New Favorite
I've found a new "read every day blog". It's called
La Vida Vica. I identify so much with where this woman is in her life - single, lonely, maybe not the next Pamela Lee. I'm not there right now myself - more like married with dog, getting more interested in important things like the new mattress I need to buy and whether I should just save myself the headache and use paper plates for dinner. But she writes REALLY well, her layout is stylish (I am not jealous, I am not jealous, I am not...), and I always empathize with her position, whether it's being the tomboy watching football with the guys,
amazement at ballsies, or general amusement at the world. She's worth a read!
X-Men 3
Supposedly this is the last one in the series. Given that they just had the biggest Memorial Day weekend opening EVER, I'm sure you'll grant me a bit of skepticism.
The two things to know before I start writing is:
1. I never read the X-Men comics. Chris did, and is more tied into the mythology, but I've watched all three without the previous history
2. I thought this was an entertaining summer flick, just not one that was as good as it's predecessors.
The main problem I had with this movie is that a lot of major characters have/do disappear from the story, or are transformed into something else, or take on new roles which removes a lot of the tension and interplay which was so good in it's predecessors. The characters who are then asked to replace the lost characters are either bit players in the previous movies, or non-existent in the previous movies, and you never get to know them here. And that's what keeps this movie from being a great movie and turns it into another formulaic summer action-adventure. The only really great relationship left is the one between Magneto and Professor X.
But the great part about the movie is that the two guys in front of us were dressed in a spiderman shirt and a superman shirt respectively. There are some constants in the world!
Update: La Vida Vica has her review
hereFor those of you who actually knew something about the X-Men before they hit the big screen, Strange Culture has details on Juggernaut
hereLabels: Movies
Heritage
My mom just forwarded on this picture of some ancestors of mine - Michael & Magdalena. Magdalena was born in 1843 and Michael in 1840. It's kind of cool to see her photo, and realize that if Magdalena was 70 when this picture was taken, one of my grandmothers had not yet reached the ripe old age of 2. My mom's cousin has been doing a lot of genealogy, and he wrot a biography of the two of them. In it he says:
Michael and his wife remained faithful to the Catholic Church all their lives. In looking at their photographs, it is clear that they were strong-willed people who were not prone to give up what they had considered important. Michael had never gained wealth and power, but clearly he had successfully led the way for subsequent generations of Bereswills within this country. Michael and Magdalena’s lives had centered around their family and the Catholic Church. There are at least three priests, four Sisters of St. Joseph, one Franciscan Brother, and a Deacon amongst their descendants. Two other descendants are currently studying for the priesthood. Michael and Magdalena have had numerous descendants. Quite a few have earned a degree. Some have multiple degrees. There are educators, business people, engineers, scientists, and technicians, too.
Looks like my brother comes from a long tradition of religious callings within our family. That's 10 members of Michael & Magdalena's descendants who joined Catholic communities.
All in all, very cool info!
Me not understanding the news stories...
Ok, this is a fuzzy area for me, so I'd be willing to listen to a reasoned explanation for this but...
Why do congress people think they're exempt from search warrants? I totally don't understand this:
"Not anyone here is above the law," Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said Tuesday. But, she added, "I think you've seen abuse of power of the executive branch over this weekend."
Since this was a legal warrant signed off by a judge, would that be executive & judicial branch? At what point does this cross from standard checks and balances into abuse of power?
Frivolous Lawsuit Night
If you're going to be anywhere near Altoona on July 2nd, you may want to check out
Frivolous Lawsuit Night:
Inspired by a Los Angeles Angels fan who filed a lawsuit against the club because he did not receive a red nylon tote bag as part of the major league club’s Mother’s Day promotion last May, the Altoona Curve have announced that they will be holding Salute to Frivolous Lawsuit Night as part of their Sunday, July 2nd game at Blair County Ballpark.
Check it out, their prizes are inspired.
Dog-gerel
We spend a lot of time driving together to races. Fred, Chris and I have put thousands of miles and hours and hours of driving on the records. And of course sometimes there's not much to do but sing along with the radio. Since we got Fred, that singing involves trying to modify the songs to incorporate Fred and doggyness. Our first big hit (sung to the tune of "I'm a little teapot") was:
I'm a little Fred dog
Short and Stout
Here is my tail and here is my snout
When I knock the trash over
Hear Mom shout
She picks the trash up and takes it out
This was followed up shortly thereafter with a song that we liked to dedicate to our friend Erin. She was babysitting Fred for us one weekend, and he woke her up at 4:30 AM to take him to the park. This was sung to the tune of "It's 5 o'clock somewhere"
Take me out to the park
Get me a longer chain
Before I go insane
It's only half past 4
But I don't care
There's doggies out somewhere
One easy one because of it's monotony is to the tune of "No Parking on the Dance Floor". A little ode to the fact that Fred sucks at inter-canine relationships.
