52 Weeks, 52 Books: Week 51

Week 51! The end is in sight.  This week's book is Skeleton Letters by Laura Childs.

I do like the Tea Shop series a bit more than these but it was a pretty quick and very easy read. Which is exactly what I needed this close to the end of the year and during the holiday season. Woman is murdered in a church in what appears to be a robbery gone wrong.  Many suspects, few valid motives...but of course it all works out in the end.

Speaking of...Merry Christmas to you and yours.  It's been an unusual Christmas, if I do say so myself. I've not really had a traditional Christmas in many years.  Working in television pretty much guarantees that you won't and since moving so far away from the family it's been even less so. But this year I'm in Green Bay and am spending the holiday with my work / road family...all 120 or so of them.

Movie Night

Ahhh, a weekend off from work, movie night, conversation....it was nice to feel normal during football season.  I had informed MBE earlier in the month that Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows would be seen. I didn't think it would take much persuasion and so we found ourselves on opening weekend sitting in a fairly packed theater.


via Sherlock Holmes 

It was pretty good, a fun caper; however as with many sequels I didn't find it as entertaining as the first. I did find myself annoyed with all the slow-mo action scenes acted out in his mind before the actual action scene but there were some fun parts and a lot of action.

On a side note, before the movie during the trailers for upcoming releases, they previewed a movie about Margaret Thatcher: Iron Lady.  As a history buff and ex-history major it's definitely on the list of movies I'd want to see, but that's beside the point.  The point is that after the trailer played, the girl in the row in front of us turned to her companion and said "Who is she?"  What?  OK, so said girl was in her 20's but really, she doesn't know Margaret Thatcher?  The first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?  Is our education system in the US so terrible that the average 20-something doesn't know Margaret Thatcher?  Do they know Ronald Reagan?  Mikhail Gorbachev? Heck, do they believe that the cold war was some 1980's video game? I'm really beginning to worry.  I've often said the downfall of the US would be a lack of common sense but maybe just maybe it will be from a lack of not knowing our own history.  Those who cannot remember the past are bound to repeat it and all that good stuff. Whew. Sorry for the rant but it really blew my mind, lol.

52 Weeks, 52 Books: Week 50

Fifty weeks down, two to go. Wow.  Week Fifty's book was The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen.

I am such a fan of Sarah Addison Allen's books.  This is the third book of hers that I've read and am waiting to get the fourth.  These books are hard to describe, they're not really chic lit, nor romance, neither are they science fiction even though they contain elements of all these.  What they are are magical, mystical books set in small towns in the South.  Small towns where secrets run rampant and at the same time everyone knows everyone else's business.
In this book, Emily moves to a small town to live with her grandfather after the death of her mother.  What she discovers about her mother shocks her.  The woman Emily knew is vastly different than the girl that lived there years ago.  Emily struggles to reconcile her activist mother with the mean and spoiled teenager that everyone remembers.  Will she be an outcast because of what her mom did?

52 Weeks, 52 Books: Week 49

Hello dolls (and guys).  Another week down, another book down and another game...down! Woohoo.  This week's late book is The Fred Factor. I can't get the photo of the cover to attach so you'll just have to deal with looking at this link.

This was picked because it's a super short book and looked like an easy read as it was.  And I'm still late posting.  How can that be? Hmmm.  Anyhoo, the author starts the book with a story about his postal delivery man, Fred, who took the extra effort in his job and went above and beyond.

And it did motivate me. Honestly. For a minute. And then I turned around and went back to work and promptly forgot that I was trying to be more Fred-like.  Yup.

So out side of that, I just returned from Dallas. It was a full moon this weekend and I fully blame all the crazy people at work on that.  From catering snafus (fried chicken every meal? I think not!), to doggies pooping on planes.  From someone running into a portable toilet (yup, the glamorous world of television sports) with a golf cart to hotel insanity.  It was quite a weekend.  By the way, I'd advise against running into a porta-john with a golf cart.

And so, with that, I bid you adieu.

Last Night...

Courtesy Inside Sports

Yup. That's all.  SEC Champions!  Bring on the BCS Championship game...Bama, Oklahoma State...we're ready for you.  Honey Badger takes what he wants.  There may be craziness yet again in the BCS but for once, it's not about us. Undefeated.  Unanimously #1.  Life is good.  Les is more. And all that stuff.

GEAUX TIGERS!

52 Weeks, 52 Books: Week 48

Finally, an on time post!  I know.  Let's all shout "hallelujah!".  This week's book was a return to fiction after a few weeks of memoirs and such.  Not only that, this week's book was a return to the mystery story AND a return to one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Peters.

Vicky Bliss, tall, blond and American, works in Germany at a museum.  Along the way in her work travels, she's encountered evil villains and such.  On this trip down the Nile, it's no different.  After being talked into going on the cruise as an "expert in Egyptian art" but with the real intent of figuring out who the criminals and criminals to be are, Vicky finds herself completely undone by the arrival of Sir John Smythe.  John and Vicky have crossed paths before, as he's one of the art thieves she's frequently run into but beyond that, they've lets say, been seeing each other for several years, on and off.

When John shows up with a brand new bride, Vicky quickly lets the authorities know who the criminal is but is it really John?  Is she surrounded by the criminal underbelly of the art world?  Are her undercover officers that she's reporting to really what and who they say they are? Things continue to go drastically wrong for Vicky but the day is saved by her boss at the museum, Schmidt, who shows up unannounced.

I'm sure I missed some of the Vicky Bliss series and must go back and take a look. Good book. Wow, only a few weeks left.  I've enjoyed reading all these books but I don't think I'll continue into the new year, it's quiet stressful trying to blog them on time. Whew! lol

December? Already?

Holy. Smoke.  It's December. It's officially winter. THE TREE IS UP.  Wow.

2011 Christmas Tree @ Rockefeller Plaza

And this morning I turned the heat on for the first time since being in my condo.  The alarm went off and I hopped out of bed and thought "Wow, it's chilly!" and then I thought "Hey, I can control the temperature. I have a thermostat!"  and then I did the happy dance.

For those of you who are thinking, "this girl has lost her marbles", let me clarify. For the past 10-11 years I've lived in a rental where I had no control over the temperature. The building set the thermostat and it was always FREEZING in the summer (way too much AC) and suffocating in the winter (waaaaaay too much heat). There were a few days every spring and fall where it was just right. OK, so I'm sounding a bit like Goldilocks here but it's true.

When I moved in to my condo a few weeks ago, one of the first things I did was to program the thermostat.  Awesome.  For this, these little things, I am thankful.