Got Candy?

We do!

Actually, we only filled one plastic bucket before calling it a night. The Pirate had a lot of fun, the Bug went right to sleep in the stroller. The first time someone held the bowl of candy out for the Pirate to choose his own, he said "whoa" and tried to take the whole bowl. Good try!

He has now had more candy than a 3 year old should have in one evening and I suspect bedtime is a long time coming. (Our theory on Halloween being- it's one night a year, knock yourself out.)

Happy Halloween!

A good blogger posts about her kid's Halloween costume. A GREAT blogger thinks to take pictures early so she can share them ON Halloween.

I am not a great blogger.

You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the cuteness that is the Pirate (NOT a Pirate) and the Bug (NOT a Bug).

For today, I have a question! Do you dress up at work? I work in a small credit union. There are 9 employees. We are allowed, and even encouraged, to dress up. Previous years have been hit or miss, but each year I've tried to do SOMETHING. Last year I was a witch. I was also newly pregnant and sicker than sick and creativity was not high.

This year we had the brilliant idea to all be nerds. Not the candy, the people. Somehow that evolved into being "Mathletes"- a specialized type of nerd (apparently) who competes with a calculator, not a scoreboard. We all have on black t-shirts with iron-on letters spelling out "Mathletes" and we have a competition name on the back. Mine is "Lady Logic". I have my hair pulled back in a series of sparkly banded pony tails. I pegged my pants and wore striped socks. The others have similar hair styles and socks. I'll try to get a picture.

This was a great idea... and then not everyone participated. So there are 5 of us as nerds. 1 of us (the only male) is a 1970s police detective. The other 3... did not participate.

Tonight, I shall change out of the nerd shirt and swap into a very light version of the costume the Pirate wanted me to wear.

So, are you dressing up? At work? For a party? To Trick or Treat with the kids? What's the best costume you've seen so far? What was the favorite costume YOU ever had? I'll share my favorites tomorrow.

Last year's witch, camera phone photo.

Thursday Thirteen: 13 things I really really want

I SHOULD be blogging about Halloween. Or about my jewelry bag giveaway (still time to enter!) Or about the latest Dresden, which I finished. Instead, I'm going to blog about 13 things I want. Hopefully, blogging about them will make me not go buy them.

1. A nice looking travel mug that will fit in my cup holder. Starbucks usually has cool ones.
2. Or two, in case one is dirty or I leave it at work. (Seriously, how cute is that one?)
3. This cool planner that I saw on 5 Minutes for Mom. I think it might be perfect.
4. A walking foot for my sewing machine.
5. A new jacket. This one is cute. So's this one.
6. Brown casual shoes for work.
7. Amy Butler's Little Stitches
8. These insanely cute baby boots. A bit pricey, but if he wore them every day all winter...
9. This bag. Ok, I could probably make it myself, but isn't it lovely?
10. This fun bird fabric. Or tons of other super cute fabric.
11. Time. (What? I can't buy time? Please?)
12. One of these cool lockets. This one says peace.
13. These rings, to go with the ones I got for Mother's Day. (Mine have the Pirate and the Bug on them, of course.) (You knew I meant their actual names, right?)

I could go on, but I won't.

What do YOU want right now? I'm not talking about new houses, or computers, or cars. Little things, less than $100, that would just make your day.

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Bloggy Giveaways Carnival, part 1

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!!!

Have you participated in the Bloggy Giveaways before? I never have, but this time I have decided to give away TWO things!

The first thing is a custom jewelry bag. You get to pick a general color scheme from what I have in my stash and then I'll make it up just for you. Here's a few examples (sorry for the funky photo spacing, darn that blogger!):

Leave a comment, and be sure to leave a way to contact you so I can let you know you've won! Drawing will be held on Sunday, November 2nd.

Wanna win something else? Head back to Bloggy Giveaways !

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A Pirate Fashion Statement, Take 2

Those are pink fluffy women's Life Is Good Socks. And yes, he wore them all day. Yes, we left the house.

A little help here, please?

In the next few days I'm gonna need some design help for a Christmas gift. It's the super secret project I've alluded to before. Unfortunately, the giftee reads my blog so I can't just ask you all. If you'd like to throw in your two cents on some details please email me at bookslistslife at gmail. You don't have to be a crafter, you just have to have an opinion on "which looks better, this or this? This or that?" I need some people who haven't been staring at this for weeks to help me out.

Thanks.

PS. Gina, don't apply.

*blinks innocently*

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The Sunday Salon #4

Good Morning all!

I had a pretty good reading week this week. While I only finished one book (Size 14 is Not Fat Either) I managed to carve out a little bit of time to read other stuff. I didn't love Size 14, but it was good, perfect for what it is. I generally do enjoy chick lit, but find that not all of it is as silly.

Then I finally started Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos, which most of you have already read. I'm only about 50 pages in, but it's flows really nicely and I'm enjoying it. I read a few more pages of the Georgette Heyer I won a few months back, and then last night I almost finished Death Masks by Jim Butcher (Harry Dresden #5). I plan to wrap that up this morning.