No barking Freddy
No barking at the dog park (repeat ad infinitum)
And finally one that I've worked on of late, to the tune of that old 1960s song "Windy"
Who's walking down the streets of the city
Barking at every doggy he sees?
Who's running out to capture a rabbit?
Everyone knows it's Freddy
Essentially what I'm telling you here is that we are slowly losing our minds. But at least we're keeping ourselves entertained as it occurs.
Labels: Dogs
A dip in the hippy pool
Ok, so I think I've officially gone over board at looking for more environmentally friendly stuff. I was at Whole Foods the other day, and I guess I was just overwhelmed by all of that environmentally friendly stuff. And that's when I stuck my toe in the hippy pool. I picked up the smallest container they had of Dr Bonner's Shampoo in Lavender. Last night I tried it. IT SUCKED. My hair was sort of tacky feeling and it was really strong smelling. Nothing hides patchouli stink, no matter what the scent on top of it is. I think I will now return to my regularly scheduled program of polluting our nation's water supply with sweet smelling, easy foaming shampoo. To pull a word from my high school days....GRODY.
Oh - and in case you haven't recently had the experience of talking to a crazy man, you can always read the shampoo label. It's a must have!
Ahem
Far be it from me to throw rocks or anything, but
someone has not updated their blog in almost a week. Unlike me, who will natter on despite a complete lack of audience or anything of value to add to the national discourse. Criminy, somebody post a comment, I'm feelin' kinda lonely here...
Movie Reviews
Yeah, I know, it's been a while. This weekend I watched two completely different movies that I really liked.
First up is
Flirting with Disaster. An early Ben Stiller flick with Patricia Arquette, Tea Leoni, Alan Alda, Mary Tyler Moore, Josh Brolin, and George Segal. In it Ben Stiller's character is trying to find his birth parents with the help of his long suffering wife (Arquette) and over-sexed contact with the adoption agency. I picked this one out because Chris is a huge Ben Stiller fan, but I think what makes this an awesome film is that he doesn't dominate everything. The whole cast takes turns stealing the show. Definitely a worthwhile watch.
Strange Days starts out really slow, and it does last 2 1/2 hours. For some reason I hung in there with this movie in a way I usually don't. And it turns out to be a movie that I would probably watch again. Now that I see how it comes together, there are a lot of details I know I missed in the first go around. If you're not into Sci-Fi with a twist of horror, then you may want to pass on this one. Angela Bassett does an awesome job in this, and also now stands as my goal for buffness. Juliette Lewis does a great job playing the slut (is this a good thing?). Anyway, since you probably don't want to read War & Peace, just go see it.
Last question of the day - are Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes really the same guy?
Labels: Movies
DVC FAQ
At last, someone with the courage and wisdom to answer all of your questions on the truth
behind the Da Vinci Code. Or at least give you a good laugh.
Doggy thoughts on rain.
"I got my hair fluffed just so and then the humans want me to go out in the rain and get it all matted down? It's bad enough the humidity has it frizzed out so it looks like I have three times the unruly mop that I normally have, but what am I to do when suddenly I look 1/3 my normal size?
And let's not even talk about puddles, girlfriend. I spend hours cleaning my legs and paws and then you want me to splash mud water on them? It's not the same as playing in a creek of course, that's
totally different.
And wow, do I hate it when rain gets in my eyes. It makes it just impossible to spot potential threats to our safety. Just the other day Mom took me on a walk from hell where I had to stop to wipe the rain out of my eyes. She means well, but good grief. She really needs to put a stop to the rain thing. 8 days is far too long to let the rain go on. And it should never rain on a walk. She needs to work on that."
Labels: Dogs
My husband's favorite one liner (from him)
When his mom asked him to put the bed spread and shams on the bed he called to me:
"Sweetie, what's a sham? I mean besides our marriage?"
