All the Days Feel Like a Sunday

I finished reading Happiness Sold Separately a few minutes ago. I'm not going to discuss it here since I'm discussing it in my group but I will say that I'm peeved. That's all you get.

I am very excited for tomorrow to get here. Ya know why? Cuz I have a stack of books that have been off limits that I get to start reading tomorrow. Yay!! Until then, I have beasts, spirits, and humanoids to slay and the rest of my Calvin and Hobbes book to keep me entertained. We also have to go to the pet store to get guinea pig litter. Someone should have mentioned how foul those things can get to smelling. Sheesh!

I'm not going to wish anyone a happy New Years because I hate this holiday. I will wish everyone fun, safe, and good times as they enjoy the evening off of work though.

Oh! And I just realized that today is the last day of Holidailies. I think I made it through, lol. I'm not entirely sure though. I'm still going to blog but I'm not going to be obsessive about it. I'll allow myself a break here and there. 61 solid days of blogging. Wow!

The hubby and I had a fun filled day. Last night, our friends called and asked if it would be okay if they brought the girls home today at 6:30'ish this evening instead of 11 am'ish. Well, YEAH it would be okay. I know. I sound horrible. But don't judge me too harshly. The kids didn't want to come home and they said that while they missed the dogs, they didn't miss us. Lmao. Their time away consisted of going to see a movie, soda, popcorn, and candy for lunch (totally serious), lots of Dance, Dance, Revolution on the Playstation, games, and whatever else they did. Is it any wonder they didn't want to come home? And the last time they spent the night away was in May for our anniversary. I had forgotten that.

Anyway, we went to the library today and I got January's book for my book club. We're reading Happiness Sold Separately by Lolly Winston. So far, so good. Definitely not something I would have picked out on my own but it's not too bad nonetheless.

I'm off to do some research. Hope everyone's Sunday was peaceful and pleasant.

Glad to See You're Still Here

My blog posts have been less than stellar lately. I've been occupied with other things to be honest. The holidays haven't made it any easier either. Lucky for you all, we don't celebrate New Years. So, what's been going on?

Well, like I said yesterday, I finished another book. I've been wracking my brain with something to say about it but it was so in depth and involved that I can't figure out how to summarize it. Read it for yourselves, lol. ;)

I've also been delving into the online gaming world. I'm a nerd. I've never denied this. The hubby and I have been playing two different games together. It's our couple time, heheh. Since they are addictive, we haven't been doing much else.

Today, a couple that we are friends with offered to take our kids for the night. I love my kids, but WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Do you know the last time both of my kids were gone overnight at the same time?? Neither do I!!!!!!!!! It's been, at the very least, a year. The hubby and I don't have any big plans tonight. We might go for a walk on the beach...alone, hehehehehehhe. It is, after all, 77 degrees out. Oh, and we're going to take down our Christmas stuff today too. I usually wait until the 1st but this weather isn't going to hold out and it's much nicer to take down your outside decorations when you're not freezing your butt off at the same time.

I also forgot to relate the happenings of formatting my computer the other day. Weird stuff happened that I've never had happen before on a reformat. After I reinstalled Windows, I had these rolling line deals going down my screen. That was nice. Turns out it was a resolution issue. Then, I couldn't figure out who manufactured my sound card so I didn't have sound for a bit, heheh. I remembered to back up my music files, my picture files, and my documents. Then, I exported my favorites and forgot to back them up. Real smart. I lost all my saved favorite websites. Big bummer. I also forgot to back up my address book so I lost quite a few e-mail addresses. What can I say? I can't remember everything. BUT! My computer is working much better now and I no longer desire to put a hammer through it or toss it off the roof. You take the good with the bad.

And those are the highlights. Nothing spectacular. Nothing really all that interesting. I'm not a mover and a shaker. I'm sure something horrible will happen for New Years that I'll be able to post about that will entertain.

This week has just sped by. I can hardly remember where the days went. It's probably because I spent most of my time with my nose in a book, lol. I finished The Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Did I even mention that I had started it? Anyway, it was excellent. Gaiman takes mythology to a whole new level. Has anyone read this? I was lost as to the significance of the lime.

Anyway, it's getting late so this is going to be short. Catch ya tomorrow.

Thursday Meme

Brought to you by Booking Through Thursday.

It’s an old question, but a good one . . . What were your favorite books
this year?
List as many as you like … fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance,
science-fiction, business, travel, cookbooks … whatever the category. But,
really, we’re all dying to know. What books were the highlight of your reading
year in 2007?

I was dreading having to answer this question. I have a hard time picking favorites whether it's books, movies, songs, TV shows, whatever.

