THE HURT LOCKER * LEAP YEAR

The Hurt Locker - This movie was the winner of a ton of Oscars this year, and now I know why. It's so much better than the previews and clips that I'd seen which frankly, didn't entice me to the movie. I just wanted to watch something with Peter, and I knew he'd be into it, since he plays war games on XBox. We were glued to the screen. It's about a team of soldiers who diffuse bombs in Iraq. And although the scenes from the previews and clips are there, the story as a whole is so much better. This was more than worth the price of the rental.

Leap Year - I fell asleep, but didn't care. What I wanted to be a sharp edgy little modern movie was slow and painful. Amy Adams is a great actress, but I didn't like her wardrobe, didn't like the male leads, and the dialog was non-existent. Here is a case where the previews were so much better than the movie itself. This was worth negative the price of rental, so on both I came out ahead because The Hurt Locker was so great.

HEIRS OF THE GREEK CATASTROPHE * LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER

Heirs of the Greek Catastrophe The Social Life of Asia Minor Refuges in Piraeus by Renee Hirschon - In 1972, Renee Hirschon lived in a village in Piraeus that had been settled by Asia Minor Refugees in the early 1920s. We visited our relatives in the village outside Salonika in 1971, so I'm reading this book, and it's like a flashback to my life and the ideas, mores and way of viewing the world that I grew up with, and then experienced firsthand that summer in the village. The author discusses it all with kindness and neutrality, respect and justification. She really got inside the mindset and the only thing that isn't here is a comparison to the mainland Greeks' ideas, mores, and way of viewing the world. There is a great discussion of arranged marriages, and throughout the book, she gives the original Greek words and phrasing, which is word for word what I heard growing up from my mother and grandmother. And she even tries to explain how sometimes there is no direct and correct translation for a certain phrase in Greek. It just doesn't convey the idea in the way that one can envision it in a modern world. I'm so happy to have this book in my Asia Minor library.

Last Night at the Lobster - by Seward O'Nan - I think if we read all my book reviews, we might find this one written up here ages ago. However, I saw it on the book club shelf at the library, and because it's such a sweet little thing, I thought I'd read it anyway. I sort of remember reading it, but maybe I'm thinking of The Tender Bar. Anyway, it's about the last night of a Red Lobster on a snowy Connecticut night; the manager, Manny is bittersweet about closing his restaurant, and this is a complete short story, and a great little read.

So now it's Tuesday, it's after noon, and I'm going to finish up that ironing, and finish making my black and white skirt, and finish that area around the foot of my bed, and maybe even get to the back bedroom, and also the desk work. I want to post after pictures of those last two areas today. I'm a little sad for myself because it's a beautiful warm day outside, and it's my own fault that I have to stay in here and finish these tasks. But I will. I hope.

THE ONCE & FUTURE KING * IT'S COMPLICATED * A SINGLE MAN

The Once and Future King - by T.H. White This is the book that Peter has to read over summer vacation for Freshman English. Actually, he only has to read the first part, The Sword in the Stone. So that's all I read. It's the story of Art, known as Wart, a young boy who lives with a rich family. Of course, Art is the smart one. He gets lost in the woods one day and comes upon a wizard named Merlin, who goes home with him and takes the job of tutor to Art and his "brother" Kay. Merlin teaches Art by experience, and therefore Art's education happens as Art is transformed into a fish, a bird, an ant, and other creatures. I love how Merlin lives backwards. He's experienced the future and is going toward the past. Merlin. Wow. I don't know if I'll finish the entire book because the print in this one is really really small. Modern books seem to be printed in larger font sizes or the lines are slightly more open.

It's Complicated - On the advice of my brother (rather than all the many people who'd previously recommended this movie), I finally rented it, and of course, loved it. Meryl Streep is great in light-hearted roles, and if you add Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin to a movie, you can hardly go wrong. The story is good, the evil second wife and step-kid are super, the grown kids are creepy, and the dialog is fun. So yeah, rent this one when you want a few laughs.

