Monday, January 08, 2007

Got a Winner!

I gave up on the concept of cutting out 88 pieces of paper and asked the spouse, "Could you create a random generator that will pick a number between 1 and 88 for me, so I don't have to sit around writing numbers and cutting?" He said, "Sure." Okay, now you know why having nerds around the house comes in handy.

Wendy of Musings of a Bookish Kitty is the winner of the first Chunkster Challenge drawing for a tote bag to haul the chunksters around. Congratulations, Wendy! Sunshine the New Year's Kitty and Great Huntress of Stuffed Parrot is thrilled for you. Isn't she fierce?

I will attempt to keep this post on the short side due to the little gnomes with jack-hammers banging away inside my skull (aka, migraine) but a brief update.

Chunksterville: I'm bogged, kiddos. I keep hacking away at God is an Englishman and I like the book, I really do. But, I'm constantly reminded of why those weighty suckers intimidate me: detail. Too much detail. Admittedly, I used to write great flouncing prose, myself. But, confidentially, my own writing bored me silly. I got over it, I think. I hope (the flouncy writing, not the boredom with my own writing).

Still working on The Jungle Book and occasionally picking up Stitch 'n Bitch. According to Debbie Stoller, I've got a nice little hunk of yarn in a decent blend. I rewound it at 2 am, one night when I couldn't sleep, turning it into a center-pull ball. It's one of the coolest things I've done all week, which probably goes to show you just how interesting my life is. I shall try not to dwell on it.

Added to my current reads, today: The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Hahn Beer. So far, it is utterly gripping.

Just walked in my door: Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland

In the year 2007, I resolve not to bring home any books that begin with this kind of sentence:

Phelan McDermott leaned back in the leather wing chair and scowled at the American grandson of his mother's new husband.

Any book that makes me feel like I need to draw up a family tree to translate the first sentence is, I've decided, worth passing up.

Stupidest thing I've done, recently: Assumed that when I updated my email address at Blogger it would actually work. Public apologies to the many people who wrote to me via the email link that went to the email address which I neglected to check for over two months thinking my email had been diverted to the home inbox. How's that for a run-on sentence? I've added the folks who were unable to post a request to join because my blog was set to allow only people with Blogger IDs to comment and . . . you know, the email thing I forgot about. Non-Blogger-bloggers may now post with abandon.

Remember that fizzy business? I used a fizzy from Crabtree & Evelyn, tonight. It's been sitting at the back of a cabinet for at least two years; as far as I know, we no longer have a C & E store in Mississippi since our one and only store moved out of Northpark Mall. Now, I really miss them. But, wowee, what a surprise to see not only a lovely, blue-dyed fizz but a bunch of brown stuff that looked like grass clippings floating in my tub. As it turned out, they put lavender - the real stuff, not just the oil or scent - into the fizzy. There was also some other herbal hodge-podge I didn't recognize (chamomile, maybe?), which I chased around. I mushed some of the lavender and whiffed it. Oh, my. I forgot just what an amazing, heavenly, soothing scent comes from the real plant. And, that other weedy-looking brown crap smelled pretty sweet, also.

Note to former and latter-day hippies: Sorry, no, probably best not to roll it up and smoke it after you sift the lavender out of the fizzy.

Random cheerleading for chunkster readers: You can do it, you can do it, you can do it!

But, I'm going to bed. You can do it without me for tonight.

16 comments:

  1. I am reading the Red and the Black which is not on my chunkster list because I started it in December but its so hard to get through and the wierd thing is that I am loving it. But am reading it slowly and I am a reader who is often interrupted which is hard for these books. Not easily transportable. Oh well I will just have to go buy a bigger purse.

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  2. That is so cool! Congrats to Wendy! I hope to read another chunkster from my list soon. :)

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  3. Nessie,

    I do most of my reading at bedtime and while sitting in the horrid high-school parking lot, waiting (with teenagers swaggering and hollering around me) so the thin books go with me when I have to transport. Who wrote The Red and the Black? I'm not familiar with that title.

