:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: I never had to wear braces, so my kids going through it has been eye-opening for me. Dd was fine. Just straight braces, about 1.5 years. Done. Ds got his this past year & needs much more extensive work. They have 'hinges' in there & we thought we were going for that appt. (they kept talking about 'the hardware') & that is when he got a palate expander. I felt blindsided, he was in the chair w/ tears in his eyes, I'm sure you know the routine. Being a mom is not for the weak. :grouphug: to you & your ds. (I tell my ds it is worth all the work because a neighbor of ours had severe ortho problems that were not addressed when she was growing up. As an adult, she had some severe issues w/ headaches, jaw problems, etc.... Her stuff was so severe, they had to break her jaw in order to reset it. Which caused its own whole set of problems & she was on a liquid diet for more than a year.)

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Did Week 2, Run 1. Even though I didn't go until 9:30pm, heat was still an issue. Plus, I can tell I hadn't run since Thursday since I was upping the running time. Did it, though. Dh went with me. Ds skipped this one because he walked 3 miles in flip-flops yesterday & now has some blisters. Hopefully, ds will be back in the groove by our Tuesday run. Will plan to do some type of indoor exercise tomorrow, probably the Monday Buzzfeed workout.

My ds read this about a month ago because it's on his summer reading list too. Even though he's a sensitive guy, he thought the book was great & talked about it a lot to me. I would also like to read it. (I know he'll be skimming it again later this summer to be prepared closer to the beginning of school.) I'll have to look up Outcasts United....

Supposed to run today, but it will probably be late tonight because we have some brutal heat going on here. It is supposed to be an awful heat index all week, so I'm going to have to see how that plays out (esp. as ds is extremely sensitive to heat).

