the reading continues

So happy I discovered Hoopla!! I love that I can work and listen to books, I've recently finished 3 more Krewe of Hunters books, The Summoning, The Stalking and Seeing Darkness. I also listened to This Heart of Mine and Match Me If You Can. I'm actually straying from the norm and have 3 books from the library, The Last White Rose by Alison Weir, In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware and Etty Hillseum, an interrupted life: the diaries, 1941-1943 and my book on Hoopla is Thin Ice by Paige Shelton. Nice to try a new author now and then!!

books, books, books

 I finished book 4 of the Chicago Stars series, Gabe is my favorite Bonner Brother, he is so damaged but his story is wonderful and Rachel is stronger than she thinks she is. of course finishing book 4 means I'm now onto my all time favorite in the series, "This Heart of Mine" it makes me laugh and cry!

I also finished books 25 and 26 in the Krewe of Hunters series, coincidentally also with brothers!

Old dog, new tricks!

 I love when I figure something out! ok, so I looked it up on the internet and it actually worked! I downloaded all the pictures from my phone onto my computer!! Of course now I am going to delete many of the over 2000 pictures on my phone, that is once I verify they are actually on my pc and also backed up onto a thumb drive!! (done)

Challenges and Goals Part 2

Made a few more decisions about my goals and challenges for this year...I've decided to take black and white pictures, there are so many interesting places and things that when you take the picture in B/W is just enhances it; at least that's my opinion.

I also bought a book titled, "A 5 Year Question A Day Memory Journal. There is a different question for each day of the year.

Goals and Challenges not Resolutions

 

Today is the First of January 2024! It's been a nice quiet day, a little chilly for Florida but since I had no plans I didn't really care!!

I decided a long time ago that I was not a fan of the word so tied to the beginning of the year...RESOLUTION(S). It seems that every time I made one or more of those things I never kept a one! So I set goals, doable goals, nothing crazy like walking at least one step more than I did the day before! I also set challenges for myself, like reading a certain number of books for this year, that's easy to keep track of thanks to the app "Goodreads", this years goal is 36 books, 3 a month! I am also going to re-read books by SEP (Susan Elizabeth Philips), I am going to add to the read list by trying to get through most of Heather Grahams "Krewe of Hunters" series, currently I'm reading "Pale as Death" #25 in the series! (Currently there are 38 books in the series)

I would also like to "do" some of the Photography challenges I found on Pinterest! First I need to find my camera as it is hiding somewhere in my room!

I'm also going to set a goal of donating and or clean up at least one box from my storage unit each month! when I'm there I can also take inventory of all my Lego sets! at one time I had a spreadsheet of them all but as my computers have changed over the last 20 plus years that information is now lost.

43? SMDH

Rose, Orange, Sugar, Cotton, Peach, Fiesta, Sun, Gator, Citrus and Liberty, those are the college bowl games I grew up with...getting into an invitation to a bowl game actually meant something. 

When I heard the total number of "Bowl" games this year I couldn't believe it, it's a joke and add to that the names of the bowl games...omg.

The Pop-Tarts Bowl, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, 68 Ventures Bowl, Famous Toastery Bowl, Fenway Bowl, Quick Lane Bowl, Pinstripe Bowl to name the most silly.

I don't understand why there are so many college bowl games and don't get me started on the "Portal" and how stupid it is for a college football player to agree to play football for a team and when the team doesn't perform up to that players expectations they just go to another school to play football...there are so many things wrong with college football, too many for me to even care about...so glad I have a niece that plays soccer, I think I can handle that college sport!

Book 3 done!

 So, I spent time in Texas with Bobby Tom and Gracie then I happened upon Cal and Jane in book 3. I really like the Bonners except to Ethan, he's not my favorite, we'll see if he can change my mind in book 4 of the Chicago Stars series!

On to the next book...

