Thursday, February 28, 2008

woo hoo The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

Hi!
I'm really excited that this book is about to hit the shelves any second now! Joshilyn Jackson has become one of my really favorite writers...I discovered her blog, Faster Than Kudzu http://www.joshilynjackson.com/mt/
and I have never laughed out loud so much at a blog. SOooooo when I realized she had published real live books I found them and read them voraciously, oh so fast I reached the end and now I have another one to devour yay!

So please do yourself a favor and pick up this new work and prepare to get sucked in.

Here's a little blurb to whet your whistle:

Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she's helping her mother make sure the very literal family skeleton stays buried or turning scraps of fabric into nationally acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister Thalia, an impoverished Actress with a capital A, is her polar opposite, priding herself on exposing the lurid truth lurking behind middle class niceties. While Laurel's life seems neat and on track--a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, and a lovely home in suburban Victorianna--everything she holds dear is suddenly thrown into question the night she is visited by the ghost of a her 14-year old neighbor Molly Dufresne.

The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool. Molly's death is inexplicable--an unseemly mystery Laurel knows no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Only her wayward, unpredictable sister is right for the task, but calling in a favor from Thalia is like walking straight into a frying pan protected only by Crisco. Enlisting Thalia's help, Laurel sets out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about her family's guarded past, the true state of her marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

I lost some days somewhere



I am glad to report that I am mostly in the habit of walking now. This weekend was a bit of a bust. I only got a mile-ish walk at 5 year old pace, with a stop at the park, but we needed the sunshine that had poured forth briefly after days of grimness.

Then friday at mall was a goofy walk because Uly was impish and fussy and didn't sleep the whole time but then I probably made up for what I lost by shlepping him all over the mall and then to trader Joe's and then back to the car with a full bag of groceries and then I did something else physical but damned if I know what it was.

I think thursday may have been a day where I walked without Uly but lost track of how many laps I walked. OR Soph had a snow day and I didn't walk at all.
I think that I walked monday and tues.

I find that I am less frustrated in the course of the day if I get out and about. I also remember that I like physical activity and have begun daydreaming about what else I can do.
I really want to add some yoga and strength training because everything but my belly is shrinking. I probably also need to start trimming my food intake since Uly will be weaning soonish. I read the other day you only need 500 more calories a day for breastfeeding. That may be scientifically true but if I don't eat like a horse when I nurse I would probably get to a point where I would start just randomly eating people who crossed my path.

Got major brainstorm fever lately. I hope I can carry them to fruition. I need to do significantly more research and buckle down and get soem words on paper and get some more human beings on board. But I do feel like they are feasible.