The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, begins by introducing the protagonist, Susie Salmon (like the fish, she reminds us), who is dead, murdered by a neighbor who’s made smalltalk with her parents a few times. As her community searches for her killer, and finally come to terms with her death, Susie watches from [...]
My childhood Christmases always involved playing Monopoly on the family room floor, and if that doesn’t sound enough like an idyllic Dylan Thomas evening (A Child’s Christmas in Wales, people, not “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”), I have no memories of ever squabbling with my cousins over who got to be the [...]
I have a new review of Cake Mania 3 up over at Casual Gamer Chick.
Cake Mania 3 is an adorable time-management game for the Nintendo DS. Jill, our heroine from Sandlot Games’ PC versions of the Cake Mania imprint, is cheerfully preparing for her wedding day when she accidentally breaks a time-bender (I [...]
The other day I was googling for “I’m stuck on an island with a total moron,” er, I mean, reading a bit about Lost in Blue 2, and I stumbled upon this Guide 2 Games review of Jack and Amy’s adventures.
Sexual Content
At one point, the two teens discover a hot spring, and there’s the option [...]
Last weekend, Stick and I went out to pick strawberries. We ended up at Buckwheat Farm, where we filled a tray and our mouths with hot red berries. It was summer-day perfection. After half a tray, we started to get hot and sweaty, and the Nintendo games back home in the air-conditioning were starting to [...]
In a move that sounds like a joke, Microsoft is offering $10,000 as a prize for using IE8. They specify that Firefox users need to switch, or get lost! I’ve been accused of blog hyperbole once or twice, but that’s a direct quote from the contest site:
We’ve buried $10,000 somewhere on the Internet and if [...]
Every time I came home from college or from traveling, the first thing I’d want to do in my hometown of Montclair is go eat Hunan House Chinese food. So yesterday, when I flew in from Raleigh to my parents’ house (en route to my sister’s graduation), I went to Hunan House with my dad.
Hunan [...]
My friend Lynn works in a flower shop. She called about a week ago to tell me she was on her way over with a present, a little potted lavender, because when I said I always kill my plants, she took it as a challenge. Lavender, she promised, require occasional watering and they like to [...]
Stick thinks I should change my name when we get married. I say no, not because I don’t like the Malavette name, but because there are lots of Mrs. Malavettes but only one Meg Stivison. So I came up with a counter offer.
“Why not?” I asked him. “Lots of people hyphenate!”
“But you’re not talking about [...]
A few nights ago, we had our newish friends Monty and Lynn over to play Arkham Horror. Monty works with Stick, and I’ve hung out with his friend Lynn a few times outside of our D&D game. I guess they’re more acquaintances, but, hey, socializing with people in North Carolina, outside of Stick’s family! (I [...]
just never runs outa wood! DUMM!!
