#minichallenge #readathon snacks

2 Comments / 2012, Books in Bed, Dewey's Readathon /

It’s early in the morning so there’s not been much snacking, at least by me. I had a slice of pumpkin bread and a slice of banana bread and a cup of coffee. I’ll be digging into cheese straws and some chocolate (Mexican guajillo chillies, organic pumpkin seeds, dark chocolate and caramel… fascinating, right?)  TW started snacking right away – she had some sort of dehydrated okra thing and some sort of candy, grapefruit slices … which are sounding kind of yummy now that I think about it.

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Four Cybil Easy Readers (#readathon)

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Dewey's Readathon, Favorites /

I don’t always love the easy readers from the Cybils short list. Some are just too – too – typical. So it is with much surprise that I’m here to report that I just finished four really excellent easy readers.

Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus – it was obvious that I was going to love that, because I’ve loved all of the Anna Hibiscus books. This one might be my favorite because Anna went to Canada and met Canadian kids and the Canadian kids met Anna, who is from Africa. Anna also met a dog – a Canadian dog, which is not like an African dog. I love this series and I loved this book.

I read Just Grace and the Double Surprise and I was probably most surprised by this book. I expected it to be… boring. It wasn’t. Just Grace got a puppy, which made me laugh because her puppy is like my puppy which is like every puppy. And Grace’s best friend got a baby brother, through adoption, which is not at all what she was hoping for. Many lessons were learned but the book wasn’t at all boring and I laughed out loud, several times.

Also surprising was my appreciation of The Trouble with Chickens. I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t JJ the retired search and rescue dog, Vince the Funnel or the chicken family and their suspenseful mystery. An easy reader suspense drama – almost pulp fiction like in an easy reader animal story kind of way. Excellent.

And, the book with the best title – Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie. I know about bad months and about missing people who had to leave and about getting used to new people. Eleanor Abigail Kane knows this stuff too. Another good story with good characters. And now I’m going to think about sprinkling some pickle juice on a cookie… just to see what that’s like.

(Readathon count after two hours and four easy readers: 521 pages.)

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Good Morning #Readathon: The First Hour

2 Comments / 2012, Books in Bed, Dewey's Readathon /

I’m not sure I’ve ever started exactly at the start time before. This is kind of nice – though I had to get up at 5:30am to make it happen, which was completely unintentional but hey, it’s working out nicely. Work is done and the pumpkin bread is calling my name.

Here are the answers to the traditional introductory questions:

1) I’m still reading from the suburbs of Chicago. (Looking forward to the day when I don’t say that… 4 more years…)
2) Tough question this time around – I’ll go with my friend “Bad Luck Detective’s” second book in the Fang Chronicles series. 
3) Another tough question, but it always is since we stock up on snacks that we would not otherwise buy. The chocolate covered jerky, maybe?
4) I’m 49 and love #readathon more than Christmas. Well not more than Christmas because I like having most of my grown kids home for the holidays – but almost as much as Christmas.  This year we’ve got a new puppy to deal with during #readathon. I hope she is cooperative and gets the hang of lying around with a book for a full day… And that’s enough about me, it’s time to read!

5) This year I’m starting with the easy readers rather than the tough stuff. I usually toss easy readers in when I’m tired – we’ll see how this plan works for me. It might be a bust, who knows…

Now on to the reading!

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The Friendship Doll

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge /

I’ve decided I have problems with books about dolls. I don’t know why that might be, I’ve never had any issues in real life with dolls but it’s true, just the same.

I found The Friendship Doll really interesting, and I almost got a little weepy when a little girl died who I didn’t expect to die. And I really loved the Mrs. Roosevelt part and the Alzheimer’s ending. I also found myself looking up more information about the real Friendship Dolls from Japan.

But.

The book troubled me. Much the way Hitty: Her First Hundred Years troubled me, I guess (it’s been so long since I read it, but yea, like that.) Some underlying angst about the story. I don’t know.

It’s me, not the book. The book was good. I promise. (Unless you have doll issues like I apparently have?)

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Prepping for the #Readathon

2012, Books in Bed, Dewey's Readathon /

I worked my butt off so I could finish work at a reasonable time and get stuff together for Dewey’s Readathon (we miss you, Dewey.)  Yay, #readathon. I love #readathon!

The kitchen is clean and the dishwasher is running so the only dishes I’ll have to deal with tomorrow will be those we use tomorrow. Which probably won’t be many… see the #readathon food section below!