 Ready to start the next book, "Heaven, Texas". Retired Chicago Star Bobby Tom Denton is definitely a handful for Gracie Snow to handle but I know she's up to the challenge.

still need to decide on what else I'm going to do, challenge-wise but I have time

First Challenge Started

 ok, decided on my first "challenge"... I am going to re -read all the books by one of my favorite authors, Susan Elizabeth Philips!

I'm starting with the series about the Chicago Stars, the first book is "It Had To Be You", written in 1994. I love the beginning, middle and end! In all honesty, Phoebe is not my favorite SEP character, I prefer her sister Molly but she does grow on you as the series progresses. Her story does make me laugh at times and I do feel bad for her and what she went through. 

Feels good to have made a decision, so if you'll excuse me I'm off to read.

💖

ideas

 I've been mulling over a few different ideas to get my creativity flowing and help my muse find her way home! I think I am going go pick a few different types of "challenges" from Pinterest---photography, reading, gratitude...

I'm hoping I can do something from each of these lists every week. 

it's kind of funny, I wanted a laptop because I wanted to start writing again, but after not having one for almost 3 years it's difficult to pick it back up again. I do not miss things like social media, still too much negativity around and I have no desire to revisit some of my old haunts. but this will be a new start even if I don't fully get this going until the new year. Practice will make as perfect as I can be!!

A season of blogging

 I was remembering when I first started this blog I did task-like blogs...my favorite Christmas songs and favorite books. I think I'd like to do that again, pick a topic and promise to try and write at least once a week. This may help me get my creative Muse back in my corner, she's been very elusive, and I miss her...sweet Calliope.

I figure I have a couple of days or so to decide; time to get the brain thinking.

Life is moving by so fast

 In a few weeks Pops will have surgery to remove or fix his hernia, it should be out patient surgery but any surgery at his age makes me nervous, I don't even want to think about anything other than a successful outcome.

He does know he can't do it all anymore, Mom and I have noticed little things but we look on the bright side, he gets up every morning, walks Ollie, plays Chuzzle on the computer, works in the yard and is an awesome griller!

Real event and fiction

 I was running errands today; picking up some things for dinner, checking out Halloween decorations, getting desk calendars for 2024 and finishing up my latest audio book from the library, "Dead Mountain" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

"Dead Mountain" is the 4th book in a series with Archeologist Nora Kelly and FBI Agent Corrie Swanson. Nora made her first appearance in a Preston/Child book called Thunderhead, then I encountered her in a few Pendergast books "Cabinet of Curiosities", Dance of the Dead, The Book of the Dead and Cemetary Dance. I was very pleased when this "series" started, I missed Nora and with "Old Bones" she's starting over, no spoilers!

Corrie was a big part of the Pendergast book, "Still Life With Crows", she's made appearances in "Dance of the Dead", " Cold Vengeance", "Two Graves", "White Fire", "Blue Labyrinth" and "Crimson Shore". It's nice that she's grown up and has a partner of sorts!

I love Preston and Child books, the first one I remember reading was "Riptide", all about a treasure vault on an island of the coast of Maine, if this sounds vaguely familiar there is an island called Oak Island...fiction and a real event!

The story of "Dead Mountain" immediately reminded me of an episode of "Expedition Unknown" with Josh Gates on the Discovery Channel. He went to the Ural Mountains to investigate the mystery at Dyatlov Pass where in February of 1959 nine Soviet hikers, college students met untimely deaths, to this day their deaths remain a mystery. I have to admit, "Dead Mountain" has a more satisfying conclusion. 

my secret addiction!

 yes, I have an addiction and it's not my fault!! I blame my nephew Christopher; not the adult he's grown into but the child he was. When he was 4 or 5 he wanted Legos for his birthday. Being the good Aunt I tried to be I found him a Lego Pirate Ship at the now defunct Toys R Us and to my surprise it was on sale so I got one for me! I discovered that I loved building with these little plastic bricks, I was amazed at the way the instructions showed you how to create this design and I was hooked...

I don't even know how many sets I have...

