Pretty painless! Thanks, Jennie, for coming along!

So, it’s been an interesting one for me, this week.  I’ve been doing some reflecting, and delving into some of the corners of myself that I don’t always look into.  There are often things that spark this kind of reflections, as  is true in this case.  But I won’t be explaining that right now, as, well, I don’t want to.  =)

I had a good month in January, workout wise.  I’d say I roughly averaged 3 workouts a week every week, which is pretty damn impressive for me.  I did not, however, focus at all on my eating, which is why– even though I may be getting better at the gym– I only lost 1.5 pounds on the scale.  None of that crap about building muscle from me, either.  I’ve got way too much cush’ to think that.  So this week, I have been focusing on that as well as working out.  It’s going pretty well.  I’ve worked out every day this week, in some form.  Went to the gym after work on Monday, which is the best way I find that I make sure I go.

Tuesday is my weekly Biggest Loser night.  I will sheepishly admit it used to be the night I didn’t do anything, and got the most unhealthy foods– usually because it was the night Paul was at drill (for volunteer firefighters) and he wouldn’t be home to frown at me for eating it.  Healthy outlook, right?? =)  Anyways, Tuesdays have recently seen vast improvements.  My aunt has come over and we’ve watched Biggest Loser together last season and now this one as well.  It’s been such fun!  She’s kicking ass on Weight Watchers, and I’m, well, just counting calories for now.  But we’ve now made Tuesday night a healthy potluck, and we walk roughly a mile and a half with my dogs around the neighborhood before cooking dinner and watching the show.  I guess after watching 7 seasons (missed the first one), the 9th season was the charm to get me to make more changes.  Though I’m not sure the show gets full credit, even though I’ve give up a lot of things for some time in the gym with Jillian…

Anyways, I digress.  Wednesday was a low day for me.  Kicked off with car trouble and a rough day at work… and well, you know.  But even with all that, I still made it to the gym AND I didn’t eat the handful of m&m’s in my desk drawer!  Though I did eat them today…  Just to get the out of the way, you know…

And tonight, this is my favorite part.  I had to run a bunch of errands, and then came home and cook dinner.  The whole time, I was giving myself permission to skip the gym because I’d already worked out in some form 3 days this week and because I was eating late.  I ate dinner at 7 :30, and still couldn’t shake the desire to go.  So at 8:30, I went!  I’ve never felt that way before, and never thought I would.  Wow.  As my favorite  little man would say, “thaas amAAZing!!”  (imagine a 2-year-old voice).

So I’m pretty stoked.  I hit a rough point earlier this week, and recovered without any lasting damage to my eating goals or my gym attendance.  Yay!  I’m still kinda shocked.  At this point I’m normally 1 bag of peanut butter m&ms deep, and half way (or more) through a batch of brownies, cupcakes, cookies… and no thought of workouts or healthiness would remain.  Not sure where this change came from, and I’m gonna kinda sit still and be quiet, so I don’t scare it away.  =)

Okay, that was a lot of gym talk, so I think I’m just gonna save the rest of my reflecting to share later.  I’ll leave you with the promise of a differently themed post, and a hope for better scale results this Sunday.

At work we have a book club now where we are going to read books about business and leadership blah blah blah blah. I like to read and I figure it couldn’t hurt since they were going to buy the book, so I said sure I’ll be part of this. (Plus? These are totally books I wouldn’t normally read so I get to make progress on my 101 Things in 1,001 Days List! Multiaskingwhat?!

The first book we were supposed to read was Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t – Jim Collins.

I read it. I did. Mostly.

Collins writes of how they studied 11 Great Companies and their Good counterparts. (Lots of “case study” like stuff. Skimmed that. What? After 17 fricken psych classes or something, you learn how to read case studies.)

He talks about Leadership levels (5 being the one that was responsible for getting these companies to “Great” status) and the traits of the various levels and how the traits of the leaders influenced how the company performed. (I will caution you that he talks about this a lot and it is seemingly repetitive.)

