Best Book of 2019

I read 63 books in 2019, 11 more than my target.  Yay me!  Most were good, some were ok.  Both book clubs kept me reading things I wouldn't normally.  However, there were only two that I'd give 5 stars to:

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.  Long, but worth it.  Beautiful language, beautiful enough to make you cry.  Characters that live with you long after the book is over... ahhhhh.  Read it with one book club and have convinced the other one to give it a go.  Just go read it, you won't be sorry.

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson.  Short, quick read but the imagery will stick with you.  Like the above, these characters will continue to live in your mind and you will be thinking deep thoughts after.

In anticipation of Book 9 in the Outlander series (Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone) coming out sometime this year, I'm re-reading the series again.  Just finishing Drums of Autumn now...

Books of 2018

The final count was 69 books read in 2018 - I am happy with that!  Here are the ones I really loved this year that will be added to the "highly recommended" list (in no particular order):

• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.  This is one of those sweeping family sagas that covers several generations. The story begins in Korea, with teenaged Sunja who finds herself pregnant by an (unbeknownst to her) married man.  Refusing to become a kept mistress, she marries a sickly minister on his way to Japan.  The story continues with her new family trying to make their way in Japan against prejudice, war and health crises.  Twists and turns, you never know exactly where things are going to end up for all of them.  The title refers to a mechanical gambling game that figures heavily in several characters lives.  This was a book club selection and I really enjoyed the audio version.  It took a little bit of time to get all the characters straight because of similar names, but after that, I was hooked.
• Circe by Madeline Miller.  I was enthralled by this book!  It's definitely on my list of "always recommended."  The goddess Circe is a puzzling child to her parents, god of the sun Helios and the nymph Perse.  She is neither powerful nor particularly beautiful and teased unmercifully for her strange voice.  She turns to mortals for companionship and discovers her powers of witchcraft.  Threatened by her power, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island where she spends eternity honing her powers and of course, meeting a who's who of greek mythology: the Minotaur, Daedalus and his son Icarus, Medea and of course Odysseus.   In the end, Circe must gather all her power and choose once and for all where she belongs: with the gods she was born to or with the mortals she has come to love.  I didn't know a lot about greek mythology beyond what M and I read in the Percy Jackson series but this swept me into all of it and I wanted to read more.  Again, I listened to the audio book and Perdita Weeks was the perfect reader.  There were many times I sat in the driveway finishing the chapter.
• The Book of M by Peng Shepherd.  This book is classified as Fantasy, but I think it could also fit under Thriller.  Set sometime in the future, the book begins when a man in India loses his shadow.  It just disappears.  And slowly his memories start to fade too until he doesn't remember anything - not where he is, not who he is, nothing. And since he can't remember his past reality, then he is able to make his own.  And then the Forgetting and its accompanying destructive magic starts to spread like a plague across the world causing havoc, distrust, war and the rise of a cult.  The book follows different people, coming from different parts of the world, heading towards New Orleans as they hear about a prophet who can fix people's memories.  Ory is tracking his wife, Max, who left him when her shadow did in order to protect him.  This book creeped me out but I couldn't put it down either.  
• Us Against You by Fredrik Backman.  The sequel to Beartown, we are back in the hockey-mad town, when the townspeople learn that their hockey team will be disbanded and all the best players have been lured to play for rival town Hed.  A surprising newcomer is picked to coach and bond the players left behind into a team.  But old grudges and new whispers escalate the decades-old rivalry.  By the time the final game is played, someone is dead and both towns are wondering if the game they love can ever be just a simple game anymore.  Fredrik Backman has a knack for building suspense and throwing in twists that you never see coming.  
• Matchmaking for Beginners by Maddie Dawson.  Marnie MacGraw just wants to marry her fiance, have kids, live in the suburbs, drive a minivan and fit in.  Her fiance's eccentric great-aunt Blix tells her at their engagement party that this is never going to happen.  When her marriage ends after only two weeks, she doesn't know what hit her.  And then she finds out that Blix has passed away and left her the Brooklyn brownstone full of unfinished projects and neighbors who need someone to rely on.  Why would somebody she only met for 10 minutes a year ago, do that?  On the condition that she live there for a year, Blix insists via letter and other posthumous winks that Marnie is the perfect person to carry on her magic and matchmaking.  And it turns out she was right.
• Longbourn by Jo Baker.    It's no secret that I love Jane Austen.  There have been an abundance of retellings and sequels and prequels.  Some of them are interesting, some are execrable, and very few are good.  Longbourn is a good one.  Here, the servants take center stage and there is as much romance, heartbreak and intrigue as there is upstairs.  And lots of laundering of muddy petticoats.  It's at once familiar and new.  I loved it.
• The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan.  Another book club choice, I really liked this one.  Anthony Peardew lost something precious the day his beloved fiance died.  He's since spent his life picking up lost things and cataloging them meticulously.  He writes stories about them.  But now near the end of his life, he worries that the items will never be reunited with their owners.  Recovering after a painful divorce, Laura takes a job as Anthony's assistant, unsuspecting that he is going to leave her his house, all the lost things and his mission.  With the help of the gardener, Freddy and delightful neighbor Sunshine, Laura struggles to do what Anthony wished and find the right home for all involved.  As we find out the stories behind all the lost things and how they became lost, we realize that nothing is ever lost, everything - and everyone - end up exactly where they are meant to be in their own time. 

