Lawn Mowers

 It occurs to me that Ryan and I just don't value the same things as most typical Americans. This observation is really brought home when we do things like check "Consumer Reports" for recommendations on large purchases.

Our two-year old mower went kaput last year. (I've soap boxed before about crappiness of appliances that seem designed to break) So, after trying what we could to fix it, and establishing that it would cost more than what we paid for it new to even get it looked at by a repairman, we decided to replace it. Hence the check on "Consumer Reports."

We have a small mowable lawn that we hope will diminish as I replace it with landscaping and vegetable plots, so what we need is pretty basic. However "Consumer Reports" does really rate basic much. The ratings on products seem based heavily on features. On somethings features can really make a difference. For example, I'd love to replace my slowcookers with ones that have good timers. However, in a mower, I just want solid construction that mows grass. I don't need to ride on it, and I don't need it to propel itself. I really don't need it to make me an iced latte while I work or some such.

Being mainly on our own, we made a decision on other factors. I suspect that part of the reason our old mower crapped out so early was that it sat outside covered (sort of) by a tarp. However, we don't have a shed and I don't feel comfortable storing a gas mower in our basement. Taking that into consideration, we looked pretty hard at the electric mowers. The idea of trailing a huge extension cord doesn't excite me, so I needed it to be cordless. We ended up with the Ryobi 40 Volt cordless mower. It's narrower than most mowers at 16 inches so it fits in through the basement door easily. As an added bonus, it's light enough for me to pick up with one hand which means I can manhandle it just fine to mow the lawn myself.

So, exciting stuff. I now have a fashionably lime green lawn mower.

Garden Boxes

So, after about six hours, I finally got the garden boxes cleared. Mostly, I was dealing with a violet infestation which is most assuredly still lurking beneath the surface. I also pulled crab grass, random seed sprouts, and even a sprig of privet. I then waited two days and pulled whatever popped up daring my wrath. Quite a lot dared my wrath, incidentally.

I topped off each box with a 20 pound bag of compost and mixed in chicken poop fertilizer (which stinks way more than just keeping chickens in a coup btw.) So, now they are ready to go but our night time temps are still getting down to high 30's. I still probably have a month before I can plant out the summer crops.

I've had some sort of weird block about ordering seeds this year. I'm really not sure why. So since the boxes are ready, and I'm impatient, I picked up a packet of spinach seeds at the hardware store. I planted out one box with spinach entirely. If it all comes up I'll have 128 spinach plants. Which is a silly amount of spinach but I don't think they will all come up and even if they do, I have plenty of people to share with.

The other box, I planted out with last year's lettuce and radish seeds. Lettuce seeds are notorious for not keeping well. I'm not necessarily expecting more than one or two plants. That being the case I experimenting with surface sowing half of them. The radish seeds will probably do better, maybe. However, I hate throwing away seeds and if nothing comes up I won't have to pull up anything to put in the summer veggies.

Now it's time to prepare a couple more beds, not raised this time.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Dystopian YA lit has been in vogue. Although, I believe that we are moving out of that fad and shifting to the next "thing." A lot of my kids like the dystopian thing and I've been gradually catching up.

Uglies, however, is one of those books that people saw me reading and expressed surprise. Apparently, it just doesn't look like a book I would read. Thus I am provided with an excellent segue into marking, cover art, and the book industry. Unfortunately, Stephen King already wrote that article some years back for Entertainment Weekly (which I can't find unfortunately). {Ryan found it!} But the point is, publishers can do a lot of damage with cover art. Human beings are visual creatures and cover art is the usual source of a reader's first impression of a book. Which is, of course, grossly unfair to authors.

This brings me to my point. The cover to Uglies makes it look like a psuedo lit for the fashion mag set. Part of it is the dimensions of the book itself which are off industry standard for fiction. It's the same size/dimensions as those books that are really just a collection of vapid observations and an excuse for too many artistic navel gazing glossy photos. The cover art reenforces that impression. It's an extreme close up of a very pretty model.

In all fairness to the publisher, the book is actually all about a world that uses superficial attractiveness to control the population. So the cover art, fits. Uglies is about a world where everyone receives compulsory plastic surgery at the age of 16 to become a Pretty by having all their physical features pulled towards a set of norms. As is always the case, there are people who don't want to be perfected and this of course threatens the powers that be. Also, unsurprisingly, there is something more sinister going on.

This book is exactly up ally, it just doesn't look it. It's strange how easily we are affected by subtle visual cues. If I had to come up with a criticism, it's that it's a bit of a slow start for a YA novel and doesn't really get going until about 100 pages in. That's only if I had to find a fault though.

Parenting Tip #2

On the subject of bedtimes:

Alright come with me on on this. Imagine Captain Barbosa from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Think about his catch phrase concerning his philosophy on the pirate's code. Ok, got that in your head? Great. Now. Concerning bedtimes for toddlers? It's more a guideline.

I'm a big fan of consistency movement. I do believe that kids need structure and routine. However, being too rigid is just as bad as being too lax. So, on the subject of bedtimes, we aim for 8. We also aim to get him into his bed. We tend to be more successful on the former rather than the latter.

I'll be the first to admit that we need to get him into the bed. There are a host of reasons why he's not...at least over time. We've actually been on the receiving end of a lot of well meaning criticism concerning this point. Truly, he does need to move.

However.

I've been paying a lot of attention to the number of majorly disrupted nights for Thomas's cousin. They seem to be up with her 4-5 nights out of 7 on average. When one of them gets up, they are up with her a minimum of an hour and often more than 2. It's been like that for the last couple of years. They have good streaks and bad ones, but this seems generally true. We get an update every morning.

