Mutt

This poem nips at my heels
like an ill-mannered pup,
but when I turn to grab him by the scruff
all I find is a whorl of air
and the tickle of canine perfume.

This poem pants in my ears at night,
licks my face when I wake,
whimpers, whines, and wags,
begging to be written.

But this poem will not come when I call.
When it is time to work, he is at play,
chasing squirrels or rolling in the compost.
This poem hates baths.

I search the woods and long grasses,
seeking out this unruly poem.
And when I return home,
empty handed, I can tell
he has been climbing all over the furniture,
lounging on the sofa,
tongue lolling and eyes glazed.

But he is gone,
and I have nothing left to write
but an impression in a cushion
and a pale tuft of fur.

Christie’s 2005 Booklist

Here is the whole list with most recently read on top. The bold are actually recommended, the rest are just okay. I deleted the ones I read but didn’t like, but for the most part, I’ve finally learned to put down books that aren’t worth reading. I took out the parenting books because I don't suspect anyone is really interested in those anyway.

Jane Eyre and Life at These Speeds (thank-you, Alice) are the big recommendations from this year.

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, Amy Krouse Rosenthal – good for short chunks of reading, but a little tedious by the end

Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi

Falling Angels, Tracy Chevalier

Devil in the White City, Erik Larson - Long and gruesome, but fascinating

The Bonesetter's Daughter, Amy Tan

Doing School, Denise Clark Pope – Interesting look at what motivates a small sample of successful high school students. Unfortunately should have been article length, not book length.

HP and the Half Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

O Pioneers, Willa Cather

A Changed Man, Francine Prose – wish the rest of the book was a good as the first chapter, but worth reading anyway.

HP and The Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling

The Full Cupboard of Life, Alexander Mccall Smith

A Painted House , John Grisham - John Grisham without lawyers or conspiracies! Excellent for a quick vacation read.

Breakup, Catherine Texier – not recommended for my Mom or Grandmother, but for the rest of you, this was a brutal memoir of a relationship ending.

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte – okay, I couldn’t put this down for 200 pages.

Victorine, Catherine Texier

The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper

The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck

In Summer, Jeremy Jackson

The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith

River King, Alice Hoffman

Maybe Baby, Tenaya Darlington

Life at These Speeds, Jeremy Jackson

The Nature of Water and Air, Regina McBride

Before You Know Kindness, Chris Bohjalian

The Land of Women, Regina McBride

The Rule of Four, Ian Caldwell

Sneak Peek to Winter Wit

Here is the message I emailed to folks whom we don't have snail mail addresses for to mail our annual Year in Review. I post the meaasage here because we don't have email for Alice or Susi and we're not sure about Christyn. So if you three check in here some time soon, email your address to asimchuk at yahoo.com.

Several years ago our annual Year In Review won the Oregonian's best holiday letter contest. In fact our letter was so great, they saw no need to ever run the contest again. We keep writing one anyway! This year's letter may put YOU in a position to win big, but we need your snail mail first. Act quickly to get in on this offer.

Still Life with Book, Speaker, and Doomed Plant

Before she left Portland, Cathy had a dream that a plant was suffering in a store somewhere in Portland, and that plant needed to be rescued. Somehow ignorant of our history of plant care, she thought our home would be a safe place.

I thought I'd capture the plant in photos before we had started forgetting to water it. Stay tuned for the grim photos of the poor plant's imminent demise.

This is Ed's picture and post, but after stuggling up and down between blogger and flickr we posted it under Christie.

Photos

This is a helicopter.

October is a hectic month, and it took me half of November to get it together again. This was Wrig's Halloween costume. I tried to make it a little more elaborate, but she has had a vision in her head of this paper bag costume for about an eighth of her life, and she'd have none of my fancy ideas!

Budding Photographer

Thanks Ali for sharing your tradition of giving your kids a disposable camera on their birthday. We did this for Wrigley's birthday, and she had a fantastic time. Here are the results:
The rest of the roll

When Grammers came last week she thought it would be fun for Wrig to do it again, and here are the results of round two:
And the rest of this roll

I am less than thrilled about being featured in front of the camera rather than strictly behind it!

Truth in Advertising

M: This afternoon, I want to go to Target and Michael's.
W: What's Michael's?
M: A craft store.
W: A craff store?
M: A craft store.
W: A crap store?

'Nuff said.

Wrig's note: Then Mommy whispered into my ear, "A craft store, with an F." Then Mom had trouble figuring out how to do the kite. Bye!

I knew fatherhood would be hard ...

... but nobody told me I would have to live for more than a week with somebody else's Halloween candy just lying around. As I type, I can see a Butterfinger, a full size Payday, and even a Reese's peanut butter cup. Sure, I could pillage. She probably wouldn't - well, might not - find out, but so far I have managed to resist the temptation.

So far.