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May. 16th, 2008 @ 06:54 am That book meme
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From </a></b></a>[info]jupiter9, the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. Bold for read books, underline for books read in school, and italics for started but didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Anna Karenina

Crime and Punishment

Catch-22

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Wuthering Heights

The Silmarillion

Life of Pi

The Name of the Rose

Don Quixote

Moby-Dick (I haven't read it but I added the hyphen anyyway)

Ulysses

Madame Bovary

The Odyssey

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Eyre

The Tale of Two Cities - but isn't it "A Tale"?  asks Em.  Yes, it is

The Brothers Karamazov

Guns, Germs, and Steel

War and Peace

Vanity Fair

The Time Traveler’s Wife

The Iliad

Emma

The Blind Assassin

The Kite Runner

Mrs. Dalloway

Great Expectations

American Gods

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Atlas Shrugged

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Memoirs of a Geisha

Middlesex

Quicksilver

Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West

The Canterbury Tales

The Historian : a novel

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Love in the Time of Cholera

Brave New World

The Fountainhead

Foucault’s Pendulum

Middlemarch

Frankenstein

The Count of Monte Cristo

Dracula

A Clockwork Orange

Anansi Boys

The Once and Future King

The Grapes of Wrath

The Poisonwood Bible

1984

Angels & Demons

Inferno

The Satanic Verses

Sense and Sensibility

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Mansfield Park

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

To the Lighthouse

Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Oliver Twist

Gulliver’s Travels

Les Misérables

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Dune

The Prince

The Sound and the Fury

Angela’s Ashes : a memoir

The God of Small Things

A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present

Cryptonomicon

Neverwhere

A Confederacy of Dunces

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Dubliners

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Beloved

Slaughterhouse-five

The Scarlet Letter

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

The Mists of Avalon

Oryx and Crake

Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed

Cloud Atlas

The Confusion

Lolita

Persuasion

Northanger Abbey

The Catcher in the Rye

On the Road

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Freakonomics

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The Aeneid

Watership Down

Gravity’s Rainbow

The Hobbit

In Cold Blood

White Teeth

Treasure Island

David Copperfield

I would have to add Infinite Jest to this list, just to brag.
 
May. 15th, 2008 @ 03:46 pm Hahahaha
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Current Mood: amused
I am watching one of the judge shows to which I am mildly addicted and it's a child-support case and the plaintiff in the case is named Fred Tank.  I have a particular reason for finding this hilarious.
May. 14th, 2008 @ 10:35 pm Little Update
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Current Mood: tired
I haven't even had time to read all my friends' LJ entries (although I seem to have time to attack their zombies, go figure) but here is a quick update of the past week.  I went to NYC.  My plane did not fall out of the sky.  I managed to keep 350 economists happy.  I ate a great deal of excellent food and walked up and down the upper west side.  I visited [info]brooklyniteand his wimminfolk; we even ate lox.  I crossed the Hudson and spent a depressing few days with the Aged Ps who grow more Aged with every passing day.  I drove the Queen Mary to the dinner place and bought a Mother's Day dinner for the Aged M.  I spent six unpleasant hours at Newark Airport waiting for Plane Dominoes to clear the way for my return.  Once again my plane failed to fall from the sky.  I was happy to be back home.  First, because My Little Vincy is making great progress now four weeks out of surgery, frisky and well.  He has a big scar on his arm but the hardest job I have now is keeping him from running around on it and there is a noticeable difference in his ability to navigate on all four legs.  And second, because First Daughter has resumed her pre-move practice of buying me *all* the books on my Amazon wish list for holiday gifts so I really cleaned up in the Mother's Day department, even got Coco too.  Unfortunately I have a lot of work to catch up on (hence the behindedness re LJ friends) but hey.  If I could onlyh think of an excuse to buy a Dyson my life would be perfect.
May. 13th, 2008 @ 08:36 am Home again
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Current Mood: happy
Spending five hours in Newark Airport is not exactly my idea of a Real Fun afternoon, but oh well.  I'm home, the King of the Mods seems glad to see me (and SO FAR he hasn't left me any gastric offerings to prove his love), the son is shining, I only have a week's work to catch up on, and there's an SG-1 marathon on the Sci-Fi channel!  I'm so easy to please.
May. 10th, 2008 @ 10:43 am Doo doo meltdown
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Current Location: NY NY
Current Mood: indescribable
I just had a conversation with my dogsitter about my dog's diarrhea and then I called my mother to tell her to expect me after lunch tomorrow and she said she had to change my dad's diaper and I'm going to go take a pill now.  Poop TMI OVERLOAD.
May. 6th, 2008 @ 11:09 am Across the Universe
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Several years ago, First Daughter uttered these words of music criticism to me: "Beatles, Schmeatles."  I was understanding.  I think to her the Beatles represent what Sinatra represented to me in the sixties: my parents' generation.  Everything I was trying to get away from.  I came to know better, and so did she when she pronounced "I Want you/She's So Heavy" the quintessential essence of rock-and-roll and was a little abashed when I told her what band recorded it.  And in fact I myself was a Beatles skeptic during the sixties.  I was a folkie, a follower of acoustic Dylan and the blues who deplored the girls my age and their screaming and moaning and fainting.  Things changed.  By the time of Sgt. Pepper things had changed quite a bit.

