Update!

Hello minions!

I'm sorry it has been so long since I last posted - January, yeesh!  Here is what has been going on in my life:

I'm still loving my job.  I have a great boss who has taught me so much about being a better supervisor and overall person.  However, lately I'm feeling a bit burned out; sometimes it feels like I'm running really hard to stay in place.  I think I just need a week or so away to recharge my batteries and I'll be good to go.  Luckily, Carl and I have a week of vacation scheduled in mid-July to Portland, Oregon.  I am super excited to visit a new part of the country!

Carl is falling apart at the seams.  I swear I am over his injuries! (I can hear him in the background spluttering in indignation.  He's supposedly tired of all his boo-boos as well.  I say he's doing it to keep me waiting on him hand and foot.)

In late March, he had an emergency appendectomy.  

I want to hug him every time I see this picture.

Now he has a broken foot.  Here are the prevailing theories:

• He was in a bar brawl (over me, natch) and a pool stick was slammed onto his foot.
• He was saving a crippled baby with a puppy from a rampaging bulldozer.
• His foot got tangled in the loops of a tote bag and his ligament twisted and broke the bone it's connected to, rather than break itself.

He will see the podiatrist this week.  They'll probably (hopefully) give him a walking boot so he can heal properly.  Poor thing was limping for two weeks before I demanded he make a doctor's appointment.

******

I subscribe to some job search listservs and one came through my email that caught my eye.  I sent the posting to Carl and held my breath to see what he would say.  After a little back and forth, we decided to go for it.  What makes this job so special is complex.  I would be getting experience in an academic setting (it's at a community college.  Actually, the *only* college in the area.).  The pay would potentially be less than what I was making as a flunkie in my last job.  And where is this mysterious position?  Just a little place known as paradise.  It is almost exactly halfway around the world, close to Micronesia.  Carl and I understand that the odds of my getting this position are pie-in-the sky, but I have to go for it.  How can I not?

That's all I have time for tonight!  Tell me, what's going on in your life?

Book #1

The first book I read in 2012 is "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher. This was not a new book to me as I have read it quite a bit over the years, but I am determined to get caught up with the series now. It drives me UP. THE. WALL. when Carl is reading the newer books and giggling maniacally at a scene but won't tell me what the funny is "because you haven't read it yet." You know what else I haven't read? Carl's obituary. This will change SOON if he keeps this up. So I started reading the book on our Kindle during the Christmas holiday (which, I know, I KNOW isn't 2012), but then I got distracted by all the food and promptly put it down. Shortly into the new year, I joined Audible.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.com and used my first download on this title.

It is read by James Marsters, most notably of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame. James......well, let's just say that I believe this to be his first foray into Audiobook-land (don't tell me differently! I'll just cover my ears and sing and none of us want that). He just kind of sucks as a reader, but oddly enough you get used to it.* I will say that he does dialogue quite well, but he tends to put strange pauses in the rest of his reading, like he's turning a page and wasn't prepared for it. He also sighs through a lot of his reading and you can hear him swalling quite a bit. All of this I think is normal but tends to be edited out in most other audiobooks I listen to. However, due to the fact that I have a 50+ minute commute one way to work each day, if I want to read, it will be via my listening-holes.

"Storm Front" is a good debut novel for an author that you can actually watch grow in his craft. He wrote this book while taking writing classes and had been advised to write something a la Laurell K Hamilton. I think melding the gritty crime noir genre with fantasy can be tricky but he has done it with finesse. Harry Dresden, our protagonist, is witty, smart, loyal, and determined to do what is right. He steps on toes and opens doors for ladies and never, ever apologizes for who he is. Most importantly, "Storm Front" has just the right amount of cheese. And anybody who knows me knows that I love me the cheese (Saturday night Sci Fi Channel movie, anyone?).

Definitely pick up this book if you're looking for a new urban fantasy title. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.



*Please do not read into this as a commentary on Americans getting inured to substandard shit and actually liking it.

Mercurial Monday: Bukkit

So while HistoryDiva is doing her book challenge, I am challenging myself in a slightly different way. This isn't a huge challenge, or even a challenging challenge, but a small thing that I think will bring me great joy at the end of the year: I am going to keep track of every book I read and do a review of it here. This is also to get me writing more, which, if you haven't noticed, I have neglected quite badly. I have also come up with a bucket list and as I accomplish each item, I will chronicle it here for your enjoyment. Now, whether that enjoyment is going along with me as I accomplish each item or enjoyment at my (sure to be) folly, is up to you. I'm such a giver. :-) Let me know what you think!!

HAHAHAHAAAAACOUGHCOUGHGAGGASP!

So I have severe bronchitis/borderline pneumonia and to honor that fact, I am posting this for the sole purpose that it caused me to laugh until my lung popped out. Also, Carl has a throat infection. We are sexy bitches all up in here...

WANT.

That jewelry board? Yes, please!

Told You It Was a Wiiiiigggg!

You are welcome, bitch!!!!

An Ode

As anybody who is even slightly familiar with me knows, I love sleeping. Adore it even. Would have sex with it if I could (my husband knows that he comes in second to sleep). I can nap with the best of them (cat naps, power naps, intimidating-amounts-of-drool-on-my-pillow naps, etc) and still pass out stone cold as soon as I’m horizontal just a few hours later. I also have the ability to fall asleep anywhere. In the car, at work, sitting up with my eyes open (handy in church). However, should you be unfortunate enough to wake me up, or keep me from my beloved sleep, I become a rampaging juggernaut of RAGE. She-Hulk smash!

Which is why it was so unfortunate that last night my eyes popped open at 1:50 AM (courtesy of Truffle) and did not close again until about 5:00 AM.

Oh, hai!

I wish SO. HARD. that I was exaggerating, but my phone was kind enough to keep me company throughout these trying times. My husband? Not so much. He peacefully snored just a few inches away from me while I glared daggers at the back of his head. How dare he be able to sleep so easily while I (I! Sleep’s BFF!) tossed and turned and couldn’t get comfortable. My husband, who so sweetly offered to get me some ice water when I complained that I was hot, who tried to make me more comfortable while cuddling up to me, who kept (mostly) calm and didn’t divorce me on the spot when I lashed out at him.

I am now at work, trying desperately to keep my eyelids open while answering reference questions. Luckily I get two 15-minute breaks throughout my day, so staff will once again be subjected to the sight of me curled up on the breakroom couch taking a cat nap.