16 Books - July Books & Movies

Happy last day of July, everybody! Sorry about no post last week, but we had a funeral to attend which brought the LB to town, so Saturday was spent watching le Tour and then heading to Grandma's condo for a big family get together. It was nice. I got to see some cousins that I haven't seen in quite awhile and aunts and uncles.

I enjoyed the heck out of the Tour de France this year, especially since it's the last sport I truly enjoy, sadly it only lasts three weeks. I wish Versus would show the Vuelta a Espana.

Here are the books and movies I read and watched in July.

Books

32. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling - 870 pages - 2005 - I wanted to re-read book 6 before I saw the movie and thought it would be smart to re-read the fifth book, before the sixth one.

33. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling - 652 pages - 2007 - Ditto.

34. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - 759 pages - Well, after I had re-read the previous two, I had to finish the series, didn't I?

35. Fade by Kyle Mills - 344 pages - 2005 - I had read Kyle Mills' previous books and this had been out for a while (as you can see), but I finally picked it up. If you haven't discovered Kyle Mills yet and you like thrillers you are missing out. His books are meticulously researched and his characters are flawed but likable. In this one the title character, Fade, is an Arab-American who had been a Navy SEAL and ended up injured on a mission. The US government wouldn't pay for the very complicated surgery he needed and he ended up angry and embittered. However, the government now needs his special skills, but he won't play ball.

36. The Second Horseman by Kyle Mills - 339 pages - 2006 - In this one, a career thief, Brandon Vale, is busted out of jail by the person who put him there (for a crime he hadn't done), because he needs Brandon's special talents. There are WMDs, millions of dollars, behind-the-scene string pulling, and Israel-Arab tensions.

37. A Darker Place by Jack Higgins - 337 pages - 2009 - I've been a Jack Higgins fan since The Eagle Has Landed. I've read everything I've been able to find. It seems he's phasing out Sean Dillon (it's about time, he's got to be at least 65 by now) and Charles Ferguson (he's got to be at least 85), but I'm waiting to see where he's going with it. In this one, we had a Russian defector who wasn't quite what he seemed. It was less formulaic that I thought his previous few had been. He's still a classic thriller writer.

38. Darkness Falls by Kyle Mills - 299 pages - 2007 - This was very much a doomsday type scenario book. It scared the ever-livin' shit out of me. Again, the research done by Kyle Mills was extraordinary, this time into oil wells, production, fields, etc. I was especially happy to see that he had brought back Mark Beamon (from his first few books). Previously he was an FBI agent, in Darkness Falls he's the head of the energy department of Homeland Security, and he needs to find out why some major oil wells have stopped producing.

39. Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich - 308 pages - 2009 - This might have been the one that pushes me over the edge on reading anymore of these. She blew up at least four cars in this one. I don't know why Ms. Evanovich think it's necessary for her plot line to blow up cars so regularly, but I'm really over it. The YS has bought the last two books, so at least I'm not wasting my money on these.

Movies

33. (500) Days of Summer (Theatre) - 2009 - I loved this movie. I had wanted to see it after I had gotten my VSL newsletter. I laughed out loud a lot, as did most of the crowd at the Detroit "premiere." My friend Katie had free passes and asked me to go when she watched the trailer and saw the lead actor wearing a Joy Division t-shirt. When she asked, I said, "Oh yes, I've been wanting to see that movie." The best part of the movie was that he wore THREE Joy Division t-shirts in it. Two were Unknown Pleasures but one when he was a teenager and another as an adult, along with a Love Will Tear Us Apart t-shirt.

34. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (K) - 2007 - I had to rewatch the movie before seeing the sixth movie. It sucked just as much as it did the first time around. Read the books, people, they're so much better than the movies.

35. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (Theatre) - 2009 - I already gave my opinion on this movie at Zombieslayer's place. I have to agree with ZS's assessment that the director sucked. It's the same director as Order of the Phoenix and when a certain character dies and I don't cry...that's a problem...same as in the fifth when another major character had died. I sobbed my way through the end of the book (every time I read it), but the movie was so badly done, I didn't cry. I'm highly annoyed. We won't even discuss the bizarre addition of the burning of The Burrows. WTF was up with that???

36. The Children's Hour (N) - 1961 - Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine own an all-girl's school and are working hard to keep it going. There's a mean, vindictive girl there who spreads a story about them because she had been disciplined. All the parents take the girls out of the school and the women are destroyed. It was friggin' depressing, but it was really well done.

