first time in baseball history

For the first time since stats have been kept, two wild card teams have made it to the World Series.  Each beat out the winning-est team in its league.  Congratulations all around and we'll be seein' ya on Tuesday in Kansas City.  Go Giants!

getting ready for the cold

We're ready with this beautiful stash of seasoned almond.  Bring it on!

upstairs/downstairs

My friend EFBWD in La Jolla has an interesting reading rhythm.  She divides her books between her "upstairs" reading and her "downstairs" reading.  Upstairs is for fun reading ~ fiction, lighter weight stuff, magazines, etc.  Downstairs is for the heavy duty subjects ~ history, biography, weightier tomes.  I am currently reading two very different books, one for upstairs, one for down, even though I live in a one-story house.

This is my downstairs book, The Discovery of France by Graham Robb.  My friend MSMAS over there on the left at No More Commas Period is departing for Paris next week (you have NO idea how difficult this is for me to deal with!!) and in her honor I decided to tackle this tome.  It is absolutely fascinating and completely different than your run-of-the-mill history books.   It's a narrative of exploration—full of strange landscapes and even stranger inhabitants—that explains the enduring fascination of France.

 

This is my upstairs book and I am deep into the crazy, utterly dysfunctional Foxmore family as they gather to sit Shiva for the departed patriarch.  I know a film has been made of this story; it will be interesting to see what a director and cast can do with this story.  What a quirky bunch.