Friday, December 31, 2010

I Did It!!

I know you have all been waiting for it. I did it. 40,000 pages. Here is the list (in date order of reading):

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1/2)
American Gods (1/2)
The Unlikely Disciple
We are on Our Own
Blue Sky July
The Remains of the Day
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Water for Elephants
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The Hindi Bindi Club
Catching Fire
The Amnesiac
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Tender Buttons
Kim
The Stranger
Picasso
The Tenth Circle
Living History
Extras (Uglies #4)
Emma
Coraline
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
More Book Lust
B is for Bad Poetry
Sense and Sensability
Inkspell
Sense and Sensability and Sea Monsters
Three Men in a Boat; to say nothing of the dog
Mr Darcy, Vampyre (unfinished)
Cold Spring Harbor
Someone Named Eva
The Mazerunner
Alvin Prentice
Franny and Zooey
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Chocolate War
Wuthering Heights
Bed in a Tree
Our Town
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Washington Sqaure
Harry potter and the sorcerors Stone
Dracula
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Cry, the Beloved Country
Organize Yourself!
Island
The Beautiful and Damned
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Ocean Sea
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Society Without God
Ulysses
Family Reunion
Eclipse
Wake
Breaking Dawn
The Red Pony
The Reader
Speak
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
In a Sunburned Country
Half Magic
Blindness
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
The Guy Not Taken (partial)
Things Fall Apart
The Iron King
The Owl Service
The Fairy-Tale Detectives
The Plot Against America
The Magician's Book
The Lightning Thief
Into the Wild
The World According to Garp
Middlemarch by George Eliot
A Great and Terrible Beauty
Iron Daughter
Simply in Season
Mansfield Park
Les Miserables
Forever
Od Magic
Shiver
Blood Diamonds
Mockingjay
How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not a Novel
Northanger Abbey
Love in the Time of Cholera
The Book Thief
It Walks in Beauty
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Vicar of Wakefield
400 Soups
Persuasion
Linger
Beautiful Creatures
My Sister's Keeper
Twilight
New Moon
Silas Marner
Deciding the Next Decider
The Scarlett Pimpernel
Beautiful Darkness
Everlost
Elsewhere
Pride and Prejudice
Kafka by the Shore (unfinished)
Running the books (unfinished)

Monday, December 27, 2010

End of the Year MeMe's

If any of you have been reading my blog for more than a year, you know I have an "end of the year" blogging routine, three me-me's I have been doing for quite sometime. Here we go:






Exercise #1

1 minute ago... I was checking my new years resolution note on Facebook
1 hour ago... I was watching "Two and a Half Men" with ILs
1 day ago... I was in Independence, Kansas celebrating Xmas
1 month ago... I was enjoying some time in Duluth after Thanksgiving
1 year ago... I was on vacation from my new job with the state of Ohio.
1 decade ago... I was a junion in high school, finding a new group of friends and trying to stay out of fights
1 lifetime ago... I think I was in revolutionary in Russia

5 minutes ago... I was trying to read a book "Legends of Time", it was not going well.
5 hours ago... I was in the car, driving the ILs back from Kansas
5 days ago... I was driving to St Louis to start my Xmas vacation, listening to "Elsewhere" on audiobook.
5 monthes ago... I took a trip to New Jersey to hang out with my old blind camp friends
5 years ago... I was a senior in college, engaged to the love of my life and working on my 4.0 GPA


Exercise #2
The instructions are simple:
Post the first line sof the first entry of each month of the past year.

January
Its officially 2010. I am sitting in my family room watching Hell Boy with three cats and a big, sleepy black dog. It is snowing outside. Life is good.

February
The Weekend in Review: Watched The Philedelphia Story with friends, after a tasty potluck of cajun chili, cornbread, and butterscotch pie. It was great seeing people and the movie is hilarious.

March
This Saturday was the beginning of Purim. This is a Jewish holiday that has an annual party in my group of friends.

April
Tuesday I made a quick trip up to Cleveland. My little sister and mom are on a cross-country mother-daughter road trip for my sister's 16th Birthday (which was back in January), on her Spring Break.

May
Last weekend was a bit crazy! DH went to the Kentucky Derby with some people he works with. I was invited, but not interested. So, it was just me and the dogs

June
It is really hard to believe it is June already. Five months of the year gone. I am starting to think organization is impossible. For my birthday cake I had another three-trip to the store mess to get it done.

July
I have not been blogging as much as I would like to lately. I feel like my recreational computer time just keeps decreasing. Of course, some of the reasons are good - because I have been going out so much, because I have started walking at my breaks to get a little extra exertion into my day, and other similar things.

August
Today, I have the great pleasure of working 11 hrs. That would be 7:15 AM to 6:45 PM with a half hour lunch. That is a LONG day. And why am I putting myself through this? For the love of a sister. Tonight my little sister is flying into town and staying for 12 days.

