Book Review - Shopaholic

I don't know why I wanted to Confessions of a Shopaholic. I admit that I do - GASP - read "chick-lit". Still, this book didn't seem to be in my normal reading area. All I know is that it's popular. Well I was right, it wasn't my book. The main character is Becky Bloomwood, a shopaholic. Bex keeps me from identifying with this book. She would rather shop than work, and cannot accept the consequences of her actions in the form of credit card bills from hell. Her bank manager keeps trying to contact her regarding her outstanding balance and she keeps avoiding him. When her neighbors are treated poorly in a business deal, she writes an article for a tabloid exposing the insurance companies scam. This leads to a television appearance which leads to a job which will get her out of debt. No, Becky doesn't have to learn her lesson and she gets a boy friend out of it as well. This book seemed too fantastic, even for escape literature. I won't be reading it again.

My Library

The Pittsburg library is a location where I have spent a good percentage of my life. I can easily claim to have been going there for 30 years, but it may be more, but not that much more. From the story book section as a child to teen romance and Anne of Green Gables as an adolescent, to the research section as an undergrad, I know my library in and out.

Right now, I can thank my library for saving me a small fortune in audio books. Pat has a long commute, two hours a day. He has an I-Pod that I keep filled with audiobooks to ease his time. Considering that the average cost of an audiobook on I-Tunes is $20 and Pat goes through two to three a week, I save about $60 a week, just on audiobooks.

I also save on my books. How many times have you bought a book, brought it home, and by the time you get around to reading it you find that you really don't like the book at all. Now I check any new books that I might want to buy out of the library first, a test drive so to speak. Then, after I return it, if I want to read it again I will add it to my library

Also, I save a lot on movie rentals. Not only do I try to get new releases, but also the classics that we feel we should see. This allows us to take chances without financial risk. We don't have to question if we really want to spend our money on said book / movie, we just get it free.

Now I find myself going full circle back to the children's room. I love watching Mini-Me and Bun listening to story time and checking out books just as I used to do. The city wanted to move the library a while back, but the funding for a new building fell through. I'm glad because I live my old library.

Small Parts

I hate toys with small parts. Now, I don't mind the kids having die cast cars, blocks, card games and the like. They're a part of childhood. What I do mind is when they dump them on the ground then wander off. I don't know if Bun likes the sound or if he just wants to make me mad. It frustrates me because I feel helpless as I want them to play, just not to make a mess. Daniel doesn't understand how to clean up. Alex does, but getting him to do it is like herding cats. I can do it twice as fast when I do it alone. So, I do it myself and feel martyred over it or I ask Pat to do it when I'm putting the kids to bed then get upset when he doesn't. Oh well. They'll grow up eventually.

Reading

I read to Mini-Me and Bun by the hour. We cover armfuls of material from the Berenstain Bears, to Froggy, Dr. Seuss and High-5 Magazine. I usually don't mind reading to the kids, except for the times when Bun starts turning pages in mid read, or when he wants me to read one page then skip 5 then read another. I know this is what's best for their language development. It also gives me a secret sense of pride that my kids listen to the teacher in story time and can answer the questions about what's being read. My only rule is to not get any books that I would hate to read. After all, if I'm not going to read it, why should I frustrate the kids by having those books around to begin with.

Night At The Museum

Pat and I wanted to see this film before the sequel comes out in May. So, since the library didn't have it, we bought it as the price was the same as renting. I was wary of this film since I don't care for Ben Stiller, but seeing Mickey Rooney's and Dick van Dyke's names on the back of the DVD case sold me. I was pleased to see that Mickey Rooney is still acting after over 70 years in the film industry.

Unfortunately, this film lived up to my expectations. It was predictable, and it was boring. The only unique thing about it was setting it in a museum. We have seen the inanimate come to life in The Indian in the Cupboard; stories about robbing a museum are old hat. I don't think we'll be going to see the sequel.

Book Review - Baby Proof

Emily Giffin's novel, Baby Proof, is a very distant sequel to her duology Something Borrowed and Something Blue. How ever, I read it first before the other two. It is the story of Claudia Parr, an editor who does not want children and never has. She was married to Ben who originally agreed with her on children, then grew to change his mind which led to her divorce. Through the course of the book she deals with one sister's infertilty, the indiscretions of her brother-in-law, a new relationship and the resurrection of an older one. On Christmas Day she realizes that there are a lot of things she does not know, but she knows who she wants to learn about them with. This is a good book for escape reading. I checked it out of the library to preview it and finished by buying a copy for my library.

Shoulder Issues

I've had shoulder pain for a long time. Now that I can no longer sleep on my right side, I am finally going to get it looked at. It pops and clicks sometimes and I just want it to stop.

A Guilty Pleasure

I have had a Neopets account for 8 1/2 years. I started this at work when I would have four hours of work in an 8 hour day. Naturally I wanted to do the work when my boss was around so I'd look useful and he'd feel good that he was bringing in enough sales to keep me busy. But what to do the other 4 hours while waiting for the phone to ring. Free Cell and Minesweeper get old quickly. I had to keep the phone lines open so I looked into online gaming and found Neopets. I have played with this account, off and on, for many moons and it still keeps me happy. It keeps me from being depressed by keeping me from dwelling on being alone. It has provided friends through a guild I joined and a way to escape to a colourful, happy world where I don't have to hear Mama being called out constantly, if only for a few minutes a day.

