Jabberwocky for 2004

Rachel: They already are silly old men.

The first day we drove to Tucson. We ate at a Taco Bell in Palm Desert and Rachel got food poisoning there, so we both spent the night retching. The next day Rachel was basically passed out. I drove to Fort Stockton. I stopped at a wayside restaurant in New Mexico to eat steak--it was good, but NOT rare. Not even medium. I saved the last of it to share with Mitch, only to find out when we arrived in SA that Mitch had been given away, so I gave it to Sadie. Rachel slept in the car while I ate. In Fort Stockton, we had a light supper at a random diner--urrrrk.

The next day, to San Antonio. We ate at a Subway. Urrrrk. I was glad to get to Anne's house, to see everyone, and to crawl into bed. I felt like a real party pooper though. For New Years Eve, Rachel and I went to see LOTR with Joseph and Dave. I enjoyed it, but I think I liked the second movie better.

We thought we had locked the car keys in the trunk, so by midnight I was waiting for the AAA locksmith to some. They say that what you do on New Years Eve sets the stage for the next year to come. I hope not! Just as the AAA guy pulled up, Rachel found the keys. Whew. That saved me $200. Rachel had lost her glasses also, and we spent our time in San Antonio looking for them. At the last minute, Dave found them. Whew! That saved me another $200. Gosh, I'm getting rich!

I would have liked to go to the zoo with Atticus and Samuel, but Anne didn't seem to have anything planned and I wasn't feeling well enough to mobilize against the inertia, so we didn't do anything. We did have cioppino for dinner on New Years, and Anne's friend Ben and also Gayla and Sarah Scoll were there. It was pretty good, and stayed down. Cioppino is a traditional Whitney family celebration meal. I have actually never made it because my mother made it when we all got together when I brought Roy up to meet the family and he about had a fit. He had a fit before he ever tasted it; in fact, I believe he never even tried it. I never met someone who had a problem with fish like he did.

Kristen and Aaron were in kind of a jam for care of their dog, Sadie, as Anne says she can't keep her any more. I told them she can come live with me and play with Gretel. So Sadie went back to Utah with the Smiths and I'm going to need to drive up to get her.

From San Antonio we drove to Houston and visited Charlie and Nancy Schile. On the way there we ate at a Dennys. Urrrk. Charlie looks good and his new kidney is working well. I took all my quilting stuff to Nancy since I don't think I have enough time left in life to do it all. I'm going to devote my life to genealogy. Nancy was acting just like it was Christmas morning. Charlie went out and got some Vietnamese chicken noodle soup for dinner, which made me feel some better.

In the morning we drove to Little Rock. We had a bowl of wonton soup at a doubtful looking place in Nacodogches. I was expecting a bowl of broth with two floating wontons, but it had all kinds of veggies, shrimp, meatballs--it was a lovely meal for $3.75. We were starting to feel as though we had spent an eternity in Texas, and boy did we whoop and holler as we crossed the state line! I never thought I'd be excited to see Arkansas! I had wanted to stop in Hope and get a picture of me by the sign of Pres. Clinton's birthplace, but it was dark by the time we got there. What an ordeal the whole trip was--this country is b-i-g! We met Leonard at our motel, went out for dinner (I had more Vietnamese soup) and then we crawled into bed. In the morning we dragged out and caught the shuttle to the airport. The flight was long and a big ordeal, and our flight out of Las Vegas was 45 minutes late in taking off so we missed the airport bus and had to take the next one home. Home! I was so glad to see it.

Click those old red shoes! There is NO PLACE like home!

It occurrs to me that the lucky ones are the folks who are new to family history who start with a clear slate, instead of folks like me who have to try to make sense of generations of other people's mistakes. Sometimes I feel like I'm just slogging along in it, but if the cleanup waits another generation it will be an even bigger mess. I think I mentioned before: it takes me about a half hour to check a page. The printout is over 800 pages. I'll be doing this for a while.

I hope it argues something for not being a wimp.

Getting ready to start more genealogy. There are five more pages of B surnames.

I had to go over to the church and download a some more files tonight because there was a hole in one of the lines. Turns out it was a B-I-G hole--about a thousand people.

There are gardening magazines I quit subscribing to because of this problem, so beware, Wired.

As I was trimming the salvia I found a preying mantis egg case on one of the branches, to my consternation AFTER I had cut said branch off. I trimmed it up and stuck the stick upright in the dirt by one of the granite boulders. I hope the little guys find that condition satisfactory for finishing their incubation.

A recipe search on the Web reveals some rather strange things, including Tomato-Oatmeal Soup (???) and a recipe that makes two gallons of the stuff.

Probably I've been backwards all these years and nobody has thought to remind me.

I think if I were one of the people who teach Eng. 1A I might use something like this for one of the novels and do a semester on social responsibility.

This afternoon I'm going to experimentally try going to a movie by myself. I've tried going out to eat and to the fair. The going out to eat alone is no fun at all, but I did okay at the county fair, so maybe a movie... we shall see. I think I will go to watch Calendar Girls .

So I think I'll go more often, without relying on a friend to go with me. I can get three movies out of the gift certificates Susie and John gave me for Christmas. What a brilliant gift!

The ladies' church group in the movie was sooooo much like Enrichment Night!

I also stopped by Target to buy toilet paper and cleaning supplies. This old geezer was staring at me as I loaded my cart with 48 double rolls of TP. What, geezer, nobody at your house uses this stuff?

There was a paid signature gatherer out front who was the most ill-informed human I've ever met. (and I'm a remedial teacher, so you know I've met a few!) He wanted me to sign one that he told me was about (nearly as directly quoted as I can remember) "There are all these doctors who don't know what to do with themselves, and this initiative gives them money to do research so they have something to do with their time." I told him I didn't think that was a worthy idea. Then I read the statute--it was for stem cell research. Well that kind of changes the perspective. There were about six other initiatives. Some of them I refused to sign, and I would have told him the reasons, but he wasn't capable of listening.

I wonder what makes a person so stoopid? Drugs? Poor nutrition? Lack of stimulating environment? Plain old mulishness?

In just a few minutes I need to pack up my crock pot dinner and pick up Ernestine Boonstoppel to go to Guilt and Lies Meeting. It's going to be about time managment, and I have been promised (threatened?) that we will be divided into groups and made to participate. Rawr rawr rawr.

I felt very bad to be laughing and thinking it was funny because I knew the poor little thing must be terrified. Atticus was jumping up and down and yelling, "Papa! Papa! There is a lizzard on mommy's ear!"

It was difficult to get the lizzard off Alyson's ear because he was holding on for dear life. Eventually Aaron pried his jaw loose, using the stick from a discarded bottle rocket. This is good practice for when Aaron is a dentist.

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well - preserved piece ... but to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out and defiantly shouting "Wow what a ride!"-- Author Unknown

The anxious behavior was at its peak this morning because she got left at the vet to have a bath and her nails clipped. Poor Baby. The cats have been worried this morning too. Xochitl keeps crying and I don't know what she wants. I was wondering if there was an earthquake, but the nearest one today was in Coso Junction. I'm on the alert.

I am all ready for school to start on Monday and looking forward to it. I like working. Last Tuesday I still had five openings in my 10:30 class, but by today the class was full.

I have also been considering contributing to their miserable campaign drive. Not KQED, but KVPR. If I give them $75, they will give me a pair of tickets to the Bakersfield Symphony. Then they will send me junk mail for the rest of my earthly probation.

Hanging in the balance: Symphony v. junk mail

They have a job opening there.

I think I have figured out why this genealogy is such a mess. It's because names that were added by the extraction people just got dumped into the archives without being linked into pedigrees. So there are all these anomalous ancestors floating around.

My 11 a.m. class has a lot of people in it too, most of whom are quite clueless. I signed an add slip for Mercedes, who works in the office at Chipman. I thought she looked very familiar when she walked in the door, but it took me about an hour to place her face in my mental file. I am glad to see she is coming to college and trying to make some progress in life.

There is also someone in the class named something like Moxisijsuy Vakrheyenenayask. She barely speaks English and only at a whisper.

Mark Handy's brother, Matt, is taking my English 60 class. He is a fireman taking college units on his days off. Some other teacher--I don't know who-- refused to add Matt because she said "You firemen are only here for salary advancement, not to learn." Hellooooo? Isn't that why everyone goes to college? Anyhow, I cannot imagine anyone who would take a composition class voluntarily to "learn". Except maybe the people who cut and burn their arms and the people like to be whipped by their sex partners and the people who drive British sports cars.

I haven't installed the TurboTax yet.

It's raining here. Poor Gretel doesn't want to go out in it to pee. Last time it rained she held it for 15 hours.

A group of obnoxious parents is trying to ban Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye from high school classrooms in this district. I have signed a petition against their petition. The pro-book petition was written by Gloria Dumler. I was trying to think of who I know (Kern County residents) that would agree with me and sign the petition, and I could only come up with Jeannette and Rachel. Most of the people at church violently disagree with me on many political issues, so I just don't pursue any arguments with them. So I circulated the petition to Jeannette and Rachel and hope they know other people. The BC English Department wants everyone to go down to the KHSD board meeting and make a showing, but I am tired. I'm trying to do less, not more. I would just love to go to jail for picketing over a First Amendment issue, but not today, thank you.

I feel really irritated about the way these born-agains think they can dictate the curriculum that is taught to my child-- and that I teach in my classroom. Let them do their little homeschool thing if they want, and keep their religion and "values" and "morals" out of my classroom and away from my kid.

Something is obviously wrong with their system. Students are having to spend forever just trying to get near enough to buy their books.

Before the movie, the "assistant production assistant" or somebody like that gave a speech in which she spoke of the "miracles" that happened during the filming. Then she tried to sell us the DVD, specially priced today only with a free soundtrack CD if you buy it tonight steprightupladiesandgentlemen! All in all, pretty cheesy.

I think that, as a nation, we have been had.

The troublemaking parent who started the whole scandal is thinking of running for the school board though. That is a scary thought. I will have to campaign for her opponent. Especially if it's Wesley Crawford.

I thought that was sweet.

Universe: Huh? Did some little pipsqueak say something? Do I care?

I think the last time I did this was the time LuJean and I came home from a movie and there was a momma skunk with her babies on our front porch.

I feel sorry for our missionaries. There is nothing I resent more than answering the door, and lo and behold, it's representatives from some other religion. I don't want to hear their message, and I have no intention of EVER joining their church, and I don't like feeling bad about it if it's a nice old lady or a little kid. I am always doing something important, no matter what time of day it is. I never have time to just sit and chew the fat with strangers who want to convert me. I am a busy person, and I try to stay productive. I'm sure a lot of people feel that way, and our poor missionaries!

I really don't mind if it's a knock on the door and it's our missionaries. Even though they usually want me to type something for them.

The daffodils are starting to come up and the crocus are blooming. I wish I could find someone to help me with the weeds who will do a decent job.

What? We couldn't get the Equal Rights Amendment ratified, so we're going to pass this nonsense into law?

When the stack of petitions came my way, I didn't take one. I thought I would be alone, but Sarah [Welch] Giorgis saw me and smiled. Then she didn't take one either! I'm not alone! Ernestine Boonstoppel, who was sitting by me, took one, but asked me to explain it to her after the meeting. She listened to my explanation (I tried to be neutral and fair) and then she said "Flubathththth."

Gretel was choking when I did my hair this morning.

Today the newspaper published the results of the Fat Cat Contest. Tonks is still working on it. The winner weighed in at 33 pounds. Now THAT is a fat cat! I put Tonks on the bathroom scale to weigh him and he weighed in at 16. He was very confused by the procedure--dim bulb, you know. 16 pounds is still a pretty hefty kittycat. Bobocatmorn at his most glorious weighed seventeen.

Sadie was a good little dog all the way home, but she's kind of obnoxious to the cats now that she's here. I spent the day getting her settled in--new ID tags, fencing, and so on. I had thought I had some chicken wire, but couldn't find it, so we had to go to Home Depot. One roll wasn't quite enough to do all three gates, and I had to buy two. So now I have enough left to build a new screen for the crawl space someday. Keep the kitties out.

I made Stir Fry Chicken with Pineapple and Pecans for Leonard and Brendan. They arrived just about dinner time. I'm making Leonard take the leftovers home because I don't think it's going to stay down.

Our great-grandmothers marched and fought and went to jail for female suffrage and abolition of slavery. Thousands have given their lives in defense of freedom and equality.

Now, some of the Christian Right is promoting this FederalMarriage Amendment. This is a huge step backwards, and the Constitution of the United States is going to be amended to mandate inequality based on biology over my dead body.

I went to the website to sign the "anti" petition; there were 557,573 signatures.

http://www.petitiononline.com%2F0712t001%2Fpetition.html

English teachers have no life.

