Sunday, February 25, 2007

Batter Up!

Will's officially a Little Leaguer. He has his first team practice this coming Saturday. Can't wait! Now, to make sure to curb Mike when he starts playing games...
Until Domestic Goddesses is Back Up...









...I'll keep blathering on about my crafting here. I've been reacquainting myself with my sewing machine lately; this is a cool grosgrain ribbon I trimmed Will's pillow with. I originally bought it, along with some small D-rings, to make a belt for Will with, but I recently found some even cooler camo canvas belt material - which is probably a little more rugged for my 7-year old to have as a belt. Methinks grosgrain may come back from its maiden voyage frayed to crap. So I trimmed the pillow, and Will loves it (he's modeling, not sleeping, in the picture at right).

I have so many cute ideas from watching Uncommon Threads obsessively; I may need to make a pilgrimage to Rag Shop or JoAnn's very soon.

Friday, February 23, 2007

2007, so far...

So 2007 didn't start out on the greatest foot for me, but I've been trying to keep a good outlook. Things are starting to brighten up, so I'm going to be optimistic and look at what's happened so far this year; what I've accomplished and see where I can go.

- I've gotten to spend a lot of time with Will and Alex, which they (mostly) appreciate.
- I've gotten to bone up on my crafting - knitting, yes, but now I've reintroduced myself to my sewing machine and am getting more comfortable with it - something I've wanted to do for a while.
- I've gotten a lot of baking done, something I kept complaining I had no time to do.
- I've taught Alex three new songs and am about to teach Will cursive handwriting, since apparently they don't teach it in public school anymore (exactly what is there time in the curriculum for?)
- I've started eating healthier again, and this time, when I go off the wagon, I'm very aware of it.
- I've continued freelancing for Bspan, and had my first honest-to-goodness freelance marketing spot.
- I've begun a book marketing campaign for Dan's book - I even wrote the press release for it!

Not too bad for someone who's moaning about what a crap year it started out to be. What do I want to do next?

I really, really want to relaunch the Domestic Goddesses blog. After becoming addicted to DIY Network and the Uncommon Threads, Knitty Gritty, and Stylelicious shows (not to mention all the programming on Food Network), I'm dying to make that blog what it should be - craftastic! So I'm going to start working on it (and Stacey, Linda, Lauren and Nancy - help, please!) and will let you know when it relaunches in all its crafty, cookery glory.

(BTW - speaking of cookery - yet another Miracle Muffins victory last night, with cranberry muffins. Mmmmm...)

After that? I'd like to stay on the good eating wagon and finally unpack my pre-Alex clothes. I'd like to be back in those clothes for the summer. I may journal here from time to time, even if it's just listing the food I've eaten that particular day, to keep me honest. Bear with me.

I want to keep doing stuff on the freelancing end, but I needs me a 'real' job. So keep fingers crossed, light a candle, kill a rubber chicken, do some yoga and send good prana my way, anything that can help.

Speaking of that last goal, I have an interview in a little while. So I'm going to work out and get ready for it. TTFN.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007


Books


I've been reading like crazy lately, but it's pretty much the stuff I get paid to read. Sometimes it's great, as in the case of stuff like The Last Chinese Chef and the insanely funny Ant Farm and Other Desperate Situations, and sometimes... well, sometimes it's not. I love getting paid to write book reports, but sometimes, I just miss reading 'my' books. So... shhhh... I put one of the less enticing books aside for a couple of days to steal some Roe reading time and revisited Jim Butcher's first Dresden File, Storm Front.

I've really got to say, if you haven't read these yet, please pick them up. They're quick and compulsive reads. And if you are watching the Sci Fi Channel show, please understand that while the show is entertaining, you are missing so much by not reading the books. There are eight books now - check one out. It's worth it.
I checked out a webinar on Search Engine Marketing today. It was a brief overview, more about what career path you can take with it, but it was interesting. I think I'll check out a few more; they're on the SEMPO website (professional organization for search engine marketing). Anything I can to do pump up the resume and learn something new.
I've got so much running through my head. It's all driving me nuts. I wish I could just blink and it would all go away sometimes. It's frustrating, trying to deal with everything life throws at me when it feels like everything's coming all at once.
I'm wiped, time to go check out Battlestar Galactica (I'm catching up) before Lost starts at 10.
501 Great Books...

Got this from a cool librarian's blog. I've bolded the ones I've read, and am feeling mightily under-read right about now (and that's saying something!)... however, I do feel like I've seen quite a lot of movies, hee hee...

Before I get to "The List", I'm thinking that I may need to compile a list of Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror books - anyone interested in helping me compile one?

