Just finished putting a new (well, 'new to us') storm door on the back door. Now if only I'd remembered to buy a closer for it . . .

Oopsie

We sent Lu to school today in her full Daisy Scout uniform. An hour later she called us from the office; there is no Daisy meeting today and she sticks out like a sore thumb. Oops. It's certainly not our worst error tho'. A couple of years back we sent both girls to school dressed to the 9's for Pajama Day and, well, I think you can see where this story is going 🙂

Quote of the Day

I was going to spend the morning digging a garden in my backyard, but it's raining, so let's blog!

* * *

Yesterday we had a very casual family dinner, just hot dogs and chips, and the experience was unusually enjoyable. All the kids were friendly and talkative, the polar opposite of the night before, and we all had some laughs.

At one point LuLu spilled ketchup on her white school uniform, and I sent her off to change her shirt. Smiley asked why she couldn't just sit through dinner without a top.

"Because she's a girl," I said, skirting the fact that I'd never allow anyone to come to my table shirtless.

Still, he couldn't understand why that was an issue.

"Because girls have boobies," I said. When in doubt, keep it simple and cut to the chase.

By this time LuLu had returned, and she rolled her eyes.

"Dad, ladies don't have 'boobies'. I'm not a little kid anymore, you should call them by their real name." she said. She took a bite of a chip, swallowed, and finished her thought.

"Smiley," she said,"they are called 'boobs'"

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I wasn't immune to the positive buzz surrounding The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson. Not only did the book receive wonderful reviews, it became a commercial success with a large and loyal audience. Fearing I had been missing one of the great mystery novels of our time, I bit the bullet and picked it up last week.

And now? Now I'm confused.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the story of disgraced financial magazine publisher Mikael Blomkvist. Set up and convicted of libel, Blomkvist is hired by the elderly head of the once-mighty Vanger family to investigate the 40 year old disappearance of his teenage grandniece. Soon he is joined by the titular character, 24 year old researcher Lisbeth Salander. Salander is an odd character, even for a fictional world. Heavily tattooed but physically the size of a teenager, she is brilliant yet declared mentally incompetent by the courts. She is
prone to calculated violence and haunted by her past. Together they dig to learn the fate of the missing girl, while all the while a killer closes in on them.

Here's my take on the novel.

I thought the book started horribly slow and was quite tedious. Judging by this book Larsson was quite prone to distraction, and the prose wanders off on a tangent as often as not.

So for 200 pages I was bored - I told someone it was like watching paste dry - but committed. Then slowly, slowly, slowly, I actually started to *care* about the mystery. I think it is largely due to the sheer weight of all the background you're given on the characters, and the time you spend with them; you're damn near forced to care by default. And I'll admit that Salander is a dynamic and captivating character.

100 pages from the end I could admit to being legitimately spooked at the idea of heading into my dark basement to retrieve a load of laundry.

The mystery resolved with a bang, and then the book plodded on for another 50 pages or more! Yes, it allowed for the resolution of the magazine subplot, but honestly - who cared?

Honestly, while I wound up liking the book, all the hoopla and praise seems surreal. I dislike Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, but I could see why others would buy into the frenzy. I'm not sure why this wasn't left on the shelves gathering dust. Even if I'm wrong and the book is an all-time classic, it is not something I'd expect to entertain an American audience. Color me surprised.

I don't know. All those points against it and I'm still going to read the next one (I'm 70 page in, actually). So who knows - maybe the author made a pact with the devil to win fans. It worked for Stephanie Myers :)

1st half C-
2nd half B+ (A to A+ if you stop after the main plot is complete)
Overall B-

My latest column will appear in tomorrow's Journal-Sentinel. I'll post this again later just to be obnoxious, but you've been warned - buy one!

An argument with YaYa

YaYa and I had an argument this afternoon that matched one I had with my parents almost thirty years ago. Subject matter, volume, regrettable angry statements, you name it - it was eerily word for word at points. Afterwards she lost the glasses she's had for ONE day (found them later). We're good now but man. That was depressing. On the plus side, the column I wrote this morning was accepted by the Journal.

A rare flaw of mine

The word I can never, ever seem to spell correctly without spellcheck: convenient

TV Night

Lisa watched today's Oprah on the DVR. In one segment a woman was happy to say she'd signed Oprah's ridiculous "contract" to ban cell phone use in a car (even w/ hands-free sets). How did the viewer break her 'habit'? Why, by cranking up the volume on her radio to eleven and singing along as she drove. Because THAT isn't more distracting than carrying on a conversation.

AI was surprisingly good, wasn't it? From what we saw (we missed Mike's song) the weakest performance was Bowersox, and she wasn't 'bad' at all. There may yet be hope this season. OTOH, DWTS minus Kate just wasn't worth it. We fast forward-ed (sp?) it this week. Sigh. Maybe if Edyta was still on the show . .

Productive day off so far. Wrote & submitted a piece to the Journal, spent some time w/ Lisa, took Junie w/ me to Home Depot, just got done patching some cracks in our sidewalk and . . .well, sh**, I don't know the construction vocab: redoing a 3x3 square of 100 year old concrete that had cracked and caved in. Now, pending a disaster in the drying process, it looks as good as new. [fingers crossed]

Sometimes they just wear you out

Ok....that's it, they are getting naps. I. am. so. done. - Lisa