Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas here at home. We got ready, took some pictures, opened presents, played with presents, took naps, talked to family, delivered gifts to friends and played a hilarious game, went to dinner and played Wii and worked on a sink. All in all a very nice Christmas.

Oh Christmas Tree

Toby checks out his new toy.

It's a Christmas miracle! We got lots of snow on Christmas night and it is still around, although I bet it won't last the weekend.

30 Days: Day 29

Day 29: In this past month, what have you learned?

I learned a few interesting things:

• Old James Bond movies are boring
• What hotboxing is
• How to use fresh ginger root
• SQL to XML scripting
• How to change a diaper (maybe I already new this, just got a refresher)
• How to make peppermint bark
• Stand mixers make making cookies a lot easier

I'm sure there are more, but that is a random sampling.

30 Days: Day 28

Day 28: A picture of you from last year and now. How have you changed since then?

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2010

Obviously my hair is a bit shorter, and I have a new scar on my neck, and a few more gray hairs. Otherwise, I'm pretty much the same.

30 Days: Day 27

Day 27: Why are you doing this 30-day challenge?

As I said before, my friend Lisa did this on her blog and I thought it was a good idea so I decided to do it. I like blogging but nothing interesting ever happens so it's hard to think of stuff to blog about.

30 Days: Day 26

Day 26: What do you think about your friends?

They are AWESOME! I love my friends. This is a silly question.

30 Days: Day 25

Day 25: What someone might find in your bag

Coincidentally, I have stopped carrying a bag to most places. I used to tote my purse around everywhere with me but I decided to try leaving it and just taking a few essentials in my pockets when I go out and it has worked quite well. I think my purse hasn't left the house in over a month.

If you looked inside, you would find blank deposit slips from my Bank. I have to take a few of these from the counter every few months because I didn't want to order a whole box of checks I will never use just so I could get account-specific deposit slips. I think that is DUMB! They should let you order deposit slips without ordering checks.

30 Days: Day 24

Day 24: A letter to your parents

Dear Mom and Dad,

Thanks for the awesome Christmas presents. You were spot on with each gift. I hope you had a great Christmas. I love you guys,

Love,

Mindy

30 Days: Day 23

Day 23: Something you crave a lot

Productiveness, pickles, and candy. Not necessarily in that order.

30 Days: Day 22

Day 22: What makes you different from everyone else

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You." - Dr. Seuss

"If we did all the things we are capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves." - Thomas Edison

I like the topic of uniqueness but I am horrible at introspection. I saw a website talking about how unique everyone really is. It claimed if you take a sampling of 5-6 of a person's skills, talents, and attributes, probably only one in a billion persons have that same combination (this may be bogus but it sounds nice).

I tried to think of some things to put on a list of things that make me different but they were things like, "I am tall." so I decided not to make a list. Sorry.

30 Days: Day 21

Day 21: A picture of something that makes you happy

See Day 20

Also, sugar!

It looks a little gross all together, but these are a few of my favorite things.

30 Days: Day 20

Day 20: Someone you see yourself marrying or being with in the future

A picture says a thousand words.

30 Days: Day 19

Day 19: Nicknames you have and why you have them

I don't have many nicknames. Mindilla Gorilla was one of my first nicknames, what my mom and dad called me sometimes when I was little. Brindy Miscoe or Briscky Mindo were probably my most common nicknames in high school. Some people at work call me Mindizzle, which always makes me laugh.

In 4th grade, I sat at a table with three other kids and we all had nicknames. Two of them already had good nicknames so we thought the other two should also have nicknames that started with the same letter as your name. All they could come up with for me was Mental, which I absolutely hated. Luckily it didn't stick very well.

30 Days: Day 18

Day 18: Plans/dreams/goals you have

• See more of the world
• Get more exercise
• Create stuff for our home

Kind of boring, I know, but I'm not really a big dreamer. And I am getting sleepy and am having a hard time wanting to spend too much time on this right now... Maybe later this month I'll make some resolutions.

