Image courtesy of Goodreads.

My Year in Books via Goodreads!

At the beginning of 2024, I pledged to read fifty-five books in the Goodreads Challenge. I'd completed fifty-eight books or 105% when Goodreads decided to send my Year in Books Review & graphics to go with.

The above graphic was one of the graphics and I was curious as to what that actually meant, so I Googled it. :0) There were multiple ways to qualify, but I knew exactly how I made the cut:

"High Review Volume: You consistently review a large number of books across various genres."

Now, to be honest, I don't write reviews but I do give them all a star rating.

In addition to those fifty-nine books, I read a boat-load of hockey articles.

Now, if you go look at my Goodreads Challenge Book List, be aware that I did not actually read all of the titles listed. That's not to say I didn't read fifty-eight (or more) books. I know I've mentioned this in previous years, but I read a lot of fan fiction. So some of the titles listed, like Gone With the Wind, are placeholders for a piece of fan fiction. I try to choose place-holder books that have roughly the same amount of pages/words as a given piece of fanfic. I'm not reading a 500-word fic and then using GWTW as the place-holder.

* * * * *

The New Guy

Is working out great. He's smart and he learns quickly, which has been awesome. So a month + in and we're still very happy with our choice.

* * * * *

Pain Management

I have good news and bad news.

Good News: I finally had my appointment with the rheumatologist.

Good Bad News: I don't have rheumatoid arthritis requiring life-long medicating. What I do have is osteo-arthritis--which the rheumatologist said just means "I'm feeling my age." (boooo!)

Good News: My primary care doctor put me on some pain meds back in October for the right hip / bursitis I can't seem to heal.

Bad News: the meds didn't seem to help

Good News: according to the rheumatologist, the meds I was given are very slow acting, so they should start to work any time now (thank goodness, lol)

Good News: this pain med is also a mild anti-depressant, so I've been a little more upbeat even though the pain hasn't quite been eliminated.

I also had a bone-density scan done to check on...well...my bone density and take corrective action if needed. I'll meet with the rheumatologist again at the beginning of January to go over all the results.

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Image courtesy of IMGBIN.

Book Binge

So I've started another book binge. I didn't mean to do it, but one thing led to another and, well, here we are. :0)

I've dipped my toe into some genres outside my usual purview of romance such as a police procedural, a cozy mystery series, some general fiction, and some self-help.

Didn't pay full price for any of it.

I suppose, as an author myself, I shouldn't be so pleased about that, but between the online library and some recent sales, and books just offered at $0, I'm set for books for at least a good month.

I'm currently reading a fictionalized version of Julia's Child's early career working for the government.

I've developed an appreciation of Mrs. Child after watching the dramedy "Julia" on HBO, which, sadly, was canceled after two seasons.

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Well, friends--this is it until the new year. Hope your holidays are filled with family, friends, food, and fun.

See you in 2025.

Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving Day and weekend. We had a lovely day with family on Thursday and then spent the rest of the weekend eating deliciousness -- DH's word for the things that you can't eat all the time. I.E. Rotel Queso, pizza, brownies... I did make a lovely beef stew to balance things out though.

Anyway, today, I'm just gonna share some random things.

So I've had this oven mitt for over two decades--I still use it weekly and it has one job. And that's to hold the handle of my large stock pots while I'm cooking.

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Do y'all remember this mug? I got this early- to mid-2000s and I used it for ages and ages. These days, I'm using my tall Dallas Stars Tervis mug--which doesn't look like the picture because it's stained to heck and back with tea :0) -- but this was my go-to mug back in the day. I loved it so much, and I carted it around with me. I bought a second one in red on a subsequent trip to the USS Lexington and then broke it rather quickly. After that, I left the original at home. :0)

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Who's not familiar with Elf on a Shelf? Basically, you buy the little elf doll and move him around the house for the little ones of the house to find each day during the holiday season. DD was in charge of the "Elf Program" at her school for a couple of years. She passed it along this year because she's already at school early enough as it.

Anywho--one of our employees has a 3-D printer and created a glow-in-the-dark skeleton whose joints move. We ended up with him somehow and DH left him in the bathroom one day, and then the next day, someone (DD) started moving him around the bathroom. Then it became a game. Whoever found him moved him to a new spot. But the bathroom is only so big, so we moved the game to the kitchen and the living room.

He's been found and moved several times since his stint in the light fixture.

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Stars Win!

So DD and I got to watch a game from one of the suites. Someone donated two suite seats to the school fall carnival silent auction which DD won. We even got "gold parking" as part of the package.

