Reading Update

So, much to my surprise, and my pride, I have actually been reading the fictional book more often than the non-fiction book! Even though I am into the fictional book, I'm not so crazy about it. I'm a little bit disappointed.

I was expecting it to be a historical, puzzle-solving mystery. It's actually turned out to be a little slow. The book is told from first person perspective, which isn't totally my preference. The author, or "main character" even refers to the book that I'm reading!! She says things like "as you'll come to find out in this book" or "as you'll come to learn as you keep reading". That really bugs me because it's not really a true story or real life, so I don't like when characters talk about the book I'm reading! That takes away from the story, at least for me. I prefer to be a third-person viewer, and rather than hearing "I", I would like to read a story and hear things referencing things like "Susie" and "she". But, either way, the writer is very descriptive and even though it's not as historically or mysteriously as intriguing as I would like, it's still a good book.

Unfortunately for me, I really like the books where there are leads, and puzzles, and myteries. In this book, it's less mystery and puzzle solving and just more descriptives like "we were in the parlor" and "the dinner was wonderful. It consisted of...". I didn't really like that it was more of the day to day "boring" descriptive and less murder mystery and putting pieces of the mystery together.

But, the story is good and interesting, and hopefully by no means I have discouraged you from reading her books.

I don't think I will be buying any more books from this author though. But I will still keep looking out there for new mystery authors. So if you have any recommendations, then please share!

Cheers and Jeers

Cheers:

- Bailey has made it almost a full week not being locked up in his cage and he's doing great!
- It snowed yesterday and it's supposed to snow again on Wednesday!
- I'm really getting into both of my books, and that really excites me!
- Family is coming to visit for Thanksgiving and I have the day before off to help cook, the day of Thanksgiving to enjoy food, and the day after to watch the UT/atm game!

Jeers:

- For layoffs at work (not me; not yet, anyway)
- Neighbors playing their bass really loud every night for 2-3 hours.
- I don't think I'll be able to go to Texas for Christmas.
- I think I've bruised myself in approximately 3 places in the last 24 hours.

Blog to catch up on (boast about?) current reading progress coming soon!

Mellow Sunday night/Weekend Update

Wow...I don't think I could possibly recall all that I did this weekend. There were funny moments, and average moments. And I think the only way I could really track my weekend would be to do a bulleted list (I am, afterall, a bulleted list person) and include visuals. Pictures of course. It is my blog, after all!

Friday night:

- Originally we planned on going out but in order to save money, we stayed in. We stopped by the grocery store with out any real plan of what we wanted, and on a whim, I stopped by the stand that has those little recipe cards. I have my own recipes at home, but I never remember to look through them before I go anywhere. We saw one that really caught our eye, bought all the ingredients, and it was AMAZING!! It was the McCormick recipe for homemade Tortilla Chicken Chili, which is basically chicken and whatever chili ingredients you like (corn, beans, tomatoes, etc) and then their chili mix. Top it with crumbled tortilla and there you have it!

Saturday:

- Saturday morning always means sleeping in. Period.

- After getting up to let Bailey out so he didn't pee all over the apartment, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I ended up downloading and watching Angels and Demons, since I liked the Da Vinci Code so much. I must say, I was very disappointed. I must first admit that I should have read the books, since I'm a self-proclaimed book nerd. But I just couldn't wait and wanted to see the movie first. I really liked the puzzle-solving and the deep story lines that ran throughout in the Da Vinci code, and I don't feel that it was quite up to that level in Angels in Demons. It's like the second movie went downhill in intricate plots. And *SPOILER ALERT*...

...I was really disappointed to be following the "mystery" of the Illuminati to the very end to learn that a priest killed the Pope and made it all up. Just took away from it all for me. I won't be buying that movie anytime soon.

- Around 2 pm or so, Justin asked me to go with him to visit his grandfather in the hospital. No sooner did we get to the hospital and get up to the room, then we walked in, and apparently they took his grandfather for a bath/shower, and it would be about 1 1/2 to 2 hours before he would be done. So we went out for lunch to a place called Panino's, and it was fun to go on a little date. They do a type of sandwich that is best described as a burrito, but the bread they use is actually pizza dough! SOOO YUMMY!!!

- After lunch, it was time for his mom's hockey game (she plays on a team that had a hockey tournament) so we weren't able to make it back to the hospital before their bedtime hours.

Sunday:

- Again, when one has the option to sleep in, one should. Fortunately for me, I woke up to the weather being VERY cold, so it made it very easy to turn back over and cuddle with the big puppy, who had ended up in the bed mysteriously the night before.

- Time was spent on the couch watching Monsters, Inc. I can't believe I still don't own this movie (or Toy Story, or a Bug's Life). I just really started "craving" it (can you crave a movie?) on Saturday, so I sat down and watched it with Bailey cuddled up next to me.

*On a side note, Bailey is really lazy. But that's ok, because then we get to cuddle a lot.*

- Later on, Justin and I ventured out to Whole Foods to get their supposedly thick cut Turkey bacon. We arrived there after about a 40 minute drive, only to find that they only had 1 kind that wasn't even thick cut, and was about $2 more expensive than a normal store. So we left.

- Right at the moment, I'm enjoying a homemade Chinese food dish (relax - I'm not that good - it was made from a box kit) that's really spicy, and I'm watching a marathon of "Man vs. Food" on the Travel Channel. What a great show!

In the meantime, it's been snowing for the last 7 hours or so, and it started accumulating about 5 hours ago. So needless to say, I'm in heaven!

I plan, as soon as I'm done with dinner, to read another chapter in my quest to read 2 books at once!

Whew - so that's my weekend, and that's where I'm at! Thanks for reading!

Did you know...

• The Roman army around the time of Augustus Caesar numbered at only 400,000, but they kept the peace of a Roman world of over 45 million people.
  