As a management book, this was a pretty easy read. It’s well written for the average person who might not understand business practices, but wants to learn more. I did find it to be about 85 pages too long though.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need a cup of coffee and some Tums.

Every so often, I’ll notice a business concept that is so undeniably brilliant, I’m in awe.

Wurstkuche is one of those places.

A modern-warehouse setting on 3rd St. just blocks from the new Gold Line extension stop in Little Tokyo, Wurstkuche is like a backyard BBQ on steroids. First – the menu, comprised of several kinds of gourmet sausages (from the classic Bratwurst to exotic rattlesnake, and even vegetarian) and crispy fries with an array of dipping sauces is simple and priced reasonably. It’s a grab-your-table kind of place, with a Mac laptop deejaying club tunes in one corner, and a gorgeous bar in the other. Jump in line, put in your order, then pore over the mighty beer list.

This is my second visit to the “purveyor of exotic grilled sausages,” and this time around I had an attack plan for the beer list: I’d stick to one producer, and try two different brews I’d not yet had. I started out with a Duvel Green Label, a lighter golden ale, which is my new pick for summer refreshing. My second pick was the good ol’ Duvel Special, after much agonizing over the choices – something I’ve had, but not in a while. I am a big fan of serving wine and beer in appropriate glassware, and of course Wurstkuche doesn’t skimp there either.

What’s more lovely than a train ride home? Not having to worry about parking issues was a plus, and the Gold Line made us feel as if we lived in a real city.

Why didn’t I think of that?

So, I’m updating that our friday night adventure to Li’l Cooperstown was our first date night.  We haven’t been out like that in a while, and I think that means it counts.  =)

Sunday, I went to Pine State Biscuits with the girls for breakfast.  It was really good!  Tiny place, and you order at the counter.  So when it gets busy, it is a long wait for food and impossible to get a table.  We lucked out, though, and even though some of us were late we were able to squeeze into a table for the 5 of us.

They have all different kinds of biscuit sandwiches, great biscuits and gravy, hash browns, collard greens, spiced apples, and so many other things.  They even have fried green tomatoes!

I tasted the fried green tomatoes, and it was the first time I had ever had them, and they were pretty good!  I was pleasantly surprised.  My biscuit had egg, cheese and fried chicken on it.  It was quite good, though I already know what I’d get next time– the sandwich with fried chicken, bacon, and gravy. Yum!  I highly recommend you go, but go early, or be prepared to wait and to not get a seat.  We had coffee at Stumptown across the street after breakfast, and the line hadn’t let up, even at noon.

I also saw two movies over the weekend– tucked in at home.  We watched Taking of Pelham 123, with Denzel and John Travolta.  It was good!  Better, and yet slower than what I expected.  Almost an understated crime type of movie.  We also watched The Ugly Truth.  It had a lot of good funny parts, thanks mostly to Gerard Butler.  I have found that I really want to like Katherine Heigl, but something about her doesn’t sit right with me.  As an actress, that is.  Like there’s just something missing from her characters.  But the movie was quite entertaining, and it was nice to watch a chick flick for a change.  =)

Okay, final update.  Weight: 248.  So I’m up a half a pound.  No workouts over the weekend, and considering I ate terribly, I can probably consider myself lucky at only gaining a half a pound.  But I’m feeling quite optimistic about February, and have high hopes for making some good progress.  Fingers crossed!

The background

I love recipe books. I love two things about them.

The first is the pictures. I love food styling and presentation. I love flipping through the pages and seeing what catches my eye.

The second is the usefulness of them. I love buying books and having books and most things about books. But living in a studio means that my dreams of a library room (with a ladder, natch) are temporarily on hold. Over the last four or five years I’ve downsized to about a tenth of what I used to have. It broke my heart, but with all the other options it’s hard to justify the space books can take up. Necessity is a cold hard bitch at times and things like bookcrossing made it more bearable. But recipe books… they’re useful. Easy to justify having something useful around the place. Right?

