7 months ago
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Reading Monopolizes Woman's Time
The woman reveled in her freer days after the conclusion of one job. She finally had time to keep up on her laundry, ironing, cooking, and cleaning. But one problem stood in her way. Books. The stuffed shelves and piled table called out to her and like the pull of the sirens, she succumbed. Whenever a spare minute could be grabbed (or sometimes stolen from the "clean the bathroom" section of her to-do list), she would pull her legs beneath her in a comfy chair and with anticipation open her book and read. Carried into those worlds, she didn't notice the passing of precious minutes. Before she knew it, her husband would be home soon and the dishes were still piled in the sink and dinner wasn't prepared. Just one more chapter and she assured herself that she'd close the cover and go be a responsible wife.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Saturday
Jeremy and I decided on Monday that we were going to throw a party tonight. We assembled a modest sized guest list and sent out a specially designed invitation (as you might imagine, if you know Jeremy, the invite included Batman). The day has arrived and only one couple is able to come. Now it's not so much of a party, as just a relaxed evening with a couple friends. So much for our grand plan! We'll have fun anyway, I am certain.
^^^
This morning I ventured to church to help in the garden. Um, it's huge! I had no idea how big of a plot; it's really more like a small field. We have our work cut out for us. I was there nearly 2 1/2 hours working with others. There was still much to be done when I left, but we did get 30+ tomato plants, 7 watermelon hills, and 3 rows of corn planted. I imagine there will be many more hours spent there, but think of all the produce!
^^^
Today is Old Navy's $1 flip-flop day. As I was driving to the gym this morning I thought I might swing by and pick up a couple pairs, but there was a horde of people outside of ON and I just didn't feel like standing in line. After my time at the gym I drove back through the parking lot and there was still a horde of people outside, now accompanied by some police. I decided to skip it. I had a brief break in work this afternoon so thought I'd pop over there (lest you think I'm just flip-flop crazy, ON is at most 5-minutes from my apartment). I talked to Jeremy as I was pulling into the parking lot and he said, "Don't go there. It's not safe. There was a riot there this morning and people were fighting and the police had to come." Now those are some flip-flop crazy people! It was calm when I arrived and I departed some 15-minutes later, unscathed. The woman's flip-flops were completely picked over, but I did buy one pair of black. Now I'm back and ready to tackle the rest of my to-do list.
Have a wonderful weekend!
^^^
This morning I ventured to church to help in the garden. Um, it's huge! I had no idea how big of a plot; it's really more like a small field. We have our work cut out for us. I was there nearly 2 1/2 hours working with others. There was still much to be done when I left, but we did get 30+ tomato plants, 7 watermelon hills, and 3 rows of corn planted. I imagine there will be many more hours spent there, but think of all the produce!
^^^
Today is Old Navy's $1 flip-flop day. As I was driving to the gym this morning I thought I might swing by and pick up a couple pairs, but there was a horde of people outside of ON and I just didn't feel like standing in line. After my time at the gym I drove back through the parking lot and there was still a horde of people outside, now accompanied by some police. I decided to skip it. I had a brief break in work this afternoon so thought I'd pop over there (lest you think I'm just flip-flop crazy, ON is at most 5-minutes from my apartment). I talked to Jeremy as I was pulling into the parking lot and he said, "Don't go there. It's not safe. There was a riot there this morning and people were fighting and the police had to come." Now those are some flip-flop crazy people! It was calm when I arrived and I departed some 15-minutes later, unscathed. The woman's flip-flops were completely picked over, but I did buy one pair of black. Now I'm back and ready to tackle the rest of my to-do list.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Gardening
I would love to have a garden. But since Jeremy and I are still in a middle-floor apartment, this isn't particularly feasible. So, this is what I'm doing instead...
I finally bought a few herb plants to put on my deck. I don't have great sunlight, but I so much wanted to have some plants. I bought parsley, chives, and basil. One of my friends is going to give me some oregano and sage from her plants. Have any of you ever grown stevia? I almost bought a plant, but didn't know how difficult it was to get the sweet powder from the leaves.