So I said all that to say that I watched Across the Universe a couple of times last week and I plan to watch it a couple of more times in the weeks to come.  I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me.  At the risk of sounding like a nostalgic  middle-aged lady, which I am, all I can say is that this movie has captured *my* sixties and I make no apologies for that.  I loved it.  It's embarrassing, but I loved it.
Apr. 27th, 2008 @ 12:41 pm Funniest break-up line ever
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Current Mood: amused
Told to me by my hairdresser about a Christmas Eve breakup that included the dissing of presents:

"Well your Chia pet didn't grow!"
Apr. 27th, 2008 @ 11:28 am Vince Update
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Current Mood: determined
He's been home for over a week now, and we're still hanging in there, although I am slightly losing it (see below).  The fake grass has so far failed to materialize, and he ate the original harness I paid $50 for when Plant Man left it within his reach and then got distracted by a flower arrangement.  Under the circumstances I felt I couldn't complain so I sucked it up and bought another.  On the downhill, I hang on tight and take all his weight (50 lbs) and he is able to navigate back up the stairs (50 steps, how symmetrical) fairly well, using his hind legs for leverage and the bad front as a sort of rudder.  And, bless his heart, he has a huge bladder and is able to go out only 3x per day.  The hardest part is that I have to put a plastic bag on his leg to prevent any moisture from contaminating the bandage.  The New York Times sleeve is perfect (personal to [info]frivolity: just one Sunday paper will take care of all your birdcage needs -- I still like a paper Sunday paper, call me old-fashioned) and one of those thick rubber bands from fresh produce (my new veggie habit paying off) -- my latest says ORGANIC which I find funny.  But he can shake it off amazingly fast and he made one completely disappear between the top step and the bottom; I am still trying to figure out how he did that.  If the bandage gets damp I just dry it off with a hair dryer.

Then there are the meds.  He takes three different meds, six times a day.  I actually have to make a chart to sort them out.  Fortunately he's a silly puppy who'll eat anything so I don't have to go to too much trouble to get him to take them.  If by chance he should spit out the day-glo green honking big capsule of antibiotic that he takes 3x a day I either wrap it in a Kraft American cheese slice (good for something besides pet kids' grilled cheese after all) or make him a peanut butter and pill sandwich.

So that just leaves the long days.  He tries to chew the inside of his cone.  He can negotiate a chew stick but it's uphill work.  I just have him spend a lot of time sitting on the couch with me and a lot of time in his crate.  He is confined to a 12 x 12 area and I have to restrict his movements as much as possible.  He loves to have visitors come over and pet him (thanks, [info]x_h00ine) just for the stimulation.

On Tuesday we're back to the hospital to have his stitches out, his wound examined and re-bandaged, and I hope a new cone because he is dangerously close to chewing out the seam of the present one.  The following Wednesday I'm off to NYC for 6 days (stand by, [info]brooklynite) and then into the home stretch.  Physical therapy may be in the future and I don't know yet just when I'll be able to pronounce him fully cured.  At this point I'd say we're a third of the way home.  Based on his first vet's exam, I am guesstimating that June 15th will be his first birthday, so that's the date I'm focusing on right now.  By the way, I find it easier to load photos on Facebook so there's a bunch of them there, and I will also try to put up a Picasa album soon,
Apr. 27th, 2008 @ 11:20 am (no subject)
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I've been trying to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables but yesterday I bought the wrong kind of grapes, those really BIG green grapes.  I like the small ones better.

And, in the bad news department, I fell on the sidewalk because of my crummy floppy sandals that I should not be allowed to wear outside, and since I was holding a bag in each hand I used my nose to break the fall.

