June 28, 2004

Guest Blogging

Okay, folks, I'm guest blogging this week over at Crab Apple Lane. Come find me over there until 7/1.

Posted by Kitty at 06:15 PM | Comments (1)

June 25, 2004

Acadiana

I am back from another fun week in Acadiana. I was hanging out in New Iberia, LA doing a document production at a sugar mill (I know it sounds glamorous, but it isn't). I stayed in Lafayette and had some excellent meals at Ruth's Chris (my first time there) and Prejean's.

I'm now off to Big D to see my family. Regular blogging should resume next week.

Posted by Kitty at 09:28 AM | Comments (7)

June 21, 2004

Cheddar

1. Describe how you saw yourself in high school.
Scared, smart, funny, awkward

2. If you could select the sex of your baby, would you? Which would you choose and why?
I wouldn't -- that doesn't strike me as something people should mess around with.

3. What would you name your child if it were a girl? A boy?
Justin and I have already chosen baby names. Girl=Riley. Boy=Jackson.

4. What are the best and worst pick up lines you've heard/used?
Best and worst pickup line: Your legs are beautiful. In fact, they're so beautiful, I think I'll give them names. I'll name this one Christmas and this one New Years. May I visit you between the holidays?

5. What's the worst break up line you've heard or used?
I'd have to give that one some more thought.

6. Heard any good jokes lately?
No. My life is strictly un-funny these days.

7. Is the glass half full or half empty or did the dog knock it over?
Maggie always knocks over our glasses -- that's why we have to store them up high where she can't reach them.

8. When was the last time you were tricked?
High school. My mom. Don't ask.

Posted by Kitty at 09:13 AM | Comments (0)

June 18, 2004

Just Plain Gone

Hoaxes and conspiracy theories usually don't interest me. I've found an exception.

I used to read a blog, which is still linked in my Links section, called Plain Layne. The writing was prolific, interesting and covered all sorts of intimate topics. It was like reading a soap opera -- there was some new outlandish event every day, intertwined with a regular cast of characters.

About a week and a half ago, I clicked on the link to read the daily update of craziness, and the blog was gone. All of the long posts, archives, pictures and everything had vanished. In its place were some words in Polish, and those eventually vanished, too.

Since I enjoyed reading the blog, I sent "Layne" an e-mail asking where she'd moved it. I figured she was just ready for a change of scenery. I never received a response, so I came to the conclusion that she just decided to give up on the blogging and do something more interesting, like hang gliding or robbing banks.

It turns out that, after much investigation by some seriously obsessed bloggers, Layne may never have existed at all.

More than a few people have their theories about the Plain Layne blog: some think it was written by a man, some think it was a group writing project, and some think Plain Layne was a terrorist sleeper cell. I am of the opinion that Plain Layne was written by one (or more) women who have overactive imaginations. And that's fine with me. I never took too much stock in the accuracy of the blog (I rarely do with any blogs) and if it was all fiction, it was still damn good fiction.

I'm keeping the link for a little while longer in case "Layne" resurfaces. If that doesn't happen, I'll be in the market for a new drug.

Posted by Kitty at 09:57 AM | Comments (14)

June 16, 2004

Infidelity

I'm cheating on my book club.

A year and a half to two years ago, I joined my first book club. Since I will read just about anything (the side of a cereal box, Gun and Tackle magazine, you name it), this seemed like a good idea. It was, but for reasons that have nothing to do with reading. The book club has ten members, all women, half of whom are lawyers and half of whom are doctors (its an acquired taste). We assign a book, get together, drink wine and talk about our sex lives.

Don't get me wrong, I love these women. They're accomplished, funny, smart and have one hell of a shoe collection. These women, however, don't read. They get really excited about selecting new books, just not about reading them.

Quite a while ago I resigned myself to the fact that these women, wonderful though they may be, aren't going to finish any of the assigned books, so I just show up expecting some good wine and better gossip. I am rewarded every time.

While lamenting (read: whining about) the non-readers in my "book club" to a friend of mine, he suggested I give his book club a test drive. He mentioned a few of the books they'd read in the past, and told me the next three books they've selected for their meetings through August. To make things even easier, he was hosting his club's next meeting and he invited me to join them.

The assigned book was Oyster, which was fitting, as it is set in Plaquemine Parish in the 1950's, and is written by a local author. I headed over to my friend's house on Monday night, and was pleasantly surprised to see not only men (!), but people of various ages, which gave a much richer tone to the conversations. We had a seated dinner and over white wine and shrimp discussed the Greek tragedy overtones in the book, and some people's frustrations with the excessive use of Louisiana food terms (this is a book that has lines like, "The night was as still as a pot of cold gumbo". Quite irritating if you live in south Louisiana, but easily overlooked since the book is plot driven and not overly descriptive).

