Reading Goal: Update 5

I haven’t been reading as much as usual recently. I went out to Washington last week and spent the time socializing with Calvin and my mom, working, and going to bed when Calvin did. This didn’t allow much time for reading.

I only took two physical books with me and those were for Calvin on the plane. The rest were ebooks. I did get through one of them and started, but have not finished, two others. However, on the way home I got a craving to read a “real” book. I have never seen myself as being a snob that is hung up on the format of a book. I have always considered Audio books to be “real” books, perhaps even more real than print books since storytelling predates written language. However, while sitting in the Portland airport waiting for our plane I had an overwhelming urge to feel a traditional print book in my hands. As soon as we finished our supper I dragged a protesting Calvin over to Powells 1.

After arriving at Powells I browsed the sale books and then moved toward the back of the store to peruse the SF and Fantasy books. However, nothing was speaking to me so I decided to wander over to Young Adult. On the way, Calvin convinced me to buy him Otis and the Puppy. Once we made it to Young Adult I was delighted to see that a hardback copy of Graceling was available for only $6.98. I had been meaning to buy it so I grabbed it up and happily re-read it on the plane ride back to Denver.

I would have read more this week except I got side-tracked watching Going Postal which was a British TV movie based on the fantastic Going Postal book by Terry Pratchett2. I thought the TV adaption was decent. I liked some of the modifications they did but not others. I was particularly distressed by the decision to leave out Annoia, minor as her role might have been.

Books I’ve finished recently:

  • Short Stories: More Malice Domestic – This had a decent number of mysteries that I enjoyed. Some more than others but it was still fairly pleasant to listen to. Now I should go back and find the names of the authors whose stories I particularly enjoyed. Maybe that’ll help me fill my mystery quota.
  • Christian Fiction: Vicious Cycle, by Terri Blackstock – The plot resolved around drug addiction and abuse, not my favorite subjects, but I did like the story better than the first Christian Fiction novel I read.
  • Poetry: Ekaterinoslav: One Family’s Passage to America: A Memoir in Verse, by Jane Yolen – I was browsing the Erie library poetry section in hopes of finding something I’d be able to muddle through when I came across this volume. I have trouble getting poetry, too prosaic I think. However, I have read some of Yolen’s stuff before, most recently Briar Rose, and have found her to be a very good writer. Plus, the book was thin, only 53 pages. Ekaterinoslav is the story, in poetry form, of how the author’s family came to live in the United States. It was good. I particularly liked 3 the poem titled “Cholera”. Yolen wrote in the introduction that her grandmother had two or three children, she’s not sure of the exact number, who died in a Cholera outbreak that only left her with one child. She felt God was punishing her. Then she had twin girls and many more children. Yolen says, “Then she was convinced that G-d had forgiven her . . . though I am not certain Mina ever forgave G-d.” This provides context for the poem which ends, “How could she get up,/ now knowing God’s casual mathematics, / the subtraction that so divided/ her uncountable heart.”

Currently Reading:

  • Short stories: Epic – I requested this anthology from the library after giving up on Gaiman. I requested it because N.K. Jemisin has a story in it and her stuff tends to be really good. Plus, it has a lot of other short stories by famous authors whose books I haven’t read yet. I figured it might provide a nice sampling to see if I want to try any of the novel-length works of the other authors. However, what I had not noticed until I got the book is that it’s fairly large at 607 pages. I had considered taking it to Washington with me but eventually decided I didn’t have the luggage space for it. As a result, I’m only to page 150. I do think I’m going to make it all the way through though. I like some stories more than others but haven’t hated any of them yet. I haven’t gotten to Jemisin’s short story yet.
  • Realistic Fiction4: The Expats, by Chris Pavone – The premise kind of interested me: an ex-CIA operative who decides to become a “normal” housewife and move overseas to support her husband in a new job only to discover things aren’t as they seem. However, I’m a fourth of the way through and not entirely sure if I’m going to stick it out or not.
  • Juvenile Fiction: Into the Wild, by Erin Hunter – I’ve heard my manager’s daughter is (was?) really into this series so I decided that was as good a way as any to find juvenile fiction books to fill my quota. It’s a fantasy based in our world but written from the perspective of a former “kittypet” who decides to abandon his “twolegs” owners and join a wild cat community. I’m about half-way through. I could definitely see the appeal to a juvenile audience but I think I might be too old to truly appreciate the book.
  • Realistic Fiction: I just started listening to Sushi for Beginners, by Marian Keyes – This is chick lit. Chick lit is suppose to be lighthearted and fun. However, the first chick lit book I read left me feeling really stressed by the protagonist’s inability to prioritize financial independence over shoes. *gah* I read a couple others after that but they all seemed to have a fanatical devotion to fashion at the cost of practically everything else. It drove me nuts. However, I was needing to get another audiobook so reluctantly decided to give Sushi for Beginners a try. So far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Yes, fashion does appear but so far it hasn’t usurped the show. Plus, so far the women seem fairly sensible, though I suppose that could change.