How quickly we forget
Yesterday Fredly and I tried to sneak a walk in between deluges. And failed utterly. We got about 20 minutes in when the skies opened up, and poorly Fred tried was trying to wipe the rain out of his eyes with his paws. By the time we got back home we were both soaked to the skin - despite the fact that I was wearing rain pants and a rain jacket. 4 1/2 hours later when we went to bed, that was a real treat. Because there's no aromatherapy that will put you to sleep faster than eau de wet dog. Even better if said wet dog is curled up against your chest. Sweet.
Anyway after Chris got out of work, a friend of ours came over for a last dinner before he headed out for an externship in Chicago this summer. And that's when I looked around the house and realized we had already started down the fiery path towards a messy house. ARGH! Nothing as embarrassing for letting strangers in as what we usually have, but how could the house get messy in less than a day??
Quite Contrary, How does your Garden Grow?
When I got my new beige cubicle, it actually has a window (note beige walls, and grey carpet). It needed a little something, and I decided on plants. Rosemary in the back, and a friend just brought me the peppermint up front.
Now to see if I can be the first person on the planet who's able to kill a peppermint plant. I'm not doing well, the peppermint in our front garden was routed by the pachysandra some well meaning/unknowing soul planted before I got there. Hopefully growing it in a pot is an easier prospect.
Did I mention it's raining here? I'm not one to panic, but I did notice animals going by the window two by two...
Baby I'm a STAR!
My brother was in town Sun through this AM for a quick visit en route home from the seminary. He was ordained a transitional deacon in April (which means a priest next year, barring disaster), so he's now always dressed in clerics (the black priest outfits). It is
amazing what a rock star that made him at church yesterday morning. After 8AM mass, a group of people invited him to lead the rosary for him. They wanted to know all about him, how they ended up in our church, and one gentleman gave him $20 for lunch. Chris joked later that if he'd only walked our usual rock star, Fred, around our neighborhood for a while, he would have known everyone.
For his transportation, he's currently driving a much abused black nissan. He was joking that if he could just find a little white tape to put on the front of the car....
It was so great to see him! We used to call/email almost every day (probably 50 times a day during the Tour de France), so the hardest parts of his becoming a priest were not being able to talk to him very often, and the realization that producing the grandkids was my responsibility. Dear lord, people, I forgot to pencil in "childbearing" into my calendar of things to do when I die! But he's doing what makes him happy, and that's so awesome to see!
So I'll miss him, but I'm super pleased that when he left, he took an old computer with him to use for his sermons. SWEET! One more thing out of the house.
Cleanliness is next to godliness
...And up until this past weekend we were living 3 doors down from Satan. But I decided to use my brother's visit as a jumping off point for really doing spring cleaning. Saturday I started in our bedroom. 6 hours later, I started on the bathroom, about which time Chris got home from work.
"WHOA!!!...WHOA!!!...Sweetie, I've never
seen it look like this before! WHOA!!!"
Mission accomplished. In one room. Out of 6. Anyway, after muchas slaving away, the guest bedroom, bathroom, dining room and hallways have been brought completely up to snuff. The kitchen still has dirty dishes. The living room needs a complete overhaul. But things really do look better now than they have since I moved in. The bad news is the price it came at was the room I've been slowly working my way through has been completely re-filled. I was a little discouraged before. Now I'm totally blue. I may have to take Chris up on his suggestion and throw a match in.
But our bedroom looks GOOD.
Organics...another view
Hmmm, a blog I read posted
this as a "devastating" article taking down organic foods, specifically Whole Foods organic foods. In skimming through this, the main issues appear to be:
- Organic foods is big business, which is counter to the hippy organic food vision
- Organic foods aren't tastier or demonstrably healthier than regular foods
- Organic foods use lots of fossil fuels in being shipped across country and in having manure shipped into the farm
- You can't feed the world using purely organic farming methods.
To which my reply is "So", "So", "So", and "No kidding".
To start from the beginning point...well I guess there's not much to say in addition to I don't think I would take business or investment advice from the 1960s version hippies. They were awful big on vision, and awful poor on execution. Sorry, dude, if your pot isn't organic.
The second point is important only if taste and your personal health are the main two reasons for buying organic. If it's more of an environmental concern, then this point isn't nearly as persuasive as the next point - the fossil fuels. But based on this article, I can't tell if organic foods are using more fossil fuels than their conventionally raised counterparts. If they're using comparable amounts of fossil fuels, at least in buying organic they're not putting the chemical fertilizers and pesticides into the system. I'm not totally against chemical pesticides/fertilizers, but I think we have this tendency to find years down the road that there are side effects to the chemicals we use that we don't expect. Not always, but enough of the time that I think there's a place at the table for farming organically. If it turns out that organic is more fuel intensive, then Chris is right and it make more sense to buy local produce than to buy organic.