I'd have to start with all the In Death books that I read or reread this year by J.D. Robb. There's nothing like a good In Death book to take you away from the mundane. Having Creation in Death personally autographed by J.D. Robb herself and in person was, by far, my highlight of the year. That will be hard to top in the coming year as well.

Next, I'd list the last Harry Potter. Yes, I didn't like the ending, but I endeavored not to let that ruin the book for me. The Harry Potter series was truly magical and I was sorry to see it come to an end. I will never be rich and famous enough to obtain a copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Tied in the next spot (whatever that spot may be) would be Wicked and The Life of Pi.

Next would be Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris. It's not often that something moves me, but this book moved me and left an impression.

I also really loved Lisey's Story by King and Beaches by I.R. Dart.

I've only covered half of 2007 with this review, but I could go on and on. It would be easier to list the books that I didn't like. 2007 was a great year for reading and 2008 promises to be even better.

The Day After

Yesterday's post sucked. We were literally in the middle of a battle when I minimized our game to post on the blog so that I could get it in before midnight. We lost the battle and the post wasn't worth the effort to read, lol. So anyway...

We had a great Christmas. The kids got a ton of stuff and were happy as clams all day. I got FOUR books off of my various reading lists and some other stuff as well. I was a happy clam too although it's really hard to hold myself back from reading my new books since I have to wait until the 1st to start them. :( Patience isn't a virtue of mine at all. Although, the hubby did get me The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes to tide me over. It's great. I've been a huge fan of Calvin and Hobbes since high school and I'm willing to bet that my friends from high school who read my blog will know why. ;)

For those of you who are waiting for the better than sex cake recipe, the powers that be that hold the recipe didn't answer their phone or return my call yesterday so I still don't have it. I'm not sure what my next step on this quest is going to be so you'll have to sit tight.

On a slightly less than positive note, my computer has decided to be a big, crapping piece of crap. It's barely a year old but since it is over a year old, it's no longer under a warranty. Of course. This means that I'm going to have to reformat my computer and hope that fixes my various problems. If you've reformated a hard drive before, you know what a chore this is going to be. I'm going to have to back up all my files, search out program disc's that I'll need to reinstall, and then keep my fingers crossed that it was worth the trouble. The timing couldn't be better since I'm on my winter break from classes but that doesn't make this task any more fun. :)

And now I'm off to help the hubby clean out the car. Fun times, right?

Merry Christmas

I can't blog long. I'm in the middle of slaying demons with the mister. I just wanted to drop a quick note. Longer one tomorrow. I promise.

Till then, be safe, have fun with your new loot and I'll be back tomorrow.

Christmas Eve Wonderings

I have three things going on in my mind tonight. I'm going to blog about all of them for your reading pleasure. Consider it an early Christmas gift.



#1. The Mister and I decided that we are starting a new Christmas tradition in honor of one of the best Christmas movies ever made: A Christmas Story. For Christmas Eve dinner we got Chinese at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra! It's a fun, new tradition.



#2. I got several Merry Christmas text messages and a few Happy Holiday e-mails. I, being the biggest believer in technology and the Internet, saw nothing wrong with this and they made me smile. They did make me pause, however. This is the first year that I've ever gotten holiday text messages. It was a little strange. Any opinions?



#3. The kids were tasked with cleaning the kitchen this morning in preparation for our holiday baking. The oldest took out the trash. This is the result:

The left can clearly has bags in it. The right? Empty. She trooped the bag out the kitchen, out the side door, and around the shed, but couldn't manage to lift the lid and put the bag in the can. Her level of laziness astounds me.

Happy Christmas Eve and I'll see ya tomorrow.

My Sunday

I have absolutely nothing of interest to say. Today, we hit the commissary for Christmas dinner stuff and enough food to get us through the holiday. I was shocked at the lack of people there too. Usually around holidays (and during hurricanes) the commissary is packed but it wasn't this morning. Maybe going during church hours is the trick.

Tonight's plans are dinner, gift wrapping, and slaying some evil beasts with my minions. Fun times, right?

Oh. And yesterday I finished Five Quarters of the Orange. Excellent read. It was about sadness and hope, love and hate, mothers and their children. It was one of those books that I was sorry to see it end. When I came to the part in the story where the purpose of the title is revealed, it was like, "OH! That makes perfect sense." It's a great title. This is the second Joanne Harris book that I've read and I'm already convinced of her skills as a storyteller. I hope that I can find time in all of my reading challenges to fit in another of her novels.

My Saturday

Today was a full day. Well, it wouldn't have been as full had I actually started my day before noon but you get my gist.