Current Goal Counts:

Category Goal Number Read
Best Sellers 2 1
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir 2 2
Fiction Books Jaeger Recommends 2 1
Christian Fiction 2 2
Graphic Novels 2 2
Historical Fiction 2 0
Informational 2 1
Juvenile Books 12 4 and 1 in progress
Literature 2 1
Mystery 2 0
Poetry Anthologies 2 1
Realistic Fiction 2 2 in progress
Short Story Anthologies 2 1 and 1 in progress
Total 36 16
  1. Every airport should have a Powells. I get so tired of visiting airports where the only reading selection is whatever is on the current NYT Bestseller list. ↩
  2. To be honest, I don’t like reading Terry Pratchett’s books. However, I love listening to all the audio versions of his book. Perhaps I need a translator to get the humor right? ↩
  3. Like isn’t the right word but I’m not sure what is. ↩
  4. So, I called this category “Realistic Fiction” but what I really meant is a book that a random person might pick up in the library wherever “general fiction” is shelved. ↩

Playing Catan with Calvin

Last month Jaeger’s mom came for a week to celebrate Calvin’s fourth birthday. While she was here, Jaeger and I took the opportunity to go out by ourselves for the evening. We ate at Leaf which was, as always, scrumptious. After Leaf we dawdled for a while on the Pearl Street Mall and then decided to stop by Barnes and Noble on the way home. Browsing Barnes and Noble I saw that they had Catan Junior. Jaeger and I convinced ourselves we should buy it for Calvin’s birthday even though it’s rated for ages 6 and up.

A couple nights after we bought the game, Calvin and I settled down for his first game. It went fairly well. Even though the rules are already simple, I simplified them even more1. Calvin doesn’t like pirates so we left out the pirate that would normal be played every time a six is rolled (there’s only one dice). We also changed the “pirate lairs” to “castles.” I would tell Calvin when it was his turn, and then point at each island adjacent to one of his castles and inquire if it was the number he had just rolled. If so, I’d point out the resources. When appropriate, I also suggested when he should consider building another ship or castle. Calvin won his first game

Last night Anya stopped by and we all played a game of Catan Junior together. This time I think Calvin had a better feel for the game. He seemed to get into being able to build and also liked it whenever he could buy Coco (a parrot card that is the equivalent of a development card). I gave him choices of where he could build ships and castles and made recommendations and sometimes he followed my recommendation and sometimes he didn’t. Jaeger ended up winning the game and Calvin was pretty distraught that he hadn’t won. We tried to explain that one doesn’t always win every game and sometimes other people win. He then tried to insist we play another game but it was past his bedtime so I insisted he go to bed instead.

We had left the game on the kitchen table and this morning Calvin pulled out all the ships and castles and organized them. First he put all the colors together and then he started lining them up, alternating ships and castles. With one color, he had started with the castles but there are more ships (8) than castles (7) and Calvin seemed a little perturbed when he got to the end and had two ships in a row. After contemplating for a bit, he rearranged the order so the color both started and ended with a ship. This mostly worked but he still had two ships, albeit of different colors, lined up next to each other for each color change. I think I managed to convince him that was ok because they were different colors but I think he was dubious.

