I usually hate short stories.

I have never really liked short stories. In general, I think they always bother me because they never give you all the information (because if they did they wouldn't be short huh.) Still, I try to read them because I always think, "Maybe I'll like this one." Well, I just got done reading a group of short stories by Dennis Lehane (the author of Mystic River) called Coronado and I really like them. They all had sort of a dark tone, so if you liked Mystic River you might like this (and if you haven't seen Mystic River I would recommend that too).

So I thought I had made a huge grown-up breakthrough. I thought I started to like short stories. The next logical steps were to start reading poetry, wear a cardigan and pretend to be an intellectual. You know those people. The kind that you stand behind on your one trip to an art gallery in two years and your both staring at the same painting and they are saying things like, "you can tell that the artist was painting the pain of a child that lived in a slum, ate newspaper clippings and never got to meet his grandmother" while you are thinking "How can painting a red strip on a black canvas be considered art???" Anyway, I thought I was inching my way to becoming that guy, uber-cultured if you will. Well don't worry, I read some more short stories and hated them. Back to my old self. The short stories collection was called Galletin Canyon (can't think of the author offhand) and about 4 of the 10 stories were set in the Bozeman area. Even that couldn't save it.

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving.

B

Mile High

This post is a little tardy. Karlee had a three day weekend so we took a little trip down to Denver to visit some friends. It worked out pretty well because there are a lot of people in Denver that we don't see enough. Besides the usual suspects in these pictures, Karlee has a handful of medical school classmates that are working in Denver (and we actually got to see most of them). We even went to a UM Grizzlies game when we were there (they were playing in Greeley). Hopefully it won't be too long before we can repeat this trip.

Books everywhere...

I had an idea the other day of a way that I can post a few more things on the blog and keep some momentum between our usual pictures of our guests or Oscar doing something cute/naughty. The idea that I had was to let people know about the books I have been reading. I have a 1:30 to 2 hour round trip commute each day. That, coupled with my love for the Seattle Public Library system, allows me to read a lot of books (at least by my standards). Since I read a lot of books, I am not too picky about what I read. You can think of it as my little book report. The reason I thought this would be interesting to some (read: my sister) is because there are so many books out there, that you can't possible read all the good ones without getting a suggestion from somewhere. So that is where I come in, I will suggest. I know there is a huge disclaimer of my suggestions however because sometimes Karlee thinks I am crazy to be reading some of the books I do. Most of all, I just want to give everybody a name of a book that can read about for themselves.

I just got done reading a book called "The Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life." The is a non-fiction book in which the author just writes short little blurbs about ordinary things that have and/or are occuring in her life. A lot of which are funny, some of which become a little tedious. The books is alright, but not great. I am not professional reviewer (believe it or not), but I would recommend this book to someone who likes reading a book a couple pages at a time. It isn't meant to be read cover to cover in one sitting.

If anyone has any book recommendations for me I would love to hear them.

Brandon

PS. I pulled a really stupid move recently. I usually will put a bunch of books on hold at the library, but depending on how many other holds there are for them it takes awhile for me to get them. That being said, you can put a semi-perminant hold on books so you can make sure you don't get three books at one time and things like that. Well, I did that about 3 months ago on a chunk of books I ordered. However I was unaware that the hold I put on them expired so this last week I received 10 books from the library and only have 3 weeks to read as many of them as possible. My bus ride isn't going to be long enough.

Raider MNF Game

A big part of the reason that my parents came out when they did was so that my dad and I could try to get tickets to the Raiders/ Seahawks game on Monday night. It took a couple days, a few hours on Craigslist and a few phonecalls, but we finally got some. The seats were the best I have ever had and it was the first time that I have seen the Raiders play since my parents took me to Denver when I was about 12'ish. One of the best parts about our seats were that they were undercover. It rained most of the game so it was nice not to be wet. The seats also came with the ability to use the limited access restaurants and bars that the people inthe suites use. The food was much better than your average hotdog and not a lot more expensive. However the beers were still around nine bucks a piece. You win some and you lose some I guess.

The only thing that could have made the game better is if the Raiders could have at least scored.

Whidbey Island

I'm finally getting back to blogging a little. My parents were out during the first part of the month and we had a great time. This picture is during a little day trip to Whidbey Island (an island off the north end of Seattle). You can take a ferry to the south tip of the island and drive the approx. 60 miles along the island where you can cross a bridge that gets you back to the 'mainland'. It is the first time I have been to Whidbey and I was impressed. Very quiet, with a ton of nice views.

I think when this picture was taken, it was probably the only time it wasn't raining when my parents were out. More pictures of the trip to come.