We are dealing with a flooded basement. Things are leveling out now that we have the pros on the job.
And here is a recent book review:

Jane Langton's The Dante Club

Takes improbable to new heights. Cute illustrations? Reminiscent of the now quaint illustrations of the Half Magic books or the Happy Hollisters. Hmmm...suppose this would be more meaningful if I were say...ten? I suppose the best I can say is that i...t is good brainless reading. Need to relax with a not very challenging mystery and like a romantic Italian setting? This is for you. Otherwise, stick to Donna Leon or Iain Pears for un mistero di vecchia Italia. Or Pearl's Dante Club for a Dante flavored mind twister. Arrivederci for now.Read More

I honestly think that the older I get, the less I am sure of. Anyhow, we celebrated my birthday on the 10th by going to Zambras, a tapas place in Asheville. Joey gave me an I-pod, and I have been having fun with my new toy. We are waiting to celebrate with my family because of health issues, first my parents water heater had health problems and then my Sawyer has been sick most of the week.

We are getting more settled in the new house, but there is still a long way to go. Most of the upstairs is presentable, but there is still much unpacking to do. One great thing has been that we are still close to our friends the Gudgers, but now the boys are old enough to ride bikes to one another's so it seems most weekends, I have an extra son.

Cooking 1st Dinner in the New House
Madeleine began cotillion. One of her best friends is in her group. Very sweet to see them with their gloves and big girl dresses. Madeleine was paired with a boy whose mother must have been pressed for time as he was wearing Converse with his suit. M. said he was very polite, and at least didn't talk over her to the boy on her other side as the boy with whom she was first paired did. First class, there is still hope.

Cotillion

I am reading a book that is so wonderful that I have a hard time believing I have never heard more about it. The book, A Farm Under a Lake by Bergland has shades of Welty and Cather, and yet of voice of its own. It is such a relief to read such supple, true writing after finish the monstrosity that was The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff earlier this week. Here is my review of that
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff (may contain spoilers)
This book is a bad book which wants to be a good book; it plunks in all the I'm a worthy book hooks. That is not the same thing as Anthony Powell's saying Fitzgerald was a bad writer who forced himself to become a great writer. Where to begin with this books problems? When did this most current penchant for peculiar names in fiction begin? I thought The Shipping News was the last word in unnecessarily peculiar names, but really..this book's Remarkable Prettybones and Ezekiel Felcher. Can there be any good reason for naming a character Felcher other than to show off ones knowledge of more or less arcane obscene terms? And the author doesn't just leave it at that, allowing those who get the reference to smirk slyly. Good grief, she explains it. Really!
As awful as much of this book is, it is compulsively readable if one doesn't mind the frequent flinching that accompanies every page. It's a lot like a bad joke.
Did I mention the Loch Ness-type monster, the telekinetic fire starter, and nearly every "cide", but suicide...which now that I think about it might have been an improvement. Then there are the totally useless chapters such as the Running Buds, a group of middle age men who run together, have for years. Really, they call themselves that!
Anyhow, the running bud chapters are some of the most irritating. I don't know if with these pseudo poetic chapters the author was going for a Whitman link or what, but it produces a very high BLECH factor. Then, what is this with stealing names of J. F. Cooper's characters and assigning them to her ficitous author.


Lauren Groff

One of the cardinal marks of a good book for me is that it makes you want to read another book, that captures your attention about something you knew nothing about or makes you more curious about something you know a little about. I have been reading B. Chatwin's Why Am I Here?. This is the sort of book that makes me really thankful for Google since he introduces fascinating things that I want to know more about; for instance the composer Kevin Volans, who I knew nothing about, and Nazca line guru Maria Reiche. I knew about the lines, but not her. Then the haute coutre genius Madeleine Vionnet. Looked up some of her designs, lovely!



Nazca spider




Maria Reiche




Vionnet Creations

I know that Chatwin has been scorned in some parts for his "elaboration" in some of his distillations of the personalities about which he wrote,but he is an engaging writer who does light a fire to one's curiosity.

