happy today

I read on some blog or other, it may have been about a book on the topic, that you have to be more proactive about your happiness these days so it's a good idea to keep a happiness journal. At the end of every day, you write about your happiest moment.

So, here goes!

My happiest moment today was fairly subtle I think and, as usually happens, early on in the day. I had a cup of good French roast coffee, the sun shining in my office window, and a list of easily accomplished tasks set out before me. I got them all done, or nearly so. That led to my second happiest moment, leaving all that work completed at the end of the day, not to be bothered with on the morrow :-)

of course, when I got home, the heat pump had two inches of ice on it.

so it goes!

of movies, morons, and maniacally good cheese

Okay, the cheese first. I'm a big fan of goat cheese but until know I've only had the soft, almost whipped variety. Drunken Goat comes in a wedge and has a lovely purple/brown (I believe this color is called puce) rind. It is magical with a glass of merlot and that was with the cheese on a saltine. I can't even imagine what it will be like with a decent cracker. Do yourself a favor, check out your local higher end market and see if they have a brand of the stuff.

On to the morons! Last week, a coworker and I observed one of our more loathed patrons, whom I've never witnessed exhibiting signs of a disability (and I know this doesn't mean he doesn't have one), parked in the handicapped spot at the library DETAILING HIS CAR. Now, he looks like a member of the BeeGees, I mean back in the day-not contemporary, and wears these really stupid aviator sunglasses and is bent over with a spray bottle and a rag wiping his car down in the middle of the blazing 93 degree day when the parking lot is packed and people are circling looking for a place to park. I thought that was pretty tasteless. This morning, he was in the same spot, doing the same thing. This time, he was squatting in front of the car cleaning the grill. I find this EXTREMELY annoying. If you can stand out in the blazing sun squatting and cleaning a car, I'd be real curious as to why you have that placard.

Moving on! Last week I finally saw How To Train Your Dragon and fell in love with Toothless and Hiccup. Last night I saw Iron Man 2 with the Movie Meetup Group and had THE. BEST. TIME! Robert Downey, Jr. was born to play Tony Stark and I thought Mickey Rourke did a really good job as well. He and that well-worn mug make a good villain. The summer movie season is my very favorite and I'm all aflutter about most of the movies coming out. Check out my sidebar item if you care to keep tabs on me!

April Reads

Only six books read in April, a truly pitiful effort, BUT one of them was a tough cookie and it was a very busy month.

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert
I loved Eat, Pray, Love and I loved this one as well. I am not married and have no plans to ever be but I love it for the chapter on the wonderful world of childless aunts if for nothing else! Gilbert explores her own feelings on marriage after the love of her life is deported. She and Felip both are very gun-shy towards marriage to reconciling themselves to it is a journey like no other.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
This is not a sequel to Life As We Knew It. It is the same apocalyptic event from another viewpoint. I absolutely adored LAWKI but this was a miserable disappointment. Basically, a Left Behind novel for the Catholic set and the misogynistic tone of the novel was nearly unbearable. I'll read the third in the trilogy because I'm terribly interested in this world, but I dearly hope it is a better read.

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
Another disappointing follow-up effort. This is billed as a "companion read" to The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Too much star-crossed love, not enough zombies.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
The buzz surrounding this is that it is supposed to be the next big YA trilogy juggernaut. I really enjoyed it. It was some outstanding world building. However, Hunger Games it is not.

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
This hefty tome is not for the faint of heart but it is SO much better than Catcher in the Rye! Philip Carey actually has some real world problems to rail against rather than the rather flimsy "phoneys". I have been telling everyone that this novel contains what is, to me, the MOST UNPLEASANT character I ever remember reading in literature. Her name is Mildred and that has now entered my vocabulary as a descriptor.

Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
A very plot-driven novel about the children of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. It is very evocative of place with lots of great historical detail and I loved the author's note at the back telling what became of the characters in real life. Not what I'd call literary, but very, very enjoyable.

I'm reading 3 or 4 books and listening to 1 in the car so hopefully I can get a better count for May!

What are YOU reading?

fun weekend

I think Shelby and I may have startled Conner a bit with our enthusiasm! In the next one Dave took, Conner was happy but Shelby was not :-) How fickle the whims of the photography gods...

Today is my niece's 14th birthday AND yesterday was the last game of the season for the Atlanta Thrashers hockey team. What do these two things have in common? She follows the Penguins and that's who the Thrashers were playing so we all piled in the car and headed that way!

Before the game, we visited the World of Coca Cola Museum's tasting room where I tried many nasty variations of Coca Cola from around the world. There were some I liked but my overall experience was of flavors to which I could never see my palate becoming accustomed. The most nasty? The Beverly, from Italy...ick! On the bright side, perhaps I'll have some small inoculation against malaria for a while.

My favorites were a beverage from the Latin American station called Inca Kola (Peru, of course) and one from the African station called Bibo Candy Coco-Pine (South Africa). I was VERY surprised by the Inca Kola because it smelled so strongly like banana and I don't normally enjoy banana flavored food (though I do like actual bananas). It did not taste like bananas though and was very light and VERY bubbly, kind of like Alka seltzer but with a good fruity flavor. The Bibo tasted like a pineapple lifesaver in liquid form. I shudder to think of what the sugar content on an actual can of this stuff is, but it was quite yummy! The Smart Apple from China was also good in a very sugary, fruity kind of way.

