Around here ...

Sneak attack

Bedtime stories. Frances is always a favorite. I remember reading these stories when I was a girl.

 Most of the time, he's very accommodating for the camera. ;-) 

A recent bedtime when Trent was scared and wanted to get in the girls' bed for awhile.

 Watching spring unfold...

Last weekend was the first warm weekend, so we had fun staying out late. 

This was about 9pm Sunday.

Brooke got some new pointe shoes, so she needed to sew the ribbons on. A beloved task (not). :-)

Sarah, Brooke, Claire and Grant have started piano lessons recently. Trent's close to being ready, but not taking any yet, so for now, he has fun just playing with the piano.

These two ... HA!

Warm Register Magic

7:45 am:  Trent walks in rubbing in his eyes and climbs up on the couch to cuddle beside me.

7:47 am:  Furnace kicks on. Trent gets down from the couch and lays on the warm register.

7:58 am:  This.


Love him. :-)

Finished: Charlatan, by Pope Brock

Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

True story: Midwest in the 1920's and '30s. Huckster John R. Brinkley makes millions off his ridiculous goat-gland transplant surgery, which is supposed to restore "youthful vigor" (placebo effect, anyone?). He also ran for governor of Kansas (and narrowly lost), built the most powerful radio station on the planet, from which he advertised his sham surgery and worthless remedies, discovered country music stars ... and left a trail of injured and dead patients in his wake. Brinkley's notoriety soon got the attention of Morris Fishbein, editor of the JAMA, whose reputation as a quack-buster was legendary. His mission became one of exposing and bringing Brinkley to justice. The question wasn't "would Fishbein get his man?," but "how" and "when"?

I forced myself to stay off the Internet while I read this, because I didn't want to find all this out from some bland Wikipedia article, but from Pope Brock's hilarious, riveting storytelling.

Two truisms I was left with:

1) The truth really is stranger than fiction; and
2) There's a sucker born every minute. Still. In post-modern, cynical 2016.

******

New word: expatiated.

Expatiate:  verb

1. speak or write at length or in detail.

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