Joey's idea of going to Charelston for a two day break from unpacking and renovating was a brilliant idea. I realized while we were there that it was the 1st vacation that we had taken as a family since Joey and I were married in January. Twig debates that since we went as a family to Raleigh so that she could compete in the State Science Fair...again. Trying to figure out Raleigh's bizarre highway system and chaperoning a child from one phase to the next of the competition hardly qualifies as a vacation. Not that we aren't terribly proud of her. Anyhow, since we were married Joey and I have gone on a couple mini vacation; one to Charleston for Easter, another to Chattanooga for the Riverbend Musical Festival and to see 3 Dog Night with whom Joey toured in the early '70s. We had planned on going to Chicago, but we just had way too much going on with the house to make that long a trip. Next year?

Anyhow, we had a day at the beach on Sullivan's Island, the island where my father was born and raised. It is a quieter beach than Isle of Palms, and, well, it's "our" beach with thousands of memories attached to it. Joey and I took the opportunity to ramble about Mt. Pleasant, checking out potential properties since we are thinking about investing in a get-away place a few years down the road. Then we had a day of loitering downtown and at the Market. The children could spend forever in there pilfering through the wares of the various merchants. I bought an Ghanaian doll which represents a medicine man. I believe the gentleman from whom I bought it said it was called a Ju-Ju man. I should have had him write it down. He was from Ghana, and it was wonderful to talk to him since I have taught African history and geography and love to learn more about the continent. We found a few letterboxes, but where chased off the hunt by a monster thunderstorm. We took that as a cue to head back to the mountains.

Madeleine and Sawyer found a palmetto log floating in the tidal pool and had fun trying to balance on it and using it as a treadmill and float.


Joey and I


Leaving Sullivan's Island Beach



The Old Tree at Stella Maris Catholic Church on Sullivan's Island. This is the church my family attended until my grandmother became an Episcopalian.



Stella Maris



Joey and I


Madeleine Cooling Off


Sawyer

Moving was easy when I was a kid. A good thing since we moved often. Call Mayflower; Mayflower arrives before you leave for school; home from school; Mama gets together needed items that weren't packed; check into BOQ (Bachelors Officer's Quarters) for night; go to friends or officer's club for dinner; head towards new home in the AM making stopover at grandparents if en route. Now moving involves the entire neighborhood and back-breaking labour after a month or more of packing.

Anyhow, we are in our new house, a whole 1/4 from the old house. I have moved from Kansas to Italy with less effort. I swear they will carry me out of this one, either to Broughton (state mental hospital) or to the sweet here after. I have moved 20 times and this was the worst! Our basement is loaded with unpacked boxes, and the house is still wanting cosmetic work, some a nip, some a total face lift. Pray to whoever the patron saint of moving is. Aw...skip it, like me, he probably hasn't submitted his forwarding address to the postal service.

The Junior moving crew

Elf seeing light at the end of the moving tunnel. But of course he did; the nextdayhis father came and took him on holiday to Florida.

twig and our box collection. Twig choose to stick with us to the bloody end of the move rather than go to Florida with her father. As a sales pitch for the the state of Florida, this is lacking.


twig, her first night in her new home.

In the name of mental health, I have declared tomorrow and the next as a holiday which includes a 2 day jaunt to Charleston. Time to hit the beach and shop the market and eat at the Boulevard diner.

Taking the silver in herpetology and dynamic planet - the fabulous ELF!

Many of my peers are working today to make up for a snow day. I have opted to tack on an extra day at the end;somehow I'm never finished with the end of school stuff anyway. My agenda looks something like this; sleep late, fiddle around, read, fiddle around, do some laundry, fiddle around some, go over to Asheville for Science Olympiad awards, hoping elf wins something because he is hoping to. Go to an event at which my husband is playing, a fund-raiser for a shelter for those suffering domestic abuse.

