Wasting time

Okay this week must be "Procrastination Week" at my house. I just spent an hour or so messing around with the header on my blog.

Obviously that project was terribly important for me to complete. Bah! :-P

I did finish one item on my to do list, started another, and modified a third item -- so technically it is finished.

Honestly, I have no idea where my ambition went this week.

I can say that I am glad tomorrow is Friday. That means I only have 10 more hours of work this week! Yeah!

Ooops . . . it's Wednesday already?

That means tomorrow is Thursday -- almost the end of the week. This week has flown by and I haven't finished any of my to do for this week yet. What is going on here! I haven't been watching t.v. , I haven't been goofing off . . .

what have I been doing?

I honestly have no idea.

I do know I will be working the next three days. And not just at the library. But on my to do list.

Really, I will.

REALLY.

Is that really comfortable?

Cleo has been sleeping in the oddest positions recently . . .

just waking up . . .

sleeping . . . I think?!?!

Lovin' summer

This summer has seemed to fly by! The school year is looming . . . cooler weather . . . falling leaves . . . first snow . . .

Okay, maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

I have to say though, I have really enjoyed this summer. The weather has been exceptional despite the week's worth of rain in the beginning. The humidity hasn't been horrible and I haven't used my a/c!

I have helped with VBS, gone to TX, been on a business trip to Des Moines, church picnic, a cookout & fireworks, game nights, movie nights, been to the zoo, visited old friends, went to the fair, and probably a lot of things I have forgotten!

I can't wait to see how this summer finishes!

The next thing on my list by Jill Smolinski

Bookspot Housekeeping:

Before I start this Bookspot review I thought I would put my two-cents in about this whole book review thingy:

• I am a book reader. That said, I want to clarify: I read anywhere from 1-4 books a week depending on how good a book is, how long, how much time I have not to do my laundry or dishes or whatever, etc., etc.

• I will be reviewing the books I have been reading recently, so don't be surprised if some of my favorites don't show up -- I have read and reread them so many times I might just be taking a break from them! :-)

• I am a book optimist -- I believe there is a chance that a book I really don't like can maybe, just possibly, end well. Which means there are very few books I do not finish -- good or bad or ugly.

• Because of the book optimist thing, I plan to review books that I luv and will probably read again and again and again, books that I like, books that are ok but I probably won't read again, and books that I really don't like.

• REMEMBER!: These are my own personal opinions -- I may love them you may not; you may love them I may not. The world will still go round.
  

---

This book I finished at the beginning of last week. It is what I would call easy reading. No technical terms, no clues that you have to keep track of to really get the storyline. I would consider it "beach reading." (I don't have anything against this type of book -- I actually read quite a few of these.)

First of all, I love the cover art. They say you should never judge a book by a cover -- but I do. That doesn't mean I discount an ugly cover but it will probably take me a little longer to pick it up.

June is an average "Jane." She works for Los Angeles Rideshare. Has few friends. Struggles with a few added pounds. Lives an unremarkable life.

One evening she gives an acquaintance a ride and ends up changing both of their lives. After a car accident where her acquaintance dies, June finds herself in possession of her passenger's list -- "20 things to do by my 25th birthday."

With only two items crossed off the list, June feels "compelled by both guilt and a desire to set things right to finish the list." List items ranged from running a 5K to changing someone's life to kissing a stranger.

I liked the premise of this book. The life list. A challenge to oneself to become different or better. A challenge to experience something new. To step out of my comfort zone and stretch myself. It made me think about what I might have on my list of things I want to do or accomplish in my life.

I do know one thing on my list -- it has been on my list since high school: I want to visit Montana.

What's on your list?

Note: This book is pretty "clean" but there are some passages that use some profanity. Enough that I noticed.

For more information on life lists visit the author's website.

He's gonna kill me . . .

Ah, the young mischievous cutie. I say mischievous because he has that grin on his face while the rest of the picture shows him relentlessly annoying the sister.

::head shaking::

He was a cutie though. Still is. Although this grin is rare.

And today the brother is one year older.

And still younger than me!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Love you!

Let's go to the zoo

This weekend a friend I went to the Madison area to visit some other friends. We went to the Madison Zoo on Friday. This is a very nice zoo and it was free! Bonus!

Okay, I need to stop talking now because nobody (but me) says "bonus!" anymore . . .

Pelican Pond

The Parrot Family (NOT The Partridge Family)

The kids and the lioness

I was tired out by the end of the day and slept very well. The next day we went to an outlet mall in Wisconsin Dells and met up with another friend -- who is expecting in October! -- and wandered around for a while. I found a $3 shirt I liked at Old Navy. Then we went out to eat and headed back to play some games for a while.

