A Time For Everything

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!!