Bounty!

Well, Advisory Board sent me a hardcover yesterday called The Expected One and I got the Illuminator from PBS. But I timed things badly on Queen of Swords. I bought that one because I have to lead the discussion on it for a reading group. I did buy it used, though! So does it count? I’m undecided. It’s the first one this month that cost me actual cash. I wonder if I need to start over with this goal.

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Promos

We got a whole bunch of promos in at work. Cale took some and let me choose a few, so I picked two: The Sacred Cut by David Hewson and Imperium by Robert Harris (the one who wrote Pompeii). Imperium is a novel of ancient Rome and looks really good! The other seems to be a murder mystery. I love the perks of my job!

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The Forest Mage

This month of not buying any new books has reaped a bounty of free ones! I just got Robin Hobb’s The Forest Mage, the sequel to Shaman’s Crossing, which of course I don’t have yet, but will need to get. Is it out in paperback yet?

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Bardic course

I had begun a Bardic course through OBOD a long time ago, and then I had kids move into the house and everything got forgotten for a while. Now I’ve decided that I’d like to continue on with it. Since before, they’ve put the entire course on 28 cds! Very cool! I can put them in my iPod and take them with me! I can hardly wait till they get here!

See more progress on: take a class

Oprah group?

I was sure I'd posted something here since the 19th, but I guess not. Maybe I was dreaming about it. Anyway!

I'm undecided on what to do about the Oprah group. Oprah doesn't seem to have any interest in her reading group any more and it's hard to run an Oprah reading group without any books to read and discuss. Then when she switched from classics to modern, many of the more verbal members wandered away, and that makes sense. They joined because they wanted to discuss classics and the group did well then. Course, A Million Little Pieces is a marvelous book, no matter what kind of bad press it's gotten. I'm glad I read it. Night is a marvelous book, too. I'm also glad I read it. But those are the only two books she's chosen in a YEAR. No reading group can survive on only two books in a year.

I've mentioned closing down the group several times and once when I did, we got a lot of chit chat, but no real book discussion going on. I've tried having co-moderators to no avail. It only ends up being a "what have you read" kind of thing and no real book discussion going on. Maybe I'm talking myself into closing it down as I type. I don't know. But I gave myself today as a deadline to decide on what to do with it. Procrastinating won't help. The whole group has had like 17 or 18 messages all month, most of those from me. It's hard to have a discussion with yourself, isn't it?

I don't know. We'll see what happens.

POD-dy Mouth: Random notes to the authors of the last seven POD books I read:

POD-dy Mouth: Random notes to the authors of the last seven POD books I read:

This is so funny! And so true! I've read a few POD books and one of them had such awful spelling that we didn't even put it out on the shelf in the book shop I work in. Yes, the description of the book on the back cover had more than half the words spelled incorrectly. Ewww! Imagine what was inside! But check this post out. It's great fun.

iPods

Well, I've finally gotten a few of my cds put into my iPod and I have to say it was a lot easier than I thought it would be! This is a really marvelous little tool. I can watch television on my lunch break or hear some of my favorite artists sing me a tune. The podcasts are a lot of fun, too. I subscribed to several. There's a poker one from ESPN and Dean Koontz has one and there are several others that are interesting.

The grandkids are supposed to be coming over today and I haven't gotten anything done around here yet. I imagine I should start by getting dressed and getting the dishes done, but it's been so much fun playing first.

On with the day!

Books!

Today has been a day for books! I got home and found a book I had requested to review: THE GLASS BOOKS OF THE DREAM EATERS by Gordon Dahlquist. It looks amazing! At work we had some promos come in. I wanted all three! But I was nice and left the other two and took: DAWN OF EMPIRE by Sam Barone. Interesting sounding historical fiction! It releases in September. Then! The girls in the back room were getting rid of some books and asked if I would like any. I didn't want to be greedy, so I only took two: MAD SHIP by Robin Hobb and ROSE DAUGHTER by Robin McKinley. Not bad for not spending any money, huh?

One of my granddaughters has a birthday on the 17th also and I finally got her a card to stick some money in. It's cute. It's got a picture of a cat blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. I'll mail it in the morning. I hope she gets it in time!

Today was one of those weird days at work. I had a guy looking for some software games for an eight year old. We have some software, not a lot, but I showed him what we had and recommended a couple. He wanted one with math in it. Now tell me there's an eight year old out there that'll just sit and do math problems. I showed him three different games that contain math concepts and he didn't want any of them because they were GAMES. (big sigh) Most kids I know learn more easily if the computer program is in the form of a game. But that's just me. What do I know? Course then he asked if I would order him "the program." I asked him what the name of the program was that he wanted. He didn't know. Any idea of what it might be called? Nope. I kinda need the name of a program in order to order it. I don't think he had an idea what he wanted.

I'm so glad to be home. Normally I love my job. I play in the books. I stock them, I alphabetize them, I pick them up, hunt for them, set up the displays, all that fun stuff. But there were just some weird people out there today.