37. Momma's Man (N) - 2008 - I thought this was going to be a comedy and watched it after I watched The Children's Hour thinking it would cheer me up. Yeah, not so much. This was another recommendation from VSL, but I have to say that I did not love it. In fact, I would say that it fights with HP & the Order of the Phoenix for last place in Movie of the Month.

Book of the Month: Fade by Kyle Mills (it was hard since I had read three Kyle Mills and they were all great, but I loved Fade most). Please give him a chance. if you don't want to spend money, go to the library. He really is a brilliant writer and super nice as he responds to every e-mail - I've written to him twice now (last time after I had finished Smoke Screen a good 3-4 years ago and this time after Fade).

Movie of the Month: (500) Days of Summer - There's a line in this movie that is so worth watching. It made giggle for a good five minutes after it was said. It might have been a little juvenile, but it was still stinking funny.

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Sixteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First sixteen you can recall in no more than 16 minutes. Tag 16 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (A friend tagged me on Facebook, but I figured what the heck I'd share with you kids, too.)

As this took me over a week to do, I'm obviously not big on rules.

1. The Eight by Katherine Neville
2. Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity by Bruce Bawer
3. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
4. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
5. The Sewing Circles of Herat by Christina Lamb
6. Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter
7. Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Reilly by Joseph Minton Amann & Tom Breuer
8. Alex Zanardi: My Sweetest Victory: A Memoir of Racing Success, Adversity & Courage by Alex Zanardi, Gian Luca Gasparini & Mario Andretti
9. The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins
10. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
11. Aztec by Gary Jennings
12. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
13. The Dante Club by Arturo Perez-Reverte
14. The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
15. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
16. Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis by Mick Middles & Lindsay Reade

Hodgepodge to annoy LL & the Good Doctor

Along with consistent catblogging to annoy LL to the nth degree (no, I haven't forgiven you for the whole Crosby thing yet), I've decided to tell you what I've been up to...my friend Stephanie (from work) told me that I should occasionally knit for myself (I rarely do) and I was telling her about Beth and she said, You two need to pick a month when you knit only for yourselves. It was an idea that piqued my interest. So, I wrote to Beth and said that during the month of June we needed to knit something for us. And since we are who we are, we still knitted for others, but we had to work on something for ourselves more.

I had bought a number of knitting books in June and I chose this sweater (I liked the pattern, but even better, I had the necessary yarn) from them. In case that link doesn't work perfectly, it's on page 30 and it's pink - while mine is most definitely not.

I have finished the back and have started the front and I could have probably come close to finishing the knitting part of it this weekend, but I spent it re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in preparation of re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince prior to seeing the movie next week. It's going to be an exciting month of movie watching as I've already seen one in the movie theater, and with HP6 coming out, that'll be TWO movies in one month in the theatre. It's craziness...and it'll probably be it for the year, unless I can catch HP6 at the IMAX.

Is anybody watching le Tour de France? I love it and am excited about this season and hoping like hell there's no bloody stupid doping scandal(s) this year. I'll be happy with any number of winners - the only one I don't want to see win is Cadel Evans. Anybody but him and I'll be pleased as punch - unless he's improved on his personality since last year - which I doubt.

Haircuts & Grandma

Ah, life is good...no, I have no clue if I'm still going to have a job two weeks from now, but I did get my hair cut. It's the little things, isn't it?

I was very bad last week about updating you on Grandma's condition, wasn't I? Last I left you Grandma had a blood clot in her lung. She didn't get transferred to the main hospital until Wednesday because there were no empty beds (which I find fascinating considering how the health insurance companies don't let you stay in the hospital for anything). It was actually late Wednesday (rush hour-ish) by the time she got to the main hospital and I think it was Thursday before she actually got a room. Insane!

The medical professionals performed a Doppler test on Wednesday which found additional blod clots in her left and right legs. She wasn't allowed out of bed, until these professionals inserted a screen into her vein(?) on Friday which apparently is to break up any clots that work their way northward.

Today she got released from the hospital and is going back to the rehab place where she spent however many months a little while back. She'll be there for a while, I guess, until her blood pressure gets under control. She won't be going back home, though, from what I can tell. She mentioned a couple of weeks back that she wanted to move to an assisted living place not far from her condo. I guess the time she spent at the rehab place made her realise that it was fun to be around people her own age, people to talk to, and have activities in which to participate. I don't know when this will happen or what will happen to Grandma's condo, but as long as she's happy that's what matters.

