A Book Meme

Stole from Allison :

1. What is your favorite passage/line from a book?

Here last week they found this couple out in California they would rent out rooms to old people and then kill em and bury em in the yard and cash their social security checks. They’d torture em first, I dont know why. Maybe their television was broke. Now here’s what the papers had to say about that. I quote from the papers. Said: Neighbors were alerted when a man run from the premises wearin only a dogcollar. You cant make up such a thing as that. I dare you even try.

But that’s what it took you’ll notice. All that hollerin and diggin in the yard didnt bring it.

That’s all right. I laughed myself when I read it. There aint a whole lot else you can do.

2. What do you consider the best film adaptation from a book? What do you think is the worst film adaptation?

• Best: No Country for Old Men was a splendid adaptation I thought. Great movie with an amazing cast. Worst: Timeline. Another Paul Walker special.

3. What is the first book you remember reading?

• Green Eggs and Ham. When it comes to prose though, A Wrinkle in Time is the first book I remember really taking an interest in outside of class. I still have my copy filed away in the living room.

4. Did you have a favorite kids’ book as a child?

• Well, I’m not sure what the cut-off is for childhood, but I’ll go with Jurassic Park. I was thirteen and a huge dinosaur nut. I even wanted to be a paleontologist until I decided I didn’t want to be dirty and sweaty every day.

5. What book did you hate reading for a school assignment?

• For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway and I have never been able to get along though I’ve tried.

6. What is the most recent book you read (or are currently reading)?

• Winkie by Clifford Chase. It’s part of my year long book reading project which is going … horribly. I have to read way too much for my literary criticism class.

7. What book would you most like to see turned into a movie?

• The Laments by George Hagen.

8. What book did you cheat and read the “Cliff Notes” version?

• A Separate Peace.

9. What book would you never read again, no matter how much someone was going to pay you?

• For Whom the Bell Tolls!!!!

10. Are you more of a library or book store person?

• I love bookstores. There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t find myself at Borders or Longfellow Books.

11. Have you tried audio books? Do you like them?

• I haven’t tried them. I don’t think I would like them. I’m not much a radio person in the car. I guess I could just pop one into the old iPod and give it a try at some point though.

12. Has any movie ever inspired you to then read the book on which it was based?

• Lord of the Rings. It didn’t go well though. It just further reassured me that I can’t read fantasy and enjoy it. This also goes for The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter. Love the films, bored by the books (though I did get half way through book five with Harry).

13. Describe a passage from a book that made you cry.

• Well I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say the end of The Laments regarding the twins. There are plenty more, but that just came to mind first because of my mention of it earlier.

14. What is your favorite book series?

• Though I haven’t nearly read them all, I really enjoy The Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Series by Sue Grafton.

15. Describe your favorite place to read.

• In a slightly chilly room, on the couch curled up in a blanket with Zoe snoozing away next to me. Prime reading time!

Alarms.

I dislike alarm clocks.  Well, I should say, I dislike Rodney’s alarm clock.  It’s the same one he’s had since I first met him (1999) and I hated it then and I hate it now!  It’s loud, grating, electronic ‘REH REH REH REH’makes my skin crawl and is not a peaceful way to begin the morning.  This is the reason why I had grown accustomed to using my cell phone to start my deeper.  It’s gentle beeps wash the crusties out of my eyes and welcome the morning like a spring lark.  Much better than ‘REH REH REH REH’.  Yet, now with my hearing loss I can easily sleep through the alarm, and it’s actually transformed into Rodney waking me up to turn the thing off because it’s annoying him.  A sad day indeed.

Probably another reason I don’t like Rodney’s clock is because he keeps it set 30 minutes fast.  He claims there is some psychological reasoning that makes him wake up quicker, but I just see it as a way to confuse me in the grogginess of morning and force me to do basic math to figure out the time.  It’s particularly annoying when in my fatigue I set the alarm incorrectly at night and wake up an hour before I need to in the morning.

I’ve considered getting a CD player with an alarm to play some tunes in the morning that get progressively louder.  My stereo system in high school did that and waking up to the Lion King was always fun (don’t laugh!).

Any suggestions?

The Mother-in-Law

Well, I have returned. I apologize for the lack of posts as of late, but the boyfriend’s mom and sister were visiting for a week and that apparently eats up a lot of time. When Georgians come to Maine, crazy things are bound to happen.

I’m still amazed by the amount of food consumed during their visit. For example, Sunday lunch consisted of a baked ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed corn, black-eyed peas, and mac-n-cheese…for three people. Monday night we had chicken tenders, fries and tater tots, and mozzarella sticks. These were both inspired by Rodney’s casual mention of things he liked on Food Network. I’m glad Rodney’s mom doesn’t live with us because we would be at the mercy of Rodney’s culinary flights of fancy which often consist of things deep-fried (though I must admit deep-friend mac-n-cheese wrapped in bacon does sound intriguing).

There is also no question about where Rodney gets his thriftiness or obsession with cleanliness. While souvenir shopping in the Old Port area (specialty stores with some touristy things threw in) Rodney suggested a set of dish towels and hot pads featuring Portland Head Light (local lighthouse, see here) that cost $6. Rodney’s mom was reply, “Oh, I can get something like that for $1 at Walmart.” Grocery shopping additionally involves a lot of coupon usage and generic brands which irks me a little since I can be rather picky about my food quality. I’m a big proponent that you often get what you pay for. Regarding cleanliness, when we got home Monday morning from the gym everything was pulled out of the bathroom and she was diligently scrubbing the bathroom floor. That is definitely not something I would be doing on my vacation in someone else’s house, but I guess that is what moms are for.

