Zippity Quick

Posted on 01/14/2010 by chick

I doubt that “zippity” is a word, but when I thought about doing a quick post, “zippity quick” is what came to mind.

This post needs to be zippity quick because it’s already past my bedtime. Sure, I could wait until tomorrow, but I keep doing that and what does it get me? A lot of lame blog posts that say, “I’ll write tomorrow!”

Well, enough of that nonsense. I’m going to write now and hope that I can catch up on my sleep this weekend.

The most obvious topic for today is our beloved cat, Mojo, who is locked in my office because he’s sick. We have to separate him from the other cats so that we can monitor him and feed him special food. He’s perfectly happy sitting on his pillow, but the fact that he hardly moves off the pillow has me really worried. And he hasn’t used the litterbox since we locked him in here earlier today.

Though he’s been sick for a few weeks, it only just occurred to me today that he could die. Mojo, dead. How could we stand that?

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Good Night!

Posted on 01/13/2010 by chick

So here I am, ready to do some writing, but it’s after 11:00 p.m., which means I have to go to bed. Really, I have to. You have no idea how bad I’ll feel in the morning if I don’t. Good night!

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See You Then

Posted on 01/12/2010 by chick

I need to do some writing here. And I will. Really! It’s late, though, and time for sleep. I’ll be back tomorrow with my writing shoes on.

Um, I don’t actually have writing shoes, because feet have little to do with writing, so what would be the point? How about a writing hat? That would make more sense. Yes, I must get a writing hat.

I’ll be back tomorrow without my shoes on.

That’s probably true. I often don’t wear shoes when I’m hanging out in my office.

See you then.

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Posted on 01/10/2010 by chick

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The Small Things

Posted on 01/09/2010 by chick

Small, but good.

Smell

  • A nicely scented soap that does exactly what it is supposed to do, which is to clean your hands while providing a pleasant olfactory experience.
  • The smell of winter clinging to my hubby when he comes in from the outside.

Sound

  • The satisfying sizzle of scrambled eggs meeting hot, buttered pan.
  • Wind chimes—possibly the nicest thing left behind by the previous owners of the house.
  • The delightfully creepy rasp of dead leaves on a tree when you’re alone in the woods.
  • The crunch of snow underfoot.

Taste

  • Leftover Christmas cookies. They should have been stale and gross, but were somehow moist and yummy. I don’t want to know how that was accomplished.
  • Lemony gunpowder tea—best morning pick-me-up in the world.
  • Avocado on a hamburger. Mmm.

Sight

  • Snow falling in the woods.
  • Icicles hanging on rocks.
  • Joyfully erratic animal tracks in the snow.
  • My son’s wet, toothy, adorable smile.

Touch

  • Soft, warm slippers on chilled feet.
  • A hot shower.
  • A backrub from my hubby.
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“Bed Bugs”

Posted on 01/07/2010 by chick

My Faithful Reader should be very thankful that I made the bed today, because when I pulled up the sheet on his side, a big spider popped out and ran across the bed. Eek!

It’s dead now, of course. Spiders who invade our sleeping space deserve no mercy. Plus, if I had let it go, Faithful Reader probably would have sued for divorce. He still hasn’t forgiven me for the huge spider that I captured in the Tupperware…

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I’m Lichen It

Posted on 01/05/2010 by chick

Many of the trees in our yard and in the neighboring state park have alarmingly large patches of lichen on them. I was beginning to wonder if the patches were indicative of some underlying weakness or disease in the trees, so I looked up lichens on the Internet. I was surprised to find out that they’re not bad at all. In fact, they’re good. Lichens don’t grow well in polluted areas, so their presence means the air here is fairly clean. That’s good to know!

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Favorite Princess

Posted on 01/04/2010 by chick

I don’t want to spend too much of 2010 writing about books from 2009, but I’ve got to finish up these reading posts, so here’s a quick one.

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Grade: A+

In A Little Princess, the main character is a little girl named Sara Crewe. She was raised in India, but when she reaches a certain age, her father feels it is time for her to attend a good school in England. He drops her off and instructs Miss Minchin, the head of the school, to buy Sara the best of everything and send him the bills. When a series of sad events leaves Sara fatherless and penniless, she is forced to work as a drudge in the same school where she was once treated as a princess. Her inherent goodness, intelligence, and talent for storytelling allow her to keep her friends, as well as make new ones, and that helps her as she struggles to find happiness in spite of her unfortunate circumstances.

A Little Princess has been one of my favorite books since childhood. I recently saw the movie version starring Shirley Temple and I was shocked by some of the plot changes. It didn’t seem at all what I remembered, so I had to reread the book to compare the two. I also thought it might suit my mood, and it did. It really cheered me up.  And I was right about the plot changes. In the Temple movie, Fate gives the main character (Sara Crewe) a break. The worst thing that happens to her is pretty much undone by the end of the film. In the book, Sara suffers longer and more cruelly, and it is her goodness, not good luck, that leads to her happy ending. I think that’s what I like best about it. It’s about trying to be happy no matter what happens to you, and that’s a good lesson for all of us to learn.

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How We Greeted 2010

Posted on 01/03/2010 by chick

We were invited out to dinner on the last night of 2009, but we declined. We were simply too tired, and the thought of dealing with our son in public at the time of the evening when he is at his crankiest, well, it just made us feel even more exhausted. So we stayed home. FR cooked us dinner in our brand new clay pot. We each had a beer. We watched District 9, a quirky but gory sci-fi movie. It wasn’t nearly as good as the reviews had suggested, but it was entertaining enough. We managed somehow to stay up late enough to see the ball drop. And that was that.

We’re getting old…

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The Books of 2009

Posted on 01/02/2010 by chick

I’m so far behind on my reading posts that I wasn’t sure until today how many books I had read in 2009. I added some titles to my Book Love page and did a quick count, and it seems I read 23, which isn’t bad considering that I had so much trouble reading during my pregnancy and so little time to read in the months after my son was born.

My absolute favorite for the year was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Many Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.  It is about the German occupation of Guernsey (an island in the English Channel) during WWII. It is written in epistolary style, with all the characters writing letters back and forth, telling us the story in bits and pieces. The parts of the story that are about love and the joy of reading shine brightly because they are contrasted with tales of atrocities committed by (or because of) the Germans. It is not entirely a happy book, but it is beautiful. If I were a high-school teacher, I’d put this on the syllabus, right next to Slaughterhouse-Five.

But as I sit here writing, it occurs to me that my count isn’t entirely accurate. I also read at least 20 books to my son, some of them many, many times. Of those books, my two favorites were The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, which is fun and educational without bashing you over the head with a message, and Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss, which has a strong message, but one that’s sweet and perfect for a child (“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”). I would give each of those books an A+.

What are my reading goals for 2010? Well, I’ve got the Marplethon to finish. I’m also considering another reading challenge (more to come on that later, if I decide to go for it). I hope to get back to my one-book-per-week average. And of course, I plan to read to my son as often as possible  (he got some new books for Christmas—yay!).

Wishing you all a great 2010 and Happy Reading!

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