I finished Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes the night before last. Here is what I have to say about that: "Well...that was different. Still I contend that this was more meta than fiction. The story comes rather late, but packs a fair wallop when it finally arrives. I can see how people might get frustrated with this book, my advice would be to hang in with it; it has a unique approach and interesting ideas to savor. I can't imagine being disappointed with it when one is done. Have faith there is a point to all the rambling about Flaubert's life, that is a fictional point, as opposed to philosophic or literary." My review from Bookcrossing and goodreads. Considering my antipathy for Madame Bovary, an antipathy that borders on legendary, it's a wonder I bothered to read this book at all. I can guarantee you that it had nothing to do with my being so very captivated by Barnes's England, England which I found icky. Nice literary evaluation there,no? I started Charming Billy last night. So far I am a month behind in my reading. Only eight books read so far this year.

We are patiently waiting for the closing on our house which is in a week and a half. I will be on spring break and thus we will have some time to get some work done on the house before I go back to work. We will move in at the end of June. It's a 1953 cottage style house. Exactly what we were looking for. Nice sized rooms, but cozy. Homey rather than grand. Here's pics:



The House and the Sun/Family Room


The Living Room



Kitchen and Dining Room. Now, doesn't that paneling say '50s. We're still debating, to paint wood or not to paint? Opinions?


Elf and Twig's Rooms. The front half of the rooms don't have the sloped roof and have built in shelves below a window. Really fun rooms. Exactly the sort of room I always wanted. One of the rooms you can easily step out the the window and be on the family room roof. Then an easy drop to the ground. This will not be elf's room since at 13 he is already plotting how to sneak in girls. Good grief.


Master bedroom. There is an identical room across the hall. Both are on the small side. Our plan is to knock out the walls between them and make a very roomy master bedroom. For the time being one will be a bedroom and one a boudoir/sitting room/study for Joey and I. The rooms are down their own little hall. Private like.

All around me friends and family have succumbed to March madness and have nothing on their minds, or TVs, but basketball. Me, I'm waiting for the opening pitch of baseball season. Anyhow, while the rest of the country has been captivated by the thrall of dribbling and screeching rubber-soled shoes, I have been catching up on my reading. For a number of reasons, I got off on a wrong foot reading-wise this year. In the months of February and January I read only two books! Imagine! I usually read two a week, or at least one a week.
Now I have gotten my stride back. Here are the books I have read in the month of March.


The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. This book is a whole lot of fun. Besides the goofy underworld slang, there is a ghastly crew of colorful thugs, pimps, punks, nymphos and frails (those are girls in 1930s lingo). You never know what type of creep you're going to run into next, but you can be pretty sure he won't be naked, which is to say he is toting a gat. The plot is as screwy and loopy as the varied ne'er do wells, but fair for the figuring out; Marlowe doesn't hold back on the necessary clues. Perhaps the best two things about the book are the evocation of Los Angeles in the '30s and the humor, trenchant, even mordant humor. While Marlowe at times seems a cold-blooded SOB, he is at heart a sentimentalist, a compassionate and honest guy trying to live straight in a world that's going to hell.

Two things that do sour this book a bit are the taints of misogyny and homophobia. One of the hazards of vintage literature.

Elizabeth Ironsides, aka Lady Catherine Manning,
The Accomplice by Elizabeth Ironsides is a highly intelligent and stylishly crafted mystery, literate, with not just the veneer of knowledge and with the resonance of not very distant history. Think Dr. Zhivago with a who-dun-it attached. This is the third of Ms. Ironsides's mysteries that I have read, and I am never disappointed.


Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut is marginally amusing, at times thought provoking. But more often, there is a whiff of too sophomoric wit and wisdom to be entirely compelling. I wasn't bit by the Vonnegut bug when the rest of my peers were; I was wrestling with black humor in the form of Giles Goat Boy and Lost in the Funhouse. Having passed through adolescence and college years with reading only Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House and, possibly, Slapstick, I decided it was high time that I figured out what all the fuss was about, after all, Vonnegut is still hugely popular, something which can't be said for John Barth. I mentioned to a reader friend of mine that I had decided to read Slaughterhouse Five and a couple of other books that had passed me by. She was ecstatic, but then said, I might have outgrown his style which had appealed to her in her teens. I am afraid that is what has happened. I will read more Vonnegut simply because he is fun in a way. A fair decent way to pass a rainy day.

