Potatoes in the Mist

Zoe and I went to the Vesuvio Playground outdoor pool today... Then we shared a pineapple Italian ice. There were roses growing near the pool...

I just finished The Couple Next Door. It reminded me a bit of Gone Girl , since it had so many twists and turns, but I actually liked it better. (I thought both Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train were overrated.)

I just saw an email that said, "New York Greenwich Village Preschool Registration Now Open," and I thought, "That's cute." Then I remembered my kids are too old for preschool. We found out who Zoe's kindergarten teacher will be. I had heard about the intense, neurotic teacher and the nice, nurturing teacher. She got the nice, nurturing one. 

I'm having a lot of fun with the Hillary app. One of the features is a virtual headquarters. For no apparent reason, they just gave me a dog named Winnie, and I can tap her bowl to give her food. I love it!

I'm pleased to see that Daisy Goodwin has a new book coming out, called Victoria. Goodwin is a really good historical author and I always like learning more about Queen Victoria. Apparently she was a "party-loving teenager" when she inherited the throne. 

It's funny how kids can surprise you. Before Eric was born, I had a mental list of books I would get for him, books that I really liked when I was a kid, and hoped he might enjoy also. He has liked a number of them (Anastasia Krupnik, Laura Ingalls Wilder), but Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, and Anne of Green Gables didn't grab him as much (though he's read some of them). A lot of stuff he reads, I've never read - Pippi Longstocking, the Boxcar Children, the Wizard of Oz series.

I'm a weekly leader in New York on the Hillary app...

I just took a bike ride but it's disgustingly hot and sticky out there. I'll be glad when it cools down. 

I'm reading The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood. It's set in Providence and starts with a yarn bombing. What more could you ask for?

My college roommate, Tricia, came to the city today. We had a great time, including a visit to the Museum of Math (which is more fun than it sounds). We capped it off with a visit to the ice cream truck. I think Tricia enjoyed asking for "two Tweeties and a Spiderman."

I can feel myself calming down about the election now that things seem to be going Hillary's way (KNOCK ON WOOD LOUDLY). Seriously, though, he seems to be the biggest disaster that ever ran for president. I can't remember this much negative coverage on any presidential candidate. I remember the Dogs Against Romney, when Romney put his dog on the roof of his car for 650 miles or something like that. But that's the most damning thing I can remember. Also, George W. Bush saying "nucular" instead of "nuclear." He was a disaster too, of course. But somehow no one comes close to Trump. The former head of the CIA is endorsing Hillary, warning that Trump could be a threat to national security. This morning, I finished Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers. He wrote about a single mother and two children gallivanting around Alaska. I got the sense that Alaska was the literal frontier in the book, but parenting was the symbolic frontier. He wasn't too heavy-...

It's one of those obvious truths that you'll get something done faster if you don't have a million competing projects. But it really is true. I got through my knitting backlog and now I'm just working on one handbag. And it goes so much faster.

"The butchers seemed content, the cheese people seemed content, but everyone else was murderous." -Dave Eggers, description of a grocery store, "Heroes of the Frontier"

Even better...

Hillary's doing great after the DNC...