September
Last night I went to the monthly Nestie Dinner. It was in Hilliard this month. We actually have a pretty good system going where the dinner rotates days of the week and around the city.

October
It is rapidly closing in on two weeks since my last post. An unintentional lapse sparked mostly, I believe, by my brief but rabid dedication to Les Miserables, which I finished on Wednesday night.

November
The title of this post used to be a cool marketing invention. Now it is very much over-used. And here I am, contributing to its overuse by putting it as a post title.

December
They have cut off access to blogspot at work, along with several shopping sites and other things. It won't be long before they get around to blocking my last remaining favorite link, my nestie message board.



Exercise #3
1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
- Worked full time the entire year
- House broke a puppy/took her through obedience

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I will write a whole other post about this!!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not close enough for me to get to meet the baby!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Not close enough for us to go to a funeral, thankfully.

5. What countries did you spend time in this year?
Just America, went out to New Jersey a bit, and of course around Ohio, to St Louis, Kansas, and Minnesota.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
Just a few key things

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
My memory does not really work like that. Memories I will have from 2010 include some great days spent on a lake in New Jersey, a nice Thanksgiving in Duluth, a car trip to Kansas, The NFL hall of fame, and River

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I dont know if I really achieved anything this year? Reading 40K pages? (Assuming I complete this on Friday :0) )

9. What was your biggest failure?
I totally and utterly failed at my New Years resolution to get organized. I am so disorganized it is scary sometimes.

10. Did you suffer any serious injury or illness?
Dog bite? Sprained ankle? Nothing serious.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Chrylser 300C

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Those who repealed Dont Ask, Don't Tell
Everyone who helped raise money for Haiti

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and/or depressed?
Despite my efforts to not become jaded, things become worse every year. Lets go with the general alarmism in American media.

14. Where did most of your money go?
We saved a lot, and had a lot of little luxuries

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Trip to Duluth at Thanksgiving, Aaron's surprise trip to Pittsburgh for his Birthday, my sisters' visiting, Harry Potter movie coming out, Eclipse coming out

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
California Girls by Katie Perry, just because it is so overplayed

"Felt Good on my Lips" just because I like it.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? about the same, maybe sadder
b) thinner or fatter? fatter
c) richer or poorer? richer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Laughing (can you ever do this too much??)
Cleaning. People say this never makes the list of things you wish you had spent more time doing, but really our habits are abominable.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Worrying , Eating

20. How did you spend Christmas?
In Witchita, had some great Lasagna at Aunt Barb's house

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
I am totally in love, there is no more need for falling :-)

22. What are the main websites you used?
Gmail, Columbus Nesties message board, facebook, blogspot

23. Did you write anything worth reading this year?
Maybe a poem or two, thats about it though.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
I really like Deadliest Catch. It has not been on in a while though and I no longer have cable. I have been watching Doctor Who on Netflix

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I try to avoid hating people, it never brings anything good.

26. What was the best book you read?
So many to choose from... I read 85 books this year (including repeats), and rated 11 of them 5 stars. Best Adult Fiction: Middlemarch, Best Young Adult: Mockingjay, Best Nonfiction: The Unlikely Disciple, Best Reread: The Book Thief

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I knew I liked Pink, But I actually bothered to get her Album "Funhouse" and have really been enjoying it. I am not very musically diverse, I tend to listen to the same things over and over.

28. What did you want and get?
vacation to Duluth, a visit from Mich, Rock Band 3, Lots of nice xmas presents

29. What did you want and not get? Jobs in Duluth, a lottery win, other things

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
I loved Eclipse, and Harry Potter 6. I wish I had a list of movies I have seen like I have a list of books, but I don't. Easy A was also great.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 26. I have no idea what I did. I just looked it up on my blog. Apparently I had a relaxing long weekend and baked a delicious chocolate orange cake. Mmm. Chocolate orange cake.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
no comment

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Presentable Casual, but mismatched

34. What kept you sane?
DH and consolation prizes

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
It does not really change. I like Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt and Vin Diesel's voice. LOL. Maybe add the Twilight boys if that is not too creepy. I loved Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland. I know, I am weird. The Wallstreet Kid is growing up nicely (he used to play that annoying guy on the disney channel, who knew he would be a serious actor one day?), and the guy who plays the main character in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is nice.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I was pissed at everyone in congress for their general lack of progress and cooperation. PS: The tea party is NOT the answer to this problem.

37. Who did you miss?
Everyone who does not live in Columbus!!

38. Who was the best new person you met?
There was one week this year where I met two new people and liked both of them. That is NOT common for me. I tend not to like people. One was a new nestie to book club, another was a friend's coworker.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010 ?
Sometimes you have disapointments in life, but everyone has disapointments in life. It is not that "life is not fair", its that the concept of fair and unfair simply does not apply.

