Screw Disneyworld, the library is the happiest place on earth.

That is my favorite new saying. Thanks, Gina! I am going to put it on a bumper sticker.

I am fifty pages into Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping. For all the hype the book got, I expected to be enthralled – and I’m not. It’s a very quiet, nicely written novel, with quiet characters and some lovely imagery. As one reviewer said, it's fairly 19th-century and at the same time, it reminds me of Kent Haruf’s Plainsong more than anything else. I guess the huge gap between books has something to do with the hype for her second, Gilead, but I am not anticipating great things anymore. Look at Donna Tartt – The Secret History was good, but I doubt her second one, The Little Friend would have made as big a splash (although eventually it did sort of fizzle out) if it had been written only two or three years after her first. (And if she weren’t such a mysterious and sexy person…wonder how mysterious and sexy Marilynne Robinson is?) However, in Tartt’s defense, at least her books are memorable. I am not sure I’ll remember reading Housekeeping at all. Unless it’s for my disappointment in it.

Simon is listening to the Clash and jumping on his bed. (He did this Sunday and fell off the bed, clonking his head on the footboard. Ouch. When I arrived at the Super Bowl party without him, and met some new people, they assumed Simon was my husband until it came out later in conversation that Simon is my four year old. I can’t even imagine what sort of moron these people thought I was, marrying a man who spends Sunday afternoons jumping on the bed to the Clash?) At any rate, I am merely expressing my gratitude that Si is back into the Clash, and the horror of Wilco’s Spiders (Kid Smoke) are to be avoided today at least. God I hate that song. Unfortunately Simon likes it. I think it’s this generation's In-a-freaking-Gadda-Da-Vida or however the hell you spell that song. Jeff Tweedy, you may be a genius, but Kid Smoke SUCKS. Also, Jeff, speaking of kids smoking, if you’re reading this, could you please *quit* smoking? I am tired of seeing my four year old wandering around the house with his guitar in hand and a Tinker Toy stick in his mouth.