Catching Up

Life has fallen into a kind of rhythm these days. Between reading, working two jobs, couponing (and shopping), TV watching, computer game playing, and hanging out with friends, I feel like I need twice the amount of time in the day. (Notice I didn't say anything about keeping the house clean in there...it's kind of a wreck around here.) I've gone out after work on Friday for the last two weeks...something I haven't done in a long time. But I'm finding that by sticking to my grocery budget, using coupons wherever I can, and moving around some funds, I have the money to do the things I didn't think I could afford before. I got together with two of my good friends and one old friend whom I haven't seen in almost two years to have drinks and dinner at a local Chili's restaurant. (I LOVE Chili's...two for one margaritas, how can you beat that?)

Tonight, we went to the in-laws for dinner to celebrate Father's Day. My brother-in-law grilled us burgers and Ricky and I brought dessert. It was a nice chance to get together with the family. And we came away with some home-grown basil and mangoes from the tree in their backyard.

As far as work goes, it's been slow for a while, but I have a trial set for the week of July 4th. I'm kind of excited about this one, so we shall see how it goes.

Oh! I went back on Weight Watchers at the end of April, and so far I've lost 15 pounds. I have high blood pressure and high cholesterol/triglycerides, which is largely related to my terrible diet, pre-WW. I'm on two different meds right now, and it is absolutely ridiculous that someone my age should have to be on so much medicine, so I'm trying to lose the weight to get off the meds. I want to get healthy AND look good, and I'm doing well so far. The challenge will be staying on the program. I lost somewhere between 50 and 75 pounds a few years ago by doing Weight Watchers, but then I quit following the program and gained it all back (plus some!). Hopefully, this time it will be a true lifestyle change and I will keep it alllll off. I joined the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge to try to help me get in my exercise. We'll see how well I do...

I'm currently reading The Beekeeper's Apprentice. And I LOVE it. I've heard nothing but good things about this series by Laurie R. King, and those comments are proving true. I have the rest of the series on my shelf, too, so now the question is whether to pace myself or to rush through the rest of the series ASAP. I think I'll try to pace myself. Now, with the Outlander series that I'm re-reading, I'm in the midst of two series that I really love. Sigh. Book heaven!

What are you reading these days? What series do you absolutely love?

Sunday Salon: Pre-Christmas Excitement!

It's been awhile since I posted anything other than a review, so I thought a little updating was in order. We're learning to live with Ricky's MS, so our lives have settled down a little since the beginning of the year and his diagnosis. I'm working two jobs (my regular job as a PD, and my second job teaching Business Law at a local college), so it leaves me little time for reading, especially when I use the weekends to catch up on all the non-work-related stuff that needs to get done. But the semester is winding down at school, and we've almost reached the holiday lull in the court system, so I'll soon have plenty of reading time. I've pretty much given up on cleaning, in order to have some free time, and guess what...the world hasn't ended yet. I've been baking cookies for the Christmas cookie exchange at work, doing my Christmas shopping (I'm actually ALL DONE...this is probably the earliest I've ever finished shopping), watching football, and making plans for our long road trip to Ohio to see my family for Christmas. I need to get our tree up tonight and then...Christmas can come whenever it wants!

I'm incredibly excited about our trip up North. We decided to drive this year, because I thought it would be less stressful. I didn't want to deal with trying to make a connection while hauling Ricky and all our crap through a busy airport. Add in all the new security measures, and the fact that flying stresses me out in general, and I'd rather drive, so we can take our time and go at our own pace. This will be the first year that Ricky has ever come home with me for Christmas. That's right, despite being together for four and a half years, he's never come to the old homestead for Christmas. Usually he would have to work, but since he's receiving disability now, it frees him up for holiday traveling.

In reading news, I had a very productive couple of weeks. I read two books within about a week of each other, which I haven't done in a VERY long time, and I'm now re-reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. I bought the newest book in the series with a gift card last Christmas and I want to read it soon, but I definitely needed a refresher on the events in the series, so I decided to read them all over again before tackling An Echo in the Bone. I first read the series during my last year of law school/studying for the Bar/my first year of practice. So it's been a good four years or so (at least). I love these books, so I'm flying through the first one. Hopefully, I'll be keeping up this pace, especially with the amount of free time I'll have for reading, once we get to my parents' house.

