Feed on
Posts
Comments

The Crazies Are Out

Jan 27th, 2012 by heather

Appointment one – Dog came in and immediately pooped on the floor.  We took him back and when I touched him he pooped and peed.  Managed to get his injection in him with more poop coming out.  Then she wanted his toe nails trimmed. I went looking for help.

A canine officer was in the waiting room with a young police dog.  He mocked me.  Started harassing me about not being able to wrestle a 40 lb dog.  “Can’t you just flatten him and sit on him?”  Should have made him help.
 
Three of us tried to restrain the dog.  More poop.  His blood pressure was up so he bled.  Then he got his muzzle off.  The first sign of this was the fact that he was attached to my forearm.

Afternoon appointment – 60ish white lady with curly grey hair and dripping layers of turquoise jewelry.  Always seemed normal to me. She comes in and says that she doesn’t like coming to this neighborhood anymore because this is where she got busted. 

She said that when the cops chased her she “ran up on a porch”.  I thought she meant “ran” but apparently “drove” would have been a better verb.  She had her dog with her and he went to jail too.  He had his own cell.  When her sister came to bail her out, she took the dog home first and left her in jail for a while.  (I would have too.) 

So, she’s going to jail sometime soon so opted out of scheduling a booster appointment for her cat’s vaccine.  Hard to argue with that reasoning.  She also said her doctor took her off her Xanax and says that “that drug was saving the lives of several people” who she neglected to kill while she was on Xanax. 

The SO keeps lecturing me about how now that we’ve moved to a big city I’m not supposed to assume I’m safe like I was in small town/rural areas like this clinic. Right.  He’s never met my clients.

Tags:

Posted in Work | No Comments »

I’m a Guest Star!!

Jan 24th, 2012 by heather

I like Guest Star more than guest blogger. It is much more glittery.

I’m writing over at Chrissie’s blog about my 10 favorite book series.

Tags:

Posted in Reading | 1 Comment »

No Oreos for Me

Jan 24th, 2012 by heather

Last night was the first night where I was going to be camping out in my old house.  I’m still working a few days a week at my old job. 

I had my blow up bed ready to go.  I had my iPad full of books.  I had a package of golden oreos.  I had milk for the oreos.  I was all set for a lovely evening.

Then I got the call.  The SO was on the line talking to me between bouts of vomiting.  He wanted to know if I knew where the ER was in our new town.  I didn’t have a clue.  He has food allergies and was having an unusually bad reaction.  He had taken some meds but needed medical care.  I told him to call an ambulance.  Then he said, “How do I call an ambulance here?”

I swear until two weeks ago he was a fully functional human. 

“Nine. One. One.”
“Oh, yeah.”

So he did.  Freckles was very worried about her daddy acting so funny so she was glad for the company and tried to help.  Then the company stole her daddy which was not so happy.

So I head out on the two hour drive to the new town.  Someone had to pick him up and take him home.  He called and told me what hospital and I put it in the GPS.  I was 20 miles away when he called again.  A nurse was short with him so he walked out.  He was still covered in hives but he wasn’t going back in there.  He is the world’s worst patient.  He says he once had a nurse tell him that she hoped he died under anesthesia.  That seemed horrible at the time but now that I’ve been through a few minor health crises with him I can sympathize with her.  I was quiet while thinking that he just added 4.5 hours driving time to my night (2 hours home and 2.5 back to work in the AM) and if he walked out I was going to kill him.  He must have understood the tenor of my thinking because he stopped ranting and said, “I should go inside and play nice, right?”

When I got there he was sitting there drinking a diet cola while waiting for his meds to kick in.  No one had even noticed he had left.  I got him home and put to bed.  Freckles was very glad that I had stolen her daddy back from the strangers who took him.  I think she was also glad to have some adult supervision.  Watching the male human on her own is way too stressful for her!

Posted in Family, Pets | No Comments »

My New Library

Jan 23rd, 2012 by heather

One of the things I was most excited about was getting a new library.  Yeah, geek.  Anyway, the branch I figured would be mine was closed on Sunday.  My next day to be able to go would be Wednesday.  Could I wait? No.  I gathered up a piece a mail with my new address and headed downtown to the main branch.

