Making Love to the Minor Poets of Chicago

2014, Books in Bed, Fiction, Queer /

I finished my first book of 2014 five days into the year. This does not bode well for my 300 book goal, does it?

I’ve been trying to read Making Love to the Minor Poets of Chicago since before Christmas. I have no idea why I stuck with it — probably because of the Chicago setting. And because I actually liked some of the characters.

But lord there were a lot of characters and the story line… gah. It left a lot to be desired. And the ending, blah.

I liked bits of it — some of the characters. I hated bits of it, the plodding OMG just get on with it. Ho hum. Not a great start to the year but I finished it.

Making Love to the Minor Poets of Chicago Read More »

My Locket

3 Comments / Daily Dose, Family Funk, Filofax, Kid Talk /

Jenn sent me a fabulous opal locket for my birthday — It arrived with the Christmas gifts she sent in December. I didn’t expect it because she’d already gifted me with cleaning ladies so I had absolutely no idea this was coming.

It’s a great locket but there were problems…

I don’t really wear jewelry. I wear the gecko that the kids gave me a zillion years ago in the Philippines and the coffee bean TW gave me for beaning day, on one chain. One chain I haven’t taken off, except to replace a broken chain, in more than 10 years.

This locket came on a very long chain. One I was very sure I’d break. Not to mention it’s heavy — not the kind of thing I can put on and never take off again. It’s also too heavy to put on the same chain with the coffee bean and the gecko.

So it sat here on my desk and I fondled it every day. Opened it and looked at the pictures. Closed it and fondled it again. What to do…?

Of course. I could turn it into a Filofax charm! And when I gifted myself with the A5 Malden, I knew it would be PERFECT as a charm for that Filofax.

We went to Michael’s yesterday and I bought the stuff to turn it into a Filofax charm (along with the two flamingos TW gave me for Christmas) and I love the way it turned out. The Malden is almost always on my desk and I can fondle the opal and look at the photos all of the time, without worrying about losing it or breaking it.

I love, love, love it.

My Locket Read More »

People Are Unreasonable

9 Comments / Community Chest, Daily Dose, Money Talks, Pet Peeves /

We went to Target this morning, just to grab some of the Christmas clearance stuff — and found ourselves with an overflowing cart. This is why we don’t go to Target very often and why we never go with a vague list of what we are looking for.

But that’s not what this post is about.

This post is about the woman checking out in front of us. She had a ton of 90% off Christmas clearance stuff and she really flustered the cashier — when something didn’t ring up 90% off, she SWORE it was in the Christmas clearance area and so he kept having to over-ride the price. A couple of times I was tempted to say — no, it was in the area that they are beginning to stock NEXT to the clearance area… but I kept quiet.

She also kept taking things off of the belt saying she’d gotten more than she needed. Sometimes after he’d already scanned some, so she kept asking him to make sure that he’d scanned only the number of items that she really wanted. She was a mess. Really.

At the end, he totaled her up and she insisted he had rung up the wrong price for one item or maybe he had rung an extra one up… he tried to get back to the list of items rung up and… lost the entire thing. Poof. Empty.

The cashier called for help… but no, there was nothing that could be done. The woman was livid. She didn’t have time for this… the floor person (where’s Michelle to tell me what these people are called) offered to ring it all up and have her come back later and just pick it up and pay for it at her convenience. No, she lives a half hour away and did not want to come back.

She decided they should just ring up one item at whatever she believed her total was… $74 and change, though the last total I saw was $89.67 but whatever… the guy said, no I don’t think we can do that. We need a record of exactly what you bought… she asked to speak to the manager.

The dude called the manager, explained what happened, asked if they could just ring up one item… while they waited for the manager to find out if there was a way to retrieve the entire order, the guy said we can offer you a percentage off of this order if we have to ring it all over again.

The woman said fine. I want something for this inconvenience!

The manager came back and said no, we have to ring it all up because we have to know exactly what was sold — and I was saying, “DUH”…

The woman said WELL I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS AND I WANT SOMETHING FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE! and she started to pull items out of the cart back onto the belt.

At which point I said, is it possible for you to re-ring this at customer service since you’ve already held this line for a half hour? The guy said, yes — of course, you’re right, we’ll move to an empty aisle at which point the woman yelled, “FINE BUT I WANT SOMETHING FOR THIS!” as she walked away fuming.