30 Days: Day 17

Day 17: Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why

This is a tough one. I can't think of anyone I would want to switch lives with. Maybe someone in a really hard situation like almost freezing to death or really hungry or in constant pain or can barely breathe, so that I would be more grateful all the rest of the days for all the great blessings I have and often take for granted.

30 Days: Day 16

Day 16: Another picture of yourself

30 Days: Day 15

Day 15: Put your iPod on shuffle and list the first 10 songs that play

1. Slide Along Side - Shifty

2. California Waiting - Kings of Leon

3. Young Adult Friction - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

4. Take Me Away - Lifehouse

5. Any Man of Mine - Shania Twain

6. So Fresh, So Clean - Outkast

7. They Say - Scars on Broadway

8. The Phony King of England - Disney's Robin Hood

9. You Make Me Smile - Blue October

10. Drive - Incubus

Rugged Maniac

Yesterday I was on facebook and I saw this advertisement:

Now, that normally doesn't sound like my thing but for some reason I checked out their website. Apparently it is a 5K race that also has obstacles like climbing over 3-7 foot barricades, mud and water in various situations, crawling through tubes, tires, jumping over fire, up and down hills, and you get the picture...

I keep thinking about this and wondering, well, lots of things, but mostly things like "Why am I still thinking about this?", "Would I want to do that?" and "Would I be ABLE to do that?". Now, I don't yet know the answer to any of those questions but I will continue to think about it.

Pros:

Have a reason to exercise and get in shape

Have something interesting to do and look forward to

Have fun with friends and family

Get an "I am a Rugged Maniac" shirt

Cons:

It looks really hard and I can't currently run 5K.

Get muddy and dirty and wet and probably cold

Pay big registration fee (like $60/person)

Potential for injury

Anyways, for some reason or another, I'm seriously considering it. Any thoughts? Anyone up for joining?

30 Days: Day 14

Day 14: A picture of you and your family

Not sure what we were going for here... and not too recent. Oh well, you get the picture.

30 Days: Day 13

Day 13: A letter to someone who has hurt you recently

Dear Toby,

I'm sorry we had to trim your claws again yesterday but you are frightening to play with when you haven't been recently trimmed. Somehow you have figured out what many cats fail to grasp: that the movement of the waggling string or crazy laser originates in the hand, not the toy. I know you are probably just showing off how smart you are and that you aren't fooled, but remember, no one wants to play with a prosaic cat. Especially one with long sharp claws.

Mindy

30 Days: Day 12

Day 12: How you found out about Blogger and why you have one

Someone(s) in my family across the country started a blog and I liked reading it so much that I decided to start my own to keep my family and friends posted on what I was up to now and then. I like writing my blog posts but I have a hard time convincing myself that anything I do is worth posting about on the blog. I know, I know, Mom, you like to read anything here, regardless of how dull or boring. Perhaps next month I will try to blog frequently with no prompts and then you all will see how dull and uneventful my life is!

30 Days: Day 11

Day 11: Another picture of you and your friends

Michelle, me and Bethany in Mr. Litizzette's classroom. Ahhh, good times.

30 Days: Day 10

Day 10: Songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad

I don't listen to a lot of music these days. Mostly just when I am in the car and when I have nothing to with my ears but something to keep my hands busy, like washing dishes or folding laundry.

I think my iPod has been on Shuffle All for the last 2 years, so I haven't really picked and chosen which songs that I want to listen to, although I often skip songs. If I have to choose a happy song I would say 257 Weeks by Nine Days. When it is raining hard I like to listen to It's Coming Down by Cake. When I'm feeling dramatic and melodic I like Stars or On My Own from Les Miserables. Also, I have recently really liked my Pandora Radio station based on Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Very pretty.

30 Days: Day 9

Day 9: Something you're proud of in the past few days

I am proud of Jeran for how hard he has been working on something he doesn't really enjoy doing. Hours upon hours spent tweaking a grant that keeps changing requirements on you is no fun! Keep it up for just a little longer! You're almost finished!

Also, I encountered a difficult problem at work with one of my most complicated projects and was able to write an awesome fix script. I was very pleased with myself. Although... it has yet to be thoroughly tested so maybe it's awful (but I don't think so).