We started out the day with some Christmas stuff. The hubby took the kids shopping while I stayed home and wrapped some presents. Then we had a gaming marathon for a couple hours. Next, I went shopping while everyone else stayed home. We are done Christmas shopping. Finally. I swear. Next year, I'm starting in September and I will be done by October. This last minute business has got to stop.

The hubby is in the family room cackling. Why? Because he scared the living shit out of me moments ago. I was coming out of our bedroom and he was crouched in front of the door. When I opened it, he jumped up and screamed at me. I screamed back and then chased him down the hall while he laughed his butt off and I attempted to get even. He's still laughing at his prowess. The asshole.

OH! I almost forgot to mention. I made a pineapple upside down cake tonight. It was YUMMY!! I would have taken a picture and posted it on my blog had I been able to hold myself back from it long enough to do so. Sorry.

And now I'm off to wrap more presents. Ugh.

My Friday

It totally feels like Saturday to me. The kids are on their winter break and the Mister got off of work at noon. He and I finished up our Christmas shopping for the kids today. Traffic is just horrible. I make him drive and I still get a headache from it. All that we have left is to buy for each other now. I'm stumped. Figuring out his gift will prove to be an interesting (read that to say frustrating, lol) experience.

We got a free pay-per-view from my cable company for Christmas today. I thought that was pretty neat. None of the other cable companies I've had in the past have done that.

Okay. I'm off for today. I plan on logging in some game playing time and some reading time on my current book today. I'm reading Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris. I'm only about 1/4 of the way into it but I like it so far. I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for something to happen. There's quite a bit of foreshadowing in this book.

Happy Friday everyone.

Reading Challenges

After much deliberation, I decided to go ahead and join the aforementioned reading challenges. I figure that I can read all of them since I have the whole of 2008 to do so. I also created a website that lists the challenges and books that I've decided to read so that I have somewhere that it is all consolidated. You can find it here if you're interested: Reading Challenges
These are the things that I do when I don't have school work bogging me down, hehehe.

Graphic Novel Challenge

Here is my list for the Graphic Novel Challenge which is being hosted by Dewey.

• The Absolute Sandman – Neil Gaiman
• Dark Tower: The Gunslinger is Born – Stephen King
• Artemis Fowl – Eoin Colfer
• Guilty Pleasures – Laurell K. Hamilton
• Stardust – Neil Gaiman
• The Legend of Drizzt: Homeland – Margaret Weiss
• Chronicles: Dragons of Autumn Twilight – Margaret Weiss

1st in a Series Challenge

Here is my list of books for the 1st in a Series challenge which is being hosted by Joy.

• Terry Pratchett – Disc World Series – The Color of Magic
• Neil Gaiman – Sandman – Absolute Sandman
• Nora Roberts – Sign of Seven Series – Blood Brothers
• Tess Gerritsen – Jane Rizzoli Series – The Surgeon
• Lisa Scottoline - Rosato & Associates Series – Everywhere That Mary Went
• Janet Evanovich – Metro Girl Series – Metro Girl
• Christopher Paolini – Inheritance Cycle Series – Eragon
• Debbie Macomber – Cedar Cove Series – 16 Lighthouse Road
• Sophie Kinsella – Shopaholic Series – Confessions of a Shopaholic
• Isaac Asimov – Foundation Series – Foundation
• Robert Ludlam – Jason Bourne Series – The Bourne Identity
• L.M. Montgomery – Anne of Green Gables Series – Anne of Green Gables.

Alternates:

• Jonathan Kellerman – Alex Delaware Series – When the Bough Breaks
• Stephanie Barron – Jane Austen Series – Jane and the Unpleasantness at
Margrave Manor
• Isaac Asimov – Robot Series – The Caves of Steel
• Kristin Britain – Green Rider Series – Green Rider
• L. Frank Baum – Oz Series – The Wizard of Oz
• Stephen King – Dark Tower Series – The Gunslinger
• Dean Koontz – Frankenstein Series – Prodigal Son
• Steven Erikson – Malazan Book of the Fallen – Gardens of the Moon
• Lemony Snicket – A Series of Unfortunate Events – The Bad Beginning: Book
the First
• Janet Evanonvich – Full Series – Full House
• Shirley Rousseau Murphy – Joe Grey Mystery Series – Cat on the Edge
• Arnaldur Indridason – A Reykjavik Thriller – Jar City

2008 TBR Challenge

Here is my list of books for the 2008 TBR Challenge hosted by Mizbooks.

