Work is back to normal. This may not be the ideal from a business standpoint, but it is good for me personally, especially as everyone else has gone to work at the other store. That Man is at the store with me sometimes, but mostly it is just me.

Yesterday I was able to return order and beauty to the math and science sections. My husband cooked dinner, having gone to the grocery and bought fresh food for the purpose. The Empress came by with chocolate cake that The Princess made from scratch. The house was decent enough that I was glad to see her. Both my daughters called to talk. And this morning I woke up to the sound of rain, and did so early enough to lie in bed for a bit and enjoy it.

So I’m feeling better.

We are coming to the end of the Summer Reading Challenge. I notice that I failed to post about my last two books. First, there was The Lion in the Cellar, by Pamela Branch. If I had read this book first, I would not have been so eager to read the rest of her work. The plot is so convoluted and weird that it borders on the absurd. I really can’t even summarize it for you.

There was some cool unfamiliar slang in it, though. I always like the outmoded colloquialisms I find in vintage books, as well as the mysterious ones I find in foreign novels. There is the problem, however, of not fully understanding it. This book includes the expression “Up your jumper!” used as we might say “You’re kidding!” Tell me that’s not cool.

You cannot usually use these exotic terms, however. We have been able to take up calling hot dogs “saveloys” chez Fibermom, and often refer to money as “spondulicks,” but try that outside our house and your interlocuters will be lost. I have never yet been able to work the ’20s expression “Not in these trousis!” into a conversation, and still am not clear about how exactly the Irish use the term “pants.” Appreciation of arcane slang must generally be passive, rather than active.

The other book, Hardly Working by Betsy Burke,  is your basic chick lit from Red Dress Ink, an important rather new publisher of chick lit. A fairly young woman with a cool but ill-paying job struggles with her identity, family, romantic relationships, and work-related crises, eventually overcoming her difficulties and learning about herself in the process. Tango-ing takes place, and there are some messages about water and corporate greed. I’ll read more of Burke’s novels, too, when Booksfree happens to send them to me. I don’t have any of those youthful struggles, myself, but I can enjoy reading about them as an outsider.

Maybe #2 daughter should read more chick lit.

Anyway, you might enjoy either of those books, but you can see why I didn’t feel inspired to post about them. Still, it would be a shame to give up on the Summer Reading Challenge so close to the end. So I have done it.