Exceedingly Mundane

OK, this seems to be the day for book-related memes. Maybe I can post another “Question of the Day” later today, since more people seem to like those than my book and movie reviews. Hehehe!

As seen on Debi’s blog here:

1. What are you currently reading? My first “real” James Patterson book, “Beach Road”. I’m a little ways into it and it is good, but the style of this book is a little different from what I normally read. I’m not sure if this is typical for Patterson, or it is just this book. Very short chapters. Each chapter told from a different character’s point of view. Makes for quick reading, but it is a little different.

2. What did you just finish reading? I just finished “Everyone Worth Knowing” by Lauren Weisberger. (Review here.) This was my first book by Weisberger. I also have a copy of the paperback version of “Devil Wears Prada” that I will read one day. Several people commented that Prada was better, so I’m looking forward to that.

3. What will you be reading next? Well, I’m trying to work on my TBR pile. I have tentatively lined up “Ten Big Ones” by Janet Evanovich and then “White Chocolate Moments” by Lori Wick as the next ones. Of course, I reserve the right to change that at any time. I have not read a lot of good things about Lori Wick’s book, so I am not sure about that one. Also, I had blogged a while ago that my library FINALLY got an online reservation system in place. I’m testing it out and I have been put on the list for two newly released books, so if one of them becomes available, I will stop and go get it to read.

Let me know if you decide to play along, so I can stop by and see what you are reading, and going to read next 🙂

‘Fess Up!

Okay, there must be something you read that’s a guilty pleasure . . . a Harlequin romance stashed under the mattress. A cheesy sci-fi book tucked in the back of the freezer. A celebrity biography, a phoned-in Western . . . something that you’d really rather not be spotted reading. Even just a novel if you’re a die-hard non-fiction fan. Come on, confess. We won’t hold it against you!

Another really timely book-related question for me. Considering I just blogged about a book I just finished a couple of days ago, “Everyone Worth Knowing”, which I described as a “guilty pleasure”. I don’t normally read books like this, but I do from time to time. Books like this one, like the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich, etc – these are the kinds of books that I read for a change, for a diversion, and as a guilty pleasure. I try not to delve into the Harlequin realm, this is as close as I’ll go. I don’t read the other types mentioned, or really anything else that I would classify in this category. I mostly read “women’s fiction” and Christian fiction, so these are a true diversion for me.

Good question!

Time for another Question of the Day! Let’s have a little fun today. Who doesn’t like cookies, right?

Well, we don’t! We love cookies 🙂 I’d have to say that it would be hard for me to pick between chocolate chip cookies and Oreo’s as my favorite cookie. Then, there’s Fig Newtons, and I love a good white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. Oh, and a good oatmeal cookie with nuts or raisins. Yeah, baby! Hmmm, I need to bake some cookies soon! In the mean time, we have a bag of Oreo’s around here. Bad news. Tim won’t win the weight loss challenge at work this week, LOL! But, hey, Kroger had them on sale for 1.88, so who am I to turn down a bargain?!

How about you? What’s your favorite cookie? That’s today’s Question of the Day… Leave me a comment and let me know!

I got this in an email from a dear friend of mine. Rather than just passing it on via email, I thought I would just post it here. Hope you enjoy it!

Consumed by my loss, I didn’t notice the hardness of the pew where I sat. I was at the funeral of my dearest friend — my mother. She finally had lost her long battle with cancer. The hurt was so intense, I found it hard to breathe at times. Always supportive, Mother clapped loudest at my school plays, held a box of tissues while listening to my first heartbreak, comforted me at my father’s death, encouraged me in college, and prayed for me my entire life.

When mother’s illness was diagnosed, my sister had a new baby and my brother had recently married his childhood sweetheart, so it fell on me, the 27-year-old middle child without entanglements, to take care of her.

I counted it an honor. “What now, Lord?” I asked sitting in church. My life stretched out before me as an empty abyss. My brother sat stoically with his face toward the cross while clutching his wife’s hand. My sister sat slumped against her husband’s shoulder, his arms around her as she cradled their child. All so deeply grieving, no one noticed I sat alone. My place had been with our mother, preparing her meals, helping her walk, taking her to the doctor, seeing to her medication, reading the Bible together.