This next week Calvin and I are flying out to visit my mom. Jaeger suggested I could take Catan Junior to play and I thought that was a good idea. However, to save space, I just packed the pieces and left the box on the table. After supper, Calvin requested another game of Catan Junior. I told him no because I had already packed them and he got very upset. He really, really, wanted to play another game RIGHT NOW. I didn’t relent, it was too close to bedtime and we have an early start tomorrow, but I was happy he seems to enjoy the game so much. I wonder when we can graduate him to real Catan . . .

  1. A good review and summary of the game is here. ↩

Reading Goal: Update 4

Books I’ve finished recently:

  • Memoir: Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language, by Deborah Fallows – I picked up this book over six months ago and read the first chapter before giving up, mainly because there were so many other books that I wanted to read more. However, I needed another memoir so decided to give this book another try. My second try was much more successful. I started it yesterday and finished it today (it is fairly short). I think the last time I was intimidated by all the pinyin Fallows kept throwing around. This time, I didn’t find it as intimidating and it also offered some insights into how the language is constructed that I hadn’t heard before but make sense.
  • Graphic novel: Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross – The first graphic novel I’ve read in years. The story was interesting but short . . . Yeah, it’s only volume 1 but I think I might have the same problem with graphic novels as short stories. I’m mildly interested while reading the graphic novel but lose interest as soon as I finish.
  • Graphic Novel: Saga, Volume 1, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples – This graphic novel did a better job of catching me. It still feels awfully short but I’ve requested the the 2nd volume. Library Journal Review does a good job of summing up the graphic novel, “Imagining that Juliet came from Star Wars and Romeo from Grimm’s Fairy Tales might get close to nailing the genre mashup delight of this interplanetary romance.”
  • Memoir: The Journal of Best Practices, by David Finch – A really good book. I think it’s the best relationship book I’ve read in a long time. The whole book is the author over analyzing how he can change himself to make his marriage better. It’s a fascinating read and I see small bits of both Jaeger and myself in his reaction to various things.

Books I gave up on:

  • Biography: Jobs, by Walter Isaacson – What I read was mildly amusing but it was really big and I wasn’t committed enough.
  • Christian Fiction: Veiled Rose, by Anne Elisabeth Stengl – This was an ebook which I had checked out for 7 days. My loan period ran out before I could finish and I wasn’t sufficiently interested to go back and check it out again.

Currently Reading:

  • Short Stories: More Malice Domestic, short stories by various authors – I’m listening to this a an audio book and think I might make it all the way through. I really liked the first story, the others I’ve listened to so far are ok.

Current Goal Counts:

Category Goal Number Read
Best Sellers 2 1
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir 2 2
Fiction Books Jaeger Recommends 2 1
Christian Fiction 2 1
Graphic Novels 2 2
Historical Fiction 2 0
Informational 2 1
Juvenile Books 12 4
Literature 2 1
Mystery 2 0
Poetry Anthologies 2 0
Realistic Fiction 2 0
Short Story Anthologies 2 1 in progress
Total 36 13

Masala Crêpe

On Jaeger’s first trip to India he encountered Dosas and became infatuated. Upon returning home he described them to me and I attempted to make some. Unfortunately, having never had dosas myself, I had only the vaguest idea of what I was doing. However, I found a recipe which made a huge amount of batter. This was fortunate as I wasted more than 1/2 the batter before I realized it was absolutely essential to use my cast iron skillet, not my non-stick skillet. However, I still had some trouble as my cast iron skillet has sides and is smaller than the traditional skillet for dosas. In spite of all this, I think I got the general idea even if it needed a lot of refinement.

Eventually, Jaeger found an establishment in Denver that served Dosas and took Calvin and I out to try them. They were pretty good. Then, a bit later, a restaurant opened up in Boulder that makes dosas so my enthusiasm for doing it myself waned.