Books of 2016

I read 32 books this year.  Not quite the 52 I always set for a goal, but I'm ok with it.  I added needlework back into my goal list last year and while I didn't complete a lot of those items this year, I'm happy with what I was able to accomplish.  My work hours increased in September so that was a bit of an adjustment.   I also added a more regular schedule of self-care into my life year and that has been far more important to keeping me on track and helping me maintain balance.   

Not too many books got a five-star rating and inclusion onto The List this year, but these did:

1. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.  This book stayed with me for a long time.  It's the story of two half-sisters in Africa several hundred years ago.  One is in the ruling class and eventually married to a British slaver, while the other is from another tribe and sold into slavery and transported to the New World.  The book follows the succeeding generations of the family and how their lives progress to the present day.  It is a page-turner and really makes you think about race, race relations, slavery and how families work to integrate all the pieces of their history.
2. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.  I really cannot say enough about this book.  It was so wonderful that I immediately went out and bought everything else Fredrik Backman has ever written.  I don't do that too often.  Ove is a curmudgeon in every sense of the world.  A grumpy old man, he has Rules and gets annoyed at the world when they don't follow them.  When a young family moves in next door, his world is turned upside down.  There are a few surprises here, but you will find yourself laughing and crying and cheering as you read.  And then you'll go want to find the curmudgeon in your life and give them a hug.  
3. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman. I told you I went and bought everything Fredrik Backman ever wrote :-D  This one was wonderful as well, and there were enough twists and turns and "oh! that's what really happeneds!" to keep you turning pages and glued to the story until the last page.  This one is about Elsa, who is aged 7 and a little different from everyone else.  Her grandmother has always told her fabulous about a mythical land where everyone is different and no one needs to be normal.  When her grandmother dies, she leaves Elsa a Quest in the form of letters that must be delivered to various people she feels the need to apologize to.  And as Elsa meets them all she begins to wonder - .could the Kingdom of Miamas and the people who lived in her grandmother's fairy tales be real? 
4. Come Rain or Come Shine by Jan Karon. Anybody who has ever visited the town of Mitford will fall in love with it all over again in this new book in the series.  Dooley Kavanagh and Lace Harper are all grown up and planning their wedding.  And in true Mitford style, the whole town gets involved whether Dooley and Lace want them to or not, mishaps happen and grace overcomes all.  
5. My Mrs. Brown by William Norwich. This book was so sweet!  Emilia Brown is a woman of a certain age.  She has lived her life in the background, always quiet and no frills and probably overlooked by most.  But in her heart she has dreams.  Dreams which suddenly seem to be embodied by an Oscar de la Renta sheath and jacket and somehow she must make them her own.  And braving the trip to New York all alone to get it becomes necessary as well.  Sometimes a dress isn’t just a dress.

This Year's Book Goal

Just finished Book #53 so I'm ahead of last year's pace.  Yay me!  Stay tuned for the end-of-year tally and recommended book list!

