Friday Orts and a Blurb

Well, happy Friday, all! I think I may like this two-day-work-week tradition. And since I haven't had orts and blurbs since last year, it's time for catch-up.

First up, of course, is the long-promised picture of the new hipster glasses. I wanted to wait to have this shot taken until Christmas so that I could pose with Boy#1 in his almost-identically-framed specs. He's a darned good sport, because is there anything a handsome 27-year-old wants on the internet more than proof that he and his mother chose the same glasses?

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You may be distracted from the glasses by the background, though. It is exactly what you think it is--we had Christmas dinner in a firehouse and that is a firetruck! My youngest brother is a volunteer fireman in a town so small that the firehouse is also the city hall and since the extended family has outgrown even our ancestral home on  The Farm, we set up the soup there. While the Marthas were in the meeting room putting out bowls and spoons, the Marys were climbing on the trucks and trying on coats and helmets. My brother was a spoilsport, though, and kept the keys to the trucks safely out of our reach.

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This is the picture I originally wanted to go with yesterday's post celebrating Boy#3's birthday, but I didn't find it until after I had hit "publish" on his pants-less pose. But is this the cutest kid pic you have ever seen in your life? Or at least seen today? I don't remember why the pan was on his head, but Three obviously demonstrated his musical talent early.

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Did you know there is a fish called a wahoo? I did not, until last night's episode of Top Chef. I had to verify the name of this creature on Wikipedia because I was pretty sure they were using it as a euphemism. "I grabbed the wahoo before anyone else could get it," was what Nina said, so you can understand my confusion.

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Blurb(s) of the Week

2013 was an uncommonly good year for me in terms of pop culture. Husband and I have seen an astonishing THREE of the movies being bandied about as possible Oscar contenders, I knew the definition of the Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year (selfie) before it was announced, and I have already read two of the New York Times picks for the top five fiction books of the year. This may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but for me to be so timely is almost unprecedented.

I finished Goldfinch during the Christmas break, and my two reactions were "Wow! That was good!" and "Wow! That was long!" By the time I had slogged through the completely hopeless middle section and reached the end I was good and tired of this book, but also ready to go back and read the first chapters again. Life After Life, on the other hand, was fascinating both in its subject and its construction and I was ready to re-read it immediately.

Read them both and let me know what you think of them.