When I was younger and deeply near-sighted, an optician told me that when I got older I would get far-sighted which would render me less near-sighted.  Not so.  Turns out I am just as near-sighted as ever but ALSO far-sighted.  Hence the insanely pricey trifocals.  In the same vein, it turns out that the depression/anxiety continuum is not a sliding phenomenon either, so it is possible to be both depressed and anxious at the same time.  Whee.
Apr. 23rd, 2008 @ 01:40 pm SHEESH!
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Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: None! Ever!
I thought I could sneak a listen of Flores's high notes in Ah Mes Amis this weekend, courtesy of the NY Times website.  So the dog is *in* in his room *in* his crate with the *door closed* and I'm listening to it *very quietly* and he starts crooning along!  I gotta get me some earphones, stat.

Edit:  It's Florez, and he makes it sound so easy!  Earphone jack to the rescue!!
Apr. 20th, 2008 @ 07:44 pm Howcum?
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Current Mood: curious
Icon in honor of today's BBC America Izzard marathon.

So, howcum .... if you overthrow the current government you've achieved a COUP and its pronounced (by Americans) like "COO" like a dove.

But.... if you suffer a loss and then backtrack and save the day, you RECOUP your losses and it's Re-COOP, with the P pronounced.

I mean, inquiring minds want to know.
Apr. 18th, 2008 @ 08:08 am Fandom
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Current Mood: hopeful
I'm a fan of a quirky bunch of people. I have a soft spot for stereotype busters (the other day I met an African-American woman whose hobby is barn dancing) and people who change careers in mid-life (one of the things I admired most about my late friend Madeleine). And I deeply admire people who are able to change a lifetime or a career of opinion by re-weighing the evidence and deciding they need to eevaluate a long-held conviction. So today's shout-out goes to John Paul Stevens for changing his mind at the age of 87, changing it in a big important way, and not being shy about explaining to the world why he was wrong for many years.  It gives me hope when people's minds are not as hard as their arteries.
Apr. 17th, 2008 @ 05:39 pm Visit
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Current Mood: drained
Bruce just brought Vince by in the van and I had my first look at him.  On top of the three prescription meds he's taking he also is wearing a patch on his back that delivers pain meds through the skin.  He was happy to see me and sorry not to come upstairs but he is better off in the house for the next two days.  He seems a little out of it.  His leg is bandaged like a mummy all the way down and when he walks around he looks very "WTF?" and who can blame him.  I just learned that I can buy a sort of putting green arrangement -- a patch of "grass" with a drain underneath that I can put on the back porch so I don't have to get him up and down the stairs.  Just pay more $$$$.  And I'm putting a team in place to help baby sit, walk, and carry him up and down.  He'll be confined to a 12 x 12 space for six weeks.  And I've got to go to New York right in the middle of it (which is what the crack backup team is for).  Twelve days until stitch removal.  
Apr. 15th, 2008 @ 07:39 pm Excelsior!
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I can report, not closure,  but progress on two fronts.

The traveling hot dog cart and piano expedition is past the halfway point.  The hot dog cart has been delivered, the entire expedition has been enriched along the way by the acquisition of a bunk bed (don't ask) and the caravan is proceeding in a southwesterly direction through the state of Pennsylvania, with the piano packed up neatly (son compared it to the game of Jenga, brother alluded to Tetris -- you get the idea), helped along by FD's thick memory foam, an experiment that didn't work for the sofabed but turns out to be excellent piano insulation.  I hope that by morning I will hear of its safe arrival in Georgia.

And, in other news, it was reported to me just 15 minutes ago that the King of the Mods is PREPPED AND SHAVED for his surgery.  Just getting to this point is like climbing a mountain, after taking him 1-2-3 times with an empty stomach and a hopeful heart for a 45-minute drive that fizzled into nothingness.  Again, my hope is that I will wake up in the morning with some positive news about the outcome, but just knowing it's happening as I type is an enormous relief.

ONWARD AND UPWARD.
Apr. 9th, 2008 @ 05:23 pm Singing Dogs
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Why do some dogs sing or howl in response to certain sounds?  The sounds in question are usually fire engines, harmonicas, human voices, violins in that order.  Most of the singing dogs on YouTube are being tormented by harmonicas.  Now I have never owned or even known a dog of this type until Vince.  It started with the fire engines but soon escalated to all types of singing and most commercials.  And I'm an opera lover! 

