Posts from the “Reading” Category

You should go: Tomorrow at Powell’s (Cedar Crossing)

Posted on May 13th, 2013

Alert for those of you on the west side! (Oh, even if you’re on the east side of town, too. Hop the MAX.) Tomorrow evening at 7 PM at Powell’s Cedar Crossing, Robyn Parnell will be reading from her brand new, being-released-tomorrow middle-grade novel The Mighty Quinn. Really, you should go. Not only because of the new book (just being released tomorrow), but because Robyn is hilarious and it’s bound to be a good time. Plus, Pea and I will be there with hats on. And if you can’t make it, then order the book, anyway!

Categories: Portlandia, Reading

Identity Crisis: Lawyer, writer, teacher?

Posted on April 17th, 2013

In a couple of months, it will be three years since I worked full-time as an attorney. Three years. I keep up with my CLEs. I pay my bar dues. (But not my $3500 malpractice dues–I’m exempt–and no, that’s not a typo. It’s mandatory in Oregon, and you can’t shop around). I still think like a lawyer (that really is a thing). I volunteer for legal organizations. I even applied to work as a lawyer recently (and almost got the job). But three years. I recently organized my office and recycled most of my big books of law, because if I were to go back into my field, they’d need to be redone, anyway. I recycled my 2010 West court rules. (I still keep…

Categories: Not crazy...yet, Reading

The Find

Posted on March 27th, 2013

This week, a friend from the east coast made his annual pilgrimage to Portland. Part of the pilgrimage ritual is a stop at Powell’s, because, well. Powell’s. As far as I’m concerned, if you come to Portland and skip Powell’s, there is something wrong with you. (Also, watching the cashier’s face when our friend checks out is awesome. Because, well. Four figures. And they’ll ship it all for something like $11.) Since we used to live so close to Powell’s (10 minute walk), and because Pea’s tolerance for browsing in sections other than children’s quickly devolves into her pulling books out and saying, “Here’s one for you,” I’ve gotten used to either browsing online, buying the book(s) I want and trudging up to the…

Categories: Epiphanies, Portlandia, Reading, Writing

Winning at Powell’s

Posted on February 24th, 2013

Because nothing cheers me up like new (or used) books, this afternoon I took Pea to Powell’s, where I traded in some books for credit and bought more books. What makes me happier? All the books I traded in were freebies for review (which I dutifully did), so the trip cost a whopping $1.90 over the store credit. And Pea bought her own books with allowance/gift money. We’ve been working on teaching her the value of money (literally and figuratively). Earlier this week, she bought herself something she’d wanted from the zoo that I would not buy her (a pink plush dolphin in a furry purse), and today she bought the books. It’s pretty cool.

Categories: Reading

Don’t jury-rig elevator doors when you’ve got a bunch of bombs and a forklift nearby.

Posted on February 7th, 2013

Pea has been funny, delightful, maddening, and difficult. She is five going on fifteen. Rarely a day passes where M does not have to say, “You may not speak that way to your mother,” which is annoying in that it happens almost daily, but great in that I come from a family where my parents did not back one another up and it led to all sorts of internecine strife. It’s nice to know he’s got my back. Recently, instead of just making her apologize, I’ve been making her apologize and say she won’t do whatever it was again. Granted, she finds new ways to break rules, but it seems to be helping. Last night, at a birthday dinner for a young lady who…

Categories: General Parenting, Job Hunt, Reading

2013 Books

Posted on January 26th, 2013

This year I set a goal of reading 100 books. Ten down. I decided that I would let myself read more fiction, because 1) I need to and 2) I’ll rock that goal if I do. Conveniently, my phone has decided that it will no longer permit me to play Words with Friends, so I have a bit of extra leisure. This is what I’ve read:

Categories: Reading

There was raw salmon and there was quiche!

Posted on December 21st, 2012

Today was a good day. After several days weeks months of being completely under the weather, I had energy. Real energy. Pea and I went downtown. My eyebrows were waxed (even with invisible eyebrows, yes, some maintenance is required — and no, I really can’t do it myself, and yes, I have tried) by the amazing Libby (who is also the best massage therapist in Portland). We had sushi for lunch (raw salmon always makes me feel better, along with Odwalla Original Superfood; I don’t know why). We went to the pharmacy. We brought sushi home for M (who is still sick). I vacuumed upstairs. I moved rugs. I caught up on the laundry backlog. I played games with Pea on the floor of…

Categories: Eating, Good day, Reading

Sloppy Joe cake and so much more (catching up)

Posted on November 30th, 2012

Actually, there isn’t much news. After learning about it from a friend, I made a sort of Sloppy Joe biscuit cake with biscuits in the bottom of a bundt pan, then sloppy joes (I used Quorn instead of meat, and it was good), and another layer of biscuits on top. Then cook for about 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven. I used store-bought biscuits, because the whole point of the experiment was to find something that was insanely easy to make from things I could have on hand in the fridge. It was interesting and I liked it, but there was too much bread vs. Sloppy Joes. Still, Pea ate four bites of it, largely because… She wanted to eat cake. For some…

Categories: Eating, Epiphanies, Not crazy...yet, Reading, Routines, Writing

Quiet

Posted on October 30th, 2012

I’m reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts, and it’s like someone handed me a manual to Pea. And to M. And to me. Because yes, we would rather watch other people than interact in a large group, especially at the end of a long day. Yes, we recharge by being alone (or in small groups) and for us, it’s not normal to, say, become instant friends with twenty new classmates. Yes, we are sound/light/smell sensitive. Yes, we think deeply about things and when our feelings are hurt, they are hurt deeply. Yes, there are real reasons why I hate group projects, forced interactions, and networking events — and why I would almost always prefer to email than talk on the phone. Internet socialization? I…

Categories: Epiphanies, Reading

Book Review: Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die: The Assassination of a British Prime Minister

Posted on October 23rd, 2012

Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die: The Assassination of a British Prime Minister by Andro Linklater My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is an odd book with entirely too much soul-gazing. It’s a superficial and sensational history of a complicated event, and in order to provide the necessary background, there’s a lot of tension between the history and background (Orders in Council, slave trade, the politics that made Perceval PM) and conjecture and odd, sweeping statements. The only British PM ever assassinated was poor Spencer Perceval, the family man, Evangelical-leaning Conservative stick-in-the-mud, on May 11, 1812. The assassin was John Bellingham, an accountant and would-be businessman with grievances against the government. As a fiction editor, point of view errors drive me crazy. One…

Categories: Reading