Now she was with the Lord. My work was finished, and I was alone. I heard a door open and slam shut at the back of the church. Quick & steady footsteps hurried along the carpeted floor. An exasperated young man looked around briefly and then sat next to me. He folded his hands and placed them on his lap. His eyes were brimming with tears. He began to sniffle. “I’m late,” he explained, though no explanation was necessary. After several eulogies, he leaned over and commented, “Why do they keep calling Mary by the name of ‘Margaret?” “Because that was her name Margaret, never Mary. No one called her “Mary,” I whispered! I wondered why this person
couldn’t have sat on the other side of the church.

He interrupted my grieving with his tears and fidgeting. Who was this stranger anyway? “No, that isn’t correct,” he insisted, as several people glanced over at us whispering, “Her name is Mary, Mary Peters.”

“That isn’t who this is.” “Isn’t this the Lutheran church?” “No, the Lutheran church is across the street.” “Oh.” “I believe you’re at the wrong funeral, Sir.”

The solemnness of the occasion mixed with the realization of the man’s mistake bubbled up inside me and came out as laughter. I cupped my hands over my face, hoping it would be interpreted as sobs. The creaking pew gave me away. Sharp looks from other mourners only made the situation seem more hilarious. I peeked at the bewildered, misguided man seated beside me.

He was laughing too, as he glanced around, deciding it was too late for an uneventful exit. I imagined Mother laughing. At the final “Amen,” we darted out a door and into the parking lot.

“I do believe we’ll be the talk of the town,” he smiled. He said his name was Rick and since he had missed his aunt’s funeral, asked me out for a cup of coffee. That afternoon began a lifelong journey for me with this man who attended the wrong funeral, but was in the right place. A year after our meeting, we were married at a country church where he was the assistant pastor. This time we both arrived at the same church, right on time.

In my time of sorrow, God gave me laughter. In place of loneliness, God gave me love. This past June we celebrated our twenty-second wedding anniversary. Whenever anyone asks us how we met, Rick tells them, “Her mother and my Aunt Mary introduced us, and it’s truly a match made in heaven.”

OK, so I was tagged by Debi, then prompted by my sister Gail, and then tagged by Judi to show a photo of my desk. Well. This one is a toughie… I don’t have a desk!

See, I had a desktop PC for the last 3 years, but we bought me a laptop last month (March), for our anniversary. The reason being that my husband is working more and more from home, and he needed a desktop space more than I did. So, we got me a laptop so he could take over the desk in our home office area (spare bedroom where we keep all of the computers, craft stuff and just junk in general!).

But, since everyone asked so nicely, here’s what I could come up with:

Here’s Tim’s desk:

And, when I snuck in to take a picture, Tim caught me before I could sneak back out. He asked what I was doing, and I explained it to him. Then, he gets a big grin on his face and says “why don’t you take a pictures of the MESS up under the desk?”. He knows I don’t like to advertise how messy certain areas of our house are on my blog, or to people in general. This one is entirely his doing though. When we had problems with Hambones a few weeks ago, he had to pull everything out to work on the hardware. Needless to say, he didn’t “tidy” things up when he finished. So this mess of wires is NOT my doing 😀

P.S. That’s Hambones folks, both of those PC’s and all of those wires!

Lastly, in lieu of a desk, I’ll show you where my laptop resides the majority of the time. Sitting on the ottoman next to my favorite chair, which is next to a window overlooking my backyard. I can see lots from this vantage spot, so it’s one of my favorite places:

OK, I know you’re supposed to tag someone, but I’m not in a tagging mood. If you’d like to play along, that would be superduperfantabulous 🙂 Just leave me a comment so I can come check out your desk or work area 😀

I finished another book last night, one I picked up at a recent library sale. It’s called “Everyone Worth Knowing” and apparently is the second book by Lauren Weisberger, who wrote “The Devil Wears Prada”. I also own this one in paperback (thanks to a different library sale), but I have not read it. I saw the Prada movie, so I wanted to read something that I didn’t already know the plot to. Anyway, I liked the book, didn’t love it, but I did enjoy it. In a really guilty, hide-in-the-corner kind of way. Sort of like you would toss a People or celebrity magazine in your shopping cart, but not really advertise that you read those kind of things. 🙂