Now I’ve been in a small town for a long time.  I love my old library. It wasn’t big but it kept me entertained.  This library is from another world.

First of all, parking garage.  It is free on weekends but otherwise they validate.  Yeah, the library validates parking.

I found the floor I needed to find on the map.  The rest of the map was a bit weird.  It was labelled with sections of the building for Science and one for Business, etc but nothing for BOOKS.  Anyway, I went and got my new card and decided to see if I could figure it out. 

I was dumbfounded when I realized that the Science section of the building was for books in that part of the Dewey Decimal System.  I think my days of wandering down the nonfiction section (the whole nonfiction section) to see if anything catches my eye are over.  There was relatively little fiction.  Maybe that’s all out at the branches.

Today I founds two books I wanted by checking out the Where are you reading blogs.  I went to their catalog.  They had them both.  One I reserved and the other is an e-audiobook I can download.  Seriously, two for two – one novel, one memoir.  I would get excited if I could find 25% at my old library and everywhere it swapped with.  This is going to be fun!

Posted in Reading | 1 Comment »

Getting Settled

Jan 23rd, 2012 by heather

I got home from Florida at 9 PM Saturday night.  I’d been fielding phone calls for a week from the SO that ranged from pathetic whines about how much there was to unpack to nasty calls about how I abandoned him when he needed me.  That one got him hung up on until he remember how to act civil and remembered who it was exactly who scheduled the moving date for the only days when I could not help.  Hint – it wasn’t me.

From the amount of whining I thought he was getting everything put away and was tired of doing it all.  He had the movers to help unpack and he had my parents for one day to set up the electronics and the kitchen.  So I was pissed right off a touch nonplussed to come to a totally trashed house.

I woke up Sunday morning and told him that Drill Sargent Heather was here and this house would be ship shape that day.  It was mostly stupid stuff.  All the afghans and quilts were jumbled on the couch and they were sitting on top of it all instead of being folded up and hung on the quilt rack conveniently sitting two feet away.  I just put things away.  Not hard.  If certain people had quit bitching and did something for the week I was gone, it would have been over.  Total time until the kitchen,  living room, family room, and dining room had everything put away?  Two hours.  That’s it.  Then I almost did kill him dead.

We spent some time shopping for a washer and dryer and other odds and ends we needed. 

When it got dark I tried to turn on the lamps in the living room.  No lights.  Plugged in? Check.  Is this a switched outlet? I don’t think so.  Nope, there were no bulbs in the lamps.  Right then he walked in.

Me:  “Have you been sitting in the dark for a week?”
Him: “No…” like he wasn’t sure of the answer I wanted.
“Can you go get the bulbs for these?”
“They are downstairs.”
Then I stared at him.  “Can you get them?”
“You act like I’m stupid or something.”
Um, if the shoe fits.

Normally he is completely capable of taking care of himself like a grown-up human.  Apparently moving made him mentally curl up in a fetal position. 

I haven’t started unpacking the other rooms yet and I’m saving setting up the sewing room as a reward.  I’m back at the old house for a few days to work then I’ll work on another room.  It isn’t hard.

Tags:

Posted in Family | 2 Comments »

It’s Monday! What are you reading?

Jan 22nd, 2012 by heather

Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Some Girls: My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren

In the mid 1990s, the author was an 18 year old aspiring actress in New York. She worked as a stripper and an escort. She was then hired to work as a party girl for one of the brothers of the Sultan of Brunei. Every night the Prince had an all night party with a large group of women. The author eventually became a favorite and was taken on trips and received lavish gifts but what was the cost?

This was an interesting book. It was read by the author. It covers her life in Brunei and New York. I found it strange that these women actually found themselves competing for the Prince’s affections and falling in love with him even though they knew he was cruel and hateful.

She Makes It Look Easy: A Novel by MaryBeth Whalen

When Ariel moves to a new neighborhood she is awed by her next door neighbor Justine. Justine seems to have it all together and Ariel wants to be just like her until she finds out that Justine’s life isn’t all that it seems.