30 Days: Day 8

Day 8: Short-term goals for this month and why

1. Put up Christmas decorations - because it's almost Christmas.

2. Figure out family Christmas presents and send - because I like family and Christmas and presents.

3. Work hard at work stuff - I have a more difficult project than usual scheduled for this month but it should be educational and refresh some rusty skills.

4. Cook two completely new dishes - because I like to cook and we haven't tried anything new in a while.

5. Finish putting up the cabinet molding in the kitchen - because duh.

5. Spend lots of good time with Jeran, who has lately been and will be stressed and busy for another week and a half!

30 Days: Day 7

Day 7: A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you

30 Days: Day 6

Day 6: Favorite superhero and why

I don't have one. And I have no explanation other than to say that I was never crazy about any superheroes or the whole genre. True, they came out with some pretty good superhero movies, Batman Begins being the best, but I am really indifferent about them all anyways.

On the other hand, super powers could be interesting, but there are always costs along with the benefits. If you could read minds you could know what everyone is thinking, BUT... you would know what everyone is thinking. Blegh. There is a reason we value learning to think before we say something and not saying everything you're thinking about. Also there go surprises, secrets, and privacy.

Super strength would be all right but in everyday life wouldn't come in THAT handy. What, I could open any jar? Lift up the couch so I can vacuum under it? Hmm, that would be handy. But still! Not so useful as the movies make it seem.

Anyways, I'm fine just the way I am and I'll come by my skills the normal old way.

30 Days: Day 5

Day 5: A picture of somewhere you've been

Ha. This one is funny because I have more or less been here. This is a picture of Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. My dad and my brother, Andrew, and I were there and we drove up to Giant's Causeway, which we knew was a scenic place but not sure what it was exactly. We drove up to the northern coast and parked in the empty Giant's Causeway parking lot, got out and looked around some. Not too impressive but certainly pretty countryside, we thought. Then we got back into the car and drove back to Belfast. Only later did we learn that we were supposed to walk down to the coast to see the real sight, these giant basaltic hex columns that were formed by volcanoes 50 million years ago. Bummer. It certainly wasn't clearly marked with any signage. Anyways, Andrew and I laugh about it now, so it's a good memory.

Somewhere that I can definitely say I have been is Frary Peak on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. My family went on a hike there in May 2002 and I enjoyed it a lot. Also, this is when I discovered that frozen hard grapes are great during a hot summer hike. Yumm.

30 Days: Day 4

Day 4: A habit that you wish you didn’t have

I think I am finally starting to feel the effects of sitting in weird positions all day. I'm always sitting with one leg tucked under me, or cross-legged, or all scrunched up in my chair some way or another. Lately I've felt it in my knee and had more problems with my feet falling asleep so I have tried to do better, but I spend so much time in my chair and the habit is so deeply ingrained. I tried sitting on an exercise ball, thinking I wouldn't be able to sit with my legs curled up, but Nooooo, it is definitely possible.

My next trick to try to break the habit will be to put on bulky shoes in the morning that would be uncomfortable to sit on or have tucked up with me on the chair and then not take them off all day. Unfortunately that would involve changing out of my pajamas first. And wearing bulky shoes all day.

30 Days: Day 3

Day 3: A picture of you and your friends

I need to take more pictures - this is from last January. I wish it was a more inclusive picture! :)

30 Days: Day 2

Day 2: The meaning behind your blog name

Well The Stratford News is pretty self-explanatory but supona could maybe use a little explanation. I was just trying to think of some word play with our last name and couldn't come up with anything decent. The only word association I could think of was Stratford-Upon-Avon, which works into the pronounceable word supona if you do just the initials of the Stratford and Avon part. It doesn't really make any sense since we really have nothing to do with Stratford-Upon-Avon, but my mom said it helped her remember our blog address, so whatever works.

We have been to Stratford-Upon-Avon, though. It is quaint.

30 Days: Day 1

Day 1: Recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

Here goes. No guarantee on the "interesting" part of "interesting facts".

