One minute I held the key, next the walls were closed on me

Top-10 reasons why I've not posted in over a month:

• 10. Work got wicked-crazy due to our annual event being held and one of my (former) co-workers getting axed right before it and me having getting to cover the vacancy until it was filled last week.
  (Notwithstanding the catch-up work involved, nor the project that got taken off hold--whole "when it rains, it pours" bit, and not the Morton salt variety.)
  
  

• 9. I wanted to finish another tale in The Canterbury Tales before I did my next post (I've gotten through the Knight's and the Miller's), but instead read 13 Things That Don't Make Sense and Anathem.
  (I've now started Of Human Bondage)
  
  
• 8. I was waiting for the hot water to return to the men's locker room showers at the pool.
  (finally Jeff!)
  
  
• 7. I got distracted by Obama/McCain radio spots, and had to wait until the "choose-a-side" coffee cups came to 7-Eleven.
  (They've even got an "Independent" option.)
  
  
• 6. I was in Austin the weekend that Hurricane Ike hit Galveston/Houston, catching the (very) outer bans of the storm, and it took me a wee bit to recover.
  
  
• 5. I was so traumatized when I learned that Rihanna says "disturbia" and not "start/stir me up", that I had to wait until the song wasn't stuck in my head anymore before posting.
  (so much for a Rolling Stones homage)
  
  
• 4. USA Swimming switching from a Top-16s to Top-10s threw me, even though I've known it's been coming for a year and a half.
  (Hey! This is a top-1o too!)
  
  
• 3. I miss that Gap commercial that so cleverly utilized Earth, Wind & Fire's September and was waiting for the 21^st night to post but then waited too long.
  (so you could say that I didn't remember...)
  
  
• 2. I got lost in contemplation about how the translation of the Olympic motto, Citius, Altius, Fortius, seems to have changed to a superlative (i.e. from -er to -est).
  (and how inappropriate I feel that is)
  
  
• 1. I wanted to make the last post Linger.
  (and was giving everyone enough time to post a comment)

For some reason, I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call me name
Never an honest word
But that was when I rule the world

Daylight licked me into shape, I must've been asleep for days

I continue making my way through The Blind Assassin, and as such,

• and because I stayed up way to late last night (I went to bed around 2 a.m.)
• and because I head off to Grand Cayman on Friday and have prep work to do (I did find my passport)
• and because I'm going to miss the Cure in concert on Friday night (so I won't get to hear if they play today's song)
• and because, more importantly, I'll be missing Eddie Izzard performing Friday and Saturday in Miami (dagnabit!)

I will be brief today, and leave you with a quote from my book. Enjoy...
(I also have Meet the Spartans to watch, as well as some more stuff to do on Wikipedia...)

"Now he's on the windowsill outside, now he's in the room. The flowers of the chestnut tree flare up: by their white light she can see his face, the skin greyish, half-toned; two-dimensional, like a photograph, but smudged. There's a smell of burning bacon. He isn't looking at her, not at her exactly; it's as if she is her own shadow and he's looking at that. At where her eyes would be if her shadow could see."

-The Blind Assassin, p.468

"Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream," she said
"The one that makes me laugh," she said
And threw her arms around my neck

Although we've come, to the end of the road

I have spent the past few days reading the seventh/last Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), and can report that I'm quite pleased with it and how J.K. Rowling has ended the series. My speed at reading it was also helped by some stormy weather that kept me from swimming on Friday night...

And as Mrs. Rowling's stated that she doesn't currently plan to write an eight book around Mr. Potter, there is now only the 2 remaining movies to wait for... next year and in 2010.

I do like the total artwork for the U.S. cover of the book as well...


Although we've come, to the end of the road
Still I can't let go

Don't dread what ain't been read...

