringing and practically bathing in hand sanitizer.  Her daughter is our office manager and kept telling her to go in her office, close the door and keep away from everyone but she just kept dragging people in there or walking around touching the door handles, the printer and the schedule book which is kept on my desk.  We sanitized everything in her wake.

Now we are all watching each other for signs that we caught her bug (it appears it might have been H1N1 and she finally got drugs from her doctor) - so far I think we dodged the bullet.

This weekend will tell.  Hope you all have a nice, healthy one!

NOOK VS. BOOK

Excuse my poor photography - but I think the point is made.  I paid for and downloaded a book I already owned because I just couldn't read the small grey type for very long before my eyes gave out.

The good news - totally worth it - I am again loving the Margaret Atwood book, The Year of the Flood, leading up to her trilogy closing book MaddAddam.   I have book club tonight so I will have to read that selection before I get to read MaddAddam, but I am happy to have it waiting in the wings.

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.) What does it say about our little city that the most prevalent new businesses seem to be two of types:
 massage parlors  and academic tutoring.

2.)  I was disappointed when the book selected for our book club this month was a Jodi Picoult novel. I am a bit of a book snob - I admit it.  However,  though I am not finished with it yet and it may still disappoint, The Storyteller is a pretty good read.

The thing is, I am anxious to get back to re-reading the first two of the Margaret Atwood MaddAddam Trilogy - the third book just came out and all the reviewers suggested going back to the first two before embarking on this new one.  The first, Oryx and Crake, came out 10 years ago and I was amazed at how much of it I recalled when I re-read it last week.  When I finish the book club book, I'll read The Year of the Flood again and then dive into MaddAddam.  Just love Margaret Atwood.

3.)  I started my holiday shopping this weekend with a online session.  I didn't have much luck finding things I was thinking about for gifts - some companies I have shopped with in the past seem to be gone and prices seem to be a lot higher this year.

I read that the California economy is supposed to be nearly back to what it was 8 years ago.  It certainly hasn't happened in my house and the article didn't address the huge increase in the price of everything vs. the new lower wages we are living with. I make $4.00 an hour less now than I did 8 years ago and pay $800. more a month for health insurance. Then add in the higher cost of gas, groceries and even internet.

 I suppose statistically speaking,  people who made good money during this recession and are making even more money now will skew the numbers higher than the reality most of us live with.

4.)  Just got back from our date night. We skipped dance class and went to the gym then out to eat.  The moon is huge and bright, the temperature when we got to dinner was 68 degrees; we ate outside knowing it is probably the last week of this balmy fall weather...  Tomorrow we are off to Monterey to ride bikes with our Zac.

Hope everyone has a lovely fall weekend!

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)   Like many people, we are riveted by the last episodes of Breaking Bad - which we have watched and loved since the first season.  Can't say the same about Dexter which is also coming to an end.  It was once as well written and engaging, but is limping to a close.

Don't see anything that is going to take the place of these shows - I'm looking forward to one more season of Mad Men starting next year.  I like Homeland but Tom can't get past Carrie's twitchiness.  He likes Survivor and I won't watch it.  I don't know when Downton Abbey starts up again but will be watching that for sure. 

I don't see anything on the fall lineup to bring me back to network TV, so more time for the internet and reading, I guess.  Or maybe I'll finally watch some of the shows and movies I have recorded on the DVR!

4.)  Tom is thrilled that AMC is going to make a spin off called "Better Call Saul" about Walter Whites sleazy lawyer.  He and his attorney buddy are always talking about going for it and advertising like Saul.

3.)  I grew up at the foot of Mt. Diablo which has been in the news due to a wildfire burning there this week.  I now live about 20 miles south of the mountain and get to gaze at it everyday as I drive to work.  They have controlled the fire and no homes or major structures were lost.  It has been weird to see the smoke, have the helicopters (which scoop water from a nearby reservoir and carry it to the fire) and air tankers flying over us all week in the efforts to put the fire out.  It has been even more strange to read and hear comments from people all over the country talking about the event with so much misinformation and nonsense being spouted. 

The worst part of the story was that 2 fire stations were broken into and personal belongings of the firefighters were stolen while they were out working.  Really.  That happened. 

