books and the end of november

I just finished two books by Howard Norman. I have been in a reading slump for some reason...could not find anything I wanted to read, much less finish. Here they are if you missed their mention earlier:

• What is Left the Daughter by Howard Norman
• The Bird Artist by Howard Norman

I also started White Truffles in Winter by N.M. Kelby and really like that a lot, too. Here's a bit of the review from Amazon:

White Truffles in Winter imagines the world of the remarkable French chef Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935), who changed how we eat through his legendary restaurants at the Savoy and the Ritz. A man of contradictions—kind yet imperious, food-obsessed yet rarely hungry—Escoffier was also torn between two women: the famous, beautiful, and reckless actress Sarah Bernhardt and his wife, the independent and sublime poet Delphine Daffis, who refused ever to leave Monte Carlo. In the last year of Escoffier's life, in the middle of writing his memoirs, he has returned to Delphine, who requests a dish in her name as he has honored Bernhardt, Queen Victoria, and many others. How does one define the complexity of love on a single plate? N. M. Kelby brings us the sensuality of food and love amid a world on the verge of war in this work that shimmers with beauty and longing.

I had to force myself to go to work yesterday...I wanted to stay home and find out how The Bird Artist ended. I thought about it all day and that means it was a good book.


My damn phone, for which I paid a fortune, isn't working. It won't mount the SD card, whatever in hell that means. I think it's outrageous that a phone that costs that much works so poorly. It's like going back to the age of the tin can and a piece of string.

My Android Phone Sucks

I suggested we go back to the place that sold us this POS but Regis said that would likely involve buying a new phone. Seriously? This is quite a racket these cell phone folks have. They are the new credit card companies, I swear. Sharks in blood-infested water.

To be fair, these are the things that are wrong with it:

• It often won't respond. You can push the phone icon until your face turns blue and it won't make a call. I have said if anybody depends on my to make a 911 call, they're dead.
• It won't scroll up or down most days unless I reboot and even then, it's a temporary fix.
• My pictures are gone. Some feature. Take a bunch of pictures (really bad ones...) with your phone and then they mysteriously disappear. This entailed the purchase of a new SD card which also does not work.
• Sometimes it won't ring when I have a call but the message appears later. Another nice feature.

I think I have to face the fact that cell phones are disposable and I mean after about a year. Those old phones lasted for decades so I'm going back to this:

Regis tells me I can continue to use my phone as a phone which is what I'll do since I don't care about apps and that crap anyway. God, I sound like an old crank, don't I?

We're up early to listen to Tim and Shelley talk about zombies on the radio. I don't care about (or even know about) zombies but Regis likes them. 

Here's my list of favorite Christmas movies:

1. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
2. A Christmas Story (1983)
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
5. Frosty the Snowman (1969)
6. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
7. The Nutcracker (Baryshnikov)
8. A Christmas Carol (1999, Patrick Stewart)
9. A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott)
10. The Nutcracker (George Ballanchine)
11. A Christmas Carol (1951, Alastair Sim)
12. A Christmas Carol (1962, Mr. Magoo)
13. A Charlie Brown Christmas
14. A Christmas Carol (1972, Albert Finney)
15. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

We better get busy.

After listing those movies and making a visit to old friends on a message board I belong to, I am feeling in a much more positive mood. I'm not going to let a cell phone debacle pull me down. Ha!