Category: Meanderings

Good morning.

It feels so good to just be sitting here…. with COFFEE CUP…. and chatting with you.  😀

Behind the scenes…

I have a car filled with items for the home show concessions.  This is my yearly weekend contribution to our local Home Show.  The home show is a large show in the local Civic Center where businesses that deal with any kind of building projects from here to Minneapolis come and set up booths for people to visit over the next three days…. last night I was there prepping the booth, stocking it with supplies…. making sure I had everything for todays “go time”

Anything from home builders, windows, decks, lawn care, landscaping, roofing, real estate, painters, remodeling, pest control, garage doors, house doors, floors, carpet, plumbers, electricians, siding, cabinets, etc…

and my part… I run the concessions…. organize what we sell, the prices, the prep, and I do this all weekend long and have one weekend a year for the past 4 years.  The concession part of the show raises money for scholarships.

SO…. as I sit here this morning, casually sipping my COFFEE, still in my pj’s, pretending my weekend is nothing but book reading and light house work… the truth is…

in about an hour I will be in go mode…. dressed and out the door to finish this mornings set up, be sure everything is working right and start the coffee, the hot dogs, the brats….. and wait for the doors to open for the weekend.  I will then spend the next 10 hours running and keeping things filled, doing what I can to help where needed.

Relaxing with coffee in pj’s….. running stairs and making brats and hot dogs.

These two scenarios…. are so different.  😛

So in bookish thoughts… I am taking with my today Laptop (you never know – I may catch a break during the day) and Joyce Carol Oates – Black Girl White Girl which I am almost through.  My reading has suffered the past two weeks but after this weekend looks like things will slow to a slightly raised pulse rate and I can hopefully pick up more of this delicious books that surround me…

Now I am feeling optimistic… I am taking a second book with me today…. Rooftops of Tehran.

 

Good morning.  😀

I want to share something really really crazy I did the last few days and hopefully you can follow along with the craziness of this story…. it is kind of like a mystery so watch for the clues that I missed.  😉

Last Friday I rented How Do You Know from Red Box.  Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd…. what’s not to love?

Well Friday was the Missions Banquet which I had been working on setting up for several days and after the banquet a very (VERY) tired version of me came home around 10 pm.  Now, no matter how tired I am I can never come home and go right to bed… I actually need to wind down by either reading a bit or staring at the TV set.  This night, was the latter… I grabbed my Redbox movie, went to the DVD player, opened it… closed it… sat down in the recliner.

The DVD player was empty.

I went and looked in the Redbox case and sure enough… I was so tired I never put the movie in… but there was something else.  There were two DVD’s in the Redbox case.  Holy cats… someone had returned their Redbox movies and put two in the same case.  The second movie was The Ugly Truth.

I watched my movie… well sort of… I fell asleep in the middle and watched it again the next day, and then I watched The Ugly Truth too.  When I went to return the Redbox movie I called the 800 number and told them I had found two movies in the same case and what should I do.  They told me if I wanted to help out the person who did this and get that movie checked in for them – I could purchase an empty case through the Redbox and then put the movie in it and return it.  They gave me a credit code so I could purchase the empty case to do this.

I went into the store and returned the movie I had rented, then purchased a case and tried to return the second one.  It wouldn’t go in the machine.  Every time I did it a message came on the screen that the barcode had to be facing out… it was.  I tried about 6 times and then frustrated, felt this is what must have happened to the other renter and why they put two in the case.  There was no one around to help me so I took the movie with me, planning to call Redbox again and let them know I could not return the movie.  By now I am a bit frustrated that I tried to do something good to help out the other renter and still could not return the movie.

Then – this morning as I readied myself for work I went downstairs to grab a movie that Chance and I had rented from the video store and a Netflix DVD paper that was sitting by the DVD player, good I thought, I will get this in the mail too…. I looked at the title on the paper case, it said….

The Ugly Truth.

No way….

