It's Lundi Gras. Therefore I am eating a bagel with Nutella on it for breakfast.
It is a snow day. Boo for snow days. Extra boo for EXTRA snow days. Crossing my fingers that this will be the last one. I am more than a little ready for spring temperatures. I want to plan another picnic.
Yes, it's true. I am in the picnic sort of mood again. Wanna come? It's going to be great.
In February, I read Winter's Tale and Ender's Game. (February, apparently, is Two Word Title With Posessives month.) Winter's Tale was inconsistent. The first third told a descriptive, wild, fascinating story, which had an end. Then there was the middle third, which introduced many, characters, some without an obvious point, and brought them all together in the city. The city is a big deal in this book. In fact, the two consistent points in the book are complete, doting, syrupy love for the City, and for Winter. I share neither of those loves, but can appreciate them. The final third attempted to intersect the first story with the second, despite their being set in different times, but took so long in doing it that it felt less like suspense and more like a good reason to stop reading. Then, when it happens, the whole reason you were wanting it to is barely mentioned. And there is a declaration that the city is now "balanced", but that is never supported by example or explained in any way. How is it that the city has achieved balance? They never say. I find that a serious flaw. The style of writing is prosy - almost to a fault, and very descriptive. It is intelligent but opinionated, and unusual. (Personally, I like my Unusual without the side of Opinionated.)
Ender's Game is practically a stylistic foil to Winter's Tale. Sections of plot are told through brief dialog only, and it is always very Matter-of-Fact. We follow Ender through his military education. If you aren't interested in reading about SMALL children being trained to fight in space battles, don't pick this one up. Also, it is not a happy book. It was well done, though, and I'm glad I read it. I'm also glad I read it on the Kindle, as I don't have plans to re-read this one.
Here are some other things that have been going on:
* Still love work.
*Excited that next weekend is the AKC dog show in Columbia, MO. I am going to take the kids again, and hopefully my mom will be there, and possibly my grandmother. Afterward, I am going to my mommy's house to spend the night. For the show, we have printed out the list of dog breeds, and are going to make a scavenger hunt list of dogs to photograph.
*Did I already mention that our house is officially for sale? It has a sign in the yard and everything. So far, no one has even looked at it. The day the sign went up in the yard, Josh and I got out an old bottle of Champagne we had for who knows how long.
*The heat stopped blowing this morning, and the temperature dropped 8 degrees indoors. I called Josh and he walked me through how to changed the filter. All better.
*Saturday night we went to a fancy 6 course wine dinner for Josh's work. I now officially feel like I've been on an episode of Iron Chef. There was sushi, sea urchin on a tiny spoon with some avocado puree, Fuji apple kimchi salad with crackling pig's ear, delicious ramen with poached egg, duck two ways, braised pork rib on a steamed bun and mushrooms and rice, and pineapple, lychee, and mango sorbet with that sesame seed leather stuff. And lots of wine. My favorite was a Riesling called Kung Fu Girl. Yum.
*The taiko drum fiasco has ended, and the paying for/what Andrew refuses to pay for fiasco is now beginning. I don't know if I can handle it.
*Got called in for a Spring Parent-Teacher Conference for the first time. It wasn't so bad. I came out of it feeling like, rather than a specific complaint, they really just wanted to update me on the current average day.
*My parents sent us a King Cake. It made us all smile. We had it for breakfast Saturday morning. Grant got the baby. He was so excited!
*Going to have sushi with Molly sometime. It will be fun.
*Really want this sort of weather to end, but want someone to buy the house ASAP, because I am intimidated by landscaping expectations. And the mail lady needs to quit driving over my mailbox flower bed.
*I feel a little guilty. We bought lobster cakes as our Ash Wednesday dinner. It doesn't feel like sacrifice at all.
SO!
I hope you are keeping warm. Check your air filter. Tomorrow is Mardi Gras, so I leave you with this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToCu81R2d2g
And this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNNHOO4LfnE
Um....and this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1Lt5CUQ48U
And definitely this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkLgT0Gwwnk
Oh, yeah!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVYMEpA1RGI
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