Other than that, not much is going on around here. I'm enjoying the Tour de France (yesterday's stage, the first in the Alps, was fabulous with a first time American going off in the breakaway and lasting, even if he did finish 3rd) this year. I was very upset with the few announcements of people being kicked out for doping, but it's good they're catching them. They're doing a great job catching the cheaters and eliminating them immediately. I don't understand why there are riders even trying to cheat anymore, but I guess there will always be people who think they're above the law.

Time to fix some dinner...wonder what I have in this house.

July's Reading and Movie Watching on time!!!

Well, the Tour is over and it was immensely satisfying in the end. Levi Leipheimer (You'd think Lance Armstrong would know how to pronounce Leipheimer since they rode together years ago. In German, you pronounce the second vowel, so like Einstein, you'd pronounce Levi's last name as Lipehimer, but for some reason Lance calls him Leaphimer.) won the individual time trial on Saturday with the fourth fastest time trial in Tour history and ended up on the podium in 3rd place behind his Spanish teammate Alberto Contador who won the Tour in his very first attempt at the very tender age of 24. I cried like an idiot, although I wouldn't have minded if Cadell Evans had lost 2nd to Levi.

My co-worker who also follows the Tour had said something to me last week about not liking Cadell due to his arrogance, but I was ambivalent about him until he whined about losing time in the mountains to the then Yellow Jersey (Michael Rasmussen – sent home in disgrace) and Contador, because they didn't wait for or work with him or some such bullshit. Um, they're your competitors. They're not going to help you beat them. If he hadn't wanted to lose those 55 seconds, he probably should have gone with them when they attacked. Freaking whiner. I was expecting him to attack on the last day (unwritten rule is no attacking the yellow jersey on the last day of the Tour, that is essentially the day for the sprinters going for the Green Jersey, and if he had attacked the entire peloton would have tracked him down. There are just some things you don't do.), but Team Discovery Channel made sure he knew he didn't have a chance in hell of getting the time bonuses that were out there by riding together at the front of the field.

And for the first time, Team Discovery Channel (previously Team US Postal) won the team race by 19 minutes. It was very cool.

Last week I went to two very different concerts (with another next week – going to see Iggy & the Stooges for the second time in 4 months). On Wednesday, I went with Martha and two other friends to see The Stray Cats and The Pretenders. Sadly, ZZ Top was also on the bill, but thankfully, nobody else cared about seeing them, so after two songs we were ready to go (I was actually ready to go the second The Pretenders left the stage, but I was being patient). The Stray Cats were great and I have to say that Brian Setzer still looks fine. I'm thinking of revamping my List of Five as I have one gay man and one major right-wing Republican on it – but that'll be another post. The Pretenders were good, even though I couldn't understand Chrissie Hynde half the time when she was talking between songs. She needed to be louder. She was wearing these utterly fabulous reach the top of the knees cowbow boots that all the women in my row wanted. Martha declared Chrissie a potty-mouth at the end of the show. I simply said, "She's a punk, what do you expect?" I suffered through the two ZZ Top songs until Jack declared himself ready to leave and I was all over the leaving bit, not only because I wasn't enjoying the ZZ Top, but because I had a long drive home and we all know I get up a tad early for work.

Actually, tomorrow I have to get up extra early because I have to take Ursamajor to the airport and I have to pick her up at 5:00 a.m.

Back to the concerts, forgot my outline for a second. The second concert was Saturday night and it was held nice and close to home (yay!). It was a Doo Wop Concert with old bands performing. My neighbor had gotten the tickets from her sister and she invited another lady and me to go with her. It started with The Reflections, a Detroit band (what was with the 60s and all the bands have names starting with The – The Platters, The Tokens, The Originals, The Temptations, etc.?) which had their big hit, (Just Like) Romeo & Juliet, the year I was born. They came out all dressed in white double breasted suits with different colored t-shirts underneath. They were enjoyable, although that night it seemed they mostly covered other people's hits, except for the Romeo & Juliet song.

Next up were The Coasters who performed their big hits – Yackety-Yak (Don't talk back) & Charlie Brown. They also came out in white double-breasted suits, but they were all wearing red buttoned-down shirts under theirs. They were a lot of fun and we decided they were our favorite act of the night.