This turned out to be a Christian novel which was strange because it is pretty dark. Or, maybe I’m just paranoid about reading books about new neighbors when I just moved to a new place.

Flirting With Death (Assassins Anonymous – Step One) by Heidi Hall

Kayla had been an assassin with the CIA for 10 years when she woke up in the hospital. She was told that she had been shot in the chest. She doesn’t remember what happened and no one will tell her anything other than the fact that she is out of a job. Suddenly, she is trying to navigate the civilian world where it is considered wrong to kill people who annoy you while trying to piece together what happened to her.

This was a free ebook on Amazon. It is the start of a series. It was a cute light mystery.

Lydia by Tim Sandlin

“Managing the Virgin Birth Home for Unwed Mothers means the women in Sam Callahan’s life keep his world interesting. But it’s his family members that really take the cake. His daughter may be having a nervous breakdown, and his mother’s just out of prison for attempting to poison the president’s dog. And when they hit the road with a geriatric, an adoptive son trying to discover his parentage, and an enraged psychopath on their tails, all hell may break loose.”

Tags:

Posted in Reading | 8 Comments »

We care so you don’t have to

Jan 21st, 2012 by heather

Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless

Posted in General | No Comments »

What I Did Instead

Jan 20th, 2012 by heather

Once upon a time there was a boy who wanted to marry a girl. The girl was perfectly content to continuing living with him forever and ever without being married but the boy wore her down and she finally agreed. She said, “In January I’ll be going to Florida for a conference which ends on a Wednesday. You fly down Wednesday night and then we can get married on Friday.” It was agreed. The girl even ordered a dress appropriate for a Florida beach wedding. And it came to pass that one week after the girl paid for express delivery on the dress, since this was September already, the boy got a new job. New jobs that start in December do not accrue enough vacation time to go eloping in January.

So, today was supposed to be my wedding day. I am in Florida. My intended is not. I think that counts as him standing me up. I will abuse him for this as I see fit. He is also going to have to start the whole begging process all over again to get me to set another date although I do have a dress that needs used.

Instead of getting married I went to Sea World. I used to go to Sea World a lot as a kid when they had one in Ohio but I haven’t been since they realized that Ohio gets cold in the winter and moved to San Antonio.

photo.JPG

I love this shot if I do say so myself.

photo.JPG

photo.JPG

The Clyde and Seamoore show was always my favorite. The sea lions and walrus did fine but the people and otter kept screwing up. Then the people got to laughing because everything was going wrong. It made it even funnier.

photo.JPG

Of course there has to be turtles!

photo.JPG

photo.JPG

The show I was most impressed with was the pet show. They had trained dogs and rats and pigs and birds. Big deal. Anyone can train those. But this show had trained cats. Not lions. Just normal ole pussy cats like the layabouts who live in my house and don’t do any tricks at all. The show cats climbed ladders and walked wires and hung from ropes and went place to place and hit levers without anyone on stage guiding them. In other words they learned a bit of routine and then did it unsupervised without eating the birds or rats. I’m going to tell my lazy beasts about it. They’ll probably hurt themselves laughing.

Tags: ,

Posted in Family | 2 Comments »

Busch Gardens

Jan 20th, 2012 by heather

This is the only time of the year when the Florida theme parks are bearable. It isn’t crazy hot and there are no crowds. I love it.

Yesterday I went to Busch Gardens in Tampa.

photo.JPG

I love tortoises. I love to watch them eat. I really want one – a small one of course. I don’t want to be trying to get a 100 lb tortoise in the nursing home with me.

There were kitties.

photo.JPG

photo.JPG

photo.JPG

Somedays I feel like I could eat a tree.

photo.JPG

It’s very hard work to be a kangaroo. It is important to nap and recharge. All the kangaroos and wallabies were out cold…

photo.JPG

…except for me!

photo.JPG

I must be getting old. I didn’t ride that many rides. I could have because the park was almost empty. All lot of the coasters were running with empty seats. I was never more than second in line.

photo.JPG

But the roller coasters are giving me massive headaches. I’m starting to think that I have a screw loose and the coasters are rattling it. Very sad. Also, I’m starting to think that some things are stupid. That coaster above pauses and hangs the car over that drop for a few seconds. That didn’t look fun to me. *sigh* From here it is a short slide to yelling, “Get off my lawn!”

