Category: Meanderings

Morning all!  Hope this Tuesday finds you all in happy places.

This morning I want to do something I have been thinking of doing for some time now, just hadn’t been organized enough to pull it off.  😉

As you probably know Mondays are the big What Are You Reading posts that J Kaye from J Kaye’s Blog kindly left in my hands when she stepped away from her book reviewing to concentrate more on her writing.  I was (and still am) so excited for this to be entrusted  into my care.

I love that many readers from all over the blogosphere as well as from homes all over the world, stop in and share what they are reading.  It amazes me to see how alike, and how different the reads can be.

That said, I have been meaning to highlight some of my finds while I stop and say hi to these “Monday Memer’s”  There are so many good book out there but there are usually a few that stop in my tracks and cause me to write a title down – or quickly reserve it on my online library reserve link (which is always up and ready to go while I explore the blogs.

So…. let me share with you what I found yesterday among what you are reading:

First off, over at Book Addict’s Book Reviews I found this book, Clay’s Ark.

The cover… blows me away.  Seriously.  And the title draws interest….  I want to look more closely at this book.

Then at alita.reads, I found Rebecca.  Rebecca was on my “must read list” for summer.  Um……  last summer.  And I never got to it.  Then I see this review and realize I am still missing out on a great read.  I know I am!

Have you read Rebecca?  Am I missing out on something wonderful?

Over at Friday Friends I found a book that I did not see the review on it yet, but on cover love alone (ok and maybe title) I was drawn to Baking Cakes in Kigali.

I wonder what is in the pages?  I have to look into this one more and am looking for it at my library.

And then – totally not book related…. well, wait.  That’s not true…. over at Booking Mama, Julie was showing in a post a gorgeous bracelet based off the book, To Kill A Mockingbird.  Also on my to be read list.  Also – still unread.  The Boo Radley charm bracelet is so cute and it actually makes me want to read the book more…. you have to stop by and see the bracelet  and there is a necklace too.

Love this cover – can’t wait to read the book.  can’t believe I haven’t yet.

and then ( oh yes, there is more!) I was at Everything Distils Into Reading, and seen Stolen.  And then after that I seen Stolen on a few other blogs too, and knew this one had potential.

Love the cover…. not sure why….

Then at Linus’s Blanket I seen the book Yummy, The Last Days Of A Southside Shorty and not only looked for it at my library, but when I did not find it I filled out the form to request that it is purchased.  This book is one I know will be a powerful read.

Would you, could you, read this true story?

Then finally, at Memoirs Of Life I seen another read… one that I could not pass up.  Left To Tell is another book that drew me right in and I do have this one ready to be picked up at my Library today.

In a word, wow.

And that is what I love about the Monday What Are You Reading and why I encourage  participants to check out a few of the other blogs.  You never know what book might cause you to write down the title… look for it at your library or in a store…. you never know what book could be THE BOOK that you will be talking about for the next year.

Happy reading friends!  I work today, I play kick ball tonight.  DO NOT LAUGH.  Ok…. laugh a little.  It’s my third year on this team.  It’s not pretty.  I am out more often than not… but it’s fun.

Happy Sunday everyone.

The weekend went pretty fast for me.  I know it’s not over but with Al being out-of-town I hoped to get more house stuff done – but did make a nice dent in projects.

Yesterday morning Wendy and I rode bike to Nisswa and had breakfast before we biked back.  We had a great time and yes, Wendy is a coffee drinker – see exhibit A:

We had a waitress  named Donna and it was her first day.  We asked if we could sit outside as the restaurant was full so they sat us up and Donna took our orders saying we were her first outside customers.  She was extremely friendly and Wendy and I both ordered the egg beater veggie omelets without cheeses and dry wheat toast.  (Game on Diet people…. I have to stay on game) 😛

When Donna brought out our food she said it down and casually said, “I will be right back to refill your coffee cups.  Your eggs look really tasteless.”  She then proceeded to turn a little red and say, “I meant tasty!”