After the Intermission, it was time for The Shirelles, or rather Shirley Alton Reeves as the only real Shirrelle on stage. She had just had a birthday and announced that she was 67 years old (and didn't look it). They did "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" which had everybody on their feet afterwards and her in tears. She was so cute. They also performed Soldier Boy which was a song I didn't know, but it brought people to their feet again and that was their last song, although the Oldies radio station DJ brought her back for a little encore of Soldier Boy with her still crying.

The concert ended with Frankie Ford who looked to be about 95 years old with dentures and bad toupee (however he's only 68, or will be this coming Saturday) and a penchant for really bad (horrible, actually) old jokes. You can google him and get to his very own website, but I couldn't in good conscious send unsuspecting people there. The sad thing was that he spent most of his time telling these horrible jokes (which the man behind us thought were the height of hilarity) instead of singing and that man can sing. His big song was Sea Cruise which I knew but wouldn't have known I knew off the top of my head.

Not my usual type of music, but it was enjoyable for the most part. My one neighbor and I agreed that the concert was good up until Frankie Ford came on stage and then we spent most of the time looking at each aghast at the jokes.

I won't have time to tell you about The Stooges concert next week because I'm leaving the next day for Wisconsin and Road America and won't get back to Detroit until sometime on Monday, August 13. Last year HRH drove straight through on Sunday from Road America to Toronto (stopping to drop me off in Detroit, on the way), but I was falling asleep before we even reached Michigan, so I doubt I'll be driving all the home Sunday night.

Now time to list the books and movies read and watched for the month of July.

Books

Longshot by Dick Francis - 257 pages - I adore Dick Francis and have read everything he's written multiple times. I was in the mood to read something early in the month but wasn't in the mood for something new, so I picked a Dick Francis off the shelf and loved it all over again. And I just saw that he has a book coming out in September. You have no idea how exciting that is to me. I thought that once his wife had died that he would write no more as she was an integral part of the writing process. I believe the stories were all his, but she helped him to get them on to paper. I can't wait for September!!!

For One More Day by Mitch Albom - 197 pages - I had had this one for a few months but hadn't felt like reading it. After I finished the Dick Francis I still wanted something easy, so I picked this up. I hadn't expected much, even though I had enjoyed his first two books, I thought maybe it was a fluke and he'd write a stinker. He didn't. I can't describe it, so go to the website and linked above and see what it's about. I liked the premise, though, and it was a quick, easy read.

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix - 870 pages - I had to re-read this before seeing the movie so that I would know to get ticked off when it didn't follow the book. Order of the Phoenix is not my favorite book as she killed off a beloved character, but it was worth the re-read.

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince - 652 pages - I needed to re-read the sixth book before the 7th book came out, because I didn't do that before the 4th book and there were a few things that I had forgotten. When I re-read them all before the 5th book came out I realised my mistake. I didn't re-read all the book this time (obviously), but I can see myself re-reading them all in the not-too-distant future. Even now I won't give away what happens in this book, but I can tell you that when I first read it I wasn't happy with the ending (not that I think any fan of the books was). I had an argument with my friend and former boss at work about whether or not Snape was a good guy or bad guy after the initial reading. I was convinced he was a bad guy, she took the other stance, so within a week or so or reading it the first time I read it a second time with an eye toward Snape being a good guy. I could see her point, but I wasn't ready to concede.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - 759 pages - I read this book in one day. I was too scared about spoilers leaking out that I was bound and determined not to get caught out. One guy at work told me that his wife bought the book the day it came out (can't remember if she picked it up at midnight or not) and then promptly read the last chapter out loud with her mother. If they hadn't liked the ending they weren't going to read the book. That concept is so intensely foreign to me. I have never ever read the end of a book first and can't even imagine doing so. I don't want to give anything away in case there are people out there who haven't read it yet and are avoiding spoilers, but I will say that I liked it a lot. And if they fuck this movie up, I'm going to be pissed.

The Myth of Quetzalcoatl by Enrique Florescano, translated by Lysa Hochroth - 242 pages - I have had this book for years and I finally decided to read it. I have to tell you that I find myself reading more of the books on my shelves that I haven't read since I know I'll be listing them. Not sure why but it's a good thing. This was a bit more academic than I had expected, although it shouldn't have been since it was published by Johns Hopkin University Press. I found it very interesting, not only from the Mesoamerican aspect, but because it also included a discussion of Mediterranean myths and it's remarkable how many ancient cultures had very similar creation myths, particularly within agricultural peoples. This book talked about the Popol Vuh a lot which I have sitting on my bookshelf, so I think I'll be breaking that one out soon, as well.

