mocha frappucino - breakfast of champions

I am an aunt! I mean, I was an aunt before, but all on Dan’s side. My brother Drew and his wife Rebecca had their baby Friday morning. Welcome to the world, Andrew Preston! Drew says he looks like a combo of his in-laws and our maternal grandfather.

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I finished the Deptford trilogy this morning. Again I say, just brilliant. But then I experienced my usual moment of panic: What am I going to read next? It’s a big decision. I had already begun The French Lieutenant’s Woman so will probably just continue with that. The quote on the back of Fifth Business (the first book in the Deptford trilogy) sealed the decision: It has the magic, mystery, and irresistible drive of the French Lieutenant’s Woman. – The New York Times. It was like a sign. Of course, I brought The Bookseller of Kabul with me, because I’d hate to get stuck for an hour at lunch with a boring book. I also pondered picking up David Copperfield or Vanity Fair, both of which are sitting on the shelf in my nightstand. We’ll see what I wind up with at the end of the day. I find I need to be in certain moods to read certain books, so I may change my mind once I actually have time to sit down and read. Although – I have a baby quilt to finish up quickly now!

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I am instituting a new feature on the blog: The Book List. Each month I will set up a post that Gina and I can edit as necessary, listing books we’ve read that month. I find I can’t keep track. I used to write them all down but in the interest of making this blog a complete literary experience, I am going to try this instead. I really liked the way Nick Hornby listed Books Bought and Books Read in his book Polysyllabic Spree but I am not quite ready to go that far yet. So just look for the blog entry each month entitled Books Read – [Month name] to see the ongoing list.
I’ll try to post it in the beginning of the month starting next month, but for this month, I will just put an entry in today. Gina, I thought this was a cool idea, but if you hate it, tell me and we’ll figure out something else.

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OK, I hate to sound like a raging non-feminist here, but why is it more newsworthy that female soldiers died? Isn’t that what modern women want – the opportunity to serve their country in the same capacity as men? Sadly, along with that privilege comes the same danger.
Lt. Sharon Battiste, a Navy nurse in Qaim, in western Iraq, said she has only dealt with male casualties in Iraq so far -- and acknowledged it would be extremely difficult to deal with female casualties.
"From personal experience, I can tell you it's very devastating whenever we have an injured Marine, much less one Marine or Marines that die," Battiste said. "I believe that it does affect us all when we have death. And I think it would affect us even more if we have a female that dies from one of these ... acts."
She added, "I think it just would hit home a little harder."
Because it brings it closer to home that if you fight for the right to serve like male soldiers, you also risk dying like male soldiers? The emphasis on gender just seems contradictory.

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David and Marisa - Have a wonderful wedding. I know you two will have a long, happy, and fulfilling marriage, and that you will be only good for each other. I wish you both all the best from the bottom of my heart.

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This story about the three boys in NJ is so sad. I’m not sure why it caught my attention any more than any other horrible child-disappearance story except that both my parents grew up in Camden (two of the boys were from Camden), and I grew up one block from Mt Ephraim (one boy was from Mt E). I saw the headline today and caught my breath. Every parent’s worst nightmare.