81

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick
A fast paced book.

80 & 81

Debi gave  to: The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams read in December, 2011	My rating: edit my review shelf: read
FAST read--all the while silently urging the narrator to run away from the life she was born into. The author did a good job of making characters sympathetic. Some of the flashbacks were poorly integrated and may trouble reluctant or hesitant reade...more
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Debi gave  to: Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson (Goodreads Author) read in December, 2011	My rating: edit my review shelf: read
The beginning didn't grab me, but since I love road trips, I stuck it out. Glad I did

78: Good Enough
79: The Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl

Neither was great, nor bad...just okay.

Movie 44: The new Muppet Movie...whatever it's called.  What a let down.  The first 15 minutes are the best.
Book 73-77:  I'm getting lazy now:

Hate List	Brown, Jennifer	4.10		read [edit]	Dec 2011[edit]	Nov 28, 2011	edit view »
	Emerald City	Egan, Jennifer *	3.71		read [edit]	Nov 26, 2011[edit]	Nov 26, 2011	edit view »
	The Future of Us	Asher, Jay	3.78		read [edit]	Nov 24, 2011[edit]	Nov 24, 2011	edit view »
	Fat Cat	Brande, Robin *	3.95		read [edit]	Nov 26, 2011[edit]	Nov 23, 2011	edit view »
	Truth and Beauty: A Friendship	Patchett, Ann	3.85		read [edit]	Nov 23, 2011[edit]	Nov 21, 2011	edit view »

Movie 43: Win Win, with Paul Giamatti.
Good movie.
Book 72: Is Everybody Hanging out without Me and Other Concerns, by Mindy Kaling.
Fun, fast read.

Movie #42: Letters to Juliet.  No good, except for the scenery.

Working on a couple of looooong books right now, but mostly grading, grading, grading, grading papers papers papers papers projects projects tests.

Movie #41: Bad Teacher
Book #71: The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides

69: Free Range Kids
70: The Night Circus
Did I mention Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children?

Two More

Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have--Four stars.
Breaking Night--two stars.

For more detail, friend me on GoodReads.com

#66 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs.

Book #65 The Story Sisters, by Alice Hoffman  (heavy magical realism hatches a overdue realities for characters)

Book #63: A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (probably the third time I've read it)

Book #64 Rescue by Anita Shreve (wish I'd skipped this one)

My Week in Books and Movies

Book 61: Twenty Boy Summer.  The first chapter was incredible.  The rest was typical YA.  Fast read.

Book 62: Five Flavors of Dumb.  The characters have quirks, ambitions, and get to live out some fantasies other teens only dream of.  That makes it interesting and fun to read. 

Movie 42: I Am Number Four.  Special effects just cannot match the imagery provided by an author.  The book was better.


Movie 43: Kung Fu Panda.  I only fell asleep twice.  Sorry, but animation rarely catches my attention, even with as much action as this one offers.

Book # 60: How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff. 
+ Unexpected and unusual, yet entirely compelling events.
- Some awkward and incorrect sentence constructions, but likely due to the narrator rather than the writer.
+ Setting and tone appeal to me, as does the journey...bleak as it all is.
+ Teen fans of this book may graduate to The Road.
Perhaps I'm enjoying the current market fixation on dystopias and apocalyptic tales too much.  Keep them coming, publishers!
(Warning: plot contains sexually aberrant behavior)

Movie #40: Spy Kids.  Yup.  Family went to the movies.  Pretty bearable until the final 15 minutes or so.


Movie #41: Hall Pass.  Truths and laughs.  Not as lame as I feared, but not great either.  Rent it and see.

Movie 39 was fun to watch: Red.  Malkovich, Willis, Mirin, Freeman, and Parker team up in this comic book adaptation that's far-fetched and fun.

Book 59:  One Day, by David Nichols--I wanted to read it before going to see it.  Mission accomplished with joy.  Fun, escapist book slightly in the vein of Nick Hornby.

Back to school reading

Book 57: Readicide, by Kelly Gallagher.  meh.  I agree, but prefer more applicable ideas than data.
Book 58: Formative Assessment for Standards Based Grading, by Marzanno.  Another meh.  Too much technical stuff, not enough direct "how to."

More, more, more

Book #55  Silver Girls (a great tale of a bigamist's two families...until the end.)
Book # 56 The Book Whisperer (brought me to my senses and changing my whole intentions for this year at school)

Movie #38 The Help (better than the book--didn't leave me feeling as uneasy)

Attempting Art

I really wanted some original artwork for my bedroom.  Alas, my exquisite taste does not match my limited budget.  Then I saw this artsy fartsy tutorial / narrative.   An idea was born.


When buying lumber, I had picked up a couple of free pallets.  At the time, I had no specific plans for them.  I just knew that the rough planks could be used to create something fun.  (Ana White also has many pallet plans, from Adirondack chairs to shelving units that I will get around to making, eventually.)

I began with my least favorite action: tearing the pallet apart. 

Then, I nailed the boards together to create a canvas of sorts. 

I  stained the front to match my bedroom furniture, and let it dry for a day before sanding it a bit.

Next, I taped off the edges and painted an area in the center.  (color: oatmeal, left over from painting the basement walls and "ceiling" two years ago.)  Immediately after painting, I removed the tape and brush-beat the edges so they wouldn't appear so stark.  Again, I had to let it dry.  Without all the drying time, this whole project would take about an hour.

The next morning, I pulled a bunch of paint (yes, all leftovers from wall colors) and began applying it to the barn wood-looking canvas I'd made.  No sketching, no planning, just "here goes..."

I made wheaty looking things, one color at a time, until it seemed like I'd used almost too many colors.
Then, I added some brown to the bottom. 

Oops, that looked crap-tacular.  The sander helped obscure it into a nice, negligible blur.

I touched the sander all over the piece to distress it, vacuumed the dust off, and applied a top coat of clear poly.

And here are the cost-free picture-hanging materials I never used because, although I am fairly pleased with the end product, it doesn't look right in the room it was intended for.

But it didn't cost anything!  

Time to start over.