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:lol: I know nothing about the book & already I want to read it! I stayed up late last night & finished The Infatuations by Javier Marías. I didn't really know much about it going into it (& wanted to keep it that way as I didn't want any spoilers). I'm on the fence about it. (And I think it's safe to say you can read the linked NPR review without fearing spoilers.) The novel is very well-written, very European (the author is Spanish) in its attitudes, philosophical musings, style, etc.... The central idea itself is intriguing enough: a woman goes daily to the same cafe for a coffee before work & always sees the same happily married couple there -- the characters are all regulars at the cafe, same place, same time. The couple sort-of epitomize, for her, the idea of happiness, order, good things in the world; it starts her day in a nice way when she sees (from afar) this stable, attractive, married couple (who obviously enjoy each other) every morning. The pair stop showing up, which is not totally unusual as people sometimes travel or have other things going on, but after more than a week, she begins wondering, begins missing them. Later she finds out that the man had been brutally murdered in a senseless crime (which she had read about in the newspapers at the time but didn't realize the victim was the man since she knew him only by sight, not by name). The story continues from there, very much a philosophical & analytical journey. The author's style of writing is perfect for the way in which he muses about the lives of the couple (both the dead man as well as his wife, family, & friends left behind) & he pulls in central ideas from a couple of classical stories: Macbeth and Balzac's Colonel Chabert. Fans of "Novels"/"Literature"/"Writing"/"Big Ideas" will find some real beauty here. Otoh, the musings, the repetition (which is very much a stylistic device here), the passive, wishy-washy narrator make the book a chore to read sometimes. More than once I thought tighter editing could have helped the story; more than once, I felt like I was trapped at a lengthy dinner with a self-inflated, didactic professor seated next to me. In the end, there is plenty of food for thought & there are some ideas I may ponder awhile. There are some great elements but it's also not something I can say that I completely enjoyed reading either. I really, really did want to like it more than I actually did. 3 stars. Now, I'll probably go back to reading In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin & keep looking for the Douglas Adams book that is somewhere in the house.... ETA: Eliana, :grouphug: :grouphug: -------------------------- 2015 Books Read: 01. The Affinity Bridge by George Mann, a Tor book pub. by Tom Doherty Associates. 3 stars. Europe: England. (Entertaining steampunk with likeable characters.) 02. The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami, trans. from the Japanese by Ted Goossen, a Borzoi book pub. by Alfred A. Knopf. 4 stars. Asia: Japan. BaW January author challenge. (Creepy campfire style story; thought-provoking ending made me rethink the entire story.) 03. Extraordinary Renditions by Andrew Ervin, pub. by Coffee House Press. 4 stars. Europe: Hungary. (Triptych of stories in Budapest touching on the Holocaust, racism, corruption, the power of music,…) 04. Rue du Retour by Abdellatif Laâbi, trans. from the French by Jacqueline Kaye, pub. by Readers International. 4 stars. Africa: Morocco. (Poetic paean to political prisoners worldwide by one who was himself in prison for “crimes of opinionâ€. Explores not only incarceration but also readjusting to a ‘normal’ world after torture & release.) 05. Nigerians in Space by Deji Bryce Olukotum, pub. by Unnamed Press. 4 stars. Africa: South Africa & Nigeria. (Scientists lured back home in a ‘brain gain’ plan to start up Nigerian space program. But, things go awry. Is it legit, a scam, or something more sinister?) 06. The Jerusalem File by Joel Stone, pub. by Europa editions. 2 stars. Middle East: Israel. (Noir detective tale re: jealousy. Ambiguous, unsatisfactory ending.) 07. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire by Jack Weatherford, pub. by Crown Publishers. 4 stars. Asia: Mongolia. (Non-fiction. Even with gaps, fascinating pieces of lost &/or censored history.) 08. Goat Days by Benyamin, trans. from Malayalam by Joseph Koyipally, pub. by Penguin Books. 3 stars. Middle East: Saudi Arabia. (Simple tale of enslaved Indian forced to herd goats in the Saudi Arabian desert.) 09. The Good Lord Bird by James McBride, pub. by Riverhead Books (Penguin Group). 5 stars. North America: USA. (Sharp satire, historical fiction & folly, standing on top of heart, soul... & freedom.) 10. The Duppy by Anthony C. Winkler, pub. by Akashic Books. 3 stars. Caribbean: Jamaica. (A duppy [ghost] relates ribald & amusing anecdotes of Jamaican heaven.) 11. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, pub. by Scribner Classics. 4 stars. Europe: France & Spain. (Lost generation of post-WW1 expats living, loving, & arguing in France & Spain.) 12. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor, pub. by Viking (Penguin Group). 3 stars. Africa: Nigeria. (YA fantasy lit in the vein of HP but with a West African base of myth & legend.) 13. Kismet by Jakob Arjouni, trans. from the German by Anthea Bell, pub. by Melville House (Melville International Crime). 4 stars. Europe: Germany. (Tough Turkish-German PI in the middle of a turf war as a Croatian organized crime group tries to take over territory of Albanian & German mobs in Frankfurt. Darkly funny & nicely paced.) 14. The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham, pub. by Penguin Books. 5 stars. Europe: France. (Interlinked stories of friends in post-WWI France as they move through life & each finds his or her own version of success.) 15. Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss, pub. by Melville House. 3 stars. Europe: England. (Creepy, frivolous fun horror/mystery mash-up… and a cat who wants Daniel Craig to voice him if there’s a movie version.) 16. Under the Frangipani by Mia Couto, trans. from the Portuguese by David Bookshaw, pub. by Serpent’s Tail. 3 stars. Africa: Mozambique. (Murder mystery that ultimately examines the things that kill a people, a country, a place; told through a magical realism lens of the living & the dead, traditions vs. modern mores, colonization against freedom, & war facing off against peace.) 17. Gassire’s Lute: A West African Epic, trans. & adapted by Alta Jablow, illus. by Leo & Diane Dillon, pub. by Dutton. 4 stars. Africa: West Africa, incl. Ghana & Burkina Faso. (Children’s poetic book [part of the epic of Dausi], telling of Gassire who gives up his noble lineage & warrior life to become a bard/griot.) 18. Orlando by Virginia Woolf, pub. by Harcourt Brace & Company. 4 stars. Europe: England. BaW March author challenge. (Woolf’s love letter to Vita Sackville-West; story of man/woman Orlando spanning over 300 years of English history. Wordy but redeemed by flashes of profound beauty & brilliance.) 19. Missing Person by Patrick Modiano, trans. from the French by Daniel Weissbort, pub. by David R. Godine (a Verba Mundi Book). 4 stars. Europe: France. (After WWII, an amnesiac tries to piece together the people & events of his past. A lyrical, yet spare, examination of identity & history.) 20. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, pub. by Vintage International. 4 stars. North America: USA. (Spare & brutal tale of stolen drug money in Texas. Classic themes which are hard & beautifully-crafted.) 21. Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood, pub. by Poisoned Pen Press. 3 stars. Australia. (1920s lady detective Phryne Fisher storms the Melbourne social scene with moxie while on the trail of a suspected poisoning, a back-alley abortionist, & the head of the cocaine trade.) 22. Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis, pub. by Scribner. 3 stars. Other: Malacandra. (Professor Ransom is kidnapped & taken to Malacandra, where he escapes his captors & interacts with local life on the planet.) 23. Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, pub. by Little, Brown and Company. 5 stars. North America: USA. (Shocking diary by a never-charged Guantanamo detainee. Shines a harsh light on rendition, interrogation, torture, & US thought & policy shifts after 9/11.) 24. Going Postal by Terry Pratchett, pub. by Corgi Books. 4 stars. Other: Ankh-Morpork. (Moist von Lipwig’s punishment for being a con artist is being put in charge of the Postal Service & getting it back in profitable shape. Witty & fun.) 25. Duplex by Kathryn Davis, pub. by Graywolf Press. 3 stars. North America: USA. (Weird & compelling, chilling & disorienting.) 26. The Dead Mountaineer’s Inn by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky, pub. by Melville House. 3 stars. Europe: Russia. (Fun sci-fi/murder mystery mash-up in a snowed-in Russian ski chalet; a zany cast of misfits.) 27. No Cause for Indictment: An Autopsy of Newark by Ronald Porambo, pub. by Melville House. 4 stars. North America: USA. (Scathing look at racism, the Newark riots, the Mafia, crooked & militant police, corrupt politicians, feeble justice institutions, failing medical & educational systems, a meek Fourth Estate, & more….) 28. Petroglyphs of Hawaii by L. R. McBride, pub. by Petroglyph Press. 3 stars. North America & Oceania: USA/Hawaii. (Brief overview of petroglyphs of Hawaii; light on info concerning the history & meaning of the petroglyphs.) 29. Yesterday in Hawai’i by Scott C. S. Stone, pub. by Island Heritage Publishing. 3 stars. North America & Oceania: USA/Hawaii. (Magazine-like chapters present brief overviews of highlights of Hawaiian history; nice photos.) 30. The Infatuations by Javier Marías, pub. by Alfred A. Knopf. 3 stars. Europe: Spain. (A psychoanalytical exploration of identity, reality, truth, love, & death after a man is brutally murdered in a senseless crime in Madrid.)

