5 posts tagged “reading”

This weekend I spent relaxing - a lot. Saturday morning we woke early and dressed for the Renaissance Faire! I was excited to go - I used to have so much fun but lost my interest when my friends there lost interest in me. So, it was nice to be going back - especially because Jane gave us her complimentary tickets so we really only had to pay for parking. We got there about ten and left earlier than I wanted - at about 1:30 or so. It was just TOO hot. I was so disappointed because everyone was telling me how cool the season had been, for once.

Anyhow - once we'd gotten home (stripped, showered, & sprawled open limbed on the floor in order to cool down) the day improved a lot. We finally watched "Children of Men" - a movie I'd been warned was not happy - but good, which I agree with. After that I basically just read the entire day which was exactly what I wanted. I'd been trying to make time to read The Host - such a good book so far - and finally I'd found it. By the end of the day I was a little more than half way through the book.

Sunday we woke leisurely and excitedly - we'd be getting our new bed! They called almost instantly to give us an hour warning and so I rushed around to strip the bed and clean the room as much as possible to give everyone room. Some wasted effort though because when they came they simply dropped the mattress in the living room and left. I had been hiding in the other room (forgot to mention - got a wicked sunburn while at faire on my neck and shoulders so I was bra-less and in a tub top - ergo the hiding) and so when Paul said they hadn't taken the old mattress I was confused. We called the customer service line pretty quick and the woman called the truck driver. It was a frustrating conversation because she was talking to the truck driver/delivery team - who barely spoke English by the way - and arguing with us. She said that the delivery team asked us if we needed our old mattress removed - but Paul says they didn't. She wouldn't take our word against theirs though - so on top of arguing with us we were also told we were wrong. Frustrating to say the least because in my opinion, no matter WHAT we said in confusion, we were the customer and we were told we'd have our old mattress removed and our new one placed for us. Neither of those things happened. I'm over it though - the mattress is nice :)

We went shopping in the afternoon and picked up some odd ends at Target and then went to the supermarket. I spent most of the day after that just reading and by the end of the night I got about a hundred pages away from finishing. I put the book down though because I was tired and I really don't like finishing books before bed. I'm regretting it now though because I left my book on the kitchen table! I got out of my car this morning at work and when I noticed I'd left it I had a moment straight from Planet of the Apes - fists held to the sky and screaming "NNNNNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!" to the empty parking lot. I'm tempted to go home and get it on my lunch - but by the time I get it and come back most of my lunch will be over and I'll have no time to read it anyhow :( TONIGHT THOUGH! I'm finishing it tonight!

What makes the weekend even better is that despite relaxing a lot - I was still able to get chores done. We went grocery shopping, I washed clothes (including a load of Faire clothes), got the dishes done, Paul cleaned the guest room and did laundry as well. So productivity with relaxing is the best thing in my book. Best thing :)

As I posted, this weekend Paul finally bought his Wii. He's been having fun playing Super Smash Bros Brawl and I've been playing a bit of Super Mario Paper. However, this weekend was busy because of Mother's Day (we saw his parents on Saturday & mine on Sunday) and so we didn't get to play or relax that much.

However! I made it a point to make it to that produce store again so I've got some good veggies & fruits to snack on again today :) I just wish that all my hard work to make good food decisions would begin to pay off - but that's likely not to happen unless I pair it with some much needed exercise :(

Tonight Paul & I are going to go shopping for a mattress, and then Tuesday (hopefully) I'm going to get my hair cut. I'm tempted to color it as well, but I'm very undecided. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I've colored it pretty successfully in the past, but correcting the color once I wanted to become blonde again was not an easy or pretty task.

Over the weekend I got the last of my orders for Linnet and I tried out her new curly white wig with her new pale lavender eyes. I was shocked to see that yet again, the eyes (14mm blue ones seen here) were melted by the eye putty that I was using. When this happened the last time I thought it was just the eyes I'd chosen, so I bought new ones - but I was wrong. I jumped onto the DoA* boards and find that this is pretty common (which made me feel better) and the reason was because the putty had a plasticizer in it in order to keep it soft and so it begins to soften the acrylic. It was suggested that I try pillow-soft ear plugs, and so we went out late last night to find them. They worked differently - but worked just as well so I hope that I've found a good alternative. What was frustrating though was the fact that this putty was given to me by the doll manufacturer - so I would assume it would be safe. The eyes that Souldoll gave me appear to be acrylic as well - but they aren't being effected by the putty they gave me so I guess that's the difference.

I read a bit of The Host over the weekend, but not nearly enough :( My sister is already done! If only I could find enough free time... Oh well - I have until the 23rd to finish it so that none of it is ruined by the book signing (not really worried about the author - more about the crowd).

*DoA stands for Den of Angels, a forum for ABJD collectors

I don't think I've mentioned much on here about this, but I'm a fan of the Twilight series of books. The author of the Twilight series, Stephanie Meyers, has just released her first book written and geared towards adults while the Twilight series was geared more towards young-adults even though it ended up being enjoyed by a much wider audience. The book, entitled The Host, was released yesterday - and as part of a promotion the author is doing a book tour. My sister got me and a bunch of us others tickets to the book signing and yesterday she picked up our books and tickets to the May 23rd event.

