www.booksthoughtsadventures.com: 4/10/16

Friday, April 15, 2016

My Life Lately...

We are either waiting for the tree guy or the mulch guy or the stucco check up guy...Den is dangerous when left to his own devices. I don't understand why he feels that there is always something that needs to be looked at, attended, monitored. He is now obsessed with painting...and that will truly take me over the edge. He has also been muttering about the deck...we can't put deck furniture out until the deck is washed and stained. With all of these lists and check ups we are still working on the basement, the garage and the downstairs closets. I knew that this would happen...it was inevitable...we have to go back to Charlottesville and revisit everything we looked at...on our own. We also want to drive to a few beach towns about two hours away from us. Could the answer to our restlessness be a condo or townhome near the beach? Some place where the four of us can go all year long at random times just to sit and read and be "beachy"? Keep our big house for a while and beach it when we want to? Live at the beach while this house is on the market?

We don't know!

And the not knowing is freaking us out! It's not as though we haven't moved before but those were company moves, career moves, funded moves!

This is all on us and we need to be right!

We need to make the right choice! We have looked at Nashville, Charleston, Lewes Beach, Asheville, Denver, Portland, Maine, even Pittsburgh and now Charlottesville. What on earth do we do?

I know...I know...you have heard all of this before!

The only thing we know for sure is that we are not staying here.

We are in a very confused state of mind.

But we are really ready to leave here. It might be lovely. We might even miss certain things about this place. But we don't want to live here any more.

Figuring out how to do this is really difficult. Keep house...buy condo at the beach? Sell house buy two condos in two really different places?

Buy a big RV...pack up the kitties and see the world?

No clue!

Sorry for my rant!

Books!

Reading this because it is taking my mind off of things!

It's really good!

From Amazon...

"The honesty of Wolf Hollow will just about shred your heart, but Annabelle’s courage and compassion will restore it to you, fuller than before. This book matters.” —Sara Pennypacker, New York Times bestselling author of Pax...

Have a lovely weekend!

Hugs,

Patty

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So...When Den Is Away...

When Den is traveling for work...I literally read nonstop. There isn't any cooking or cleaning it organizing...I just tidy the house...and read. It's like my own tiny little reading marathon.

The kitties love it...they are by my side wherever I read be it deck, sunroom, family room or bedroom. I mostly eat salads or a baked potato and cottage cheese...and read!

So...Den has been gone since early Monday...he just returned last night around midnight.

And he is at his desk this morning...working. I just love that he is retired!

So...I finished these...

Surprisingly I loved Troublemaker the most...it was edgy yet smooshy...a wounded agent recuperating with a small town sheriff with a definite chip on her shoulder...and Tricks The Wonder Dog...and you know the bad guys are coming back for him.

Baby Doll was a fast reading experience...the kind of book that you know could be a TV movie...good but not great. A young girl is kidnapped and hidden away by her abductor for years and finally one day he leaves the door unlocked and she escapes...duh!

Before The Wind? A great family sailing saga with the most clever chapter titles and humor but...way too much sailing jargon for me...I could only think about that feeling that I get when I am on a sailboat feeling seasick. Ick! It was a lovely story, though.

Now...Den is home and my reading pace is so much slower...there are blue skies coming and yard work and closets to clean!

Reading these...this is my daytime book...Lisa Trumperton...I love that name...finds out her husband has a GF so she divorces him and moves back to Australia...it's a fun, relaxing book! She is going to restore her family home with a crew of crazies and a one eyed kitty!

This is my nighttime Kindle book...a teacher leaves Boston and her private school job and returns to Mystic, Connecticut for the summer. It's most definitely a lovely beach book. Mystic is a place close to my heart. We always stopped and spent the night there on our way to Maine. We stayed at a great inn...with Lucy...and either ate at their amazing restaurant or ordered Mystic Pizza. Remember the Julia Roberts movie? It's a beautiful town.

Hugs,

Patty

This was my Thursday post that I didn't remember to post until Lucy woke me up at 3 ish this morning!

Now it's 4:30 and I am wide awake yet exhausted!

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Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Images...Random Ones...

Homemade Kombucha from The Kitchn...I want to try this because I drink it daily...but I am afraid...very afraid...plus Den told me one bottle was a serving when it's really two servings...I am still recovering. This kind of spicy sharp tangy drink is good for your gut!

Stuck with this series and I loved it...

Sort of stuck with this one and I didn't love it...

The chair we never sit in...it's perfect for reading, resting, relaxing in and we never do! Roxie used it when she was going through her Princess And The Pea phase...

What I did for love...

This pasta salad from Spicy Southern Kitchen amazes me...those are Fritos!

The kitten my brother adopted and the dog who loves her...

One of the first quilts I made...

It's just so pretty...I think this was on a blog called Cup Of Jo...

My mom with an unknown dog...she was not an animal lover...

That's it...

Hugs,

Patty

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Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Two Upstairs Closets And Books!

So...this is the story of the two upstairs closets...well one is actually a hutch...and how I stored everything I didn't want to deal with...inside...in a totally disorganized manner. So whenever we had guests and I needed to freshen sheets in guest rooms...I had no clue where doubles, twins, queens and kings were. Martha Stewart videos showed me how to fold fitted sheets but I never actually "got" it. So...I rolled everything into a ball and shoved. But lately this arrangement has been bothering me and now I only love white sheets so...we purged and we now have sheets and towels for Big Brothers as well as sheets for my sister Paula's lake house. And...the guest bath linen closet was so filled with towels that I could not even close it...and now...

Ta da! Here are the results of our Saturday cleaning.

I have a stack of new hand towels and two more sets of bath towels in the dryer. But that's it. For now? Yes...for now!

I should have taken before photos...

Books!!!

Of course you know I finished this...and...loved it!

Today I am about to tackle this one...so unlike me to choose this kind of book but I like stretching my reader's vision?

Here's the scoop!

From Amazon...

"Following The Highest Tide, Border Songs, and Truth Like the Sun, Jim Lynch now gives us a grand and idiosyncratic family saga that will stand alongside Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion."

Plus this...

"A cautionary tale of obsession and what it can cost tells of three generations whose devotion to sailing holds them together until it sunders them…. Lynch dissects an uncommon family with, after all, more than one thing in common in a highly readable tale.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Off to grab some lunch...and sneak in a Columbo...my obsession runs deep for this weird police drama!

Hugs...

Patty

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Monday, April 11, 2016

It's Monday!

So...over the weekend I finished this big ole' chunkster of a book!

It was so good.

Editors, writers, journals, secrets...plus it involved way too much drinking and smoking...kind of like Mad Men! Way too many men ordering their secretaries around. Way too many young women doing way too much for too little money. These women did their secretarial jobs by day and then read manuscripts on their own time! Kind of like blogging? Heeheehee!

Loved this book!

Now...new books!!! I am linked up with The Book Date. I never really did this regularly before but it's kind of fun to visit a few new blogs during the week!

This is a yummy mix of books for me...but...I could not bear to not grab the new Emily Giffin right away! My books this week are a mix of YA, mystery and Emily Giffin! I love her books!