Gee!

From The Shadow of the Wind:
"Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its page, its spirit grows and strengthens."

Critics have not been that kind to this book, and I had heard that the ending was weak, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book, ending and all. I am impressed enough that I will buy a copy of the book for my own collection, and while you might think that this is no big deal because I love books and probably own a lot, that's not true; I am very discriminating because there is only a finite amount of shelf space, and because I only want to add the books that leave an imprint.

Bryan's bachelor party was last weekend, so the QHS gang gathered together in good ol' framin(g)ham. Bryan wanted to have a homerun derby with the boys and worried that March or early April carried too high a chance of cold and snow. I was allowed to hang around on Friday night, which brought conversations about music, reminiscences about past glories, and a late-night basketball game. Saturday, I made myself scarce and spent the day with the ladies.

For the record:
Bryan won the homerun derby
Bryan's team won the baseball game that followed with the help of his 3-run dinger
Bryan ate meat and drank beer

Jill got to watch girls try on expensive rings
Jill watched Manny Ramirez hit a game-winning dinger
Jill ate tasty fried pizza and drank beer

All in all, a successful weekend, and one more thing off the list of "to do's" for our wedding (much to Bryan's consternation since he would be thrilled to play baseball and hang out with all of his favorite buds every week).

Happy Anniversary JJ and Karen - still going strong and stting fires. Happy Birthday to Rachel - still only 5 though sometimes I swear there's a 15-year-old lurking behind those blue eyes.