Why I can't join your book group

• Because piles of newspapers I haven't read yet are mushrooming around me (please don't tell me that Hillary's out)
• Because I cannot deviate from my Lifetime Reading Plan, and your book did not make the cut
• Because I am old, and if I put down the book I am currently reading to read your selection, when I go back to my book, I will have forgotten what it's about
• Because I am a slow reader
• A very slow reader
• Painfully s-l-o-w
• Because, unfortunately, I have over-Googled and now have the concentration of a flea
  

Greetings from the Emerald City, or my vacation, updated

Despite its crunchy granola reputation (and it does feel like San Francisco on 'ludes), Seattle didn't get to where it is by playing it soft, unless you mean Microsoft. It is also the birthplace of Amazon, Starbucks and Boeing, all good things on God's green earth. Here's a partial list of things I saw and did:
Tacoma Museum of Glass (their t-shirts say "nice glass")
Dinner at Anthony's Homeport in Kirkland
Dinner at Brasa
Wine Tasting tour
Snoqualmie Falls
Dinner at Cutter's
A visit with my friend Mitchell who will be having a show at the Lisa Harris Gallery in July
A visit to the new Library downtown
A visit with Maryte who works at the library in Green Lake
Some SLA-ing with my friend who was there for the conference
The Elliott Bay Book Company, the world's greatest bookstore IMHO
And like the song says, the trees are always green...(or something like that)!

Further proof my taste has gone south

I am now watching Two and a Half Men.
And Family Guy.

Next up: War and Peace

Here is an excerpt from the all-important book I am currently reading:
"More good news/bad news. Armani had a gorgeous pair of black woven leather slip-ons, sleek and tailored, and they had them in my size (good news). It occurred to me I needed a black belt to match them, which was an item I hadn't packed (bad news). They carried belts at Armani, of course (good news). None of them fit my trim little waist though (bad news). I bought the shoes and headed back to Prada. I had seen a couple of belts in there I liked, but hadn't been thinking I was going to buy new shoes...what a comedy of errors."
I'm embarrassed to say I'm enjoying it.

Scuse me while I kiss this guy...

For years, I thought the lyric following the title line of "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," was "Just because I ask." Now, come to find out, from listening to Shelby Lynne's (brilliant, by the way) new CD tribute to Dusty Springfield that the line actually is: "Just be close at hand."
I like my version better.

SATC: THE MOVIE, or, Hi-Ho the Glamorous Life

Despite what The Times has to say (and Richard Roeper snarkily commenting that he can hardly wait for Will and Grace: The Movie), Sex and the City translates quite well to the big screen. Mainly because, and bizarrely enough, we still care about these characters: caustic Miranda, saucy Samantha, girly-girl Charlotte, and, most of all, Everywoman (with an unlimited clothes budget) Carrie. Michael Patrick King creates a clever Cinderella-like story arc that moves the characters forward 4 years in a most satisfactory manner. A special shout out to Kim Cattrall whose droll delivery spins lines like "Oh honey. You made a little joke. Good for you!" into comedy gold. Have a round of cosmos and take your best girlfriends.