Back to Normal...Somewhat

My sister moved back to Ann Arbor on Friday, which was wonderful. She's not an easy person to get along with under normal circumstances - high strung, inordinately high sense of her own self importance, but she was worse when packing because she had so much to do. Wahhh. I had to stay home and puppysit while her shit got moved.

It was better with the parents. They finally realize that I do shit around the house and want to get out so they obliged to some degree. We had a picnic with the hound in Richland, went on a dog toy shopping trip and then to Water Street Coffee Joint in downtown Kalamazoo for tea, coffee and an excellent Chocolate Vanilla Fudge torte with toffee.

Dad set up a TV w/ my VCR/DVD player in my room so I can watch movies and get the local NBC station through the rabbit ear antenna. It's not bad.

I haven't done as much reading as I wanted to. I'm trying to read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, but I can't get past the dullness and relative tameness of the book for a vampire fiction. It really makes sense that she's a Mormon and doesn't watch R rated movies after attempting to read it. It seems like a cleaned up bowderlized version of Laurel Hamilton's Anita Blake series.

I got 2 books read that I got from Seattle Mystery Bookshop. I might get some more books when I go to Ann Arbor from Aunt Agatha's.

Books I'm rereading include, The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova, Sandman Series, Neil Gaiman, and Brian K Vaughan's Y The Last Man series. I might pick up some more volumes in those two series with Borders buy 4 graphic novels, get the 5th free that runs through the end of the month, in addition to some Batman ones, including Year One and the Long Halloween.

Sex Ed Books

For Youth Information books, this week one class is on challenges and sex education books. The subject of book challenges and intellectual freedom was discussed in literacy, reading and readers. The books I read for class were The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls and The Guy Book, published respectively in 1998 and 2003. They seem aimed towards different age group, ages 9-12 and 12-16. The Care and Keeping of You at first glance seems innocuous, but the what's not included in it is telling. No mention of actual sex education, meaning birth control, STDs, and how children are conceived. At second glance, the various subjects including nutrition, body image, eating disorders, etc, are treated in a superficial and blase manner. I'm aware it was published almost 10 years ago, but some of the things that are known now about how a girl's diet and nutrition influence her sexual devlopement were known then, especially how childhood obesity increases the chance that a girl will hit puberty sooner. The sad part is that this is typical of books on the subject for girls and you have to look hard for better and more recently published material.

The Guy Book is aimed towards an older group. Some of the topics it covers may be objectionable to some parents including sexual identity and mastrubation, which is evident in some of the amazon reviews of it. It's a better book on the subject for both boys and girls. There's some sections, including the dating, birth control, and how hormones affect you that would be worth reading for girls.

The books have their merits. The Care and Keeping of You seems more objectionable to me as an older person because of the outdated information and superficial treatment of it, but it might prompt some useful discussion for pre-teens and their parents. The Guy Book would be beneficial as an explanation for boys who don't have male role models they could ask, plus their mothers and girlfiiends would enjoy it too.

Food

Despite the 90+ degree heat, I've had to do some cooking.
Friday: fresh green beans and shrimp with cayenne pepper, lemon pepper, and basil - pretty good
Saturday - Egg sandwich with toast - nice way to get rid of some eggs and bread
Sunday: broccoli in olive oil and garlic - not so good, I couldn't taste the garlic at all.
Joy of Cooking French toast recipe - quite good and very satisfying

This week:
-maybe stirfry Friday or Saturday
-Dinner at Anna's Tuesday and Thursday
-Possible dinner at Allison's for cat sitting all weekend