Last year, we moved from Longmont down to Gunbarrel. Unfortunately, the stove that came with the house was a glass-top electric stove. I have not been impressed. It probably took me the first 6 months just to learn how not to burn pancakes. More disturbing, using cast iron skillets is not recommended for glass-top stoves. Up in Longmont I prepared more than half the meals we ate in my cast iron skillet and have profoundly felt the lack of it since. The one redeeming value the glass-top stove has is it’s attached to a convection oven that I love.

I did try to make dosas, from a pre-made mix, a couple of months ago and it was a disaster. I blame having to use my non-stick skillet. So, today instead of dosas, I made Masala Crepes. For some reason I can make crepes perfectly fine in my non-stick skillet, I’m not sure why. Maybe the egg makes it stick less? In any case, I used Jaeger’s mom’s crepe recipe and substituted some of the wheat flour for chickpea flour. I should have put some fenugreek in it too but forgot. Then I filled the crepes with “Mrs. Joshi’s Potatoes with a Fresh Coconut-Lime Sauce” from 660 Curries. It’s obviously not authentic but does provide the general feel of a Masala Dosa.

Reading Goal: Update 3

Books I’ve finished recently:

  • Juvenile Fiction: Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson – I’ve owned this book for years (decades?). I bought it because I found it used and it was a Newbery medal winner. So, I finally decided to read it. It was good but sad.
  • Informational: Accidental Systems Librarian, by Nicole Engard with Rachel Singer Gordon – I got this for free via the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. I was innocently reading along when I suddenly ran into a quote I had given when I took a library-related survey a while back. That was unexpected. Many librarians are quoted in this book but it was still fun to run across my name in a real book.
  • Juvenile Fiction: Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke – I started out listening to this. Objectively, I knew it was interesting but it wasn’t working for me as an audio book. Finally, I checked out a physical copy at the library and managed to finish it off. Good story but I’m relieved to finally be done with it.
  • Juvenile Fiction: Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos – Won the Newbery in 2012. Good book but everyone in it was crazy.

Books I gave up on:

  • Short Story Anthology: Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman – I stopped listening to the audio and started reading a chapter a night. It still wasn’t working for me. So, I’m going to wait for my copy of Epic: Legends of Fantasy to come in. I’ve loved almost all of N.K. Jemisin’s novels and she has a short story in this anthology. (Which reminds me, I really, really, need to buy the two books in the Dreamblood series.)
  • Mystery: Buried in a Bog, by Sheila Connolly – Also gave up on this one. I suspect I’d like it better as an audio book but an audio version doesn’t appear to exist.

Currently reading:

  • Biography: Jobs, by Walter Isaacson – I’m not sure if I’m going to make it through this book or not. It’s obviously well-written but it’s huge and I’m not entirely sure if I care enough to make it to the end. We’ll see . . .
  • Memoir: The Journal of Best Practices, by David Finch – So far I’ve read the introduction and I think I might actually be able to make it through the whole book.
  • Christian Fiction: Veiled Rose, by Anne Elisabeth Stengl – I was looking for something to read on the weekend and downloaded this from the library. It’s Christian fantasy (allegory?). It’s ok so far. At the very least, I like it better than the last Christian fiction book I read. I believe it’s the second in the series but it sounds like the first book doesn’t have to be read in order to read the 2nd.

Current Goal Counts:

Category Goal Number Read
Best Sellers 2 1
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir 2 2 in progress
Fiction Books Jaeger Recommends 2 1
Christian Fiction 2 1, 1 in progress
Graphic Novels 2 0
Historical Fiction 2 0
Informational 2 1
Juvenile Books 12 4
Literature 2 1
Mystery 2 0
Poetry Anthologies 2 0
Realistic Fiction 2 0
Short Story Anthologies 2 0
Total 36 9

An Update on Calvin’s Allowance

A couple months ago I started giving Calvin an allowance. It’s been interesting to see the choices he has made.

