reading recap

Even though I worked at the Friends of the Library book sale on Thursday, and stopped by to visit again on Friday, I didn't buy anything to read. I did pick up a nice copy of Machiavelli's "The Prince" for the youngest, but didn't find something for myself.

However, I did have some success downloading three books from the library's e-book collection. I finished one of them yesterday. "The Winter Palace" by Eva Stachniak was an interesting novel told by a tongue, or spy, in the Russian imperial court. Varvara is a bookbinder's daughter who comes to the attention of Empress Elizabeth and winds up spying on a variety of people for her and her chancellor. One of those people she spies on is a young German princess named Sophie who will become Catherine the Great. I enjoyed this book, but thought the ending was a bit rushed. It doesn't seem like we get a lot of historical fiction set in Imperialist Russia, so that was a nice change of pace.

Up next is a new one from Janet Evanovich about an FBI agent and the career con-man she is trying to capture. I'm only 30 pages in and have already been laughing out loud.

The other book I found is set in ancient Egypt. I believe it is a mystery.

So that is what I'm reading!  Plus, I need to go and download this lady's latest book. http://www.lisashafer.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-very-first-becoming-brigid-giveaway.html

I've followed along with Lisa's blog as she has written and edited this one and I'm anxious to read all about Pepper! Or should I say, Brigid?

Happy Monday!

busy afternoon

The boy has an orthodontist appointment, an allergy shot appointment, and I'd like to get my flu shot. Then I have to bring him home before heading to the library for the preview night book sale. He was going to work with me, but an English paper is due Friday and he needs to finish it up.

Busy day, busy night!

But, it is Thursday!! Yeah! The weekend is closer than not.

too early

I had a restless night of sleep and am awake much too early today. Yuck. My coworker is off to New Orleans this morning for her first ever English conference. She is presenting a paper tomorrow and was quite nervous about the whole thing. She's going to be just fine! First train ride for her too; what a fun adventure. I'm sure she will come back with stories to tell.

We are wrapping up our national meeting chores. I worked on all of the power point shows yesterday and have three more to finish as well as the scripts that go along with them. It can be infuriating work.

I think the signs and banners are done now and the final program has been sent off to the printers.

We are all getting to the point where we wish it was November 1 and all of this would be behind us.

Glad it is Wednesday!

my flashlight

We live in a typical neighborhood/subdivision. But, our neighborhood backs up to a heavily wooded area that eventually leads to a river that feeds Old Man River. So, it is not unusual to see deer and other critters in the woods or on our walks.

One of our street lights is out and has been out for a few weeks. It is in a curve of the road and is quite dark in that area at 5:30 a.m. For the past two weeks I have been startled twice by a critter. The first critter was an armadillo. I was close enough to the next street light that I could actually see what it was. Both Duke and I jumped, the dillo jumped, and then scampered off. Talk about getting your blood moving!

Last week, I'm not sure what critter was hanging out by the mailbox down the way as it was much too dark to see. It could have been a cat, a coon, a dillo, who knows! Duke whined and pranced and I started walking faster as whatever it was scurried away across the street. Thank goodness our dog is well mannered and he didn't try and take off after whatever it was. He stayed by my side and was on high alert for the rest of the walk.

So, hubby decided that we needed a flashlight. I have a nice pink one now and am hoping that none of us have any more early morning walk surprises.

rainy monday

It is going to be a rainy Monday. Good thing I made those pumpkin scones yesterday. While we were out to lunch on Friday, we stopped in at The Fresh Market for dessert. They had their pumpkin scone mix on sale. I bought two boxes after my coworkers suggested scones might be a good way to start off Monday.

I think we will need them today!

I'm off to walk the dog. It is just misting now, so that isn't too bad. And the hubby bought me a new flashlight while he was at Home Depot yesterday buying sheetrock. But why he needed to buy sheetrock on Sunday is a story for tomorrow.

Happy Monday!

dining out

We have a running joke at work. Four of us, my entire department and one PhD from the education department, have lunch together at least once a week. If it has been a crazy week, we sneak out for an extra day. I love to eat outside. I figure it is a double bonus. We get out of the building and we get some 'fresh' air. The air quality is questionable as most of the outdoor eating patios are bordered by parking lots, but we take what we can get.

One of our group always has to check the temperature and the humidity level before we leave to see if we can truly eat outside or if we need to be inside and enjoy the air conditioning. They joke that it could be 100 and 90% humidity and I'd still want to eat outside. They are probably right. I prefer restaurants with outdoor dining. It gives us options!

There are days at work that I can hardly wait to get out of that building! I love it when we can walk on our break if we are staying there for lunch. So, I'm extremely glad that the Fall weather is arriving and we can do that more often than not.

I do enjoy our little circle of friends and we have a good time together whether we are away from the office or stuck inside. But, having lunch out on a patio, like we did yesterday makes everything better!

suits

The youngest has acquired his first suit. Just like we had to provide equipment for the girls when they were getting ready to do battle on the pitch, we had to outfit the boy for his first appearance on the stage. On Saturday the forensics team travels to another small town for their first tournament of the season.

It took three tries for the store to get the tailoring right, but the manager made it right in the end and even through in a free bow tie for our trouble.

Of course hubby realized he needed a new suit, or two, while sorting out the boy's suit problems. He was actually a very savvy shopper and got all three suits on clearance. Considering the hubby hadn't bought a suit in over 15 years, I guess he was due for a wardrobe upgrade.

Excited for this first tournament and how this new 'sport/competition' will work for all of us.

And parents are encouraged to learn how to judge! Think I will give that a whirl as well.

Wednesday!! Yeah!!