The other day, one of my friends asked me if I had an opinion on what kind of flooring works well on stairs, and today, I can answer with 100% certainty that ice is not the way to go. Last night I stepped outside to fetch Madeline's backpack from the truck, and proceeded to slip down the concrete steps without even realizing what happened until I had whacked both my lower back and my head. A nice layer of new ice must have formed on the steps as the afternoon cooled off. While it is an inexpensive and natural material to work with, I don't recommend using ice on stairs of any variety. Bruises aren't really ever in vogue, nor are concussions.
There are no such injuries in today's book, Plan B by Emily Barr, though her main character tackles a much larger renovation than a mere staircase in the novel. I'm sure this qualifies as chick lit, but it's the first book that I bought to read after we moved to St. John's, so I have a soft spot for it. It's a tale about what happens to a particular family after they move from England to France, into an old house (manor house? farm house? can't remember!). In the course of the novel, the house gets updated, the main characters' relationship gets updated (in a very twisty way), and I learned that there are places to surf in France. Why did I like this book? Well, the story was more interesting than another certain "move to someplace in Europe and re-do an old home" book I've read, largely because I found the narration more engaging. And someday, I'd like to move to France and live in really old house, too. That's what Chris and I refer to as our "retirement plan".
Well thanks for jogging my memory to log into the library's site and request a book I wanted ... LOL. I tried to request this one too, but they don't seem to have it. They do, however, have three other books by Emily Barr. Maybe I'll take one of them for a spin ...
Posted by: jesser | January 12, 2007 at 10:53 PM
Hope you are feeling better. Ouch.
Posted by: Ani | January 13, 2007 at 12:53 AM
Man, I need to read a book or something. This one sounds interesting. (And ouch about the stairs. We have a big ice storm coming today, and I am NOT looking forward to it.)
Posted by: Sarah | January 13, 2007 at 03:16 AM