John and I have been going on lots of bike rides and not a whole lot else. The weather here on Saturday was glorious and sunny - I sat in my crazy creek on the picnic blanket out in the back yard while the laundry dried on the line and read for HOURS in the afternoon. A little sunburnt but TOTALLY worth it.
My dad has sent a bunch of slides and pictures that he's scanned, some that I've never seen before. So far I've only been through the ones of me and my brother - there are lots more of my mom as a child that I'm saving up as a special treat.
I guess I got started on reading early (I think I'm about 3 months old here):
Right..here goes.
Listening to: Jay Brennan
I stumbled across him on Facebook (of all things) in an ad that said, "Like the Indigo Girls? You'll love this!" And hey, presto, they were right. He's from NYC and touring the UK but not anywhere near us. Sad.
Watched recently (in order of preference from favorite to least):
The Diving Bell And the Butterfly - about the book that the former editor of French "Elle" wrote (with his left eye) after he had a stroke and suffered from locked-in syndrome. Fascinating and not mushy at all. I want to read the book now.
The Kite Runner - not as good as the book but still REALLY well done. The boys were superb.
Happy-Go-Lucky - this had some really funny laugh-out-loud moments but we both found the main character EXTREMELY annoying. It was also pitched as a feel-good movie. I found it more like Billy Elliot and The Fully Monty - maybe feel-good if you're super-depressed and have nowhere to go but up, but otherwise a bit of a downer. A very London-y movie, though (Liz, I think you'll at least like the scenery).
Waitress - meh. I love Keri Russell and this movie has gotten rave reviews and the director was tragically murdered (?) in NYC and everyone loved it. Except me. And John. He couldn't even sit through the whole thing. Too slow and really forced in places, we thought.
Oh, and John watched Be Kind Rewind . I couldn't bear to watch it but he said it was pretty funny and quite clever.
Can you tell that our movie vouchers from Blockbuster expired on the 31st of August and we didn't realize until last weekend?
While I wasn't watching, I was reading (in chronological order this time):
The Septembers of Shiraz - I'm sorry if I'm an insensitive bitch, but I'm done with the books about Iran, Afghanistan, and the Taliban. There are only so many beatings and arrests and escapes that I want to read about. I know the stories need to be told, but I'm not the one to tell them to. Wow, I really am an insensitive bitch. Oh well.
The Penderwicks - I saw a display for this in the Barrington book shop, and knew I had to read it. A little Famous Five, a little Little White Horse, a big dollop of family adventure. And there are more!
The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas - a 'teenager' book that my college roomie told me to read (and to avoid all Amazon entries and not read the back of the book). I caved and read the back and really liked it. Short, and made me think. I could imagine being assigned it as a middle-school summer reading assignment and hating it, but as a grown-up it was really thought-provoking.
A friend from work loaned me the latest Jodi Picoult: Change of Heart. It was a little more fence-sit-y than I wanted it to be, but it was definitely a good read. I'm always worried that I'm going to hate her books and then I like them more than I think I should. Fair warning, don't start with this one. It references Keeping Faith a few times - if you haven't read that, read it first.
I between the multimedia extravanganza, I saw these today. They're cards that riff on the "Keep Calm And Carry On" poster that we have that's now totally overplayed - apparently it was even in Oprah magazine. Gah, the masses! Anyway, I loved her idea and will definitely be making our own using the color printer and Scribus.
The final book is more of a work-in-progress: The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follet. It was "thrown" at me on Facebook by Lizzie, and I never would have picked it up on my own. I LOVE it so far - I'm about 100 pages in and am worried because there are only 850 more.
3 comments:
Hi Kate, your estimate of three months is close. That photo of you and Mom was taken in February 1982, when you were 4 months and two weeks young. I had to visit a printer in Hollywood, Florida, and so we made that trip into a mini-vacation and stayed with your Aunt Mary in her condo in Highland Beach, the next town north of Boca Raton on the A1A. Her apartment was tenth floor, facing the ocean, with that great Florida beach (and a pool) just outside the door. You're right about the reading. How many wonderful hours did we spend reading to you and Edward?? Obviously, the interest in reading, and in music, took!
Dad.
How long did it take you to get through that lot?? Interesting post - thanks for the reviews.
Aww, The Penderwicks is so adorable! I really liked it. Must get my hands on the sequel (which I've heard is lesser, but still cute).
I was disappointed with Waitress too... though I would have probably given it a thumbs up if they'd given any hint as to why the Doctor would cheat on his nice-seeming wife. That spoiled their supposedly sweet relationship for me.
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