"Fiction's about what it is to be a human being."*

I've been reading me some books:

I Am Legend – Richard Matheson. I imagine this would make a terrific movie but not having seen any of the versions, I don’t know. The book was OK. The ending shocked me. I did not feel compelled to read any of the short stories included in the volume the library chose to send to me.

Certain Girls - Jennifer Weiner. A decent read, an easy read (I whipped through it in two days). The alternating chapters, between Cannie and her daughter Joy, grew increasingly distracting. I did not LOVE it but I certainly liked it well enough and am happy to give Jennifer Weiner, who seems like a very nice woman, my money.

Mermaids in the Basement - Michael Lee West. I can’t recall if I already talked about this book but I liked it well enough that on a sojourn to Half Price Books last week I scooped up three more by West. Her characters are weird and quirky and funny, her families are all nuts, and the food is reliably delectable. (Note that the book that turned me on to West is her cookbook, Consuming Passions, both a fabulous read and a fabulous cookbook.)

Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family - Patricia Volk. Eh. I expected more food, less exposition. Her family is weird, too, but not nearly as lovably weird as West’s.

Monsters of Templeton - Lauren Groff. Groff is going to be a formidable force in the fiction world in the coming decades. As with David Mitchell, Allegra Goodman, and Kate Atkinson, I think Groff is going to develop into a stellar novelist and look forward to the journey with her. She’s already nothing to sneeze at; her debut is intelligent and fun (I don't know, think Possession (but not quite so academic or focused)...maybe crossed with Goodman’s family characterizations and a smidgen of weird creature-feature stuff. There's a whiff - like you'd wave the vermouth bottle over your martini? - of Richard Russo, and some Gothicky, Rebecca-like stuff, too.)

An Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett. What a totally charming little book.

And here’s something exciting: David Sedaris has a new book coming out.

In other news, I seem totally unable to finish Tenderness of Wolves, we are having waffles and sausage for dinner which is a sure thing, and I just mixed up a batch of brownies from a mix that was languishing in my pantry because the Nigella recipe I planned to use called for A CUP AND TWO-THIRDS of butter - and I didn't have enough.

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*David Foster Wallace (aka Gina's Boyfriend)

“There is no spectacle on earth more appealing than that of a beautiful woman in the act of cooking dinner for someone she loves.”*

For dinner tonight I made this chicken, and these yam cakes, and oven fries, and steamed whole green beans, and chopped organic Braeburn apple.

Primo ate: an apple, a glass of milk, a piece of potato and a bite or two of chicken (both dredged through ketchup) before declaring it "OK."

Seg ate: half an apple, a bite or two of chicken, and a glass of milk.

Terzo ate: four pieces of potato and a glass of ice water.

H ate a helping of green beans, some yam cakes, and a couple pieces of potato.
He was "not in the mood for chicken," which I, having been married to the man for thirteen years (but perhaps being a tad oversensitive?), translated as "I don't like drumsticks." (From the man who won't eat scallops (yucky texture), crab, lobster, or shrimp ("bottom-feeders"), pork, most red meat except for the occasional hamburger or $25 piece of steak), or flounder ("trash fish").)

I ate it all; in fact, I ate too much, and it was DELICIOUS.


Maybe my looks are the problem...

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* Thomas Wolfe

"Shine your shoes, we're going dancing with Lord Stanley!"

Playoff tickets: $200
Pretzel and Coke: $12
Watching your team come back from a 3-0 deficit, scoring two goals 15 seconds apart TWICE, and beating the horrible hated Rangers in one of the most exciting playoff games EVER: Priceless

There are some things money can't buy. Like Pens hockey.

“To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and call whatever you hit the target” *

It was bound to happen eventually – I didn’t get to the library this weekend to pick up my holds and they were sent back – and I cannot remember what I requested. Oh well, it’s not as if I don’t have plenty to read – but more on that later.

I managed to get all the trim but the window painted in the bedroom that is going to be H’s. This morning Terzo, Quarto (affectionately known as Darth at the moment), and I went to the NEW Target (oooohhh…) to buy:

1) unbreakable cereal bowls. One of the handcrafted pottery bowls that H and I collect was accidentally chipped at my impromptu birthday festivities Friday evening – our own fault for using them, but we had ice cream to feed people, so there you have it...it’s time for some Melamine for this household. I spotted some lovely ombre blue and white bowls at the old Target on Thursday but there were only two then, so today at the NEW Target when there were eight upon the shelf, I scooped them up, and eight matching salad plates and the six remaining dinner plates. I am becoming the queen of mismatched dinnerware –but it’s all in lovely shades of blue and white and turquoise so it’s all good and pretty and interesting.

2) window blinds for my boys’ room and H’s new bedroom. Because our house is so old, our windows are ginormous. But I found two of those new honeycomb cordless blinds in “Cottage White” for the boys, and a looooong off-white jute Roman shade for H, which will be covered with some plain unbleached muslin curtains. As soon as I finish painting the window frames, I will install these, and shift H’s closet contents, and set up his futon. And maybe my two older boys will stop waking up all night long, because the street lights outside the window will be blocked…

3) Snoopy socks for Terzo (gotta love those $1 bins), and
4) some coconut SoftSoap body scrub for me (in place of my lovely but now unfindable milk and honey bodywash), and
5) some nice hooks for the back of my bedroom door, for my bathrobe (not that I ever wore a bathrobe in my life before, but now I wear a light-blue cotton robe from Saks that I found at a thrift shop and LOVE it. It gives the Neutrogena body oil time to dry.)

And then, as I was handing the cashier my $5 off coupon that my neighbor had given me, I smelled the lovely toasty scent of coffee. There is a Starbucks RIGHT IN THE NEW TARGET.
Heaven.
Absolute heaven.
Could a shopping trip get any better?
Retail therapy is SO effective sometimes.

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*Ashleigh Brilliant