1. "Little Women," Louisa May Alcott
2. "Fairy Tales," Hans Christian Andersen
3. "Peter Pan," J.M. Barrie (I've read the kids' version, does that count?)
4. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," L. Frank Baum
5. "The Last Unicorn," Peter S. Beagle (still have it, have the movie...)
6. "The Secret Garden," Frances Hodgson Burnett (good movie, ashamed to say I've never read the book)
7. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
8. "Pinocchio," Carlo Collodi (Carlo Lorenzini)
9. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Roald Dahl (I re-read this and its sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, often)
10. "Sophie's World," Jostein Gaarder
11. "The Wierdstone of Brisingamen," Alan Garner
12. "The Wind in the Willows," Kenneth Grahame
13. "Children's and Household Tales," Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
14. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," Mark Haddon
15. "Emil and the Detectives," Erich Kastner
16. "Just So Stories," Rudyard Kipling
17. "The Complete Nonsense Books," Edward Lear
18. "A Wrinkle in Time," Madeleine L'Engle
19. "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," C.S. Lewis (honestly, who are you talking about here? ;-)
20. "Pippi Longstocking," Astrid Lindgren
21. "Dr. Dolittle," Hugh Lofting
22. "At the Back of the North Wind," George MacDonald
23. "Nobody's Boy," Hector Malot
24. "Winnie-the-Pooh," A.A. Milne
25. "Anne of Green Gables," L.M. Montgomery
26. "Five Children and It," E. Nesbit
27. "Tom's Midnight Garden," Philippa Pearce
28. "The War of the Buttons," Louis Pergaud
29. "Fairy Tales," Charles Perrault
30. "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," Beatrix Potter
31. "The Colour of Magic," Terry Pratchett
32. "Northern Lights," Philip Pullman
33. "Swallows and Amazons," Arthur Ransome
34. "Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang," Mordecai Richler
35. "Harry Potter and the [Philosopher's] Sorceror's Stone," J.K. Rowling
36. "The King of the Golden River," John Ruskin
37. "The Little Prince," Antoine De Saint-Exupery
38. "The Human Comedy," William Saroyan
39. "The Misfortunes of Sophie," Comtesse de Segur
40. "Where the Wild Things Are," Maurice Sendak
41. "And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street," Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel)
42. "Black Beauty," Anna Sewell
43. "The Golem," Isaac Bashevis Singer
44. "Heidi," Johana Spyri
45. "Treasure Island," Robert Louis Stevenson
46. "The Fellowship of the Ring," J.R.R. Tolkien (Do I really need to list this, or is it just a given?)
47. "Mary Poppins," P.L. Travers
48. "Charlotte's Web," E.B. White (still cry like a baby...)
49. "The Sword in the Stone," T.H. White
50. "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," Kate Douglas Wiggin
51. "The Happy Prince and Other Tales," Oscar Wilde
52. "The Epic of Gilgamesh," Anonymous
53. "The Thousand and One Nights," Anonymous
54. "Sense and Sensibility," Jane Austen
55. "Old Goriot," Honore De Balzac
56. "Vathek: an Arabian Tale," William Beckford
57. "Lady Audley's Secret," Mary Elizabeth Braddon
58. "Jane Eyre," Charlotte Bronte
59. "Wuthering Heights," Emily Bronte (the book that defined the dysfunctional relationship... and I still read it like it's the first time I've ever picked it up)
60. "The Pilgrim's Progress," John Bunyan
61. "The Canterbury Tales," Geoffrey Chaucer (heh heh heh... good stuff...)
62. "The Collected Stories," Anton Chekhov
63. "The Man Who Was Thursday," G.K. Chesterton
64. "Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure," John Cleland
65. "The Moonstone: a Romance," Wilkie Collins
66. "The Hound of the Baskervilles," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
67. "Heart of Darkness," Joseph Conrad
68. "Robinson Crusoe," Daniel Defoe
69. "The Christmas Books," Charles Dickens
70. "Our Mutual Friend," Charles Dickens
71. "Crime and Punishment," Fyodor Dostoyevsky
72. "Middlemarch: A Study in Provincial Life," George Eliot
73. "Tom Jones," Henry Fielding
74. "The Great Gatsby," F. Scott Fitzgerald
75. "Madame Bovary," Gustave Flaubert
76. "Howards End," E.M. Forster
77. "North and South," Elizabeth Gaskell
78. "The Sorrows of Young Werther," Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
79. "The Vicar of Wakefield," Oliver Goldsmith
80. "The Power and the Glory," Graham Greene
81. "King Solomon's Mines," H. Rider Haggard
82. "Jude the Obscure," Thomas Hardy
83. "The Scarlet Letter," Nathaniel Hawthorne
84. "Moby Dick," Herman Melville
85. "The Portrait of a Lady," Henry James
86. "The Iliad," Homer
87. "Les Miserables," Victor Hugo
88. "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of The Dog)," Jerome K. Jerome
89. "Kim," Rudyard Kipling
90. "Bliss and Other Stories," Katherine Mansfield
91. "Utopia," Sir Thomas More
92. "Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque," Edgar Alan Poe
