so, 2009.

well. So far so good!

I am going to go backwards a bit and put up some more posts about December, so stay tuned.

Currently thinking about a bunch of things:

• putting away the rest of the holiday decorations (I have a hard time saying goodbye - I like to extend the moment, but at some point it really is all going to have to get packed away again for another year. This year seems especially poignant thoughcuz it looks like this may have been the last Christmas we celebrate in this house as we are getting ready to build a new one...)

• meal planning and trying some new things to shake it up

• booking a flight to visit my mom on her 81st birthday

Also I am reading (it's an audiobook so actually I am listening to) Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. I love the way he thinks and writes.
This is from the blurb on chapters.ca
Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.
You can find the book here
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Outliers-The-Story-of-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/9780316017923-item.html
It really makes you think about the notions we hold about successful people (and more especially about highly successful people). He points out that the time and place you are born into makes a big difference, as does how you are parented and the community of support that you have around you. He also notes how IQ doesn't make as big a difference as one would think... All quite fascinating. Read it. It's cool stuff about real people, engagingly written.

I also just finished A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Monica Lewycka. A nice short entertaining read that elicited a great discussion at book club about family secrets, and siblings and aging parents and tractors...

The other books I have on the go are

• JayIngram's (Daily Planet guy and science whiz) Theatre of the Mind, about consciousness. Verrrry interesting. Love brain stuff.
• The Book of Negroes by Laurence Hill, for book club
• The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

Can you see why I don't have time to tidy away the holiday decorations? Too many Big Ideas floating around in my head... LOL.

Have a great day!