Argggh, Tired

I had a good workout this morning, I was feeling all dull & sleepy when I got to the gym and there's nothing like a treadmill for dully & sleepy. Funny how all I need is an 8% grade at about 3.6 miles per hour to tire me out. OK, not so funny, more like pitiful. Anyway, my new gym book + music kept me nicely distracted for the 40 minutes and my calves decided to behave today instead of cramping up. But now I just feel so tired. It was a chore just walking that mile to work, picking my feet off the ground instead of scuffing them along. I'm such a wuss. No way would I survive a zombie apocalypse.

Nothing's happening, I'm still chickening out from starting the sleeves on the toddler sweater. I don't even have a pair of socks on the needles. I've been taking lace as my commuter knitting. Evidently I'd rather just pet, squeeze, and sniff yarn rather than doing anything with it. I'm glad it's the weekend soon. I predict much lazing about.

Today is the first day it's rained (drizzled, really) for a couple weeks now. Mostly it's been doing this fog-in-the-morning, clear up in the evening, sometimes with big puffy clouds near sunset.

Hi, I am a big puffball, snagged on a building.

I'm reading The Cloudspotter's Guide so I now know that today's low-drizzly-clouds-almost-fog is stratus nebulosus, verging on translucidus. It's really an interesting book - a light read (yes, even with all that Latin) and well illustrated. I had some trepidation at first (I'm vetting it for a Christmas present for my Dad, and it seemed too flippant and artsy maybe for him (or me)) but now I'm engrossed. I'm pretty sure we had some nice cirrocumulus yesterday at sunset. I like knowing the names of things and why they happen.

Other good books I read/am reading:

Company by Max Barry. Bwahahahaha, laugh-out-loud funny. I like this the same way I like Office Space (actually in a similar way too - I liked the 1st half better than the 2nd half of both). It's about life in Hell at the king of dysfunctional corporations. The toss-off lines are the best part of the whole thing:

Elizabeth is smart, ruthless, and emotionally damaged; that is, she is a sales representative. If Elizabeth's brain was a person, it would have scars, tattoos, and be missing one eye. If you saw it coming, you would cross the street.

My favorite book this summer.

I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. A close, close second. I'm no good at reviews. This book just grabbed me and I could. not. put. it. down. Compelling and sad and funny and depressing and inspiring all at the same time. The poor book has unfortunately been consigned to the ghetto of Young Adult Literature (ugh. Mini rant: will someone please kill off this designation? 'Young Adults' are either a) not reading at all, or b) reading adult books and are insulted at the 'young adult' label. Although maybe this has changed since I was a teen.) This is a novel, and a good one, and I feel like not marketing it as a novel for adults is a great disservice to this wonderful book.

The Gatecrasher by Madeleine Wickham. The premise sounds hokey but it's pretty entertaining (and sad. And frustrating, by the end of the book I wanted to slap her...actually, most of them, for being so casually and unintentionally cruel to one other).

Territory, by Emma Bull. Let me say this up front: I am so not into westerns. But I'm enjoying this so far (only about halfway through). Give me a good plot and compelling characters and I'm yours.

Still drizzling. Still Friday. Still have a pile o' mail in the inbox to answer (please forgive me). Hope you have a lovely weekend.