Meanwhile, I've almost made it through the orange I got in my Christmas stocking. It's not an orange one, it's lime flavor, and it is luscious. I have just two slices left. It's funny. Years ago the whole thing would have been gone in one sitting, but I think I'm enjoying it more a tiny bit at a time.

Those people are dangerous.

I am shaking my head at the way the Church is crawling over itself to be considered "Christian." From where I sit, Christian is not all that great of a thing to be. For one thing, they believe in justification by grace, which absolutly doesn't fly in my book, and they believe that they are the only people who have the opportunity to be saved. In addition, they believe that they should be able to dictate how everyone else should live, what they should read, and what should be studied in school.

These people have and promote a bigoted fundamentalist mindset, and I think we can do very well without them and the Christian-in-Chief.

It makes me furious that in this country only the wealthy have access to state-of-the-art medical care and Gracie is selling burritos to advance that state-of-the-art. The other thing that upsets me is George Bush is spending billions of dollars on his ego in Iraq; meanwhile he has plopped on his promise to fund AIDS research. And Gracie is selling burritos. This is where a "compassionate conservative leads us." I say, let George Bush hold a bake sale.

Now Sigmund Freud has signed it too.

However, a lot of what I learned in college has turned out to not be true over the years, just as the information from my tenth grade biology class is now outdated. I *like* Bill Morris, and I hope he has a long(er) and happy life and gets to eat lots and lots of candy bars. He can eat my share as well. I can't believe the changes in my eating habits since I got sick.

Of course the edge on this one is getting narrower and narrower. But I was thinking, would I be willing to be drafted to serve my country in the military. Yes, I think I would if I were needed. I think if a person believes in equality, then they have to take all the ramifications as they come.

HOWEVER, I don't think I would be any good as a soldier. I have never been buff, strong, and healthy. Don't think I would make it through boot camp. If the military were to need me, there are many, many other things I can do and do well--office type work, writing, potato peeling, who knows but what I can do technical stuff. I just don't think I would survive hardship and combat. So am I equal? hmmm. Has biology turned around to bite me in the seat again?

I think I need to cheer myself up with the thought that everyone has something to contribute, and not everyone has the same something. Maybe you CAN compare apples and oranges.

I also pulled a lot of weeds. The snails are out for the spring, so I need to get some nice poison for their last meal.

Everyone but Rachel had the soup and salad. This was the first time I had Olive Garden's minestrone, and I thought it was wonderful. I looked up the copycat recipe on the internet, but I thought the recipe was for a something slightly different than what we ate. Maybe different Olive Garden chefs do it differently. The only OG I have ever eaten at besides ours is the one in Dallas where we ate before Alyson and Dave's wedding.

P.S. Rachel had the chicken parmasiana.

I'm sure pigs just flew. Grandpa has switched his allegiance to the Democrats. He actually threw a fund-raising appeal from George Bush into the trash while we were there.

Rachel is gone now, leaving the household very, very quiet. I think I probably need to do lots of genealogy to make up for being a slacker on church attendance.

I was extremely surprised at the number of students who think it's OK to use rude language when they are with their friends, who call their friends by rude names, and who behave coarsely. Their argument is that when they are with friends, "it is real" and "safe" and they don't have to be polite.

Huh. I'm glad they feel they have to be civil in the classroom. I tried to talk to them about how friendship is precious and our friends deserve our best, not our worst, but apparently they don't have those values.

However, today I got a statement from Smithsonian. Big deal special offer, limited time only. I suspect that they sent the two magazines so I would get used to it and then they sent a bill thinking it would get paid automatically. Pretty sneaky of them.

No, I'm not going to subscribe.

I went to a different building and tried another machine. It wouldn't even suck my dollar in. Later in the morning, a student asked if he could go buy himself some water and I told him he could if he could get some for me. I gave him $1.25--a dollar and a quarter. He was gone just forever, and when he returned he reported that he had had to go to the snack machine and change the dollar for quarters and then he had had to hit the water vending machine. Eventually the water bottle came out.

The water here on the east side of town has toxic waste in it, which you can taste if you drink out of the drinking fountain. This vending machine issue is a serious one.

I have a theory, which I hope is correct, that C is one of the more common letters for surnames to begin with, and so I've really made progress. As I said, I hope. It is true, at least, that all the Calls fall into the C category, and there sure were a lot of them!

I worked really hard in the yard until I was absolutely exhausted and had to give up because my muscles were shaking. I thought I'd been out there a long time, but when I came back it, it turned out I was only working an hour. Oh well. If I can just faithfully do an hour every day maybe things will improve around here.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on genealogy. I got through the Davenports and the Davises, both of which were a real mess with a lot of broken links. Sometimes the PAF program doesn't want to make a link, no matter how many times you tell it to. Could it be the dearly departed don't want to be linked and they are messing it up?

I splurged on fresh blueberries to go in fruit salad, and I am freezing guava nectar into ice cubes to float in the orange juice. It's going to be yummers.

I'm going to try my hand at making a boeuf bourginiognefor lunch tomorrow when Leonard arrives. I'll have to start it tonight. Reading the recipe, it's a lot bigger deal than I thought it would be.

Now, creme brulee, I know that one is a lie.

If she would just get in a couple of good swipes with her little needleclaws I bet that would solve the problem, but she runs away.

We found his Halley's Comet matchbox car. I think Halley's Comet has to be one of the high points of my life. I love comets. My grandfather got to see Halley's Comet twice--once when he was a teenager and once when he was a very old man. I celebrated the second time with him.

I tripped over the manger in the garage and made a huge gash on my leg. I thought I just had a little nick on the shin, but upon further investigation there is a big gushable hole on my knee. By the time I noticed it, it has pretty much settled down, and is now going about its work of turning purple.

Neither have I read news reports of American rescue workers going to help. I'm very sure they must be, and the press is not covering their efforts. Can it be we are so inured to these constant attacks that the media is beginning to treat tragedy with a big yawn? We must not forget that even if disasters happen far away, someone somewhere has lost family members.

OTOH, I am not guilty of flying a Winnie-the-Pooh flag.

I pulled a lot of weeds this afternoon and sprayed a lot of Roundup, but I am not optimistic that I'll ever catch up with them. The weed misery this year is partly due to being sick LAST spring and letting them go to seed. Hope I can keep it under control.

But why should I be worried about that? Perhaps the sister missionaries eat a lot also. Prhaps it's a stereotype that they should only have a very small portion of food. I'm constantly amazed at how often I find myself tripping up on preconceived assumptions.

Not only did he want to see and feel each rock, but he wanted to know its name and habitat. He replaced them each so very gently. What a kid!

So on St. Andrew's Day, should I wear my nightgown, since that is the only tartan thing I have?

I'm also trying to figure out logistics for a trip to the temple to get cards made for Larry and Uncle Carl. Also Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Richard, but their cards don't have to be ready the first week of April like the other ones. The YM are going to the temple during spring break, so I want to send Larry's and Carl's names.

Dogs are funny creatures. No matter what rawhide chew it is, the other dog wants it. Then, when the prize is gained, suddenly the abandoned chewie is attractive again.

Frances: This is not controversial or meant to be, just a question. I was wondering how you feel about the situation going on in the news regarding the 3rd graders being held back b/c they can't pass the test with basic reading and math skills. You being a teacher who deals with the kids that were never taught and just passed through the school system, I would like to know how you feel about this issue. Thanks

I think the current method of just passing kids along has got to stop. At some point, these students are going to find out that they can't just slide by, and unfortunately, that usually happens in the business world. If kids know they have to pass a test, they work hard and do pass it. If they know the test isn't going to matter, they shine it on. The San Francisco Chronicle reported a Canadian study which indicated that students of whom expectations were higher performed better. Well duh.

The problem in implementing this--as we have found with California's STARS test--is that the tests are not aligned with the curriculum, so students are being tested on things they have not been taught. The two have to work together to be successful.

The current procedure in early elementary school is for everyone to be creative and have a wonderful time. They celebrate every holiday, cutting out construction paper shapes, and they do big projects like making pigs out of Clorox bottles. This has got to come to an end to make time for more math and phonics. I think third grade is just about right to give such a test.

Teachers will probably fight this. You'd be surprised how many teachers don't have basic reading and math skills. They'd rather make pigs out of Clorox bottles and Easter baskets out of milk jugs. (I'm the first to admit, there is nobody more fun to go play with that 25 second graders.) There is a test called the PRAXIS--used to be called the National Teachers' Exam. It tests general knowledge, and someone who passes it is considered knowledgeable enough to teach all subjects in a self-contained classroom. In California, if you pass the exam, you can get a multiple-subject credential with it. (You still have to do all the other credential stuff, but the curriculum part is done if you pass the test.) I took this test because I had applied for a job at the prison, and those are self-contained classrooms. A girl I knew from grad school took the test with me. Before the test, we were talking to the other people who were there, and most of them had failed it before, some of them several times. One lady had taken the test eight times and she was planning to go to San Jose the next weekend to take it again! All these people could do was moan about how hard it was.

At the lunch break, I met my friend and said "Am I missing something? This test is a joke." We agreed that it was probably one of those tests that you think you are going to ace it and then it turns out you missed the point entirely and you are a dismal failure. Oh well, we thought. Well, I got my results and I was in the 99th percentile--without having studied, taken a refresher course, or even (forgive me!) prayed. During my five years teaching for the elementary district, I met a lot of people who had been unable to pass the test but they are still teaching on emergency credentials, and occasionally trying to pass because there is such a shortage of people with a valid credential.

The high school district was worse. Those people want to spend zip time on basic skills, which they believe should have been learned in elementary school (as they should have!) and they only want to teach their subject matter. Plus, a high school teacher has a couple hundred students a year. There is not time and manpower enough to remediate everyone by that point. Kids have got to get the basics down before puberty, because once they hit middle school everyone is just going for six years of survival.

And that is why I have a job. Some of my students are thirty years old and not able to read at a third grade level. Recently in the news, the University of California and the California State University systems announced that they would no longer accept students who were unprepared to work at university level in reading and math. Guess where those students are going to go? Job security for me.

I ended up buying the ugly one because it was about 400% easier to get into, with the tubes and so forth. It doesn't look as ugly on me, it's easy to get in and out of, it was short enough that it wouldn't need hemming, and it was half the price of the others (the final selling point!)

Then I went to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the LA temple Visitors Center. I don't know why I was naive enough to think I was really going to see Dead Sea Scrolls--of course any museum isn't going to send something so valuable and fragile trotting around the country for exhibit. The "scrolls" were copies printed onto Naugahyde. (I guess that sounds worse than it really was, but actually it is kind of sorry.) Many of the other items in the exhibit were things recycled from the Masada exhibit the BYU Museum put on a few years back--all of them reproductions except a Roman sword that wasn't labled as a copy but I'd be very surprised if it were a real one because it's in too good a shape. I didn't learn one thing I didn't already know. I am grateful that I got to see a real Dead Sea Scroll in the British Museum, so that I don't have to pass my life never having seen one.

Then into the temple to get cards made for my names, and their computer wouldn't take the data from my disk. So, huffing and puffing, back to the LA Family History Center where it took a very long time to get everything straightned out. Grrrr. Then back to the temple to make cards, and finally it took. By then I was too exhausted to do any of the work.

I picked up Rachel and took her to lunch at our family's traditional spot, Earth, Wind & Flour in Santa Monica.

Karen Olson was there at the temple doing a little receptionist job, which she says she is doing one Friday a month now on a volunteer basis. Her assignment appeared to be to sit in a chair by the exit and read an Ensign magazine, but she did bust me for having a cell phone in the temple.

One of the cleverest uses of a mirror is in Secret Window, where the protagonist is approaching the mirror and his reflection is walking away from him, so we see the guy's back walking away from the camera and also walking away in the mirror. It turns the trope of mirror on end.

More mirror thoughts: Gretel knows there is a dog in the bathroom mirror. Every so often she has to stand up at the sink to look to see if the dog is still there.

I hate the mirror in the Nations' dining room. It is huge--wall to wall, floor to ceiling, and it gives me the creeps to see myself sit and eat.

Robert was a student of mine many, many years ago when he first came back to school. It was the semester I did the California story project, in which I asked students to write the story about how they and/or their family came to California. Robert's story was fascinating. He had been working in the oilfields in Wyoming and lost his job. They were flat broke, but they heard there were oil jobs in California, so Robert, his wife, and all their little boys went out and stood on I-15 with their thumbs up. They were picked up by a club of Hell's Angeles who were returning to California from the annual Harley rally in Sturges, South Dakota. Robert and the kids each rode to San Diego behind a biker, and one of the bikes had a sidecar so his wife got to ride in that. They came here with only the clothes on their backs.

Now Robert works for the college, and his boys are no longer small, but he still has that sunny personality. I am very sad for him.

A student came to class stoned.

I arrived at the E surnames in my genealogy checklist.

