Born to Run... Yahoo!

I come from a family of great readers and athletes.   People in my family are runners, cyclists, surfers, etc.  Also, my parents read, my grandparents read. Everyone reads. Best of all, my brother, sister, her husband and I all  have a loosey-goosey tradition of reading and passing around various books. And at the moment, we are all also in a running/swimming/biking kick. It's really fun.

 In the past, we have all read David Copperfield, East of Eden, The Caine Mutiny, Life of Pi and a few others I can't think of right now. I like to think of it as a very exclusive book club.Usually one of us reads a book then pressures a sibling to read it.  Then the other sibling catches wind that the other two (three, including my brother-in-law) have read something and picks it up to see what all the fuss is about.  Sometimes this is a process that takes a few years, for instance, my sister has yet to read War and Peace.  

Our current hot book is Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall.  This book now holds a special place in my sister's heart because she is the one who "discovered" it, gave it to my brother for Christmas and then he loved it and passed it to me.  I had heard both of them talk about it but frankly ignored them.

Honestly, I kind of thought they were bonkers.  I run, and  I even just read another really good book about running (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by  Haruki Murakami )  But I didn't immediately pick this one up.  My brother brought the book over on a recent Sunday and then asked me every day whether I had read it yet. 

I had finished up Emma, and didn't have anything else particularly pressing on my nightstand, and I was already in bed, so kind of by default, and with an eye roll, I picked up Born to Run.  It immediately hooks you with an account of a search for a sort of mystical/crazy runner living in the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico, moves through McDougall's own quest to figure out why he had so many running injuries, and skips along from there. It is well paced, informative,  and interesting enough to keep me up all night.

At the same time as he changed his own life by becoming a long distance runner, McDougall produced a well woven narrative about the build-up, planning and execution of a 50 mile footrace in crazy mountain terrain with personal stories, training advice, running history and philosophy,  as well as anthropology and finishes up with a book that could quite literally change your life.  

If you are inclined to be saved by exercise, back to the earth eating and running barefoot, that is.  

Suffice it to say, I stayed up reading this damn book until two in the morning, ran a few barefoot laps around my local park and ate a baked potato for dinner tonight.   

Go Team Why Mommy!

I am blogging for Susan today. she is a very dear friend of Stimey, a friendly aquaintance of mine, a terrific mom and blogger, and a scientist.  Today Susan is having surgery to battle the cancer she has been fighting for several years now, and Stimey has asked bloggers to write a post about science and our children to honor Susan.

                                         We staged these photos. What an actress.

Yesterday, Caroline fell asleep on the couch, and I had some time alone with Will. A very rare occurence, so I suggested we make granola bars.  He was excited and we moved into the kitchen to begin the process.  As we proceeded, I realized we were out of Karo syrup.  I checked and re-checked all the cabinets, cursing all the while.  Finally, instead of giving up, I decided to substitute honey for the Karo syrup.  We discussed what we needed to hold the dry bits of the granola bars together-- sticky things, peanut butter, a sugar solution, fats, and that the syrup and the honey could be substituted as they were both sugar solutions.

We needed to add three cups of oats the the mixture, and the one cup measure was all sticky from the wet ingredients, so I decided to add a little math lesson in and learn fractions. There's math in science-- right?

How many halfs are in a whole Will?"  I asked.

"I dunno."  He shrugged.

"Two. Right? One half, and another half make a whole. This cup is  a half cup, so two of those makes one whole cup. We need three cups, so we need two half cups three times. Six scoops."

Blank stare. He didn't care.  He wanted to scoop oats.

                                      (Note the finished granola bars and the attractive sneer).

I counted "One half. Scoop again. Level it...  dump. And another half. Level, dump. One cup.   See-- those two scoops are the same as one scoop of the one cup measure.  Let's go again..."

We then added the coconut, sunflower seeds and mini chips. Then baked the granola bars.  They are yum.

Did Will learn math yesterday, or chemistry?  Maybe, maybe not. But the words washed over his brain. I laid a foundation, as I try to do every day. Layering knowledge as it were.   Did he learn any fundamental baking truths? No.  But we had a really nice ten minutes together.

Susan, as we made those bars, and I spent time with my son, teaching him life skills, I thought of you.  I thought of the wonderful mother I know you to be, and how precious the time you spend with your boys is.  I know how mindfully you live your life.  I honor you, and try to follow the fine example you set.

Cat Watch! and More!

The cat leaves my room a little! Hooray. It turns out I'm not a fan of cat hair. Or having a cat box IN MY BEDROOM. The cat has also been wormed and had his toenails clipped.

Patch was pretty shy at first, and wouldn't leave my room. He was social in there, but happy to stay confined. Last night though, he hung out with me and was VERY interested in Life on Discovery Channel. I think he's going to be a good cat. Busy, but good.

Have I been reading? Nah, not alot. I finished Emma. It was lovely.

I also just made a really fun Amazon order for my family. If you know me, you know how rare this is. Will got Lego Star Wars for his Nintendo DSi. I got Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl-Mc Phee. and Caroline got... The Princess and the Frog! Best movie ever. We love it.

Today is going to be a new stuff and Easter egg dyeing day-- always a good day.

Back to Knitting Rules!, I sort of think of Ms. Pearl-McPhee as a sort of sassier, knitting Laurie Colwin. She writes funny and or poignant essays about knitting and all things wool, as well as a very popular blog. This book, published in 2006 has lots of basic knitting information as well as some good recipes for a hats, socks, sweaters. I hope it will turn into a reference book for things like sock sizing and fixing other problems like that..

