Karen and Erik

The 50 books Karen read in 2007, in alphabetical order because she forgot the chronological order, and 5 word reviews

1st to Die by James Patterson - I already forget what happened.

A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger - Good story, but wanted more.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles - Don’t play on trees, kids.

Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs - This book sucks without Booth.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - Every woman should read this.

Every Breath You Take by Ann Rule - Ann makes horrible crimes compelling.

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman - Good essays for book nerds.

Fatal Burn by Lisa Jackson - Dumb mystery with sex scenes.

Gutted: Down to the Studs in My House, My Marriage, My Life by Lawrence LaRose - Never buy a fixer-upper.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling - Much better when read voluntarily.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling - I always forget this plot.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling - Pizza, I liked this movie.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling - Movie should have been longer.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling - My second favorite HP book.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - Man, I cried so much.

How to Try a Murder by Michael Kurland - It’s boring and too simplified.

I Am America (and So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert - Can always make me laugh.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - Chilling without lots of gore.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer - Compelling, and makes you think.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain - I love this crazy asshole.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - Book club hated it. So?

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Lovely book with smelly prose.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Euginedes - I freaking loved this book.

Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher - HA, everyone’s high on drugs!

Red Azalea by Anchee Min - Communism’s bad, I GET IT.

Slam by Nick Hornby - The protaganist is a douchebag.
Small Sacrifices by Ann Rule - Farrah Fawcett rocked this one.

Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg - Nothing happened in the first half.

Me by Katherine Hepburn - Why actors shouldn’t write books.

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin - Too dated to take seriously.

The Almost Moon by Alice Seabold - Worst book I’ve ever read.

The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist by Mary Manheim - Reality is boring, but true.

The Case of Abraham Lincoln: A Story of Adultery, Murder and the Making of a Great President by Julie Fenster - That title is a lie!

The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez Reverte - It was a fucking book club!

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen - Dana and I liked it!

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman - How is it really atheist?

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - Great, but a bit long.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - Too sad to see movie.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - Loved this book. Go figure.

The Mark by Jason Pinter - Protaganist is no Jason Bourne.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards - A lovely but heartbreaking book.

The Ruins by Scott Smith - Stephen King-like - hate him too.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion - Made me cry while reading.

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks - Always seek the high ground.

Thunderstruck by Erik Larsen - Better than his last book.

To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever by Will Blythe - GO TARHEELS!! DUKE SUCKS!! YEAH!!

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Should have read years ago.

Movies Erik wanted to see but could not convince Karen into

Saw IV

Alien vs. Predator - Requiem

Beowulf

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (note: Karen submitted to this on DVD. It was shit!)

TMNT

Halloween

The Number 23

Movies Karen wanted to see but could not convince Erik into (or it was in a theater he did not like so we’ll have to wait for DVD)

Fracture

No Country for Old Men

Waitress

The Darjeeling Limited

Movies that we meant to see in the theater but did not get around to it, so we’ll have to resort to DVD
The Bourne Ultimatum (note: finally saw it on DVD)

3:10 to Yuma
The Simpsons Movie (note: finally saw it on DVD)
Ratatouille (note: finally saw it on DVD)

Knocked Up (note: finally saw it on DVD)

Best bad movie seen all year

Ghost Rider

Worst bad movie seen all year

Smokin’ Aces

Movies that Erik enjoyed significantly more than Karen did

I Am Legend

Transformers

Movies that Karen enjoyed significantly more than Erik did

The Golden Compass

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Zodiac

Movies that our friends enjoyed significantly more than we did

Knocked Up

Superbad

Hi everyone! It’s the last day of 2007, and a lot of the blogs I read are doing/have done “Year in Review” posts or top ten lists. So I thought I would do something like that for us.

January 

Erik got a new job! And Andrew came to visit!

24 returned and remains the only show where I follow through on my commitment to recap an entire season (dude, I still have not seen the last few episodes of ANTM.)