Despite some firm words with myself over the years, my recipe book collection has grown. Not to 101 Cookbooks levels, but it’s up there.

The challenge

In what is clearly an exercise in self-justification, I have to choose one recipe book, and cook everything in it. Until I have done that, I’m banned from buying any more recipe books.

The book I’ve chosen is Delicious 5 of the Best. The book has five of the ‘best’ recipes from the last five years of the magazine – so, five different white fish recipes, five different pasta recipes and so on. It’s got a good mix of meals vs starters vs desserts as well as cuisines – meditteranean, other european, south east asian, south asian, east asian, and a good dollop of that mythical beast, australian. Plus most of the stuff in there looks pretty tasty, which was the main thing.

There’s about 150 recipes in the book, so more than enough to be going on with. I’ll post the updates on this one over at sherdlife.

So, I beat two of my goals at the gym tonight, and I am so excited!  I ran 2.5 miles straight, at a speed of 5.0, which is a 12-minute mile.  Not fantastic, but definitely doing good for me.  That means I ran 2 miles straight, and it also means that I ran for 30 minutes without walking!  So check, and check, for both of those goals!  Now I just have to be able to do the same thing on the pavement, and I can cross those items off!  The longest I’ve ran straight on the pavement is .6 of a mile, though, so that’s a ways off.  =)  But for tonight, I’m feeling quite proud of myself.  We had a burger, fries, and a beer after, at a nice little bar and grill by our house– Li’l Cooperstown.  Which actually makes my first new restaurant I’ve never tried, so that list item is now in progress, too!  It was pretty good.  The food was a bit more expensive than Red Robin, and the fries not as good, but the atmosphere is definitely more adult-friendly, and the staff was great.  Looks like a great place to watch a game, and not as noisy as Buffalo Wild Wings.  And now, exhausted and heading to bed after closing out my Friday.  Whew!

(Oh, and I finished my current book while my kids napped today– “River Secrets”, the 3rd in the Bayern series by Shannon Hale.  Plan to pick up the last one this weekend.  I swear, one of these days I’ll get back to that classics list, I promise…)

For this week, I rolled #66: Spend a Day in Cleveland.

Well, I clearly can’t accomplish that this week. However, I can take the time to fill out the “details” page for this goal, and I can start planning it. Perhaps I will send a way for some free travel information about Cleveland, or start making a list of things I want to do.

Saturday, we went on our first hike in Forest Park (in several months, first for the 101 things).  We did 2 miles of the trail, so 4 miles total hiking.  Paul ran most of the 2 miles out, I ran maybe a bit more than half.  Still, a respectable showing.  then, we did hill sprints that kicked both our asses.  So we walked the whole 2 mile hike back.  It was a great day, only a few totally glooshy mud spots, and hardly anyone on the trail.  Couldn’t have asked for much more.  =)

Paul, before we found the hill to do our sprints.

My little Hoban.

Smiling Gaius.

I’m a pro at the self-portrait with the camera, though this isn’t one of my best.

You wouldn’t believe how hard it was for me to get them to pose with me.  =)

One of the best faces.  I love it when my boys are sleepy.  Makes me feel like a good mom, because I know they’ve gotten their exercised and worked hard– which is what they love most.  Except for maybe chewing up some recycling or a tennis ball.  =)