According to my research there are two explanations.  "It's the canine equivalent of going lalalala," says one group.  The sound hurts their ears and they try to drown it out.  The second group pooh-poohs this explanation.  They say it's pack behavior.  Pack animals bay back and forth to keep in touch with each other.  So every time Vince hears "588-2300 EMPIRE" or "Caro Nome" or "Gitchy Gitchy yaya dada" he thinks it's one of his long-lost brothers from his pack trying to communicate with him and he sings back, "here I am!"  But this is sad.  I read on one website that any dog that wasn't raised till at least one year of age with his litter-mates as companions was doomed to be hopelessly neurotic.  So I've got that to worry about.  Not to mention long car trips with no music!
Apr. 9th, 2008 @ 05:13 pm Babar
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It's weird how unfazed kids are about how his mom gets offed by a hunter right at the beginning.   My brothers and I wouldn't touch mushrooms, though, because what if we turned bright green and died?  And then the Pet Boy tickled me by suddenly saying, "what, turn back!  look, Celeste is his cousin!  how can he marry his cousin!"  I explained that this is France.  It is France, really, isn't it?  Certainly the Old Lady lives in France and I guess the elephants live in some French-owned part of Africa.  Cameroon?  In the end I just told him that elephants were allowed to marry their cousins and in some places (even the US) people can, too.  He found the concept dismaying.
Apr. 9th, 2008 @ 04:45 pm All Taken Care Of!
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We met a woman while walking today who had to say how cute Vincy is and how she loves his white stripe.  She noticed his limp so I explained that he has a bone deformity and will have surgery "soon."  She asked, "may I pray for him?"  I was bit taken aback but I thought it churlish in the extreme to say no.  I figured she meant "the next time I'm saying my prayers I'll say God bless Vince."  But no.  She took his head in her hands and began praying over him silently, ending with "God bless you, Vince."  Sheesh!  Had I known about her direct line I would've asked her to get specific and have those leg bones fixed -- for free of course.  This is what comes of living next door to not one but two divinity schools.  We have better parking than some blocks but we get the same amount of snow, so I really don't see what good they're doing.
Apr. 8th, 2008 @ 05:45 pm Rain
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Current Mood: frustrated
I don't like the dark but I like the rain. 

Dates my dog was supposed to have surgery:

March 12
March 17
April 3
April 7
April 8

Dates my dog actually had surgery: the zeroth of zero, twenty-zero.

Each time I drive 16 miles and deprive him of food and water and promise him that he'll have a good leg when it's all over.  Even a baby is easier than this!

Currently scheduled date: April 15.  All I want to do is get on with my life and his.

The great hot dog cart/piano trek begins at the end of the week, so I will be baking cookies and making ice cream and cleaning the guest room and generally doing the whole grandma thing and I'm very happy for this to happen, but I THOUGHT the dog surgery would be in the PAST by now.

When I regain my equanimity I will post about the mysterious love life of the Plant Man and the latest theories about singing dogs.  Meanwhile, just counting the hours, which is something I've been doing ever since February 22nd.  For crying out loud!
Mar. 30th, 2008 @ 03:11 pm What a Difference a Letter Makes
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Handy guide:

KristoF good
KristoL bad
Will bad
WillS good

(not you, Will)
Mar. 22nd, 2008 @ 01:28 pm The incredible journey
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Current Mood: hopeful
Fifty years ago my maternal grandmother gave me a piano, quite a nice piano.  A Knabe baby grand.  When she gave it she declared that I was welcome to take this to my own home when I had one.  This never happened, as my own home turned out to be 800 miles away in a third-floor apartment.  (And also to contain occupants she disapproved of, but we won't go there now.)  So the piano lived in New Jersey and I lived in Chicago.  Time passed and my firstborn became a homeowner.  I decided to bestow my piano on my granddaughter, aka the Pet Girl.  But she is in northwest Georgia and the piano is in New Jersey and I am in Chicago.  What to do, what to do.

Enter the hot dog cart.  Last year the Romans bought a hot dog cart with the intention of making a pile selling hot dogs to the hungry citizens of Port St. Lucie, FL.  For a variety of reasons this did not work out, and in the end they asked their son-in-law to put the cart on eBay.  Their son-in-law is, not to put too fine a point on it, the father of my Pet Girl.  The hot dog cart made the reserve and then some.  But surprise, the buyer is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin of all places.

Do you see where we're going with this?  We had a hot dog cart in Florida, a Pet Girl in Georgia, a piano in New Jersey, and a hot-dog-cart-wanting-man in Milwaukee.

Already the hot dog cart has moved 600 miles north and is in Geogia, taking up half of the two-car garage attached to "Hill House."  Next month four adults, two children and a Yorkie will climb into a van and tow that cart to Chicago.  Mr. Milwaukee Man will drive 90 miles south and pick it up and drive off -- not into the sunset, but north.  Then the four grownups, two children, and Yorkie, sans cart but still towing a trailer, will proceed east to New Jersey, where they will take apart, crate up, and pack the piano, then proceed south by southwest to Georgia.  Does it get any more convoluted than that?  I promise a picture of the Pet Girl at the keyboard soon after April 15th if all goes well.