Kim Cornett called very sick, and Gretel and I went to take her some Terry Pratchett books to read.

These things are happening today:

I made crostini and mozarella bruschetta and shrimp spread.

I am going to Hillary's soon to see the new puppy.

Sherrie Lewis and I are going to go visit Jill Langley.

That's the best I can do, as far as excitement in life goes.

Aunt Jeuney -- always the renegade -- used to have Madchen be fuzzy for years on end. And I can never remember her poodle, Shelly, being clipped poodle style. Do the dog clipping police ever come after a person for that? Cute little fuzziedooble.

I was sick today. Stayed home in bed all day, asleep most of the time. Still feel rotten but MUST go to work tomorrow. Fortunately it's the last day before spring break. I think being sick is really a pain.

In checking my genealogy, I have made it to Ingeborg Finnsdatter, Queen of Scotland, born 1021. Would be nice if all ancestors back that far were checked, but of course I'm doing them alphabetically, not chronologically.

The summer clothes I ordered from Land's End got returned to the company. They said I sent them back for a credit. HELLOOOOO? I never even saw the package. They are being nice about it though.

Well, dogs are wanting to go to bed so I guess I will too.

I went over to the hospital to see him and he looked pretty good. I took him two bottles of purple grape juice, which is supposedly good for your heart, and he promised to drink it. What an April Fool stunt!

In other news, I have a strawberry growing in my garden. It's April 1 and I have a strawberry almost red enough to eat!

Just as I was removing my rubber gloves to come in, a goat-footed La Rosa guy whistled far and wee, so I bought a limon and sat eating it under my back patio. It's like heaven in my back yard. The Lady Banks rose is hanging in fragrant streamers down from the patio overhead. In bloom are the lemon, Valencia orange, and grapefruit (navel orange still isn't doing much, maybe next year!), the apple, and the boysenberries. Also the Brazillian jasmine and the freesia, and you couldn't bottle the fragrance! There are little baby apricots on the apricot tree. I suppose if I were ambitious I would get out there and thin them, but I've got a whole carpet worth of gazania to plant. I want to get it done before the daffodil leaves die down, so that I don't disturb bulbs while planting the ground cover. --

Heads up to all planning to make Aunt Jeuney's beef stroganoff ahead of time and freeze it. Do NOT freeze it with the sour cream in it--it curdles. Freeze the meat in the sauce and then stir in fresh sour cream when you are heating it up to serve it.

I did do my taxes. Grrrrrr.

This is the lady who made the spicy shrimp Dalton brought to the Christmas brunch last year. I did the math and figured that if those shrimp were made by a Chinese neighbor, there must be a recipe for it in a Chinese cookbook. I looked, and in my book there is a Schezwanese recipe for Chunking Style Shrimp. I'm going to give it a try. The recipe doesn't look like it calls for enough red pepper, but I betcha we can fix that!

I bought a pound of shrimp, never dreaming what a big pile a pound would be. I'll try half the recipe. The other half pound, I quickly made up into a batch of scampi for lunch. Gretel had fun while I was peeling and deveining the shrimps because I have a couple of bandaids on fingers and am a little awkward, so every once in a while one got dropped on the floor. It didn't seem to matter to Gretel whether the shell was on or not.

While I was peeling shrimp, I remembered when Grandpa Call died. Robert was living in Houston, and he brought a big cooler full of Gulf shrimp when he came to Utah for the funeral. We cooked them in lemon, garlic, and olive oil and had a big family shrimp-stuffing feast.

The butcher at Albertson's asked me if I was having a good day so far. I said, "I'm starting the morning at Albertson's; life doesn't get much better than that!" He grinned and agreed.

I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to get a new soap dispenser for the kitchen because they sent a discount coupon in the mail. Whooooeeee, there are some UGLY soap dispensers out there nowadays. I finally chose one that is sort of Italian-looking, a golden yellow. I wanted another blue one, but they all were the wrong shade of blue. I'm a little bothered about that because I'm thinking of redoing my kitchen in red and blue (instead of yellow and blue) and my new soap dispenser might not match. I hope the dispenser will last a long time because it has a metal cap and spout, so we (knock on wood) won't have the cracking spout problem rampant with the ones from Tarjiay.

Oh well, that's a long way off. I have to redo my bathroom first. Heck, I have to FINISH the first redo of the bathroom before I start the second!

Then I went to Home Depot to get more sprinkler parts. This makes three stores I have gone to, and still don't have everything I need. Today I stooped to sorting through all the other boxes to see if what I wanted had been misplaced. Not a lot of luck--only one part. Everyone was there buying PVC pipe. I think having an automatic sprinkler system is like owning a British sports car. As Jon says, only a machochist would do so. There is a certain amount of OCD behavior that is called for--or perhaps triggered--by sprinkler ownership. I saw a former student there; he is spending his spring break doing honeydos.

I also continued my search for dill. No dill. No dill seeds. What is up with this? There was fresh dill at Albertson's but it was the kind without roots. If Youngs would get in some of their usual brand, I could plant it in the yard, but nooooooo.

I think the Scandinavian royalty is probably messed up just as badly, but it's not as noticible because of the use of patronymic names.

So I had to get it to see if it would work. It does, after a fashion. Kind of tricky to use, and a twistie tie is easier. I resealed the carrot bag today.

The real attraction of the Eurosealer is it's a descendant of the heat sealer Leonard and I used to run when we were in high school and we worked in packaging at Aunt Jeuney's hobby supply business. It was the most tempermental machine I ever met, so of course we developed a love-hate relationship. Ziploc bags were barely invented at the time and wouldn't become common for another decade. The Eurosealer is about 1/50th the size of that old heat sealer machine.

The Eurosealer may very well end up in the garage sale when I have finished playing with it.

forgive me we sell medicinal/do you care......

I took the Easter basket centerpiece off the dining room table and plonked it and Joel in an azalea bush to take his picture, so I'll have a pretty cute Eastery scrapbook page in spite of no bunny.

Getting out to Pat's was the pits. The authorities had closed Hart Park, and the cops had blocked off all the roads. Everyone in town was there gettting turned away from their planned picnic and sent home. I think that can't possibly have been a legal move by the city because it left the people who live next to Hart Park trapped. We eventually found a back way in and Rachel hopped out and moved the orange roadblock cone.

Update: Dr. Amin assures me that this never happens. I am even less certain about that than I was this morning.

I'll think about it tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day.

It's almost as fun to imagine these things as to do them, isn't it? I actually quite like the friends and family I have in this universe, but it's nice to know this is not all there is. We can always think about the alternatives.

The pit thing is, I can't figure out how to get my mail.

I made a dish from the last meal on the Titanic for dinner--Chicken Lyonnaise. It was really good. I also made wild rice, vegetables, and a California salad.

We went over a bunch of genealogy and I showed him what I have done on Uncle Carl's. (His father.)

The bad thing that happened --and this is very bad-- is that his dog ran away while he was here. Somehow he got out of the back yard. We drove around looking and asking neighbors, and we made fliers and hung them out. On Monday, I will have to go to the pound.

Toren also brought up a website of his family's hometown. It was a wonderful website, very visually pleasing. I couldn't read a word, but the photographs were lovely. Toren says the web page announces that the Beach Boys are going to give a concert there in May. Bob and I think they are probably not the kind of beaches the Beach Boys are used to.

On my way out I ducked into the cat room to see who was there. Very few adult cats, lots of kittens. There was one very unusual kitten who couldn't have been more than five weeks. She is tiny, tiny. She stood up in her cage and squeaked at me, begging me to have pity. Very strange coloring. The adoption card on the cage called her a "black tabby", which I have never heard of or seen before. It's like she is striped with two colors of black.

When I go back to take them some pictures of Lucky, I will have to strictly avoid going in the cat room, or I might get in trouble.

Suzi sent me an email saying she had cried all night, and Whit has called me several times, and it is so hard to tell them I have no news about their dog. I feel just terrible about this.

...A real estate ad, the headline for which read "Road Resurfaced Two Years Ago." If this is the main selling point for the place, then that is really sad. That's all it is, is just sad. The poor house was going for $54,000, resurfaced road and all.

...No dog for Whit. But I finally got the fax from the vet in Texas and the paperwork from Dr. Reno so I can get Sadie a city dog license.

I brought the balloons home and put them in the kitchen and the dogs freaked. They were barking and growling and circling the table objecting to this brightly colored interloper.

After lunch I went to the SPCA to look for Whit's dog and then drove the streets and alleys some more trying to find him. Then I waited the whole rest of the day for my delivery from the home medical people. I finally called them at 7:15 and they were "confused." They are bringing it in the morning.

When I get like this I start thinking that there is no way I will get everything done that I need to do before I die, but what can ya do? I'll get done what I can, and as for the rest, so be it.

Then Rachel and I went to the grocery store, I roasted a chicken and made Chinese cabbage salad, and I took a nap. I was going to make her help me pull weeds--and the yard needs it; it is a disaster in the making! However, I decided it would be better to go visit Don in the hospital and the grandparents. When we went to the hospital, Don was discharged already--a day early, but that's Don. We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa and Rachel scored a lot of old kitchen utensils and pots. I was glad we went to visit--they are old and lonely and family is more important than weeds.

Whit and Suzi and SarahMaurie came when the Jackmans left, and I fed them tacos too. They are out now hanging up more fliers and looking for Lucky, and I need to be grading papers.

One thing that worked really well for the chicken tacos is I mixed the salsa with the shredded chicken to warm it up. It was good that way, and not dry.

I got around it though. I saved the attachment and then opened it with WordPerfect, which unlike SOME programs can read a lot of other ones.

Yoooooohooooooooo! Bill Gates! My boat is not floating!

It's incredible to watch him weaving with all those legs a-going. He patrols very fiercely, and I've been able to leave my door open for the cool air all night because I know any insect that enters will be DNS. He will actually jump after a fly without bothering with a web. I told Irma this morning to make sure she doesn't kill him.

Anyway I don't want him to be Edwinna, even though that was the name of my best friend in tenth grade. Edwinna would put an egg sac somewhere in my bedroom and then I would have a lot of babies, and it's about all I can do to let Edward live. I am sort of like Henry VIII. It has to be a boy, or off with its head!

This morning Edward was perched on the smoke alarm.

What's bad about it, is the dead foxes were found by a crew from National Geographic that was here doing a documentary on kit foxes. Great. Now National Geographic knows what a bunch of ignorant hicks we have in this town, and pretty soon the world will know.

Poor little foxes.

I spent half the night last night doing the ward newsletter and waiting for the Bishop to send his column, and then the rest of the night throwing up. Leonard and Sumana brought me some peppermint ice cream from Dewar's, which I thought would taste good, but it was like cod liver oil to me. Also I guess it's been forever and a day since I had any amount of any dessert kind of thing, so maybe my body was rejecting the fat and sugar. Bleah.

Going back to bed now.

The rest of the box was full of letters to and from various people, with variations on the theme of "Hi, I know I'm late writing back, we are fine." I put them through the paper shredder, and also all the sales receipts and newspaper clippings. Why me? Oh, I know why me. It's because AJ always thought I cared about family history--and I do-- but bleah. People should go through their own stuff before they die.

Sadie has been to the groomer and she is NAKED! I bet she feels better in this heat. I also made it downtown to get her dog tag. I think if those people who work for the City could work any more slowly and inefficiently, they would qualify for a job with the County! In the Welfare Department or the Health Department.

I was going to get my syllabus for fall done today too, but it's not going to happen.

Everyone who showed up to take the writing exam in my ACDV 68 class passed it, except for one girl who borderlined. I had to call her to tell her that I wasn't going to send her on and she would have to repeat the class. It made both of us sad.

In other news, one of my students had planned her baby's birth for June, when school is out. She had to have an emergency C-Section on Monday because the cord was around his neck, and she's still in the hospital. I excused her from her oral report--I figure she's been through enough. I don't know if she'll be up to taking the exam on Saturday or not.

These kids live lives of one emergency after another.

Later: Oh,yeah. There are "snap judgments", "faulty judgments" and "pre-judgments" . Any others?

She said to peel the tomatillos, but tomatillos apparently have both a husk and a skin, so I didn't know what to do. I ended up just taking of the husk and leaving the skins, figuring it's going though the blender anyhow. The one thing I did differently from what she said is I used Ortega chiles instead of jalapenos. I didn't think I was interested in the jalapeno roasting and peeling scene, and also I wanted to make it a little milder in case John might not like spicy food, and also out of deference to my finicky tummy.

Then Rachel went back to Los Angeles and I went to bed. Barely got to sleep and my TPN pump decided to act up, with big loud alarms. I turned it off, tried to reboot, tried new batteries, checked the tubing, tried everything. It doesn't work still, and I am starting to feel faint. I called the nurse and she said they would send another one out, but they haven't come yet.

Meanwhile, Sadie is in desperate John withdrawal mode and just craving attention every second.

