Curb Side Pickup

Mary, Frank and I gardened today. We planted vegetables, herbs, strawberries and the hanging pots that I like in the front. Mary picked some stunning flowers for the front porch pots. To Frank's dismay, we went to no fewer than three gardening stores to get what we wanted. Frank was already distressed that he missed baseball practice (I don't know if it was canceled or changed location or what, but when we got there, there was no one, so we took Frank on the gardening errands).

We finished our planting at dinnertime and I knew that I was not in the mood to cook. We still had a trip to the batting cages to do, which I had promised. So we drove out to the batting cages and talked about dinner. McDonalds? "I can just have french fries," the vegetarian said. Yech. "How about Greek?" I asked. "Yeah, well, we're kinda not dressed to go in anywhere," Frank noted. He was particularly dirty - a layer of dirt covered all of us, but Frank was the most spectacularly covered.

While the kids hit balls, I sat in the shade with my phone and figured out how to call in our order. They brought it right to the car when we pulled in. Meat gyros for the carnivore and felafel for the vegetarian and her mother. We popped open the boxes as soon as we got home and each scarfed down our sandwiches in a hard earned hunger.

"Great idea, mom," said Mary as she used her tomato slice to wipe up the last of the tzatsiki sauce.

I am glad to have older kids. I actually like McDonalds, but I like felafel more. Drive thru Greek? Mmmmm.

No dishes. I am going to go sit on my porch and enjoy the flowers.

You May Have Your Willpower

I am thinking about a book reader - a Kindle or a Nook. I have held and used each. I have talked to users and haters and reviewers. I like the immediacy of the new book - the ability to take notes or use Wikipedia - change fonts - have new books without a trip to the bookstore or the library or waiting for UPS to deliver my books from Amazon.

"I'll never love anyone as I love my sisters."

The biggest complaint that readers have of course is that it isn't a book. I love books and surround myself with books and have nostalgic feelings for books. Free ebook of _Little Women?_ Or my Grandma's copy of _Little Women_ from her childhood? I hold her book and think of her as a little girl and me as a little girl and I tear up. No one will do that with my Kindle. But isn't it the words that we really and truly love? And we will love the Kindle. Just not the way we love books.

"I could be as mean as Nellie Olsen. If Ma and Pa would let me."

The Laura Ingalls Wilder books were by far my favorite books growing up. I was very happy to have a daughter so that I could share the books with her. Anna read them, but she didn't love them. Mary was the same way. I was disappointed. I blamed it on animae and Nickelodean. And then Frank read my LIW books (this time by accident - I will say that even feminists adhere to gender roles - why would a boy like a book about a girl?) and loved them. He loves them the same way I did. He reads them over and over and over. He talks about and thinks about Laura and her family. He made a game board with game pieces that are the members of the family. The family moves through Indian Territory on a covered wagon. Would I have thought to have had the books available to him on his Kindle? Probably not. He picked up the physical book all on his own.

"You may have your willpower, Toad, I am going to eat all the cookies."

One of the features of the Kindle that intrigues me is the newspaper delivery to the Kindle. No more newspaper? No more paper carrier? No more sections to shuffle through and cut up and mail to family and friends? No paper at the breakfast table or magazine tucked into my briefcase to read throughout the week? But just think, I could roll over in bed, pick up my Kindle, and read the New York Times without even getting out of bed. I love the immediacy of it. But I would miss the communal paper with my family.

"A bunch of phonies."

Anna's English teacher is (predictably) a Salinger fan and had her class read _Catcher in the Rye._ Anna was critical of it and was heartlessly cruel about her teacher's favorite book. I recommended _Looking Back_, the memoir written by Joyce Maynard when she lived with Salinger. To my delight, Anna enjoyed the book. (It's always been one of my favorites.) I thought that Anna's enjoyment of the book came from the effect it had on her English teacher (the Salinger-phile didn't know about the Maynard relationship and apparently recanted her derision of Anna's Salinger history). But then I found a paragraph on one of Anna's millions of notebooks. She wrote out a paragraph from the Maynard memoir - "We were old not by living life, but from watching it on tv," (I am paraphrasing). Sometimes kids get what you're trying to say, they just won't let you know. They're just a bunch of phonies.

"Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England."

And the only adult novel I quote is a John Irving novel. :-) The reason is that of the adult books that I own, it is the Irving novels that I read and re-read. I could not even tell you how many times I have read _Son of the Circus_, _Cider House Rules_, _World According to Garp, _Owen Meany_ and _Hotel New Hampshire._ (And in case you care, and need some summer reading, I just listed my top 5 favorite in order.) I will get a reader. I am leaning toward the Kindle. And the weird thing is that I know that I will buy these Irving novels on the Kindle though I already have two or three copies of each in paper. I read them and experience them over and over and look at them from different points of view occasionally.

"Keep passing the open windows."