93. "In Search of Lost Time," Marcel Proust (I read a big chunk, but not the whole thing.)9
4. "A Sicilian Romance," Ann Radcliffe
95. "Clarissa," Samuel Richardson
96. "Waverley," Walter Scott
97. "Frankenstein," Mary Shelley
98. "The Red and the Black," Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
99. "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," Robert Louis Stevenson
100. "Dracula," Bram Stoker
101. "Gulliver's Travels," Jonathan Swift
102. "Vanity Fair," William Makepeace Thackeray
103. "War and Peace," Leo Tolstoy
104. "Barchester Towers," Anthony Trollope
105. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Mark Twain (Langhorne Clemens)
106. "Candide," Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet)
107. "The Castle of Otranto," Horace Walpole
108. "The House of Mirth," Edith Wharton
109. "The Picture of Dorian Gray," Oscar Wilde (Mike and I had one of our first conversations thanks to this book, hee hee...)
110. "To the Lighthouse," Virginia Woolf
111. "La Bete Humaine," Emile Zola
112. "London, the Biography," Peter Ackroyd
113. "Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life," John Lee Anderson
114. "The Hour of Our Death," Phillipe Aries
115. "Berlin - the Downfall," Antony Beevor
116. "The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II," Fernand Braudel
117. "The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century," John Brewer
118. "Frozen Desire: An Enquiry into the Meaning of Money," James Buchan
119. "Hitler and Stalin - Parallel Lives," Alan Bullock
120. "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy," Jacob Burckhardt
121. "Daily Life in Ancient Rome," Jerome Carcopino
122. "The Accursed Kings," Maurice Druon
123. "The Age of the Cathedrals," Georges Duby
124. "The Stripping of the Altars," Eamon Duffy
125. "Rites of Spring," Modris Eksteins
126. "The Wretched of the Earth," Franz Fanon
127. "Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire," Niall Ferguson
128. "Millennium," Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
129. "Pagans and Christians," Robin Lane Fox
130. "The End of History and the Last Man," Francis Fukuyama
131. "The Naked Heart," Peter Gay
132. "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Edward Gibbon
133. "The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy," Martin Gilbert
134. "The Cheese and the Worms," Carlo Ginzburg
135. "God's First Love," Friedrich Heer
136. "Histories," Herodotus
137. "Hiroshima," John Hersey
138. "The Fatal Shore," Robert Hughes
139. "Pandaemonium," Humphrey Jennings
140. "A History of Warfare," John Keegan
141. "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies," Bartolome de las Casas
142. "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," Thomas Edward Lawrence
143. "Islam in History," Bernard Lewis
144. "Chinese Shadows," Simon Leys (Pierre Rychmans)
145. "The Crusades through Arab Eyes," Amin Maalouf
146. "The Defeat of the Spanish Armada," Farrett Mattingly
147. "The Story of English," Robert McCrum
148. "The Ornament of the World," Maria Rosa Menocal
149. "The Women's History of the World," Rosalind Miles
150. "Pax Britannica: The Climax of an Empire," James Morris
151. "Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade," Henri Pirenne
152. "Parallel Lives," Plutarch
153. "Flesh in the Age of Reason," Roy Porter
154. "Citizens - A Chronicle of the French Revolution," Simon Schama
155. "Leviathan and the Air-Pump," Steven Shapin
156. "The Decline of the West," Oswald Spengler
157. "The Trial of Socrates," Isador Stone
158. "Annals of Imperial Rome," Tacitus
159. "The Origins of the Second World War," A.J.P. Taylor
160. "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century," Barbara M. Tuchman
161. "A People's History of the United States," Howard Zinn
162. "Paula," Isabel Allende
163. "Journal Intime," ("Amiel's Journal") Henri-Frederic Amiel
164. "Aubrey's Brief Lives," John Aubrey
165. "Confessions," Augustine
166. "Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter," Simone De Beauvior
167. "My Left Foot," Christy Brown
168. "The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini," Benvenuto Cellini
169. "The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle by Palinrurus," Cyril Connolly
170. "Boy: Tales of Childhood," Roald Dahl
171. "My Family and Other Animals," Gerald Durrell
172. "An Angel at My Table," Janet Frame
173. "The Diary of a Young Girl," Anne Frank
174. "Journals, 1889-1949," Andre Paul Guillaume Gide
175. "Poetry and Truth: From My Own Life," Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
176. "Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments," Edmund Gosse
177. "Ways of Escape," Graham Greene
178. "Black Like Me," John Howard Griffin
179. "84, Charing Cross Road," Helene Hanff
180. "Pentimento," Lillian Hellman
181. "Childhood, Youth and Exile," Alexander Herzen
