Princess Poddy's Paper Trail

Book Meme...I like book memes.

Thu, 01 May 2008 20:50:34 GMT

From dettiot

The top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

1984
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
Anna Karenina
Beloved
Brave New World
Crime and Punishment
Dracula
Emma
Frankenstein
Great Expectations
Gulliver’s Travels
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
Jane Eyre
Lolita
Love in the Time of Cholera
Mansfield Park
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlemarch
Moby Dick
Mrs. Dalloway
Northanger Abbey
Oliver Twist
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
The Blind Assassin
The Canterbury Tales
The Catcher in the Rye
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The God of Small Things
The Hobbit
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
The Prince
The Silmarillion
The Tale of Two Cities
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
To the Lighthouse
Treasure Island
War and Peace
Watership Down
Wuthering Heights
Catch-22
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Life of Pi : a novel
The Brothers Karamazov
The Iliad
Ulysses
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
A Clockwork Orange
A Confederacy of Dunces
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Short History of Nearly Everything
American Gods
Anansi Boys
Angels & Demons
Atlas Shrugged
Cloud Atlas
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cryptonomicon
David Copperfield
Don Quixote
Dubliners
Dune
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Foucault’s Pendulum
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Gravity’s Rainbow
Inferno
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Les Misérables
Madame Bovary
Middlesex
Neverwhere
Oryx and Crake
Quicksilver
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Slaughterhouse-five
The Aeneid
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Confusion
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Fountainhead
The Grapes of Wrath
The Historian : a novel
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Kite Runner
The Mists of Avalon
The Name of the Rose
The Odyssey
The Once and Future King
The Satanic Verses
The Scarlet Letter
The Sound and the Fury
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Vanity Fair
White Teeth
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West

Procrastination

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:08:31 GMT

It's been three months since I posted. I know I'm a lazy blogger, but that's a wee bit ridiculous. So, since I really don't want to pay attention to creative writing entries any more (don't worry, I'll go back to them) and I'm waiting for a phone call (and if it doesn't come in the next five minutes, I'll be officially pissed), I thought I'd drop in and say hi. Hi!

A few random things:

Dozen Bake Shop has the world's best scones.
Poetry written by teenagers is generally fairly mediocre, with a few random gems.
Weather should decide what it's doing so poor baby herbs aren't at risk of freezing.
Last night's House did not live up to the hype.
Last week's Grey's Anatomy did.
My birthday's in less than a week.
Julie Andrew's memoir is not particularly well written, but I love it anyway just because I love her.
I'm having issues finding books I want to read, even though there are many books that I need to read.

Toodles!

I'm made for a life of leisure

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:22:38 GMT

Not really, of course. There's no rest for the wicked. But I'm on my last day of my mini stay-at-home vacation, and I really don't want to go back to work tomorrow.

Yesterday I laid out most of the tile in the bathroom, and tried to cut tile to fit the edges. Of course, the tile cutter I had wasn't up to the job so last night the husband and I went to the great home improvement warehouse and got a different kind...hopefully it will work well, and quickly, and I can get this job DONE.

I also put away the hip deep pile of laundry that has been spread across the bedroom floor. Now that was an accomplishment! I got a new dresser, and hopefully I can keep my laundry under control with the additional storage space.

Today, I need to do laundry, finish cutting and laying tile, and try my hand at adhering it to the ground. I also need to make more UltraSimple broth and prep rice and veggies for lunch tomorrow. Being on this diet has been remarkably easy the last couple days, but I think it'll be much harder once I'm back behind my desk and away from my kitchen.

In other related news, I think this diet is a very good thing. I feel clear-headed and moderately energetic. I slept great last night. And I weighed myself this morning and found that I've lost three pounds since Sunday morning. That's AWESOME. I don't know if I'll keep this up completely after the week is up, but I'm definitely going to try eating mostly veggies and staying away from the processed stuff.

Okay...time to do a little cooking and make my last day off a good one.

Flax seed and borage oil and lemon, oh my!

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:08:51 GMT

I'm trying an experiment.

Those of you who know me know I haven't been particularly happy lately. Big fight with my husband (it's almost okay now), dissatisfaction at work (I still don't like being an administrator), annoyance with my crotchety old house. But overlaying all of my specific problems has been a sense of general discontent with my life. And, attached to that, low energy, regular weight gain, headaches, etc.

So, today starts my experiment: the UltraSimple Diet. This diet purports to raise your metabolism, help eliminate common health concerns, raise allergy and, oh yeah, can help you lose 7-10 pounds in a week.