Tags:

Posted in General | No Comments »

Now with more “fair and balanced”

Jan 18th, 2012 by heather

I was checking out one of my news apps to see if the world had ended when I wasn’t paying attention. This story showed up. Imagine this with a big FoxNews headline across the site (the app is an aggregator, not a FN app) saying Fair and Balanced. I’ll emphasize the prime examples of fair and balanced in bold italics.

Pagan mom challenges Bibles in North Carolina school
Jan 18, 2012

A pagan mother’s challenge to the distribution of donated Bibles at a local school has prompted the Buncombe County Board of Education to reevaluate its policies regarding religious texts.

Ginger Strivelli, who practices Wicca, said she was upset when her 12-year-old son came home from North Windy Ridge intermediate school with a Bible. The Gideons International had delivered several boxes of the sacred books to the school office. The staff allowed interested students to stop by and pick them up.

“Schools should not be giving out one religion’s materials and not others,” Strivelli said.

According to Strivelli, the principal assured her the school would make available religious texts donated by any group. But when Strivelli showed up at the school with pagan spell books, she was turned away.
//
“You can either open your public school up to all religious material, or you can say no religious material,” Michael Broyde, a professor and senior fellow at Emory University’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion said. “You can’t say, ‘You can distribute religious material, but only from the good mainstream faiths.’”
//
Traditionally, that “grand experiment” has involved Judaism and a handful of Christian denominations. But as non-traditional faiths spread into new communities, longstanding customs such as prayer, Christmas plays and Bibles that once went unquestioned in public schools are finding themselves under increased scrutiny.

“Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, not on Wiccan principles,” Bobby Honeycutt, who attended public schools in Weaverville during the 1970s, said. 

“Our children have access to more non-Christian print material in the libraries and online than they really do Christian stuff,” he said. 

While many Weaverville Christians see recent events as a threat to tradition, others see a purpose in enforcing church-state separation in public schools, because even the nation’s traditional faiths have divisions.

“Many Christians have stood up and said they agree with me too,” Strivelli said. “Because, as much as they may like the Bible, they don’t want Jehovah’s Witnesses coming in with Watch Tower (magazines) or Catholics coming in and having them pray the Rosary.”

Ah, yes, the “traditional faiths”. I take it they aren’t refering to Native American religions when they say that.

I love Mr. Bobby Honeycutt’s quotes. I don’t know who he is or how he is related to this story at all since they don’t mention it. I have to assume he’s the equivalent of the lady in her housedress and curlers standing in front of her trailer smoking a cigarette after the tornado went through.

And last but not least the pagan lady’s quote at the end sums up the religious attitude of this community when she says that the Christians don’t want the Catholics to come into the schools.

If only they could have worked in some “War on Christmas” stuff…. oh wait, they did.

I saw a bumper sticker today that said, “I get my comedy from Fox News and my news from Comedy Central.” I should have bought it.

Posted in Current Events | 1 Comment »

Murder Suspect

Jan 18th, 2012 by heather

I had been joking around about how Freckles would think that her beloved daddy had taken all the stuff from the house and not told me how to get to the new house.  I forgot to consider the smartest beastie in the house.

Jules is pissed.  The SO says she looking at him like she knows what he did.  She knows he killed me and hid the body.  I took her up to the new house and set her up on Friday.  She was perfectly happy.  On Saturday with all the excitement of movers bringing stuff in she was having fun, I hear.  There has never been a hubbub that a bird doesn’t enjoy.  But now, life is boring and her human isn’t there.  She’s never trusted the male human and now it seems that her suspicions are being proved right.

He’s put me on speaker every night to talk to her.  She doesn’t care about his tricks.  Today he left the radio on for her.  He tested channels for her and she liked the pop music best.  She likes to sing and dance.  I’m also recommending bribery with bananas and bread/pizza crusts. 

I’m going to have to have some serious cuddle time with her when I get back.  I have a feeling I’m going to get bit too in order to punish me for stressing her.

