Sunday Salon: Weedy

Good morning mi amigos! Well, what a week.  I feel like I whine alot on Sundays, but it is therapeutic to regurgitate my week to you, kind listeners, and then walk away and start a fresh new one. 

First, my son caught some ugly virus on Sunday night and was home ALL WEEK.  I don't recall this ever happening with my kids.  I actually made him try to go back Thursday (after confirming that he did not have strep on Wednesday), but it ended up being an hour and a half visit to get his homework, then back home he came. 

Also two book club meetings!  These were highlights, but it is still, busyness.  On Tuesday, my Heathrow Literary Society discussed "Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan.  We all like it, we all had emotional reactions, we all felt it was a 3.5 or 4 star book.  Next up Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (love).  Then on Thursday night, Books, Babes and Bordeaux got together to talk about "The Human Bobby" by Gabe Rotter.  Seriously?  If you haven't read this book, just do.  You can blast through it in a sitting, and it is a mind-twister.  We were lucky enough to talk to Gabe as well, and were totally charmed by him.  I am hoping to post more on our conversation tomorrow.  Next month's read will be "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand.

My latest project and obsession is making a "tribute page" for my daughter's 8th grade yearbook.  So I have to go through every picture I ever took of her from birth, and narrow it down to a half dozen or so, come up with a tearful poem or saying, and put it into an acceptable format with some kind of photoshop program.  I spent more time this week than I want to admit on this endeavor, and it isn't close to being finished.

Friday night, at gunpoint, and in the rain, I took my daughter to Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights.  I'd never participated in this event before, because I thought it would freak out the kids.  But it really was amazing.  The sets are sometimes two stories high, and simulate snowing Victorian graveyards, smoky WWI bunkers, ghost ships, Arctic camps, or scenes from Edgar Allan Poe's novels.  I splurged for the express passes to avoid the hour long (and more) lines of overstimulated teenagers, and it was alot of fun.

I'm also gearing up for our 8th grade fundraiser next weekend called the Chili Cookoff.  The 8th grade parents are responsible for gathering auction items, and coordinating the whole event, and of course we all have to make a pot of chili that will be judged in a competition.  My husband decided we are making Polish chili with kielbasa, and little pierogies.  200 little pierogies.  I'm trying to figure out when I'm going to make them.

My son's football game was cancelled yesterday because of rain, and they are attempting to squeeze it in today between the continuing rain storms.  Two more games in the regular season, then playoffs!  Prepare yourself to hear lots of hootin' and hollerin'.

So get on with it you say.  The reading.  Well, I finished "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer late one night.  I really enjoyed the book, some parts more than others.  But how clever and creative!  I immediately dove into an impulsively downloaded Kindle book (thanks to the persuasiveness of Jenn and Ti) "The Night Strangers" by Chris Bohjalian.  To hell with the stacks of others I need to read, right?  Spooky, twisty little thing this is.  I'm enjoying it immensely.

On audio, I wrapped up "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan, narrated by The Great Robin Sachs.  For the first few discs, I really wasn't sure if I was going to make it.  But the audio slowly grew on me, and Sachs charmingly coerced me through the "F**k, kill, eat" business.  Then I started "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline, narrated by Wil Wheaton.  Mother Mary, people, this book is SO GOOD.  It is blowing my mind ten different ways, being a lover of all things 80's, including vintage video games, and being the mother of a gamer now.  Wow.  I'm feeling a top listen of the year coming on.

As for today, maybe some football, maybe some horseback riding lessons, maybe some review-writing that has been non-existent lately.  Hope you all have an incredible and relaxing Sunday!