Book #2 - Superfreaknomics

This wild ride is the sequel to Freakonomics by Steven Levitt (Prof of Economics) and Stephen Dubner (author/journalist).

If your previous perception of Economics involved only the dry "macro" and the tedious "micro" categories, give Levitt and Dubner's books a chance. They don't disappoint.

Superfreakonomics examines real world issues:

Why statistically speaking, it's much safer to drive drunk than it is to walk drunk. (Although, they do suggest calling a cab or designated driver). . .

How a prostitute is like a department store Santa. . .

The real deal on apathy and altruism. . .

How Al Gore is like a volcano. . .

This book is absolutely as enjoyable as the first. They read clearly, easily, and quickly. Bend your mind a bit. . .You'll love it.

C is Ambitious, Plus No Trip to JHU ER

We have this one print that is especially vexing in terms of its size for framing. The print itself cost about $12. However, it requires custom framing that could cost in excess of $112. That seems a bit much no?

Enter Superman C with his tools, know-how, and resolve. . .

The scene earlier this afternoon:

C on his hands and knees miter box on a towel in the center of the kitchen floor, lengths of molding surrounding him. . .

d: "Please be careful."

C: "Careful is my middle name, baby."

d proceeds to the basement to do wifely laundry duty. Wants beer during Pittsburgh game but is scared might have to drive saw-wielding husband to the ER at any moment.

From above: Saw, saw, saw, whack. . .saw, saw, saw, whack. . . .muffled sanding and sawing noises.

d cracks beer. . .

From above C blurts out: "Oh Fudge!"

pause, pause pause. . .d listening. All muffled sanding and sawing ceases. . .

d: "Are you OK?"

(Imagine your own cricket noises) followed by the sound of running water. . .That can only mean one thing and it ain't good.

d: (Second verse same as the first. . .) "Are you OK?"

C: "I'm fine"

d: "Do you need a band aid?"

C: Clearly insulted and somewhat indignant. . ."Pftt. No."

d swills adult beverage. . .Whew

Tilghman. . .

Somehow he's learned to be beggy?

One Book Down - 59 More to Go

First of all, the weather here is horrific. Freezing cold and extremely windy. This has resulted in my desire to NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE AGAIN!!!!! Seriously, it's positively frigid and miserable. Don't be fooled by the clear skies. I know I could probably be snapping all sorts of great pics but I'm wholly deterred by the temperatures. Please spring, come soon. . .

Despite staying in my PJs all day yesterday and binging on The Wire season two and holiday cookies, I managed to get through Jen Lancaster's Pretty in Plaid.

I'm not saying "managed" as in the book was miserable. It was quite engaging.

Jen Lancaster writes memoirs. . .clever, easy to read, hilarious, and occassionally poignant memoirs. This, her fourth book, does not disappoint. This book examines events, fashion faux pas, and life lessons learned prior to her first memior Bitter is the New Black.

Jen Lancaster does likely appeal to a female audience. It's not the type of book I could see my Husband or Brother reading. However, there are parts of all of her books that I've read to my Husband, and he does laugh out loud. I suspect he's laughing because they sound like things I've done or pausibly could have done. . .

Which I think is part of her draw: She's like your hysterically funny best friend. Her quest for the perfect handbag, a decent job, and a smaller waistline is recounted in a hilarious banter with enough self awareness to allow the reader to empathasize with her. . .even when she is enaging in some positively ruthless, bad behavior.

I enjoyed this book just as much as the previous three. Go Jen Lancaster!

Discretion is the Greater Part of Valor

Adore what we've done thus far. No domestic unrest resulted either. Love that! What will go in the middle? Wait n see. . .as will we.

Help us Sweet Baby Jesus!

One blank wall, 6 beers, a bunch of "stuff" and a drill. . .Prayers for guidance are welcomed.

We are PENN STATE!!

Whew!

Loving this. . .

Yesterday stumbled upon an interior design blog I'm officially worshipping.


http://Absolutelybeautifulthings.blogspot.com/

Inspiration for a new year. . .

Notice I still can't figure out how to get a hyperlink into this blog at least 60% of the time? If you cut and paste into your browser, it will work. I tried it! Sorry for the extra step. . .It's worth it tho!

Remains of the (Holi)Day

All that work, all that stuff, relegated to boxes and closets until next year. I'm beginning to understand why some folks leave the tree up year-round.

Happy New Year!

Time to dismantle the tree hons. Think spring!

Reflections 2009

Remember that song? By Diana Ross?

Through the mirror of my mind. . .
time after time. . .
I see reflections of you and me. . .
the way life used to be. . .

Reflections it's aptly titled.

When I was in middle school, there was a show on TV called China Beach. I only superficially understood the premise of the show - a Vietnam Hospital. But I'd watch it while I was doing homework and such because 1. Dana Delaney kicked ass and 2. The opening credits rolled to this song. . .