It was a really fun experience / opportunity to enjoy the game from a suite. The food there was free, but we had to pay for our beverages, which was fine.

Here are a few pictures...

Our gold parking was under a restaurant next to the American Airlines Center and we got to take the elevator right up to the level our suite was on. Fancy!!

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Take care and catch you in a couple of weeks.

Image courtesy of IMGBIN.

I have so much to be thankful for. And I've taken to speaking my gratitude out loud each and every morning on my way to work and on Sundays on my way to pick up groceries.

I have a whole list of people and things that I speak my gratitude for. 

And today, we'll be visiting with DH's family, enjoying good company and good food.

May your day be filled with the same.

See you Monday.

It's finally official--I'm no longer treasurer for my writers group. I handed over the reins at the beginning of October and I haven't looked back. It's been nice. Now, I am still on the board as I'm the website person and the Classroom Coordinator. But the workload is less and different.

* * * * *

As for being a member of a writers group--I'm not writing. I've had no interest and no motivation to work on the revamp I've mentioned in previous posts. I've been meaning to contact my cover artist and rework our agreement a little bit to forgo the print cover options and just get all seven covers and the Amazon A+ graphic and move on.

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Hip, hip, hooray--we have finally hired a new employee to replace the guy that quit back in the summer. New guy starts today. We really enjoyed the break in expenses, but DH (aka bossman) was being run ragged; plus he'll be selling fireworks come mid-December so we really needed another tech in the fold to compensate. This is the "slow" time of year, so it shouldn't be too much of a challenge for him to get ramped up. Not only that, but he's young--early thirties--so he should have the energy and none of the other challenges bossman is hampered with. Primarily that of being the owner and having to do owner tasks.

* * * * *

The weather has been gorgeous. Cool overnight and lovely during the day. Who'd have thunk a mere few years ago, much less a decade or two, that I would have embraced sleeping with the windows open with temps in the 50s? Certainly not moi. But as I'm now a woman of a certain age, the body is requiring less warmth, especially while sleeping.

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Last but not least, I want to share The Asher House.

The Asher House is a 240-acre animal sanctuary in Oregon, run by a guy named Lee Asher. He LOVES dogs. You can tell so easily.

The Asher House mostly rescues dogs, usually from shelters where they're in danger of being euthanized or from bad home situations. But they will rescue any animal in need. There are horses, alpacas, llamas, cats, birds, goats, cows, and pigs. I'm sure there may be a few more species in the sanctuary, but those are the ones I've seen on videos.

Now, when I dream of winning billions of dollars via the lottery or some old relative coming out of the woodwork and leaving me a fortune, this type of place was the "dream." But watching this guy and these videos, you see just how much money and work and time and effort it requires.

And since he's got things sorted--if I do play the lottery and win, I think I'll just make a huge donation!

If you're interested in more information, here are the social media links:

https://www.theasherhouse.com/ https://www.facebook.com/TheAsherHousehttps://instagram.com/theasherhouse?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= https://www.youtube.com/@theasherhouse_ https://www.tiktok.com/@theasherhouse

And if you have some spare money, please consider helping Lee and his crew help these animals. There's a donate button right at the top of the website (the first link).

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Hope you're well. Catch you in a couple of weeks. And...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Here it is, finally. I messed up the ear a little bit. Should have carved things in a different order. But over all, I was mighty pleased with the result. I love Snoopy. :0)

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Now that Halloween has passed it's time to look forward to Thanksgiving and to Christmas...although Christmas is already on the radar. I've been buying presents here and there because I hate late minute shopping and I like to have most of the work done and dusted so I can actually enjoy the season.

As for Thanksgiving, we'll be spending the day with DH's family. 

But before we head out for good eats and good company, DD and I are planning a trip to the zoo on Thursday. The last time we went to the zoo on Thanksgiving, we'd planned to make a tradition of it, because we both love the zoo. But along came Mom and it's taken me a while to recover. 

When were last at the FW Zoo, there was some new exhibit construction going on, so we're looking forward to seeing the new stuff this year.

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Running a little behind on the blog post today, but here it is finally.

Not much to share at the moment, so it's also a bit short.

Take care.

Image courtesy of IMDB.

DH, DD, and I went to see this a couple of weeks ago as part of DH's birthday celebrations and it was really cute and somewhat of a tear-jerker. (Your mileage may vary on the tears, but mine flowed.)

From IMDB: After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.

DD and I saw the trailer in one of our viewings of Twisters and made definite plans to see it. It's based on the book of the same name by Peter Brown.