And then I must admit that I re-read Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows for another 759 pages. I think that has to be the most reading I've done in a while.

Book of the Month is a no-brainer, kids! It has to be Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, although I'm such a geek, I'm completely bummed that it's over even though I had been waiting for that book to come out ever since I finished The Half Blood Prince.

Movies

Well, as you can imagine, with all the reading and the daily stages of the Tour de France, I did not get a lot of movies watched. I'm on the last disc of Stargate SG-1, Season 9, so one more season and I'm done with that (until I get my DVDs back from my friend in Maryland).

Spellbound (Hitchcock) - 1945 - 86% - I must confess that I bought a Chinese bootleg (I'm assuming it's a bootleg) because it's impossible to find. The quality isn't fabulous, but it's good enough. It was too important of a Hitchcock film not to have in my library. It's not his best work, but it has Leo Carroll, Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck with the dream sequence done by Salvador Dali. I'm too much of a Spanish surrealist lover not to have this movie.

The Petrified Forest - (K) - 1936 - 100% - I watched this last year, I believe, and it was so good I had to get it for myself. After being a Bogart detractor for so many years, I became a convert practically overnight. He's brilliant as the bad guy in this movie while Leslie Howard plays the good guy. From all accounts, Bogey got this part because of Leslie Howard. They were both in the stage play and when it came to making the movie, Leslie refused to do it unless they brought Bogey in as well. This movie essentially launched his career.

Slapshot - (K) - 1977 - 86% - I had not seen this movie since the 70s and I had had it in my head that it was Paul Newman that stripped down to his jockstrap, but it wasn't. I wouldn't say that it's aged especially well, but it'll always be a cult classic, I feel. And worth watching, if you can handle foul language and gratuitous hockey violence in a comedy.

Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix - (Theatre) - 2007 - 77% - I was severely disappointed in this movie. It was the longest book and the shortest movie. The book sells in the millions, I think they could actually follow the book and not change shit around. I also think Harry Potter fans would sit through a three hour movie. Hell, they did it for The Lord of the Rings which I saw enough of back in 1977 (turned me off LoTR forEVER), they can do it for HP. I was talking to a 16 or 17 year old and she said, Include an intermission. We want to see the entire story on film. I read one reviewer that said Harry Potter fans will love it, non Harry Potter fans will be confused. Sorry, but I did not love it. Of course, that won't stop me from buying it when it comes out on DVD because I have to have the whole collection.

So, there ya go. It is now time for bed because I have to pick Ursamajor up at 5:00 a.m. to take her to the airport. I've had enough trouble getting up by 5:00 the last couple of days, so I'm not taking any chances. Off to bed with me.

Why would someone cheat???

Not to be overly dramatic, but I am utterly devastated by the state of the Tour de France. I was loving the drama of the stages. "Vino" winning the time trial this past Saturday, then winning a stage in the Pyrenees on Monday after being dropped off the back of the peloton on Sunday. It's hard for me to comprehend why he would cheat. If you win a stage in the Tour, you're immediately pegged for a doping test. Even if you don't win, if you have a good run, you're chosen. And then they choose others randomly. Why, oh why, would he risk his reputation for that? I honestly don't understand the thought process. If you dope in this day and age in cycling, you're going to get caught. It just makes no sense to me.

Then my Michael Rasmussen gets kicked out by his team for lying about his whereabouts in June when he missed two random drug tests. He said he was in Mexico, but he was really in Italy. Sadly, the first thought is that he was doping in Italy, while practicing in the mountains to help build his blood for the Tour's mountains. Supposedly after ten days, anything he would have taken in Italy would be undetectable, but he would still have the advantage. Of course, nobody could tell you what he could have taken to do that, but it's France, so you're guilty until proven innocent.

Quite honestly, my heart is broken. I have loved the Tour for the past ten years or so and really love watching it and getting into it. I guess I can understand how it happens. One person starts to cheat, other people find out about it and think that if the powers that be aren't going to do anything about it that they need to do the same to compete on the same level. And then it just spirals out of control. It doesn't excuse anything, however, because at some point you need to do what is right, and might does not make right.

