(My favorite book shelf with all my most precious books.)
I thought I would write a little bit about what we are reading these days. Zack is usually working his way through a pre-teen or teenager series of mysteries or adventures. He is currently reading two different series. The first is called the “39 Clues” and it is still being written. Zack got interested in this series in the fall when the author of Book 1 – Rick Riordian came to his school and did a presentation. So far 3 different books in this series have been written with each book being written by a different author. Zack is reading “Book Two – One False Note”.
Another series that Zack is reading is called Fire Dragons by Chris D’Lacey. It is a series about dragons (of course). I haven’t read any of them myself - I frequently try and read at least one of the books in a series that Zack is reading. So I can’t do a plot summary. The books are very long and look like pretty good reading material. Zack is very into them and we spent a fair amount of time searching for the latest book today during a trip to Borders.
My reading is focused on a series and the latest book by one of my favorite authors. The series I have been reading is the “No.1 Ladies Detective Agency”. It is the ongoing story of Precious Ramotwse the proprietor of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency in Garbonne, Botswana. The series consists of ten books of which I am presently reading book 7. It is an interesting look at day-to-day life in Botswana. I have no idea how accurate the portrayal of the Botswana is, but it makes for an interesting and lively read.
The latest book I am now reading I purchased today. I didn’t want to get it until it came out in soft cover, but I couldn’t resist. It is the latest book by Paul Theroux. He is one of my most favorite authors. Though he is well known for his fiction writing, I am a huge fan of his travel writing. I have been reading his books since I discovered them in 2002. His current book – “ Ghost Train to The Eastern Star” is the story of him traveling a route he took in the early 1970’s when he wrote his first travel book, “The Great Railroad Bazaar”. His books have inspired some of the travels I have taken and hope in the future to explore even more of the places which he has written about. If you are interesting in traveling or travel writing – I high recommend everything written by Paul Theroux as he is the best travel writer I have ever read.
As for our doings of the day, we woke up on the later side of things this morning. Though the night hadn’t been exactly pleasant for me, I was determined to have a good day, no matter how bad I felt. Nancy made some cinnamon rolls for Zack for breakfast this morning. After that we got moving with the day-to-day stuff.
Around noon we went out to do a little shopping. I am in the process of looking for a new bookcase and since I had gotten my 2008 bonus payout from IBM with my paycheck on Friday, I decided we were going to take a gander at what is out there. So we went out and stopped at a furniture store near Park Meadows. Unfortunately they just don’t have anything. I have a particular bookcase in mind of what I want to get, but it has been temporarily discontinued and new version is not supposed to be put on the market until June. Oh well – I guess I am just going to have to wait.
After that we did some book shopping at Borders at Park Meadows and I gave in and brought the Paul Theroux book that I discussed above. I normally like to buy my books in the same format (i.e. soft or hard bound) once I start a series or buy books by an author, but I just had to give in. (All my other Paul Theroux books are in soft-cover format.) I was also looking for cake mold at Williams Sonoma. Given that Celinde is going through chemo this year, I am planning to host the Easter get-together at my house. One of the special things I want to make is a “Lamb Cake”. When I was a kid we would always have a lamb shaped cake on Easter and I really want to do that this year. I think it will be a lot of fun.
On a brief side note, once I am feeling better I really want to step up the entertaining in my home. I love having people over and I love the feeling of lingering over a good dinner while you talk about everything under the sun. It may seem weird but I always look at the “salon society” of New York City in the last 1800’s and look upon it with desire. (I don’t know if desire is the right word, but it is the closest thing I can think of.) I don’t mean the silly social life that they had, but I mean the more serious kinds of groups that would gather where authors would discuss their works and there would be interesting conversations about the happenings of the day.
A quick lunch at the food court was needed to keep my young man happy and then we were off. I decided that we were going to go out for a drive somewhere. Since I don’t feel 100% up to hiking I thought I would at least explore a little bit and find some trailheads that I have read about. So we headed off towards Castle Pines North as I wanted to find a newly opened trail head on the East-West Regional trail.
We drove down into Douglas County and went looking for Coyote Ridge Park. We found it without too much difficulty. After parking the car, Zack promptly took off for the playground area of the park, while I went looking for the trailhead. The trailhead located, I hung out for the next half hour and watched Zack play. He was having a good time and enjoying playing with some of the other kids.
(Zack on the playground at Coyote Ridge.)The next stop on our drive was at an open house in the Castle Pines North Development. It was a foreclosure so the house was totally empty and was some what beat up. Zack and I enjoy stopping to just look around at open houses. We have become common sites to the realtors in Willow Creek. Zack typically moves through an open house quickly trying to see if there is anything unusual for his exploration. I take a little bit longer trying to gather ideas for how we can remodel and redecorate our house. Unfortunately from this house I learned nothing.
A nap was in order once we returned home around 3:00PM. The rest of our day has been low key and slow. A couple that lives several houses up the street from us - the Turners stopped by to ask me some questions about IBM. The husband was laid off this past week from Comcast and has gotten a job interview with IBM in Boulder for later this week. I answered some basic stuff but hopefully later this week I will be able to provide him with some additional information that will help him land a job at IBM.
I didn’t feel like cooking so Zack and I went out to the local “quick” pasta place for dinner – Pasta Bella. It is located next to Maggie Moos – the ice cream place, so I got Zack and ice cream cone as his after dinner treat. This last week has been very tough on him – seeing me be so sick and not having me able to do much with him, so I intend to do a lot of fun and happy things with him in the coming weeks as I feel better.
I have an appointment with the surgeon at 8:00AM tomorrow morning. Luckily Zack has a before school club tomorrow that starts at 7:20AM, so I will drop him off and then head to my appointment. I am hoping that he says that things are OK and I can really move on the road to recovery. I still have a fair amount of swell around my neck in places and I am so hoping that does not mean they have to go in and drain more “abscess stuff” again.
Tomorrow will be a very tough day with work as I haven’t even been on my work e-mail since Wednesday afternoon. So I am sure there is going to be a ton for me to address. I know I still won’t be feeling 100% so it will be a difficult day – but I just have to soldier on.
We hope everyone has had a great weekend.
Thanks and peace to all!
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