Snow, Pain, and Birthdays

This week has been a poop-fest with the sky having diarrhea and dumping the white poo all over the place.  I guess I can’t complain too-too much, at least I’m not on the east coast.  I’ve only got 14 or so inches here, they’re getting almost 3 foot before it’s all done.  But 14 inches is enought to cause 2 days of no-school and, so far, a delay this morning.  So with the chil’uns at home, I can’t read, can’t think, and my computer is not my own. 

Ah, and I’m still depressed over the not-so-Superbowl let down.  Honestly, I’m more depressed about the commercials than anything.  Seriously, if that’s the best they could come up with, what’s the future going to hold?  Is there anything left to live for?  Maybe I should look at the whole end-of-the-world-in-2012 stuff with hope, rather than scoffing at it.  Yay, Indianapolis will host the last Superbowl in history (it’s the host city in 2012).  Maybe that’s what will cause the end of the world.  I’ll prognosticate that the Cubs will win the 2012 Series, too.  Rosie O’Donnell will marry the Donald by Thanksgiving of 2012.  And the Democrats and the Republicans will shake hands, set aside all differences and plan for true bipartisanship as they look ahead to the first woman president (oh, let’s just say Sarah Palin, that’ll give everyone some fun) being sworn in in the coming January, 2013.  Of course the world would end in 2012.

Oh, the malaise goes deeper.  Mags came home sick on Monday and finally started feeling better yesterday.  At least with the snow days she’s not been counted absent.  And then Tuesday evening I started feeling an infection setting in in a broken lower tooth.  OMG, I’m looking forward to getting my insurance issues settled out so I can take care of that, but in the meantime I’m using some antibiotics that my oldest daughter had been prescribed last year (the doc switched her to a different antibiotic after a day, so it’s a full bottle).  Lower teeth pain is about the worst, I think.  There’s just no where for the stuff to go, so it causes ear ache, jaw-hinge pain, and sore throat.  And I just want to die.

Seems an apprapo feeling given the day.  Perfect timing, I must say.  It was on this day, 11 years ago, that I had the same “I wanna die” feeling caused by pain… just before they slipped in the epidural.  Yes, on February 11, 1999, Booger made her way into the world.  And the school system has given her a “go ahead and sleep in” birthday present.  Oh, for the days of cupcakes, but apparently “healthy foods” rules now prohibit parents bringing in good-treats for their kids to celebrate their special days with their classmates.  I could buy pre-packaged snack cakes and bring them, they have to wait until they get home to eat them, but why?  It sucks the fun out of taking a break from your work, wishing Maggie Happy Birthday, and sinking their teeth into a lovely sugary-cake treat, before going back to work.  I’m glad I’m not a kid, they have it hard nowadays.  I remember when we didn’t take ourselves so seriously.

Oh well, hopefully I can get back into the groove soon.

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My First Wordless Wednesday :-)

Birthday pancakes ala Maggie 😀

TSS ~ Birthdays are Challenging for a Jane Austen Spaz!

K, so I started doing a Jane-a-thon last year, fully intent on reading all Jane Austen’s books, straight through, in order of publication.  I made it through Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, and Mansfield Park with no trouble…. then came Emma, and I hit a wall.  She was so dense and droning and hard to read… even harder to like any of the characters except Mr. Knightly and Miss Taylor… and I lost steam.  I did finally finish Emma a couple weeks ago, but I’m thinking I need a shot of something to get back on track with it all.

So….

I’ve joined 65 other people in joining Stephanie’s Written Word‘s Everything Austen Challenge!  It’s my first book challenge, other than LibraryThing’s 50 and 75 book challenges, and I’m excited to be doing it 🙂

The challenge runs from July 1st, 2009 to January 1st, 2010, and in that six months, I need to do at least six Austen related things, either reading books by her, books about her, books about the characters she wrote or watching movies of the same ilk.  Six Austen-related things will be easy for me…  the hard part will be not doing them all in July out of excitement. 😀

 So my six Austen-themed things are:

1. Read Northanger Abbey, it’s up next on the Jane-a-thon anyway.
2. Read Persuasion, which will complete my Jane-a-thon.
3. Read Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sanditon, which are all by Jane Austen.
4. Read The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler, which has been on my TBR list for awhile, but I’ve been waiting to finish the novels first.
5. Read Austenland by Shannon Hale, also a long waiter on Mt. TBR.
6. Read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which I spazzed out about when I saw it on the shelf at Walmart.

Bonus points will be:

1. Watching Northanger Abbey
2. Watching Persuasion
3. Watching The Jane Austen Book Club
4. and any other Austen-themed thing I come across 😀

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And since I’m being such a joiner, I think I’ll go ahead and join the War Through the Generations World War II Reading Challenge.  Since it’s running from January 1st, 2009 to December 31st, 2009, I can count books I’ve read since the challenge began.  Pretty easy, really… only 5 books and I’ve read two already.

My list for the WWII Reading Challenge:

1. The Zookeeper’s Wifeby Diane Ackerman
2. The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies
3. The True Story of Hansel & Gretel by Louise Murphy
4. Stones From the Riverby Ursula Hegi
5. The Secret Holocaust Diaries:  The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister by Nonna Bannister, Denise George, Carolyn Tomlin
6. Sarah’s Keyby Tatiana de Rosnay
7. The Readerby Bernhard Schlink
8. The Pianist:  The Extraordinary True Story of One Man’s Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945by Wladyslaw Szpilman
9. Number the Starsby Lois Lowry
10. Night by Elie Wiesel
11. Guernica by Dave Boling
12. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
13. The Boy in the Striped Pajamasby John Boyne

These are the WWII-related books on the WWII Reading Challenge list that I have on Mt. TBR.  I’ve already read The Book Thiefby Markus Zusak and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, so I only have 3 to go for the 5 book challenge, and I’ll probably do more. 