Patch

I got a cat. He is super great as cats go. I think. I haven't had a cat since I was nine, but I think this one is going to be good. He's a little nervous and spends most of his days under my bed; but when he comes out, he's ready to play. Also, he purrs every time I touch him. And once in a while, he lets both my kids pet him at the same time.

I would post a picture, but it would cost like more than a hundred dollars because my camera appears to be dying. He is a very good looking black and white boy, ten months old.

Hah! He just pounced at nothing. What a cat! Eew. Less cute, he just pounced in and out of the litter box, which is in my room because he's not really interested in leaving my room. Gross.

Seriously, what the hell is this fricking cat doing?

He's crazy.

I wish I knew more about cats.

Sadly, it's too late to call Stimey. She knows all about these things.

Read all the way to the end of this post--I've got fun news!

I feel sort of boring and predictable, but I'm reading Emma. Again.

Jane Austen, I can't get enough of her. She is always so fresh and perfect.

Off the Women's History Month table in the library, I also grabbed Laura's Album: A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder compiled by William Anderson. It is really fun to see photographs of the Ingalls family and adorable Almanzo. Mrs. Wilder was apparently quite a sassafrassy. Between her childhood and her later years when she wrote her books; she was a noted farmer and active in her town and church. She was adorable and stout like a little French horse! Almanzo was surprisingly good looking, and a half-pint as well as Laura. Laura's Album also gives an accurate timeline of her family's travels, as she simplified for the children's books. It's a fun book to look over, and now I will probably have to read some Little House books for the fun of it. Maybe my kids are big enough now to listen to them.

Speaking of reading to kids; I have been trying to get my kids to listen to a chapter book lately, and they aren't biting at anything. Last year we read like five Ramona books. I have tried Trumpet of the Swan by E.B White and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty Mac Donald, to no avail. Maybe Little House in the Big Wood will spark their interest.

Speaking of Ramona though; today the three of us visited the local Humane Society to look for a cat. A CAT! And we found one. In discussing names, we turned over Rosepetal, Katie, Sally, Susan, Skipper, Apple Pie and others, but Ramona was our winner. I love it. And I really hope I love this cat. EEk! She's tiny and is black and white. She sat in my lap and purred. We were very disappointed to have to leave her at the shelter while we await our interview. Cross your fingers that I am judged to be a responsible cat owner-- my super nice landlord said that he would highly recommend me when they call him to make sure it's allowed. Aww.

Another Assignment

Back to Elizabeth Strout. My aunt visited the East Coast recently and brought me a few books, one of which came with an assignment. Read it and advise on whether to pick The Wife by Meg Wolitzer or Amy and Isabel by Elizabeth Strout for her book club next month. Last time I think she chose something by Ayn Rand so she wanted to give the ladies a break I think. Or maybe just not get kicked out of the book club.

I wasn't thinking very much when I glanced at them and didn't connect Amy and Isabel by Elizabeth Strout to Olive Kitteridge byt the same author. Duh.

I picked up Amy and Isabel a few times and said, to myself, "boy is this going to be good. I sure am tired though." So I turned of my light and went to bed after twenty minutes. Last night I picked up A and I at about eleven and it started to get really good. So good in fact that I read the whole book. And when I finished at two, I was so wound up I didn't sleep til three.

It was that good.

There are some ick parts to be sure. Watching a teenager come to sexual maturity is never pretty, and there are a fair number of images of middle aged sex, but Man. What a story. So beautfully written. I am putting Elizabeth Strout officially on my list of favorite authors. I love her.

The only negative comment I have about this book is the title. It comes off as a non-serious book, especially leading off with Amy, it seems fluffy when it definitely is not fluffy and addresses coming of age and sex and female relationships so thoughtfully. I don't have any suggestions for a better title, but am not a fan of the current one. Although really it's permanent. I wonder if Ms. Strout thought of it herself or had it forced upon her by a tyrannical publisher.

I love castaway stories!

Although I haven't been blogging for a few months, I have managed to get through a few books in the moments when I was not knitting.

One terrific book I read recently was In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. I grabbed this from Stimey's basement library because I cannot get enough of shipwreck and disaster stories. Morbid and creepy, I know. However, from all these books I have learned that I most certainly could become a cannibal. I shocked my poor friend today when I suggested that if my child were starving I would cheerfully slaughter my dog, stew him up and feed him to my children.

I am always planning for my own personal apocalypse, and so reading these survival books maybe helps me to mentally prepare for the starvation I seem to think is inevitable for me. I read them almost like textbooks, noting gruesome details so I can identify the signs of scurvy or maybe another horrible vitamin deficit in myself.

I absolutely love reading these stories of tongue swelling thirst and sucking on the bones of your first mate. Mr. Philbrick did a tremendous job of bringing this important American story to life. He described how is became Melville's inspiration for Moby Dick, and did a bang up job explaining nautical terms. Generally when reading books about ships, my eyes glaze over when they start talking about mainsails and knots and starboard but Mr. Philbrick gave one particularly useful diagram of a ship and used details from the life of a greenhorn to clearly portray how a ship leaves a harbor. I was not bored stiff when he recounted the voyage southerly around the tip of South America, or by the description of tides.

Now that I'm thinking back, this was really a great book. Not only did it have a gruesome and horrifying castaway story; it includes a colorful description of Nantucket and the unique culture that sprang up around the whaling industry as well as pertinent follow up stories about the survivors. Philbrick also touches on such thought provoking topics as the order in which people died while adrift at sea-- Blacks first. Hmm..prior nutrition patterns matter when your body is challenged. As do family and cultural ties.

Thanks Stimey for introducing me to the wonderful world of horrifying survival books. It hasn't made me morbid at all.