The logistics of giving Calvin an allowance have been more complicated than I was first expecting. Up until very recently I never carried cash. If I have cash, I have a tendency to spend it and then not have a clue where it went. With a credit card, even if I lose the receipt, I can go online and at least know how much money I spent at a specific store. I balance and pay my credit card weekly and it works very well for me. However, Calvin really wanted cash so I had to learn how to manage cash. In addition, the two salons I visit strongly prefer their tips in cash (one won’t even accept tips via credit card which is why I eventually caved).

Managing the Calvin-side of his allowance has actually been pretty easy. I bought an app for the iPad called iAllowance and it’s work out pretty well. I can set it up to say how often he should get an allowance, how the allowance should be distributed (piggy bank, savings, and charity), and I can even award interest on his “savings.”

However, managing cash on my end was a complete disaster. I’d withdraw money for Calvin’s allowance then use some of it for tips and frantically have to figure out how to reconcile it all in GnuCash1. Finally, within the last two weeks, I think I’ve got it all figured out. I have a new asset account called Cash. Every time I withdraw cash, I move money from the appropriate budget sub-accounts in checking to the cash account. Any cash I use for tips, etc, gets entered as an expense and, if necessary, I go give money to the Calvin budget sub-account in checking from my personal sub-account. Anytime I actually distribute Calvin’s allowance to him, it goes to the “Calvin’s cash” sub-account in the cash account. Every Monday I make sure “Calvin’s cash”, the “piggy bank” in iAllowance, and Calvin’s wallet have the same amount in them. The top-level cash account should always match the cash I have in my wallet. Yeah, it’s confusing but it’s working for me, at least for now. I do miss the good-old credit card only days though.

I’m pretty sure the “savings” and “giving” accounts for Calvin are pointless at this point. I had been using his giving account for Cradle Roll offering each week. However, I haven’t figured out when (if?) Kindergarten takes offering. What I’d really like to do is sit down with him and let him choose a charity he’s particularly interested in. However, he doesn’t have much in the account yet. Maybe I should just let it accumulate to the end of the year and talk to him about it then.

Watching Calvin spend his actual cash has been fascinating. As I mentioned before, Calvin’s very first purchase was glue. He had expressed an interest in glue but I was less excited. Before I let him buy the glue, I dragged him all over the store and pointed out the things he could buy instead if he just waited longer. One of the things I thought he might like to save for was a Curious George TV season. Target has some of the Curious George TV series for only $5 which is the best I’ve seen anywhere, including Amazon and Walmart. However, Calvin was insistent that he wanted glue. Well, it was his money so I let him buy glue. He was very happy.

The next week when I handed him his allowance, he didn’t do anything with it. This surprised me a bit. I half expected we’d be rushing to the store to buy more glue (naturally the glue he had purchased was already gone). The next week, he asked me if he had enough money for a Curious George DVD. Apparently dragging him all around the store had made an impression. He didn’t, but I told him he would the week after that. He seemed content to wait. The next week, we went to Target and he bought Curious George: Robot Monkey.

One of the things I love about Calvin getting an allowance is when he asks for something, I can now tell him he can get it if he can buy it. This is particularly helpful when we go to the thrift store. I like shopping at the thrift store. It’s like a treasure hunt. Some days are good and some days are bad. However, the clothing seems to be a better quality than much of what I can get new these days. Plus, I can still find colors that look good on me even if all the current “in” colors are terrible. However, the thrift store is also full of cheap plastic toys that Calvin finds fascinating but I don’t want cluttering up my house.

We went to the thrift store a couple of weeks ago and Calvin decided ahead of time that he wanted to spend $3 for a toy there. I was a surprised by the $3 amount because he did have a couple more dollars available. We went around and I pointed out which toys were under $3 and which weren’t. We also discussed the concept of sales tax though I’m not sure how much he got out of that discussion. After looking at several items, he settled on a terrible hamburger-eating pig. I tried to talk him out of it but he was quite sure that’s what he wanted. The good news was it cost less than $2 so at least he was under budget.