Update on the Book Goal

Final tally for books read this year: 77!

MUCH much better than the 6 of 2010. Yay me!

Here are the books that stuck with me long after the cover was closed (in no particular order).

• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. The premise of this book, that the main character can taste the emotions of the person who prepared the food, was fascinating to me. Ultimately the book is about how we deal with emotions, our own and others, and whether we allow ourselves to truly feel.

• The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer. I've been both a stay-at-home mom and a work-outside-the-home mom and from the very first line this book resonated with me. Each of the women in the book struggles with finding and accepting her role in the world, her smaller community, her family. You look at other moms and think "she's got it all figured out" only to be incredibly surprised that she's thinking the same thing about you.

• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. I loved the language and the intellectualism of this book. Putting these three three protagonists, a middle-aged French concierge (kind of like a superintendent of a building) trying to hide her intelligence, a depressed 13-year-old girl and a dapper Japanese elderly gentleman, together was pure genius.

• Room by Emma Donohue. Haunting, terrifying, and intriguing. What is language? What is reality? What is home? What is family? What is safety?

• Elizabeth I by Margaret George. I confess that anything by Margaret George will be loved by me before I have even opened it. Her work is so well researched, so intimate, so in-the-moment that it is easy to forget you are reading about a well-known historical figure. Perhaps it is the first-person narrative, but you really feel that you know the subject. And Elizabeth I (and her dad, Henry VIII) are two of those hypothetical people I'd like to have dinner with.

• Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran. I love historical fiction. This book gave me a lot of insight into the French Revolution and the history of waxworks. I did not know anything about Madame Tussaud other than her name and the multiple museums that share it. That an art we now view as somewhat kitschy has its roots in the struggle to share information openly with all classes was riveting.

• The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York by Chandler Burr. I originally found this book because of reading "Perfumes: The Guide" and "The Emperor of Scent " and it was fascinating! The author gives an inside view of the perfume industry and follows the creation of a perfume from idea to creation to marketing. It also talks about the fairly recent trend of celebrity perfumes, which is interesting in itself. I love how reading one book can lead you on a journey of discovery about a subject, to other things the author has written, to things you never would have thought you'd be interested in.

• Still Alice by Lisa Genova. Whether or not you have been touched by Alzheimer's personally, please go read this book. Your notions of what constitutes self, memory, and what is quality of life may get turned on their ears.

• Faithful Place by Tana French. I don't normally read suspense, but this third book by Tana French, like her other two grabbed me and didn't let go until the last page. I particularly like it when books reference familiar characters. It's like greeting old friends and fosters my favorite illusion that these are real people living real lives somewhere out of our consciousness until we can check in with them again. There were so many twists and turns that it was impossible to figure out the ending until you got to it. I appreciate that in an author and in a book.

• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Nefenegger. Creepy but in a good way. As a twin and a mom of twins, I found this book about twin sisters of twin moms very interesting. I don't really have a way to describe this fully, you just have to trust me on this one.

• The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean. I love fashion and I love history, therefore I must love vintage fashion, right? A sweet story of family and finding your way in the world with storytelling magic along the way.

• The Harry Potter Epic, Books 1-7 by J. K. Rowling. Yes, I've read them before but I really do recommend that you read them straight through, one after the other. You get a better appreciation for J.K. Rowling's genius that way. And yes, even though you know how it ends all the little details still take you by surprise. That we can still be enthralled after 14 years, 7 books and 8 movies is a marvel.

• The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs by Christina Hopkinson. I could have written this book. Why didn't I write this book? Hilariously funny in the way that has you looking over your head for speech bubbles. The author *must* be reading your mind and putting out there all the things you think but would never dare say out loud. Very British, reminiscent of Bridget Jones' Diary and a happy ending to boot.

• Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd & Ann Kidd Taylor. Part travelogue, part spiritual journey, part family saga, this book really touched me. Partly because we had just seen "The Way" right before I started reading this and I was in the mindset of spiritual journeys, this book made me remember things I'd forgotten. My wish to travel, the ways travel can open your eyes to things you already know deep inside, the ebb and flow of family relationships, the many faces devotion takes. I also enjoyed all the references to art, poetry and literature. I googled myself silly for awhile! It was a bit of a shock at first to find myself identifying with the "mature mom" half of the team rather than the daughter half, but I can't be the only one who has to remind themselves of the passage of time and your chronological age vs. your internal age. Sue Kidd struggles with issues of aging, menopause, moving onto another stage of life and wondering if it's going to be productive and if so in what form? All things I realized I was struggling with myself but not being able to articulate or put into concrete thought. And in the laws of serendipity, after googling all the religious icons in the book and remembering how beautiful I find them, I found a small one of the Virgin Mary while cleaning out a box. I think it might have been a baby shower gift. It's on my computer desk now.

• The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. A new favorite author. Like Tana French her work is so dense and has so many twists, turns and connections that you cannot possibly figure it all out until the last page. Every so often there is a little clue and you think "ah ha!" only to be turned on your head later on. Wonderful!

• My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke. A class act and a gentleman. That he's one of my favorites didn't hurt either.

• The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delaney Begins Her Life's Work at 72 by Molly Peacock. Fascinating retrospective of an 18th-century gentlewoman's life and her creation of 985 mixed-media collage (previously unknown) botanically correct flowers (now housed in the British Museum). Like Traveling With Pomegranates, it is a meditation of creativity late in life, how one's life history culminates in unexpected ways. For all those still wondering "what will I be when I grow up" this book offers hope and inspiration.

• The Legend of Holly Claus by Brittney Ryan. My deepest admiration goes to those authors who can take a well-known story like Santa Claus and re-imagine it to make something totally new, totally believable and totally loved. This year I got to share this book with M. and he loved it just as much as I do.

Special Shout Out to my sister, R. who recommended some of these and many others as part of our family & friends book club.

Goal Exceeded

In 2010 I read 6 books. Six.

Ok, so maybe I read a few more, but I'm not counting bedtime stories. These were books for me. Books read for pleasure and information gathering and just for fun. Six books. Six. This pathetic little number made me sad, dismayed, and a bit angry. To be frank, I was appalled. How did I let this happen? Me? The girl who can read a 700 page book in 2 days? I could give a lot of reasons for the decline in number of books read, like I went back to work full-time, I spent a lot of time in the car ferrying kids back and forth and I hate audio books, I am exhausted, etc etc etc. Who cares what the reasons are, Lizzie, what are you going to do about it going forward?

So for 2011, I set a goal to read 52 books. I thought one a week was reasonable and left some leeway for the short reads that might take a day or two and the longer ones that might take more than a week. The important thing was I set a goal and I put a reminder out there to help me do it, namely my account on Shelfari.

Reading has always brought me great pleasure and making a conscious effort to put it back into my life just made me happy happy happy. There were books I adored (The Ten Year Nap, Elizabeth I, Madame Tussaud, Still Alice, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Perfumes: The Guide), books that freaked me out but kept me turning the pages to find out what happened next (Room, Faithful Place, Her Fearful Symmetry), books that I could take or leave (we won't single those out because opinion is subjective) and books I hated (I stopped reading them).

I'm happy to say that as of today I've read 55 books, so I've surpassed my goal and there are still 4 months left in the year. Yay me!

Current book: Re-reading all 7 Harry Potters in succession. I'm on Chamber of Secrets now.

Next challenge: get needlework back into my life on a regular basis...

I Just Love It When a Plan Comes Together

I have had this picture in my head ever since we moved into our house 6 years ago.

We have never used the coat closet in the entry hall for its intended purpose. It is so small that coats ended up everywhere else. I found the bench at a garage sale last summer (I'm still debating whether or not to paint it. Yellow? Red? White?) I painted the inside of the closet to match the kitchen (which horrified D. at the time and probably still does). In the fall we finally got the walls fixed and hung the coat hooks. Now the shelves are in the closet along with the bins I found 2 years ago (they pick up all the colors in the curtain fabric that's still under my bed). I'm still filling them and moving the contents around, but a lot of the flotsam and jetsam from everywhere has found a home. You can't quite see it in the picture but we've got an outlet in there for the cell phones and whatever else needs charging. The boys backpacks are no longer objects to trip over. We traded the ugly front door for a beautiful one. Behr, btw, calls that color "Lunar Shadow." We call it "Necco Wafer" (which horrified me until the 2nd coat went on).