And, okay, I caved. I asked for a Kindle for Christmas. I was going back and forth on whether I wanted to ask my parents for one. I wasn't sure I was ready to leave actual REAL books behind yet. I have so much on my TBR shelves that it seemed almost unfair to ask for an e-reader on which I can't read any of those books. And I hadn't done any research as to whether I'd prefer a Kindle or a Nook or a Sony. But when my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, it just kind of popped out. And then I found myself really excited about the prospect of getting one. And if I DO get one, I'm sure I'll find a way to balance the books I currently own with the books I may purchase for the Kindle.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, with lots of reading time and many, many books under the tree!

Okay, Seriously?

I just wrote the BEST review of The Best American Non-Required Reading 2009 plus some bonus material about what's been going on in my life and my excitement over the upcoming Read-a-Thon, and f'ing Blogger ate it.

So please know that I finished BANR2009 on Sunday before I left Ohio (where I was visiting briefly for my grandmother's funeral) and that I give it four and a half out of five Whatevers. And my favorite piece in it was "The Chameleon." And life has sucked for me for most of this year, but I'm really looking forward to the RAT next weekend. And if it is ruined for me in any way, I will quite possibly snap and go on a killing spree.

F you, Blogger.

Holy Cow

Well, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida has finally decided to accept their responsibilities and pay for Ricky's MS treatment. That was the best news we've had in six months. However, that doesn't mean they aren't still trying to find ways to sink our battleship. They do not want to pay for his Tysabri, which is the drug the doctor wants him on. He tried another MS drug, Avonex, and it wasn't having the desired effect. Originally, the doctor tried to put him on the Tysabri right away, but the insurance company wouldn't pay for it, since he hadn't tried other drug therapies first. Well, now he HAS, and they STILL don't want to pay for it, so I see yet another struggle coming in the near future, albeit not as big of a struggle as it was to get that little "pre-existing" code erased from his file.

We spent yesterday making the rounds to four different doctors, between the two of us. It was a long day. We also had to spend Saturday picking out a new computer. For some reason, our two-year-old HP laptop just DIED Saturday, in the middle of me playing a game on it. We couldn't even get it to come back on. So, not knowing what else to do, we went to Geek Squad (which everyone I know is telling us we should NOT have done), and they told us the motherboard was dead and will cost $400-$500 to fix. Mind you, we just dropped $150 in January on a monitor when the screen on the damn thing died. So the computer we spend $900 on just two years ago has ended up costing us much more than that. I loved the computer while it was working, but keeping it working was just too much. So we invested in yet ANOTHER new laptop. Which disappoints me. The laptop I had in law school was an HP and it lasted me FIVE YEARS, which is ancient for any computer technology these days. Needless to say, we bought a protection plan this time. THEN we found out on Saturday that one of our friends/acquaintances is a computer guru and probably could have fixed the thing. We're actually going to give it to him to mess with, to see if he can get it running again, and, if he can, Ricky will inherit it as his own computer. The only positive to the situation is that I FINALLY took the time to get our wireless system up and running in the house we've lived in for a year. So now our Wii is updated and we can use the computer in any room of the house. It's WONDERFUL!

In reading news, I have made great progress in Comanche Moon, the fourth book (in publication order) in the Lonesome Dove series. It is just as wonderful as the other three, although there isn't as much edge-of-your-seat action as in the other books. I may finish it this week and get a review up. Next up is another review cookbook...

Whirling Dervish

I've been so busy lately! I started teaching part-time at the local university, so I've been spending a lot of time working on class-related things, in addition to the trial I had last week for my full-time job (which I WON!). Friday night was a going-away party for a colleague, yesterday was a Memorial Day BBQ at a friend's house, and today was cleaning, since I'm hosting Girls' Night at our house on Friday night. Needless to say, reading has been taking a bit of a backseat. And, honestly, I'm not much into it right now. Guess it's a slump.

BTW, someday I want to actually go to Istanbul to see the Whirling Dervishes in person. They are SO beautiful! If you've never seen them, go to YouTube and type in "whirling dervish." You'll find some great video of them!

Back Online

So our streak of terrible luck continues. No sooner does my husband get out of the hospital than everything at our house decides to break at once...most importantly my less-than-two-year-old laptop. The monitor just completely died. It's no longer under warranty, and the Geek Squad told us it would be about $300 to put in a new monitor on the laptop itself. So we decided to go the cheaper route and just buy a new stand-alone monitor and hook it to the laptop.