Laundry is in the washer and dryer and even if I don’t get it all folded tonight, it’s fine. That can wait until Sunday and I’ll have no laundry to feel guilty for not doing while I read. (I also won’t be tempted to do the laundry while I’m reading. Which I’ve totally done in the past.)

I’ve been to the library to return books and pick up the reserves + picked up a few other odds and ends for all of us to read tomorrow if we get bored with what we have. Yay for new library books.

I’ve downloaded a bunch of the apps from the Cybils shortlist list so that I can fiddle with those during reading breaks and I’ve double checked to be sure that I have some books downloaded to my iPad and iPhone, too.

I’ve set up bookmarks on my iPhone, iPad, and laptop so I can watch the #readathon stream and visit mini-challenges and other #readathon participants easily throughout the day.

I’ve got a stack of books on the cubby all ready to dive into tomorrow and I am planning on starting totally fresh by finishing the book I’m currently reading and NOT starting anything that I can’t finish tonight, either.

Here’s a photo of what I’m planning – you’ll notice I’m heavy on children’s fiction (catching up on my Cybils shortlist) and I got freaked out that I didn’t have enough non-fiction so I loaded up at the library. Now I’ve probably got too much non-fiction for the day. Oops.  We shall see, eh? I’ve got some books on my shelf I can turn to if the non-fiction gets to me. And, you’ll notice there are no Nancy Drews in the plans. That’s sad. I might have to switch things up and toss one in at the end of the day.

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We’ve been to Fresh Market and spent about three times as much money as I thought we would, (so much for me saying we generally spend less there than at Whole Foods, though more than at Trader Joe’s. Oy.)  I think I spent $100 on chocolate, which is crazyness (though some of it is for a certain kid’s Christmas…) and TW bought BEER. (I know! Right?! It was actually the cheapest thing we bought lol) We’ve got cheese straws and two kinds of pimento cheese. We’ve got mini lemon bundt cakes, pumpkin bread, banana bread and blueberry cornbread. There’s edamame salad and two kinds of pasta salad. Some sort of quiche and twice baked potatoes for TW’s mom. Veggie spring rolls. A couple kinds of cheese. Crackers, crackers and garlic tortilla chips. And… I don’t even know what else. Yum! I love #readathon snacks, heh.

Yum. I can hardly wait to eat and read!

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Frost

2012, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Frost is one of the creepiest books I’ve read in a good long while. The house was creepy, obviously, but the brother/sister were creepy, too. Heck, even Leena is a wee bit creepy even without the weird house and/or the… well I won’t give it away.

The question is, was it the house or was there REALLY a reasonable explanation. I vote it was a combo of the two and the next time someone tells you a girl went crazy and died in a house and from then on, only men lived in the house – hang onto that idea and if you’re female, get the hell out no matter how awesome and cute the little Victorian is.

Just sayin’.

Not my favorite from the Cybils shortlist but man it was creepy.

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Catching Up on Graphic Novels

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Young Adult /

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed someone had reviewed Books 3,4, and 5 in the Amulet series on our library website. That caused me to realize that Elly and I have fallen way behind on our Amulet series so I reserved books 4 & 5 immediately. I’d planned to read them during #readathon but book 5 was due back today and could not be renewed because it has holds so… I read them both yesterday.

And, excellent series. I have yet to tire of these characters, except for Emily’s mom who is pretty much a waste of a character, if you ask me.  Is there some reason that she’s so… clueless and blah and I just missed the explanation for that? Her father blah blah blah, yea, I get that but still, she needs to get her shit together or I’m just gonna skip over every word in her bubble from now on.

I really liked seeing what happened to Max and I’m glad Miskrit is back!

Here’s hoping we won’t fall so far behind again!

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Two More YA Cybils

2 Comments / 2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Feminism, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

How come all of the books from the Cybils shortlist that I wanted to read on audio are just now coming available, all at once? Gah.  We’re almost ODing on audio books… and poor TW, one of the books is one she had already read. Oops. She was a good sport and listened to The Girl of Fire and Thorns anyway and only gave away one spoiler. She also provided some info that was not really accurate, so a spoiler that could have been a spoiler wasn’t a spoiler after all. Heh.

I liked the book but it did get a little frustrating listening to Elisa go on and on about her looks, how fat she was, how beautiful and confident and capable everyone else was, blah blah blah. It took her an awful long time to grow up and beyond her weight. And really, I’m not sure she ever completely managed it. So that was depressing. Hopefully, if there’s a second book, the author can do away with all of that and just let Elisa enjoy her food and let us enjoy the story.