Al Trautwig mentioned at the beginning of today's stage (I had forgotten to put in a new tape this morning, so I'm watching now), how there are so many problems in sports today from Barry Bonds and his presumed steroid use (yeah right, if he didn't take steroids why did he refuse to provide a sample for a year?), Michael Vicks' indictments today of dog-fighting, the NBA ref's gambling, possibly on games he himself ref'ed and apparently, steroid usage in the PGA in order to keep up with Tiger Woods (first I had heard of it, but I don't follow golf, really), this is just one more sport under investigation. The difference, that I can tell, is that cycling is serious about cleaning up their sport and making it so that the clean person wins.

I think baseball gives the players union too much power. Why on earth would the union refuse to allow testing unless they know there's an issue? If you're doing nothing wrong, you shouldn't be scared of random urine testing. Right?

This morning I was ready to give up the Tour, but I had to find out what Phil & Paul had to say. They believe the tests - that Vino doesn't deserve our respect and admiration because he doped and that Michael must have been up to something to lie - and since they are my cycling gurus, I decided that the remaining riders in the Tour deserve the attention just as much now as they did before. I feel completely betrayed by Vino & Michael, as I'm sure all their fans do. I've always been a Levi Leipheimer fan, though, so there's no reason to abandon him or the rest of Team Discovery or my favorite sprinter, Thor Hushovd (although Tom Boonen is probably going to win the Green Jersey), so although I feel like crying (yes, I'm pathetic and I know it), I'm going to continue to watch the Tour and hope and pray and light candles that nobody else does something stupid, because I don't think the Tour (or me) can take much more of this.

ESPN is pathetic. They give zero attention to the Tour, generally, but you know they're going to be all over this pretending that they know something and I'm going to want to slap them. Or write a letter.

Oh! Letter writing! Update on the annoying as fucking hell remote control boats. I ran into the Corporation Land guy who was helping me over the forced vacation in the shitty cafeteria the other day (I bought popcorn from his co-worker for the United Way fundraiser for lunch). I'm an idiot and didn't recognise him as he was in a white shirt and tie and when I met him he had been a bit more casual in a polo shirt. And I'm low enough on the totem pole at work that I generally don't get the bigwigs in white shirts and ties saying Hi to me, so I assumed this guy was saying Hi to someone behind me. But he was looking straight at me. He figured out that I'm a complete dumbass and finally said his name. DUH! I felt like an idiot.

Anyway, he told me that the boats should be gone for good within 30 days! The building across the street is being shutdown completely, so the gates will be locked for safety reasons and they'll have to find some other poor people to bother. I told him that if the apartments have a party to celebrate that we'd be sure to invite him. And he said he'd be there.

I think the party will be the residents of the apartment sitting outside on a beautiful day just enjoying the peace and quiet. ;-)

Mannequin by Wire

I remembered yesterday that the very ultra cool Flumadiddle tagged me God only knows how long ago (ha ha ha) to list 8 facts about myself. I know that I did this not too long ago when Fermi tagged me, but I figured what the heck!

Now to come up with 8 new facts about me.

1) Although I went to 12 years of Catholic school and still go to church (although not every Sunday of late like I have been since returning from SF in 2000), I have great respect for other religions, specifically the religious beliefs of Tibet & Nepal (I have prayer flags hanging at my desk and in my apt.). I've studied many aspects of the beliefs of Aztecs, Mayas, Toltecs, and a number of other ancient Mesoamerican peoples and find them utterly fascinating and as worthy as my own (which is being led by a man who wants to take us back to the Dark Ages). I think the ancient Egyptians had the coolest of all gods and wear my Eye of Horus earrings regularly to ward of evil. When friends of mine are going through a particularly rough time and they ask me to pray for them, I will ask my Buddhist and Hindu friends to pray as well, and my agnostic/atheist friends to think good thoughts. I prefer the religions that are tolerant of others.

