Good morning fellow book lovers!  Come on in and pull up a chair.  Coffee is on and caramel rolls are fresh from the oven.  Cant you just smell them?

I am dancing a bit on the clouds this week because this past weekend I went and made a purchase that I am thrilled about.  I am now the proud owner of an IPOD Touch.  Now I don’t want it for music… I have a little nano for that and I take that one to the gym….  I wanted the IPOD to listen to audio books while I am bike riding.

I know, I know…. my name is Sheila and I am a bookaholic.

Come spring, I start doing long bike rides.  The first one is coming up April 25th and it is called the Ironman.  It will take place in Lakeville Minnesota.  It is a 35, 65, or 100 mile ride.  I am hoping to do the 65, depending on the weather.  On these long rides that can take many hours, I get tired of listening to music and think a book would hold my interest more.  Plus – as I start spending more and more time outside as the weather gets nicer, it helps me keep up on my reading while still being active.  🙂

Now researching audio books for downloading I discovered something.  They are expensive.  An audio download can be $25 – 39 dollars easy.  Too much money I thought.  So I took this dilemma to Twitter.  Thanks to the help I found from my fellow book lovers on Twitter…  I learned about audible.com.  On audible I was able to sign up for a 14 day trial and choose an audio for free for trying them out.  After the 2 week trial if I choose to stay with them, I pay $7.49 per month to get one free credit.  The credit is good for almost any audio book – and they have them all I checked.  They have other packages as well, and you can make individual purchases.  What I like is that you are not under contract and you can quit anytime.

So – wonder what my first downloaded audio is?

Do you listen to audio – either at home, in your car or while working out?

Good morning!  I suppose you are thinking with a post title like that I must be in a funk.  Not so…. just a couple of things that I have been thinking about this weekend and this is my first meandering since Saturday so …

First – I feel like a goober because in the last few months several of you have given me awards for my blog and I have yet to pass them on.  In fact two of you passed on the bunny one to me and I thought it was super cool…. and again, neglected to post it.  I had a plan to post awards at the end of each month but that just has not panned out. I do appreciate the awards, they are so wonderful and I will get better at passing them on.

Second-  after rollerblading 10 miles on Easter Sunday afternoon with my 19-year-old son, I felt sluggish and like I was lagging behind.  I determined that perhaps I wasn’t in as good of shape as I was before winter.   GAH.  I have work to do.

This week will be a busy one as I prep a couple posts for tours (Lotus Eaters is coming up today!), work, workout, and find a place to stay for an upcoming weekend trip to Pensacola, Florida to see Navy Son (not this weekend but next) – oh and remember Saturday is the Readathon and I am super excited to participate 🙂

How is your week looking?  Anything big coming up?

Did anyone else pick up on the fact that is was April Fools Day yesterday?  I knew it was April 1st, but much like St Patricks Day I didnt really consider the holiday.

Never fear…. Brett who works in the office with me did not forget.  In fact, I am pretty sure he was looking forward to April 1st.  Take a look here at the office I walked into yesterday morning:

Foiled again!  Well… not again, really first time.  🙂

So this morning I am off to the gym, have a couple meetings, possibly a bike ride if the weather looks good and then hopefully home with book in later afternoon. Later today I will post my April Challenge – what I will be doing this month.  If you haven’t looked at this challenge yet, I hope you do and I hope you consider joining me.

Tomorrow I help sort the Mini Challenge Hosts for the Readathon on April 10th.  If you are out of the loop on this, jump in the loop!  Here is the link to the readathon info, and here is the link to sign up to be a Mini Challenge Host.

Any big Easter Weekend plans?

Happy April 1st!  😀  I had high hopes to be much more organized before today but I have to admit I am not….  I have a challenge in my head for April – but have not taken the time to put it to laptop yet.  I will be working on that today because I am pretty excited about it.

Yesterday evening I biked 10 miles with my friend Jennifer…. (thank you Jennifer!) bringing me to 28 miles for the two days.  I hope to go out again later today, but am watching the weather as there is a chance for rain today.  If all works well, weather wise too – I would like to do the Merrifield run again.

In Bookish News…. while blog hopping yesterday, I read over at Luxury Reading about the newest to the Twilight books….  The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner.  Has everyone else heard about this?  It was news to me!  Here is what Amazon has to say about the book:

Fans of The Twilight Saga will be enthralled by this riveting story of Bree Tanner, a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits. In another irresistible combination of danger, mystery, and romance, Stephenie Meyer tells the devastating story of Bree and the newborn army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to its unforgettable conclusion.

I have to admit… I don’t remember Bree.  It’s bugging me now.  For those of you who have read the Twilight Series, do you remember Bree?  Anyway – I think the idea is brilliant!  Stephanie Meyer should capture the Twilight fans with this one.  I think it will be interesting to see how the book will do.  Any predictions?

Thank you everyone who visited and chatted with me in March.  I will have a recap post of the month up soon with my top commenter winner as well as my Random winners.  I appreciate you all so much!  Have a BEAUTIFUL Day!

I took my bike out for the first time yesterday afternoon.  I took it to Trailblazers in Brainerd and had the tires properly filled with air and after a few errands, I hit the bike trail and I am THRILLED to say that I went 18 miles for my first ride of 2010.

