don't bother

I very seldom stop reading a book. Last week I received notice that a book I had placed on hold was available for download. I was eager to get my hands on this one as I was intrigued by the author's story. She's still in college, wrote the book for an online site, got a big deal from Harper Collins, and is now a YA publishing darling.

Too good to be true? Yep. I stopped for good when he slapped her to wake her from fainting. I had stopped about 15 pages earlier and decided to read more just in case I was making a hasty judgement. I wasn't.

Why on earth would Harper Collins pay a 6 figure advance to this author? The book was published in 2012. I'm a bit late in reading it. I should have read the book's quote pages and seen where she was inspired by Twilight and known better.

Well, all in all, lesson learned. I only wasted a bit of time and have now added the first book to my "did not finish" list for 2016.

Book: The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire by Abigail Gibbs.

quick update

The hubby and boy arrived in Gatlinburg. Hubby had a lovely dinner with our girl and heard all about what she has been up to and was even able to see one of her friends from the GLS program. We met that young lady while we visited in London and she will be joining them for dinner on Saturday night.

The rain finally went away and the moonlight actually woke me up this morning. Not quite a full moon, but bright and shiny in a clear sky. Yippee!

Coffee is tasting very good this morning and I'll have muddy paws to wipe in a moment.

Enjoy your day. Thursday is here!!

rainy night

I'll be interested to see just how much rain we received in this system that passed through. Yikes. The yard is super squishy. Wiping dog paws is not one of my fave things to do early in the morning, but it is required.

The boys leave today for points east. Hubby will have dinner with the middle kid tonight. Lucky fella.

I see a lot of reading in my future. I started my next book last night. This one was another freebie via BookBub and is set in ancient Egypt.

Enjoy the day!

oops

I woke a bit late yesterday and didn't manage to get a blog entry written. Oops. Well, we had a lovely weekend. Stayed home Friday, went out Saturday, and cooked and watched a movie on Sunday. Up this week at work, or at least yesterday and today, the executive committee is in the office. We had lunch with them yesterday, but  I'm not sure if anything is planned for today.

I did read a book over the weekend. It was a free download from BookBub. I'm also certain I had read it before as I went through a phase of reading romances set in Scotland. This was "The Countess" by Claire Delacroix. Entertaining enough, a bit formulaic, but it passed the time and it was free.

Off we go into Tuesday! The boys leave Wednesday for the Smokey Mountain Invitational tournament in Gatlinburg. I'll be home hanging out with Duke.

Cheers!

a bit of sunshine

It looks like we will have a big helping of Spring over the next few days. Fine by me. I will take those bright blue skies any day. I ventured out of the office yesterday to swing by the Hallmark store to pick up a few cards. Then I treated myself to some frozen yogurt. Delish.

Tried a new recipe last night. It was a knock-off of Olive Garden's zuppa toscana. Quite tasty! I love Pinterest for making new recipes so easy to try.

In other news, I fnished the book! "House of Shattered Wings" by Aliette de Bodard wound up being a decent book. Here is a link to her website and some info about the novel. I think the world building here just wasn't my cup of tea, but the writing was solid and while I never felt that connection with any of the characters (they all seemed to be a bit unlikeable), I would be tempted to give another of her books a try.

And that's it for this week! I'm getting a new computer at work, so I imagine that the majority of my day will be spent waiting on IT and then reworking my desktop, shortcuts, etc. For no matter their promises to have it "ready to go," it never is. I'm just hoping they don't lose all my fonts. UGH.

and so it goes

I'm going to go ahead and finish the book I mentioned yesterday. I'm well over halfway through at this point and I might as well finish it.

The boy received notice from Governor's School that he has been wait listed for the summer academy on international policy. They had 300 applicants this year and took 64. So, being on the wait list is better than being rejected. He has to send in notice that he is still interested and as others send in their decisions, he will be notified if he gets a spot. Plan B is to go to the Univ of Alabama's Early College program for a summer session.

In other news, not much else to report!

Happy Wednesday!

four day week

It is such a nice treat to have federal holidays off. It allows us to have a three day weekend. Or, if you want to add a day of PTO, a four day weekend. I'm already planning March. We have Good Friday off and I get my birthday as a holiday. Hmmm. Looks like a good time to have a four day weekend! Or, two three day weekends. I need to think about this one.

No idea what is on the work agenda for this week. We are starting to work on National Meeting things as the March issue of the magazine will head off to the printer on Friday. I may start compiling the text for the programs.

I began another book. This one was also on that list I can't find. While the others have been very good, this one is giving me pause. It is a translation from a French author. Concept is interesting, but I've yet to "bond" with any of the characters. Some of the phrasing is clunky and some of the sentences go on forever. Ugh. I'm tempted to let it go. I hate to do that. Think I'll give it another 50 or so pages and see what I think then.

And last but not least, today is a special day! Happy 53rd Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Off we go!