Distractigirl Sunday

Some days I just can't focus. Sometimes happen when I'm on a book binge. I am reading a lot this weekend, but I think there are other causes. I've been daydreaming about some stuff - pondering possibilities and it makes doing chores really hard. It's sometimes like I have tunnel vision in reverse - items on the periphery pull me here, there, anything to keep me from seeing straight ahead....

I plan to post a bunch of pics of recent projects (well, from Christmas on)but need to simply take the time to connect my camera. It's not happening right now. If I waited for that, I'd never get the rest of the post done.

I've finished up through Book #7 and Book #8 is darned close (two pages, actually). Book #9 will soon follow. I'm only blogging #5 today to hopefully get me back here sooner.

Book #5 - The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. When the movie hit the Oscars, I avoided it's mainstream appeal. It seemed, as Sonny would say, "poppish". Now I need to move it up in my queue. The book was quite intriguing. Not extremely elegant prose and remarkably dull subject at times - I wanted to get to the next bit of the action and was pulled on. The ending was quite striking, but the very end I think spoiled it a bit. The narrator, so long a third, anonymous person, suddenly referred to himself and totally confused me.

Reading something about people building castles in the Northwest. Wondering, would I want a big, heavy stone castle, or something more like this. Probably the latter. Both are so much better than mcMansions.

Recycle caps

I always like to see new and different thinking on the reuse/ recycle side of things. And I can see how this one could make a big difference. It's a limited deal, but if it gets enough support (both in terms of caps turned in and shampoo sold), we could see Aveda and other companies doing more.

When bottles are recycled, caps are often cut off and thrown away. But Aveda and Shape magazine are teaming up to keep them out of landfills and waterways, where they can end up choking and starving baby animals.

From March 10 through May 10, Aveda stores will be accepting caps from water and pop bottles, laundry detergent, facial cleanser, shampoo, and whatnot. These will be reused as caps on retro Clove Shampoo bottles (a limited edition anniversary deal in Sept). Bring in 25 caps, get a free Aveda sample. If there isn't a store near you, you can mail them in. Full details here.

Book #4

There have been a bunch of articles lately that say many Americans do not read a single book a year (1/4!) and that the median number read by those who do is 9 for women, and 5 for men. That makes me feel a bit better about making it to 30ish, but I'm still trying for 50! Except for those days when I get sucked into finishing something and get a headache from doing nothing else, I don't think I could consume enough books....

So, #4: Clever Maids: The Secret History of The Grimm Fairy Tales by Valerie Paradiz. Fascinating. Paradiz wraps in many synopses of tales from the collection as she tells the stories of how the Grimm's came upon them. The role of women in their collection process (not really full disclosure on the Grimm's part on that), and the role of the tales in their lives and society at the time of the Napoleanic wars is really interesting. Not only that women guarded such tales, but how much society's woes and pressures weighed into subtle differences in the telling. Also just a good primer on the lives of the brothers Grimm.