Veganism

I have always flirted with vegetarianism. Off and on through college I would embark on this life style, then go back to my omnivorous ways when the going got too rough and the siren call of chicken and hamburgers would lure me back. However, I can't argue that I do feel healthier on a vegetarian diet. And oddly enough I love reading vegan food blogs. I just wish I had the energy to try one more attempt at a herbivorous life

Book Review - The Amateur Gourmet

This is a book by Adam Roberts that evolved from a blog that turned into a book deal. It is about learning how to cook, in one way, and in another it is about developing a better relationship with different types of cuisines and ingredients. It ends with an enormous feast using all that Adam learned in the course of his blog and subsequent book preparation. It's an okay book. I much preferred the blog. I did get a great spaghetti sauce recipe out of it however.

Uncle Ray

My Great Uncle Ray is one of the few people on this planet that I will listen to. Because he speaks so reasonably and so jovially, it's hard not to go along with him especially as it all makes sense when ut in his unique fashion.

Ray is my grandfather's youngest brother and the middle child in his family. He had 2 older brothers and 2 younger sisters. He is an engineer, a farmer, a soldier and a carpenter. He is both rock and clown. I have a picture of him wearing a suit at his 50th wedding anniversary. He is dressed formally. Yet, by his stance with his hands in his pants with thumbs out, his back arched, and his jacket pushed back, he could be a cowboy.



He wanted to be a carpenter for many years. He even joined the union and made journeyman. Then he was drafted to serve in the Korean Conflict. His work experiences led the Army to assign him to the Corps of Engineers. Over there he somehow managed to knock out a front tooth. He always told the family that it happened when he was clowning around on a tank.



When Ray came marching home he decided that he wanted to be the one designing the buildings instead of building them, so in his early 20's he decided to go to Fresno State University to study engineering. He studied his courses on my grandparents kitchen table with my grandfather, the electrical engineer, helping him over the tough parts.



Of course, being single couldn't last forever. My family arranged for him to spend the summer rebuilding a porch at his brother's wife's family's cabin. They also arranged for his brother's sister-in-law to be up there all alone. They were engaged by Thanksgiving and married between Christmas and New Years.



Ray never stopped being a carpenter even after he obtained a position with Kings County as a civil engineer. He and his wife bought property to build a house. He would go to work during the day, and at night he would go inspect the construction. Always the kibbitzer, he would leave notes telling the carpenters what needed to changed, fixed, or completed. He would continue this habit 40 years later when he put and addition on his house.

Ray has had a couple of heart scares, and his wife is now suffering with Alzheimer's disease. Still he has a courageous smile and he continues to soldier on. He's has a tough life, but a full one and he'll always be a man I respect and love.

A Parent's Identity

As a student I could always identify myself by name and by year in school. In college I could throw my major in for another piece of identification. In corporate America I had a title and an office where I worked to show the world who I was. Now, as a parent to boys with an increasingly large social circle, I have found a new title. At school events I find the introduction going as follows - Hi, I'm Mini-Me's mom, or I'm Stephanie, Bun's mom, how are you. So, now, my identity revolves around my children, perhaps more than I feel comfortable with right now. Still, when I think about it, it's not that bad. I am doing what is most important right now, taking care of people who can't take care of themselves, which described my job in corporate America as well.

Roast Sausage

This is a personal favorite of almost everyone in the family. I take smoked sausage cut it into chunks. Then, per pound of sausage I add two red, orange, or yellow bell peppers, one large onion and two cans of petite diced tomatoes with peppers. Finally I add 1 teaspoon of chicken broth dissolved in 1/2 cup of water. Put in the oven at 425 and roasted for 35 minutes, it's heavenly when served with a loaf of crust bread. It's even better the second day because the bell peppers suck up the juices and become meltingly soft. Me, I just like the juice with some bread as I don't eat that much meat. Pat loves the peppers and onions. Trouble maker eats the sausage, complains about hating peppers and onions and insists that he's being starved even though he eats the lion's share of the meat. Oh well, can't please everyone all the time

Twister

This is one of the movies that I love, but I prefer that nobody knows I love. Well, now the secret's out. I don't like Bill Paxton or Helen Hunt, but I do like the supporting cast and Cary Elwes. The movie is campy, the characters don't make sense (i.e. how the news would know that the first tornado in the movie was an f5 without observing the damage path), and why would a metereologist need corporate sponsorship But I love the cow scene, as well as the scene when they sang Oklahoma at the beginning. It's a feel good film where you don't have to like the characters to enjoy the ride.

Book Review - Ender's Game

I like science fiction. However, I like it better when it's set in familiar settings. Normally I tend to enjoy the works of Ben Bova. When I need to stray out into the stars I prefer Star Trek and Robert Heinlin. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card was an incredible book. It is the story of Andrew (Ender) Wiggin a boy whose parents were allowed to conceive him in the hope that, in Ender, the world might find salvation from the overlurking fear of the "Buggers", an alien race that had twice attempted to take over Earth. Ender and his family are unaware of this as we follow Ender through Battle School and onto his final battle with the Buggers and their queens. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.

This book was written more for teen agers than adults. But, unlike some people, I don't have a problem reading fiction for young adults. After all, wasn't that what Harry Potter was originally set for? A good read is a good read. All that is important for me in a book is that I find it entertaining.

Where everybody knows your name

Pat and I were driving through our local Starbucks (Loveridge and California) the other day. Upon pulling up to the order window, they already had our standard order up on the screen and all we had to do was laughingly agree that, yes, that was all we wanted. I love this place for the simple fact that they greet my husband by name, though I'm not quite sure how they figured that one out. Yes, they're a big name, and, yes, I'm sure they have been responsible for small mom and pop shops closing when they're commerce moves to the more familiar big name, but they brighten up my evenings and make me feel like I have a name other than mom