It's been almost a year to the day that I blogged last and I feel like it's gone by so quickly! I feel like we didn't have a lot happen but here (in a very abbreviated form) is what we did: went to St. Louis several times; fostered a very sweet dog named Joey who was abandoned at my clinic and then adopted him out to Michael's secretary's family (but he got out of the yard right before Halloween and hasn't been seen since); took a mini-vacation to Vegas near our 6th anniversary; our AC broke towards the end of summer so we put in a completely new HVAC system; we had friends move into our neighborhood; I finally got on the Facebook bandwagon (but Michael still hasn't and refuses to do so); our TCU Horned Frogs did AMAZINGLY well during their undefeated season and went to the Fiesta Bowl...but lost; we went to the Fiesta Bowl to watch our Frogs after spending a week in StL for Christmas and celebrating my awesome gma's 92nd birthday (go, Grandma!!); I was diagnosed with acid reflux (again!) after having 3 months of stomach pain and nausea almost every single day and enduring an endooscopy as my first ever anesthetic procedure; we finally have furniture (and plants!) in our front room and our beautiful crystal and china is also on display; we have friends that have gotten married and are getting married and friends who have had babies and are having babies, which brings me to my next thought...
There are babies EVERYWHERE right now!!! I swear, I know about 10 women who are currently pregnant and they're all due between the end of May and the middle of July! I love my friends and I wish them all the best and I want all of them to have healthy babies and safe deliveries...I guess I've entered the baby phase of my life. You know how it goes: first all of your friends get engaged, then all of your friends get married, then all of your friends have babies and so on and so forth. Sometimes I feel like I'm the anamoly because we've been married for almost 7 years and don't have children yet but the honest truth is that I haven't been ready and I don't think it's fair to either you or the baby if you're not ready for such a big, life-changing committment. And it really is a committment, you have to be dedicated mind, body and soul to have/be ready for a baby. I think too many people nowadays just aren't responsible about having a baby and it infuriates me--how can you treat a life so casually? And I'm not talking about anyone in particular, I'm just saying that I think our country, in general, acts this way. Maybe I've been watching too much Teen Mom lately. It's easy to say, "we'd be great parents" but you need to be responsible about it, you know? Anyway, right now I've enjoyed being "us" and I've loved travelling on our schedule and working and playing on our schedule but I think I'm almost, almost ready for that next step in our lives....if nothing else, a child of ours would certainly have a lot of friends to play with a few years down the line and they'd all be about the same age to do so!
So anyway, I'm turning the big 3-0 in t-minus 9 days (on the 26th) and I've been thinking: turning 30 for a guy is a lot different than turning 30 for a girl. For a guy, they're like, oh, who cares, it's not a big deal, 30 isn't a big deal at all. It doesn't even phaze them! Now me, I'm like, oh no, I'm turning 30! My eggs are drying up, I need to lose weight before I can't lose it anymore, is that another wrinkle?, is that another gray hair? I need to have 3 kids in the next 5 years, how am I going to do that? I'm getting so old. But the truth is, it's just a number, that's all it is. It's a number in the book that's the passport of my life. I think I need to focus on the fact that my 20s are over, my 30s are here and I just need to enjoy it. The 30s can be my chance to learn more about myself, to enjoy my time, to make my house a home, to be the mature, responsible adult that I am. So long 20s, hello 30s!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Sunday, January 18, 2009
This One's For You, Billy
So now it's been almost 3 months sincy my last post--AGAIN! So much has happened and I feel like my life has been so crazy lately, though I'm sure an outsider wouldn't see it that way at all. At the end of Oct./beginning of Nov., we went on our first cruise and, I must say, I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone! As I was mentioning to our friend Billy this morning, a cruise is wonderful because you don't have to plan anything, rent a car or find a hotel, you just get on the boat and that's it, it does everything else for you!!! We had a wonderful time on our Holland America boat, The Westerdam: we went to their private island in the Bahamas, to Turks & Caicos for our first foray into the amazing world of snorkeling and to Costa Maya, Mexico for some sightseeing of real Mayan temples. We were also supposed to make a stop in Grand Cayman (and, as it turns out for some more snorkelng since we switched our excursions) but the weather was pretty bad and the captain deemed it dangerous for us to get off the boat. We had a brief hello and farewell to the island, that was it. In Costa Maya, we were actually the very first boat to come back to the port since it was devastated in a hurricane last year--the shop owners were so desperate for us to buy their wares (and pictures with monkeys, which Michael did) that it was sort of sad. But, we did buy several souveneirs and presents there, so I guess we did our part. Oh, and I had my first karaoke experince on the ship, that was interesting. for anyone who wants to know. If anyone wants to see pics of our vacation, let me know and I'll put some up....