40. What word or phrase sums up this year?
Waiting

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Christmas Magic in the Air

The christmas spirts are smiling on me at work today.

Last night I finally loaded all of my christmas music onto my MP3 player. I unfortunately could not find my favorite album, Sleighride, but I do have about 200 other songs including the entire Raffi album and Barenaked Ladies album.

It was snowing on my drive to work today.

I gave my Christmas cards out and people were amused by the "hee hee hee, ho ho ho" of my toy Santa cards. (I actually used about 4 different cards, so not everyone got this, but everyone seemed happy with what they did get).

A friend of some people in my unit brought bunch of Christmas cookies, including all of my favorites: Holly Leaves (like rice crispy treats sort of), soft molasses cookies, peppermint cookies, and a new possible favorite, chocolate covered mint oreos. (Edited to Add: Turns out she did not bring soft molasses, they are chocolate, and they are delicious)

Unfortunately the christmas spirits do not seem to have control over Football outcomes. Otherwise either the Vikings would have won (so I was happy about real life football), or Matt Forte would have scored a touchdown (so I was happy about fantasy football). Now I am out of the fantasy playoffs and my real life team continues to suck.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Pictures from Duluth
























Any questions?

Yep

I know. It has been FOREVER (or two weeks?).
Blogger is accesible again at work, so I have no excuse. I don't really want or need an excuse though.

Life is good. We leave Wednesday for our Christmas travels spanning across Missouri and Kansas. The Christmas shopping is done, the packages that need shipped are shipped. We did not manage to get a Christmas tree this year, but that's OK. I think if your Holiday is more stressful than fun you are doing too much. The exception to this of course is if you have kids who you want to do everything for. But being currently childless, I think we should do as much makes us happy, and not more.

I have been thinking about my new years resolutions a lot and have some good ideas. I will tell you more when we get back from our trip. It involves new music, books, movies, and habits. I may reincarnate the organization dragon in a whole new, and possibly more-accomplishable form.

Is accomplishable a word?
Oh well.

In case I don't make another appearance, Happy Yule!!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Go Play Fetch

They have cut off access to blogspot at work, along with several shopping sites and other things. It won't be long before they get around to blocking my last remaining favorite link, my nestie message board. I feel like everytime I go onto it I am increasing its profile in our security system and likening the chances of it being blocked. I really would like an internet phone, but at the same time cannot justify the $400/yr price tag. Especially when there are so many possible changes in the future.

DH has started applying for jobs in Minnesota. We have not heard back about any yet. If he finds one, we may be moving within weeks. If he does not find one we may be here for ages. I may need a new car. Other costs may arise. We have been saving like crazy for the last three monthes and our bank accounts are starting to show the effort. It does not hurt those numbers that the stock market has been turning back around.

I have had so many thoughts for blog posts to write over the past week, but none of them have panned out because I don't really spend much time on the computer at home. Right now I intended to write a nice long post with lots of details and maybe even pictures, but I have a headache and really don't want to. So I resort to something I have been using all to commonly, the laundry list of thoughts and topics:

- I ran with River the last three days (Thurs/Fri/Sat). Very short, but I did it.
- Had Girls Day with some friends, went to a craft fair and then sat around and gossiped. Candied Cranberries are amazing.
- Made a chore chart this evening. More of a visual cue as to what we have done and need to do rather than directions for what specifically to do each day
- December marked the start of a new reading challenge. I once again was not lucky enough to get to create a task, but its always fun seeing what other people come up with.
- I am about on pace with my reading new years resolution
- I am starting to develop my new years resolutions for next year
- River ate another library book (goodbye $40). Why does she have a taste for those instead of my books which would be like $2 to replace?
- She also re-removed the pom off my hat that my Mom reattached while I was in MN. I don't know why she likes removing the pom and I don't know how she got access.
- My head hurts
- I have started to shower at night instead of in the morning. This is related to my running (in the evening), but also to goals for future changes to routine
- I really need to eat healthier
- I got more pictures printed for my office
- I am caught up at work
- Everytime I hear about people's health issues I analyze them from the Disability perspective
- I love half priced books
- Eclipse came out DVD this weekend, I went ahead and bought the BluRay/DVD pack w/all the extra trimmings.
- I have some Xmas decorations up but we have not yet got a tree. Apparently a lot of the tree farms are having issues and were not open long this year (as in, they already closed for the season??). So we are going to get one precut. Hopefully tomorrow night.
- I want to bake something fun.
- I have secret santa's to buy for.
- I am getting near done with Christmas shopping, just a few more people to go.
- We made our plans for Xmas and are taking a couple extra days compared to usual to see if that makes the travelling less troublesome. We will be out of town for 6 days.


I have to go. Gandalf wants to play fetch. I know this because he just brought me a pair of socks balled up from the bedroom, dropped them at my feet and started "meowing".