“Number one. Bring your own Tupperware to a restaurant for leftovers, as often as possible.” “I’ve not eaten at a restaurant in over two years.” “Try bringing your own mug for tea or coffee. Does not apply, I guess. Carry your own cutlery, use no plastic utensils, ditto ditto. Okay, here’s one. Carry your own Nalgene bottle instead of buying bottled water.” “Our well water is good. We wouldn’t pay for store-bought.” “Okay,” he said. “Try to reduce the intake of red meat in your diet.” “Are you crazy? I’m trying to increase our intake of red meat.” “Why is that?” “Because mac and cheese only gets you so far,…

Today is the first day of my winter break…10 days off from work. I feel fortunate to have this time off, as I work in the payroll software industry, and year end is traditionally the busiest time of the year. But I work from home, and if I agree that if something earth shattering happens before Jan 2nd (like Congress gets a plan voted on, and the IRS is then able to put out new withholding tables), I will put in a few hours and get that info to our clients, I can pretty much take the time off. It works well for me. So, aside from Christmas and New…

In preparation for this week’s release of the film version of “The Hobbit”, I decided that I wanted to read the book. I haven’t read “The Hobbit” since High School, which was a few decades ago. If you haven’t read “The Hobbit”, I’ll fill you in a bit. “The Hobbit” is Bilbo Baggins, a resident of Middle Earth, who is recruited by the wizard Gandalf to accompany a company of dwarfs on their mission to reclaim their kingdom under the Lonely Mountain, as well as their treasure. The mountain has been occupied for perhaps a century by a dragon, Smaug, who has laid waste to the surrounding area, terrorizing those…

The concussive shock of the first shell hitting the church was the only one Bright actually felt. After that came the now-familiar feeling of capsized calm in which the world seemed viewed from beneath a great depth of water. It was as if all sound and feeling were gone suddenly, and, within that watery silence, death was not something hurtled from above but more like a meadow of wildflowers that blossomed from the ground in radii of plaster, mud, and dust, swallowing buildings and bodies, chewing them in the air a while and then spitting them back out upon the trammeled ground like the ends of gnawed bones. When the…

First, I’ll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later. The robbery is the more important part, since it served to set my and my sister’s lives on the courses they eventually followed. Nothing would make complete sense without that being told first. Our parents were the least likely two people in the world to rob a bank. They weren’t strange people, not obviously criminals. No one would’ve though they were destined to end up the way they did. They were just regular – although, of course, that kind of thinking became null and void the moment they did rob a bank. Richard Ford…

“I mean I can’t cook.” “You can’t cook…why, good Lord, Sally Jay, I thought every girl knew how to cook.” He looked at me, his little Floradora Girl, and gave me a wry sort of some-women-are-made-for-only-one-thing smile. Then he shook his head hopelessly. “Marion de Wald cooks,” he said grimly. “She does all the cooking and looks after two kids as well.” I tried to remember one minute that whole week end when Marion and I weren’t either feeding people, or cleaning up from doing it, or preparing to do it again. And presumably she never stopped doing it. But I couldn’t quite see why just because she did, I…

Almost 2 years ago, Ted got a Nook for his birthday. He’s an early adopter, and is always looking out for the next new thing. So he wanted to try it, and it has suited him very well. He can load books, magazines, and newspapers to his Nook, and bring them all to work with him to read on his lunch hour, with no real effort. Me? I’m a slow adopter. I resist change. I didn’t want an ipod, because my walkman was fine, thank you very much. I didn’t want a blog, what’s the point? I didn’t want Facebook, how stupid can you be? On all of these things,…

Laurie Garvey hadn’t been raised to believe in the Rapture. She hadn’t been raised to believe in much of anything, except the foolishness of belief itself. We’re agnostics

I’ve seen the previews for the film adaptation of War Horse, and mostly I wasn’t that excited.  I love horses, but I’m not always sure I want to see a horse movie.  I read an article in the local paper that pretty much changed my mind by saying that it was a ‘film to watch out for’. Oh, who am I kidding.  I’ll see it. When I read it was based on a well loved children’s book, I decided that if I were going to see the film, perhaps I might want to read the book first.  Luckily, my local library has it, and there was no waiting list. The…

The image of Michela playing with a twig and breaking up her own reflection in the water before sliding into it like a sack of potatoes ran through his head like an electric shock. Exhausted, he sat down a couple of feet from the river’s edge. He turned around to look behind him and saw the darkness that would last for many hours to come. He stared at the gleaming black surface of the river. Again he tried to remember its name, but couldn’t. He plunged his hands into the cold earth. On the bank the dampness made it softer. He found a broken bottle, a sharp reminder of some…