182. "The Diary of Alice James," Alice James
183. "Memories, Dreams, Reflections," Carl Gustav Jung
184. "Diaries 1919-23," Franz Kafka
185. "The Story of My Life," Helen Keller
186. "The Book of Margery Kempe," Margery Kempe
187. "I Will Bear Witness," Victor Klemperer
188. "In the Castle of My Skin," George Lamming
189. "A Grief Observed," C.S. Lewis
190. "The Towers of Trebizond," Rose Macaulay
191. "Journal of Katherine Mansfield," Katherine Mansfield
192. "The Seven Storey Mountain," Thomas Merton
193. "The Pursuit of Love," Nancy Mitford
194. "Borrowed Time," Paul Monette
195. "My Place," Sally Morgan
196. "Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited," Vladimir Nabokov
197. "Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books," Azar Nafisi
198. "Memoirs," Pablo Neruda
199. "Portrait of a Marriage," Nigel Nicolson
200. "Running in the Family," Michael Ondaatje
201. "Down and Out in Paris and London," George Orwell
202. "Autobiography of a Yogi," Paramahansa Yogananda
203. "Diary," Samuel Pepys
204. "Letters," Pliny the Younger
205. "Confessions," Jean-Jacques Rousseau
206. "Words," Jean-Paul Sartre
207. "Journal of a Solitude," May Sarton
208. "Walden," Henry David Thoreau
209. "De Profundis," Oscar Wilde
210. "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit," Jeanette Winterson
211. "Autobiographies," William Butler Yeats
212. "Things Fall Apart," Chinua Achebe
213. "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands," Jorge Amado
214. "Le Grand Meaulnes," Alain-Fournier (Henri Alban Fournier)
215. "Take a Girl Like You," Kingsley Amis
216. "Winesburg, Ohio," Sherwood Anderson
217. "Surfacing," Margaret Atwood
218. "The New York Trilogy," Paul Auster
219. "Tales of Odessa," Isaak Babel
220. "Giovanni's Room," James Baldwin
221. "The Sweet Hereafter," Russel Banks
222. "The Regeneration Trilogy," Pat Barker
223. "Herzog," Saul Bellow
224. "Ficciones," Jorge Luis Borges
225. "Nadja," Andre Breton
226. "The Master and the Margarita," Mikhail Bulgakov
227. "The Naked Lunch," William Burroughs
228. "Possession," A.S. Byatt
229. "If On a Winter's Night a Traveller," Italo Calvino
230. "The Outsider," Albert Camus
231. "Auto da Fe," Elias Canetti
232. "Oscar and Lucinda," Peter Carey
233. "The Kingdom of This World," Alejo Carpentier
234. "The Bloody Chamber," Angela Carter
235. "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love," Raymond Carver
236. "The Horse's Mouth," Joyce Carey
237. "Journey to the End of Night," Louis-Ferdinand Celine
238. "Soldiers of Salamis," Javier Cercas
239. "The Stories of John Cheever," John Cheever
240. "Disgrace," J.M. Coetzee
241. "Cheri," Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette)
242. "Victory," Joseph Conrad
243. "A House and Its Head," Ivy Compton-Burnett
244. "Fifth Business," Roberson Davies
245. "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," Louis De Bernieres
246. "Underworld," Don Delillo
247. "Seven Gothic Tales," Isak Dinesen
248. "Berlin Alexanderplatz," Alfred Doblin
249. "Once Were Warriors," Alan Duff (never read it, but the movie is amazing - like a gut punch)
250. "Rebecca," Daphne Du Maurier (I LOVE this book)
251. "The Lover," Marguerite Duras
252. "The Alexandria Quartet," Lawrence Durrell
253. "The Name of the Rose," Umberto Eco
254. "The Neverending Story," Michael Ende (never read it, loved the first movie and still have the 45 by Limahl)
255. "The Sound and the Fury," William Faulkner (I wanted to dig him up and shoot him after I read it)
256. "The Wars," Timothy Findley
257. "The Good Soldier," Ford Maddox Ford
258. "Wildlife," Richard Ford
259. "A Passage to India," E.M. Forster
260. "The Corrections," Jonathan Franzen
261. "Birdsong," Sebastian Faulks
262. "The Blue Flower," Penelope Fitzgerald
263. "From the Fifteenth District," Mavis Gallant
264. "One Hundred Years of Solitude," Gabriel Garcia Marquez
265. "Our Lady of the Flowers," Jean Genet
266. "Lord of the Flies," William Golding
267. "July's People," Nadine Gordimer
268. "FerdyDurke," Witold Gombrowicz
269. "The Tin Drum," Gunther Grass
270. "Hunger," Knut Hamsun
271. "The Blind Owl," Sadegh Hedayat
272. "The Old Man and the Sea," Ernest Hemingway
273. "The Glass Bead Game," Herman Hesse
274. "Lost Horizon," James Hilton
275. "A High Wind in Jamaica," Richard Hughes
276. "The World According to Garp," John Irving
277. "Berlin Stories," Christopher Isherwood (does knowing Cabaret by heart count?)
278. "The Remains of the Day," Kazuo Ishiguro
279. "Ulysses," James Joyce
280. "The File on H," Ismail Kadare
281. "The Trial," Franz Kafka
282. "It," Stephen King
283. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," Milan Kundera
284. "The Leopard," Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
285. "The Diviners," Margaret Laurence
286. "Women in Love," D.H. Lawrence
287. "The Golden Notebook," Doris Lessing