• Dearly Devoted Dexter – Jeff Lindsay
• Dexter in the Dark – Jeff Lindsay
• Hornet’s Nest – Patricia Cornwell
• The Six Wives of Henry VIII – Alison Weir
• Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
• The Cider House Rules – John Irving
• Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
• The Appeal – John Grisham
• The Other Boleyn Girl – Phillipa Gregory
• Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
• Brother Odd – Dean Koontz
• Circus of the Damned – Laurell K. Hamilton

Alternates:

• The Children of Henry VIII – Alison Weir
• Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
• The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
• A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
• Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez
• Jane and the Unpleasantness of Scargrave Manor – Stephanie Barron
• I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
• The Gunslinger – Stephen King
• Prodigal Sun – Dean Koontz
• Full House – Janet Evanovich
• Cat on the Edge – Shirley Rousseau Murphy
• Jar City – Arnaldur Indridason

Thursday Meme

Courtesy of Booking Through Thursday.

1. What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best
new book published in 2007?(Older books that you read for the first time in 2007
don’t count.)

2. What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the
best new book published in 2007?(Older books that you read for the first time in
2007 don’t count.)

3. And, do “best of” lists influence your reading?

1. Creation in Death by J.D. Robb (Totally biased opinion here.)
2. I don't read a lot of nonfiction. In fact, the only non-fiction book that I've read that was published this year was The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan so I'd have to pick that.
3. Yes, lists influence my reading to some extent. If I can't figure out what to read next, I'll see what's on the best sellers list. This doesn't really happen too often though. I'm hardly ever without an idea of what I want to read next. "Best of" lists can actually have a negative effect on a book. If I read a book that's gotten a lot of hype, I go into it with higher expectations. This often leads to being disappointment with the book.

Random-ness

My house is a pleasant 70 degrees this morning. Ahhh.

I want the new Jack Johnson CD. iTunes has a preview of it and I likes. Too bad that it doesn't come out until February. It would have made a nice gift for me

C sold another cheesecake. Yeah, it's to a friend but that's how businesses start. She's coming by to pick it up this morning and I'm totally looking forward to the visit. I had the strangest dream that when I opened the box to show it to her, the cake was the thickness of a pizza. I tried passing it off to her that it was how cheesecakes were supposed to look, lol.

Christmas shopping is going the way that it normally does every year. I'm only about halfway done, nothing is wrapped, and I only have six shopping days left. If I didn't have kids, I wouldn't even bother. Isn't that horrible? The way I feel about 95% of the holidays, I sometimes think I was born into the wrong nationality or born out of time or something. I should've been a prehistoric woman.

Well, I gotsta run. Gotta get ready for my day.

My Parents

I just wanted to let everyone know that my parents made it home safe and sound. They said that the only weather they ran into was some snow flurries that didn't even stick to the ground. They also said that they actually preferred the new route because it's mostly interstate driving whereas the other route has quite a bit of surface road driving which, while shorter, takes more time. C and I plan on trying out their route next time we drive to Ohio.

Anyway, thanks so much for the comments and concern. I really appreciated it and it was nice knowing so many people cared.

(((HUGS)))

The Grinch Has Retreated **Updated x2**

I'm sitting here at my comp, enjoying my apple strudel Pop Tart, and freezing my tail off. It's only 63 degrees in my house and the heat hasn't turned off since yesterday. I'm going to call my heating and cooling guy today and ask if this is normal behavior for a brand new heat pump. If so, they suck and why do people use them.

I finished my Christmas shopping for the dogs yesterday. They're easy to buy for. Chew toys, treats, stuffed animals. They're happy dogs.

On today's agenda: Do some house work, hit the Starbucks for my fave pick-me-up, take my Frappuccino for a ride to do some Christmas shopping, mentally prepare myself for afternoon homework, and that's about it. I'll also probably fit in some game play time as well; slay some evil minions. Oh. And I'm also going to start Five Quarters of the Orange today as well. It's not a jam-packed day but it's enough to keep my mind busy.

**Update**

No, it isn't normal for the heater to have been on for 36 hours straight and for it to only be 62 degrees in the house. Yes. It went down a degree since I posted this morning. (It's 8:15 am EST as I type this update.)
As a result, I can't go anywhere today after all because I have to wait for the heating and air dudes to show up to figure out what's wrong. The guy said they'd been fielding repair calls since 7 am this morning. Fun times.

**Update #2**

It's now 11:30 and the repair guy just left. He said our unit was two pounds short on freon and the thermostat was wired wrong so that the heat strips weren't coming on. I HAVE HEAT!! We didn't really notice that the heat wasn't working properly before because it hasn't been very cold. This morning, however, it was only 24 degrees and we noticed the cold, lol.