I sure hope someone buys John and Susie's clock.

Hello, folks! The days when we could huddle up in our little American cocoon and ignore the rest of the world are O-V-E-R! Since technology is what it is, the probability is that if one of those little countries goes down, they will take us with them, like a big stack of dominoes.

World War I (the war that ruined the world) started with an assassination in just that area of the earth.

I have three who tried and tried--and this is their third time through Eng. 60-- and they failed. They need to be in ESL, but will they listen to me? noooo. Even if they did take ESL, there are so few sections it's almost impossible to get a class. I sent two of my boys to Susan McQuerrey, however.

Sigh. I think I will go back home and return to bed.

After that, I went over to the Welsh's to make shisk kebabs and cut up fruit. The social was well attended, and it looked like people had fun. I started getting nauseated toward the end, but what do I expect, eating so late? Brock Hare had brought a "fruit" salad (his sly little dig) that looked incredible, and most people ate that and not my cobbler, so there is a lot left over. Rachel will take some of it with her back to LA.

Brock is a bad boy. I should spend more time with him, being bad.

I worked on genealogy all afternoon, and I am in the middle of the Greys. The Greys are a very large and tangled family and it is going to take me a while. They tie us in to "Hotspur" Lord Percy, which might lend some excitement to our lives. At the very least, we can dream of Shakespeare while we complete our more mundane pedigree charts.

Sherrie Lewis and I took Jill to lunch at La Mina for her birthday. We also took Gwen Lewis, so our visiting teaching is done for the month. (Sherrie stopped by Sister Boonestoppel's, and I spent time with her last week.) I had the enchilada suiza and the other ladies had the buffet. So far it has stayed down--sorta, barely.

I am making pate a choux filled with tuna salad to take to Guilt and Lies Meeting tonight.

I went to Target and bought a gift for Laura and Michael Rasmussen's baby, (another!) wastebasket, and some little dishes for Jellybean to drink Arrowhead water from. I forgot to buy the two gift cards that I intended to pick up. I did remember to get my reprint of photos from Easter. Then I went to the grocery store and now I am done for.

Jimmy told me he doesn't think I'm looking that good. I could always count on him to tell it straight.

I have waded through almost all of the "G" names in my list. I'm down to the GUs, and there are five more pages of G to go before I start H. Today I checked and got biographical dates for a lot of Welsh ancestors, but don't expect me to say their names.

Now I am up from my nap, but still in my nightgown because my entire wardrobe is in the wash. Between now and the time tonight when I go to the shower for Laura and Michael Rasmussen's baby, I am going to do something (I don't know what) about the organization of the binders full of 12X12 scrapbook paper. Perhaps Roy G. Biv will help.

Yes, my tetanus shot is up to date. Is YOURS, faithful reader?

On one of them, the person who posted it said they tried it because it was such a crazy idea it might work and it did. It was swish a dryer sheet around the pot, and the carbon will magically leave the pot and adhere to the dryersheet. Right. The carbon in my pot laughed at my dryer sheet.

The hint I am trying right now is sprinkle the burned part with dishwasher soap and add water, then simmer. It's working okay, slowly, but ok. (When I say slowly, I mean it's been simmering all day, and still traces of burned stuff.) It still takes scraping and elbow grease, and I am an unhappy camper because I really needed to make apricot nectar this weekend, and I can't without the big pot.

Don Aslett says use oven cleaner, but I hesitate to do that to my good French cookware. Of course, I shouldn't burn stuff in my good French cookware either, but there you have it.

Grandpa is in the hospital. I'm going to go visit him in the morning and see how he is doing.

I don't think Grandpa has a very clear picture of how serious his situation could be. So far, that I have heard, he has blockage in his kidneys and an embolism in his lung.

Grandma is managing the best she can, but she can't hop up and find his glasses, straighten the pillows, run to the nurses station, and all those little things that need to be done when a loved one is in the hospital.

I made Grandma go to lunch--the hospital cafeteria is called a cafe. The Heart Rock Cafe. No lie. The food looked pretty good, but I only had jello. When we got back, Bones was in the room going over Grandpa with a tricorder. It was interesting to see the various internal organs as they appeared on the computer screen. Tomorrow Pat has to go to Madera, so I have extracted a promise that if Grandma needs a ride and company tomorrow, she is to call me.

Then I came home and was very sick (orange jello, yuck) and went to bed for the rest of the day. I am not accomplishing much.

Do you suppose I can do it by email? And can I verb a noun?

In the meantime, I guess I need to listen carefully for the jingle of the man with the cart.

I've just about got my (contemporary) scrapbook caught up, and then I need to work on Leonard's before I can start on the life history book again. Will be nice to be finished.

Genealogy wise, I did all the Hansens today. It was odd coming across the names of aunts and uncles I knew when I was a girl, and not having to imagine what they were like. Remembering very fondly tonight Aunt Bessie, who was a professional seamstress and who encouraged me and taught me a lot.

I was starving and I wanted a Whopper, but I couldn't go in there to eat the dinner.

I'm gonna go buy me a Whopper.

I went to Target and bought a plastic kiddie pool for Gretel to wade in. She was very suspicious of it, and I had to get in it first before she thought it was ok. Sadie won't go anywhere near it.

I went through my new worksheet packet and put all the overheads with the sheets and cleaned out last semester. I answered all my emails and straightened my desk. I cleaned out the file box that goes with me to the classroom. I played all my Scrabble turns. (Oopsie! That's not "work", is it?)

There are 28 students registered for my class (full class) and a dozen more on the wait list. The only thing left to do is print out a class roster--I'm going to do that Sunday night in case someone drops between now and then,or signs on to the waitlist. Then Monday, we will yoke up the oxen. I'm going to tell them to look at their butts and then say goodbye, because they are going to work them off the next six weeks. What they don't realize is that all the work I give them is work for me X30.

I reminded Shane that my mom died like his mom did--very young of breast cancer. It's been 24 years and I am still upset about that. He says his mom has been gone 14 years, and "some people leave a hole in your life that can never be filled--it's just too big a loss." His mom was a great lady too.

It's fun to think of him living his life in the briny deep, snapping at plankton (or whatever he eats). Now his skeleton is sitting on my coffee table.

The sale continued into the back yard of the lady next door. You could hardly get onto the patio for the stuff--she had barrels of junk not even unpacked. It was a huge, incredible mess, and nothing worth having. There were three --count 'em, THREE!-- bride and groom wedding cake statuettes.

This experience made me think even more of my own pile of stuff. What will we ever do with it? Arrrgh.

At least I don't have anything tacky. Except the kitsch creche.

I couldn't tell which kernel was hers either. Lucky a dog's mouth is clean.

I walked over to the cafeteria with Bev Kieper, bought a tuna sandwich, ate half of it, threw it up. I'm hungry again now but don't know if I dare eat anything. It was nice visiting with Bev; this summer it will be a good thing to spend some time with her.

One of the students this morning asked about my IV. That's a first for me. Usually people don't mention it so they can pretend it's not there.

I am doing my laundry.

Last Monday when the nurse checked me, my temperature was 100, so she said that if it goes up I should call the doctor. I said “yeah, yeah,” because my temperature is always going up and down. But Tuesday morning in class, I started shaking uncontrollably. I finally had to let the students go early, and I was just freezing. I went and sat in the sun and it didn’t help. I crawled up to my desk and slept on the floor under it for a couple of hours, and then I finally made it home and to bed, where I dove under the comforter. When I woke up I took my temperature and it was 104, so I decided to call the doctor after all.

Dr. Amin was out of town. His PA said to go to the emergency room (always my favorite thing to do), so I called Sherrie Lewis and she took me in. It was freezing in there, and Sherrie made them give me a blanket. The triage nurse gave me two Tylenol, and we sat down to wait. We made friends with all the people there–a four year old named Larry who had been dragged along because his baby brother was sick, Larry’s grandpa, the mother of a man whose arm had been crushed. (That’s GOTTA be painful!) We watched the Lakers game against Utah, which they won coming from behind at the last minute during overtime.

I was worried that I had that PCP, which is what Roy died from. Same symptoms, cough and high fever. We waited and waited. My TPN container ran out, and I didn’t have any Carmex in my purse. The profile was really piling up on the “I don’t want to be here side.” When they finally took me to the back, they found all these things wrong with me, so they kept me.

It was about 20 hours before they moved me out of emergency to a room. I felt really bad about that because there I was taking up a stall in the ER when there were so many sick and injured people in the waiting room–as I had been. I made Sherrie go home. I was going to call people, but my cell phone wouldn’t work in there. They called in a pulmonologist, a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, and an infectious disease specialist.

Coincindentally, the ID specialist was the doctor Leonard had when he had osteomastitis when he was about eight years old. She hasn’t aged a bit, which doesn’t seem fair to me since the rest of us are all turning into hags.

So I cooled my heels in the hospital for a week while all these doctors ran every test in the textbook. They gave me a unit of blood right off the bat, and I immediately felt much stronger.

Life in the hospital was awful. They had me on a liquid diet, which means nonfat dry nonsoup and fake jello (Did you ever wonder just how artificial something can get???) They took my blood sugar (finger prick) every hour round the clock, vitals every four hours, and blood draws about six times a day. Also, it was noisy! I’ve decided I have a very low tolerance for noise, and that is why I never turn on the radio, and why Sadie’s barking drives me so insane. I’d rather be hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, or in pain than exposed to continuous noise.

Lots of people came to see me and smuggled in real food. Rachel brought me a Too Fat sandwich, which was really good, and I had some nice homemade matzoh ball soup that Hillary brought me. I missed home and work and my students very much, and Gretel, of course, was a basket case when I didn’t come home.

The good thing about this adventure, is the gastroenterologist found a very serious problem. The duct between pancreas and stomach was infected, inflamed, and totally closed off. He poked a tiny little hole, and I feel much better, but I have to go in for a laparoscopy on it when summer school is over. The optimistic view is that if this is fixed, I won’t need to be on the TPN IV anymore. That would be wonderful.

Finally, all the doctors said I could go home, but the nurses got excited because my blood pressure was low, and they didn’t believe me when I told them it was always low. They put in a call to the cardiologist, and he never returned it. I don’t blame him, because he had said I could go home the night before. The day nurses didn’t believe he had said that, however. Finally, I got disgusted and took of f the heart monitor myself and just left. Jonell Amundsen and Becky Bean took me home, where I found GIGANTIC zucchini. I tried to get the ladies to adopt them but they wouldn’t.

I fell into my own bed and slept like a person who’d had no sleep in a week–and I hadn’t. It is SO good to be home and eating real food and sleeping in my own bed. I’m going to make a really nice dinner for Rachel before she goes back to school. Some kind of chicken breast dish, sauteed zucchini, wild rice.

I really felt bad about being sick when Rachel was in the middle of her senior thesis and finals. She made a lot of trips from Los Angeles to take care of me, and was so stressed, and I regret that. It was a bad time to be sick. I am so very grateful for the loving care of all my family and friends.

I tried to teach her the technique of deglazing the saute pan to make a sauce, but I don't know if it stuck. She'll have more time to cook once she is out of college.

I just can't believe my baby is graduating from college! It feels like a real lifetime accomplishment to have such wonderful, smart, and educated kids.

Then I went to Office Depot to get more file folders and some watercolor brushes. While there, I found that they had stocked OmniPage Pro, so I bought it. I know it wasn't there a couple of months ago when I was looking all over town for an OCR program that would work with Windows XT. I do hope I can get this to work with my old scanner. I have lots and lots of OCs that are waiting to be Rd.

Then I went shopping for an outfit to wear to graduation. I found a few nice summer clothes at Ross. The only thing left that I really need is a pair of white capri pants. The ones I found at Ross I liked really well. They only had a size ten, which fit fine everywhere but around the tummy. Bleah. I'll look at Target one of these days.

That did me in and I came home and collapsed and slept for a few hours. Now up, it's 4 p.m, and I haven't even started my paper grading and newsletter typing.

Dr. Lasseter is one of the people who are under the delusion that American literature is the best kind. Bless his heart, I read Moby Dick and Walden for him.

I was so happy, but I was sad too. Most of the students had two parents there, and a lot of them even had four! Rachel, as usual, had me. All these years, I've gone alone to concerts, plays, games, graduations, Susie's wedding. It bites, and sometimes I've felt like giving up, but I couldn't because I had three wonderful kids to raise.

In a way, we've cobbled together some "family." Rachel's friends Chris, Jennifer, and Becca came, and also Jen's parents, the Vorells, as well as her old roommate, Christina. So it wasn't like she didn't have a crowd. I took Chris and Becca out to dinner at the Grand Panda on the way home. As usual, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, so Chris had to take home a bunch of styrofoam boxes. My fortune cookie said I would have a summer full of comfort and material security. I'd sure like to know whan that will be!

