Good morning from Florida!  How nice it is to wake up without snow!  Al is off this morning to check out the equipment auctions in Orlando and I am at my cousins home in Deland, Florida.   Alone.  Solitude. Oh yeah.  🙂

Al doesn’t get this.  He kept telling me, “You realize I will be gone all day.  You will have no car, no way to venture out.”

What he has trouble understanding is that this is perfect for me.  I like nothing more than the occasional (and oh so rare) days of nothingness.  Life lately had been running from one commitment to another…. trying to juggle home, two offices, phone calls, appointments…  here I have none of that.  Today is going to be a day of books and catching up with my bookish friends on their blogs.

How about you?  When you are given the rare opportunity to have a day of “no commitments” what do you like to do with it?

This morning we (Al and I) are leaving for Florida at the wee hours of the morning – flight out of Brainerd at 6:40 am.  I am writing this late Wednesday night.  I will be with Laptop during our time away so posts and reviews will continue as always.  I am hoping for some sunny relaxing time away and am inviting all of you to come with me.  🙂

See you in Florida!

Shhh!  Dont tell Coffee Cup but this morning I am off to Caribou Coffee to meet some of my friends.  Thats right – I am having someone elses coffee.  🙂

There is a little group of five of us girls who used to do this once a week.  Then life happens, job changes…. and suddenly we couldn’t do it anymore.  Today we are getting together like old times and I am so looking forward to the coffee and the conversation.

Today I have work and then I meet with the house sitter (yes – we get a house sitter) to watch the dogs while we are gone because the kennel is $22 a day per dog.  AND we have two dogs.  That is an insane amount of money.  Thus the house/ dog sitter.  Then I should really start to pack….

Whats on your agenda today?

I feel as though I am in a sort of frenzy.  Coffee Cup and I are here this morning with an agenda over the next few days that I am having a hard time wrapping my head around.  Busy isn’t even the word for it…. insane seems the better word.

This morning I have my Group Power class at 8:25 am.  I refuse to let this go… this may be the one thing that makes the rest possible.  After that, I will come home and shower and then I have a funeral at 11:00 am for a friend of mine’s mom who passed away suddenly on Thursday.  Then home, change, and with a little luck I can get the dogs in for their kennel shots because as of Wednesday evening they need to be in a kennel until February 9 (which breaks my heart a little bit).  Then I have business phone calls to take care of and I must (I MUST) make some time this afternoon to go and see my Grandfather who is in his 90’s.

So why the suddenly  rush of events?  Because on Thursday morning we leave for Florida where my hubby attends the equipment auctions each year and we will return home on February 9.    Only to leave again on the 11th of February for Illinois for our sons graduation from the Navy.  Wonderful things, yes… but the getting there – or more like getting ready to go there is the stressful part.  In reality, my life will not settle down until February 15th after we are back home… and then Al (hubby) and Justin (19 year old son) leave for Honduras on the 18th of February and will not be back until the 28th.

Welcome to the month of insanity!  Lap Top of course will travel  with me and I will continue through it all – the meanderings, the reading, the reviews…..  and yes, I realize my Meandering meme is upside down but found that somehow appropriate….  😉

So….  looks like I have time for one more cup of coffee before I hit the ground running.  I am overstretched right now with the details in my own life…. lets talk about yours.  Any plans for trips in 2010?

So some days…. I admit to being a little slow.  Lets take yesterday for instance, I posted my meandering in the morning and went about my business for the day popping in a couple times throughout the afternoon.  It wasn’t until 10 pm at night when I sat down with a cup of chocolate ice cream and my lap top that I seen that Peter over at Kyusi Reader had featured my book shelves on his blog!  I really need to be more alert LOL!

Peter likes to feature book shelves on his blog so if you wish to share your pictures stop on by and let him know!  🙂

So here is my crazy weird Saturday morning thought…. on your bookshelves – what is a book that has been on your shelf a long long time and is still unread.  How long has it been there?  Why is it still unread?

Hi people!  🙂

Yes – I had a total brain melt down yesterday and started a morning Meandering about 5 times and stopped….. deleted, and started again.  I couldn’t put anything together so left for work without doing one.  Of course, while I am driving to work my head fills with ideas of things I cold have chatted about.

Here are a few of those things…..