Last night my sister had a "release party" and made gift bags to hand out with the books - it was so much fun! We made bookmarks for using when reading The Host and we're going to get together again soon to make t-shirts to wear to the book signing later this month. I'm so excited! I love doing fan stuff, makes me feel less like a minority in my interests :)

I went home last night early because I'm still getting use to the time change again - though I've nearly tackled it - and I wasn't able to even crack the book open :( I'm hoping that I'll have some time today while at work, but likely not. What sucks is that while I used to take my lunch during the majority of the staff's lunch hour and so therefore have a bit of peace, quiet and privacy while at my desk - I've been forced to change my lunch hour to 11am-12pm in order to cover the lunch hour. My only hope now to get an uninterrupted lunch is to go out to my car!

Has any other neighbors, other than Tracy who's been keeping me in the loop so far as the Twilight movie goes, read the Twilight series or is interested in Stephanie Meyers new book The Host?

7 QotDs and I don't want to answer any of them, what does that say about me? What does that say about the QotDs? I wonder why sometimes they change every day - other times it's only about once a week?

I'm considering just asking for payment on the dolls I have offers on, even though I was going to wait until this Friday. I think the prices are fair and I haven't been getting much more response since I placed the current offer dollar amount on the thread. I have however stopped getting low offers that are just laughable - which is good. Besides, I think it might take awhile for people to have their money to me and I'd like to ship on Saturday so this might be for the best.

Our cable has been acting up a lot. It all started when last Tuesday our cable (TV & internet - and ergo phone because we use Vonage) went out. That afternoon we saw someone walking around looking at the cable lines. We called up Time Warner and they sent someone out the next day and confirmed there was some kind of issue with our lines in regards to our new upstairs neighbor. Apparently, Verizon is in the happen of cutting previous cable lines when they provide service - classy - and they cut our line thinking it was our new neighbors. Ever since then we've been missing channels (we have no premium channels, but basic ones like TBS, TNT & Cartoon Network (NNNNOOOOO!!!!!) have been unavailable) and the cable keeps cutting in and out. I'm frustrated because tonight is ANTM and that means my sister and I are getting together and she doesn't have cable right now so if we can't watch it at my apartment we're out of luck :( I've called Time Warner and they're completely booked for today and so they can't even come out - even if I could take the time off. Which sucks. I'm just going to hope that, for tonight, it's just simply coming and going instead of just being gone.

In other news, I'm laboriously getting through The Other Boleyn Girl. Having taken a break has helped, however I'm still only on page 294 of 661. I've brought it to work today because I'm just trying to read it (I can't stand not finishing a book) and I don't need to get lost in it. My sister is probably going to be done with The Time Traveler's Wife tonight which means we're going to start reading The Thirteenth Tale together. After that I'm going to move onto Rebel Angels - but until all of that I'm working on The Other Boleyn Girl. I have high hopes for this month because if I'm able to finish The Other Boleyn Girl, The Thirteenth Tale, Rebel Angels and then also the 3rd book in the Gemma Doyle series I'll have read six books this month and that'll put me two closer to filling the gap I made in February. Wish me luck!

I'm back at work today, so it's an "official" post for once :)

New Years Eve & day was nice. My sister & her family were supposed to come over on Tuesday - but they really weren't feeling well and so stayed home. Instead, Paul & I went out and I picked up a new book for my new endeavor, 50 books in 365 days! I know that Bookishly Fabulous is already quite a ways into her 365 - and I hear that BadMojo is going to be starting this endeavor as well so I'm wondering - is anyone else out there doing this?

I decided to do it when I had a hard time answering the QotD: Best Book of '07, not because I had so much to choose from but because I didn't have enough! I used to love to read! I'd read entire books (granted, they were small 200+ page teen novels - but books all the same!) in one day and would read almost anything! I was known as the reader amongst friends and family & I miss that. So, I'm doing the challenge and I hope that I exceed the 50. My first book is going to be Water for Elephants because I spied it on a few neighbor's best book post. I'm also going to borrow The Other Boleyn Girl from Jane even though I've heard mixed reviews on it. Plus, I have this thing about reading a book everyone (even non-readers) have read because it's been around the block so many times (i.e.: The Da Vinci Code - this hardcover book never moved off the #1 position the whole time I was working at Barnes & Noble in 2005). So if any of you guys out there have suggestions, push them my way! You can tell the kind of books I enjoy reading by looking at my books here on Vox or by looking on Shelfari (which by the way, you should sign up for - great tool!) which is as up to date as I could make it. I'm going to be adding some romances I enjoy on there - so be warned!

Paul & I also tried out a new restaurant for us, and it was good! It was some chicken wings place and we'll have to go back on Thursdays because that's when they have $.50 boneless chicken wings - yum! The best part was that I believe I have discovered my "drink". See, anyone who knows me knows that I don't drink. Most drinks I've tired are just too strong and make me cringe and on a more personal note - my father is a a recovering alcoholic so it has always been a fear of mine. But I'm comfortable drinking around certain people - like Paul. So I decided to try a rum and diet coke and let me just tell you, that was great. It didn't make me cringe, I had a bit of fun, and an hour later I was fine. I remember everything and I can tell you right now I'm a talker when I drink. I was talking up a storm. I remember when we got back to the car and Paul unlocked it and the alarm sounded I shouted, "I can be a car too! BEEP BOOP!". I'm a freak :)

Today's Wednesday - and that makes me happy. Only two more days and then another weekend! Too bad it'll be my last short week for awhile. I can't even take off my one year wedding anniversary (Jan 7th) because I need to keep all my vacation time for Scotland. But who cares, I get to go to Scotland!!!