Steampunk Gazette

2013, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Steampunk /

There’s a shelf at my library that lures me in every time. It’s a non-fiction, new release shelf, and if I walk past it, I will throw an unplanned read into my bag — and that’s what happened with The Steampunk Gazette.

I’ve had it on my library cart to read for ages and I just keep putting it off. I was afraid it was going to be too full of words that might ruin my steampunk fun. It wasn’t that at all.

It’s full of awesome photos and the words are kind of like a middle grade pictorial encyclopedia would be. Easy to read. Easy to skim. Interesting tidbits. Totally fun.

Stumbling across a mention of my friend Sarah Dopp for her Genderplayful didn’t hurt either.

Also, I want one of these:

I really want a wall tentacle. TW said “Grandmothers don’t have wall tentacles.” I told her she’s full of shit. I want one. (I’m going to be 50 years old this year and nothing screams 50! like a wall tentacle, if you ask me. While I normally prefer orange, I think that would clash with all of my other orange so a blue or a green would probably be better. Someone take care of that for me.)

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Dog Toys and DoggyLoot

1 Comment / Animal Issues, Family Funk /

I seem to be talking to a lot of people, one on one, about dog toys that stand up to Skeeter so I figured maybe it was time to write a new post about dog toys we recommend.

But first, I have to give a nice shout out to DoggyLoot.

I joined DoggyLoot a couple of months ago when I saw a discount code thingy for $5 off when you join. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to order, so I just joined their dog toy of the month club and Skeeter’s received several toys from their club since we joined.

Most of the toys didn’t stand up to Skeeter but not many toys do, so I don’t hold that against DoggyLoot. What I do particularly appreciate is the fact that when they sent emails to their customers telling us that we had a $5 credit to use, when we really didn’t, they made good on that email and gave everyone the $5. That’s the kind of customer service that seems to be going out of style.

If you want to try DoggyLoot and you haven’t joined, this link has my affiliate code attached to it. (If you join using my link, you get a $5 credit right off the bat — if you order, I’ll get a $10 credit.) If you don’t want to join, it won’t hurt my feelings. If you want to join but you don’t want to click my link, it won’t hurt my feelings either.

Now, onto the toys that are standing up to the Skeeter test:

  • Orbee-Tuff Glow Bone — we got this one at the Pet Expo. She likes it and she hasn’t (knock on wood) come close to destroying it. I was surprised by how well it’s held up.
  • Crinkist — another toys we got at the Pet Expo. After chewing up a few different water bottle toys, this one is amazing. It’s a little tough to get the bottle into (use soap!) but once it’s in there, it stays until she’s chewed the heck out of it. She’s been through four bottles and the toy/holder is no worse for ware. That’s amazing!
  • Sticky Bone — we bought this at Pet Supplies Plus. Total impulse purchase that I picked up because the material is similar to that of the Orbee-Tuff Glow Bone and I was interested in what would happen if she had a toy that sticks to the floor/wall. Well… it doesn’t stick very well, so that’s kind of a bust. (I tested one in the store and it worked great — I’m guessing I didn’t buy the one I tested, sigh.) But, she carries it around and chews on it like she chews on everything, and it’s holding up really well though we haven’t stuck any toys into the crevices…
  • This was a $5 toy that we bought at Pet Supplies Plus. I figured it would be destroyed in a second, particularly after I pulled the tag off the top and exposed some stuffing. She’s a maniac for stuffing. But — nope, it’s in great shape and she loves this darn toy. Soft rubber, a lot like the Orbee-Tuff and the but not exactly the same. It’s softer and I really can’t believe she hasn’t destroyed it yet. I should have saved the tag but I really never thought it would last more than a couple of hours, max!
  • This one came from DoggyLoot. I didn’t have a lot of hope for it but she had it almost a month before she started chewing pieces off of it. Though she has started chewing pieces off it it, it’s still holding up well… normally once she gets the first piece off, it’s just a matter of minutes before she’s shredded the toy into tiny bits. Not this one. I sure wish I knew the brand name…

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Feed

2013, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Most months Sassymonkey posts a discussion post or blog post asking what people are reading and that’s always a good way to pad the TBR and library reserve list. Feedcame from the comments of one of those posts and I sure am glad it did.

I love this book.

I knew what was going to happen to Buffy. And at the ranch. I did not, however, see Georgia’s fate coming. I just didn’t. I should have — it was really all spelled out but, nope, didn’t see that coming.

Blogging, zombies, conspiracies — it’s awesome. I’m concerned that the second book in the series might not be as good. I’m so concerned that I’m not sure I’m going to reserve it. I don’t want to ruin such a good story with a bad sequel… has anyone read Deadline (Newsflash series)?

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The Things We Have Not Seen

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Friends & Family, Travel Log /

My brother (yes, dammit, I have a brother) and SIl (no, Christine is NOT my sister) are coming to Chicago this week. Yay! Christine is coming! (errr, and Mike, too.)

My brother and I are alike in a lot of ways but in other ways, we’re very very different — I think it might be most noticeable in talking about the things he and Christine might want to do while they’re here.

Some things I suggested, things I’ve enjoyed and other visitors have enjoyed, didn’t appeal to him/them at all. Other things that he asked about are things that I’ve never seen/done, often because they’re not high on my “things I want to do/see in Chicago” list.

But, that wee little phone call with my brother caused me to start thinking (again) about leaving this place in three years. Before we leave, there are things we should see and do and rather than wait til the last few months of living here, maybe we should make a list now and start seeing those things now?