Make Up Your Own Title

Do you go through phases where you're online a lot and then you're not at all? I haven't been online too much lately doing my "normal" thing: blogging, reading blogs, attending to the book group, Pogo, Myspace, etc., and I'm not in the mood to do these things. Blogging is taking extra effort. I think I'm getting burned out on it. Blogging for two months straight is surely enough to burn someone out, right? I haven't even been watching a lot of tv either which is unusual for me.

I finished reading Chocolat (which I liked despite the ending) today and I've been reading W&P off and on.

I'm also stressing about Christmas. Buying for the kids was a lot simpler when their list consisted of dolls and crayons. Now they want iPods, Wii's, and DS's. Ugh.

I'm also being bogged down by things that aren't suitable for public consumption. This makes it really hard to come up with mundane, everyday-type things to say. I'm not the sort of person that can compartmentalize. When I'm upset or stressed, it dominates my life. I can't shove it into a corner and ignore it. I wish I could. This is probably why I have health issues at my age.

I'm tired, my dog is snoring, and I'm going to bed.

Back to Normal

The parents left this morning. They're having to take a convoluted way back to Ohio because of all the winter weather so the trip is going to take them two days instead of one. We were all sad to see them go. Even Bailey and Hannah were a little more quiet than usual.

Tomorrow, the kids go to school and C goes back to work after his week off. I'm really looking forward to a bit or normal. Yay! I got caught up (mostly) on my blog reading tonight. So many blogs, so little time. Now, I'm off for some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and my book.

Another Busy Day

We had our early Christmas this morning. It was a good time. I got Water for Elephants. Yay!! I totally cannot wait to get into it. I have 3 other books ahead of it though so it'll be a few days before I can start it.

We also drove to Jacksonville to do some shopping. BIG mistake. That place was a freaking mad house. No. It gave new meaning to Mad House. It took it to a whole new level. We saw three car accidents all within a mile of each other. I love North Carolina but these are some of the rudest drivers I've ever seen in my life and I've been to New York and L.A. My dad wanted a GPS though and the Jax Best Buy was the only place in the area that had the exact model he wanted so off we went. We also needed dog food and I bought The Santa Clause and White Christmas on DVD.

After we got back to New Bern, we bought some steaks and shrimp to bbq on the grill and then topped off the night by watching The Santa Clause. My dad and step mom are leaving in the morning. :( I'm already sad about them leaving but we're making plans to meet up in Tennessee in June or July. Sometimes, living away from family is hard.

Tomorrow I'm not going to have anything to say because after my parents leave we plan on doing NOTHING, punctuated by taking naps, and then doing nothing some more. Bet you all are looking forward to reading about that, lmao.

Family + Holidays = No Time

I had family arrive from Ohio yesterday. I'm exhausted, tired, worn out, sleepy, etc. If it weren't for Holidailies, I wouldn't even be posting right now. As it is, I'm way behind on my blog reading.

Yesterday, we got Sonic for dinner. They don't have very many of those in Ohio and there aren't any nearby our families so it's a treat.

Today, we went to the beach and gathered bags fulls of shells. Then, we had lunch/dinner at this neat restaurant that overlooks the ocean. We watched dolphins play in the surf while we waited on our food. How cool is that? After that, we did some Christmas shopping because we're having an early Christmas tomorrow. The rest of tonight we're going to watch Christmas movies until the kids go to bed and then we're going to wrap presents and put them under the tree for tomorrow.

So, in spite of being tired, I'm having a fantastic time.

Thursday Meme

Courtesy of Booking Through Thursday.

Do you use any of the online book-cataloguing sites, like Library Thing or Shelfari? Why or why not? (Or . . . do you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking to?? (grin))
If not an online catalog, do you use any other method to catalog your book collection? Excel spreadsheets, index cards, a notebook, anything?

I just posted about this last week. Funny timing. Anyway, I've tried all three of them. I found LibraryThing to be tedious when it comes to adding books to your library so I stopped using it and tried GoodReads. I like GoodReads well enough. I like their widget the best out of all of the cataloging sites. Then, I tried Shelfari. Between GoodReads and Shelfari, I can't really decide which one I like the best. Shelfari has my most complete library on it, however, but I'll probably keep using Shelfari and GoodReads at the same time because I have friends on both of them.

From what I can tell, people like LibraryThing the best because of the tagging feature. You can do that on Shelfari too so what's the difference? And what makes tagging so much of a desired feature? And what makes people willing to deal with LibraryThing's limitations when it comes to the size of your library? You can only add so many books before you have to pay for it. I can't see paying for something that you can get for free at two other places.