But since we both picked it out from the 30 or so paint chips I had taped to the door, it's all good. Everyone has their own shoe bin, even guests (though that's still taking some work to make sure the shoes actually end up there). We're going to change the floor, but haven't had the chance to go pick something out yet.

Now when I come home, aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh. Organized heaven.

You Can Call Me Ingrid

My sister-in-law and I were joking the other day about how some women try on their wedding dress on each anniversary. It's a cute idea but we'd never go there. D. overheard us and very nicely said that I'm skinnier now than when we got married. I said he was nuts, he insisted, we looked at the wedding photos, we still disagreed, he got some brownie points and we moved on. I put these pants on the other day and to my surprise, they were a bit big. I stepped on the scale and somehow I lost 10 lbs. It's been a long time since I weighed less than my husband. I'm not sure how that happened, but I think my friend S. has to get some of the credit since she's been convincing me to go to the gym and then I've actually broken a sweat once we get there. So I've been trying on a few other things in my closet, just to see...

I may have mentioned a few times that my favorite movie of all time is Indiscreet starring Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. In 198-I-can't remember-that-far-back-exactly, I bought The Dress at Loehmann's Back Room because It reminded me of this ensemble from the movie (and because it was an unbelievable $25!):

In reality The Dress looks nothing like a Dior. But It is a classic Little Black Dress: princess-seamed, knee-length with a keyhole back and made from a heavy black brocade. The matching coat is the same fabric in white with a simple black jet button closure. When I bought It I had absolutely nowhere to wear It. I still don't. I wore It once for about an hour to a family Christmas party until I dripped cocktail sauce on the coat. I ran screaming for the stain remover and my predictable and oh-so-washable reindeer sweater.

Over the years The Dress has hung in my closet as a talisman of possibilities, a tribute to romance, and a wink at my inner-Ingrid. When size 11/12 was a long ago memory, It went in the Goodwill pile during every closet reorganization, only to be snatched back at the last minute. When I was in the midst of crazy quilting obsession, It went into the cut-it-up pile, but I could never bring myself to do it. And there It remained, unworn but well-loved.

The suspense was killing me, I had to try It on last night. I wouldn't necessarily say It fit, but It did zip. I didn't try to sit down and wearing It outside the house would require serious scary-undergarment intervention. But. The glimmer of all manner of unseen possibilities re-emerged.

In actuality, I may never wear The Dress. But those glimmers make me unbelievably happy. What possibilities have been turning up in your life lately?

Twitterpated

A few new things I'm loving:

These have been heavily advertised in the scrapping magazines for months and I have been anxious to get a look at them. Finally, they are available and oh so cute! I've got a few of the "Believe" ones for Christmas projects but I can't tell you any more in case the recipients are listening...

How can a magazine junkie and organizing freak not love this?All kinds of tips, tricks, storage containers and interviews with organized people I aspire to be like. I'm putting a subscription on my wish list for Santa.

The two classes I'm taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking. One is gift projects that can be made in two hours or less. Lots of inspiration, doable projects and gifts that people will actually use! Just what I needed to get the holiday gift giving season rolling. The other class is on wellness. More inspiration, tips on exercise and nutrition, and the knowledge that lots of other women are struggling with the same things I am. I've renewed my commitment to getting healthy. My classmates are very inspiring and giving ladies, I am getting so much from visiting the galleries and message boards every day -- I've done more layouts this past two weeks than I've done in 6 months. Gotta love it when creativity and practicality merge. Thanks Kolette & Lisa!

And I'm very excited about these returning favorites:

I was a late convert to Project Runway since we don't have regular tv (long story). But once I found the DVDs on Netflix, I was hooked and having fashion marathons after the boys went to bed. (Isn't it every girl's dream at some point to be a fashion designer? It seems to be the natural evolution from ballerina.) The Season 3 DVD just came out last week and I'm halfway through (don't tell me who won). Season 4 starts tonight and I need to find someone with cable to go watch with because no way am I waiting a year to see it. D. doesn't get the whole attraction and keeps telling me to go to bed and get some sleep already. But then, but he's not a woman or a gay man (thank goodness). :-D May I say how much I adore Tim Gunn? I can?Ok. I absolutely adore Tim Gunn.

