“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”

Badger wanted to know if I planned to further review In the Woods. At first I thought I would, but the difficulty of discussing what bugged me about the book is that it directly affects spoiling it for people who haven’t read it. So – I won’t review it per se. I will reiterate that it was a heck of a good read, and it kept me guessing (in some aspects) right up to the last page. The more straightforward mystery’s solution was obvious, but I think that was the author’s intention. I would definitely recommend it, and I am looking forward to reading French’s The Likeness, which features the most likeable character from this book.

Now to real news: I am going away this weekend. By myself (that is, without children or husband). Some high school friends with whom I reconnected via Facebook are getting together – where else? – down the shore. (Have I mentioned ever how much I miss the ocean, living 400 miles inland?) I have known all of these girls since high school, and a couple since kindergarten. Most of us are mostly SAHMs, a couple working part-time to keep sane, make some money, and keep our hands in our fields. One of us has 2 kids; 2 have 3 kids; 3 have 4, and one supermom has 5. You could check any or all of us into the Motel 8 on the Turnpike and I wager we’d be content.

I am baking a coffee cake and a coconut custard pie, and stocking up on munchies and a breakfast casserole, as we are all chipping in to feed everyone (although we do intend to go out also. Because, hello? The beach? Seafood!). I am very excited, despite the fact that I am not going to get a (much-needed) haircut before I leave. I am anticipating even the six-hour drive – peace and quiet and my music, NOT the Wiggles or “Philadelphia Chickens.”

Suse, dear, I am taking a knitting project (a poncho for my 12-year-old niece in fluffy pale pink yarn), and just in case, extra needles and yarn, in case anyone wants to learn. I plan some morning runs on the beach. I am taking a movie to share (what else? “Twilight.”)

But as always when I go away – what am I taking to read? Well, first, I am taking a bag of books to share – stuff I have doubles of, or stuff I won’t reread. (This still leaves me with approximately 2K-plus books jostling for bookcase space (or in the bedroom, floor space, sigh).)

But to read: I am wrapping up the third Cazalet family volume, Confusion (and hoping book four, Castng Off comes today. Not likely, alas.) I am still stocked, with volume 11 of the Fables graphic novels, War and Pieces; the newest Maisie Dobbs, Among the Mad; Mary Doria Russell’s Dreamers of the Day (someday I WILL read this, I swear, although I must note that this book is more well-traveled than I am), a library book called The Birth House (recommended by my friend who likes reading about midwives. In the to-share bag for her goes Karen Cushman’s The Midwife’s Apprentice and Gay Courter’s The Midwife); and a book lent me by a friend who borrowed my copy of Monsters of Templeton, Ahab’s Wife.

So, you know, when I am not eating or napping or giggling or snoozing or talking or sleeping (sense a trend here?) or drooling over Edward with my other Cullen-obsessed friends, I have options.

Always keep your options open. That’s what I have learned in the 20 years since high school.

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*Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz...

The crocuses are up, and it’s the first day of spring! (It’s cold but it’s spring!)
My Amazing Appliance Guy is coming to finish fixing my oven upstairs! I think I’ll bake a Victoria sponge in celebration of spring.

I finished In the Woods, and was not as wowed by the ending as I wanted to be, as I was by the rest of the book. I bit off my nails getting to the end, though!

I am halfway through the third book of the Cazalet Chronicle, Confusion, and just ordered the last, Casting Off. I am also, sort of surprisingly to me, enjoying The House on Tradd Street.

And tomorrow the DVD of Twilight is released!
Yes, I pre-ordered it, shut up, so it should be here SOON!
Squee! I feel like I am 13 again (only with a healthy sense of the ridiculous)!

See!

"Logic, like whiskey, loses its beneficial effect when taken in too large quantities."*

True story:

H said, and I quote: "It would make me the happiest man in the world if the molding in the dining room was all the same color. Like, for Saturday, for the party."

And I looked at him and said witheringly (albeit 24 hours later, after I had come to my senses, and after I'd bought 26 pounds of corned beef): "Does it not make you the happiest man in the world that your children are dressed in clean clothes and fed and go to school on time? And that your dinner awaits you each night? Oh, and that I AM COOKING FUCKING CORNED BEEF FOR 80 PEOPLE ON SATURDAY? Even though I have 2 dissertations to edit this week? Huh?"

To which he replied, "How come YOU are the only one allowed to exaggerate?"

And then I killed him with a sharp paring knife and ate his liver with a nice Chianti.

The End.

Fecking Irish.

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*Lord Dunsany, whoever that may be when he's at home.