We ate, drank, talked and laughed and actually discussed the book. Who knew?

Over dinner we selected the book for the September book club (since they've already picked the July and August books). To my surprise, coming from a book club that reads romance novels, they picked The Iliad. No, I'm not joking. And they chose a specific translation, because the translator will be in town and they want to invite him to the September meeting.

I think I'm in love.

Posted by Kitty at 09:28 AM | Comments (4)

June 14, 2004

Starvation

This Slate Explainer addresses the question of how long you can go without food. Me personally? Four hours, tops. Don't believe me? Ask my family and those who incur my wrath when I haven't been properly fed in a long time.

Posted by Kitty at 05:13 PM | Comments (2)

June 12, 2004

Well Read

This is a list of books Pylorns posted on the Wetwired forums. The idea is that you're supposed to bold the books you've read and italicize the books you started but never finished. I have no idea why some of these books are on here (Pylorns didn't choose the list, I'm sure he got it elsewhere), but every list is subjective. At the bottom of the list are three books I've read that (surprisingly) weren't included in the list.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman


4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling

6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne

8. 1984, George Orwell

9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis

10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller

12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks

14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres

20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell


22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone, JK Rowling

23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling

24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling

25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

27. Middlemarch, George Eliot

28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving

29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck

30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson

32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett

34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute

38. Persuasion, Jane Austen

39. Dune, Frank Herbert

40. Emma, Jane Austen

41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery

42. Watership Down, Richard Adams


43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald

44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

46. Animal Farm, George Orwell

47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian

50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck

53. The Stand, Stephen King

54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

56. The BFG, Roald Dahl

57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome

58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman

62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden

63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough

65. Mort, Terry Pratchett

66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

67. The Magus, John Fowles

68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding

71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind

72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell

73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

74. Matilda, Roald Dahl

75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding

76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt

77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins

78. Ulysses, James Joyce

79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens

80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson

81. The Twits, Roald Dahl

82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith

83. Holes, Louis Sachar

84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake


85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson

87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons

89. Magician, Raymond E Feist

90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac

91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo

92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel

93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett

94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

95. Katherine, Anya Seton

96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer

97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson

99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot

100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome

102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett

103. The Beach, Alex Garland

104. Dracula, Bram Stoker

105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz

106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens

107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz

108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks

109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth

110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson

111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy

112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend

113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat

114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy

116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson

117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson

118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

119. Shogun, James Clavell

120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham

121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson

122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy

124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison

128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle

129. Possession, A. S. Byatt

130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov

131. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl

133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck

134. George’s Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl

135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett

136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker

137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett

138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan

139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson

140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson

141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque

142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson

143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby

144. It, Stephen King

145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl

146. The Green Mile, Stephen King

147. Papillon, Henri Charriere

148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett

149. Master And Commander, Patrick O’Brian

150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz

151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett

152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett

153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett

154. Atonement, Ian McEwan

155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson

156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier

157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey

158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling

160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon

161. Moby **** , Herman Melville

162. River God, Wilbur Smith

163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon

164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx


165. The World According To Garp, John Irving

166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore

167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson

168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye

169. The Witches, Roald Dahl

170. Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White

171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams

173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway

174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco

175. Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder

176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson

177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl

178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach

180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery

181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson

182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay

184. Silas Marner, George Eliot

185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis

186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith

187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh

188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine

189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri

190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence

191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera

192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons

193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett

194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells

195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans

196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry

197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett

198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White

199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews

201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan

203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan

204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan

205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan

206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan

207. Winter’s Heart, Robert Jordan

208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan

209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan

210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan

211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto

212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland

213. The Married Man, Edmund White

214. Winter’s Tale, Mark Helprin

215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault

216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice

217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell

218. Equus, Peter Shaffer

219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten

220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke

221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn

222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice

223. Anthem, Ayn Rand

224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson

225. Tartuffe, Moliere

226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller

228. The Trial, Franz Kafka

229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles

230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles

231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther

232. A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen