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Hi Junie, Good to see you popping in again too. I, too, liked The Time Machine more than I expected. I don't know what I thought prior to reading it & had no real expectation going into it. Ds ended up really liking it (he thought the writing was great even if the story is a bit unsettling). Treasure Island was actually a dud for me when I read it quite a few years ago w/ my dc. I thought I would enjoy it & just found it rougher & meaner than I expected, I guess. I really ended up not enjoying that book at all. Otoh, I love Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde; to me, it's a perfectly-written novella.

Welcome, Ausmumof3! :seeya:

Good to see you again, Pink and Green Mom. Two of your faves for this year (A Man Called Ove and One Night In Winter) have both been on my to-read list. I think I've even got Ove on hold at the library, but suspended the hold until I finish up some other books first. Of course, by the time I end up receiving it, I'll have no clue where I heard about it, what it's about, or why I wanted to read it. :lol: Reading is always an adventure (for me anyway)! Robin, :grouphug: & hope you're feeling better soon! Somehow it seems especially unfair to have to be on strong meds in the summertime! I overcame the digital library loan issue of The Infatuations by going & just checking out the hard copy of the book, lol. I've made a little more progress but am still just at about halfway through. I'm also still working on In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. I also realized that I was more than halfway through Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency before I left for Hawaii, but now I don't know where I put that book. Want to get back to it because I was really enjoying it, then had to completely abandon it to pack in a hurry. So, three books in progress for me (with one of the books MIA) as my current status update...

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Ds & I completed our Buzzfeed Friday workout this morning.

Whoo-hoo! Just finished my third walk/run of this week (along w/ ds & dh). Plan to do a weight or other type workout tomorrow, take Sat. off, & start C25K week 2 on Sunday.

To the original question: yes. But only one of our cats sits on the table. None of them generally get on the counters unless I have the window above the sink open & then a different one likes to stand there & look out the window. I used to have a cat that routinely sat on the table & got on the counters (the guy in the photo below). He wanted to drink all his water out of the dripping faucet (& taught another one to do it too). As far as 'piling' Legos & game pieces on cats, that reminded to dig up a photo that I took years ago of my cat. He was sleeping & my ds (who was about 3yo at the time), propped a Batman figurine on the cat. He said that Batman "was checking on the cat". My ds was so serious & too adorable & the cat didn't even wake up. (This cat was my baby that passed away a couple of years ago; he was also my sink-drinker.)

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Dh & I just did a 3.5 mile walk tonight after dinner.

I've never tried this recipe, but it looks yummy to me. Green tea smoothie

My sis sent me this link today. :lol: LOL: I went Paleo and now I hate everything