Vince is going to scout camp for a week starting tomorrow. I now do nothing for packing – he does all the packing himself and he did all the laundry he needed to do to start out with clean clothes. Note in the bottom right corner some kitchen towels and a pile of books. Maxi peed on the carpet and Vince does what he always does when a dog pees on the carpet. He puts a towel on it with weights to absorb the pee. It works not badly. Look carefully and you’ll see that he used Jeremy’s old college books to weigh down the pee towel – Sartre’s Nausea is there helping to soak up doggie pee. Nice! I think King Lear is also in there somewhere. I have not read any Sartre because I stopped reading books when I was 18 and it was a requirement of my college when I went to study to be an engineer (just kidding!), so here’s the main theme of Nausea from Wikipedia – life is meaningless unless a person makes personal commitments that give it meaning. True? Maybe. But at least the book itself has meaning by soaking up pee from my carpet.
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We went to a Fourth of July party held by our friends, Jen and James – the Canadians. Well, it’s also Canada Day.
Here’s their dog, Justin Trudog. Seriously? Seriously.
Mmmmm. 4th of July brownies.
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We found a bike in the neighborhood with a “FREE” sign on it. We couldn’t resist taking it home with us. After careful examination we found it it came from a store called “The Off Ramp” on the El Camino Real in Mountain View, CA. Fun!
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I have not been able to read reliably for a few months now. I mean, I can read, but everything I touch, I must put down after 15 pages. I have book ADD. These are the books I’ve had to put down (according to my library app (which is the only way I can go through so many books without blowing my budget and without leaving my house)):
The Good Partner – Peter Robinson
The Crossover – Kwame Alexander
The Odd Woman and the City – Vivian Gornick
Brooklyn – Colm Tobin
The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
Boy, Snow, Bird – Helen Oyeyemi
The Book of Speculation – Erika Swyler
Delicious Foods – James Hannaham
Gottland – Mariusz Sczygiel
Above the East China Sea – Sarah Bird
The Homemade Kitchen – Alan Chernila
The Black Cauldron – Llyod Alexander
The Fox was Ever the Hunter – Herta Muller
Tuck Everlasting – Natalie Babbitt
The Sense of Ending – Julian Barnes
All I Love and Know – Judith Frank
Dr. Mutter’s Marvels – Cristin Aptowicz
The Orphan Master’s Son – Adam Johnson
The Finest Hours – Michael Tougias
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Particular Children – Ransom Riggs
Mr. Mercedes – Stephen King
Did You Ever Have a Family – Bill Clegg
Trapped – Marc Aronson
Lila – Marilynne Robinson
My Sunshine Away – M. O. Walsh
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
What Comes Next and How to Like It – Abigail Thomas
My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult
Moon Over Manifest – Clare Vanderpool
Yipes. That took longer than I thought to type out. I’m hoping this list clears out the bad mojo and I can find a book that I like soon.