I have come to the understanding that living through the “two’s” is supposed to be preparation for the teenage years.  They can be almost impossible!  Throwing fits, irrational, defiant, don’t listen, make bad choices, selfish, sometimes just plain mean, and always leave you flabbergasted at how the child that was just so sweet, turned into such a little monster.  That has been my week this week.  I spent 35 minutes battling the mother of all tantrums (I know there’s been lots worse, but this was my worst yet…) on Tuesday.  I succeeded in the end, though, and I think the Supernanny would have been proud.  And a few others are going through some nasty phases, too.  I think it trains parents to have to face it all over again, as they become teenagers.  Shows the parents that the way they interact with their children has a direct effect on just how feisty that little monster inside their sweet child can be.  After they get through the two’s, you’re so relieved to have your sweet child back, and that feisty monster lies dormant for like 12 years (if you’re lucky)… just long enough for you to relax your guard.  Then it springs back up and attacks.  Fortunately for me,  I don’t have to face the larger of the two evils.  I just have to help my preschoolers navigate to 3, when things settle a bit (we all hope!), and then send them back to their parents for elementary school.  I tell you what.  If you can survive a classroom of little two’s with their monster showing, you can survive most anything.

Here’s a few more updates from the 101 things world:

So, I’m still sucking on the water thing.  I can drink 48 oz of coffee no problem, but water has been a bit tougher.  But I’m working on it.

A bit delayed, but it’s been kind of a quiet month.  So I don’t have much worth shouting about for my Random acts of kindness for the 3rd month of my 1001 days.  I did a lot of nice things, many for my preschool families, and randomly for people out and about, but nothing wow-worthy to put here.  So we’ll say they are done, and I’ll aim for something more noteworthy in this 4th month.  I packaged up a smile for my mom, but it never made it to her house.  I still have it at mine, and will hand-deliver it to her this Saturday.  Not gonna say what, though I’m not sure she reads this.  =)

Tried two new foods I’ve never had before– sardines and coleslaw.  I didn’t hate either, though I wouldn’t try sardines again at all.  I at a tiny bit of the coleslaw, but it was homemade by Paul.  I wouldn’t touch any other, and may not really eat his again, either.  =)  But at least now when I say I don’t like it, I really know that I don’t.  =)

I haven’t actually made it to the gym this week, due to some unexpected extra hours at work and some car trouble.  I did go for a 1.5 mile walk on Tuesday, and a 1.5 mile run/ walk on Wednesday.  And I’ll update my bit of Forest Park from Saturday,when I load the photos later.  Was aiming to go tonight, but the car problems continue.  Might make it later, but my motivation wanes quickly once I get home.

#29. Dreams

I’m at a table and have just finished some kind of pot pie, and I found it delicious. I was so stuffed and was about to push my plate away when I realized there was a baked crust on the bottom. I procede to dig in to the flakey goodness.

In the end I fell off the 30 yoga classes in 30 days bandwagon. Between the classes I teach and the ones I subbed, it became unrealistic with time as well as my body. I did, however, experience 20 classes over the 30 days and for the first time since my knee surgeries over 2006 and 2007, I sat in extended child’s pose without pain in my right knee. This is a good thing.

Prior to 2006, I was an enthusiastic runner and triathlete albeit not a fast one. My most favorite thing to do was run the trails of a local open space preserve in the pouring rain, splashing in every puddle possible, surrounded by the sounds of raindrops in the trees. I would always finish one of these runs filthy yet exhilerated, pleased to see the steam rising from my body as I walked about the parking lot cooling down. Toward the end of 2005 I noticed a little twinge in my right knee, but figured I simply needed a little downtime. The second week of January 2006 I limped back to the gym from an ill-fated run and knew there was something wrong. An orthopedist confirmed my fear: a radial tear in the lateral meniscus. “A common injury,” he said. “The surgery is a simple, outpatient procedure done in less than an hour with a 4 to 8 week recovery time.” My concerns were simple as well. “Can I continue to run after the surgery?” I ask. “Oh yes,” he says, “you’ll be back to running in a month.” I considered most physicians are conservative in their recovery projections, so to me, that meant I’d be running in 2 or 3 weeks post-op. As it turns out, he looked at the world through rose colored lenses and I am an idiot.

