I’ve been waiting all week to post this quote from Rebecca for my Teaser Tuesdays entry! True, this is not a quote from a random page, but it’s so striking and haunting an image that I’m posting it anyway! Think of it this way: it’s hand-selected, just for you!

A refresh of the Teaser Tuesday guidelines:

* Grab your current read.
* Let the book fall open to a random page.
* Share with us two (or more) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on the page.
* Share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.
* Please avoid spoilers!

“There might linger there still a certain atmosphere of stress… That corner in the drive, too, where the trees encroach upon the gravel is not a place in which to pause, not after the sun has set. When the leaves rustle, they sound very much like the stealthy movement of a woman in evening dress, and when they shiver suddenly, and fall, and scatter away along the ground, they might be the patter, patter, of a woman’s hurrying footstep, and the mark in the gravel the imprint of a high-heeled satin shoe.”

–Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier, (c) 1938
Chapter two, page 14

Chilling! I love it. I like to think Alfred Hitchcock was at home reading this book before a nice fire, and those lines convinced him to make this book into what would become his 1940 Oscar-winning film. I’m sure in reality some guy brought him the screenplay, but it’s a nice thought, right?

Sometimes I watch “The Office” while working at home so I feel like I have co-workers. And also because the guy who plays Jim is really cute.

Recently I entered a contest hosted by BronteBlog.com to win a free copy of the book Becoming Jane Eyre by Sheila Kohler. Not long ago I got an email saying that I won and today my book arrived! It is a truly beautiful book. I’ve never seen a paperback of such high quality. It has a folded cover that seems more like a book jacket and the pages have a deckled edge that is so quaint and elegant.

The coolest thing about winning the contest (besides just winning, which I rarely do) is that this was the only Bronte-related book on my 2010 reading list that the main library downtown didn’t have. The Chicago Public Library is unbelievable, and the fact that they had all 10 or 15 of the books I was looking for besides this one is so impressive to me. And thanks to the contest, the Bronte portion of my book list is complete! Thank you again, Bronte Blog!

Another Teaser Tuesday entry! I’m posting this on Wednesday but I’m shameless enough to change the timestamp so it looks like it was done on Tuesday. But at least I’m honest enough to admit it here for posterity.

A refresh of the Teaser Tuesday guidelines:

* Grab your current read.
* Let the book fall open to a random page.
* Share with us two (or more) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on the page.
* Share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.
* Please avoid spoilers!

And my quote:

“I stood in front of a photograph of Toddington leaving the Old Bailey, and said, ‘Oh, Toddy, we’re in such a mess!’ and then I cried, and then, in the odious way that these things intrude themselves, I began to dramatise the situation and to plan a story about it for The Rattler, and I wrote out the plot, crying all the time, and got into bed at three, and had no sleep till five o’clock.”

Frankly, I can’t believe I’ve lived my whole life without reading this book. It’s so whimsical and funny and creative and oddball that I know I would have gone all “kindred spirit” on it when I was younger. I feel like it’s the kind of novel that probably will change the way I write from now on, even if I don’t consciously think about it while writing. It’s deliciously clever. I’m about halfway through and basically I never want it to end.

I had the longest day, so tonight I turned to my favorite funnyman, Conan, for a little relief. And who was I lucky enough to catch as his guest? None other than Patton Oswalt–my second favorite funny guy. I laughed so hard my abs got a much-needed workout and I scared one of the cats out of the room. I love those two together.

This morning when I woke up my hair really resembled Conan’s pompadour. My bangs are getting longish and this morning they were piled into a giant swoop. And since I’m going through another redhead phase, I really looked like I had on a Conan Halloween costume. Actually, that might be something to consider for this Halloween…

NBC Photo: Paul Drinkwater

Yes, our first purchase of 2010 is none other than this Graco Pack-N-Play. And no, it is not for us!

