Tag: Morning Meanderings

Morning.  😀  I had a fantastic Monday and hope you did too.  Group Power in the morning, worked, and roller bladed.  My aunt was in town from Alaska.  I went out to dinner last night with her and another aunt and uncle of mine.  We do not get together often so it was a nice time catching up.  Busy full day….

And tonight is our annual Bookies Book Club Queen event.  Time to pass the crown on to whoever takes the vote tonight.  It should be fun, potluck and hanging out at one of our members homes.  Tomorrow I should have pictures for you as well as book recommendations from the Bookies.  We do not read a book for July, this is our free month to read whatever you like and then we get together during the Queen Event and discuss the books we chose.

I cant wait to see everyone all dressed up!

Here are links to the past two years of events:  2009 Queen Event and 2008 Queen Event

So that’s the big day coming up!  I work today and then have a few things to prep for tonight.  I will wear the crown tonight for the last time – until I pass it on to our Bookies Queen of 2010-2011.  😀

Hope you have a wonderful day – I cant wait to relax tonight and sink into a good book!  I am finishing up a pretty good one that should be reviewing in the next couple of days.

Hmmmm….. what is that smell this morning?  Is that bacon and pancakes?  Couldn’t be….

But it is!  😀

Normally life is so busy for Al and I we rarely have breakfast.  I may grab a banana on the way out the door or an instant packet of oatmeal to take to work with me but that’s about it.  Breakfasts – real breakfasts only happen when we get away for the weekends like to the cabin.  Even though we didn’t make it there this weekend, I still had purchased items to make the rare breakfasts.  (We pretty much have been eating everything I had packed in the cooler this weekend).

This morning – honestly…. we slept in.  We had a wonderful time at our friends house for dinner last night.  We sat on their deck and grilled chicken and enjoyed a lovely meal, and conversation until 10:30 at night!  This morning neither one of us were in any hurry to get up and I have to say that was kind of nice too.  So breakfast it is!  And I have to say, it does smell gooooooood!

Today I am going to catch up on a few things around the house, I may time a bike ride, spend some time with Chance and basically stay mellow before I hit the ground running tomorrow.

Couple “Blogkeeping” things:

June commenters – I adore you and have not forgotten you.  Using random.org here are my two comment winners who get to choose out of the prize box.  (And yes, this comment thank you continues each month – I just really need to make a sidebar widget for it!)

#348:  Jill Weatherholt

#541:  Esme

And my #1 commenter from June was:

Wordlily!!!

The top commenter each month wins a $20 gift card to Amazon!  Yay to Hannah!  😀

Dont forget that the survey that has been posted on top for the past month ends on July 15th.  If you had not taken a minute to fill out that form I would really appreciate it if you would…. I will post the overall results!

Ahhh…. the best laid plans.  After completing all my little errands yesterday around town, shopping for our trip to the cabin, loading the bikes on the rack, filling the cooler with all our refrigerator items, and 40 pounds of ice…. we had to cancel.

The plan was that I would get everything ready to go, Al would work in the office and prep to leave the business for the weekend, and we would meet back at the house early afternoon and hit the road.  About 4:00 pm I sent a text to my husband seeing when we were leaving.  He called me back and we had a snag in our plan.  A dump truck we had purchased and had been waiting to be delivered was coming through Duluth on Saturday and would need to be picked up by us and brought to Brainerd.  This piece of equipment is important to the current state job we are doing…so alas, we had to wave the white flag and change our plan.

I am not really too bummed…. yes for the cabin and for the relaxation but this has happened before and I have kind of learned to roll with the waves.   🙂   Instead we ate a late dinner at home, I watched a somewhat odd Lifetime movie and went to bed.

So plan B.  I am hitting the gym this morning and then probably driving with Al to Duluth to get the truck.  I have been bribed with lunch and a book store stop.  I am still in need of a copy of The Color Purple so I am all about the book store stop.  Maybe later I will take Chance to a movie or take a bike ride.

There’s a big bike ride in the area tomorrow that I have had my eye on.  Tour of Saints is a ride I do almost every year and this year because of our cabin plans I didn’t sign up.  I am watching the weather for tomorrow – chance of rain, but if it clears I may go do that ride…. maybe.  🙂

Here is the song in my head today…. it brings back memories of my best friend Traci in high school and road tripping to Cambridge Minnesota to see her family.  We would be in her old mustang that we fondly called “Rustang” because of all the rust and this may have been the song we blared out of the speakers.

Have an awesome day everyone!  😀

Morning!  Coffee Cup and I are attempting an early start to our day because it is a full one.  I feel the need to self-torture by attending Group Power at 8:25 this morning even through I am hurting all over from the class I took two days ago.  Must – get – back – on – routine…..

Then…. I am off to clean out my Durango, pack it for the weekend, go to Wal- Mart and get supplies, post office, library,  – have lunch with my son, and then Al and I are off to our cabin for the weekend.