Flash-forward 6 months after my February 6, 2006 meniscus resection surgery… My knee continues to swell with regularity, so the orthopedist drains it and gives me a cortisone shot–which hurts like hell, by the way. For a couple of days. Thinking my body is just being difficult, I continue to plow through my workouts and try to run on the treadmill. (I hated the treadmill but was not confident enough in my knee to go outside for a run.) The day before our house-warming party while teaching a class, I landed a plyometric lunge horribly, horribly wrong and I hear a pop from my right knee. It reverberates up my body and I feel a terrific, sharp jolt of pain. It was exactly 11:19am, September 9. Less than 20 minutes into teaching a class, I continue in pain through to the end. A week later I get an MRI that reveals a tiny tear in the medial meniscus and the doc is reluctant to approach it with surgery. “I’m popping Advil like Tic-Tacs, doc,” I tell him. “It really hurts and the swelling is crazy.” So, September 20, I’m in for another meniscus resection…and the doc discovers the real source of my pain. I’ve managed to virtually destroy all the articular cartilage on my lateral femoral condyle. It’s hanging from the bone in shreds like some ghostly kelp forest.  To be continued…

Remember Puck?  From A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

Yeah, I liked him.  He was just fun.  Plus, I’m pretty sure Peeps told me once that he was Puck in his school’s performance of that play.  Coincidence?

Oh, no, wait a minute.  Not that Puck.  My bad.

I found, in my Christmas stocking this year (Last year?  What’s the protocol here?  Last calendar year, but just a month ago.  You know what I mean.), anyway, I found a pair of on-the-ice tickets to an Amerks game.

Peeps remembered that Thing #67 on my 101 List was to go to a hockey game, so he went ahead and decided to pick up a pair of tickets and make an evening of it – kind of like “date night” for us.

So, since the game was at the Blue Cross Arena, what better way to get in a “hockey” kind of mood than to start with dinner around the corner at the Dinosaur?  I mean, I suppose we could have gone to Tahou’s, but, well, a garbage plate doesn’t quite say “date night,” now does it?

Actually, let me add, walking over to the arena is a good thing after a big dinner and 4 bottles of beer.  Each.

See here’s the thing.  One would think (wouldn’t one) that getting downtown by 5:00 for dinner would suffice for a 7:05, um, tip off? snap?  tee off?  face-off.  Yeah, that’s it.  The beginning of the game.

Well, it turns out, not so much.  We gave them our names and proceeded to wait.  We elbowed our way to the bar for a beer and took it to the outside-overflow-waiting area.

And we waited.

And had another beer.  And another.  (And used the rest room.)

And yet we waited some more.

Not that I’m complaining – to be honest, it’s a good thing to see a business – any business – that busy!  People were good natured about it – you kind of expect, if you’re going to the Dinosaur on a Saturday evening, that there’s going to be a wait.

And finally, at about 6:40, we were seated.  Fortunately, the  staff is well-trained (they want to turn over those tables!) and we placed our orders and got our meals in about 10 minutes.

We were still kind of late to the game, though – I heard later that we’d missed a fight that broke out on the ice just a few seconds in!

That’s what you watch hockey for, right?  To see mean, angry guys with sticks try to beat each other up behind the safety of a glass wall?  Heck, that’s the best part!

And fortunately, hockey, unlike, oh, say, the RPO or the theatre, is the sort of pastime where people kind of mill around – we didn’t have to tiptoe all the way to the front of the arena, apologizing for disturbing everyone – we were barely even noticed!

Well, except by our seat-neighbors, of course, a guy about our own age with a little girl, maybe 9 or 10 or so.

Aw, how sweet.   Dad’s taking Little Girl out on Saturday evening for a hockey game.

Then the quarter half period ended.

And during the, um, intermission, they had, I don’t know, an exhibition game?  Two groups of the tiniest little boys, all fully decked out in pads and skates, with sticks and everything!  It was the cutest thing!  Most of them spent as much time on their little padded bottoms as they did on their wee skates!