So in case you did not catch that…. the whole time (THE WHOLE TIME) the “extra” DVD I thought was in the Redbox case was one I had rented from Netflix.  I believe what happened is Friday when I was so tired instead of putting my Redbox movie in the DVD player, I pulled The Ugly Truth out of the player and put it in the Redbox case on top of the one I rented.  Then when I opened the case… I apparently surprised myself with the two DVD’s and did not recognize the one being my Netflix rental at all.

How hilarious that I tried to return it to Redbox and was unable too…. thank goodness I could not find anyone to help me as if I could have turned it in to someone to handle for me I would have – and then I would have had to find it again to get it to Netflix…. can you even imagine the mess I would have had?  😛

Good morning.  Wednesday already?  Does it seen like the days fly by or is that just me?  Tonight a meeting, Thursday I am helping Chance get ready for the weekend, and Friday is the home show which I run concessions for each year for this weekend to raise scholarship money for kids.

Uggghhhh…

I have to set up tomorrow night and honestly, I need a zap of energy to pull this one off well.

Anyway…

*sips coffee*

Patterson.

 

I received an email from Amazon this morning about Patterson and it actually surprised me how much of his books I have read throughout the years.  For those of you who think he is incredibly gory and graphic…. he can be…. but he is more than that.  He is also a great mystery writer – the Michael Bennett series (Step On A Crack, Run For Your Life, Worst Case and Tick Tock) are about an Irish detective who has 10 adopted kids with his wife who recently passed away.  This series is good and clean.

If you have not seen Patterson’s Nicholas Sparks side…. you may be amazed to know he has one…. his book Diary for Nicholas was read by me one summer in one sitting.  I meant to pick it up and see what it was about…. I read it straight through and was pulled in by a book that I felt was very “not Patterson style”.

I never got into the Alex Cross books…. but have enjoyed the movies.

His book Honeymoon we read as a book club a few years ago and for my standard review question of “what did we learn by reading this book?”  We joyfully laughed and agreed that we had learned to kill someone with scrambled eggs.  😛

I guess what I am saying here is that Patterson is not just heavy hitting mysteries… yes, I too laugh at the jokes about his short chapters and know that he cranks books out like a popcorn machine.  I read recently that he has a long conference table in his office with several manuscripts half written on it.  While some frown about this – I can not complain, even when he is writing with other authors what he is producing is pretty good.

Recently I listened to the first of the Womens Murder Club books….and liked it.  Currently I am reading Sundays at Tiffany’s for book club and have to be reminded that this is indeed a Patterson book.

I didnt wake up thinking I was going to talk about James Patterson this morning… but, the beauty of the Morning Meandering is you never know what you are going to get…. sometimes, it surprises me too.  😀

What do you think of James Pattersons books?  Like them?  Hate them?  Have you tried any of his non mysteries?

Sundays at Tiffany’s	Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas	Honeymoon	Run for Your Life
Worst Case	Swimsuit	The Beach House	I, Alex Cross

 

Good morning!

me·an·der  (m–ndr)

intr.v. me·an·dered, me·an·der·ing, me·an·ders  

1. To follow a winding and turning course: Streams tend to meander through level land.

2. To move aimlessly and idly without fixed direction: vagabonds meandering through life. See Synonyms at wander.

n.

1. meanders Circuitous windings or sinuosities, as of a stream or path.