Calvin’s most recent purchase was a plastic watering can. He loves watering cans but the one I have is too big for him to be able to fill and carry. Jaeger had wanted a small one for his office plants. Once we arrived at Walmart, Calvin asked if he could have one too. I told him if he paid for it with his allowance and he readily agreed.

One purchase Calvin hasn’t made yet is for tape. Calvin really likes tape but I’ve been refusing to give him any tape because, from my perspective, he just wastes it. Once, before I realized I needed to keep the tape out of reach, Calvin strung it all over around the family room. That was fun to pick up. Now, whenever Calvin asks for tape, I tell him he can buy some with his allowance. Apparently, it’s not important enough to him because, unlike the glue, he doesn’t seem interested in purchasing any.

Currently, Calvin has $6.63 of allowance which I think is pretty decent considering he only gets $2/week. I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say giving Calvin an allowance is a success. However, it does seem to be a learning experience for everyone involved.

  1. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but I have absolutely adored GnuCash ever since Jaeger introduced it to me shortly after we were married. ↩

Reading Goal: Update 2

I’ve made some progress on my reading goal.

Books I’ve finished:

  • Literature: Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
  • Jaeger Recommendations: Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi – pretty good, will probably read the next one
  • Juvenile Book: Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen – this is my first Paulsen book and I was pretty impressed by the book
  • Best seller: The Innocent, by David Baldacci – an addictive thriller. However, I’m not sure if I’ll read more, it doesn’t lend itself to calmly drifting off to sleep.

Currently Reading:

  • Short Story Anthology: Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman – still working on this one . . . I think maybe I should give up on the audio version and try reading one story every night. Neil Gaiman, as always, is a great narrator but I’m still having trouble listening to it.
  • Juvenile Fiction: Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke – I’m listening to this and I think I might have better luck if I just read it. I’m a couple hours from the end. The story seems compelling but it’s not quite working for me as an audio book.
  • Mystery: Buried in a Bog, by Sheila Connolly – I checked this one out because I like listening to cozy mysteries. However, I appear to be having the opposite problem as the two above with this book. I’m about half way through and considering finding a different one. Unfortunately, this book does not appear to be available as an audio book.

I just finished The Innocent and I haven’t decided on my next genre yet. I feel like something different. Maybe I should try a graphic novel . . .

Current Goal Counts:

Category Goal Number Read
Best Sellers 2 1
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir 2 0
Fiction Books Jaeger Recommends 2 1
Christian Fiction 2 1
Graphic Novels 2 0
Historical Fiction 2 0
Informational 2 0
Juvenile Books 12 1 and 1 in progress
Literature 2 1
Mystery 2 1 in progress
Poetry Anthologies 2 0
Realistic Fiction 2 0
Short Story Anthologies 2 1 in progress

Calvin’s Birthday Party

Last Sunday we had a whole bunch of Calvin’s preschool classmates over to celebrate his birthday. Jaeger’s parents were also able to come for the party.

Calvin’s cake was really a brownie that I poured into a cookie sheet with sides. I used the “Fudge Brownie” recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook1. For the frosting, I used King Arthur Flour’s Fudge Frosting. I think the yogurt gives the frosting a little zing. Previously, I had made a double batch of frosting which ended up being way too much. This time I used a single batch. Jaeger thought the double batch kept the brownie moister, which is probably did, but I didn’t want to give preschool kids that much sugar.

Calvin adores sprinkles so I bought special primary color sprinkles for him to put on the brownie.

Calvin adds sprinkles to his brownie

After the sprinkles, I arranged the Lego candies which I had previously made.

Happy Birthday Calvin! using Lego Candies

Since Calvin’s birthday party ended up falling on Easter, I decided it would be fun to do a Lego-themed Easter egg hunt. I bought two sets of Legos: a “boy” set and a “girl” set. I also borrowed some Legos from Calvin. The pieces that were too big to fit in the Easter eggs, like the horse, went into Calvin’s Lego set so I think it ended up about even. I stuffed approximately 160 Easter Eggs. About an hour before the party Jaeger and I attempted to hide them. It takes a long time to find easy, but not too easy, hiding places for 160 eggs.