A Single Man - Finally, this movie came out on dvd. Colin Furth is amazing as George, a man living his life in Southern California in 1962. It seemed that Colin would have won the best actor award for this, but Jeff Bridges got it for Crazy Heart. What a tough choice that would have been, had I seen A Single Man before the Oscars. This movie will make you smile and cry and feel and want to live in a glass house and want to connect and want to feel and want to swim in the ocean at night. Really amazing and really good. This was Tom Ford's directorial debut, and he also wrote the screenplay. In case you don't know, Tom Ford led Gucci out of the hole and back to life some years back, and is considered a fashion and business wunderkind. He is obviously a man of many talents.

THIS IS IT ONCE AND FOR ALL - UPSTAIRS

After daily weather reports of rain for over a week, it finally poured last night and this morning. I've been awaiting that rainy day in order to stay inside and straighten up. Alas, I'm getting a late start, and it's 12:30 and sunny now. However, I'm going to do this, also because there is a sweet breeze coming through the screens. I'll just take some before pictures, and get going. This will include an iTunes purge. I'm going to start listening to the 1147 songs, and permanently delete those that I would never again care to hear.
So. Once again: Here is the sewing room ironing, my desk, the foot of my bed, and finally, once again, the back bedroom. So far, I'm saving all the Air Supply. Steve has come upstairs and tried to close all the windows on me, and I'm hungry for my milk, but I'm stuck, because if I go downstairs, he'll close those windows. Any small thing can derail me these days. But I'll persevere, because when I go to visit my nieces next week, I want to leave everything neat and perfect so that I'll look forward to coming home. There is nothing worse than not looking forward to coming home because your nest is a mess. I might reward myself with a blog about a book and a couple of movies after I've completed two of the tasks. OK. It's 12:54.
2:38: This is painful today. It's gotten beautiful outside, and I've only ironed 10 things, permanently deleted 3 songs, but I did re-up and put some new things on Craigslist, and even got a phone call about the 24" TV. They might come to buy it tonight or tomorrow. OK, back to ironing. I'm not going to do the book and movies post until I at least do the ironing. Oh, what torture this is.
6:10: Yes, you read that right. And I'm only half done with this job and with this day. I promise myself that I will not read the newspaper until I finish with all the tasks I set out to complete. The ironing is finished, but that's not completely truthful, because I'm pretty sure that there is a little more ironing downstairs in the laundry room. My desk is looking good, though. Looking good, not really being good, because that big pile under the monitor is out of hand. There are notes and scraps with all kinds of info that I do refer back to. Here's progress:
6:46: It's getting dusky out, I don't know if I'll actually get to my room and the back bedroom. I WANT to. But I'm really hungry, and I'll read the paper while I eat, and I've got someone coming over to buy the 24" Toshiba TV at 8, and I forgot to mention that I had a call on the Hatboxes before. I'm going to do my best though. How nice it would be to wake up and have the mess at the foot of my bed G-O-N-E. Oh, and I just completed my post about the book and two movies.

NEW M&Ms * CHICKAMONKS * PETS

While I was upstairs writing the last blog post about The Hunger Games, I could hear a cage rattling noise coming from downstairs. Then it dawned on me that we had probably trapped Chickamonk number 4. So I went downstairs and had a package of the newest m&m's which is Pretzel Flavor. I like the color of the package, although not particularly the extra graphics. I like my packaging clean. These are OK, but don't replace my passion for plain m&ms mixed with Reeses Pieces.

I checked the pot of black beans on the stove, and they weren't boiling yet, but then alll of a sudden they were, and they boiled over. I continued to ignore the fact that there was a trapped Chipmunk in the living room, and took a picture of the fish, because the other day I noticed that we'd gained a fish and now there were three: There's the big one we call Goldie, although he isn't the original Goldie. She's in a koi pond that Steve keeps at some house in the city. I think this Goldie is going to go back into that pond. We have the little Albino Trout on the top right, and then the new fish is both gold and white and larger than the Albino Trout. The new fish has brought some action into the aquarium. They all made a huge splash onto the counter today. I never see the splashes. It's almost like they wait until I'm looking away to do exciting things.

