Grrr. Griping about Amazon. If you don't want to hear me complain, head down the page to a list of darn good books have been warming my brain lately.

Back in July, I pre-ordered the "Eat Clean Cookbook" by Tosca Reno, who writes the fitness-over-40 column in Oxygen magazine. I got the free super-saver shipping at the time. The order contained two other books, "It's All About Him" and my Bodyminder fitness log (I'm addicted to log books and it is the BEST). Those items came swiftly.

I knew the cookbook wouldn't be released until mid-September, so I waited patiently. Finally, the book was released...yippee!...wait, hold that exclamation. Amazon didn't ship it. Time passed. No email notices that it was being shipped. Finally, chomping at the bit, I wrote them. They told me it was being "prepared" for shipping (sounded like they had to have a long talk with it and say, "Now we're going to wrap you in brown paper, it might be a bit scary but you'll be okay. Then you'll be jostled around as you are tossed on a conveyer belt and thrown into the back of a UPS truck...") After that email...nothing. I didn't receive the email they normally send to tell you an item has been shipped.

On September 27, I got ticked off and ordered it from Barnes and Noble, with a couple of other items. I already got the tracking number and it will be here tomorrow. Hurray!

In the meantime, I didn't cancel the order from Amazon. I decided I'll give the spare book to my daughter when it comes. WELL, I got an email at 12:54pm yesterday which said, "We're very sorry but your order will be delayed and will not be delivered until Oct 12 - 16th." Smugly, I thought, what jerks, I'm never ordering from them again. At 6pm another email came that said, "Your order has been shipping and here's the tracking number!!!!" A case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing??

Now, early in the process of finding out that the "Eat Clean Cookbook" order was going to be such a pain in the neck, I had ordered two other books from Amazon. "Scarlet" by Stephen Lawhead and "The Fatal Revenant" by Stephen R. Donaldson. I'd already had a first email about the the "Eat Clean Cookbook" supposedly being delayed because it had been on an order with the super-saver shipping, so I had paid for regular shipping on these books. I also had requested that they be sent as available...I knew that "Fatal Revenant" wasn't going to be released until October 9th. "Scarlet" had recently been released when I placed the order. I didn't care if the two were shipped separately - I just desperately wanted to start reading one of them. (I had asked my local library if they would be getting "Scarlet" when it was released. I intended to get my name first on the waiting list. I was told "no." Yet, lo and behold, I was at the library last week and there it was on the Hold shelf with someone else's name on it. GRRR! The woman said she'd somehow misunderstood when I'd asked and had looked up "Lawhead's Scarlet" as if that was the name of a book). I'm surrounded by incompetency!)

Nothing came. I wrote them. They told me the order hadn't shipped because Fatal Revenant wasn't released and to expect the books a week after 10/9. Grrrrrr. A few hours after receiving that email, I got notice that "Scarlet" had just shipped. It's supposed to arrive by 10/9. The "Eat Clean Cookbook" is supposed to be here by 10/6. Meanwhile, logging in to their site and trying to track packages leads to an error message, "An error occurred when we tried to process your request. Rest assured, we're working to resolve the problem as soon as possible."

I am definitely ordering from Barnes & Noble from now on.

~o~

Books I've been reading lately:

Passion and Principle: John and Jessie Fremont, the couple whose power, politics and love shaped 19th century America by Sally Denton Most people probably never heard of these two, it's amazing how fleeting fame can be -- but they were a driving force in the 19th century. Their love story alone is heartwarming - but wow! The lives they led! John was a key figure in the westward expansion of this country and the first presidential candidate of the Repulican party. In fact, he was the first presidential candidate to run on a platform that opposed slavery. She was a woman of astounding intellect, given an education by her father that rivaled that of any male of the day. It was her father that brought them down - his jealousies led to a smear campaign that destroyed their reputations in Washington. However, they pulled through - their dedication and patriotism was incredible. John Fremont was also an explorer who worked with the likes of Jospeh Nicollet and Kit Carson. He collected a number of plants on his expeditions and now his name is included in their scientific names. The botanical author abbreviation Frem. is applied to plants he desribed. The California Flannelbush, Fremontodendron californicum, is named for him.

Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Lousia May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson Fascinating biography. The world seems to have forgotten Bronson Alcott, but this was a man famous in his own-right, who hung with the likes of Hawthorne, Thoreau and Emerson.

Shakespeare & Co by Stanley Wells Very interesting forensic biography of Shakespeare and his peers, Marlowe, Decker, Johnson, Middleton, Fletcher and others. It opens the window on Elizabethean and Jacobean theater - the behind the scenes collaberation and the great actors who influenced Shakespeare's works. Great read by scholar on the top of his game!

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas It's described as "a heart-racing, brain-teasing, time-twisting adventure of science, faith, consciousness, death and everything in between." It is incredibly weird and incredibly good. My daughter, Jenna, has already finished reading it and promised me that I'm going to love the end.

~o~
Today's workout was cardio. 40 minutes on the Cybex, 20 minutes on the stationary bike with Caren. Jenna wants to come do yoga with me when she gets off from work. I'm kind of feeling pulled and torn -- the younger girls want me to take them to the gym this afternoon, which means I'd get in a little more cardio because I can't just *sit* there and wait. I had forgotten that it is Wednesday and Julie probably expects me to racewalk with her in the graveyard while the kids are at youth group.