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2009 ARC Reading Challenge

As they say, “In for a penny, in for a pound,” so I’m going to add one more challenge to my book-challenge-lovefestI’ve got going.  So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting an ARC Reading Challenge.  I know I need to get it in gear with my ARC-alanche pile threatening to cave in… and poor Missy’s bed is just below the stacks, she’ll be crushed!

So, to save my dog and get motivated to get on the stick with these, I’m joining the 2009 ARC Reading Challenge.  For this challenge I am suppose to list all my ARCs and review books (done that on the ARC-alanche pageof Mt. TBR’s inventory), and read 12 of them.  Coolness 🙂

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And other tidbits of info….

• Tomorrow, June 29th, is my birthday, so yay me!  LOL… 
• In the Shadow of Mt. TBR is a little over a year old, June 16, 2008 was my first post. 
• Monday is my stop for the Something Beyond Greatness blog tour, and I’ve got an extra copy to give away, so make sure to sign up for a chance to win.  I’ll have a daily post for you to comment on for an extra entry, too.

Have a great Sunday, everyone! 🙂

Left-Handed Catch-Up

This past week has been a very busy one for me with dentist appointments, meeting with teachers and trying to get some housework done.  LOL… I just realized a few minutes ago that the reason this week’s Booking Through Thursday post already had 115 comments is that today is FRIDAY… dur.

As a result of my busy week, I forgot to edit the daily “Lefty’s Corner,” so I thought I’d post the hmissing three days here.

For St. Partick’s Day, Tuesday, March 17:

Cecil Adams is generally assumed to be a pseudonym of the unknown author of “The Straight Dope,” a popular question-and-answer column published in The Chicago Reader since 1973.  Whether Adams is the author’s real name is known only by the author and the Chicago Reader.  According to his bio, however, Adams is an accomplished traveler, resides in Chicago, and is left-handed.  He apparently attended Catholic school, Northwestern University, and is of Irish decent.

Lefty Birthday for March 17th:
Singer Billy Corgan

For Wednesday 18th:

Animated Lefties
Bart Simpson from The Simpsons
SpongeBob from SpongeBob SquarePants
Gromit from Wallace and Gromit

Lefty Birthdays for March 18th:
Author Richard Condon
South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk
Actor Peter Graves

For Thursday, March 19th:

Loius II of France was the eldest son of Charles the Bald and Ermentrude of Orleans. Known as Louis the Stammerer, this royal lefty succeeded his younger brother in Aquitaine in 866 and his father in France in 877. He was described as “a simple and sweet man, a lover of peace, justice, and religion.” In 878, he gave the counties of Barcelona, Gerona, and Besalu to Wifred the Hairy., His final act was to march against the Vikings in 879.

Lefty Birthday for March 19th:
Actor Bruce Willis

The Sunday Salon -Book Overload!

This last week has been a busy book-week. My middle daughter went to her dad’s the week before, leaving me with just my 15-year-old. She’s in summer school and can’t go to her dad’s until next weekend after S.S. is over. Then I’ll have about a week alone (since June 29th is my birthday, this will be a wonderful present!)

July 5th will see the return of my youngest, who starts summer school on the 8th (High school and elementary take their SS at different times).
I’m kind of starting to miss the little bug. (Her nickname when she was younger was “Lady Bug”)

I finished four books this past week: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, Skeleton Crew by Stephen King, Two For the Dough by Janet Evanovich, and Cell by Stephen King. Six is the most I’ve ever read in one week, and Skeleton Crew was only the last third, but it’s still a lot of reading.

I’ve also been working on writing my novel. So much of the process is in figuring out how everything works together, not just the fapping the keys and filling the screen with words. It also seems my writing is having some sort of breakdown, incurring the red wrath of Bic more and more. Don’t care.. edit later… write now. I may have a title for it, also. Mirror Image maybe, but that is subject to change.

Last week I also learned never to underestimate the Mooch. In trying to scrape together the point to mooch a book I wanted, I added Skeleton Crew (I was only 2/3 the way through) and Two For the Dough (which I hadn’t even started). I figured since there was plenty of those available, mine would be safe and I could finish at leisure. WRONG! My Skeleton Crew wasn’t even the best copy available, but it was mooched from me. Go figure. So now I won’t post until I’m done (or at least certain I’ll be done in a day or so.)

For this week, I’ve already started reading Hope’s Boy by Andrew Bridge. It’s a heart-breaking memoir of a boy who went into the foster system in Los Angeles county at the age of seven. He’d been living with his grandma in Chicago and was loved, cared for, and secure. But when his mom got out of prison in California, she demands her mother (Andy’s Grandma Kate) to send him to her. There he’s beaten by her boyfriend, used in a burglary by his mother and her girlfriend, and ignored often. The book just makes me want to cry.

After Hope’s Boy, I want to read all my Austen’s in chronological order. I have wanted to do a Jane-a-thon for a couple months, but haven’t been able to. The week alone (hopefully!) will give me the chance to just read-read-read straight through. 😀