New Feature

I've decided that I am going to start posting books I've recently finished or am currently reading, as well as my opinion of said book. Do with that information what you will. I will try to avoid spoilers.
I will also include W's current "favorite" book.
Just to prepare you, I am bad about reading several books at once. I am also bad about getting halfway through a book, saying to myself "this book is crap" and quitting the book right then and there. I go to the library every Tuesday (usually) so the contents of my bedside table library change pretty frequently.
Books I have recently finished:
The Worthy, by Will Clarke: As the back of the book says, you'll never look at a doughnut the same again. The same can be said for goats. This is a "ghost tale" of sorts that takes place on the campus of LSU. Frat boys run amok (well, more amok than normal). Entertaining and well-written.
Simple Genius, by David Baldacci: I couldn't finish this one. Too many sub-plots can ruin a book.
The Collectors, by David Baldacci: Again, too many sub-plots. I actually finished this one, but it was painful.
Books I am currently reading:
In the Walled Gardens: A Novel, by Anahita Firouz: This book is pretty good, but it's sort of hard to follow, as the names and places are foreign. I'm finding it hard to care much about the main characters. I might have to put this one aside for a week or so.
The Concise Guide to Sounding Smart at Parties, by David Matalon and Chris Woolsey: "An irreverent compendium of must-know info from Sputnik to Smallpox and Marie Curie to Mao." Priceless information for 14+ conversation situations, including The War Conversation, The Sports Conversation, and The New Frontiers Conversation. This sort of book is right up my alley.
W's current favorite:
Barnyard Dance, by Sandra Boynton: In truth, the perennial favorite of W. Mike and I often do a "dramatic interpretation" of this one, much to W's delight.

Beautiful Weather

The weather outside today is delightful. After going to the library, W and I went to the park. He enjoyed running across the soccer fields and climbing on the benches. They have a scaled-down play structure that he enjoys climbing on. After about 45 minutes of playing, I said, "Hey W, let's go bye bye and go home for nap." He got off the play equipment and started walking away from it. No crying, no whining. It was great. On the way to the car he noticed his shadow. This isn't the first time he's noticed it, but it was the first time he's really been mesmerized by it. He started "moon walking" (walking backwards) so that he could watch his shadow. It was pretty cute.
We carved our pumpkins last night. I dug out all the guts before Mike got home. I had one of those "kits" that comes with the "saws" and patterns. I broke one of the "saws" while carving the small pumpkin (the skin was really tough!), and Mike broke the other "saw" while carving the big pumpkin that we got at Terhune. Our "bat" on the big pumpkin doesn't have any eyes. One of the neighborhood kids asked me "What kind of face is that?" and I said, "Well, it's not really a face... It's supposed to be a bat." He looked at me incredulously and shrugged his shoulders and walked off to play with his buddies. This is the kid who isn't allowed to go Trick-or-Treating. At his house they celebrate "Hallow-God". The family of five kids dress up like Biblical characters and swap candy with one another. Oh-kaaaay... As Mike says, fine if you don't want to Trick-or-Treat or ignore Halloween, but it's sort of weird to "celebrate" it but just call it something different. This kid, who's 5, is going to be an angel. He told me that his older brother, who's 10, is going to be Peter. Even though I knew who he meant, I asked him (bad me!) who Peter was. He said, "Um, he's from the Bible... He was friends with Jesus." Ah.
I also made the mistake today of mentioning that W was going to get a "bike" from Santa this year. Kid says to me, "Santa is dead." I'm sure that goes over like a ton of bricks on the playground. I said, "Excuse me?" He responds, "Yeah, Santa is dead. God hands out the presents. Santa died because he was old." Again, don't celebrate that aspect of Christmas (the "surprise" presents) if you don't want to, but don't just celebrate it under another name. It's sort of how we got those holidays to begin with... Started out as Pagan rituals, were commandeered by the Christians, who let the Pagans still have their holidays to keep 'em happy, but added a Christian theme to them to satisfy their own collective conscience.
I finished up several cross stitch projects a few nights ago. These are the items I'm sending to Japan. I have taken pictures of them but haven't uploaded them onto the computer yet. I'll try to get to that tonight.
But I digress.
Here is a picture of a piece I have finished stitching but have not done any finishing work on yet. The cat is part of a group of Halloween images that I'm going to use as part of a Halloween decoration for next year. I've started stitching seasonal ornaments. I've got kits for Halloween and Valentine's Day so far; I have to procure a seasonally-neutral "tree" or ornament display stand to put them on as seasonally appropriate. If anyone knows where I can get one, please let me know.

Cleaning House

Here's a great (easy) way to get your house clean... Shorten your Swiffer handle and attach a cleaning pad. Give to child. Volia!

Terhune Orchards

We went to a local pick-your-own place today. Terhune Orchards is fewer than 5 miles from our house. They have tons of different types of fruits and vegetables that you can pick yourself, as well as lots of farm animals. We went to get our Halloween pumpkin. W had a great time looking at the animals. He really liked the goat.

We saw lots of pumpkins that we liked. W kept trying to pick them up. He also kept getting tripped up in the vines. In spite of the drizzly and chilly weather, we had a really nice time.

More Sudoku

I couldn't resist posting these pics...

Sudoku Championship

Today was the big day for the First Annual Sudoku Championship. I, along with about a thousand other nerds, converged on the Philadelphia Convention Center at 9 this morning. After snagging my free t-shirt and goody bag, I chilled out for a bit with Mike and W. The first and second rounds were back-to-back, starting at 11. There were 263 contestants in my division, beginner. After about 5 minutes of solving, I was the 43rd to finish. In the second round, I took about the same amount of time and was 34th to finish. The third round, after lunch, was much harder. I messed up on the puzzle, and after 7 minutes of solving, I finished 95th. There were some people who didn't finish in the 30 minute time allotment, so not too bad on my part, I guess.
Since there was nothing to do but sit after completing each puzzle, I was glad I had brought some cross stitch to work on. I started on, and got about halfway done with, a piece that will become an ornament for my friend's son's first Christmas. This is also the one I did for a couple of friends of ours who just got married, as well as for my nephew.

A Merry Little Christmas

I got a book (Better Homes and Gardens: A Cross Stitch Christmas) at the library last week that has Christmasy cross stitch designs in it. Most of them are in styles I don't particularly care for, but there are a few that I dig. I am doing one right now that is a Lizzie Kate design that says "Have a Merry Little Christmas". It's really cute; I am stitching it on navy blue 14-count Aida cloth. There are directions for making a frame for the finished design out of twigs; I collected some candidates in the yard yesterday. I'll post pics when I finish it.