288. "The Periodic Table," Primo Levi
289. "Changing Places," David Lodge
290. "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas" J.M. Machado De Assis
291. "The Cairo Trilogy," Naguib Mahfouz
292. "The Executioner's Song," Norman Mailer
293. "God's Grace," Bernard Malamud
294. "An Imaginary Life," David Malouf
295. "The Magic Mountain," Thomas Mann
296. "Embers," Sandor Marai
297. "Life of Pi," Yann Martel
298. "Cakes and Ale," Somorset Maugham
299. "The Group," Mary McCarthy
300. "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," Carson McCullers
301. "Enduring Love," Ian McEwan
302. "The Sea of Fertility," Yukio Mishima
303. "A Fine Balance," Rohinton Mistry
304. "Cold Heaven," Brian Moore
305. "Beloved," Toni Morrison
306. "The Progress of Love," Alice Munro
307. "The Sea, the Sea," Iris Murdoch
308. "Lolita," Vladimir Nabokov
309. "A House for Mr Biswas," V.S. Naipaul
310. "The Third Policeman," Flann O'Brian
311. "A Good Man is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor
312. "The English Patient," Michael Ondaatje
313. "Where the Jackals Howl," Amos Oz
314. "The Messiah of Stockholm," Cynthia Ozick
315. "Gormenghast," Mervyn Peake
316. "Mr. Weston's Good Wine," T.F. Powys
317. "The Nephew," James Purdy
318. "Interview with the Vampire," Anne Rice
319. "Barney's Version," Mordecai Richler
320. "Hadrian the Seventh," Frederick Rolfe (Baron Corvo)
321. "The Radetzky March," Joseph Roth
322. "The Human Stain," Philip Roth
323. "The Satanic Verses," Salman Rushdie
324. "Pedro Paramo," Juan Rulfo
325. "Bonjour Tristesse," Francoise Sagan
326. "Short Stories," Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)
327. "Catcher in the Rye," J.D. Salinger
328. "Staying On," Paul Scott
329. "Austerlitz," W.G. Sebald
330. "Last Exit to Brooklyn," Hubert Selby Jr.
331. "Unless," Carol Shields
332. "The Magician of Lubin," Isaac Bashevis Singer
333. "The Engineer of Human Souls," Josef Skvorecky
334. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," Muriel Spark
335. "The Man Who Loved Children," Christina Stead
336. "The Grapes of Wrath," Joseph Steinbeck
337. "Sohie's Choice," William Styron
338. "Perfume," Patrick Suskind
339. "The Confessions of Zeno," Italo Svevo
340. "Declares Pereira," Antonio Tabucchi
341. "The White Hotel," D.M. Thomas
342. "The Master," Colm Toibin
343. "Felicia's Journey," William Trevor
344. "The Palm-Wine Drinkard," Amos Tutuola
345. "The Accidental Tourist," Anne Tyler
346. "Couples," John Updike
347. "The Time of the Hero," Mario Vargas Llosa
348. "In Praise of Older Women," Stephen Vizinczey
349. "Brideshead Revisited," Evelyn Waugh
350. "Voss," Patrick White
351. "Memoirs of Hadrian," Marguerite Yourcenar
352. "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy," Douglas Noel Adams
353. "Hothouse," Brian Aldiss
354. "Brain Wave," Poul Anderson
355. "I, Robot," Isaac Asimov
356. "The Handmaid's Tale," Margaret Atwood
357. "The Crystal World," J.G. Ballard
358. "The Demolished Man," Alfred Bester
359. "Who Goes There," John W. Campbell
360. "The Invention of Morel," Adolfo Bioy Casares
361. "Planet of the Apes," Pierre Boulle
362. "The Martian Chronicles," Ray Bradbury
363. "The Sheep Look Up," John Brunner
364. "A Clockwork Orange," Anthony Burgess
365. "Erewhon," Samuel Butler
366. "Cosmicomics," Italo Calvino
367. "2001: A Space Odyssey," Arthur C. Clarke
368. "A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder," James De Mille
369. "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch," Philip K. Dick
370. "To Your Scattered Bodies Go," Philip Jose Farmer
371. "Neuromancer," William Gibson
372. "Stranger in a Strange Land," Robert A. Heinlein
373. "Dune," Frank Herbert
374. "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley
375. "Two Planets," Kurd Lasswitz
376. "Left Hand of Darkness," Ursula K. LeGuin
377. "Solaris," Stanislaw Lem
378. "Shikasta," Doris Lessing
379. "Stepford Wives," Ira Levin
380. "Out of the Silent Planet," C.S. Lewis
381. "I Am Legend," Richard Matheson
382. "Dwellers in the Mirage," Abraham Merritt
383. "A Canticle for Leibowitz," Walter Miller
384. "Ringworld," Larry Niven
385. "Time Traders," Andre Norton
386. "Nineteen Eighty-Four," George Orwell
387. "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket," Edgar Allan Poe
388. "The Inverted World," Christopher Priest
389. "The Green Child," Herbert Read
390. "The Laxian Key," Robert Sheckley
391. "City," Clifford D. Simak392. "Donovan's Brain," Curt Siodmak
393. "Lest Darkness Fall," L. Sprague De Camp
394. "Last and First Men," Olaf Stapledon
395. "More than Human," Theodore Sturgeon
396. "Slan," A.E. Van Vogt
397. "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth," Jules Verne
398. "Slaughterhouse-Five," Kurt Vonnegut
399. "The Island of Dr Moreau," H.G. Wells
400. "Islandia," Austin Tappan Wright
401. "The Day of the Triffids," John Wyndham