06/??/05-12/24/05: The Republic by Plato [yeah!]
12/24/05-12/27/05: Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
12/27/05-01/07/06 : The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
01/07/06-01/23/06 : S is for Silence by Sue Grafton
01/24/06-02/06/06 : Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
02/07/06-03/05/06 : The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
03/06/06- : The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke by Suze Orman
03/11/06-04/09/06 : The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
04/10/06-06/11/06 : Dracula by Bram Stoker
06/06/06-06/18/06 : A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke
06/18/06-06/26/06 : In the Merde for Love by Stephen Clarke
06/27/06-07/01/06 : Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English by James Cochrane
07/02/06-07/12/06 : Eragon by Christopher Paolini
07/12/06-07/24/06 : The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
07/25-26/06 : QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: What to Really Ask Yourself; Practicing Personal Accountability in Business and in Life by John G. Miller
07/26/06-08/21/06 : The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
08/22/06-09/03/06 : Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
09/03/06-10/13/06 : Inferno by Dante Alighieri
10/14/06-11/11/06: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
11/12/06: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
11/13/06-12/7/06: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
12/9/06: The Giver by Lois Lowry
12/10-25/06: Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler
12/26-31/06: The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey
----------2007----------
1/2-14/07: The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson
1/15-20/07: The Broker by John Grisham
1/20/07-3/22/07: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
03/23/07-04/19/07: The Magic of Thinking Big by David Scwartz, Ph.D.
04/20-23/07: The Partner by John Grisham
04/23/07-05/13/07: Baja Oklahoma by David Jenkins
05/13-28/07: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
05/29/07-07/19/07: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
06/16-24/07: Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
07/19/07-11/19/07: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
07/24-28/07: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
09/15+16/07: Hero by Perry Moore
09/28/07-10/03/07: Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
11/20/07-12/02/07 : Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
12/03-23/07 : Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
12/23/07-1/6/08 : His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
----------2008----------
01/6-13/08 : T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton
01/13/08-2/29/08 : A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
03/2/08- (abandoned 1/2-way on 5/12/08): God: A Biography by Jack Miles
05/6-7/08: Hotter After Midnight by Cynthia Eden
05/12-17/08: Zodiac by Neal Stephenson
05/18-21/08 : Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
05/22/08-06/12/08 : The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
06/12/08-(break on 08/31/08): The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
08/31/08-09/30/08: 13 Things That Don't Make Sense by Michael Brooks
09/14-21/08: Anathem by Neal Stephenson
09/25/08-11/09/08 : Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
11/10-16/08: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
11/16+17/08: Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
11/17+18/08 : Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
11/18-22/08: Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
11/22/08 : Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
11/23-27/08: Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
11/27-29/08 : All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
11/29/08: From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
11/30/08-1/29/09 : The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
12/4-7/08: The Appeal by John Grisham
----------2009----------
1/29/09-2/6/09 : The History of Swimming by Kim Powers
2/7/09-4/16/09 : The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
3/28/09-4/21/09 : Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
4/17-19/09 : The Associate by John Grisham
4/22/09-5/20/09 : The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
5/15-17/09: Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
5/25-30/09: The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
5/30/09: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
6/1/09: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
6/3/09: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
6/5+6/09: The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
6/6+7/09: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
6/7/09-7/24/09: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
7/25/09-8/1/09: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling
8/1-5/09: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
8/5-30/09 : Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
8/31/09-9/27/09 : Cryptononmicon by Neal Stephenson
9/28/09-10/6/09 : The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Babery
10/6/09-12/17/09 : Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (translated by Edith Grossman)
11/11-15/09: Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
12/18-24/09 : How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young
12/24/09-1/3/10: Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
12/27-29/09: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
----------2010----------
1/3-6/10: U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
1/6-13/10- : Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
1/14-17/10: Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
1/18-23/10 : Last Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
1/23-31/10: No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
2/1-13/10: The Flies by Jean-Paul Sartre
2/14/10- : The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
4/3-13/10: Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
4/23-26/10: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
5/2/10-11/13/10: Moby Dick by Herman Melville
5/15/10: Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
5/18-22/10: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
10/22+23/10: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
11/13-27/10: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
11/27/10-12/3/10: Odd Man Out by Jeff Commings
12/4-29/10: The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
12/30/10-1/2/11: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling
----------2011----------
1/2-4/11: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
1/4-7/11: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
1/7-14/11: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
1/14-21/11: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
1/22-29/11: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling
1/29-31/11: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
1/31/11-2/6/11: The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
2/6-11/11: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
2/12-18/11-: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
2/18-22/11: Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
2/23/11-3/15/11 : The Complete Book of Swimming by Doc Counsilman
3/6-31/11: The Epic of Gigamesh
4/1-23/11: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
4/24-30/11: The Quants by Scott Patterson
5/1-29/11: The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
5/29-31/11- : The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan
5/31/11-6/3/11 : Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
6/3-10/11: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
6/11/11-7/5/11: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
7/6-8/11: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
7/8+9/11: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
7/10/11: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
7/10+11/11: The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
7/11-13/11: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
7/14-26/11 : The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
7/26-28/11: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
7/28/11-8/5/11: Boys Adrift
8/5-12/11: The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
8/12-20/11: The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
8/20-27/11: The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
8/28/11-9/11/11: The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan
9/12-20/11: Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan
9/22/11-10/9/11: A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
10/9-18/11: The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan
10/19+20/11: The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
10/21-31/11: Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan
11/1-15/11: Stardust Melodies
11/16-24/11: Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan
11/25/11-12/7/11: Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan
12/7/11- : The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson