Books

Hi. My name is Leslie. I'm a reader. These are the books I've read so far in 2008:

1. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
2. Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure by Michael Chabon
3. Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson
4. Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland
5. A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle
6. A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey
7. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
8. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
9. The Innocent by Ian McEwan
10. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
11. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
12. If I Told You Once by Judy Budnitz
13. Shampoo Planet by Douglas Coupland
    
14. A Boy of Good Breeding by Miriam Toews
15. Womenfolks: Growing Up Down South by Shirley Abbott
16. Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland
17. Gilead: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson
18. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro
19. A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
20. The Deal by Dwayne Smither
21. The Way the Crow Flies: A Novel by Ann-Marie MacDonald
22. Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I'll Remember It Well

This post is for my friend, AJ. She was appalled that I didn't get any vacation pics of myself so I photoshopped one just for her. That means I didn't really stand by this Indian and take a picture.
The sad thing is, someday I will look at this and fondly remember standing by this Indian and taking a picture.

Friends and a Gorge

Here are some more Taos photos. We synchronize our NM trips with another family we met there. They're originally from Texas, living in Maryland, and they have a cabin near "ours." They also have a boy Collin's age and a girl Cambryn's age.

The photos were taken at the plaza, at Out Back Pizza, and at the Rio Grande Gorge.

New Mexico Cabin

Several days ago I tried to post these vacation photos along with witty captions and after 45 minutes of work, I ended up with a bunch of error codes and no post. I'm uploading them again but I'm just not feeling the wit at this moment.

Let me just say that we have a dear friend, Howard, who has a cabin outside of Taos, NM and he lets us use it whenever we want. And well, we've "wanted" to pretty much every year since 1992 so it feels like a home away from home.

Some notes:
1) The landscape photo with the bridge is a view from the back deck. Carson National Forest is on the other side of that fence.

2) Howard has toys at the cabin: mini-bike, four-wheeler, hot tub, satellite TV.

3) He also has mom toys (dishwasher, microwave, washer and dryer) but I didn't take photos of those. It's a log cabin but we don't exactly rough it.

4) There was a brown bear hanging out in the neighborhood all week but we didn't get a photo of him.

5) An analogy: Cambryn : creek as other kids : Disneyworld.

Angel

We just returned from a week in Taos, NM and we brought home a new family member! I'm delighted to introduce Angel ..............

She's such a little sweetheart! She's an AKC mini schnauzer with liver (chocolate) parti coloring, 8 weeks old. Collin and Cambryn named her Angel. And now we have a baby in the house.