Four qui -- zzzzzzz

Shockingly enough, it was actually still a bit dark this morning when I woke up. At 445 AM. And it was already close to 80 degrees with 75% humidity by 630 AM. As you can imagine, testing was not a hoot.

However, there is some good:

1. If for some strange reason we had to leave for Maine tomorrow morning, I would be ready. Yes, I am massively over packed at the moment, but I'm packed nonetheless.

2. I've chosen the books I'm bringing on the trip!!

• Stardust, Neil Gaiman
• Shadow and Claw, Gene Wolfe
• Sword and Citadel, Gene Wolfe
• Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson
• The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst
• A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
• Charlotte Sometimes, Penelope Farmer

I'm a little worried it won't be enough for the two week trip, but if it isn't, I'll just buy more in Canada. Yay, Canada!! What do y'all think about my choices? I thought it was a good mix.

3. There were two articles I wanted to mention today. The first was a really interesting Salon.com article about the rash of Jane Austen-related books and movies that have come out and are coming out this summer, including one I reviewed over the weekend: Austenland by Shannon Hale. Another entertaining article today, this one from the NYT Op-Ed page, talks about one author's summer working as a volunteer at the Central Park Zoo. You've all come to "appreciate" my animal obsession, and despite my mixed feelings about zoos, I've sorta kinda always wanted to work in one, so this piece was interesting to me. Has anyone heard anything about the author's book, Zoology?

4. Had dinner with the Tater Tot tonight (it would have been many long weeks until I saw him again!), and learned that apparently he's thinking about naming his stuffed elephant after me. When I said "goodbye, sweetie!" to him as we were parting, he returned "bye sweetie!" Collective: AWWWWWW. Too adorable for words.

And that's all I have energy for now, folks -- I've been up for almost 18 hours!

I have to be up in 10 hours

This is the type of week that my brain can really only handle YA books. Case in point: I need to be at work tomorrow at 5:30 AM. I am not a morning person; most days I struggle to wake up before 8 AM. Suffice it to say, we are not pleased.

But I am reading a wonderful book right now, Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie, by Jordan Sonnenblick. Hopefully I'll have time to write more about it before I leave on Saturday, but for now: the voice is amazingly true and laugh-out-loud funny.

Stay tuned.