233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen

234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton

235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry

236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read

237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono

238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde

240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson

242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny

242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon

243. Summerland, Michael Chabon


244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole

245. Candide, Voltaire

246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl

247. Ringworld, Larry Niven

248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault

249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein

250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle

251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde

252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne

253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson

256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith

257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony

258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum

259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon

260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde

261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde

261. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel

263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver

264. A Yellow Rraft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris

265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder

267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls

268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock

269. Witch of Blackbird Pond, Joyce Friedland

270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. O’Brien

271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor

273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg

274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster

275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin

276. The Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan

277. The Bone Setter’s Daughter, Amy Tan

278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child

279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire

280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman

281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry

282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum

283. Haunted, Judith St. George

284. Singularity, William Sleator

285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson

286. Different Seasons, Stephen King

287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby

289. The Bookman’s Wake, John Dunning

290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns

291. Illusions, Richard Bach

292. Magic’s Pawn, Mercedes Lackey

293. Magic’s Promise, Mercedes Lackey

294. Magic’s Price, Mercedes Lackey

295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav

296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker

297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love

299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace.

300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison.

301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving.

302. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland


304. The Lion’s Game, Nelson Demille

305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust

306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh

307. Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco

308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson

309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk

310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz

311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk

313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu

314. The Giver, Lois Lowry

315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin

316. Xenogenesis (or Lilith’s Brood), Octavia Butler

317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold

318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold

319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)

320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill

321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)

322. Beowulf, Anonymous

323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell

324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley

325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey

326. Passage, Connie Willis

327. Otherland, Tad Williams

328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay

329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry

330. Beloved, Toni Morrison

331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore

332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin

333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume

334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo

335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev

336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover

337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson

338. The Genesis Code, John Case

339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevensen

340. Paradise Lost, John Milton

341. Phantom, Susan Kay

342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice

343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman

344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher

345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson

346: The Winter of Magic’s Return, Pamela Service

347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz

348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok

349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler

350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jaime O’Neill

351. Othello, by William Shakespeare

352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas

353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats

354. Sati, Christopher Pike

355. The Inferno, Dante

356. The Apology, Plato

357. The Small Rain, Madeline L’Engle

358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick

359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater

360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier

361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier

362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder

364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King

365. The Interpreter, Suzanne Glass

366. The Moor’s Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie

367. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson

368. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster loved

369. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

370. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux

371. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg

372. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy

373. Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

374. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown

375. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo

376. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer

377. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck

378. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

379. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston

380. Time for Bed by David Baddiel

381. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

382. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre

383. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley

384. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff

385. Jhereg by Steven Brust

386. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane

387. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

388. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte

389. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz

390. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje

391. Neuromancer, William Gibson

392. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

393. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr

394. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault

395. The Gunslinger, Stephen King


396. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

397. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke

398. A Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman

399. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott

400. The God Boy, Ian Cross

401. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Laurie R. King

402. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson

403. Misery, Stephen King

404. Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters

405. Hood, Emma Donoghue

406. The Land of Spices, Kate O’Brien

407. The Diary of Anne Frank

408. Regeneration, Pat Barker

409. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald

410. Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia

411. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway

412. The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg

413. Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede

414. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss

415. A Severed Wasp - Madeleine L’Engle

416. Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman

417. The Mabinogion (Ancient Welsh Tales) - translated by Lady Charlotte E. Guest

418. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown

419. Desire of the Everlasting Hills - Thomas Cahill

420. The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris

421. The Things We Carried, Tim O’Brien

422. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb

423. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk

424. Ender’s Shadow, Orson Scott Card

425. The Memory of Earth, Orson Scott Card

426. The Iron Tower, Dennis L. McKiernen

427.The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles

428. The Four Feathers, A.E.W. Mason

429. The Jester, James Patterson

430. Cry the beloved Country, Alan Paton

431. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

432. The Stranger, Albert Camus

And you're supposed to add three books you've read to the end of the list that don't previously appear. Here are mine:

433. Lady Chatterly's Lover, D.H. Lawrence

434. Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie

435. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen

Posted by Kitty at 05:55 PM | Comments (3)

June 09, 2004

Cheddar X Interview

1. What skills do you need to develop most?
Tolerance of stupidity.

2. What did you like most about your last job?
My co-workers' sense of humor.

3. What has been your favorite job?
The one I have now (seriously).

4. What was your worst or most degrading job?
My worst job was working at Express clothing store in Highland Park Village in Dallas (a location of Express that no longer exists). It was a part-time job I held during high school. The shifts were too long, we had to wear the clothes and I couldn't bring myself to tell people that they looked good in those clothes.

