This morning Al (hubby) is leaving for a job in North Dakota for 6 weeks. It’s crazy – but it’s also good. Our business we own is pretty much shut down every winter from now until March. This is a bonus job he is doing with a friend.
As for me… well… I am pretty independent so my plan other than work and working out (more on that tomorrow morning) will be reading and writing… the writing part really being something I have neglected for a while now.
Today I am listening to Ready Player One and so in love with this audio! I mean really – if you have any connection to the 80’s you will LOVE this, and please do yourself justice and go for the audio. This is the best advice I can give you…. I feel currently that this is going to be the best audio I have listened to this year… pushing past some incredible audio!
I will be around today, catching up on the four reviews that I have yet to write…. reading for the INSPY’s and I don’t know… maybe watching a little Gilmore Girls. 😀
How is everyone surviving the Thanksgiving weekend? Honestly I feel soooo behind. I have had the best of intentions to post reviews the last few days and the fact is… I need to write them first. My week has been busy with not only Thanksgiving prep and crazy hours of shopping, but also a good friend of mine’s sister passed away on Wednesday and I have been spending time with her as well as she goes through this hard time.
Yesterday College Son (Justin) spent all day with me from the crazy shopping to afternoon errands to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. It’s hard to catch him when he is in town as he is off visiting friends but having him all day on Thursday and most of Friday was a blessing. He will be hanging out with us a while today before he heads back to Mankato this afternoon to prepare his projects for school again on Monday.
So this morning I was trying to think what pictures I was going to post for Alyce’s Saturday Snapshot as well as Candice’s Weekend Cooking post and decided if I want to add another post I have been working on this afternoon – I had to (just this once) combine the two meme’s.
In honor of Thanksgiving…. here is what I have to share.
SO… you may have heard of a very odd (IMO) tradition of stuffing a turkey with a duck and inside the duck a chicken? (ughhh…. I so dont even like the visual image of this). It is called Turducken.
No worries… I did not do it, BUT this past week I heard of something a little visually comforting and a fun holiday treat and that is the combination of a cake and a pie. (I looked it up on the internet this morning… I guess the official title is Pumpple.
I have no “before” pictures… but it is fairly easy and you can get the steps here:
you will need:
a cake mix or two
a pie or two that you think would compliment the cake mix
In this particular two layer one… the cake mixes were spice and yellow and the pies were pumpkin and apple.
Use round cake pans and put a little spray oil in the bottom and on sides. Mix up the cake mix as instructed on the box and put a layer in the bottom of your cake pan. Place your pie in the cake pan. Pour more cake mix over pie in the cake pan. Yes, you will have mix left over. Maybe make a few cupcakes or a mini cake.
Bake as instructed on the cake box. When done, cool and then frost. It looks pretty cool on a plate and when you cut into it. Its pretty tasty as well as a fun conversation piece for your next get together.
Verdict: It’s good. I liked the pumpkin pie and spice cake combo. I heard that a chocolate cake with pumpkin is really good too and since I am a fan of all things chocolate I would consider that one. 😛
Please stop by At Home With Books to see what others are posting today for Saturday Snapshots…
AND be sure to check out Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking which always has links to fantastic recipes that make you (ME) run right out the door to get the things to cook them! 😀
Today is going to be a low-key day and I am sooooo excited for that. I am going to write the missing reviews and between today and tomorrow get in some good reading time as well. I hope your weekend is a fantastic one.
Yesterday was a super fab day. Our youngest College son came home and spent the entire day with us, eating too much good food… watching movies, and playing board games.
Turkey!
Then….
at 9:30 pm… we headed out into the cold Minnesota night to do what only crazy people do… hit the sales. This is only my second time doing this and as I sit now in my recliner with sand filled eyes… I remember why I have not made this a yearly must.
It’s cold. There is a TON of crazy people in the area I live in. The crowds. The pushing. The crabbies. The lines. Did I mention it’s cold? 😯
BUT…
it is also crazy fun and Walmart at 10 pm Thursday night was hilarious. We could not even park in the super center parking lot… instead we parked across the highway at JC Penney’s and walked over.
The people were pushy to say the least and the crowds were probably “fire marshall worthy”… I found none of the items that were on my list as I could not get through the people. My son Justin found a few movies and a board game.
check out lines at Wal-Mart Thursday nightWal-Mart parking lot Thursday night
Then we went to Target…. also crazy but in a different way. They did not open their doors until midnight so at 11:30 pm we found our way to the back of the line that then wrapped around the front of the building. All I can say is thank God there was no snow or wind… I don’t think I could handle it.
Target at 11:30 pm last night. We were in line around the corner from the front side of the building.
