I have actually had to earn my bon-bons today : The Baby is sick. So I run after her, moping off her nose before she slurps it in and cleaning up her precious puddles of puke. Oh well, probably the only good thing about her getting car sick all of the time is that vomiting doesn’t frighten her and I’m immune to the stuff.

I did find myself looking at some Worth gowns today and wonder at my present fascination with old clothes. I suppose one didn’t have to worry about fat legs then, or the poorly turned ankle. Hmm, maybe if I had been born in a different era, I would care more about what I wear.

You never know.

After months of silence, Volkert van der G. has finally made an official statement about the murder of Pim Fortuyn. He admits to shooting Pim for political reasons, because of ( what he saw as ) the increasing danger Fortuyn posed for the more vulnerable members of Dutch society.

So says the Dagblad.

Planet Hollywood is auctioning off some items via Sotheby’s.

I would love to have this dress:

LOT 135

I would lounge around, eating grapes and saying ‘Moses, Moses, Moses’ all day long.

Perhaps this is something for The Father:

LOT 137

Charlton Heston wore this tunic from the early scene in the film when he invites Messala to the house for dinner and she gifts him a white horse. In return for her kindness, he is asked to spy on his people to benefit Messala’s career, which marks the end of their friendship.

Boudewijn Buch dies from heart failure at 53.

The Father and I will miss him.

Via Diana, a site discussing the various degrees of squalor. I found it rather comforting. We aren’t that bad after all.

Following the links though, I find an article about hoarding, which does make me pause…

The Father and I spent a few hours this morning unpacking boxes of books. It was nice to see them again, all of my junk books. Of course, the inevitable happened : a few books that should be downstairs were unearthed. The Waugh, the Whartons, no problem. Ford Maddox Ford ? The Father’s never heard of him, so I tuck ‘The Good Soldier’ on a shelf.

But there wasn’t a thing that I could do about the Balzac. The Father spotted it so downstairs it goes. Into shelf 2.

The strange thing about going through the books so closely, is realizing that there are some favorites missing . I must have ‘Lord Jim’ somewhere. I can almost picture the book, white with orange writing. Well, there is one box left in our room and who knows what will turn up when we go into the old attics.

The Father : Another Anne Rule. Haven’t you figured out how to kill me yet ?

On Monday, Mr. Jo begins work on The Girl’s room . He has already ordered the wood.

When I was 7, Bucky gave me a bedroom set with a canopy bed. It was nothing expensive, maybe something from a place sub-Sears, but I loved that bedroom set. We moved a lot, but it seemed that wherever my canopy bed was, was always my room, always my home. I would put the same trinkets in the same places on the dressers at each new house.

I never outgrew that bed, say, becoming embarrassed about it when I brought my first boyfriend home. Nope, I remained enamored of it. It was still my bedroom set at my parent’s home when I was in my early twenties. It charmed my mercenary . Yes, Sgt. Rock slept there as well.

Do you remember how I once said that I never throw anything away ? Well, I don’t. That is the same bed that Bucky gave me when I was 7 years old standing in The Girl’s empty room, the photo above. The dressers and chests of drawers are sprinkled through the house and the attics. Daddy has been trying for years to convince me to throw it all away, pointing out again and again what a cheap set it is.

But I have never been able to throw that bedroom set out. Wherever my canopy bed is, is home. Imagine, if I wanted to, I could go up and arrange a room that looks like- that is, in fact- the same room that I grew up in. I have the trinkets, the lamps, and of course, I still have the last set of sheets, from the ’80s. I never throw anything away.

The Girl wants the bedroom set. Mr.Jo is going to go over it, making sure that it doesn’t collapse in a pile upon The Girl. We are going to buy a new box-spring/mattress for it. It will be strange to see someone else living in my room, but I will be glad to see it once again.

Erzsebel ( she came up with that name, by the way, to torture me. I have to go to her site every time I need to write her name) has put a shelf up .

Have a look.

You know, when I walk into someone’s house and they have bookshelves, I love to go over and see what kind of books they have. The whole ‘wish list’ thing that many Bloggers have reminds me of this : I like to go over to Amazon and see what I can find out about the person from their list.

I will never put up a ‘wish list’ : I would simply be horrified if anyone actually bought me something from any ‘wish list’ that I put up. I’m just like that.

What has rather caught my fancy is putting up my bookshelves, one at a time, about one shelf a week. Starting in the Living room, where the books were put in order 7 years ago ( by The Father. He likes to do that sort of thing) and The Baby has pulled out most of the books on the lower shelves, and going to I don’t know where next. Maybe nowhere.

I have already put the first shelf up, but of course, still haven’t written an ‘About This’ page. I was just enjoying thinking about the books too much , about which ones had caught my fancy and why.

This is just my version of a ‘Wish List’.