Books I want you to read:

(minorly copycatting Rae)

The Memory Keeper's Daughter Ok, I didn't LOVE it, but I liked it a lot. It dragged a bit, but I really loved the ending.

The Remains of the Day Me + This Book = LOVE. I resisted reading it for a long time, and finally bought it because I was at a bookstore in Germany with limited English selection. Soooo good.

Water For Elephants So very sad. Very, very sad. But also fascinating in the way that all books about Depression-era circus folk must be (are there others? If so, please tell me, I'd like to read them).

Promise Not To Tell Just to clarify, I lovd 90% of this book. It's a very fast read, it's very mindless, but it's really enthralling. The ending is lame as hell, but it's still worth it.

Now tell me your favorite books. All two of you who are reading, heh.

I blame Maureen

A week ago, Maureen had this weird Not-Cold, where she lost her voice and that was it. I woke up this morning with a sore throat and my head is filled with cement.

I feel like I've had more colds/coughs/assorted illnesses this year than I had in the previous five years combined. I am also the whiniest sick person ever, so I've been a LOT of fun for everyone around me.

It's kind of hypocritical of me, because I really can't stand when people are dramatic about being sick. But here's the thing, it's also not hypocritical at all, because there's a difference. Drama queens insist they're dying. I am fully aware I'm not dying, I just really really want the world to know that I don't like it when my throat hurts.

my bad.

The only possible explanation I can come up with for the entire world's assholish behavior when I was out today is that I accidentally wore my invisibility cloak when I left the house. How else can you explain the fact that everywhere I went, people did that THING where they walk right in front of you and then screech to a halt, as if you were never there? You know, the pedestrian equivalent of cutting someone off on the expressway and then slamming on the brakes, except infinitely more aggravating somehow? Seriously.

I'm not exactly a creeping kid. I'm kind of hard to miss.

I didn't do myself any favors, either. I went to DSW. All the other Sasquatches in America were sitting a home, comfortably in their Steve Maddens, shaking their heads and saying, "You cheap dumbass, why would you ever shop there? Do you REALLY think the shoe people ever make more than one size 10 shoe in any given style?" So yeah, I'll take the hit for that one. The rest, though? Is because people suck.

Kim Chee

When my father got sick of just making pickles, he decided he needed to start making Kim Chee. He also decided the best way to ferment his cabbage (in an open stone crock) was to store it on our screened-in porch in July.

Our whole front yard smelled like rotting garbage. It was mortifying.

So, fast forward tweny-some years, and my father insists that I try it after I enjoy some really really good spicy cabbage at a restaurant in Chinatown. Still can't stand it- the floppy cabbage is really more than my texture issues can handle. My dad is totally thrilled my this news and offers to make kakdugi, which is a misspelling of radish kim chee.

It was really good!!! The Boy refused to touch the stuff (it really doesn't smell very good), but I ate a whole small bowl (well, almost. I had to cut myself off to avoid side effects). He sent me home with a jar, and I actually like it!



But, you know, theoretically, if you're going to eat this? You probably should not eat it before you go to run on the treadmill in your crowded, very poorly ventilated gym. You really can't brush your teeth enough to make the smell go away, and it's really mortifying. Theoretically.

Life is more interesting now

Now that the wedding and the honeymoon are over and done with, I feel like I'm maybe getting lose to being interesting enough to blog again.



now I have really interesting stories, like the story about how Sam is a complete pain in the ass who wakes up at 5am every day and expects to be taken out. And how he wouldn't wake up, except that Rosie is howling at the top of her lungs, requesting an invitation to jump up on the bed (no, I mean, really. She howls, I reach my hand out, she comes running and jumps up and shuts up. Stephen thinks she's senile.) We know we're totally out of luck when Sam shakes out, because that is his way of announcing "OK humans, get up and take me outside! I am NOT sleeping ANY MORE."



It's also a lot of fun once he's out of the crate, because then he tortures the cats and everyone makes a big noisy mess. Kind of like this, except at 5:15 in the morning and under the bed instead of in the bathroom:

Awesome.

It won't be so bad once it's consistently above freezing....some time around July. Well, yes it will, because 5:15 is too damn early, but really, once it's warmer, it'll be easier to take him outside when he's being like that.

But not too warm, because I have to be able to put a sweatshirt on over my pajamas, otherwise I have to put a bra on first.

yay, I was right!

It's the final stretch, and the sturm und drang is rigoddamndiculous.

I just read the forecast, and it's going to be 37 degrees next friday. There's no forecast yet for saturday, but I doubt it's going to shoot up to 60 degrees that day.

thank GOD, because if didn't FREEZE TO DEATH that day, it wouldn't really be a celebration.

Marriage License Adventures

(ok, you know what? I'm getting married in two weeks. Wedding stories are boring, but they're all I've got for the next sixteen days.)

We went to get the marriage license today. It was really not how I pictured it.

I mean, ok, it's not going to be sentimental and romantic. I had planned on bringing a camera and getting someone to take our picture when we got the license, but thought about it and realized that was A) dorky, and B) probably not going to be such a great picture anyway.

I did think, though, that someone whose ONLY job is to give our marriage licenses (no, really, there's a separate office that does absolutely nothing EXCEPT issue marriage licenses) would be relatively pleasant, particularly within an hour of starting their work day. I mean, people are ALL happy! The people in this office, though, make the people at the DMV look like waiters at TGI Fridays. No kidding.

It took us forever to find the right place, because the signs suck, and, as I mentioned, there's one office for birth, death, and marriage certificates, and one office for the marriage license. We finally found the marriage license office, walked in, checked for any forms to fill out (there were none), and promptly got in line where it said "line starts here". (we're both do-bees, we like to follow the rules.) We were the only people in the office. Well, except for the one woman sitting at a computer cubby (it was just like the bank, with the different tellers) pointedly avoiding our gaze, the three people sitting a few feet back at other desks (pointedly avoiding our gaze), and two people who walked past saying they'd be "right with us", only to vanish from the face of the earth.

Finally, a woman came up and called us over. A woman with a Carribbean accent and a speech impediment. A scary woman with a Carribbean accent and a speech impediment who would bark things like, "Where is your father???" and, when The Boy told her his mother had the same last name as him, she said, "Well, I need a different one." Hee! The look I got from The Boy was priceless. ("Your mom's MAIDEN name, hon.")

ANYWAY, after a great deal of stressing and confusion and seriously memorable attitude, we can officially get married.

well, starting tomorrow.