Dreaming of Gwen Stefani

Honestly, this one caught my eye because of the title, Dreaming of Gwen Stefani. Now, I've been a fan of Gwen and No Doubt since about 1991, when a college roommate of mine from San Diego introduced me to them. That was back in their ska days, and while they've steadily become poppier, I will still give them a listen from time to time. The book, anyway, is about a guy who falls in love with Gwen after seeing a program about her and the band on TV, and dedicates his life to preparing himself to meet her someday. It's kind of sad, kind of realistic, kind of fun. Feels like Vonnegut, Salinger and John Kennedy O'Toole all wrapped up together. Great quotes from No Doubt scattered throughout, too...

Book 95

Fallout shelter

So the local Reno myth is that under the downtown branch of the library, there is a fallout shelter that's been there since the building was built. Turns out it's true, and Mich and I were lucky enough to get to go on a little tour of it, led by my friend and coworker, Marc.

In the back corner of the Periodicals section downstairs, there's a grate in the wall. In fact, the grate is a door leading into the fallout shelter.



There's a small "lobby" kind of area just inside the door, then you climb down a ladder to the main part of the shelter. Here's someone getting ready to climb down.



Once down, the shelter is basically two long concrete ventilation tunnels. Pretty windy inside them, too. Here's Mich sitting in one:



And a view down one of the tunnels:



Then back up on the other side of the ladders, there are some Civil Defense supply barrels stacked up. Marc hopped up and showed us some.



Many of the barrels were water containers like the one that Marc is holding, but some had this great logo on them:



There were also quite a few tins of "carbohydrate supplement", which was simply really old hard candy. Marc said that they had tried some last time they went down, and they were disgusting.



A couple more pictures of the entrance/exit, from inside and out...





Anyway, thanks again to Marc for showing us around down there; it was pretty interesting!

Christmas

Obviously, I'm a few days behind on blogging here. We had a very nice Christmas, though Christmas Eve at Mich's parents house, then Christmas morning at our place. Everyone came over, opened stockings, had some breakfast, and then dove into presents. I didn't get a lot of pictures, because I always end up handing out presents frantically. (Trying to train Julien into that job, but he wasn't interested this year...) The few pictures I did get were of Sofia opening a present from Nanny and Grandpa, which was bigger than she was.



It was a big kitchen set; here she is checking it out...



Anyway, it was just the right amount of Christmas. Hope everyone else's was nice as well...

Gods Behaving Badly

Gods Behaving Badly was excellent. I'm a sucker for the gods/mythology translated to modern times genre (witness one of my favorite books ever, Good Omens), but this was especially well done. And from a debut novelist, too, Marie Phillips. (Whom I'm afraid I have a bit of a crush on now, dang brunettes...)Basically the story of the Greek pantheon of gods, whose power has diminished and are living in a rundown house in central London, and what happens to them when they inadvertently get mixed up in the affairs of a couple of mortals who are trying to fall in love. It's funny, smart, sexy, sweet and did I mention funny? I chuckled, I laughed out loud, I giggled, I think I laughed every way I can think of. Well, maybe I didn't guffaw. I won't admit to guffawing. Great book, though.

Book 94

Smile When You're Lying

Another book that pulled me in with cover design. Chuck Thompson's Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer is his manifesto of what's wrong with travel writing, told with illuminating stories from his experience in the field. Even when he's ranting, it's pretty funny stuff. From salacious tales of the Thai sex trade to an East German grunge rock tour, he keeps the humor up while being honest about how things really work in the travel industry. Really, this is my favorite kind of nonfiction: offering a laugh while imparting some kind of information.

Book 93

Sofia's Christmas program

Sofia had her Christmas program at her daycare today. They did it around midday this year, instead of at the end of the day when everyone is cranky and ready to go home like last year. Less of a parent turnout, and the kids were ready for lunch and nap. They sang 3 songs, and were pretty cute. I guess you're expecting some pictures...

Loss

Nothing sad; just Julien's first lost tooth. It had been loose for a few days, fell out this morning. Can't find it, though...