The All-New Bunrab

The movers show up Friday morning at 8:30, so we have actually had to start packing, and perhaps we're even getting a bit frantic at this point. So that's what I've been doing instead of LJ - along with getting the last few repairs done at the new house, and making curtains, and stuff like that.

The last of the plumbing problems have been fixed - leaks, shutoffs, washer-dryer connections. Still a few minor electrical things but nothing dangerous or unliveable, just need to get a few three-way switches for various rooms where the only light switch is in a ridiculous spot.

Some pictures will be posted Friday night, of the house with mounds of boxes in it.

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!

New House: We finally got the contract negotiated, so we are buying the house with the garage! Settlement (closing) should be the last week in April. Whee!

Old House: Finished with the bathroom remodel! The contractors did it in less than a week! The bathroom no longer has dark brown indoor-outdoor carpeting, grey-and-white plastic wall tile, a mustard yellow tub enclosure, blue swan-shaped nonskid stickies on the tub floor, and pink ceramic towel bars. It now has white tile floor, new tub, white tile around the tub with an accent row of narrow tiles in a brown and tan design, which matches the brown and tan wallpaper. New low-flow toilet that works properly, new sink which is a pedestal sink rather than a vanity, so that one doesn't walk into the corner of the vanity cabinet every time one walks into the room, plus there's room on the floor for the scale. It's never going to be a luxury bathroom, not at 5 feet by 8 feet, but it's now reasonably attractive and efficient.

Music: Went to hear the Austin Lounge Lizards at Wolf Trap last Thursday. They're still good, still funny.


Books:
Rebecca York's werewolf series:
Killing Moon
Edge of the Moon
Witching Moon
Crimson Moon
A certain sameness to all of them - acceptable mystery plots, but the villains are pretty much all the same sort of serial sex pervert murderer who is trying to use kidnapped or controlled women to build up magical powers, and our werewolf hero who has trouble coming to terms with his werewolfness, plus the woman scientist-of-some-sort (medical researcher, botanist, etc.) who is in love with him, must defeat said villain, during the which it is revealed to the woman that the man she loves is a werewolf. They're not all identical, but similar. Edge of the Moon actually involves two non-werewolf peripheral characters from the first book.
Also on a Marion Nestle binge - she's the nutritionist/economist from whom Michael Pollan gets a lot of his stuff. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition, and Health is mostly a rant about how industrial agriculture and its lobbyists diluted the Food Pyramid to the point of uselessness - a good rant, but a rant. There are also bits about food terrorism and food fearmongering in there; I had a bunch of notes scribbled down of things to mention, but now I can't find the notes. What to Eat is interesting, but waaaay too long. The average grocery shopper is not going to wade through all of that, even though it's got some very useful information - for example, for people who complain that they don't buy fresh produce because it's too expensive, Nestle shows how you can eat seven servings of fruit and vegetables per day for less than a dollar per person, which puts it within the budget of most families. (The current recommended amount is 9 servings, but most people don't even get seven, so that would already be an improvement.)
The most recent two in J.D. Robb's (Nora Roberts) Eve Dallas series, Creation in Death and Strangers in Death. As usual, they're good, though not great literature. The usual mix of Rourke-owns-everything, Eve's-cars-fall-apart, hot sex scenes, and unlikely but fascinating villains.
Hitman, lastest in Parnell Hall's Stanley Hastings series. Hastings is confused, as usual, and there turns out to be more than one hitman.