1. I recently (re)learned to crochet and yesterday I made a crochet catnip mouse for Toby. It's hard to tell yet whether he really likes it or not, but the mouse is already looking scruffy.
2. I love to cook and have improved significantly since I got married (thankfully). Some evidence of my former bad cooking skills were some of the questions I called to ask my mom about, like, "Do you add all that grease to the pan before you add the bacon?" or "How do you make a baked potato?"
3. Something that bothers me a lot is when the sheets on the bed are not in sync with the covers. If the sheet sticks out or is pulled in farther than the covers, I cannot get into that bed without fixing it.
4. I have never been to a funeral or viewing or anything like it. Lucky me.
5. I saw some amazing pictures yesterday of a new place on my list of places that I would love to visit, Scotland's Hebrides. The pictures in January 2010's National Geographic were gorgeous!
6. I love rice krispy treats now, but I wasn't a huge fan of them as a kid. Other things that fit that category: asparagus, omelets, steak, dark chocolate, nuts.
7. I can sing the words to Row, Row, Row Your Boat offset from the tune by basically any number of notes.
8. Games of a certain type that Jeran loves that I do not enjoy and generally refuse to play: Capture the Flag, paintball, laser tag, Fugitive, etc. You get the picture.
9. My fingers can bend back just over 90 degrees to my hand. I was shocked years ago to learn that not everyone can do that.
10. I have a dream job: work my own hours, flexible schedule and time off, good pay, great company, interesting work.
11. (Wow, 15 is a lot!) One of my favorite breakfasts is pumpkin pie. However, if I had to choose a non-dessert for breakfast, I would choose cinnamon coffee cake. Oh wait. Cake dang it! I guess I choose Cracklin' Oat Bran cereal, which has enough brown sugar that it should be a dessert and is too expensive to justify ever buying, but oh well.
12. My favorite color is green, but not to wear.
13. I think about weird things sometimes, like "Where did the first gust of wind ever come from?" and "If flamingos get pink from eating crustaceans and algae, why don't many other animals change color, and why don't they market stuff that does that to people ('Drink this every day and turn yourself purple!')?"
14. I have been working on thinking, "But what if..." less. One unexpected area I notice this helping is when I pack for a trip, I take less unnecessary stuff. "What if" really can be a trap!
15. My color personality is white - VERY white, with a little blue and yellow filling in the extra nooks and crannies. Jeran's is red and I have noticed over the years that my whiteness and his redness have rubbed off on each other a little bit, with me being a bit more assertive and he being a bit more calm.

30 Days of Blogging

My friend Lisa did this 30 Days thing on her blog where you have a question for each day in a month and I really enjoyed reading it so I decided to do it during this happy month of December. Hopefully this will make up for my pathetic blogging during the last few months. I'm working on the first one right now...

Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving day, we got to go visit a brand new baby at the hospital. Our dear friends just became new parents to a darling baby girl. She has lots of pretty dark hair and big round cheeks.

Coincidentally, on the same day, Jeran and I also got a new nephew (up to 3 now!).

For Thanksgiving, Jeran's boss invited us to dinner with his family. It was fun and there was good food. Jeran used to work for his boss's nephew, who was there visiting so we got to see him and his family also.

I'm thankful for family, friends, pets, home, food, jobs, technology, books and so much more. Happy Thanksgiving!

Reading Update - 2010 Goal Met!!!

I made a resolution at the beginning of this year to read at least 24 books this year. I have officially met my goal, and after this post, I will have blogged about all of them.

In July:

Prophecy by Elizabeth Haydon

This is a sequel to the fantasy novel Rhapsody. It was just all right. I was on the fence about the first book so I'm not sure why I decided to read the second. Three stars.

The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax

This is a fun, easy read about a down-and-out authoress who has writer's block and possible depression. She and her friends hatch a scheme to write a book to get her publisher off her back. Kind of silly but it is interesting in that it makes you wonder how the book came about. Three and a half stars.

Cataloochee by Wayne Caldwell

I chose Cataloochee because it shows a segment of the history of the state I live in. Back in the day, before all the State and National Parks and Forests were created, there were often people living and working that land. Cataloochee is about townships and farmers living in what is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the time before and during the creation of that park. Four and a half stars.