    Try this bag; it's great:
    http://tinyurl.com/wtrtv

    I have two of them. I lug books everywhere in those purses. You could carry a small child or a litter of kittens around. LOL

    Krista,

    You're killing me. Slow down, lady! I'll bet you could read my Delderfield in an afternoon. I feel like such a slug.

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  4. Bookfool, your posts always bring a smile. Thank-you. Congratulations to Wendy who, I'm sure, is surprised and tickled. I like the random generator idea. I'll have to look into that for my drawings.

    I haven't started on a chunkster or a classic yet. Better get my rear in gear.

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  5. Aw, thanks Booklogged. You've given me my warm fuzzy for the day. I think Wendy was a bit shocked. :)

    I think I need to speed up a little on the classics, myself. I've only started my first one - actually, am about halfway through and it's short, but I got sidetracked because I'm so utterly fascinated with the ways people survived during WWII and The Nazi Officer's Wife has really grabbed me.

    Oh, dear, I think I'm babbling, again. I'd better go lie down with a book, quickly!! ;)

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  6. Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was a wonderful surprise! I told Nancy in my e-mail to her that my first thought was that I hadn't even finished my first chunkster yet. I'm working on it though. Hopefully by the end of the week. After today, it would be really tempting to just take tomorrow off and read. I'll be good though. Need money to eat and afford a house to store all my books.

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  7. I read Hey Nostradamus! last year, and it left me feeling really sad. Along the lines of We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lionel Shriver) and the movie Elephan (Gus Van Sant). Emotionally draining, and then that hopeless feeling when it's done.

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  8. Sorry the migraine goblins are back, or was it gnomes? :P
    I haven't even started on one of my chunksters yet so you're ahead of me!

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  9. Sunshine looks like she could be Frankie's mommy!

    Hope you're feeling better (migraine). I'm battling a terrible cold, but I think I'm finally winning!

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  10. Oops, meant to tell you that I'm about 600 pages in to my chunkster (The Way the Crow Flies) and am loving it! Only 200+ pages to go. Hope they all don't take me close to 2 weeks to read, though!

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  11. Literary Feline,

    I set my chunkster aside for a couple of days, so you're way ahead of me!

    Well, yeah, you need food to eat but books are food for the soul. :)

    D,

    Thanks for the warning. I'll save the Coupland book for a time when I'm feeling upbeat. LOL I really enjoyed Girlfriend in a Coma.

    Nat,

    I haven't gotten far on my chunkster. You can probably still catch up with me. The headache is still dogging me; I think I might have the beginnings of a sinus infection. Hope not. I hate those things. LOL Thanks. It was gnomes with jackhammers. :)

    Les,

    I know! I thought, "That's just what Sunshine looked like when she was a tiny kitten!" So precious.

    Sorry you're fighting a cold, but I'm glad you're beating it. I'm still headachy. But, then, I did stay up late to finish The Nazi Officer's Wife, so that undoubtedly didn't help matters.

    Wow, page 600! I think I'm only at about page 250 on mine. But, I got tired of all the business details and set it aside for a couple of days.

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  12. OK, this whole post cracked me up! lol Especially the part about rolling (or not) the brown leafy crap in the bath fizzy.

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  13. Andi,

    Thanks, babe, I live to make you laugh. Your blog always makes me smile. Did I ever tell you that?

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  14. I love the expression on the cat's face! Congratulations to Wendy from me as well.

    I'm exactly halfway through my first Chunkster, Vanity Fair.

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  15. I finished my first chunkster!!! Only took me 10 days, but I'm done. I'll post a link to my review (somewhere?) once I get it posted.

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  16. Bybee,

    You're doing fantastic. I'm a little less than halfway on mine, but I put it aside for about 3 or 4 days. I guess I need to get back to it. :)

    Les,

    Way to go, lady! 10 days isn't bad. I think I started a couple days after you did and I'm not quite halfway. I keep getting sidetracked. Maybe if I focused on it I'd get through faster. :)

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