Booking It

Got up good and early today and did the Long Walk--the hour-long, 4 mile version. I've got a great book to listen to on the iPod and it was a lovely morning. The book is The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton. It's three stories wound together--Darwin voyaging on the Beagle, Darwin's daughter's journal, and a modern-day researcher delving into the life and secrets of Darwin. It's all very intriguing. Makes me want to read more on Charles Darwin, something I've never done before. I admire the man; I believe in him, but I really know very little about him.

Later on, I drove up to Brookfield. Had to get a birthday gift for a distant cousin in Bradford, and run a few other errands. One of the other errands was to buy some fancy coffee for my DH, who has recently come to appreciate the good stuff. You have to understand that I detest coffee--the smell, the taste, everything about it. But I went into the Brookfield Starbucks and bought some of the loathsome stuff for him.

When I got home, DH was properly thankful and went to brew some of the new coffee right away. But alas. What I had failed to do was to get the Starbucks people to GRIND the coffee so that it might actually be used. Sigh. How was I to know?

Oh well. I'll be in Brookfield again soon. I'm sure Starbucks will grind it for me if I take it back and ask nicely.

The reason I'll be back in Brookfield soon is that I have successfully completed a three-year quest to find well-built bookcases to buy in order to tame the large piles of books set on most horizontal surfaces around here and to turn our living room into a library. In these three years I have checked out every furniture store in the Milwaukee area and gotten quotes from woodworkers about custom-made bookshelves too. Sticker shock!! It's just amazing to me that bookcases could be so hard to find: quality ones that might be used to hold a book or two without the shelves becoming bowed. I had about given up.

ANYWAY. Renee had mentioned an oak shop at Greenfield and Sunnyslope that I should check out. I stopped by today on my way home from Brookfield and was blown away by the quality, the finish, and the options. Great prices and I can order exactly what I want. So, I'll be heading back over there later this week to place the order.

The days of Massive Piles of Books around here are nearing an end and I'm just hugely delighted about all this.