Dresden - Before and After the Allied Firebombing of 1945




Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie is quick and fairly fun light reading. One of my complaints about Christie is that she springs an important clue on you late in the game so that you really haven't a fair chance of figuring out they mystery. In other words,she doesn't play fair. I have to say that that was not the case in this one. The clues were well distributed. The characterization wasn't brilliant and was not entirely believable in some cases. The setting served as little more than a backdrop, and considering the dramatic nature of Petra, better use of it might have been made.

Petra

Note to Mike Troll...I see you have The Big Sleep in your TBR list!

Since last posting we had a birthday party for elf


It was a sleepover party. This is elf on the morning after.



Had a visit from Flat Stanley who was sent to us by my little cousin Macey from Elizabethtown,Ky. We took him all about,including up to Jump Off Rock in a snowstorm



Joey and I took Madeleine to the Regional Science Fair where she was one of the winners and now moves on to state, again! Her project was on parachute design. She wanted to find out which worked better, a solid, punctured or slitted design. One with tiny punctures edged solid out by a hair. Elf went to regionals the next day with the middle school group. But he and his teammate didn't win. Amazingly, considering that Mountain Community is a tiny school and certainly the smallest school represented at both the elementary school and middle school levels, they took nearly half the awards! And no,it is not a charter or magnet school for the gifted, which seems to be a local misconception. The school simply does an incredible job encouraging wonder, curiosity,problem solving and creativity!

We have had a huge month. Joey and I made and offer on the house we have been scoping out since last summer. Now we are in the contract stage. Inspection on Monday, closing on April 15. So it looks like we will have a business spring and summer between renovations, moving and our long promised trip to Chicago.

As for today, we are in the throes of getting the house in some semblance of order since elf is having a sleep-over party for his birthday. Seems like we just finished twig's At least 13 year old boys are less inclined to shriek. One thing I am looking forward to is the rec room at the new house. Current house is really not made for lots of screaming wrestling boys.

From twig's birthday earlier in the month

I am not sure what to say. We had a snow day, so I ended up delighting in this all by myself instead of with 94 of my favorite preteens. Joey had to go to A-ville to load the trailer for tonight's big inaugural bash at which his band is playing. Maybe it will really begin to sink in then because for now it still feels a little unreal to me. But I woke up smiling and haven't stopped yet.

So here's to "the skinny black kid with a funny name"! Peace be with you and our world.

My brother sent both of the kids Wal-Mart giftcards for Christmas. Elf had his spent in 10 minutes, tops. Twig, well, that's another story
http://s303.photobucket.com/albums/nn132/lucybrown61/?action=view¤t=5a211843.pbw

Since Joey was here most of our waking and non working hours before marriage, things aren't all that different. We have been looking for a house, but not full tilt since we don't really plan on buying anything until late spring.

We have two birthdays coming up next month,elf's and twig's, and I suppose I need to get into planning mode for their parties. Groan!

Last night we went to Asheville to spend some time with Joey's daughter before she leaves again for Mexico. She plays and sings in a Salsa group down there and is going to go to midwifery school. Anyhow the pics below are of her and the kids.

Whitney and twig bought matching journals at B&N


Whitney and twig


Elf and his eraser dog


Whitney

And we're gonna get married. Today at 5:00. Magistrate's office. SHHH...It's almost a secret.


My guy and my bairn. It's ashame they don't get along better.

1 - Of all the things currently inside your fridge, what is the thing you like best?
Bleu cheese

2 - Pick a quote, any quote, and share it here. It may or may not be apropos to the season.
"Change is ineveitable; change for the better is a full time job" Adlai Stevenson.

3 - Of all the weather you've experienced in the last 7 days, what was you favourite moment?
Huh?

4 - Regardless of what you celebrate, or when, or why, what was your favourite gift that you received recently?
Kirsten, the American girl doll. My daughter has several, and I have wanted one for years!