When we did get to go in – kudos to Target for having a plan. They had people directing traffic, aisles taped off to keep us from getting grid locked and I went right to the movie sections without feeling I was taking my life into my own hands. We left Target with movie purchases and a new IPOD home for me. That was happy shopping.
We swing in, and quickly out, of Best Buy. They are just too congested in their set up anyway to be able to do Black Friday right. While I did pick up a movie I would have liked to have – I would rather pay full price for it on a different day then wait over an hour (I am sure) in their crazy long line.
We were home by 1:20 am… and I was in bed by 1:45 am.
It’s not over.
I was up at 5 am, waking Justin and we were out the door by 5:15 am to go the Mennards sale. Mennard’s had the one thing I really wanted and my husband was buying it for me for Christmas… but it was my job to face the crazies and go and get it. Not a problem for someone just as crazy. 😛
This time we were again in a line probably farther back then we were a few short hours prior at Target. Again we were thankful for no snow. It was cold… and I wished I was in Florida for Black Friday shopping… but it was doable.
And….
it paid off. I get the Cricut machine I had wanted for $119. I picked up several cartridges for $12.99 each. Justin and I had fun, it wasn’t too crazy and we were back home by 7:15 am. He is already back in bed… later we will go do lunch. I am writing this post and going to catch a couple of hours of sleep myself.
SSSQQQUUUEEE!!!!! My very own Cricut! (and assorted goodies)The cartridges I picked up for the Cricut.... which... needs a name......
The weekend will be much quieter and I am excited to catch up on a few reviews and checking out the blog world to see what you are all up too.
Anyone else crazy enough to pull off the sales? Oh please share the stories! 😛
I have no idea what a grub monkey is, but if there was a picture of one in the dictionary… I am pretty sure it would look like me right now. 😯
ANYWAY…. yesterday I received some sad news that kept me away from the house until late. In fact, by the time I did come home I was so emotionally exhausted that I curled up on the couch and was asleep by 8:30 pm and slept on the couch all night long.
This morning… I feel grubby… you know… like you feel when you have been camping in that hot plastic tent and you wake up feeling… microwaved? Yeah… that’s me right now. (Sorry about the visual :razz:)
And now as I sit here typing I am looking at my kitchen table… which is laughable and I think… picture worthy.
I think tomorrow morning… I will show you what my table and kitchen looked like AFTER I prepped for Thanksgiving. 😛
So what accompanies during this prep today? Ready Player One on audio and I am LOVING it.
Even in this mess, I am thankful for family and friendships and the combination of friends who are like family. ♥ I am thankful for my home and my job. I am thankful for the pets in my life… past and present. I am thankful for my health. I am thankful for this little corner of the internet that I call my blog home and for all of you who visit and make me smile. I am thankful for the opportunities that present themselves every day – big or small, they make me who I am.
Life happenings (yes again!) are going to keep this short and to the point today… BUT
I have to mention two kind of fun things as we go into this Thanksgiving weekend:
1. I am being featured over at Alyce’s At Home With Books today where I am talking abut my love/hate relationship with Anita Shreve. Please take a moment today and go check that out. 😛
2. My review of One Perfect Day by Lorraine Snelling came out in Her Voice magazine yesterday. I am on page 30 and 31.
I have to run… but plan to be back later with a review and yet this week with a list of bookish holiday gifts that I love and I think you will too. 😀
Every Monday as I am perusing The Monday What Are You Reading posts I almost consistently leave these posts with a book (or two.. or three) added to me already impossibly massive TBR (To Be Read). AND each week I think I should rat out these bloggers who make my TBR grow to a dangerously tippy pile because they described a book so well and made it sound so appealing… I could not pass it up.
If I ever have a book related injury… those who have added to me TBR (oh you know who you are) are fully to blame. 😛
SO this week I came almost unscathed from the Monday posts except for one.
Christina from Reading Extensively caught me in a book trap when she talked about Anne Ursu’s book Breadcrumbs.
Now I may have been able to pass on this cover… but what I could not pass on was Christina’s description…
“I wasn’t sure if I’d like this at first since I don’t care for the original fairy tale but this retelling was very nicely done and I loved all the references to Narnia, Harry Potter, and other books.”
Seriously… I am a big sucker for book references in other books.
In other bookish moments I have just survived (barely) the assassination of Lincoln (Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly) and the hunt is now on for John Wilkes Booth. AND Bod Owens has just encountered the man who killed his entire family (The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman). AND my real life friend Eric Crabtree is sharing another account of his stint in the Air Force Base Hospital in Iraq in 2006 (A Captains Journal).