It was windy out and I probably would not have went that far if I would have turned my bike around earlier and felt how hard going against the wind would be… but it was good for me.  🙂

SO if you haven’t heard all the buzz on Alice in wonderland lately you truly must have fallen down a rabbit hole!  Between all the books out there on Alice and of course the movie …. I ran across this fun questionnaire and thought I would send a few questions your way to ponder over.  🙂

These questions are based on the 1951, Walt Disney’s animated classic “Alice in Wonderland”

1) Kathryn Beaumont voiced Alice – what other Disney heroine did she voice?
A) Wendy in “Peter Pan”
B) Cinderella in “Cinderella”
C) The village girl in “The Jungle Book”
D) Perdita in “101 Dalmatians”

2) Which of these characters from the film does not appear in Lewis Carroll’s book?
A) Alice’s Sister
B) The Doorknob
C) The Dodo
D) The Walrus

3) Where does Alice get lost on her journey through Wonderland?
A) The Looking-Glass Hall
B) The Red Queen’s Garden
C) The Mushroom Forest
D) The Tulgey Wood

4) In which category was “Alice” nominated for an Academy Award®?
A) Best Picture
B) Best Song
C) Best Director
D) Best Score

5) What kind of race does Alice join in?
A) A caucus race
B) A human race
C) An unbirthday race
D) A croquet race

I will post the answers tomorrow.  In the mean time, have you read any of the books about Alice – either the original Alice In Wonderland or any of the popular ones now – or have you seen the new movie?  I would love to hear your thoughts!

Good morning! You ever have one of those days that just seems to click everything together correctly?

Yeah…. me neither…..

Ok just kidding, when I finally did motivate myself yesterday things did go pretty well. All my returns for the weekend home show were accepted very graciously (I had to return 25 pounds of brats, 43 pounds of hotdogs and 87 packages of hot dog buns). I never dreamed they would take it all back but the fact is the home show traffic was down this year considerably. We had pretty decent weather over the weekend and I am sure that contributed to it.

Anyway – from there I went to the library, back home, and then had some afternoon time to relax and read The Fiddler’s Gun which I am enjoying.

I finally put my bike on the back of my Durango so I can get air in the tires and hope fully go for a ride this afternoon after work. That appeals to me immensely – I am less than a month out now from the first big ride of the year.

We ordered pizza last night and that was the last of eating like that for a while as now I need to go into training mode.

Ok – but bookish topics are a plenty. First of all do not forget the Readathon on April 10th. Reading baby! And now all the links are up so know you can be a participant and sign up today, you can also be a Cheerleader, and we still need Mini Challenge Hosts (which is part of my team so I would love it if you would consider having one!)

Also, I see Natasha has posted the New York Times best Sellers List which I always enjoy going through and seeing what I have read and what I havent.

Also…. while hanging around the water cooler on Twitter this morning I heard that it is Dreadlock Girls Birthday.  Pop over to her blog and wish her a happy one.  🙂

So that’s my morning meandering.  I have a full day that I added to by sleeping later than I should have this morning and missing my morning workout.  Now I need to fit that in somewhere later today.

Whats your Tuesday like?

Home Show Edition:  Day Two

This morning Coffee Cup and I are actually having Tea.  Why?  I ran out of coffee filters yesterday and keep forgetting to pick them up.  I know, who does that right?  I mean coffee filters come in a bag of 200…. this is like a twice a year purchase at best.  Yet again, I hauled my tired self to the coffee pot to realize that I have yet to remember this important part of the coffee-making process.

Day one of the home show seemed a bit slow to me.  I have yet to compare my last years first day concession sales to this years.  Today should hopefully be busier….it is still a bit cool here in Minnesota  (39 degrees) so people should be coming to the show.  When the weather is too nice,people are in there yards and my sales are not as good.

Before I fly out the door I wanted to ask you if you have heard of the Weekend Cooking meme that BethFish Reads puts on each weekend.  It is a cool idea where you can link up your posts today on cooking themes even books with cooking  titles, movies, gadgets, etc….  go and check this fun meme out today.  I wish I had time to participate.  🙂

Have a super day – I have a fun review coming up in a few hours on the theme of friendships 🙂

I am working the home show for the Mid Minnesota Builders Association.  I run the concession stand which raises money for scholarships.

Home show edition…. day one.

This is what my morning was like today:  We are at the home show in the civic center and I am starting the coffee and setting up the concessions.  A girl (we will call her “Girl” for this post) I work with every year at the show is helping me with this set up.

Girl:  Ok…. where is it?

Me (brewing the BIG pots of coffee):  Where is what?

Girl:  Where is the book or two you have every year?

Me:  I don’t know what you are talking about.  I am in 100% Home Show mode.

Girl (spinning around looking about the area):  No…. It has to be here.

Me:  I seriously think you must be on something.  Help me get the price lists up.

Girl:  Is it in your purse?

Me:  I am concerned for your well being.  I am book free.

Girl:  Impossible.  It is here.  I know.  You have one every year and every chance you get you are up in the kitchen with your nose in a book.

Me:  You are thinking of someone else.  That girl that helped last year, she was a reader.  You may be thinking of her.  Yeah.  I bet it was her.  What was her name… Laura, Lori…. something like that.

Girl (gleefully has her hand in my purse and pulls out the evidence):  Aha!  I knew it!  You ARE reading this weekend!  You can’t fool me!

Me (so busted…) :  What are you, CSI?

I will be smelling like a grilled brat in no time.

What are your plans for the weekend? 😀