TW is going out of town on Sunday and I’ve got big, big plans.
I’m going to read a whole bunch of graphic novels.
I’m going to watch a movie.
I’m going to make (non) poison caramel apple bites.
I’m going to work on JMP’s Christmas stocking.
Wish me luck — I’ll still have puppies and TW’s mom and Elly to manage (all by myself) and I’ll probably be out of sorts because TW is not here, which can lead to mindless internet surfing and doing not much of anything at all.
I reserved A Shot to Die For because it was set in Lake Geneva (and I may have mentioned we had a mini holiday planned for Lake Geneva?) — turns out it’s a whole series of mysteries set (mostly) in the north suburbs of Chicago. The main character lives off of a road just down the street from me.
So, kind of fun — not a great mystery but not truly horrible either. I might reserve another one.
I dunno why there aren’t more posts about Battery Safety Awareness Month — it would make about as much sense as all of the posts about breast cancer awareness because yo, folks — we are aware!
I mean seriously. Batteries can be dangerous if you let kids or animals eat them. Or if you try to charge non-rechargeable batteries (who does that, anyway?) Or if you try to dismantle a battery. (do people do this? what happens when you dismantle a battery? Can someone who has tried it, and lived, tell me what happens?)
Apparently you should also not mix brand name batteries with non-brand name batteries — I don’t really know why that might be but that’s the advice and if it’s on a battery safety list of things to not do, I guess someone has done it and had bad things happen to them. I’m kind of worried that something bad is going to happen to us because I guran-damn-tee you that we’ve got some stuff here with mixed brand batteries in it. (Are there people who only have one brand of battery in their house?)
You should also always replace all of the batteries in a thingy at the same time, which I guess I generally do. My problem here is that I have a bin of loose batteries and I suspect some are fresher than others which maybe would be the same thing as only replacing one of three? I dunno but it’s not safe and I’m tempted to throw away all of my batteries and start fresh because unfresh batteries are dangrous.
I’m even more concerned about the pictures of hybrids on fire, possibly due to battery issues (and apparently October’s Battery Safety Month is mostly focused on automobile batteries but it’s also Fire Prevention Month and battery fires are included in the things you should be aware of when you think of Fire Prevention. Though I really think we should prevent fires every month but that’s just me, maybe?) Have y’all seen the photos of the Tesla on fire? Or the Volt on fire? That’s troubling. If there are PRIUS on fire photos, due to battery problems, could you not share them with me? Thanks. I appreciate that. I’ve got enough to worry about with the loose batteries in my laptop bag possibly coming in contact with each other and setting my favorite BlogHer shwag laptop bag on fire. That thought is going to keep me awake all night. Or cause me to go empty out all of the loose batteries in my laptop bag and… hell… NOT throw them in the bin full of loose batteries in the closet.
Hell. I’m gonna have battery operated nightmares aren’t I?
Happy Battery Safety Awareness Month Read More »
I made a fresh pot of coffee this morning. It was early but I was awake. I’m sure of it. In order to make the coffee, I had to clean out the pot and the grinds from the little basket. That takes a few minutes and I’d let the dogs out and yea, I know I was awake… but the coffee tasted weird all day long.
I assumed it was because I’d gotten used to Starbucks blond after drinking 3 straight bags of it and today I had to use pre-ground some not well known name bag of coffee because that’s what was in front of me and the bags of whole beans weren’t right there in front of me.
No big deal, I will pretty much drink any coffee and be happy about it. But I’d pretty much decided I was never going to buy this brand again, no matter how inexpensive it might be. It just tasted… not great.
So tonight, I was out of coffee (yea, I drank an entire pot of not very good coffee today — coffee is coffee and when you’re addicted, you drink what’s in the damn pot) so I made another pot. I cleaned out the pot. And the basket thingy. I filled the basket with that same brand of ground coffee and pushed the button to turn on the machine.
It started making that very loud airplane sound that the Breville is known for … when it’s grinding beans.
What? Grinding beans? NO! No grinding beans, I was using pre-ground coffee! I ran back into the laundry room, where my Breville is, and pushed the power button to turn it off. Sure enough, I had forgotten to change the settings this morning so apparently it ground up a few stray beans in the bottom of the basket and brewed that coffee along with the pre-ground coffee I’d filled the basket with.
No wonder it tasted weird.
The Breville has different settings for pre-ground and whole bean brews. There’s a strength difference and a difference in brewing times and hell, I just totally flubbed it this morning. I caught it in time tonight — the coffee is fine. It’s no Starbucks or Prince of Darkness or even Seattles Best but it’s FINE now.