I made it through the meeting without a meltdown, though afterwards Doris Jackman and I got a little bit sentimental as we remembered our fathers.

After church I went over to visit Dalton in the rest home. He was doing well and seemed stronger; he dictated a very sentimental note to Rosalie and I wrote it down for him.

Hermione's cat is a Flame Persian. I wonder why people think those caved-in facial features are attractive?

Speaking of cats, I saw Xochitl today. It was the first time in a couple of weeks. I spoke to her, but she wouldn't come in the house. She's getting thin. I think she needs to come home and scratch the dybbuk across the nose.

He had a little jealousy himself, however, as I told him all about my hospital stay. He cast his jaundiced eye on the medications they had me on, the doctors they called in (except Dr. Manouj--he likes him), and the whole procedure. Serves me right for getting sick when he is out of town.

I think he is a good writer, but it wouldn't have hurt him to run it through another draft or two. I think this may be one of the cases like JRR Tolkien, when the author has such a towering ego that the editor hesitates to suggest needed changes, or perhaps the author ignores the editor's advice. (That was why Tolkien fell out with C.S. Lewis, but I side with Lewis in that battle.)

There are some lovely and touching tributes to his mother, and I think he is very honest about his character flaws. More honest than most, to tell the truth.

I have made it to his college years at Georgetown. A review I read in the newspaper said probably nobody would hang in there for all 900-odd pages. We shall see.

Rachel came home and we went out to dinner at Mimi's, where I had the onion soup. I don't think it is going to stay down though. We wanted to go to the dollar movie, but it starts too early/late.

Tomorrow, the weeds.

Then we went to visit Grandpa. He didn't even sit up in bed. Grandma was there sitting with him, working on a baby quilt which she was piecing by hand. It's pink, so if Shannon has a girl this time, she will get it so she can raise the poor little thing according to outmoded sexist stereotypes. (I don't think she will, and I hope she won't.)

I remarked that I haven't seen her making a quilt since the one she made for Leonard when he was born. She said she quit making them about that time because Grandma Jessie started to crank them out.

Now Rachel and I are going to see Ella Enchanted, if we can ever get Gretel out.

Today at church I made arrangements for some Boy Scouts to come pull weeds so they can earn money for camp. They are coming tomorrow night. We also sang "Come Let us Anew", one of my favorite hymns. We came home after Sacrament Meeting and I went back to bed, where I spent most of the day sleeping and reading my new Italian cookbook. I am tempted to go back right now, as a matter of fact.

The plum tree has produced. They are fresh and juicy and good.

So today I was at work, left about noon, came home, and lo and behold, as I turned onto Cedar Street, there were Jill and Sara Langley chasing me down the street. It turns out the nurse was looking for me all morning, and they ended up calling Kim Cornett (my emergency contact), and Kim called Jill and Sara [because they have a key] so the Langleys could come over and see if I was dead in my bed with the cats eating me. I have told and told and told the agency that I work until noon. They don't believe it.

I called Kim to apologize and thank her for fielding that emergency, and she said she will never let me be dead in my house for a week with cats eating me. She is such a good friend!

I am enjoying a long weekend with my family even though I feel rotten. I am sort of sorry about the firework situation for John's sake; all the shows are expensive to go to, and the fireworks are expensive to buy, and I can tell he is disappointed to not have any. If I felt better, I would have insisted that everyone get in gear and go to a show, and if I weren't so broke, I would have bought tickets.

The kids helped me quite a bit in the yard yesterday, and things have improved. I installed the new pumps on the filters in the fishpond, so I hope the water will clear up soon.

Today I walked into church with my whole family, and we sang "America the Beautiful" with the choir. It was an exciting moment to me, to be a real family and do the things that real people do. I am so proud of my children.

We went to Beverly's to get some curtain material for Leonard's new house and some elastic for Rachel, to Smart & Final to get water and V-8 juice, and to the pet store to get cat and dog food and fishpond enzymes. They had guinea pigs on sale for half price. The pigs were not very tame.

After everyone left, I collapsed, and when I woke up my temp was 102. I took some Tyelenol and stayed in bed, and I'm feeling some better now.

I am wondering how much longer I'm going to be able to work?

Last night, after I had gone to bed but oh well, Amanda Donev came over and brought me a rose, a CD of her acapella choir, and some little pressure point gadgets that are supposed to prevent nausea. They are elastic wristbands that have a little plastic ball to lean into a pressure point. I've had them on for about 24 hours now. So far so good. Amanda is looking good--all grown up and beautiful. She is going to Italy for study abroad next year.

Coincidentally, we were discussing engagement rings at work. Stephanie, the student who is sitting at Hillary's desk for the summer, maintaines there is no such thing as too big a diamond. I hold that anything over, say, a karat and a half is tacky. Too big, and people assume it's fake anyway. We went round and round about this while Midge Ladd laughed at us. Stephanie and I agreed that the very best engagement ring is a plain Tiffany-set solitaire. That's what my first one was, and after all these years it's still lovely. Though I did very much love the custom made ring Roger bought for me. I wish I could have kept the ring when I had to get rid of him. It was made by Raul, the goldsmith next to the Target on Wible Road, and he was kind enough to sell it for me when I needed to get rid of it. Raul's a good guy, and he's seen me through the disposition of two husbands.

This is the first vacation in my life where I feel I can just stay in one place and relax. The only thing we have going is tickets to Hearst Castle on Friday. Sadie will have to stay in her box in the motel while we go there, but it's only three miles away.

Gretel is going to military school while we are gone. She does not know this yet. Today we got her a bordatella booster at the vet's, and she was the biggest wussie about that little ole shot. She cried and cried; you'd have thought we amputated something.

We stayed at the Cavalier Oceanfront Resort, which is pricy by my standards, but we had a fireplace in our room, an ocean view, and just steps from our room to the beach--also the motel's restraurant is right there and decent food. They have three outdoor fireplaces on the bluff above the beach where they light fires every evening, and you can roast marshmallows or just sit and watch the sun go down. We slept a lot, read a lot, sat in the jacuzzi, and walked on the beach.

Sadie didn't like the ocean. The first time it came up and knocked her over, she decided it wasn't for her, but she thought the sand and seaweed smelled interesting. She was a very, very good dog the whole trip. When we went shopping in Cambria, everyone stopped on the street to remark how cute she is.

We went to Hearst Castle, on a tour I'd never been on before, the one where we see the kitchens and library and Mr. H's private study. Rachel loved it. We got in trouble for leaving Sadie in her crate in our motel room while we went to the castle, so thereafter we had to take her everywhere, and we had to make her stay in the car while we had dinner. We ate at two very nice restaurants for dinner--Pezullo's, an Italian place, and Moonstone Gardens, which is a restaurant/exotic plant nursery. (The nursery itself was closed by the time we got there, but the landscaping was a wonder to behold).

We also visited Harmony, a little hippie town that boasts a potter and a glassblower. It turns out the glassblower, Carl Radke, is famous. I read about him in Smithsonian. It's not as exciting to watch as you might think because his method involves long waits of standing around while the glass heats in big furnaces.

We took the long way home a bopped through Solvang, eating at Pea Soup Andersen's and buying Danish pastries. Decided Solvang is cute, but it sure has gotten tourist trappy, so we never need to go again. I had a terrible tussle with the pump for my IV the whole time, and now I'm waiting for them to bring me a new one. I'm feeling kind of wiped because I was disconnected more often than not, so my blood sugar is down. As soon as they bring the pump, I can take a shower and go to bed. In my own bed! Always a blessing. It's good to be back!

That said, Karen Nations and I went to see King Arthur this afternoon. We loved it. I like going to the movies with Karen because we sit and make irreverent remarks. This Arthur story is mostly galloping horses and swordfights and Saxon battle axes--the love story is very much secondary.

The movie was filmed in Ireland. I read one review--in Newsweek, I think, that said "It's not very often that the weather is one of the main characters of the movie." I'm going to go see it again when it comes to the dollar theater.

In other news, I graded exams all morning and then went to the dentist. He has figured out $3,400 worth of work he wants to do, and my dental insurance will only cover $1000 a year. Bleah. I even have some teeth that are cracked. I'm going to have to take a long look at how long I really expect to live. I'll get the cavities filled, and crowns on the two broken teeth, but I don't know about the rest.

I sent three of my students for retakes of their writing proficiency. I am holding out hope for only one of them. After we grade these tomorrow, I can do final grades and be done. The #1 thing I need to do now is prepare the student worksheet packet for fall semester. Need to get that turned in to be duplicated by next week.

I ordered some things from Parks--more daffodils, some irises, some cyclamen. When those seed catalogs come, I always one one of everything because the flowers are so pretty. I wish I had a full time gardener. And an English garden. In England.

My paycheck is for half the hours I worked. I sure as heck hope they are going to send us the rest on August 15.

I called Garry and asked him to donate grapes for Pioneer Day, ordered some bulbs from Park, and now (well maybe after I nap a while) I'm going to get set up so that I can ask Joey Nations to come over and move sewing machines so I can make Leonard's curtains. And maybe do some other sewing.

Things for Joey to do: 1.Change the Arrowhead water bottle. 2.Climb up and get the needlework frame down (Rosalie wants it.)3.Move sewing machines and kitchen table.4.Scoot bedroom bookshelf out so I can plug something in. 5.And of course, the reason he is coming over: bring back the camp kitchen. I wish I could get him to pull weeds, but I know him too well.

Joey is coming over tomorrow after I get back from Los Angeles and he gets back from EFY.

Maybe I should invite them to dinner and make eggplant. I have eggplants. I have eggplants. I have eggplants. Did I mention? I have eggplants.

Off to Michael Levine, my idea of heaven on earth. Sue and Mary from Orange County met us there--it was soo good to see them. I was very strict with myself and did not allow myself to buy anything that wasn't for Christmas-- so I can't say what I did get, can I, because little pitchers have big weblog-reading eyeballs.

We went across the street to the home dec department, but I didn't see anything that really stirred my mush for redoing the kitchen. They did have some fabulous raffia fabric that I thought would do beautifully for the green chairs that are losing their caning so when one sits, one's bottom falls through. However, for $40 a yard, we can keep sitting with our bottoms falling through.

Light traffic in downtown today. We resisted with great difficulty the street vendors with the kosher dogs and grilled onions and drove up Broadway to Chinatown. We ate at a dim sum place. I got a bit concerned as we entered the restaurant because the posted grade from the County Health Department was only a "B". I spoke sternly with self:

Self: Yeech, I'm gonna get food poisoning!

Me: Where is the adventurous girl who would even eat shrimp from a street vendor in Hermosillo? Let's live a little, girlfriend!

The dim sums (is that how you spell the plural?)were absolutely delicious and we got completely full. I've never really had dim sum except for wonton, pork buns, and potstickers, but Sue and Paula knew what was what. Yummers. Sue bought a half dozen cha su bao to take home. Most of the people eating there were ethnic Chinese. A highlight of the restroom in this place was a poster of Lady Liberty against a flag backdrop that said, "United We Stand." I thought that was a wonderful thing to have hanging in a Chinese restaurant, and I am so grateful that I live in America where people can mix and meld and share cultures.

We poked in a few little shops after lunch. I was hoping to find another bag of turtles like the ones I got for Atticus so I can give them to Joel, but no luck. I did find a metal praying mantis (or is is preying mantis?) which looks very real. I love it, and it was only $2.99. When we were ready to go, Sue's car was not, as it wouldn't start. Poor Sue had to call the AAA, and Paula and I caught a bus back to where my car was parked. I had had this idea to take Paula on a drive through Angelino Heights to see the restored Victorian houses, but Me was nagging in the back of my mind about the Health Department grade on the restaurant, while Self was concentrating on keeping a stomach full of shrimp balls down. So, we hit the freeway and I dropped Paula off by where she had parked (she left her Chinatown purchases in my car!). After that, I made it clear to Castaic before Me and Self colluded that it was time to lose lunch.

I didn't think I would get that far actually, especially approaching the Antelope Valley Freeway, because there was a big forest fire. Fire trucks. Cops. Rangers. Fire crews. Helicopters. They had the 14 freeway closed, and everyone who had wanted to go there had to get off at Lyons Avenue, so there went that pit stop. Once past that, the freeway cleared, and smooth sailing to Bako.

One little funny thing happened when I was gassing up at the Shell station at the Bear Mountain Boulevard exit. A man leaving the mini mart honked his horn at me. I think it was Roger. Gosh, I sure hope I looked happy, well-off, and successful!

I think I've only been so sick one other time in my life, when I was a kid and had Rocky Mountain fever. I went to bed after church Sunday (the 18th) and never got up again really. Wednesday was the worst day. I was seeing hallucinations, including one where Rachel came to me as an angel (little wings sprouting out of her shoulders) and told me I needed to get a degree in American history. I told her she needed to fly a kite.

