Morning Meanderings – Page 75

Morning Meanderings… Two Out Of Three… and it is BEA!

Published on April 10, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments

Good morning! 😀

As you know I have been planning to go to BEA however, my roommate of the past two years will not be attending this year and I have been roommate searching. For a few days there I was even considering not attending, which really bothered me as it is something I look forward to all year.

Over the past week a few people came forward with possible opportunities I was looking into. Then thanks to Twitter, I discovered Gail also did not have a roommate this year, hers was also not attending. I had met Gail last year at the BBC. We started chatting and emailing and as of yesterday morning we are booked! 😀

Seriously – just typing those words is such a relief!

SO lat night I finished the BEA registration that had started and stopped over the past few weeks. That felt good too! 😀

The final piece was to book a flight and I had been watching Orbitz and knew there were plenty to choose from. Last night I made three attempts to book a flight and each time after I filled everything out and hit submit…

it would come up with a message that said sometimes seats get booked quickly and that one in so longer available. 😯

This happened two more times and I logged on to my credit card account to see what was happening there. Sure enough, every time I tried to book a flight my card put that into a reserve hold on those dollars. At that point I stopped thinking my credit card company is going to lock up the card thinking it is fraud… three attempts for flights.

So anyway…. that is frustrating.

I will try again in a few days, or if I have time this afternoon I may call Orbitz and just let them know what is happening and find out how do I actually find a flight that exists.

Anyhoo.. thats what is happening here. I can still bask in the fact that I am for sure going to BEA. I am excited and now planning out what I want to do there.

Hope your Tuesday is lovely. I have book club here tonight and I am excited for what is sure to be an interesting review of The 19th Wife. (Review, discussion, and food we had with the review will all be posted tomorrow)

Oh, and those participating in the Monday meme and the egg hunt – remember to qualify you must also comment on those blogs that had the eggs. I am seeing entrants who have not done that part. 😀

Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon!

Published on April 7, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Good morning and HAPPY EASTER!

I hope this Sunday morning finds you well… and happy and well you know… GOOD.

I had a pretty sweet week and even got the road bike out on the trail this week 3 times for a total of 68 miles (that makes me SO happy!) I am hoping that maybe I will get out there again yet today and Monday and make it to 100 by Tuesday night (that would be one week since I started riding this year). That will be a hard sell though as I have Monday night and Tuesday night commitments that will leave me only a little window of time to bike.

One thing I did not get a lot of time to do this past week is read and that annoys me. I almost put up a tweet that said “Really Sheila, how about you try to actually read a book?”

Seems like with the additional bike riding this week the reading fell to the way side, and the fresh air, knocked me out in the evenings. Seriously – that’s embarrassing. Friday night I came home around 6 pm after riding 36 miles, ate dinner, sat in the recliner to read and promptly passed out. I woke at ten, and went to bed. What am I? Five??? 😯

I did get a few goodies in the mail this week:

Some pretty exciting reads and a movie to review, We Bought A Zoo.

Today we will go to church this morning, and then out to Easter brunch. It’s just Al and I today without Justin being able to come home as he works and Brad in the Navy. For us it will be a low key day and that is alright. I have over 200 pages to go in our book club read, The Nineteenth Wife for our review on Tuesday.

As for other exciting news – it looks like I have a roommate for BEA! WOO HOO!!!!! More on that soon, waiting on a confirmation but a hotel was found… and it looks good and just looking at it today made me all giddy inside knowing that BEA is coming and finally (FINALLY) it feels like it is coming together. 😀

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Morning Meanderings… Lessons From The Outdoors

Published on April 7, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)48 Comments

Good morning! Happy Saturday. I have coffee brewing and outside, it looks a little gloomy out and that for once, is actually ok… I have some indoor things that need to be done and have been neglected as the weather has been pretty awesome this week and I have been biking! 😀

Yes the 2012 maiden bike voyage happened on Tuesday of this week and it was a glorious 14 miles! On my way back to my car I seen something BIG in a tree:

Mmm hmmmmm… WHAT is that?

At this point, I determine it is a beaver. There is some wetland near the bike trail in parts and I was near that now. In fact as a couple of rollerbladers passed by while I was taking pictures I pointed out the beaver in the tree. They were not as impressed as I was, they smiled politely and kept on blading.

It was kind of cool, his little paw would reach out for some of the leaves and I watched him for about ten minutes. He started to climb down and I thought I would video that but he sensed my presence and FROZE and finally I waved him good-bye and good luck getting out of the tree, and moved on.

Coming home Wednesday evening I had this vision close to my house.