Wendy and I really laughed at this and totally left Donna off the hook.  I told her that I thought this was probably a bad time to ask for salt and pepper then.   Anyway – the omelets were tasty and Donna received a nice tip from us, and hopefully she had a good story to share with her family last night.  😀

Anyway – today promises to be lovely.  I need to get myself ready for church, my final weigh in for the week and I will update the Game On Journal when I get back home.

Have a beautiful Sunday and please, feel free to share any of those fun restaurant moments here.  😀

I am in a bookish mood.  Which… for me….can be dangerous.  I want to read, which is a good thing, but I want to read about everything I see.  I am very happy with my current read, Summer at Tiffany, but finishing up my review of Thumbing Through Thoreau last night left me hungry for words.  I want to finish Stop Laughing At Me, and get started on The Red Queen, and I have yet to read Linger but I want to…. and finish up my thoughts on Her Fearful Symmetry, and why have I waited so long to read Fallen…..

and….

Well…. you are picking up what I am putting down.  I am in a reading frenzy.  Which actually is perfect as after my morning bike ride with Wendy at 8 am (goal:  32 miles and breakfast in between) and a brief stop at the bike shop, I am coming home to do some cleaning while listening to audio, and also some reading.  I have the house to myself today so after my initial break out this morning – I do not plan on leaving again.

And since I am hungry for words I will shoot off a couple other random things here –

This morning I signed up for Audiobook Community.  I haven’t really looked into it much yet but I do like audio.  I am also waiting patiently for the promise from Swaptree that they will soon be swapping audio books.   They originally said August 1, but it has yet to happen.

I also want to put in a little plug her for Kay Arthur’s book, Cinderella Society.  I read it last fall and really enjoyed it.  While emailing her last night I realized I never did really give a shout out to her book when it went live this spring.  So, check out my review of Cinderella Society and see if it is a fit for you.

FINALLY – finally.... I received this interesting email about the books our current and past two Presidents have read their first year in the office.  (Well, of course I was curious!)  As much as I wanted to believe that maybe at least one of these Presidents curled up in the oval office with something to the likes of The Hunger Games, dabbled back in the day with a little Harry Potter, or indulged in a great mystery like Shutter Island… this was not the case.  At least not in this document.

American Presidential Book Club

So that’s me for this morning.  Looking at what I have written I guess the word would be scattered… hmmm…. much like yesterday.  Perhaps a nice bike ride will cure me.  😀

Good morning!  I am a little late in my post this morning mainly because I have been puttering around the house doing odds and end things, had some oatmeal, a couple of cups of COFFEE, updated my Game On chart and journal, and well, I guess I am just not really focused.

Yesterday Wendy and I biked from Brainerd to Nisswa, a 32 mile round trip jaunt.  Next weekend she is doing her first bike ride with me at Itaska State Park and I wanted her to get in a little practice.  It was a fun ride, the weather was perfect and in Nisswa we stopped and seen a friend of ours, Don, who was having pizza at Rafferty’s.  This pit stop led to the following picture….

Yeah.  Some things you just can’t pass up…. even when you should.  😛

Today it looks like the sun is going to come out which is wonderful since it stormed all night and was still raining up until about 30 minutes ago.  I am off to help a co-worker learn a new program and then picking up some groceries for my hubby.  He is going golfing with a friend up at our cabin this weekend and I am thrilled because the guy never takes a break when we are in season and he needs one.

This leaves my weekend plans to maybe get in another bike ride or two… definitely some reading and hanging our with our Kinship Partner Chance.  I hope to shampoo my carpets too with having the house to myself.  I need to enjoy this weekend as the next one will be crazy busy.

How about you?  Any plans for this weekend?

I think you can probably guess that Summer is my favorite time of year.  I love the potential of what the day can hold.  I can plant flowers to surround my home, enjoy a garden, bike, rollerblade, or sit on the deck with a wonderful read.  I am a sun girl.

I like my summer books to usually be centered around summer topics – sun, beaches, travel, friendships – and my books average between 180 – 270 pages because my attention span is not long as I am usually running from one thing to the next, trying to breathe it all in.

SO…. Check out this monster that arrived in my mailbox yesterday. Seriously – it is almost bigger than Coffee Cup and my coffee cup is no little teacup.