We had a little New Year’s Eve party on…wait for it…New Year’s Eve. Our friends Michael and Anna brought their son Matthew, who is 18 months old. The little guy obviously needed to bed down before the night was over, so they also brought their Pack-N-Play and set it up in our spare bedroom. At the end of the party, Anna carried sleeping Matthew downstairs while Michael ran to get their car and they left the Pack-N-Play to be picked up the next day.

While Mike and I bussed the party dishes, we did not notice Abbie the Cat sneaking into the spare bedroom. Nor did we notice her hopping into the Pack-N-Play for a catnap. So little did we notice her that we actually shut the bedroom door on her before we went to bed, leaving her locked in the room until 10 a.m. when we got up and noticed she didn’t come out for morning treats. She was in there for 8 hours. Suffice it to say, the Pack-N-Play evolved from cozy napping spot to litter box over the course of her (unintentional) imprisonment. And she must have been more than a little anxious and angry, because she did more than your average “business” in there. It was completely saturated.

So little Matthew is getting a brand new Pack-N-Play! I only hope that he (and his mom) like the new design they picked out as much as they did their previous one, which is no longer being sold. So sorry, Matthew!

Other stationery designers may not have a problem getting their Christmas cards out on time. Other stationery designers are better than me, then. Every time I printed a set of cards for myself to send this Christmas, someone would place an order for them (hurray!) and I would end up shipping my own unused set of cards to a customer. No complaints, but it did put a hitch in my plans to send out Christmas cards. Since I haven’t sent cards since 2005, it seemed fairly important to do so this year before we got dropped from everyone’s card list. (I’m not sure this actually happens but just in case…)

My solution is to send out New Year’s cards instead, an idea I’ve always liked anyway. And it bought me a few days to get my cards done in the more relaxed week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Plus, no one will think it strange when the cards arrive on January 5th or so. Nice!

Have you put off your holiday cards, too? If so, feel free to use this handy template of my card above.* The file is a high-res 11″ x 8.5″ JPG image that contains two cards one one sheet. It should be ready to print in any ink-jet or laser printer that handles cardstock. Just print, cut it lengthwise in the middle (at the 4.25″ line), and fold. Want to customize it? Use a photo-editing program like Adobe Photoshop or Google’s free Picasa to white out the text and type in your own message.

Voilà! Your own Happy New Year card!

*Honor System Disclaimer: You’re welcome to print off as many of these as you like for your own personal use, but please don’t sell them.

It’s my second Teaser Tuesday entry! I have to confess that I’m still working my way through Carol Shields’ The Stone Diaries, but I’m also reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens so I’ll use a quote from that one today. My parents have been visiting all week and while very little reading was accomplished, a lot of fun has been had.

A refresh of the Teaser Tuesday guidelines:

* Grab your current read.
* Let the book fall open to a random page.
* Share with us two (or more) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on the page.
* Share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.
* Please avoid spoilers!

My Teaser (a very romantic one for Mr. Scrooge, I think):

“And yet I should have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips; to have questioned her, that she might have opened them; to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes, and never raised a blush; to have let loose waves of hair, an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond price: in short, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest licence of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value.”

- Ebenezer Scrooge to The Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I just learned about Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by Should Be Reading. It sounds like so much fun, and since it corresponds quite well with all the reading resolutions I’m making (which I’ll be posting soon) I thought I would join in. Here’s the rundown on how it works:

* Grab your current read.
* Let the book fall open to a random page.
* Share with us two (or more) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on the page.
* Share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.
* Please avoid spoilers!

My Teaser:

“Nevertheless her fingers will always remember the feel of those tumblers, the pale raised bands on thin pink glass, but it is the sun she will chiefly remember - how yellow like corn meal it was, sifting through the fine summer curtains and filling up the whole of the room. These at least, were things she might believe in: the print of sunlight on her bare arm. The cold sweet drink sliding down her throat. The buttons on her father’s shirt, glittering there like a trail of tears.”

- page 77,  The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

Carol Shields was so brilliant at creating images you can taste, feel, and smell.  Such beautiful, tactile writing.