Wednesday morning I was putting Gretel out so Irma could clean the house, and I collapsed on a garden bench. I was seeing a parting in the air, and I could see another world behind the air curtain--lighter and brighter than the one we live in. There was a halo of light around every leaf and flower. I stared at the rent in the time/space continuum, but Anna Buxton didn't come through it, so I figured I'd be okay. Then later I learned that Neal A. Maxwell, one of my favorite speakers ever, died Wednesday morning. So the angels WERE near.

When I went to my checkup with Dr. Amin on Thursday he bounced me straight into the hospital. What he didn't know is I was already so much better than I had been. However, they decided I was too sick to do the whoopdedootomy, so I had to wait.

Finally, the following week, Dr. Manu did the procedure. He said I was so overgrown with scar tissue it was like cutting wood, and it hardly bled at all. They didn't have me all the way out, and I could feel the scope tickling and scraping down my throat. He kept yelling at me not to vomit. Well, Dr., you have a camera down your throat and see whether or not you vomit.

I suppose I feel better but I don't know. I'm exhausted and I have to drink Gatorade instead of water--very unpalatable. It's nice to be home though.

I'm also slowly working my way through Bill Clinton's life. It's such a big book that it's hard to read. What I mean by that is my arms get tired. However, Bill has written an interesting book populated by fascinating world leaders and no less intriguing behind-the-scenes movers and shakers. I hold with my original opinion that the manuscript could have used a big blue pencil.

Finally, I've almost made it through The Blind Watchmaker . I love reading it, but it puts me to sleep after a few pages, so I use it for pre-nap reading. I realize the book is somewhat dated [1996], but I haven't seen science change all that much since then, and the ideas espoused are certainly new enough for my tiny brain to grasp.

Grasp, Brain, grasp!

Today both Karen Nations and Ruth Davis were on their own, so they invited me to dinner at the Davis home. It was going to be just us girls, but then Brad came home. We had a nice dinner of curry and ripe tomatoes (and a lovely salad for those who can eat salad, but I can't.) We were going to play Scrabble but couldn't find the board. Drat. My chance to win a game.

It was a fun visit, and I needed to be home paying bills, but I wasn't.

I am not supposed to eat: Spareribs. Curry. Bagles. Pizza. Practically everything else I have eaten all week.

Back to juice and yogurt.

Still chiseling along on Bill Clinton's biography.

Now my tongue can't resist the new filling.

That's not such bad odds, really. I would still go ahead with it, even if the risk were higher.

These doctors don't have anyone to serve them with a writ of certioari. Makes you wonder at the trust we have in them.

Meanwhile, the new medicine is causative of misery. It makes me shake like a Parkinson's patient. (He warned me that might happen.) So, all in all, bleah.

Rachel claims she doesn't want to see every one of them. I'm not so sure. However, there are many hundreds of square miles where if you've seen them once, you've seen them all. (We are talking about Nevada here.) I would like to see all the quadrants that have dinosaurs eroding out of them.

Scratcheda.

David Oman called me and I spent about an hour on the phone with him. Every so often it's very nice to catch up. He says Richard has had more heart trouble. I'm sorry to hear that.

This afternoon I went to get my temple recommend renewed. I was early, and I sat in the stake presidency's office for about a half hour reading old Ensign magazines. President Rodriguez did my interview. He didn't remember me from last time, but of course it was two years ago, and I am an inconspicuous sort. It was nice to visdit with him. He shared his thoughts regarding people who can't/don't learn English. He is unconvinced; he thinks anyone can learn it if they apply themselves. I still think it's a very very difficult language.

I was talking to Juan the Gardener and I mentioned that someday I was going to have the yard under control. Yeah, sure, he said.

At Beverly's, where I went to buy more patterns, the lady said, "At least it wasn't money." What patterns cost nowadays, it might as well have been money.

I was exhausted by the time Irma left. I forced myself to go to the bank to get money for Los Angeles, and I bought a new toner cartridge and gas and got my hair cut. It's only 11:20 a.m. and I've done a whole day's worth! After I take a nap, I will do Christmas sewing.

An interesting aspect of this visit was seeing the clientele eat sushi. Here was a whole restaurant full of people who looked like they were from Bakersfield, chowing down on seaweed and raw fish, etc. And, this place doesn't have forks. All the fellows-- who look like oil workers-- were using chopsticks. We may not be a provincial as some of us have always suspected.

I like to experiment with cooking and try new things, but I had a very long dry spell in my life while I was married to men who did NOT like new things. I also had three little picky kids. Well, I'm on my own now, and my kids are no longer picky, and I can cook a thing or two every now and then.

On the way home from LA, I got a Jamba Juice. I'd never tried Lime It Up! before, but it sounded good. It's lime, mango, and strawberry, and really outstanding. I was going to put half of it in the freezer for today, but when I got home I couldn't find where I had set it down, so it sat out all night. (Actually, I had left it in the car, clueless me.) So today Gretel and I had to go for a ride to get me another one. Yum.

I bought some snow peas (a small handful was only 21 cents) to do the other half of the chicken breast with a soy-ginger-garlic kind of arrangement tomorrow.

This was the East Hills Target. I went to visit my father-in-law (who is not looking good at all) and then dropped by Target to check their clearance rack. I had been to the one nearer home yesterday and the pickings were slim. I fell in love with some Hawaiian print Capri pants, but they didn't have the right size, so when I had to go over to the east side to visit Dalton, I dropped by Target to check. They had one pair. At least I hope they are my size; didn't try them on. They are pretty wild.

I also got a peach colored T-shirt to match the Capris, a geranium colored polo shirt (for $3.98) a black blouse, and some khaki linen pants. And the white pants of which I am now suspicious. Got some nice summer clothes for not much money; that's always a plus.

They did not have greeting card envelopes at Target, so I decided to go to the Office Max by BC, but I forgot until I was halfway home, so I went to the Office Depot on my side of town and bought a box of 100. It's one of my budgetary goals to not buy greeting cards because they've gotten so expensive. If I had been a nice person, I would have dropped by home and picked up Sadie and taken her with me to Office Depot, but I wasn't nice this time.

They wanted $50 for ten pills. Ten pills that will make me sick and make me shake uncontrollably all over. I told them no thanks. I'd rather go medicineless.

Fifty dollars to try for three days a medicine that I've already been proved to be allergic to in the generic version. A medicine that makes me miserable. How's that for taking your personal health care into your own hands?

Now I have to play phone tag with the doctor all next week, and tell him I'm not taking it. He's not going to be pleased, but oh well. The real non-funny is that there are four or five other medications in Europe that we could try if we were there, but here in the United States this one is the only one.

I made some vegetable soup, like the soup allowed in that 80s crash diet. It's good! I put so many vegetables in it, it's not all that soupy.

My pile of things to take to Utah is growing larger and larger. I am discussing with the Jackmans the possibility of their bringing my cooler full of medicine in their car instead of me trying to fly with it.

I'm packing to leave for Utah, fun stuff. Dreading the trip there and back, but being there will be fun.

My brother Jonathan met me at the airport and we went to lunch at Spaghetti Factory with Laura. Then Laura took me home and I slept until Susie and John got off work. They picked me up and we went to John's parents for dinner. I couldn't eat much because I was full of Spaghetti Factory.

Friday was devoted to Kristen's labor and delivery. I slept a lot while Susie was at work, snoozing between cell phone updates of Kristen's progress. Little Lilly was born about the time Susie got off work, so we rushed over to see her. She is beautiful!!!! Poor Kristen was wiped. The baby had Aaron's big shoulders, and it was Not Fun. I took Susie and John to Red Lobster, and then we dropped in for a while at the home of Dane McNeil, someone I went to high school with and haven't seen in maybe 30 years. It was good to see him again.

Saturday morning we did a big family event at the temple and did work for all the aunts and uncles. It was nice being in the temple with everyone. Afterward, we went to eat Chinese food, and David Oman had brought a handful of letters that Mom had written to Aunt Margaret and Grandma. He read them aloud during the meal, and I brought them home to scan and put on CD for everyone. Then we went to the cemetery and visited our folks. Everyone else went to the hospital to see the baby, and Susie and I went home for a nap. That evening we went to visit Richard and Pam Oman and had a nice chat. I wish my yard looked like Richard's.

This morning I went to church with John and Susie and then to the airport for the ordeal of getting home. By the time I landed at LAX I knew I was going to be sick, but the line in the bathroom was long and I ended up throwing up into a wastebasket in the middle of the concourse. Embarassing, and a lot of people freaked, but they should get over it. I have. Rachel picked me up--out to dinner, home. Sadie was surely glad to see us.

All in all a nice trip, but I am certainly tired! I honestly think it would have been much less trouble to drive.

Some of those girls have the most incredible endowment of boobs. I spend the whole class time worrying that they are going to come out of hiding. (They are not hidden very well.)

One year we had a Scream Christmas. Everyone got a bunch of Scream stuff. We were feeling like it. Leonardw gave me a very nice framed reproduction. I use it to hang on top of the fusebox. That was our last Christmas with Roger. The next year we had The Unchristmas, when we left him.

Then, apparently, while the back door was open while she was hosing, Gretel got in and peed on my bed. She does that to get even when I've been out of town. So the bedroom door has to stay closed (and the cleaning lady always leaves it open.) So I'm having to wash my down comforter, my duvet cover, sheets, mattress pads--and I already washed the sheets this morning!!!

Thank heaven she did not take the Really Valuable rug --the one under the dining room table--outside. Now I am left to think how I will defend it if she gets a wild hair next time. Next time is two weeks off because next week she is taking the day off to go for her final interview for her green card.

I'm going to do Christmas sewing and work in the garden. Also, Ruth Davis wants to go to lunch tomorrow. It should be a nice quiet weekend except I have to get the church newsletter out.

My hurricane is gaining speed and power, and I have several efriends in Florida who are hunkered down. I feel bad for them, since it is my hurricane.

The big Oriental rug has dried and looks terrible. I think maybe if I spread it out again and scrub with rug shampoo and then vacuum it might improve?

I did meet Ruth Davis and her friend Leah for lunch. Ruth made tuna sandwiches and we played Scrabble. I won. Leah is pretty good at the game, but she was hampered this time around because the tile fairies weren't being good to her. She wants a rematch.

This story is all about the Illuminati, which made it that more interesting. It's a real page turner.

It's pretty good. Next time I won't put so much celery, though. It's the right color and pretty near tastewise as far as I can remember. I don't remember whether this lentil dish contained chopped carrots or other common lentil ingredients, but what I made is pretty good. Gretel likes it too, but that may be a function of the beef broth/ground sirloin.

I've been having dizzy spells that started yesterday afternoon. I wanted to get up early and work in the yard, but was too dizzy, so went back to bed and slept until 2 p.m. Don't know what I would have done if today weren't a holiday. Hope it's better by tomorrow.

I bought a balloon boquet at Albertson's to take to Helen Henton, who is in the hospital and it is her birthday. There was no clerk in the floral department so the manager himself filled my balloons. I think he filled them too full because three of them popped, just randomly, when I got them outside. I had bought five latex balloons of various colors and a huge Mylar one shaped like a tree frog. At least the frog balloon was okay.

Too sick to work in the yard this afternoon, so I sat and did a little genealogy. Tomorrow is going to be a long, hard, day.

H is a real biggie. Both my grandmothers had H surnames, Henderson and Hansen, so that makes a big dent right there. Also there is the royalty of HOLLAND, and the kings of the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE and HUNGARY. Lots of the Viking names begin with H, as do many Welsh.

I found and corrected several big booboos today.

It was a good visit and I had a nice evening.

Poor Shannon was sobbing by the casket. I hugged her and told her that a girl has a special bond with her grandpa, one that will never be repeated. She is sad that her daughter will never know him, and that reminded me of my grandfather Whitney, who died when I was two. I have tried and tried to remember him--I'm told we were crazy about each other--but I can't capture even a wisp. I can't wait to meet him in the next life.

After laying my carnation on Dalton's casket I walked over to visit Larry and Helen. Sad sad sad. The fact that we all know we will see each other again in heaven does not make up for the emptiness we feel when someone leaves earth, somehow.

After the services, we met in Lamont at El Pueblo for lunch. (Used to be Jacalito's.) Dave and Cindy Anson were there, and Mandy, and other old family friends. Garry sat at the table with me and the kids for a while and talked with us. I could only eat a few bites, when when we got home I was sick, sick, sick.

I had been planning on sitting in the spa with the kids last night, but I forgot. Maybe tonight.

I came home and tried to take a nap but was interrupted by Robert Gomez once and then by the home health nurse whom I wasn't expecting until next week. Robert is going to bring his crew to prune all the trees and shrubs (shrubbery!) again this year. I talked him down to $900. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

I remember when Leonard was in high school, I pulled him out for a day and took him to Transfer Day, where he spoke with the rep from UCLA. We had a lot of our questions answered that day and it was really good. I told my students that the decisions and choices they make in the next five years will make or break the rest of their lives, so please take Transfer Day seriously. I think a lot of them ditched out, however.