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I started Misfit on Saturday and finished it on Sunday. Yay for me for finally finishing a book (I started two others last week and tossed them in the library bag to take back – I just could not read either of them. That’s a lot of book quitting for me!) It was an easy book to read, enjoy and finish – and then wonder how long it will take for a sequel. Surely it’s going to be a series, there are Three more Dukes of Hell to deal with…

I loved Jael. I really loved everything about her.  A good strong female heroine who didn’t need to spend time worrying over what she looked like or how much she weighed or how popular she was. Breath of fresh air. Really. 

(PS. The Cover of the book on Amazon is a lot better than the cover of my library copy.)

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Happy Birthday to Me… Mmmmm, Coffee

2 Comments / Coffee & Tea, Daily Dose, Family Funk /

I hate my Cuisinart coffeemaker. Seriously hate it. Everyone who’s used it (in my house) hates it. I’ve been dreaming of a new coffeemaker for at least a year, probably closer to two years. Finally, we couldn’t take it any longer and we started talking (a lot) about buying a new one.

At first, I was all “Let’s just get a cheap Mr. Coffee.” But apparently that wasn’t the right idea, since neither of us really pushed to just do that.

Then, we talked a bit about trying to find a coffeemaker like our old Starbucks coffeemaker that we both loved so much. But, that seemed like an impossible task, so we did nothing.

We both considered the Breville  YouBrew, after buying Prince J the fancy schmancy Breville Tea Brewer last year but that’s a lot of money for a coffeemaker we didn’t know much about.

We continued to do nothing and I cursed my Cuisinart every day.

Last month, we wandered into ABT to look for a big microwave with a mute option and while we were there, we saw the Breville YouBrew in person and I fondled it. A lot. I pretty much decided that was the coffeemaker I wanted.  

I went home and researched it. I watched the nice Breville videos and read user reviews and watched more videos and yep, that’s the one I wanted and I was going to get it for my birthday. But then, I bought a new car and thought maybe I shouldn’t also get a new, expensive, coffeemaker. So I did nothing, again.

But TW came home on Friday with the YouBrew and yes, I really was surprised.

I read the instructions. I put it together. I ran it through the cleaning cycle. I brewed a single cup of coffee at 6pm.

It wasn’t the best cup of coffee I’ve had but that’s to be expected. It has a lot of settings and I went light/medium on brew and strength to see what the coffee was like at that setting. It also takes a really, really long time to make that single cup of coffee but that’s fine, I was doing the dishes while it brewed.

The next morning, I got up and made a pot of coffee and I went for the setting just below the strongest setting and it was a fabulous pot of coffee.

(There are a bunch of reviewers who talk about the coffee getting cold. I call BS. I made the pot at 6am and at 4pm the coffee in the carafe was still hot. Not burning hot but a good temperature to drink a fast cup of coffee before you have to leave the house again…)

Later that night, I made another single cup of coffee and I went strong/strong – perfect.

This morning, I made a pot of coffee – strong, not intense and I briefly wondered at the reviewers who talk about how loud the coffee grinder is because at 6:30am, with nobody else up, it didn’t seem that loud to me.  

After the machine beeped, I got up and poured a cup. Hmmm, it seems really light to me. But maybe it’s my imagination because I didn’t have any lights on in the house and it was still dark… I carried the cup back to my desk, took a sip and paused… hmmm that doesn’t taste good.  What happened? Did I screw up the settings somehow?  I took another sip. I looked in the cup, by the glow of the laptop screen – very light. Shoot. I must have screwed up the settings.

I took another sip. Put the cup down. Did some work. Took another sip. Sighed a lot. Wondered whether it would improve if I just left it out all day (and drank Tassimo while I waited for it to improve – I know, I’m nuts. You don’t have to say so, on my birthday. Hmph.)

I grabbed the little Breville booklet to figure out what I might have done wrong.

I got up to peer at the machine. Sighed. And took it apart to wash it so I could start over. Why were there almost NO grounds in the filter? Were they in the pot? No.  Did it somehow brew a cup’s worth of beans in a whole 12 cup carafe of water? That would not be good. Not good at all. It would mean taking back the machine, I’m sure.

I poked around it again and realized… there were no beans in the bean hopper.

Oy. Why doesn’t it have a beeping noise or a warning display light that says, “You are an idiot and there are no beans in here!”

Sure enough, I cleaned the machine, refilled the hopper, made sure the settings were where I thought they were and brewed again…

Another excellent pot of coffee.

Thank goodness.

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