Thursday, January 12, 2006

"A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants."

Random House is granting refunds to people who were stupid enough to purchase an Oprah book (apologies to both Stones from the River and Poisonwood Bible; you two were obviously anomalies). I mean, what’s next, Eckerd accepting returns of lipstick because you bought the wrong color for your skin tone? (Oh, wait...they...do?)

I am waiting on The Accidental from the library. Very impatiently. Because it is getting KILLER reviews. Although let’s hope it’s better than the opening sentence of its Amazon review: "Amber is the catalyst who makes the novel happen."
And I am the blogger who writes this weblog.

Oh man, Salman Rushdie is so freaking brilliant that it makes my head hurt. His thoughtful essay discussing the power of words, read upon the heels of Mary Doria Russell’s extraordinary novel, A Thread of Grace, makes me so mad I could spit. In a good way re: Rushdie. In a bad way re: Cheney.

I love Andrea Barrett. And I am vindicated. Not that anyone ever argued with me. Speaking of, Peg, I have a copy of Voyage of the Narwhal I have to mail you. Sort of a quid pro quo for SOTC.


A relief to know
that I am not the only person who HATED Vernon God Little. I found it unreadable, which is not to say I won’t try again some day. But annoying note to DBC Pierre (other than, what’s up with the three stupid initials, man? And no periods in between? Huh?): the word is "fuckING," not "fuckEN." I suppose I could deal with "fuckIN’" because that would be dialectical, but that "en" just distracted me so much I couldn’t pay attention to what was going on elsewhere.

Please discuss among yourselves the nominated books for the Caldecott and Newbery Medals. You can go to Jess’s blog, Garish and Tweed and read her take on the nominees - she's actually read them. The only one I have read is The Penderwicks which was cute, but I am not sure it’s really award-worthy.

Yet another perfect reason to breastfeed your baby. I will protect Terzo from Da Vinci Code for as long as any good mother can. (And in that vein – Segundo has decided that his Thomas the Tank engine is now his "Baby Thomas" and I caught him feeding Thomas via navel-to-smoke-box-nose contact, sorta more like something out of a Star Trek episode than any kind of nursing I’ve ever seen. Or participated in.)

2 new blogs I check (and need to read archives so my already-ginormous list of must-read books can grow ever more ginormouser) – 50 Books and Chasing Ray. Many of you already know about these; if you don’t, now you do. (And I believe I've mentioned "50 Books" previously...)

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I have decided that I am not really a lipstick kind of gal. The Maybelline Moisture Extreme lipstick, while lovely in theory, is 1) the wrong color (I bought Rosy Glow, very orange-y despite the name, and it makes my yellow teeth look even worse) and 2) too creamy. I think I prefer a gloss. The Cover Girl Lip Tints in Barely Berry is still perfect however. Although according to the Cover Girl website’s Color Match Beauty Experts, it is also completely the wrong shade. Much as I like it. What the hell do they know anyway? I should just ask Badger instead...

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I went for a half-hour walk this morning and actually broke a sweat. You know how your legs itch when you are walking or running? What IS that? Is that the fat burning off? That’s what I tell myself but I fear I am mistaken. I felt really good afterwards, and might even reach the 10,000-steps goal my pedometer is pushing me towards.
At any rate, Gina and I are aiming for a 5K in the late spring – St Margaret’s has a flat-loop 5K that seems just perfect (anything flat in this city is wonderful – and rare). Then we will aim for The Great Race, a nice, cushy, pretty-much-all-downhill 10K in September. Perhaps someday we will run our longed-for half-marathon, if her arches and my knees hold up. But right now – I am starting with some nice fast walking and working up from there, starting at the very bottom of the training plan outlined in The Runner’s Handbook; yes, I will begin with the walk-1-minute, run-1-minute, for twenty minutes, plan. Now how to find the time to run...that’s a harder proposition.

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The photo gallery:


Run away! Run away!


Mom, there's something in my nose.



"Can’t a person just get a lousy cup of cocoa?"


Wall o’ penguins. Just because.



Yeah, I am going to party HEARTY with parents of other preschoolers. If I can get someone at work to switch with me. H. and I are livin’ it up that evening - *he* has a wine-tasting to go to, while I will be sucking down beer and wings. We are so well-matched, oh yes.

Although what I will really be sucking down, but wasn’t as poetic, are Bacardi-rum-and-Cokes and "Buffalo Bites," the restaurant’s white-meat, boneless chunks o’ chicken coated in wing sauce and served with blue cheese dressing and celery. This removes all the stress and difficulty – and er, awkwardness, from eating wings, without sacrificing any flavor. Good Lord, I could be a commercial. I did just eat an order of them for dinner tonight. At the ref desk. So you can see how very not messy they can be.

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If someone could please share the secret of how to get my seltzer bottles home from the grocery store without all the agitation that causes each and every one to explode upon opening, I would be ever so grateful...and a whole lot drier.

8 comments:

Sarah Louise said...

The trick is to open it ever so slowly, releasing a tiny bit of air with each tiny turn.

Great pics of Primo

On the Oprah controversy: C'mon!! Are we all like lemmings? I wonder if he'll fall from the best-seller list with all the returns...haven't read the book, probly never will...

i'm posting the shower curtains tomorrow--not coz it's my fave room, but b/c it's the only one that doesn't look like I've been invaded by barbarians. So do you want *me* to tell the story of the SL who stopped watching GF to put up her shower curtain? Consider it done.

Caro said...

I like Max Factor Lipfinity Everlites. You HAVE to get the Everlites, otherwise it is WAY too bright.

Then I only have to put on my lipstick once! Also, assume any color you buy will show up darker than the tube you purchased.

blackbird said...

no.
I say that you need to open the bottle a wee tiny bit and then CLOSE IT.
Then open it.

Sarah Louise said...

That's what I said. I just used different words.

Katy said...

for soda cans, I tape 3-4 times on the spot where you pop it open to settle the carbonation explosion. I find that doing the same thing for the plastic bottles works well, especially in combination with slowly opening and closing the bottle.

Joke said...

Just wait a day. Or, better yet, get a siphon.

-J.

BabelBabe said...

waiting a day doesn't work.

but i will try everything else as right now my solution is to throw a towel over top and let it explode into the towel.

Jess said...

I want a wall of penguins!

Uh-oh, there are books on that list that I haven't read. All I can say is that I'd better have read the one that wins. And for Caldecott, I enjoyed Terrific, Zen Shorts, and Kamishibai Man out of their list...Actually, I love Terrific. It's terrific, especially for us sarcastic types.