5. How do you deal with inter-office personality conflicts?
If I have a personality conflict with someone I have to work with directly, I communicate with them directly and at the beginning of the project and follow up later with e-mails so I have responses in writing.

6. In what kinds of situations do you find it most difficult to deal with people?
I find it most difficult to deal with people who are being overly emotional about something that shouldn't involve people's emotions (or at least, not as much). I never would've thought I'd meet lawyers who are overly sensitive, but I have.

7. How do you handle crisis situations?
As calmly and quickly as possible.

Posted by Kitty at 09:09 PM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2004

What Not to Wear

There must be something in the water around here because all I seem to be able to focus on these days is frivolity. I'm having a great time, but let's just say I haven't been splitting atoms in my spare time.

One of my favorite shows to watch is the American version of What Not to Wear. I love watching this show because I am amused at all of the lame reasons people give for hanging onto that bright red sweater that has a picture of two mooses kissing on the front of it (said sweaters are almost always worn by people living in places like Miami).

I was discussing this show the other day when I was at work, in one of our conference rooms, sitting with a bunch of lawyers waiting to start a meeting. I mentioned how much I enjoy the show and someone said, "I don't like that show. The hosts are so mean." I replied, "Actually, that's why I like the American version, because the hosts on the British show are much meaner." A guy seated next to me said, "Yeah, but when British people are mean, it's funny." Point taken.

The conversation got me to thinking about the appeal of the show and why lawyers don't like it, and it hit me -- most lawyers I know could really use this show. Case in point -- the last two women who received wardrobe/haircut/makeup overhauls on this show were female lawyers. The two offending attorneys both made the same fashion mistakes -- both dressed like lawyers (read: clad in all black with big, clunky heels that could double as door stoppers and large, boxy jackets which could cover them and several of their best friends simultaneously). Of the few lawyers I know who attempt to "dress outside the box", few are successful. One woman, who shall remain nameless, used to show up for work looking like she'd been dressed by a color-blind circus clown. She wore a purple and black plaid, ill-fitting suit with bright blue tights and black, misshapen shoes. I'm still considering asking our firm to pay for my therapy bills to recover from seeing that.

That being said, dressing like a lawyer isn't easy (for a woman -- guys have it remarkably easy when their choices are suits, suits and suits). There's this struggle between wanting to look professional and not wanting to look dowdy. Between wanting to look fresh and not wanting to look inappropriate. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the show. A young woman who sells real estate for a living (God help her) was dressing far too skimpily (is that a word?) At any rate, she was modeling her wardrobe for the hosts and defending each article of clothing, when she appeared wearing a short red silk dress which looked like a cross between a kimono and a negligee. She said, "This dress is where east meets west", and one of the hosts deadpanned, "That dress is where hoochie meets mama."

Posted by Kitty at 05:31 PM | Comments (2)

June 03, 2004

Book Bloggers

I read this article last night about the trend of bloggers who are writing books. The idea makes sense -- if you can write coherently on a regular basis on your blog and people actually enjoy reading it, writing a book isn't too far off the mark. If I were ever approached about writing a book, my reaction would be much the same as the blogger quoted in the article -- what would I write about?

Posted by Kitty at 09:22 AM | Comments (0)

June 02, 2004

Reality

There's finally a reality show I can relate to. This Survivor-style reality show, featuring celebrities from Colombia, is so un-fun that the celebs are begging to be voted off the show. I've always said that that's exactly what I would do if I were ever forced to compete on Survivor.

One of the contestants said in an interview that he "ate virtually nothing his first three days and then choked down mostly cockroach-like insects and tiny crabs to survive."

"I got terrible stomach problems,'' he said. "I must have eaten 180 mini-crabs. They just don't fill you up.'' This sounds like the Atkins diet gone terribly wrong.

Posted by Kitty at 08:51 AM | Comments (1)

June 01, 2004

Guilty Pleasures

Everyone has things in their lives that they're simply too embarassed to admit they like. There's the sweatpants with holes in them that we wouldn't be caught dead in (but wear around the house in hopes that no one stops by for an impromptu visit), there's the high school cd collection (the Debbie Gibson cd I had was a gift, I swear) and the collection of cheesy movies (we won't even name those to protect the absolutely guilty).

My latest guilty pleasure is murder mystery novels. I'm currently reading this one. The author isn't awful, but let's just say that she doesn't need to buy a plane ticket to Stockholm any time soon. In any event, I was so engrossed in reading this book last night that when Archi-Sapper walked in the door from his trip, I nearly went into cardiac arrest.

Posted by Kitty at 03:19 PM | Comments (2)