Saturday, May 5, 2012

Bye! Bye!






My sister just left and I already miss her...she and her husband are off to the Outer Banks to spend a week with friends.

We bought purses, celebrated Cinco de Mayo, sat at a brew pub and watched our husbands drink beer, and went to dinner at our favorite place.

I made pancakes and frittatas.

My sister has a way of leaving her stuff all over the house...I laugh because it is so funny...shoes by the door, knitting in the sunroom, stuff she's taking to the Carolina's in the refrigerator...she fills up places with her stuff! Bags and bundles everywhere...it's what my sister Paula does.

Lucy finally jumped up into my sister's husband lap...it was too funny for words!
He was not pleased. Lucy nibbled on my sister's yarn while she was knitting and put a hole in her pattern...the paper one...not her knitting.

She is an interactive kitty!!!

When my parents were alive...my mom would either walk down the driveway and wave until we were out of site or stand on her front porch and wave until we were out of site...now my sister and I do that for each other...to sort of remind us of what we once had.

We are exhausted today...all three of us...I have not been good about comments for the last few days but I will make it up to you!

Happy Sunday!


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Cats And Guests...What Is Up With That?






Lucy is a very congenial kitty. She has played with babies and toddlers. She is well traveled....lol...she will let people hold her...she is generally very well behaved...
generally.
My sister and her husband are visiting. My sister's husband is not a cat person. He can not even be charmed by the lovely Lucy Grace. He is also allergic to cats. But not to Lucy. So...when we are at my sister's house Lucy stays in our room. But when they are here...she is out and available all of the time.
Here is the thing...Lucy is obsessed with the one person who will never notice her!
She sits next to him. She watches him. When he gets up, she leaps to his chair! She slithers under his legs when they are propped on an ottoman. She even tried talking to him yesterday. She is hopelessly hooked on getting his attention...right now it is morning and she is pacing the hallway screaming in an effort to get his closed bedroom door to open!
My sweet little kitty has an unrequited crush on someone who doesn't even notice her. She loves her Uncle Bill!
Happy Saturday!




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Friday, May 4, 2012

OMG!!!


I have no clue why my review of "Gadfly" is so long!
I pride myself on writing short and sweet reviews...
I don't know what happened to me!!!
I am really sorry...just read the last half?
Skim?
Speed read?
Sometimes I just talk too much?
Please do accept our apologies?




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An Amazing Giveaway For The Year Of The Gadfly!!!






This book is one of those books about private school (that I love), a secret society and a girl reporter who likes to chat with Edward R. Murrow.

My thoughts...

Iris and her family have moved to a new town and a new school. I am imagining Iris as a bit on the odd side. She carries around a sort of briefcase and she styles herself as a reporter in the manner of her idol, Edward R. Murrow. She is on the school newspaper but her ideas are severely restricted by the editor. She feels a kinship, a connection to her science teacher who also attended school here years ago. There is a sort of shrouded mystery going on with acts of bullying and both Iris and her science teacher are trying to find out who is involved. There are also secrets and questions about Mr. Kaplan and what happened to him while he was at this school twelve years ago.

To be perfectly honest...I didn't get invested in this novel immediately. There are flashbacks...lots of them. The story alternates between school now and school then. I was reading an egalley on my iPad and constantly checking back to keep characters and events straight in my head was tricky. Soon, however, I came to a point in my reading where I felt as though I knew the characters and knew the times that everything was happening. This was my point of total and thorough immersion in this novel.

Iris is approached by masked classmates with a secret task to carry out...or else. The members of this secret society have the ability to bully, scare and manipulate. Iris has been "chosen" to work for this group but... is she really working for this group? Who actually is doing the manipulating? Mr. Kaplan is also tasked by the school's headmaster to find out who is in this secret club. The mystery just gets more and more complex and fascinating.

Added to this mystery is a tragedy that occurred while Mr. Kaplan was a student. It involved three other students...Hazel, Lily, and Mr. Kaplan's twin brother. Iris is actually living in the house that Lily lived in...in Lily's room with Lily's things. This only makes her more curious about what happened then and sort of connects her to Mr. Kaplan now.

What did I love about this novel?

Hmmm...

What I loved was the way the author connected then and now. I loved the quirky parts of Iris. I loved the surprises. Characters I thought were sweet and nice...really were just the opposite. I loved the weak parts of some of the characters as much as I loved their strong parts. I loved the slow reveal and that moment near the end when all the plot pieces and character actions fell neatly into place.