Who would ever believe that you could just ring up some random item for some random amount of money and let someone walk out of the store with hundreds of things. They have an inventory to deal with, ya know? And if she hadn’t been such a butt about her order in the first place, the cashier probably wouldn’t have gotten flustered and hit the wrong darn key and she’d have been out of there in a decent amount of time rather than adding 20 minutes for ranting on top of re-ringing her entire order.

They do not pay those poor Target employees enough to deal with asshole customers — don’t be an asshole at checkout, ‘k?

People Are Unreasonable Read More »

The Showgirl Is a Delicate Flower

4 Comments / Animal Issues, Family Funk, Pets /

A couple of days ago, whatever day it was that the snow started to really, really fall — the puppies had been outside playing while TW cleared the driveway and when they came running in, Lola slid on the top step and just sat there panting. If another dog got near her, she growled. I thought for sure she’d broken her leg…

I got the other two dogs inside and locked in the kitchen and by the time I got back to the cold room to help her, she was walking around, slowly, in the office.

I sat down with her and looked at her legs and feet and everything seemed fine. She’s a tough little showgirl (obviously, since she survived a skewer through the belly while pregnant) and we all went on about our business.

Today, the dogs were outside playing when Lola suddenly started shaking and walking like something hurt… duh. It’s her feet, not her legs. Her feet are getting so cold that she can’t walk and they hurt. I’ve never seen that happen to a dog before.

None of the dogs have exhibited this problem, while we’ve lived here. When I lived in NJ, I never saw a dog have that problem either, (and lord I saw a lot of dogs when I lived in Jersey, since I worked at an animal kennel… but that could be that they only spent about five minutes, twice a day, out in the snow — the rest of the time they were in their indoor runs?)

We always joke about Skeeter being the delicate flower but it turns out the tough showgirl has delicate paws.

The Showgirl Is a Delicate Flower Read More »

Back to Work — For Reals

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Day to Day /

Today wasn’t my first day back to work but it was my first REAL(ish) day back to work. Most of my co-workers are still on vacation but it seems like the community is back to blogging and back to BlogHer. And I was busy, busy, busy all day long.

And I do mean ALL DAY LONG.

I’m still busy but I figured if I didn’t take a three minute break to blog then it’s possible that I might not blog since I still have to load up the trash bins and get them out to the street and work on my filofaxes and do some laundry and check my email and play WWF. Not to mention battle this head cold that’s kicking my darn ass.

I did a good job of taking cold meds, on schedule, today — that helped me get through the work day. I should take cold meds more often rather than trying to avoid cold meds and doing a lot of moaning because I haven’t taken cold meds and I feel like crap because of it.

Is this making any sense? I’m just typing without looking at the screen because I’m watching the Ceiva digital frame to see if there are new photos yet (I don’t think there are… which is the problem with this damn frame. My daughter and son in law do not send new photos often enough. If I’m going to start at this frame all day, I need new photos every day.)

And now my three minute break is over and I’m going to go take some cold medicine and text my daughter to see when I’m gonna get new photos.

Happy 2nd day of January.

Back to Work — For Reals Read More »

Cybils Shortlist (2013)

1 Comment / 2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Reading Lists, Young Adult /

Yippee! It’s here! The list! The Cybils shortlist. You’ll notice SciFi/Fantasy is now called Speculative Fiction. Which is fine but I’m not going to change my category on the sidebar. I’ll probably end up jumping and back and forth between calling it scifi or fantasy or specfic. Oh so complicated but you know it when you see it, right?

Elementary and Middle Grade

Fiction Picture Books
– Count the Monkeys
– If You Want to See a Whale
– Journey
– Mr Tiger Goes Wild
– Open This Little Book
– Sophie’s Squash
– The Bear’s Song

Nonfiction
– Anubis Speaks!
– Barbed Wire Baseball
– How Big Were Dinosaurs?
– Locomotive
– Look Up! Bird-Watching In Your Own Backyard
– The Boy Who Loved Math
– Volcano Rising

Easy Readers
– A Big Guy Took My Ball
– Joe and Sparky Go to School
– Love Is In the Air
– Penny and Her Marble
– The Meanest Birthday Girl
– Urgency Emergency: Big Bad Wolf!