4.)  Gov. Jerry Brown and the leaders of the California state Legislature have passed a bill that would raise the state's minimum wage to $10 an hour.

“The minimum wage has not kept pace with rising costs,” Brown said in a statement. “This legislation is overdue and will help families that are struggling in this harsh economy.”

I know a lot of people think $10.00 is much more than businesses can pay - however, the city of San Francisco has had a minimum wage in excess of $10. an hour for several years (it is now $10.55) and while there is complaining, there seem to be few businesses who have not managed to meet the cost.  

Ten dollars an hour is still not a living wage - at least not in this very expensive part of the country, but it will make it more possible for people to pay their bills and maybe have some spending money to spread around and support the local economy.

5.) My Nook is starting to act up - and this is my second one in 3 years.  I am afraid it is going to stop working any time now, right in the middle of the book I am reading.

I am thinking that I may have to give up my ban on Amazon and purchase a Kindle if it happens.  They just don't appear to have the failure rate I am experiencing - and, quite frankly, I really dislike the Barnes & Noble website.  Plus the Amazon e-books are less expensive.

 I guess this is yet another downside of the e-readers - having all these books that can not only be shared with other people but can't be transferred to other devices.  I know a lot of people have tablets they use as readers, but I am not sure I can afford one of those. Time to start researching, because I recognize the signs of Nook failure in the works.

THAT NEW BOOK SMELL

Today I was reminded about my love for books - the physical entity of books.  I enjoy my Nook.  It allows my tired old eyes to be able to read longer and in low light, but today we received a book in the office and I just can't stop hefting it, running my fingers across the cover, inhaling the ink and flipping the pages.

I'd almost forgotten those pleasures.

DEAD NOOK

My Nook died.

The guy at Barnes and Nobel said it would cost $140. to get a new battery.  A new Nook costs $149.

I was pretty sad about the whole thing.

Tom said - we'll get a new battery.  I told him the guy at B&N said the reason it is so expensive to replace is the difficulty - thus high labor cost.

Tom snorted and  found YouTube vido showing how to do it and a site selling the battery for $40.

It's on the way.  To be continued...

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  Just did a little chair dance with sound effects when I saw that John Irving has a new novel coming out next month.  I so love his books.  This while I have a new Ann Tyler waiting for me in my Nook.  Oh the riches of the Spring publishing season!

2.)  Speaking of Spring.  I provide this public service reminder:  When you put on that first slathering of self tanner, remember to wash well with soap.  I was very tired that evening and suffered the oddly stained hands for several days.  My legs looked pretty good, though.

3.)   Thursday was Hilda's Sweet Sixteenth birthday - it cost me $100.00.  Not because she figured out how to shop online or order Pay Per View but because she was lonely and barking and our grouchy neighbor would rather call the police than close his windows ( she is in our house with all of ours closed)
or call us on our cell phones, which we have asked him to do.  One more reason to move...

4.)  Jen on the Edge enlightened me to the eBay way to snag current styles shoes at discounted prices.  I am watching for the black and white ballet flats of my desire to drop under $80.00.  I had no idea that people had current styles on eBay -  am losing my shoppers touch!

5.)  We had such a mild winter here that I keep forgetting that it isn't even May yet.  I have gotten so many warm weather projects done already.  I refurbished my BBQ with new innards and scrubbed off the grease and crud.  I have planted a lime tree, a hibiscus and several herbs and annuals.  This weekend I hope to untarp my mosaic area and get to work making this:

Except covered with colorful tiles!

YES, I AM AN ADULT FAN OF THE HUNGER GAMES BOOKS

Lifted from Google images.

The timing wasn't right for me to read the Harry Potter books with my kids, I couldn't be convinced to read the Twilight series but I read all 3 of the Hunger Games books within a week.  They are that good.  I am planning to see the movie.  My excitement got my youngest daughter weirded out.

I looked into this phenomenon of adults reading young adult fiction and found that it adults are a really big part of the market.  Reasons cited are the crossover of many adult fiction writers to the genre (Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors but I have never read her YA fiction)  Other reasons cited are the stories themselves which are not so heavy with adult themes, the writing is good and according to historical writer Amanda Foremen  "A lot of adult literature is all art and no heart, But good Y.A. is like good television. There’s a freshness there; it’s engaging. Y.A. authors aren’t writing about middle-aged anomie or ­disappointed people.”


In The Hunger Games trilogy, the heroine isn't concerned with romance, though she is set up to have to choose between two guys who love her.  She is a strong but vulnerable, bossy, angry, naive, courageous girl made to grow up too fast. Fighting her own fears and disappointments in a corrupt world of the future.  Because she is so authentic, she draws people to her and becomes the reluctant  figurehead of a revolution.

She works hard to feed her family, is loyal to her friends, is defiant of a a corrupt government and manages to keep her clothes on, her integrity intact and to recover from the terrible events and betrayals she is put through.  She can be irritatingly indecisive, clueless about what is going on around her, angers easily and directs it without selfishly and when required to face self knowledge she is wont to hide in closets.  That is the hallmark of the YA focus of the book.  The younger set relates to her inner life struggles, the older readers see her core values and cheer her on.

THIS BOOK WORE ME OUT!

I spent the last week in a state of aggravation brought on by reading Stephen King's Under the Dome.  I don't frequently read King, but I so enjoyed 11/22/63, his book on time travellers trying to stop the Kennedy assassination  that I downloaded Dome.  In his notes at the end of the book, he wrote that he intended it to be "pedal to the metal" throughout.  It runs over 800 pages of anxiety inducing storytelling. 

Before that I read another book by Hillary Jordan; Mudbound was good storytelling but the 1940's southern racism and sexism got my hackles up. Before that I read The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips.  Full of Shakespearean lore and, yes, tragedy.

So now I need a rest.  My nerves are shot, but I can't go more than a day without a book to read.  I think I'll look for a nice book  - something with screen doors slamming, fireflies and peach cobbler.

 I saw the commercial for the Hunger Games movie and it intrigued me.  It looks a bit intense, so maybe not next,  but my question is:  has anyone read the series and it it worthwhile?

IS AMAZON TRYING TO BURN THE BOOK INDUSTRY?



Photo borrowed from Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

I am one of those people who stops patronizing companies (and I do write and tell them I am doing so) when they do things I don't think are right. I never shop at Wal-Mart because of their anti-union activities and the employee abuses which have been reported and litigated for 20 years. I am no longer shopping at Lowes after they pulled ads from the TV show American Muslim. After Amazon started spending millions to avoid paying sales taxes in California and then learning of employee abuses in their warehouses, I stopped shopping on Amazon.

Not shopping on Amazon has been the most difficult decision to stick with and the main reason I ended up with a Nook and not a Kindle. Now Amazon is giving me more reason to stick with my position. It seems that the next move to be the only bookseller in the country is to get exclusive publishing rights to certain authors and to start publishing books themselves.

Barnes & Noble  has decided not to sell those books through their stores, saying: "Our decision is based on Amazon’s continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents and the authors they represent. These exclusives have prohibited us from offering certain e-books to our customers. Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content."

An article published in Bloomberg  BusinessWeek reports that Jeff  Bezos, Amazon's founder, doesn’t care whether he loses money on books for the larger cause of stocking the Kindle with exclusive content unavailable in Barnes & Noble’s Nook or Apple’s iBookstores. He’s also got almost infinitely deep pockets for spending on advances to top authors. Even more awkwardly for publishers, Amazon is their largest retailer, so they are now in the position of having to compete against an important business partner. On the West Coast people cheerfully call this kind of arrangement coopetition. On the East Coast it’s usually referred to as getting stabbed in the back.

I completely understand that everyone in business needs to keep up with the new technology and be ready for the future ways of doing business, the lack of foresight was why my favorite bookstore, Borders, went out of business. They were great about carrying a huge range of old and new titles, but they missed the boat on the shift to e-readers.

I just hate to see the continued gobbling up of the whole industry by one company.  Especially one company which has continued it's march to dominance by treating employees poorly, undercutting authors, refusing to contribute it's fair share of taxes and generally shoving it's deep pocketed weight around.

