Have a GLORIOUSLY Happy Birthday, Kay!

In fact, I hope your whole birthWEEK is fabulous!

Especially since I'm (technically) late in posting this.

But my absent-mindedness doesn't mean I love you any less!

It actually (somehow) means that I love you all the more!

Many, many blessings to you! Blessings galore.

My Old Man

So Rachel, I know you just got this book last weekend... but I figured I'd do a preemptive post to get some conversation going around here. I need to know what you people think about this one. Heidi, we all know how much you love sex and swears which is why you recommended this book to us, right? Or was it because the main character's name is Rachel and you thought OUR Rachel might like it? Or that she might be horrified and delighted all at the same time?

Whatever your feelings may be, say something. Or tell me a story. I'm bored!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEIDI!

I hope your birthday is a wonderful one :)

I'm on a Roll. But Not a Kaiser.

Lately I've had some pretty good luck with books. I've read a whole slew of amazing books all in a row, which doesn't really happen very often. I'm not going to review or discuss these books at this time, but I'm going to throw these out there for any of you who have or want to read these books and would like to blab about them.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt

My Old Man by Amy Sohn

I'm technically not done with Angela's Ashes or My Old Man but I'm loving both of them. Heidi, I think you need to be my official book recommender because everything you've recommended, I've loved. I know you've got your hesitations about recommending books that are super close to your heart, but I NEED them! I'm just dying to know what other gems you have hidden inside your sleeves (or chest cavity).

p.s. Everytime I see the "Death at a Funeral" movie preview I think, "I really need to watch that movie. But not THAT version because it sucks."

The Whole World's Broke; Ain't Worth Fixing

Human beings. Such a promising, heartbreaking species--so much potential, and yet, so much shittiness! Annoying one minute, delightful the next. Relationships on an individual level just reveal the larger truth--opening your soul fully and getting betrayed when you least expect it. Admiring a person of great ideals who turns out to have slovenly personal relationships (my dad says a lot of hippie movers-and-shakers were sadly, of this stripe, like so many Committed to Great Ideas People)... Or, hey, better yet! How about having a parent who's a molester? I think that combines the whole, loving/hurtful paradox efficiently.

But--no, knowing truly good people is the worst. You grow a false optimism. You get fooled into thinking the heartbreak can be delayed indefinitely. That maybe there's hope.

I've thought it over long and hard--considered this thing, people, as individuals and as a collective, for years on end--and I hate it, but, I've come to a decision. It's not going to work out. There's a lot of potential and we've come really far. Not so much enslaving and genociding and such. But in the end we destroy everything and hurt everyone. Not everywhere, all the time, but... it's enough.

It's time to call the bluff. There's no use pretending this is somehow going to turn out well. Trying leaves you crying. Hoping gets you a bashed-in heart.

So.

It's time to start all over, make a new beginning.

I'm hoping there's a mothership, and I'm hoping it comes for us soon.

Otherwise...

Kool Aid, anyone?

Anniversary Awareness

In the spirit of celebrating and aware-ing ourselves of joyful awesomenesses, I want to announce: Paul and I just celebrated the anniversary of our first date. On March 17th. (St. Patty's Day.) The FIFTEENTH anniversary of our first date! (We will have achieved nine years of wedded bliss this coming August. But, come on! FIFTEEN! Such a cool, huge number! In three years I'll have spent HALF MY LIFE with the man! I mean, the dude. The truly kind, empathetic, hilarious dude. Who's getting hotter with every year and every receded hair, have I mentioned?)

Here's a photo (!!!!!!) of the free-form apple-pear turnover (recipe courtesy of Julia Child) I made him:

Hmm. Well, it's not as pretty as Kay's pix but I didn't have time to plate it before the photographer (Paul) went to bed. Still, you can tell, my offering was oozing with love.

There's no photo for this, but, Paul woke up early and bought me yellow and purple mums and gave me a funny-man CD (featuring the comedic stylings of the sadly dead Mitch Hedburg).

We're in love! 3(17)x15= 765 mega cubic watts of love!

Time for some fun! Let's talk about Death!

.. at a FUNERAL, that is! I'm talking about the immensely amusing movie, Death at a Funeral (2007). DO see it. DON'T SEE THE REMAKE. It sucks. I can tell just by the preview. (Although, there is one cool thing about the crappy remake--it's black people appropriating something white people did.)



LOOK! I posted a picture! And got Paul only moderately grumpy, trying to help me figure out how to do it. (He says, I'm the one that got moderately snipey.) Also, he's the reason I saw this in the first place. Yay, Paul!