402. "More Work for the Undertaker," Margery Allingham
403. "Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly," John Franklin Bardin
404. "Trent's Last Case," E.C. Bentley
405. "Trial and Error," Anthony Berkeley
406. "The Poisoned Chocolates Case," Anthony Berkeley
407. "The Beast Must Die," Nicholas Blake
408. "Psycho," Robert Bloch
409. "Double Indemnity," James Cain
410. "Thus was Adonis Murdered," Sarah Caudwell (Sarah Cockburn)
411. "Farewell, My Lovely," Raymond Chandler
412. "No Orchids for Miss Blandish," James Hadley Chase (Rene Raymond)
413. "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd," Agatha Christie
414. "The Woman in White," Wilkie Collins
415. "Unnatural Exposure," Patricia Cornwell
416. "The Moving Toyshop," Edmund Crispin
417. "In the Last Analysis," Amanda Cross (Carolyn Gold Heilbrun)
418. "Rose at Ten," Marco Denevi
419. "Vendetta," Michael Dibdin
420. "The Glass-sided Ants' Nest," Peter Dickinson
421. "He Who Whispers," John Dickson Carr
422. "The Big Clock," Kenneth Fearing
423. "Blood Sport," Dick Francis
424. "Quiet as a Nun," Lady Antonia Fraser
425. "The Sunday Woman," Carlo Fruttero
426. "Death in the Wrong Room," Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Beatrice Malleson)Probably.
427. "Red Harvest," Dashiel Hammett
428. "Suicide Excepted," Cyril Hare
429. "Bones and Silence," Reginald Hill
430. "A Rage in Harlem," Chester Himes
431. "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow," Peter Hoeg
432. "Malice Aforethought," Francis Iles (Anthony Berkeley Cox)
433. "Hamlet, Revenge!" Michael Innes (John Innes Mackintosh Stewart)
434. "The Murder Room," P.D. James
435. "The Sleeping-Car Murders," Sebastien Japrisot (Jean Baptiste Rossi)
436. "Death of My Aunt," C.H.B. Kitchin
437. "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold," John Le Carre (David Cornwell)
438. "The Mystery of the Yellow Room," Gaston Leroux
439. "The Last Detective," Peter Lovesey
440. "Final Curtain," Ngaio Marsh
441. "An Oxford Tragedy," J.C. Masterman
442. "The Steam Pig," James McClure
443. "The Seven Per Cent Solution," Nicholas Meyer
444. "How Like an Angel," Margaret Millar
445. "The Red House Mystery," A.A. Milne
446. "A Red Death," Walter Mosley
447. "Deadlock," Sara Paretsky
448. "Dover One," Joyce Porter
449. "The Chinese Orange Mystery," Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee)
450. "The Man in the Net," Patrick Quentin
451. "A Judgement in Stone," Ruth Rendell
452. "Gaudy Night," Dorothy L. Sayers
453. "Mr. Hire's Engagement," Georges Simenon
454. "The Laughing Policeman," Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
455. "The Red Box," Rex Stout
456. "The Man Who Killed Himself," Julian Symons
457. "A Pin to See the Peep-Show," F. Tennyson Jesse
458. "The Daughter of Time," Josephine Tey (Elizabeth Mackintosh)
459. "Above the Dark Circus," Sir Hugh Walpole
460. "Born Victim," Hillary Waugh
461. "The Bride Wore Black," Cornell Woolrich
462. "Travels," Ibn Battuta
463. "The Scorpion-Fish," Nocholas Bouvier
464. "The Road to Oxiana," Robert Byron
465. "In Patagonia," Bruce Charles Chatwin
466. "The Voyage of the HMS Beagle," Charles Darwin
467. "My Journey to Lhasa," Alexandra David-Neel
468. "On the Narrow Road to the Deep North," Lesley Downer
469. "The Traveller's Tree," Patrick Leigh Fermor
470. "Seven Years in Tibet," Heinrich Harrer
471. "Kon Tiki," Thor Heyerdahl
472. "The Purple Land," W.H. Hudson
473. "The Last Place on Earth," Roland Huntford
474. "Video Night in Kathmandu," Pico Iyer
475. "Journey to the Hebrides," Samuel Johnson and James Boswell
476. "Eothen," A.W. Kinglake
477. "The Seasick Whale," Emphraim Kishon
478. "A Rose for Winter," Laurie Lee
479. "Golden Earth," Norman Lewis
480. "The Cruise of the Snark," Jack London
481. "Arctic Dreams," Barry Lopez
482. "The Danube," Claudio Magris
483. "The Snow Leopard," Peter Matthiessen
484. "Destinations," Jan Morris
485. "Never Cry Wolf," Farley Mowat
486. Among the Believers: an Islamic Journey," V.S. Naipaul
487. "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush," Eric Newby
488. "Roads to Santiago," Cees Nooteboom
489. "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West," Francis Parkman
490. "Into the Heart of Borneo," Raymond (Redmond) O'Hanlon
491. "The Travels," Marco Polo
492. "Dead Man's Chest: Travels after Robert Louis Stevenson," Nicholas Rankin
493. "Sailing Alone Around the World," Joshua Slocum
494. "Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile," J.H. Speke
495. "Travels with Charley: In Search of America," John Steinbeck
496. "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes," Robert Louis Stevenson
497. "The Valley of the Assassins and Other Persian Travels," Freya Stark
498. "The Great Railway Bazaar," Paul Theroux
499. "Southern Cross to Pole Star," A.F. Tschiffely
500. "A Tramp Abroad," Mark Twain
501. "On Fiji Islands," Ronald Wright