Jeremy and I's church is doing a community garden for the congregation. It's their first year, so instead of giving people their own plots, it's just one giant garden that everyone is to help with. I think I'm going to try and participate. I would like to have the access to fresh, grown produce.
I finally bought a few herb plants to put on my deck. I don't have great sunlight, but I so much wanted to have some plants. I bought parsley, chives, and basil. One of my friends is going to give me some oregano and sage from her plants. Have any of you ever grown stevia? I almost bought a plant, but didn't know how difficult it was to get the sweet powder from the leaves.
Jeremy and I's church is doing a community garden for the congregation. It's their first year, so instead of giving people their own plots, it's just one giant garden that everyone is to help with. I think I'm going to try and participate. I would like to have the access to fresh, grown produce.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
There will be no more kid anecdotes.
Today was my last day of LEAP. I felt relief as I contemplated this approaching day. I looked forward to working only one job. But, a little part of me wondered if I'd feel a twinge of sadness in saying good-bye. We didn't do our regular tutoring today, instead we had a celebration for the kids. So, today turned out to be just about as chaotic as the first day back in January. And I can honestly say, I didn't feel melancholy in leaving the school. I felt relief. Jeremy told me we needed to celebrate this day. He's been looking forward to this job ending almost more than I have been!
^^^
A program is offered at my library once a month that is called Yak, Snack, and Read. Basically it's a book club and by the name, I'd assume there was something to eat, wouldn't you? Well, tonight I saw the reference librarian that leads the group bring a snack of Life-Saver mints. Um, is that a snack? Made me smile. It also made me think of my sister Margaret. If she'd been in the group as a girl, she'd have been thrilled with that snack because she loved all candy, including Star light mints.
^^^
A man that comes into the library has a mostly shaved head, except for what appears to be about 1/2-1 inch wide strip of hair that runs from ear to ear around the back of his head. Originally I thought it was a strap for his glasses, then I realized there already was a strap. Strange.
^^^
A program is offered at my library once a month that is called Yak, Snack, and Read. Basically it's a book club and by the name, I'd assume there was something to eat, wouldn't you? Well, tonight I saw the reference librarian that leads the group bring a snack of Life-Saver mints. Um, is that a snack? Made me smile. It also made me think of my sister Margaret. If she'd been in the group as a girl, she'd have been thrilled with that snack because she loved all candy, including Star light mints.
^^^
A man that comes into the library has a mostly shaved head, except for what appears to be about 1/2-1 inch wide strip of hair that runs from ear to ear around the back of his head. Originally I thought it was a strap for his glasses, then I realized there already was a strap. Strange.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Little bits of life
I am pleased to update and say that for the past two nights we've slept in our bedroom peacefully. The apartment people finally came through and some work was done upstairs on Tuesday. It's not completed yet, but they made remarkable strides in the sound adjustment in the bedroom. Unfortunately their work in the living room area that was getting noisy, actually made the noise level worse. Sometime they are supposed to return and work on that. But, it's been wonderful to sleep in a bedroom and feel like I have living room again.
One of my LEAP co-workers asked me today how old I was (in the context of a conversation about having children). I told her I was 27 and she said, "Are you serious? I was going to guess 21. You look great for 27." This was followed up by her telling me that I should probably get a move on in having children. :)
My hubby works late tonight and I should probably be doing some productive things around here. But I'm shushing those "I should" thoughts and just reading. I'll more than likely follow that up with watching a couple TV shows--Parks and Recreation; The Office--and that will be my night. Lazy, I know. But I did stay up until nearly 11:30 last night making granola and cleaning my kitchen.
One of my LEAP co-workers asked me today how old I was (in the context of a conversation about having children). I told her I was 27 and she said, "Are you serious? I was going to guess 21. You look great for 27." This was followed up by her telling me that I should probably get a move on in having children. :)
My hubby works late tonight and I should probably be doing some productive things around here. But I'm shushing those "I should" thoughts and just reading. I'll more than likely follow that up with watching a couple TV shows--Parks and Recreation; The Office--and that will be my night. Lazy, I know. But I did stay up until nearly 11:30 last night making granola and cleaning my kitchen.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Sleeplessness
We've had quite a bit of sleeplessness in this apartment of late. It's really a combination of several things including Jeremy's sleep troubles anyway and the fact that we've been sleeping on an air mattress in our living room for the last month and a half because of the apartment upstairs.