I've gotten in a few more books from paperbackswap this week, and a couple of them are calling my name: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (compared to Speak, which I LOVED), Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, and Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Julia Quinn. I also got Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg from the publisher to review, and for once I'd like to read a book at the same time everyone else does! There is also a rumor that there might be a box of Hachette books headed my way! And, I wanted to try to read the next Kim Harrison, as my friend Gina recently reviewed it and says I'll love it. I need to face the facts, I'm never ever gonna read it all.

Speaking of which, does anyone know if you can put just your wishlist on hold but not your bookshelf at Paperbackswap? I don't want to do a vacation hold, I still want to send books OUT, but I'd like to pause getting new ones IN, if possible. I need a chance to catch up and weed out what I've got. I also don't want to decline books and lose my place.

Very quick reminder!

Christmas is two months from today!!


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Size 14 is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot

How about a book review?

In August I read Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot, and while I enjoyed it, I mentioned that you always know what you're going to get from a Cabot. I'm somewhat pleased to have been right. I had/have two more Cabots on my shelves and thought I'd just go ahead and get them over with, plus, I wanted something light and easy. Size 14 is Not Fat Either is certainly that.

In Size 14, Heather Wells, former child pop star turned dorm (I mean residence hall) director has yet another murder to solve. This time someone has killed a popular cheerleader and because Heather can't leave well enough alone, she's gotta go poking around in it. Sounds a lot like the plot of Size 12 is Not Fat, doesn't it? (my review here)

Size 14 is definitely weaker than Size 12. Cooper, Heather's landlord/boss/major crush isn't in it nearly as much. Her dad comes back into her life and becomes quite the stereotype. The minute you meet the murderer you know who done it. I did like the nod to Helen Fielding's Mark Darcy with Cooper's sweater, and I loved the new dorm director. Overall, a nice easy book, but nothing I'll ever want to read again, or probably even remember past next Tuesday.

I've still got Big Boned on my TBR, but I have it on good authority that not much changes. I've pretty much decided not to get more Cabots, unless someone I really trust recommends one. Is that you? Can you recommend one? Am I alone with this opinion? Did you read Size 14? Leave a link and I'll add it to my post!


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Halloween Bag Winner!

I had NO IDEA it would be so hard to get 31 comments! We ended up with 32 comments and two email entries*, so I headed over to Random.org and ran 1-34, pick 1.

And the winner of the bag is :

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:11
Timestamp:
2008-10-23 20:58:05 UTC

Counting down the comments to.... Trish!!!


This one was a lot of fun, even if 31 turned out to be an impossibly high number of comments. No idea what I'll give away next week, so stay tuned!


* Apparently blogger wasn't allowing comments for a while? Anyway, I threw Sarah and Gina in the hat (er, random generator) again for 33 and 34, respectively.

Ghost Story

The Halloween bag giveaway is STILL OPEN. Come on people, don't make me change my rules! I wanna mail this in time for Halloween! We need just a very small handful of comments...

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With Halloween fast approaching, it seems a good time to talk about ghosts. Do you believe in ghosts? I'd like to say I didn't, but I've had two experiences that just lead me think... maybe...

The first was a common ghost story- as a teen I heard voices and people walking around upstairs and upon going up found no one home. It was spooky and my friend and I (there were TWO of us hearing it!) were both creeped out. Lots of people have a story like this. The second though, is a bit more complex. Wanna hear? (er, read?)

Of course you do.

(It's kinda long, sorry.)

My freshman year in college, I live about 5 hours (234 miles!) from the school where most of my friends were. (UNA to Auburn, for those of you from Alabama) I spent a lot of weekends driving back and forth between the two. One weekend I made plans to ride down with a friend of a friend. We had never met each other and wouldn't meet until we were loading up to leave. It was storming and we got a late start and then with the rain it was much slower going. Since we didn't know each other, we spent much of the drive talking about our respective boyfriends (who both went to Auburn) and complaining about the drive.

Between Auburn and Birmingham there is the little tiny town, with a little old graveyard. I admit, I didn't remember the name of the town, but a little bit of Googling suggests that it is Waverly. The graveyard is right on the highway. (Or was, I just read something that says the highway has since moved. I haven't made this drive in 8 years or so, so I could be totally wrong on this.) A, my passenger, was telling me that she had heard a ghost story about that cemetery. In her story, there was a young male ghost who stood on the edge of the graveyard and waved to certain passing cars.

Now, I'll grant you that we worked up the possibility in our heads. But I *promise* you, that as we passed the cemetery, there was a teenage boy standing at the end of a stone wall. There was still a drizzle of rain so it was pretty hazy, but he was wearing dark pants and a white shirt with a fedora style hat (NOT a baseball hat or stocking cap or hoodie or anything like that.) As we passed the guy, he WAVED AT US. We were the only car he waved at, in a decent flow of traffic. We were at least 2 hours behind schedule. A did not know what kind of car I drove. This was pre-cell phone, so there was no way she could have set this up. Plus, she was as freaked out about it as I was. Even now, 14 or so years later, I have chills thinking about it. He WAVED at us.

For years, literally, every time I drove past the cemetery I cried. I can feel the way it felt RIGHT NOW. There is just no way that she could have set it up. It HAPPENED. I have goosebumps, now, today, writing this.

Do you have a ghost story? I mean, one that happened to you personally? Do you believe in ghosts?