I don’t recall requesting this read and am not even sure if it is a fit for me.  I am reading the paperwork that came with it and I am scratching my head as to why I received this….

BUT – here is a sign of fall for me…. it is a chunkster – almost 600 pages and instead of being freaked out by its size, I am intrigued.  Summer means short fun lighter reads…. but fall is like book nesting to me.  I want a book that I can sink into for a week or more.  Larger books start to look appealing.  I want characters that I will enjoy so much that I don’t want to be done with them in 300 pages…. no I want them to carry me to 500+….

I don’t want summer to pass.  I feel like I am just getting into it and have not had enough afternoons on my deck with iced tea, a book and my sunglasses…. I have not had enough evenings where I can still be wearing shorts and listen to the crickets, nor enough bike rides, hiking, roller blading, and I have not been to the beach even once this year…

Yet if it fall, I am happy to share cooler nights with a larger book, hot cocoa replacing iced tea and a blanket to keep out the chill as I read and read and read….

And for some reason….. fall makes me think if I were to require a pig, this would be the time.

Hah!  Couldn’t resist that! 😛

Does your reading tend to change with the seasons?  Do certain books speak to you at certain times?

*Oh one more thing… I am guest posting over at Trisha’s Eclectic/Eccentric blog today.  Doing a little blog housekeeping while she is enjoying some family time. If you have a moment stop by and check out the post – but oh – do not judge me for the insane idea Trisha and I came up with to make this post fun.  😉

Good morning.  I still have a bit of sleep in my eyes and Coffee Cup is sadly lacking content, but before I go for that second cup I wanted to meander….

LONG day yesterday but on the bright side, my craziness is over for the week.  Well, standard craziness for me is still in place, which means there is always room for some last-minute thing to pop up.  In my life this week:

• I may go for a 30 mile bike ride with Wendy to prep her for the 75 mile we are doing on the 21st….
• I may take Chance to a movie because we are due for some hang out time…
• I may wind up at the cabin this weekend if Al is able to go because that would be awesome

I can tell you quite honestly I have not read a thing for the past 4 days now which sucks, really, but things will turn around.  I still have blogs to visit on the Monday meme too, and review to write but they will get done – no worries there.

My book club met without me last night as I was just leaving the cities as it started so I missed it.  They reviewed Her Fearful Symmetry and I am just dying to know what they thought of it and what we will be reading next!

Today is a dreary looking Minnesota day and that’s ok with me.  I am in the office until mid afternoon, have my group power class at 4:15, and after that either the movie with Chance or back here to chill for the evening.  I think I will sit on this for a bit before I decide.

I do however – have a post going up today so tiny “yay” for that.  AND I want to end this with thanking everyone for your kind words on yesterdays morning meandering.  I really appreciate that as  the cause is an important one, and Connie is so incredible.

Enjoy your day – hopefully it brings sunshine and a good book!  😀

Good morning.  This will be my only post today as yesterday I discovered…. I am not super woman.

I thought I could be gone for my third weekend in a row and still manage all aspects of my life, the house, the job, the books, the workouts, the blog…

well.  I am clearly behind on stopping in and chatting with all of you my readers and bloggy buddies.  I didn’t even make it through all the Monday memes yesterday as I did not even get started until after 5 pm.  Anyway – I will catch up.

And anyway – this post is not about that.  This morning before I leave for my training in the cities, I wanted to share with you about the bike ride I did this weekend and why I am supportive of this particular camp.

This is Connie.  I met Connie last year through my cousin and his wife.  Connie has had AIDS for 29 years.  She became positive for aids after she had an emergency hysterectomy in 1981.  When she went to the doctor she was floored with this diagnosis.  When they figured out the cause they had to go back through the blood donor batch.  While they could not narrow it down to a specific donor, they could narrow it down to the batch and the batch was destroyed, however 5 other people had received transfusions with this batch.  All became AIDS positive.  All 5 of the others have died through the years.

She was asked to leave her job.  She lost friends.  And the community that embraced her was the AIDS community.  They were the ones who understood.  Connie nearly died three times.  Yet she is still fighting the fight and for 16 years now has run a camp in central Minnesota for families living with HIV/AIDS.  Her camp is one week a year and during that time she offers a week of AIDS education to those who come, and she offers this for free so the cost is not a burden on anyone.

