11-22-63 by Stephen King

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

November 22, 1963.  A date that is well know in the history books.  The day that President Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.

But what if there was a way that this moment could be changed?  What if there was a way that you could go back in time and have a do-over of that day or that time… and by placing yourself in the right place at the right time… you could change it all…

That is what happens to thirty-five year old Jake Epping.  Jake is a High School English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine by day, and frequents a local diner at night owned by his friend Al.  One night Al, shares a secret with Jake, there is a porthole in his storage room that takes you back to 1958.  Skeptical (who wouldn’t be?), Jake decides to humor his friend and goes into the storage room…

and comes out in 1958.

Astounded.  Excited.  Jake returns to present time and the diner where Al fills him in on how he discovered the porthole, and what he had done in the past.  Al, who is sick and knows his time is short wants to pass the ultimate mission to Jake… to go back in time and stop President Kennedy from being killed.

Jake agrees and begins the adventure of a lifetime, going back to 1958 under the name of George Amberson and living within the vicinity of Lee Harvey Oswald from 1958 to 1963.  Jake (AKA George) takes a teaching job, enjoys the peacefulness of a laid back pre-internet society, and the 1958 prices, buying his time until the day would come to save Kennedy.

What he did not count on was meeting the lovely Sadie Dunhill… or the fact that the past does not want to change and will fight to make sure it does not.

Another cover… I really like this one

I was  not a girl who enjoyed History back in school.  For me it hit right up there with math class.  BLAH.  Boring.  Yet years later I find I like to know more and more about the past… and when I discovered Historical Fiction, I found a happy Sheila… a mix of two things I found I enjoyed.

Now when you read this book title and then the synopsis you may be scratching your head.  Stephen King?  Where is the murderous gore?  A pet Cemetery?  Possessed car?  A spooky clown?  (well, actually the clown is mentioned in this book in a brilliant way….)

But no.  No gore.  No horror.  A new more user-friendly version of King that I feel will reap new readers.

In its place, is a fascinating story of “what if”.  Mixed facts (the place, the Oswald’s, Kennedy) with fiction.  The result?  Brilliance.

I listened to this on audio…. yes 30+ hours long and probably the longest audio I have ever listened to.  Narrator Craig Wasson nailed it.  I loved it from the start.  There was no warm up session here… from the very beginning I was sold.  Great narration and great writing can do that.

Interestingly enough, King had first thought about this book in 1972, 9 years after the assassination, and right before the release of his first novel, Carrie.  He decided to put that thought on the back burner as it would require too much research while he was teaching full-time.  Initially King thought it would be titles Split Track.

11-22-63 is such a powerful book.  Stephen King did an amazing job smoothly traveling back and forth between 2011 and 1958, switching between cell phones and twenty-five cent burgers.  The walk back in time was real enough for me to feel that I was walking along those streets of 1958 – 1963, scoping out a very real and very dangerous Lee Harvey Oswald.  Even listening to the climax of this book made the hairs on my neck stand on end…. perhaps, it felt a little to real to the actual event?

At the end of the audio, do not miss out of Stephen Kings own words about the book, the research and his recommendation of books to read to learn more about the assassination. A couple of the titles I managed to write down:

Marina and Lee by Priscilla Johnson

Case Closed by Gerald Posner

Oswald’s Tale by Norman Mailer

For me I can not stress enough that you must take time to read or listen to this book.  Audio lovers, you are in for a treat – Craig Wasson was fantastic… and that even does not seem like a strong enough word.  I loved listening to this and I will miss it now that it is over.  Easily the best audio I have listened to this year.

Visit me in the Spoiler chat room to talk about this book in spoiler detail and to see a list of the awesome book references hiding within the pages of 11-22-63:

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

 

  • Audible Audio Edition
  • Listening Length: 30 hours and 44 minutes
  • Program Type: Audiobook
  • Version: Unabridged
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
  • Audible.com Release Date: November 8, 2011

 

I downloaded this audiobook from audible.com

Morning Meanderings… Ummm… Where Are The book Reviews/ Sunday Salon?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)38 Comments

Happy Sunday all. 😀  You may have noticed that in this past week I have not posted one review.  Not one.

