Cha-cha-change...Change of Fools

I am a change-sorting maniac!! My first episode a few days ago yielded some $54.50, or thereabouts. Tonight's continuation yielded a whopping $142.00 - and I'm still not done yet! I admin, the fun is starting to wear just the teeniest bit thin on this activity (maybe because I jammed the machine a few too many times and actually had to open it up, poke around inside and reseat something, or maybe because the noise it makes when it's sorting properly just kinda gets to me after a while - whir whir whir plop whir plop plop plop whir whir whir grind whir plop), but hey - time is money! (Har, har).

I just finished Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire. Yeah I know, I'm one of the last people on the planet to read it. It was great! I couldn't put it down, and I can't wait to read the others he's written. (Although, I didn't know much about it when I bought it and there I was reading away during lunch one day and was rather surprised to encounter a naughty bit out of the blue... I didn't know there was naughtiness in it! Mild, sure, but not what I was expecting.) If you've read it, did you also read the Discussion Questions at the end of the book? They're better than the ones at the end of Pope Joan, but they're still way too much work. Books are FUN, darn it! (Maybe that's why I've never joined a reading club? :) It was a good book, but it didn't seem like one of those Epic Works that deserve 14 separate questions for group discussion. (Although if you walked up to me and started talking about the book and asked me one of the questions, I'd probably think that was great and try to come up with something profound to say... hypocritical, isn't it?) Interesting how the discussion questions made me think of the movie The Village, though. Nature of good and evil, and all that. Wild stuff. (I really liked the ideas & questions raised in that movie, by the way. And I don't care if you figured out the plot twist or not, the questions it raises about society and man and good and evil are really interesting. So shush.)

Congrats Tallulah on your first solo karaoke experience! You are a far, far braver woman than I. I know that if the world went upside-down so dramatically that I actually sang karaoke one day, my debut song certainly would not be the bold choice yours was. Well done, my friend! My hat's off to you!

Congrats also to my niece, uh, "Otis", on her stunning tie game in soccer this weekend. I am a very proud Auntie Joan, and got lots of great pictures. I hope her brother Jones (a.k.a. The B-Man) had a successful football game this morning...

...And a big THANK YOU to Mom for experimenting with the Cuisinart and risking life, limb and expensive kitchen machinery to test out something for me. MUCH appreciated. I'll let you know how it goes here...

And finally, I am thrilled to announce that I once again got to bask in the presence of the man who caused my name to happen! That's right folks, HV's best guy friend was in town this weekend, and I got to hang out with him! Hey Pony Boy (sorry, it stuck, and you don't seem like the nickname type so this is what you get until HV gives me something better) - you're famous! Come back soon so we can all stumble on some more random, politically-ambiguous parades.

And with that, my friends, it's time to switch the laundry and get back to the ol' chores.

Bon soir,
-J.