Time to get out the Chicago guide books and make some lists!

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Dreams and Shadows

2013, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Another year has gone by without me taking part in the Happily Ever After Challenge. Darn.

Though I didn’t do the challenge, I did reserve some books for the challenge and Dreams and Shadows is one of those — recommended by Sassymonkey. She specifically recommended it for TW, though. And, maybe I should have listened to that?

I did not love this book. I had to fight my way through the first 1/3 and only after I started skipping the book entries by Thaddeus Ray did I even begin to get into the story or care about the characters.

In a very odd twist, this book is set in Austin. You’d think that would have helped me get into it, since I was also reading Austin travel guides — and it did. But that’s really the only thing that kept me reading during pretty much all of part 1 of the book.

I can’t figure out why I didn’t love this story. I normally like urban fantasy (Holly Black?) and the addition of the djinn should have just made it better. It didn’t. If we could get a re-write of the first part of the book … maybe I’d like it better. And no, I don’t think I’m going to read any sequels. I like Colby and his djinn but not enough to slog through another 400+ pages to see what happens next.

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Austin Travel Guides

2013, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Austin travel guides are either really good or really bad, there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground. I don’t particularly like the ones that are combined with San Antonio (though I suppose if I was going for a week’s vacation, I’d be more appreciative of those.)

Here’s what I liked and didn’t like:

* Frommers San Antonio and Austin Day By Day — I like these because I like to have some place to start when thinking about planning out my days. I don’t generally follow their itinerary but I do like to start with these.

* Top 10 Eyewitness Travel San Antonio and Austin — I’m a big fan of lists and I’d have liked this one a lot more if it hadn’t been a combo San Antonio/Austin guide.

* Moon Austin, San Antonio and Hill County — I just plain like Moon travel guides. They always have suggestions that are just a little different from all of the others. Again, the darn combo travel guide — but this one did a much better job with Austin than the first two.

* Insider’s Guide to Austin was almost TOO much. I know, I know. I complain about combo guides and then complain when I get TOO much from this one. I’d like this better if I was going to have more time in Austin or if I was moving to the area. I also didn’t like the font or the darn paper. Blech.

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Good Grief

1 Comment / Community Chest, Daily Dose /

I’ve pretty much done nothing all day but watch livestreaming news from Boston.

And this makes me kind of miss the good ole days when we got news a few times a day with occasional breaking news coming in with an update but then you were taken right back to regular programming.

Breaking news coverage… stops being breaking news coverage when you have absolutely nothing to report and nobody to talk to who knows anything. And, that’s pretty much what the coverage was for most of the darn day.

Didn’t keep me from being fascinated by it though, did it?

Gah.

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Going to Austin

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Travel Log /

Yes, we’re going to Austin. That’s what my adding all of those Austin/San Antonio travel guides to my GoodReads account means.

We’re going to Austin June 5-9.

We’re going to Austin June 5-9 for BlogHer Food.

We’re staying at the Austin Hilton.

Michelle Belle will be there (tentatively) June 5-7, (she’s coming in for Chaos in Tejas and staying a couple of extra days in order to see US.)

We’re coming in early because I’ve never been to Austin and TW really likes Austin and I’m sad because I think the Cathedral of Junk might be closed. How sad would that be?

What weird interesting things should we do while we’re in Austin?

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Letter to My…

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Memes and Quizzes, Personality, Questions and Answers /

I was reading Adela’s post again, Advice to My Younger Self, and realized I’ve never written one of these types of letters. Or if I have, it was when I was a child and forced to write one in school (and then promptly forgot about it.)

I thought I might be the only person in the world who’s never written such a letter because they’re so common online but TW says she’s never written one either.

Interesting.

Are we the only ones?

And did you write these kinds of letters to yourself when you were a kid? Michelle Belle did that and then read them when she was… I don’t remember… 18 maybe? But she’s very much a time capsule, look back on my life, look ahead to my life sort of person.

I am not.

Maybe I should be?

I’m considering writing a letter to my 60 year old self. Or at least attempting it. Is that dumb? It feels kind of dumb. But if the rest of the world can write letters like this, why can’t I?

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Books, Books, and More Books

2 Comments / Books in Bed, Library /

I’m tired this morning, (though I did sleep slightly better last night), and didn’t feel like doing any of the things on any of my to do lists before I “officially” started work this morning. So, I ran to my library and dropped off some of the books we’ve read this week, including one very over-due book.

I try really hard not to have over-due library books but every now and then it does happen. Usually because a kid has hidden a book where I can’t access it or because it’s fallen behind another stack of books or something weird like that. In this case, it’s because it took TW a lot longer to read a book than normal. (She’s not feeling well or sleeping well, either.)

.40 is totally worth paying, though.

The $1 I paid to check out a DVD last week is totally worth it, too.

My library is awesome. I can’t imagine life without it. I don’t understand how people can go months/years/lifetimes without visiting the library. It just makes no sense.

Just like makes no sense.

If your kids read Captain Underpants, they won’t turn into horrible human beings.

If your kids read The Kite Runner, be proud that you have a smart kid. I mean, seriously.

And Tango Makes Three, challenging that one is just plain silly. It’s about penguins, for godsake.

Beloved? Really? You want to challenge Toni Morrison? Please.

None of it makes any sense.

Go hang out in your library and read some challenged books. I’m going to read 50 Shades of Grey this month, (one of the side benefits of getting RJ’s room clean — I found all the missing books!)

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