I just finished Paul Kalanithi's book, When Breath Becomes Air.  Extraordinary, very illuminating about death, dying, and living knowing one will die sooner that might be ordinarily expected.  Moving and yet not maudlin.  Remarkable.
Also, there's a coincidence: his daughter was born on the Fourth of July, 2014.

My brother has not been to our house in about two years, by my reckoning.  Maybe more.  I invited him to dinner tonight, and I insisted on cooking it rather than have him treat us to dinner out.  I made one of the most mediocre meals I have ever made.  Seriously, if I had my way, the two side dishes would go right in the garbage.  Be that as it may ( Read more... )

I asked Ray this morning if, when he's almost finished reading a book, he slows down at all, the way I do sometimes, to savor the last part of it ( Read more... )

As part of my project to list all the books we own and organize them, I've run across some Things I've Meant For Years To Read.  Currently, I'm reading Nora Ephron's Wallflower at the Orgy.  It's a collection of essays she wrote between 1967 and 1980, and it starts out with the preface written in 1970.  She notes that journalism, by then, had ( Read more... )

I've been trying to get reacquainted with The New Yorker in print.  It's been going pretty well, after my  having gotten some readers (non-prescription glasses) which really help.  Meanwhile, Emily, while she was home, collected most of our last years' issues in one magazine rack.  In the past day or so, I dipped my toe in there, metaphorically- ( Read more... )

I got two tiny replacement fish for the frog fountain this morning.  Of the last two, one died right away, and the other lasted longer but must have gotten "washed out" of the pot when we were refilling it.  I've named the two new ones Morticia and Gomez, which I think is appropriate given the short life span they may well have ( Read more... )

Fact: I am reading one of my favorite books over again ( Read more... )

So I thought I'd do some archival work around here.  In the basement we have eighteen shelves for books, sixteen of which are filled.  I had a system in place for organizing them by category, but it kinda fell apart over time.   Meanwhile, one of our cats got sick with cancer, although we didn't know that exactly at the time.  All we knew is he hid ( Read more... )

Between now and New Year's Day, it's going to be busier than usual at work.  I reminded Ray of this last night as I unpacked and put away more jarred and canned sauce and tomatoes than I usually buy.  I'm sure there will be more days when I simply can't be bothered to make anything special for dinner ( Read more... )

It's hard to say if Ebony really is any better yet.  Ray thinks her foot looks better; I see scary signs that the skin is breaking, but that might happen no matter what.   I'm tempted to tie a plastic bag around the foot when she goes outside.  I may call them tomorrow and ask if that's a good idea ( Read more... )