Having Thomas on the couch, we've had 0 disrupted nights out of 7 unless he's demonstrably ill. Once he's asleep, we can head off most wake ups before he really wakes up. It's not that he's a better kid, he's just right next to use. So instead of being up an hour getting him resettled, we are up less than 10 minutes changing a diaper or getting him water. So we net more sleep.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying he doesn't need to move. He absolutely does and we are working him in that direction. However, if it comes down to losing sleep the way my in laws do night after night or taking the time to do this shift slowly and gently to preserve what sleep we get during the school year. I'm going to preserve as much sleep as I can.

So in regards to betimes: it's all just guidelines and we are working on it. We'll get him there eventually.

Spring Break - Woohoo

The first day of spring break, my husband and I do nothing. Really, nothing. No grading, no laundry, I only cook if I feel like it and generally we waste a day playing video games. It feels indulgent but at the same time, by the time spring break comes, we get pretty worn out. So, a day of complete rest is a good thing.

Today I finally finished Fables 2. I feel oddly disenchanted with it. Not that the ending wasn't good. It was as good as a video game generally is, it was just a let down and there was a lot of little fiddly stuff to do afterwards which was less fun and more annoying.

Now of course I should restart Fables 3. Now that I have a completed save file in Fables 2, I'm curious to see what changed. I think I'm going to put it off though. There's only so much of that nonsense I can take at a time.

In other news, I'm having a hard time getting into Swansong.  Ryan plowed through a reread of it in preparation for me reading it and I just can't seem to get it going. I guess I'll try again tomorrow.

Royal Ranger by John Flanagan - Series Complete: Ranger's Apprentice

I did it. I finally finished this series. Matt will be so happy.

I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled that there were more books after the 10th. It really felt like a great series wrap up. I found myself feeling that any new stories would shatter that satisfaction that comes at the end of a well completed series.

It wasn't that bad.

In fact, had it been a stand alone, I would even count it pretty good. The Royal Ranger picks up decades after the events of the 10th book. While it doesn't ruin the series completion, it does reopen the series to continuation.

Perversely, I think Flanagan skipped a book. I want to hear more about Alyss. I get why Flanagan made the choices he did, but it all felt rushed and like her story didn't really get told.

April Avalanche of Words - Clearing the Decks

The books on this list come only from my shelves. In fact, every book on this list is cluttering up my living room at the moment. They either belong to me or have been lent to me for a while. In some cases, I have had them out from the library way too long.

This is by far my largest so far. Obviously I'm not getting through 90 books in a month. On the other hand, many of these books are drops, or books that I started and didn't finish for some reason or another. I suspect that if I try pick the book back up I'll be able to skim some of the initial material. So they might go faster than I expect.

1. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
2. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
3. In the Name of Salome by Julia Alvarez
4. City of Glass by Paul Auster
5. Ghosts by Paul Auster
6. The Locked Room by Paul Auster
7. Company by Max Berry
8. Machine Man by Max Berry
9. A Bone to Pick by Mark Bittman
10. 3 Nights in August by Buzz Bissinger (L)
11. Perfect Peace by Daniel Black
12. The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
13. Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
14. The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
15. Speaker For the Dead by Orson Scott Card (L)
16. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (L)
17. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card (L)
18. Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card (L)
19. Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
20. Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon
21. Little Bee by Chris Cleave
22. The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell
23. Gym Candy by Carl Deuker (L)
24. King's Dragon by Kate Elliott
25.  The Royal Ranger by John Flanagan (B)
26. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet
27. City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
28. Paper Towns by John Green (L)
29. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
30. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (RR)
31. The Devil's Picnic by Taras Grescoe
32. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
33. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
34. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (B)
35. Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
36. Essays in Idleness and Hojoki by Yoshido Kenko and Kamo No Chomei 
37. Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
38. Choice Cuts by Mark Kurlansky
39. Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
40. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
41. The Color of Water by James McBride
42. Swan Song by Robert McCammon
43. Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (RR)
44. Witch World by Andre Norton
45. The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
46. Dogsong by Gary Paulsen (L)
47. The Rifle by Gary Paulsen (L)
48. Cooked by Michael Pollan
49. The Adventures of Ellery Queen
50. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (B)
51. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
52. Book One: Keeping it Real by Justina Robson (B)
53. Book Two: Selling Out by Justina Robson (B)
54. Book Three: Going Under by Justina Robson (B)
55. Book Four: Chasing the Dragon by Justina Robson (B)
56. Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
57. Software by Rudy Rucker
58. Wetware by Rudy Rucker
59. Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff
60. Perdita by Hilary Scharper
61. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
62. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
63. Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp (L)
64. Black and White by Volponi (L)
65. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
66. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
67. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (L)
68. Specials by Scott Westerfeld (L)
69. Extras by Scott Westerfeld (L)
70. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love by Xinran
71. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (L)
CanonGate Myth Series:
     72. Binu and the Great Wall: The Myth of Meng by Su Tong
     73. Lion's Honey: the Myth of Samson by David Grossman
     74. The Hurricane Party by Klas Ostergren
     75. Where Three Roads Meet by Salley Vickers
     76. The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber

Professional

     77. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning by Doug Buehl
     78. "You Gotta Be the Book" by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm
     79. I Read it, But I Don't Get It by Cris Tovani
     80. In the Middle by Nancie Atwell
     81. Mosaic of Thought by Keene and Zimmermann
     82. Reading Diagnosis for Teachers by Barr et. al
     83. Strategies That Work by Harvey and Goudvis
     84. Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12 by Zwiers
     85. A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works by Marzano et al
     86. On Caring by Milton Mayeroff
     87. In the Middle by Nancy Atwell