September 2, 2010 @ 6:34 am | Filed under: Huck,Photos
September 1, 2010 @ 8:06 pm | Filed under: Books,Family
Look at me, not posting! I’ve written a lot about the trip in my head, if that counts. It’s just: the days are busy. You know how it is. Do any of you know the picture book called Little Bean? We love that book. By John Wallace, I think it was. On full days, I always hear Little Bean in my head: Busy, busy, busy. Busy making smoothies. Busy catching up on Mad Men. Busy sorting through three weeks’ worth of mail. Busy thinking up little jobs for Rilla to do in her quest to earn coins to fatten her piggy bank. Busy learning how to be a soccer mom—Beanie is playing, this year, for the first time, and I am clueless about things like shinguards and cleats. Busy picking up erasers after Huck bit them off all the pencils and spit them out under the table. Busy taking Jane to meetings at church eight days early. Ahem. Not busy enough writing things correctly on my calendar, apparently.
Busy playing with my new Kindle. It truly is even sweller than the previous model. I went for the graphite case, even though I prefer the crisp white. I’d read that the darker frame helps improve the contrast, and I think it does. That, plus whatever else Amazon did to improve the e-ink display. It’s quite a loverly device, I must say. Slim and light and cool in the hand. Easy one-handed reading and page-turning. The annotations feature I like so much. The addictive “sample this” option that lets you read the first chunk of any Kindle book for free. (You can do that on the iPod and phone apps too.)
Last night I read the opening of James Owen’s Here, There Be Dragons, the first volume of the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. Hooked. It is now winging its way to our library branch along with Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta—another novel with an intriguing opening.
This makes it sound like I am busy reading, but as usual I am really much busier trying to decide what to read next.
Busy, busy, busy.
August 30, 2010 @ 4:01 pm | Filed under: Cross-Country Trip 2010,Photos
Thursday morning last week, east of Tucson.
August 27, 2010 @ 7:51 pm | Filed under: Books
I know August isn’t over yet. I think I can safely predict that I will finish MOCKINGJAY this weekend (I’m only a chapter in), and I doubt I’ll be able to start-and-finish anything else by Tuesday.
It’s a short list this month: I was driving and visiting, not reading. We listened to two audiobooks in the car and about three-quarters each of two others. The two we finished were:
The Miraculous Voyage of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. Sad and lovely, and perfectly suited for a journey.
Because of Winn-Dixie, also by DiCamillo. I’d read it before, perhaps five years ago. I really love this book. I was pondering my favorite literary librarians today (having decided to name my new Kindle*, when she arrives on Monday, “Miss Sparrow”), and Miss Franny Block comes in a close second.
The two audiobooks we haven’t quite finished are:
On the Banks of Plum Creek, which we bought at the Rocky Ridge gift shop because we were all in the mood to listen to some Laura after visiting her home; and
A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck, which was loaned to us by my sweet friends Beate and Sabine. They were following our travels on Facebook and invited us to stop for lunch on Monday as we cruised through Texas. It was a delightful stop, and they were absolutely right about A Year Down Yonder being a hilarious and captivating yarn. We left Laura half-drowned in the spring freshet to give the Peck a try, and it had us giggling all the way through Arizona yesterday. We need to drive somewhere so we can finish. Like maybe in circles around the neighborhood because that is as far from home as I’m going for a while.
*That’s right, my new Kindle. I know I only just got the “old” one. See, two weeks after that one arrived, Amazon announced the New and Improved model boasting (among other tweaks) a drastic improvement in the contrast between text and background, and since my one complaint with the K2 was the poor contrast, I mournfully returned it and set my teeth for the long wait until the late-August launch of the new one. I got the shipping notice this morning; Miss Sparrow should arrive on Monday. Poor First Kindle, I hadn’t even named her yet.
August 26, 2010 @ 7:11 pm | Filed under: Cross-Country Trip 2010,Family Adventures
21 days, 16 states, nearly 5800 miles by minivan. We left home on August 4th, the six kids and I, and got back this afternoon. It’ll probably take me another three weeks to tell all the stories. I started posting about the trip while we were still on the road but didn’t want to say we were away from home until we weren’t anymore.
We got to spend time with beloved family on both sides, Scott’s and mine, and had delightful visits with friends all over the country. This was an August we’ll not soon forget.
Tomorrow we’ll tackle the mountain of laundry, but tonight I’m still thinking of the mountains west of Tucson this morning, as we moved out from under a heavy blue storm into the bright desert light.
(Grainy cellphone photo.)
Tonight we are happy to be safely home, reunited with Scott (who flew out to Virginia to join us for a week of our trip, but returned home ten days ago). Kids are bathed and still mostly on Central Time, so bedtime is nigh. Scott says we have three episodes of Mad Men to catch up on. There’s dulce de leche ice cream in the freezer. I loved our grand adventure, but I am happy, happy, happy to be home.
August 21, 2010 @ 7:12 pm | Filed under: Cross-Country Trip 2010,Family Adventures,Photos
Arizona meteor crater. Thursday, August 5th.
August 20, 2010 @ 9:13 pm | Filed under: Cross-Country Trip 2010,Family Adventures
Wednesday, August 4th: ready to roll.
Facebook log:
8/4/10.
Just discovered Rilla has filled her travel backpack with milkweed fluff. “So I can frow it in the air when we get there and chase it.”
Oh he’s cruel! I’m loading the car. He puts “Every Time You Go Away (You Take a Piece of Me With You)” on iTunes. ::::sob::::
Flagstaff AZ smells like pine and stars.
OK, so one teeny tiny little hiccup…I have lost my voice. Don’t know why. Don’t feel sick. Dry air? Faded gradually all day. I didn’t talk much. Luckily we know a lot of sign language but it’s hard to sign while you’re driving.
Today: chaparral to sand dunes to saguaro desert to pine forest. 17 audio chapters of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Older girls assigning one another shifts for answering the little ones’ “Are we there yet?” since I couldn’t do it myself. Strawberry lemonade. Incredible mountain view south of Flagstaff. Wired baby.
August 12, 2010 @ 4:16 am | Filed under: Family Adventures,Little House
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s home at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. A dream come true for me. We had the most magical time.
I have loads to catch up on and no time to do it now, but I had pretty much the same reaction my good friend Karen Edmisten did just a few days earlier: a lump in my throat and a big ole grin on my face. Pa’s fiddle! Laura’s desk where she wrote all her books! Almanzo’s pink dishes! That big old cookstove he bought her! And oh and oh and oh!
The folks in the bookstore and museum were wonderfully kind to us, and we so enjoyed meeting them. I have much more to tell. Another time. For now, just a few pictures. And another big ole goofy grin.
Chasing butterflies in Laura’s yard. Which totally gives me goosebumps to write!
August 7, 2010 @ 3:47 am | Filed under: Photos
In the days before Facebook, I had a little side-blog where I posted pictures for my parents and in-laws and close friends. Poor little blog, it has been long neglected. I was thinking of this picture yesterday, from a trip we made to Williamsburg, Virginia, in the fall of 2005. Rose would have been about seven years old, and Beanie was going on five.
August 3, 2010 @ 6:32 am | Filed under: Family
Sent at 7:18 AM on Tuesday
Scott: !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10847838
“In a scene reminiscent of the film Jaws, home video taken at Seaside Park Beach in the US state of New Jersey shows a shark causing a furor by coming ashore briefly before turning away and returning to open seas.”
Me: I love how the screaming gets loudest when he beaches himself. Like that’s the time to worry!
Scott: Heh.
You never know. He might decide to grow legs.
He could.
He’s a shark.