😯

I am not sure if that has even happened before. 

I chalk it up to a busy week with most nights (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) not getting home before 8 pm and one worn out book girl stumbled off to bed with book in hand read two pages and promptly fell asleep….

I also can attribute it to my current book and audio choices…

We’ve Got A Job is a beautiful large hardcover book with tons of pictures, yes, but also a lot of words and interesting facts that I read slowly to absorb. 

11-22-63 I have been listening to for the last two weeks.  This is a 30 hour and 44 minute audio book.  (The book is almost 900 pages).  I finished this one last night and WOW.  Really wow. 

My usual audio books are between 6 and 10 hours so you can see where this slowed me down…

and then of course there is my self-inflicted read of Jane Eyre… my goal of reading ten pages a day (FAIL!) and trying to keep up with that and by trying to read the ten (pages (FAIL!) a night without falling asleep to the wording of “thy master’s home… and feeling swoon….”  😯  Anyhoo… you will see an update on that hopefully later today in the Eyre report.

As for my Sunday Salon, the week was good and busy and I guess usual.  I worked all week, went to dinner Tuesday night at a friend’s home for Valentines Day as hubby Al was out-of-town, and stayed way too late talking and laughing, Thursday I got in a good workout with a friend and again on Friday too, another hour and a half chalked up!

On Saturday morning I had a baby shower to attend and then I met a friend for lunch.  I picked up steaks for dinner as Al came home late yesterday afternoon.  We caught up on the Survivor episode from this last week and three Modern Family Episodes.  It is good to have him home. 😀

As for today I have church this morning, I am hitting the Group Power Class at 12:30 and at 6 pm I play floor hockey.  I am working hard to keep up the work out momentum… I need to, as the bike rides and events will be here before I know it!  😀

What are you doing with your Sunday?

Morning Meanderings… The Rest Of The Story

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)40 Comments

 

Good morning!  😀  It has been three weeks since Al has been mostly away on a job but today he will be returning home.  I found out a couple of days ago while texting him while I was going in the local library… it went like this:

Me:  How’s the job going?

Al:  Possibly done tomorrow then start moving equipment out on Saturday.

Me:  ok

Al:  Just ok?

Me:  I am in the library I have to be quiet 😛

Al:  K

Me:  Are you in a library too?

Al:  Ha ha

Me:  Woo Hoo!

Al:  That’s better.

 

Here is what I have for Alyce’s Saturday Snapshot today…

Earlier this week I mentioned I had an awards event to go to…  I even gave you a hint…

What I went to was the Annual Kidventure Awards at our church.  This is a night to honor those who have volunteered in the past year.  We were encouraged to wear either red, yellow, or orange…. a trip to our local Good Will in December helped me find what I was planning…

It was a lot of fun, about 60 people were there and when they voted for best dressed… I took best female and Craig (dressed in a one piece long john thing) won best dressed for the men.  Oh the things I do….LOL

Today I have a baby shower this morning and a lunch date with a friend.  This afternoon I hope to get in a little reading time, it’s been lacking this week.  Late afternoon, Al should be home.  😀

Morning Meanderings… Why You Shouldnt Blog When You Are Tired

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Good morning!  Yes I was MIA yesterday. And yes I Mean MIA – as there was ACTION.  I have had a busy evening every night since Sunday.  Something to know about me… I don’t function well without *”crash breaks.”

*crash break:  A day when I do nothing more than laundry, reading, dusting, reading, and maybe dishes. Maybe.  Thus re-energizing to go again on another day!

So here is what happens when I do blog and I am not focused (an hopefully this makes sense because it s a little “who’s on firsty” (YES…. firsty is a word.  MY WORD.)  😛

Ok…. so a couple of days ago I posted a book blogger video that was about what book bloggers say….  one of the words that was said in the vlog was “awesome sauce”. 