Momma's got a brand new bag

The Halloween giveaway is still open! Remember, I'll pick a random winner when we hit 31 comments! So if you comment 3 times, you have a ...uh... 3 in 31 chance of winning! (Comments must be at least one hour apart.)



I was GONNA do a post about the Pirate today, but I failed to get the pictures off my camera at lunch. So ya'll get to see my latest sewing project. I've been doing a little bit of Christmas sewing that I CAN'T show, because some of the giftees actually read my blog. I was getting jealous of the cute stuff and had to make myself something.

This is my first attempt at a zippered bag and that part turned out great. I still need to tack down the binding on the inside, but otherwise I LOVE it. It's a little bigger than need be, but I have a tendency to throw a ton of crap in my bag. (The original dimensions were 17" tall by 16" wide.) The handles are also a little long, but it'll work fine when I'm wearing a winter coat. It's more the color of the darker pictures so perfect for fall.

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Seriously??? I wish I had a little girl.

(Ok, not really, I love those boys. But still.)

Halloween giveaway, Part 2

Wanna win this bag?

This is a one of a kind bag, made from a Betty Boop T-shirt. It's a simple bag, no pockets, perfect for collecting CANDY. Or just use it as a purse or lunchbox until Halloween!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Posts will be moderated, and I won't be letting them through. Once I have 31 comments (Halloween is on the 31st) I will draw a name at random. (Or possibly more than 31, if a bunch of people comment while I'm at work or something.)

You may comment more than once, but there must be at least 1 hour between your comments. I don't mind you coming back to say "Now? Now are there 31?" but I don't want anyone spamming me to get there with back to back to back comments.

EDIT: AS OF 8PM MONDAY THE CONTEST IS STILL OPEN!

Ready? GO!

Halloween Giveaway, Part 1

Tomorrow, I am going to give this bag away. It will be a very short contest (I hope), so be sure to check often if you want a chance to win it!

Unless, of course, it sells overnight.

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The Sunday Salon #3

Morning all! Are all you Read-a-Thon readers crawling out of your beds yet? I REALLY wanted to participate, but life didn't let me. As it was, I just harassed Trish all night.

There once was a lady named Trish
Who did not look like a fish
All night she read
then took to her bed
T'would be my greatest wish.

Dude. Limericks are hard.

Trish posted pictures of her lovely kitty Maggie during the read-a-thon, so I thought it was Bijou's turn for the spotlight this morning.

Ahem. Anyway. On to the Sunday Salon! I am a single parent today, so I can't make big plans to do much of anything. I'm hoping to get a little reading done- I've started a Meg Cabot that is just right, light and fluffy. I'm carrying The Boy in the Striped Pajamas around in my bag. Harry Dresden is waiting by my bed. I'm in a super mushy romantic book mood, so I might have to scour the shelves for something else.

This week I read Cerulean Sins by Laurell K Hamilton. After being a bit put off by the book and a conversation with Gina, the person who knows my reading habits best in all the world (16 years of sharing books will do that to a friend) I have decided to trade off the rest of the series unread. I have too many good books waiting and if I can't bear it later I can find them at a library.

I know you're all waiting to hear who won the books this week! I wrote all the entries for the Cry Wolf on a piece of paper in random order. The Pirate closed his eyes and picked samantha.1020 from Sam's Book Blog as winner! Congrats sam! Email me at bookslistslife AT gmail with your mailing address! If you didn't win and this was your first visit to my blog, welcome! I hope you find something here to bring you back.

This week I'm gonna give away something different, but I'll announce it tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Hi! Third post today!

What do you think?

(Only the banner has changed.)

Can anyone help me with...

I want a new banner. I have a very good idea of what I want, and I don't THINK it's too hard. I have a background, I have two pictures, and I want the title. What program do I use to put them all together? I have Gimp 2, but I can't seem to figure it out. I edit all my pictures with Picasa, but I can't figure out how to make a banner from it. That's all the likely candidates I've got. HELP! Is there a way to do it with these two options?

EDIT: I figured it out! Back later with a new look!

Go Read -a- Thoners Go!

Go Readers Go!

Today is the 3rd (I think!) 24 Hour Read-a-Thon! I wanted SO BAD to participate this time. I got it cleared with my husband and everything and then my two out-of-town brothers-in-law and their families came to town for a family birthday party. So my weekend is booked. I hope everyone is having a blast and indulging in everything they want to read.

TGIF

I'm so ready for Friday. This was a short week, and I leave work at 3:30 today and already I am DONE. I have all these little things that aren't quite enough to blog about, so you get a random list.

• The Bug goes to the doctor today for his 6 month well baby check. He'll get shots and we'll both be sad.
• My in-laws will be in town this weekend, so nothing productive will get done.
• I have to buy two birthday gifts before 6 pm tomorrow. Any suggestions for a 10 year old boy?
• The pants I am wearing today are a size 10. TEN. Angels are smiling down upon me.
• Today is a co-workers last day, so we are having an all day potluck. It is not yet 9 am, and already I have eaten my weight in hummus, meatballs, and taco salad.
• Tomorrow I will NOT be wearing a size 10.
• The Pirate would like to know, "Whose poop is bigger?" One day I will do a whole post of funny things the Pirate asks, but for today, that will suffice. Never in a millon years did I think I'd be answering, or even considering, the answer to that question.
• Only one appointment on my schedule so far today. It's too bad it won't stay that way.
• Did I mention the size 10 pants?
• Should I mention them again?
• Size 10.

