Books I Just Read About And You Didn't?!!!

Fathers Day is a month away. A good one for any Dad type who is a reader! The estate of Ian Flemming invited Sebastian Faulks(author of one of my favorite books,Charlotte Gray)to write a new Bond book. the result is cold war thriller
Devil May Care.
Young and old moms among us might enjoy The Ten year Nap by Meg Wolitzer. the story of woman who get off the work track and stay home with the kids.
The Unit Ninni Holmquist-Sort of science fiction in the Margaret Atwood style. A dystopian society does away with people over 50..Slowly,organ by organ!
A Short History Of Woman- Kate Walbert.... One family's five generations of woman's struggles. Told in vinettes.
The Wordy Shipmates Sarah Vowell- Well researched book about some unknown historical facts. Puritans apparently go wild in the new world?

Orphans?

I just picked up the article excert of Christopher Buckley's book about his parents dying within months of one another. He starts right out saying how many people referrred to him as an orphan! Its funny but when my Mom died Marguerite was the only person out of about 50 or 60 who ever said that to me. I was so struck by that because now as then I think of the term "orphan" to be used for a person under the age of 21!!! Long past that one! In Gail Goodwin's book about her husband's death she stated that when they would be on their way home from someplace he would refer to their home as returning to the orphanage!
One thing Buckley wrote that is true for you and your sibs if you have them is that once that second parent dies you are "in the green room for the river Styxx". This just cracked me up I had to share!

TV And Me

This DVR thing is a drug I swear. I am watching more TV because of it. In the old days all the detectiveie shows and all else that came on at 10 when the eye lids needed a clothes pole to stay open I would just miss them. NOW I just scan the schedule and hit record!
So I find myself falling behind on watching all this stuff and falling behind in my most beloved hobby of all,reading!
I watch or record: Cold Case,Without A Trace,orig. CSI,various things on the History Channel and BBC's Antiques Roadshow. This show I ADORE. I have about 10 now I must watch. Loaded with so much history and really cool places they visit to say nothing of the "objects" brought in for appraisal. Prince Charles was even in one I watched last night. A folksy,charming guy! I also find the British version is filled with far more humor than its more serious American cousin!

You Can Fight City Hall (Maybe)

Sometime in March we received a letter from the Phila. Parking Authority saying we had failed to pay for a $300 parking ticket for parking in a handicapped spot on January 19,2009. The only thing is the lic. number given is for a car we bought for our kids on January 24,2009. We did not get the tags,title and registration until Feb. 2,2009. Foolish me wrote a few times even sending in copies of all of the above. I just kept getting form letters telling me to call the phone number on the original letter which never connects you to a human being!
I decided to write to our local Phila. CBS affiliate's consumer watchdog guy. He actually called me and we have been in communication twice. He has connections at the parking authority. I did get a letter saying the case was suspended for 30 days pending an investigation. We shall see. meanwhile...Thanks,Jim D.!

Stuff You Don't Know About Me

I just got an email from a friend about all the expensive beauty stuff she uses. I don't spend on the individual products just on the amount I experiment with!
So I have found mineral makeup really does make the face a uniform color. However,if you have a zit or two as I did right after Easter candy time you do need a cream or liquid base.(hubby says my zits keep me young!) I use an Avon cream to powder that I really like. I bought the one Ellen Degeneres is sponsoring but I think it dried my aging skin out even though it supposedly does have a cream in it. I try not to use the same moisturizer everyday. I flip between a Garnier,Olay and Clinique!
My eyebrow area was really dry and peeling all the time so I got this Burt Bees night cream and that works. A N D for some reason giving up my 40+ year one diet cola a day habit has improved this condition!
So that is how this old crone keeps foolin' um in HHNJ!

Possibly,There But For The Grace Of God..........

Would I have gone! Its just that my particular brand of combo perimenopausal mood swings and fury at my kids just did not ever go over that edge the West Chester County Mom went over last Sunday. She was so mad at her fighting daughters she threw them out of the car. The 10 year old never made it back into the car.
Here is where I have an issue with the supposed "good samaritan" who called the police! I have a feeling that this 10 year old girl who lives in a 2 million dollar house is a quite savy,with it,sophisticated kid who has a cell phone and knows how to text. This is no waif in the storm for days gone by and anybody with experience with kids in the 2000's knows this..... I am also sure she can match my two daughters at that age when there smug,heaven looking glances and smart mouths could send you just short of a giant slap.
Had I been the person to happen upon this girl in very nice White Plains I would have asked what her Mom's cell phone number was and called the Mom and say I will chat with your daughter until things calm down. There was no need to involve the police and social services. I think the girl,or more like it,the mom had the bad luck to run into some righteous goodie,gooie who never had an irritating 10 year old!

"Elderly Graviderum"

Thats what it said on my medical records when I gave birth to DD#2 18 years ago today! I think by this time they have upped the date they start putting THAT on woman's charts!
One thing good about having a baby at 40 is when that baby grows up people assume you are younger because you have this child who is say still in high school! So sometimes assumptions are not bad.