That’s common, but I still like to look at them. That night our dog Bailey was going nuts around 3 in the morning. He was on the bed with us and staring out our big bay window we have in the bedroom. Of course it was pitch black aside and I had no idea what he was seeing so I got up and went and stood by the deck doors that look over out back yard. I could see two large darker shapes so I stepped out on to the deck and it was two deer. I wondered if they were the same deer…

Now back to the other thing in the tree. On Friday my awesome friend Amy (awesome as she agrees to do CRAZY things with me!) and I decide to go on a bike ride to the town of Nisswa, a 36 mile loop. It’s a straight stretch on the trail and she will be doing some rides with me later this year so this is good training. About a mile in, I see out friend in a tree again. We stop, try to decide what it is, and eventually I start calling it a Bechuck (beaver woodchuck combo) and eventually that lead to Bebird (beaver bird combo).

When I got home last night I Googled if beavers could climb trees. You probably already know this, the answer is no. (I flash back to Tuesday when I told those rollerblading girls it was a beaver in the tree… no wonder they kept on blading… they probably thought I had something stronger in my water bottle than water. 😳

The verdict is….

a groundhog.

1aaa — According to wikepedia: Ground hogs (also known as woodchucks) will climb trees for escape.

So there you are boys and girls. Out wildlife lesson for today. 😀 For more fun pictures around the world be sure to pop over and see Alyce with her awesome Saturday Snapshots meme. I love to see what people ate taking pictures of!

My day is going to consist of some household duties,blog visiting, a couple calls to friends, audio books, and some reading. I have a few books going that I need to finish, one being the 19th Wife that is our book club read and we are discussing this coming Tuesday.

Thankfully our weekend here is pretty quiet. College son has to work so will not be coming home for Easter. That is a huge bummer… but we understand. I don’t mind quiet holidays, my life seems to go extreme so often that time to just hang is always welcome. 😀

How about you? Any awesome plans for the weekend? Fun traditions?

Oh! One more thing – This weeks Monday What Are You Reading is going to have a special bonus to it. I thought we would have a little fun since we are celebrating Easter! Really, you are going to want to participate so be sure to plan on connecting what you are reading this week if you are a regular to the meme, and if you are new to it, stop on by Sunday evening and check out what I am talking about. 😀

Morning Meanderings.. Pinterest Interest and The Blog

Published on April 6, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)65 Comments

Good morning!

Yes I am here, just a little late this morning. I have been up since 6 am, but I have been reading emails I was too tired to get to last night, chatting it up a bit this morning with bookish peeps on Twitter, and cautiously looking into Pinterest.

Why the caution?

Any one that reads Book Journey on a regular basis knows I have no trouble at all filling up my time. I love to read, to blog, my job, hanging with friends, rollerblading, biking, the gym, volunteering with teen and the homeless, movies, and really…. honestly…

I was afraid (and still am a little) that Pinterest would become a time suck I just could not afford unless I gave up sleeping, which as hard as I like to run…. I do look forward to hitting the pillow at night to re-energize.

Friends invited me to join it, talked about it, I hear it’s praises on the blogs, but for me…. Pinterest was off the table.

And then… (gah… I am really starting to not like those two words…)

Jay at Joy’s Book Blog had a Pinterest Challenge for Bloggiesta. Not one to back down from a challenge I checked it out. What Joy talks about is how to use your blog with Pinterest… in other words, I could connect books on Pinterest that would draw attention to Book Journey.

I do like talking about books…

I did not do the challenge – I did not have time. But I did ask Joy to hook me up with an invite and she did, and this morning… I registered. Anyhoo… that’s why I am really late this morning 😀

Source: sandrakavital.blogspot.com via Jacinda on Pinterest

Oh yes, you can plan on seeing these pop up in a post as soon as I find a book to theme them… 😀

I am registered but currently there is nothing on my board. I need to figure out how to do it, does it link back to the blog, etc…. maybe this evening I can look more into that and probably in the next day or two I will put up a link on the sidebar. Until then… yeah.

So let the time suck begin. 😛 If you do not hear from me for a while check Pinterest, I may be pinned to a board. “Help! I’ve been pinned and I can not get free!”

My day today is blog post writing, group power, hopefully a bike ride, reading, cooking, and some sort of low-key plan for hubby and I tonight… like a rented movie.

Questions to you: Do you use Pinterest? If so in what ways? (to look up things? What things?) Inquiring minds (ok, me!) want to know.

Morning Meanderings… TITANIC Happenings!

Published on April 5, 2012April 5, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Good morning and HAPPY THURSDAY!!!! (Yes, I have had coffee, why do you ask?)

