Obligatory End Of The Month post.

*We got an Excellent at Festival. This is the equivalent of a B, and is probably due to the fact that our director was gone for several days the week before. :(

*I just finished Unwind by Neal Shusterman. HOLY CRAP!!! When you look up 'writers of great plot twists' in the dictionary, there's a picture of Neal Shusterman. I was FLOORED. I threw the book! And I'm not a thrower. I'm a yeller. I yelled too, of course, but I threw the book down on the ground. It was that good!

*I also just finished Rot & Ruin by Johnathan Mayberry. It was my fist serious zombie book, and really quite good. Less thought-provoking than the back cover claimed, but totally engrossing nonetheless. It's a bildungsroman (hows THAT for a big word!?!), but not all boring and predictable like most of them :) It was also 450 pages, which is major brownie points. I know perfectly well that size is no indication of goodness. I've read plenty of small books that were amazing, and some big books that were not nearly as good. But big books are always more satisfying, somehow. It's like how hamburgers taste better when you take a great big monster bite, instead of a normal one.

*What is it about dystopian Science Fiction that's so dang GOOD?!


*Scaffy's birthday was on the 16th. NINE things I love about Scaffy:

1. He's very intelligent. He loves to read and ask questions. Lots of them.
2. He tries to conceal the fact that he's intelligent, but I see through him every time :)
3. He's really, really sweet. Being 9, he's going to be hugely offended, but I don't care. He's a big sweetheart.
4. Scaffy is a big tease. I tease him, he teases me back, then I sit on him and give him a noogie until he begs for mercy.
5. Sometimes I'm a little overly mean to him. We are a lot alike, but we are different, too. Until recently, I never really understood this.
6. Even understanding that we are not the same.... I'm still going to keep telling him what books to read.
7. Most of the time he completely ignores my advice on what books to read. But when he does, he LOVES the books I recommend. Take Animorphs, for example. As soon as he finishes devouring one book he starts wolfing down the next. And when he finishes the last book, he immediately picks up the first book and starts reading them all over again. And refuses to read anything else. This is a bit infuriating, but it also makes me very pleased with myself for suggesting a book he loves so much.
8. He loves his family very much. He loves us in a way that most boys have forgotten how to do by the time they're 9. I hope he doesn't forget anytime soon.
9. I don't express it as well or as often as I should, but I love Scaffy very, very much. And I know I won't forget that anytime soon.