The All-New Bunrab

The Jew of Home Depot and other stories by Max Apple. Most of the stories are about urban American Jews in ordinary situations somewhat complicated by misplaced loyalties based on judging people solely by whether they are the right religion (not necessarily Jewish, I should point out) rather than as entire people. The title story is amusing, but the one I liked best was the one that was nothing to do with Jews; it's about a Chinese-American girl who is 6 feet tall and unmarried, and decides that the only way to make her mother happy is to go trick Yao Ming into marrying her.

I am America and So Can You by Stephen Colbert. Well, it's Colbert. Best read in small doses, as in large ones it's grating rather than funny. That said, I thought the chapter on Science was hysterical.

Dead Over Heels by MaryJanice Davidson. Three stories in this anthology - the first one a pretty good one in her Betsy the Vampire Queen series; the second, an OK one in her Fred the Mermaid series, although Fred isn't in this one; the third one part of her werewolf series and a complete waste of time; no plot, predictable from the first paragraph, and the characters might as well not have been werewolves, for all that had to do with anything.

The electricians have the new ceiling fans and light fixtures mostly installed; the new washer-dryer gets delivered Thursday; I am soliciting bids from landscapers for getting rid of the Melting Flying Saucer Shrubs® and putting in trees and roses. Progress is being made! And I've packed 4 whole boxes of books!

OK, I'm not going to ever be able to catch up on everybody on my flist, so I'm just going to read the past two days; if there's anything urgent I should know that isn't somehow in there, let me know via comment or email.

Thank you all for your thoughts and condolences.

The funeral was, well, a funeral. The work of cleaning up the house and dealing with the estate is ongoing. We will be returning to TX for another 8 days at the end of this month, and then probably again at the end of February, and then who knows. Our petsitter may not be getting rich but she's certainly going to be busy.

Little Vlad the Impaler grew noticeably in the 9 days we were gone. He is one wheelin' little hedgie.

I spent the entire time in Texas wheezing from "cedar fever" - the local name for allergy to ash juniper pollen, which is always at its peak in January. squirrel_magnet doesn't suffer from that; instead, he caught a cold on the airplane on the way home, so now he is all sick and stuff, coughing in a manner disturbingly reminiscent of old-fashioned consumption.

Now I need to continue dealing with a weeks worth of newspapers, mail, phone messages, etc. I suppose bill-paying should be at the top of that list.

Gaaaaah, there is so much to deal with. If I could offer ONE lesson to everybody right now, it would be this: if you have old printed photos, either label them as to who-when-where RIGHT NOW, or else THROW THEM OUT right now. Your heirs and assigns are NOT going to save photos of people they don't recognize in places they can't identify.

Oh, and for pete's sake throw out those cancelled checks. If you have a very complicated tax return, then keep the most recent three years worth of checks; NOBODY I know needs to keep any older than that.

That goes for all your 1973 gasoline charge card receipts, too.

( Hot damn!, we still don't look our age! )

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( We look fatter and dorkier in our party clothes, for some reason )

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( Liz and Joe and Kelly )

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I'll post some pix of Anita's poncho over on the crochetcrochet community - with Anita herself mostly hidden.

Most of the other pix we took were of band rehearsal, of interest to us but not to y'all. We also seem to have somehow failed to take a picture of Kathy and Jerry entirely! How did that happen?