The whole air mattress thing bothers me more than it bothers Jeremy. I'm tired of having our living space being taken up with our sleeping space. And truly, we have a very nice bed in our bedroom that's not being used. You're more than likely asking yourself, why in the world are you doing this? Well, here's the deal.
There is something wrong with the ceiling in the bedroom. When the people upstairs walk into their room, our ceiling creaks so deeply, that it can wake me from a dead sleep at 2 a.m. Maybe this wouldn't be a huge deal if the people kept regular hours, but I can't figure them out. They seem to like to walk in and out of the bedroom when we're trying to fall asleep, thus making it nearly impossible for us to sleep(J even wears ear plugs most nights and the creaks go right through them). But, they don't seem to be going to bed then because they're walking back in long after we've finally gone to sleep. So, being tired of that we resorted to sleeping in the living room. But, that has its troubles to, including the fact that there are some rather bad creaky spots out here too. And these people walk! Plus, they play their TV loudly enough that we can hear it. Last night they decided to clean their entire apartment somewhere around 9:30 or 10. This included vacuuming the whole place with long pauses between each section, for who knows what. Jer was very tired and had headed to bed in the bedroom rather early. I was up reading. We both ended up in the living room and not falling asleep until more like midnight. It wasn't just the people, but they contribute a great deal.
Your next question is probably, what are you doing about this? Well, we contacted the apartment office going on 3 weeks ago (after I realized that the creaking was getting worse and having visions of someone falling through our ceiling). Supposedly someone that deals with structure is going to be tearing up the carpet in the bedroom upstairs and doing something to the floorboards. Well, that hasn't happened yet. I'm not even holding my breath that it will fix the problem. But, I really want my bedroom back. We're uncertain what our next step should be if they can't solve this problem.
Sleep goes a long way towards productive, good days and we'd like a little more of it around here.
The whole air mattress thing bothers me more than it bothers Jeremy. I'm tired of having our living space being taken up with our sleeping space. And truly, we have a very nice bed in our bedroom that's not being used. You're more than likely asking yourself, why in the world are you doing this? Well, here's the deal.
There is something wrong with the ceiling in the bedroom. When the people upstairs walk into their room, our ceiling creaks so deeply, that it can wake me from a dead sleep at 2 a.m. Maybe this wouldn't be a huge deal if the people kept regular hours, but I can't figure them out. They seem to like to walk in and out of the bedroom when we're trying to fall asleep, thus making it nearly impossible for us to sleep(J even wears ear plugs most nights and the creaks go right through them). But, they don't seem to be going to bed then because they're walking back in long after we've finally gone to sleep. So, being tired of that we resorted to sleeping in the living room. But, that has its troubles to, including the fact that there are some rather bad creaky spots out here too. And these people walk! Plus, they play their TV loudly enough that we can hear it. Last night they decided to clean their entire apartment somewhere around 9:30 or 10. This included vacuuming the whole place with long pauses between each section, for who knows what. Jer was very tired and had headed to bed in the bedroom rather early. I was up reading. We both ended up in the living room and not falling asleep until more like midnight. It wasn't just the people, but they contribute a great deal.
Your next question is probably, what are you doing about this? Well, we contacted the apartment office going on 3 weeks ago (after I realized that the creaking was getting worse and having visions of someone falling through our ceiling). Supposedly someone that deals with structure is going to be tearing up the carpet in the bedroom upstairs and doing something to the floorboards. Well, that hasn't happened yet. I'm not even holding my breath that it will fix the problem. But, I really want my bedroom back. We're uncertain what our next step should be if they can't solve this problem.
Sleep goes a long way towards productive, good days and we'd like a little more of it around here.
What I enjoyed most from my reading this year.