So, how's your Friday shaping up to be?

Giveaways!

First, a reminder that if you want to win Cry Wolf you need to click over to my review and post a comment! Open til Sunday.

Second, look at this gorgeous quilt! Can you believe that someone is gonna GIVE IT AWAY. Head on over to Pigtails and Snails (GREAT blog name!) and enter to win. You have until tomorrow. I'd have told you sooner, but I just found it today!

TBR Day- Cerulean Sins by Laurell K Hamilton

Ok, this is a BIG one. It's been on my shelf making me nervous for YEARS. Every time a new Anita Blake book comes out, I dutifully add it to my paperbackswap wishlist and then don't read it, but finally, I broke the hold.

Cerulean Sins is the 11th book in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. I read the first one, Guilty Pleasures, in 2001. I LOVED it. I had read a little fantasy prior to this, but fantasy is very clearly a different world. This is the first thing I'd ever read that took place in MY world, and had elements of the paranormal. Elements? More like was FULL OUT paranormal. I loved the first one so much, that I called my S.O. to stop at the bookstore on his way home from work to bring me the second one. THAT DAY. No, it couldn't wait. This was the first (and probably last) time I ever had someone go to the bookstore for me. He brought me the next four. I read them all within just a very few days. I bought them all and didn't stop for air.

The first five or six books in the series were tremendous, and for me, groundbreaking. So many new things, such a great new world. Anita was kickass. She could raise the dead! She was somewhat immune to vampires and she was the Executioner. (I had not at this point ever seen Buffy.) She was hot for Jean-Claude- a vampire! Then Richard comes along and while I didn't love him, I loved the triangle. The threesome get more powerful, a force to be reconned with, and then thats when it happens. The ardeur. Bleh. If ever a worst plot line was ever invented. The series starts to get a bit sketchy. Anita loses some of her principles because of the ardeur. Some? The ardeur makes her need s-x* like a vampire needs blood. Literally. By the first half of Cerulean Sins, she's been with six different men in a situation that I would call intimate. Now, I'm no prude. I appreciate a good story as well as the next person, but REALLY? It's like 24 hours since the book started.

Apparently, Belle Morte, the vampire that created Jean-Claude and Asher's line has the power of desire. Any kind of desire, but of course, this one is her special gift. So through her connection to Jean-Claude, now Anita has the ardeur. Since she's so new at it, it has to be fed every twelve hours. And this wears out a lot of men! Nathanial almost DIES from it!

As for the rest of the story- Belle Morte vs. Jean-Claude, vampire politics, supernatural serial killer does gory things, Zebrowski mentions Anita puking on a body, Richard still hates Anita, her undies still match. What else? The rest of the book feels somewhat like the Anita of old. The opening scene had me hopeful that all would be ok. By the end- I'm not so sure. It did grab my attention (not like the first few did!) and I read it pretty quickly, given my life and the amount of free time I have lately. I think I'll give her one last chance with book 12, and then put the series back on hold. I really hope she pulls out of this, or gets control, or whatever it takes to go back to the Anita we used to know.

*I decided that given the rest of the content of my blog that I shouldn't make it easy to google some words and come here. Hope ya'll dont mind.

Also, don't forget to enter my drawing for Cry Wolf and On the Prowl, found here. I'll be drawing for that one on Sunday.

This post is part of avidbookreader.com's TBR Day. Jump over there to see what the other participants read.


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I NEED MORE TIME. Quick, gimme yours!

Bloggers all over the place are reading books that I already own, but haven't read, which makes me want to move that book to the top of my pile. But there is only ONE top of the pile. Ok, so if you're me, there are 5 or 6 tops of the pile cause I read more than one book at a time, but STILL. Not enough piles!

For example.

Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? just read The Rest Falls Away. I have that! She didn't LOVE love it, but a lot of other people did. She also refers to Anita Blake, and I have at least 3 or 4 of those on my TBR. Like her, loved the first 5 or 6, kinda losing the love now that the focus has changed, but maybe I should try one?

Raych at books I done read wrote the best review of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and I have that on my shelf. She loved it, says it should be the next book I read!

And there are more! Every day there are more reviews of things I could read, things I ALREADY OWN, if only I had time. What are people reading that you want to read RIGHT NOW that you already have waiting?


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The Sunday Salon: #2

It's the second day of my THREE DAY WEEKEND. (Can you tell how excited am I? Even better, daycare is OPEN tomorrow, so I get an entire day to myself. I can't wait... I have plans for coffee with a friend in the morning, a trip to the Brand New Target, a quick stop for some fusible interfacing for some sewing, then home to sew uninterrupted! BLISS.)

Anyway. Today is only Sunday and my husband is working, so I'm home alone with the boys. The Bug has just gone down for his morning nap and the Pirate is working on "I'm Hungry" for the 18th time this hour. I'm going to blog and read blogs for this nap and then sew when they are both napping. I'm planning to not do much housework today, in favor of reading in between.

This week I finished one book, Cry Wolf. I just posted my review here. I am going to give this one away, along with On the Prowl, so if you're interested, click over to my review to leave a comment. I really loved it, so if you haven't read it and want to, be sure to go by.