NOOK LOVE

I know I have written repeatedly (repetitively?) about my love for books.   I swore I wouldn't go to an eReader because my fantasy home has floor to ceiling shelves full of books, not electronic devices.  (Did you know there is a website  called Bookshelf Porn for people like me?)

 But now I am in trouble.   I have read 4 books on my Nook - and I am ruined for the printed page.  I am stunned to admit this.  On the brightly lit, large fonted Nook, I speed through books tirelessly.  When I picked up a paperback to read yesterday, I struggled after an hour or so.  Again tonight, I read a few pages and started squinting and wondering why it's printed in such pale ink.  I have to stop every few pages and rest my tired, old eyes.

This is such a bittersweet thing for me.  I was thrilled to read the 500 pages of Edgar Sawtelle quickly, effortlessly.  It was such a wonderfully different book.  I was excited to get to a Susan Isaacs book as a fun antidote to the sad ending of Edgar - after just 58 pages I found myself looking at the B&N site to see how much it would cost to download it onto my Nook. 

 I am such a goner.

LATEST FAVORITE BOOK

I just finished Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  The third book I bought on my Nook, at 352 pages I just flew through it.  It is smart, funny and set in a period of time I have not seen many books cover - the year 1938.

The depression was winding down, WWII hadn't begun.  Women had left their flapper personas behind and were making their way in the world, more independently than ever.  Set in New York, the story is about a woman reflecting back on that year, a turning point in her life,  the people she meets, the decisions she makes (and those that are made for her.)

It is a glamorous and gritty time about Manhattann long before Sex & the City - yet in a way, full of  the same sort of stories. 

NEVER SAY NEVER

It is too soon to tell if this is true love.  I know that I have loved books since I was old enough to climb the steps of the bookmobile and check out the maximum number of books each time.  I have fantasies of floor to ceiling bookshelves full of books and other special objects.  Ive been lugging boxes of books from home to home since I was in college and have many of them in storage waiting for those fantasy shelves.

I believe I have said the e-readers will never be for me.  I may be wrong.

Tom bought me a Nook Color for our anniversary.  I spent a few days checking it all out, reading the info about all the stuff I can do with it.  I was also reading the new Alice Hoffman book, The Dovekeepers, which runs about 400 pages.  I found myself squinting at the pages and having to put it aside when my eyes got tired.

So I went online and bought the download of the book.   At $14.99 it was about what I pay for  some paperbacks - and this was a new release. (In fact I was the first one to get it from the library!)   I pumped up the font size and got to the place I had left off.  I am so happy with it!  So easy to read and I get tired of sitting before my eyes get  tired.  I am going through the book at a rapid pace (it's really great, by the way) and so now I am thinking about my wish list of books for future downloads. 

I also ordered a couple of real, ink and paper books I know I will want to keep for when I get those shelves...

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Book lovers necklace, found on Etsy.

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  Ally and I had a girl's night out and saw Water for Elephants.  I read the book years ago and loved it, she read it more recently.  I was skeptical of the casting and I am always wary of move adaptations of books I like but was willing to spend the money to see it in the theater and I am actually glad I did.  It was enjoyable and as good an adaptation of a book to film as I have seen in a long time. 

I realized that the reason so many books I love are so terrible on film is the issue of  time - there just is not time enough to tell the complex layers of story and character in the 2 hours or less that we are willing to sit in the theater. I still think that the book was much richer and more satisfying but it was worthwhile - and not just because I had a nice night out with my daughter!

2.)  It was predicted that after hatstrvaganza of the royal wedding that the ladies of the US would start strutting their bonnets more frequently than Easter and Derby Day.  Apparently there were a number of them at the Metropolitan Gala this week in New York.

Of course, the most talked about ones are those worn by Fergie's girls.  I did take a look at some of the other hats worn by Beatrice and I found that the one worn to the wedding was far from the wackiest - and the fact that her coat and shoes were so nice sort of took the edge of the GaGaesque factor.  No such excuse for young miss Eugenie - both dress and hat were really bad.  To think of having all that money and no taste...or at the least no advisers with her best interests at heart.

