My preferred grocery store can't sell beer and wine, but the new gas station down the street can.

ran 1200

ran 400

walked 800

ran 400

walked 400

Felt surprisingly good, particularly as I was up with the screaming-bloody-murder BK in the middle of the night and up with both kids at 6:40 this morning.

My best friend from grad school and matron of honor Anne Jennings Paris has a book of poetry coming out later this year. Titled Killing George Washington: The American West in Five Voices, it is “a collection of narrative poems [that] imagines the voices of the forgotten historical figures of Lewis Wetzel, a notorious Indian killer; York, the slave who accompanied Lewis and Clark; Charity Lamb, Oregons first convicted murderess; Ing Hay, a Chinese immigrant who made a name for himself as a doctor; and Mary Colter, an architect who helped shaped the western landscape.”

You can pre-order your copy from Powell's Books. You can also pre-order it online from Barnes & Noble, but wouldn't you rather support Powell's? Yeah, I thought so.

In any case, the book will be available for purchase on November 1st, just in time for all of your holiday gift-giving needs. Not to spoil the surprise, but I'll be buying copies for everyone I know.

So I posted one of those “how well do you know Motormouth” quizzes on Facebook, and every single person who has taken the quiz has answered that Motormouth thinks Infinite Jest is the one novel that everyone should read. I'm intrigued by that answer, because it's incorrect: I think everyone should read the Sebastien Japrisot novel A Very Long Engagement.

Why?

Well, don't get me wrong: Infinite Jest is a phenomenal work, a blow-your-balls-off novel, a combination of pathos and humor the likes of which we just don't see anymore. David Foster Wallace was a master of the English language (and, apparently, pharmacology), which adds up to a tremendous novel. It also paints portraits of addiction that are both tragic (Hal) and uplifting (Don). So yeah, I recommend it.

BUT…

Infinite Jest takes a major commitment on the part of the reader. The edition I read is 1,079 pages long. The last 96 pages are endnotes, so you're constantly flipping back and forth (finally, I secured two bookmarks: one to mark my place in the text, and the other to mark my place in the endnotes). Plus, it's really heavy and not very portable. These are important things to think about when you're also toting a couple of kids and a diaper bag and a bottle of water. You don't need to be reading a book that makes you feel even more like a sherpa.

Whereas…

A Very Long Engagement comes in around the 200-page mark, and so much is packed into those pages that every time I read it, I notice something new. It is the only book that ever made me cry before page 100. It is a phenomenal testament to the power of dogged investigation, and it's beautifully written, and we all should strive to be a little like Mathilde. Plus, you won't throw your back out if you carry it around.

Highly, highly recommended. xo, Motormouth

How wonderful it is to have family in town! We wandered around our downtown yesterday and then had yummy dinner, which Monstro had to leave halfway through because BK was NOT in the mood to hang out at a restaurant, thank you very much. Today we're off to the butterfly museum (live ones, not The Collector-style ones with pins through their abdomens), then it's lunch at the fondly named Nana's Restaurant, and who knows for the afternoon. Shall keep y'all posted. Wish you were here, MM

Floors mopped, bathroom scrubbed, bed made: it can only mean one thing… company's coming! Welcome to MA, Auntie Lynn and Uncle Lee! See you later today!

Tried to take both boys to the mall without or bodyguard, nanny, or other assistance. Big mistake. Then BK didn't sleep in the afternoon. I threw in the towel and took a nap — wasn't much else I could do at that point. Cheers to Monstro for taking one for the team. Let's hope today is a better day. Of course, the nanny is coming for BK, and Lex is going to his nana's for the morning and lunchtime. I'll probably be cleaning the house. Whoo!

Babykins, heretonow known as BK around these parts, turned one year old today, which makes me happy, because it means that Monstro and I have kept yet another child alive for one entire year. It was pretty touch-and-go around the seven-month mark, what with getting up five times a night since his birth until then, but now, he is a sunny, happy baby, walking everywhere and worshipping the ground upon which his brother walks.

Happy birthday, BK. Mommy loves you!

“Turn to the centerfold. Then flip back about 50 pages to the Letters to the Editor, where my letter leads the section.”

(Issue date September 2009, with Heidi Montag Pratt on the cover.)