Posts Tagged ‘Books’

PPPthththththhhhhhhh, cont’d

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Even my reading is unfocused lately. I think I have 4 books going at once and I am not really that into any of them. Which makes me want to pick up a variety of magazines that I got w frequent flyer miles that Delta decide they did not want me to have past the next 30 days. I am a literary schizophrenic. Literally. Let’s see what we have here….

Leading from the Front by Courtney Lynch and someone else I cannot remember

2 chick former marines talk about leadership issues that are specific to women. I think I am looking for a magic bullet answer to all interpersonal skills. The health care environment is very stressful with all of the upcoming changes to Medicare. Lots of tension. Still looking for the magic.

What are you doing with the rest of your life? (I forget the author)

Pretty self explanatory. If you feel  like you are going uphill all the time, something must not be right. Right?

Superfreakonomics

Have you read Freakonomics? If not, you need to. They talk about things like why sumo wrestlers are crooked,why is chemo so widely used when it so rarely works, forceps hoarding, and assassinating mosquitoes. What could go wrong?

How much you can you stand? Martha Beck

Great book that has like 7 things you need to do to bring joy into your life. You must master each step before moving on. Problem is that I cannot master Step 1. No, not admitting you are powerless over joy. Step 1 is, “Do nothing for 15 minutes each day.” Seriously. I cannot do it for more than 2 days in a row. I have been trying for about 3 months. I wonder if she has a remedial book. Maybe something about bringing adequate feelings into your life. That feels much easier than shooting straight for joy.

I also have 3 parenting books that are more like reference books that I dip into here and there:

  • Positive Discipline
  • 4 Love Languages of Children
  • Balance is a Crock, Sleep is for the Weak

Magazines

  • Entertainment Weekly
  • Time
  • Endurance Magazine
  • Money
  • Real Simple
  • Lucky
  • Oprah
  • Bicycling
  • Inc.
  • Men’s Fitness
  • Fast Company
  • Family Circle

What are you reading these days?

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What snu?

Friday, April 30th, 2010

It is funny how life seems to be so hectic, but when I go to list what has been happening, there really isn’t too much.

Anna is playing softball again this spring. She is on a team w a different coach, but a couple girls are the same from last year. Funny thing about softball–the socks. One is purple and one is gold. The purple one went missing (wherever missing socks go) after 1 game. Instead of just wearing regular socks, she wore the gold one and a regular sock. Didn’t want you to think it was a gang sign or anything.

PS–the purple sock turned up this past weekend (after about 3 weeks on vacation). It was under our bed.  Imagine that–a dirty sock 2 feet from where the clothes got pulled off and dropped. Who would have thunk it??

Anna rounds 3rd on her way home.

Tyler is playing baseball (T ball really). He is the only kid who gets overhand pitched to and he SMACKS it every time. He has a great swing and really crushes it. He gets that from me I am sure. The main thing he has been doing though is GROWING! This past weekend I think he ate and laid around the entire weekend. He even put himself down for a nap (normal for me, NOT for this 6 year old boy).

What do growing 6 year old boys and lazy 77 year old dogs have in common?

A few weekends ago Paul and I went to see Simplified play at the Blind Tiger again. Their songs are great and it is always a good time (made better by the recent legislation banning smoking in bars and restaurants). Turns out the band’s drummer broke his wrist so they had a new kid who did ok. Just a little different vibe since he was new.

Simplified in concert April 16, 2010 @ The Blind Tiger

We like that band so much that their song, “Home,” was the one that we walked down the aisle to at our wedding. Lyrics:
Never thought I would be the one who,
Found someone to make me feel like you do,
It’s true I dreamed of you,
And you came in right on cue,

At the Simplified concert April 16.

Tyler and I were playing basketball one afternoon (which means I was rebounding for him–I am allowed 1 shot per 1 million Tyler shoots). All of a sudden he stops and runs over to the yard by the fence. He wanted to pick me flowers and insisted that I put them in water right away so they would last. Here is a photo of my gift:

What more could a girl ask for?