February

We got new phones, and put them to good use taking pictures of kitties.

We moved to a new place that was just down the street from our old place.

March

Erik had a birthday and got an R2-D2!

The Deadliest Catch returned.

April

E gave Fitz another reason to love Chloe.

The girls and I met John Krasinksi and a wrinkly blond!

My medicine stopped working.

May

The discovery of mini-tree.

June

Mini-tree comes out of hiding. 

Robot Chicken: Star Wars debuts! 

July

Erik offers helpful maternity wear advice. 

August

Karen returns from self-imposed exile. 

It was really damn hot in Charlotte. 

September

KITTIES!

We raised money for boobs.

I still can’t believe Soul Patch is not dead.

ANTM recaps for the ladies.

Erik went to Van Halen - opening night of the tour!

October

Erik was THISCLOSE to getting a peg leg.

“Check out yo thighs in the mirrah!” is still an expression I use regularly.

November

It took weeks to get this song out of my head (and NOW it’s back in, damnit)

First anniversary, trip to Reno, Red Sox victory!

Nurse/Doctor, meet Stepson/Lover.

A car thief took that broken iPod off my hands, thankyouverymuch.

Did I ever tell you guys I got a form response to this letter? I have to send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to this other address and I’ll have sweet victory!
December

We found a house!

We lost a house.

Christmas in the desert.

Next: Movies of 2007 Post!

The name Jamsky came up with for my macbook. Henceforth, it shall be known as Macquille O’Neal.

This post from Kissing Suzy Kolber.

The idea of Martha Stewart making a nativity scene in prison.

And, there you go.

ETA: Had to add this.

Merry Christmas everyone! We’re sitting at Erik’s parents ranch now near Kingman, AZ. Everyone is full of good food and thisclose to passing out. In fact, I ate so much I had to change pants and lie down before I could consider dessert (which is sitting next to me right now).

We have house updates but… I’m not ready to post about them yet, because we still have a lot up in the air. So, I guess I should not have brought it up. Too bad. Instead, I will tell you that the Christmas haul was pretty sweet this year. Erik got some good stuff, including some sweet Star Wars stuff. I got a bunch of dirty rocks. Oh, and a Macbook. Best present ever. I’m typing this post on it right now. I bet you could already sense how much cooler this post was because of it.

We’ll have more to post about soon. Meanwhile, I leave you with a taste of the desert scenery. PEACE OUT.

I had posted a picture of the house we had made an offer in to the previous post, but have since removed it…as we are also removing our offer on the place. The inspection happened yesterday and termites were found. Lots of them.

The house is 10 years old, and our Agent shared with us that the inspector said it looked as if the termites moved in then. He had never seen such damage on a house only 10 years old.

We’re filling out the proper forms now to get out the contract and get our money back. Technically, we may have to wait until the estimates come in over a certain amount, but hopefully the sellers will recognize that the repairs will be extensive and let us out now.

I don’t want to go into too much detail over the internets, but suffice it to say that we’re starting the process over again. If we don’t see a house we like this weekend, we’ll probably bag the entire thing until January as I don’t expect too many houses will come on the market in the next few weeks.

Erik and I have been pretty busy these past few weeks, but lucky all of the hard work has paid off. Ladies and gentleman, we are under contract for a house.

This is our first home, and we think we picked a great one with lots of potential. It’s got room for guests (in their own room - not the sofa!) and an office and eventually, room for a baby. We just have to put in a little cosmetic work on it (some paint, some new fixtures, new kitchen floor) and it will be good to go. We close in mid-January and will move in sometime in February. We’ll keep you updated as everything progresses.

Meanwhile, here are some bad photos I took of the place. Note that they were taken for reference purposes (which is why there is a picture of the washer/dryer hookups), not to show off the place. Also, as I uploaded these last night I realized that I didn’t take a picture of the front of the house. So I’ll do that next time we visit it.