The final point I've heard before, and it always makes me laugh. Really? You're really that concerned about feeding the world? Change what you eat. Give up meat. Better yet, go vegan. I don't think anyone will contest that cattle are far more resource intensive than wheat. I also don't see how getting triple the arugula yield is going to help the starving children in Africa. So maybe your next salad could skip the shee-shee foods so that those fields can be used for wheat or corn. Don't want to sacrifice on the diet? Well how about setting up a means of getting that grain to the victims of famine? How many "We are the World" moments have we seen on tv where stacks of food are sitting on docks? I'm guessing the biggest threat to feeding people in this world is NOT the organic vs non-organic method of farming.
Anyway, the persuasiveness of the article depends on the reasons for buying organic. I think it's silly to be ticked off that people are buying organic. If you don't want organic foods, it's still FAR easier to find conventionally raised food than it is to find organic. Relax people, it's just lunch.
And off the topic of the article and on to the grass-fed beef...I made a batch last night in spaghetti. I'd been warned it would taste different, but honestly I couldn't tell a difference with the spaghetti sauce, onions and bell peppers in the mix. I figure I'll make a few more meals before I make a definite decision on buying more, but so far, so good.
Dear lord...
"Fast Food Nation" is waiting for me at the library. As if I wasn't getting obsessive enough about eating...
Mite Dampish here
Yes, those trees are bending with the force of the wind and rain. So weeks of sunshine are on pause. The farmers are probably relieved that the drought is over. Of course around here they declare drought after 15 minutes without rain.
At the bottom you can see my little rosemary plant with it's leafy nose up against the window.
Why yes, that is a jelly belly team poster hanging on my reflected wall....
The baby has arrived
There she is folks, Chris's Madone 5.9. I think it took him 3 nanoseconds to get it off the truck and build it up, he was so excited. And rightfully so, this is a
sweet bike.
But alas for him, yesterday was his day off, which translates to he didn't have to close. So we had planned on going to the Greek festival, and he had already sacrificed racing at the Wednesday Night Worlds,
and riding his new bike. "I deserve a blog mention for this!" he said. Here it is, sweetie. And then double alas, one of the employees at the shop didn't show up, so we went to the Greek festival and then back to the shop for Chris to work. So we didn't get to hang out, nor did he get to ride his bike. By the time he got home from work, made Soupy his cup(s) of espresso & cubano, and was ready to settle down, it was my bedtime.
By the way, souvlakia RULES.
On Money & Power
When I was in college, I went with a group of friends to see the "Last Temptation of Christ". Spurred mostly by the teensy little rebellious streak that I had which wasn't going to have those protesters telling ME what to do. Woo. Freakin. Hoo. Now looking back, and knowing what I know, it was dumb. Later on I found out that the director was purposefully slamming Christianity, and I took my cues from the wrong people. All I did was put money in the pockets of those who had contempt for me and mine.
And that's an area over the years that I haven't really invested enough thought on - what precisely am I buying with my hard earned dollars?
Some of this reflection started with my corporation's very large investment in China as a low cost country supplier. Some was prompted by watching
"Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion" which touches on the Chinese role in Tibet. As Chris said after that movie, we're going to hell for our support of the Chinese government. Some was prompted by my brother telling me about men who graduated from the seminary 2 years ahead of him. They will be going to China where their life expectancy is painfully short because of their faith. And most recently staying at a friend's house and hearing her talk about her search to find new daily ware dishes that weren't made in China.
Another aspect of the reflection has been with regards to the Da Vinci Code movie. I've had friends tell me "I know the difference, who cares whether I watch it or not?"
And finally, some of this pondering was prompted in part by "CrunchyCons" by Rod Dreher, and some follow up reading about treatment of cattle from field to food. It also talks about efforts of local organic famers to develop sustainable local farms.
So the questions that I'm asking of late are...what am I paying for in addition to what I'm getting? Am I supporting a society that is anti-U.S. with horrible human rights and environmental violations? Am I supporting an openly anti-Catholic author in his 15 minutes of fame? Am I encouraging unnecessary use of pesticides & hormones in the environment or inhumane treatment of animals?