5 - If you have pets, do they behave differently when you are home more than usual (ie, days off as opposed to when you are at work most of the time)?
No pets.

6 - Post one favourite photo you've taken this year

elf caught trying to be sneaky on Christmas. I love this pic because I have a similar one fromhissecond Christmas. Hard to believe this is #13!

7 - Have you made any new friends this year?
Yes.
8 - Have you read more books this year than last?
Same, 52

9 - How many 2009 calendars do you have?
Only the children's school calendar which was sent home for approval. As a charter school run partly by the parents, we all vote for the calendar's approval.

10 - Did you learn or try anything new this year (a skill, a hobby, a food, anything)?
Humm... I learned that my daughter was really incredible. Even more than I thought. Ifyou read back in my journal you will read about an organization she started at the old age of nine. elf, of course is incredible too.

I was fortunate enough to spend much of my childhood in southern Italy. Three of my favorite things about Christmas in Italy, or at least the ones that don't involve food, were the shepherds who came down from the Abruzzi mountains, the creches in the shop windows and going to Grande Magazini, an Italian version of Sears, sort of.

You knew Christmas was upon you when the shopkeepers would adorn their windows with magnificent creches, each trying to out do the other in scope and vision. These scenes were not simply the cave itself with a few figures, but the entire town of Bethlehem. Since the 1980s Americans have become more familiar with this type of creche,thanks to companies such as Fontanini. However, in the late '60s I had never seen anything like the scenes in the windows of the Puzzoli shopkeepers.

I have never tried to capture the scope of the Italian creches, but I love Nativity scenes. My children love to play with the Fontanini one under the tree. Back in the days when we had a train set around the tree, elf would give baby Jesus rides in the train. I don't have a picture of elf and twig playing manger since the shot of that is on my film camera.

Nativity scenes and mangers are all over the house.

You can find then on the trees


This is an antique Dresden ornament,and one of my favorites. Dresden ornaments are ones mad of metal or paperboard covered in glitter.



My best friend brought this one back from Germany. On one of my family's summer trips to Germany, my mother bought a nutshell with a little wax Jesus in it. Amanda looked for one like that, but couldn't find one. This one is really sweet.

Then there are the manger scenes under the trees.

A few Advents back, the children and I made this little scene, and now it usually goes under the little sun room tree. We divided up the pieces to decorate. We make the stable using the children's mini blocks from our old out and about bag.




I love this little pop out paper scene. It must be from the fifties or sixties. I remember winning little paper books and scenes like this for memorizing verses, creeds and prayers. The only one of mine that I have left is the one I won for memorizing "The Lord's Prayer."
I wish that I still had my Sunday School prizes, but we moved an awful lot and they have disappeared. I bought a group of antique and vintage ornaments and this was in the box. There were much more valuable ornaments in the box, but this was among my favorites. I wonder what story goes with it.

Now, this is our grand set, an Anri wood carved set.


And this is the children favorite.

The wise men aren't in the scene because they are still on their way. Yesterday they were here


And today they are here

By the 6th, The Feast of the Epiphany they will be at the scene. One year when they kept getting buried by snow, they had to make their journey to Bethlehem inside. We had a little friend and her mother over to play. At that point the wise men had made it as far as the Vale of the Powder Room. The little girl came and "whispered" to her mother, "Why does Miss Lucy have wise man on her sink?" They do end up in some odd places.

As it seems that that this country is sliding into even more turbulent waters, I suppose that it will be hard for some to know what to be thankful for. I for one have plenty. My children are pictures of health. They get a long beautifully with all sorts of people and are generous and kind. That alone should be enough, but there is plenty more. I have if not the greatest group of kids in my classes this year, at least pretty decent ones. My illness is taking it easy on me most days. Last February my best friend and I started getting together on weekends, something we hadn't done since Twig was about 2. That friendship has been a boon to me over the years and seeing more of her has been a blessing. And there is more.

