Monday, September 1, 2014

September 1, Labor Day: Summer's Official End

What a lovely weekend we've had--a four day one for my first time on a new calendar. I had a killer workout with Kiley on Friday morning, then A and I packed up in a very leisurely way and arrived at the camps in Bowdoinham, complete with Zeus, around 4. That whole time was pleasant and low key, and our Saturday at Bates with Nate was great too. It's an impressive, thoughtful, caring community, and N seems (now a week and a day into it) to find it a great fit too.


That's us showing off the handy benches and the lovely day we had! News from Lyle at Skidmore is also positive--senior year. Hard to believe. 

After leaving him at 4 and picking Zeus up from Mom and Anita's yard, we headed back to camp for another nice stretch, with a fierce game of cribbage, a good dinner, a fire, a better night's sleep, and a mellow morning. We then stopped by Craig and Heather's to see our nieces, who are champion sleepers but have definitely grown in a month, with Emma at 6 lbs, 3 oz, and Megan at 5 lbs. 11 oz. We held them for a bit and then headed home to our quiet, calm, orderly, newly-cleaned (thank you, Heidi and Michelle!) house. 

And now it's nearly 6 pm on Labor Day, and we've enjoyed a "do what we wanna" day, featuring a lovely b'fast at the Riverside, Andy's spectacular cleaning of the garden/junk shed, me making sourdough (hope my luck holds) and Joy The Baker's carrot soup, a run for me and a swim across and back the river with Zeus, a nice trip to Reny's for pants that actually FIT Andy (success) and oh yes will ya look at that? a cute bright yellow summer sweater for me (Coldwater Creek, baby) and then our week's grocery shopping, ringing in at $96. Empty nesters indeed! Since then I've done bread stuff, paid some bills, written five letters, emptied the cat box and the garbage, cleaned and repositioned Grandma Leamon's tea table up by the new loveseat. . . . all the little things that we do during the summer. Or don't do during the summer but get done in a while of busy on the last day! 

So. Some pictures might follow, and then after dinner I will actually settle to do some school work. Onwards into September, the fall, and this new normal!

And at the camps, I read a bit. . . . 




The Good Luck of Right NowThe Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. Good Luck reminded me of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: it's another amazing narrative voice and character that brings us a whole new perspective and world-view. I loved, loved, loved this--the end was a bit over-happy, but only my critical mind noticed: my heart loved it.

Highly recommended for readers ya and up.

The Man Who DisappearedThe Man Who Disappeared by Clare Morrall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Morrall did a nice job with the plot; I kept imagining what I might've felt in the various people's places. There were a few spots where I thought, "If he'd just explain, it might all smooth out," but overall it seemed realistic and interesting. The only glitches were an odd section towards the end where the recording seemed to be jumping back and forth--not a narrative device, but a cut-and-paste where one didn't belong, and then a weird use of dance metaphor that was supposed to tie up the ending. Otherwise, an interesting story. Good work all around, except that I hope Audible checks on the technical side of the recording on this one!

View all my reviews

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