judith's blog

another day, another flat tire

If you're keeping track, that's four in about six months. Whee!

Today's was at 5:30, as I was coming home to pick up Lyle for our 6pm dog training class.  I tried to fix it with the magic fix-a-flat stuff but no dice.  So there we were at 5:40 with no plan, which quickly evolved into a "hey, we can take the bus" plan. 

Lyle is a damn fine busrider of a dog.  No barking or squirming, and lots of charming the other passengers.  We got to class more or less on time, learned another round of things (tricks are *so* much more fun than boring obedience stuff like "heel") and then got back on the bus and came home.

Later, I changed the tire, with Rick's moral support.  At some point tomorrow I'll have to go get yet another tire and have the tire people look at me incredulously.

another year, 83 more books.

My book lists are in Judith-years rather than calendar-years.  Here's year 35 in random order (thanks, LibraryThing!).  Of the 83 books, 62 of these books were checked out from the library, one was a reread, and several were gifts. 44 by women, 39 by men, mostly Americans & Brits, more fiction than nonfiction, no poetry listed because I tend to read poems a few at a time rather than cover to cover. The list only counts completed books, even though the half-finished monolith of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell should count for more.

This Book Will Save Your Life by A. M. Homes

Which Brings Me to You by Steve Almond

The Final Solution: A Story of Detection (P.S.) (P.S.) by Michael Chabon

Coronado: Stories by Dennis Lehane

Grayson by Lynne Cox

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream by Barbara Ehrenreich

A Disorder Peculiar to the Country: A Novel by Ken Kalfus

Woken Furies (Takeshi Kovacs Novels) by Richard K. Morgan

The Tent by Margaret Atwood

The Single Mother's Companion: Essays and Stories by Women

Black Swan Green : A Novel by David Mitchell

Not Buying It : My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine

In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

Money, A Memoir : Women, Emotions, and Cash by Liz Perle

The Memory Artists by Jeffrey Moore

The Works: Anatomy of a City by Kate Ascher

A Spot of Bother: A Novel by Mark Haddon

The Doctor's Wife by Elizabeth Brundage

Voodoo Heart by Scott Snyder

Send Me: Fiction by Patrick Ryan

The Washington Story by Adam Langer

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas

Intuition by Allegra Goodman

Turning Angel: A Novel by Greg Iles

Carry Me Down by M. J. Hyland

There Will Never Be Another You: A Novel by Carolyn See

The Futurist: A Novel by James P. Othmer

The Last of Her Kind : A Novel by Sigrid Nunez

The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud

Sharp Objects: A Novel by Gillian Flynn

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Why Do I Love These People?: Honest and Amazing Stories of Real Families by Po Bronson

Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi

Don't Get Too Comfortable : The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest fo by David Rakoff

The Dissident: A Novel by Nell Freudenberger

Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson

Lost and Found: A Novel by Carolyn Parkhurst

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tus by Bill Buford

Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent

Company : A Novel by Max Barry

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link

In the Company of the Courtesan : A Novel by Sarah Dunant

The Interpretation of Murder: A Novel by Jed Rubenfeld

Veronica (Vintage Contemporaries) by Mary Gaitskill

Into the Forest by Jean Hegland

The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel by Louis Bayard

The Keep by Jennifer Egan

Family and Other Accidents: A Novel by Shari Goldhagen

Monster at Our Door by Mike Davis

The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster

Hawaii by James A. Michener

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman

If the Buddha Came to Dinner: How to Nourish Your Body to Awaken Your Spirit by Halé Sofia Schatz

The Echo Maker: A Novel by Richard Powers

Apex Hides the Hurt : A Novel by Colson Whitehead

Eat, Pray, Love : One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Traveler: A Novel by John Twelve Hawks

The Thin Place : A Novel by Kathryn Davis

This Is Not Chick Lit: Original Stories by America's Best Women Writers

The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Useable Trim, Scraps, and Bones by Anthony Bourdain

Crossing California by Adam Langer

The Ruins by Scott Smith

Oblivion : A Novel by Peter Abrahams

The Dog of the Marriage : Stories by Amy Hempel

Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York by Marge Piercy

The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman

The Writing on the Wall by Lynne Sharon Schwartz

The Trudeau Vector by Juris Jurjevics

No Direction Home: A Novel by Marisa Silver

The Twelfth Card : A Lincoln Rhyme Novel (Lincoln Rhyme Novels (Paperback)) by Jeffery Deaver

Dope by Sara Gran

Beware of God : Stories by Shalom Auslander

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

Save Your Own by Elisabeth Brink

Ice Haven by Daniel Clowes

Eat the Document: A Novel by Dana Spiotta

Blue Beyond Blue: Extraordinary Tales for Ordinary Dilemmas by Lauren Slater

The Third Translation: A Novel by Matt Bondurant

Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences by Lawrence Weschler

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Brookland : A Novel by Emily Barton

bonding

In Cole Valley this morning, in front of Cole Hardware, we met a small boy and his dog. 

You can pet him if you'd like, he said.  I did, and asked what kind of dog he was.  A Jack Russell Terrier, the boy said, his name is Vito.  My dog is a Jack Russell Terrier too, I said, his name is Lyle.

We sometimes call him Vito Vito The Doggie Torpedo, he said, bashfully.  I sometimes call him Lyle Lyle Crocodile, I said, and we smiled at each other and went our separate ways.

silly dog

Every single time I sit down on the couch to eat, Lyle gives me the big dog eyes and then brings over all of his toys, one by one, and lays them at my feet. 

This seems to be either a gesture of "Hello? Do we not share things in this household? I would like some food, would you like my squeaky duck?" or "Ho ho! I will distract the human with the rope toy and steal the food for myself!"

In either case, perfectly absurd and amusing.

[this is good]

Lyle approves my last post.

hello, me

QotD: It Was Kismet

How did you meet your current, or most recent, significant other?

My current significant other's name is Lyle.  We met at the SPCA.  He's swell.

good boy lyle

Lyle, day 3 observations.

Squeaky Lamb has floppy legs, but Squeaky Duck has a better squeak.

Lyle loves big dogs, isn't sure about little dogs and has no idea what to make of cats.  Kind of like me.

Our vet's name is Dr Borat.  He did not mention Pamela Anderson once.

It is very exhausting to be a dog and you must spend a lot of time lounging dramatically all over your person. 

Day 2 report

I am ready to quit my job and spend my entire day taking walks with Lyle and then napping with him on the couch and occasionally playing with the squeaky duck.

Day 2, still cute.

never say never.

Lyle (or maybe Laszlo?)

I've been thinking about getting a dog for a long time now.   And I've always been very very clear about the sorts of dogs I like and the sorts of dogs I don't like. 

Likes:  Big dogs! Smart dogs! Mellow dogs! Smooth soft dogs!
Dislikes: Little dogs! Fluffy or wiry dogs! Hyper dogs!

I've taken a million "breed selector" tests and always wound up with the dog I most wanted, a greyhound.  And while I thought it would be reasonable to go to the pound and look at some mutts, I never imagined falling for, say, a Jack Russell Terrier.  Who is small.  And not very mellow.  And wiry.  And coming home with me on Tuesday.

best.

Everyone's all about the advent calendars, but I always had a soft spot for clicktoaddtitle.  I'd always hoped Leslie and Michael would get to rounds four through seven at some point.  That unfinished work has all the hallmarks of everything I knew about Leslie: smart, funny, obnoxious, playful and utterly memorable.