Don't get me wrong, while I'm pondering all of this, I also recognize that there are certain areas of life that just aren't going to be changed for me. For one thing, not having an infinite income, my organic food options are limited to CSA and maybe occasional grass-fed beef. Also, I only have so much time/week to food shop, so I can't get terribly crazy over the labels. For the same economic reasons, sometimes "Made in China" is purchased instead of "Made in Italy". But when it comes to areas where I have discretionary spending, I'm going to try to be more mindful of the other things I'm getting when I make a purchase. Hopefully that will lead to wiser choices in the future.
Petfinder Pimp
My friend Christine and I always joke that we're
Petfinder Pimps because we tell EVERYONE we know about using petfinder.com to find shelter dogs. So yesterday I did a little petfinder surfing, then wandered over to the local animal rescue website where I've volunteered in the past. But I didn't inhale, I swear! Anyway, there on the rescue website was Wolfie, an
Irish Wolfhound mix. I knew that Chris's friend Rick and his girlfriend, Ros, were interested in an IW, so I emailed Chris who gave them the heads up. When we went to check him out, it was love at first sight. Alas, Wolfie doesn't like anyone other than adult humans, which wasn't going to work well with their two dogs, two goats, and nieces/nephews. And there went my reputation as a doggy matchmaker.
On the plus side, a few cages down was Emma, a great pyrenees... So they may or may not go back and get her. Ros was sold, Rick not so much. But I'm hoping that it works out for both Emma and them, it would be awesome to be instrumental in freeing a doggy from a cage. Plus they have a bit of property, so not only would she not be in the animal shelter, she'd be some place where she could roam free.
Fingers crossed!
While we were there, the people who work there were showing us Brother, a rescue dog who is a 5 month old lab mix puppy of Hurricane Katrina. After the hurricane while all of those dogs were running free, there was a population explosion. Now they're in the process of trying to round up those guys too and get them all spayed/neutered before the entire area is over run with strays. He was such a cutie.
Next to Brother is a SEVERELY undernourished Rotty named Blue. Poor guy, I've never seen a dog in quite that bad a condition. Believe it or not, this photo of him is flattering. I want to take him home just because he deserves so much better than the life he's obviously had. He looked like a skeleton model, you could see every bone in his body. Some people really aren't worth the powder to blow them to hell. The bad thing is he's been at the shelter for a month, I'm sure he was in worse shape when he came in.
We won't even talk about the two month old golden retriever pup who - as all golden retriever puppies are - was absolutely
adorable"Hi, I'm Cheryl, and I'm addicted to dogs."
It's with great restraint that I left without adding to the population count at our house.
Labels: Dogs
Going Forward
or whatever reason, the phrase "Going Forward" drives me bonkers. I feel like it's just a pretentious corporate-speak replacement for either "In the future" or "From now on". So I was overjoyed to receive the letter from Gary Borofsky of Macy's that says
Dear Kaufmann's customer:
As you may know, Macy's and Kaufmann's will now be one. Going forward, we will be known by one name across the country, Macy's
That does it, I'm shopping JC Penney's.
Travels
DC area traffic SUCKS. 7 hours to Richmond for a normally 5.5 hour journey. 6 hours 45 minutes back. Our travel woes continue!
In happier news, our friend Anna is getting married. I'm so happy for her. She's paid her dues in the bad boyfriend department, and now is marrying a guy who's good to her. They're one of those couples who seems right together.
We also think we need to spend more time in Richmond. We have such great friends there, and we let a whole year elapse since our last visit. That needs to change.
Best Bumper Sticker of the weekend (Seen on a red pick up truck in rural Maryland): Ewe-Haul.
Labels: Travel
Interesting oil commentary
Via
Asymmetrical Information, I've come across
this article on Petroleum Follies. I found the first few paragraphs an interesting tak, but felt like the last three which proposed a solution were trying to cram everyone into the same cookie cutter mold. Can't be done and quite honestly I don't think it's a good idea even if it could be done. But in the comments section, I found the comment by Mark Seecof at May 3, 2006 11:13 PM to be very interesting.
Yes, my geekdom raises it's ugly head again. I'm fascinated by the economics of high oil prices. By the way, from Asymmetrical Information, I thought this was an interesting
set of questions about oil issues from one of her readers:
Will someone please explain to me how all of the following can possibly be true about the same market?
(a) all demand is still being met, i.e. no rationing is occurring (via the price system or otherwise, as far as anyone can tell, there's no evidence of inability to meet all the demand that would exist at the lower price);
(b) prices are increasing faster than the marginal cost of additional supply to the oil companies (profits are increasing); and
(c) no oil company is competing on price by reducing its profits back to the equilibrium level (i.e. by only increasing prices in an amount sufficient to meet its additional marginal cost).
Cinderella Man
And the winner by a knockout is...
Oh c'mon, there's no way you can have a boxing movie review without that kind of corny cliche. But don't let that take away from this movie, it was
awesome. Jim Braddock is a fighter who is struggling to keep his family fed and the heat on during the depression. He has pride, he wants to work for a respectable living without handouts, and above all, he wants to keep his family together, happy and healthy. Renee Zellwegger is amazing as his long suffering wife who can't attend the bouts because she feels every blow he takes. Russell Crowe does his usual amazing acting turn as Jim Braddock. The cinematography is excellent, the story is touching and hopeful, and the characters are people you wish you knew. Who can't like a guy who pays back the welfare he had to take during the depression? Who manages not to get caught up in the hype surrounding boxing at it's highest level, but keeps his focus on what's important - his wife and kids?
As Chris said, neither of us are into boxing (well any more, I used to watch during the late Muhammad Ali/Sugar Ray Leonard/Leon Spinks era when I was like 10 years old.), but something about boxing movies seems to drag us in. By the end of this one we were shrieking "No! No! Don't DO that!" So don't let the values portion put you off. For sheer, brutal boxing action this movie is a winner as well. I'm waiting to see what Chris rates this at on his new "boxing violence level" indicator. Ratings go from 1 to "Raging Bull". (I can't take credit for the scoring system, that's all him)
Labels: Movies
Death, martyrdom, life in prison
Ok, I'm one of those people who believe there really is a place for capital punishment in our society. Whether it's being administered properly or not is a whole other well-reasoned debate, which I'd be willing to listen to. But when it comes to Zacarias Moussaoui, I'm actually glad he wasn't executed. I don't want this guy to have one happy minute in the rest of his miserable life. I don't want him martyred. What I want him to do is spend the rest of his life PIG FARMING. Rotten scum. If that's not an option, enjoy the infinite loop of Britney Spears's "Oops I did it again" video, ok?
Whatever, this is one of those cases where dying was too good for him.
Heard on the street
Yesterday while I waited for Chris outside of the local coffee shop I heard
Small boy: OW!
Dad: That's how you know it's a good high five.
Ahhh...family
I've sorta gotten addicted to a little blog called "La Coquette". It's written by an American girl with a French father. She's currently living in Paris, and working in fashion. Her blog is light and fun, and I hit it every few days (her posting is a little sporadic).
This post made me laugh, though.
Ahhhh, family, they know all about you and yet still love you anyway. My dad knows that I must be nagged into submission on oil changes. My mother still remembers the first time I made a turkey and called her roughly 30 times in the first hour. ("Mom...where are the innards. Wait...WHERE?") My brother knows that I'm
completely scatter brained when I'm stressed. Additional pressure only makes it worse. Chris's mom knows that we've never left her house without forgetting something. And yet somehow we manage to get along surprisingly well for people who know too much about each other.
Family. "Great Idea, Oh Lord"
"Of
course it's a great idea!"
Glamorous Disasters by Eliot Schrefer
It seems a little silly to critique a book, only to say... "eh". But darn it, I went through it just to come to the end and be whelmed. The basic story is a guy who grew up poor in Virginia makes it to Princeton only to find himself tutoring rich kids for the SATs at exorbitant rate. The story traces his interactions with a completely stereotypical dysfunctional rich family. Mom & Dad are overachievers to self absorbed to worry about their kids' well being. The son is partying with alcohol & drugs. He has no motivation because the mother pays a lot of people to be motivated for him (and when necessary, take the tests). The daughter is essentially a young Paris Hilton. And into this mess comes our protagonist with his own baggage, living in Harlem while catering to wealthy Manhattanites and trying to keep the family afloat back home. Will he manage to survive the mean streets of Harlem, get the girl, and still maintain his integrity? Will you care?
Labels: Books
Dinner for 6
We had a nice outing last night with the friends who introduced Chris & I. They whipped up burgers, a tasty rice salad, and grilled veggies. Chris & I bought wine and bread, and another friend brought Tres Leches, which is an absolutely decadent dessert. Screw no dairy, we had three milks!
Then we discussed dating horror stories, which just reminded me how white bread I am. Seriously, my break ups have never been highly dramatic, more along the lines of "you're nice and all, but this isn't it". And then walking away. Unlike one woman one of the guys dated whose boyfriend walked out with all of her stuff, leaving a note that he never loved her. Twice. Huzza for the boring life!
