I really like this headline

"'Spider-Man' villain arrested at Comic-Con"

Book Review: "Then We Came to the End," by Joshua Ferris

It's a well-known fact that I'm cheap. I feel guilty spending money, perhaps because I know there will always be bills to pay, perhaps because there are starving people in the world, perhaps because deep down all I really want to spend money on is travel (which I never get to do).
I do have one down-fall, though. Used books. I am picky with what I buy, however. Generally they're spiritual books, as I want to be able to underline in them (which the library frowns upon). Once in awhile, though, I'll borrow a non-religious one from the library that I decide would be worth the half-price of Half-Priced Books.
And this one was.
With a slightly "Office"ish feel to it, it's the story of a company that's going out of business. With all the quirkiness that every workplace has, and being told in the 1st person plural, you get drawn in easily, able to identify with the people and the situations that are going on. It's funny, but not overdone, and just plain is a nice light read. I don't know that I'd recommend it for a vacation book, seeing as it's about work, but it's good on a lunch break.
And good enough that it now sits on my bookshelf.

Dear Giants fans,

It is never okay to boo someone, especially one of your own. You never, ever boo one of your own. You think Bumgarner didn't know he was having a bad night? That's when he needs you most. Booing is not going to help the confidence factor, and it won't help your cause. For pete's sake, as happy as I was to have the Twins hitting, I was still feeling sorry for your guy. What he needed was a hug, not your jeering.
And really, when you make a mistake at work, would you like to have 35,000 people booing you? And really, would any of you do a better job than he did? Shut your traps, suck it up, and go on with your merry lives. Booing is just not nice.
Sincerely,
Lucy

Dear Hulu + My Internet,

It should not take me an hour and a half to watch one episode of 'Arrested Development.' (Granted I'm the stubborn one who won't just give up and watch it some day when you're more agreeable, but that's not the point.) Way to kill a gorgeous day.
Sincerely,
Lucy

I overslept this morning

If I have a day off and work the next day, I try to get up by 9:00 so I can sleep that night. Today I either slept through my (cell phone) alarm or it didn't go off, because I didn't wake up til 11:20. Now I'm worried about not being able to fall asleep tonight. It sure felt good, though.

My great idea

R1/2 pants for those of us who are too T for R and too S for T.
That, or a tailor.

Happy Easter!

"He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, 'Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, that He might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.'" - Is. 25:8-9

New Policy For Bible Study

My church isn't in the best neighborhood; we've been burgled a few times and all that. Last night as we poor lone women were about to start Bible study, someone came into the church. We didn't see him (we were upstairs, he went down), but we heard him. One of the girls headed down to see if it was someone we knew, and as she went (under God's protection, thank goodness) she turned lights on and hollered. No one responded, but she heard more doors opening and closing, finally hearing the back door. We all searched the church, one of the girls taking off her heels, ready to clobber someone with them. We didn't find anyone, and the pastor came and did a more thorough search and didn't find anyone, but it was still a bit disconcerting. Earlier in the day I had been reading Earlier in the day I had been reading some dumb laws that are still on the books. Apparently in Maine, all church attenders are required to bring a shotgun to church in case of an Indian attack. I told the other women that, and we're thinking that might not be a bad idea. Except for the fact that the thought of us with guns is a little scary. So instead we're just thinking we should all bring stilettos.

The passage from "Great Expectations" that I talked about a long time ago

[As Pip is learning to read, it dawns on him that his blacksmith brother-in-law may not be able to. In practicing to his writing, he wrote a note to Joe.]

“I say, Pip, old chap!” cried Joe, opening his blue eyes wide, “what a scholar you are! An’t you?”
“I should like to be,” said I, glancing at the slate as he held it: with a misgiving that the writing was rather hilly.
“Why, here’s a J,” said Joe, “and a O equal to anythink! Here’s a J and a O, Pip, and a J-O, Joe.”
I had never heard Joe read aloud to any greater extent that this monosyllable, and I had observed at church last Sunday when I accidentally held our Prayer-Book upside down, that it seemed to suit his convenience quite as well as if it had been all right. Wishing to embrace the present occasion of finding out whether in teaching Joe, I should have to begin quite at the beginning, I said, “Ah! But read the rest, Joe.”
“The rest, eh, Pip?” said Joe, looking at it with a slowly searching eye, “One, two, three. Why, here’s three Js and three Os, and three J-O, Joes in it, Pip!”
I leaned over Joe, and, with the aid of my forefinger, read him the whole letter.
“Astonishing!” said Joe, when I had finished. “You ARE a scholar.”
“How do you spell [your last name], Joe?” I asked him, with a modest patronage.
“I don’t spell it at all,” said Joe.
“But supposing you did?”“It can’t be supposed,” said Joe. “Tho’ I’m oncommon fond of reading too.”
“Are you, Joe?”
“On-common. Give me,” said Joe, “a good book or a good newspaper, and sit me down afore a good fire, and I ask no better. Lord!” he continued, after rubbing his knees a little, “when you do come to a J and a O, and says you, ‘Here, at last, is a J-O, Joe,’ how interesting reading is!”

