Even though I’ve been busy as heck with kids, wife, PTA, kitchen renovation, the plot for world domination, etc., I still try to find some time to read, either on “paper” (some of you 20th century-ers may remember this quaint delivery apparatus for thought beams), and also on iPod.    Here’s what I’ve been reading lately:

HEAT by Bill Buford  – This is a book by the food writer for the New Yorker who met “Molto” Mario Batali and somehow convinced him to let him work an appenticeship at one of his 4-star restaurants in New York.    It’s a totally fascinating portrait of what it’s like to work in a professional restaurant, the personalities involved, the skills involved, the business acumen–everything.  In the second half of the book he travels to Italy to learn the origins of cooking and apprentices at a butcher shop in a tiny town in Tuscan.  It’s one of those books that makes you realize how little you know about anything “real”.  As an added bonus, it also makes you very hungry (if you’re not a vegetarian).  It made me go out and buy some quality kitchen knives, though I think The Wife will draw the line and butchering a pig on our new butcher-block countertops.

 THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy – This guy probably does not need any praise from me, seeing as how a) he has already won a McArthur “Genius” Fellowship, b) he has a movie version of his last book, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, coming out this Fall directed by The Coen Brothers, c) this book won the Pulitzer prize, and d) most importantly (or least importantly?) he was on OPRAH last month, but I just have to say this was one awesome, awesome book.  Now if I told you this book was about an unnamed Father and his son wandering a post-apocalyptic world where everything is covered in gray ash and there is almost no food and it is freezing cold and the only people you may meet are marauding bands of violent, desperate men, many of whom have resorted to cannibalism, was a “must read”, you’d probably say “Now where’s I put that copy of Finnegans’ Wake?”  But this book is utterly compelling and edge-of-your-seat suspenseful, as well as quite profound and meaningful.  Though its grimness was very, very sobering, I was really impressed that it was so grim and that the grimness did not let up.  I hesitate to think what Oprah’s book of the month club made of all this.  My favorite quote from the book:

The Boy:  “Can’t we forget the awful things we saw?”  The Father:  “Sure.  You forget want you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.”

GO DOG GO – P.D. Eastman – My son loves this book, my daughter loves this book, I love this book.  For my money, with this book and ARE YOU MY MOTHER? P.D. Eastman  show’s he is just as good if not better than Dr. Seuss.  Stop dogs stop!  The light is red!  Go, dogs go–it’s green ahead!  Suck on that Cormac McCarthy…

There was lots to do at the Detroit Holiday Fireworks (which is not held on July 4, as it’s combined with Canada’s fireworks show), and there’s a good chance we did most of them last night. And we made it home by midnight! Props to our friend MM for letting us watch the festivities from her cubicle at the Ren Cen. Now if you’ll excuse me…naptime!
The whole set of pics are here.

You might notice a few changes around the place.  Since my PTA season is over, we’re doing some long-delayed sprucing up.  In the past few days I’ve:

• Changed web hosters (from $100/yr moved-to-India Powweb to $30/year run-by-geeks Dreamhost)
• Moved e-mail servers to GoDaddy, so that if I ever change hosts again I don’t have to worry about changing MX records again (you are familiar with MX records, correct?)
• Changed blogging software from Movable Type to WordPress.  Why?  Because while it’s true that Movable Type is customizable, open source, blah blah, I really spent way too much time trying to figure out how to get parts of it to work, rather than just doing the freakin’ blog.  So when Dreamhost said they supported Word Press with one-click publishing, I tested it, and darned if it wasn’t faster, prettier, and easy as pie.  It’s basically what MT is aspiring to be only–it;’s already done, and done very, very well.  So why was I spending my life banging my head against a wall (a recurring question in my life, I know..)  So “Adios” MT, “Hola” Word Press!

Future upgrades should include a pretty new format, less clutter, blah blah.  All in an effort to bring the quality information you have to come to expect from this bleeding-edge vanity project.  So lie back and enjoy! There’s certainly more where that came from!

Our awesome progeny finished 3rd grade with flying colors. She was awarded a special certificate from her teacher and the Principal for Exemplary Achievement, got a Citizenship award, all “S”-es on her report card, and is already chomping at the bit for 4th grade. She is also working on her first screenplay, called “DORKS AT MIDNIGHT”. I only wish I was making some of this up. Congrats to Maddy! Now turn off the TV and crack open a book!