Sunday after church I slept for 3 hours! Nothing like a fun weekend to wear you out!

Craziness, part deux (and some other stuff)

I had a great weekend with friends! And I haven't yet gotten back into the swing of things.

Thus:

• I missed a blog post yesterday - ergh
• Have to catch up on my work "homework"
• Need to pick up the clutter around the house

I will have some highlights from the weekend as soon as I upload my photos to my computer. (Oops -- that's another thing I should add to my list.)

Hopefully, my week will start to slow down a little.

Something else to add to my list:

I was questioned recently as to the reasoning I do not post book reviews. I have posted one since the inception of this blog. And I explained a little bit. But basically I was afraid I would go overboard with the books. However, a friend pointed out to me that books are a large part of my life so I shouldn't eliminate them from this blog (of my life).

Sooooo . . . I'm gonna try this instead of 5 things Friday on the last Friday of the month I will have a Friday Bookspot. We'll see how this goes.

Which means this Friday will be the first Friday Bookspot post.

Uh-oh, now I'm getting nervous . . .

Craziness

NOT HOT NOT HOT NOT HOT NOT HOT

I live in a town with crazy people!

Today has to have been the best day in all of July. It was warm, the humidity was low, there was a slight breeze . . . and all these crazy people have their windows and doors closed tight and their air-conditioners on!

Granted I have nothing against using air conditioning, I use it myself from time to time, but it really is too nice out to have the house closed up and the ac on.

It really is.

5 thing

1. The mild summer temperatures on Monday & Tuesday
2. The cooling rain on Thursday
3. An encouraging phone call
4. Friends
5. Kids that make me smile

Penny pinching

I'm always on the lookout for ways to save some money. I really enjoy The Simple Dollar blog -- there is some great advice and super ideas!

Today's post was especially interesting, I thought.

"For the last few months, my wife and I have been doing something every other weekend or so that we call a “money free” weekend, in an effort to live more frugally. It’s actually quite fun - here’s how we do it.

We are not allowed to spend any money on anything, no matter what. In other words, we can’t make a run to the store to buy food, we can’t spend money on any sort of entertainment, and so on. Since we often do our grocery shopping on Saturdays, on a “money free” weekend, we delay it to Monday or Tuesday.

We can use our utilities, but no extra expenses on these utilities. No renting movies on cable, no text messages that aren’t already covered by our cell phone plan, and so on."

Interesting concept, no? I think it would be harder in a family environment rather than my single life. Then again it would probably be more money-saving too. I'm trying to think if I have done this -- it is entirely possible but I can't think of weekend I didn't pick up some milk, or fill up my tank, or some other errand.

I have really cut back on my entertainment spending. There were two expenditures that kept popping up.

1. I was spending too much on eating out -- picking up a quick meal. I plan a little bit better and use the foodstuff in my pantry. Imagine that! :-)
2. I was spending too much on books. This was really hard to give up. But I have. I buy maybe three or four books a year compared with 2-3 books a month. I am using my library and being patient and not buying books as soon as they are published.

I know I still have a ways to go but I think I have a solid start.

Stumped and stupefied

Hah, I just wanted to use those words! Especially stupefied -- it's like a fancy word for stupid.

Anyway . . . I was stumped today. A patron was going on vacation (to Mexico) and she wanted me to suggest a good beach read.

Me . . . who has practically read the entire library collection . . . to suggest a good book to read at the beach. I have to say I totally blanked out. I think it was the term "beach read" that threw me off. Looking back I probably should have gotten a little more information. But how do you define a beach read. Think about it I would say something light and fluffy and fun.

Hmm . . .

My stupid thing. Facebook is addicting. A-D-D-I-C-T-I-N-G. Originally I signed up for an account so that I would be familiar with the site that the kids at the library were visiting constantly. Then my college alumni association created a group -- so of course I had to join that.

Now I find myself jumping over to the site for no good reason. Apparently, I have a problem.

(Does it count that I visited it to create a link for this page? I'm gonna say no ::shaking head:: pathetic aren't I?)

Scarface

Okay, her eyes look a little creepy here.

I started calling Cleo "Scarface" a couple weeks ago. After I got home from Texas I noticed a scrape on her cheek. She must have rubbed something wrong . . . heehee.

One of her favorite things to do is rub her cheeks against something, instant kitty massage. I think she rubbed against something she wasn't supposed to.

All better . . . she's back to her pretty little self!

Picnic

Yesterday we had our church picnic a the park.

There was a lot of good food! And a lot of good fellowship!

Funny face there is my mom . . .

After the food . . . the games . . .

with the younger ones . . .

the older ones . . .



















and everyone in between . . .

:-)

Above average

Via Sassymonkey Reads:

"According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on this list.

