To try to get myself back into blogging shape, a couple of recent hits around here.
(And speaking of the other…I’m up to 2.5 miles running/no walking/no stopping. If you’d told me two months ago I’d be back up to this point, I’d have laughed. Hard. Thanks to this guy!  Although I’m not listening to that anymore. I know what the rest of the routine is – 2.5 miles this week, 2.8 the next and then 3.1 (5k). So, using this nifty tool. I just map a route and go, listening to my BBC stuff or Vatican radio downloads. There’s a dissonance there, but it works.)

(I spent the last part of last week distracted by ripping up carpet. I actually rather enjoy it because there’s something in me that relishes the destruction that has to happen before something new appears. If you need carpet taken up, call me. The tacking strips make me fairly hostile, but I get over it.)
Here is a wonderful book, a random pull-from-the-shelf.  Originally published in 1955, this “new” edition (now out of print) came out in the 90’s, so…check your library. It’s worth it.
It’s so simple. A little girl lives in house with her parents, a couple of cats and a couple of dogs.
Time passes. The dogs have puppies. The cats have kittens. And Mommy has a baby.
It’s a Baby House!
A Baby House that’s crowded and filled with life and obviously lots of fun. A very subtle Culture of Life sort of thing going on – that all of this life is a good to be welcomed and hoped for.
You know we love our search and find kind of books (except Waldo. Can’t stand Waldo, for some reason.) Here’s a different sort of entry into the genre.
Picture This is deceptively simple on the surface – it just seems like pages with pictures, each with a single word of text.
Not so fast!
The art – done in a primitive style – is  integrated from page to page, in intriguing and witty ways. So the apple that is featured on this page might be found on a plate in the background on the next, and so on, and so forth. It’s very layered and interesting.