3.)  In the Bay Area we are paying $4.19 a gallon for regular gas.  Ten days ago when I last filled up it was $4.12.  I am lucky that I normally don't need to drive much, I can go about 3 weeks on a tank of gas.

I just read in the paper that high gas prices have caused consumers to cut back on their driving and that after 6 weeks of dropping demand, the oil companies are concerned that less driving by Americans (read less interest in buying their high priced gas) is going to undermine the economic recovery. 

Okaaay.  The oil companies are taking 4 billion dollars of taxpayer subsidies a year and Exxon Mobil reported Thursday that its profit rose 69 percent to $10.65 billion during the first three months of the year.
When the President made a speech on the ridiculous Republican stance on the subsidies, Exxon responded calling it “predictable political positioning but no action to actually help bring down energy prices.”

Uh.  Bringing down oil prices seems to me to be in the power of the guys making 10 billion dollars every 3 months.

4.)  The hotel plays the same recorded acoustic music every day for months on end. ( I was about out of my mind by the first of the year from the Holiday Mix.)  Since then the mix is quite eclectic.  Some new age sounding stuff, a few jazzy tunes and a jarring little number that is sort of gypsy music on steroids.  The one that cracks me up though is the strings version of the Amy Winehouse song Rehab.  Bet she never thought she'd earn residuals from Muzak!

BOOKS

The closing of our  local Border's store was announced this week.  I will really miss it.  It is where I usually bought my book club selections, my coupon in hand.  About half the time I managed to find another book or two to take home, too.  Books are my splurge.  I keep trying to go to the library to be thrifty, but I still can't go without purchasing books pretty much every month.

I am a life long book lover.  I still have some of the Nancy Drews from my childhood.  The Edger Allen Poe book my aunt bought me when I was 12, eecummings poetry volumes I collected in high school and  the Jungian psychology of Robert Johnson I read in college.  I have lugged books up and down California and across 3 states when I have moved.  I still morn the loss of  a box of books that was pilfered during one move when someone saw the boxes on the sidewalk outside an apartment building and went through them, taking some choice volumes.

My dream home has rooms of floor to ceiling bookcases. 

When e-readers came out I had no interest.  As more and more people around me got them, I had some mild curiosity, but when I held one it knew it was not for me.  I love books - not just reading.  One woman in my book club said that if she really likes one of the books she reads on her Kindle, she buys a copy to keep!    That just seems so odd to me.  Other friends have told me that they never really know where they are in a book - they miss the placement of a bookmark and the glance that tells them how much more there is before they finish.

As my eyes get older, I sometimes get eyestrain and need brighter light to read by.  Sometimes I increase the font size on my computer and I appreciate the possibility of doing the same on an e-reader.  I can also see the benefit for travel when you would otherwise, perhaps, end up carrying several volumes.  Having one lightweight reader would be

nice in that circumstance. 

I know there are arguments on both sides about the greeness of paper and ink books versus e-books.  I would just miss bookstores so much and there are so few left that offer the pleasures of wandering through and discovering authors, subjects and stories which aren't on the current best seller lists. 

I sense that it is all going to go away so much faster than I am prepared for.  That my bookcases are going to be full of books that are considered as old fashioned as the typewriter I have in the back of the closet.

READING GONE WILD

I am a big reader.  I am not saying I am a reader of great taste and sophistication, just that I read a lot and all the time.  This past month or so I have been reading strangely.  I have been ordering books from Quality Paperback Book Club (QPB) at a great rate, I have been taking books out from the library and purchasing books from the local used book store.  I have also borrowed a few books from my sister and even bought a hardcover book (The Irresistible Henry House) which was our July book club selection.

The new thing is that when I have read about a book which interested me, on a blog or website, I have gone to my local library and put in a reservation on a returning copy.  I really haven't done this before.  So while I was reading David Guterson's "The Other", the copy of Anne Tyler's "Noah's Compass" came into the library.  So I put aside the first book, read the second , then picked up the first book again and finished it.  Then I started reading the other book I picked up from the library which was a book of wonderful short stories by Elizabeth Berg called "The Day I Ate Anything I Wanted".  I read it in a day! 

