A lovely bright red bush at the end of the driveway greeting me each day as I pull into the garage, all my other little plants there gone for the year...soon it will be time to string twinkle lights on the fence for Christmas cheer.
READING: Okay, you can all blame Shelley for this: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932)...I know, I know, I said I was finished with Orwellian angst, but Shelley and I were discussing it at Pizza Hut on Tuesday and which choice would have been better for the English assignment: the Orwell, the Huxley, or even, as I suggested, Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, (1921), where it probably all began in the first place since Huxley was Orwell's professor originally, and although he claims he had not read Zamyatin, Orwell clearly read both We and Brave New World before embarking on 1984. At any rate, Shelley and I got to talking about some of the questionable bits of the Orwell and the Huxley in relation to assigning either to high school students, especially 9th graders who barely really even have a concept of Russian politics in 1905 and 1917 and why John Reed's book Ten Days That Shook the World would have been a better place to begin so they could just have some background before going into the others...and why are we reading these in literature class instead of history class anyway? Okay...enough, you know I could go on and on about this and I will just leave it to say that I think it will be interesting for me to be able to read Brave New World and then right after it, be able to go into Huxley's Island and read it as I did not read them in tandem before and I am thinking that would be great as Island was written at the very end of Huxley's life and is sort of a complete turnaround from Brave New World. And, if you know anything about Huxley (and you probably do, even though you don't know it...the rock band The Doors took their name from one of his works...he was well ensconced in the drug culture of America, way back, and then carrying forth until the day he died in an LSD induced exit when he died of cancer in 1963...appeared on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band even though he wad dead several years by then...you might not have read anything by him, but there is plenty out there, and he is fairly well known just because he was an incredible intellectual, wrote profusely, and may be considered one of the foremost writer/thinkers in modern American thought, albeit he was originally British, invading the American colonies in the late 30's and exiting around the time the Beatles invaded the colonies). I could go on and on but I am sure you all stopped reading somewhere up there when I first mentioned Orwell again. Anyway, I am reading the two Huxley books back to back. And, I am blaming Shelley for this...you hear that, Shelley?
POOLSIDE READING: Carolyn Hart's mysteries
LISTENING TO: The Doors, of course.
COOKING THROUGH: Cookie recipes for the holidays...store in the freezer (if you have teenage boys, it is imperative that you mark the boxes "Chicken Parts" or "Liver" so they will not raid them before the holiday trays are assembled...when they were little, the top two shelves were out of reach, and therefore safe, but these days, there is nothing out of reach, therefore nothing is safe from raging teenage boy appetites). The last batch I made did not even make it to the freezer as they descended upon the kitchen before I could get them packaged and squirreled away under the chicken parts disguise. I am going to need to be much quicker about freezing these things if I hope to have any cookies left to assemble into holiday trays for friends.
FAV NEW FIND: Silpat liners for cookie sheets...these are not new, and I have had them for years, but I have to say, they are one of my favorite things...NOTHING sticks to them and you just wipe them clean (do not use soap on them ever). Makes holiday baking a whole lot easier!
FAV THING TODAY: I have reached a decision (thanks for shopping with me, Cindy, as your opinion is always key) on the type of camera I am hoping for under the Christmas tree. Actually, I feel a little guilty asking for such a thing, but I am trying to justify it by thinking that most of my photos are of my family and the boys are growing up so quickly that before I know it they will be off on their own and I should take the photos of them and all their activities now while I can. So, really, it is not just something for me alone, right? This is really for the entire family. Anyway...when Mark asks me what they can put under the tree for me...this year I will have an answer...maybe.
SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK; None...too nice outside yet to want to be inside.
GOING TO: Scout weekend camping trip to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky for Alex; Swimming, IYC choir retreat all day Saturday, followed on Sunday by serving Mass, IYC choir rehearsals and Lifeteen for Matt; which leaves Mark and I with a great amount of date time over the weekend...always a nice and happy occurrence. IU plays Sunday at noon, I believe. What's going on there?
PRAYING FOR: Safe travel for everyone as we approach the holidays; for the Andersons as Jeff and Aimee travel to his grandmother's funeral; for our neighbors who are feeling a little lonely (as are we) with the demise of Gus, their very old cat who greeted us all every day when we returned home with a wave of his tail and a haughty glance...pets do work themselves into our hearts; for Carolyn and Kelly and their families as we head into the holiday season, please join me.