Ryan from My Life In Books left a comment saying he’s never heard someone say “awesome sauce” and maybe he should try it.   My sleep deprived mind, thought the comment was from Ryan from Wordsmithonia.  I have chatted with Ryan (Wordsmithonia) for years and so seeing the comment and thinking it was from him, I challenged him to use the word “awesome sauce” in a review this week. 

THEN (and here is where it gets crazy) I clicked on his name, went on Ryan (My Life In Books) blog and let him know I challenged him, STILL not realizing I was on the wrong blog and the wrong Ryan.  😯

So today Ryan (My Life In Books) leaves me a comment that he has fulfilled the challenge.  Now having caught up fully on my sleep I clicked on his name to go see how he used the word in his review.  Once on his blog I was surprised by the look of it.  I thought, “did Ryan change his blog layout?” and then… because maybe I am not as caught up on my sleep as I thought, “Did Ryan also change the name of his blog?”

Yup… its true… not always the sharpest knife in the drawer…

Then… it hit me.  Wrong Ryan. 😯

To sum it up – Thank you Ryan from My Life In Books for responding to a challenge from someone you probably don’t really know and probably thought “ok crazy book blogger girl….” and thank you Ryan from Wordsmithonia who is just getting looped into this craziness this morning.   You are both pretty awesome for putting up with me.  😀

I should go to work now…. 😛

Morning Meanderings… Significant Bloggy Moments

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Good morning!!!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day!  I really did.  Al is still out-of-town but he sent me a lovely dozen assorted colored roses to my work yesterday…. “ahhhhhhhh”

Then last night I had dinner over at friends of ours homes which was a lot of fun.  I went over early to chat with my friend Amy, I brought a bottle of wine and dessert and she made stuffed shells which were delicious!  It was really a nice evening and we ate and talked and it was really kind of nice.  Her husband Chad and their older daughter joined us at the table and by the time I pulled out of their driveway I was shocked to see it was going on 10 pm.  I never meet to stay that long but apparently the conversation was just what I needed.  (Thanks friends!)

 

In staying with Reagans week of Book Blogger Reader Appreciation this week. her question on the table was what significant moment have we had in out blogging life… I think like a defining moment.  For me that has to be BEA.

The Book Expo was a new thing to me.  Apparently Brainerd Minnesota is placed directly under a large rock and I had never heard of such a thing.  An event for book lover…. publishers, authors, and book bloggers all meet in one amazing week in New York.  KNow what else was new to me?

New York.

I don’t have a lot of time to give you the story I would like to this morning as I am currently typing on borrowed time but I have to say that BEA was a defining moment in this bloggers life.  People you commented with on-line…. were there in the flesh.  AND most impressive to me, they were exactly like they were on-line.  REAL PEOPLE.  I chalk that up to being readers…. we are real..  3 dimensional.  There was not one person that I thought “wow, they are so different from I thought they would be”. 

Meeting people whose blogs you enjoy is wonderful.  It strengthened the community for me.  It gave me new people to read and follow.  We had meals together, we went to book parties together… a dream really… a dream come true.

I wish I could say more and I wish I could add some pictures of the experience but I prepped none of this last night.  I came home, I went to bed.  😀

Do you have a defining moment on your blogging life?  Share it here… and be sure to check out Reagans week of events and posts she has going on over at Miss Remmers Reviews. 

No Comment. YES!!! COMMENT!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)66 Comments

Have you met my dear friend Reagan of Miss Remmers Reviews?  She is a teacher, a hockey coach, a book blogger, and a fun to hang with gal.  She was also my roommate at BEA the last two years ans to prove it… here we are:

Good times... good times....

Anyhoo…. Reagan is hosting a Book Blogger Reader Appreciation Week and I love the idea!  She is planning a whole week of appreciation posts and I want to participate where I can.  Today, (actually yesterday) we were asked to share out book blogger history and how we feel about comments. 

I started blogging in early 2009, but did not let my blog go public until June 2009.  At the time, I did not even know what book blogging was, I was just writing reviews for my own records and pretty much using wordpress as an online book journal. 

