what I'm reading

What I have finished reading over the past two and a half weeks:

Idiot Girls Action Adventure Club, by Laurie Notaro. I'm pretty sure I finished this one. It's actually four days overdue, so I should really get it back to the library. It's a lot like Notaro's other book, Spooky Little Girl. This was was also recommend by Jen of Jennsylvania, as were the next three below. This pretty much wraps up my tour of her summer reading specials. All in all, a solid reading list, if a bit heavy on the quirky female protagonist with poor job prospects and a lackluster love life. Sounds familiar...


The one that I want: a novel, by Allison Winn Scotch.  I did finish this one, and it is a lot like her other book, The Department of Lost & Found.  Still pretty good, though.  It'd be a cute movie.


Marcus of Umbria: what an Italian dog taught an American girl about love, by Justine Van der Leun.  It's basically Eat, Pray, Love with a dog, and only in Italy. And the girl's about 24, so the precociousness is extra annoying. Yet I still totally cried.


Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell. Yes, I am the last person on the planet to have read this book, and I haven't even seen the movie yet. I am totally late to the party, and at this point I'm not even fashionably late. But I totally dug this book. I couldn't put it down last night. Granted, it was 105 outside so it's not like I was going to leave my air conditioned cave of a living room or had anything better to do, but still. I wish I were a witty enough writer with a clever project so that I, too, might land a book deal and be able to leave my lame job. But at least I didn't have to eat calf brains. Yuck.

What I'm reading now: 1984, George Orwell. I know, how have I never read this book? It escaped me, is all I can say. It's a "classic" (of course!) so it counts towards an item on my 101 Things list. Sweet!

What I'm watching: Still True Blood, Season 3. Team Alcide! or Team Eric! Team Alcide AND Eric!  Other than that, not Mad Men because I gave up cable. Soon, maybe soon I can catch up on Don Draper's charming antics.

all good things

I am so immensely glad it is Friday! This was a very long week at work, plus I completely forgot I had a large assignment due Tuesday and a final today. On top of that, I never got my yard mowed. On the upside, I found my camera! I'm the queen of misplacing things, but about two weeks ago I began to worry that it had been lost. I switch bags for work quite often, and I assumed it was always in the other one. Not so, sadly. Then I began to worry that I left it (or rather, it had gotten stolen) on the bus. Having left it in the garden was also a distinct possibility. Have no fear, I finally found it in my nightstand this week. Why there? I'm sure there was a perfectly good reason for it at the time.

Without a camera, there was nothing really to post. What's a blog without some pictures?  I used my mom's camera to take picture of the 100 Acres at the Indianapolis Museum of Art a few weeks ago, so I'll get those up as soon as I download them, as well as pics of my out-of-control garden. It's a four foot by four foot jungle out there!

Meanwhile, I've been spending a lot of time reading lately.  What I've read:

 Agatha Christie's The Secret Adversary, in a quest to read all of Dame Aggie's books for my 101 Things List. Turns out I'd already read this one, I just never marked it off on my list! It's in the public domain, so I'm sure I read it on Project Gutenberg at (ahem) my last job. It's a Tommy and Tuppence mystery, which are some of my faves. It was still good the second time around!

 Rhoda Janzen, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress. I actually grabbed this several months ago at the library on a whim, but never got to read it. Jen Lancaster, she of Jennsylvania and Bitter is the new Black, recommended several summer-reads this summer on her blog. I promptly put ALL of them on my library holds list. Our library has this cool function online where you can pause a hold and then unpause it. I made an attempt at staggering the dozen or so books I put on hold so they wouldn't all come in at the same time. Needless to say, they all came in at the same time.  Fail.

Allison Winn Scotch, Department of Lost & Found. Pretty great, really. I couldn't really put it down!

Claire Zulkey, An Off Year. Super quick read, as in one day to and from work, plus some lounging at home. I wanted a bit more action, or a bit more "finding oneself" but it was still pretty good.

What I've been watching:
 True Blood!!! I just started Season 1 and I love it. I was watching aforementioned show Tuesday night when I realized I had a mega-project due at midnight. Fail.  I also managed to send my Netflix back on Thursday instead of Wednesday, thus delaying my delivery of the start of Season 2, which would have come Saturday had I remembered to add it to my queue. DOUBLE FAIL.  I upgraded Netflix in a last-ditch effort to get Season 2 here this weekend, but I probably won't get it until Tuesday.

PS, if you're not reading Jennsylvania on a weekly basis, drop whatever you are doing and at least read her annual Twilight Saga re-enactment and these Pub Rants videos.