You may have noticed that Word Verification Balderdash, that fun meme I created and played every Thursday has not been on here for a while.  I just honestly have not had time to keep up with it, and if I had a review going up that day suddenly I had a saturation of posts:  the meandering, Word Balderdash, a review….  it just became too much.  However – I do love the play on words and didn’t want it to die off, so I passed it and all rights to it to the one who could come up with incredible words every week:  Ryan at Wordsmithonia.  If you have not stopped by to see this master of all things Balderdash at work I suggest you do – if we were playing Balderdash in real life the man would win consistently!  🙂  Thanks again Ryan!

I also recently did an interview for Reading Minnesota and in that interview I was telling them some of my favorite reads from last year and I mentioned a set of books that have always held a special spot in my heart, Nora Roberts Three Sisters trilogy.  I had explained that while I was not a Roberts fan, these were not your typical Roberts books.  What I failed to do – was mention these books by name and I have had people asking.  The book titles are:  Dance Upon The Air, Heaven and Earth, and Face The Fire.   I highly recommend these books!

So now that I have done a bit of housekeeping I must grab Coffee Cup (and a water bottle too!) and head out to the gym.  Have a wonderful morning and I will be back a little later!  🙂

I am sitting here this morning with Coffee Cup and have this little smile on my face.  I had a great book adventure yesterday!  Thank you to everyone who went over to Reading Minnesota and read my interview.  Late last night I popped over there and seen the nice comments that people had left and well…. my heart grew two sizes!

Last evening I sat in and listened to That’s How I Blog, where they talk weekly to a blogger about their life, their books, hobbies, and of course how they blog.  They end each talk with the 20 minute book club where the guest shares a book they have read and really enjoyed.  Last nights guest was Natasha from Maw Books and the book she spoke on was War Child by Emmanuel Jal.  When I read her post about what she would be reviewing on, I knew I wanted to read this book.  This is the true story of Emmanuel Jal’s life.  I could say more on that – a lot more, but for one, I didn’t finish the book yet, and for two…. when I do I want you to read a review that I think is going to be heart wrenching and passionate – and well…. just stay tuned.  🙂

If you got to That’s How I Blog and want to listen to last nights discussion, or any of the archived discussions, just look at the Blog Talk Radio thingy to the right and highlight the talk you want to listen to.  I have sat in on a few and they are always informative.

Ok – before I go – I have a giveaway from yesterdays Morning Meandering comments…  and this morning Random.org gave me this winner:

Alexia561!!!

Alexia561, when you have a chance – look through the prize box and then email me at journey through books @ gmail dot com to let me know your mailing address and the item you have chosen and I will get that in the mail to you asap.

🙂 Have a great day everyone!!! 🙂

I am up and Coffee Cup is steaming beside me.  Today is the day that the article about this blog is in the Reading Minnesota website.  This site is a literary link on the Mpls. Star Tribune website in the Entertainment/Books section.  Squee!!!  I am a little excited and hope that if you have time you can pop over and check it out.  In honor of this fun moment – I thought it would be good, right, and proper to have a one day giveaway.

All you need to enter is to go and read the article and come back here and share with me one thing you did not know about me.  I will choose a winner tomorrow morning during the Morning Meandering and that person will receive a pick out of the prize box.

Have fun and thanks everyone for stopping by – I really appreciate it and the coffee is always on!

Good Morning!  I have some news.  🙂   Reading Minnesota, is an online entertainment link that connects to the Minneapolis Tribune.  They contacted me this past week and asked if they could feature me and One Persons Journey Through A World Of Books on their site.

Uhhhh…. yeah!

So through several conversations back and forth… an article was developed which will come out on Tuesday.  I will link to it on Tuesdays Morning Meandering, but wanted to share the news with you today.  (A little giddy…)

Today I have several giveaways (including one for readers!)  to put on-line so please bear with me while I get the posts up.  I was trying to do one a day but that really isn’t working and I just feel…. behind.  For my subscribers this will generate a few more emails than normal – hopefully the giveaways will be something you would like to sign up for so you wont mind.  🙂

Have you heard the news!  I am so excited to hear about Michelle Moran’s book Nefertiti being announced as Target’s Book Club pick!

Can you handle any more exciting news?  Good!  Here it is!

Michelle is going to stop by here in just a few hours to talk about her writing and about what it feels like to be a book club pick!  Michelle does all the traveling and exploring that I wish I could do!  She is such an inspiration.   She is also going to offer a signed copy of this book to be given away!  I am so excited to have her and hope you will all stop back and make her feel welcome!