Rather than trying to write my own review, I’m going to copy this directly from Amazon.com, as it really sums it up:

Lauren Weisberger, whose bestselling debut The Devil Wears Prada outed the vicious antics of the magazine industry elite, is back at it with Everyone Worth Knowing, another cautionary tale of sex, power, and fame. This time around, the PR industry is her target, and Prada fans will recognize similar themes throughout this entertaining, if at times overly dramatic, exposé.
Bette Robinson is a twentysomething Emory graduate who shunned her parents’ hippie ideals in favor of a high-paying yet excruciatingly boring job at a prestigious investment bank. One day, after a particularly condescending exchange with her boss (who sends her daily inspirational e-mails), Bette walks out on her job in a huff. After a few weeks of sleeping late, watching Dr. Phil and entertaining her dog Millington, Bette’s uncle scores her a job at an up-and-coming public relations firm, where her entire job seems to revolve around staying out late partying and providing fodder for clandestine gossip columns. What follows is one episode after another of Bette climbing up the social ladder at the expense of her friends, family, and the one guy who actually seems worth pursuing.

Weisberger is clever enough to turn seemingly outrageous circumstances into amusing anecdotes, like the tale of a woman who was close to suicide until she found out she was only 18 months away from scoring a highly coveted Birkin bag (“You simply cannot kill yourself when you’re that close … it’s just not an option.”). This wit, combined a hint of voyeurism that most of us can’t deny, is what makes Everyone Worth Knowing a guilty pleasure that’s well worth the indulgence.

Guilty pleasure – that’s exactly how I’d sum it up. Sometimes, it is sort of fun for me to break out and read something that is “deliciously entertaining” as the cover proclaims. It does have a bit of sex, drugs and bad language in it, but not so much that it was too overly distracting to me. It fit in with the partying theme of the book. It had a bit of heart to it as well, and a little substance, although not too much. 🙂 Not enough to take away from the fun of the book, but enough to give it a redeeming quality!

For the record, that makes 26 books read so far this year, with a total of 8,371 pages. Up next is another library book I picked up recently, “Beach Road” by James Patterson. Believe it or not, this is the first “real” Patterson book I’ve ever read. I have read one other by him, “Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas”, back in 2005, but I don’t think that is his typical type of book. So, I thought I’d give one of his murder mysteries a try. If you’ve read this one or have another Patterson book to recommend (or any book, for that matter), let me know!

So, if you also read my Project365 photoblog, you already know that we did the whole big “eat bad food, watch several movies” thing over the weekend. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. We’re really behind on seeing a lot of movies that have been out on DVD for the last few months. Plus, I’ve been really craving pizza. So, Saturday we ordered Papa John’s pizza (the Works, and we tried their little dessert cinna-pizza) and then on Sunday, we ordered take out Chinese from the place a few blocks from our house. Yummy! Tim always gets chicken with garlic sauce (spicy) and I always get shrimp with broccoli. We ordered some steamed dumplings, which is my most favorite thing that this particular place makes.

Anyway, here’s the movies we rented:

I thought I would do some quick movie reviews, then I got to thinking – I basically always like the movies we watch and the books I read! I am not a very good person to give a thoughtful, insightful kind of review. I just like to escape and I like to be entertained. I don’t like to really analyze the movies and dissect them. I just like to watch them and enjoy them 🙂

We liked all 3 movies, but we did enjoy “The Illusionist” the best. Very good movie, with a good plot, good characters and actors, and it was actually fairly clean. We both give it an 8 out of 10. The other two movies, we liked for different reasons. “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” is so lite and cheesy and campy, and even though it has a bit of off-color humor and crassness to it (and a bit of bad language), it is just so easy to laugh along to all of its silliness. We give it a 7 out of 10. The last movie was one I rented purely for myself, “A Good Year“. I had read the book “A Year in Provence” by Peter Mayle a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. I had thought this movie was loosely based on this book, but from what I remember about the book, the two don’t have anything remotely in common! I enjoyed it, nonetheless, and Tim said he did too, although I’m sure he would say this was his least favorite movie of the ones we got. The pace of this movie is slower, and it wants you to stop and think about your life and your job and your choices, and I really liked it. I thought it had a certain charm and a certain quality to it, that I really enjoyed. But, that’s just me, I love movies about appreciating the simple things in life.