How to Stuff a Wild Zucchini by Heather Horrocks
This was a fun little chick book from Deseret Book. The protagonist ends up writing a gardening column for a Brigham City newspaper even though she knows nothing about gardening or plants. With the help of a persistent local fireman, she gets a good taste of Utah Mormon culture and the gospel. Three stars.

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

This is the first book in an epic fantasy series that is well loved by many people. I myself thought it was entertaining and kind of interesting, but unlike others, I didn't love the characters. I suspect that perhaps if I read through the entire series and knew what becomes of each of the main characters, I would like them each more, but that is harder to do if you don't like them to start with. It was not a bad book and I would probably recommend it to readers who like long fantasy series, but for some reason I didn't connect with it. Four stars.

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
Since the Wheel of Time series was recommended to me by many people whose reading opinions I trust, I decided to give it the old college try and read book 2 even though I didn't love book 1. It was about the same. Stuff happened, I didn't connect with the characters, and I wasn't intrigued by what was going to happen. I started reading book 3 after this and got about 50 pages in before losing steam on the series completely. Again, I suspect that it is an awesome series that I either went into with the wrong idea, or read at the wrong time to really enjoy it. Three and a half stars.

Alice in Wonderland or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll was a weird dude. Alice in Wonderland, while famous and still entertaining, is like a crazy dream in which the unpredictable, unlikely, and probably impossible just keeps happening. That said, it is interesting to actually read the book (I think this is an abridged version) after seeing the movies. Three stars.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

I love a novel that you come away from wanting to know more about history and having learned some about places, people, and events that you never knew about. Guernsey is an British island situated closer to Normandy, France than it is England and it was occupied by German troops during World War II. This book tells the story of a number of the island residents during that time. It is well written and very interesting. Five stars.

In August:

None (I think). Shocking, I know!

In September:

It's Good to Be Alive by Jack Rushton

This is an inspirational collection of thoughts and anecdotes from a man who became a quadriplegic after a random accident. In his book, he tells how he recovered and how he maintains his positive attitude in spite of the challenges of his new life. Some parts were so funny that I had to read them aloud to my husband. This book is inspiring, insightful and humorous. Four and a half stars.

In October:

Dewey by Vicki Myron

I have found that many books labeled heart-warming don't actually warm my heart that much, but rather make me roll my eyes or imagine myself drowning in liquid cheese. Dewey, on the other hand, is a heartwarming story that often left me sitting there reading with a huge smile on my face and wanting to hug someone (poor Toby probably got smothered while I was reading this book). Dewey is a cat who, through a minor miracle, came to live at a small-town library. His distinctive personality makes this book entertaining and nice to read, but there is enough non-cat information and story-line that even non-cat lovers will enjoy it.

Watership Down by Richard Adams

I had heard so little about this book, while seeing often it's title hanging out with some of the cliquish classic titles, so I was curious about it. I really liked this book. Adams starts in the preface by saying that while many have made it into a political allegory, it was intended to just be an entertaining story that he told to his little girls. That said, Watership Down is the story of some rabbits who leave their home in search of somewhere better to live. All the rabbits are very well developed characters and the book is very well-written and entertaining. I recommend it to anyone. Five stars.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

I recalled when I started reading this that we had seen the 1974 movie version of this book, but fortunately, I have a rather bad memory for movie plots and I didn't remember much more detail than that I had seen it. Christie creates an interesting situation as a train sleeping car full of passengers is stranded in the snow in the middle of nowhere and they discover a man has been murdered. Luckily, the famous detective Hercules Poirot is on board and he begins an investigation. This book is interesting, creative, and well done. Four and a half stars.

Well, so far that is it. I may have forgotten one because my record keeping has been lax the last few months. I think Watership Down was my favorite of my most recent reads.

Our Kitchen

So the kitchen is still not 100% finished. It will happen someday, but I figured I ought to just put some pictures up anyways.

There may be a few finishing touches that need to happen, but it is 100% nicer than it was before! The floor is marvelous and the walls are so pretty!