2. A circuitous journey or excursion; ramble. Often used in the plural.

I knew I had appropriately named my morning chats….. as I sit here this morning trying to think what is interesting enough share…. I feel truly this will be a meander…

On Friday night we had our annual Missions Banquet at Breezy Point resort.  It is a lot of work to prepare, sell tickets, solicit silent auction items, set up, etc…. but I am part of an awesome team that works hard and pulls it all together.  We raised $6,400 for Missions from this years banquet.  Numbers like that make the whole process worth while, even if it does wipe me out.  😀

Saturday I thought I would be a meager shell of my former self in recovery mode from the banquet – but this year, not true.  I think we were so organized going in that it only took a couple of hours to set up, and by Saturday morning I felt 100% and had a day of:

Cleaning

purchased new ear buds for my IPOD Nano (Podette)

Dancing and cleaning with the new ear buds and Podette

cleaned out my closet 😯 and put clothes aside that need to make a trip to Good Will

danced some more

Went to Starbucks and enjoyed a Skinny Vanilla Latte while catching up on some blog visits… a little bit of bliss 🙂

Had dinner with hubby and we watched the movie Blood Diamond (which if you have not seen, I recommend – usually not my kind of movie but the story about the diamonds being harvested out of Africa and the people who die in the process is heart wrenching and pretty sure I will never look at a diamond the same way again.  (I was not a big jewelry person to begin with….)

Which brings to this morning…. coffee blogging…. hair is a mess…. oh yeah, I had better go get ready 😀

Enjoy your day – wherever you meander!

Good Morning.

Today is an other crazy day and when I went to bed last night my agenda was something like this:

Get up and get ready at 6:30 am

write a morning post

have COFFEE

hit the gym group power class at 8 am

Make signs for the banquet tonight

Come home – prep what I am going to wear tonight – get it in the car

Find the bag of pens

tan

meet my cousin

drive to Breezy Point and set up Missions Banquet for 4 hours (silent auction, tables…)

serve at the banquet

clean up

home around 9 pm tonight

CRASH

…

Instead, last night I had the best sleep I have had in a long time.  I actually slept through the night without checking the clock every hour or so.  I woke up feeling good, and not pressured.  And instead of all that early running I had planned… I made coffee, grabbed my laptop, propped up pillows,and went back to bed.

I think I am instead of running to do it all today… I am going to relax a bit this morning.  Have my coffee… finish a book.  And then I will go make the signs, tan (maybe), and head up to Breezy.  I really like the sound of that.

 

Good morning!

I am so freshly awake.. honestly I am not even sure if I am awake yet.  I think I woke up with a catching of my breath… seriously… not sure what that was about other than the internal alarm saying time to MOVE.

Gah…

it was right.  😛

Yesterday afternoon was BEAUTIFUL for many reasons… the biggest is that after the morning cancellation of life due to the snow storm…. I went to work and by noon by evening training class was canceled and all evening commitments I previously had were canceled due to the weather.  Then an amazing thing happened…

around three in the afternoon, the sun came out.  It had stopped snowing, the roads were finally plowed clear and all was right again with my world.

NOW – any sane person would have probably taken full advantage of a night off…. which I did…. but not by staying home.  Oh no… Chance and I went out to Chinese buffet (seriously – its like crack to me) and then to the movie which I LOVED.  LOVED.  That is two for two… last weekend Al and I went to Lincoln Lawyer and that was so fantastic as well.

Limitless left me with a great message on power.., I talked about it all the way home…

Anyway… so now what i was going to talk about this morning…. maybe I should change the post title?

Nah…I am back on track now.

I was curious if anyone else gets excited about new covers… even perhaps to the point of wanting a favorite book that you may already own – in the new cover just because it is WOW.

At the theater yesterday I seen that the posters are up for Water For Elephants.  I can not wait!  I love the movie poster!  When Chance and I got back in the car after the movie…. I pulled out of my back seat a copy of Water For Elephants with the new cover.  I grinned.  Chance looked frightened by my odd enthusiasm….

“What?” he said…

“Look” I said, in my best Smeagol impression, “New Cover”.

He was not impressed – but I am as now I have the awesome cover of the original Water For Elephants:

and the super awesome new one that makes me excited to read this book all over again 😀

I have seen other old and new covers too.  And normally I don’t go for the movie cover…. but there is something about this one that reminds me of this book, what is inside these pages I treasure so…. and makes me want to return to them.

