Fun in the Out of Doors, Surprising Book Finds, and Haikuesday 5/4/2010

Spring finally seems to be here to stay in KC, just in time for Summer to come and make everything unbearably hot. Gotta love the Midwest. :-) But because we've had such nice weather lately, I've been able to be outside and enjoy the season. One way we did that was by celebrating my good friend Ashley's birthday this past Saturday!

(Ashley, looking very no-nonsense and drinking her Schlitz Tall Boy)

After a wine tasting at Gomers, we had a wonderful day of Bocce Ball, Washers, Fake Tattoos, Chicken & Ribs (cooked by Tom), Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes (baked by me) & Dance Parties in the living room. All in all, Saturday has been added to my list of perfect days. :-)

(Carolyn, Ashley & Me)

Then Sunday, Daniel and I both decided to start living the Suburbia Dream and worked on the landscaping/lawn. I trimmed bushes, planted things and even put down new mulch. My back hurt like crazy on Monday since I carted around 40 lb bags of junk all day, but I’m pretty proud of our work, especially since I’m known among friends as Black Thumb Beth.

In other news (of the indoor sort) I have decided to read my way through the Top 100 Children's Novels (from the Elizabeth Bird's Fuse 8 Blog). I'll be reading all the books, even the ones I've read before, and here are some of my most recent:

• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead - WOW. I was amazed by this novel, and Daniel can back me up on that. I don't know how many dirty looks he shot me over the course of me reading it because of my frequent exclamations. "Oh my Gosh!" I'd scream, then when he asked what was happening, I'd just say I didn't want to spoil it for him and keep reading, only to cry out again in the next chapter. Read it and remind yourself why Kids Lit is wonderful.
• The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis - I listened to the audio of this with Lavar Burton narrating. I was so pleased to read this funny, true to life, and moving story of the Weird Watsons, and Burton perfectly embodies the voice of the young narrator. A great read and a wonderful listen.
• The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo - I had big doubts going into this book for no reason other than the previews for the movie made it look really silly (in a bad way). Thank God I picked it up anyway. What a lovely and charming story. I just finished this yesterday, and all I want to do now is eat soup!

And now...don't think I've forgotten that it's Haikuesday! I wrote both these this afternoon. The first was born out of frustration regarding ye olde crappy job, but the second is a sort of present for Jeanne at Necromancy Never Pays about a certain poet who didn't like us interpreting his work. :-)

Today - another

moment of pretending its

another - today.

Dear F.W.

your Verse opened up my mind

till YOU closed it shut.

And that's all I have for today. Enjoy the weather, enjoy life, and enjoy some Haikuesday fun!

-over and out-

Haikuesday 4/13/2010

Another Tuesday is happening as we speak, and that means more Haikus for your viewing pleasure. I’m also linking over to one of Jeanne’s recent posts on her blog Necromancy Never Pays. She has a really excellent poem posted there, and it is just plain awesome.

So without further ado, Haikuesday awaits:

Chorus Rehearsal (by me)

We sang – danced - chatted
Hugged and laughed and made mistakes
Last night at practice

Learning Choral-ography
Right arm first, then Rock
Bounce right, and try to avoid
a hit in the face

And please if you are local, check out the Kansas City Women’s Chorus and come see us sing next weekend (April 24/25). It’s gonna be an awesome show!

http://www.kcwomenschorus.org/

And now for the link to Jeanne’s blog post.

Please head over there and read the excellent poem: Such Sweet Sorrow - by Ethan Coen

And that's all I have for this Haikuesday!

- Over and Out -

Haikuesday

Inspired by Beth at 990 Square with her Wordless Wednesdays and Jeanne at Necromancy Never Pays, and her Book Trivial Pursuit on Fridays, I've decided I need something to motivate myself to blog weekly.

So, based on my complete lazyness for uploading pictures and my absolute horribleness at Book Trivia, I've decided to put my fondness for tiny, lovely poems to work.

From now on Tuesday shall be known as:

Haikuesday

I'll mix in some of my own haikus with some that I've read and want to share. Enjoy!

As Brenda (by me)

Who is Brandy Farr?

Does she really exist, or

is she me spelled wrong?

Zoo (by me)

The zoo is no fun

Since Mr. Rhinocerous

Rained on my parade

From Zombie Haiku (By Ryan Mecum)

I can remember

good food that mom used to make

I bet mom tastes good

Everything I thought

tasted a lot like chicken

really tastes like man

I really have enjoyed the Zombie Haiku book, actually. It's pretty inventive and if you are alone at home reading it, you can get pretty freaked out. Have a lovely Haikuesday everyone! :-)

The Gone Away World - Update

Thanks to Jeanne at Necromancy Never Pays, I've been reading The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway. I'm only about a third of the way through at the moment, but the prose is so unique, and the ideas so exciting, that I really wanted to share two of my favorite quotations so far.

I made a failed attempt to twitter these earlier tonight, but when I realized that just one of my favorite sections would take up about 5-6 tweets, I gave up and thought I'd update on the blog! So enjoy, and I'll definitely be posting a review of the novel when I finish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What I am about to tell you...may make me sound like a crazy person. So I need you to remember, to bear in mind very carefully, that I have an IQ of such monstrous proportions that if, for the sake of argument, I were totally insane--if the palace of my intellect were a scary ivy-covered mansion in Louisiana with peeling paint and dead flowers and a garden full of murdered corpses planted by a man named Jerry-Lee Boudain--I am so much more intelligent than anybody else you will ever meet that there would be no way for anyone to tell."

"Modern war is distinguished by the fact that all the participants are ostensibly unwilling. We are swept towards one another like colonies of heavily armed penguins on an ice floor. Every speech on the subject given by any involved party begins by deploring even the idea of war. A war here would not be legal or useful. It is not necessary or appropriate. It must be avoided. Immediately following this proud declamation comes a series of circumlocutions, circumventions and rhetorico-circumambulations which make it clear that we will go to war, but not really, because we don't want to and aren't allowed to, so what we're doing is in fact some kind of hyper-violent peace in which people will die. We are going to un-war."

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So far I am highly enjoying this book, although it did take me awhile to fall into the authors rhythm. Now....back to reading!