Ender's Game

It's been awhile since I'd read Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, and I'd forgotten how powerful a book it is. No wonder it was a Hugo and Nebula award winner. It's the story of Ender Wiggin, a young boy who, throughout the book, is trained to be a commander in a coming war with an insect-like alien species. It's a powerful book because of the insight Card puts into the young, smart characters, as well as The way he sets up the rest of the books in the series. I think I'll pass on reading the others for now; I've got other stuff I want to get on to. But it looks like the story will finally be made into a movie in 2008, by director Wolfgang Petersen. Should be interesting.

Book 80

The Perfect Mile

The Perfect Mile is one of those books that I've had sitting around on my shelf for awhile, just waiting until I was out of other stuff to read or my interest got piqued by it again. Well, both of those happened, and I picked it up, and was immediately involved in the stories of the three main runners who were striving in the early 50's to break the 4-minute mile barrier. The book follows Wes Santee, a University of Kansas runner, John Landy, and Australian schoolteacher, and Roger Bannister, a British med student, as they struggle everything it takes to be a world-class athlete - training, dedication, politics... and more training. We see Bannister break the 4 minute mark (no spoiler there, I hope) and follow them to the Empire Games in Vancouver, where two of the three run a race billed as "the mile of the century." Excellent glimpse into another era of sport; when the ameteur ideal was just giving way to the modern professional athlete. Inspiring, as well - got me out to the track last weekend.

Book 79

Stick To Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain

Scott Adams is just brilliant. Seriously, pretty much everyone has found humor in a Dilbert cartoon at some point or another, and his writing shows the same kind of spare, pithy humor. He has a talent for suggesting outlandish but somehow compelling solutions to problems, as well as an analytical world view that I can identify with. The different format in this book (entries from a couple paragraphs to a couple pages) lets him riff on whatever is in his mind at the time, which could be anything. Readers of his blog will recognize some themes, but this isn't just a book of recycled blog posts. I seriously recommend this one.

Book 78

Seventh at St. Andrews

Yep, another golf book. Sorry to be predictable, but I like to keep up on "the literature." Anyway, I noticed The Seventh at St. Andrews on the shelf waiting to be cataloged, and put a hold on it.

Pretty good stuff. Similar to Dream Golf, which I reviewed earlier this year, in that it's a accessible book about the design and construction of a golf course. It also contained a few of the same characters - David McLay Kidd, who designed the first course at Bandon Dunes, was also picked to design and build the seventh course in St. Andrews. Anyway, this was a good read for someone interested in golf and golf courses, and maybe with a soft spot for links-style courses.

Book 77

Sofia is 3!

Yep, she's 3. We had a "birthday brunch" for Sofia today. Fritatas, challah (pretty multicultural breakfast, actually), fruit and stuff. Here's Sofia and her friend Pippa enjoying some juice:



Of course, there was cake as well - Sofia had requested a "rainbow cake", and this is what I came up with:



Sofia got to lick one of the candles:



And here she is enjoying (?) the cake itself...



I got to sneak her aside for a daddy/daughter self-portrait a few minutes later:



Here's a couple of present-opening pics:





This rubbery "piggy bank" had to be the hit gift - it oinked when you put a coin in it, and the girls filled it up, then dumped it out over and over again...



And of course, there was some outside playing time after:



All in all, a pretty fun birthday - thanks to everyone involved...

Year of Living Biblically

I had read a couple of reviews of The Year of Living Biblically (sounded interesting, the kind of thing I'd read) before I realized that it was by A.J. Jacobs, the author of The Know-it-all, in which he reads his way through the whole Encyclopedia Britannica. The subtitle of the current book is "One man's humble quest to follow the Bible as literally as possible." And wow, does he. His writing is a great mixture of humor, reverence, thoughtfulness and the minutiae of his daily life. He goes to extremes to try to follow biblical instructions as closely as possible, and he invents wild justifications for things in his life that don't quite fit right within the structure he has set up for himself (his wife's in vitro fertilization, for example.) He talks to creationists, Hasidic Jews, a gay ultra-conservative Christian discussion group, and even snake handlers (keeping an incredibly balanced view the whole time.) In the end, though, he has to admit that any attempt at living a biblical life has to pick and choose which rules to follow, and interpret them in some way. Great book.

Book 76

Vancouver

Took a quick trip to Vancouver this weekend to see my parents, just me and the kids. This was the first time Sofia was really "into" the airplane experience, she loved watching out the window for the planes landing or taking off:



She was pretty excited when we got on the plane, and held my hand all through take-off and landing.



We couldn't get three seats all together, so Julien sat one seat back and across the aisle from us. He just hung out, read and did some puzzle books.



Barely recognized the guy picking us up at the airport - my dad had grown his beard out. Mostly for our benefit; he shaved it the next morning. Sofia was a little standoffish at first, but seemed curious later:



We went to the farmer's market in the Hollywood district in Portland the next morning, where the kids made some new friends:



Julien and Sofia both had 3 dollars to buy something at the market. Julien picked out a couple of apples and a pastry. Sofia wanted flowers. Here she is picking them out with Grandma Gail:





We had some big plans for the afternoon. First we drove partway from Vancouver to Portland and parked at the Vanport MAX stop. Here's the kids waiting for the train, and Sofia playing on a mosaic.





We took the MAX into downtown Portland, and got off near Pioneer Square and the downtown Library.



We took a look around the library, then left Grandma Gail and Sofia there to watch a puppet show that was happening. Julien, Grandpa Ken and I walked a few blocks to the theater that was putting on a Children's Theater show of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. We had seats pretty high up, in the second balcony. Julien seemed to really like it - kept his attention the whole time. Pretty impressive actors, those kids.

We took the MAX back to Vancouver and had a pretty quiet evening - here's storytime:



Had a pretty long night - that daylight savings kind of threw everyone off. The next morning we had a nice breakfast, then went town to the Colombia River one of our favorite places called Frenchman's Bar. They have a decent little playground there:





A nice beach to walk along looking for shells:



And a lot of sand to dig in and explore:





There were also some pretty good fall colors down there:





And that was pretty much the trip. To the airport and back home; pretty uneventful. Sofia liked studying the emergency card, for some reason...