So that explains where I've been for the last few weeks. It's seemed like an eternity without being able to blog and read everyone else's posts. I have NO IDEA what's been going on in the blogosphere in my absence. The good news, however, is that I managed to read four books in my time away from the computer. FOUR! In like three weeks! That's some kind of record for me. I guess the internet is the culprit, after all, in the time suckage of my life.

Well, I fully intend to get back to my internet-heavy life now. I'll be catching up on everyone's blogs and hopefully posting reviews for those books (mostly REALLY good, with one little exception of okay-ness) for the next week or so. I'm a little scared to look at my Google Reader, but here I go anyway. Missed all y'all a LOT!

It Never Ends

Well, despite being about 10 days from the end of the year, the trials and tribulations of 2009 have not ended. Last Thursday, my husband and I decided to go out to dinner, to celebrate our last dinner-time alone together before I leave for the holidays. Even though it was raining, we decided to go anyway. I mean, this is Florida...it rains all the time! While we were inside eating dinner, about a foot of rain was dumped directly on us. When we finished and went to get the car, there was about three inches of standing water inside it. Panicked and just trying to get us HOME, I drove through a large puddle in the parking lot. And my car quit running. My beautiful, barely-two-year-old car is most likely dead. I've calmed down some since Friday morning, when I was in absolute hysterics. But I'm still worried. What if we're not covered? If we are, things are fine. We have gap insurance, which will cover the difference between what we owe on the car and what it's worth. I'm just worried that the flash flooding and/or puddle driving accident are not covered losses. Then we would be SCREWED. We can't afford to take on an additional car payment, while still paying off a car we don't even own anymore. We don't have enough in savings to outright purchase a used vehicle. This year has been terrible finance-wise, what with the wedding and moving. Add to that the need to purchase a new car, which we weren't expecting to have to do for another year or so? I just don't see how we can do it. I AM taking on a second job (teaching an online class for the local college), and we'll have Ricky's bank loan paid off in February, and our friends have been WONDERFUL, offering the loan of an "extra" car that they have if we need it...but...I'm just SO ready for 2010. There's no way it can be as stressful as 2009.

I'm heading up north to my parents' house in a few hours. They have dial-up, so I probably won't be around for the next ten days or so. I did get a new book from LibraryThing, and I finished Now It's My Turn, but I'll deal with all that when I get back from the holidays. You all have a wonderful holiday yourselves! See y'all in 2010!

Sigh

Friday night, and I'm catching up on my Google Reader.

It's been an unproductive reading week here. I'm in the middle of Angela Carter's Shaking a Leg, which is a collection of her literary criticism and other articles she wrote, mostly for New Society. It covers a variety of topics and I'm finding that I quite enjoy her acidic writing style and thought-provoking pieces. She was a feminist of the 1970's variety, if anyone knows what I mean by that. I think they call it First-Wave Feminism? I'm not up on the lingo. I love her scathing review of Linda Lovelace's autobiography. (Linda Lovelace was, I believe, the "actress" who starred in Deep Throat...I had to ask my husband about that one!)

Anyway, this isn't meant to be an in-depth review of the work (I'm only about one sixth of the way through the monstrous thing). BUT what I'm trying to say is...I haven't gotten much accomplished on it this week. I was in jury selection Monday, which tired me out too much to read anything quite as heavy and intellectual as Carter's essays. And I was in trial Wednesday (well, supposed to be...), so I spent most of Tuesday night putting the final touches on my case. When the thing pled out on Wednesday, I was then too exhausted from the stress to pick up the book. All I could manage was Glee. Last night was a night full of TV with the hubby, so that leaves me...nowhere, really. I seem to get through more of the book when I read it during commercials of my beloved football games.

I wish I were one of those people who can read multiple things at once, but I'm not. I'd get a novel going on the side and forsake the non-fiction for that. Especially if it's a good novel. It's not that the essay collection is boring or anything, it's just that I need all my faculties about me to take it all in...and that's hard to come by on a weeknight.

This weekend I'm looking forward to seeing some friends for the Georgia game tomorrow, and hanging with the hubster on Sunday. He's FINALLY done with his week and a half of working nights, so...that'll be nice. Keep your fingers crossed for him. He had two job interviews today and we're really hoping he gets one of them!