I started reading THREE different books this week, at various times. They are wildly different from each other but all are good. This brings my total to 6, I think. I think I am incapable of reading one at a time. This Wednesday is avidbookreader's TBR Day, and I hope to finish Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton for that. This is the 11th book in the series. I read the 10th one in 2002 but so far have been able to pick right up on the details. It's a lot denser than the other paranormals I've been reading and slower going. It feels nice to be returning to my paranormal roots, but I am nervous as this is where the crazy sex stuff starts.

The other five books are:
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Size 14 isn't Fat Either by Meg Cabot
Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
and Death Masks by Jim Butcher.

Last week for The Sunday Salon, I offered The Thirteenth Tale to a lucky winner. I wrote all your names on these super cute striped post-it notes and had the Pirate pick a name. He can't read, so it seemed pretty fair. He picked Jessica! Congratulations, Jessica, email me with your mailing address so I can get it in the mail this week. My email address is in my profile.

If you want to win Cry Wolf, don't forget to comment on this post.

Now, I'm off to read some of the other Sunday Salons before the Bug wakes up and needs me.

Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs

It's no secret that I love the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. I thought the 3rd one in the series, Iron Kissed, was brilliant in terms of character development. (My review is here, on my other blog We'd Rather Read. The next posted review is of the same book, but by my good friend Gina.) Briggs put Mercy through things that are usually avoided in this type of book, and had her come out stronger for it. So when I saw the first reports of Cry Wolf, I was nervous. I don't always like it when my favorite authors have more than one series. I almost always think the second one pales in comparison and then it's even longer before I get to read more of the one I enjoy. Regardless of this, I put Cry Wolf on my wishlist as soon as I heard of it. Cry Wolf is the first book in the Alpha and Omega series but there is also a short story about the main characters in On the Prowl. I read both back to back, and have a bit of a hard time telling which detail comes from which story. They flow seamlessly together, with Cry Wolf picking up where the short story leaves off.

Anna is an Omega werewolf. This means she has none of the dominance of an Alpha, but doesn't naturally feel submissive either. An Omega is rare and a great asset to the pack. They have a calming influence on the other wolves and can often diffuse a dangerous situation.

The short story in On the Prowl sets up Anna's history. It explains how she came to be a werewolf and explains in greater detail a lot of her responses in Cry Wolf. It also introduces Charles and Anna to each other. Charles is the son of the Marrok, the werewolf leader. He is his father's hitman, sent in to take care of things when a wolf goes rogue. Cry Wolf takes place in the same world as the Mercy Thompson series, with several of the characters overlapping each book. You absolutely do not have to read both, Briggs does a great job of keeping them separate while having characters in common. (Though I'd recommend you read both, because I love them both.)

In Cry Wolf, Anna has returned to Montana with Charles. There is a rogue werewolf in the nearby moutains, and Charles is sent to deal with it. Anna goes with him to help and to learn how a real pack works. Her wolf has mated with Charles's wolf and they are still learning how the human part of them will come together. This book is very much focused on the characters of Anna and Charles. They are already a couple when the book opens and over the course of the book they will learn what exactly that means. They have to learn how their past changes their responses to each other. You know from the beginning that they are together, this is not the point of the book. The point is to learn how these two distinct wolves will come together. Oh, and I guess there's the whole story line of the rogue wolf as well, but it really just serves to highlight the relationship between the other two.

I thought this one was great. Briggs has a way with her characters that really makes you understand them, and feel what they are feeling. I thought she did it better in Iron Kissed, because she did it in such a very short time (in one scene) but she does a great job in this one as well, without beating us over the head with the facts. At no point do you think, "Ok, got it, her history made her do that. MOVE ON." I am very happy to be wrong about this author writing a second series. They are very different series, but she does them both very well.

Do you want to read these? I'm going to give away both On the Prowl AND Cry Wolf. This is a package deal, because you should really read both of them. To win, leave me a comment telling me your favorite paranormal book or series, or if you haven't read any and are interested in starting one, tell me that. If the winner I choose has already read or owns one or the other, I'll split them up. If the winner has neither, they'll get both. I'll pick a winner next Sunday.

Dude. We're watching TV.

A hint of their teenage years, perhaps?






We had an almost perfect Saturday today. It was cold and rainy and I only went out to drop some mail in the mailbox. Mike built a fire and it was toasty inside. The Pirate seems to have turned another corner and has been quite the charming boy lately. He's still full of energy, but the tantrum level has gone way down. Today he was pleasant and fun to be around all day long. He was resistant to napping, but not irrational (that I know of, I managed to squeeze in a nap with the Bug without ONE interruption!) The Bug ate an entire tub of baby food at lunch, but still refused rice cereal at dinner. I got to do a little sewing, which I will show you all on Monday, and I got some prep work done for the sewing I want to do then as well. Burgers and cheesefries for dinner and a rare soda. I cleaned and sorted part of the Bug's room. We played Candyland and the Pirate won. Now the Bug is sound asleep in his bed, and the Pirate is watching Oswald (so not my favorite!) with an eye towards bedtime when it is over. I think I'll read a little bit of my current book so I have something to talk about tomorrow.