In November, we started making some home improvements! We hired a great company to paint the rest of the rooms in our house (9 rooms total that we didn't have to do!) and I love the colors we picked out. I'll do some befores and afters later. We also finally got our fireplace repaired (actually, that migh have been in Dec., I can't really remember right now)!!! We had to get a masonry cap put on and some gaps filled. After that, we had to get a chimney sweep out (insert Mary Poppins music here) to clean everything, there was a lot of debris and we weren't sure when or if it had ever been cleaned out before....it's likely that it hadn't been cleaned in quite some time since the sweeps found a rusty hammer in the chimney during the cleaning. How that got there I'll never know. My parents gave us an early Christmas present in the form of a beautiful new fireplace screen so we (and by "we", I mean Michael) ripped out the horrible old '60s brass one, then we (and by "we", I mean I) painted the exposed brick to match the rest of the surrounding brick and voila! An updated fireplace! Gorgeous!
December was busy, busy, busy! Ever single weekend we were doing something or going somewhere, which explains why we had to get our Christmas tree the Sun. after Thanksgiving and put up our lights the first weekend in Dec. (Michael is awesome for all the hard work he did--the house wouldn't have looked nearly as festive without all of his help!). I hosted (hostessed?) not only my work party but also a smaller PB party. The Banfield party consisted of about 16 people and 10 dogs, while the PB party was about 10 people strong with lots of wine! Both Christmas parties were very fun, each in their own way. For Christmas, we switched our families this year and again went down to Wimberley to be with Michael's family: I always have such a good time down there with good fun, good family time, good games and good pirate-themed murder mystery dinner theatre! And even though I missed being with my family this Christmas, I had so much fun in the Hill Country that I wasn't too sad for too long. New Years Eve was quiet for us this year: I had to work during the day and was so tired at night that I just wanted to sleep. We did end up making it until midnight (I kicked Micahel's butt at Scraable!) and Sam and Max enjoyed drinking some Ballatore Asti. We, on the other hand, hated it.
That brings me up to January! We just finished another big home project: replacing our old, sliding glass patio doors. As Michael jokes, you could predict the weather just by standing near the doors, they were that drafty! So, we had 2 sets of french doors installed this week: one from the den to the patio and the other set from the office to the patio. They look so nice and they're just the kind I wanted. Plus, we have screens now so we can open the doors whenever we want--somehow I'm the only one of the four of us who hasn't run into a screen yet...
My New Years resolutions are pretty simple this year: I'm trying to be more healthy this year by eating better, cooking at home, eating more fruits and veggies and drinking more water. I wouldn't mind losing some weight but mostly I just want to be healthier. I also would like to get my back in better condition so I'm not constantly in pain. Oh, and I'd like to make my house more of a home, maybe with another little addition later this year but that's a long way away and I still need to do a lot of mental preparation before I'm even willing to discuss that. So here's to 2009: may it be a healthy, happy year for all my friends and family and we'll see where this year takes us! Cheers!
In November, we started making some home improvements! We hired a great company to paint the rest of the rooms in our house (9 rooms total that we didn't have to do!) and I love the colors we picked out. I'll do some befores and afters later. We also finally got our fireplace repaired (actually, that migh have been in Dec., I can't really remember right now)!!! We had to get a masonry cap put on and some gaps filled. After that, we had to get a chimney sweep out (insert Mary Poppins music here) to clean everything, there was a lot of debris and we weren't sure when or if it had ever been cleaned out before....it's likely that it hadn't been cleaned in quite some time since the sweeps found a rusty hammer in the chimney during the cleaning. How that got there I'll never know. My parents gave us an early Christmas present in the form of a beautiful new fireplace screen so we (and by "we", I mean Michael) ripped out the horrible old '60s brass one, then we (and by "we", I mean I) painted the exposed brick to match the rest of the surrounding brick and voila! An updated fireplace! Gorgeous!
