Penny has been inclined to make nests and hide lately–what they call broody behavior. Then today, this was in the pen.

It is small because it is the first one. I think it is cute.

As I mentioned, my dad and Kyle moved the door of the bathroom from inside the room to the hallway. By doing this, they made the bathroom into one big room.

Last weekend, Kyle did the next step of the process and removed the wall that was dividing the room.

Before:

Kyle removing the wall:

After:

I looks so much better. Already the room feels huge and full of light and space. I am really digging this bathroom remodel so far because every change is so dramatic.

What a silly little bird.

“The Bobolink is a member of the Blackbird family. It frequents grassy meadows of the northern states and adjacent Canada. Also referred to as “skunk blackbird,” the male has striking black-and-white plumage, making identification easy. Females are a buffy yellow-brown.”

I don’t think we have these in California.

The Way to know the Bobolink
by Emily Dickinson

The Way to know the Bobolink
From every other Bird
Precisely as the Joy of him –
Obliged to be inferred.

Of impudent Habiliment
Attired to defy,
Impertinence subordinate
At times to Majesty.

Of Sentiments seditious
Amenable to Law –
As Heresies of Transport
Or Puck’s Apostacy.

Extrinsic to Attention
Too intimate with Joy –
He compliments existence
Until allured away

By Seasons or his Children –
Adult and urgent grown –
Or unforeseen aggrandizement
Or, happily, Renown –

By Contrast certifying
The Bird of Birds is gone –
How nullified the Meadow –
Her Sorcerer withdrawn!

Dickinson loved bobolinks. She wrote several poems about them.

Taken with Marcia’s iPhone.

I put a lotus flower in a piece of fiction I’m writing. In the scene, I started to describe the center of the lotus flower, but then I realized I didn’t have a clear idea what it looked like, so I checked it out. This is it:

(Image from here.)

I don’t know why, but the center of the lotus flower gives me the serious willies. ICK! What is that? What does it feel like? Why are those bumps there?

(Image from here.)

I know that some people will think that is beautiful, but…

Maybe I should go with another flower.

Check it out. The publishers have redesigned the cover of Kyle’s Official Ubuntu Server Book, second edition, which is coming out July 30! I think it looks spiffy.

I love old paperbacks. The older they are, the better. For example, this version of Howard’s End by EM Forster was originally published in 1921 by Knopf.

I picked it up last weekend at a thrift store for $.30. I think the green cover with the black trees is the bees knees.

I wish I still had my paperback of Days of the Locust by Nathanael West to show you. It might have been an original version of the book–anyway, it had this great modern, abstract cover. Unfortunately, the book fell apart while I was reading it, and no amount of tape could fix it up. I ended up recycling it, and it made me sad, because the book had survived for so many years, and it is such a good book, too.

There are often great things tucked inside these books as well. In a version of Coriolanus by Shakespeare that I have, someone left the top of a plastic bag that held scan-tron test sheets in it, which must have meant that a teacher owned the book. I have also found family photos, receipts, and once, a part of someone’s painting, which the artist ripped up and left inside the book for someone else (me) to find.

This is a hilarious version of Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. The novel is a classic piece of literature, but the publishers, Signet Book, decided that it would sell better if it was packaged as a steamy romance. On the front, it says, “The romantic classic about a wayward beauty and her scandalous affairs with three dazzled lovers.”

If you have read Far From the Madding Crowd, you know that’s a bit of a stretch. The book is about marriage and love in the English countryside, true, but it’s no Lady Chatterley’s Lover. And then, take a look at the back of the book:

SHE WAS A WANTON WHO NEEDED TAMING

This is my favorite thrift store book find. It’s a small paperback that has been studiously covered with prim lavender wrapping paper. Why?

It’s the scandalous book from 1956, Peyton’s Place by Grace Metalious, about sex and other bad things in a small American town. The original owner probably covered this book so that she could read it in public without anyone knowing what she was doing.

I love to imagine this woman carefully lining the book and carrying it around with her so she could read it on the bus or at her lunch break without any shame. Or maybe she just did that to all her books. Who knows?

This weekend, if all goes well, we are finally going to start remodeling our bathroom.

I hate our bathroom. It is ugly, moldy, and stupid. The sink is perfectly positioned so that when you are putting on make-up, you can easily drop things on the floor or into the toilet. I have had to throw many things out because of this. The linen closet is about eight inches deep, which means that nothing can be stored in there. The linoleum is peeling up from the floor. And the bathtub is chipped, ugly, and has mold around the edges that I can’t seem to get rid of.

But the worst part of the room is the door. It is positioned so that as you are standing at the sink putting on make-up that you are also trying to keep from dropping onto the floor or toilet, the door slooooooooooowly shuts so that you are lightly bumped from behind.

Imagine, if you would, trying to line your eyes when you are lightly bumped from behind by a door. You cannot shut the door because someone has taken a shower and there is no fan in the bathroom, so everything is fogged up. Therefore, you turn around and push the door open again. It slooowly swings over and bumps you. You push it open. It slooowly swings over and bumps you. You push it open a little firmer this time. It swings faster and bumps you. This continues until you finally get so mad, you turn around and start punching the door. Then your husband comes in and asks what the heck is the matter with you.

Anyway, this weekend, we are MOVING THE DOOR so that I can actually put on make-up in peace. The first step in a long remodel, but a significant one.

Kyle and I move fast. We decided to buy a kayak last month and today, we got one. I found a way to get one for half price. So this morning, we bought it, shoved it in the back of our 1993 Honda hatchback, and drove home with it through the pouring rain. If the weather cooperates, we’re going to inaugurate it this Sunday.

Boat!

Superstition Review, the online literary magazine at Arizona State University, has published my short story “Rabble of Butterflies,” which you can read here. Check it out!

And while you’re at it, also check out the rest of the awesome fiction in Superstition Review’s Spring 2010 issue.