After a whirlwind tour around the Coca Cola museum, we sprinted over for a quick dinner at McCormick and Schmicks then hoofed it on over to Philips Arena for the game. I was wearing my Birmingham Bulls jersey and 4 or 5 people commented (positively) about it! :-)

It was a great game and I had outstanding company! I only wish the season wasn't over so I wouldn't have to wait until next season to do it again!

omg. Omg. OMG!

facial sore

a hole

pus running down his face

I am GROSSED OUT!!! I am TRAUMATIZED!!!

March reads!

It got extraordinarily busy in March and I was only able to get in 8 books but in going over my list on Shelfari, I realized that there was one I left off my blog sidebar! I don't know if it made it over to J. Kaye's Book Blog in January when I finished it, but it counts towards my total number for sure so I'm mentioning it!

I have been away from home since March 10th and haven't had a whole lot of unfettered access to the internet outside of work so blog pickin's have been fairly slim. My site visit stats reflect that and I'm going to work to be more active here! Anyway, here is my reading report from March!

Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

I picked this up in search of readalikes for The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelley and was stunned by how much I hated it. It has all 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon but I did not have that reading experience. For me, it was dull, repetitive, and dry. All the exact opposite of Kelley's EoCT and I will not be mentioning it despite the Darwin connection.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Tahir Shah

My book group was reading travel writing last month and I picked this one up, I admit, simply because I liked the cover. It features an Indian (as in the country of India, not a Native American) mystic dressed as the Hindu goddess Kali. An unusual childhood encounter with magic and conjuring "miracles" leads author Shah on a quest to study under the most celebrated practitioner of magic in India, Hakim Feroze. This is not the usual tourist fare, and it is not for the faint of heart or stomach.

City of Thieves by David Benioff

This compulsively readable tale is based on the author's grandfather's stories of surviving WWII in Russia. Lev Beniov is placed in the undesirable position of having to find a dozen eggs for the wedding cake of a colonel's daughter in a city full of people starving in the face of German advancement. If that sounds lighthearted, don't be fooled. Another book not for the faint of heart or stomach.

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

Kostova's second novel after The Historian showcases what I believe to be a phenomenal budding talent! This story ranges across decades from 19th century France to modern day Washington D.C. Murder, art, love, obsession, hate, and joy. The pace is leisurely and the wording beautiful, though the ending may be too abrupt for some.

Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party by Max Blumenthal

I read this in January but it slipped by me, as far as I can tell, in terms of putting it on my sidebar list and posting to J. Kaye's site. If you want gossipy, not terribly politically correct dirt on many Republican scandals...this is the book for you. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Impact by Douglas Preston

Douglas, Douglas, Douglas...where did the books like Relic and Blasphemy go? I gutted this one out because I've always liked this author in the past but this was a complete dud. Waitress spots unusual comet on her new telescope. Scientist spots something unusual in images being returned from the Mars mission. Scientist later found decapitated by concertina wire garrot, which the police rule as a home invasion and burglary. Weird found in Cambodia, out of which radioactive gemstones are being mined. New scientist takes dead scientist's job and finds something unusual in images being returned from the Mars mission. Chaos ensues.

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

This is the April book for my sci-fi/fan bookgroup and I can hardly wait for the discussion. Excellent writing! Cayce Pollard is a cool hunter (read: freelance advertising consultant) with the unique ability to sense what will be the next hot thing, just by looking. Unfortunately, she has some "allergies" to certain logos, chief among them the Michelin Man. She wears/uses nothing with logos on them, removing them whenever possible. The hot new thing lately is a series of short videos being uploaded to the web anonymously, around which a cult following has developed. She is hired by a corporate bigwig to discover the identity and whereabouts of the footage's mysterious creator. Loved it!

Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini

I downloaded this mainly because it was only about 5 hours long and I figured I could finish it on the plane ride to Portland (motion sickness + reading printed matter = not usually possible). The narrator was good and the premise as well, pretty hilarious really. Average dorky high schooler Jeremy Heere gets word of a little pill you can swallow that contains a quantum supercomputer which will then do all in its power to make you cool. Several nefarious deeds result in him raising the $500 necessary for the device. He has to learn the hard way, as do we all, that you'd best be careful what you wish for. Cursing, graphic sexual discussion, and teen drinking abound. Just so you know.

The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds

I picked up this ARC at the PLA conference in Portland, Oregon and took enough Dramamine so that I could read it on the plane on the way back! :-) This is the excellent, dark, Gothic tale of the mental deterioration of nature poet John Clare, who entered the care of Dr. Matthew Allen's High Beach asylum. Alfred Tennyson, along with his brother Septimus, also under the care of D. Allen, makes an appearance at High Beach as well. This is a short book but not a light one by any means. All the stories ever told of the depravity of 18th and 19th century insane asylums show up here. This book will be published in June here in the U.S. and was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize in Britain.