Monday, February 19, 2007

Gung Hay Fat Choy!


Happy Chinese New Year!


Thursday, February 15, 2007

Snagged from Stacey and Lauren...

1. Name one person who made you smile yesterday? Alex
2. What were you doing at 8:00 this morning? Freezing my arse off walking Will to school
3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Surfing the web, catching up on Stacey's blogs
4. What is something that happened to you in 1994? Saved up money to move out in '95
5. What is the last thing you said aloud? "I'll be right there!"6.
How many different things did you drink today? Coffee, water, seltzer
7. What color is your hairbrush? Black
8. What is the last thing you bought? Birthday cards
9. What was the last gift you received on your birthday? A gift card to Michael's. :-D
10. What color is your front door? Brownish - it's hideous.
11. Where do you keep your change? All over the place, but I try to keep it localized between my coat pocket and my wallet.
12. What was the weather like today? Fecking freezing
13. What is the best ice cream flavor? Butter Pecan, but Vanilla Swiss Almond is a close second.
14. What is something you are excited about? Getting the kids to bed and having TV to myself tonight (Mike's at the Slayer show)
15. When was the last rainbow you saw? A couple of months ago, driving back down from the Catskills, I guess it was near the Tappan Zee.
16. What size shoe do you wear? 7 1/2, 8.
17. Where is question 17? It's in the closet.
18. Are you very random? I love lamp.
19. Do you want to cut your hair? Eventually, once I decide what the hell I want to do with it.
20. Are you over the age of 25? Good God, yes.
21. Do you talk a lot? Depends who you ask.
22. Do you watch The O.C.? Thankfully, no.
23. Does your screen name have an "x" in it? Nope.
24. Do you know anyone named Charles? A former teacher and a friend's dad and son.
25. Do you make up your own words? Yeppers.
27. Are you typically a jealous person? Depends.
28. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "B": Um... Brian?
29. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "J": Janine
30. Who's the 1st person on your received calls list? Mike.
31. What did the last text message you received say? "On way home now"
33. Do you have curly hair? Wavy, not so much curly.
34. What is the next concert you're going to? If Duran Duran tours again, you'll see me there.
35. Who is the worst person in your life? hahahaha... whittling down to just one is difficult...
36. How many times have you swore today? Oh my god, it's exponential.
37. What is something you say a lot? F**k, What the f**k?, Jesus Mary and Joseph, WHAT?
38. What is the last thing you ate? Way too many of my mom's oatmeal raisin cookies.
39. Have you seen the movie "Donnie Darko"? I just DVR'd it, actually.
40. Do you have work tomorrow? Yep
41. Is marriage in your future? I don't know what my husband would think about that.
42. When was the last time you said "I love you"? About 5:30 this evening.
43. What should you be doing now? Bathing my children.
44. Do you have a nickname? Roe, Rosie, Mom
46. When was the last time you used a skateboard? I think maybe when I was 10.
47. What is the best movie you've seen in the past two weeks? No movies in past 2 weeks, 24 (mmm... Jack Bauer...) works for me.
48. Is there anyone you like right now? My kids, my husband, my friends and family
49. When was the last time you did the dishes, be honest...? About 6 this evening
Snagged from Stacey and Lauren...