What the hell was I thinking? Maybe I wasn’t as awake as I thought I was this morning?
I Know How to Make Coffee. Really, I Do. Read More »
The Brookfield Zoo has some great books in their gift shops. TW spotted The Endangered Species Road Trip in one of them and I reserved it at the library. It was excellent. I read the entire thing yesterday.
Environmentalist books can be… preachy. And sometimes dry. And also a little boring. This one was none of those things. It was interesting and amusing and it made me think about what I’d like to see on my own endangered species road trip, someday.
The Endangered Species Road Trip Read More »
I didn’t do a very good job of talking about most of the books I read during the #readathon, so I’m backtracking a bit.
Astronaut Wives Club — I liked it but it wasn’t nearly as interesting as I’d hoped. I see now why someone (Julie?) said she didn’t really like it very much. It was vague where I wanted more detail. I’m glad I read it but I wish it had been better.
Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate was really good — witchery popery popery witchery, it’s really much the same when you think about it, right?
Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives — a book of short stories, very good short stories. That’s saying something since I’m not really a fan of short story compilations.
Lake Geneva: Life At the Water’s Edge was a really nice coffee table type book. Great photos. Interesting. Makes me a little sad that we cancelled our mini vacation in November. We’ll do it in the spring, instead, and I’m looking forward to it now more than ever.
Day Trips From Chicago was nothing special. I didn’t find anything unusual or extra interesting. Not a bad book of day trips it was just a little vanilla.
A Short History of Myth, I think I did write about this one a little yesterday. It was ok. Dry, as you’d expect. Something to think about (or to try not to think about?) as I read the other books in the Myth series in the months ahead.
Backtracking Book Reviews Read More »
I made it through my 11 books from the Cybils shortlist….
Pinch and Dash Make Soup — it was cute but I felt like I’ve read it before. (48 pages)
Kenvin Henkes, Penny and Her Doll and Penny and Her Song. Typical Henkes, no complaints (32 pages each)
I loved loved loved Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot. LOVED (103 pages)
I also loved loved loved Ivy + Bean Make the Rules. I’d like to go to Camp Flaming Arrow. (125 pages)
A Trip to the Bottom of the World with Mouse — It was ok, not my favorite. (32 pages)
Eggs 1, 2, 3 — cute fold outs, nice illustrations. I liked it. (32 pages)
Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover. Cute but typical Rabbit & Robot (50 pages)
Bing & Gollie Two For One. Kind of cute. I liked the illustrations a lot. (96 pages)
Sadie & Ratz. I’m not a fan. (60 pages)
Marty McGuire Digs Worms — yay for saving the world in 3rd grade. And interesting people at school assemblies. (176 pages)
Final #Readathon count — 17 hours.
17 books (and the end of another.)
An hour of an audio book.
1,980 Pages.
Good night!
11 Cybils and My #Readathon Totals Read More »
I just finished A Short History of Myth – a very dry and dense 149 pages. I… am not sure how I felt about this one. Parts of it made sense, parts of it I don’t buy, parts of it — I’ll have to think more about, probably while I’m reading the other books in the Canongate Myths series, in the weeks ahead.
Which leads me to the final stretches … I’m tired. My eyes are really tired. So, I’m turning to my stack of children’s fiction, non-fiction and poetry from the Cybils shortlist. I’ve got 11 of them here and I plan to finish them all before I call my fall 2013 #readathon — done.
I think I’d better grab some chocolate and another cup of coffee to get me through the final stretch.
I just hit the 14 hour mark and I’ve finished a bunch of books now.
– Astronauts Wives Club (just the last 83 pages)
– The Daylight Gate (224 pages)
– Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives (376 pages)
– Lake Genava: Life At the Water’s Edge (187 pages)
– Day Trips From Chicago (207 pages)
– An hour of Dexter’s Final Cut on audio.
I’m starting on The History of Myth now. Not a bad day, so far — considering I had an hour nap and got a late start!
Time for some chips and salsa, I think.
#Readathon Update: 14 Hours Read More »
Half-way? Oy. Not that I can do a full 24 hours but still…
1) I’m not tired at the moment, the nap definitely helped. My eyes are a little dry so some eye drops might be in order soon.
2) The only books I’ve finished are Astronaut Wives Club (which was almost finished when I started this morning) and The Daylight Gate. I’m close to finishing two more though.
3) My favorite is definitely The Daylight Gate though there are some great stories in Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives.
4) Best snack so far? Probably the lunch time squash/onion/apple galette.
5) New to me blogs: Jehara and The Estella Society!
Page count: 726
#readathon – mid event survey Read More »