smacky and bucky

Well, we didn't get that house. We were the only bidder, but we offered below their (really too high) asking price. They turned us down 30 minutes after they received the bid, so they're really confident someone will buy the place for what they want. I'll bet it will still be on he market in two weeks at that price, which is a sign it's too high, because nothing stays on the market two weeks in this area.

I wrote an author we had worked with about a year ago, asking if he'd be interested in a sequel to the last book, and he returned with ideas for three more books. So work, which I never discuss here, is going really well.

After we received the news about not getting the house, we decided to celebrate (drown our sorrows?) so we went to Ledo Pizza. They specialize in thin crust pizza... my favorite. I don't like huge mounds on thick crust. I got one with black olives, mushrooms, onion, salami, pepperoni, and meatball. THAT, my friends, is drowning your sorrow!

After dinner, we went next door to Trader Joe's, because we needed strange food items to keep us happy. I got yogurt covered cherries and ginger snaps with crystallized ginger in them. Wife got hulled pumpkin seeds and coconut macaroons.

I started reading We Thought You Would Be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Alive by Laurie Notaro. I thought it would make a nice companion on the shelf with Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton. It's got some very funny passages.

Speaking of books, friends (those who like to read and discuss books now and then) are often surprised by my choice of reading. A master's in English and a job as an editor, yet it's very unlikely anything I read nowadays will ever be studied in a classroom. They don't understand that much of my time in Peace Corps was filled with solid days of reading. The college was closed with all the students protesting in the streets, we're told not to venture outside if you don't need to, and I'm sitting there with a pile of books in a concrete house with no air conditioning. Any activity more strenuous than turning a page brings on a torrent of sweat my body can't afford to lose. So for a few weeks there, my life was spent lying on a bed with a floor fan pointed at me, reading for hours and hours. I read big, thick, Russian novels. I filled in some of the gaps of my education, reading genres of literature I had (happily) avoided.

Now I just want to read what catches my interest. I've recently read a book about Hemingway's time in Cuba, a pulp mystery originally published in the 1950s, and a novel based on the character from the Fox show Dark Angel. I was never a literary snob (although I did sneer at The Bridges of Madison County, and yes, I read it to make sure it deserved a good sneering) but now I appear to be wallowing in literary junk food. I'm not concerned though. It's what I need now, outside the office. Eventually, I'll cycle back toward slightly more "important" books, but I'm so glad I read all the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books long ago, so I can appropriately geek out over the new movie coming.

HEY! Look to your left. I finally got off my butt and updated my links, wheee!