Victoria has returned! What a surprise that was at the magazine section of Wegman's. Oh, did I mourn this magazine's passing. I loved everything about it: the photography, the articles, the recipes, the gentility, the Victoria of it all. Now it's back and it looks exactly the same. It's like being in a time warp, but in a really good way. Maybe this should go on my Santa wish list too.

Autumn Has Arrived

How do you gauge the arrival of autumn? Back-to-school? Football? Halloween and Thanksgiving advertisements? Do you wait for the calendar's proclamation of "first day of"? Perhaps you check the trees for color changes or the temperatures for sweater weather.

Those are all good, but in our house (ok, it's really just me) this is how I know autumn has finally arrived. I did a little dance right there in Wegman's this morning. Happy happy happy. Since it's a seasonal item, I have this undeniable urge to stock up. What if they stop making it and I'm ciderless all winter? I did manage to stop myself at 3 boxes this week. D. even laughed when he helped me bring in the bags, "oh, it must be fall! You've got your fix again!" Sometimes it's those little things that make all the difference.

But I can't talk to you anymore because the microwave is beeping...

Obsession, you are my Obsession...

I just got the way fun issue of Scrapbook Play. One of the prompts is to do a page about one of your obsessions. Great idea! But which one? Over the years, there have been the celebrity obsessions (Shaun Cassidy, Adrian Paul), the food obsessions (Oregon Chai Cider, Nutella, Cadbury Dairy Milk -- why haven't I got an exercise obsession to go with this?), the tv show obsessions (Highlander, Dark Knight, Days of our Lives), the book/author obsessions (Margaret George, Maeve Binchy, Diana Gabaldon), the hobby obsession (cross stitch, crazy quilting, scrapbooking), the shoe obsession, and so on and so forth. But I think I have to go with the big one, the one that started it all:

When I was 11 or 12 I had a huge crush on the Bay City Rollers. They were five guys from Scotland doing remakes of "Bye Bye Baby" and "Saturday Night" (though I didn't know they were remakes at the time). I loved to hear them talk even though I only understood about one word in ten. I subscribed to Tiger Beat magazine to read all about them. I bought all their albums, including the special order European releases. I hung posters (from Tiger Beat) on every square inch of my half of the bedroom even though my sister said that she couldn’t get dressed in there because of all the eyes looking down at her (love ya, D!). I knew all the words to the “B” side songs. My friends and I would stay up 'til 1:00 a.m. to see them on the music show that came on after Saturday Night Live (what was the name of that show?) And most embarrassing of all, I convinced Mom to sew me an outfit like theirs. It consisted of white denim capris (before capris existed, when they were called "highwaters" or "flood pants") hemmed in red plaid with a jacket to match. Completing this lovely ensemble were striped socks, high-top sneakers and a scarf in a contrasting green plaid. I actually walked around town like that. I’m surprised I didn’t cause car accidents.

Alan Longmuir was my favorite Roller. He was the oldest in the band, 26. Besides being very cute, he had that older man allure and as I said, there was the accent thing. I remember thinking that when we were older no one would even mention the 14 years age difference. As if. This crush/obsession lasted much longer for me than it did for my classmates. I think I finally realized they were uncool in ninth grade. By then I was into Shaun Cassidy and fighting my brother for the tv on Sunday nights to watch Hardy Boys. (Are you starting to see a pattern here?) I remember overhearing my grandmother ask Mom when I was going to grow out of all this and thinking “Grow out of it? I will feel this way FOREVER.” Well, thank god that particular forever was short-lived.

So now on the far far far end of that obsession, I wonder how it must have felt for them? Was it hard to walk around in those bizarre clothes, belting out songs to screaming 12 year olds? As men in their mid-20's I have to think (hope!) it was just a little too creepifying. Or were they just riding the gravy train as long as possible so they had enough money to do what they *really* wanted to do? My beloved Alan would be about 58 now and I was right: no one would comment on the age difference at all. I wonder if he still has all his hair?