What I have eaten today:

Spice Drops for breakfast (yeah, AKA gum drops)
Chef Boyardee for lunch
Peanut M&M's as a snack
a plate of frozen French fries for dinner

Such weird, single girl food. Obviously, my husband is not around today. :)

I'm thinking about trying to cook more. We have decided that we eat out too much - spend too much money and eat too much junk doing it. So we're trying to scale back on that. But, honestly, if eating at home results in the above...maybe we should just spend the money?

I need some veggies.

Getting More (Pop) Cultural

I've decided that Ricky and I don't DO enough. Our boring lives consist of working, eating, watching TV, and sleeping. We read, it's true, but we don't see movies, we don't go to any local events (partially because we live in the most boring place on earth that doesn't HAVE any local events), we don't participate in hobbies. We need to get off the couch and DO SOME STUFF.

So I thought about ways we could increase our activity level and I've come up with a few things I'd like to try. Number one, which doesn't really involve getting up off the couch, is a subscription to Netflix. Part of the reason we don't see movies is that it's really freakin' expensive. I blew $40 on his birthday this year to take us to a movie and get some snacks! We don't have that kind of cash. BUT, with a Netflix subscription, we can get almost any movie we want to see, delivered to us, for a lot less than it would cost for even one of us to see it in the theater. I can wait for stuff to come out on DVD, no problem. I've even thought of doing some sort of movie project, like watching all the Oscar winners or something. I like stuff like that.

Secondly, I've decided I want to go to the Renaissance Festival next February/March. We live in a small town, which doesn't have much going on in the way of cultural events, but there are some larger metropolitan areas south of us, one of which features the Florida Renaissance Festival every year! I went to the Ohio Ren Faire a few times when I was in junior high and high school, and I really enjoyed it. I'm not the kind of gal who would dress up and participate (welllll....get enough mead in me and I might), but I'm the kind of nerd who would really enjoy herself spending a weekend in the Middle Ages. It's twenty bucks a person just to get in (i.e., not counting food, drink, shows, and souvenirs), but if we save with a goal in mind, we can afford it easily. Although there isn't one super close to us, it's only about an hour and a half drive away, which is not bad (we live in a looooong state...it could be eight hours away!).

Third, and this is something I've thought about for a while, I'd like to try geocaching or letterboxing. This is where you use a GPS system to find hidden locations where people who have been there before leave messages and stuff. It sounds kind of lame when you spell it out like that, but I think it would be fun. Kind of like a treasure hunt! I have a friend from college who has just tried it and she raves about it. If my husband won't join me (he's allergic to the outdoors), maybe I'll get some of my local friends to try it with me!

Fourth, I'd like to get into some kind of hobby. Maybe try knitting or get back into cross-stitching. I cook a little, but I don't want to have a bunch of food that we won't eat sitting around just for a few hours of occupation. I've seen a lot of bloggers who knit and quilt. These are hobbies I've never been that much into, but I'm starting to become interested. Hopefully, they don't go the way of the beading mania I indulged in a few years ago...I spent a BUNCH of money on supplies, but gave up after a short while. I'm not very craft-y. I'm impatient and easily discouraged, but I'm better about that than I used to be, so I'd like to try some sort of craft again soon.

Anyone have any other ideas to get us out and about and keep us amused?

Haven't Read a Thing in Weeks

Well. My first week in the new office is behind me. I'm a bit homesick, when I have time, but am starting to get a handle on things, I think. Ricky and I are still unpacking the house. I just finished the kitchen today, so we can get back to cooking, instead of getting take-out all the time! We still have work to do on the house, but it's coming along, slowly but surely.

I have had ZERO time, or inclination, really, to read in the last few weeks. I can't find my book in this mess, anyway, so it's not a big deal. I've been catching up on about three weeks' worth of blog-reading that I didn't do (over 400 entries in my feed reader!), so that's keeping me busy. Usually, I'm simply too tired after work and the commute and unpacking to much more than rot on the couch. We're watching a lot of Food Network and Golden Girls reruns, since the summer is winding down. Hopefully, things will get back to normal soon (and I'll find my book). I just got a new BookMarks magazine and a new Glamour to peruse, so maybe that will kick me out of my funk! But college football season is starting soon, so I'll have another distraction to battle...always something.

How is your reading coming?

