pretty dots

Call Me Big Boy

I always hang out for at least 15 minutes at E's school when I drop him off. He is in this big, light-filled classroom with lots of different play areas with grown up names like "home living" "spatial exploration" - I find this so charming.
E usually isn't interested in eating snack right away when he gets there (we are typically part of the late arriving crowd). So he leads me to some activity for us to do together before I go. He might give Little Red (his best friend) a hug, but the greetings are usually brief. This morning he and I were stringing star beads onto pipe cleaners - a very relaxing activity for Ms. Busyhands like me. I was so happy that he was into it. He said, "I am making a Valentine." When I asked who it was for, he said, "No. It's just a Valentine." I think he's just heard the term but doesn't quite get the concept.
Anyway, we were playing with Ella and Audrey. E kept moving the tray of beads away from the girls, claiming his own. The girls moved on and soon it was time for me to go. I asked for my big hug and kiss. He gets lots and lots of smooches and usually a bit of baby talk. As I stood up to leave and he whispered to me, "Call me Big Boy." He had a look of longing and desire and happiness altogether. I was charmed on the spot and said loud enough for the other kids to hear, "You have a great day Big Boy!" A big smile spread across his face and he contentedly continued beading. I walked back to the car on cloud nine, smitten with the fact that E wanted to be called a Big Boy by his mama. He's always said, "I am a little boy" whenever we challenged him to try new things. Now he is embracing the idea of growing up and getting to do more things himself. It was just lovely. It motivated me to look back at this picture of my beautiful boy when he was just three months old. I remember going back to work after maternity leave and just staring at his picture - wanting to be with him so bad. This perfect teeny baby grew right into a Big Boy today! sigh.

Guys Read

Since this is the book I am reading right now and I actually have a little guy reader, I thought I'd give a plug to this very cool book and initiative. While the 90's was dominated in the literature gender wars by the phrase "girl power" - others started to notice that boys were being a bit left behind. As a librarian, finding books that engage and excite boys is always more of a challenge than for girls. It doesn't help that the majority of youth librarians are women and might not know exactly how to reach the young male reader. Here is a place to start. And check out author Jon Scieszka's cool site: http://www.guysread.com

fini!

I knocked out two projects this weekend. I really wanted to start another project but knew I had to get some of the works in progress off the needles. I finished my stripey socks - Lion Brand Magic Stripes.

I also finished off the Bombshell quilt. Here is Tall House, Double Cup modeling its snuggle factor:

Voila! Projects left to tackle: Italian silk mohair sweater 65% done, Ribbi Cardi 98% done, grey wool socks 95% done, fingerless kid gloves 5% started.

Teach Me

I am on a committee called Notable Children's Books for the American Library Association. In a nutshell, I get all the good children's books by major publishers sent gratis directly to my office. Every week I get to open boxes upon boxes of new books, seeking out the truly outstanding books to review, nominate, and discuss with my fellow committee members when we get together twice a year.

One book we won't get to talk about but that I was so excited to read is Teach Me by R.A. Nelson. Never mind the fact that the Gilmore Girls is my favorite show and before that it was Dawson's Creek and before that it was Party of Five . . . there is a pattern of arrested development here you can see . . . but finally an author took on a hot, steamy affair between a teacher and a student and got it almost perfect. I don't mean perfect in that I have any experience with this sort of thing, but almost perfect in the way raw, gritty, immature emotions are so finely expressed - both during the falling in love part and the inevitable aftermath. I can't say it is perfect because I just had a great conversation with a co-worker about how truly challenging it would be to create a hot novel like this that didn't end up the way we know all of these do. I won't say anymore because I want you to read it and tell me what you think. It's not up there in Printz Award quality for me . . but it is a much better read that any Gossip Girl shite out there.

More about the really good stuff in children's publishing soon.

In the works

Baseball Sweater for fil's birthday - back view,
Wool Ease in Denim and Denim Twist
















Ribby Cardi: Peruvian Wool in Charcoal & Ruby


















Cotton Ease Stripey Cardi for E - almost done




















Super Secret Project in the works!

