Rah Rah #Readathon!

2014, Books in Bed, Dewey's Readathon /

I love Dewey’s Readathon more than just about anything. Those two days a year are some of my most favorite and I look forward to them like a kid looks forward to Christmas (or Halloween.)

This year, I volunteered to be a cheerleader.

It might cut into my own reading time a little bit but that’s OK! It’s the least I can do after all of the times folks have cheered me on. I’m very much looking forward to visiting other #readathoner’s blogs and sending them a happy thought or three.

It’s not too late for you to sign up to participate, as a reader or a cheerleader (or both!) And if you can’t swing it this month, you’ll have another chance in October. Oh, how I love #readathon!

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Reading in March

2014, Books in Bed, Reading /

I only read 20 books, again. I thought it was going to be a much better month than that since I read so many Kindle books and had a half day of jury duty to read. But, the other work/life stress got in the way so I lost reading hours late in the month.

Poop.

It was also the month of non-fiction, for some reason. That slowed things down considerably. Here’s the breakdown.

2 were from the Cybils shortlist.
2 were audio.
9 were non-fiction
3 were Kindle books and were also From My Stacks
2 were Graphic Novels
3 were YA
1 was Children’s fiction

Several of these were also from a series I’d previously read and since one of my goals is to catch up on series — I did a good job of that.

Onward to April. With #readathon this month, I should be able to get close to doubling this number. Fingers crossed!

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Filofax, Art Journaling and Other Goals in March

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Filofax /

Not. A. Good. Month. for much of anything.

I did almost nothing on my big monthly to do list, and some of the stuff I did has to be done again because that’s how it went for me in March. All messed up. So, I’ve carried my big list into April and am being very cautious about adding anything to that list so that I’m sure to get more things finished. Surely.

With four PTO days coming in April, I’m sure I can do some of these things… and still have fun and relax on my PTO days.

I have been having fun art journaling in my personal Filofax. That’s the one I use for work and I’m using the top space of my week on two pages to doodle the over-arching theme for the week. That’s been fun because it’s a good way to vent some frustration and turn that into something that makes me smile.

I did a fairly good job of working on JMP’s stocking, though I didn’t manage the ultimate goal for that project (which was to finish the entire top right corner) but I did get close. I think I’m going to see a huge difference in this one by the end of April (knock on wood.)

I also managed #17daysofgreen (my personal photo challenge for March) – that was mostly fun and not a chore. I considered extending it to a full month but decided not to press my luck. That was a smart choice since from 3/17 through the rest of the month turned out to be one trial after another (and I don’t really mean that whole jury duty thing.)

Oh, speaking of jury duty, I took my pennybridge (with the iPad case) with my to jury duty and that was cool. I learned a lot about using that Filofax just in the three hours I had to play with it and am looking forward to taking it along with me to BlogHer Food ’14 and BlogHer ’14. (Though I’ll miss my Cover Story and my Malden a LOT while I’m gone. I do love both of those Filofaxes.)

Fingers crossed for April. It’s going to be a good month, I’m sure of it.

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Princess Labelmaker To the Recue

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Fiction /

Another great book, Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue is NOT my favorite of the series. I didn’t think that could happen after I liked the last book so much. But it did — Rabbski came through and I liked the entries in the log book that were not so much about the evil Fun Time but about the kids working together and solving issues. I especially liked the kid (Kellen? Tommy?) who stood up for graphic novels. That was great.

Love, love, love.

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A Murder of Crows

2014, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

So. I read A Murder of Crows and I liked it a lot. As I did the first book in the Others series. I mean I really like the plot and the characters and the dialogue. And, for a second book — it was pretty good and not quite as let’s set up for the third book as second books can be.

So all good, right?

Except… I struggle with how blood prophets aka the teenage girl cutters, are portrayed in this series. There’s some glorification of cutting by teenage girls that bothers me. So while I’m enjoying the book, I’m also feeling creeped out and troubled by it at the same time.

I want to read the third book but at the same time, I don’t because it’s … wrong.

(And if you’re a cutter or have a history of self-harm, don’t read this series.)

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A Good Day Is Painful

2 Comments / Animal Issues, Daily Dose, Day to Day, Family Funk, Health and Wellness /

Ouch. My body hurts. TW’s body hurts more.

This is what happens when you’ve had a very full, very good day.

Cleaning house, ours and the prairie dogs. Taking three very hyper (though one was terrified) puppies to the dog park. The dog park that is covered in mud except along the edges where it is still covered in snow.

Bathing and drying three very hyper and tired (not to mention smelly) puppies.

All of the laundry that goes along with all of the cleaning, muddy walking, and bathing.

So tired.

But happy for the exercise, the somewhat clean house, and the sunny day.

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Organized Simplicity

2014, Books in Bed, Kindle, Non-Fiction /

Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Simple Living was on my Kindle app. No idea how it got there. Or when. Tsh is a blogger, you might have seen The Art of Simple before, so it’s possible I bought it just because she’s a blogger. I do that. I buy a lot of bloggers’ books on Kindle and then forget about them until I need a Kindle book to read.

Which is how I started reading this book. I was actually in the process of doing some de-cluttering in the laundry/stockpile room when I started reading this. It moves really quickly, particularly since there are some sections that are just not ME.

It’s not a bad book, though I found the end a little long — that’s the clean/de-clutter section. Since you pretty much do all of the same things from room to room, did we really need quite so much repeat there? Seems like it would have been more efficient to lay out the process and then provide a schedule for all of the rooms and then add info that’s specific to each room. Whatevs.

I didn’t love the book. Didn’t hate the book. I do really want to get up and do some de-cluttering right now because OMG we have so much stuff, lol.

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Jury Duty, Ho Hum

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Pet Peeves /

Remember when I said I was almost looking forward to jury duty? I think I said it a couple of times. Well yea. About that? Not so much once it came right down to it.

It’s not that I have any problem at all with providing that service to my community. Nope, that’s not it at all. It’s everything that goes with it.

I couldn’t get a venue change so I was stuck going all the way to the city, which means I had to leave at 7am to be sure I was there by 8:30am.

Then, the whole civil case thing kind of irks me. So many of these cases are a waste of everyone’s time. These things just shouldn’t get this far. Obviously, since three cases on the floor I was on settled before the jury selection process started. They called upstairs to two other floors looking for cases that were ready for jury selection to start. Nope. They all settled before jury selection could begin.

If you’re going to get to the point of actually being at the courtroom, less than an hour before jury selection begins then couldn’t you have settled yesterday? Day before? Really? You couldn’t come to some agreement until you got to the courthouse?

That’s the thing that’s so annoying.

So, I was released at 11am. I was paid $17.20 for my time. It’ cost me $34 to park my car.

People, if you’re considering taking a civil case to trial — don’t do it. FIGURE IT OUT BEFORE YOU GET TO THE DAMN COURTHOUSE for godsakes.

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