Back in the Saddle

Well, we're moved into our new house, and loving it! It's perfect. The neighborhood is friendly and quiet, there's enough room for all of our STUFF (you never know how much STUFF you have until you move), and the cats like it. We're still living out of boxes, but we're going to try to unpack a LOT this weekend. Internet was non-existant here till this past Wednesday. Since then, I've been trying to catch up on everything I've missed thus far, but I've stayed away from my Google Reader. I'm not ready for that yet!

I start my new position on Monday. I'm a little trepidatious (did I spell that right?), but also excited.

Okay, off to catch up some more while the Husband is sleeping...

Sunday Salon of Sorts

I'm not really a participant in the Sunday Salon series, but it's been a while since I updated, so I felt it was due.

I finished Katherine Neville's The Fire a week or so ago. Since then, I've been bringing myself up to speed on back issues of magazines that I put off in trying to finish The Fire. I've now picked up a book again, though: Angela Carter's Shaking a Leg. This book is a collection of her journalism and other non-fiction writings - literary criticism, essays, etc. It's been a LOOOONG time since I read a non-fiction book...almost a year, since I was reading Defending the Damned last September during my sister's wedding. So I thought sprinkling in a little non-fic would be good. I've never read any of Carter's fiction, but I've heard nothing but good things about her. I'm looking forward to diving in to this book!

HOWEVER, I'm not sure much reading will get done over the next couple of weeks. Ricky and I are moving into a new house, and I am starting my new position (well, it's a lateral transfer, really) in a different office...it's going to be hectic, to say the least. We've already started packing and moving a few things...our lease here is up on the 31st and our lease in the new place started yesterday, so we can move a little at a time. I HATE moving. I always swear to myself that I won't do it again for X amount of years. But we've been unhappy with our current apartment for some time; we've wanted to get into a house; the rent here is going up; I got transferred...seemed like the right time. And so we go. The plan is to stay in this place a couple of years, pay down our...ahem...substantial...debts, and save some money to buy a place. I hope that happens, so we DON'T have to move again after that for quite some time.

Hope everyone is enjoying their reading! Have a great weekend!

All Apologies

I've been a terrible blogger and blog-hopper lately. All I can say as an excuse is...I'm getting married in two weeks. And I have a lot on my plate right now. I've missed visiting my blog buddies, but I'm going to try to do a little relaxing and catching up this weekend.

Another Super-Busy Week

Not much reading done this week. Again. I went shopping with friends Monday night and ended up buying a BlackBerry. Sigh. Dinner with Ricky's parents and brother on Tuesday. Trivia night on Wednesday night. Girls' Night last night. Hopefully, this upcoming week will be a little calmer.

It's also been a rough week for me, emotionally. A judge that I used to practice in front of passed away suddenly. The memorial service is tomorrow. While I wasn't close to the judge, he was a presence in my life at the courthouse, and it's really made me think a lot about those I love.

I hope to finish up Doctor Zhivago this weekend and then catch up on some of my magazine reading that has fallen by the wayside...

Brief Update

I haven't been blogging or blog-visiting much this week. I was in trial on Monday and Wednesday (I lost, if anyone is keeping score) and Ricky and I have been trying to finish up the DAMN INVITATIONS. The good news is, they went into the mail today, so I won't be blogging about them anymore! Now, to schedule the cake-tastings. Mmm.

I also spent both Wednesday night and Thursday night out on the town, with the fiance's brother and some friends from work. That meant I got nothing done: no bills paid, no laundry done, no wedding stuff worked on. So this morning, before work, I had a little breakdown, which freaked the poor fiance' out. It was just a culmination of stress and not getting enough sleep (I never sleep before a trial, and our mattress was getting lumpy, so we had to turn it). I was also juggling competing requests for my presence at events this weekend. I had planned quite awhile ago to go away tomorrow with some girlfriends. It wasn't really the event that drew me; it was the chance to hang out with the girls. Then people started backing out. Then I got invited to do something ELSE with people I am closer to, and I felt a lot of pressure to do THAT instead, but I had already committed to the first thing...so I started to get stressed about it and lose my mind. And I cancelled everything. Just decided that if it was making me that crazy, it wasn't worth it, and I would just stay home and relax this weekend, especially after running around last weekend and the trial this week. So tomorrow, I don't intend to go anywhere or do anything. I might not even get out of my pajamas. Catching up on blogs, reading, playing some Wii...those are my plans. Oh wait. Except that I will schedule the cake-tasting. I will do that.

