Tag: Morning Meanderings

Good morning!  *grabs COFFEE cup….. BIG SWIG*

It is now day two of my sabbatical from men. 

LOL – just kidding,  😛

Hubby Al is actually working a job out of town and I have been working, working out, a little reading…  I have woke up early the past couple of days which I actually like.  Time to have my COFFEE, and slowly ease into the day… ’cause if your life is like mine…. once the day starts….its full speed ahead to the end. 

Back to February.  Can you believe it?  Its baffling…. really.  Seems like just yesterday it was January….  😉  I organized what I have read in January last night and was pretty pleased with my start to the year.  Question is… how will it go this month or the next?  It’s always easier to sit and read when its cold outside…. 

This morning I received in my email a list of the Best Of February.  Always curious to see if I am missing out on anything… here is that list:

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo Hardcover  |  Kindle book Delicacy by David Foenkinos Paperback  |  Kindle book The End of Money by David Wolman Hardcover  |  Kindle book The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker Paperback  |  Kindle book Defending Jacob by William Landay Hardcover  |  Kindle book Da Vinci’s Ghost by Toby Lester Hardcover  |  Kindle book A Good American by Alex George Hardcover  |  Kindle book Flatscreen by Adam Wilson Paperback  |  Kindle book The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey Hardcover  |  Kindle book Immortal Bird by Doron Weber Hardcover  |  Kindle book

I have read none of these.  Have you?  Out of the list two interest me… maybe three.  Defending Jacob sounds pretty good, The Snow Child is one I have been seeing around and has me interested, and I am not really sure at this time what Immortal Bird is about…. but I am going to check it out. 

Have you read any of these?  Do you hope to/want to?  Are there any books that should have been on this list and are not?

Good morning all!  How are we this morning?  I am on cup of COFFEE number two, been up since 5:30 and actually feeling pretty good.  I have almost shaken off the cold/flu thing entirely and am almost ready to conquer my day (after I get ready for work, warm up my car, and pack my gym bag…)  😛

So… about the post title. 

Yesterday afternoon after running home quickly after 5 pm to let the dog out, fill the stove, and grab a couple of things before I was out the door again…. I stopped by my mail box and there she was.

I knew eventually we would run into each other.  I mean, it is a small world and all and I had no illusion that I would continue my life happily never crossing paths again…. in fact, I suppose in some sick twisted way, I had hoped this would happen.  That I would have to face her and try again to work this crazy rivalry out.

And so it happened.  She was at my mailbox….  I had my mail, I ripped open a large manilla envelope while driving (kids – only trained book lovers should attempt this)… and there she was….

Jane Eyre.

I think….

I may have screamed.

Honestly, this is not the first time I raved about her.  And in all honesty, I agreed to this encounter.  When Harper Perennial emailed me with a request to read and review Ms. Eyre… I had a mini fit, stomped my feet, slammed my laptop shut, eventually came back to the laptop, wiped away my tears and said…..  “She is a difficult woman but yes, I would like to try.”  (Honestly I did tell them that I have struggled trying to read her for years and would like the chance to try try TRY again).

So here we are.  Jane and I in the same house.  I think I will challenge myself to so many pages a week or something.  Maybe baby steps is the way to go.  I know many of you love her.  I don’t know why she hates me…. but she does.  I have never been able to read beyond the first few chapters without putting myself into a book coma.  I think she has magical (and evil) powers and she drugs me….   there is no reason why I should not be able to love this book too… but this will be my fifth attempt.

Be strong for me.

Do you have any books that are considered by the world to be “Amazing!”  “I couldn’t put it down!”  BEST book ever!” and you sit on the sidelines mumbling, “yeah…. not so much.”

If so please share with me…. I would love to know I am not alone. 

Oh – and if I disappear from the blogosphere….. remember…. I was last seen with Jane.  She may be small… but she is feisty.  😯

Good morning!!!

UP early – ready to go…. things to do…. things to do….

Do I feel better?  For the most part, yes.  Not 100% and I did just sneeze… but I am moving.

Do you have any of those authors you read and then one day you decide… never again?  I had that with Stephen King.  As a teen and early 20’s – LOVED just about everything he wrote.  In fact between him and Dean Koontz…. my favorite genre at the time was dark mystery with a touch occasionally of horror.  (My how times have a changed….LOL)

Then… at some point… his writing became just odd.  I didn’t get it… I didn’t want to get it… and I gave up on King, never to be read again by me.

There’s that word never.

