I lost almost five pounds in twenty-four hours. Let's hear it for water-weight!

One of Penny's new words is "bagel." Because Karen brought us a bunch of cinnamon-raisin and onion bagels from New York (I still don't really taste any difference between her bagels and the ones I can get here in town, but hey, I like bagels, so I don't complain) and Matt's been having the cinnamon-raisin ones for breakfast, and sharing with Penny.

Apparently, Penny loves bagels. At least, cinnamon-raisin ones.

I almost said that it was her newest word, but that's not correct. She learned bagel yesterday morning, but last night, she also learned "dark," even if she pronounces it as "guk."

Leaps and bounds. The child is growing by leaps and bounds.

But oh, boy, is she almost-two. Her latest fun "game" goes something like this:

Penny goes to the refrigerator and tugs on the handle and whines. (Or points at an item she wants and whines. Et cetera.)

Matt or I will say, "Do you want some milk?" (or whatever the item is) and get it for her.

As soon as we hold it out to her, she starts shaking her head as if in panic, and saying, "No! No! No! No!"

Matt or I say, "Oh, okay," and start to put it away.

At which point Penny starts wailing and pointing desperately. This time, when we offer it to her, she snatches it quickly.

She does this many times a day. It annoys Matt and I on so many levels, it's hard to know where to begin.

On the other hand, she's recently learned the concept of putting things away, and will usually put her books away after they've been read, as long as we don't let her get distracted.

I'd like to institute a general straightening of the toys and books as part of the pre-bed ritual, but I'm not certain she's quite old enough just yet.

Even though I've had it in my sidebar for a week or so, I finally started reading Skinny Dip last night.

I'm not sure I'll finish it in time for the book club. It's... not the worst thing I've ever read, but the writing is extremely amateurish and mediocre. I spent the whole first two chapters wincing over hackneyed devices and mentally re-writing passages. If it was a little more awful, I'd think it was on purpose, because the characters themselves are caricatures, and the book is supposed to be funny.

There were, actually a couple of bits that made me giggle, and I'm finally getting to a point where the characters have a little life, so I'll keep going, but I don't think I'm going to be recommending the book to too many other people. It's just not my thing.

So now I'm pondering this book club, and wondering how I'm going to meet a bunch of women I've never met before (except for Kris) and tell them that the book was bad, without insulting the ones who liked it or coming across as a pseudo-intellectual snob. It's a puzzle.

Well, we'll see how it goes, I guess.

--Liz