Tags:

Posted in Pets | No Comments »

The Holy Land Experience

Jan 16th, 2012 by heather

I have been dying to go to the Holy Land Experience every time I’ve been in Orlando. You can see if from the road and it is totally over the top. I can’t pass up a trashy, tacky Christian tourist trap. See The Creation Museum visit.

This will be a long post with lots of pictures. If you just want the summary here it is:

The Holy Land was a magical place that was created for Jesus to live in. He had about 20 friends who never met a sequin or glitter that they didn’t love. When Jesus moved on the Holy Land ceased to exist.

I drove in and was immediately accosted by police. I thought this was going to be an authentic checkpoint experience but I was wrong. They just wanted to tell me where to park. When I got out of the car I kept wishing that I had a head scarf so I could innocently ask where the Muslim exhibits were.

Walking to the ticket booth I saw this:

photo.JPG

I figured I was just being a whiny horse person to question why a Holy Land horse was wearing a western saddle and wearing it quite improperly. Then I went around a bend and the world went loopy.
Continue Reading »

Tags:

Posted in Photos | 2 Comments »

It’s Monday! What are you reading?

Jan 15th, 2012 by heather

Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Wife-in-Law by Haywood Smith

What happens when your husband runs off with his new girlfriend but doesn’t stay away?  What if he shows up in a few years and marries your best friend who lives just across the street?

I had this from the library for a while before starting it because I’m not a fan of stories about exes.  But when I finally opened it the first paragraph said that these best friends were married to the same man and then one of them killed him.  Well, ok then.  I really liked the characters in this book especially the narrator’s agoraphobic, hoarder mother.

Echoes by Maeve Binchy

David Power and Clare O’Brien both grew up dreaming of escape from the battered seaside town of Castlebay, but they might as well have had the ocean between them. David is the cherished son of a prosperous doctor, while Clare lives with her large family behind their faltering store, longing for a moment of quiet to study. When they both go to university in Dublin—he as a matter of course, she on a hard-won scholarship—their worlds collide. They find freedom in each other—until the families, lovers, and secrets they left in Castlebay come back to haunt them.

After reading her stories I always wonder if everyone in Ireland would be better off if antidepressants were put in the water.

Geek Girls Unite: How Fangirls, Bookworms, Indie Chicks, and Other Misfits Are Taking Over the World by Leslie Simon

Geek Girls Unite is a call to arms for every girl who has ever obsessed over music, comics, film, comedy, books, crafts, fashion, or anything else under the Death Star. Music geek girl Leslie Simon offers an overview of the geek elite by covering groundbreaking women, hall-of-famers, ultimate love matches, and potential frenemies, along with her top picks for playlists, books, movies, and websites. This smart and hilarious tour through girl geekdom is a must-have for any woman who has ever wondered where her sassy rebel sisters have been hiding.

I laughed all the way through the first two sections on fan geeks and literary geeks. If you are reading this post, you might also relate to something in this book. The section on literary geeks assured me that I am not alone in being delighted in a man who reads. The SO was horrified early in our relationship that I was excited that he read. Of course he could read. It took me a long time to explain that “can read” and “does read” can be worlds apart and I still think he doesn’t get the point but this book does.

Tags:

Posted in Reading | 7 Comments »

Failure of Technology

Jan 14th, 2012 by heather

1.  At 10:30 last night my GPS was convinced it was in Ohio, not Florida.  It wasn’t even in the last place I was at in Ohio.  This made it hard to find my hotel.

2.  Vet conferences should refrain from using technology.  They just aren’t good at it.  The first sessions of a day never have a working PA system.  Ever.  There were about 20 classes at 8 AM this morning and I know at least 6 were sound free.  It isn’t a surprise that sound was going to be needed.

3.  We have fancy badges that are to record our movements and log our CE hours.  It has never worked.  Usually by day 2 they are making announcements that the computer logs can’t be trusted so we need to write it on paper.  Also you need to log in with the scanner person before every lecture.  So if you sit in the same room for three lectures in a row, then you aren’t signed into the last two lectures.  Add to that the ratio of one scanner for a room of 500 people and it is a pain.

