The Virgin Blue

2007, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

Oops.

I picked up The Virgin Blue in audio several months ago. I handed it to TW and asked her if we had read it because I felt like we had but I couldn’t remember it from reading the cover or reading the reviews and stuff on Amazon. TW felt like we had read it but also couldn’t remember it. So, we started listening to it, it did not sound familiar. And then the tape broke.

I took it back to the library and decided to reserve it in print so we could finish it. The darn thing has been on the shelf for months and was due back this week so I pushed it to the front of the TBR pile and picked up where the tape had broken. And that’s about the time it started to sound familiar. But I just kept on reading.

And oh yea! I liked it the first time, too. I remember now.

The Virgin Blue Read More »

It’s a love/hate thing

4 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Family Funk, Kid Talk, Travel Log, Work /

Michelle had some long discussion with TW about me, my “new” job and my travel opportunities. Apparently Michelle is hoping that BlogHer will send me on many, many trips because she is sure I love to travel and have really missed traveling.

Errr, ummm, weird, right?

Michelle came to this conclusion because I am always encouraging HER to travel and she thinks this means I wish I had traveled more.

Dude. I traveled. A lot. And still travel. A lot. More than I’d like.

It’s not that I don’t like going to new places or visiting friends and family and really cool people (like the BlogHers on the west coast), it’s that I’m a creature of habit and it’s hard to maintain habit when I’m traveling.

Take this last trip to California. Awesome, except for the really crowded flights and that whole orange juice spilled all over me – twice – and the really annoying woman who not only spilled OJ on me – twice – but argued with the flight attendant and many travelers about our flight being delayed because she did not understand that her cell phone was displaying east coast time rather than west coast time.

Awesome except my carefully created schedule was out the window and I really hate that. I hate not getting up, getting a cup of coffee and getting to work on my email, my blogs, my boards, my life.

This is why I don’t do vacation very well. I always feel like I should be doing something else, like my email, my blogs, my boards, my life! Business travel makes me feel the same way. It’s a problem, I know. I should get over it and just chill. And I do, mostly. But there’s always some niggling little thought in my head that if I was at home, I’d be doing X and I really need to be doing X – that’s why I do it every darn day.

So no Michelle, I really don’t wamt BlogHer to send me traveling a lot. Once in awhile is good – really good, and fun. But I’d really rather stay home. I like it here. You, however… you should travel. A lot.

It’s a love/hate thing Read More »

links for 2007-11-17

1 Comment / Daily Dose /

links for 2007-11-17 Read More »

Books I read on the plane

1 Comment / 2007, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

You may remember that I said I prefer reading chic lit or YA when I fly and that’s what I read on my trip home from San Jose yesterday. Unfortunately, neither of the books I read were all that great.

First was a “Caught Reading Novel” called Playing With Fire. All that did was depress me. It was geared for high school students and high school students should have a higher reading level than this – and they don’t. Which was what depressed me. I’m glad I read it, just so that I could be reminded that not everyone is a reader. Depressing, isn’t it?

Then, I read Writing Magic which was written by the author of Ella Enchanted. It’s a non-fiction “how to write” bit written for middle schoolers and it was slow and a wee bit boring. But then again, I’m not a middle schooler. So I’m cutting it some slack. If it wasn’t due back to the library, I’d hand it to Liz and RJ and see what they think (particularly RJ, the writer in the family.)

I will share one little tidbit that made me laugh out loud, much to the interest of the two men seated beside of me (both of whom were amused that we all three had iPhones and that I was reading children’s literature and writing away on a tablet PC.) On the invisibility of the word “said”….

Avoid other noticeable words, like affirm, allege, articulate, assert, asseverate (a word I’d never heard before I started writing this), aver, avow, claim, comment, confabulate, contend, declare, express, hint, mention, observe, opine, pronounce, profess, remark, utter, voice. I don’t mean that you shouldn’t ever use these perfectly fine words. I just mean don’t use them as a substitute for said.

Damn good advice.

Books I read on the plane Read More »

links for 2007-11-16

Daily Dose /

links for 2007-11-16 Read More »

Ikea fooled me

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Family Funk, Kid Talk, Pet Peeves /

Remember when we went to IKEA last month? Well one of the “children’s rooms” had a kraft paper roll hanging above a workspace. It was cool and I’ve been tempted to buy a paper roll/dispenser for Liz for years. So, we tracked down the silver paper roll that was displayed and grabbed a roll of paper.

I went upstairs yesterday to get it all set up and discovered IKEA had tricked us. The silver roll thingy is too fat for the paper roll. Huh. For a few minutes, Liz and I pondered the possibility of unrolling the paper enough to loosen the very tight center opening – but after rolling out about 20 feet of paper we realized that was not really a good solution.

Any idea what the solution to this problem might be?

Ikea fooled me Read More »

links for 2007-11-15

1 Comment / Daily Dose /

links for 2007-11-15 Read More »