I’m not sure how I managed to extract this extraordinarily dubious little factoid I plan on revealing today, seeing as I discovered it in For Boys Only The Biggest Baddest Book Ever. Upon discovering that I’d checked it out of the library and was thumbing through it, my little one insisted on smacking it shut with the defense that I’m not even allowed to look at it, seeing as I’m not a boy.

So…being me, I make sure he catches me with my nose in it every chance I get.

Anyway, I was poking through it when I discovered the ‘Odds Are’ page. It gives the probabilities for all sorts of things a boy might be interested in: Odds of dying from a dog bite (1 in 700,000), lightning strike (1 in 2,320,000), or shark attack (1 in 300,000,000). In fact, it seems one has a better chance of becoming a saint (1 in 20,000,000) than in dying from a shark attack. Woo-hoo!

My favorite though is ‘Odds of writing a New York Times best-selling book’: 1 in 220.

1 in 220?? It seems like the odds of writing a NYT best-seller are waaay better than the odds of actually getting your book published. In fact, according to one survey of the publishing industry (according to Rick Riordan), only 3 manuscripts out of 10,000 are actually published. Those numbers don’t jibe, and I tend to believe the latter. But why not be optimistic? Maybe I’m closer to a NYT best-seller than I thought.

Just finished watching Stardust with the boys, and it kept us all riveted. I loved all the little details:

The snowdrop flower, the goat-man, the ghosts of the ‘slaughtered prince’ brothers…

And how it was all framed by the world outside of Stormhold.

Lovely, just lovely. Two thumbs heartily up!

It reminded me a great deal of my beloved Princess Bride, which, after many, many viewings, and a mention on Diana Peterfreund’s blog, I finally read the book. And of course I enjoyed it very much. So…it was a natural inclination for me to hustle into the office the minute the movie was over to place a library hold on Stardust, the book. I’m excited!

Yesterday my younger son and a friend of his went to an all-day Jedi-Training Camp at Space Center Houston (NASA). When picked up, both of them admitted to having a fun day, but there were a few disappointments.

Quote from my son: “All we did was learn about Star Wars and play a game with a robot. And I didn’t like the pizza.”

Quote from friend: “We didn’t even get to do any light saber battles.”
Although both did walk out with a inflatable, glowing red light saber.

Later I learned that my son had somehow gotten himself stuck in the bathroom and they’d had to pick the lock to get him out. Friend was quoted as saying, “I don’t know why, with all those Jedi Masters there, they didn’t just use the Force to open the door.”

That’s a darn good question.

Meanwhile, my older son was in a tizzy over the number different state license plates we managed to discover in the SCH parking lot–he even found a Utah, the likes of which I don’t think we’ve spotted until now. Plus, he noticed a dog sitting in a Jeep all by itself wearing sunglasses and a huge grin. I sooo wish I’d remembered I was carrying my camera.