Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Rock Band

Home again after a long road trip...Virginia to New York to Boston and back all in 5 days with 3 kids and no other adults. So very tired...

But we had a great time and the kids are now obsessed with the Beatles. We played Beatles Rock Band at our cousins' house in Brooklyn and the kids just loved it. When I got home on Sunday night, we found someone selling it on craigslist for super cheap and we picked it up last night.

The kids have been singing and really enjoying themselves, so its money well spent. Can't wait to really try it out and see how we do!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Halloween, already.

We haven't even gone back to school, but the kids have already decided what they want to be for Halloween and want to get started on their costumes. We've been reading the Harry Potter books at night and now C wants to be Harry and B wants to be Hermione. Should be easy enough: robe, tie, white shirt, wand, and glasses for Harry.

I broke out my knitting bag for the first time in over 6 years last night. I'm hoping I can remember enough to make them some "Gryffindor" scarves to wear with the costumes. I was having a lot of trouble remembering the basics, but then thought of searching on YouTube for some instructions. Within minutes I was all set. Pretty cool.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

One Day

Finished a terrific book last night: "One Day" by David Nicholls. I read a lot of books and there are very few actually make me wish I had been the one to think up the story and write it so well. This book made me jealous of David Nicholls.

Simple plot -- a love story about two best friends from college and how their lives and potential romance play out over the next 20 years. The clever part is that the story checks in on them only once a year, always on the same date. Well done and difficult to put down.

Here's the review that convinced me to pick it up:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/david-nicholls-one-day,43374/

This book made me laugh and it also made me cry.

Only other books to make me cry? "Cold Mountain", "Persuasion", and "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius".

FYI: The last book that made me jealous of the author was "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" by Marisha Pessl.