Meanderings – Page 39

Going To Mankato – NOT Little House Style

Published on May 9, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

Good morning! Happy Friday. Miserable and wet here all week in Minnesota. I really am looking for anything in the forecast that is not cold or wet.

Anyhoo… in brighter news, College Son graduates tomorrow in Mankato Minnesota and Hubby (Pa) and I will be heading to Mankato this afternoon for the weekend. This will be fun but a 3 1/2 hour car ride… need to pick out a good audio that maybe we both will like 😉

Every time I mention Mankato I have flash back to Little House On The Prairie and the Ingalls’ family going to Mankato for supplies or for a doctor for Mary.

1caa — **We however will be going by car….**

Also – if you are friends with me on Facebook you may have seen my saga with the bird. For two days he keeps hitting my windows. I am so afraid he/she is going to hurt or kill himself but I can not get him to go away. I have shooed him, put tape on the windows, covered them with post its… he just keeps coming back. Sigh.

Books going on the trip are the Book Club Book Molokai and Chevy Stevens new read, That Night.

Morning Meanderings… WIPED OUT and MOVING Forward

Published on May 4, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

Coffee. I mean… good morning. 🙂

I just finished a marathon week of prepping for a massive garage sale that I was heading for our church. It has been a lot of accepting items and storing items and phone calls, and posting things on line, and meeting with people, and working with our staff to go through things we were going to sell as we are moving out of our current rented location to a place that we will own this fall. Oh yeah… and do my regular work too 🙂

Then a team came in to help on Friday evening (the earliest we could get into the gym we were renting for the sale) and we hauled items to the gym from all the places we had stored it and we marked things until after midnight.

Saturday morning I got up at 5:30 am, slapped myself together… grabbed COFFEE and was in to position at the gym by 6:15 am to continue final preps. The doors opened at 7:30 am and …

…. about 50 people poured in that had been waiting outside the doors for that initial starting rush

Yup. I have a picture.

When all was said and done at 7:30 last night (we closed the sale at 3 but re-opened it for after each service for people to come in and take what they want for free of they could leave a donation)…

The garage sale alone today made $4667.45
The Bake sale added in another $683.00
The items we sold pre-sale so far have come to $5,105.00
Putting us so far for the sale at $10,455.45

(We have two more services today to go through and then final clean up which I hope is going to be a snap.)

Ok… on to the books.

Thank you publishing houses that send me audio! Seriously – I am just so thrilled to have great listens as well as great reads.

13 Suspicious Incidents – Lemony Snicket – audio

The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham – audio

Delicious by Ruth Reichl — audio

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart – audio

Ruin Falls by Jenny Milchman- audio

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgewick- audio

Mrs. Hemingway by Naomi Wood

The Miracle Thief by Iris Anthony

Miracle Man by William Leibowitz

That Night By Chevy Stevens

I am so excited about these reads and listens – and I am SO EXCITED that it is sunny today and maybe this afternoon I can have my first time in 2014 of reading on the deck. Bliss awaits me! 😀

Have an awesome Sunday!

Morning Meanderings…. I Have a Problem….

Published on April 30, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

Good morning! Hope you are reading awesome things!

I did mention I have a problem….

Confession: I like cold water. COLD water. In fact I like water so cold, I like to put bottles of water in the freezer until they get “slushy” that is the perfect temp of water. You may be thinking, “Sheila, why don’t you just drink ice water?” and you would be ok thinking that – I do like ice water… but I REALLY like the little ice chips that form when it is slushy because in essence… I am drinking ice. 😀

So here is the thing… I do this at home…

a lot.

And, I do this at work…

a lot.

It is clearly a task of knowing when to remove said water bottle out of the freezer before it reaches the “full ice” phase, where are which point it is too frozen and now must be fully thawed to room temp and started again.

I do this A LOT.

And so here is the problem.

On my kitchen counter right now…. yesterdays sacrificial water. 🙂

Recently at work we had an all hands on deck cleaning day…. we spent the entire morning cleaning, vacuuming, shampooing, and dusting and tossing out things in the office areas, the conference room, and yes the kitchen. I chose to help in the kitchen as the refrigerator is always a pet peeve of mine…

at least until we opened the freezer.

I kid you not…. we removed 16 frozen water bottles from the freezer.

😯

Yes…. all mine.

😳

So….. embarrassing.

What happens is this… I bring in water to work with me and put them in the freezer. And yes, I become busy forget about them and come in the next day this new water (after all, yesterdays is frozen!) and put that in the freezer….

and yes, forget about them.

I am trying to break the habit…

there is worse things I could do right?

Right?

Busy day today – prepping for a HUGE garage sale this Saturday at church. I have been working to “spring clean” my home as well as help organize the sale items coming in. Its going to be great… but the end of the weekend I suspect I am going to be wiped out 🙂

Morning Meanderings… A LONG Fun Day

Published on April 27, 2014April 27, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)12 Comments

Good morning! Happy Sunday! Hazah! (I don’t know why I said that). I made it to hour 17 yesterday of the Dewey Read-A-Thon (HAZAH!). Not bad for someone who decided to participate at the last-minute. 😀

I listened to two audio books and started a third. I finished one book. The reason so much audio is because I could participate in the mini challenges while listening, and cook and do other things while listening. It actually worked out wonderfully. You will see those reviews up this week.

