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)
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