This book is different, surprising, and thought provoking. It is complicated. It drew me in slowly with its complex plot. It kept me guessing about its nice and often not so nice characters. It gave me lots to think about. It made me feel sad about what happened and it made me feel angry about wasted lives and the blindness of people. And at the end of the book...I was able to have hope for them....especially Iris and Mr. Kaplan and Lily.

I do like that from a book.

So...ultimately...should you read this book?

Should it be Kindled, Nooked, purchased, placed in a must read pile?

My answer to that would be yes!!!

The author wrote it brilliantly. There are so many things that you will learn by reading it. I can't even begin to tell you about the science part of it...the quirky parts of Iris that melted my heart. In spite of me not getting it at first...and that is just me...
it unravelled in just the right way.

I am still thinking about the complex character relationships. Still pondering the ending...

Sigh!

Thanks to Hannah and Carla at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt...

I have a lovely hard copy to give away...

Just leave your email in the comments...I will random.org a winner next Friday!



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Thursday, May 3, 2012

I Just "Gotta" Post!

Gotta have...
I had a store credit!!!
It covered this!!!
I just "had" to get this!
My favorite kind of shirt...oversized and slouchy...I love slouchy!!!



Gotta make?
Found this on Pinterest, of course, but it led me to this amazing blog...the Bees Knees Bungalow! This very creative person made it out of all found stuff. I would have to buy everything new and then trash the pots to make them look old and mine would then take twice as much time and cost five times more but I love this wreath. Her site is beautiful!



Gotta love...no surprises here...it never changes...
Lucy always crosses her paws like this. I truly think she is right handed. She always touches my iPad with her right paw.
She looks bored with getting her photo taken, doesn't she?
Or possessive of Den?


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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Sigh...Another Rainy Day...

Have you ever really loved the book that you are reading but felt as though you have been reading it forever?

That is the case with me and this puppy. It's loaded with flashbacks and I keeping going back and rereading...I am merely halfway through and finally I have the characters in my head. It's complicated...lol...but good...



I want to get to these...this one? Brothers, abuse, family issues and fighting over an inheritance? Yum!


This one sounds dystopian...the Earth's rotation slows down?
Very excited about this.


This is the way this book is described..." . .Something is wrong in Niceville, where evil lives far longer than men do."

Oh me oh my...


Today I am relaxing with a mani/pedi...it looks as though an all day rain is falling but everything outside looks clean and green...I am ready for my sister other than deciding on what to have for dinner on Friday when I am not sure when they are arriving...no grilling because it's rainy...I need a starter and something prepped and ready...
I have no clue what to serve...
ideas graciously accepted!


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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Am I Learning Too Much?




In the past few days I have learned how to do the following...

use baking soda and essential lavender oil to freshen a mattress

use vinegar to kill weeds

make a bird seed wreath

make a triple French braid

make a chicken dish to die for

use baking soda with toothpaste as a natural teeth whitener

make zucchini, squash, spinach and kale chips

make the most moist chocolate cake ever

make someone's Grammy's white cake and icing

All of this from one quick visit!

Whew!

I shall lovingly call this...Pinterest Overload!!!

Oh...I am now yearning for tubs and troughs to plant flowers in, too.



And my front porch will be sporting this look as soon as it stops freezing at night here.
Minus the dog? Hmmm...


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Monday, April 30, 2012

A Visit From My Sister!

My sister Paula and her husband are stopping by for the week end on their way to the Outer Banks...my house is always guest ready but...this little visit tweaked us and jump started some other house and yard projects...here's how that went down..
Hated the guest room lamps...got three new ones...








Hated that another guest room looked too crowded...so...took down the double bed and put in a daybed. Lucy's bed is next to the day bed. It looks like a comfy reading room now!








Amvets called...and since I was reorganizing upstairs rooms I had stuff to giveaway...that led me to go through one closet and resulted in five immense bags of shoes and clothes to give away!!!
While I was doing this, Den was working on the stones and landscaping...which led us to the purchase of new deck chairs for the sun deck...I had really lovely rockers out there that my mom and dad bought me but mushrooms were growing out of them and they fell apart...seriously...mushrooms?
We do live in the mushroom capitol of the world...but this was freaky!
Apparently we should have purchased a third deck chair!




You might wonder what if anything I have learned from any of this?
Apparently even when I think I am ready for anything...I am not!
We are older than we realize...we hurt, ache, and are exhausted!
But ready for guests...
other than groceries, some deck plants, a fern for the front planter, washing all the guest bed linens, actually dusting, planning menus, getting beer and wine, planning a fun activity for Saturday, going out to dinner Saturday night and sending them off on Sunday!
Whew!!!