I have never done one of these before, but more and more people seem to be, so I present the works I have read in 2009, as it goes. I'll mark rereads (these will surely be the majority of my reading), and new audiobooks, though I will not let you guys know every time I listen all the way through The Princess Diaries again because I have it on as background noise at work. And since I will not be satisfied with a simple list, I'll write comments under a cut for each book.

My 2009 Reading List:

1. 1/4/2009 - Crown of Slaves, by David Weber and Eric Flint. ( Analysis )
   
2. 1/6/2009 - Forever Princess, by Meg Cabot. ( Analysis )
   
3. 1/10/2009 - The Language of God, by Francis S. Collins. ( Analysis )
   
4. 1/11/2009 - AUDIO: Making Money, by Terry Pratchett. ( Analysis )
   
5. 1/13/2009 - Shadow of Saganami, by David Weber. ( Analysis )
   
6. 1/14/2009 - REREAD: Shards of Honor, by Lois McMaster Bujold. ( Analysis )
   
7. 1/15/2009 - The Blood of Flowers: A Novel, by Anita Amirrezvani. ( Analysis )
   
8. 1/16/2009 - AUDIO: Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. ( Analysis )
   
9. 1/18/2009 - AUDIO: Gods Behaving Badly, by Marie Phillips. ( Analysis )
   
10. 1/19/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Fifth Elephant, by Terry Pratchett. ( Analysis )
    
11. 1/20/2009 - REREAD: Barrayar, by Lois McMaster Bujold. ( Analysis )
    
12. 1/20/2009 - Understanding Autism, by Lynn Kern Koegel and Claire LaZebnik. ( Analysis )
    
13. 1/22/2009 - Common Sense, by Thomas Paine. ( Analysis )
    
14. 1/22/2009 - REREAD: Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett. ( Analysis )
    
15. 1/25/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Clan of the Cave Bear, by Jean M. Auel. ( Analysis )
    
16. 1/27/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Valley of the Horses, by Jean M. Auel. ( Analysis )
    
17. 1/27/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Mammoth Hunters, by Jean M. Auel. ( Analysis )
    
18. 1/30/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): Forever Princess, by Meg Cabot. ( Analysis )
    
19. 1/31/2009 - Ransom My Heart, by Meg Cabot. ( Analysis )
    
20. 2/2/2009 - REREAD(?): Moving Pictures, by Terry Pratchett. ( Analysis )
    
21. 2/5/2009 - Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. ( Analysis )
    
22. 2/8/2009 - REREAD: Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett. ( Analysis )
    
23. 2/14/2009 - REREAD: Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett. ( Analysis )
    
24. 2/20/2009 - John Adams, by David McCullough. ( Analysis )
    
25. 2/24/2009 - AUDIO: Poison Study, by Maria V. Snyder. ( Analysis )
    
26. 2/25/2009 - AUDIO: Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen. ( Analysis )
    
27. 2/26/2009 - AUDIO: Emma, by Jane Austen. ( Analysis )
    
28. 3/3/2009 - AUDIO: Magic Study, by Maria V. Snyder. ( Analysis )
    
29. 3/6/2009 - REREAD: Taltos, by Steven Brust. ( Analysis )
    
30. 3/7/2009 - REREAD: Phoenix, by Steven Brust. ( Analysis )
    
31. 3/14/2009 - REREAD: Dragon, by Steven Brust. ( Analysis )
    
32. 3/15/2009 - I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein, by Michael A. Burstein. ( Analysis )
    
33. 3/18/2009 - Empress, by Karen Miller. ( Analysis )
    
34. 3/21/2009 - REREAD: Issola, by Steven Brust. ( Analysis )
    
35. 3/21/2009 - REREAD: Dzur, by Steven Brust. ( Analysis )
    
36. 3/22/2009 - REREAD: Jhegaala, by Steven Brust. ( Analysis )
    
37. 3/22/2009 - REREAD: First Test, by Tamora Pierce. ( Analysis )
    
38. 3/23/2009 - REREAD: Page, by Tamora Pierce. ( Analysis )
    
39. 3/23/2009 - REREAD: Squire, by Tamora Pierce. ( Analysis )
    
