Missing Garfield Book

I used to be a big fan of Garfield (the cartoon). As a result, I've accumulated a lot of Garfield paraphernalia through the years: stuffed animals, massagers, Pez dispensers, t-shirts, keychains, jewelry (believe it or not, I have two pairs of Garfield earrings in my jewlery box), stationery, stickers, calendars, chocolate, mugs, mouse pad, board game, and of course, books. I've outgrown my love for the fat cat, but to this day, an old friend of mine from high school still indulges me with Garfield gifts every once in a while. They now act more like a gag gift than anything else, but I am not ashamed to say, I still proudly display them on my shelf at home.

When we met for lunch about a month ago, TY presented me with a set of four Garfield board books. Rather than letting them collect dust at home like I do with most other Garfield items, I let baby K play with it. She ended up LOVING the books and wouldn't let them go. (What can I say? Like mother, like daughter?) The books came in a decorated cardboard box; baby K would take the books out and then attempt to put them back in. When she couldn't fit the books into the box, she'd start crying for help. I'd help her put them back in, she'd smile at me, only to take the books back out again. She'd also flip through the pages of the books like she knew exactly what they said. It was great that first week; Garfield kept her busy and allowed me to tackle other chores when we got home. Since then, the books have wore off their novelty, but baby K still enjoys them once in a while. The funny thing is, one of the four board books went missing two weekends ago. We've searched the house through and couldn't find it anywhere. I even looked in the garage, in both cars, and underneath the car seats, only to come out empty-handed each time. I suspect baby K must have been holding the book and decided to hide it somewhere... only we don't know where. We've retraced all the steps she could possibly have gone to, but still no luck. It's not like I'll lose sleep over it, but M and I are just puzzled as to where the book could be. It's very strange indeed.

Serious Silliness For All Ages

I have become a big fan of Sandra Boynton. Never heard of her? Wait until you have kids! Sadly enough, I probably find more entertainment in reading her books than baby K does at this point... although once in a while, baby K would bring over "Moo Baa La La La!" and plop herself down on my lap for me to read to her. (I love it when she does that. It's really the sweetest thing in the world!)

Some of Sandra Boynton's more popular books are seen all over the children's section in every bookstore, but when I went onto her website, I was surprised to see how many other books she's written that I have not heard of. I will have to look into expanding baby K's collection the next time we go shopping.

More Chick Lits

My co-worker introduced me to a new author named Jennifer Crusie. She lent me a few of her books, and I've read four so far:

• Anyone But You: A 40-year old divorcee adopts a depressed dog she names Fred, and Fred somehow manages to bring her together with an ER doctor, her 30-year old neighbor from downstairs.
• Crazy For You: A high school art teacher is bored with her life, ends up adopting a stray mutt, and breaks up with her boyfriend. She suddenly finds herself attracted to a long-time friend, who also happens to be her sister's ex-husband. The plot thickens when her ex-boyfriend turns psycho over the break-up and starts stalking her.
• Bet Me: A woman gets dumped three weeks before her sister's wedding, and overhears her ex-boyfriend making a bet with a gorgeous hunk that he wouldn't be able to seduce her. Out of contempt, she agrees to go out to dinner with this handsome guy, planning to string him along and dump him right after her sister's wedding. They both end up falling in love with each other, but not before battling a series of mishaps caused by their respective exes trying to keep them apart.
• Strange Bedpersons: A free-spirited teacher raised in a commune recently gets laid off. She agrees to pose as the fiancee of her lawyer friend so that he can land a huge account and make partner in the law firm he works at. It's obvious that the two are in love with each other, but she refuses to get involved with him b/c all he's concerned with is getting ahead in his career. The plot itself doesn't sound very interesting, but the author has a way of getting you engrossed in the book and attached to the characters.

And I just started another one called Charlie All Night, about a radio producer who gets dumped by her boyfriend, resulting in her demotion at the radio station she works at (since he was also her boss). She is asked to work with a new DJ on the late night shift, and decides to make him famous... only fame and popularity is not something he wants.

I find Jennifer Crusie's books quite humorous. She's able to give personalities to all her characters that make them witty (not like some heroines that just annoy me). Apparently, Jennifer Crusie has been around for a while, so I have plenty more of her books to go through that'll keep me busy for the rest of the summer. In the meantime, I'm on hold at the library for some new releases by my usual authors: The Beach House by Jane Green, Sleeping Arrangements by Madeleine Wickham, Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner, and This Charming Man by Marian Keyes.

Remember Me?

I am SO tired and sleepy right now, but I have only myself to blame for it. I stayed up late last night finishing up my latest chick lit, "Remember Me?" by Sophie Kinsella, the same author who wrote the Shopaholic series.