I have been reading quite a bit lately (Paul would say “as usual”). I recently finished House Rules by Jodi Picoult. She could make the phone book a best seller. LOVE her writing style. I also finished Walking on Broken Glass. It was ok. I am part way through The Irresistible Henry House. It is quirky so far. Henry House is an orphan who is adopted by a Home Ec Dept of a college in the 40′s so his 6 “mothers” rotate weekly for a semester, then he gets a new batch of mother every 4-5 months. It follows him through life to watch how messed up this makes him. It is supposedly fiction, but I think these programs really did exist. I introduced Paul to Bill Bryson and Dave Berry. That’s right, Paul is STILL reading! He even said his next book will be FICTION. Imagine that!!!

We have been riding a lot more now that the weather has warmed up. We are doing our first mountain ride this weekend. Can’t remember exactly how much climbing, but its a lot. Hopefully the bike Garmin will work to measure climbing feet like it is supposed to. Last weekend there was such a drastic change in pressure w that big storm that it said at one point that the incline we were on was 850% grade! WHOA!

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Candy Land

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

No homework this week because of Thanksgiving! I know I am supposed to be supportive of the public education system and all, but homework in kindergarten seems a bit over the top. Anyhow, we were glad. So we watched Toy Story and played computer before dinner. After dinner we played games, including Candy Land.

We MUST do this more often! The saddest thing ever was getting it set up, Anna choosing a card, then saying, “What do I do? I can’t remember!” I should have known we were in trouble when it turned out to only have 2 game pieces (Mom–is that the game from my childhood?). So Paul got a couple more. I was the green man, Anna was the red man, Tyler was a Transformer from McDonald’s named “S” (no one can remember the real name and it has an S on it). Paul was the Emperor from Star Wars, complete w electricity coming from his finger tips. Awesome. I won once, Anna won the 2nd time. There was also the small side game of Paul running around the board as the Emperor electrocuting people.

Then I read some of A Light in the Attic to them. They now think Wild Strawberries are real (with shark teeth and feet and a tail). Then they borrowed a couple books of mine. [my parents brought me a couple boxes of them last year--VERY cool and a HUGE hit w the kids] Tyler got in bed then called me back wanting to know, in a very distressed voice, who colored in that book. He was shocked into silence when I told him it was me. Could’ve knocked him over w a feather…. :)

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This N That…

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Not much to report lately, which is kind of nice really. :) We have been getting a few requests to update the blog so here are the highlights:

SICK

I stayed home from work Monday and Tuesday of last week (9/28 and 29). At first I thought it was flu, which means automatic 7 days out of work. Luckily (?) it was only a sinus infection. I am finally feeling back to normal today (10/6) 1 week later. It has indeed thrown a wrench in my training and weight loss progress (more later). But as of tonight (great run!) I am back on track. Paul and the kids had gotten the respiratory funk a couple times in earlier weeks. I think we all are on the mend. I got my flu shot and the H1N1 flu vaccine will be at our site in a few weeks at the latest. Because I am a high risk person (asthma) in a high risk job (healthcare), I am near the top of the list. Which I feel mixed about since they are still looking at long term side affects. I did also get a pneumonia vaccine free at work b/c of the high risk thing and the fact that the H1N1 tends to affect respiratory system and turn to pneumonia.

HEALTHY

So Paul and I have been in a weight loss contest of sorts w each other for a couple months now. My goal is 11 pounds, Paul’s is 7 (I think). So we weigh in every Wed morning and if we have dropped weight we get a certain amount of money we chose put towards the kayaks that we want (but cannot afford). If we did not lose, but we did our workouts for the week (training for the 1/2 marathon in Dec), we put 1/2 the money back. So far I have lost about 6 1/2 pounds. This means that I am under the cut off for what our life insurance company thinks is high risk. So once I can stay there, I will get re-tested and save us some money!

KIDS

Tyler had a hard time w getting used to school and its routine/restriction/discipline, but he has been doing much better recently. He lost his 2nd tooth yesterday. I woke up in the middle of the night (ok, 10:30) and heard him rolling around, then nothing, then…”yessss!!!!” He had found his quarter from the tooth fairy.

Tyler's first lost tooth

Tyler's first lost tooth

Anna is kicking butt in school. She has her dad’s spelling prowess so we have been working on that, but she has aced her test each of the last 2 weeks. She is very much into mermaids right now.

