Category: Meanderings

In Winters past I have spent the slower months of the year watching all the seasons of The Gilmore Girls in the cool evenings.  This was a tradition I loved, steeping myself with hot cups of tea while watching the fast paced dynamic duo of Lorelai and Rory.  The coffee swigging mom and the bookish references made the show even more enduring to me.  Oh how I longed to live in Star Hallow. 

And then…. this year I was introduced to the Walking Dead by so-called friends (oh you know who you are…. 😉 )  A crazy zombie show that I thought I would never get into and then there I was buying all three seasons at the Thanksgiving Day sale and then proceeding to devour them with my husband… fully immersed in a story line of survival in the craziest of circumstances. 

But oh no…. the three seasons were watched quickly and by the end of January it was still full on winter here in Minnesota and my evening fix was gone…. so I moved on to something more hard-core…

Breaking Bad.

Yes yes you goof ball people who said “It’s amazing!” as I shook my head furiously and responded, “It is a show about making meth?  How can that be awesome?”  Yet, in a desperate move for something interesting to watch last week Al and I pulled up the first season episode one on Netflix and wow….  a teacher who makes and sells meth to earn money for his cancer treatments and to provide for his family….

we are addicted. 

I feel I am now ruined for all things cutesy and sweet.  Now I am hard-core zombies and meth.  😯

Seriously…. who am I?

Spring can not come soon enough… clearly I need to get out of the house.

Good morning!  Friday! Lots of good adventures coming today and throughout the weekend and I am sitting here with COFFEE CUP on the cusp of my day but instead… doing nothing. 🙂

It will get busy soon. 😉

My regular readers know we have three dogs.  I did not mean to have three dogs.  Two years ago we were down to just Bailey, our now 16-year-old shih tzu.  Then Sammy (estimated at the time to be a year and a half) came along in April 2012… a stray, abandoned, unwanted cute as a button and homeless and we took him in.  Three months later we rescued Mater, an abused Beagle/Basset hound, about 4 months old and in need of a “forever home”.

It’s funny because while they can be really fun they are also a real handful.  For instance, there is no such thing as giving one of them a taste of whatever you are eating… IE a burger or popcorn.  Nope, that is three faces looking up at you so everything is three tastes.  On the bright side… I think I may eat less 😀

Just this week I was going to give them a bone.  I buy these real meat bones from the meat department at our grocery store.  They like them a lot and the vet says it is good for their teeth.  I realized I only had two bones left in the package I had bought.  Two bones… three dogs.  I had some rawhide bones too so I gave Sammy and Mater the real bones, and gave Bailey, who doesn’t have as many teeth as the younger ones, a rawhide bone. 

I am not proud of what I did.  😯

Well, it was like having three children and one received something different.  Bailey looked at the other bones… then at his.  Then…

at me.

I felt like poo.

Thankfully I dug around in the refrigerator and did find another lone bone from another package that I was saving because I did not have enough to give all of them.  Lesson learned.  I need three of everything. 😀

In about 45 minutes I have coffee with a friend, then a meeting at the library, followed by a few errands to run and ending up at the gym by early afternoon. Book review up later and later yet… a fun kickoff tot he weekend post you will not want to miss. 😀

How is your weekend shaping up?  Any plans?

Good morning!  On Tuesday evening of this week the Bookies who read the book Labor Day by Joyce Maynard gathered for a pre-movie gathering at a local Mexican restaurant for appetizers. 13 of us attended and that was a lot of fun!

We called ourselves (ok..ok, I named them) the Labor Day Thirteen.  We were sent 10 tickets to go and celebrate the movie and we all pitched in a couple of dollars to include to buy the three additional tickets.  

It was so much fun to hang out as a group!  We practically owned the theater when we arrived, so we thought we were rock stars!  Then a couple came in…. they must have wondered what such a big group was doing. 

We had a blast and really enjoyed the movie.  As we left the theater we excitedly chatted about book vs. movie, what we liked better in the book, what we liked better in the movie… what shocked us (of yeah – there was a shocker in the movie that left us as one voice gasping).  No spoiler.  😉

Later I will put up my movie review. 

Thank you so much to Harper Collins for this amazing opportunity to read the book as a group, grab some snacks, and see the movie together. 🙂

On another note…. our Libraries Blind Date event is going well.  One of the ladies who works there sent me an email last night asking what I thought about adding the book “The Girl You Left Behind” by Jojo Moyes.  She asked for my help writing the singles ad (see what I mean here).  I have not read this book yet so am asking if any of you have and if you could comment with an idea of what the ad could say. 🙂

Good morning! I feel rather wiped out today.  It was a busy day yesterday and perhaps the emotional pull this introvert has while engaging with two fairly large groups all afternoon and evening is taking its energy pull. 

Zapped is a good way to describe me right now. 😀

Anyhoo…

the date.

