The Book Thief

This summer my daughter handed me a book and insisted I read it. "Better than any Harry Potter" she promised me. She wasn't kidding.

THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak is amazing. It isn't just a "good" book, it's an awe-inspiring, thought provoking novel that touches you so deeply and changes you for the better after reading it.

Set during in WWII Nazi Germany, the story is told by the unlikely narrator -- Death. And yet it isn't the story you'd think it would be. Instead it is a story of love. Love of humanity. Love of family. Love of friendship.

Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Just some of the reasons I don't like Sarah Palin

Ok, so I try to avoid being political too often, but I will admit to taking a great interest in this presidential race...and I feel very strongly that this country is in desperate need of being taken care of. Do I think that Obama is the best choice for president? No. But I can't help but think he's better than McCain. Say what he will, but McCain is a Bush supporter & I don't think he has a clue about what the "real" people in this country are all about. Nor do I think he has any sense of the need to clean up our foreign relations. So what if he was a POW. Hello, you were a career soldier in a war...being taken captive is something they warn you could happen. (And maybe it just means you weren't a very GOOD soldier?) And though I will admit that bring a woman onto his campaign was a pretty smart move in attempting to gain those people who were behind Hillary because she was a woman alone, I don't trust or respect the woman in any way. And anyone who can just jump on the bandwagon with her is not seeing the clear picture.

But I have some "silly" reasons I don't like her too...
1. Ok, so people are buying her "I'm a soccer mom" act. Yeah, right. As if a Vice-President of ANYTHING has time to drive her kids to soccer practice & games! Give me a break.

2. If she's such a model parent, did she know her 17 year old was sexually active before she got pregnant? Just thinking there hasn't been alot of communication going on there. And she has time to take care of her youngest with Down's? Somehow, I don't think so. I think he's only a few months old too. As a mom with 3 kids, two of which are little, I know first hand how time consuming & all encompassing it is. Be a good mom, take care of your own kids, I don't want you taking care of mine.

3. Have you heard what her kids names are? Willow, Piper, Bristol, Track & Trig. Sounds like a bad soap opera. (Oh wait, I guess it is!)

4. Maybe it was in the past, but she very much worked under the "follow me or you're fired" way of governing.

5.AND she was all about banning books. Great, more freedoms the Republicans can try to take away.

6.AND she & her husband were once part of a successionist group. Now, I admit I've often wanted to succeed from the nation myself, but I'm not about to run for vice-president of the country I wanted to create a treasonist act against!

Where I've Been

Ok, so I've been a bit AWOL lately but I can barely find time to check email...or waste time on Facebook, so you actually expect me to write a semi-coherent post here? HA! I think I need to get back to doing something like the Thursday 13 just so I can force myself to post with regularity. Since I think I know everyone who actually read this, we should come up with something like that between ourselves. That way we'd all be forced to post at least once a week. Whatcha think??

Ok...so what have I been doing? First fun thing...Brian's Birthday at the Tony Bennett concert at this great outdoor concert venue in the Northshore. It was so fun to see all these people picnicking...with candleabras & flower arrangements! la di da!

This is the birthday boy himself...lovin' the gift we all chipped in to get him, this fabulous carpet bag. (I thoroughly expect him to be like Mary Poppins now.)

Paul & I on the train back from the concert.

The next day we walked around Greendale & went to his old fashioned ice cream parlor. Yum!

The little one is growing like a weed. They had their check-ups...10lbs. now!



And let's not forget the Kidlet started high school last week!

This past Saturday we went to a fabulous farmer's market where I came home with this groovy purple string beans, a pound of portabella mushrooms that I grilled last night, and blueberries.

Oh...and delicious homemade bread!

I was dumb & only photographed the peppers & eggplant...I should have bought some. *sigh*

Darcy spent the day looking like a southern belle.

And Sebastian kept stopping to smell the flowers!

Then we spent the entire day at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's a great (free!) zoo in Chicagoland. We all had a fun time. I think the otters went on vacation though, since we couldn't find them in their area, and the penguins & other "black & white seabirds" had so much condensation on the windows of their areas I couldn't get a single decent photos to post. Alas...here are some other photos of our day though.

This crazy lookin' bird is a called a "paddlebill".

"Never smile at a crocodile..."

This is just one TINY segment of the billions of Hissing Cockroaches exhibit. It was disgusting beyond words. Look at the size of that big one in the center...eeeeeeew!!!!

And this is what you do with a baby hippo...ok, the real ones were swimming & that was cool!

Fish. Relaxing fish.

Gotta love a zoo & park in the city.