Getting Your Groove Back

This bird on a post has nothing to do with anything. It just looked cool. It looked cooler when I thought it was a raven. But then I pulled up closer and found out it was a crow. What's the difference? Well, they're both in the Corvid family. But ravens are bigger, and cooler. They are like the daikon of radishes, the Wasabe of horseradishes. I tried to read Ravens in Winter this summer. I only got half way through. I have a hard time finishing nonfiction books. I give myselft credit for at least trying. I'm one step closer to committing to a book club. Alana and her book club friends have been trying to get me to join their book club for years. I have resisted for several reasons. The main reason is that I am a really slow reader and I'm afraid to show up and have everyone find out I didn't read the book. But then I realized that her book club is actually an excuse to get together, eat a lot of delicious food and gab with each other. When I was in grad school I couldn't keep up with all the readings, so I'd read one article out of 10 and think of something really intelligent to say in class so the teacher would think I'd done the reading. Maybe that strategy will work for book club as well!

Kathy's son Mike came down last weekend. Beside eating a lot, we played Mouse.

It's a great homemade game for the whole family.

All you need is two dice, some fabric or felt with string wrapped around them, a lid from a big pot, and some beans.

You start by putting "the mice" in the center. Everyone gets 8-12 beans to start. Everyone holds onto their mouse's tail. The person with the pot lid is "the cat". The cat rolls the dice. If the cat rolls a 7, 11, or doubles, everyone tries to pull their mouse out of the center before the cat slams the lid down on the mice. The cat gives each person whose mouse is caught a bean from his or her bean pile. If you pull your mouse when the cat did not roll a 7, 11 or doubles, you get a bean from the cat. If the cat slams down the lid at the wrong time, everyone gives the cat a bean. Everyone takes a turn being the cat. The cat can also "bluff" by pretending to slam the lid down (like if he rolls something other than 7, 11 or doubles). The player who gets rid of all their beans first wins.

I was going to blog about my latest existential crisis, how I've been in a major funk and I'm trying to figure out how to get my groove back. But I figured nobody wants to read a depressing blog, even though I am the funniest depressed person I know. Maybe I should have a contest. I want my Blogger friends to write and tell me what you did to get your groove back. The most creative response wins. I'm not sure what the prize is yet. But Alana outed me (again) by telling all her Blogger friends that I have a closet full of things I keep for regifting. I have been known to regift, but I don't have, like, a closet full of stuff or anything!