12/1/2001

When I was a kid, we read Silver Burdett textbooks like "Mysterious Wysteria" and "Air Pudding and Wind Sauce". One of the stories I read back in second grade (I was reading a bit ahead) was about an elderly woman and her grandson (?); the woman was obviously not going to live to see the next time the Leonids came around, and there was a huge build up followed by her missing them, stuck in a subway or something. I was reminded of it after missing the Leonids this time around.

Anyway, I can't remember which story it was, and searches have not revealed tables of contents or even a complete list of the books available. I'd love to have a list, on the off chance that someone out there shared the same textbooks. I can remember "Air Pudding and Wind Sauce", "Mysterious Wysteria", "Silver Twist", and "Cinnamon Peaks", but that's it. They had companion workbooks, but I don't remember them very well. Something about the Doppelganger Gang? One of the books had an excerpt from Theodore Taylor's The Cay, I remember, and they were stuffed with poetry and short stories. I loved to read, but it didn't hurt that so many of the collections I encountered were so good. Anyway, if anyone else remembers this stuff, drop me a line.
posted 10:13 PM

11/26/2001

Let's see. Our offices were burglarized sometime Tuesday morning (yes, they got several laptops, though not mine, which I had with me). Tuesday sucked, as we all sat around the big conference table and tried not to smudge the fingerprints that it turns out weren't there anyway. Maybe Dell will get us replacement laptops by the time we go on vacation for the Christmas holiday

Thanksgiving was a blur. Stuffed ourselves silly on great turkey and trimmings at Heather's dad's, and came home to get shocked out of our trypotphan-fueled stupors with the news that Heather's mom had suffered a stroke the same day. So, we spent Friday and Saturday in Wilmington, by Agnes' bedside, and came home Saturday evening to a quiet meal (I don't even remember what we ate at this point). Big pot of gumbo from Pableaux's recipe book on Sunday, with Stacie and Rahul, talking about world events on the porch with mom, and thence to the airport Monday morning.

Perhaps this week will be less exciting. The only good news is that Aggie will likely recover in a few weeks, with a bit of speech therapy. She's a fighter, and we're all pulling for her.
posted 7:16 PM