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Booking Through Thursday

Last chance reminder! If you want to be entered to win The Thirteenth Tale, click over here and leave a comment. Winner to be drawn tomorrow.

Yeah, I know, it's Saturday. It's the Saturday of a THREE DAY WEEKEND, in fact. A THREE DAY WEEKEND in which daycare is OPEN on Monday. I don't usually do B.T.T. but this looked like a fun one. This is just the first chance I've had to do it.

What was the last book you bought?
I can't even remember. I get 99% of my books through Paperbackswap now. I haven't bought a book in a long time. I got a Borders giftcard for my birthday in June, and I bought magazines, and a journal.

Name a book you have read MORE than once
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint- Exupery
The Secret by Julie Garwood
Gone with the Wind
Pride and Prejudice

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?
I can't think of any.

How do you choose a book? eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews
Nowadays, it's by reading other blogs. I admit that a beautiful cover will go a long way towards making me even read the review, and I've ordered a couple questionable book from Paperbackswap based entirely on the cover.

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?
Both. My favorite non-fiction are the memoirs about specific things- brain surgeons, or meth addicts or travel writing. Not so much straight biographies of a person's life.

What’s more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?

Plot, but BAD writing will stop me.

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)
Well, our dog is named Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. And then Scarlet, for all her scheming.

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?
There are probably 25 books on my nightstand because I use it for storage. None of them are books that I am currently reading, because I don't usually read in bed. The main book that I'm reading now is Cerulean Sins by Laurell K Hamilton.

What was the last book you’ve read, and when was it?
Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs. I finished it this week and loved it, review soon!

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?
All the time. I have too many books to plod through something. I'll give up after a chapter or two if the writing or plot doesn't grab me.

Tomorrow he will be closer to One.

Can you believe that the Bug is 6 months old today? I can not.

He is the most awesome little person. So calm and happy, most of the time. 6 months is the perfect age. He's aware of what's going on around him. He watches us and the animals and gets sad when we leave the room. He is deliriously happy to see me in the morning when he wakes up. He's as perfect as babies get, and I just love him so much. I was so worried before he was born that I wouldn't be able to love the second one as much as the first. Thankfully, this is not the case, and my heart overflows with the love.

He almost sits on his own. He rolls himself across rooms to get to things that interest him. No teeth yet, but we suspect crawling in his near future. He goes next week to get weighed, but I expect about 17 lbs.

He's been eating rice cereal and oatmeal for a while, but isn't very good at it. More of it ends up on him than in him as his tongue doesn't quite work the way it should. Last night we introduced pears and somehow he got all that down. He's quite the little beggar, wants everything we're eating. Don't tell the parent police, but I shared my vanilla ice cream with him the other night. He was heartbroken every time I'd put the cone down to wipe his chin. He was literally throwing himself at the ice cream. He's his mama's son for sure. (The Pirate does not like ice cream. He might be an alien.)

He's slept all night in his bed for 4 or 5 nights running now. I put him down between 7:30 and 8:30, still slightly awake, and he sleeps until 5:30 or 6. He has woken up and fussed a little, but didn't need us to attend to him. He still seems awfully little to be in a room by himself, but it is nice to stretch out in my own bed.

This last picture is the Pirate at 6 months, for comparison.

Thursday Haiku

In the tradition of Rude Cactus's Monday Haiku:

Tomorrow's forecast
calls for snow. It's okay, cause
we need the moisture.


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To Do List

There are so many things that I want to do and things I HAVE to do, and I'm not making much progress anywhere. In January I thought I'd read 60 books this year, and I bet I don' t read 40. I want to get my shop going and I don't find time to sew. I want to play outside with my son but I end up doing dishes instead. I've made a real effort to blog more (have you noticed?) and I think I'm getting that habit down, but some things are just slipping away. Having that second child really eats up a lot more of my time. (Yeah, it should have been obvious, but it wasn't.) I need motivation and accountability, so to that end, I'm posting my To Do list here. Be sure to ask me about it later, 'k?

1. Remind your blog readers that you are giving away The Thirteenth Tale on Sunday so they better put their name in the hat if they are interested. (Hey look, an item I can cross off now!)
2. Finish Cry Wolf by Sunday.
3. Update blog lists.
4. Clean off cutting table. (This should really be a post with pictures. It would be much more motivating if you saw it now!)
5. Put the fabric scraps and ribbons IN the bin instead of ON the bin.
6. Swap the pile of random crap that is on top of the cabinet for the set of drawers that are in the cabinet, thus hiding the mess. Duh. This makes so much more sense.
7. Clean the accumulated wrong-size clothing out of the Bug's room. (Really, this should read "stop using the Bug's room as a handy dumping ground.")
8. Quilt the quilt I'm gonna put in the shop.
9. Start cutting the special secret project that I want done by Christmas. (REALLY wish I could share this one with you guys, I'm so excited!)
10. Start making stockings for Christmas.

Ok, 10 is enough. I don't wanna overwhelm myself right off the bat. If you're still reading.. what's #1 on your To Do list this week?

What's your poison?

(please note, this post written Monday night to be posted Tuesday morning. I am not having a beer at 5am.)

