1. There is nothing on TV except what is on the Premium Cable Channels of HBO and Showtime. Loving Weeds, True Blood, and Nurse Jackie. Luke-warm on Hung, but it may grow on me. Regular network summer offering are so far barely tolerable. Merlin is full of beautiful boy and considering who will be playing Lancelot I may continue to watch just for the eye-candy. The Philanthropist is pretty horrible as well. So this leaves me tons of time to read.
2. I am finally reading The God of Small Things. Right after I read A Fine Balance, which is the most depressing book I have ever read. It’s brilliant, but as Maneck repeats so often in the text, Everything ends badly. And it really really does. I am looking at literature as world travel. May need to look for a good book set somewhere in Africa.
3. Movies: You have to see Man on Wire, if you haven’t already. It’s a masterpiece. And I stumbled upon The Go-Getter this weekend and really got swept away. Also Last Chance Harvey is worth seeing. You may know that I decided this yeah to write down every movie I watch, Netflix, TV, at the theater. I am up to 84. Can’t decide if that is bad or good.
4. Music: I have to have more Gomez in my life. I’m listening to my iPod today and Gomez always makes me happy. I have spent lots of time lately trying to clean up my iTunes library. I am wondering if you can erase just your library and reload it with everything all cleaned up? Does anyone else find the duplicates and missing songs etc extremely annoying?
5. etc. I have been really slack about taking pictures lately. I get like this is the summer though. Too damn hot. Since I fell on my knee I have not been able to run. I might be able to try running in October. In the meantime to try and stay somewhat fit I have been swimming. I can’t tell you how much I miss running. I have been seeing a physical therapist a couple of times a week and things seem to be getting better. Last night I decided to take the stairs down. Up wasn’t a problem at all. Down is not going to happen. It’s really strange to think that I fell in April and in July I still can’t walk down a flight of stairs. Finally work-wise I am minutes away from being done with the big project. So I’ll be sharing something about that soon. (fingers crossed)
I want to say, isn’t it amazing how much like Alexi Murdoch sounds like Nick Drake. But then Justin will say Who? Of course Justin and I have very different tastes in music. That’s fine, he can still be my friend. But then I think a lot of people would ask ‘Who is Alexi Murdoch?’ (Except probably Lori.) Which would be a shame because he is a brilliant and beautiful musician and sounds a lot like Nike Drake. The soundtrack of Away We Go is mostly Alexi Murdoch. I found a website where you can listen to full length CDs. http://www.spinner.com Such goodness. I wish I could add a a radio station widget to my blog so I could share my music with everyone. Until then I’ll just have to remember to write about it more.
It’s harvest time. Also back from vacation time. So we have some tasty treats by the sink. Now if someone would bring us some tomatoes I’d be happy to supply the white bread and Duke’s Mayo. Mmmmm……
Justin published his 100th episode of the funny and amazing adventures of the Courduroy Ninja today! Seems like only yesterday he was wearing *swishy pants and thought “I would make a sucky ninja”. Thus CN was born. Even with the pressures of fatherhood and friends that hound him to constantly be creative, he had persevered and has reached quite a milestone. If you haven’t ever read Corduroy Ninja, start at the beginning (there are only 100)! You’ll laugh a little extra for the effort!
When I worked in Rockville MD as a Preservation Planner. this property was a major project for us. I began it life as a luxury hotel and later served as a hospital for the mentally ill. The hospital famously inspired the book and movie I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. The building was eventually abandoned until a developer purchased the property and worked with the city (and specifically my friend Anne) to rehab the building as high end condos with a major housing development behind the main building.
Sadly this weekend the building burned to the ground. It happens a lot with older buildings. Just as they are about to be reborn they are destroyed. Rockville has very few surviving structure that illustrate it’s long history. This is a tragedy for that community.
Send it out to the universe and maybe it will come back to you! I changed the header on this site and I have announced it to the world. I want to go sit on the shore, listen to the waves crashing, the gulls cry. Have sand blasted to my scalp and skin. Completely covered in salt and sun. Read. Relax. Breath.
Is the creepiest of all the little critters I know. This one–or perhaps others like him–has been hanging out in the ladies room at work. I’d really like it if he’d go away forever. He makes me very nervous.
It annoys me beyond belief that we have these high ranking official in our government they call Czar. Drug Czar. Border Czar. Terrorism Czar. Come on, this isn’t 19th century Russia. Can’t we come up with a different word. I’ll help. Pick any of the following and I will stop complaining (about this):
Lori found us a new internet addiction. Good Reads. It’s like a giant book club plus quotes. I imagine all my friends who love to read being friends with me on http://www.goodreads.com/shelby_lyn and discussing our favorite books, making recommendations and sharing our favorite passages. They have quotes! I love book quotes. Last night I finished reading The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. It wrecked me. There is so much to talk about in the book. It touches you in ways you didn’t know you could be touched. I want to swim forever in that book with all the characters and events (and even the things that did not happen.) I don’t want to let it go. Or more I don’t want it to let me go. It’s that kind of book. So then we found Good Reads and it’s too good not to share. So come with me and let’s talk about books and what they do to us.
Well not just yet, but soon. I am headed done to Atlanta this weekend for some much needed girl time. I’ll have my camera at the ready for updates. Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend. I wish for the summer is to make the rounds and see everyone this summer. So look for me on a doorstep near you soon!
When I worked in Rockville MD as a Preservation Planner. this property was a major project for us. I began it life as a luxury hotel and later served as a hospital for the mentally ill. The hospital famously inspired the book and movie 
