When I was home for Easter, I spent quite a bit of time with my beautiful nieces. One night while we were hanging out at Matt & Amy's, the girls had their first taste of suckers. In honor of the momentous occasion, Matt found the song Lollipop online, which the girls absolutely loved, as evidenced by Chloe's rendition below:
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
i can watch a sunset
Friday night before last I decided to go run around downtown Chicago for a bit. I've missed non-subzero temperatures, so I've been taking advantage of the decent weather as much as the semi-constant rain will allow. Anyway, I ended up spending a good amount of time sitting by Buckingham Fountain, which I hadn't actually ever seen before when it was warm enough to be running. It was beautiful, and a perfect place to catch up on some journaling and such.
(I'm still learning how to use the settings on my camera, so hopefully the quality of such photos will improve in the near future.)
I've also been trying to take advantage of the nearby state park on a more regular basis now that it's warmer. There are some great secluded spots by the lake that are perfect for some nice afternoon reading with the poochie.
There really wasn't much point to this post. So, um... Thanks for reading anyway?
(I'm still learning how to use the settings on my camera, so hopefully the quality of such photos will improve in the near future.)
I've also been trying to take advantage of the nearby state park on a more regular basis now that it's warmer. There are some great secluded spots by the lake that are perfect for some nice afternoon reading with the poochie.
There really wasn't much point to this post. So, um... Thanks for reading anyway?
Monday, April 27, 2009
all out of language
Here’s the deal. I know I haven’t been blogging at all lately. I have a lot of blogs in my head, though, so one day you’re going to come here and there will be a whole bunch of new ones or something. Or maybe I’ll just never get motivated and they’ll all stay in my head. Either way. But consider yourself warned, in case I ever do find my muse.
Things I’ve been reading lately… Not enough? On my last two drives to Kentucky, which were timed fairly close together, I started an audiobook that was actually very good, but that I only made it about two-thirds of the way through. Sometimes, when I’m driving for long stretches, listening to someone’s voice reading a story makes me sleepy and I have turn on noisy, fast music that I can sing really loud to in order to keep myself awake. But anyway, one day I’ll actually finish it, whether via the audiobook or the actual book, which is Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris. She’s a fantastic writer, and I already have another of her books in the backseat of my car that I’ll probably forget to read before it’s due back at the library.
Another book I’ve read fairly recently is The Darkest Child – I forget who the author is. (Dorothy something? I’d look it up, but I kinda just don’t want to.) I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this book, although it’s kind of hard to use a word like “enjoy” for a book that’s so dark and disturbing on so many levels. I read a lot of reviews by people who talked about how much they hated Tangy Mae’s mother, because she was such a horrible person, but I mostly just felt sorry for her, I think. People who would treat their children the way she did in the book have severe mental issues, and it’s mostly a shame that there weren’t people in their part of the world/level of society that could recognize how much help she needed. I thought this book explored very well the truth that love and hate are not necessarily opposites – Tangy Mae, as well as the other children, both very deeply loved and hated their mother, both for good reason. The perspective that the author used to tell the story from Tangy’s eyes was very effective and insightful. As long as you can handle the darker parts of the story, I would recommend this book.
I also recently read Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. But if you want to read my review of that one, you’ll have to check out my goodreads, mostly because I don’t want to type it all out again. I started reading Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, but I’m already beginning to get bored with it, which isn’t a good sign. I’ll let you know if I actually make it through or not. I’ve also read a bit of pointless chicklit, but to avoid Coral’s positively encouraging comments about those, I won’t go into detail.
Things I’ve been reading lately… Not enough? On my last two drives to Kentucky, which were timed fairly close together, I started an audiobook that was actually very good, but that I only made it about two-thirds of the way through. Sometimes, when I’m driving for long stretches, listening to someone’s voice reading a story makes me sleepy and I have turn on noisy, fast music that I can sing really loud to in order to keep myself awake. But anyway, one day I’ll actually finish it, whether via the audiobook or the actual book, which is Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris. She’s a fantastic writer, and I already have another of her books in the backseat of my car that I’ll probably forget to read before it’s due back at the library.
Another book I’ve read fairly recently is The Darkest Child – I forget who the author is. (Dorothy something? I’d look it up, but I kinda just don’t want to.) I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this book, although it’s kind of hard to use a word like “enjoy” for a book that’s so dark and disturbing on so many levels. I read a lot of reviews by people who talked about how much they hated Tangy Mae’s mother, because she was such a horrible person, but I mostly just felt sorry for her, I think. People who would treat their children the way she did in the book have severe mental issues, and it’s mostly a shame that there weren’t people in their part of the world/level of society that could recognize how much help she needed. I thought this book explored very well the truth that love and hate are not necessarily opposites – Tangy Mae, as well as the other children, both very deeply loved and hated their mother, both for good reason. The perspective that the author used to tell the story from Tangy’s eyes was very effective and insightful. As long as you can handle the darker parts of the story, I would recommend this book.
I also recently read Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. But if you want to read my review of that one, you’ll have to check out my goodreads, mostly because I don’t want to type it all out again. I started reading Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, but I’m already beginning to get bored with it, which isn’t a good sign. I’ll let you know if I actually make it through or not. I’ve also read a bit of pointless chicklit, but to avoid Coral’s positively encouraging comments about those, I won’t go into detail.
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