My first comment came on June 9, 2009…. the day I refer to as my blogiversary date as that is when book blogging came alive for me.  I even remember where that first comment came from, it was Bookin’ With Bingo and it scared me.  😯  I had received an email notification that someone had commented on one of my review posts.  Wha?  😯  I checked it out and there was this stranger telling me they liked my thoughts on the book.  Wha?  😯  I cautiously clicked their link afraid I was going to be whooshed to some dirty site that would eat my computers brain….. but no… what did I find…..

(cue the music)

Yup… a whole new world.  I was shocked.  There was someone out there like me!  Someone else that talked books!  Two of us!  Together we could conquer the book world!!!   (I truly had no idea ….) 

And so it began… from that book site, I found others, and found publishers and authors, and people willing to send you a book to review (WHAT????) 

Now fast forward to current time… 2 3/4 years in.  Yes, the books are awesome – but I buy my own books all the time as well as use my library to read books I wish too, but really… the heart of book blogging for me – is sharing my thoughts with you and hearing your thoughts on what I say.  Yes, I am talking comments.  I LOVE to sit down with a cup of coffee and my laptop and carry on conversations with you through my posts.  And by doing this, I get to know my frequent commenters, and I love that! 

I like knowing that Kathy and her hubby like to go visit their son Vance, and that in the 1990’s they lived in France (and no, that wasn’t suppose to rhyme….. 😉 )

Esme constantly makes me jealous with her worldy travels and fantastic food experiences.  She still teases me that I used to visit her blog in 2009 and tell her that I could not stop at her blog any more because I always left hungry!  Who knew in 2010 I would be sharing a room with her in New York for BEA?

Laurel would be a book blogger I would introduce myself to on a book site (how sad I can not recall the name) in June 2009 and then all this time later she is still one of my top commenters!

Care not only would become another roommate at BEA 2010 (we really had the rotating roommates that year LOL) but she would go on to remember my birthday every year AND send me a birthday card in the mail!

Alison has very similar book tastes to mine and when I read a review on her site, I know I will probably like the book as well.  We have run into each other the last two years at BEA and went to the same author events.  I look forward to seeing her again this year and hanging out!

Kim would turn me to non fiction books more than I ever was and I would never look back.  She also was not only a BEA roommate of 2010, but got together with me and a handful of other bloggers for a Twin Cities book event in the fall of 2010.

Ryan is this amazing single dad who loves his son, and loves to talk books, favorite characters, and movies. 

Lori and I email back and forth about books and occasionally life. 

Reagan of course would not only be my roommate twice for BEA but also my roommate at the Twin Cities Book event and calls me to talk books and blogging and life!

(and of course there are so many more I could go on and on….)

My point of saying this is that to me, there is a person behind the comment and I love that!  I love being able to welcome someone back from a vacation, or telling them to get well soon because I know they are sick. And I know each of these people because they commented and I did back and by reading each others posts, you learn a little something. 😀

Someone once said that comments are the bread and butter of a book blogger and I would tend to agree with that.  I love to unwind from my day with all of you. 

My goal is 2012 is to get back into a rhythm of commenting.  I used to be a great commenter, and commented on every comment and visited their blog if they had one as well and commented their.  Well of course life happens, but I do still get around as I can and try to stop in and say hi (bug me if I havent done that lately…. 😀 )

To wrap up this LONG post I want to do a giveaway today in honor of Reagan’s BBRAW.  Leave a comment (yup that’s it!) here today sharing with me your thoughts on comments and I will enter you into a drawing for a $10 gift card to Amazon.  Winner drawn using random.org on Friday the 17th. 

Oh!  And its not too late to sign up for BBRAW!  Go here!