Round One Down

C and I just got back from taking the first round of our exams. We each had two to take today and we'll each have one to take tomorrow. I'm pretty confident about the ones I took today. One was for a grammar class and the other was a technical writing class. No biggie. C's a little less than sure about his but he's always like that and then it'll turn out that he did fine. Tomorrow is going to be the doozy. We both saved the hardest for last. His is government and mine is business. Yuckity, yuck, yuck. But once we're finished, we have a little more than a month off and we're both really looking forward to the break. I plan on rewarding myself with a new book and a game playing marathon. I'd say which game but it's embarrassing, lol. It's one of my guilty pleasures.

I'm exhausted so I'm off for a bit of a lie down. I have cleaning to do later on because some of our parents from Ohio are coming for a visit tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to seeing some family for Christmas. It's been a while since we've had family for the holiday.

**Edited to change three weeks into a month. Usually it's a three week break but with the holidays, we get a month before the spring semester starts. Big YAY!!

Pictures and a Video for Today

I uploaded a video from our trip to the beach today. The dogs had so much fun. You can tell from their fat tongues how much they were running and playing. Hannah's the leashed dog because she'll run off. Bailey's our other dog. They are fine pieces of dog flesh if I do say so myself.

Also, here's pictures of the light and our Christmas tree. Isn't it the ugliest light ever? Notice the broken light on the right towards the back, lol.

Christmas Adventures

We had an interesting time with decorating the tree last night. It started out normal enough. I sat on the floor passing the girls ornaments to put on the tree while C looked bored next to me. We were just about finished when C decided to stand up for some reason, then all hell broke loose. See. We had to put our tree in the dining room because there wasn't space for it anywhere else. In order to do this, we had to move the table to the side of the room leaving the chandelier(?) sort of hanging there in the middle of nowhere. When C stood up, he banged his head into the light, knocked it into the ceiling, blew out some of the lights, and caused it to fall down from the ceiling fixture hanging there only by its cord. I'm not sure how old this light is or what it's made of but it's freaking HEAVY. C's lucky he didn't give himself a concussion. After much cussing, screaming, crying, and yelling (you can figure out for yourselves who was doing what.) C and I started fixing the light back to the ceiling. It was waaaay too heavy to hang there only by its cord. We got it back into place but when we turned it back on, it flashed and blew out another light. I'm figuring I'm going to have to call the electrician to make sure that the wiring is okay so we don't burn the house down. We had to finish decorating the tree in the semi-dark with only the trees lights to see by, lol. Even so, it turned out great. This will be a Christmas we'll always remember, heheh.

Off topic side note...C and I are getting ready to take the dogs to the beach. Yay! I haven't been since September. We're having record high temps and C is on leave this week so we figured it's a great time to go. I'll post pictures of the tree and stuff later on today.

O Christmas Tree

We went out and bought our Christmas tree last night. It's a fine, fragrant Fraser Fir from western North Carolina. It's one of the nicest shaped trees we've ever had. Christmas trees are a bit more expensive here in N.C. than they were back in Vermont. I'm sure our drought isn't helping matters either. We're in the middle of getting it decorated. We put the lights and half the garland on last night. We ran out of garland because I don't normally put garland on my tree so we had to put off the rest of the decorating until today. I can't wait. We also got Gobstopper and Sweettart flavored candy canes to put on it. I've never seen them before this year.

Yesterday, I forgot to mention that I like movie A Christmas Story. I had never watched it before I married C but now we watch it every year. Ho, ho, hoooooo!!

Because of the season and because it's 78 degrees at my house today, I decided to list why warm weather can be inconvenient.

1. There are more bugs because it doesn't get cold enough to kill them off.
2. You have to leave your summer and winter clothes out basically all year because you never know when you're going to have a 80 degree day in the middle of December.

That's all I could think of. Cold weather sucks.

Christmas Edition #4

I'm going to tackle another question from the e-mail today.

Do have a favorite movie you watch every year? White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye or The Santa Clause with Tim Allen.

I watch both of them every year, actually. Love, love, LOVE them both. We also watch all the Christmas specials that are on tv like Charlie Brown, The Grinch, Frosty, etc. I have a confession to make though. I have watched Rudolph every year ever since I can remember. I don't like it. I never have, lmao. When I was younger, I watched it because it seemed so important to my mom that I watch it. Now I watch it because it's gone from obligation to tradition and my kids watch it every year. I have to wonder if they watch it for the same reason that I used to or if they really like it.

Did anyone watch Shrek the Halls? My opinion? Hollywood is trying too hard to get in on the Christmas cartoon tradition. I thought it sucked. But I'm an adult so what do I know.

Off the topic side note...

What is a normal sound that is strange? The sound of people mowing their lawns coming in through my open windows in December. BWAHAHAHHAHA!!!!