But who was to know that someday in the future that King would write something that would make me curious.  Who among us seen 11-22-63 coming from this author?  Not me….  and even when it did I was skeptical…. but I added it to my wish list anyway, just in case… and then the positive murmurs began.

The final selling point for me was Kathy from Bermuda Onion said she was listening to it and enjoying it very much.  I knew then my next audible credit would go to this audio chunkster… 30+ hours of audio is a BIG commitment…. but I did it a couple of days ago and I am into the story and…

wow. 

Not only so far has King impressed me with this story of going back in time to save Kennedy on that fatal day, it’s not cheesy weird.  It’s actually something I can visualize… and I like it.  It’s also smart and I have to tell you it is scoring big time with me.  As in this story, a way has been found to go back in time, yet each consecutive time you go back it sets everything you have done previously back to the way it was.  Basically – you have to do it right… and then never go back again.  AND no matter how long you are in the past – when you return to the future only two minutes have past, errr.. in the future.  

Looking for a good read or a good way to spend your audible credit that is worthy?  I think…. this may very well be it.  Treat yourself.  Surprise yourself.  Way to go King.

Good morning.

Stuffy head…. sniffling… sneezing…

I feel like a walking ad for some sort of cold and flu commercial.

I don’t get sick often but when I do…. it knocks me down.

I am ready for work…. just Advil’d up to hopefully take the edge of the queasy and moving forward. I have to get a couple of things done for sure today… if this does not pass I will be home early…

One thing I wanted to be sure and share today (not the sickness…. your safe from that :razz:) is a sale my fellow book lovers need to be aware of:

Yup.  And it’s a good sale!  As my head has allowed I have put a couple of things into my cart on their site…. still have not made it all the way through but found a Laura Lipman, and a couple of others so far.  Beware – it’s an addicting site when you can find good titles for $1.99. 

I have a review up later and hopefully will be 100% better after today….  😀

Good morning.

SO something unusual happened after I posted my Monday What Are You Reading post on Sunday evening.

I did not log on to Asus (Laptop) at all yesterday.

😯

Truth is, I can’t remember the last time that has happened unless I was at the cabin for a weekend – separated from laptop by miles and miles of road and trees and the occasional moose….

but no…

I just got up yesterday morning…. got ready for work…. worked until 3:45, picked up food for the IHN Group we are serving, dropped chicken off at my home for hubby when he got off work, picked people up to take to the church we were serving the dinner at, helped with dinner and home around 7:30 pm. 

I looked at laptop and proceeded to finish reading Cinder instead…. which, was…..

well…. my review will be up tomorrow.  😀

I need to go…. promise I will  be better going forward this week 😀 

 

Good morning!  *YAWN*  *STRETCH*

I dreamt weird last night.  At one point I was at an orphanage and I thought I was adopting a baby… turns out it was an 8-year-old girl.  The adoption cost was $800 dollars and I did not have any money on me so I had to borrow from a friend.  At some point in the dream my 8-year-old girl turned into a boy (age unknown) but I can see him in my mind.  In my dream world, I did not know – or did not care that the child had been swapped out. 

In the end I remember talking to a real life friend (in my dream) who apparently had been taking care of my adopted child.  I explained that I was going to ease the child into my home by Wednesday, but wanted to take it slow.  My friend agreed that was a good process.  Then I woke up.  I have no idea what that was about…..  

Here we are on Sunday.  My Navy son is flying back to Florida today….  I set up for serving IHN this morning (it is my teams week to serve with the homeless) and things are looking pretty ok moving forward.  I say ok as this is the week I start working full-time (tomorrow) and with IHN also this week, plus throw in a Wednesday meeting, and hopefully close to daily work outs… I proceed with caution that I do not try to stretch myself too thin. 

I really do believe this week will be fine.  I have wonderful volunteers working with me and I don’t foresee anything real stressful…. 😀

So how is your January coming?  I can’t believe we are sitting on the 22nd already today.  That’s just wild!  For me I think I am doing well, I don’t have an exact count at this moment, but have had some great audio time (the cold weather has kept me inside) and the weather helps my book reading too.

This morning I found this Reading/Audio Spreadsheet that looks SO COOL!   I haven’t had any time to fill anything in yet as well…. I just got up and found it like ten minutes ago, and I am going to church in um….. 23 minutes. 😀  But when I get home… I plan to fill in what I know so far this year and see what happens.  (Kind of excited about that!)  I didn’t really set and goals for myself this year along book counts or audio minutes… I just like to see where I land 😀

How about you?  Is your reading in January a good month for you – or no?  Have you set up and ways of tracking what you read this year (or are you like me last year and do a massive count the last week of December?)