I can't wait to see the results of that work assignment.

It's really hard to believe how much stuff accumulates. I want it to stop!

The Family Search website is down, so I can't check any names tonight. I was planning to finish the I surnames today, but no luck.

Pat is coming over today to bring things to sell at the yard sale, and to bring plants from the funeral. Everyone is going to end up with lots of plants.

I also grew fond of his mother, who I got to know because I had to make so many calls home. Now the boy is dead at age 20, and I can only imagine his mother's grief and agony. I didn't go to the funeral.

I also didn't go to the funeral of Tennant Brooks, a member of our ward choir, who also died on Sunday of heart medicine complications. I had to work this morning. Tennant was a delightful, funny man, and everyone will miss him bunches and bunches, and not only that, he sang bass!

Speaking of giant canyons, I read in the paper that a man fell into the Grand Canyon and died. My worst fears, confirmed!

If only I could work in the garden an hour a day, it would get to looking like something.

Rachel and I should be out in the garage pricing yard sale stuff, but she is working and I'm too tired. I guess I'll do a few lines of genealogy.

The garage sale sorting is going mighty slowly. It's hard to get anything done when you have to sleep as much as I do.

Rachel and I went out to Peking Palace for dinner because yesterday was "Eat Dinner With Your Family Day", but yesterday she couldn't go because she had rehearsal for the improv team. Why does that sound like a contradiction in terms? We couldn't eat it all, so there is plenty of lunch.

I repotted all the plants-- broke up the funeral baskets and also repotted everyone else that needed it, including all the African violets. The baskets are going in the garage sale and all extra flowerpots. Yikes! Only a couple of days left to sort stuff, but Sherrie Lewis wants some of the crystal. And Tyson Smith is coming over to get $55 worth of kitchen stuff for his new apartment, part of a barter deal I made with his dad.

Nobody, nobody, nobody wanted the lovely Laura Ashley clock.

We unloaded all of Lillian's stuff except some sheets and a set of china. Tyson Smith came as an early bird and picked out a lot of it for his new big boy apartment. It was good to see him again. I told him that if he ever wants a side job, I have a bathroom that needs painting.

I haven't been to Vons since the strike. I like our local independent,Youngs, I like Green Frog for their beef, and I really like our new Albertson's. Albertsons has a partnership going with Savon, so there is a drugstore right in the grocery store, which is handy for me if I need cough syrup or something. The local independent and Green Frog don't reliably carry a selection of toiletries and OTC meds. Or film. For prescriptions I still have to go to Walgreen's because of my insurance, but I can drive through, and mostly I get meds mail order anyhow.

Tomorrow. Midweek. I wish it were the end.

Today there were some crows flying along with them. Wannabees!

This J&P adventure had convinced me it's better to just go to White Forest Nursery and buy the plant, which will be five times the size and healthy, for the same price.

Parks has shipped my daffodils and Dutch iris.

I know how easy it is to make a mistake with this stuff, but let's get it together here, folks, and not perpetuate the errors.

The next time someone pipes up in Sunday School and brags that their genealogy is all done because great-aunt so and so did it all, I'm going to say something. My great-aunt Anne did it all too, and I've found a lot of places where she messed up. (Great-aunt Eleanor didn't though--she was picky like me. In fact, she may be the one who taught me to be picky. I remember her making me rip out a facing and do it over.)

NB to Atticus, Lily, and Samuel: Just because great-aunt Frances is doing all this checking doesn't mean you are off the hook. I've probably made mistakes too, and I don't know if I'll live to get through the Z surnames. Plus, I'm only working on your maternal line, so your father's line is up to you!

Caution to All: When I checked through Uncle Carl's genealogy, which he "did", I found 174 forgotten people whose temple work hadn't been done. Would you like to be them, waiting and waiting?

We came home early and I was sick, sick, sicker, but Amanda came over and that cheered me up.

Supposedly if I'm able to take the new drug cocktail, I will live longer, but days like today I think I've lived long enough. Pooh to the stomach volcano!

Doris is making a big old fashioned quilt, all by hand by hand.

I told myself I am not allowed to spend all my time in bed, so I did hours worth of genealogy. I checked two pages worth of names, including all the Russian and Polish royalty who have Kiev for a surname. You can't even get your tonsils around some of the names.

Tonight I went to a farewell dinner in honor of Kyle Jones, who is going into the Marines. We are all putting a brave face on it, but this is a scary time to join the military. I hope by the time he is finished with boot camp the person who wants to send him to Iraq is not in office anymore.

Larry and Kim Cornett (Kyle's parents)are going ton a Mediterranean cruise as soon as Kyle leaves. I hope they have a wonderful time. In the meantime, I will stay here in Bakersfield and faint and vomit and all the other unpleasantness my life entails. Does it sound like I'm feeling just a wee bit sorry for myself? Well, I am. After a month of living like I have been on this new drug cocktail, you can hardly call it living. Will I EVER see Italy?

I'm going to work on my gradebook and then go to bed early.

My daffodils and Dutch iris came from Parks, so Friday's work is set up.

P.S. The Stake blood drive is called "Prick or Treat." Who thinks up these things?

The chili smells like heaven already. I made it according to the way Midge Ladd, who has a reputation as a good cook around work, told me. Mix cans of beans (I used pinto, kidney, and canolli) with the bean juice, except for not the kidney bean juice because it is slimy. Brown hamburger and onion. I used the special chili meat from Green Frog Market and two onions and four cloves of garlic. Add one bottle Pace Picante Sauce and a packet of chili seasoning. I like the expensive chili seasoning that comes in a little paper bag. Boy has the price gone up since the last time I made chili.

I've never made chili with canned beans before; it feels like cheating, but Grandma Mary does it and she is the best cook I have ever known. The pot is really pretty with the mixture of purple, pink, and white beans. We shall see how it does in the contest.

Last year I was so busy running the apple bobbing I didn't even have time to eat any chili.

About a week ago she came and slept in bed with me, but it's never happened again.

Sometimes he sleeps with his tummy up when he is with me in bed, which they say is the ultimate expression of trust in a cat or a dog. You won't find Jellybean or Xochitl in that position.

I planted my Dutch iris bulbs, and Rachel and I rearranged and put the kitchen back the way it belongs. I moved my sewing into Susie's room, where there is going to be a permanent sewing room. I don't do so well unless I have a permanent sewing room, I have discovered. Rachel is doing the laundry--including mine!!! and she started the dishwasher running, so it may appear we are making some progress. We're still in a mess but hey.

I guess I'll do a little bit of genealogy while I am resting here.

As part of trying to explain to them what life was like, "back in the day", how segregated America was, I told them that I had never eaten a taco until tenth grade, nor Chinese food until I was a senior in high school. They couldn't believe it. What did you eat? They asked.

Not lasagna. Lasagna was unheard of. (Though they did serve it at Prom when I was in ninth grade, an exotic, gourmet delicacy.)Not enchiladas. We wouldn't have known how to say it. No pasta, except spaghetti and macaroni.

We were pretty poor, so we ate a lot of fish that Dad caught. Free trout. Probably a couple of times a week. On Sundays we would have pot roast cooked with carrots and potatoes in it. I still enjoy that meal. Spaghetti. Yummy Balls. Macaroni and Cheese (homemade.) Meatloaf. Pinto Beans. Split Pea Soup. Very rarely, fried chicken, or ham. Or sometimes roasted lamb. My mother used to brag that she could feed her family of seven on 1/4 pound of hamburger.

The constant vegetable was Swiss chard, which grew well in our garden. Or Mom would buy boxes of frozen green beans. In the summer she would visit farmers and get truckloads of stuff, which we would can. Nobody knows how to can food anymore.

Every Thanksgiving, the turkey carcass got made into soup. I refuse to do that anymore, and I refuse to eat turkey soup. However, I find myself making chicken soup out of the remains of chickens that I roast, so there you have it.

This is probably somewhat different from what Emmett Till ate, but we lived in different regions of the country and hail from different ethnic groups. People come together more nowadays.

Emmett ate greens; we ate Swiss chard. I suspect we both ate turnips.

Bleah. I've been trying everything--clear, reprogram, unplug, reboot, and the durn sprinklers will not turn on. Manual watering doesn't work on this one either.

So tonight I go out into the rain to put the garbage can out in the gutter for trash day tomorrow and what is going full blast but the sprinklers. Looks like not only going full blast but flooding, but that might have been the rain. I had to turn it off again. I hope this isn't a self defeating cycle.

I called J&P and the customer service boy was very polite. I get to keep the lavender, he is sending out six more violas, and I complained that my last shipment contained a pot of dirt instead of dianthus, so he is sending another of those.

I hope English lavender grows here. I grew French lavender when we lived out in the country, and it got out of control.

Old roommates Evaun and LuJean came to visit with me this afternoon. We had a good old time just chewing the fat. Reminds me of that verse my mother used to sing: "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold."

*Small tiny voice, hiding face in shame* I think it wasn't supposed to go in the dryer.

You write run-on sentences. You are not worthy of being assimilated into the collective. You must be terminated.

Debbie Cantrell claims that if she has to read "I seen" instead of "I saw" in one more paper, she is going to scream.

Perhaps we have become less patient in our old age. I just know I have been explaining this stuff for twenty years, so why haven't they gotten it yet?????

Bat guano and worm castings in the afternoon sun, how lovely. I did drag some of the bales out myself, as many as I could.

I planted everything I bought at the nursery except the two flats of wooly thyme--some herbs, various flowers. Also I planted the babies from J&P which have been taking up room on the kitchen counter. I pulled a few weeds. I figure if I can just get out there some every day, the yard and I will both be better for it.

1 (6 oz.) jar marinated artichokes, chopped, reserve marinate

3 green onions, chopped

4 oz. sliced pimiento stuffed green olives

1/2 lg. green pepper, chopped

1/4 c. minced parsley

1 c. mayonnaise

1 tsp. curry powder

Salt & pepper to taste

Add artichokes, onions, olives, green peppers and parsley to cooked rice. Pour dressing over rice mixture. Refrigerate 24 hours. Adjust taste and texture with olive juice, mayonnaise, salt and pepper before serving. Good alone or stuff tomatoes.

I did some variations: I used the whole bunch of green onions, and added a couple of stalks of finely chopped celery. I cooked a half cup of wild rice and added that, and instead of green pepper I used a teeny jar of diced pimentos. I also added a jar of marinated hearts of palm. (chopped.) And.... 1 t. curry powder? Someone is a wimp. I used a lot more. (I didn't measure.)

The salad turned out very pretty and colorful and highly flavored. In addition, it has somewhat more texture than you usually see in this salad because of the celery and the wild rice.

Don'tcha love Mother Nature?

If I have not gone on record before that I HATE the self-checkout at Home Depot, let me do so now. I guess everyone else must hate it too because I stood in a really long line to get checked out by the only human cashier on duty.

They didn't have a wide enough baby gate there so I went to Babies R Us. I am really glad I don't have to have all that gear in my house anymore.

Holiday outfits for babies have sunk to a new low with the advent of red velveteen dresses with white fake fur trim, accessorized with a Santa hat.

I also went to White Forest Nursery (I took Sadie for the ride) and got 27 six-packs of flowers. The yard is going to look really good. I got about half of them planted before it got dark tonight.

At dusk, I harvested the last of the basil and made pesto. It was a little pale since the basil plant was looking peaked and going to seed. I also trashed the zucchini--no more vegetable! The eggplant looks like it is still going strong, however. It even has eggplants on it. I don't know if they are any good.

I tend to automatically distrust people who think God talks to them. I know there are folks like President Hinckley who have had that privilege, and never, ever, ever do they discuss the procedure. It's too personal an experience. I think Mr. Bush is using God for political advantage.

There was a lady we knew in Los Angeles who was told by God that she was pregnant. It was going to be a boy, named John after John the Baptist, born on a certain date. (No symptoms, dr. did not agree with God.) The date came and went without an appearance by John. She wore baggy clothes and laid in supplies for eleven months, and then God told her it was only a test. She confided this news to me. "It was a test."

"Oh." I said. "Did you pass?"

This afternoon I planted all the rest of the flowers and one of the flats of ground cover. I crawled around all over pulling weed seedings (weedlings?). Xochitl usually comes to keep me company when I am working in the front yard, but today she boycotted me. I pooped out about 4:30 p.m.

I don't have a pumpkin either, no little kids to carve it with. But I have put lights in my little ceramic haunted house and ceramic jack-o-lantern. I made both of these years and years ago. I put them on a plant stand in front of the living room opening, so they can be seen when I answer the door. Gretel always enjoys waiting on the trick-or-treaters, but I think Sadie is going to have to spend the evening in her box.

