Telling stories

First of all, I have to apologize for yet another post without pictures. My power cord is still not back, and of course all the photo uploading software is on my laptop.

(Or is it downloading? Am I downloading them from my camera onto the computer, or uploading them? I'm never sure which one of those to use. Just when I thought I was all computer savvy having a blog - Hey, check me out! I blog! - I go and show my complete lack of understanding with a comment like that. And don't even get me started on HTML. Not only do I have no idea how to use it aside from occasionally putting the word "center" along with some greater than/less than signs in front of something I want centered, I have no idea what it stands for, and when I see it, I say "hate mail" in my head.)

Anyway, sometime relatively soon, you'll get a big ol' post chock full of photos. I promise.

So in the northeast, the weather the past few days has been absolutely gorgeous! Clear, cooler, low humidity...it's a little reminder to me that the summer is almost over and fall is close on its heels. I couldn't be happier. I adore the fall. In fact, if forced at gunpoint to rank the four seasons in order of how much I like them, I'd say fall, winter, spring, summer. That's right - summer would come dead last.

Why, you ask? Well, for the simple reason that it's too dang hot. In the winter, one can always put on another sweater and eventually get comfortable. In the summer, it's always uncomfortable, even with nothing on. Not that I go outside with nothing on, but I'm just saying - even if I did, I'd still be hot. There's just no relief, and I'm so thankful for air conditioning.

As an aside, do you remember that awful heat wave that hit Europe a few years back? Most Americans don't - we didn't hear too much about it in our news, despite the fact that in France alone, the death toll was around 11,000! That's right - eleven THOUSAND! I took a trip to the Netherlands that summer and brought some newspapers back to show to my French class, and was shocked that my students knew nothing about it. I asked them to guess how many people died - they didn't even come close and didn't believe me when I finally told them.

This post is taking on a life of its own.

I had three reasons for entitling it "Telling stories" and now, to get into all three seems like it would just make it entirely too long. But I'll keep going - I'm trying to put off folding a load of laundry that's been sitting in the dryer since yesterday. Maybe I'll just hit "fluff" first and come back to finish. Why don't you do the same and I'll meet you back here in a minute?

Okay, so first of all - Jack is telling stories right now. Three or four word stories, and I am just loving it! He's gotten so verbal lately and loves to repeat everything. He has just started telling me that a cow is a cow and not a "Moo." It's like he'd been hearing the words cow and sheep and they were in there all along and only just finally came out...which makes me want to be extra careful about other words he might hear all along and which might eventually come out.

Anyway, a few of his favorites to tell right now go like this:

There's the one about his orange balloon that popped - you remember that one, right? It goes "Pop...boon...or (sounds like "are" for "orange")...Nana." Translation: the orange balloon popped but Nana got me a new one.

Then there's the one about going to Strasburg Railroad with Patrick that goes "Back choo-choo...Dada...woo-WOO!...wau (sounds like the first syllable of "water")...shhhhh!" Translation: I saw a black choo-choo with Dada and the whistle said woo-WOO and they put water in it and then it made a noise like SHHHH!

I just can't get enough of these little stories, which is good because he likes to tell them about 10 times per day. He goes through his entire repertoire. There are about five all together. It's my new favorite thing.

The second story telling thing I wanted to talk about is the two (TWO!) books I've read since we've been sans television. I'm loving it! Both were murder mysteries, and I thought I'd give a little review of each.

The first, St. Patrick's Day Murder, was the one I likened to an episode of Murder, She Wrote. If you liked that show, back when the things that seem way too big now - like glasses and hair - didn't seem way too big, then you'll like this book. The characters are likable, the heroine is charming. It was a perfect fluffy summer read.

The second, Vita Nuova, was a little more somber and I liked it a lot less. It was nothing like Dante's La Vita Nuova, in case you're wondering, and I wasn't particularly fond of the author's writing style. Plus, there were so many typos that it was almost painful. In this day and age, I don't understand how books get published with typos in them. With spell checkers and grammar checkers, it seems like there should be something that would catch the mistakes. Anyway, I'd give this one a two out of five star rating. Maybe even one.

Lastly, I'm no stranger to story telling myself, and although my first attempt was foiled by a computer meltdown, I did start to write a novel about my adventures in Internet dating. I think I am going to start writing it again. I was able to salvage a few segments of the eleven chapters I'd written, so maybe I'll post a few on here to get your feedback. Even though I didn't know it at the time I started writing, it ended up being the beginning of the story of how I met Patrick. Now that the story has an ending, I think it might be fun to put the whole thing together.

If you made it this far, you're a loyal reader and I'm grateful. If this were a diary entry, my hand would be cramping by now. I'm signing off.

Have a great week!