Then I zipped through "That Old Cape Magic" by Richard Russo.  It was good but not as good as "Empire Falls."  My sister loaned me "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese which I liked as soon as I started reading it, but 4 chapters in and I got the notice that "Mr. Peanut" by Adam Ross had come into the library.  I had read on a number of sites that it is the big summer beach read on the East Coast - so I am giving it a go.  I am not usually a reader of murder mysteries.

So I am interrupting "Stone" for "Peanut."  Then, I went to Costco, and found  Barbara Kingsolver's new book "The Lacuna" is out in paperback and I snatched it up!  So I have that to look forward to, in addition to "Homer and Langley" by EL Doctrow.

Oh!  And I am a big fan of Larry McMurtry.  I read the third of the books about Duane, he was Jacy's boyfriend in "The Last Picture Show."  Anyway, there have been 3 more books following him through his life in his small Texas Town, and "Rhino Ranch" was the final book.  Now I want to go back and re-read all of them...when I have time.

Read anything good lately?

A PAGE TURNER

This is not going to be a book review. I am not even finished with the book. In fact, In a way, I am trying to avoid finishing the book.

Have you ever waited 14 years for an author to write another book and then it comes out and while you are reading it you realize that when you are done reading, it may be a very long time until there is another one to read - so you want to slow down and savor the experience even more, except that it is so good that you keep staying up late at night to read just a little more before bed?

That is my experience with South of Broad by Pat Conroy. Loving it, don't want it to end.

7 QUICK TAKES FRIDAY

1. My latest job search complaint: Companies who post jobs they already plan to fill from "within." I must have spent an hour and a half on the application, they wanted all kinds of information and details for a credit check and 4 personal references with name, address, phone number and e-mail. Then I waited and checked in, and finally got the notification that the job was filled from within. Geez. They should let you know if this is the circumstance of the job posting before they collect all sorts of private information and waste my time.

The ongoing complaint: All the "part time" jobs that are 32-35 hours a week. That way they avoid offering benefits - but it is tantamont to a full time job schedule offering little "time" for anything else.

2. I needed wide egg noddles to go with the Goulash I was making for dinner. I usually buy Golden Grain brand, but Safeway was out and I didn't have time to run across town to another store. So I bought the Safeway brand. When will I learn? The noodles were gummy when cooked through so I mixed a little butter through to keep them from sticking together. It didn't work. They ended up blobbing together and didn't hold the sauce of the goulash at all. Yes, blobbing is the best description...

People who say the store brand is the same as the name brands do not have my standards, I guess!

3. I have determined that I am going to enjoy being unemployed. Actually, I am officially unemployed but I do work for Tom's law practice. It is not consistent, so I find myself sitting at the computer "just in case" something comes up that he wants me to do. I end up surfing the net, reading all day. Getting stiff and headachy. It is making me anxious and depressed.

So now I am "scheduling" other activities, like housework and going to the gym. When work comes up, I do it. Otherwise I have a list of things to accomplish. I feel much better about my days this week. Now I just need to get Tom to be less irritated that I am not always at his beck and call...

4. Got my hair cut today - back to a basic bob. I grow it long because Tom likes it, but then I keep it pulled up all the time to get it out of the way. More asserting of me going on! Plus I had so much length cut off that the hair will be donated to a Locks of Love type organization which makes wigs for women. Hope they like the silver hair!

5. We survived the high school drama program devoted to AIDS and other world issues all done with music, dance and media projections. Very full of high school drama student ANGST. Actually, many of the 20 scenes were quite well done. Of course, we had stopped in for a few glasses of wine with fellow drama parents before we went over...

6. Ally's current boyfriend is not one for dances, so I got out of the dreaded shopping excursion for a suitable Homecoming Dance dress. I really must slip that boy a few bucks in appreciation.

7. Reading a murder mystery for book club meeting coming up. It is called Dissolution. Set in Tudor England at the time the monasteries were being dissolved and the new Church of England was being formed. I don't usually enjoy murder mysteries, but the setting makes it intriguing. I am enjoying it.

ROOMS FULL OF BOOKS

Mrs G. posted about book reading and book banning today. It just got me all stirred up about my love for books and reading. I have a little picture file of rooms I would love to live in. These are some of them.