I still love that song.

I've never been too sentimental about the end of a calendar year. I've never been a slave to the calendar when I want to start something, change something, reflect. But the start of a new year is a nice tidy kick off.

It appears I have about 5 more minutes for reflection. I'm not going to do one of those "Top Ten" lists. I'm going to aspire to (barely) a little more. . .

I honestly can't remember last new year's eve aside from the fact that it was wicked windy. Lost power at work. . .fireworks were postponed. The year was filled with love and hope and friends and family. Work was tough but I enjoy a tremendous amount of camaraderie with my team and we took our lumps and toasted our victories. We welcomed Edison the cat in May. I got to drive one super-special Corvette in May. C and I had a blast this summer being tourists in our own hometown. We continued the misery err adventures in the fall culminating in one soggy stay in Cambridge and a December trip to Annapolis. Loved a lot. Lost a lot. Learned a lot. Looking forward to doing it bigger and better in 2010.

I'd love to have something more profound to say. Maybe I'm spent?

I'm not really one for making New Year's resolutions. I've got my reading list. I've got the on-going lifestyle challenge, I've got the fat since sperm hit egg slightly overweight continual battle. . .

As Buffett says, "Someday I will."

I have decided one thing: 2010 is going to be about passion and heart for me. I feel a renewed fire starting. I'm excited to read until my eyeballs fall out. . .And perhaps write too. . .and perhaps start a family. . .

As Buffett doesn't say, but I think it's implied: "Somedays" are limited. I don't dare wait. Passion should not be put on the back burner.

Buffett would also say, "I'll make my move on the big board game." I'm not sure what that move will be, but I'll do it with passion. . .likely calculated passion. . .but passion nonetheless.

Happy New Year. XOXO d

Sail on Sail on Sailors! (There might be a boat and a piano involved in my passionate plans. . .Oh boy!)

NYE Eats

C and I have a fantastic NYE tradition: we go nowhere, see no one, and do nearly nothing.

We've been doing this the majority of our nearly 10 NYEs together and I look forward to a quiet evening. The phone barely rings. I have no obligations but football and food the following day. . .We can be calm and reflect.

Well, as calm as I can endure. Steamed some cherrystone clams with a tomato sauce I learned from Dad. Made some coconut pecan muffins for champagne brunch tomorrow. Made a leek, potato, and feta tart. We'll have a few cocktails and snuggle in. I'll reflect on a year, a decade even.

Tomorrow? Champagne brunch followed by sauerkraut, perogies, faux sausages and faux hot dogs, beer and a sustained slight buzz. . .

Packing up and putting away the holiday cheer and looking forward. . .Setting goals, dreaming, doing. . .

Go PSU!!!!

Hmmmm

Headline at Baltimore Sun Online:

Police Urge Partyers to Celebrate Holiday Without Firing Guns

"It's still a Baltimore tradition, one that we have to deal with."

One more reason to stay home this evening. Yikes!

Everlasting Moon

Sooner or Later a deplorable pic of the moon will hopefully, likely pop up on this blog. . .from a few minutes ago, taken by my BlackBerry from my backyard. . .Maybe?

At any rate, the moon looks nearly full. . .The sky is just becoming overcast. . .

Buffett has a song (of course). . .And he seems to make a plea for kindness to our environment - before it was cool to be "green." "About what some people did to preserve the environment. . ."

Here are my fav parts. . .

The sky revealed the rumor
in a misty gray cocoon. . .
Some angry baby boomers
Stole the everlasting moon. . .

Hanging in the sky
The perfect alibi
Baby come outside with me
There's a moon you've got to see. . .

Light of love in each moonbeam
Wontcha step into my dream?
Everlasting moon. . .

Everlasting moon. . .

Whole of the moon. Third star to the right, straight ahead until morning. Indeed.

My First Wild Idea for 2010. . .

So it occurred to me the other day that my Father and I spent probably no fewer than 8 hours "together" each weekend. Some weekends that meant marathon phone calls, other times we were physically together. . .Or I was preparing to be physically together - collecting items, magazines, or baking things I wanted to take to him and my Mom and Sister. . .What will I do with all that "free" time?

Then it occurred to me how much he always loved to hear about what I was reading. And I love to read. And I do it voraciously. So what better thing to compose a reading list? After all, there are "classics" I've somehow missed reading and there are amazing new books I missed while I was reading Law all the weekend long. . .And new ones coming along all the time. . .

