(no subject)

I'm nearing the midpoint of my little minibreak. I was very pleased with getting a few more mundane tasks accomplished yesterday (a haircut, a couple of loads of laundry, and groceries for a week or two) when I stopped to tot up all the tasks I'd set myself for this week: 37 of them in 12 categories, 7 of them breaking down into 18 subtasks. And I've gotten precisely 5 of those 37 accomplished. I need to get going. And I need to prioritise: stop doing things I can do any time I'm home, and do things that I need to do during the day when I would otherwise be at work.

As an aside, I tried some kefir last night, and I found it quite delightful. This was pomegranate-flavored kefir with a fair bit of sugar in it, to judge by the label and therefore not something I'll be drinking gallons of; but I was struck by the fact that it has less fat and less cholesterol and more fiber and more protein than a corresponding amount of 1% low-fat milk. And it's tasty (OK, that's probably the sugar...) I also got some lassi, but I haven't tried that yet.

(no subject)

34/50: Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands by Michael Chabon. I don't seem to have listed this as ongoing, and I don't think I've reviewed it before, but I've been reading it for so long that I had to go back and re-read some sections to be sure I had read all of it. It's a great collection of essays by one of my fast-becoming-favourite writers; the theme binding them all together is pretty much what the subtitle says--an exploration of the borders of writing. The border between truth and lies and between fact and fiction; the border between literature and genre writing; the border between creation and autobiography; between one perspective, one culture, one worldview and another. I find myself, even now as I flip through it to find points to summarise it, drawn into re-reading each of the essays, to remind myself of the intricate and detailed pattern that Chabon lays out in it and to simply enjoy again the pleasure of his prose. I've started to try to take a look at my library critically and start divesting myself of books that, however interesting I found them on first reading, I will probably never read or refer to again. I will certainly re-read this many times.

Guest of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden
Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I by James J. Hudson
Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Knights of the Cross; or, Krzyzacy by Henryk Sienkiewicz

(no subject)

Ugh. The chore monster is like the Hydra--no sooner do I accomplish a couple of tasks (buy some mailing boxes; clean the kitchen, dining room, and living room windows; buy and put up another set of shelves in the backroom; replace the cat litter mats in the backroom and vacuum the floor) than several more heads spring out from where I cut those ones off (get a quote for having the scrape in the car buffed out so I can pass it to the person who dinged my car two weeks ago; get the speakers in my laptop fixed; get a print framed). Busy, busy, busy!