There is some decor that needs to go on the wall above the table there but I'm hesitant to put it up because it would mean putting nail holes in our nice paint job... ugh!

We didn't do anything with the cabinets or appliances but I think I'll get some knobs for the drawers and cupboards. They don't really bother me now but I remember when we first moved here always thinking, "How do they expect you to open these drawers!?"

Still a little short on storage space...

The light fixture over the sink is one of my favorite new additions. Before there was a fluorescent tube light that would turn on only if it felt like it and you asked really nicely. This new light is much brighter, happier and more compliant.

Hooray for tile!

The things we still need to do are:

• hang the wall art,
• put knobs on cupboards and drawers,
• put up the edgers that go along the small gap between cupboards and wall by the stove.
• put one piece of the door trim up and caulk and paint all the trim (including doors and windows), stain and nail in cabinet base quarter-round.

I am so grateful that we have a nice kitchen to use now! Took us long enough!

One reason I love YW

Last Sunday, in about a 15-minute time span during our lesson in Young Women's, I heard the words prognosticate, profligate, and pejorative used in everyday sentences as though they are words that everybody knows and uses. I believe the teacher who talks like this is a book editor or some such profession and really is familiar with these words. I don't know what it is but I just am really amused and enjoy it when in just a few minutes, I can copy down multiple words of which I am unsure of the definition. It's probably a little odd, but I think this sesquipedalophilia runs in the family a bit.

Kitchen Sneak Preview

I've been trying hard to wait until the kitchen is finished and cleaned up before I post pictures of it. BUT a) it is taking a long time, b) I'm getting impatient, and c) it is such a wonderful improvement I can hardly wait to share it (and use it).

We are now so close! We are working on baseboards and trim right now. After that, we need to do some caulking and touch-up painting and a little ceiling repair. Then once we've cleaned everything up and put stuff back where it goes, it will be ready! It sounds like a lot but I think it is just a week or two away, if we stick with it.

So for now we'll have to settle for this before and after sneak preview. I promise I'll get a picture of the whole kitchen when it's done.

Before:

After:

Published

I forgot to post when this happened, but last month, Jeran was first author on a paper! "A Six-Gene Signature Predicts Survival of Patients with Localized Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma" was published in PloS Medicine in July. Hooray for Stratford JK et al.!

One Project Down (mostly)

Yesterday, Jeran worked and got our garden area mostly finished. It looks awesome. It was a pretty fun project. I always like the ones where we dig in the dirt and work with plants.

A before picture. This is how it looked when we moved here (for a while we had our motorcycle on the back patio under a tarp). There were some very nice flowers that died and didn't come back after a year of neglect so I dug them up to plant tomatoes.

I have wanted to do something with this garden area for a long time. When our home owner's association got a few bundles of landscape timbers and gave some to each homeowner, we decided it was time to make the change in our back garden.

We decided to use square pavers to extend the patio area a bit to give ourselves just a little more room between our patio and our new raised garden bed and somewhere to set the grill so it isn't in front of our window doors. For the garden itself, to maximize space and the short light we get due to the proximity to the house and trees, we decided to make it an L shaped bed off the corner of the patio.

Anyways, after weeks of planning and digging and waiting and working, it is mostly done!

There is still a little work and cleanup to do. This is before the excavated dirt from the pavers was filled in. We still need a little more dirt, but not as much as we expected, and the dirt we ended up with turned out to be slightly better quality that I expected. A lot of it was clay but we used as much of the solid clay to level under the paver base.

"After"

But that's not really the final product. The hardest part may yet to come, as we decide what to plant and make it something that is both pretty and functional. I'm thinking some flowers and some vegetables... but I'm totally undecided. Also, we plan to get something to sit on and probably bring our grill home from it's summer vacation in a little while. So it might look something more like this professional artist's rendition:

Next on the docket are more kitchen projects. Like that tile! It will happen someday soon and we won't be living with a bare concrete kitchen floor!

Reading Update

I'm well on my way to completing my goal to read 24 books this year. Since I last updated you on my reading (mid February), I have found many new books that I love. Here's what I've read since then.