As the children were arriving for the party I had them gather around the table and decorate their Easter egg bags. I had found white lunch sacks at Target and then had a variety of stickers, crayons, and markers on the table to decorate with. The children seemed amused by this but it didn’t take very long to get all the bags decorated. Once it seemed a majority of the children had arrived, we started the Easter egg hunt.

This was the first Easter egg hunt that I had ever organized. I went looking all over the internet for ideas. The internet suggested I should have at least 12 eggs per child. However, I was worried that some kids would find a lot more than others. Finally, I hit on the idea of telling the kids they could have one egg of every color. I had enough eggs that there were about 8-12 different colors, depending on whether or not you considered two shades of a color to be the same color. All the children were very good at only picking up one egg per color. After it seemed that most of the children had at least one of every color, we told them they could go and gather the rest of the eggs.

Jaeger and I worked hard to find places to hide the eggs. It’s not easy in a yard that’s still recovering from winter. However, I think we managed to provide both easy and harder options. Some of the mothers commented that it was refreshing to go to an Easter egg hunt where you had to hunt for the Easter eggs versus them just laying randomly out on the ground. I hadn’t been able to find an estimate for how long an Easter egg hunt should take. The kids found most of our eggs within a half hour and seemed to lose interest about the same time.

Jaeger’s mom and I had looked in some books for some other activities to do. One of the ideas we had run across was balloon volleyball. Originally, we were planning to do it in our family room but the day was gorgeous so we decided to try to do it outside instead. I ran a yellow streamer across two chairs and then some of the parents blew up balloons to use as volleyballs. Unfortunately, the balloons popped as soon as they touched anything, including the grass. I pulled Calvin’s blue beach ball out instead but it seemed too little too late. Most of the kids weren’t interested in it.

Having given up on the volleyball game, we went inside to eat cake and ice cream. Afterwards, Calvin unwrapped his presents within a mob of his classmates. Having that many kids in the house towards the end of the party made me really thankful the weather allowed us to do the Easter egg hunt outdoors. It would have been a disaster indoors. Jaeger counted and we ended up with 14 adults and 13 children, including our family. That was a lot of people but I think it all turned out pretty well. I was really glad that Jaeger’s mom was around to help because I think we would have gone crazy trying to do it by ourselves.

  1. Note: if you search inside the book on Amazon for “fudge brownie” you’ll get the 2002 recipe which is different than my 1996 version of the recipe. ↩

Book Bins for Calvin

A couple of weeks ago Jaeger and I decided we needed to do something about Calvin’s books. I do not feel like Calvin has an excessive number of books. However, they were spilling randomly out of his shelves and we were running out of places to stuff them.

Because I don’t monitor Calvin closely in his own room, I don’t want bookshelves that are high enough they could topple onto him. My first plan was to buy a 3rd shelf that matched the two he has now. However, it turns out they don’t make this shelf anymore. So, I started to look for alternatives.

I found a lot of very cute bookshelves that were unsuitable because they couldn’t handle the number of books we have. Eventually, I decided I should take inspiration from an organization that specializes in having vast quantities of picture books available for browsing: the library. Most newer libraries have “book bins” that allow for easy browsing at the child’s level and have shelving underneath the book bins for extra storage.

I found some book bins from Jonti-Craft that I liked. However, they cost a bit more than I wanted to spend for furniture that would last a relatively short time. Once Calvin grows taller and graduates away from picture books, the book bins will have limited functionality. Calvin’s favorite was a taxi book bin. It is very cute but would have an even shorter lifespan than the basic book bins.

After a while, I stumbled across some modular storage cubes. These are meant to be stacked on top of each other, along with other furniture in the set. However, I realized I could rotate one of the divided storage cubes and create makeshift bins. I ordered two to see how feasible my idea was.