Morning Meanderings… Have you seen this?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)35 Comments

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!  This calls for coffee!  *runs and trips over dog trying to get to the coffee pot*

Any way – good morning!  Life is – BUSY.  I only made it around to the first 31 IMWAYR posts yesterday, but I did find something pretty cool at Cindy’s Love Of Books.  The awesome Parajunkee organized a few bloggers together to make a fun vlog that makes me smile every time I watch it…. and oh yeah, I have watched it a few times now:

Is that not……

awesome sauce?  😛

Standing ovation to:

Tynga’s Reviews

My Five Monkeys

Rabid Reads

Bookish Brunette

Book Faery

and of course Parajunkee

 

For my valentine’s day nothing big here… hubby is out-of-town and I work and then I hope to work out.  Friends have invited me over for dinner and if I am doing that I am bringing along a fun desert that I seen on someones blog recently… (I think it was a blog…. it may have been Facebook…. gah… I don’t recall)…

 

I have two giveaway winners to announce from my birthday giveaways last week.  From my Judie Fein, Life Is A Trip review I offered a $10 Amazon gift card.  That winner (using random.org) is:

Diana Mack!!!

your gift card was emailed to you this morning!

And… the winner of the book, Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children is…

Kristin D from Kritters Rambling

Kristin send me your address to journeythroughbooks@gmail.com and I will send the book your way!

And….

The $10 Amazon gift card from this post goes to :

Hannah at Word Lily

your gift card was emailed to you this morning!

Any plans for you this February 14?  Any themed books you are reading this week because you are just that cool?  (I am reading Bravo Valentine by Adrianna Trigiani).

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)57 Comments

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading?  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme.  I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

This past weeks winner:

Laura @BurgandyIce


WOO HOO!!!!  Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves  and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

Mid February already, can you believe it?  My week was busy, but I think they always are…. yet I did get in some book time!  Here is what happened this week:

 

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles (great debut author’s work!)


A chance to win Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children (extended to Tuesday!)

 

Life Is A Trip by Judie Fein (with a giveaway extended to Tuesday!)

 

Bitter Melon by Cara Chow (sometimes, it is good to be mad….)


The Eyre Of My Ways.… yes… I am going there… and yes, I am going in alone.  😯

 

SPIN by Catherine McKenzie ( new release, fun read…. yes, there is a bit of gushing 🙂 )

 

It was a pretty good week, I did not turn the tv on at all and spent my evenings reading until I went to bed.  Probably pretty “Little House On The Prairieish” , but it works for me.  I have another book I will have finished soon and 11-22-63 on audio is going to end this week as well.

So this week here is what I am planning:

When fifteen-year-old Jake Bergamot receives—and then forwards to a friend—a sexually explicit video that an eighth-grade admirer sent to him, the video goes viral within hours. The scandal that ensues threatens to shatter his family’s sense of security and identity—and, ultimately, their happiness. This Beautiful Life is a devastating, clear-eyed portrait of modern life that will have readers debating their assumptions about family, morality, and the choices we make in the name of love.

Wow right? 

 

 

 

 

The Angelini Shoe Company, one of the last family-owned businesses in Greenwich Village, has been making exquisite wedding shoes since 1903 but now teeters on the brink of financial collapse. To save their business from ruin, thirty-three-year-old Valentine Roncalli—apprentice to and granddaughter of master artisan Teodora Angelini—must bring the family’s old-world craftsmanship into the twenty-first century. Juggling her budding romance with dashing chef Roman Falconi, her duty to her family, and a design challenge presented by a prestigious department store, Valentine returns to Italy with her grandmother in a quest to build a pair of glorious shoes to beat their rivals. And in the course of discovering her true artistic voice and so much more in la bella Italia, Valentine will be turning her life and the business upside down in ways she never expected.

This is my book club read for February.  I read this a few years back but am excited to read and review again.  After all… its Adriana!  😀

 

 

 

 

This moving, coming-of-age story follows a young white girl who overcomes family prejudice and cultural differences when she befriends a black girl in a small working-class town.
Twelve-year-old Cassie narrates the dramatic events that unfold when Jemmie, an African-American girl, and her family move in next door. Despite their parents’ deeply held prejudice against each other’s family-exemplified by the fence Cassie’s father builds between their two houses-the girls find they share more similarities than differences. Mutual interests in reading and running draw them together, and their wariness of each other disappears. But when their parents find out about the burgeoning friendship, each girl is forbidden to see the other. A family crisis and celebration provide opportunities for the families to reach an understanding.