4.  Our badges are also a lunch ticket.  First of all, if you are feeding thousands of people having 10 food lines is just barely adequate.  Compressing those lines into 5 cashier stations is a traffic jam.  Add in scanners not working and it took me almost an hour to get a sandwich. UGH.

Posted in General | No Comments »

Best Laid Plans

Jan 14th, 2012 by heather

Trapping the cats in a bedroom yesterday until people get there this morning so they can be easily caught and moved to a bathroom so they don’t escape when the movers come to the new house is a wonderful plan until Freckles screams, “MY KITTIES ARE HERE!!!!!” and scatters them to the wind.

Posted in General | No Comments »

I see therapy in the future

Jan 13th, 2012 by heather

Poor Freckles.  Her life is in disarray.

I have a sad

Thursday:

1.  I knew something was up even though nothing was moved yet.  My peoples are sneaky.

2.  Mommy took the kitties out in boxes.  The kitties don’t go out to the car EVER. 

3.  Attempts to throw myself on the boxes to free the kitties were thwarted.  So was the attempt to go wherever Mommy and kitties were going.

4.  Strangers came and starting stealing things and putting them in boxes.  Daddy knew it and said it was ok.  How can that ever be ok?!!

5.  Mommy came home without the kitties.  I needed hugs.

Friday

1.  Mommy moved bird to the travel cage.  This is good.  I go in the car with the bird sometimes.

2.  Mommy tore apart the big birdcage.  That is wrong.

3.  I decided to lay on birdcage parts so Mommy won’t forget me.

4.  New strangers came and walked all through the house and I couldn’t talk to them.  I had to sit on a chair while Mommy and Daddy talked about people who wanted to view a house in this state were stupid.

5.  Mommy left with the bird and a suitcase!  Attempts to go with her were thwarted again.

6.  Boxes went into a big truck.  You know what is left behind?  MY STUFF!!!!!!  My bowls and leashes and food! OMG OMG OMG THEY AREN’T TAKING ME!!!!!!

Attempts to explain to her that her stuff isn’t packed because she’s staying with the SO until he leaves tomorrow are unproductive.  He is going to a hotel tonight.  I told him he has to take her even though she could easily stay at the house because she’d have a total breakdown.  Poor baby.

Wait until she gets to the new house and finds the kitties and the bird but no me.  She’ll think I got lost in the move.  When I show up in a week I’ll be mauled.

Tags: ,

Posted in Pets | 2 Comments »

Phase One

Jan 12th, 2012 by heather

Operation Cat Move is complete.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  They settled down and didn’t scream the whole way. 

That was fine until I had to hit my brakes and Riley’s carrier slid.  Then he was upset and he pooped so he was stinky. 

When we got there Powder was all over the place exploring the house.  Riley looked around while crying pitifully.  I’d go see him and he’d want a hug.  Then he’d remember that I had ruined his life and he would stalk off.

Freckles was horrified when I carried the cats out of the house.  She knew something was up and running off with cats was proof.  I can’t imagine what she was like once the movers showed up and started stealing her stuff.

Tags:

Posted in Pets | No Comments »

The Cat Plan

Jan 11th, 2012 by heather

I got out a suitcase to start packing for my trip yesterday.  Riley looked annoyed.  They don’t like it when suitcases come out.  It means I’m going somewhere and that upsets their apple carts.  They have no idea how upset they are about to be.

Tomorrow morning I am taking them both to the new house before work.  This is so Riley doesn’t escape and so Powder doesn’t have a nervous breakdown.  She’s a bit neurotic. 

Our bathroom is small and narrow.  It is just an inch wider than our bathmat.  (This will be known in the future as “Remember when we had a big bathroom?” because the new bathrooms are TINY but I digress.)  When Powder comes in the bathroom she contorts herself around the door so she can step on tile and not step on the mat.  She slinks around the mat over to the toilet to see me because obviously I’m in there just wishing I had a cat to pet.  When she leaves she can step on the mat and walk directly to the door.  But, if she needs to come back to me she has to jump off the mat and walk on tile again.  She’s special.