I highly recommend the film, although I think by now it's no longer in major theaters. But if it comes to a streaming platform, definitely give it a watch. Also it has a message or two or three.

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I'm a little late in my fresh start goals third quarter review, so quickly -- I'm not doing all that great. I made progress on five of twelve line items. *shrugs*

Sometimes life takes a detour. It's not a bad thing, but you're just not traveling the road you thought you would be. We'll see how the fourth quarter goes.

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HOCKEY IS BACK !

So DD and I attended the home opener, which our boys in Victory Green won. They also won their season opener a couple of days prior as well as the two games following, to start the season 4-0... Then they lost game five to a team they probably shouldn't have lost to, but losses happen--can't win 82 games. We have tickets to Teacher Appreciation Night in December and the two bobble head nights in the spring. :0)

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Hope you're well. Back in a couple of weeks.

Image courtesy of Deposit Photos.

FIRST--If you can help the bee hives / farms in Florida and North Carolina devastated by the hurricane, please do so:

https://greatergood.org/help-save-bees-with-project-peril

GreaterGood.org is collecting money to send some sort of pollen substitute.

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Since I postponed the previous post by a week, I thought I'd get back on track by posting this week. Not that it matters, really, lol. I just have stuff to share, so I decided to surprise y'all with back-to-back Monday postings.

Last post, I said I was going to bake and bake I did. I didn't make pup-cakes as I had been thinking I might. Instead, I tried a lemon poppy seed pound cake recipe that's on the back of my lemon extract box. I also wanted to experiment with it a little and make it pumpkin flavored rather than lemon.

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake with Homemade Icing

And guess what? Both versions were tasty. I think the pumpkin version needs a bit more pumpkin flavor but otherwise, the experiment worked. I also saw a mini bundt pan while I was in Walmart, so I ended up impulse buying it. Now I need to test how much batter to put in it so that the end result isn't some over-puffed up bit of baked goods. A quick Google search said 2/3 to 3/4. Good to know for next time.

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I've been tackling some backyard tasks in an effort to A) get the backyard tidied up and B) stay as active as possible each day. One of the projects I started last weekend (not this past weekend, but the one before that) was clearing out the pile of dead branches and limbs that we've just piled up anytime something fell. I got tired of looking at the untidiness of it and decided to get started.

The brush, limbs, and chunks of old tree trunks came out to where the green stuff curves. There's still more to go as you can see, but for several hours worth of effort, it looks waaaaay better than it did.

* * * * *

In between bouts of the above yard work two Saturdays ago, DD and I went shopping and, along with some cool Christmas yard decorations--images to come in December, I bought a carving pumpkin. I've opted for a Peanuts theme. Pictures of my Snoopy-o-lantern also to come!

* * * * *

And something really cool happened--I recently discovered that an audio book narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch that I'd downloaded from YouTube and converted for my iPod many moons ago and whose files I can no longer find is available from Audible! I hadn't thought to search for it but I just so happened to hear it as a preview after the end of some other book I listened to. I can't tell you how excited I was to hear it and also to be able to buy/download that sucker into a safe place (that being my Audible account) where I'll have it for years to come!!

* * * * *

And last, but not least--

I finally found and tried the new Coca-Cola flavored Oreos. I wasn't impressed.

* * * * *

Well have a super week. Catch you in two!

I'm so delighted with cooler temps and looking forward to sleeping with the windows open.

I might even have to break these out and make some pumpkin cake.

* * * * *

I've also started feeling crafty/creative again. I've finished two cross stitch projects and am working on another. I've even been working on a pair of terracotta pots. Mom was awesome at this stuff (tole painting); me--not so much, but I like doing it.

I have one pot done but the other pot design presented me with a bit of a challenge. But DD will be coming to the rescue.

The Pride pot still needs a coat of varnish or something. And then I need to plant something in it.

Here are my finished cross stitch projects...

Here is the finished pot...

The other pot is going to have a bees and gnomes theme to it -- stay tuned.

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In other news, our guest room finally, really looks like a guest room. We'd had a big wood-framed futon bunk bed thing in there for years. It was Sonshine's, and though he's been gone for a decade (IS THAT REALLY TRUE?!?!), we've just never taken it down. Not even for Mom, bless her heart. But after she passed, we discussed whether DH wanted to move back into that room or stay in the garage. DH opted to stay in the garage for the additional space. And it's taken another two years to disassemble that bed, lol.

But here's the room now. It still needs a few more things on the walls, but that's just a matter of deciding what I want. Although one of those things will be the cross stitch sampler that I'm working on.

Rascal says hello and welcome!