Lone Finished Project

I have so many projects in the works right now and very few finished. Here is a gorgeous wrap that I made to wear at the The Library Foundation Gala next spring - I debuted it at a wedding last month - finally, something I've made myself that I will actually wear!

One more close up look.

I'm Trying, Martha!

I'm trying, Martha. I am trying so hard to like your new show. But argh - it is so not true to you and what you've built up for over a decade. It is bad enough to have to pan over the audience members looking frozen in their newly purchased Talbots outfits (I am not in denial that I would be too - I just don't want to have to see it) -but the ridiculous shilling for products and celebrity plugs. It's awful and so hard to get through. I want my bitchy Martha back who did everything perfectly (that carrot cake attempt was hideous last week) in her perfect homes/sets with razor sharp editors and contributors coming on once in a while. I've stuck with you since the late 80's. I understand you have to alter your approach to get re-accepted into middle America - but let's leave lower middle America alone. We aspire to more, not less. Don't forgot those of us who've missed our homemaking porn for too long now! Please, be mean again. Please!

Monkey Boy

We spent Sunday afternoon at the zoo. I used to get really depressed going to the zoo - I think it was a combination of poorly funded zoos where the facilities just awful (Madison, WI) - but the Oregon Zoon is one of my favorite places. The animals are secondary to the amazing woodsy setting (for me) and the family farm (for E).
Even when he was just a year and a half old, he knew exactly where the big tractor at the zoo was. We could avoid it comepletely, heading off to the African desert on the other side of the zoo and E would say, "I just really want to see my tractor." We can see the butterflies, elephants, and huge polar bear - but really for E it is all about sitting on the tractor.

E walked nearly the whole route of the zoo - suddenly this week he has started saying that he is a big guy. Before he never wanted to associate himself with being big - he didn't like the responsibility of the whole potty-training thing. Now he proudly says, "I am a big buy and I wear pull-ups. Big guys where underwear or pull-ups." hmmmm.

We also had our first fire of fall in the chiminea last night. It took forever to start (maybe because I was attempting to light it instead of Tall House Double Cup). I finally got it going and it was lovely. The light is so beautiful in late September here. As the sun was setting and the fire was toasting away, I was so happy to site cross-legged with my boy and roast marshmellows. Later, after I put him to bed, I went back out to the fire with my blanket and my book and felt quiet happiness. fall fall fall. I love it.