My Creations

So, I'm trying this new thing called organization, perhaps you've heard of it? Ricky and I went to the store today and I spent all evening cooking the meals for the week. Hopefully, I'll be better able to handle Weight Watchers (yeah, I'm back on it) if I have the meals made in advance. I even froze some for later in the month. I hope it doesn't backfire, and I end up throwing out a whole bunch of cooked food that we just didn't get around to eating.

What did I make? Here it is (if I can figure out the pictures):

This is Layered Mexican Chicken, which has chicken chunks, black beans, sour cream, low-fat Mexican cheese, chilies, and corn tortillas. VERY easy to make. (All recipes courtesy of Weight Watchers.)




This is Vegetable-Peanut Stir-Fry (sans peanuts at this point). I'd just finished making it and the white misty stuff is not a ghostly visitor from another realm, but steam coming off the just-finished stir-fry. It was supposed to be tonight's meal, but it was the Fiance's turn to do dinner, so he just Foreman-ed up some chicken for us. (Why do I go to so much trouble?!) This dish will be reheated later this week and served over brown rice with crushed peanuts on top. YUM!

This is Green Beans with Caramelized Onions and Dill. This is to be a side dish with the Mexican chicken thingie and/or a lunch for me to take to work. Also VERY easy.

And, last but not least, the Tri-Color Pesto Rotini. This is probably going to be my favorite of all the things I made tonight: rotini, sun-dried tomatoes, red and green bell pepper, PESTO. I can't wait to heat some up for dinner and take some as a cold pasta salad for lunch.

I have to say that I am impressed with the ease of the Weight Watchers recipes. I was worried that this would take me all night, but it only took three hours...during which time I also stopped to eat dinner with My Beloved. I've used every dish in my kitchen, but now I have (HEALTHY!) food enough to last me until I've washed them all...

Christmas Update

Well, I left for parts north on Saturday, Dec. 20th. The flight up was fairly uneventful. Well, once I was on a flight that was actually going to make it. Apparently, there was some delay with the flight to Atlanta, so they booked me through Baltimore instead. Otherwise, I would have been stuck in the ATL overnight. Which wouldn't have been a problem, there are people I could have dropped in on whom I haven't seen in a while, but then again, unexpected guests are not always the most welcome. Luckily, I had a pretty enterprising ticket agent working for me, so she found another flight which would get me into Ohio on time. Or at least the same day.

It was bitterly cold when I first arrived, and I am simply not built for cold and snow anymore. There's a REASON I moved to Florida, y'all, and it was pretty much so I wouldn't have to battle single-digit temps anymore. I HATE the cold, I'm not REALLY a fan of snow (even on Christmas), and I can DEFINITELY do without scraping ice off my car for several months of the year. But the week warmed up, and my parents' house is always 800 degrees, so I was pretty comfortable.

During the flight up there, I was finishing up the November/December issue of Bookmarks magazine and perusing a holiday-themed issue of Rachael Ray's magazine. Then I started in on The Eight. And I'm still reading it. It's long, like 600 pages. To be fair, this vacation was not the string of uninterrupted reading time I anticipated. I always forget how busy a trip home is. There's Christmas with my cousins, Christmas with the immediate family, dinners with my best friend, evenings watching movies with the fam, a football game, shopping with my sisters, dinners out with my parents and sisters, computer games, etc. Mostly, I read in the mornings over breakfast, before the day got going. And occasionally when I had some down time during the day. On the flight back, I was sick with a terrible cold, so I read a bit in the airport, but slept on the plane. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to finish the book soon, but I do have those 300 Google Reader entries to catch up on...

Sigh. There's always something else going on.

P.S. Hurrah for the Georgia Bulldogs, winners of the Capital One Bowl!!!!!!!!!!!

Holiday Random-ness

Christmas shopping is, for the most part, done. I would like to get Ricky a thing or two more for his stocking, but the particular last item I want is SOLD OUT at the particular place I went looking for it. (He reads this blog, or at least I think he does, so I have to be kind of vague.)

I have the makings of my holiday peanut butter fudge sitting on the stove, to be made later today or maybe tomorrow, if I have time.

