Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

Would anyone be interested in making this a weekly feature that you could link your blog to (you know, how The Broke and the Bookish do for TTT)? I've seen a few bloggers borrow this and link back (totally fine, by the way, go for it!) and was just curious. Email me or comment below.

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1. It's rained this morning. While it does seem to happen on occasion, July rain in Southern California always baffles me.

2. I read The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein yesterday and cried more times than I can count. Good God. Between the wife having a brain tumor, the custody battle with his daughter, and then Enzo (the dog) getting old (and getting left alone for 3 days! And getting hit by a car!) it was just too much. Too much I tell you! Then, just to compound the waterworks I watched two episodes of Grey's Anatomy (so bad, but can't stop watching) and heard some horribly sad news about a family I knew back home. But anyway, the book is definitely amusing as it is told from the perspective of a dog, but if animal stories make you teary you've been warned.

3. Don't worry, Lady Gaga, no matter what your deep dark scandalous secrets are I'll still love you. Unless you've murdered a puppy- in that case I'm deleting your songs forever.

4. We went to LA (yes, I understand that means we're driving 150 miles round trip to see movies, but nothing good ever comes to our area, plus it's something to do) over the weekend and saw The Way Way Back with Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, and assortment of teenage actors that I don't know the names of. I thought the movie was decent, but I have to say- I pretty much love Allison Janney. I mean, the woman almost makes me want to switch to Kaiser for fuck's sake, and I hate HMOs. She was her normal kooky self in the movie- an alcoholic single mother that is obnoxiously wonderful.

[source]

5. Visual Editions, the innovative publishers from England, are working with Fraser Mugerridge, who's sending Jake Robinson to La Mancha to "metaphorically trace and visually interpret the journey Don Quixote in an epic (and most likely comic) way" (Visual Editions). I have a feeling it may be years until we see the final outcome, but it's still something worth getting excited over. 

6. Have you noticed that there are far fewer kids with broken limbs than when we were kids? I highly doubt calcium deposits have gotten stronger or bone density has improved. My theory: kids are too busy playing on their parents' tablets and phones, watching TV, or booting up the video game systems to go do crazy shit outside like back in the day. I remember being in third and fourth grade borderline jealous that I didn't have a cast for everyone to sign, as it seemed like every other week someone else broke their arm or foot. I know that the world is a different place and it's more difficult to just let your kids roam the streets unsupervised, but still! I guess I'm old school- we were allowed to play on the computer or watch TV for maybe two or so hours a day during the summer. Otherwise, we were left to work through our own boredom.

7. I think everything everywhere that you put in your mouth should be salted caramel flavor. Ice cream, cupcakes, coffee, pizza, tacos, sandwiches, pasta...

8. My beloved iPhone 4s was fried by the piss-poor electrical wiring on the cruise we went on, so I had to upgrade to a 5. This unfortunately meant that I had to order a new case, since my old one was too small (if you say "apple" while holding your tongue it sounds like "asshole"- #thingsthatmakeyougohmmm #hashtagsinblogarestupid). I bought another over-priced Book Book and am even more in love. This one has additional card slots (I use it as a wallet if I'm just running to the store or to yoga) and- even better- has a hole in the back for the camera so I don't have to remove it from the case every time I take a picture.

[image source but not a legit site to buy from]

9. I'm going to start tweeting like Alton Brown does. Genius. Plus I love Post-Its.

 

[Source: Alton Brown's twitter]

10. Every day we don't use the air conditioning is a tiny victory. I hate, hate, hate spending money on utilities. So boring! Sure, we have the money, but who wants to give it to the electric company? I'd rather give it to Amazon or Anthro or even my savings account. Our electric bill usually pretty manageable, but last summer, when the old pool guy cranked up the filter (this summer we haven't needed to yet) and we used the air it tripled. This year we're on a mission to strategically use the whole house fan and portable fans to keep it from sky rocketing. So far, so good. It's the little things, guys (like 200 of them). Yes, I know having a pool makes this easier.