Overall, it seemed like a good trip for them. They were able to experience a significant snow storm and the often frigid Maine temperatures. This also marks the first visitors we’ve had since our move up which was nice too.

Ok, well I’m off to enjoy the rest of my morning in my jammy pants. Snow days are the best…

Poem: Rainy Day

click clack
nails on hardwood
slap
wagging tail
ball in hand

The long toss –
Swift arched fall –

lost traction
a sliding catch
black streak back
good fetch

Superbowl

So, I turned the television on to watch the last four minutes of the Superbowl (Go Pats, or whatever). Thoughts:

Who cleans the uniforms? They are covered with grass stains. How do they get them out? I have a lot of trouble with grass stains in the summer due to frisbee.

Tom Brady is quite handsome. How come he gets to be dashing, athletic, and make tons of money playing football while I get to be nerdy, scrawny, and make mediocre money? Damn you, gene pool! Now, I have to go the gym tomorrow.

Quarterbacks wear little flip books hidden in their wrist guards. Cute. Reminds me of Predator a little too.

:35. Looks like it’s over for the Pats. Thankfully it’s just football, but I assume tomorrow will be a solemn day at work. Perhaps I should wear black.

Tom Brady can throw 75 yards?! Someone buy that man a drink.  I can throw a good two yards, and that is if I fall forward one of them (Rodney’s joke).  Next to me, Brady is godly.

A guy we ran on a news story that bought a vintage plate with “PATS19-0″ will be back at the DMV this week.

Get off the damn field so they finish the game!

Who cleans up all the confetti? That must be an ungrateful job, cleaning up everyone’s merriment.

Ok. Time to play some Wii.

I was tagged: Six quirky things about myself.

So, I’ve been tagged by Sarah over at http://sarahik.wordpress.com/ to expose quirky things about myself. I thought this the perfect opportunity to tear myself away from making shit up about performing a detailed analysis of 1.4.228-243 of King Lear that I have due on Monday for my literary criticism class, and I plan on doing just that.

Here are the rules:

* link to the person who tagged you
* post the rules on your blog
* share six non-important things/ habits/ quirks about yourself
* tag at least 3 people at the end of the post and link to their blogs
* let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

Here are my six things:

1. I have two quicky computer habits. The first is that I do not like cluttered computer desktops. I mean the virtual desktops, not the desk surrounding your computer. On my laptop I have two things on my desktop: the ever-present trash can and a shutdown shortcut that intiates the shutdown DOS command. The shutdown shortcut is actually my second quirk. It keeps me from having to click on the start menu and the subsequent selections to shutdown the computer. I also don’t have to be worried about some program hanging that will keep the computer from shutting down. DOS doesn’t give a crap about that and neither do I.

2. I wear the same pair of jeans like seven times before washing them. That may scare off some readers. I’m honestly a very hygenic person. Promise! I just have a pair of jeans I love so I wear them nearly constantly. I don’t sweat or go play in mud with them on, so I don’t see a reason not to wear them multiple days. If they started smelling, I promise I would change them.

3. I lost things…constantly. It wouldn’t be a normal morning if I didn’t spend five minutes finding my keys. I also have the amazing ability to look directly at things and not see them. Rodney can vouch for that.

Me: Rodney, I can’t find my wallet.
R: Did you look on the table?
Me: Yes, of course. It’s not there. *a few moments pass*
R: I found it.
Me: Where was it?
R: On the table lying on top of some mail.
Me: Oh. Well, it wasn’t there a second ago.

4. I am a good cook, but I am extremely messy. Rodney says the kitchen looks a hurricane blew through when I’m done, but I say what is a few tablespoons of flour here and there among friends…even if I really didn’t use any flour at all in the particular dish. My messy cooking is well-balanced by Rodney’s oppressive spot free regime desire to catch splashes before they hit a surface. Together we end up with a lot of little bickering but a lot of yummy food.

5. I am grossed out by little. However, I’m am completely repulsed by the smell of hot peanut butter. For example, assuming I use hot water, washing a knife that was used to make a PB&J makes me gag. However, I can watch people throw up and no big deal.

6. I am immune to poison ivy. I’ve walked through the stuff, fell down in the stuff, eaten the stuff…ok, not eaten the stuff…but regardless it has no affect on me. Perhaps I will make a suit out of poison ivy for days when I want everyone to leave me the hell alone!

Here are those I tag:

Torrey

My Favorite Career Woman

Someone I Found By Clicking On Allison’s Blog

Mom #4: The Birthday Card

I received my parental birthday card today. My mom loves to decorate the outside of the envelope with stickers. I have no idea why a nearly 60 year old woman has so many stickers. She doesn’t even send many cards to make use of the probable stockpile she has. I guess one day I will inhereit them all.

More to the point of this (is there ever one?), the inside of my card featured a little written message in the upper left corner marking the date of my birthday this year and that it was my 28th birthday. Then there was the standard printed message followed by another handwritten message by my mom wishing me a happy 28th.

This is my 27th birthday.

I love my mother.