Both kids love riding their bikes, Tyler prefers trails and Anna the road. Tyler wants to play hoops this winter. Anna changes her mind daily, but did decide she wanted to do a craft from a book she got from Miss Sallie, one of the triathletes I coached through Team in Training this season. Sallie works at Edward McKay, a local used bookstore we LOVE LOVE LOVE. Anna got to go a couple weeks ago and pick some books ($3 worth) b/c she got to 10 on her reward chart (for following the rules at school and home).

FUN

Paul read one of my books about Michael Jordan–its about his retirement and (first) comeback. I recently read 2 books my mom brought me: Never Change (Elizabeth Berg) and Garden Spells (Sarah Addison Allen). Now I am reading Seven Summits–it is about the first 2 guys who climbed the highest mountain on each of the 7 continents. Next comes 2 books I got in Wilmington at one of my favorite little shops, Two Sisters Bookery. My choices are Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work (Jason Brown) or Breakfast with Buddha (Roland Merullo). The weekend of Sept 20th (our anniversary!!) Paul and I went to Wilmington for the race that my TNT peeps did.

L to R: Tom, Sallie, Kathy, me

L to R: Tom, Sallie, Kathy, me

The weekend after that my parents came down and we had lots of fun, especially at the zoo w Paul’s mom, sis and her kids.

Mom, Dad, Susan, Paul at lunch at Fishbones

Mom, Dad, Susan, Paul at lunch at Fishbones

Tyler stylin' in my cap while he fixes my hair (at the zoo).

Tyler stylin' in my cap while he fixes my hair (at the zoo).

Girl time at the zoo!

Girl time at the zoo!

Then last weekend Paul and I went to see B.B. King in Myrtle Beach’s House of Blues. It was SO KICK ASS! I will let him tell the rest. :) No new real house projects in progress. Saturday will be an easy weekend at home so we will have chore day (shhh–Paul and the kids don’t know yet).

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I Have All The Good Books

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

I have been on the other end of Susan’s book slump lately. I recently finished reading “To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry”. It was a really good book. If any of you that don’t live in North Carolina want to know how we think about the rivalry this is the book. The author was funny and very accurate about how Carolina fans fell about Duke.

I am also almost finished reading Eric Clapton’s autobiography. This is also a really good book if you are a music fan. It is amazing that he is still alive with all the drugs and drinking he did. Once he got clean he opened a rehab center and in a effort to raise money for it he auctioned off a lot of his guitars. He got $959,500 for his famous “blackie” guitar and after hearing that Susan says that we are going to auction my guitars. I keep telling her that I am not famous and we will never get that much for them (not to mention I’m not getting rid of them) but she remains optimistic.

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Book slump

Monday, February 9th, 2009

I should not have bragged about the great book I had read. I have not had a hit since. I have a list of books I want to read, but the library has them all checked out. So I went to Amazon last time from the library’s computers and searched for the books I wanted. You know how Amazon then says, “People who liked THAT also liked THIS.” Well, I then searched the library system for THAT book. And so on until they actually had one. It is palatable, but not exciting. Bummer since we are driving forever to Myrtle this weekend. Elli sent me her book club list so I can search that at the ‘brary, not sure I will have time before the trip though. If you have any book suggestions I would love to hear them–although nothing with the words dark, death, evil, murder, etc in the title (I get scared easily). My friend Erin linked me to a website that recommends books and then you post what you are reading, but I cannot find the link now.

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Great book I just finished reading

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

I want to start to keep you updated on good books I am reading/have read.

Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells is excellent! It is a memoir so although I found it in the non-fiction section, it may very well fall in the category of Million Little Pieces (autobiographical fiction). It was recommended to me by my boss, Lisa Pennington. It is about her family growing up in various places, although her “formative years” were in WVa. It makes crazy look like Beaver Cleaver’s family. But as you will read on the reviews, you can tell as you read the story that she loves her parents and knows they did their best—even at their worst.

Great theme for me as I work on my step-mother skills, which some days seems like all out of a Cinderella fairy tale. Is there a fairy tale where the step mother is NOT wicked? THAT is the book I need to read.

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