Saturday Morning Satisfaction

me in my "reading is sexy" shirt in college

I love Saturdays. The ones where nothing is going on, which means I love about one Saturday a month. How I relish these mornings where breakfast is stretched out to brunch, the coffee is plentiful and the reading material/youtube video watching takes over the living room.

During the summer, Spencer and I had weekly breakfast meetings to make sure we were on track for his album release. I am pretty proud of what he accomplished, and that the potential stress of a huge project brought us closer together, with only one terribly stressful night (which happened to coincide with my birthday). That said, since the album is out, we now spend our Saturdays reading. Another thing I am grateful for is a husband with common interests; we are both pretty nerdy about our respective subjects (him, all things music and design, me, food, cooking, wine, blogs, literature). Despite the fact that we have still not finished reading Moby Dick, we do spend a good deal of our free time voraciously devouring the written word.

spencer playing a violin (2 screwdrivers)

We both also have blogs. Obviously, you know this about me. In case you didn't know, Spencer has a blog about music- not his music, but the history of rock n roll. He likes to do things all the way, and so up until now, his e-publishing harkens back to when Dickens came out serially. I keep trying to get him to bite off less, and blog more frequently (which I am not a model of at the moment). So, here is today's post. Complete with plenty of pictures and witty remarks. I am hoping one day he will publish a real book, and together with my children's books royalties, we can retire to a cabin in the Tennessee mountains, with our oversized grey cat, Tolstoy, and our Huskie, whose predetermined name I have momentarily forgotten.

Now I am off to said stack of books. I'm trying to finish a few more before the end of the year (as well as start Team of Rivals, and cram in Little Women, which for some reason is a Christmas movie to me).

tuesday afternoon delight

Spencer bought me this on amazon last week and it arrived yesterday! I knew he'd gotten me something because he said he needed to hit his free shipping amount (love that incentive) and should he wait for a special occasion to give it to me?

No! 

I jumped up and down and thanked him at least four times last night as I kept remembering it. And out of pure love and adoration for my husband, I didn't even open it. 

Why? Christmas '08. Our first Christmas as a married couple; shoot, it was less than 2 months as a married couple, and we had barely finished opening all our wedding gifts. Spencer bought me The Meat Book and I was soooo in love with him and it that I dove right in and read that thing for at least an hour and a half. I thought it would show my love and appreciation and he'd think it was cute or nerdy. He felt neglected. Poor Spencer. I'd like to say that I learned from that miscommunication, but I know there have been other food books for other holidays and I just can't help it. 

"Frank... is she a republican?" 

"I. can't. help. myself."

(favourite line from You've Got Mail. Kristiana is smiling right now)

We didn't even succumb to tv last night. We actually ate dinner at the table and then watched Eddie Murphy sketches (rocky/italians and the bill cosby impression) online. I paid lots of attention to my husband and completely ignored my book. 

Tonight, though, all bets are off. 

Summer Reading List

I currently have a stack of books next to my bed that I am in the middle, or title page, of reading. By the end of this summer, I would like to have finished them and be able to move on to the next hundred in my head without having guiltily abandoned them. 

They are: 

Israel, My Beloved by Kay Arthur 

My Life In Paris by Julia Child (I don't ever actually want to stop reading this)

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (I just looked this up and must admit I had no idea Cyrano was a real person! I read this in high school and want to reread it to Spencer)

How to Rescue the Earth Without Worshipping Nature by Tony Campolo

Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss (does it have a comma in the title?)

Money, Possessions, & Eternity by Randy Alcorn (another one I will reread my whole life. If you read only one book to give you perspective on finances, read THIS)

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall(cringe! This was a birthday gift from Kita about 3 years ago!)

The Idiot by Dostoevsky (Then maybe I will think about finishing Brothers Karamozov, which I gave up on fall semester my senior year in college and still do not have any desire to touch)

Six Great Ideas by Mortimer Adler (Spencer gave me this one and says it is amazing. I will try it, now that I know how to read a book)

Moby Dick by Melville (Spencer and I have been reading this basically since we got married a year and a half ago and I think we have just hit the chapter entitled 'moby dick.' Yay for epics. Epics about whaling in the nineteenth century. I do enjoy it though, it is chock full of good quotes. When we finish, I think we can buy a car to congratulate ourselves)

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (This is the one I want to read the most but I will not allow myself until I dutifully cross the others off the list. I already have the sequel, too!)