So today I started an ambitious list. . .Books for 2010. . Here's the list:

1. SuperFreakonomics
2. Pretty in Plaid
3. Rememberig Kent Island: Stories from the Chesapeake
4. Wicked
5. Maritime Annapolis
6. Maryland's Lower Susquehanna River Valley
7. Eat, Pray, Love
8. Gift from the Sea
9. An American Childhood
10. Bad Mother
11. Anna Karenina
12. The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder
13. Guts
14. The Late Lamented Molly Max
15. Big Russ and Me
16. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
17. Mudbound
18. The Secret Life of Bees
19. Water for Elephants
20. Confessions of a Shopaholic
21. One Can Make a Difference
22. Have a Little Faith
23. Izzy and Lenore
24. Three Dogs of Bedlam Farm
25. Too Big to Fail
26. One Hundred Years of Silence
27. The Remains of the Day
28. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
29. Race Matters
30. Lolita
31. Cod: A biography of the fish that changed the world
32. Rising Tide: Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America
33. The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History
34. Empire of Blue Water: Captian Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas and the Catastrophe that Ended the Outlaws Bloody Reign
35. Out Stealing Horses
36. Into the Porcupine Cave and Other Odysseys: Adventures of an Occassional Naturalist
37. Morgan: American Financier
38. Teh Catcher in the Rye
39. The Handmaid's Tale
40. To Kill a Mockingbird
41. Catch 22
42. On the Road
43. Gone with the Wind
44. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
45. To the Lighthouse
46. Murder on teh Orient Express
47. Arguing with Idiots
48. Churchill
49. Inside of a Dog
50. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir
51. The Bounty: The True Story of Muntiny on the Bounty
52. Mountains Beyond Mountains
53. Star of the Sea
54. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
55. The Pirate Hunter: the True Story of Captain Kidd
56. The Bontany of Desire: a Plant's Eye View of the World
57. Fast Food Nation
58. How to be Good
59. John Adams
60. Girl with a Pearl Earring

60 books in 365 days. . .Is my math possibly correct? I need to average a book about every 6 days? And I put Anna Karenina on the list? And biographies about Churchill and John Adams?!

On the upside, I guess the Lifestyle limited shopping challenge will continue. . .I won't have time to shop! And I might not have time to eat either. . .So maybe I'll finally lose some more weight.

Of course you, dear reader, can watch the entire trainwreck right here. . .I'm not great with writing book reviews but I'll do my best.

Small Seeds of Hope

Cold cold December day here. And as I trudged into the house, meeting C at the front door as he once again locked himself out. . .I plucked this little gem out of the mailbox.

The Burpee seed catalogue!!!!!

Hope for spring and renewal on a cold long evening!

The garden will be mapped out. . .the catalogue will get dog-earred. . .Seeds and Spring will arrive just as promised. . .

Life is beautiful. Sometimes you just have to look.

Um. . .Yeah. . .

C in Petsmart on his cell phone with d

C: So I'm getting dog food, kitty litter and. . .what the heck is this? Cat Milk?!

d: No way. Allister has to go one a diet anyway.

C: where does this come from? You don't think. . .

d: I know where you're going with this and I am absolutely certain they do NOT hook cats up to some kind of a breast pump or milking machine!

Fw: Lookin Out My Back Door

Glorious weather has followed a gloomy week. I didn't have the camera handy but got it on the Blackberry. It was too pretty to go undocumented.

Spent a good deal of time reflecting on nearly a years worth of blog posts.

First of all, I don't do a bad job conveying my thoughts in off the cuff remarks. Second, we had a beautiful year. Third, it was readily apparent that Dad was offering me hints from about March on, he must have felt not long for this world.

Maybe that's why I feel somehow so soon accepting of his passing? We somehow understood already?

Life is beautiful in its mystery indeed.

Test

Dealing with Loss

Anonymous left me a very considerate post suggesting strategies to aid in the grieving process. It's a thoughtful and useful post and please take a peek if you'd like.

I'm a pretty stoic and extremely strong willed individual. My incommunicado post might have been my broken heart talking; however, strong will and faith has thus far been "running the show."

I have not yet been unable or unwilling to get out of bed. I don't not feel angry, or depressed, or overly emotional. I have had moments of less than clear thinking. I couldn't seem to match up the socks in the laundry on Friday. That could have been egg-nog induced? I have had some trouble with food and sleep but slowly things are getting back to what we at homeeckwreck consider "normal."

I plan to work the rest of the week. I plan to live a life that honors my Father - all my parents. Rolling over and sniveling for too long would be disrespectful. If I'm tempted to do so, I clearly hear his voice in my head, "Take a deep breath. One foot in front of the other. Move forward. . ."

And so I will. Ever mindful that I have one brand new, phenomenal angel keeping a close watch.

This afternoon C is going to the movies with his brother. I hate movie theaters for some unknown reason and have opted to skip out. I'm going to write some thank you notes, get the house in order, make a grocery list. Get us ready for a new year. . . Which, I have little doubt, will be nearly as amazing as the first 33 I've experienced.

Life goes on.

And as I should have mentioned earlier, I do believe death is only permanent for the living. Sometime, in accordance with a plan I am not privy to and likely wouldn't understand if I was, we will meet again.

For right now, I have laundry to do and floors to sweep!