I Think This Is What The Jeopardy People Call "Hodge Podge"

I'm walking around right now looking like I took a sedative or three with a glass of wine. Last week, our latest book order arrived. Bookcloseouts.com had another of their great sales (they're fabulously discounted on a regular day, so when they have a sale, the Captain and I are pretty much clambering over each other to make sure we browse every single possible category for awesome finds), so I have about ten new books sitting by the side of my bed waiting to be devoured. I decided to start with the mother of all page-turners, The Other Boleyn Girl.
After already seeing the movie (which, incidentally, was very different from the book), I expected a trashy romance novel disguised as something a little more legitimate. And that's exactly what I got. But, good lord, I could not put this book down! I read all 661 pages in 3 days. While loading the dishwasher, making lunch, throwing in loads of laundry, I had one hand permanently on the book. After the kids were in bed, I spent all evening and most of the night, promising myself one more chapter and then I was going to get some sleep. But I could rarely stop at one more chapter, and after 3 nights with so little shut-eye, I'm feeling a little like it was my head on the chopping block.

Tonight, I start a new book, some true-crime that I hope will not be quite so compelling (and hopefully a little more historically accurate) and that will allow me to turn out the light by nine. How bad has the addiction gotten when I'm hoping the next book is worse than the previous one?!

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In other news, things are starting to bloom out here in our little kingdom! Our peony bushes seem to thrive on neglect, and there are summer squash, tomatoes and peppers beginning to pop up in the vegetable patch. Yesterday, one of my wonderful neighbours brought over a big tub of lettuce, spinach and onions, so now I can't wait for our own stuff to be big enough to pick. My enthusiasm will soon turn to misery as I look around my kitchen and see a hundred pounds or more of tomatoes that need to be canned for winter, but for now, I'm at that point where every new thing that shows up out there brings me joy...

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...except for this. Out back, we have a trampoline. It has a big enclosure/net thing so the kids can't fall off, which really puts my mind at ease, though they're never on the thing without my supervision anyway. But with the enclosure, I don't have to spend the whole time chasing Rosemary's Baby around the perimeter as he runs dangerously close to the edge, laughing gleefully as I shriek in horror. Today we went out there and a huge hole had been chewed in it. I kind of tied up the hole, and it'll do, but I'm starting to feel like the wildlife is plotting to overthrow us, Animal Farm-style. The foxes are getting bolder by the minute, trotting across the front lawn and hanging out on our driveway as and when they please. Last week, the Captain finally had to rearrange his garden hoses to run from the front yard, because something bigger than a mouse and smaller than a fox had been chewing the hose up in the back. Now something--maybe the same something--has chewed a hole in the trampoline enclosure. Firstborn has his own idea of where the hole came from, and since I just don't know enough about wild animals to form my own opinion, I'm buying into his theory. A crocodile did it.

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And finally, today is the three month anniversary of Future Shop taking my broken laptop from me, sending it away to be fixed, not fixing it when I refused to pay them $650 to do so, and then losing track of it altogether. I'm going to have to go in there and bust some heads, which stresses me out. I hate having to be mean to customer service people. But I have some pictures of the kids and some music on it, and I need it back. Plus, broken or not, it's still my property and they have no right to lose it and then give me the runaround every time I call to inquire if they've found it yet. So, I'm putting on my mean face and going in there to demand what's rightfully mine.
Or, I could wait a couple of weeks and bring them some fresh produce from the garden to soften them up. Wimp.

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