In memoriam

I've just finished a novel, a brilliant book that should be required reading for history classes. Irene Nemirovsky, a Russian Jew living in France and famous for her writing, began in 1941 to write a novel about the war and the occupation of France. She never finished it, as she was taken to a concentration camp in 1942 and died there soon after.

Her daughters saved the manuscript, and Suite Francaise has been recently published complete with the author's notes and a heartbreaking collection of letters written by Irene herself and then by her husband who was frantically trying to find and save her. The book itself is a picture of the daily cost of war and enemy occupation.

It is not light reading, but I highly recommend it. It brings history to life from the perspective of an eyewitness, and forces the reader to consider the story of just one of the many innocents lost in that war, innocents whose stories are not recorded but who were nevertheless real, and loved, and mourned.

It's chocolate, it's bacon--it's delicious!

My affinity for chocolate is well-known; some would say it's more of an addiction or an obsession. Milk, dark, with caramel, coconut, nuts of all kinds, crispies, in cheap candy bars or expensive specialty truffles--I love it all. I've dipped apples in it, spread it on toast, mixed it in banana bread, and poured it over angel food cake.

But near to chocolate in terms of delicious goodness is bacon--lovely, crispy bacon. Oh, we've flirted with turkey bacon, trying to save our poor arteries, but we've always come back to the nice fatty real stuff. The first time I ever cooked applewood bacon I was so smitten I called my mother and told her that diet or no diet, she HAD to try this stuff--the smell alone had me singing. And the flavor--oh, the sweet, smoky flavor--was like manna from heaven.

Tonight, when Batman told me what he'd bought at Whole Foods, I was first shocked, then a little grossed out, and then somewhat intrigued. He'd found a premium chocolate bar, the Vosges brand, with bits of applewood smoked bacon in it. Chocolate and bacon? I've heard of chocolate and wasabi, chocolate and chilies, even chocolate-covered bugs, but this? I was hesitant.

We sat down, divided it up between the four of us, sniffed it, and then dove in. And lo, it was good. I'd expected it to taste like a chocolate-dipped piece of bacon, but it wasn't like that at all. I could just barely pick up the scent of bacon before biting into it. The smooth milk chocolate had a crunch and a salty flavor, not unlike eating a chocolate-covered pretzel. The bacon taste didn't really appear until after swallowing, and then it was just a hint.

It was a lovely treat. Just one more reason to love chocolate. And bacon. Mmmm, bacon.

Now we can check porn, and stock quotes*

So tonight I logged onto my online classroom to check out the ongoing discussions. In one thread, a classmate had posted regarding his coworkers and how they were somewhat resistant to change. He said he was one of the few employees around the age of 21, and everyone else was over 30. I know! So ancient!

Anyway, he said he'd recently showed them how they could use their software in a way that would cut the time for one process in half, and how some of them didn't even know all the things that Windows could do. I felt about 80 years old.

I gently reminded him that technology has changed very rapidly in the past few years, and for those fresh out of college web conferencing and instant messaging are old hat, but for many of us in the workforce, those are new and unused technologies. Then I started thinking: when I graduated from college, faxing was still relatively new, email was something only programming majors knew about, DOS was king, and the people who invented Facebook were only toddlers.

Okay, now I feel 90. It's dark out; I think I should go to bed.

*Note: I never check porn, and only rarely check stock quotes. But "porn quotes" is one of my favorite Seinfeld lines.

Aak! I'm famous! And now Google-able!

I submitted something here; go check it out!

In other news, my class starts today. I'm officially a student again. The last time I was a student, I did my papers on a typewriter. Oh, and also, I didn't have kids or a full-time job.

But at least I'm famous now. Book and movie offers can't be far behind.

Remember to memorize pages 39 to 110 for tomorrow's lesson.

Today was the first day of school! The satisfying feel of a new crayon in your hand, the rustle of new uniforms, the scent of the teachers' raw panic: the start of a new school year brings back so many memories. Like the memories of taking Number One to her first day of kindergarten four years ago and having to pull over to the side of the road afterwards to sob uncontrollably.

Luckily, taking Special to her own first day of school was not quite so traumatic. She was thrilled to be starting kindergarten, and her first words to me at the end of the day were, "I loved it!"

Number One had a great day herself on her first day of fourth grade. She allowed me to take one picture in her classroom, and then she was ready for me to go:

We met at Ben & Jerry's at the end of the day for our traditional First Day of School Ben & Jerry's Extravaganza:

I would buy her Lemonade Sorbet every day of her life just to see that smile!

More pictures from today are here.

Go Wildcats!

We had a BIG weekend--Number One turned nine yesterday, and we've been celebrating since Friday! We started off by watching the premiere of High School Musical 2 (not as good as the original but still had some very catchy tunes) on Friday night. Saturday morning we had Cinnabon for breakfast, and spent the day getting ready for the big birthday party that night. Number One and her friends had so much fun watching HSM 2 (again--they'd all watched it Friday night also), doing crafts, eating chicken nuggets and carrots and watching Number One open her presents. I was pretty proud of how her cake turned out--notice how I photographed it so you can't tell it's the Leaning Tower of Cake:

On Sunday, we ate out with GrandMom, GrandBob and Aunt M after church at Olive Garden; I took the girls swimming in the afternoon. On Monday morning, Number One woke up to find that her room had had an Extreme Room Makeover:

She absolutely loved it, and it looks wonderful--so girly but more sophisticated than what she had before. We've ordered a Nancy Drew movie poster to go above her bed, and she's really excited about that, too. (If you want to see more birthday pictures, email me and I'll send you a link to my web album--I don't want to post the other kids' pictures here without permission.)

School starts Thursday--sniff, sniff--I can't believe I have a 4th grader and a kindergartener! Special would have started school a month ago if she could have; she's definitely ready. Let's pray that I don't completely embarrass myself on Thursday--I'll save my sobbing for the office, where I can shut my door.

Toodles!

I got a meeting with the Bobs in a couple of minutes

So here’s how my past month has been: work work meeting meeting meeting work meeting meeting work work work meeting home swim cook eat clean storytime work. I've had six meetings so far this week--and it's only Tuesday.

My company is implementing a new software system that will affect everything we do, and I’m the division lead on that project which requires many meetings and a lot of extra work. We’re acquiring a new company, and if all goes as planned by year-end we’ll have moved to their office building and I’ll most likely have a new boss, a new job title, new responsibilities, and a longer commute. Batman starts school Thursday, the girls start school in nine days, and I start school in two weeks. Batman and I are looking for a new church home. Number One has a digestive condition that requires daily monitoring and weekly calls to the doctor. We’ve been planning her birthday party, which is next weekend. And Special is apparently training for a career in men’s clubs, judging by her latest dance moves.

BUT. I like my job a lot, in spite of all the meetings. Our new offices are in a great area with lots of shopping and lunch places nearby and I can still take the freeway all the way there. The girls are very excited about starting school, as am I (Batman is . . . not excited about in-service but will be happy to see his students again). We have narrowed our church choices down to two and think we can be happy either place. Number One’s doctor is excellent and is very proactive in treating her condition. And Special does provide for a lot of laughs, even if many of them are behind her back.

So, I’ll keep churning out my TPS reports and blogging when I can. Always look on the bright side of life . . .

And I’ll use my Crock Pot a lot, like for this recipe I’ve posted here.

And I’ll keep in mind that it could be worse. I mean, at least my name isn’t Michael Bolton.