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I have also finally started walking the dog. Not the dog I meant to walk for all those years -- sorry, Reyna! But little Rascal and I have been walking for a month or so. I needed to up my activity level and he definitely needed the exercise and the getting out of the house and I'm hoping it'll keep his little nails somewhat in check. He does need a trim though.

And then DD decided she'd start walking with us. So that was a nice surprise, and it's doing us both good -- we've both felt our pants fit just a tad more comfortably.

* * * * *

And apologies for this not posting last Monday. I forgot to add images and I just wasn't ready for the post to go live on time. So I opted to hold onto it for another week.

Have a super October!! It's fall y'all! And I'm excited.

Sweet baby angel Caleb, the newest member of the family.

I traveled to Omaha this Labor Day -- as I have done every Labor Day for the last decade or so -- and met that sweet little boy pictured above. He's just turned three months old and is a sweet natured baby.

I also saw my oldest daughter who drove from Colorado, so that was a nice treat as well.

But let me tell you, my family is a hot mess. Mostly lovable, but such a hot mess.

I also went to visit my dad's grave and left my traditional offering of pinwheels. There was a lovely breeze, and I did get video, but as I'm technologically challenged sometimes, I messed things up and now can't get the video to play. (Bah!) But here's a picture:

* * * * *

And I've finally, finally gotten to work on the revamp of Series One, Book One!

Yeah, remember that?

I've struggled to make progress over the last four months because there were more changes/fixes than I expected there to be. But I kept reading / reviewing and making notes. Finally figured out some of the things that were holding me back and now I'm able to move forward. Whew!

* * * * *

Oh, guess what? I'm no longer an official member of my writers group board of directors! Someone else ran for Treasurer. I still manage the website, but I'm gonna work on documentation so that someone else can take on that job at some point. Maybe even next year. :0)

* * * * *

I've also made some progress on those clay pots I mentioned wanting to paint. Here's the first one:

And, yes, I obviously went with a Pride theme. :0) The other one is going to have gnomes, but I'm still searching for a simple pattern that I like and can pull off with my rudimentary painting skills.

Once I plant something in this pot, I'll share the completely finished project. And once I finish the other, I will of course share that as well.

Take care and see you in two weeks.

 HAPPY LABOR DAY

Hope you have enjoyed / are enjoying the three-day rest from your labors, whatever they may be.

I'll be back next Monday with a regular post.

Take care.

Image Courtesy of Austin Pride.

It's official! I've attended my very first Pride Parade and I had a blast. The whole weekend was so much fun.

I met one of my oldest and dearest friends down in Austin and not only did we attend the Pride Parade, but we did some whirlwind sightseeing as well.

Weekend started Friday (08/09) with dinner at a local sub shop. Shout out to ThunderCloud Subs and their delicious sandwiches. I had the Lady Bird sub--chicken salad with avocado, bacon, and jalapenos--and it was fantastic. Highly recommend.

After dinner, Donny and I scoped out the launch point of our bat watching cruise, which we located easily, but then we had a couple of hours to kill. Rather than go back to the hotel, we walked along the Ann and Roy Butler Trail on the south side of Lady Bird Lake aka the Colorado River aka Town Lake, stopping often so I could give the knees and the hips a breather.

The bat watching cruise itself was also fantastic. Another shout out-- this time to Lone Star Riverboat for bat watching and comedy show. Captain DJ piloted the boat and Captain Mike was our tour guide. He was a font of knowledge of both the skyline and the bats and was very funny. Donny and I had a fantastic time and we got one of the best bat excursions of the season, according to Mike.

Not only did we see bats, but we also got a lightning show as weather sort of circled the city as the cruise was coming to an end. Overall, it was a fantastic evening.

Donny and me!

Here's one column of bats taking off...

We saw five or six of these curly-cuing columns at least.

And all of the bats are female!!

And here's the video:

They eat mosquitoes and moths and tend to fly downriver to the farms to dine. But they do keep the mosquito population along the river in check.

Saturday dawned sunny and warm...it's August in Texas, so duh. :0) We found a Target to buy bottled water for Saturday night's parade along with a few other things I decided I needed.

Then we did some sight-seeing. First we visited the LBJ Presidential Library and that was suuuuper interesting. I wasn't sure how to feel bout the man, but I think I like him and I certainly appreciate all the things he did to facilitate Civil Rights.

After lunch, we then went to see the Neill-Cochran House Museum. The house was lovely. Smaller than I expected from a footprint perspective, but the rooms were large with high ceilings as well as  airy with very tall windows and wide doors. Aside from having to dust the high corners, living in a house like that would be amazing. Every window had a pair of dark green shutters. Both floors had four rooms, two on each side with the wide foyer / hall / staircase in the middle.