Booklist

Oh - my first meme!]
Cut and paste to your blog. Highlight the books you've read and add three more to the list.
This so appeals to my inner organizer and listmaker. What stands out to me is that I've relied on movies and PBS for many classic stories - especially for an English major.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. 1984, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corellis Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerers Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The DUrbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alices Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Joness Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnights Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. Georges Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick OBrian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlottes Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophies World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews
201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan
204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan
205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan
206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan
207. Winters Heart, Robert Jordan
208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan
209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan
210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan
211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto
212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
213. The Married Man, Edmund White
214. Winters Tale, Mark Helprin
215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault
216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice
217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell
218. Equus, Peter Shaffer
219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten
220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice
223. Anthem, Ayn Rand
224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
225. Tartuffe, Moliere
226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller
228. The Trial, Franz Kafka
229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles
231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther
232. A Dolls House, Henrik Ibsen
233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen
234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read
237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono
238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde
240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson
242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
243. Summerland, Michael Chabon
244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
245. Candide, Voltaire
246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl
247. Ringworld, Larry Niven
248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault
249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline LEngle
251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson
256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith
257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony
258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum
259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde
261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
261. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel
263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
264. A Yellow Rraft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris
265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock
269. Witch of Blackbird Pond, Joyce Friedland
270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. OBrien
271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor
273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
276. The Kitchen Gods Wife, Amy Tan
277. The Bone Setters Daughter, Amy Tan
278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child
279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry
282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum
283. Haunted, Judith St. George
284. Singularity, William Sleator
285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
286. Different Seasons, Stephen King
287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby
289. The Bookmans Wake, John Dunning
290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns
291. Illusions, Richard Bach
292. Magics Pawn, Mercedes Lackey
293. Magics Promise, Mercedes Lackey
294. Magics Price, Mercedes Lackey
295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav
296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker
297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love
299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace.
300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison.
301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving.
302. Enders Game, Orson Scott Card
303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland
304. The Lions Game, Nelson Demille
305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust
306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh
307. Foucaults Pendulum, Umberto Eco
308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz
311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk
313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
314. The Giver, Lois Lowry
315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin
316. Xenogenesis (or Liliths Brood), Octavia Butler
317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)
320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill
321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)
322. Beowulf, Anonymous
323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell
324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley
325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey
326. Passage, Connie Willis
327. Otherland, Tad Williams
328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry
330. Beloved, Toni Morrison
331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christs Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin
333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume
334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev
336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover
337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson
338. The Genesis Code, John Case
339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevensen
340. Paradise Lost, John Milton
341. Phantom, Susan Kay
342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice
343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman
344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson
346: The Winter of Magics Return, Pamela Service
347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz
348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jaime ONeill
351. Othello, by William Shakespeare
352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats
354. Sati, Christopher Pike
355. The Inferno, Dante
356. The Apology, Plato
357. The Small Rain, Madeline LEngle
358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick
359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater
360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier
361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder
364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King
335. The Interpreter, Suzanne Glass
336. The Moors Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
337. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson
338. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster loved
339. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
340. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
341. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg
342. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy
343. Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
344. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
345. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo
346. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer
347. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck
348. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
349. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston
350. Time for Bed by David Baddiel
351. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
352. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre
353. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley
354. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff
355. Jhereg by Steven Brust
356. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
357. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
358. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
359. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz
360. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
361. Neuromancer, William Gibson
362. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
363. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr
364. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault
365. The Gunslinger, Stephen King
366. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
367. Childhoods End, Arthur C. Clarke
368. A Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman
369. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott
370. The God Boy, Ian Cross
371. The Beekeepers Apprentice, Laurie R. King
372. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson
373. Misery, Stephen King
374. Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters
375. Hood, Emma Donoghue
376. The Land of Spices, Kate OBrien
377. The Diary of Anne Frank
378. Regeneration, Pat Barker
379. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
380. Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia
381. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
382. The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg
383. Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede
384. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
385. A Severed Wasp - Madeleine LEngle
386. Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman
387. The Mabinogion (Ancient Welsh Tales) - translated by Lady Charlotte E. Guest
388. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
389. Desire of the Everlasting Hills - Thomas Cahill
390. The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris
391. The Things We Carried, Tim OBrien
392. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb
393. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
394. Enders Shadow, Orson Scott Card
395. The Memory of Earth, Orson Scott Card
396. The Iron Tower, Dennis L. McKiernen
397. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
398. A Ring of Endless Light, Madeline L'Engle
399. Lords of Discipline, Pat Conroy
400. Hyperion, Dan Simmons
401. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, Jon McGregor
402. The Bridge, Iain Banks
403. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit, Daniel Quinn
404. Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
405. The Gold Coast, Nelson DeMille
406. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
407. The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
408. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
409. The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy
410. Looking for Alaska, Peter Jenkins
411. Hotel Paradise, Martha Grimes

Tall House, Double Cup

Happy Birthday Tall House, Double Cup! Who else but you would train and run a marathon with me? Or let me occasionally "match" our outfits? Or cheer me through a drug-free labor/birth? Or drive a 40 minutes commute each way so we wouldn't have to live in the evil subarbs? You are amazing - the kindest, gentlest man and the very best papa ever.

All E, All Weekend

Yippee little pardner! Even though E softly whispered, "I wanna get off this pony" over and over while he was on it, I am counting on him erasing the scary part and just remembering that his parents bought him pony rides as a child. Will it work?
We pulled off an All-American weekend including camping, the obvious pony ride, beach fires, and plenty of margaritas.