Desperate Housewives

Okay, I'm joining the bandwagon. I hadn't seen this show until I downloaded the first season for my iPod and darned if it isn't addicting! I've been having a great time watching the show and I'd gotten it for lunch breaks. Now I won't want to run any errands. I'll want to just watch one of the shows.

Valerie sent me a copy of Collapse (Jared Diamond) that came in the mail today. That was so nice of her! I've been wanting to read that one for a while now. Maybe I'll start on it tonight, although I should probably get some sleep. Morning comes early and with Cale in Waco this week, I get some good hours in at work. Yay! I can always use a bigger paycheck.

I've been so disorganized. I look around and I see books that I need to send off for bookcrossing or put away somewhere. And read! I have The Far Pavillions coming up at Chunky Books, and The Executioner's Song, too. Sounds like some good reading, doesn't it?

Ipods

I got an ipod this weekend! I'm in love with it already! I've been playing around with itunes and I have the video ipod where you can watch tv or movies, stuff like that. It's amazing. I'm watching the first season of Desperate Housewives (thanks, Peanut, for the recommendation!) and it's going to come in so very handy with work. I can't leave books in the car because of the heat, so for lunch break I can watch something! Or listen to an audiobook. The possiblities for entertainment are endless!

Wow!

Make a goal like this and you get lots of surprises! Well, a few anyway. I got a copy of Lisey’s Story in the mail today! I had requested a copy to review it for several places and had given up on getting a copy. So it was a really nice surprise!

I also got that book that I won at the beginning of the month from Favorite Pasttimes. It’s by Tricia Goyer and called Night Song. It looks really good!

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Sunday!

We'll be heading off to Mary's soon for a visit! I'm taking some books down. And of course, Peanut and Loren and Jesse will be there, down that long ways from Iowa! It'll be great fun to see what everyone has been up to. Whatever will I wear? I better check if there's something I want to tivo before I leave, too.

Yesterday was a productive day for the most of it. I actually got a pair of socks started!! I am so happy! Except that I have to tear up what I've done. Between two of the needles, I didn't tighten it up enough and it's got a loop. Dang it! But I'm thinking I should take it down to Mary's to show her how I got it going. Maybe I should take the wrap I started for Cacia along, too. Projects, projects.

I have to remember to ask Peanut about birthdays. Now onward!

New neighbors

Kitty corner from my house is a little house that has seen more tenants (and bad ones, by the looks of it) than my husband has socks. The ones that just moved out after a six month tenancy were a pair of illegal Mexicans who were only one step in front of the law. They stole from the neighbors across from me and when they left, it was probably because of one too many thieveries. The police showed up there the next day. But they are gone...we have new neighbors now and I hope they'll at long last be someone that everyone can get along with. A blue van, a moving truck (small). I haven't seen any kids. Perhaps it's just a young couple starting out. It's not a house you would move into unless you really couldn't afford much. One of the previous tenants sold the dry wall off the walls (yes, he did) and some of the prettier kitchen cabinets (leaded glass, built in) and since then, the house has just been kind of ramshackle. The house needs someone who will care for it. The neighborhood could use it to have tenants that didn't have sticky fingers. We'll see what happens.

Phillip came to visit!

I always like seeing my family, and Phillip surprised us with a visit on Sunday night. I was going to catch him unaware with my camera, but as you can see, he was ready for me. It was a nice visit. He plans to travel in a couple of years so I treasure the time we have together now. After all, who knows if he'll come home again any time soon? We got to see Emily, his lady, the next day. Originally, they were going to go home so she could work the next morning, but she called in. Her family lives in the same area that we do, so she was visiting them for a while, too, but we still got to see her. Yay!

Promo

We had some promos come in at work and Cale let me pick from the ones he didn’t want. I only took one: Ricochet by Sandra Brown. Free reading!

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The days are just packed!

What a nicely busy weekend it's been! I got surprised Sunday night with my son, Phillip stopping in. He and Emily were down from Denton and were going to just be staying a few hours, since Emily had to work in the morning. So we were up till around 3 in the morning. It was a late night for me, but definitely worth it to spend some time together. Then Emily decided to call in to work, so we got to see her yesterday, too! I really like her. She and Phillip are so good together and it feels to me like they're friends as well as romantic, and that's a good thing. They've been together for three years now.

Emily's been sewing and I sent some of my older patterns home with her to play with. I'll be curious to see some of her work when we go to visit next time.

My niece Peanut and her family will be down next weekend! They arrive on Saturday, but since they drive all the way from Iowa to Texas straight through, I think it's best to give them some sleeping time when they get here, so we'll go down on Sunday to visit. I need to remember to take some pictures!

I watched Lonesome Dove on Sunday (Hallmark channel had an all day thing going on) and of course, just because I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't seen it, Harlan would walk in..and make remarks about what was going to happen in the movie. Grrr. He spoiled several places for me, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for a payback. lol

Happy 4th of July to all who celebrate it! I have to work tonight.

Favorite PASTimes: Welcome to PASTimes!

Favorite PASTimes: Welcome to PASTimes!

What a marvelous way to begin a new month! These great people have let me know that I've won a book! Yay, me! Check out their site. Historical fiction is a favorite read of mine and this site is started by some great authors.