The first set of cubes arrived. As “promised” they are hollow-core and definitely not superior quality. However, my idea worked fairly well and the manufacturer even included brackets to bolt the two pieces together1. The only thing that I hadn’t realized was how deep a 15″ bin is. The good news is it easily handles Calvin’s largest books. However, Calvin has to stand on his tiptoes in order to flip through the books. I tried thinking of a variety of ways to fix this problem. The “easiest” solution would have been to cut the boards down to the correct height. However, the hollow-core construction made this seem like a bad idea. Eventually, I decided a step stool worked well enough2.

Having decided the prototype worked well enough, I ordered 4 more divided cubes. Since each divided cube is about 30″ wide, three sets fill one side of Calvin’s room almost perfectly. The cubes arrived yesterday and I spent most of the evening putting them together.

Like the rest of Calvin’s room, the book bins are very white3. This evening I let Calvin decorate the book bins with some Lightening McQueen stickers. It wasn’t until he had the stickers on that I realized we had inadvertently created a Lightening McQueen theme in his bedroom. Calvin’s sheets, step stool, and stickers are all related to Lightening McQueen.

I’m fairly happy with the bins. There’s enough space to fit all Calvin’s picture books in the top bins. The far-right bin is reserved for library books and can accommodate them all. The lower shelves contain his board books, chapter books, and beginning readers. As Calvin gets older, we can unscrew the book bins and flip them around to provided additional book shelves for beginning readers and chapter books.

Calvin poses with his new book bins.

Calvin poses with his new book bins.

  1. Screwing the bracket to the back of the cube is tricky because the wood kept trying to split. However, screwing it into what normally would be the “bottom” of the cube worked flawlessly ↩
  2. During our earlier brain-storming sessions, Jaeger suggested, mostly in jest, that we should get Calvin four-foot high shelves that spanned the entire wall and came with a ladder on wheels. I’ve always wanted something like that for myself. Too bad it isn’t very practical, at least for us. ↩
  3. When we first moved into this house we gave Calvin the option of picking his room color. The prior owners had painted the room green with a purple accent wall. I thought Calvin was going to decided on purple but he surprised us by insisting on white. ↩

Life of Pi

Last night I finished reading Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. It reminded me why I don’t like reading literature. It was a very good book but left me profoundly disturbed at the end. However, this seems to be what great literature aims to do. I will grudgingly admit that there is some merit in the approach but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

If you plan to read Life of Pi, you probably shouldn’t read the rest of my post. I will be vague but my thoughts will probably still count as spoilers.

The book is divided into three sections: Pi’s early life, his survival on the ocean after his ship sank, and his recooperation in a hospital and recounting his adventures to investigators. I liked the book tolerably well right up to the end when Pi is recounting his adventures in the hospital. In the hospital, Pi tells the investigators the story we have been reading. The investigators don’t believe the story can possibly be real. Then, after being pressed, Pi tells an alternate version of the story that is both plausible and terrible. The reader is encouraged to believe the story they like best is the “true” story.

At one point within the story we learn the protagonist, after recovering in the hospital, goes on to get married and have two children. Thus, we are assured that the story ends well. However, the end of the book stops shortly after the horrible alternative story. In this, I suppose, it is the opposite of romances I usually read. In a genre romance you are guaranteed a happy ending1. Of course, we all know that if the story continued the couple wouldn’t always be madly in love with each other and are bound to disagree once or twice, even in the best marriage. In Life of Pi we know that the protagonist ends up having a good life but that isn’t the note the story ends on.

However unrealistic it may be, I strongly prefer my books end with unambiguously happy endings. Yes, you can pretend Life of Pi ends happily as long as you forget about 9 of the 319 pages. I have not watched the movie but the impressions I’ve gotten from reading reviews is that the movie ends a bit more unambiguously than the book. I’m not sure if this is true or not. However, if I do watch the movie, I’ll walk away once Pi lands in Mexico and Richard Parker, the tiger, walks away.

Ah well, it was a good experience for me. I don’t regret reading the book, exactly, I just wouldn’t ever have chosen to pick it up if I had known about those 9 pages.

  1. Romance Writers of America officially defines the ending of a romance as “Emotionally-Satisfying and Optimistic”. Apparently “happy ending” is just too boring a description. ↩