She was also abandoned as a kitten when her owners moved and left her and her littermates.  She freaked out when we moved furniture out before.  So to spare her delicate sensibilities they are going tomorrow.

I’ll let them run around the whole house tomorrow.  I’ll go back Friday on the way to the airport and lock them in the bedroom.  On Saturday they need to get locked into the hall bathroom until everything is unpacked.  This will royally piss them off but they are just going to have to deal! 

Tags:

Posted in Pets | No Comments »

Paperwork

Jan 10th, 2012 by heather

I hate how much paperwork is involved in going on a trip.  I spent this morning printing out flight itineraries, car reservation confirmations, hotel confirmations, conference confirmations, the address and directions to overflow parking at the conference since I’m not staying at a host hotel, and my e-tickets for my extracurricular activities.  I have a whole folder of papers just to be able to leave and I still don’t know how to get to the airport since it is a new one for me.

I also had to do the paperwork for my vet school reunion and all my taxes before that all gets lost in the move.  Now I just have to make sure I don’t lose the folder.  It is going to have to go in my car for safe keeping. 

Also going into my car for safe keeping are all the unmentionables we have since now my parents are involved in the unpacking.  It isn’t just naughty stuff.  My mother was highly disapproving over a hippie pagan cookbook I was given as a gift so my books with Witchcraft in the title are heading for the car to be retrieved when I return. 

First I have to clean out the car so all the forbidden stuff will fit!

Tags:

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

It’s Monday! What are you reading?

Jan 8th, 2012 by heather

Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

The stories of Aomame and Tengo alternate in this book and gradually intertwine.  It is 1984 in Japan when Aomame starts to notice subtle differences in her world that no one else notices.  Tengo is hired to rewrite a fantasy story written by a 17 year old girl.  The story is wonderful but the writing is a mess.  When he meets the author he realizes that something isn’t quite right with her either.

I don’t like reviews where people say that they like the book but they can’t really say what it is about.  Well, I can’t really say what this about.  It is hard to explain the overall story but it was quite interesting to read and try to figure out how it was all going to come together.  I thought the ending was a bit rushed and superficial but I enjoyed the journey.

Ballroom on Magnolia Street by Sharon Owens

The Ballroom is a dance club in Belfast opened in the 1960s.  By the 80s, the owner is still in love with his ex-girlfriend from those times even though she has been married for 20 years.  He is going to try to get her to run away with him to America.

This is the story of the people surrounding the club. It was a cute story about love and loss and loyalty.

Crossed by Ally Condie

This is the sequel to Matched, a YA dystopian novel.  In this book Cassia is leaving the relative safety of the Society to search for her love Ky in the Outer Provinces.

I was disappointed in this book.  It is definitely the second book of a trilogy where they wander around for hundreds of pages in order to set up book three.  I thought the last few chapters were interesting so maybe the next book will be good too.

Prophet’s Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints by Sam Brower

The author has been investigating the Fundamentalist Morgan sect led by the Jeffs family for years.  It started when he heard a story about a man being ordered to leave his house and give his wife and children to another man.  He offered to help him.  This led to involvement investigating the “marriages” of teen and pre-teen girls to older men. 

This is a good companion book to Under The Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer which looked at the violent history of the sect. This updates the story to 2010.

Yankee Doodle Dixie by Lisa Patton

This is a sequel to a previous book of hers but you don’t need to have read it to understand the story. LeeLee moved her family to Vermont 14 months ago to follow her husband’s dream of owning an inn. Now he has left her for another woman, she’s sold the inn, and she’s moving back to Memphis to start over.

This was a nice, light chick-lit story.

Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell (audio)

The history of Hawaii is explored in this book especially the time after the coming of the first missionaries. It explores the conflict between native Hawaiians and all the foreign people who now live on the islands.

The story is told sort of stream of consciousness style. It jumps back and forth from Hawaii to New England (the home base for the missionaries) and sometimes incorporates parallel treatment of the Cherokee. The writing is funny and sarcastic at times as it points out the absurdity of the white planters who decided to take over Hawaii for its own good.

Tags:

Posted in Reading | 4 Comments »

Older Posts »