Good morning!  “Wot’s up?”  Couldn’t resist – we had bonus book club night at my home last night and I made Wot, a spicy chicken dish which is popular in Ethiopia.  This was for our review of Cutting For Stone…. which… with a little luck, will be posted yet today 😀

In the mean time….. the good news is, this past week has been weather in the high 30’s to mid 40’s…. for Minnesota this time of year that is practically a heat wave!  In my excitement for spring, I went out last weekend and bought these super cute sandals:

 

Are they not just awesome?

The bad news is…. this is our current weather forecast:

* Timing and location: a winter storm is affecting the Brainerd
lakes region… Saint Croix River Valley… and an area from
Hayward to Phillips tonight. The storm will produce heavy snow
across these areas… with the heaviest snow expected to fall
overnight until mid morning Wednesday. 

* Snow accumulations: 10 to 14 inches of snow is expected by
late Wednesday afternoon.

* Main impact: heavy snow combined with northeast winds of 15 to
30 mph could cause power outages due to downed trees and power
lines.

Precautionary/preparedness actions…

A Winter Storm Warning means heavy snow will occur. Expect
extremely slippery and dangerous snow-covered roads. If you must
travel… exercise extreme caution and allow extra time to reach
your destination. Let someone know your travel Route and expected
arrival time. Have a working cell phone in case you become
stranded. Keep a winter survival kit in your vehicle… including a
flashlight… food… and water.

 

Don’t worry – I have changed my shoes.  😛  Off to work to see what is happening.  I am going to guess most people are snowed in… I live by a major highway and have four-wheel drive so I am usually ok to get where I need to go.

If you have real spring where you live… please tell me about it.  I need green” stories.  😀

I frequent my library a lot these days.  We have been having internet “opportunities” at home so many times after work, Laptop and I (who by the way I have named Lazareth due to his dying and coming back to life many times now…) wander over to the local library where I can catch up on emails, visit blogs, and respond to comments.

Lately though… I have discovered a trend at my library that has me typing with clenched teeth and a little bit of smoke coming out of my ears…. enough to give that nice BBQ grill scent……

Teens talk talk TALKING at my library.  Now I am not an angry person… I think for the most part I am pretty easy-going, but seriously…. I want to say,

“HELLO….. It’s called a LIBRARY!”

Yesterday I went in to find a quiet corner to do a bit of work and that was just not to be found.  All the great tables were taken, and believe me this is not a complaint, as I am proud that our library is well used…. it is the teenage hang out part that has me riled up…. not book reading teens, but hang out teens.

As I sat trying to get my work done and wondering if it was worth it for me to truck up to the front counter and say something only to get the “wrath of teens” when I returned with the “Book Authorities”… I decided just to wait it out and of course, this blog post was forming in my mind.

Question to you, if you do use your library – and I hope you do, is it still a sanctuary of quietness, or has it become acceptable to use the library as a social hang out?  Honestly, I think I could have had it just as quiet if I had went to a coffee shop and typed over the sound of the whooshing espresso machines and caffeinated chatter people.  😛

Good morning!

I have about a 14 minute window here before I need to shower, pick up Chance, get to Church, sell Banquet Tickets for all three services… then I am going to come home and attempt to make this:

Crock pot pizza pasta.  If it works, I will share the recipe next Saturday for Weekend Cooking.  If it doesn’t… we will pretend this never happened.  😛

The Dewey Read-A-Thon is coming April 9th.  This 24 hour read-a-thon is a wonderful event and I plan to participate as much as I can.  I do have a charity auction I need to participate in on that day but a book will be going with me 🙂  I have participated in the last 4 of these read a thons and they are a BLAST!  Not only is there reading but there are mini challenges, prizes, cheerleaders (yes – this event even comes with cheerleaders!)

I really can not say enough positive about this.  Go over to the Dewey Read A Thon website, check it out and sign yourself up for fun!  😀

Yipes got to run!  😀