In March:

Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

A quick, easy read about a step-family who is struggling to love each other, and the ghosts that haunt them. This book is aimed toward young teens but is well-written and develops the relationships well. Although I'm familiar with her name, I had only ever read Time for Andrew by Mary Downing Hahn so I was glad to read more of her work. 3 stars.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Wow. What else can I say? This was a very good book. Although occasionally the monologues dragged on a bit excessively long, it was interesting and thought-provoking, with great characters, a great plot, and struggles and triumphs that you can really feel. Five stars.

In April:

The Lovely Bones by Alice Seebold
Fascinating. It made me think about a lot of things I don't normally think about. It was thought-provoking to see each different family member's reaction to the death. I watched the movie after reading the book and the movie was pretty well done also, and for once they left out stuff you wouldn't want to see instead of adding more! Four stars.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
Not too bad. This book has a little bit of everything in it. It has got disappearances, murder, business, police, corporate intrigue, journalism, security, family, wealth, poverty, family, love, hate, serial killers, etc. I could go on and on with that list. The book was a bit gritty and I don't think I would read it again and probably won't read the sequel. Three stars.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

& Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
These are obviously re-reads. Or technically in this case, re-listens, since I listened to the audio books. Of course they are both awesome. As an additional bonus, listening to these got Jeran really interested in finding more good audio books so if you know of any that he might like, let me know! Anyways, I love Harry Potter and these two are my favorite two books of the set. Five (hundred) stars.

In May:

I started The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood but I just couldn't get into it. I don't think it was too boring or anything, I think it was just bad timing and I might try the book again later. Sometimes I will start a book that I think I will like but it just doesn't grab me up for some reason. I don't know why that is. I often check out three or four books from the library and read all but one of them. I don't know why... I'm always interested in all the books when I check them out and I usually couldn't tell you which one won't get read. It's weird. Anyways... back to the list:

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Good good. Another very interesting book about a girl during WWII, this time a young Jewish girl in France and how her story eventually came to be known. This is a really poignant book that has really stayed with me more than a lot of other books. Four and a half stars.

Anthem by Ayn Rand
Excellent. This short novella is very interesting and has enough plot and philosophy to keep both strong and interesting. In a society where the word "I" has been completely forgotten, one person searches for a sense of identity and self. Five stars.

The Big Empty by J.B. Stephens
Mediocre. The characters were not very compelling and the relatively simple story has been intentionally dragged out over many books. In this, the first book of the series, they barely make it the first step of their adventure. Two stars.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Great. I can't say for sure yet whether I like this book or Atlas Shrugged better but once you've read one, there seems to be little need to read the other since they are so very similar in character. conflict, ideals and philosophy. There is a lot of merit and truth in Rand's objectivism philosophy, but with all three of Rand's books that I hve read this year strongly centered on the same concepts, it got a bit predictable. It is still very entertaining and interesting, probably especially if you haven't read Atlas Shrugged. Five stars.

So far this June (half-way through):

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
This was an interesting work of fiction about some important women of the Old Testament: Dinah, Rachel, Leah. I have read another novel about these women (Orson Scott Card's Rachel & Leah) and it was interesting to see the differences and similarities in the stories. Both are based on the little snippets of information that can be pulled from the Bible, and then fleshed out to make them real women. This book was pretty good. Four stars.

Day After Night by Anita Diamant

Day After Night is a historical fiction book about four Jewish women, each from different circumstances and with different backgrounds, right after WWII. They are all stuck waiting in a camp in Israel until they can get through the bureaucracy and officially immigrate to the new homeland. It was pretty interesting but not one of my favorite recent reads. The best thing about it was getting to know a little more of the history of the creation of Israel (although the actual facts are sparse throughout, but you get a feel for it). Three stars.