December was busy, busy, busy! Ever single weekend we were doing something or going somewhere, which explains why we had to get our Christmas tree the Sun. after Thanksgiving and put up our lights the first weekend in Dec. (Michael is awesome for all the hard work he did--the house wouldn't have looked nearly as festive without all of his help!). I hosted (hostessed?) not only my work party but also a smaller PB party. The Banfield party consisted of about 16 people and 10 dogs, while the PB party was about 10 people strong with lots of wine! Both Christmas parties were very fun, each in their own way. For Christmas, we switched our families this year and again went down to Wimberley to be with Michael's family: I always have such a good time down there with good fun, good family time, good games and good pirate-themed murder mystery dinner theatre! And even though I missed being with my family this Christmas, I had so much fun in the Hill Country that I wasn't too sad for too long. New Years Eve was quiet for us this year: I had to work during the day and was so tired at night that I just wanted to sleep. We did end up making it until midnight (I kicked Micahel's butt at Scraable!) and Sam and Max enjoyed drinking some Ballatore Asti. We, on the other hand, hated it.
That brings me up to January! We just finished another big home project: replacing our old, sliding glass patio doors. As Michael jokes, you could predict the weather just by standing near the doors, they were that drafty! So, we had 2 sets of french doors installed this week: one from the den to the patio and the other set from the office to the patio. They look so nice and they're just the kind I wanted. Plus, we have screens now so we can open the doors whenever we want--somehow I'm the only one of the four of us who hasn't run into a screen yet...
My New Years resolutions are pretty simple this year: I'm trying to be more healthy this year by eating better, cooking at home, eating more fruits and veggies and drinking more water. I wouldn't mind losing some weight but mostly I just want to be healthier. I also would like to get my back in better condition so I'm not constantly in pain. Oh, and I'd like to make my house more of a home, maybe with another little addition later this year but that's a long way away and I still need to do a lot of mental preparation before I'm even willing to discuss that. So here's to 2009: may it be a healthy, happy year for all my friends and family and we'll see where this year takes us! Cheers!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Ridiculous
I realize that it's been absolutely ridiculous that I haven't blogged for almost 3 months! So, I'm sorry for that, I didn't mean to miss most of autumn! The weather is finally starting to cool off here, it actually got into the 40s last night! Cooler weather means windows open and nights underneath the warming blanket--I love it!!! Of course, cooler weather also means that we'll finally get to use our new (well, new to us) fireplace...once we get it fixed. *sigh* everything has a price. Autumn also means it's Fair time!! Techincally, the Fair ended last weekend (with perfect weather!), but I'm going to be lazy and copy a comment onto my blog that I hope you'll enjoy. I was commenting on another blog (Homesick Texan) who was maing corny dogs and since we were going to the Fair that very same day, I felt compelled to comment. Plus, if you know me even in the slightest, you know my feelings about the Fair. Without further ado:
"First of all, I'll admit it: I'm not a native Texan. I grew up in St. Louis but I met my husband at TCU right before freshman year began, we married 5 years after we met and I've considered myself a Texan since then (2003). Thing is, I had NO idea what a state fair really was until I went to TCU. I think my husband-to-be (Michael) and I went almost every year we were in school. After we got married, we moved to Austin so he could go to UT Law but we still managed to make the drive and come to the Fair once a year. Now we live in Dallas and we buy season passes for the Fair at Kroger (it pays for itself if you go 2 times, plus you get a free AMC movie ticket AND a ticket to Holiday in the Park--that's when our Six Flags is open during our not-too-cool "winters"). We're actually going today for the last time this year, as the Fair closes again tomorrow. This year I've had the CFB (chicken friend bacon) which made me nauseous when I first heard about it but didn't taste too bad, fried grilled cheese (delicious!) and a Fletcher's corny dog smothered in mustard. Today I think I'll have some or all of the following: fried pickles with spicy ranch dipping sauce (can only be found over by the Cotton Bowl, alllll the way over on the right side, next to the entrance to the CB on the Midway side--look for Ruth's Tamales and keep heading back), fried s'mores, fried truffles, funnel cake and another ubiquitous corny dog. Don't worry, I'll be sharing with my husband. When August rolls around, I go to www.bigtex.com to see how many days are left on the countdown! Then my sister-in-law (who also lives in Dallas) and I squeal with delight and get excited that another Fair adventure is right around the corner.
