One Day Late -- Friday Fill-Ins

Last night was Girls' Night (a sleepover at my friend Ashley's house), so I didn't get much accomplished in the last 24 hours. And the night before I got home late from work and then went to dinner with the Fiance' and baked Zucchini Bread, so, again, not much blogging or reading accomplished. But now it's time for Friday Fill-Ins, a day late and a dollar short!


1. I'd really like more sleep right now.

2. FUCK!!! is the word you'd most often hear me say if I stubbed my toe.

3. Possession is a book I didn't really get. I recently read on someone else's blog (Morsie?) that they didn't really get it either, so now I don't feel so dumb.

4. I'm rather partial to Captain Jack Sparrow.

5. Marshmallows and fire go together like ice cream and chocolate sauce.

6. I tend to get frustrated when clients go on and on.

7. And as for the weekend, FRIDAY I'm looking forward to the Girls' Night sleepover, TODAY my plans include recovering from my hangover and Sunday, I want to watch the Super Bowl!

How You Know Your Reading List Is Out of Control

I keep my reading list on an Excel spreadsheet. I like Excel because the "find" function makes it really easy to see if I'm re-adding something that's already on my list. You just control-f it and the book either shows up (and you're set to read it) or it doesn't (and you add it). Well, recently, my TBR list has gotten waaaay longer than ever before, mainly due to the book blogs I read on a daily basis. So now...

I've had to split-screen my reading list in Excel, because it takes too long to scroll from the middle of the document to the end.

WTF?!

Just Curious

Has anyone else heard that there may be a new Outlander book from Diana Gabaldon? I heard or read somewhere that an eighth book may be forthcoming, despite the fact that A Breath of Snow and Ashes was supposed to be the last. I hope it's true, but I'm also scared, in case it's not good. I mean, how much more can there be to say about Claire and Jamie and Briana and Roger at this point?!

I picked up Outlander during my last year of law school. It had been on a list of the 100 Best Books of some year or other that I found online somewhere. At first, I didn't think it would be my thing. I thought it was fantasy and I wasn't really into fantasy. Little did I know, it wasn't really fantasy, but more a historical romance with some time travel thrown in. I fell in love with the series and devoured the next few books within a few months, despite still being in school and having a lot of other things competing for my time. The Fiery Cross, book six, was pretty slow, but I wonder how much of that was the book and how much of it was me taking the Florida Bar. And also, I believe a new Harry Potter came out that summer, so I may have set it aside to re-read that series. Anyway...

Can anyone confirm or deny the rumor of an eighth book in the Outlander series?

Christmas Wii Is in the HOUSE!

So, this Christmas, Ricky and I decided that, instead of buying each other a bunch of little things, we would just buy our joint selves a Wii. Of course, since that meant no presents under the tree to unwrap, we ended up buying each other a bunch of little things, too, so Christmas was not REALLY any less expensive than usual.

When we decided that it was close enough to Christmas to purchase the gaming system (Thanksgiving), we couldn't find it anywhere. And then Christmas rolled around and we still couldn't find one. And then I was gone to Ohio for a week and a half, and then we were getting used to 2009, and then we STILL couldn't find them anywhere locally.

But Thursday. Oh, Thursday! Target got a Nintendo shipment in and one of those suckers had our name all over it!!! Of course, since we can't do anything major in life without getting into an argument about it, we did that first. Mostly because I'm a control freak and I hadn't slept in two nights because of a smoke detector that needed a new battery. But, I digress.

We ended up at Target Thursday evening. We bought the system, an extra controller and nunchuck, and two games, one for each of us. HOLY CRAP, that was more than I intended to spend. But it's Christmas, right?

So now the Wii is installed, and I will probably be spending even LESS time reading and blogging. Sigh. Just what I needed. Another distraction.

FRIDAY FILL-INS!!!

1. Oh, I am so COLD!

2. I hate changes, big and little.

3. During lunch, I ate a bunch of stuff that was bad for me (but oh so good!).

4. Thirty degree weather in Florida; are you kidding me???

5. Right now I'd like to be under the sea, in an octopus's garden with you.

6. Our new Wii is my favorite gadget.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to catching up on the old Google reader, tomorrow my plans include going out for drinks with a co-worker or two and Sunday, I want to play Wii and work on wedding stuff with Ricky!

Mailbox Tuesday?

Well, today is my Monday, since I was off work yesterday. And I forgot to post my Mailbox Monday then, so I'm posting it now...

Coming in to my house this week were two LibraryThing acquisitions. I was awarded a bound galley of Ivan G. Goldman's The Barfighter from the folks at The Permanent Press. About all I know of it is that it's the story of a boxer...doing something. The flap copy is not really very clear. But it sounded like something outside of my normal reading sphere, and, since I'm always looking to expand my horizons, I thought I'd check it out.

The super awesomely awesome part is that The Permanent Press ALSO sent me a bound galley of another new novel, The Disappearance, which is another of the "missing child" genre that Wendy posted about at CaribousMom the other day. So now I have two for the price of one review books to check out. Which are going on my shelf, and I will get to them soon, I hope.

What books joined your library this week?

Happy 200th!

Today, as some of you may know, is Edgar Allen Poe's 200th birthday. To honor him, I quote below his poem "To One in Paradise."

"Thou wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine -
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.

"Ah, dream too bright to last!
Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!
A voice from out the future cries,
'On! on!' - but o'er the Past
(Dim, gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast!

"For, alas! alas! with me
The light of Life is o'er!
No more - no more - no more -
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,
Or the stricken eagle soar!

"And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams -
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams."