Today’s title is actually a quote by a real live person. Or, more to the point, a real live person I know. Louise said it to me via email. We were discussing the advantages of worshiping monkey gods, whether that was something we wanted to start doing or not. Why were we discussing that? Because of this book:

Down on Ponce by Fred Willard. Which she plans to loan to me today.
Today we had a state wide earthquake drill. At 9:45 am. I can only assume that the entire state of Washington was under a desk at precisely 9:45 am. I know I was. At 10 I had a meeting, at 11 I came back to my cube, only to find that it has been condemned. It has a yellow Caution tape stretching across it diagonally. And a piece of orange paper taped to the floor in front that reads SIMULATED EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE. This object/area suffers the following simulated damaged from today’s STATEWIDE EARTHQUAKE DRILL. And handwritten below it reads “Cube Implosion.” What this means I do not know. I think I am supposed to be simulating the experience of being trapped under my desk until someone rescues me. As no one seems terribly worried about that, I am using a Curious George doll to simulate me simulating the experience of being trapped under my desk until someone rescues me, as i continue to go about my work day. I don’t know when the tape is to be removed, but if no one removes it, I’m going to just leave it. I’m not the only one… the so called Safety Committee imploded two other cubes in my dept. One of which is as heavily decorated as mine. We feel this is tchotchke prejudice, and are considering legal action. We feel singled out and harassed.

You know, one of the most difficult things they ask me to do, at work, is to be funny on command. Maybe it’s because they wait until I am in the most unfunny of moods. “ok… Jodi…. get ready… BE ENTERTAINING!!” I never did follow directions very well.
I couldn’t concentrate on any of my books last night, as I am in the mood for light. I was in the mood for the Romantic Comedy of books. Typically called, I believe “Summer Reading.” Because you can’t think too much in the summer. Or deal with anything dark or depressing. And as I had nothing light and fun lying around the house, I ended up wandering around the casita, picking stuff up and putting it back down and mumbling. I was sort of crabby. It’s really a shame that when I was picking up the stuff, I didn’t put it away or something. Instead of just setting it back down where it lay.
Next week, Kelley Armstrong’s new book comes out.

She wrote “Stolen” and “Bitten” and I am looking forward to her new book. It’s about a witch this time. Cool. But that book cover looks awfully Laurel K. Hamilton, does it not?

I started a new audio book for the Literary Commute Story Hour this morning.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Twenty-five discs! That’s a big book!

Well, I think I am done for now. Playing with my new book list page. Louise and I have been going around and around with style sheets and XML parsing errors, and wonderful new plug-ins the last few days. Louise is setting up a new blog, premiering soon. Anyway, this has been very taxing on us, as we support print products. And fonts. Of course. But learning New Things is good. And I’ve had fun. So I present to you the new Books I’ve already Read page. The link lives down there… just below the books I am currently reading. Maybe future books will feature snarky reviews or comments. But not right now… it’s just a book list.
Anyways… happy it’s Friday, and work has already ended for the day!!

As if yesterday could be any more full of booky goodness, it just got better. I browsed, for a while, after picking up my new Tanya Huff book. I even went into the children’s books, to reminisce. Occasionally, I do that, just to find out if they have any Trixie Belden books. Trixie Belden was the reason I grew up wanting to be a gal detective. I read Nancy Drew as well. But she was too perfect and pretty for me. Trixie was flawed and freckled… she had issues with school and her temper. She had a “sturdy build.”But, when her little brother, Bobby, was bitten by a copperhead, she sucked the poison out of his toe. I don’t remember Nancy ever have the cajones to suck poison out of anyone’s toe. So every once in a while, I look for her books in bookstores, but they’ve been out of print for over 20 years, I think.
There were 39 Trixie Belden books, and I owned them all. (They’ve since been lost, unfortunately.) I read them over and over. Trixie was my friend, and every summer when I was sent to my father’s, I would take a bunch of my favorites with me. Before Josh was born, I was often all alone with my brother and babysitter, occasionally. Sometimes, I was all alone. All day until 6:30 when my parents came home, ate dinner, watched tv and went to bed at nine. With the exception of the Summer that Grease came out, reading was my main source of entertainment*. I did not have friends in California. I had either a babysitter or myself. Trixie, Honey, Diana, Mart, Brian, Jim and, eventually, Dan were my friends. The series began in 1948, and it’s possible that Trixie is the reason I was such a wholesome kid. She may be responsible for my later tendencies to confront car thieves and chase bank robbers as well, come to think of it. Recently, I had a dream in which I was at a book fair. I was looking through the rare book section, paperback, and I found a Trixie Belden book. I was soooo happy, and of course I bought it. I remember it being in terrible condition.
So I wandered through the children’s section, looking at my old favorites fondly, (Ramona Quimbly being a particular favorite of mine) and almost buying some books for Sweet Pea. Then I started to leave the store. I passed a table display with a sign that read “Remember these?” They had some Fold and Mail Wonder Woman stationary, that I was sorely tempted to buy. Lots of books from my childhood, they made me all smile, and then I walked around the other side… and there she was. Trixie Fucking Belden!! The rights are now owned by Random House, and they are rereleasing her!! And will I own all 39 again? Oh yest I will! I did not buy any last night, I already had two books in my hand. But I will rebuild my Trixie Belden collection. Just cuz.
And then I got home and there was a box from amazon.com leaning against my front door! And sure, it’s a book about javascripting, but I am not just a reader, I’m a geek as well.
*god bless my stepmonster for policy on supplying me with as many books as I could read, because she recognized the value of it.