I just had breakfast: 2 tablespoons of olive oil with lemon (to flush the liver), a glass of hot water with lemon (to take the taste of olive oil out of your mouth, I assume?), a cup of green tea (yummy), and the "UltraSimple Shake" - tofu, soy milk, frozen fruit, flax meal, combination flax and borage oil, almond butter - not a bad breakfast, although I am still a bit hungry.

For snacks I get "ultrabroth" (veggie broth...yum), and lunch and dinner are both brown rice, veggies, and some protein. I think I can do this. And hopefully it'll make me feel better.

Wish me luck!

Thank you for ruining my night

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 06:43:46 GMT

Dear Drunk-Ass Future Sister-in-Law of the Bride,

I would like to extend my whole-hearted thanks to you for ruining any fond memories with which I may have ended this bachelorette party.

It wasn't a bad night. We went to a fun little dive bar with writing on the walls, where drinks were cheap. My feet started hurting twenty minutes in, but it was okay, because we were there for the Bride and she was the most important one.

Even though I'm far more comfortable in dive bars (even in uncomfortable shoes), I was even okay with going down to the crazy multi-roomed dance club. The Bride wanted to dance...and she's the most important one.

I had some fun. We got in free, which was great. Thanks to your sister for orchestrating that. And the drinks were very cheap at first, even if they were pretty weak. Which is how I remained mostly sober. What happened to you? I bonded with a coworker, I even danced to eighties music, and got hit on -- twice. It was way more entertaining and interesting than I 'd expected.

But then, the Bride got tired. And drunk. She wanted to go home. My friends, dontfeedthetiki and the other library folks, went outside with her. We calmed her down, figured out what the problem was. Then Tiki, like a hero on a sinking ship, went back into the melee that was the hip-hop room and brought out the other members of the party.

How funny it was, Future Sister-in-Law of the Bride, when she brought you out! All of a sudden, your extreme drunkenness had made you the most important person there! The Bride was -- not abandoned, but no longer as well cared for as she was.

We bought you pretzels. We bought you water. We talked to you about how all the people in your hometown were hippies. How proud you were that you hadn't eaten! How happy that you were where you were!

As the party prepared to depart, we were asked by the actual sister of the bride what our plans were.

"Oh, we're planning on getting a cab back to Bloomfield," said Tiki and I.

"Oh, you don't need to get a cab! We've got the bus. We'll take you home."

"Uh...are you sure?"

"Yes, of course! Get in! Get in!"

And on the way to the bus, oh Drunk-Ass Future Sister-in-Law of the Bride, we continued to take care of you. I carried your shoes while two others had your arms. Tiki followed behind and when you began to fall backwards, she pushed you back up. We got onto the bus.

"To Bloomfield," I declared.

Ten minutes later:

"Where are we going?" you say.

"Bloomfield," says I.

"Is there a bar there?"

"No, we're just going to my house," I reply, thinking to myself, "you're already floating -- you need nothing else to drink."

And then the rant begins.

"Did you put in for the bus? We each paid $50 for the bus. And you're going straight to your door, and we had to pay $50, and we have to walk two miles, and I work hard for my money and it's just not fair. We each had to pay $50. And we're going out of our way and we have to walk two miles."

"We were planning to take a cab, but you guys said not to. We're happy to pitch in. Who's collecting the money?"

"It's just not fair. We each paid $50. We're going out of our way."

Stony silence then enveloped the bus, except for the continued repitition by you, oh Future Sister-in-Law of the Bride. When the bride's friend came by, I handed her my money...about four times what a cab would have cost. And yet you continued to bitch. After we'd taken care of you, brought you water, brought you food, kept you from falling over or vomiting down your shirt, you continued to bitch.

So, instead of remembering the surprisingly fun evening, what's foremost in my memory is you. You made yourself the Most Important One There. Gee, I can't wait for the wedding next week.
[Bad username: ]

Help Needed, Desperately

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:14:06 GMT

To the three people who might read my journal:

If you are in contact with any libraries or librarians who have Gay/Straight Alliances or any other programming for GLBTQ teens (or adults, for that matter), can you please pass that information my way as soon as possible?

We are currently facing a potential challenge to a GSA started by a teen librarian and being held off-site to help the teens remain anonymous and would very much like to hear from other libraries who have done this and, if they were ever asked to justify the program, how they did so.