I don't actually have the children today. They are with their father. We will celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow at my parents' house and on Saturday we are going to see the Emperor Qin's terracotta army at the High Museum in Atlanta. Late afternoon Joey and I are meeting his parents somewhere for dinner, probably the J & S cafeteria. Hmmm...that's close to a Barnes and Noble bookstore! Other than that,I am going to get my car's oil changed and work on my photo album and finish the book I am reading, Mr. Ives' Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos.

Last night we rented four movies. We watched 2001; Space Odyssey last night. Whoa!!
Now we have Amadeus, Gosford Park and Dead Again left. I haven't seen Gosford Park,but have wanted to since it came out. I think Sawyer will really like Dead Again. He loves Brannagh, plus he loves mysteries from that era. Another thing to be thankful for, I have a son whose favorite movies are in black and white, rather than the idiotic fare that they market to teens and preteens these days.



The kids and Joey hiking to the top of Max Patch

At long last I have finished it! Arnold Bennett is one of the authors I have always meant to read; however, I never really made much effort to do so. One reason I suppose that I haven't rushed out to read his work is that it comes with that "naturalist" label,and that is a category that is less appealing to me. I suppose my evaluation of the books is that it is a minutely observed portrait of two sisters of different temperaments coming to womanhood in the mid-19 century. Yet minutely observed is a bit of an understatement; it is,in fact, tedious at times. The last quarter of the book found me skipping largish passages. The characters are well established. While Constance is often referred to as the "very pattern" of a wife and mother, she never slips into a mere stereotype. Sophia, the more beautiful and willful of the sisters, is a marvel of industry and ingenuity. Constance's son Cyril nearly rivals The Magnificent Ambersons' and Vanity Fair's Georges in egocentricity and maternal neglect, and general thoughtlessness, though, but on the whole he is more likable, and at least not a dolt and lay about. And Constance isn't brainless enough to ignore his every act of indifference and fancy him a paragon.

The book is sometimes termed as a tragedy, and I suppose it is in some ways. I won't say much more here about that since I don't want to give anything away. One of the more delightful things about the book is Bennett depicting admirable woman of spirit, something that few writers of the time period were not specially adept at.


A caricature parodying the workmanlike manner of Bennett's craft and his massive output which garnered him abuse from the artier writers. Publicalyy Bennett made no bones about the fact that he wrote for money and had no use for the "art for art sake" philosophy, though that seems to have been more of a pose to rub it in the effettes' faces that he was a working man of working class origins.

I needed a break from Arnold Bennett's Old Wives since I feel as though I not read anything else in years. I picked up this novel that my daughter had recently finished and quite enjoyed it.


Here is my review:

Karen Hesse is a versatile writer of children's and teens' literature. Like the Newberry Award winning Out of the Dust, this novella is written in free verse.

The simplicity and hard edged structure of the verse well matches the desperate attempt of the Aleuts to survive their refugee existence during World War II. Poignant detail and rich descriptions of the Aleutian landscape, their native culture and the Russian Orthodox traditions add a counterpoint and a sense of hope.

I knew very little about the evacuation of the Aleuts after the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands. What this book reveals is another chapter in our country's already tainted history of our relations with our Native American citizens. Though American citizens, the Aleuts were less well provided for than the German POWs in a nearby prisoners' camp. Without proper medical care, sanitation facilities and with very little opportunities for jobs, 1 in every 4 evacuated Aleuts died during their three year encampment near Ketchikan. When the Aleuts returned to their homes they found much of it bombed out, and too much of what isn't ravaged by the war looted or mindlessly destroyed by the U. S. soldiers.

As a whole this is a sad book, but no more so than other novels of this sort. The young narrator's anger and doubt about the whites' concern for them is at times raw, though understandably so. Overall the grim determination and hope of the Aleuts to survive the resettlement that was meant to protect them was indeed inspiring.

Okay, you probably aren't, but I will tell you anyhow. I am reading Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale. It is a very long book. I have been reading it for weeks. I have read longer books which seemed much less long than this . This one seems to be never-ending, which is not to say I am not enjoying it, I am just afraid they are going to start charging me rent in Burslem if I don't leave soon. If you like long novels set in the Victorian era, this is a duzzy.