I cant wait to dig into this one!

 

 

 

 

The first in a stunning new series, The Cousins War, is set amid the tumult and intrigue of The War of the Roses. Internationally bestselling author Philippa Gregory brings this family drama to colourful life through its women, beginning with the story of Elizabeth Woodville, the White Queen The White Queen tells the story of a common woman who ascends to royalty by virtue of her beauty, a woman who rises to the demands of her position and fights tenaciously for the success of her family, a woman whose two sons become the central figures in a mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the Princes in the Tower whose fate remains unknown to this day.

I do love Philippa Gregory’s writing and it has been a long time since I indulged in her books!

 

 

 

 

As a big-time New York sports agent, Myron has a professional interest in Brenda. Then a personal one. But between them isn’t just the difference in their backgrounds or the color of their skin. Between them is a chasm of corruption and lies, a vicious young mafioso on the make, and one secret that some people are dying to keep–and others are killing to protect.

I adore Coben… no secret there!

 

 

 

 

So that’s the weeks plan.  I already started the Coben audio – SO GOOD!  And will be looking for more good audio at my library on line later tonight. 

– I will try to stop in and have a cup of coffee with you and see what you are reading 😀

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SPIN by Catherine McKenzie

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)18 Comments

How far would you go to get what you have always wanted?

Kate is a 30-year-old party girl.  She loves to go out with her friends and celebrate… well, anything!  When Kate lands an interview to write reviews for her favorite music magazine, The Line, that is something really worth celebrating!  And celebrate she does, perhaps a little too much the night before the big interview and showing up still intoxicated from the night before, she blows it.  Literally.

However a few days later the publishers of the magazine call her with an idea.  They also run a gossip magazine and the word is out that the current tabloid “it girl” Amber Sheppard has just entered rehab for her extreme partying ways.  If Kate is up to the challenge, the publishers would like to send her undercover into the 30 day rehab center to get the inside scoop.  If she does well, they will reconsider her for the Music Reporter position.

As Kate considers this opportunity to earn big bucks while tracking a mega star she creates a “to do” list:

  1. Go to rehab
  2. Befriend/spy on “It Girl”
  3. Write killer expose
  4. Land dream job

Piece of cake!

When Kate takes the assignment she is in for a few surprises along the way, one of them being as she goes through the steps wondering if perhaps she did need a little professional help with her partying ways, two being who knew she would meet an incredible hot guy, and three, she never dreamed that Kate Sheppard (her big assignment!) would turn out to be a real friend….

Kate has to decide if what she will gain in the long run will be worth the price she will have to pay. 

SPIN was actually a lot of fun to read.  You might look at the synopsis and think “oh boy… chick lit YA all the way”, but there is more to SPIN than that.

When I started the book I was annoyed with Kate.  Her life style was self-destructive and I have a “low tolerance policy (hence forth known as the LTP) for people who constantly blow up their life and then wonder why things go so poorly for them.

Once Kate enters rehab believing she is only on assignment and does not have a drinking problem is when I see author Catherine McKenzie shine.  Kate feels real…. clueless (in the beginning) but certainly real in her actions and even likable as she grows in so many ways during the rehab time.

And it’s not only about Kate.  Amber, as well as Henry, are wonderful supporting characters, and there is an assortment of pre- rehab friends that make appearances as well that all felt real.  There is a lesson to be found within the pages of SPIN, one on not judging someone based on gossip.  People in real life are so much more, and until you have seen where there life has led them to walk… you should not pretend you know what it is like to be in there shoes.

I really enjoyed SPIN.  While the ending may be a bit predictable, it was still wonderful and the way it all fits together is handled smartly.   By the time I reached the middle of the book there was no putting it down!  I am looking forward to reading more from Catherine McKenzie.