YAY!!!  *cartwheels!*

We do not get there very often, in fact the last time was in early October of last year.  How sad is that?  So we are packing it up for the weekend and I am grabbing a few books (although I don’t know why – I have a whole other book shelf there loaded with books I have not read yet) to take along.  Lap Top is coming and I do have some posts planned so I should be active through the weekend.  I am excited to just chill and read and perhaps, chill some more.  🙂    I am bringing our bikes as well as there is a wonderful state trail just a few miles from us that is just gorgeous this time of year so I am camera ready!

When the boys were growing up and we had “cabin time”, we had a movie that was pretty much a cabin-weekend-must, and it was The Great Outdoors with John Candy.  I never got tired of this movie and we still pack it with us for the memories.  I should really just get a second copy and leave it there.

Any North Shore bloggers out there?  I am heading your way!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!!!

*Ouch*  I have been so busy lately I have really let me work out schedule slide.   I knew I hadn’t been to the gym for a while to take my Group Power Class, but did not know until I went in yesterday afternoon (determined to get on track!) that it had been a month to a day since I had been there.

*sheepishly wiggles foot on ground and hangs head*

After an hour of lifting weights I met my friend Wendy out on the bike trail and we biked 18 miles chat chat chatting.  (and no, 18 miles of talking is not a record for me…. ask my poor cousin who I talked to for 150 miles last year during the two-day bike ride…. I don’t think he will ever be the same as we covered pretty much every topic I could think of.) 🙂

On the bookish front –

My super cool friend Heather (who I met at BEA) over at Age 30+ A Lifetime of Books, is hosting along with Nicole from Linus’s Blanket (Nicole is also super cool and I met her at BEA as well!) a read along for The Color Purple.   Would you believe I have never read this book?  I think I seen the movie a long time ago – but I am so excited to join in on this!  The read along is for July so grab yourself a copy and come join in on the fun!  🙂

On July 16 – 18, I am taking part in Kristen’s (Bookworming in the 21st Century) Book Extravaganza!  I am pretty excited.  This event will be a weekend of fun giveaways and I am still working out what exactly I am doing here – but lets just say I have an idea and it has to do with certain “gush worthy” reads…

and…. last but not least, the amazing Trish (also met at BEA) over at Hey Lady!  Watcha Reading? is putting together a discussion on Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, that will take place in later August.  This is another book I have not read but sadly has been on my shelf like FOREVER so I am excited to get the motivation I need to read this!  🙂

That’s more than enough morning chatter for now!  Coffee Cup needs to hit the shelf and I need to hit the road…. hoping later today I can take a bike ride and continue enjoying this wonderful weather!

Good morning!  Looks like it is going to be a gorgeous day here in Minnesota.  Al and I and a couple of friends of ours are going to take a motorcycle ride this morning around the area.  This will of course require the helmet that I purchased a couple of years ago that reminds me of something Schultz would wear in that old series, Hogan’s Heroes.

Ok, maybe it is not that bad….. but every time I wear it I like to say “I know nothing…. NOTH -ING!”  You would need to know the show to understand that line… 😀

Here is what popped up in my Email box this morning… these are the books that became available this week in either hard cover or paperback.  Joy In The Morning is one that catches my eye as it is written by Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.

How about you?  Are any of these books on your wish list?

New in Fiction
	“The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet” by David Mitchell Read more “Work Song” by Ivan Doig Read more “A Vintage Affair” by Isabel Wolff Read more “The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives” by Lola Shoneyin Read more “Her Fearful Symmetry” by Audrey Niffenegger Read more “Tatiana and Alexander” by Paullina Simons Read more “Joy in the Morning” by Betty Smith Read more “A King of Infinite Space” by Tyler Dilts Read more “The Quickening” by Michelle Hoover Read more “Paths of Glory (Penguin Classics)” by Humphrey Cobb Read more

Woo!  Sorry about my lateness…. I have been up, but doing other things and prepping my day…. and honestly I have so many things going on in my head right now for the “topic” of the morning that I couldn’t choose….  (yeah, I know my coffee cup is upside down)  😀

So fair warning – I have no idea which direction this post is going to go.

Ok – for starters…. is anyone reading, listening too, have read,  or considering The Passage by Justin Cronin?  I was in line for it at BEA.  Justin Cronin was there signing the books and he gave out his last book to the girl right in front of me.  Apparently his full shipment for the signing had not come in.  I did not know a lot about the book, other than it was plastered everywhere in large signs all over the convention center.

When I came back home, I found it on Audible.com and downloaded it to my IPOD.  It is 15 35 hours of audio so you know – C O M M I T M E N T.    I am probably a couple of hours in and seriously the jury is still out.  I loved the beginning, then it went a different direction and was odd and I was lost…. then it connected to the beginning so I was back – but now I am confused again….

Second random topic – I am excited to participate in the Book Blogger Appreciation Week which will take place in September of this year.  More info on this will be on a separate post.

Third random topic – you know I mentioned that I went to Eclipse with my friend Wendy.  What I did not mention is that she is crazy.  A complete loony.  Ok, maybe not – but here is the full size movie poster  she left in my office:

I also have June comments awards to do – and yes, I am doing that for July too…. just need to get things organized around here.  🙂

I hope you all have wonderful 4th of July plans!