The upstairs hall was big enough to be used as shared living space and there was a large door or set of doors that opened onto a balcony. That must have been a lovely spot to sit in the shade of both the overhanging roof and the tall trees.

The real draw of this place was the authentic slave quarters on the property. It, too, was a two story structure although not as tall as the house. It was maybe twelve feet square and had a square hole in the ceiling of the first floor with a rudimentary ladder for those sleeping on the second floor. * I * would have struggled to shimmy through that hole. In one corner downstairs there was a -- I don't even know what to call it -- it was like a small brick oven at the base for the fire and over that was a large metal basin for heating water. it had a chimney to carry the smoke up and out and provide no doubt limited heat to the upstairs.

Very eye opening and sad, quite frankly. Our nation was built on the backs of the slaves we dragged from their homeland, and we treated them like shit.

*sigh*

So after that we went back to the hotel and chatted for a bit before attempting naps in advance of the parade. I slept a bit, but not as much as I'd hoped.

By a quirk of luck, our hotel was situated at the launching off point of the parade. It was on a corner and one of the streets was where the floats and other parade procession organizations.

We walked two blocks west and took our spot at the base of the Texas Capitol building.

But the parade itself was amazing. I had so much fun seeing all the floats and organizations supporting the LGBTQ community. My only beef was that I felt it lasted a little too long...probably an hour and half. At the hour mark I was ready to be done. Maybe that's just me. Maybe was because I was standing the whole time.

My favorite group was a group of Middle-Eastern men--I have no idea what organization or business they were representing--but it was so very cool to see these men who'd have dealt with a fate I hate to imagine in their home country--dancing and singing and celebrating this part of themselves without fear of judgement or reprisal.

Anyway, a fun time was had by all. Donny and I will do this again--thinking about Denver next June.

Here are a few pictures:

Catch you in two weeks!

There should have been a post today, but as I mentioned in my last post, I was out of town this past weekend and I need some time to write all about my trip to Austin.

Thanks for your patience!

Here's a preview:

I recently read this book and it spoke quite strongly to me in regards to making sure that the last two or three decades of my life are as I want them to be. Namely--me being fairly independent, able to care for myself, healthy (physically & mentally), active, stable, flexible, and doing the things I want to do.

Dr. Attia firmly believes that the best thing we can do for ourselves to protect and prevent (as is much as humanly possible) us from succumbing to any of the Four Horsemen, as he calls them, is exercise. He has specific ideas and recommendations as to what kind of exercise, of course, but exercise none the less.

The Four Horsemen, according to Dr. Attia, are heart disease, type two diabetes, cancer, and neurogenerative disease.

Right now, medicine in general (Medicine 2.0) tends to respond to things that are wrong with people rather than work on preventative actions (Medicine 3.0). Sometimes the responses come too late, such as with cancers.

Anyway, it's a very informative book and I highly recommend it to everyone.

* * * * *

As a fan of the original Twister (released 1996!), DD and I were very excited to learn that a contemporary version was coming to theaters. We went to see it as a family a week ago yesterday and ...

DD and I both loved it. So much so that we decided to see it in the theater a second time. I decided to wear my earbuds during my second viewing to dampen the sound a bit as volume seemed super loud in the IMAX theater. However, the regular theater volume was fine and I took them out halways through the film.

There were several call backs to the original, but the plot line was original unto itself. We highly recommend it, but see it soon as it won't be in theaters long. DD saw it an additional two times on her own, but could not explain what about it has exactly tickled her fancy.

* * * * *

Image courtesy of Google Maps.

Speaking of exercise...

My annual road trip home is a month or so out. I debated flying because I've reached a point that sitting for extended periods of time does my body no good, leaving me feeling stiff and achy--two things I try to avoid on a daily basis by getting up and moving around hourly.

But the cost of flights (plus checked luggage fees) and the lack of freedom while I'm visiting my family was prohibitive this year. I'll need to start checking flight prices sooner next summer.

To combat my bodily grievances, I'm seriously considering stopping at Walmart Supercenters (chosen for safety reasons) at two-ish hour intervals in order to take a stroll around the store. I can also use their restrooms and buy better food at cheaper prices than at gas stations.

I've scoped out the relevant store locations already and will ponder this course of action for the next several weeks before making a definite decision.

* * * * *

Hope you are well! My trip to Austin will happen the weekend before we meet again, so I may postpone posting so as to have time to write about my experiences.

Be well and take care...