Videos

Video from Blake's plane ride with our neighbor (who's a pilot)



Video of the cat tree escapade

Great Books Lately

I've been ready A LOT lately, and I love it!  I even got Blake to read with me last night, I was in heaven.  He doesn't prefer to read. Ever.  But I went to the library and got a book I read in junior high by Tim Allen: "Don't Stand Too Close To A Naked Man" and Blake was hooked.  It's just Tim Allen's autobiography.

Lately I've succeeded with my book choices, and I'll share them here with you!  (I copied the synopses from Half.com)

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

Synopsis
At the outset of the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi, three unique women unite to share the stories of dozens of the city's black servants, who have been kept voiceless for too long. Together, these three unforgettable ladies launch a crusade to collect the stories of the town's silent servants, and try to tear down the unspoken racial barriers that traverse the homes and hearts of everyone in Jackson. 

I loved every minute of this book.  It was funny and moving and just captured my interest. I will say I am not normally one to read books with the subject of civil rights or African American Fiction...but this book was glorious.  I even kept it and didn't resell it after I was done.


"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

 In his second novel A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS Hosseini shows the tenuous alliance made between two Afghan women who are both married to the same brutal older man. Miriam, an illegitimate daughter, is 15 when she is married to Rasheed. Years later he takes another wife, the orphaned 14-year old Laila. Together, the two women, subjugated by culture and circumstance, must find a way to survive and protect that most-precious of commodities: hope.


 I liked Kite Runner okay, but this one was great! It wasn't sooo depressing like Kite Runner so I really enjoyed it. Good writing.


  "Thunderstruck" by Erik Larson

Synopsis
The author of DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY (which is also a fabulous book) takes on another suspenseful double history in THUNDERSTRUCK, which intertwines the stories of the notorious murderer Hawley Harvey Crippen and the obsessively single-minded, Nobel prize-winning inventor of the wireless telegraph, Guglielmo Marconi. As in his other best-sellers, Larson proves adept at bringing both technological and sociological histories to vivid life with a generous amount of extrapolative detail and a keen sense of pacing.

I found myself talking about this book to everyone I met while reading it.  It's just so stimulating to read a history that is written like a fluid fiction novel.  I am not a fan of non-fiction, but I will read anything this author ever writes.

 "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

Synopsis
David Sedaris continues his humorous exploration of himself, focusing on his humorous attempts to learn French after moving to Paris; his topics include restaurants, his quirky dislikes, his career dreams, and the habits of his increasingly eccentric family.

I contradict myself, but this is also a non-fiction.  Memoirs, actually.  So they probably are more "fiction" than "non". I laughed until I peed myself with this book.  I don't agree with the authors morals, but you don't always have to agree to enthusiastically enjoy a book. It's been a while since I've read this book, however, so I apologize if the content is questionable.  But, honestly, was probably one of the reasons it was so funny...



Books I'm reading right now and loving:
(I'm actually reading about 5 books right now...I don't know what has come over me. They're all in various stages of progress.)

Waiting by Ha Jin

Synopsis
This multi-award-winning novel about a romance between Dr. Lin Kong, an unhappily married Chinese physician, and Manna Wu, the nurse he falls in love with, is a chronicle of Kong's attempt to get a divorce from his wife over the course of 17 years. The victim of an arranged marriage, Kong longs for an end--but each time they go to court, his very traditional wife, at the last minute, refuses. Kong is hoping to profit from a Chinese law that permits an automatic divorce after 18 years of separation--and his long, patient devotion and endless frustration can be seen as an allegory of life in a repressive society. In addition to being a passionate love story, WAITING is also an insightful and fascinating look at contemporary provincial China.

 I'm only beginning this book and I'm enjoying the languid style and different culture.  I really enjoy Asian novels.

*UPDATE* - I hated this book.  Don't read it.  It was well written, but it was so depressing I ended up disgusted with it.

"Born Standing Up" by Steve Martin

Synopsis
In this fiercely intelligent and strangely detached memoir--a portrait of the comic as a young man--Steve Martin describes the formation of his unconventional comic style, and reveals that for all his apparent zaniness, he approached his craft with the thoughtful precision of a mathematician. His look back at his early days provides unusual insights about Steve Martin as a human being and a comic, and about the nature of comedy itself.


 I'm listening to this on CD, read by Steve Martin.  It's actually more serious than you'd expect and I'm enjoying getting to know Steve.  It's still funny though, but I'm respecting the work ethic of Steve Martin to get to where he is today.