For those who are curious, I'm sharing my favorite fiction and non-fiction reads from the list in my last post.
Fiction--
I've never been good at just picking my very favorite, so here's my top three: A Beautiful Blue Death, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Thursday Next First Among Sequels. The first is a mystery set in 1800's London, written by a new British writer. I read both of his books and enjoyed them both very much! The second book is written in letters and set around the time of WWII. It reminded me a bit of one of my favorite books, 84 Charing Cross Road. The last one is the fifth book in the Thursday Next series. I've enjoyed all those books, but have yet to really convince anyone that these crazy books are a great read! It's hard to even put them in a genre because they are somewhat fantasy/sci fi and somewhat mystery. They're just fun. I'd definitely recommend any of these books.
Non-fiction--
My top two: The Taste of Sweet and Praying Backwards. I'm fairly certain I mentioned the first one in a previous post. This was a fascinating read about our connection with sweet foods and the science behind sweet. The second book was an excellent book about prayer! I read it from the library, but am seriously considering buying a copy. Prayer is a weak point in my life and I felt encouraged through this book and have been trying to practice some of what I learned. If you can get your hands on a copy, consider reading it.
My sister asked how The Last Lecture was. Honestly, I didn't really like it all that much. It seemed very common sense to me. And I felt that the author was incredibly self-centered. So many of his sentences began with I. I was hard pressed to know why it's all the rage. But, maybe I missed something. Have any of you read it? If so, what did you think?
Fiction--
I've never been good at just picking my very favorite, so here's my top three: A Beautiful Blue Death, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Thursday Next First Among Sequels. The first is a mystery set in 1800's London, written by a new British writer. I read both of his books and enjoyed them both very much! The second book is written in letters and set around the time of WWII. It reminded me a bit of one of my favorite books, 84 Charing Cross Road. The last one is the fifth book in the Thursday Next series. I've enjoyed all those books, but have yet to really convince anyone that these crazy books are a great read! It's hard to even put them in a genre because they are somewhat fantasy/sci fi and somewhat mystery. They're just fun. I'd definitely recommend any of these books.
Non-fiction--
My top two: The Taste of Sweet and Praying Backwards. I'm fairly certain I mentioned the first one in a previous post. This was a fascinating read about our connection with sweet foods and the science behind sweet. The second book was an excellent book about prayer! I read it from the library, but am seriously considering buying a copy. Prayer is a weak point in my life and I felt encouraged through this book and have been trying to practice some of what I learned. If you can get your hands on a copy, consider reading it.
My sister asked how The Last Lecture was. Honestly, I didn't really like it all that much. It seemed very common sense to me. And I felt that the author was incredibly self-centered. So many of his sentences began with I. I was hard pressed to know why it's all the rage. But, maybe I missed something. Have any of you read it? If so, what did you think?
Friday, May 1, 2009
Reading round-up.
Since it's May 1 and a third of 2009 has already passed, I thought I'd post my completed reading list thus far (I've read parts of several other books and I'm in the midst of about three more). I'm still looking to get through 52 books this year; we'll see if that happens. But 20 books in the first 4 months shows a little promise to actually reach my goal.
The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir
Dewey by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter
A Stopover in Venice by Kathryn Walker
Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
The Taste of Sweet by Joanne Chen
The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles
The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan
Praying Backwards by Bryan Chapell
The Magician's Book by Laura Miller
I Like You by Amy Sedaris
Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris (audio book)
Wonder Woman, Love and Murder by Jodi Picoult (graphic novel)
The Novel by James Michener
Eat, Memory edited by Amanda Hesser
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
Thursday Next, First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir
Dewey by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter
A Stopover in Venice by Kathryn Walker
Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
The Taste of Sweet by Joanne Chen
The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles
The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan
Praying Backwards by Bryan Chapell
The Magician's Book by Laura Miller
I Like You by Amy Sedaris
Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris (audio book)
Wonder Woman, Love and Murder by Jodi Picoult (graphic novel)
The Novel by James Michener
Eat, Memory edited by Amanda Hesser
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
Thursday Next, First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
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