GOOD MORNING!!!!  Guess what?  It is my day off!  (* happy happy happy dance!!!*)

I love what I do but honestly….

I am tired out this week.

Last night I had a gathering to go to that was in Aitkin Minnesota.  It is normally about a 40 minute drive but with the snowy conditions we were about an hour +.  I arrived back home last night at 9:30 pm.

Todays meandering is brought to you by “TOOMUCHCAFFEINEATTOOEARLYANHOUR”….

What I would like to talk about today – is where are they?  Oh don’t pretend you don’t know what I am talking about!  Bookish people come on…. give it up.

Confess.

Tell me…

Where are the books?

Ok ok.. I know the places they should be… I would say it is safe to say that most of us have at least one book shelf or a book box or something… but what I want to know is the down right occasionally embarrassing stuff…  take a moment… if you are at home scan around the area you are currently in.  If you are not at home close your eyes (not while typing – that could be dangerous!) and think… where are the books…… where are the books….

Here’s mine:

My books (besides the book shelves) are:

On my kitchen table (currently 9)

on a stand by my kitchen table (currently 7)

Kitchen counter (currently 3)

Downstairs by recliner ( currently 11)

Downstairs coffee table ( currently 2)

On my nightstand (currently 1)

On the reading chair table (currently 9)

Front room rocking chair table (currently 1)

Bathroom (proudly – none)

Oh that feels so good!  😀  I am not counting the reading room at all whats on the shelves, whats next to the shelves, the BEA box still (STILL!!!) in the corner, my grandmothers step stool that is covered with books….

really as I type here… I should give that room some attention and do a little organizing.

With my day off I will be meeting with a friend and author in a couple of hours here to talk website design – for her, not me.   Then I need to go and pick up a book at the library that I have in, and go to the award store in town to get the Bookies Book of the year plaque updated to reveal our book of the year next Tuesday at book club.  (You will have to wait to hear who won!)

Other than that – I am hoping to read today… in fact right now I have a little over an hour to sink into a book and that means – yes my friends…. there will be reviews.  😀

Good morning! Happy Thursday!

I have mentioned in recent posts that every winter I usually pick a TV show that I have enjoyed and spend the winter evenings watching all the seasons. Last year it was all the Gilmore Girls seasons (one of my all time favorite tv shows!) and this winter Chance and I have been working our way through the LOST episodes.

If you have been a fan of LOST you certainly know about the numbers.

4       8       15       16      23       42

These numbers are a big part of  LOST right from the beginning and they all have to do with the character of Hurley playing these numbers in the lottery and winning big.  However – the numbers are supposed to be cursed and all these bad things start happening to Hurley and his family (a house fire, a family member dies, a business is purchased and then blows up…)

Yesterday afternoon I heard about the Lottery numbers that recently were drawn through the MEGA MILLIONS lotto and the numbers winning Tuesday nights jackpot of $355 million were:

4       8       15       25       47

and the mega ball:  42

😯

I know right?  The funny – or not so funny thing about the numbers being so close to the LOST numbers is that people who played these numbers really did not think about how many other people also played the LOST numbers.

Final answer:  41,763 had those numbers in their tickets, giving each winner:

$150.00  😯

Still… a win is a win I guess.  😀

Sorry if I “lost” all you non LOST watcher readers out there with this post.  I just thought this was too good to pass on chatting about.

Hope everyone’s day is wonderful.  You may have noticed that I have been sadly short on book reviews this week.  I am bummed by that but the honest truth is that I have had a meeting every night this week (including tonight…) and with work all day I have had minimal reading time.  I have a couple of books close and I plan to break through this dry spell going into tomorrow (can you say “DAY OFF?”  WOO WOO!)  and through the weekend.

*Note that I never finished watching the episodes while they were on TV so PLEASE do not give me ant spoilers in the comments – I am currently on Season 4.

Good Morning.  Current temperature…. 5 degrees.

It’s practically a heat wave from some of the 20 below days we have had of recent.

This morning…. I thought I would give you a little dose of Minnesota.

Throughout the last month as I have been reading some of the blog posts out there I have seen posts about biking, or enjoying the cooler temps of 60 and 70 degrees…. on one post I even read that the blogger went to the beach for Christmas.

The beach.