• When Roman soldiers weren’t fighting, they were building. Most of the aqueducts and amphitheatres in the areas they were occupying were built by armies (like in France).
  
• A typical soldier’s job (when there wasn’t a specific war going on) was stone-cutting for buildings, but most hated it. Those with something called “special letters of introduction” could practice a “trade” of their choosing, normally an administrative type position such as in a library, as a clerk, or in a surveyors or architect’s office.
  
• The Roman soldier could move up the ranks by becoming the head man of his “mess” (the groups in which soldiers ate their meals), then a centurion’s second-in-command, then a centurion. To move up even further into the officer’s ranks, they would become a first cohort, then a knight. After that, they would retire, but usually only after serving, on average, 25 years if they volunteered. Some were even employed strictly to torture prisoners.
  
• Discipline in the Roman army was taken very seriously. Favorite punishments of the emperors were to replace the wheat used to make bread in a soldiers diet with barley, public flogging of a soldier who misbehaved, reduction of a share of booty, or having 1 in every 10 soldiers from an “offending” cohort (legion), chosen at random to be clubbed or stoned to death by a soldier from another cohort.

Guess which of my two books I've been reading today.

I can't even write a real blog because I want to get back to the book!

Currently Reading...

I'm going to go against everything I've ever done in regards to book reading.

I'm going to read 2 books at once.

To help myself "break through", I've picked one fiction and one non-fiction to break it up. I just never liked the idea of reading 2 fictional books or more at the same time because I didn't want to get into multiple plots and either get them mixed up or not get the full effect of the plot lines.

So, the books of choice this round are:

1. Non-Fiction: The Private Lives of the Roman Emperors by Anthony Blond. I'm already 1 chapter in, and the next chapter is about the Roman Army. For some reason, Mr. Blond picked Sex as the subject of his first chapter, and while it was interesting, it would definitely have been something I would have rather read last. It's a little bit of a harder read, and isn't quite as spell-binding as the Biography I recently finished about Augustus, but the facts are really interesting once I slow down and focus and process what I'm reading. There are a lot of things about the Romans that I bet you didn't know! And that's what I love finding out!!
   
   

2. Fiction: Street of the Five Moons by Elizabeth Peters. This book was purchased as a spur of the moment decision, during a late night run to the grocery store. I'm always looking for great mystery/archeological/historical/puzzle solving fictional books (shocking!) so I thought I'd peruse the book aisle before heading to the check out counter. The cover and title caught my eye, and upon reading the back and the bio on the author, it turns out the book appears to have all of the above criteria I just mentioned, and the author apparently has a PhD in Egyptology. So she knows her stuff! I'm really excited to get into it. Oh yea - and the main character ends up chasing her mystery into - ROME!

So, since I can't decide on a weekly "theme day", and I don't have enough followers yet for a good cross-section of feedback, I'm going to go with blogging about books, whenever. I need to read more, and I always buy books and then don't read them, so I want to do this to hold myself accountable!!

Fall Decorations

I am slowly adding to my home decor week by week, and this week it was more than normal because I had a 20% discount coupon to a local store (like a Kohl's or Ross or TJMaxx). Plus, Justin was looking for a nice, affordable coffee table, so we went several places that would have many nice home decorations.

But the one thing I was really looking for was a wreath of some kind for the front door that was autumn themed. Unfortunately, all of the ones I found were either too expensive (I was looking for around 20 bucks, not 40) or were too big for the door (I mean, come on, I live in an apartment!).

Finally, I went to this store, Gordman's with my coupon, expecting to at least find something that was affordable or was affordable after my discount. Right off the bat, I found this really cute door hanging, but wasn't totally sold on it yet, because I was looking for a wreath.

But, I didn't want anyone else to buy it in the meantime, so I carried it around with me. I wasn't totally happy with any other door displays, so I ended up buying this one (as you can see!) and I'm very happy with my purchase! It is a wreath, but not a full out decorated one. And I think I like the fact that it's a simple wreath, but with nice decor attached to it.

Not to mention, it SPARKLES!!!

And I can leave this up for many months, since there's no specific holiday theme (which is what I was looking for) since it's just pumpkins! So, Happy Fall, Ya'll!

Happy Early Halloween!

If you've ever read any of my posts on Bailey, especially recent ones, you know that I kind of like dressing him up. To a certain extent, it's hard to find things that fit him, because he's so big, and I can only find cute things for the little dogs. I was even contemplating buying Bailey a child's costume, since that seemed to be the only affordable option that would fit him, without having anything custom made.

I had to go to PetsMart today to get Bailey some dog food, and right as you walk in, they have a Halloween display. I thought I would just check it out, until I noticed a "50% off" sign! And believe it or not, I picked up the first costume I saw, called Justin to confirm the purchase, and now - ladies and gentleman, I present "Bailey Monster"!!

My little devil! I actually call him my little angel boy, and we were actually going to get him human angel wings and a halo, but I couldn't resist this! Normally, as I mentioned, NOTHING fits him because he's just too dang big! But this is perfect - it's a cape that goes over his back, and the only 2 places it attaches (his neck/stomach) have straps that secure with velcro! So no matter how big the dog, you can make sure the costume stays!

And then of course, I saw the horns, and that sealed the deal for me. The angel halo was a headband meant for a human, and I just couldn't see them actually staying on Bailey's head. But the hat with the horns attached? And it too stayed together with a velcro strap around the neck? Sign me up!

So I brought it home and the very first thing we did was try it on (IT FIT!!!!) and take pictures. I'm dog sitting for my parents, and I have Baxter staying with me, so I'm sure he was very thankful I didn't try to put it on him! (And that's also why you see multiple dog beds in one picture!)

I LOVE DOGS!!!