Done!

Just a quick note -- I've finished "The Other Boleyn Girl"! I'm now working on "The Lost Symbol", but I can't wait to read my next Philippa Gregory book. I have a feeling I've read her best one, but she may surprise me...

T minus 7 days until Nick is home!!

My bro is hanging out this weekend and the beginning of next week, so that will be fun -- I think the time will go by fast.

Happy almost Friday everyone!

Anyone want a Mac Mini?

Mac Mini is up for sale!

Reading and cleaning today. I suppose I'll mow the lawn... it needs it, but I REALLY don't want to.

I am determined to finish "The Other Boleyn Girl" today -- wish me luck!

I love fall!

My favorite time of year

Well Autumn doesn't officially start until next week, but apparently Mother Nature didn't get the memo. That's fine by me! I prefer the cool, crisp days of fall to the hot, skanky days of summer. Bring it on fall! Apples, cinnamon sugar doughnuts, spiked cider and "Sleepy Hollow" (the one with Johnny Depp, of course) are the ingredients of a perfect fall day. That may or may not happen this weekend. There is so much to accomplish!

I've decided to finish "The Other Boleyn Girl" before I get back into "The Lost Symbol". "The Other Boleyn Girl" is so hard to put down that I may as well just finish it. Although I lost my self control and watched the movie on Netflix last night, I don't think the book is ruined. I'm a little peeved about the blatant lack of historical accuracy regarding Henry VIII and the Boleyn girls, but I'll let it slide for the entertainment value.

I also discovered my new favorite British comedy: "Coupling". The main guy is played by Jack Davenport (Norrington in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies). It's so funny and extremely easy to follow. Sometimes our American senses of humor are too slow to catch on to the British jokes, but that is not the case with this show. I don't think it will replace my classic favorites such as "Keeping Up Appearance" or "Are You Being Served?" or "Blackadder", but it is definitely up there.

So on the agenda: reading, cleaning, possibly disc golf, maybe apples, and hopefully some Halloween Costume shopping. Happy Saturday everyone!

Business time

So tonight, instead of reading, I opted to meet my friends Lynelle and Chris to celebrate the Royal Oak Brewery's 11th Anniversary. We had a wonderful time and it was lots of fun. For those of you who don't know, the ROB (as we call it) is our version of Cheers. Everyone knows our name.

I did read a few pages of "The Other Boleyn Girl" during my break and during lunch, but that's it.

I'm exhausted. Here's something entertaining for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGOohBytKTU&feature=autofb

Gotta love Flight of the Conchords!

2 weeks and one day until Nick is home!

Progress

Well, I made it to page 82, Chapter 20, and I'm spent. I just don't have the reading endurance I once had. Oh well, it will last longer this way.

The Other Boleyn Girl progress: 263/663 -- only 400 pages to go!

The Lost Symbol progress: 82/509

Until tomorrow...

It's here!

Here it is!

I'm ready to get started on it. I wonder how much I can get through tonight... I may have to FORCE myself to go to bed!

I also picked up some free Penzey's spices today before running into the bookstore. I love Penzey's! Their spices are the best, and they send free coupons. I saved almost $7!

Off to read... and no, I haven't finished "The Other Boleyn Girl", she'll have to wait.

Weekend productiveness

This weekend, my main project has been moving my life from my Mini Mac desktop computer to my new MacBook Pro (Anniversary present). I am now waiting for the re-install on the Mini Mac to finish so I can put it up for sale. I'll post the ebay link here later on, if anyone is interested. While waiting for things to download and upload, I did make a lot of progress on cleaning the office -- not enough progress for pictures quite yet though. I also did some cooking:

Bread for my brother-in-law:

Homemade Chewy Granola Bars:

Roast beef with potatoes and carrots in the crockpot, which I ate one serving of and packaged the rest up for dinners for the week:

And this is how I am getting my exercise. I figured instead of laying around on the couch to watch my Netflix, I may as well do something productive:

Of course, I am still going strong on my book:

I was hoping to get more of it read this weekend so that I would have it finished before starting "The Lost Symbol" on Tuesday, but I may just have to pick it up after that one is finished. "The Lost Symbol" takes priority. Sorry Philippa!

Well, the Mini Mac is ready to go back into its box and it's time for me to go to bed!

My Personal Reading Olympics

I saw the movie "Julie and Julia" over Labor Day weekend and two things happened.

First, I had to run out and buy "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle. I can't wait to start cooking some of the recipes!

Second, it got me thinking about how to handle the overwhelming task of completing an enormous list. Julie's list was 500+ recipes. My list is 63 books (an counting because "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown comes out next week and I will probably "acquire" more books before I finish the 63 currently in my stack). I already know that some of these books are crap. But, I said I would read them and read them I will!

Hopefully keeping this blog updated through the process will help keep me motivated to press on! Hopefully I will actually keep this blog updated... :)

First up: "The Other Boleyn Girl" By Philippa Gregory, on loan from Kristina Kerrigan.