So, there you go. We at least knocked 3 movies off our ever-growing list. We haven’t rented hardly any movies this year, and we’ve only been to the theater once. This is way behind schedule for us. I know it will pick up a lot more in the summer. Once our shows like 24, Idol, Lost, Survivor, etc go off for the summer sometime in May, we’ll start renting a lot more movies. I say every year that we want to try Netflix, but somehow, we never seem to get around to it. One reason could be the 100+ DVD’s we already own, and the massive amount of channels we get on our digital cable. Anyway, if you have any movies you’ve seen lately and would recommend, leave me a comment and let me know 🙂 We still have a lot left to rent, and I’m always looking for more good ones to add to that list!

I’m afraid there’s not too much original on the menu this week. Most of it is a roll-over from last week. We had some stuff come up and I didn’t get to make but 2 or 3 of the things on my menu from last week, so I’m going to push them on into this week. Isn’t that always the way things to go sometimes? 🙂 Plus, we’re trying to do a little better (after splurging most of the weekend on pizza and take-out Chinese), so I’m putting salad on the menu for two nights in a row. Ack!

Thanks to Laura over at OrgJunkie for hosting this every week. Be sure to stop on over and check everyone’s menu!

Monday – Hamburgers, potato salad, veggie or side dish

Tuesday – Taco Salad

Wednesday – Grilled Chicken Salad

Thursday – Shanna’s Cheesy Chicken & Tortellini, salad, maybe bread

Friday – Meatball subs and oven fries or TBD

Saturday – Date Night or TBD

Did you realize that today is Friday the 13th? Are you in any way superstitious? Do you have “paraskevidekatriaphobia” – fear of Friday the 13th? Or do you just have “triskaidekaphobia” – fear of the number 13?

I must admit, I am just the slightest bit superstitious. It comes to me naturally. My dad won’t go down a street if he sees a black cat cross the road. I’ve actually been in the car with him and had him turn around and go another way. And I can remember my grandmother saying things like “don’t open that umbrella inside, it’s bad luck”. And “be careful, don’t break that mirror or you’ll have seven years of bad luck”. So things like that, even though they are silly, I am mildly superstitious of. I don’t walk under ladders either 🙂 I do, however, pick up pennies, no matter if they are heads up or down. And unlike Rachael Ray, I don’t throw salt over my shoulder for luck. 😆

I’ve always been interested in this kind of stuff. I was a mathematics major in college and I did a term paper one time on the number 13 and why people have trouble with it. It’s rooted in paganism and Christianity and numerology and a host of other “isms”. 🙂 Friday, of course, was the day Christ was crucified and the number 13 stems from the number attending the Last Supper (Jesus plus the 12 apostles). I think most American hotels and office buildings don’t have a 13th floor. There’s a lot of these kinds of things, once you start thinking about them. Or looking them up 🙂 You can Google like I often do, or go to Wikipedia and read more about it (click here for Friday the 13th info or click here for info on superstitions in general).

Anyway, there are a lot of things that some people are superstitious about. I thought it would make for a fun and maybe interesting “Question of the Day“. So, how about you? Do you consider yourself superstitious? Do you walk under ladders or open umbrellas indoors? Do you think if you break a mirror it will bring you bad luck? Would you stay in a hotel room on the 13th floor? Or anything else that someone else might consider a little superstitious? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Feast One Hundred & Thirty Nine
April 13, 2007

Appetizer
When you were a child, which crayon color was your favorite? When you were a child, what do you mean, “when you were a child“??? I still love crayons and I love to color! I try to coerce my youngest niece and nephew into coloring with me any chance I get. I love to color! It drives them nuts, because I color within the lines. I am drawn to the bright colors – red and orange. Probably red would be my most favorite 🙂

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how likely would you be to change jobs if it required you to move? Probably a 1 or 2! We like where we live, and family is close by, so we don’t want to move away from all of our family

Salad
Take all the numbers in your birthday and your phone number and add them up, one by one. What’s the total? 60 (I think I did this right, not sure!) – that’s if you leave out the 19 out of 19xx for my birthday year. I also included my area code. Interesting question!