I should also mention that the Fair holds a special place in my heart: it's where Michael asked my dad for permission to marry me. In the car pavillion. We still tease him about it to this day. He claims it was the only time he had to get my dad alone to ask him. And it was my parent's first trip to the Fair. How much more of a Fair lover could I be?"
P.S. I have to add to this that we did NOT end up eating all those foods! We had: corny dogs (regular for me, jalapeno/cheese for Michael, both smothered in mustard), fried s'mores (delicious!!), fried pickles with spicy ranch and fried waffle balls (which, in essence, is a fried chocolate covered strawbery). And then we had some caramel-nut covered apple wedges. You know, to break up the monotony of the fried stuff. :)
P.P.S. AND The Killdares were at the Fair this year!!! We discovered them at the Fair many, many moons ago but, sadly, they've been absent from the Fair these past few years (which is a shame and I expressed my disapproval to the State Fair higher ups via a letter). Thank goodness they're back! The Killdares are a Dallas based celtic rock group and they're amazing! Michael, Steph and I saw them at a St. Patrick's Day concert this year and we all had so much fun! If you live in the Dallas are and get a chance to hear them, take it!
P.P.P.S. I swear, this is my last postscript of the night: we're leaving for vacation on Sunday! We're going on a (much needed) week-long Caribbean cruise and I probably won't be blogging during that time period. The lovely Stephanie will be staying at our house, taking care of things and watching all the sweet puppies (both hers and ours). Hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween!
"First of all, I'll admit it: I'm not a native Texan. I grew up in St. Louis but I met my husband at TCU right before freshman year began, we married 5 years after we met and I've considered myself a Texan since then (2003). Thing is, I had NO idea what a state fair really was until I went to TCU. I think my husband-to-be (Michael) and I went almost every year we were in school. After we got married, we moved to Austin so he could go to UT Law but we still managed to make the drive and come to the Fair once a year. Now we live in Dallas and we buy season passes for the Fair at Kroger (it pays for itself if you go 2 times, plus you get a free AMC movie ticket AND a ticket to Holiday in the Park--that's when our Six Flags is open during our not-too-cool "winters"). We're actually going today for the last time this year, as the Fair closes again tomorrow. This year I've had the CFB (chicken friend bacon) which made me nauseous when I first heard about it but didn't taste too bad, fried grilled cheese (delicious!) and a Fletcher's corny dog smothered in mustard. Today I think I'll have some or all of the following: fried pickles with spicy ranch dipping sauce (can only be found over by the Cotton Bowl, alllll the way over on the right side, next to the entrance to the CB on the Midway side--look for Ruth's Tamales and keep heading back), fried s'mores, fried truffles, funnel cake and another ubiquitous corny dog. Don't worry, I'll be sharing with my husband. When August rolls around, I go to www.bigtex.com to see how many days are left on the countdown! Then my sister-in-law (who also lives in Dallas) and I squeal with delight and get excited that another Fair adventure is right around the corner.
I should also mention that the Fair holds a special place in my heart: it's where Michael asked my dad for permission to marry me. In the car pavillion. We still tease him about it to this day. He claims it was the only time he had to get my dad alone to ask him. And it was my parent's first trip to the Fair. How much more of a Fair lover could I be?"
P.S. I have to add to this that we did NOT end up eating all those foods! We had: corny dogs (regular for me, jalapeno/cheese for Michael, both smothered in mustard), fried s'mores (delicious!!), fried pickles with spicy ranch and fried waffle balls (which, in essence, is a fried chocolate covered strawbery). And then we had some caramel-nut covered apple wedges. You know, to break up the monotony of the fried stuff. :)
P.P.S. AND The Killdares were at the Fair this year!!! We discovered them at the Fair many, many moons ago but, sadly, they've been absent from the Fair these past few years (which is a shame and I expressed my disapproval to the State Fair higher ups via a letter). Thank goodness they're back! The Killdares are a Dallas based celtic rock group and they're amazing! Michael, Steph and I saw them at a St. Patrick's Day concert this year and we all had so much fun! If you live in the Dallas are and get a chance to hear them, take it!
