Monday Miscellany

Hard as it may be to believe, we've made the turn into the final week in October. The weather in central Maryland has finally turned distinctly fallish -- though it was still nice enough this weekend that I could do a quick mowing of the lawn, zipping around the yard like Richard Petty to trim the grass and mulch the fallen leaves. This afternoon, it's back on the ol' mower to aerate before the ground finally hardens for good.

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We managed to finish up the office this weekend, and I'll have some pics up tomorrow. We experienced a slight delay when a Saturday rainstorm exposed some previously-unnoticed cracks in the masonry where the water was attempting to push its way through. But a late-night visit to Home Depot for some Kwik-Plug appears to have taken care of the problem, and we've returned to our regularly scheduled programming. Next up: the new walk-in closet.

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It's taken me a while, but I'm nearly finished with Jon Krakauer's Under The Banner of Heaven, a book that's at once fascinating and infuriating. I knew only the basics of the Mormon religion, and had no idea of its rather bloody history. I was expecting more of a crime novel than Mormon history, but Krakauer blends it all together mostly seamlessly, though the lexicon of similar names often makes for some confusing reading. (As Linus once said of The Brothers Karamazov, sometimes you just have to bleep over the confusing names...)

Up next, Steve Martin's Born Standing Up, which I've wanted to read since the moment it came out, but didn't pick up until this weekend. I'm lame.

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As the parents of a 'tween aged girl, Barb and I were obligated to see High School Musical 3 with our daughter this weekend. For those of you who haven't seen it yet but know you'll have to and may be dreading going -- yes, you know who you are -- I'm pleased to report it's surprisingly good. I didn't find any of the songs to be particularly memorable, but the plot is actually compelling enough that I found myself wishing we could get through the songs quicker so we could get back to the story. And Zac Efron was awesome. Oh, shut up.

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I've decided I'm not watching any more talking heads news shows until after the election. It's starting to sound like Rocky Horror, what with all the shouting at the screen going on in our house lately.