Thanks,
Me.

I am distressed.

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:12:46 GMT

First, my zucchini died. Now, I think my cucumbers are dying. I have three cucumbers on the fine, the leaves are rotting, and the fruit seems to be rotting too.

This makes me sad enough to post to my LJ for the first time in a month.

Mission Accomplished!

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 03:45:41 GMT

dontfeedthetiki gave me her old "student" violin to act as my in-the-woods instrument, since the past two years my Lady Macbeth has succumbed to humidity and required surgery to be playable again. After several months, a trip to the luthier and a couple of orders of Shar, the beater might actually be ready to use. She has:

A new bridge (a viola bridge, actually -- there's something screwy with the fingerboard, and she needed a very high bridge to work)
Entirely new strings (umm...you don't want to know how many I popped putting the new ones on)
Fine tuners (purchased after I popped the third and fourth strings)
A new chinrest
A new bow (fiberglass, durable, cheap

She's still definitely a beater instrument, and it's going to take awhile to get used to playing her. I'm not sure yet if I want to take her to the hippie wedding tomorrow or not -- I have some pride, and at this point I sound rather like a rank beginner on her. But, I don't really want to take the Lady, and I'd love to be involved in music-making if music-making is going on. Decisions, decisions. Maybe I'll wake up early and do some exercises.

Also, she needs a name. My violin is Lady Macbeth, my viola is Ophelia (I was obsessed with both Mercedes Lackey's bardic voices books, and with Shakespeare, when I was naming my instruments). I don't think this one is quite ready for a Shakespearean name. Any suggestions? I could just name her "Tiki," after the one who gifted her to me.

Hmph.

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:08:29 GMT

Like Maddie Gaiman, I'm not good at the whole subject thing.

Really, the point of this post is just to comment:

I find it very difficult to even start working on Friday. Forget about finishing anything.

Where the moon is dark, the fire is bright, and the food is fantastic

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:38:35 GMT

Some friends (hi, dontfeedthetiki!), my husband and I will be leaving in a couple of weeks to go up to New York for a festival. This is the...fourth year we've gone, I think, and every year it gets better. I begin anticipating and planning for the trip a good six months in advance, and I'm gradually getting more and more excited. My excitement has manifested in several ways -- I've begun meal planning, making sure we have all the supplies we need, and blogsearching to see if anyone else is as excited as I am.

I found a few posts from people who are going, and that made me think: this year, for the first time, the husband and I will be going up for the whole week. We're very much homebodies, and just hang out at our camp most of the time, and we don't mix and mingle much. This is a pagan festival, and I'm pagan only in the most general "not a Christian, Jew or Muslim" sense, and I often feel like we don't really fit in. We usually hang out with the druids, a very hospitable group, but I'd like to expand my horizons this year -- talk to other people, hear other ideas, try new things. I love being exposed to things I haven't been exposed to before -- I'm not a believer not because I don't want to believe, but because I'm very hard to convince. Try to convince me.

Anyway. Finding other posts made me think that maybe other people are as excited as I am, and blogsearching to see what they can find! So, I'm putting out a call -- if you are going to Sirius Rising at Brushwood in Sherman, NY, post a comment and say hi. I'm a 20-something fiddler and singer who likes few things better then reading, cooking and making music in the woods. We always camp back in the woods on the other side of the hill...a bit of a hike, I know, but we love company. And there's usually something good to eat or drink.

I need copyright help!

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 02:07:23 GMT

If a teen wants to make a music video, using a recording of "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey but writing his own lyrics, and enter it into our video contest, which does have prizes (ooh! A PSP!) does he need to get permission from Journey and / or the record studio?

And if not, can you give me documentation?

Because my reference brain is broken.

ALA Annual, Day 1

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 04:11:24 GMT

Ah, Annual. My favorite time of year.

We made it into DC with only minor drama (we missed a turn, and therefore missed Holly's hotel -- it's okay, there's a great metro system). Went to the YALSA Happy Hour, where we enjoyed absolutely zero of the Happy Hour-ness, due to sever overcrowding. However, I did meet up with the person I was supposed to, and we had dinner together and talked about teen services in general and co-convening a teen services coordinator discussion group specifically, so that was good.

Then, Holly and I went to see the Hollywood Librarian premiere. It was good, I think, but Holly and I both think it needs a name change -- although there are film clips, it's not really a critique or even a study of librarians as shown in film -- the clips are more demonstrative than anything else. But it made me cry a bit, especially when they talked about the Salinas libraries, and when book burning was involved. They took out all the stuff about the bookcart drill team championships in Chicago, however, which bummed me out a bit because I was very briefly in one of the shots. Whatever.