As for what came in this week, I am in audio heaven. I finally have a few great audio contacts that keep me moving forward in my listening. Thank you audio peeps!!! I can not even tell you how excited that makes me.

The Art Of Secrets by James Klise – audio

The Summer Of Letting Go by Gae Polisner – audio

One Safe Place by Tania Unsworth – audio

Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy – audio

City Of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Save The Date by Mark May Andrews

Along with the Read-A-Thon yesterday I mentioned I was reading for charity and listed MS as that is what I am raising money for now for the bike ride I will be completing in June. I was contributing by page count and minute count and I invited you all to feel free to sponsor my reading as well.

I wound up between my reading and those of you who sponsored me (Thank you!) with a total of $107.80 for MS! HAZAH! (There’s that word again!)

The winner from the people who sponsored me is: Christina who will get to choose from one of the books I offered yesterday.

YAY!!!

And now I must get ready. I am helping with a benefit dinner today for Camp Benedict that starts at noon. I am heading now to help with the set up and will be back late afternoon.

Have a super Sunday! Readathoners rest up today, or as I see today is overcast and rainy here… maybe I will come home to read my book. 🙂

Post World Book Night… The Books Heard Around The WORLD!

Published on April 25, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)18 Comments

Good morning! How ya all doing? Anyone out there with book hangovers from Wednesday night? I have a bit of a headache but that has been holding on for two days… more sinus (thank you Minnesota cold and rain and oh yeah… SNOW yesterday) than book hangover…

However,

Wednesday was World Book Night and I just want us to take a moment and really think about that. (Seriously… take a moment… I will wait.)

…………………………………………………………….

As Thursday mornings Shelf Awareness states:

The third annual World Book Night U.S., held yesterday, was the biggest ever: more than 29,000 givers distributed some 580,000 copies of 39 titles to new or light readers. Each giver handed out 20 copies of one of the books, a range of adult and YA titles that included some of the most popular titles of the past few decades and included, for the first time, a graphic novel as well as a Spanish-language edition, several large-print editions, a collection of poems, Shakespeare’s complete sonnets–a title for just about any interest.

Across the country, givers picked up their books from libraries and bookstores–many independents, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million stores hosted celebratory parties–and then fanned out to hand out the free books at a wide variety of locations, including schools, hospitals, transit centers, nursing homes and shelters.

Isn’t it exciting to live in such amazing times? 29,000 people around the world participated in handing out these special books with special world book night covers to people everywhere!

I was able to participate with our Local Brainerd Public Library being a pick up spot (woo hoo!!!!) and I split a box with Laurel who works there so we each had ten copies of Code Name Verity and Ranger’s Apprentice. Both YA reads and she and I both enjoy YA books very much.

Where did I go?

I went to our local hospital and handed them out to people as they entered or exited the building – looking to target (that sounds so hitmanish….) teens and upper middle grade readers. I also went to a coffee shop and to the Senior Center where they sell doughnuts to the public. Both books would be excellent to encourage more reading. In fact, Ranger’s Apprentice is book one so hopefully our young readers will search out the next one…

Did you participate in World Book Night? If so what book did you have and where did you hand the books out?

Morning Meanderings… Good audio…. bad audio

Published on April 22, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)18 Comments

Good morning! It’s Tuesday!!!! Day two of a pretty mellow week! Woo Hoo!!!!

I thought this morning I would chat audio (hang in there Laurel…. I have one for you! 😉 ) I LOVE audio… this is no secret, in fact it seems like the majority of my reviews as of late are audio….

Why?

I can listen to audio while I cook, clean, drive, get ready in the morning… these are all things I can not do while carrying a book. I have come to love the diversity of the narrators and I have learned a narrator can make or break a book – making a good book bad, or even a not do great book, wonderful…. narration is a magical thing 🙂

I talk about this today because audio is a while different level to a book and if you have a favorite book – I highly encourage you to try it on audio for a different experience…. you may be surprised. The Harry Potter books for instance on audio are FANTASTIC – there are two sets with two different narrators, Jim Dale and Stephen Fry – both are EXCELLENT.

Yesterday I started listening to The Martian by Andy Weir, narrated by R C Bray and wow oh wow oh wow!!!! I am seriously loving this audio book… considering at this time gushing about it as much as I gushed about Ready Player One…. which, in two years, I listened to twice, gushing both times…. in 2011, and in 2014.

here

and here.

Ok I have to go… enough with the gush…. just know that if you have not tried audio… you are missing out on another level to the reading experience… and if you tell me you have tried audio and it didn’t work for you…

Try again 😀

Seriously…. dig through my reviews here or ask me for a list of AMAZING titles…. I would be happy to point you in the direction of great audio….

Oh and if you are an audio book person feel free to share the excellent titles you have listened to.