I spent a couple of minutes chatting with my seat-mate.  Little Girl, when one of the bad guys slammed one of our guys into the glass, said to me “Whoa!  Did you see that check?!!”  That was when I admitted that it was only my second-ever hockey game.  (I did not admit that my first-ever hockey game was probably before she was born.)  Little Girl was, well, flabbergasted.  (I had noticed by this time that Little Girl was wearing an official AHL signed hockey jersey, that she knew the players by name, and she had her very own “Let’s Go Amerks – We Still Believe” sign that she periodically held up while she screamed and pounded on the glass.  Just wow.)  Little Girl told me that this was, oh, probably her hundredth game (they have season tickets).

The second period started, and the game itself was . . . fast.  And by fast, I mean by the time we figured out at which end of the court ice all the action was, someone would hit the puck and before we knew what happened, everything had shifted to the other end!

I’ll be honest – we spent as much time saying “wha. . . ?  where? huh?” as doing anything else!

At one point, one guy took a shot, the puck flew UP into the air, bounced off the glass, and whacked the guy sitting two rows behind us in the knee!  Then some boy about 6 seats down from us dove over the seat and snagged the puck, I assume as a souvenir.

Little Girl was very nice – she kind of took me under her wing and explained to me what was going on and what it meant when the announcer guy said “The Amerks have a Power Play!  The Amerks have a Power Play!”  and how, if the puck sails over the ice without bouncing off the glass first, that’s a penalty.

And, of course, there was the Zamboni.  (Actually, there were two of them, but I’m not sure of the proper plural form, so I’m only referring to it in the singular.)  (Just because we’re at a hockey game doesn’t mean we have to give up proper grammar!)

And fortunately for us, although the first two periods ended in ties, by the final minute of the final period, the Amerks were ahead 4 to 3, and the bad guys took their goalie OUT of the game (who knew you could do that!) so they had that extra guy at the other end playing the offensive.  Then one of our guys got control of the puck, whacked it all the way down to the unattended goal (as everyone dashed back there) and WHOOSH! the Amerks scored again with just over two seconds left!

Not only was Little Girl jumping up and down screaming and pounding the glass, the whole row was!  Yay!  We won!

I’ve got to say, while I’ll never be quite the hard-core hockey fan Little Girl is, we had a great evening.  A nice dinner, an exciting game – we even got to see some good pushing-and-shoving on the ice!

Plus, now I get to cross off another Thing!

The movie of choice: Avatar. This is the first feature length 3D film I’ve ever seen. Loved it! Especially when bubbles and wispy things would seemingly float off the screen toward the audience.

Admittedly, I was skeptical to see Avatar because the movie is not a genre of choice. However, I was pleasantly surprised. James Cameron presented a fantastically creative twist on a storyline we’ve seen before.

This was also my first time to the Sundance Kabuki Theater in San Francisco. Very nice. Can’t wait to see more movies there!

I haven’t actually fulfilled this task yet, but thought I’d share the 3 food/drink items I’ve had since beginning this task last week:

#83: Sweet potato fries with banana catsup at Poleng Lounge – you’re probably wondering how banana catsup could ever be good. It was really just a subtle hint of banana at the beginning of the bite followed by a big kick of spice. Surprisingly tasty.

#28: A Gibraltar at Blue Bottle Coffee Company – so this is actually a “secret” menu item. It’s a coffee drink with a ratio of 1/2 espresso to 1/2 steamed milk (a latte is 1/3:2/3). It’s served in a cute little glass and needs to be sipped standing among the gaggle of others waiting in the Ferry Building for their organic, locally roasted, individually dripped coffees. The espresso to milk ratio made it a perfectly not too strong, not too creamy drink.

#49: Ginger snaps at Miette – these cookies are crisp and include a thorough amount of ginger. It was a refreshing change from Specialty’s cookies.

Gibraltars from Blue Bottle

Well, this one was pretty easy! Everyone has been very excited to see my list and a friend (yay, Sarah!) has already said she’ll be making one too. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s on your list Sarah!