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

Morning Meanderings…. Sunday Salon?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

Good morning and happy Sunday!  It’s the wee hours of the morning here but that’s what happens when you heat your home in the winter with a wood stove that sits out behind your home… when its cold… you have to get up at odd hours to fill it…. AND once dressed and tossing pieces of wood into the mammoth wood stove in frigid air for about ten to fifteen minutes… you kind of come back in the house… AWAKE.

😯

For years now I have seen the Sunday Salon posts pop up around the blogosphere.   As of late I have considered doing this, but then wonder if it is not what I already do anyway between the morning meanderings and the Monday What Are You Reading (which recaps my reading week… past and future).

This morning (remember, I have been up a while…. had time 😛 ) I Googled Sunday Salon and found this to be the originator.  While the main link explains it is like a mini read a thon… the posts I have read are a mix of books and life and I like that.  I do like reading about what others are doing in their piece of the world, so I am going that style.

And so… I begin….

This past week has been a good one.  The early part of the week was my typical work days and attempted work outs.  Tuesdays are good because there are a couple of classes my friends like to go to and I make it a point to be at the gym with them Tuesday evenings.  Unfortunately the gym times have become few and far between so I need some strategic planning there to juggle the additional hours I took on at work for the next couple of months but keep MAKE working out a priority.  I had started Team Kickin It this year to support me in these work out goals and have not really loved on that for a while now.  I need to get SERIOUS.  (I want to look more like my Avatar chick on that blog and lets just say that currently… not so much.  😯

Thursday was my ____ birthday!  Yup I am ____ years old!  I know, right?  😛  I had a lunch date, and then that evening I went to a wine tasting with a few friends of mine and had a great time unwinding and eating delicious hor duerves!

I was hoping I took a picture of the pretty wine in my glass or of my friends… but no… I took a picture ( or 7) of the ceiling in the restaurant we were at:

I think you can understand why I was distracted… 😛

Friday I had a lunch date with my Wal-Mart peeps…. my core group of co-worker friends from times gone by…. always a blast!  Friday night I had a surprise home invasion by a group of friends who came bearing 10 (yes 10!) large balloons, my favorite bottled water and a French Silk Pie.  Mmmmmm…….

Saturday was a pampering day.  I slept in (ahhhhhh!) until about 8 am.  Yes, that is sleeping in for me. 😀  I read a bit and then had an appointment, then tanned (I know I know…) and then went and had a manicure and pedicure done…. I like doing this for many reasons 1.  I do a horrible job if I try to do it myself.   2.  They shape my nails I am so hard on, nicely.  3.  I can read while they do this, always a fan of the multi task.   I was reading SPIN by Catherine McKenzie which was pretty good and took up most of my spare time throughout the day.  I finished it last night. 

I am also reading We’ve Got A Job by Cynthia Levinson, and starting to read (in baby steps) my nemesis book (see yesterdays post) Jane Eyre.  I am still listening to 11-22-63 and LOVING it (audio all the way on this one!!!)  A trip to the library brought me home with three more audio books and two I have already given up on… Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison (within 30 minutes of listening and a disgusting dialogue I knew this one wasnt for me) and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne which I think is just this audio version that was a negative…. the story bored me (maybe that’s just Hawthorne?) a bit too much thee and thou for me to stay focused.  Note to self – do not pick audio from the library shelves – find what you like at home them reserve it on line so the library will have something you actually want to listen to in house. 😀

As for today…. I woke to the sad news about Whitney Houston.  I had just noticed yesterday she was on a cover of one of the tabloids while I was in the check out line, it was something about her struggling and I thought what a tough life she has had…. 

In other Sunday news, this morning I have church, at 12:30 I am going to go work out at the gym (YES I AM!), then I have a couple things to pick up for an awards event tonight, at 4:00 I play floor hockey and then will rush home to change and get ready for the 6:30 event…..  I don’t want to say much about this but I have a fun plan for tonight….. here is your only clue….