Devil's Lake campground was perfect for our short get-away. Though I've never been a fan of Lincoln City, they have hands-down the very best playground on earth. Fabulous - we went there every day! And it wasn't far from Starbucks - you get the feeling of how nature-driven this camping trip was.
E watched the boats from the dock and threw rocks in the lake. We rigged up a t-ball stand for him and showed off to the neighbor campers. THDC (tall house, double cup) has started calling him "Franchise" as a pet name. Is it terrible to understand the horrors of professional sports and still sort of want your son to be a lefty relief pictcher?

We also got to see our cousins at Cape Kiwanda - they had the rental house we'll have with friends in October - the most beautiful view of the monolith - took my breath away. We played in the sand and watched the sunset - we also had a really fun bonfire. I loved seeing E at the bonfire with his cousins - it reminded me so much of my favorite times at the lake with my cousins. We came home happy and ready to start fall.

okay. start fall. no more temperatures past 73 - deal?

E and Mama's Special Days

E's school had inservice on Thursday and Friday and instead of trying to juggle him around to some other place for those two days, I decided to be decadent and take two vacation days from work and actually stay in town and just do "stuff" with E - E and Mama's Special Days. I had pretty ambitious days planned - I wanted to do everything I imagine stay-at-home mom's get to do with their kids. My plan was:

Thursday:

10am OMSI

11:00am Planetarium Show

11:30am Picnic on the waterfront

12:30pm Trip to the library

1pm Swimming Pool

Friday:

10am Gabriel Park playdate with Maria and Marfie

11am Peanut Butter and Ellie's for lunch

12pm Southwest Community Center Super Swimming Pool

Okay. I learned a bit about over planning and jamming in everything in two days. First, E woke up very grouchy on Thursday morning. "I am grouchy" he actually pronouced. When I would cheerfully chirp, "It's our special day," he would actually shout, "NO IT'S NOT." Great. Not what I imagined for my stay-at-home day. He just needed to eat a bit and wham-o, he perked up like a little flower.

We had a bit of a slow start on Thursday - getting to the science museum by 10:15am (hey, only 15 minutes off). We played and ran around the preschool playroom. We ran to the Planetarium to now miss the show we bought tickets for. I envisioned the two of us kicking back in the dark, plush seats and watching various constellations being pointed out. Sadly, instead of a star show, they were showing the progression of earth in 3-D, surround video, with a lot of lingering on huge ferocious dinosaurs and volcanoes. E crawled into my lap and whimpered. We lasted all of five minutes. We got out of the theater and E declared the whole experience, "way toooo scary." We took his binoculars out to the river and spied on the workers on the submarine, saw a family of ducks and a huge barge go by. I hadn't gotten around to actually making the picnic lunch so I made E much happier by going to Burgerville. Why he prefers the blackberry smoothie to my ground natural peanut butter sandwich is beyond me.

We hit the swimming pool during open play time - not preschool swim - which meant every day camp in the area was there. We abandoned the shallow end and the endless sea of bodies for the quieter deep end where E was actually just as confident. He is really into swimming and though he hates to go all the way under water, he is very comfortable bobbing around. We swam for almost two hours. And though I couldn't get him to nap when we got home, he slept like a rock that night.

On Friday, we had a playdate with baby Maria and Marfie. We hadn't been to the new Peanut Butter and Ellie's yet - still sad that it left our side of town. So we ventured out to SW Portland - to Gabriel Park and then to lunch. I was disappointed by the tiny play structure at Gabriel Park - there are much better places to play in NE. Marfie and I had a good time at lunch but E was a bit freaked out by the other kids and spent more time playing with the garbage can area that looked like a train then the play train set. We were both a bit wrung out by our constant running around so we headed home and skipped swimming. I opened a bottle of Viogneir and E got a pink lemonade. We killed time until THDC (tall house double cup) got home from work and kicked it in the back yard.

So, do I want to be a stay-at-home mom? No. None of us would really be better off than we are with me working - I have the greatest job in the world and E's school helps him learn and experience other people. But, I would like one day a week at home with E. We could do special things together (not all in one day) and have a little more time to talk. I am not sure how to swing that, but it is something to think about trying after the next baby comes.