Connie fights her battle every day.  Taking 54 pills a day she tells me this past weekend that she thanks God for every morning she wakes up and is able to see the sun shine and walk across a room.  When Connie talks, she makes my heart light up, her passion for others is always present in everything she does.

The bike ride raises money so Connie can continue to offer the camp for free.  This year she said the camp will have 87 participants, anywhere from children with AIDS, adults with AIDS, to a grandmother whose grandson has AIDS and she wants to be more aware and knowledgeable on this subject.

Connie calls her biking team The Rhino’s “Born tough” is her motto and she really is an incredibly strong woman who has helped so many by her hope and her never give up spirit.  Connie has been through it all having AIDS for so long.  She has experienced what it was like to be a married woman, with children with AIDS in the early 80’s.  She has had a tough walk, but she keeps on going.

Meeting Connie has been such a blessing to me.  Spending time talking with the other riders fills my heart to overflowing.   What an amazing group of people!

Good early morning!  Are you awake yet or is my post up and running before you?  😀

I had to do this one early as I need to be at the starting line for the 150 mile bike ride for Camp Benedict by 6:30 am this morning.  I am tired, but excited – and the excitement will soon surpass the tired.  I am hopeful that the weather is kind to us, it looks like there is a chance of rain and possibly a thunderstorm today and a slight chance on Sunday as well.

The route is to go 75 miles today on the road designated for us, and then we will arrive at Camp Benedict.  Camp Benedict is a camp that is for children with aids and their families.  That is why I do this ride.  We stay over night at the camp and on Sunday we bike the 75 miles back to Brainerd.

So – that’s what I am doing for the next 36 hours or so….   I have a post coming up later today that I have set and then I will be back later on Sunday to go up with the Monday What Are You Reading post.  Pictures of the ride and details will be on the Tuesday post.

So I guess that is my weekend.  I have had my coffee, I am packed and ready to RIDE!  😀

(Oh and my week results for the game on diet week 1 are up here.)

Have an awesome weekend!!!!

A brief good morning as I run out the door!  I have a breakfast meeting with my friend Heidi in ooh, lets say 20 minutes.  Today I will spend much of the day prepping for the 150 mile bike ride that starts tomorrow.  My bike is currently in getting a little tune up (who knew you had to tune up bikes?), I need to pack an overnight bag since Saturday evening we will be at the camp, stay over night there and then bike back…..

Which means…. yes – unless there is internet available at the camp on Saturday evening, you will not hear any live conversation with me until Sunday evening.  I will have posts up throughout the weekend, including a book review in a couple of hours here and a meandering tomorrow before I leave as well as an author chat for Saturday.

Have a great day everyone – any fun weekend plans?

Good morning!

Last night I had rented and watched The Color Purple. I am not sure if it was the timing, as I read the book last weekend, but the movie to me was amazing. How awesome to see Whoopie Goldberg in her first movie and in the lead role as Celie. Danny Glover (who I think is an amazing actor), Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery and Rae Dawn Chong, also have important roles in this movie.

I was captivated and while I usually multi task while watching a movie (book during low points, or my lap top catching up on emails…. instead I did nothing but fully absorb this movie. If you have not had the experience of watching the movie The Color Purple I highly recommend it – but…. read the book first. The book is much more detailed and the movie flows well with the book as an appetizer.

Ok… so funny moment… half way through the dvd, the movie…. stops. I have no idea what to do…. it just went back to the main menu. I couldn’t figure out what to do. I could choose scenes, but they ended where the dvd had. So… in desperation. I flipped the dvd over like a record. It worked! And the movie continued. I don’t remember ever having to flip a dvd before! (AND…. did I age myself by using the word record? LOL)

Today – work and probably a bike ride. Not sure what from beyond that…. tomorrow I will probably take my bike in for a tune up before the big ride on Saturday. I am pretty excited about the ride and hoping and praying that we have nice weather for it.

Have a great day everyone – I am off to update my Game On Diet Journal and then out the door!  😀