Blah Saturday

Today is going to be blah at my house. My oldest came home from school yesterday with a fever of 102. Poor thing. I hate, hate, hate, seeing my kids not feeling well. The Mister is at his unit's Christmas thing this morning. It was mandatory that he go but I couldn't because of the sick child. Fun times. I am going to get started on The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans which is December's book at the book discussion club. I can't wait to get started. I need a little break from W&P.

For your reading delight, I'm including this meme that I saw on several blogs yesterday and today. So many, I'm not bothering to name which ones. Here ya go.


5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. I was getting ready for C to grad from boot camp.
2. The oldest child and I were living at my dad's while he was gone.
3. My sister-in-law and I took a mini vacation to Daytona Beach while C was in boot camp. He hasn't let me live that down to this day.
4. I was getting my driver's license for the first time. Yep. I didn't get mine when I was 16.
5. I was driving the nasty Ford Tempo which is the only car to ever strand me along a country road in the middle of freaking nowhere. And is also why I'll never own a Ford again.

5 Things on my T0-Do List today:

1. Start reading the book group book.
2. Do some online research for a couple different things.
3. Take care of my sick daughter.
4. Cook dinner at some point.
5. Enjoy Saturday!

5 Things I would do if I were a millionaire:

1. Sell my house in VT and kick my renter to the curb.
2. Have the house of my dreams built.
3. Pay off all of our debt.
4. Buy my dad a house complete with lawn service and a maid
5.. Invest the rest.

5 Things I'll never wear again (or have never worn and you'll never know which is which, heheh):

1. Leg warmers
2. Stirrups
3. Thong underwear out the top of my pants.
4. Paisley print.
5. Maternity clothes.

5 Favorite Toys:

1. My computer even though I'm close to putting a hammer through it at the moment.
2. iPod
3. Palm Pilot
4. DVD Player
5. DVR (this should probably be in my #1 spot.)

This is one of those tag and you're it things. If you haven't done this already and want to, consider yourself tagged.

Christmas Edition #3

No, I didn't skip #2. That was yesterday but Thursday is always titled, "Thursday Meme" when I participate so that's what you got.

Anyway...

Question #5 from the list:

Do you dream of a White Christmas like Vermont....New England, or do you dream of a more tropical Christmas like Florida or Hawaii?

HA!! What do you think my answer to this one is going to be??? You (I mean the universal "you", not Jennifer's mom) can take your white Christmas and shove it. I had Vermont Christmases for three years and I don't care if I ever see another snow flake for the rest of my natural and unnatural life. You think white Christmases sound all nice and traditional and like it's something beautiful off of a Christmas card. Does anyone ever factor in the subzero wind chills, the sliding down the steep, mountainous roads even in your 4 wheel drive, and that a white Christmas in Vermont means 40 inches of the stuff and not just one or two that's manageable??? NO! They don't. I suppose it's all fine and dandy if you're into snow shoeing, sledding (that's snowmobiling to you laymen), skiing, and frostbite. I hate the cold and the snow and one day a year doesn't make all the rest of it okay. Our house in Vermont got over 100 inches of snow last winter. Take that and put it in your stocking.

Thursday Meme

Courtesy of Booking Through Thursday.

This week’s question is suggested by Island
Editions:

Do you have a favourite book, now out of print, that you would like
to see become available again? (I have several…)

I have a very boring response this week. I've never even attempted to find an out of print book let alone have an idea of what book I would like to see become available again. See? Very boring.

In addition to today's meme, I'm also going to answer question #4 of Jennifer S's mom's e-mail list.

Have you ever actually received or given anyone a fruit cake? Have you ever eaten a fruit cake?

This is a funny question. I thought that the only people that gave or received fruit cakes were on tv. I have never eaten one either. But every time I think of a fruit cake, it always makes me crave a pineapple upside down cake. Or a better than sex cake with pineapple in it. Are fruit cakes even good to eat? Does anyone actually like them? I want cake now. Thanks a bunch.


Off topic side note:

Can't believe I'm still going strong for Holidailies. Woot! And I also can't believe how well the book group is doing. It's not the big, huge, mondo, bust I was afraid it would be. Go me!

Christmas Edition #1

Thanks to Jennifer S's mom for the list of topics.

Traditions.



Growing up, we only had a few Christmas traditions. One was leaving out cookies for Santa. We didn't do the reindeer food thing with the oatmeal and glitter. I had never heard of that until I had kids of my own. Funny story: At my dad's house, we used to leave Santa something a little different for when he stopped by our house. My dad said that Santa liked bologna sandwiches and beer instead of milk and cookies so that's what he got. And lo and behold, Santa loved our treat, lmao.

We were also allowed to open on present on Christmas Eve right before we went to bed for the night.