1. Name one person who made you smile yesterday? Alex
2. What were you doing at 8:00 this morning? Freezing my arse off walking Will to school
3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Surfing the web, catching up on Stacey's blogs
4. What is something that happened to you in 1994? Saved up money to move out in '95
5. What is the last thing you said aloud? "I'll be right there!"6.
How many different things did you drink today? Coffee, water, seltzer
7. What color is your hairbrush? Black
8. What is the last thing you bought? Birthday cards
9. What was the last gift you received on your birthday? A gift card to Michael's. :-D
10. What color is your front door? Brownish - it's hideous.
11. Where do you keep your change? All over the place, but I try to keep it localized between my coat pocket and my wallet.
12. What was the weather like today? Fecking freezing
13. What is the best ice cream flavor? Butter Pecan, but Vanilla Swiss Almond is a close second.
14. What is something you are excited about? Getting the kids to bed and having TV to myself tonight (Mike's at the Slayer show)
15. When was the last rainbow you saw? A couple of months ago, driving back down from the Catskills, I guess it was near the Tappan Zee.
16. What size shoe do you wear? 7 1/2, 8.
17. Where is question 17? It's in the closet.
18. Are you very random? I love lamp.
19. Do you want to cut your hair? Eventually, once I decide what the hell I want to do with it.
20. Are you over the age of 25? Good God, yes.
21. Do you talk a lot? Depends who you ask.
22. Do you watch The O.C.? Thankfully, no.
23. Does your screen name have an "x" in it? Nope.
24. Do you know anyone named Charles? A former teacher and a friend's dad and son.
25. Do you make up your own words? Yeppers.
27. Are you typically a jealous person? Depends.
28. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "B": Um... Brian?
29. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "J": Janine
30. Who's the 1st person on your received calls list? Mike.
31. What did the last text message you received say? "On way home now"
33. Do you have curly hair? Wavy, not so much curly.
34. What is the next concert you're going to? If Duran Duran tours again, you'll see me there.
35. Who is the worst person in your life? hahahaha... whittling down to just one is difficult...
36. How many times have you swore today? Oh my god, it's exponential.
37. What is something you say a lot? F**k, What the f**k?, Jesus Mary and Joseph, WHAT?
38. What is the last thing you ate? Way too many of my mom's oatmeal raisin cookies.
39. Have you seen the movie "Donnie Darko"? I just DVR'd it, actually.
40. Do you have work tomorrow? Yep
41. Is marriage in your future? I don't know what my husband would think about that.
42. When was the last time you said "I love you"? About 5:30 this evening.
43. What should you be doing now? Bathing my children.
44. Do you have a nickname? Roe, Rosie, Mom
46. When was the last time you used a skateboard? I think maybe when I was 10.
47. What is the best movie you've seen in the past two weeks? No movies in past 2 weeks, 24 (mmm... Jack Bauer...) works for me.
48. Is there anyone you like right now? My kids, my husband, my friends and family
49. When was the last time you did the dishes, be honest...? About 6 this evening
Well, That Was Arduous...

So I've been trying to switch my Blogger account over for the better part of two weeks now. And what held me up? This buggery computer, as I attempted to create a Google account to sign in with. Finally, I just decided to stop smashing the round peg into the square hole and just go directly to Google, set up an account, and then log onto Blogger. Grr.

So yes, I'll be posting more regularly now. Good lord.

And, I'm trying to breathe some new life into Domestic Goddesses. I've been recently hooked on a show on DIY network, the home of my beloved Knitty Gritty, called Stylelicious. Vickie Howell from Knitty Gritty is one of the 8 hosts - yes, 8 hosts, but they are on a constant rotation in groups of 3. They're a bunch of friends who love to do all sorts of funky crafty stuff - basically, what Stacey, me, Karen, Lauren, Linda, Nancy and almost all my girlfriends have been doing for years. So I told Stacey that we must resurrect Domestic Goddesses and make it our own Stylelicious. So I'll let you know when that's happening.

I've also been loving Uncommon Threads, another crafty needlework show - yes, I've been watching a lot of TV of late. But it's TV with a purpose, as it's getting me closer to actually pulling the sewing machine back out of retirement.

I've also been knitting a lot, eating way too much, and feeling too damned sorry for myself. But I'm blogging again, so there's got to be some change in the wind, right?