Good morning and happy Friday!

This is my first working Friday as my co-worker went on maternity leave yesterday so I will bump up to full-time while she is away.  It’s a good thing as normally I am 25 hours a week and this “bump” is going to pay for me to go to BEA this year.  😀 

When I came home yesterday afternoon to get ready to go to dinner with my cousins, I seen two small boxes sitting on my front deck.  Book size boxes always excites me so I quickly parked in the garage and hauled in the stuff from my car….

and then grabbed the boxes.

There were two books that I had recently ordered due to blog reviews and gushing….. and well, yeah….

I pre ordered this one when I seen it hmmmmm….. on Vasilly’s post first I think?  Now I can’t recall…..

and then…. after seeing the buzz around the debut authors of 2012, I had to jump on the book wagon and also ordered this:

Love the look and sound of this one….

and then – one I have not picked up yet but one day….

(LOL) is…..

Thank you to April at Good Books and Wine to put this book on my radar…. and now…. the heart wants… what the heart wants.  😀

And then as I see I am pushing my time here, Trish at Love, Laughter and a Touch Of Insanity wrote this fun post about how to know you are book obsessed.  Now really, I am linking this not for me…. as of course I AM FINE and not obsessed with books at all, but I worry about all of you and think maybe you should check it out.  Seriously…. find help…. I worry about you.  It’s you who has the problem with books…. not me.   😛

Have a great day!!!

Good morning all!  😀

My day yesterday was well…. AWESOME!  But long…. BUT AWESOME! But yeah… I am a bit groggy this morning… We had a large meeting I was in charge of setting up last night and it was a lot of prep work… a lot of planning…. and I worked 12 hours yesterday to make it happen….. but it did, and it was fun… and there was cake (but I didnt eat any)…  😛

Yesterday I had posted about the SOPA/PIPA thing coming down the pipe and what that could mean for our little corners of the world.  I am believing it is not going to affect us Book Bloggers much but I can see why people are in an uproar about it.

This morning I received this encouraging note:

Google launched a petition.  Wikipedia voted to shut itself off.  Senators’ websites went down just from the sheer surge of voters trying to write them.   NYC and SF geeks had protests that packed city blocks.

You made history today: nothing like this has ever happened before.  Tech companies and users teamed up.  Tens of millions of people who make the internet what it is joined together to defend their freedoms.  The free network defended itself.  Whatever you call it, the bottom line is clear: from today forward, it will be muchharder to mess up the internet. 

The really crazy part?  We might even win.

Approaching Monday’s crucial Senate vote there are now 35 Senators publicly opposing PIPA.  Last week there were 5.   And it just takes just 41 solid “no” votes to permanently stall PIPA (and SOPA) in the Senate.  What seemed like miles away a few weeks ago is now within reach. 

But don’t trust predictions.  The forces behind SOPA & PIPA (mostly movie companies) can make small changes to these bills until they know they have the votes to pass.  Members of Congress know SOPA & PIPA are unpopular, but they don’t understand why–so they’re easily duped by superficial changes.  The Senate returns next week, and the next few days are critical.  Here are two things to think about:

1. Plan on calling your Senator every day next week.  Pick up the phone each morning and call your Senators’ offices, until they vote “no” on cloture.  If your site participated today, consider running a “Call the Senate” link all next week.  

2. Drop in at your Senators’ district offices.  We don’t have a cool map widget to show you the offices nearest you (we’re too exhausted! any takers?).  So do it the old fashioned way: use Google, or the phonebook to find the address, and just walk in, say you oppose PIPA, and urge the Senator to vote “no” on cloture.  These drop-in visits make our spectacular online protests more tangible and credible. 

I guess we shall see…

Then I was just reading a new comment on the post I wrote January 8th about Changes In The Book Blogging World and feeling sad about it.  Which, now, 11 days later and MANY MANY great comments… I am still sad about those we have lost along the way (the good one’s that is…) but from responses I also am now encouraged as there are many of us still out here that are enjoying what we do…. not attacking each other or authors or publishers, but genuinely having a good time and doing it well.  That my friends, is the camp I want to be in.  😀

So is it the end of blogging as we know it?  I don’t think so.  I think we are going to be just fine.

I made a comment on that post this morning, and as I thought about it I agreed it was how I feel.  I like my little planet Book Journey.  It’s cozy here…. I have friends who gather here…. and we talk books.  Whats not to love?  😛

Have a fabulous day – I am off to work to clean up the destruction  fun of last night.  I am also picking up a great cup of COFFEE on my way 😀