I do love to think of where you are all reading this post from… sitting in your homes or offices all over the world.  Grasp that thought for a moment.  Doesn’t that just blow you away?

Here is a little piece of my Minnesota around this time of year.  We heat our home with wood, but not a fireplace in our home.  What we have is a wood stove that sits out behind our home and in front of our business.  The wood stove heats water that runs through pipes and heats our home and our business with hot water.  For us it is cost efficient as my husband owns an excavating company and we get much of the wood for free when we clear  lots for new homes.

This time of year when it is really cold like it has been lately it is a lot of work to keep the stove temperature up.  My hubby goes to bed around 8 pm (I know – he keeps such odd hours!) and fills the stove then.  I am usually up until about midnight and before I go to bed I go and fill it again so the temperature stays nice and warm until Al (hubby) gets up at around 5 am (hey I told you he kept odd hours) and fills it and goes to work.

Here is the visual for all you readers out there of me filling the stove at midnight:

• First I put on a heavy winter coat, gloves, and hubby’s boots (mine are too darn cute to wear to the wood stove!)

• Next I drive down to the stove (yes, I drive!  Its cold and dark and the headlights help me see the woodpile!)

• I then proceed to grab wood off the pile (the pieces I can lift) and toss them into the mouth of this huge wood stove

• If I am lucky I do not singe my hair…. but usually… I do singe my hair.  (So annoying)

• Once I am done I drive back to the house smelling like a piece of beef jerky

There you have it.  My life is not all the warm lovely pictures of me in my home with a book…. nope the reality this time of year is big coat, big man boots, red nose, singed hair….odd smoky smell that seems to be…me

(I bet now you know why I LOVE LOVE LOVE summer so much!)

SO for giggles…. if you comment on this post tell me where you are at this morning.  (State or country and actual spot you are commenting from:  IE.  Chicago:  home office)

In my case that answer would be:  Minnesota:  kitchen table

Good Morning!
*waving crazily with a scary big smile on my face*

Yesterday morning when I wrote my meandering I was whelmed. Ok…. let’s be honest… I was OVER whelmed. I looked at everything I had going on for the day and found myself wondering how I was going to do everything I planned to do that – and do it well.  Then as the day rolled on, a snow storm rolled in – that canceled my work out at the gym, and my 6 PM meeting, allowing me to bump up my dinner with my son adding more time for us to spend together and taking a little off of me for the evening.

This morning as I sit here with COFFEE CUP after a wonderful good night of plenty of sleep and I look back on this past week I cant help but feel blessed to be a part of it all.

• Both boys (BOTH BOYS) were home for Christmas!

• On Christmas day Chance, Justin, and I stayed up until 2 a.m. playing Sequence…. addicting game!

• My 14-year-old puppy who has doggy dementia (yup – it’s an actual disease for dogs) since this summer, is still with us and doing well.

• Chance and I have been spending our evenings watching episodes of LOST like they are popcorn and loving our time hanging out together.

• I had a wonderful lunch with Dawn yesterday – which was not on the original crazy agenda – but I am so glad we were able to do that – good food and good company!

• A couple of days ago I went and seen friends of ours adopt a little guy at the court-house.  It was AMAZING and I am so glad I went.

• Last night having dinner with Brad before he headed for the airport at 3 am this morning was PRICELESS.  We had fajitas, talked, and laughed.  He may not be back from the navy now until August of 2011.

• I love my job.  I really do….I love the people I work with and what I do.

• Al and I will probably go out to a nice dinner tonight to close out 2010 and welcome 2011 with all the mystique and wonder that it will bring with it.

And that is just a week… I can’t even contemplate the entire year of good things that have come our way.

This afternoon I will be posting what I believe were the best books I read in 2010.  I look forward to expanding that list in 2011 and really stretching myself in my reading.  I have not had time to plan out resolutions yet but I will.

If you are off and making plans for this historical moment of the ending of 2010 and the ringing in of 2011, I hope you have a wonderful time, stay safe and if I do not see you in the blogosphere yet today, I hope to see you often in 2011.

Good Morning.

So here is my awkward moment for the a.m.

I wake up this morning humming this song about lipstick…. your lipstick… the only two words I can recall of this entire song, but oh no, that doesn’t stop me…. I am going through my house singing, “Your lipstick…. da da dada…”

Yeah.