Its funny… it is early, but I am already running late. GAH. How does that happen? I need to be out of the house in 18 minutes…. I think that would be pushing it… but I will see what I can do. 😛
I am on the verge of finishing two audio books and three book books… all within the next day or two… does this happen to anyone else?
Seriously it feels like I have nothing to review and then wham! I am overloaded in reviews. I also have a review to do of the movie Atlas Shrugs (seriously… this is a review I am not looking forward to…)
As for today… I have a late breakfast with my friend Wendy and then back home to do a little reading and keep my weekend at a nice low blip. I am looking forward to this afternoon as being quiet and feel that will cause me to go into tomorrow well rested and ready to go into Thanksgiving week. (How did it get to be Thanksgiving already?)
I suppose this will be a crazy week for some of you, but for us… not so much. We do not have a lot of family and our son Justin will be coming home (YAY!!!) but Brad will be in Jacksonville Florida (Navy) until his leave in January.
Our holiday get togethers usually mean movies, board games, and food. It works for us. 😛
Ok… I am off. I will be back this afternoon with a review and later with the What Are You Reading post.
I would like to say that it has been hard…. and that would be true… but I also have to admit that I am learning through this…. and growing through this… in positive ways.
One thing that has been made abundantly clear this past week is that I am not alone. People everywhere are dealing with pain and while it is not the same as mine – it is just as real and just as painful to each person.
On a lighter note… I am having a pretty low key weekend here and loving it. Yesterday, I didnt even leave the house. Cleaned a little, slept a little, and caught up on some much needed down time after a fairly busy week and returning from Honduras last weekend.
Today, for Saturday Snapshot I thought I would post a few more of the pics from my week in Honduras:
Steps up the side of a mountain
Bird of Paradise against a building
We seen this at a restaurant we stopped at
Alyce from At Home With Books hosts this meme. Stop over and see what others are posting for Saturday Snapshots!
I am a tad bit groggy this morning… but things are still doable. 😀 Last night I went with a couple good friends (*waves at Amy and Dee*) to go see the midnight showing of the Release of the Breaking Dawn movie.
So the question this morning (and the question earlier this morning as I drove home at 2:11 am…. ) was it worth it?
If I enjoy a book, I want to see the movie. I know that many people disagree with me here and think a movie can spoil a book. I don’t think so. A movie – rarely lives up to the emotions and visions a book produces…. however, I personally find it interesting to see how a movie director would see the same scenes I read….
I really like the diversity in visions…. and occasionally – the movie vision can be outstanding.
So back to the question… was it worth it. Yes, to the point that I would have wanted to see it anyway… no to the fact that while the movie was ok… it was not Harry Potter phenomenal (not that I thought it would be…) and in fact there are a couple of scenes that were down right cheesy. (Que the talking wolf scene….)
BUT – to go hang out with friends… leaving my house at 11:10 pm to sit in a theater waiting for a movie to start at midnight, with good friends….
priceless.
😛
Recommended? Sure… it tells a story and if you have read the books and followed the movies so far, why not?
Now, hopefully I can be somewhat productive today… I have books to mail, bills to pay, and a home that could use a little attention (this equals audio time!) 😀
Recently I posted about my book clubs last read, Cleopatra. Lets just say it did not qualify for our best book of the year. Lets say…. not even close.
It has been fun these last few days as I have heard from the girls in the Bookies either call me, text, or Facebook comments about the book and how much they did not like it.
That makes me happy. 😀
Don’t get me wrong, we all know when we are believing a book will be awesome it is a let down when it is not… BUT… some of our best discussions over the past years have come out of bad books. Its true…
Wuthering Heights. Out first ever classic read received a scorching review. I for one liked it… I think because I was so thrilled I had read a classic… but also.. it was fun to diagnose Kathryn in modern terms…. bipolar comes to mind… that woman was either way up… or way down. No middle for Kathryn. 😀
And this morning I see that Angie from By Book and By Crook has posted her review of Cleopatra. Angie is an original Bookie, has been on our book group with me since day one. I think she rocks at choosing books… but we all have our moments… as I reminded her in a comment this morning…
I once chose The Fourth Hand by John Irving for our book club to read…. MANY MANY years ago. I thought it would be funny… instead it was creepy. I think one may still rate as worst book we ever tried to read as a group…. HOWEVER…. while I can not tell you what we actually did in that review as that has to go down in the Bookies vault…. I can say…
It was memorable. 😛
On another random bookish (sort of) note, I have my ticket for tonight’s midnight showing of Breaking Dawn. Yes… I am that crazy. A couple of my friends are going and asked if I would like to come too…. it really is more about the hour and the friends than it is about the movie. 😀 (Ok… I am a little curious what they did with this one…
Book Journey 