There is a big event coming up that I have yet to really talk about here but have wanted to. It is the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, April 15, 1912.

Remember when they came out with the movie with Leonardo and Kate? Well I have a story…

Sheila, don’t you have a story for EVERYTHING?

No… No I don’t for instance… I have no stories about frogs. Oh… wait, that’s not true… I do, and it’s a sad one…

Ok…. ummmm…. Unicorns! I have no stories about unicorns. 😛 See? Not everything has a story…

BUT – this one does.

So it’s 1997, I think. I am working at Wal-Mart (yes, yes,…. I was that cool!) and my friends were talking about going to the movie Titanic. AND no way was I going to see a movie about a ship that sank a long time ago. And I am pretty sure I said so in so many words.

NOPE. Not gonna happen.

But, as seems to happen to me often, the chatter, the discussion around the movie, the excitement, peaked my interest and I went with Hubby one night and …

LOVED IT. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Seriously, from the moment she is being lowered off the ship in the life boat and jumps back on the ship, I had to go to the bathroom sooooooo bad but refused to miss a moment. (I may have injured my bladder during that movie, just saying!) AND I had cried so much I actually left the theater with a headache.

I went on to see the movie another 5 times in the theater. And yes I know, it is over 3 hours long and yes, I know I probably should not tell people how many times I went to it. But, its out there now, and I know that over 18 hours of my life in the 90’s was spent in a small town movie theater watching Titanic. 😯 I kept going, because I became an evangelist for the movie (oh you know the type….. talking it up, persuading you to go, offering to go with you even….) I brought people to the theater. I sat with groups as small as 3, and as large as 12 (*waves to co-workers and assistant manager who said she would NEVER waste her time on the movie… and then did. With me. :razz:)

At that point I became obsessed with knowing more about Titanic. I read books (don’t, be shocked… occasionally I do read), I watched movies, and I found my way a few years later to the Titanic exhibit when it was in Florida – which was amazing and heartbreaking all together.

Now that you have the back story – here is modern day, today in fact…. now in fact… and here is what is happening that I know about.

My friend Reagan (if you have not met her you must, she is a hoot), is having a challenge:

Stop over and check it out. It’s completely doable and you may learn something about Titanic in the process.

AND

Kelly At The Written Word and I have been conversing about her upcoming Titanic week and we are working out a thing… details to come, but in the meantime here is the link to what she has going on:

Titanic 3D hits the theaters tomorrow, April 6th. I am not excited about the 3D part… in fact, I think that might just irritate me a bit just because of the subject matter and while it is a fictitious movie, it is based on actual events. However, after watching the trailer this morning and tearing up… I will be going to see Titanic in the theater again because it still affects me so much I am surprised. I guess I could then count that as 7 times I seen it in the theater….

If you know of any other Titanic happenings please let me know here, and I can add them to this post.

How about you, did you see the movie it the Theater? Would you go see it again, why or why not?

Morning Meanderings… Meet the real COFFEE CUP

Published on April 4, 2012April 4, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)26 Comments

Good morning! 😀

After the BIG Book Journey facelift a few of you commented that the coffee cup was missing, part of my trademark blog icon since pretty much day one. Yes, as I think back, I did talk about COFFEE CUP a lot in the mornings…. 😛

I was going to switch things up a bit but your comments gave me pause; and I was impressed that the little right sidebar cup that had graced the blog all of these years was noticed when I pulled it.

WHICH led to this post.

There is a real COFFEE CUP and I thought today I would share his story – AND before you think how could a story about a coffee cup possibly be interesting Sheila?

Well…. I think it is…

A little Minnesota history for you in the mix too. Mink Lake Camp is what I call a little known secret of Grand Marais Minnesota. It is 14 miles up the famous Gunflint Trail. (f you have kids that ever complain about being cold, I have some books I could recommend you about the Gunflint Trail in the early years before they had electricity that will make them never complain of the cold again! Here’s a hint: icicles hanging off bed frames… TRUE STORY. :shock:)

Anyhoo… this is a wilderness camp. No electricity, everything is by oil lamps, beautiful cabins, and breathtaking SILENCE. Yup, cell phones hold no power this far into the wilderness.

In 2007, friends of ours decided to help restore this old camp and a bunch of us went to help out in June of that year. There was a stream through an overgrown area and after some hard work of clearing, we made a rock trail and places to sit and enjoy this space. It became a garden where we planted wild flowers along the stream, and well… its one of my favorite places in the world.