40. 3/24/2009 - REREAD: Lady Knight, by Tamora Pierce. ( Analysis )
    
41. 3/27/2009 - REREAD: A College of Magics, by Caroline Stevermer. ( Analysis )
    
42. 4/9/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Sharing Knife, Volume 1: Beguilement, by Lois McMaster Bujold ( Analysis )
    
43. 4/10/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Sharing Knife, Volume 2: Legacy, by Lois McMaster Bujold ( Analysis )
    
44. 4/11/2009 - REREAD: The Sharing Knife, Volume 3: Passage, by Lois McMaster Bujold ( Analysis )
    
45. 4/12/2009 - The Sharing Knife, Volume 4: Horizon, by Lois McMaster Bujold ( Analysis )
    
46. 4/12/2009 - The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett. ( Analysis )
    

So, Wesley actually got to "meet" the new baby today. I'm getting to the point where 2-3 times a day, the baby starts kicking around actively enough that you can feel it from outside. I was just on the couch loading up my mp3 player when it started up, so I called for Wesley.

Wesley was pretty excited. He told me, "The baby is trying to get out!" I explained that the baby is really very happy about being inside me, and Wesley seemed content with that. I think Wesley is impatient for the baby. Halfway there!

OMG! Baby zucchinis! And baby crookneck squash!

I have been waiting over 3 weeks since the first male flowers for this. I pollinated them by hand, to make sure. I will hopefully have fresh garden zucchini is a week or so!

Seriously, the rain needs to STOP NOW. We need SUN. Or at least DRY WEATHER.

After the constant showers with no sun for approximately, well, the month of June, we had a sunny day yesterday. I was very excited for my plants, which are on the verge of drowning.

Then last night, thunderstorms dumped around 3 inches of water on us.

Today we had intermittent drizzles.

Anyone want to guess what's on the forecast for tonight? And tomorrow? And tomorrow night? And Sunday? And Monday? Yeah. Thunderstorms. Tuesday, they predict the thunderstorms will end, and we'll be back to showers. The next day on my 10-day forecast without rain is next Thursday. In fact, the ONLY day on my 10-day forecast without rain is next Thursday.

There are STANDING PUDDLES in my garden bed. You are not supposed to have puddles on worked soil. My plants are all dying from TOO MUCH WATER.

Grrrrr.

Everything tastes really, really weird to me this week.

Not necessarily bad. Just weird. It's strange. Every time I eat something, it's like a little adventure.

Okay, seriously, if it does not STOP RAINING, I am going to go INSANE.

It is not April! It's almost July! There is supposed to be SUN.

Also, my veggies are refusing to start producing actual vegetables until it gets warmer and drier, and I am annoyed at them.

So, we just had a highly quotable car ride home. I was writing them down as they came, but they were all eclipsed by the one I am going to share.

Peter and I were discussing baby names, and Wesley and Lorrie were grooving in the back seat without us. At one point, as we were discussing the relative pros and cons of two names we liked, I turned and consulted Wesley.

Me: What do you think, Wesley? Should we name the baby A or B?

Wesley: We should name him Squashypom!

At this point, Peter, who was driving, clapped a hand over him mouth to keep from cracking up. I bravely soldiered on.

Me: Wesley, hon, that doesn't sound like a real name. Do you like--

Wesley: SQUASHYPOM. We will call him Squashypom!

Lorrie: Squashy! Squashy!

This is the point at which I gave in and started cracking up, too. Wesley is very taken with his name, still, and insists he will call the baby Squashypom. I think perhaps he has forfeited his position as baby-name consultant. ;)

Yesterday, we took Wesley and Lorrie strawberry picking at Parlee Farms, this fantastic and not-too-expensive place in Tyngsboro. He got a little over two pounds of strawberries for $7, and then wandered around for a little while.

They have a petting zoo on-site, with baby goats -- less than a month old. They had those little feed dispensers there, where you could get a handful of pellets for a quarter, so we decided to blow through the metal change from our berries on goat feed. Wesley got really into it.

