monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
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Everybody is putting up their Christmas lights.
Because the library is closed until they re-open in the new building, I had to go online at Amazon.com and order some books today.
I was going to just re-read books that I already own, and actually I'm not done with Bonfire of the Vanities yet. I checked it out of the library before they closed because I had just seen the last hour of the movie on TV, and Andy, my movie guru, told me that the book doesn't end as happily. So I checked it out and I'm reading it slowly, because I know that tragedy is looming, but it's a great book so I can't stop reading it. I just read a chapter or two every day, and the writing is just so good that I think about it when I'm not reading it, like it's a dream that I woke up from but it's nagging at me, and I wish I was back in that world again.
So I ordered The Da Vinci Code because 1. my neighbor Linda recommended it, 2. my sister Sarah recommmended it, and 3. Rob was reading it in the Get Fuzzy comic today. Really, seeing Rob reading it, and the fact that he was saying that it was about a guy who died in the Louvre is what sent me scrambling to order it from Amazon, because what could be better than a murder in a museum? I love murder books, I love museums, yes, I needed to buy that book! I also ordered something about bees because the two books were being sold together, and I wanted the free shipping. I still needed to spend another $1.50 to get the free shipping, though, so I ordered a paperback copy of The Return of the King in large print, too.
Here's the thing about the random copy of Return of the King - Kim and I took a walk over to my friend Nancy's house to drop off some tapes so that she can read a couple of chapters of The Book of Mormon for Scott in Chinese, (it's Nancy my Chinese friend, not Nancy my knitting friend, who isn't my friend anymore anyway) and on the way back Kim was asking me questions about where the story is going in Return of the King (not that I can remember every detail of the story because I can't) and finally she said she'd like to finish reading it before the next movie comes out.
We started reading the whole set of books after the second movie because she wanted to know what happened next, and we got to about the middle of The Towers when she got bogged down with homework and training for cross-country after school and homework, so we never finished it. So I suggested that if she starts now and reads every day instead of watching cartoons (and it's no secret that I despise most of what's on the Cartoon Network) that she would be able to finish it before the next movie opens on Dec. 17.
She's not sure she can do it, because she's not the fastest reader, but I don't think the speed of her reading is the problem, it's that she spends too much time watching TV and not enough time reading. So I pointed that out, not in a judgemental way, because I certainly watch plenty of TV myself, (Hello, Food Network, I'm looking at you!) but I told her that you have to choose what you watch so that you don't miss out on other things.
When we got home from the walk, she changed into her sleeping clothes and got a big pillow and found the copy of The Two Towers and I read a chapter of it out loud and then went upstairs to get a nap before work and she read more of it by herself. When I woke up she said she was at the part of the battle at Helm's Deep where Legolas and Gimli are competing to see who can kill the most creatures. She loves that part of the movie!
So here's why I had to buy a paperback of Return of the King - back when we were reading Two Towers, I bought Kim a paperback copy to carry around in her backpack because I didn't want her to lose the hardcover copy that is part of a set that Rich has had since before I knew him. Somewhere along the line that paperback has disappeared (and I suspect Rachel has it) and that's fine, it doesn't matter, but she'll have a paperback copy of Return to carry in her backpack when she finishes the Two Towers. I really just needed to buy something else to fill out my numbers to get the free shipping!
I need to go to Walmart tomorrow with Ruthann, so I'll see about getting a paperback of the Two Towers while I'm there. Then she can read during her free moments at school.
Knitting:
I'm on stripe 8 of the Gryffindor scarf, and it makes great book knitting. I can prop up Bonfire of the Vanities (or the Two Towers) and knit away while I read.
Almost done with white sock #2, and then I'm going to knit some gloves. I started a purple one with a ball of Naturespun and I want to see if there is enough yarn in that ball to make a pair of gloves. I have a feeling there might not be, and I should change my plan and make mittens with it instead. At this point in the knitting, I can still decide to go either way. Mittens and gloves start the same, until you get past the thumb gusset.
Mittens are fun and easy to make, and gloves are not much harder, but they have the little fiddly bits (fingers). Kim dyed a skein of wool with many colors at a yarn show a few years ago, and I have wanted to make something for her that used that yarn, and I just realized that gloves would be perfect, so I'll start those next.
I'm ignoring the Norge 2002 sweater today. I'm sick of it. Oh, and I started a pink sock using Encore DK, but I didn't like the way it looked, so I ripped that out last night. I'm really not excited about any of the things I'm working on right now. I'm thinking about that skein of Kim's though, and how much fun it would be to use that to make some gloves for her. I bought a set of 4" dpns, size 1, about a year ago, and I've never used them - they're perfect for glove fingers! Yeah, I think I'll have to start those tomorrow.
11:41 p.m. - 2003-11-30
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