Bookshelf:

Recently Read & Reviewed:

• Robert Reed, Sister Alice
• Sean McMullen, Call To The Edge

• Richard Adams, Watership Down

Currently Reading:

• Alastair Reynolds, Century Rain

Next Up:

1. Scott Westerfield, The Risen Empire
2. Scott Westerfield, The Killing of Worlds
3. Charles Stross, The Family Trade

February Slips Away

Didn't I just do an entry about January slipping away? Well, maybe not just - it's been two weeks since I last wrote. Sigh.

Last weekend was frantic activity mixed with frantic trying-to-get-something-done. Plus we spent most of the weekend at Deb's place since she wanted to have a weekend without packing up her things and cats and driving down to my house. She'd had a bad week and wanted to spend some of it at home.

Friday evening we drove into the city to go to Trader Vic's for a dinner party Syd was having for his birthday. It was a lot of fun, and I gave him a couple of CDs for his birthday. Trader VIc's has pretty good food, but the portions are small and the prices are high. It actually reminded me of the Big Island Steak House on Hawaii, only its portions are more generous and its prices more reasonable. Shrug. Both places have good drinks.

Saturday we spent part of the day at my house, part at Cafe Borrone, and part at Deb's place. I spent most of it finishing reading Watership Down for my book discussion group the next night. Fortunately, it read fast - which was good since it's nearly 500 pages long. I also called my Dad to wish him a happy birthday.

Sunday we then came down to go to Subrata's house. His parents were in town and they were having some friends over to start preparing for his wedding this spring. They're having a Hindu ceremony, so the women got to choose and try on saris, while the men tried on tunics. The men's clothing is comparatively drab next to the women's, but that's okay. We also had a brunch prepared by Subrata, Susan and his parents, which was quite tasty, and otherwise mostly sat around and chatted. The wedding sounds like it will be fun, and maybe comparatively informal, though it sounds like a lot of people have been invited!

Sunday evening was the book discussion group, which was quite lively. Several people had read Watership Down when it came out, others were reading it for the first time. Some people just couldn't finish it (Cliff said something like, "This is a very well-written, well-researched, detailed book about frickin' bunny rabbits!"). Others loved it. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't say that I loved it. It does have a lot of meat in it (rabbit meat, ar ar ar!) and is a good book for a discussion group.

Then I came home and collapsed.

Although I didn't have many commitments this week other than our somewhat-frantic work pace (since frisbee was cancelled Monday due to our ongoing rainstorms), I didn't really get a chance to relax. I've been busily trying to finish up a bunch of projects, including an article I'd like to submit to the Baseball Prospectus web site, organizing things for our fantasy baseball league, catching up on paying bills, preparing my tax materials for my CPA, and so forth.

So this weekend was the real relaxathon for me and Deb. I got a lot done on the computer, and about a hundred pages read in a book. We played a number of games of Yahtzee (which Debbi loves, even though she says it frustrates her), went out for dinner Saturday and stayed in to cook on Sunday. Debbi had some friends over on Saturday to do some scrapbooking, and I managed to make time to post a few auctions on eBay. I really need to make a push to get rid of some of the stuff I don't want anymore.

So the weekend has been both productive and restful. Even if my cat Newton thinks I haven't been paying him nearly enough attention.

Now, about those aforementioned bills... and taxes...