Later in the day, he started talking about the goats again, so we gave him some leading questions: what color were the goats? What did they say? "Maa! Maa!" Wesley shrieked. "Oh, good job!" I said. "Great goat noise. Are you a little goat?"

"No!" Wesley said. "I'm a BOY."

"Oh," I said. Sometimes, he gets uncomfortable with non-literal speech, so I tried again. "Well, are you prete-"

"YOU be a goat," he ordered. Yay! Make-believe! So for the next few minutes, he alternated between me and Peter, running back and forth to feed us goat pellets.

The best part happened in the afternoon, though. We'd been playing this game in the living room, be on the couch, Peter in his recliner. So, that afternoon, we were out in the kitchen, and Wesley came pelting up to us, grabbed Peter's hand and said, "You be a goat!"

Peter said, "Okay! Do you want to give me food?"

Wesley said, "NO! You have to go back in the GOAT CAGE!" and hauled him back to his recliner until he sat. THEN he fed him.

Hooray for imaginative play!

Yesterday was a good day. :)

I burned myself cooking dinner tonight. It wasn't too bad: I was cooking chicken in olive oil, and when I turned the chicken I lost my grip on the spatula for a second and ended up splashing a few drops of olive oil on my left middle finger. It's just a little red blotch, just under the knuckle.

But it HURTS. And I am CRANKY about it.

I could never be a professional cook, because I would whine my way right out of the kitchen.

My little girl is SO CLEVER.

22 months:

So, I've got another new blog-thing: Lorrie's Library, about children's books. I'm doing a children's book review every day or two. They're pretty low-key, but fun. If anyone's interested, there it is.

Whee!

Wesley is on a "grow up like Daddy" kick. He keeps talking about things he will do when he grows up like Daddy. He will drive, and he will be tall, and he will go to the store.

Today, he was talking about this, and bouncing around the room as he is wont to do. Abruptly, he stopped, spun around, and announced, "I'm going to grow up like Daddy in five more minutes, okay?" in the exact same negotiating tone he uses for staying outside five more minutes or playing upstairs five more minutes.

It was an admirable try. We had to refuse his offer, however.

Go, go New Hampshire! Yaaaaaaaaay!

My prenatals make me cranky, these days. They all go around like this:

1. Haul kids into car. Deal with tantrums over shoes. Get buckled in.
2. Wrestle with traffic for 30+ minutes to get to the office.
3. Check in.
4. Wait.
5. Pee in a cup, get weighed, get blood pressure checked.
6. See doctor. Any questions? No. Check baby heartbeat. Fine.
7. Leave.
8. Drive home with whiny kids.

The entire visit from nurse to done with doctor takes around 6 minutes.

It feels kind of... wasted.

Last night, I woke up at around 11:30 from a dream of all the skin on my hand peeling off. I was kind of freaked out, and rubbing frantically at it, but I COULD NOT get it to stop itching. It was driving me insane.

Once I was fully awake, I realized what I was doing and make myself stop. I went into the bathroom and went searching for some hand cream. In the bathroom, with the lights on, I realized why I itched so much.

I had SIX new mosquito bites on my hand. Brand new. Still emerging.

That's right. Some damn mosquito found me while I was sleeping, and rather than just drinking her fill on a helpless victim, FLITTED FROM PLACE TO PLACE looking for, like, the primo blood bar or something.

In addition to the six bites on my left hand, I have one on my left forearm, one on my right hand, one on my right shoulder, and two on my right ankle. I received all of these in bed last night.

I am CRANKY.

So, today was very productive.

I cleared off the bureau that we're giving away, and with Peter's help hauled it outside. We bought tarps to put over it, which will keep it safe until the Salvation Army comes to collect it tomorrow. I still need to haul out some additional pieces. After their pickup, we'll call a trash service to haul away everything else we don't want.

I planted and hung my topsy turvy tomato planter, which is, I think, the second to last thing I will plant this year -- I'm waiting for my cherry tree to be delivered this week.

I applied for 3 jobs online, and called a recruiter I've talked with before and left a message on his voicemail. I hope he'll call back tomorrow, and that all goes well there.

I picked up the living room and dusted and vacuumed, which also required fixing the vacuum cleaner.

I started steak marinating for tonight.