**This is Mink Lake as taken from the dock at camp.**

One day while I was there, raking out the garden spots, creating benches out of fallen logs… my rake clicked on an item deep in the ground – so deep in fact I had to get a shovel to dig out this item.

It was an old blue coffee cup, in perfect condition – not a chip on it and I loved it. It became my camp cup and that was all I drank my coffee out of. Every June from 2207 – 2010, I would go up to the camp to help and dig through the cupboards until I found where I had stashed this cup I had fondly called “Blue”. Last year my friend Sandi who runs the camp said I should bring him (yes it is a him!) home so he did not get broke at camp.

And I did, where now he sits on a book shelf in the reading room with this memory of finding him over 225 miles away in an overgrown campground called Mink Lake.

And today, as I talk about COFFEE CUP, I brought him out and I am having coffee in him this morning. Can a cup make you smile? Sure! Have I had too much caffeine and off my rocker? Perhaps….. 😉 I am thinking of designing a new blog button using him…

As he looks this morning, on my kitchen table

Anyway – got to run – I have to get ready for work and I am hoping with enough time I can bike to work this morning… but I need at least 15 minutes to do so… and what a surprise – I am pushing it. 😀

Any items in your home you hold dear? That have a story? That to anyone else look like just another whatever… but you know the real story?

Morning Meanderings…. I BLEW UP The Blog

Published on April 3, 2012April 3, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)34 Comments

Wait for it…

Good morning. In care you are wondering what happened around here…

I happened.

Give a girl a Bloggiesta weekend and well..anything can really happen.

I wont bore those of you who have already been here since Saturday afternoon but for those who have not here is the short version of what happened:

1. Went to change from 2 sidebars to one

2. Seemed easier to change who theme to a single sidebar

3. Became a CRAZY BIG project

4. Changed theme.

5. Changed theme again.

(* note: I may change it again, there is one more layout I want to look at so just bear with me while I go but more dynamite.)

Now – like the header, still trying to get used to the pink (not really me but it is not changeable except to powder blue), not sure I like the comment boxes either but I think it is growing on me.

There is the story. 😀

A few of you have asked where Coffee Cup is (used to sit on the upper right sidebar). I was actually going to switch out that blog widget BUT- now I am so impressed that a few of you asked about it and realized it was missing that I think tomorrow morning I am going to introduce you to the real Coffee Cup. To the average reader that may just seem a little C R A Z Y, but hey, first of all don’t judge 😛 and second of all Coffee Cup actually comes with a great story… one so good, I think I will add it to my About Me page after that post goes up tomorrow.

Ok…. moving on… I need to announce winners from the Bloggiesta weekend. Give it up for the winners of my mini challenge, using random.org they are:

$20 Amazon Gift Card: alexia561

$10 Amazon Gift Card: Tanya Patrice

next up… winner of the Descendent movie:

Pinkim35

and last but not least the winner of the YA choose what I read contest and win it for yourself:

Mary Preston

All winners have been notified by email and gift card winners have been sent out this morning. 😀

How super fun! Congrats all! I have work, and hopefully play, and then I want to READ. 😀

Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon Bloggiesta Style!

Published on April 1, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)42 Comments

WAIT!!!!!! Don’t go! It’s me Sheila! You are at the right place it just looks different around here. Ummm…. here is what happened.

So I am doing Bloggiesta this weekend and if you don’t know what that is it is a weekend set aside to catch up on reviews and bloggy maintenance type things as well as learning new things like SEO and HTML, and how to bring traffic to your blog. What happened was I was going to clean up my sidebars, you know… take out old things, put in new, update…. stuff like that. Something I have been meaning to do for a while. I then thought, are two side bars too much? Is that too busy? A lot of blogs I read have one sidebar…. so I chose a new theme…. that really goofed things up for a while and I am still not happy with where my header lies, and I still have to update the sidebar.

*sigh*

The mad side of Bloggiesta…

So anyway…Good morning! WOOT! As you can tell from what I have said so far the weekend has been busy – but fun. I love going around and seeing what other bloggers are doing. I love participating in the mini challenges and learning new things. My own mini challenge, which is about driving blog traffic, is still active for the rest of today. Stop by, check it out… you may find something useful as well as the other challenges too.

As for what arrived bookish like this week, that is a two-part story. Below are the books, and the DVD I received in the mail for review:

Yes. That is Alvin and The Chipmunks, Chipwrecked. Do not judge. 😛 And the creepy cover of Thirteen calls to me… so what does that say? :LOL:

The second half of this story is I received a SWEET box of YA books from a publisher this week that had me dancing around the house. I posted about this on Friday and you can check it out, shooose what I read first and you could win it! 😀 Seriously! Go check it out. 😀

As far as today, I have church here in about mmmm….. 15 minutes. And then I am coming back to Bloggiesta until late morning when hubby and I have to deliver a trailer to another town so I will be MIA for about an hour… but then back to the blog. Things I still want to accomplish today.

