Miatas & Books

This weekend Randy & I went to the coast with the Miata club. A weekend of driving in the Miata typically gives me two things, 1. time to read and 2. time to sleep. For some reason after an hour or so of driving I conk out. I just can't keep my eyes open. It's a good thing Randy doesn't need me to keep him awake or we would be in a bunch of trouble!

I was able to finish two of Charlaine Harris' books over the weekend, Grave Sight and Shakespeare's Landlord. Grave Sight features Harper Connelly who finds dead people by the vibes they give off. She and her brother, Tolliver, travel the country accepting assignments to typically find people lost and presumed dead. When she and her brother are called to a small town to find a missing girl, everything goes wrong and Tolliver ends up in jail while Harper is shot at. Of course, the story ends well and the sister/brother team move on. The book was good, but not as sharp as the Sookie Stackhouse books. There are three books in the series so far.

Shakespeare's Landlord takes place in a small town, Shakespeare, where Lilly Bard has moved to in order to get away from her past. She works as a housekeeper and tries to keep a low profile, which works for about four years until she becomes involved in solving a murder. There are five books in the series.

I love a prolific writer, especially one whose work I like reading. There's nothing worse than not having a book in que to read.

So Sick

Connor has been sick this past week and we found out it was mononucleosis. Man, it really wiped him out. He could hardly swallow and was in a lot of pain. I could tell when he began feeling better, when he started asking for food. I think he lost 10 pounds. He and Randy did a Star Trek marathon tonight with the Star Trek Voyageur series tonight. Nice father/son bonding moment. My computer is having issues. This time it's my external drive where all my music and pictures are stored. Basically, where my life is stored. Justin fixed it last time for me and told me to back it up. Have I backed it up? No. Fool! I try to jiggle the cord, because the problem last time was the connection. I'm believing I will be able to connect it and once I do, I'm buying a new external drive and throwing this one away. I have to believe it, otherwise I would cry hysterically...over 6,000 pictures and close to 6,000 songs, plus important papers would be gone. The benefit of backing up data...peace of mind.

Relief!

The world is right again. I finished the eighth book in the Sookie Stackhouse vampire mystery series. So nice to get back to a book that is fun and exciting instead of hmmm...well whatever Sawtelle was. Now, the really good news is Harris is a wonderfully prolific author and has at least two other series! I started Grave Sight tonight, which is has Harper Connelly as the heroine in another mystery series. I'm already intrigued and look forward to reading it this weekend while on the coastal cruise with our car club.

Not Such a Great Read

If you want to read this book and don't want to know how it ends, don't read this blog entry.

I finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski tonight and while the story was intriguing, the book isn't one that I would recommend. It's an Oprah's Book Club 2008 selection and Stephen King "flat-out loved" the story, so I thought it would be something really great. (I kept reading, waiting to get to the great part). Maybe they like books with a lot of angst and drama. I don't like tragedies and I think (epiphany) that is why I didn't like the book. It ends up pretty much a tragedy. The book took a while to get going too and it was one I could easily put down. Anyway, I ordered a couple of other Charlaine Harris books from Amazon and I'm waiting for those to come it. I'll have good stuff to get back to!

Missing Your Vampire?

With the New Year came a new vampire book series for me that began with the book, Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris. If you have come to love vampires and werewolves from spending time with Bella & Edward in the Twilight series, you might want to check out Harris' series, which features Sookie Stackhouse, a small town bar maid, who has been waiting for a vampire to come into her bar "ever since vampires came out of the coffin". Sookie, blond, pretty and twenty-five, has a "disability", which has colored her relationships with humans. She finds the minds of vampires offer a nice respite. I enjoyed the first book so much that I bought the series. Just note, this is not a YA series. While the books are not as graphic as some parts of the TV show, TrueBlood, Harris includes a bit more details in her writing. Enjoy!

Thank you

Randy asks, "Did you open the flowers in the box on the chair in the living room?" Truthfully, I just tuned him out, because why would there be flowers in a box on the chair in the living room? Two hours later, he thrusts a long 1-800-flowers box into my arms and again asks, "Are you going to open up the box?" and "Who would send you flowers?" Who indeed? I found out by reading the enclosed card that a very sweet and charming fellow who is soon to be related to me sent the flowers along with a lovely thank you note. Hmmm...ok, this is good. I like flowers. I like flowers a lot. They're beautiful, they are fragrant and, most importantly, I can't kill them because they're already dead! And now, I have my future son-in-law sending me flowers. I think we're on the road to a great relationship.

Twilight

The song you're probably listening to is Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron and Wine. For you Twilight fans, it's from the Twilight movie soundtrack and I'm really digging it. Just a nod to Twilight.

Cousins

I have a very small family. One sister and two cousins. The four of us grew up together. Two city cousins and two country cousins. We seem to always take a "cousin" picture when we're together. This year's Christmas was no exception. my cousin, my sister, uncle & me
sister, cousin, me & little cousin

cousin, sister & me

Hot Chocolate Anyone?

Well, I got the Williams and Sonoma hot chocolate maker that I wanted for Christmas! It makes great hot chocolate, the clean up is very easy (I think I put too much milk in the container, hence the overflow), warms up the milk to just the right temperature and produces a creamy cup of cocoa! Yum on a cold winter night!

Christmas Past

Randy & some of his loot
Spencer looking snazzy in his new pea coat

Dan loves argyle...and he got a lot!

Christmas Eve dinner with my mom

Me and my girl

Well, it's done. Christmas is past. Randy & I took down the tree and decorations on Saturday. We went through all of our Christmas stuff and organized everthing. Got rid of stuff we didn't like or want. Amazingly enough, this was a very good Christmas for me considering I'm working full-time, did wedding planning stuff with Maddie and made it through seven Christmas celebrations with family. No melt downs occured with all I had to do. I did go from green to yellow a few times and once to an orange, but never red. Christmas is a hard time of the year. A lot of expectations and pressure. This year...it just was. I really enjoyed having Madison & Dan home. I miss her so much and it was nice to spend time with Dan and get to know him better.