Peter and I went by the grocery store, returned approximately $12 worth of cans and bottles, and did some emergency mid-week grocery shopping (they were out of whole milk when we went over the weekend).

Peter mowed the lawn, and I hauled some dirt around: it was very heavy and annoying.

Remaining tasks for today:
1. Make dinner
2. Finish tidying the bedroom post-dresser removal
3. Write new post for http://containergardeningvegetable.com. Two would be better. I need to get ahead again. (I actually seem to be making consistent, though not significant, money from that site now, which is kind of bizarre! Around 50 cents a day for the last 3 days running.)
4. Trim the area around my garden beds (I may go do that as soon as I'm done posting).
5. Take a bath.

So, we went to a graduation party for my cousin yesterday. It was very strange. We probably shouldn't have gone, but... ah, well.

It was a shared party for her friends and her extended family. Given the recent death of my Auntie Veezie, though, almost no one from my side of the family came. Three of my cousins, one of whom was also graduating this year, were there: all brothers who spent the time hanging around the grill comically being MEN. My mom was there. Other than that, the only people I knew were my cousin, who spent the time hanging with her friends, her sister, and her parents, who were pretty frazzled keeping the party running.

The kids were predictably insane, and without an extended family to comfortably pick up some keep-an-eye-on-them slack, this meant Peter and I spent the entire time chasing after them. They had fun, but much in the same way they would in a visit to the playground, and not so much in a party sense.

The big excitement for Wesley was my cousin's new cat, Hannah. Hannah is a very friendly tortoiseshell, just under a year old. She was a bit overwhelmed by the bundle of exuberant 3-year-old that Wesley presented. I explained to him that sometimes Hannah got scared and wanted to go away, and he had to let her, and he couldn't chase her to pet her. I held my hand out, and Hannah cautiously came to sniff each finger.

After that, Wesley spent.. man, I don't even know. At least 40 minutes, all told, lying on the floor with his hand stretched desperately out, saying, "Hannah! Hannah. Come smell my hand, Hannah. Hannah, smell my hand. Smell my hand, Hannah!"

It was really adorable, and he was VERY good about not pursuing her if she left the living room for the foyer. He'd just lie in the doorway and beg her to come back. She usually did, eventually. He played with her using her cat toys (Lorrie, amusingly, just played with the cat toys) and pet her very gently. He was really very patient and well-behaved. I was proud of him.

...and that's that! I'm at home. The end.

So, today is my last day of work with this company.

I'm still not entirely sure what the future holds, though I have a few leads I'm chasing down. Most of them aren't ideal -- too far from home, not really the field I want to be working in, etc.

I think one problem is that the more I think about it, the less I want to be doing... this. Software engineering, in this kind of context. The entire industry is so high-pressure and stressful these days. It feels like every job description I read is like, "Seeking people who appreciate a high-energy, fast-moving environment," or "We want talented people who thrive in a demanding environment."

These do not describe me. High-energy, fast-moving, demanding environments leave me wanting to CLAW MY EYEBALLS OUT. But it's like if you want to be in software engineering, you have to love jobs that mean working until 1 AM every few weeks. I just don't know how to seek a change there.

My great-aunt passed away yesterday. It was no surprise, but it's going to alter a lot of plans for the weekend: there were graduation parties planned, and all sorts of things that will be... odd, now. I will miss her, but at the same time... she hasn't really been there for a few years now. Flashes of personality would show, but mostly she just lived in a kind of unhappy haze. I am sure she is much happier now. Go with God, Veezie.

I don't really know what the hell I'm doing in the office today. I probably need to meet with HR and some things like that. Turn in the computer I'm typing on, and some other miscellaneous equipment. I'm just kind of screwing around now.

Blah. I feel blah. :(

Lorrie is "counting". With great confidence. And totally differently every time.

Lorrie, can you count?
ONE!
Yes, one! What's next?
FOAH!
I don't think f--
NINE! SIX! FWEE!
We're taking a more casual approach to numbers today, hmm?
TEN!!

She knows what she's doing, though. You start with one, and you end with ten. And there are other words you stick in the middle. Usually. Sometimes it just goes ONE TEN.