Early Chapter Books
– Dragonbreath #9
– Home Sweet Horror
– Kelsey Green, Reading Queen
– Lulu and the Dog from the Sea
– The Life of Ty: Penguin Problems
– Violet Mackerel’s Natural Habitat

Poetry
– Follow Follow: A Book of Reverso Poems
– Forest Has a Song: Poems
– Poems to Learn By Heart
– Pug and Other Animal Poems
– The Pet Project: Cute and Cuddly Vicious Verses
– What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms and Blessings
– When Thunder Comes

Graphic Novels
– Bluffton: My Summers With Buster Keaton
– Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite
– March Book 1
– Monster on the Hill
– Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party
– Squish #5
– The Lost Boy

Speculative Fiction
– Jinx
– Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase
– Rose
– Sidekicked
– The Rithmatist
– The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp
– The Water Castle

Middle Grade Fiction
– Escape From Mr Lemoncello’s Library
– Prisoner B-3087
– Serafina’s Promise
– The 14 Fibs of Gregory K
– Ultra

Young Adult

Graphic Novels
– Bad Machinery
– Boxers & Saints Boxes Set
– Captain Marvel #1: In Pursuit of Flight
– Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant
– Templar
– Uzumaki: Deluxe Edition
– War Brothers: Graphic Novel

Nonfiction
– Breakfast on Mars
– Imprisoned
– The Boy on the Wooden Box
– The Bronte Sisters
– The President Has Been Shot

Speculative Fiction
– Conjured
– Dark Triumph (His Fair Assassin)
– Pantomime
– Shadows
– The Summer Prince
– The Waking Dark
– William Shakespeare’s Star Wars I didn’t read it.

YA Fiction
– Dr Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets
– Eleanor & Park
– Out of the Easy
– Rose Under Fire
– Sex & Violence
– Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

Cybils Shortlist (2013) Read More »

Reading Challenges for 2014

2 Comments / 2014, Books in Bed, Reading Lists /

You might have already read about this on BlogHer, since I wrote about challenges over there yesterday… whatevs. I’ve got to have it here, too, since I’ll end up referring to it a zillion times over the next few years.

Reading Challenges for 2014 Read More »

226 Books in 2013

2 Comments / 2013, Books in Bed, Reading Lists /

I beat last year by 5 books but there were weeks when I didn’t finish a single book. I can do better. Here’s how it shaped up:

– I finished the Cybils Shortlist Challenge – barely. Had to buy the last book in order to finish because it was not available at my library.
– I only read one book from the Nancy Drew Challenge, which is really annoying – and I probably wouldn’t have managed that if Texasebeth hadn’t sent me a Nancy Drew book. I’m going to do better with that in 2014.
– The Book to Movie Challenge didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped. It wasn’t BAD but I never managed to watch the last movie, for a book I didn’t particularly love. I thought I’d watch it with Chris and Michelle over the Christmas break but the darn iPhone/iTunes madness got in the way. Maybe I’ll watch it this weekend — it won’t count toward the 2013 Challenge but I’ll feel better about it. I read three books but only watched two movies. Darn it.
– From the Stacks? 4 — Pathetic, as usual.

* 18 were audiobooks.
* 35 were YA.
* 83 were non-fiction.
* Of the non-fiction, 19 were about art, journaling, crafting etc. 2 were cookbooks. 12 were travel books. 6 were short stories.
*15 were graphic novels.
* Only 12 had a significant queer storyline or characters (though a lot more books had queer characters tossed in for fun.)

* I think I quit more books this year than I ever have — at least six, that I can think of.

* I loved 74 and hated 6.

I’m definitely going to remember 2013 as the year of Maisie Dobbs (and the year of children’s picture books, since I read so many with JMP.)

226 Books in 2013 Read More »

Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore

2013, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

Oops. I forgot to blog Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore. I finished it before Christmas. Before the kids arrived. Hmmm the 19th? The 18th? Something like that.

I read it really quick — almost couldn’t put it down. Mysterious bookstore in San Francisco — lots of geeky google stuff, silicon valley, codebreaking, social media, libraries, cool stuff like that. I really had fun with this one.

Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore Read More »

Maisie Dobbs: Among the Mad

1 Comment / 2013, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

I sound like a broken record here, don’t I? Among the Mad was excellent. Another great Maisie Dobbs book. I keep waiting for a bad one. Or a not excellent one. A mediocre one. You know there are always a couple that just aren’t amazing when you’re reading a series.

I think I’m going to call 2013 the year of Maisie Dobbs because I’ve enjoyed these so darn much.

Maisie Dobbs: Among the Mad Read More »