The instructions:
Look at the list and:
Bold those you have read.
Italicize those you intend to read.
Underline the books you LOVE."

I couldn't locate the The Big Ready info but I thought I would edit the list below to reflect my reads, hopes to reads and loves!

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (tried but only got through the first one . . . twice)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. 1984 - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (read it but didn't like it at all!)
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (read it so long ago I'm not sure I remember it)
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (over and over and over again)
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (over and over and over again)
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92.The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Wow, I've read 24 of these! That's not bad. I have to say, though, I'm not exactly sure if this list is supposed to be classics or as selection of "recommended reading" or a selection of books considered to be good literature? Many lists like this are purely subjective.

Travel rocks!?

I like to travel -- visit different places.

I don't like to travel -- drive for hours to get to a destination and then feel tired and out-of-sorts.

I am on a business trip today. I don't know if this can be classified as travel or not. It's fun. Something new and different. It would be more fun to share it with someone. It would be more fun if I didn't have a headache from driving 4.5 hours.

However . . . :-)

I'm in a nice motel room I don't have to pay for. I had a nice meal I didn't have to pay for. And I will be learning something new in my class tomorrow.

Not too shabby.

Take a deep breath . . .

This has been a stressful week. I am working some extra hours at work and have two classes. This morning was one of them -- it was an internet class so no travel but I had to get up earlier than usual.

Tomorrow the library is having some computer & network maintenance done -- which I am NOT in charge of but will be helping with. I know next to nothing, no less than nothing about networks. Thankfully we have a IT guy coming in for that.

Tomorrow evening and Friday I will on business trip -- doesn't that sound all fancy-like! :-)
I have a class at the state library.

So tonight, I'm taking a deep breath to get ready for the rest of the week.

::sigh::

Grampy

July 13, 1922 - July 3, 2008

The 4th Photos

On the 4th I had some friends over and we grilled brats and played some games. Then we headed out for fireworks.

We got there a little early . . .

Waiting . . . Playing UNO

We were right next to the Mississippi and once the ballpark lights turned on the mayflies came out. Two of the kids sitting next to us were trying to stomp them out.



The fireworks were really good -- it was about a half an hour show. I haven't become adept at photographing at night, moving object, or lights. :-)

Just for fun

A little 4th of July fun!

Whoopsie . . .

I haven't been posting very well this week. I just realized about 5 minutes ago that I missed yesterday!

Anyway, Happy 4th! Make sure you check out this post before watching fireworks . . .

I have had a good day! I slept in until 10 am. I got up and cleaned my bathroom, living room, & dining room. (Maybe I'll get some photos up next week.) Then I made a salad and got out my grill.

I lounged around for a bit.

About 40 minutes ago I lit my charcoal . . . hopefully they will be ready to cook my brats soon!

I am having some friends over for brats and sparklers!

Garden progress

I went out to the farm last week to see how the garden was coming along.

Beans . . .

Corn . . .

Broccoli & zucchini . . .

Weeding courtesy of my mother . . . :-)

Funny story

About a year after I got my cell phone I started getting irritating phone calls. I would answer the phone and hear an automated voice tell me "the electricity is off" and then it would leave a phone number.

I didn't have anything that would have the electricity off. And even if I did it wouldn't call and tell me.

When I would hang up, the phone would ring again, and again, and again. Or, if I didn't answer the calls my voice mailbox would fill up.

I would get a couple of these calls a year. About the second or third time it happened I found that if I called the phone number right away it [I was assuming the electricity] reset and I didn't get any more phone calls for a few months.

The last time this happened was sometime in February. That time the phone started ringing while I was at work -- which rarely every happens so I don't really turn it off. At least I didn't until after this incident.

When I had a chance I called and reset the electricity.

This morning my phone rang at 7:30 a.m. Most people who know me, know that I am rarely up at 7:30 -- which means the phone call was either very important or a wrong number.

Turns out it was neither!

By the time I had gotten up to answer my phone (I was dead asleep) the call had forwarded to voicemail. When I listened to the message it was from the owner of the cabin that kept calling me.

It turns out that they had been going over the phone bill of their cabin and noticed a number that they didn't know but had been called for 5 hours in February.

Yeah . . . that was me.

I called her back this afternoon. They had a storm at their cabin in February and the power went out. They had a electrical setup that would call certain pre-programmed phone numbers to be called until someone answers, returns the call, and resets the electricity.

Apparently their son went to college in next town over and it is possible that he had my phone number before me. Aren't I the lucky one! :-)

Anyway, she was appreciative and thanked me for doing the resets and told me they would be correcting the contact information this week and not to worry about being called again!

But I think I will keep her phone number just in case!