Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

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Neil Gaiman takes the African god of mischief and mayhem, Anansi the spider, and takes him and his family into modern day. Neil Gaiman has an obsession with all things mythological, I think. This book is no exception. Fat Charlie (who's not fat) has always been down on his luck and embarrassed by his father all his life. When his father dies, he soon learns that his father was a trickster god and that his unknown brother got all the awesome god powers. His brother Spider comes into life and starts to mess it up even more. Spider moves in and begins to steal his fiancee, his job, etc. Fat Charlie decides to get revenge which ends up messing up things even more.

It's pretty light-hearted, for the most part. But I have a hard time with characters that get oppressed and oppressed for too long. Charlie didn't get redeemed til toward the end. And overall, I just didn't care a lot about the characters.

I love what Neil Gaiman's trying to do with his books. They make for some interesting stories, for sure. But I haven't been able to really get into his books, yet. I'm working on American Gods right now....

I read this for one of my book clubs and used a library copy.

Happy Love Day!

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Interesting factoid. St. Valentine's Day was literally a holy day to honor the Catholic saint Valentine and others as martyrs. It didn't start gaining its romantic connections until the tradition of courtly love came about (1000-1300 AD). By the 15th century it had finally evolved into an occasion for lovers to express their love to each other! 600 years later, we're still celebrating love in its many forms between friends and family, and lovers, as well as celebrating our love for humanity!

I plan on celebrating with Gabe by cutting out hearts and drawing pictures on them. We'll give them to his friends and his dad tonight! Maybe we'll even go out for a Valentine goody!

I think we'll go all out next year with some house decor and maybe even some baking of cookies and crepes! We'll see.

Recipe!

Ensenada Cruise!

Archie and I did it! We finally made it on a cruise! It's very exciting. We got to go down with a lot of friends and made a lot while there.

We survived without Gabe for a few days and he barely did with us hanging out with Grandma and playing games! It was cute, though. Archie's mother made a little schedule for him so he could count off the days until we got home. Finally the last day was crossed off and he expected us to be there fast....we didn't get there until later that night and so during the day he'd start crying and going to the corner and he'd say: "Mommy and Daddy lost." So yeah, that breaks the heart strings...he also gets really freaked out if one of us goes anywhere. He keeps saying: "Don't leave me!" So it looks like we've traumatized him for at least a few months!

We stayed in Vegas the night before and cut the trip to LA into two days. We stayed at the Silverton with a fish tank!

We ate at the Claimjumper! Soooo yummy.

Our carpool buddies, Anna and Brian.

Jason and Talia, our other carpool buddies.

Just some fun things at a novelty shop we found on our way to LA!

Really "naughty" shot glasses!

We toured two vineyards. A mom and pop's and then a more formal one.

They had some really great wines and cheeses and spreads.

Local wine kitty! Meow!

Robyn, Lauren, Derek, and me!

Archie and I on the bus heading up to the Vineyard.

Our tour guide made a pit stop at a local but private bull ring.

I'm the matador and Archie el toro...

Does he realize the bull dies in the end?

Archie took some great pics of the valley.

This is at the more formal vineyard. Lots of big wine vats!

Huge wine vat!

Cheap and good! Great cheeses as well!

Our cabin staff made us lovely towel creatures!

Chillin' on the cruise ship at dinner.

Off the ship

I may add some more pics as friends make them available. They had a fancy night and Archie and I didn't get any pics of us. We looked pretty smashing. Also did some karaoking...Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! May have more pics of that as well.

It was a fabulous trip and we loved every minute of it while missing Gabe fiercely!