What are you reading?

Holley

Portland, the highlights!

Ironically, my favorite doughnut here did not have a hole. If you ever get the chance to go, get a bacon maple bar...you will not regret it! And, if possible, go late at night as they are open until 3am :-)

Yes we did! The Twilight prom scene was filmed at this inn. I took a million pictures!

Multnomah Falls is gorgeous! Portland is gorgeous! Oregon is gorgeous!

We went to the Saturday market, bought street food, drank beer, listened to live music, and bought lots of hand crafted items!

more later!

excitement! adventure! tattoos!

okay, only one tattoo for me, but I did go with a friend to provide experienced support as she got her first work done. She got a hippocampus (mythology, not part of the brain!) and what Kele did with it is truly glorious!

I will be getting an image of Geoffrey Chaucer (as a pilgrim from the Ellesmere manuscript) on my left forearm next week when we go to Portland, OR for the library conference. I will be going to the Sea Tramp Tattoo Co., the oldest shop in Portland, which I found through the recently published book by a co-owner of the business. Tattoo Machine: Tall Tales, True Stories, and My Life in Ink by Jeff Johnson was also just nominated for an Alex Award by the Young Adult Library Services Association of the American Library Association. I left a comment on the author's blog congratulating him and asking if I could get my own copy of the book signed while I was in town and he emailed me back to say he'd be glad to do it! Yay!

While in Portland, we'll be going on a variety of fun adventures including a tour of Mt. Hood, a Portland Highlights tour, and I'm dragging KT to a Cherie Priest booksigning at a bookstore in nearby Beaverton. So I'll be taking 5 books with me at the outset: Tattoo Machine, Boneshaker, and Chelsea Cain's Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell series (Heartsick, Sweatheart, and Evil at Heart).

Basically, I am too excited for words!

I may never drink a soda again..

..okay, I probably will, but this will be running through my head the entire time. For the record, since I watched King Corn I have had maybe 10 sodas a year...maybe

February reads!

Continuing my good habits of the previous month, I finished 11 books in February!

Four Short Stories: A Great Storyteller at His Best, with Drawings by Henri Matisse by W. Somerset Maugham - I have come to love, love, love W. Somerset Maugham! Fair warning, there is little to smile about in his work....murder, suicide, adultery, alcoholism, it's all there. Maugham puts the dirty laundry of humanity on display.

Once a Spy by Keith Thomson - Mr. Thomson is a patron at my library and he asked me to read a bit of this in manuscript form. I liked the chapter I read and like the book even more! If you loved the film Spies Like Us, you'll love Once a Spy! You'll find it in bookstores March 9th!

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose - Roose, a student at Brown University, takes a semester off to covertly attend Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. A clashing culture story to rival any in the realm of travel literature and a fascinating glimpse inside conservative, born-again Christianity. Also, Roose ended up getting Falwell's last print interview before Falwell died during Roose's semester at Liberty.

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin - Benjamin's research into the life of the man who became Lewis Carroll and his young muse, Alice Liddell, is immediately apparent. The plot tends to drag a bit, but overall an interesting look through the looking glass at the germination of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I can hardly wait for the movie on March 5th!

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly - I loved this delightful YA book! When Calpurnia Virginia Tate begins to observe the world around her, questions inevitably arise. Why is this grasshopper different from that? How many birds live in the surrounding woods? Why do these plants grow here and not there? Why is a girl's life restricted to boring needlework and tedious cooking? Will she have to give up her exciting observations to shoulder the mantle of "womanhood"? Questions for the ages...

Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy - an interesting photographic journey into the heart of the Midwest as America's Manifest Destiny spirals into the abyss. Focuses on the town of Black River Falls, Wisconsin between 1890 and 1900, which was home to a regional newspaper AND a photographer with the added bonus of having an insane asylum not too far off. All institutions poised to deal the deteriorating behavior of the population. The documentary film (of the same title) inspired by the book is also quite good!

Jim the Boy by Tony Earley - a boy raised by his mom and three uncles after his father dies shortly before his birth. It's a pretty straightforward, heartwarming coming-of-age tale.

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier - This book ranked right up there with her best for me. Makes a three-point crown with Girl With a Pearl Earring and The Virgin Blue. Sharp-tongued spinster Elizabeth Philpot makes an unlikely friend in commoner Mary Anning as they search the beaches of Lyme Regis for fossil specimens during a time when these items were looked on as evil and women were not welcomed to the scientific table.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - This book won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. A novel in stories of a small Maine town. Olive Kitteridge is mean, bitter, grumpy, and unforgettable.

Altar of Eden by James Rollins - Classic adventure fiction with quite a bit of genetic experimentation and a whole lot of gore thrown in. Don't listen to the audio, the narrator's attempt at the accents is HoRrIbLe and detract from an exciting and uncomplicated story.

The Silver Skull by Mark Chadbourn - Elizabeth I isn't just fighting Spain and Lord Walsingham has something other than spies to deal with. There is the Enemy, otherwise known as the Fair Folk. Some gross details of death, the filthiness of Elizabethan London, and torture. Entertaining but unremarkable.