You know… I will talk about this again. 🙂

Have a super day…. work for me… then maybe a bike ride 🙂

Happy Easter, Books, and What’s For Dinner

Published on April 20, 2014April 20, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Happy Easter! It is the start of a beautiful day here in Minnesota. It is supposed to get to 72 degrees today! My heart be still 🙂

I have had quite a group of books come in as of late:

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares (audio)

The Other Story by Tatiana De Rosnay (audio)

Long Mile Home (audio)

Essentialist (audio)

Looking For Me by Beth Hoffman

Owen’s Daughter by Jo-Ann Mapson

The Shadow Year by Hannah Richell

One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern

After Her by Joyce Maynard

Return To The Beach House by Georgia Labockoven

Fallout by Sadie Jones

The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee

Flying Shoes by Lisa Howorth

Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly Whittenmore

Dinner is going to be with our oldest son Brad who has been back living in town since he finished his time in the Navy in October. Sadly, College son will not make it home today due to his work schedule, however we will see him in three weeks when he graduates 😀

Dinner will be ham, cream cheese potatoes, sweet potatoes, cottage cheese with pineapple, dinner rolls, and a strawberry cheesecake for dessert with a graham cracker and dark chocolate crust.

Have a wonderful day 😀

Literary Weekend Trip and a Tasty Recipe

Published on April 19, 2014April 19, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)36 Comments

I thought this morning I would do a combo post between Saturday Snapshot and Weekend cooking… both memes that I love to participate in as I enjoy taking pictures and trying new things in the kitchen… but dont always have the time to write the posts. 🙂

Last weekend I ventured to the North Shore to our cabin… just me and my dog with the plan to do a little spring cleaning, a little reading and movie watching and just wind down… before spring really hits and life winds up and I go go go!

Large left: the tunnel by Two Harbors Top two right: Just fun things between Duluth and the North Shore Bottom two right: Road as you drive into the rocky terrain, this road was actually blasted through the rock to be made, and the far bottom right is the outside wall of the famous Glensheen mansion, I have toured it many times.

**Sammy made the trip with me. We made a pit stop in Two Harbors for frozen custard.**

While at the cabin in Finland Minnesota I read two books and watched three movies. It felt great 🙂 I never have time to do things like that.

To post your own pics, or to see others and what they are posting this weekend… check out Saturday Snapshot.

Switching gears, a friend of mine hooked me up with a tasty little recipe I would like to share for weekend cooking. Like reubens? This you will LOVE.

Reuben Roll

1 tube Pillsbury Pizza Dough
1/4 cup thousand island dressing, + 2 tbsp for top
1/4 pound sliced corned beef or pastromi deli meat, chopped up (I used deli turkey as I am not a fan of corned been or pastrami)
3/4 cup Sauerkraut, drained and squeezed dry
2 cups grated Swiss cheese, + 1/2 cup for top

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Unroll the Pillsbury pizza dough on a greased baking sheet. Press to about 14 inches x 9 inches. Bake for 8 minutes then remove from oven. Spread the 1/4 cup of thousand island dressing over the crust, all the way to the edges. Top with the chopped corned beef, drained sauerkraut, and 2 cups of Swiss cheese. Carefully roll up the pizza into a tube. Place the pizza roll into a 9×5 inch loaf pan, seam side down.
Drizzle the top with the remaining thousand island dressing and shredded cheese. Continue baking for 10-12 minutes longer or until cheese is bubbly in the center. Carefully remove from pan and slice to serve. Enjoy!

It was delicious – I made it this past week for hubby and I and we both really enjoyed it.

See other fun recipes to try (and I have found more than a few!) by checking out Weekend Cooking.

Morning Meanderings… Gone Girl – Gone VIRAL!

Published on April 17, 2014April 17, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

Good morning – happy Thursday… another week just a plugging away to the weekend…

As of recent weeks I have noticed my Gone Girl Spoiler Page, a post I wrote in July of 2012, getting an increasingly high number of hits each day… right around that 200 -400 mark. I chalked it up to the fact that the movie was starting to catch some buzz now as this has happened with other spoiler pages I have written on books that later become movies….

then on Wednesday afternoon I seen my stat bar and realized that after a year of trying to break my last all time high blog views in a day record of 1,587… I had now blown it out of the water with 2,857 blog views on Tuesday April 14th, 1,643 of them coming from the Gone Girl Spoiler page.

😯

Sadly… that probably blows my personal goals of beating my old stats record out of the water… and I also noticed unusual traffic coming into that post from spam comments. (What is up with the “spell caster” spam? Anyone else receiving that where it is some sad story of lost love but then the “spell caster” can return your love to you…

AND… isn’t it fully that this is associated with the “Gone Girl spoiler post”, and no where else?

Just thinking out loud….:D

Since I closed comments on the post yesterday due to the weird activity… the traffic on it has dropped to 600… lol…. and will probably keep falling 😉

So… today should be good – I work and then tonight I am having a Membership Drive meeting for the Friends Of The Brained Public Library… kind of excited.

And an update on the snow… looks like about 5 inches.