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Showing posts with the label books

I'm sick (and whiny)

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I feel awful. There is a little bug going around the office and I was lucky enough to catch it. Yay me! I did manage to make it though the workday, however, and now I'm my best to enjoy my evening and read some of my latest book, "Days of Blood and Starlight." It's the second book in a trilogy by Laini Taylor. I got the first book while we were in Portland last weekend, and found out after the fact that Laini herself lives in Portland. The first book, "Daughter of Smoke and Bone,"  was SO GOOD. I flew through it in about a day and a half. My sweet husband (who is being his sweet self right now and is out buying me pizza) knew I would want to read the second one and bought it for me on Amazon (yay 2 day shipping!). Now if I could only keep my eyes from drooping long enough to read more than a chapter without stopping for a break. SPEAKING of books... my 100 Books in 2013 is off to a rocky start. Here we are, nearly a quarter of the way into the year ...

Good Morning from Portland!

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We made our mini road trip last night down to Portland so that we could get up at our leisure this morning to go exploring instead of having to make the four hour drive early. Now I'm up and refreshed and ready to go get brunch at The Roadrunner Cafe, head to Powell's (the best bookstore EVER) and then go to a Chinese or Japanese (we haven't decided which yet) garden for Marc to take photos. It will be nice to have a relaxing little weekend mini-vacation! On the trip down, I became OBSESSED with this song. It makes me want to dance!

100 Books In 2013: Book One: Zlata's Diary

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I had a rough start to my 100 Books in 2013 resolution. Between writing a TON of letters to my new pen pals, being crazy busy at work and working out, I didn't end up having a lot of time to read. I started reading the Sookie Stackhouse books, which were the inspiration for True Blood. For some reason, I just couldn't really get into the book. The writing style was bothering me and, maybe because I already know what happens, I wasn't pulled in by the story. Instead of just pushing through without really enjoying the book, I decided to switch to something else and maybe come back to that book later. I wanted to make up some of the ground that I lost, so I decided to re-read a book that I read when I was in middle school that I knew I could finish quickly. It's called Zlata's diary, and it's about middle school-aged girl living in Sarajevo during the war in the early 1990s. She starts her diary right before her world gets turned around by bombing, shooti...

Happy New Year!!!

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I hope you all had a wonderful (and safe) New Year's Eve! I started today with motivation and excitement. I did my January 1st weigh in, and have my starting place for the goals that I have in mind for my diet, exercise and weight loss in 2013. Because I didn't want to count re-reading the Hunger Games series as part of my 100 Books in 2013, I started the morning by finishing off Mockingjay. If my memory serves me, Catching Fire comes out in theaters this year, right? I can't wait to see the second book on the big screen. Once that was out of the way, I picked my first book of 100 Books in 2013! It was a tough choice, but I decided to start reading the Sookie Stackhouse series. There were a few reasons for this decision; 1) Marc enjoyed the books, 2) we already have the first six books and they are easy to find used really cheap, and 3) they are really quick reads and I have a LOT of books to read this year. I figured it would be a good idea to give myself a little bi...

Project: 100 Books in 2013

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At the end of 2011, I made a resolution that nearly everybody makes: I wanted to get healthy, get in shape, and most importantly, feel more comfortable in my body. More than 60 pounds later, I consider my New Year's resolution from last year to be a smashing success. I feel fantastic and have plans to continue getting healthier and happier. Since I was able to stick to my resolution last year, I am overflowing with ideas (and confidence) to continue to improve my life overall in 2013. One of the things that I really want to work on is making time to do things that I enjoy. I've fallen into a pattern lately of getting up, rushing off to work, working hard and long and then coming home, mentally drained to watch TV and play on my phone until I fall asleep after a few short hours and then repeating the process. I hate it. So, I've made a list of things that I want to do (and not do) in 2013. One of the big ones is to spend more time reading. I love to read. It re...

Europe Trip 2012: Part 1: Paris

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I have been so excited to blog about my trip to Europe, but it seemed like such a daunting task. We were on vacation for 24 days total, and I'm sure you can imagine the amount of pictures that we took! Our trip started after work on October 19th. We got off early and a friend drove us down to the airport.  (side note: I love airports! I will sometimes plan trips with layovers when it would be just a little more expensive to fly direct so that I can see more airports. That much.) We took off from Seattle around 4:30 p.m. and showed up in Reykjavik, Iceland very early the next morning. Pillow that they gave us on the airplane. We flew IcelandAir to Europe. They were great!  The sun coming up over Iceland right before we landed.  I was very excited to get to Reykjavik because it was the very first country outside of the United States that I have ever been to! My dad was in the Coast Guard while I was growing up, so I have been very lucky to see almost all of MY...