Main Course
Have you ever “re-giftedâ€? anything? If so, what was it and who did you pass it on to? No, I have never re-gifted in the truest sense of the word. I have passed along something I have gotten as a gift if it’s something I didn’t want or wouldn’t use, but I told the person it was something I received and wouldn’t use, did they want it? I never try to pass it off as another gift.

Dessert
Name something you need from the store. MILK! Headed out in a little while for milk and orange juice and maybe a couple of other things. We drink a lot of milk around here 🙂

Yippee! Look what just came in the mail!!!!

For those of you who don’t remember, back in early January of this year, I shamelessly begged asked if anyone had any “cookbook points” from Nabisco brand boxes of crackers or cookies. So many of you were so sweet and so very generous, and you guys all pitched in and mailed me enough points to not only get a cookbook for myself, but to share with my sister Gail, so she could get one. And even though we had a bit of a scare back in March (when this little notify card came in, saying it would be a couple more months before it was shipped), I’m happy to say that the cookbook arrived today! Yeah! I can’t wait to start going through it 🙂

Oh yes, and add it to my much beloved cookbook collection, which, as fate would have it, I just blogged about a couple of days ago, LOL! Believe it or not, this is my very first Rachael Ray cookbook.

So, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, to all of you who helped out — I really appreciate it! 🙂

I finished a wonderful set of 5 books by Katherine Valentine, called the Dorsetville series. My blogger buddy Lynne had read them and recommended them, and subsequently offered to loan her set to me and my sister Gail. Thanks Lynne! You were right – I thoroughly enjoyed these books! If you’ve read any of the Mitford books and liked them, I think you would like these books. Same type of characters and feel to the books. They are light and easy to read, but full of quirky parishioners, townspeople, quaint descriptions of life in Dorsetville, and all 5 books are just very charming, sweet and inspiring. They focus on a Catholic priest at St. Cecilia’s in Dorsetville, Connecticut. The lessons on faith and grace are wonderfully written, and always great for me to read – I never tire of reading of God’s love for us and how we can try to walk with Him every day on faith.

The books are entitled “A Miracle for St. Cecilia’s”, “A Gathering of Angels”, “Grace Will Lead Me Home”, “On a Wing and a Prayer” and “The County Fair”. I actually read them out of order, and felt like a total dummy, but it didn’t affect me following the storyline or the characters. I would recommend reading them in order though! 🙄

For the record, that makes 25 books for me so far this year, with a total of 8,004 pages read. I think I’m going to swing to the other extreme, after reading a slew of Christian fiction books. I recently finished one of the Amish series by Beverly Lewis, and now this series by Katherine Valentine, so I am going to read some mainstream fiction next. I am trying to be good and read books I own (gasp, I don’t know how long that will last before I have to head to the library!!) Up next is “Everyone Worth Knowing” by Lauren Weisberger. I actually own the paperback of “The Devil Wears Prada” but I have not read it yet. I saw the movie and it’s still fairly fresh in my memory, so I thought I would start with this book. Have you read any of Weisberger’s books? What are you reading now?

Have a wonderful day, everyone! 😀

Where Does the Time Go?

Have you ever missed an important appointment because you have become so engrossed in a book you forgot the time or were up so late reading that you didn’t wake up in time? Been late to work because you couldn’t resist the temptation and left the house too late?

Well, this sort of ties in to the Randomness meme I did the other day. It was all about being late. Which I try never to be. Not even for reading or for one of my beloved books. I don’t like to be late. I don’t think I’ve ever lost track of time when I was engrossed in a book. I have no problem glancing at a clock or my watch and stopping when I need to stop to go do something, get ready or go leave to be somewhere. I actually don’t sit up late reading and waking up in time is not a problem for me. We have this cool new built-in alarm clock. His name is Beau and he doesn’t let us oversleep in the mornings. Even on Saturday 🙁

WARNING: Long, sappy, rambling, personal post ahead.