I enjoyed this book much more than "Love the One You're With" that I blogged about last week. It's about this girl who wakes up in the hospital from a car accident, thinking it's the year 2004 and she had just missed her father's funeral... only to find out that it is three years later, she's married to a handsome and rich husband, has climbed up the Corporate ladder at record speed, and looks gorgeous. She has no recollection of what had happened in the last three years; her new life seemed to be perfect and too good to be true. But as she lives this new life, she realizes that things are not quite as wonderful as they appeared to be on the surface. She struggles to find a happy medium between her old self and the new life she doesn't remember.

Take a gander at it if you happen to be at the library and are looking for a quick read. I highly recommend this book (as well as anything else by Sophie Kinsella). Happy reading!

Love The One You're With

My latest chick lit read is called "Love The One You're With," by Emily Giffin. I've read a few other books by her which I very much enjoyed, but I must admit, this newest novel is a bit of a disappointment. Granted, I've had fair warning from other friends who've read it and provided me with their not-so-positive feedback, but everyone has their own opinion and you just never know until you read it for yourself.

The first couple of chapters into the book, I wanted to abandon it already, but I felt compelled to finish it since I've been waiting (on hold at the library) for almost two months to borrow it. I'm more than halfway done, but last night, I skipped to the last two pages of the book just to see if I would like the ending. If not, I was going to give up on it completely. It sounded like a happy ending (which is usually the case in chick lits), so I will attempt to read on to the finale.

The premise of the story is as follows: this woman has the perfect marriage with the perfect husband and is pretty much living the perfect life. Then one day, she randomly bumps into her ex-boyfriend from years ago, and starts second-guessing her life and wondering if this ex-boyfriend is really her true love. I find it hard to relate to (and therefore empathize with) the protagonist. I mean, she has a wonderful husband whom she loves - why would anyone in their right mind consider infidelity? I feel like screaming out to her "Get over it... he's ancient history!"

We make decisions every day of our lives - sometimes they're as simple as deciding what to eat for dinner that night, or sometimes they have a more permanent impact, like changing jobs or moving to a new city. But whatever the decision is, we need to be happy with it and move on. Life is too short to constantly be looking back and wondering "what if."

B-O-R-E-D Spells BORED

I am bored. No other word sums it up better than that. I've been struggling for something to write about for the past couple of days, but the only thing I can think of are either the cyclone that hit Myanmar, or the earthquake in China. Both are too depressing, and I find it despicable how the government in those countries are handling the situation, so in order to prevent myself from getting upset over something I have absolutely no control over, I shall refrain from further comment.

Some updates from the burbs... the dove that hatched in the nest by the front of the house appears to be fully grown (although we could be mistaking it for the mother... can't really tell). The mother bird and its chick are no longer imprisoned to the nest, but they do appear to come back every once in a while, so M hasn't been able to take the nest down yet. He's been tempted to do so for a while now, but didn't want to deprive the birds of their safe haven. The incentive to take the nest down also grew after M's sister-in-law told us about her friend who had bird mites that came through the window into the house, infesting the family with rashes. However kind we want to be to nature, that's one thing we don't need.

M and I are trying to get into the habit of exercising more, so we've made it a point to take Saturday strolls around our neighborhood. (Of course, we can always use the elliptical machine at home that's collecting dust, but that would be too easy.) We walked around for about an hour and a half this past Saturday and checked out the houses in the area, venturing off to small streets we haven't been on before, admiring (or critiquing) people's landscaping abilities (or lack of). On the way back, we passed by a dead raccoon. That probably wasn't the most pleasant sight to see on a Saturday afternoon, but at least it hadn't started decomposing yet, and I didn't notice any flies around it. This weekend, it's off to the other direction... see what else we find along the way.

We'll also need to make a trip to the library this weekend (at least that's one place within walking distance from home). I haven't read any chick lits (as in chick flick, but in the form of a book) since I can remember, being that I've exhausted all the novels from the usual authors I like. Maybe it's time I try a new author, but I'm a creature of habit... unless it comes recommended, I like to stick with what I'm used to. On the bright side, there are a couple of new books by those same authors coming out this year that I can look forward to. Unfortunately, I'm not the only fan of chick lits at our local public library, and I am currently #67 on hold for one of those books.

A couple of weeks ago at the library, I tried looking for a book that KF read recently, called "In The World But Not Of It," about Brett Grainger's "experience growing up in a Christian fundamentalist family and community" (to quote from KF), but with no success. It wasn't until later on that I remembered her blog mentioning she got an unedited advanced copy of it. I also tried looking for a memoir written by Trish Ryan, called "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not," about how she is able to recover from a disastrous marriage to find her faith in God and onto meeting the love of her life. Again, I come out empty-handed. It's probably too new; I think the book just came out last month, so I'll give it a few more months. In the meantime, maybe I'll go back to re-reading some of the chick lits I already have.