I'm sitting here surfing the internets with a nice cold beer, and it got me to wondering, what's YOUR poison? When you get home after a long day, what do you want to drink or snack on? When you're sitting at your laptop on Sunday morning, what are you drinking?

I'm having a Leinenkugel Berry Weiss right now, but this is kinda new for me. I like it, it's not super sweet but it's not straight beer either. I'm not a huge fan of "beer". In the mornings, I love my coffee. I drink it with cream and sugar, or flavored creamer. Right now I have Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer and French Vanilla. What about you? Wine? Beer? Soda? Tea? Hot tea? What are you drinking while you're reading or surfing?

Happy Anniversary!

Last week was our 4th wedding anniversary. I didn't post then, cause I wanted a picture to post with it. Every year we have someone take a picture of our small family on our anniversary. Here they are, in reverse order:

The Sunday Salon: My first, with a giveaway!

You know how all the cool people do something that looks cool and you always feel too dorky to ask to join in? Well finally, I'm going to do the Sunday Salon with the rest of the cool peeps. (Is "peeps" still cool? I don't know. Mmm sugary goodness.) I'm finally starting to get a rhythm going again with reading, and I hope having a regular posting schedule will help. I plan to blog more too, I'm sure you're all excited.

This week I finished reading Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside by Katrina Firlik. I love memoirs that show a life I'll never lead. I love learning the fascinating details that you'd never hear in a book about something else. I have a huge stack of these waiting for me, some of them were gifts/contest winnings from some of you- A Piece of Cake and Queen of the Road, for example. Anyway, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe is about Firlik's experiences as a neurosurgeon. It has a lot of potential as an interesting book, but in the end it kinda falls short. Firlik seems to lack some of the cues to make a person empathetic, even though she takes great pains to emphasize her great bedside manner. She is arrogant and a bit conceited, clearly thinks she's better than her readers due to being a brain surgeon, and even more so for being female. The chapters are only vaguely cohesive, one anecdote running headlong into the next before she finishes the point in the first. Regardless of this, I read the book over the course of a couple of days because I found the idea of reading about brain surgery fascinating. I finished it early in the week, and even now can't remember what I learned from it.

Next I read the short story by Patricia Briggs about Anna and Charles from On the Prowl, and got a good start into Cry Wolf. It is excellent, and I'd have finished it last night except I left my bag at the hospital while visiting a relative and haven't had a chance to go back for it.

Because this is October and signs of Halloween are appearing everywhere, I've considered limiting my reading to my insane backlog of spooky and paranormal stories. I know there are a couple challenges out there dedicated to this, but is anyone else thinking of just reading on topic like this? I have some Laurell Hamilton, Kim Harrison, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, the last Carrie Vaughn, along with some new to me authors sitting in the TBR. I could so easily make it the entire month, especially now that I only manage a couple books a month. (I'm trying to rectify that, too.)

Last month I read and reviewed The Thirteenth Tale. Because this is my first Sunday Salon and it's a respectably spooky tale, I'm gonna give it away! If you're one of the 4 people in blog land who has not read it, please leave a comment and I'll draw for it next Sunday in my second Sunday Salon. It is not in pristine condition, but is definitely not worn. I tried to give away A Nation of Wimps a few weeks ago, and had not ONE taker, so if you're reading this and want that, let me know and I'll draw for it too.

My plans for today: go get and finish reading Cry Wolf, clean my house so my father-in-law can visit, get a little sewing done for tomorrow's Etsy update, and list this Halloween bag in the shop (It's gonna be cheap, it has a tiny flaw on the back that bothers me!) What are your plans for today? Are you reading anything spooky for October? Have you read Cry Wolf?

Awww, I love your blog too!

Amanda at Life and Times of a "New" New Yorker recently gave me the "I love your blog" award. Amanda posts some great pictures of New York City, makes me feel like I've been there. PLUS, she's an Auburn fan, so of course I love her too. I admit to being a bit like a 5th grader in that it gives me a little thrill to get little awards. Then I get all self conscious and wonder who I should give them BACK to! What if she doesn't like me?? What if SHE notices I didn't give it to HER? THE PRESSURE.





But this time, I'm determined to do right by my friends, so here goes:

• Lezlie at Books 'N Border Collies, who makes me want to be a good dog owner.


• Trish at Trish's Reading Nook, who always seems to be online when I'm online. Plus, we'll always have Little Women.


• Raych at books i done read, who never fails to crack me up by saying what I'm thinking, but saying it better.


• Natasha at Maw Books Blog, for her outstanding efforts to help increase awareness of the genocide in Darfur (I sent my letter this week!)


• bermudaonion, who seems to comment on my posts before I even hit publish. Does she live in my computer?


• Megan at Fried Okra. Friday's post was titled, "Friday, I love you more than a Nutella and Cheeto Sandwich." Do I need to say more?


• Bookish Ruth, who I JUST discovered from the BBAW stuff. She's giving away a copy of Tethered by Amy Mackinnon, stop by and say hi.


• And last, Gina at Bitty and the Boy, who has been my best friend since 11th grade. She recently started a blog (I'm a bad influence!) and could use a few visitors. We live 1400 miles apart now (after living 4 feet apart in college) so stop by and show her some love, will ya?

This is by no means ALL the blogs I love, I didn't even make it to the "crafting", "kitchen sink", "parenting" and "living green" sections on my Google reader. Maybe some time next week I'll give some more away. For today, this will do. Girls, I love ya all.