What is your Sunday plan? Are you on the Bloggiesta wagon? If so what are you LOVING? If not, watcha doing today? Anything fun?

Morning Meanderings… My VERY OWN Book Fairy!!!! + Giveaway!

Published on March 31, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)58 Comments

Good morning! *yawn* How we all doing today? I missed the afternoon and evening of Bloggiesta yesterday as I was trying to get some errands done, then came home, changed and we had dinner with friends and then Hunger Games (yes, a second time!) and home around 11 pm. Then…. I slept a little later than usual but I am here now and I have exciting things happening here. 😀

About a month ago I was contacted about the book club I am in by a publishing company. They had read my Making Of A Book Club post and were bouncing ideas off me for a YA on line book club. I was happy to help as Sheila + talking books = Happy Sheila. 😀

We had some conversations back and forth where we discussed ideas, promoting, etc… and in the end she offered me some books as a thank you. I chose three from her list but she added to it and my very first mystery box of books arrived yesterday on my door step:

and in this group would be the very first April on Line Book Club pick:

Are you just LOVING that cover? I am!!! SO more on this hopefully going into this next week… I will give you info on the book club, the who, the what, the when…. I am just waiting on an email first to make sure they are ready to launch!

AND in honor of Bloggiesta happening right now this weekend (info below) I would love you to tell me which of these gorgeous books to read first and then I will read it and send it to one lucky random.org winner. Yes, you pick the book for the picture above, I read, then send to you.

This year Bloggiesta is being hosted by It’s All About Books and There’s A Book, and you can see all the mini challenges here – and there are giveaways!

Here is my “work in progress tasks for the weekend” : (which I will cross off when I complete them):

1. A new blog header

2. New blog widget

3. prep posts for upcoming reviews

~~4. Write posts for movie/book reviews that I have completed~~ (five written and drafted!)

5. Participate in mini challenges (three done!)

6. Clean up/update side bars

7. Send out author chat questions to 3 authors

8. Prep a blog survey to use in April

9. Draft some fun discussion posts (one drafted… two more ideas formed….)

Happy Bloggiesta!!! Don’t forget my mini challenge this weekend with gift card giveaways 😀

Morning Meanderings… Bloggiesta KICK OFF!!!!

Published on March 30, 2012March 30, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)47 Comments

Good morning! Happy Bloggiesta!!! Doesn’t that make you just think of great things like nachos and taco’s and enchiladas…. hmmmmm.. maybe it is too early to think of those things.

Bloggiesta is an event that was started by Natasha from Maw Books in 2009. It was designed as a time that we as bloggers can learn more about our blogs, how to make them look appealing, how to drive traffic, HTML, side bar links, post writing,social networking, embedding pictures and video, search engines, how does your blog rate… and more!

Bloggiesta holds a special place in my heart as it was June 2009 when I started blogging and well… I knew nothing…. NOTHING about blogging. A week after I started book blogging, the first Bloggiesta was happening and I jumped at the chance to participate. Bloggiesta really saved me. I signed and participated in every mini challenge. I learned so much that weekend, and from the start of Bloggiesta to the end, my blog looked completely different. I was thrilled. 😛

Now here we are in 2012 and I am so excited to not only be participating in Bloggiesta, but I am also a Mini Challenge host. This year Bloggiesta is being hosted by It’s All About Books and There’s A Book, and you can see all the mini challenges here – and there are giveaways! 😀

For the kick off, I am posting my weekend to do list : (which I will cross off when I complete them):

1. A new blog header

2. New blog widget

3. prep posts for upcoming reviews

4. Write posts for movie/book reviews that I have completed (as of noon on Friday three written and drafted!)

5. Participate in mini challenges (two started)

6. Clean up/update side bars

7. Send out author chat questions to 3 authors

8. Prep a blog survey to use in April

9. Draft some fun discussion posts (as of noon on Friday one drafted… two more ideas formed….)

Hope to see you on the blogosphere this weekend – and stay tune, not only am I offering the giveaway involved with the mini challenge, but I also am planning giveaways all weekend long as part of the Bloggiesta Fiesta!!! OLE!!! Find me on Twitter at: bookjourney

Are you participating? Let me know and I will be sure to stop by and cheer you on! 😀