Then, the YALSA 50th Anniversary Party! Free Corona (with lime!) rocks my world, as does running into former coworkers who have moved onto other things. I also met Barry Lyga, and managed not to be too fan-girly, because (a) I haven't read his books, (b) he's dating a friend of mine, and (c) I had drank (drunk?) three free Coronas.

Tomorrow, I think I will skip programs in the morning and go get my badge holder and hit the exhibits. That way, I can try to catch halseanderson 's signing at 10:00.

My husband and his buddy are, I presume, safely asleep at Nate's apartment and ready to go camping tomorrow morning. Please, keep your fingers crossed that they don't get eaten by a bear. And that the weather stays nice (a gorgeous day, by the way) so they can enjoy their male bonding time as much as possible.

I'm like a little kid on christmas morning.

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:14:29 GMT

I'm so excited! I can't sleep! Today's the day! We're driving to DC! I get to see all my librarian friends! I get to meet authors (and get all fan-girly and idiotic-acting)! I get to pick up ARCs! I get to drink free martinis!

It's 6:00am. I don't think I've seen this hour of the morning since last year's conference, when I had a ridiculously early flight to New Orleans. So much for finishing up my reading in the car...I'll be asleep.

Also, I'm very, very hungry. I'd go to the grocery store and make a fabulous breakfast but for two things: I'd then have leftovers sitting in my fridge until Tuesday; and the husband doesn't eat real food in the morning. Maybe I'll eat a frozen pizza.

My plan for the day:

Drive to DC
Drop off Holly
Check-in to hotel
M goes to take the car to his friends and take the subway in, while I
Pick up my badge holder, etc.
Depending on time, maybe go to a museum (yay!)
YALSA Happy Hour (5-7, Old Dominion Brewery)
Hollywood Librarian Premiere (8-10, Convention Center)
YALSA 50th Anniversary Party (10 - ?, Renaissance Washington)

See you at the bar!

The perils of driving to Annual

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:21:18 GMT

I overpacked. Severely. Knowing I had an entire trunk to fill, I just packed whatever I wanted. Including four pairs of shoes. Excessive, I know. My only justification is, it's gonna be HOT and I want to be able to change into fresh clothes if necessary.

I realized that there are two more books I need to read before Sunday...good thing I have a four-hour car ride tomorrow!

Happiness is . . .

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:56:57 GMT

A date to go to the French Embassy with cedarlibrarian at Annual.
Naot shoes that are just as comfortable after a day of wearing as I hoped they would be.
A husband with semi-confirmed plans to go camping with his D.C. friend during the conference, so I don't have to worry about entertaining him.
Flowers on my pepper plants.
A belly full of left-over fruit salad mixed with lemon balm, lemon verbena, and mint.
The knowledge that Hell's Kitchen comes on in five minutes.

Aah...life is good.

Conference is Coming!

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:49:43 GMT

I bought two pairs of supremely comfortable (and way too expensive) shoes yesterday, so I'm ready to walk and stand and stuff.
I'm done reading stuff I've never read before for PPYA -- now it's just rereading. I even read two manga titles, and didn't hate them.
At almost every point on my calendar, I have at least two, sometimes three or four things scheduled. Some of them are skippable, some of them are not.
I have NOTHING on my agenda on Sunday night. Does anyone have a fabulous party to go to that I can crash? Or want to go out on the town?
The only real reason I'm staying until Tuesday is to go to the Printz reception on Monday night...but at least I'll be able to actually go to some programs and see the exhibits on Monday -- I don't have much time for that on Saturday or Sunday.
My husband is coming with me, which seemed like a good idea a few months ago. Now, I really hope his tentative plan to go camping with his buddy Nate works out, because I don't know what he'll do when I'm running around doing conference stuff.

I LOVE Annual.

I love the smell of herbs in the evening

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:09:57 GMT

I'm writing this to the smell of roasting herbs and the sounds of "Rent." Which pretty much makes for a perfect evening.

The herby goodness comes from the herb-roasted potatoes that are currently roasting. They'll be paired with lemon-herb asparagus and mushrooms and a nice steak.

Thanks to celandine, I have a Barefoot Shiraz (it won a prize!) to pair with dinner. Tomorrow's dinner will be accompanied by either a Fish Eye Pinot Grigio or a Yellow Tail Reisling.