Currently I am building this...the graveyard and the beginnings of the first floor are taking shape!

love when Thursday is Friday

 I was on vacation all last week so getting back to work on Monday was a little rough. Don't get me wrong, I love my job but sometimes doing it wears me out! I basically look at the work done by others and fingers crossed hope everything is correct. I hate when I find errors but it happens. This being said it's been a rough week so I'm really happy that tomorrow is my Friday on Thursday!!!

Meow!!!

 Just found out today is Global Cat Day!! Living in a house of 6 family cats, 6 carport cats and 7 community cats makes this an important day in my family!

For most of my life I've had a cat, when I was 4 years old I got Lisa, she lived to an ornery 20 years old. Mom had BJ who had kittens and I adored Tippy and Lurch, later to be joined by Jezebel, Remi, Spike, Jake, Scootie, Tink, Belle, Max, Chaz, Roi, Rascal and Sweet Pea.

This year we lost Gandalf on March 9th and the best boy ever Gus on April 3rd.

Oddly, today is also Boss's Day and my wonderful boss is even more addicted to cats than my household. I've actually lost count of how many cats/kittens she has at this moment!!

handsome Harry Cat

Fun with Friends

Drove to Orlando for a day with my co-workers! We started the morning at Painting with a Twist, we all painted a night scene with a full moon, a star-filled sky, water and palm trees! Then we went to the Rainforest Cafe at Disney Springs for lunch. We finished our day at TopGolf, didn't think I'd like golfing but this was a lot of fun! I made a stop on my way home at White Castle for a suitcase of the delicious little sliders!! made my mom very happy.

Life goes on

  Feeling very good about this week, I've gotten a few things done...I mailed a box to a dear friend in North Carolina, got rid of some boxes in storage, made Pops happy with his own forever copy of Microsoft Word, finally got a new computer named Tigger, cleaned up my office area, listened to more of "Dead Mountain", even found that Preston and Childs were intrigued by the 1959 true story about the hikers in Russia.

Nice thing about getting a new laptop is I found pictures I haven't seen in over 6 years!!

here's the first picture I ever saw of Hiccup!!

more to come!

Read the words

I love music, songs, some of them hold such wonderful meanings and messages. I've been a bit down and perplexed by others and on my way to work this morning I turned on my Ipod and heard this song. The words spoke volumes to me and maybe I won't have to unfriend some people on Facebook.


"Close Your Eyes"

Everybody's on the same page
No new chapters
We'll never change

Everybody wants to be cool, yes they do...
And I'm just like them
But I won't be no fool

I guess I could waste all my time and my money, just trying to look right
But it doesn't change who I am in my heart if I look like a dime

So I want you to close your eyes
Sing to the world tonight
And show them what's beautiful
I don't care what they think
No, I'm not listening
'Cause I know I'm beautiful
So close your eyes

(Sh-sh-show them what's beautiful sh-sh-show them what's beautiful)
Come and show them... Uh... Hey...
(Sh-sh-show them what's beautiful
Sh-sh-show them what's beautiful)

Everybody's born to be different
That's the one thing that makes us the same
So don't you let their words try to change you
Don't let them make you, into something you ain't... No!

So I want you to close your eyes
Sing to the world tonight
And show them what's beautiful
I don't care what they think
No, I'm not listening
'Cause I know I'm beautiful
So close your eyes

(Sh-sh-show them what's beautiful)

Show the world the you inside
Raise your voice and close your eyes
'Cause you're beautiful...
Come on and show the world the you inside
Raise your voice and close your eyes
'Cause you're beautiful...

So I want you to close your eyes
Sing to the world tonight
And show them what's beautiful
I don't care what they think
No, I'm not listening
'Cause I know I'm beautiful
So close your eyes

Life...

so far this year my goals haven't worked out, well, I have kept up my reading but the photo challenges haven't gone the way I planned. Think I'll just wing the photos, currently I'm spending my Sunday mornings seeking all the Clearly People in Lakeland.

I'm also going to start a new blog, something very personal, a journey of healing.