Well, that's it so far. If I don't count Harry Potters, that brings me to 16 books for the year but it's not really about the number. If you have any recommendations, send them my way! :)

Crazy old Toby... He's always good for a laugh

We have started to let Toby go outside sometimes. In the past, he has been, depending on circumstances, either obviously avoiding any open door or else in a big hurry to sneak outside and run away and be hard to catch. Since we have started allowing him to go outside, recently he has been taking a different approach. He loves to be outside. But only JUST outside the door - and only if the door is open and he can run inside if he gets nervous. If he's enjoying being outside, watching birds, stalking squirrels from the front sidewalk, laying in the sun, or chewing some grass, he will come running in a panic if you close the door so he can't get inside. And then he mewls and whines incessantly! And either the walls are not thick enough or he is a very loud meower. I usually go open it for him because I feel bad that he might disturb the neighbors.

What a wimp... when we had Diego also, Toby used to be the brave one (albeit, the cautious one). I think the bravery was all a show. For some reason, it reminds me of a time Jeran and I went backpacking with some friends. I was so tired and worn out, I didn't think I could make it and had to keep resting and telling Jeran how hard it was, etc. Then Jeran stayed behind for a little bit while I went on with our friends. I complained so much less when there was no caring husband to listen to me complain! The hike seemed more doable, I was less tired. Now let's not psycho-analyze me here, because this is about the cat, but I think of Toby like that. He was either showing Diego that Diego was a wimp to be so scared, or trying to get away from him, or else Diego made him more confident. No there is no one to show off to? Or something. Somehow, Toby's changed attitude and that story seem related to me.

Anyways, some days we've been leaving the door ajar. When it gets warmer and more buggy, something is going to have to change.

La Cocina

More kitchen updates. Sometimes it seems like that is all we do these days. Oh wait, it kind of has been. I have been getting really anxious to make some good progress on the kitchen because we haven't been able to really use it since we started sanding and mudding, and even very much during wallpaper removal. So from about mid-March until now, although the last week or two it has been even worse because we took the stove and microwave out. We've been eating PB & J and cereal and those get old pretty fast.

Jeran has quite a bit of painting and paint prep experience and knows what he is doing when it comes to walls. However, on Saturday, after a few days of prep, I was certain that we were never going to paint and that we would be doing mud-sand-mud-sand-mud-sand for the rest of our lives.

The mudding and sanding went on and on.

And on and on and on!

But finally we got to prime. Although priming is not generally a very exciting step, I was giddy about it because it meant the end of the prep work.

And paint! Now, for the record, Jeran wanted yellow and I wanted green and I gave in. I can't say I love the paint color, but I don't hate it and it is better than white or wallpaper. I expect it will grow on me over time - these things usually do.

And as a sneak peak of the next phase of the project, see the concrete floor in the last picture. We have tile to lay some time, but I'm ready for a little break. I didn't intend to tear up all the linoleum right away, but I started with the under the stove part (so we could put that back for now) and got carried away. I guess it will just be more motivation to get the tile done soon.

Woohoo! Now we can move most of the stuff back in and use the kitchen again! I keep thinking of all the wonderful things that I'm going to bake and cook! Cookies! Casserole! Grilled Cheese!

Last night as we were getting the stove put back in, it occurred to me that I should have made food in the crock pot. Dash it all! Why didn't I think of that sooner!

A-Camping we will go

Last weekend we went camping at Umstead State Park in Raleigh. It was perfect weather, high 85, overnight low of 68. We went with Adam and Mary and Ryan and Lindy and Lexi.

It was so nice and relaxing! We decided to go the lazy route and picked up some pizzas on the way. (Finally some more people that like pineapple!)

We set up our tents, Ryan built a nice fire, and Jeran hung up our hammock. We're definitely taking a stronger rope next time.

We roasted marshmallows and ate smores. I always forget how delicious they are!

We also played some games. We played card games like speed and played Personal Preference. We also played Liar's Dice, which seems to be becoming our essential camping game. Jeran read a lot of his book thanks to his handy headlamp. You really can't beat one of those for reading in the dark.

I slept pretty well - when camping, I'm bound to wake up no less than 7-8 times during the night, even with an air mattress. This time, each time I awoke, I forced myself to not open my eyes, check the time, or listen to the potentially scary noises of the night. So I slept very well by camping standards.

In the morning, we packed up and headed home for a busy Saturday. It's great having so many camping options so near!