A couple of weeks ago you the awesome readers of Book Journey helped me with “singles ads” for the Blind Date event we were planning.  The ideas flew in and it was so much fun to read them and laugh at how witty you all are!  😀

Yesterday we kicked off the Blind Date event at the library.  52 books were put under pretty wraps and given a little singles ad blurb to possibly entice a reader to choose them. 

I was in the library during the later afternoon assisting in planning for our Annual Meeting for the Friends group so I was able to witness the activity around the display.  I enjoyed going and talking with people who were looking over the books explaining that they checked out a book that appealed to them, read it, fill out the “Rate Your Date” card that is tucked inside and return both.  While I was watching about 8 f these books checked out. 

I checked out one as well.  Although I helped with the cards that went on the book packaging I could not recall but a few of what book they were… I chose one instead that I felt fit me…

Last night, after coming home and feeling wiped out, I left “my date” in the car overnight.  😛  This morning I allowed him/her into the house and opened up the packaging…

Here is my date!  I have read Lisa Scottoline before, but not this one.  The singles add promising me kooky and uplifting “chick wit” and a glass of wine sold me.  We shall see how our date goes….

stay tuned.

When I wrote that original Blind Date post and asked you all to help me with the singles adds for books I also offered up a gift card to one awesome participant.  That winner of the $10 Amazon Gift Card is bookebelle0819 – #80 in the comments using random.org.  Congrats!  I will send that out by email!

Tonight, many of the Bookies Book Club will meet up for appetizers and then off to see the movie Labor Day as a group from our win of books and tickets.  We are excited!  I love the little extras we are able to do together 😀

Sunday already!  I feel I have hardly accomplished a thing!  I laid pretty low this weekend after such a busy week – staying home and catching up on things around here has been perfect. 🙂

Does anyone remember the old tv show Land Of The Lost?  I used to watch it when I was a kid.  If you remember the show, you remember Sleestak, creepy slow-moving “Jason Voorhees like” creatures that had webbed hands and feet.  Every winter I have this weird thing I do in my house…. I wear socks with sandals (so embarrassing) and every time I think of the Sleestak.

The books!  Oh yeah!  The books!  Now remember, I did not post last Sunday as I was out-of-town – AND I have been at two author events in the past two weeks so some of these I purchased to feed my addiction. 😉

I bought The Vanishing, The Crane Wife, More Than This, Red Moon, The Lace Reader (because Wendy Webb recommended it as it inspired her) and 400 Meals.

If you take those out – the books that came in the house are much more manageable. 😀

And finally, (and this I am pretty excited about!), my friend Stacy who writes over at The Novel Life, started a weekly meme called Ask The Bloggers.  Her first one went up today and I was thrilled to be a part of it.  She started by asking us “If you go back to just before you started your blog, what advice would you give to your former self?”

Please pop over there today and check it out and give her some comment love!  After all, I think we all have thoughts on that question. 😀 I also believe you will recognize some of the other bloggers involved. *waves to Kathy!*

So there is my morning post.  I need to get ready for church and this afternoon I have some house keeping to do, gym work, and prep for a couple really fun things coming up tomorrow.  1.  Tomorrow I am part of an every other week Movie Night for women at our church where we will watch a movie and then discuss it.  Our first one will be The Bucket List.  2.Tomorrow (also as luck would have it) is our Friends Of The Library Annual Meeting where we will go over the roles of the board, give an update on Wine and Words 2014, and announce dates of what is coming up as well as reveal our new logo.

Life….

is never dull. 😀

Good morning!  Happy Friday!  If I could… I would roll in this day.  On the carpet….  like a dog. 😀  I have had a whirlwind week of being gone last weekend and coming home on Sunday for ten minutes before I dropped off the dog, picked up a book and headed another direction for a work retreat that brought me to Tuesday afternoon where I went home, showered, and left with my friend Amy to an author event in the cities.

*whew*

Wednesday I was tired, and Thursday I started to recover but yes… today – being a non work day… oh yeah 😀  I have a couple fun commitments this afternoon but for the most part…. January 31st is mine.

Coming our of January I am fairly pleased with how my reading month went to kick off 2014.  I read:

Then Again by Diane Keaton (audio)

The Broken Path by Cami Checketts (audio)

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberley McCreight

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich

Flowers In The Attic by V C Andrews

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (audio)

I have a few reviews to write yet,but over all I am pleased with the month considering I have hardly read a thing this past week.  You can see my WHERE are you reading page here, and my map (Which I love!!!) here.

How is your reading this first month into the year?

I am also still looking for the authors for Wine and Words this year.  I am securing two Minnesota authors but would also like two from outside Minnesota. If you have any suggestions of who would make a great speaker for this August 22nd event that will have 200 people in attendance to hear them and purchase books, please email me at journey through books @gmail.com.