I did try to sell the haunted house and pumpkin at my garage sale but nobody was buying. They did buy a bunch of Halloween stuff, but not that. Man, I have so many t-h-i-n-g-s.

Contrary to popular belief, he DOES apologize for the Monica thing in this book.

We are having a controversy at work--I may have written about it--in which another prof was offended by Gloria Dumler's bumper sticker(s?) and sent out a massive theological email complaining about it. Sheesh, her licence plate says GDUMLER; if he had a problem with her, he should have talked to her privately. So this morning I walked in from the parking lot with Becky Mooney and she asked me if I had offended anyone with my bumper stickers. I certainly hope so. Jar people's thinking a bit! Most people know who my license plate belongs to also, so they can key my car if they want to, I guess.

Actually, the red truck did get keyed during the time I had the anti-Rush Limbaugh sticker on it. It may not have been Rush's fault, however, because that same semester I had a gangbanger student really angry with me because she failed and I wouldn't change her grade when she tried to intimidate me. She even filed a formal complaint with the Dean. She may have keyed my truck too.

If some of these people would put the energy into coming to class, doing their work, and trying to learn that they put into avoiding work and playing games, success would be theirs!

At work, they are doing all kinds of hazmat stuff on the roof, and the area has been full of fumes. Everyone has a headache, and I sure don't understand why they can't do this stuff on a weekend when nobody is there. The Dean asked me (personally) if I wanted to move my classes for the week, but I figure the fumes will drift whereever anyhow, and the students didn't want to change rooms. We only have two more class meetings until writing proficiency testing.

I also got back into case management with the County Health Department. They had me on the string before, but I dropped off when I started working full time. Now I am back. The public health nurse came to see me this afternoon. Gretel liked her really well and kissed her a lot.

Dr. Amin ended up with no flu shot for me. I can possibly go stand in a line at some senior center in Oildale on November 22 from 2 to 4 p.m., or the public health nurse is going to see if she can get me one. She said she requested twenty shots of the current ration from the county.

She also said I shouldn't dig in the dirt. Flubathththt. Just try and stop me.

Dr. Amin's office called and said they had a handful of flu shots, so I got one when I went for my appointment with Dr. Freeman. Dr. Freeman said I have wazzitblepharoadoodlesaurus, and hot compresses and a prescription. And no eye makeup.

After the doctor there was time to run over to White Forest Nursery, and I picked up some more herbs, a bunch more violas, some bulbs, and another couple of flats of wooly thyme. I'm going to put crocuses in between the stepping stones, among the thyme. It was a trip, walking down the aisle where they had the pony packs of stock. It's all quite floriferous and bloomiferous and odoriferous. Lots of planting to do tomorrow.

I did start my paperwhite bulbs in a vase tonight. This year I got paperyellows, though. They are named "Cheerfulness."

I have Aunt Jeuney's CD with all her recipes on it, but the track that has her shrimp curry recipe is corrupt. So I'll be experimenting tomorrow, adapting an online recipe to what I hope is memory.

After the grocery stores, I made beef stroganoff and planted a whole lot of flowers and killed a whole lot of weeds.

I think I've put my finger on what bothers me about Lassen's. You would think--well, *I* would think-- that a person who wants to eat healthy foods would figure out that the best route to that is to prepare fresh, natural ingredients from scratch. The shelves at Lassen's are absolutely full of packaged foods that purport to be more healthy and are proportionately more expensive, but look to be really just the same as the old same old found at the supermarket. There are all kinds of brands of soda pop, cold cereal, and the snacky stuff--oh my oh my. The packaging touts earthy values, but it's still packaging.

Poor Lassen's. I went into the produce department to get an avocado, which I forgot to buy at Youngs, and they didn't have the prices on any of the tomatoes. I don't blame them because it's probably pretty scary. (Accordingly, the avocado was pretty scary too. $1.69.)

Off to put the November church newsletter together.

I served it with my favorite salad, a California salad of orange, grapefruit, avocado, red onion, and bibb lettuce with poppyseed dressing. Rachel liked it this time! I am relieved, after years and years and years of having my husbands and children refuse to eat this salad. (This salad is also good with Italian dressing.)

I also have to get ready for next semester. I want to get all my duplicating sent down in the next couple of weeks so that I don't have anything to worry about over Christmas. Thursday is a holiday! Yay!

We've been eating the lemons for several days now, and the oranges and grapefruits are coming along. This will be our first year for oranges and grapefruits. We had a few lemons last year. Now, the tree is loaded!

In other outdoor news, I planted a flat of thyme, some spraxis, some ranuncluus (ranunculi?) 25 crocuses, and a dozen Iceland poppies. The yard is looking really nice.

Rachel and I went to see Napoleon Dynamite at the dollar theater. It was okay, but I am glad I didn't pay to see it in a regular theater.

I am working and working on getting my handbooks done for Spring 2005 so I can play over Christmas.

Irma is finally coming back to clean the house tomorrow after almost three weeks in Mexico visiting her mother. I'm glad she got to visit Mexico, but boy has this house missed her. Rachel and I have swept floors and whatnot, but still....

I have a pair of pink socks that came out of The Bag, oh, probably twenty years ago. They are still good and haven't worn thin, despite the fact that I wear them often because I like them. A lot. There was a counterpart pair of socks I got from The Bag at the same time, the same sock but in sage green, which has long ago reunited with Mother Earth. But my pink socks just wear on and on. I think they are some kind of miracle sock. Super socks. The socks for eternity.

A common problem is a situation in which you need the cat on your cold feet, but the cat prefers to rest on your tummy. We can suggest our new Cat Slippers, which are large enough for one foot and one cat together. An optional feature of the new Cat Slipper is a ribbed cuff opening at the toe which allows the cat's head to protrude for a decidedly retro look. It is important when wearing Cat Slippers to keep your legs as far apart as possible at all times in order to avoid hissing and suchlike.

I think I may have missed the boat somewhere along the line.

We played a game I'd never seen before, called Pin the Kiss on the Groom. We had little paper kisses and a big cardboard poster of Drew. My kiss ended up on his chin. Christa played last, and while she was blindfolded, they took away the cardboard Drew and sneaked the real one in so that when she felt her way to him he grabbed her and kissed her. She screamed. It was pretty funny.

Been there, done that. So has Nancy.

I hope Dr. Rice remembers what kind of privileges she enjoys because of the efforts of the women who have gone before, and when the current administration starts chipping away at those rights, she will do something. This is not an optimistic hope.

This rolling pin has always driven the kids crazy, and last Christmas during the cookie making they bought me a new rolling pin--a kind of exciting wooden one with ball bearings in the handles. The first time I went to use it, the dough stuck horribly. Then it occurred to me that it is new wood, not "seasoned." Well, I can't give it the patina of a pin that has been in use since 1920, but I sprayed it with nonstick cooking spray.

Nonstick cooking spray is a product I seldom use because I admire the charms of real butter, but it worked wonderfully in this case. Tonight I sprayed it again and rolled out the crescent rolls for Thanksgiving really slickly. The wood appears to be getting a titch darker. It's getting seasoned! So about 2050 it will be an heirloom too.

Jonathan: William has left home and joined a cat cult. I miss him.

Me: William? He ran away?

Jonathan: Yes. He was seen in the company of another cat trying to indoctrinate the neighbor's cat into the cult.

Me: Can't you get one of those deprogramming experts and hold an intervention?

Jonathan: No, we don't know where he is now. He never writes.

So today, I made my bed (like it said to in the book!) and I made a beautiful meal of chicken dijon over rice, orange-glazed carrots made with fresh orange juice, and lightly steamed fresh spinach. Unfortunately Rachel is sick to her stomach, so my Inner Boyfriend and I ate it alone, and there is quite a bit left, so come on over!

I say this by way of introduction as the reason I left my purse in the restroom of the Shell station at the Firebaugh exit last Wednesday. Arrrrgh, arrrgh, arrrrgh! I know being sick is no excuse, but it is the reason. I had to spend the whole holiday with no money--was not able to buy a cowboy song CD to give Jonathan, was not able to treat my kids to lunch, was not even able to buy gas! The Pits.

Fortunately some Good Samaritan found the purse and the station owners saved it for me, so I was able to retrieve it on the return trip. The Shell operator called my bank when the purse was found and they have my checkbook and ATM card on hold, so I will have to call tomorrow and see what needs to be done about that. I had forgotten about that when I went to the grocery store on Saturday. Arrrrgh, arrrgh, arrrgh. I hate it when I do stupid klutzy disorganized things.

Many students were absent today. I had the ones who came do some proofreading exercises while I called them up one by one to go over their exams. I always hate the part of my job where I have to tell people they are going to fail.

I came home, got my car, went to the bank and got reinstated, and came home again to go to bed. Rachel appears to be getting sicker and I don't feel so well myself. Mostly exhaustion I think. Can't wait until Winter Break!

No wonder the rest of the world hates Americans. We think even the map centers on us, us, us.

In good news, the Supreme Court has refused to review the Massachusetts gay marriage law.

I think I would like to be a Supreme Court justice. Then I could decide the way it is and the way it's gonna be and people would take me seriously. Let's start with the Mercator Projection.

Even though the furnace was on, I still froze all night. Xochitl was under the covers with me, but she is so little and scrawny she didn't provide much heat. I seriously considered inviting Gretel up into bed with me, but she had gas.

Then I went outside to pick lemons and noticed the pipe had been glued! It was my Fairy Godfather!

Ohhhhh, Godfather! I have a whole list for you! Come back!

I really do have so many things I need to do, and I wish I could get with it.

The Mexican sage will have to wait until later because I am out of steam, out of room in the trash can, and nearly out of daylight. At any rate, it's still purple! and looks okay from a distance! if you squint! Perhaps I should install a sign in my front yard that says "Please squint as you drive by," and that would take care of some of my guilt over how unkempt it gets. Not.

Sorry news items are (a) the bougainvilla froze at the tips, way up on top of the patio cover, and (b)the big nasty orange tree that we took out has made a comeback. Up from the rootstock, I suppose. I need to decide whether to dig it up or kill it with chemicals.

People ought to do gardening just for the sheer joy of killing. Who needs video games?

The USGS has added a feature to their quake site--color coded shake maps, showing severity of damage from the epicenter on out. Pretty neat. USGS claims these shake maps will be posted within ten minutes after the event. In case you ever wondered just how anal those geologists are, here is a suggestion of proof.

I LOVE IT!

Whenever I see the name Shattuck I think of the street in Berkeley.

Now, I need to start panicking about Christmas.

#1 The Bible
#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
#4 The Koran
#5 Arabian Nights
#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#7 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
#8 Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
#9 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
#10 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

#11 The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli 
#12 Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
 #13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
 #14 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
 #15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
 #16 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo 
#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker 
#18 Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin 
#19 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding 
#20 Essays by Michel de Montaigne

#21 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 
#22 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon 
#23 Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy 
#24 Origin of Species by Charles Darwin 
#25 Ulysses by James Joyce 
#26 Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio 
#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell 
#28 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell 
#29 Candide by Voltaire 
#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

#31 Analects by Confucius 
#32 Dubliners by James Joyce 
#33 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 
#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway 
#35 Red and the Black by Stendhal 
#36 Das Capital by Karl Marx 
#37 Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du Mal) by Charles Baudelaire 
#38 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
 #39 Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence 
#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

#41 Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser 
#42 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
 #43 The Jungle by Upton Sinclair 
#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque 
#45 Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx 
#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding 
#47 Diary by Samuel Pepys #48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 
#49 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy 
#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

#51 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
 #52 Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant 
#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey 
#54 Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus 
#55 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 
#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X 
#57 Color Purple by Alice Walker 
#58 Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger 
#59 Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke 
#60 Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

#61 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe 
#62 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 
#63 East of Eden by John Steinbeck 
#64 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 
#65 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 
#66 Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau #67 
Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais 
#68 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes 
#69 The Talmud 
#70 Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau

#71 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson 
#72 Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence 
#73 American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser 
#74 Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler 
#75 Separate Peace by John Knowles 
#76 Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 
#77 Red Pony by John Steinbeck 
#78 Popol Vuh 
#79 Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith 
#80 Satyricon by Petronius

#81 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl 
#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 
#83 Black Boy by Richard Wright 
#84 Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu #85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut 
#86 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George 
#87 Metaphysics by Aristotle 
#88 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
 #89 Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin 
#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

#91 Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
#92 Sanctuary by William Faulkner 
#93 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 
#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin 
#95 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig 
#96 Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 
#97 General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud 
#98 Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 
#99 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown 
#100 Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

#101 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines 
#102 Émile Jean by Jacques Rousseau
#103 Nana by Émile Zola 
#104 Chocolate War by Robert Cormier 
#105 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin 
#106 Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 
#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein 
#108 Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck 
#109 Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark 
#110 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes