time flies (for lack of a better title)

Gosh, has it really been almost 2 weeks?!?

So, books...The Pillars of the Earth - really like it so far; thanks Jess!!!

Summer...coming to a quick end! Our lovely school district decided to presume they were being generous to us by creating a school calendar which allowed for two weeks vacation at Christmas. However, that means, that for the first time (dare I say "ever" in this district at least) we start school before Labor Day!!!!!!!!!!! I now have two weeks of summer left, during which I was asked to complete 5 days of professional development - uh, I don't think so! But, that's a whole 'nother story that'll come in the next week or so. But anyway, summer school - taught it for the first time this year, and that was plenty - I think I shall save that privilege for my FAS ('final average salary' for any non-teachers out there).

Canandaigua. Do I really have to say more?! There were many years during my childhood when my grandparents rented a cottage on The Lake each summer. Fond, fond memories, some of my best. So, any opportunity I have to spend time at Canandaigua, I take it. We have some family friends who have a cottage; their wedding present to us was the cottage for a week!! Oh! Anyways, we get there once or twice a summer usually, but it's usually a rather large gathering and tricky with children. Yesterday we went with Grandma and Grandpa and another family also with children. It was a fabulous day - 85 degrees, sunny and Katie has never spent so much time in the water. We got Maggie in for her first swim in Canandaigua, it was really a fantastic day. Thank you M and M!!! A really lovely time.

Katie...she's finishing her ballet class tomorrow and has decided to forego another session and switch to gymnastics. Hey, can't really blame her - those ballet classes have got to be pretty boring! So, with the new school year comes a full schedule...swim class, gymnastics, story time (with Grandma).

Maggie...growing, growing growing. She's beginning solids - carrots are good, cereal - not so much, peas - have got potential. I've gotta throw in there that it's really unbelievable how different two children from the same parents can be! Really, we thought that Katie was such a good baby (and really she was) but compared to Maggie - Katie seems like a pain in the you-know-what!! I know that it'll all come back to haunt us...someday, say 10-12 years from now. For now, I'll just enjoy what we've got! :-)

Time for dinner.

books - part II and cheats

Good lord I need to keep better track of the books I read! So, based on my last post - I had The Time-Traveler's Wife in hand last night, opened it up and started reading...hhmmm, this is really familiar...keep reading, this is weird, I've never read this book - but this is really really similar to something else I've read...keep reading ("Henry is 28, Clare is 20") HA!! I have read this before!! I flip a few pages, yes, I've read this! Keep flipping, go to the end - D&%# it!! I have read this! So, now I need a new book to read! Any suggestions?

Cheats. So, I don't think in week 4 of south beach that ice cream and chocolate sauce is highly recommended, but let me tell you - it sure tasted good!! Come on now - it's fresh local raspberry season and we went to dinner at my parents and my mother loves ice cream, so I brought some of that to go with the raspberries. And I found what turns out to be pretty fantastic chocolate sauce at Target, so I got that too! So, there's one cheat...another one...lemon jello cake: absolutely one of the top 5 on my list of favorite desserts - likely to be in the top three if I really think about it. Uumm, what else, okay, okay, croutons on my salad...this next one's not exactly a cheat - but next time it will be: pasta - barilla's whole wheat plus....yeah, not my cup of tea (or bowl of pasta - hahaha) Sorry. Next time it's gonna be pure white pasta. And last but not least, as mentioned in an earlier post - beverages. I have indulged in a few glasses of red wine, but mainly I've gone to sugar-free "juice" drinks, ie koolaid.

Short and sweet - but I think I'm done for the evening - good night all.

books

Yay, one member! Thanks Car-

Anyways, funny that this 15 Book Facebook note is going around, cuz quite frankly, I was thinking of writing about books even before this facebook fad. Here's why I wanted to write about books:

I just finished The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco. Finally!!! It took (do I have to be honest here?) I started it 7 years ago!!!!! Mind you, seven years, two kids, a wedding/marriage, new house, completed masters degree and plenty of other books in the meantime. So, #1... How do I know for sure that it took at least 7 years? Well, my bookmark was an empty book of stamps with the label dating back to 2002 (at 37 cents!). #2 - why the big deal about this book? Well, it's hard that's what's the big deal. While there are plenty of books out there that I've read for pleasure and say to myself "okay, finished that one" with no real sense of purpose in having read them, just for the sake of it most times. With this book I feel that I've accomplished something, I am proud to say that I have read this book. The sentences are crazy long and convoluted, you really really have to think while reading it. Quite frequently I found myself reading one sentence and then having to turn back and reread it or even turn back a page and start a section over. Crazy, I know - why bother? Well, first - It was around the time when The Davinci Code was big and I really like that type of story...medieval, religious, semi-historical-fiction (barely I know), cults and secrecy; second, I knew it was a reputable book and challenging: I wanted to read it.

I will say, that teaching summer school this year has proved beneficial for my reading list. We have our students do at least 20-30 minutes of SSR and gee, I do it too! I have finished two books that I had started within the past year: The Glass Castle, Run, and then The Name of the Rose and I'm now working on my fourth: The Wizard of Earthsea. Yes, for whatever reason, I am very capable of having numerous books going at once...I can even pick up a book that I left sitting unfinished, and years later finish it: hence the Rose. I will some day finish Sarum and Trinity; gosh, I think I started both of those in high school! Speaking of which, maybe I should pull out Sarum (I am at just about the time of the pagans) before starting Foucault's Pendulum (another Umberto Eco). Hhmmmm. The Fountainhead is also on my list, but I need to get a different edition - apparently I am getting old because the font in the edition I have is just too plain small!

So, The Wizard of Earthsea, you may say - what the heck is that? Thanks to Pete I know and honestly, I have to say it's the original Harry Potter. Really...a child-prodigy-wizard who is trying to learn all he can about wizardry and find his place in the world and has no family to return to. Yeah, sounds like Harry to me. But this was written in 1968!! And while Harry's written at a, what 4th-5th-6th grade reading level, this is a bit higher and quite a bit darker. This protagonist is arrogant and cocky until he screws up royally. Then he turns all meek and withdrawn and duty-driven. That's about as far as I've gotten. Though it too is a series, so, I'll be looking for the next one soon.

Alright, a crying child in the background...gotta go.