Entertaining the Troops

The Homestead was fabulous, as it always is when we go. I took pictures and plan to post, but as with most vacations, Darren and I held out leaving as long as possible, got home later than we wanted, and hit the ground running on Monday morning. I haven't slowed since and thus have not uploaded any pictures of the weekend. I'll post about it soon.

Long road trips are about the only time I have Darren's undivided attention. I love driving with him because we talk and plan and dream. On the flip side of that, Darren is a 'doer', which means the talking, planning, and dreaming turn into projects. Don't get me wrong, I love that Darren is a 'doer', but we already HAVE a list of projects and frankly I'm a bit muddled keeping those straight. So, once we've covered what we need to cover, I distract him with a book on tape. I know, not completely creative on my part, but it works.

Darren isn't a huge reader (a Jenn/Andrew conversation would not be far off the mark), but he does enjoy listening to books on tape. We've listened to some great stories, and The Notebook is the only one we've had to fast forward. The offending bit was partway through the middle and I remember Darren shouting, 'What kind of books do you listen to?!"

The Harry Potter series is by far our favorite to listen to while driving. Jim Dale does such a good job narrating. This last weekend we listened to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I read it out loud during our road trips last summer. I would get sick and have to stop reading, so it took much longer than the 21 hour book on tape. I didn't do any of the voices, either, so it is more fun to listen to Jim Dale. This time through the book has cleared the story line up a bit for me. Plus, the whole 'wandering in the forest for 40 years' didn't seem as long and pointless as it did when I read it the first time. When I think about it, I'm pleased with the way J.K. Rowling ended things. For me it worked.

Anyway, with that series over and done, I'm thinking of getting more action adventure books on tape for future Casey road trips: Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, maybe John Grisham. They are a relatively un-explored genre for me, but we like them when I do happen to pick one up. Any suggestions on other books to choose? I'm guessing Nicolas Sparks books are out for Darren, given his reaction to The Notebook. Not that I mind. That bit in the middle embarrassed me, too.

Keep smiling and remember to be happy.