Dear Bruno Mars,

I'd throw a grenade atcha.
Sincerely,
Lucy

Gracious me

Getting a new mattress is quite disconcerting. I desperately needed one, and it is quite comfortable, but it is much thicker than my last one. Now to climb into bed I have to climb into bed, and when I get up in the morning I have to try not to fall out, as the floor is now much farther away. It's unsettling.

Why Wendy's just might be my happy place

So I went to Wendy's the other day after work for a Frosty and fries. The guy at the register gave me my change, then as I started to turn around he stopped me and said, "By the way, ma'am, excuse me for saying this, but I just have to tell you, you have beautiful eyes." He totally made my day. :)

Pizza and Grape Juice

We have a pair of sisters at the nursing home who do everything alike. They dress alike, always choose the same food, share a bed - everything. They even both have some degree of dementia.

On Sundays the residents get pie for dessert. We always put the desserts on the table when setting the tables, so the pie was already out when I went to ask them what they wanted for lunch.

Eleanor [pointing at Louise's pie]: What's wrong with this picture?

Me: I don't know. That looks like good pie to me.

Eleanor [picking up her plate]: No, look at mine. What is wrong with this?

Me: It's the same kind, it just tipped over.

Eleanor: No, that's not what's wrong. Look at how much bigger hers is than mine.

Louise: It's true. Look how much smaller her pie is.

Eleanor: It's not fair. She shouldn't get more pie.

Me: Alright, let me go to the kitchen and see what I can find.

All the remaining pieces of pie were smaller than Louise's. I headed back to the dining room to let them know. By the time I had gotten there, they had switched pieces of pie.

Eleanor: Look at this.

Me: What?

Eleanor: Look at how much bigger my pie is than Louise's. That's not fair.

Louise: Mine is smaller.

Eleanor: That's not fair.

Me: I don't know what to tell you.

Eleanor: Well, it's not fair!

Me [exasperated and heading back to the kitchen]: Well, only eat half of yours then, and it will be even.

About 10 minutes later I headed back out to the dining room to see if any of the other residents had come yet. One of their tablemates was just settling in.

Glenda [to Eleanor]: My, that's quite a large piece of pie you have there!

Oh for heaven's sake, ladies!

Book Review: "Great Expectations," by Charles Dickens

Ih. It was fine. I had never read anything by Dickens, so I now feel smarter for having done so, which is something. One thing I liked, though, was that at the start of the introduction to the edition I read there was this:
“The plot of Great Expectations turns upon a surprise revelation; readers new to the novel who would rather not have this information revealed in advance may wish to treat this introduction as an afterward.” – introduction to the Oxford University Press 2008 edition
I very much appreciated the spoiler alert. The Third Policeman did not have a spoiler alert so I read the introduction when I read that, and was very mad at them for the rest of the book. So thank you OUP.
Oh, and there's one passage that I really liked, but I'll post that later.

Book Study

I really enjoyed my book study. Sadly, I did not like the book ("After You Believe," by N.T. Wright), but that's okay. You'll never learn anything or expand your horizons if you only read books you like. I didn't agree with him on some of the things he said, and I found him tedious and the chapters long. Actually, quite a few of the people in my group didn't finish it.
We enjoyed discussing it, though. It was so nice to be with those people, and I got to know some people better than I normally would have. I'm hoping we'll do something like this again.
And the book wasn't all bad. I did like this thought: "...failure to worship the one true God leads to a failure to think, and thence to a failure to act as a fully human being ought." It gets you thinking.

Contrary to Popular Belief...

I am not dead.