And what is dinner, you ask? Well, the plan is spicy grilled shrimp, corn and tomato salad, and cous-cous, with a fruit salad (seasoned with fresh mint, lemon balm and lemon verbena) for desert. dontfeedthetiki, wanna come over? Anyone else?

Okay...the mission (making myself hungry because dinner will be done in twenty minutes) has been accomplished.

I took my teen volunteers bowling today, to celebrate the end of the year. This is an amazing group of kids. A large majority of them will be seniors next year, which means that this time next year I'll lose them. I really hope they follow through on their promise to find me some freshmen for Tell-A-Tale Theater. Some of these kids, I've known since they were eleven. I have a REALLY hard time thinking of them graduating high school, having boyfriends, driving. It's weird. They seem so young, yet I remember being seventeen, and I feel exactly the same now as I did then. Yes, I have more responsibilities and more education -- but I also have the same friends, like the same TV shows, listen to the same music, have pretty much the same cheerful outlook on life. Does anyone else have this sort of feeling, like very little's changed? Yet, I'm an adult, and my volunteers are kids.

I love working with teenagers -- it makes me feel ridiculously old (and I so often feel so young) and insanely young at the same time.

Okay, time to put the steak on...

Get this:

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:41:14 GMT

I thought it would be a chore to ride my bike to work...something I'd force myself to do because it's "good" for me.

I just had the most exhilirating ride of my life...I took my life in my hands and rode across the Bloomfield Bridge, not on the sidewalk, but on the road because I didn't want to get off and walk. It was AWESOME.

My first thought upon getting home was, "aw, man! I have to have the car tomorrow!"

Damn, I love my bike.

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:43:35 GMT

I have a huge, painful bruise on my right knee. Whacked it getting off my bike, I think.

Yesterday, the first official day back on the wagon, went pretty well. I lost it a little bit with pistachio nuts at nighttime (sounds like a book title), but it was okay. The numbers on the scale are going the right direction. Now, I need to NOT weigh myself every day!!

I'm riding my bike to work today, even though it will likely be storming when I need to come home. I arranged with the husband to pick me up if necessary.

Time to pedal.

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 03:04:41 GMT

Hmm. Someone from Pittsburgh won tonight's $10,000 prize on "America's Got Talent."

I wonder if I know her?

I just made the VERY BEST DINNER

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:54:37 GMT

And it was moderately healthy, too:

Thai Chicken with Basil

1 1/3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce (I used Oyster Sauce instead, because that's what the grocery store had)
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 large onion, cut into thin slices
3 fresh red chiles, seeds and ribs removed, diced (I only used one because the husband doesn't like the spice)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups lightly packed basil leaves

1. In a medium bowl, combine the chicken with the fish sauce, soy sauce, water, and sugar. In a large nonstick frying pan or a wok, heat the oil over moderately high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir in the chiles and garlic; cook, stirring, 30 seconds longer.

2. Remove the chicken from the marinade with a slotted spoon and add it to the hot pan. Cook until almost done, stirring, about 3 minutes. Add the marinade and cook 30 seconds longer. Remove from the heat and stir in 1 cup of the basil. Serve topped with the remaining 1/2 cup basil.

Ganked from Food & Wine, 1998 (courtesy of CookingLight.com)

and

Vegetable Spring Rolls

1 head savoy cabbage, shredded
2 large carrots, peeled and grated
~1 Tbsp. fresh gingers, minced
2 green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. corn starch
8 egg roll wrappers

1. Place shredded cabbage in a microwave safe bowl, covered, and microwave until wilted (about 3 minutes).
2. Combine cabbage with carrots, ginger, green onions, garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, corn starch.
3. On a dry surface, roll egg rolls -- place wrapper on counter, put 2 Tbsps. filling diagonally across wrapper, fold over one corner, fold over both ends, dampen unfolded corner, and roll.
4. Brush lightly with sesame oil
5. Bake in preheated oven until brown and crispy, ~20 minutes

Adapted from recipe on weightwatchers.com

I served the chicken over leftover Basmati Rice from the Indian Restaurant, and it was amazing. And gave me something to do with some of that basil!!

And in case you're wondering: Thai Chicken = 6 points / serving (makes 4); Vegetable Spring Rolls = 1 point / serving (makes 8)

Ooh! Banned Books!

