Walking Sights

What's Up

Hi all! Not a whole lot going on but I'll give an update anyway!

• Remy will be 6 months old in about 2 weeks. That means it is time to go through his closet and start switching out clothes. So thankful for gifts and hand-me-downs from neighbors, family, friends, and co-workers...we've barely had to buy any clothes for the little guy!
• It turns out we will be going to Raleigh for Christmas. I was kind of excited to have baby's first Christmas at home, but this is cool too. Ross's parents' home is a lovely and relaxing place to be for the holidays, and this way more people will get to meet little Remy!
• Fall has finally reached Las Vegas. Well, relatively speaking. Yesterday the weatherman said it would be a "cool 72." I don't think a Chicago weatherman would have put it that way.
  
• Now that the weather is not so stifling, I've decided to start walking. It's tricky, though, because sidewalks are not very reliable out here. You will set off along what looks like a perfectly legitimate sidewalk, go about half a block, and it will just disintegrate into dust and rocks. This is very inconvenient when pushing a stroller. Wandering around the apartment complex works though, and the views are surprisingly good.
  
• Remy is now going to the nursery during church services. For some reason that feels like a big deal to me. It has gone really well, if you don't count the "TERRIBLE gas" we were told he experienced last time. :P
  

Little Thumb Sucker

Spooky Books for Halloween

UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record by Leslie Kean. The author of this book, journalist Leslie Kean, makes such an enormous effort to avoid any type of sensationalism that I almost didn't make it past the first 20 pages. (To make UFOs mind-numbingly boring is quite a feat!) But when the first hand accounts from the "generals, pilots and government officials" began I could not put this book down. This book focuses on sightings by extremely credible witnesses over the last several decades, avoids (for the most part) undue speculation, and calls out the US government and media for their inadequate response.

Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact by Jacques Vallee. This trippy treatise on inexplicable encounters throughout history makes the convincing case that the UFOs sighted in recent decades are in no way of extraterrestrial origin. The fairytales alone will be enough to give you nightmares! (Did I just use "trippy" and "convincing" in the same sentence?)



A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Baron. I'm reading this one right now and so far, so good. It's a mystery novel set in Victorian England with a gothic feel and a disturbing re-imagining of the Queen herself. The ebook is on sale at Barnes & Noble for less than two bucks!





I'm Looking Through You: Growing up Haunted by Jennifer Finney Boylan. This fascinating autobiography tells the story of a transgender young man (now a woman) growing up in a haunted house. In turns tender, spine tingling, and hilarious this book makes for a very enjoyable read.

Misty Morning

We had a genuine thunderstorm last night. We think maybe this is the third time it has rained since we moved here - crazy! This morning the world smells like a sauna - maybe that is what happens when Willow Acacia and Eucalyptus trees get steamy?

My Perch

When I lived in IL I liked to talk about moving somewhere warm and dry. In fact, I think I list it on my blog somewhere as one of my top ambitions in life. But when push came to shove, I really didn't want to leave home. It took a fairly desperate situation (15 months unemployed and a baby on the way with no insurance) to make us up-root and move to Nevada. But now that I am here, I am once again amazed by the goodness and wisdom of God.

I will go to my grave believing that the Fox River Valley is one of the prettiest places in the country, but every time I go out my door here I am amazed at what I see. I love the mountains, I love the valley, I love the twinkling of the strip at night, I love the palm trees and the tumbleweeds and the birds that won't shut up, even when the sun goes down. Most of all, I love that I get to call this place home.

Recent Reads

I basically have four things I can do while the baby is napping - cook, clean, surf the web, or read. When I have a really good book, cooking and cleaning slide a little ;) Here are the books that have recently caused the laundry to back up:


Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith. Philosopher Isabel Dalhousie navigates her day to day life in Scotland with charming thoughtfulness and a curious streak that often gets her into trouble.





The second in the 44 Scotland Street series, more of the musings and adventures of an odd selection of neighbors in Edinburgh. It's mostly light hearted but the stuff about Bertie, the gifted little boy with the fearsomely yuppy mother, made me cry.





The third in the 44 Scotland Street series. Focuses a little more on gentle, unassuming Matthew and Angus the portrait artist. The narcissist Bruce has moved on to London and oddly, I kind of missed him!



I read The Hunger Games and the other two books in the series, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, in a week. This series is irresistible. It reminded me of all the paranoid, cautionary fiction hoisted on us in school, but with more romance, more adventure, and more bizarre fashion. It gets progressively grimmer and grimmer but ends with a surprisingly satisfying finish. Loved it.


Currently reading The Demon King because some website said that "if you like Hunger Games you may like this". I was on the fence until I read one review in which the reader gushed that it was the best fantasy novel he'd ever read. I have since realized that this review was probably written by a very young person. I'm about half way through it and am enjoying it but probably won't continue with the series.

Five Months Old Today!

Wonderful Weekend

I am feeling totally spoiled after the weekend we just had. Between the sale of the house on Friday and Ross getting to come home early it felt like a holiday. We went on a date (with the baby), picked out some velvety blue curtains for the bedroom, stocked up on Turpenoid and a brush cleaning jar, visited the neighborhood library and got a library card, went to the pool twice, did a small painting of an egret, bought our tickets for the Thanksgiving trip to IL, and still managed to fit in 6 episodes of Psych. ***happy sigh***

Was jarred back into reality this morning when I had to get up an hour early to go to the doctor and then came home and spilled a full cup of coffee on the carpet.

In case you are curious, here is the egret. Ross (Senior Artist, BFA, Perfectionist) doesn't like it. Well, I'm sorry but it's an exercise from a book on painting in a bold, loose style and it was meant to look like that. Mostly. Sort of.

Recent Sketches

A couple more cuties from Parents magazine. Did these both in pencil. So much for my "INK ONLY" notebook. :)

What's Up

Sorry I haven't been around, I've been fighting off a cold and reading through the Hunger Games trilogy. Here is the latest from our home:

• Remy had his four month appointment last week. (A bit late) He is measuring in the 70th percentile for height and the 30th for weight. The implication of this math is that he is somewhat lanky for a baby, but lanky is not the word that comes to mind when I see his fluffy little thighs.
  
• His doctor persists in calling Remy "she." We might have to switch doctors.
  
• The sale on the Lombard house did not close at the end of the month as planned. New plan is for it to close this week. Keeping fingers and toes crossed!
• The daily highs have finally dropped into the double digits and it's WONDERFUL! If you are thinking about a trip to Vegas, this is a great time of the year for it!
• I am just 5 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight and I can run up the stairs without getting winded. Yay!