Still avoiding, I took a picture of our parrot, Pretty Bird. She is so sweet and musical and loves it when I play my iPod. Finally it was time to face the real music. In the living room. Trapped in a cage. Now quiet:

THE HUNGER GAMES

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - I kept seeing this book on book club lists, although I knew it to be a young adult category book since Peter read it for school this past year. It's a great story, although the concept is ominous. It takes place in the future when there are 12 districts on the land that formerly was the United States. Every year each of the 12 districts sends one boy and one girl to the Hunger Games which take place in the Capitol. The Hunger Games are televised, and they play sort of like Survivor, except the winner is the last person standing after the other 23 have died or been killed. The narrator, Katniss, is wonderful, if not a bit clueless when it comes to human relationships. I was enthralled until the end, hanging on every word to see how the love interest part of the story would play out. And what happened? The book ended as a cliff hanger - I've got to read the rest of the trilogy to get my answer.

I wish I could catch up once and for all, and have things be like they used to be. About 12 years ago. Only Merlin gets to live his life backwards, though. (I'm now reading The Once and Future King - Peter's summer reading requirement). Hmmm....live life backwards. You know the future, but not the past.

WHO'S YOUR CADDY? * REUNIONS * NO PLACE LIKE HOME?

Who's Your Caddy? Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf by Rick Reilly - I don't golf, but I do go to garage sales and my son is a golf caddy this summer. So at a neighborhood sale a couple of weeks ago, (I love those, that's where the whole street is up for grabs) a bored dad wanted to get rid of stuff and gave me the book. Then I bought something for a dollar don't remember what. Maybe the little Jay Strongwater frame? I don't know. But I digress. I just finished the book, and it's a fun read. Rick is a writer for Sports Illustrated, very chatty and a bit long winded writing-wise. He caddied for different famous golfers and celebrities and then wrote the book. You'll find out that caddies are characters and there's more to golf than hitting a little ball with a stick. I think. Although Rick tries a little too hard to be funny, the ironies throughout the book are what makes it a good fun read.

Reunions - We drove to Detroit this weekend for my class reunion from Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan. I love these reunions, and always have a great time at them even though I didn't particularly love high school. If we went back in time, we might even find out that I hated it, but I really don't remember. Even though all kinds of memories came back to me this weekend. Which is scary because if the long term memory is improving, does that mean that the short term is going? I loved the building though - here is a picture that I lifted from someone's Flickr page:
Here's the text that goes with the photo:
When it was built in 1928, the Superintendent of Public Instruction called it " the most beautiful [school] in Michigan." The central tower brings to mind the Memorial Quadrangle at Yale University or the Lawyers' Club at the University of Michigan. The Neo-Tudor building is clad in seam-faced granite with Briar Hill sandstone trim. The architects were the firm of Van Leyen, Schilling, Keough and Reynolds (which designed several churches in the Detroit area). When the school was built it served the city of Fordson--named after Henry FORD and SON, Edsel ( this was also the brand name of Ford Motor Company's tractors). The high school's athletic teams are known as the Fordson Tractors. Fordson later became part of the city of Dearborn.
Fordson's colors are Maize and Blue, and here is a photo, (also from Flickr), of the school seal in the entrance way floor.The reunion included Friday night at a Dearborn bar owned by one of our classmates, the Saturday afternoon where we could wander around the school, and then a dinner on Saturday night. It was all fun. It's a way to connect with your past and who you were, and then a way to celebrate who we are all now. Whoever we are. There are lots of stories, and lots of wondering about the other 500 or so classmates who weren't there. What we were a part of was this thing that civilization has where people of the same age go for most of the months of the year to a building and to classes and learn what we are told to learn. Education boggles my mind. A lot of people are apparently on Facebook, so I went there tonight and checked it out after a long dry spell. One of my college friends (who was going to be long lost if not for Facebook because she's moved to Qatar) friended me, so that will be fun.
We stayed with my mom and GC, and all is well there, and then we reunioned with my brother Bill and his family. It was great to see them, and to have Peter spend time with his cousins.
I think the above blurb about Fordson isn't totally accurate. I'd always thought that the school was named after the tractor which was named after Henry Ford and son Edsel. And the school's mascot is the tractor. I'd forgotten that the cheer was "oil job". Too funny. Here's the Wiki on Fordson

THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
This was just what I needed to get me through these past couple of weeks. It's been hot hot hot here, which I love, and there's so much to do that I never know where to start. Knowing that at the end of the day I can climb into someone's derailing life is somehow comforting. Wally Lamb is great at making a story around derailing and derailed lives. This book is about Caelum Quirk of Three Rivers, Connecticut, his wife, Maureen, a troubled girl named Velvet, the Columbine killings, women's correctional institutions, PTSD, and finally, Caelum's history and his evolution. Maybe it's about hope, too. The fact that a derailed life can get back on track. Or find a new track on which to travel. Hope.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

We are having ideal 4th of July weather this weekend, and it's been action packed around here. On Friday I had my annual driveway sale, and 5 friends brought stuff over to sell, so it was also like a fun get together. I didn't know if anyone would come, since there were no other sales in the area, but with the exception of that 10:30 lull, the driveway mall was jumping. The night before Debby and Diane drove me around, and we put up 10 signs and I put three ads on Craigslist. If you build it, they will come. And they did. They shopped with Dianne and Diane, Nancy and Nancy, and Debby and Kelly. A driveway sale mall. I'll have to remember that for next year. With so many of us, it looked like there was a lot left over, but I didn't bring very much back into the house, and am really cleared out. There are two bags left for the Purple Heart pick up in a couple of weeks, and pile of stuff to freecycle. If the freecyclers don't come through, then that stuff will go to Purple Heart, too. After the sale, Nancy L. had Ceasar Salad's at Convito (Nancy's with chicken and no dressing and no olive drizzle, so lettuce and chicken for Nancy, Ceasar for me.) Then we went on a beach walk, then I came home and climbed into bed at 8:30, read and caught up on sleep.
Like a maniac, I actually went to garage sales the next day. It was a loser day to go, except for the first sale where I came across New Trier students selling their books in a big sale to raise money for the Science Olympiad. They knew just which books Peter is going to be reading for English the next two years. One of them is even annotated by a student who (they said) is now going to Princeton. There was another book, annotated, that they preferred not to sell to me. (maybe that kid is going to a party school?) A buck a book is way overpriced for a yard sale, but the mom in charge had me pegged, so I paid up. What she didn't know is that I might have found those books at future sales this summer, (for a quarter). The thing is, that those kids were so sweet and full of info about New Trier, that it was worth it just for their take on the school, and to support their cause. They even tried to recruit Peter sight unseen for the Science Olympiad!
Last night there were 18 of us on the boat - I think that's a record crowd - for the Wilmette Fireworks. It will be an all day process to get the photos to load into the computer, but I'm working on it, and I'll add the photos here later today or tomorrow. It was a fun night and a beautiful show. Peter captained the boat so easily, even with the crowd and more night lake traffic than usual. Steve took over once the fireworks started, and by the finale, we were right under them. We are so lucky to live in a place where we get two spectacular fireworks shows every year. On the lake and on the beach! And Rum and Cherry Coke is a great new drink for me. Is there diet Cherry Coke, I wonder?
And I'm reading a great book. Wally Lamb. The Hour I First Believed. If you ever feel like life is giving you lemons, read this. OK, back to the book for an hour before I get up and tackle that annoying Sunday Tribune. Maybe I'll get on a beach walk today.