The office Christmas party was last night. I pooped out on the bail bondsman's party that is THE big holiday fete. I was just too tired after working all day and then partaking of the Christmas cheer with my co-workers. I'm invited to yet another party tonight. Not sure if I'm going. Mostly, I just want to curl up in my apartment and read or surf the internet. I don't really feel like schmoozing. Or drinking. Which means something is wrong with me, because I ALWAYS feel like drinking.

The fiance' and I had an unaccustomed amount of togetherness this past week. He was on a short break from job number three (!!!) while they switched him to another store, so we got to spend our evenings together, which we haven't done for quite a while. And I didn't even kill him. We actually went on a dinner date on Wednesday. And it was nice.

Tomorrow, I plan to accompany two of our good friends up north, to "Central Florida," to see another couple that we used to work with and their new baby girl.

In between all the merry-making, fudge-making and baby-meeting, I'm not having much reading time. Since my opportunities to read have been pretty broken-up lately, I've been indulging in magazines. Currently, I'm browsing the November/December Bookmarks. I asked for a subscription for Christmas...I HOPE SANTA BRINGS ME ONE! (Uh, hint hint.) And today, for some unknown reason, I decided I had to have the Rachael Ray magazine that I saw in the checkout, despite the millions and millions of BOOKS staring at me from the spare room, waiting to be read. But come on, how am I to resist 329 meals that rock, or the holiday cookie blowout? I mean, really. I've never read Rachael's magazine, but I love her cookbooks and cooking shows. Although she should annoy me to high heaven, I ADORE the lovely Ms. Ray. I just hope this isn't a must-have subscription. I think one to two magazines a month are my limit.

Review: Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells (and Thanksgiving)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a character-driven novel about the Walker family of Thornton, Louisiana. Big Shep and Viviane (Vivi) Walker have four children: Siddalee (the "main character"), Little Shep, Lulu, and Baylor. The family is rounded out by Chaney, the African-American farmhand who helps Big Shep run the farm, and his wife, Willetta, who is also Vivi's maid. Vivi also has a group of crazy girlfriends that some may recognize from another book: the Ya-yas. The story alternates between the 1960's and 1991, as well as between all the characters' points of view. Some might find the alternating viewpoints or time periods confusing, but I thought Ms. Wells did a good job giving each character an individual voice. By far, my favorite character was Sidda, who was very intelligent and a complete bookworm. (Wonder why I liked her!) I love the part of the book where she runs away and is found hiding in the town's bookmobile!

At first glance (especially if you're looking at the pink cover, featuring a little girl jumping rope), the book seems to be a light Southern read: cute vignettes about an Old South family growing up in the 1960's. But the Walker family hides several dark secrets. Vivi and Big Shep both drink far too much, and that leads them down other unsavory paths. There's really not much of a plot to the book; it's mostly just the story of a family told from multiple viewpoints. I'm interested in reading the other two books in the series to see if anything else about the Walkers is revealed.

I really did enjoy the book. Even though it's not plot-driven, I liked most of the Walkers. And I HATED Vivi, which I think I was supposed to. I'd give the book four out of five whatevers. It's a good read for people who like Southern novels and/or character-driven works.

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We went to the fiance's aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I ended up enjoying myself. Thanksgiving used to be my favorite holiday, but since law school, I haven't been able to go home and share it with MY family. Thus, I inevitably end up depressed on Thanksgiving, remembering the years when we would all gather at my Grandma's house and eat till we burst. I know it's not the same anymore: Grandma is in a nursing home now, so dinner is at my parents' house; one of my sisters is now married, so she doesn't come anymore; not all of the cousins show up, depending on what their significant others are doing; there's no more touch football in the yard; etc. But I miss it anyway.

Ricky's family did it up right, though. This is the first year we've celebrated with his extended family. The last couple of years, it was just me and him and his parents. So it was nice to get back to a big family Thanksgiving. We had spicy turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, con gris (black beans and rice), grilled asparagus, frijoles refritos con tocino (refried beans with bacon), homemade cranberry sauce, corn, MOJITOS!...and I made a Cheesy Broccoli Bake to share. Everything was delicious. And his cousin Miguel and his wife Elizabeth had an announcement to make: they're pregnant again! So it was a nice night all around, even if I was missing my family. I'll get to see them soon enough...Christmas is coming!

We've got the tree up, now we just need to get the lights on. But we're both suffering from a terrible chest cold, so that might have to wait for Sunday.