Creating a vision journal was a great way to kick-off my tasks. For those unfamiliar, a vision journal/board is a collage of images which depicts who you want to become, what you want to do and what you want to have in your life. The idea is that this visual representation of your wants adds clarity and increases your ability to match your life with those desires. Plus, it’s a lot of fun tearing images from magazines!

3 more miles down at the gym last night, but the best part is that I was able to run for 2 minutes at a 7.5.  That’s 1/4 of an 8-minute mile!  Woohoo!  So now I’m at 35 miles on the treadmill.  I haven’t weighed myself, will do that probably tomorrow.  We’re aiming for a hike in Forest Park today, so I can start marking off those miles, too!  Besides, the boys are going CRAZY, they haven’t gotten out enough lately, even though I did take them for a walk/ run on Thursday.  They eat everything in our recycle bin, now.  You should see my living room floor.  Lucky thing I love them so much.

Finished “Enna Burning” on Thursday night, and am off today to get the next in the series.  Yay!

Watched “Hangover” last night, and was pleasantly surprised!  I was afraid it was going to be crap humor, but it was actually quite funny, and a lot of the good dry sarcastic kind of funny that I am quite partial to.  I recommend it.

Also started filing my taxes, and was pleasantly surprised that I’m not as screwed as I thought!  (Started a new preschool job in September and have been contract the whole time– and of course I did NOT save any money for taxes… oops…)

Anyways, off I go!

The DZP task I am going to focus on over the next week is: 91.) Finish book lists 1-3 (1/3)

This task is to finish reading all the books on the first 3 book lists that my book club, A Good Book, came up with.

The three lists are:

Book List #1: Books to Read Before You Die

1) Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro (Selected by Kara L.)
2) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon (Selected by Billie B.)
3) Aesop’s Fables – Aesopus (Selected by Stacy B.)
4) Middlesex- Jeffrey Eugenides (Selected by Beth B.)
5) In a Glass Darkly- Sheridan Le Fanu (Selected by Mona I.)
6) A Prayer for Owen Meany- John Irving (Selected by Kristen S.)

Book List #2: A Book from your Favorite Genre

1) The Diamond Throne by David Eddings (Suggested by Beth B.)
2) Portrait of Unknown Woman by Vanora Bennett (Suggested by Stacy B.)
3) Doom of Kings; The Legacy of Dhakaan Book 1 by Don Bassingthwaite (Suggested by Kara L.)
4) Life Sucks by Jessica Abel (Suggested by Billie B.)
5) The Housewife and The Actor by Shannon Hale (Suggested by Rebecca A.)

Book List #3: Banned Books

1) Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (Selected by Kara L.)
2) Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes- Chris Crutcher (Selected by Kristen S.)
3) 1984- George Orwell (Selected by Dan V.)
4) Kaffir Boy- Mark Mathabane (Selected by Billie B.)
5) As I Lay Dying- William Faulkner (Selected by Rebecca)

I have completed list #1. In order to finish the other two, all I need to do is read: As I Lay Dying, and The Housewife and The Actor. Both of which I own….if I push myself, I could perhaps finish this goal this week!

So, I saw Book of Eli in the theater.  Was very interesting, and entertaining.  Left me thinking about the weight of religion, or lack thereof, and how much of it is based just on a book.  On one hand, kinda funny that a book is needed for religion to survive properly, and on the other hand, oh the power of books.

Watched Fame this past weekend, also.  What a letdown!!  I thought it had such potential, but really it was just a bunch of characters you didn’t get to know well enough to care about, and a hinting at a lot of talent you didn’t really get to see properly used!  Oh well, I guess that shows you that Fame was better as a TV show, not as a movie.  Or perhaps that Fame doesn’t really live forever?

Another 2 miles down at the gym (I think that’s the most current update…), it’s been a slow weekend.

Oh, and I finished the book, and have moved on to the sequel, “Enna Burning.”  Again, so far it’s great.

There are tons of things that are more interesting than this blog. Consider:

Building a house of cards out of those annuals you get every year from your aunt.