Him: Well, you’ve had them forever. You should get new ones.

Me: Nah. I don’t wear them enough to justify the expense.

Him: But you wear them every night after you take your contacts out!

Me: Yeah, but not for very long. You know. There are things I’ll spend money on, and things I won’t.

Him: Ah yes. Glasses don’t plug in.

• Free Watercolor Project To Paint: Stained Glass Irises—HT Jenn

• Gluten Free Orange Almond Bread Pudding Recipe

Busy playing with my new Kindle. It truly is even sweller than the previous model. I went for the graphite case, even though I prefer the crisp white. I’d read that the darker frame helps improve the contrast, and I think it does. That, plus whatever else Amazon did to improve the e-ink display. It’s quite a loverly device, I must say. Slim and light and cool in the hand. Easy one-handed reading and page-turning. The annotations feature I like so much. The addictive “sample this” option that lets you read the first chunk of any Kindle book for free. (You can do that on the iPod and phone apps too.)

Last night I read the opening of James Owen’s Here, There Be Dragons, the first volume of the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. Hooked. It is now winging its way to our library branch along with Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta—another novel with an intriguing opening.

This makes it sound like I am busy reading, but as usual I am really much busier trying to decide what to read next.

Busy, busy, busy.

It’s a short list this month: I was driving and visiting, not reading. We listened to two audiobooks in the car and about three-quarters each of two others. The two we finished were:

The Miraculous Voyage of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. Sad and lovely, and perfectly suited for a journey.

Because of Winn-Dixie, also by DiCamillo. I’d read it before, perhaps five years ago. I really love this book. I was pondering my favorite literary librarians today (having decided to name my new Kindle*, when she arrives on Monday, “Miss Sparrow”), and Miss Franny Block comes in a close second.

The two audiobooks we haven’t quite finished are:

On the Banks of Plum Creek, which we bought at the Rocky Ridge gift shop because we were all in the mood to listen to some Laura after visiting her home; and

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck, which was loaned to us by my sweet friends Beate and Sabine. They were following our travels on Facebook and invited us to stop for lunch on Monday as we cruised through Texas. It was a delightful stop, and they were absolutely right about A Year Down Yonder being a hilarious and captivating yarn. We left Laura half-drowned in the spring freshet to give the Peck a try, and it had us giggling all the way through Arizona yesterday. We need to drive somewhere so we can finish. Like maybe in circles around the neighborhood because that is as far from home as I’m going for a while.

*That’s right, my new Kindle. I know I only just got the “old” one. See, two weeks after that one arrived, Amazon announced the New and Improved model boasting (among other tweaks) a drastic improvement in the contrast between text and background, and since my one complaint with the K2 was the poor contrast, I mournfully returned it and set my teeth for the long wait until the late-August launch of the new one. I got the shipping notice this morning; Miss Sparrow should arrive on Monday. Poor First Kindle, I hadn’t even named her yet.

We got to spend time with beloved family on both sides, Scott’s and mine, and had delightful visits with friends all over the country. This was an August we’ll not soon forget.

Tomorrow we’ll tackle the mountain of laundry, but tonight I’m still thinking of the mountains west of Tucson this morning, as we moved out from under a heavy blue storm into the bright desert light.

(Grainy cellphone photo.)

Tonight we are happy to be safely home, reunited with Scott (who flew out to Virginia to join us for a week of our trip, but returned home ten days ago). Kids are bathed and still mostly on Central Time, so bedtime is nigh. Scott says we have three episodes of Mad Men to catch up on. There’s dulce de leche ice cream in the freezer. I loved our grand adventure, but I am happy, happy, happy to be home.