Book review #1

I’m not liking any fiction lately. Or have I ever liked fiction? I keep reading it, so I must have at some point. I remember liking Margaret Atwood, especially Cat’s Eye. But I can’t seem to find anything lately that doesn’t make me roll my eyes at least once every couple of pages. I think I can excuse or at least overlook bad writing in non-fiction because the purpose of reading it is so different. I just finished reading The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch. I guess it was a “bestseller” (whatever that means), but I have no idea why. The characters were so shallow and unbelievable, and the transitions seemed like something out of a ninth grade English class. Well, okay, maybe a tenth grade class. But still. Not that I could do any better, or believe me I would. I like to think of myself as an armchair author.

I don’t really have time to read (only occasionally while feeding Renée at night). So I don’t want to waste my time. But I don’t want to give up on fiction altogether either. I wish there was a reading genome project. Too bad. Any ideas? Becky? Are you out there? Anyone else?

How you know you listen to too much NPR

It is not uncommon to hear Joseph repeat something that he heard hours or even days earlier. Often it is something that Tony or I said. But sometimes he surprises us by saying something that we never would have imagined he had heard. A couple of weeks ago, he was running around the house and jumping up and down when I heard him say something. I had him repeat himself, because I wasn't sure I heard correctly. Sure enough, as he was jumping he said it again: "Barack Obama!"

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Winter finally arrived yesterday. And it’s about time too because Joseph has been waiting to use his new red snow shovel that he got for Christmas. This is good, because now the shovel is in the garage instead of in his bedroom. We’ve been using it for almost a month now to shovel toy bricks onto the “freight train.” Global warming global shwarming.

In other news, Tony got home from his week-long conference in Germany. The kids are now in their second week of a sleeping strike. They don’t sleep. Ever. Our dryer broke. And Renée had her first solid foods. Heigh Ho!

2007

Happy New Year everyone. Hopefully one of you purchased your Michigan Millionaire lotto ticket in Jackson. It seems to have been the lucky spot. Although we didn’t win a million dollars, we had a great New Year’s Eve (Even though it was celebrated at 6:00 instead of midnight. I don’t do midnight on purpose.) Tony’s mom helped us to continue Tony’s childhood tradition of making chocolate fondue. We let Joseph have some, and he turned into an eating zombie. I mean, we placed a huge plate of fruit in front of him. And let him dip it in chocolate. He’s already looking forward to 2008.