PS if you spell Google "google" spellcheck will tell you it is WRONG. Hrmph.

Library Thing? Shelfari? Spiral notebook? Notches on the bedpost?

My Library Thing subscription expired this month (why didn't I buy the lifetime? I can't remember) and I am debating renewing it. While I enjoy it while I use it, I don't know that I use it enough to justify spending money on it right now. I've got so many other irons in the fire that I could easily drop this one, and not notice. I could change my "Now Reading" in the sidebar to something that I manually change- it's not like I ever remembered to change the tags at Library Thing anyway. I also keep a running list of books read up there at the top of this page (on the tab) and in paper journal at home. Cutting something out would be niiiiiice.

But- I spent all that time entering all those books! I do like the features like the groups and the message boards. I like to be able to follow a conversation from the info page about the book. I like to see what other people with similar libraries have. I like looking at everything I've read, all in one place (I use Library Thing to catalog what I have already read, not what is actually in my library.) I hate to have already spent SOME money on it, and not continue using it. I like the Early Reviewers books. Though, I do already have SO MANY books at home that I haven't read that perhaps I wouldn't miss this aspect.

I could switch to a free service, but would I use it more? Tell me, please, what do you do? Do you use an online service? Excel? Just your blog? A paper journal? (This reminds me of another post about a journal that I'll be begging your experiences on later! I better make a note to remind myself. I swear, if I don't make a note I won't remember. My brain is on strike.) I want to be a follower, so tell me, so I can be like YOU-ou-ou. I wanna walk like you, talk like you... sorry, forgot where I was for a second there. Anyway, help me out, tell me what to do.

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Scammers: A Love Story

The following is a cautionary tale. This is a True Story and I am only changing a few identifying facts about the people involved, in order to protect their identities. This is not an email I got and am mindlessly reposting. I tried to find anything about it on Scopes, but wasn't able to. About the scammer in question, I change nothing!

A good friend of mine was recently involved with a scammer, and it came as something of a surprise to her, and I'd like to share her story. This friend of mine is a good friend, we talk on the phone a couple times a week, in brief snatches between tending to our children (we both have children under the age of 5). Conversations are often disjointed and picked up and carried on at a later date. We don't live in the same part of the country, and we only see each other about once a year. We email very short emails and pictures of the kids, but we don't send long emails catching up on our daily lives. While I seem to spend my entire life online, my friend is somewhat less of a computer addict. Email and IM have come late to her life, and blogs are not something she reads. She rarely makes online purchases and is not part of any social networking sites. I have known her my entire life.

A year or so ago, my friend (let's call her "M") ended her long term relationship. The town she lives in does not have many promising bachelors, so she signed up for a couple of online dating sites. Now, I'm no stranger to people falling in love online. I don't find it creepy or scary or wierd or dangerous. I think people should be cautious, but I think people should be cautious in ANY new relationship. Anyway, due to M's background and education, she was drawn to one particular fellow who was mute. This is not an problem to M, they could still communicate, just not by phone. He lived about 3 hours from her but M wasn't rushing things and wasn't in a hurry to meet. They exchanged pictures, which she sent to me, and he was pretty average looking. They started to correspond almost 2 months ago.

This guy's letters (I know, let's call him SCAMMER) we're occasionally hard to read, disjointed, and full of overblown romantic crap. Some people (M) like that though, so whatever. She said his IMs were much more ordinary. They talked about his job (construction, I think), his car (a Nissan), his kid, how their days went, etc. They had normal getting-to-know-you conversations. They occasionally texted from their cell phones.

Now, in addition to being mute from birth, SCAMMER apparently had been married. His wife had been a social worker (I think) and had died while they were on a mission to Africa. Their son had stayed in Africa (I want to say Kenya, but I am not certain) because he was in a boarding school there and wanted to graduate from it. (Yes, this should have rang some alarms, it didn't. M was hazy on the details and I assumed it was because SHE was hazy, not because it didn't make sense.) ANYWAY, 3 weeks or so ago, SCAMMER finds out his son was in an accident, and flies over to be with him. His guardian or whoever he was with there, says it's very serious, the son might not live. SCAMMER gets there a couple weeks ago and hands over his passport. And they refuse to give it back until he pays his sons medical bills.

Do you see where this is going? Cause this is where it clicked in for me. I was slow.

SCAMMER doesn't have access to his money. BUT! His friend does! BUT! his friend can't wire it over to him. SO, what if the friend writes M a check? and M deposits it into her account? and then WIRES THE MONEY TO SCAMMER. Even my internet dating novice of a friend saw the light at this point. She reported him to everyone she could think of (not that it'll do any good.) Having never done the Internet dating thing, it never even occurred to me to be cautious of THIS kind of problem. I was shocked that someone would invest this much time (2 months or so) and energy into bilking people out of their money. Perhaps it's super common, I just don't know, but I'm posting about it in case you have never heard of it either.

And next time, I'll pay more attention to what she's telling me about the guys she finds interesting.

Mute? or just don't want you to hear their real voice?
Kid in Africa without a parent? Really?
Overly romantic, somewhat confusing letters? Illiterate? or foreign?

Next!