Another tradition was driving all over the place visiting on Christmas Eve and Christmas day because my parents were divorced. As a kid, I used to think it was nifty because I was getting presents at all these different houses. As an adult, I do my darndest to stay in my own house and not see anybody except my husband and kids.

Now that I'm grown with a family of my own, I have carried on the tradition of cookies for Santa but we also leave out reindeer food. I'm trying to break our tradition of last minute shopping and wrapping, lol. We get better and better about it every year. Oh. And ham. We have a Christmas ham every year. Ham is for Christmas, turkey is for Thanksgiving. I dream and drool for ham gravy every year. YUMMM!!

Is There Anybody Out There?

Yesterday and today I've felt like the Internet has been slow or something, and I don't mean my connection. Holidailies was down for a few hours yesterday. There were only a handful of updated blogs to read. I hardly got any e-mail or junk mail for that matter. Traffic to my blog was down. I just had a general feeling that something was and is off. I know. I'm off my rocker.

Anyway, the hubby had his court date for ticket #1 this morning. He pled to a lesser charge and they took $15 off his fine. Big freaking deal. He told me that the judge said there were 500 cases today and that 95% of those were traffic related. He also told me that the minimum fine that he saw was $130. So, if you take 95% of 500 and multiply that by $130, the county is going to make, at an absolute minimum, over $60,000 today just in traffic fines alone. Holy cow, right? His next court date is in February. I'll keep you updated, lol.

I was checking my blog stats this morning and was a little saddened by something that I saw. Someone found my blog by Googling the terms, "holding grudges against husband who is emotionally abusive". Since my husband's worst fault is dirty clothes on the floor and having a lead foot, she wouldn't have found what she's looking for here, but I hope she finds it somewhere else. Her search took her to my Second Chances post in case you were wondering.

And now I'm off, back into The Void.

Too Many Choices

I started out on LibraryThing. It was okay. I recently read that LibraryThing is more for "librarian/metadata types". Maybe that's why I decided that I like GoodReads and Shelfari better. What I would actually wish for is to be able to take features from all three and combine them into the perfect online forum for my library.

GoodReads Pros

• They have nice widgets.


• You can make as many shelves as you would like, i.e., for classics, fiction, biographies, etc.


• The shelves are easy to customize

GoodReads Cons

• While you have a "to read" shelf, if you were to make a "wish list" shelf, those books would be added into your library count.
• I would like to be able to make a wish list of books that I want without them being counted as books I already own. My "to read" shelf only consists of books I currently own.

Shelfari Pros

• I like that you can leave other uses quick notes.


• You can make notes about your books, i.e., their condition, when you read them, etc., that other users can't see.


• They have a "Wish List" shelf that does exactly what I want it to do (see above).


• When you click on a book, you can see what other people thought of it, even if they just gave it a star rating. You can also see what reading groups have added that particular book to their group.


• I like the home page the best out of all three sites.

Shelfari Cons

• You can't make customized shelves. At least I haven't yet figured out how if you can.


• I wish that the "date read" were visible to other users.

See my dilemma? Shelfari currently has my most complete library. If I can't decide, I'll just use them both, lol

P.S.

I can't believe that it's Dec 3 and it's 70 degrees outside. Vermont is getting 6-12 inches of snow, hehehe.

Holidailies

I forgot to mention yesterday that I did, indeed, join Holidailies. Here we go again on another month long odyssey into blogging. This challenge is a little different than NaBloPoMo. For NaBloPoMo, the only requirement was that you had to post something to your blog each day of November. For Holidailies, you also have to post once a day from Dec 1 to Jan 1, but it has to be 50 words or longer or a picture, and it can't just be meme's and quizzes. While posting through the holidays is going to be a challenge, it also gives me things to blog about. I don't worry that I can do it. I seem to have an endless supply of nonsense to talk about.



Today, my husband gave me a fabulous topic. He just managed to wrangle himself his second speeding ticket in as many months. This one, he was doing 40 mph in a 25 mph zone and the fine is a doozy. I am so beyond not happy right now that I feel the urge to hit something. Or someone. SHEESH!!!!

I Went for It

Last night, I decided to go ahead and start a book discussion group. I figured, what the heck. This way, if I don't like it, I have nobody to blame but myself. I have pretty simple criteria for a discussion group:

• We all read a book that the group picks out as a whole.
• We all discuss said book.
• We all treat each other respectfully

That's it. I don't mind off topic posts, but at the very least, half should be about the darn book. Right? I have yet to find a group that meets all of my criteria. Until now, hehehe. So, if you're interested stop by and check us out.

http://readersanonymous.ning.com/

The link can also be found at any time in my list of websites on the right.

Happy Saturday!