How cool am I?

So as it continues to drive me nuts I Google the words “your lipstick song” and come up with this:

That is actually the song stuck in my head and then I spend the next 20 minutes or so trying to figure out where I would have heard it to stick it in my head anyway…. (I don’t listen to a lot of music… I am more an audio book chick when in my car or cleaning around the house).  Then it hits me, this is a Group Power song.  It is one of the songs we listen to as we lift weights….

and I have not gone to Group Power for almost three weeks now between my traveling to Honduras and the business of Christmas planning…

Is it possible the class is calling me home?  Telling me I have had enough Biscotti and chocolates and it is time to get moving towards a healthier more positive direction?

*gulp*

😯

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme.  I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment.  You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Last weeks winner:

Samita from Book Purring

Congratulations!  Please choose an item out of the PRIZE BOX and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

What a great week!  It was busy but so good and I am excited to share my highlights with you:

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (Finally!  Finally I read this book and well, what was I waiting for?)

Guess What I Got For Christmas!!! SSSQQQQUUUEEEEEE!!!

The Secret Society Of The Pink Crystal Ball by Risa Green (Super YA read!)

Relentless by Dean Koontz – audio review (I love Koontz…. but this one was an EPIC FAIL)

WHERE Are You Reading Challenge 2011 (it’s not to late to join in the fun!)

I did not get the reviews written that I wanted to but have high hopes that I will get caught up this week.  With the holidays over my spare time is once again returning to a normal level.  (Fingers crossed on that anyway!)  My reading plan for this week is as follows:

“Even now, after all these years, I can hardly bear to look in a mirror,” is the opening line of this dark, atmospheric, densely patterned novel. Ghanaian pre-teenager Ajuba is sent to boarding school in Devon. A lonely, confused child, she befriends the charismatic Polly Venus, who talks entirely in transatlantic clichés (“Hallo?”, “That totally sucks!”, “You just don’t get it, do you?”). Exploring the attic of Polly’s house they find a bundle of what they take to be kitten bones. But they’re not. They are the bones of babies.

Inspired by their reading of the magazine True Murder, the pair form “Crimebusters” to solve the mystery; but the past tragedy which they make a game of investigating is an ironic foreshadowing of the tragedies looming over them and their families.

Fallen angels sure seem poised to become the new vampires, with a similarly ideal blend of brooding mystery and sexy rebellion. After a fiery accident kills a boy she is crushing on, Luce gets sent to a reform school populated, most notably, by two gorgeous fellas, Daniel and Cam. Cam is safe and charming and eager to win Luce’s affections, while Daniel operates somewhere between aloof and downright hostile toward her. Readers will figure out Luce and Daniel’s star-crossed-lovers angle early on, making the hints dropped throughout about past lives and dangerous fates more obvious than compelling.

This book was a Christmas present to me last year.  Yes… last year.  About time I read it right?

This sequel to Fallen (Delacorte, 2009) continues they complex tale as Luce tries to uncover the truth and break the cycle of falling in love, dying young, and being reincarnated. Daniel, her lover through the ages and a fallen angel, institutes a truce with Demons to protect her from the Outcasts, who would do her harm. For her safety, Daniel hides her at a boarding school for the Nephilim, children of human and fallen angels, and cautions her to remain on campus and learn all she can. Unfortunately a little knowledge can be dangerous and Luce’s naive attempts to manipulate her powers constantly put her and others in danger. Some of the rescues employ a deus ex machina as is the case when Arriane inexplicably arrives in Vegas and saves the day. At times the story plods along, with a full chapter devoted to a fencing lesson. Daniel regularly returns to check on Luce and there’s lots of swooning, passionate kissing, and playing at being in love, though it often ends with bickering. Interest is piqued with the hint of a love triangle, and the suspense is ratcheted up in the heart-pounding final battle scene.

I usually have a good reading week during New Years Week.  We are not big New Years people so that usually gives me a bonus weekend of reading and I look forward to it.

I am excited to see what bookish things you have all been up too and what you are reading.  Please add you post link to the “Click Here” Linky.  I will be around to visit your post and see what i will add to my own reading agenda for 2011.  😀

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