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:45:16 GMT

A list of the top 110 banned books. Bold the ones you've read. Italicize the ones you've read part of. Underline the ones you specifically want to read (at least some of). Read more. Convince others to read some.

#1 The Bible

#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

#4 The Koran

#5 Arabian Nights

#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

#7 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

#8 Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

#9 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

#10 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

#11 Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

#12 Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

#13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

#14 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

#15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

#16 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker

#18 Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin

#19 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

#20 Essays by Michel de Montaigne

#21 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

#22 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

#23 Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

#24 Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

#25 Ulysses by James Joyce

#26 Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell

#28 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

#29 Candide by Voltaire

#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

#31 Analects by Confucius

#32 Dubliners by James Joyce

#33 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

#35 Red and the Black by Stendhal

#36 Capital by Karl Marx

#37 Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire

#38 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

#39 Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence

#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

#41 Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

#42 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

#43 Jungle by Upton Sinclair

#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

#45 Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx

#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding

#47 Diary by Samuel Pepys

#48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

#49 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

#51 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

#52 Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

#54 Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus

#55 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X

#57 Color Purple by Alice Walker

#58 Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

#59 Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke

#60 Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

#61 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

#62 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

#63 East of Eden by John Steinbeck

#64 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

#65 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

#66 Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau

#67 Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

#68 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

#69 The Talmud

#70 Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau

#71 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

#72 Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence

#73 American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

#74 Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

#75 Separate Peace by John Knowles

#76 Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

#77 Red Pony by John Steinbeck

#78 Popol Vuh

#79 Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith

#80 Satyricon by Petronius

#81 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

#83 Black Boy by Richard Wright

#84 Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu

#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

#86 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

#87 Metaphysics by Aristotle

#88 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

#89 Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin

#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

#91 Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

#92 Sanctuary by William Faulkner

#93 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

#95 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

#96 Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#97 General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

#98 Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

#99 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown

#100 Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

#101 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines

#102 Émile Jean by Jacques Rousseau

#103 Nana by Émile Zola

#104 Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

#105 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

#106 Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

#108 Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck

#109 Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark

#110 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Back on the Wagon Again

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:30:27 GMT

As most of you know, a couple of years ago I joined Weight Watchers and lost something like 30 pounds. The primary impetus behind my joining up and losing weight was stepping onto the scale and seeing a number that flabbergasted me. Plus, I had a wedding coming up, and a coworker had been doing the Weight Watchers Online thing successfully for quite some time.

Well, the wedding came and went, and with it went my willpower. I looked adorable in my wedding dress (really, I did. There are pictures here.) and decided to reward myself by eating whatever I wanted.

I got married in September of 2005. Nearly two years later, I'm still eating whatever I want.

This morning, I stepped onto the scale and saw a number that not only flabbergasted me, but made me want to puke a little. Almost ten pounds higher then it was the last time I decided to lose weight. So, I'm getting back on the wagon.

My plan:

Ride my bike as often as possible. The only times I will let myself not ride to work are:

When I need to carry lots of stuff.
When I need to go to a meeting outside of my East End comfort zone
When it's raining hard (or the weather report indicates it is going to do so)
When I'm actually sick (and allergies don't count)

When I am unable to bike to work, I will get on the elliptical for at least twenty minutes (I know, twenty minutes isn't much. But I'm fat and out of shape, and I'll work my way up) each day unless I'm actually sick.
I will cut beer out of my diet. This does not mean I won't drink -- it just means I'll drink liquor or wine instead of beer.
I will avoid fried foods like the plague, even though french fries are my favorite thing in the world.
I will cook at home a lot more, and try to bring lunch to work at least twice a week (baby steps).

Those are the basics. I may or may not attempt to do the WW thing again, although since I've been paying for it each month and not using it I should probably at least use some of the tools available.

Wish me luck. If anyone out there wants to buddy up (you know, post encouraging comments to each other and crap like that) let me know.

Winos

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 01:56:48 GMT

The husband and I just bought a wine rack...now, we need wine to put on it!

Those of you who enjoy wine, what are some of your favorites? I'm usually more of a beer drinker, but I almost always enjoy wine when I drink it. Nothing too dry, but I'm not very picky...

An Ode to My Neighbor

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 00:01:23 GMT

Your dog,
His balls swinging,
Pooped in my garden.

Snapped off my bean sprouts.
Attracted flies.
Stunk up the yard.

Where are you,
Oh, neighbor?

I like your dog.
He can't help being big and dumb.
He can't clean up his own poop.

Right now,
I don't like you.