P.P.P.S. I swear, this is my last postscript of the night: we're leaving for vacation on Sunday! We're going on a (much needed) week-long Caribbean cruise and I probably won't be blogging during that time period. The lovely Stephanie will be staying at our house, taking care of things and watching all the sweet puppies (both hers and ours). Hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween!
Monday, August 04, 2008
Books, Books, BOOKS!!!
The story is that apparently the National Endowment for the Arts estimates that the average adult has only read six of these books. Here are the markup guidelines:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Mark in red the books you LOVE. I marked in PINK--red doesn't show up too well on my blog!
4) Reprint this list in your blog
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (1-4, then I lost interest)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (I have it but I've never read it!)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (part of it)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan (part of it)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel (I have it)
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (I think I have it)
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (part of it)
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Wow, so I've read 43 on this list!!! Then again, I did major in English (and History) so this isn't too surprising! Interestingly enough, this list made me realize how many of these books I own but have never read (or have only read part of them and then got distracted, probably by life)--I need to get cracking!
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Mark in red the books you LOVE. I marked in PINK--red doesn't show up too well on my blog!
4) Reprint this list in your blog
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (1-4, then I lost interest)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (I have it but I've never read it!)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (part of it)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan (part of it)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel (I have it)
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (I think I have it)
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (part of it)
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Wow, so I've read 43 on this list!!! Then again, I did major in English (and History) so this isn't too surprising! Interestingly enough, this list made me realize how many of these books I own but have never read (or have only read part of them and then got distracted, probably by life)--I need to get cracking!
Monday, July 28, 2008
A Picture Extravaganza!
We Did It!!! 
Our House
Getting Ready to Paint Color for the First Time Together!
Pretty Yellow! (Sorry, "Honey Moth")
Formal Living Room
Den and Kitchen
Den
Fireplace in Den
1/2 Bath off Kitchen
My Beautiful Kitchen!
So, Michael finally hooked up the printer which means I get to post new pics of the house! These are the beautiful, newly-painted house and newly-shorn gigantic bushes in the backyard (they're completely gone now but I haven't taken pictures of those yet...I guess I'll have to later!)! The pics at the bottom are of Michael and our newest purchase, the kinda cute lawn mower (and thank goodness, our lawn desperately needed to be cut!)!! I never thought I'd get so excited about a lawnmower. Enjoy!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Interesting....
I stole this from a friend of a friend...the 100 words I use most on here. Enjoy!
P.S. New house pics coming soon, as soon as Michael gets his office set up. Cross your fingers!
P.S. New house pics coming soon, as soon as Michael gets his office set up. Cross your fingers!
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Ever Have One Of Those Days?
I sure did today. Today was awful, just awful. I had my whole day planned out and it was going to be a productive one and then...WHAMMO! I got sucked into my own personal blackhole that is work. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my job: I love the clients, love my vet, love the people but I detest being at work when I'm not supposed to be and I REALLY hate it when someone leaves 4 hours before they're supposed to b/c they have to get their car recall taken care of (which could, and should, be done on their day off!) and everything else is secondary to their spoiled, selfish ways. And so, instead of doing my very tardy computer training and packing today, I was at work for 7 hours. Plus, it was one of those days where we were insanely busy and 2 receptionists were truly needed--I'm only one person and I can only check in and out so many people at one time, while 3 phone lines are ringing and I'm taking payments and filling meds. Oh, and did I mention today was a Wellness Hours day? Yeah, that's when we open up our clinic for 2 hours in the afternoon and anyone who wants (usually new clients with new pets) to come in, can. And that means more paperwork and longer checking-in times. At one point, Dr. P ordered me to sit down and eat while he answered the phones for me! 10 min. for lunch for me and I was still doing work the whole time. Woo hoo. The silver lining was that when I talked to Dr. P at the end of the day, he thanked me for coming in and helping out. I wanted to cry. What a day.
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