So, I finished “Murder on the Orient Express” the other night. It turns out that I was really really near the end of the ebook (probably about half a normap paper page) when I put it down for the night. The next day I was at the bookstore and perusing the book, trying to skim quickly and find out how far I really was. I then realized I was close to the end, but not exactly sure how close. Later that night, I opened the ebook, read about three “pages” and was done. 🙂 With the desktop version of MS Reader, you can see the page number and total pages. With the PocketPC version, you don’t see the total pages, which is why I didn’t know.

At any rate, I thought it was a terrific book, and have now started on the first Poirot mystery, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”. I am going to try to read the books in the order that Agatha Christie wrote them. Unfortunately, some of them are not available in digital format, so I may skip a couple. Next on the list will be “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”, which I am eager to read because of a few recommendations from friends.

… but they sure seem to love me. A couple days ago we found these little ant-like bugs in Bay’s bathroom. For some reason they were going into Bay’s plastic backpack that was hanging on the wall. It’s a mystery, because there wasn’t anything in there that they would be interested in, just toy cars. Anyways, later that night I sprayed some bug poison around the window and along the seams of the walls and cabinets. The next morning, they had disappeared. Or so it seemed…

My workmate sent a few audio clips around. Here’s my favorite one, from the movie “Office Space”.

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Have you ever been reading a book in bed, then as you start to nod off, drop the book on your face? I did once, fortunately it was a paperback. Unfortunately the corner hit the space between my upper lip and my nose and it hurt really bad… Last night I was reading an eBook (the one in the post below) and dropped my PocketPC on the floor. I have learned not to hold the thing directly over my face. 🙂

I started reading this, my first Agatha Christie novel, a few days ago, and I am totally into it! I haven’t really read many mystery novels, so this is kind of new to me. The characters so far are pretty interesting, and it’s fun to get the point of view of Hercule Poirot. I had no idea that Poirot was the detective in this novel. I just remember seeing Poirot on PBS a couple times, but never really watched a whole episode, nor did I know that he was the detective in Agatha Christie novels. At any rate, I am enjoying this mystery quite a bit. Early on, one of the characters mentions her trip from Baghdad, and throws in the names Mosul and Kirkuk, which was pretty interesting being that those cities’ names are in the news quite a bit these days.

A few days ago I was complaining about the Cubs radio announcers, saying how bad they were because of their “homer-ness”. Well, after listening to them for a few games, they have grown on me, and I find them very entertaining. Ron Santo is funny in his own way, listening to his emotional commentaries. I still prefer Vin Scully, but these guys are not bad!

I got a big bucket of Legos!

Today’s rant is with the makers of diapers. Please stop putting assorted graphics on diapers/pullups. Toddlers will quickly decide that they like one graphic over the other, and will demand their favorite, even when all of the preferred diapers are gone. For instance, Huggies pull-ups has Buzz Lightyear on it, and there are two graphics. One with Buzz and an alien, and the other one with Buzz only. Bay calls this “Just Buzz”, and it is his favorite. It’s difficult, but not impossible, to get him to wear the alien pull-up. I, for one, would pay an extra buck for a box of diapers that didn’t have assorted graphics.

As I watch more kids’ tv with Bay, I notice how sneaky marketers are with kid’s products. Like making puzzles out of the Trix commercials and product line, with clues on how to figure out the puzzle on three separate Trix products.

And while I am complaining about stuff, I have to mention an ad I saw from Philip Morris. It was a commercial describing how to prevent your kids from smoking. I understand the legal obligations that the tobacco co. has now, but it just seems completely bizarre that a company has to advertise against their own product/industry. Something is totally out of whack here.

ok, back to normal business everybody.

We are taking it easy today, having some good friends over for dinner. I am making some burgers on the grill, with a new recipe I got from a burger cookbook. Some of the ingredients are dijon mustard, shallots, and sake. It should be delicious. 🙂 The only problem is that it is in the high 90’s outside, so bbq’ing will be a little uncomfortable.