Today is my father-in-law’s birthday. I had originally thought I would post about this topic on a day associated with my husband, Tim. His birthday, Valentines Day, our anniversary, or some other day where I could blog about Tim, and about how wonderful it is that we found each other, that he shared not only his last name with me, but made me a part of his family. But, it seems I blogged about something else on all of those days. So, since this has as much to do with my FIL as my husband, I’m going to blab on about it today.

This post stems from the song “My Last Name” by Dierks Bentley.

[audio:http://www.hambones.org/blogs/stacy/mp3/My Last Name.mp3] Click (on the left, twice) to play the song and hear it in its entirety.

The lyrics that really get me all choked up are:

Daddy always told me, far back as I recall, Son, you’re part of something. You represent us all. So, keep it how you got it. As solid as it came. It’s my last name.

Darling if you’re wondering, why I’ve got you here tonight. I want to be your husband; I want you to be my wife. I ain’t got much to give you, but what I’ve got means everything – it’s my last name”

This song gets me every time, because it reminds me so much of my husband and his father. When Tim proposed to me (he got down on both knees, by the way), he said he didn’t have the world to give me, but he would if he could. He said he could just promise to love and cherish me all of the days of our lives. And he does. And I’ve come to realize what other wonderful gift he gave me – his last name and being accepted into his family as a daughter and sister.

You see, I had my own wonderful family before I ever met Tim and his family. I had a mom I loved (who is no longer with us), a Daddy I adore and two pretty awesome sisters. But when I married Tim, I got a whole extra family as part of the package deal. 🙂 And the head of that family is my father-in-law, Mitchell. Mitchell is one of my favorite men on the planet. He is right up there with my dad and my husband. I love and respect them all, immensely. Mitchell taught his three sons by example as much as the words, how to be a good man, how to be honorable, how to be respectful of yourself and others, how to love your family, love and honor God and be the man that God expects you to be. Mitchell has walked this walk all of his life, and his sons are the same way. They are honorable, hard-working, kind, very decent kind of men. Tim had the added benefit, as Mitchell did, of serving in the military, where he learned even more about honor, discipline and respect. I love the man my husband is, and I have his parents to thank for that. And I do, as often as I can. They did a tremendous job raising their sons, and I think my in-laws are so proud of all of their sons. I know I love them both to pieces (Tim’s mom and dad) and I am proud to call Tim’s brothers my very own brothers. It’s really great to have such wonderful family on both sides! 😀

So, today, Happy Birthday to my father-in-law Mitchell. Thank you for being the man and father you are.

Ahh, cookbooks. I love cookbooks! Cookbooks are another serious obsession for me. I love to look at them, read them like books, look at the pretty pictures, dream about all of the recipes I want to try, etc. I use those little post-it flags sometimes to mark the pages of the recipes I want to make. I always have the best of intentions. And yet, I rarely cook out of them. I do try a few things, but for the most part, I just like to have them to look at and maybe use “one day”.

I also daydream about the day when I get a bigger kitchen and I can put my cookbooks on some shelves in the kitchen, or nearby. Right now, the majority of my cookbooks are in an old bookcase in the hall, nowhere near my kitchen. One day, I hope to have a built-in set of shelves on the side of an island or cabinet, or maybe a built-in desk area with shelves above it, so I can display my favorite cookbooks. I do have a few in the kitchen, in a wooden cookbook stand on top of my refrigerator. But, I have so many that storing them is an issue. Some of them are here:

That’s today’s Question of the Day: Do you like cookbooks? Do you buy many cookbooks? Do you cook out of them much, if you do? And equally important, where do you store yours? If you really want to get all involved with your answer, give me a ballpark estimate on how many cookbooks you have. You can also tell me which one is your favorite, if you can pick just one. I can’t! 🙂

P.S. I’m cheating again, and using this for today’s photo over at my Project 365 blog. Blogger privilege