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Let's just say my birthday is next month and a Half.com  gift certificate would be like gold :)

Built a Cat Tree

Blake built a Cat Tree on Sunday!  For a while we've been eyeing those cat trees in Petsmart but there was no way we were going to pay $160 for their stuff.  Blake constantly has been saying he could build one, so on Sunday we had the whole day free, so after church we went on a date to Starbucks and then we went to Petsmart to get Doogan some more food.  We saw those cat trees again and Blake suggested we just go price materials at Home Depot.  We found the bargain lumber and got a huge pole for $1, and some good, thick plywood for the base and platforms for only $2.  We went over to the carpet and we were telling the carpet guy it was to build a cat tree for our kitten.  He turned out to be a cat lover too and gave us the shag carpet for free!  It was awesome.  All in all, aside from the rope and staple gun we had to buy, the materials only cost $9 because of the discounts they gave us.  We were so excited, we went home and Blake immediately got to work.  We have a work bench in the garage and he had a saw so he started cutting the wood and sizing the carpet.  Our neighbor, Jeff, is really handy himself and heard all of our racket and he came over to keep us company.  As Blake was building he got excited himself and brought over all his tools and he was helping Blake.  Blake did all of it though, and Jeff just was holding the pieces together for Blake to screw.  It was fun spending so much time with our neighbor.  When we got it finished Jeff came inside too and we all watched Doogan explore the Tree.  Doogan was so happy and playing with it.  We hung dingle balls from shoe strings and he was crazy after those.  An afternoon well spent!!

Tea Set

I'm stuck on Craigslist.  This is my most recent purchase:

I've been into pretty dishes lately.  Don't know why.  But I'd also been wanting cream and sugar dishes, so this was perfect.  I like tea, too and want to throw a tea party sometime.  Eventually.

Pictures lately

Forgot to upload my pictures recently

Goodbye Chair that now smells like lemon

We decided.  The chair and ottoman did not make the cut.  They're posted back on Craigslist now.  The chair was pretty comfy, but the color severely clashed in our bedroom, the shape looked odd in our living room, and Doogan would have destroyed it had we put it in the other guest room (where he sleeps).  For some reason this particular chair (maybe it had hidden smells?) inspired jumping and gnawing which our other furniture doesn't.  I will miss his very cute game of hiding under the chair and sticking his paw out to make the fabric flaps flap.  If you walked by, his little paw would dart out and tag you too.  Very cute.

*UPDATE* - the chair sold in one day.  And we made $5 extra.

Craigslist, Friend or Foe?

I've posted before about Craigslist and how it's usually extreme hit or extreme miss with me. I've gotten some great things off it, like our awesome master bedroom furniture and the comfy queen mattress we got for the guest room. Then I've kinda had some "misses" where I made the effort to go get stuff (or I sent Blake to go get it) and then once I get there the item is not quite what I imagined but I feel so obligated to buy it I end up taking it home anyway. That happened with our 5 drawer file cabinet that was outrageously heavy, and a tiny end table that was cute - just only a portion of the size I thought it was going to be. The items though were close enough to what I was wanting, so I said what the heck.

That kind of happened yesterday to me again. Blake and I have been searching for some more seating for our living room--a chair with an ottoman. We also would like to create a little "reading nook" for me in our bedroom with a cozy chair and lamp and small end table. I had pictured getting some sort of wingback chair or small recliner. So when a cute, butter-tan colored chair and ottoman set showed up on Craigslist I jumped at it! $25? Why not? It might work in the living room or bedroom!

So we get to the guy's house after work and he's a cute older man. On the phone he told me the chair was in great condition but needed some cleaning. We get there, and even in the dim lighting of his house, I could tell the chair and ottoman were very very dirty. He explained that that was his grandson's chair to eat in. I looked at Blake, he shrugged (he never offers any opinion during Craigslist runs), so I figure what the heck-- for $25 I'll see if we can clean it up.

Blake grabs the chair (which is very light) and I grab the ottoman; 3 of the 4 casters fall out of the ottoman and the man says, oh I'll grab those for you...and walks out with us. I start to feel the second or third inklings of "Uh Oh". We get the set out in the sunlight and the man waves goodbye and Blake and I are left staring at the grungy, stained furniture that I just handed over $25 for. Blake still doesn't say anything and I'm starting to sweat. "Oh well," I say optimistically, "if we can't get the stains out, we can just resell it." Blake replies, "Mmm hmm."

So we get the set home and we set it up in our living room. We both silently kind of eye it. It's really dirty. Doogan, our kitten, sees the new scenery and approaches cautiously. He takes a whiff, and contemplates. I comment that I'll just get some cleaner on my lunch break the next day but Blake insists he has to know NOW if it will clean up. So, we get back in the car, leave the beguiling butter-tan chair and rinky-dink ottoman that had called my name so alluringly before, and drive to Walmart to get some upholstery cleaner.

$3 later, with a can of "Tuff Stuff" in our hands, and a brush, and a stack of white kitchen towels, we attack the chair. After 2 hours, our spirits are conflicted. It seems to be looking a lot better, but we can't objectively tell if it is clean enough to keep. I don't really have a definite end to this story yet. I think we'll do another round of cleaning tonight. I don't know if it is "Living Room-worthy" but, it would definitely be bedroom worthy for now until we find something better! Here are the pictures of the set the seller posted. See, you can't tell in the pictures how dirty it was. I'll try to get some shots of it clean tonight. If anything, the shape of the chair is nice.