2) I'm a big ol' wuss when it comes to feats of accomplishments and cry like a baby. And I'm not talking about my own accomplishments because they are a rarity. I'm talking about the Colombian who went out on his own during Sunday's stage of Le Tour de France and made it! I had never heard of Mauricio Soler before last week and here I was crying because he had kicked serious butt in the Alps. I also cried the day before when My (yes, I’m very possessive of my favorite athletes/authors/etc.) Michael Rasmussen kicked some butt of his own and put himself in to the Yellow Jersey for the first time. I was over at Building A yesterday and ran into a guy I know who is also into the Tour and his first words to me were, "Well, I know you're happy with Michael in the yellow jersey." Just to show I'm not rooting for Michael just because he happens to be in the yellow jersey right now. I've a fan of his since he came into the Tour. The funny thing is that I can't really explain why I like some riders over others because for the longest time the only person they ever flippin' interviewed was Lance Armstrong, and occasionally, George Hincapie. I also cried when the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1997, 1998 & 2002. I cried when Katherine Legge walked out of the medical center after her horrifying accident last year at Road America. I cry at movies, even happy ones.

3) Although I can't stand NASCAR, I will confess to loving Mark Martin and it breaks my heart that he never won the Championship. He's NASCAR's version of Stirling Moss, although I don't think Mark will ever crash multi-million dollars worth of cars at historic events when he's not supposed to be racing.

4) I suffer from road rage – really bad road rage. The funny thing is that generally once I've reached my destination, I've forgotten it all and I'm my usual sunny self. People who drive under the speed limit make me see red. I do not understand this phenomenon as I have trouble driving the speed limit itself. Driving during the day (as I had to do this morning) is enough to make me want to shoot people. I despise people who drive slower than the speed limit and then as we approach the intersection and subsequent traffic light, the light turns yellow and the fucker in front of me sails through and I have to stop. Or people who brake at green lights *just in case* it turns yellow. The problem is that when the light does turn yellow, they still ALWAYS sail on through and I’m stuck sitting at a light I shouldn't be. I can see the appeal of a cow catcher on the front of the ol' Focus.

5) The older I get the more homebody-ish I get. I like staying home and I even like it when my phone doesn't ring. But then I'll hear that friends went out to a movie and I didn't get invited and I feel hurt. I'm not good at spontaneous either. If you call me at 7:00 to go out to dinner at 7:30, the answer will probably be no. One reason is that I have already eaten dinner. With getting up at 4:30, eating lunch at 11:00 and going to the gym for an hour, I usually eat by 5:00 unless I know I have plans. The thing is that I don’t think I really want to be a homebody. I want people to call me up and say, Hey, we're doing this. Do you want to go?

6) I have never ever wanted children. I knew when I was 12 that I didn't want kids. A friend of the family was staying in a local motel (they had sold their house, but their new house wasn't ready to move into yet) and they invited us up to the motel to go swimming. I couldn't go for the usual girl reason and I remember the lady saying, "Oh, I never have to worry about that anymore." I boggled at her and asked "Why?" "Oh, because I've had a hysterectomy." Now, I didn't have a clue what that was, but I turned to my mom and said, "Mom, I want a hysterectomy." My mom said, "Kathleen, you can't have a hysterectomy. If you have one, you can't have kids." "I don't want kids. I want a hysterectomy." 30 years later I have yet to change my mind about that one.

7) I am an inveterate people-watcher and a firm believer that if you leave the house thinking you look good, you are fair game for ridicule. Now, I don't ridicule people to their faces or anything so rude, but I will point you out to my companions. I do have rules. You can't make fun of things people can't change or over which they have no control, like harelips or other such things. Short fat people in horizontal stripes at a fashion show? Oh yeah, which I saw. If I think you looked in the mirror before you left the house and thought to yourself, "I look good." Then I reserve the right to say, "Uh, no you don't." Just, again, not to your face. If you wear this outfit in public, you totally deserve to be made fun of. If you wear white pants, heels and no underwear to the Cleveland Grand Prix, I will point you out to all of my friends and we will all roll our eyes at the sheer ridiculousness and inappropriateness of your outfit. I do draw the line at people who have obviously just run out of the house for a quick trip to the grocery store in their curlers or sweats, because they didn't look in the mirror (theoretically) and admire themselves. They probably made sure that nothing was hanging out that shouldn't and ran.

8) I love summer. I love warmth. I love sitting outside my house in the sun reading my book, knitting or even just napping. I love sitting outside at Cheli's having a beer with Martha whenever we can in the summer, because soon enough it's going to be winter and I'm going to be cranky and miserable and thinking about moving to Arizona where my knees won't hurt. I like driving with my windows down and my stereo cranked.

So, there you are. Eight new facts about me. I don’t feel like tagging anybody, but if you feel the need, go for it!!