the Quirky Jane books

I’m finished with Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. I didn’t finish reading it, but I’m done. It was weird, silly, and somehow just wrong. The cover art was the best thing about it. Well, that and the part where Jane beats the heck out of Darcy when he tries to propose the first time. But overall I’d have to rate it as “not so good”.

Glutton for punishment that I am, I plan to start Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters tonight. The cover art is not as good as on the first book, so maybe the inside will be better(?)

ps. the glitch causing my blinkies to freeze up has been fixed! I can blink again :)

 

this-n-that Tuesday

I stitched my Caffeine! design with light green borders and dark green “caffeine” so it would match my kitchen counter. I want to put this in a fancy frame and hang it in the space between my stovetop and range hood. For now, though, I chucked it into my fuppie box, which where my Finished but Unfinished Projects go to die.

This past week I read two books, “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen” by Janet Evanovich and “Pontoon” by Garrison Keillor. The Stephanie Plum story was typical, with some very funny parts and a lot of bad language. There was a great laugh-out-loud dinner scene and an episode involving a hot dog suit… I have to admit though, that I always root for Steph to choose Ranger over Morelli. <insert sigh>

Pontoon was an all-out hoot to read, though I’ve never liked Garrison Keillor before. The story details the build up to the craziest funeral in history, with a naked guy hang-gliding over the lake holding a hollowed-out bowling ball filled with his grandmother’s ashes, while an almost wedding ceremony happens below and a conglomerate of visiting pastors look on. If you think you don’t like Keillor either, you might give this one a try.

There was a teacher from one of the local private schools peddling literature at my daughter’s VBS (Vacation Bible School) a few weeks ago. After much investigating, soul-searching, and bank balance checking, it looks like we’ll be sending her there. We go in tomorrow to meet with her prospective teacher who will show us the materials she uses and so on; provided that goes well, we’ll turn in the enrollment papers. I’m not at all looking forward to driving Elizabeth 40 minutes to school each day (those icy cold mornings are particularly daunting) but I think it will be a good thing for both of us. She’s at the age where we are starting to get on each other’s nerves after spending all day together, and I think a break from homeschool will be a positive change in our household. I hope. Plus, clothes shopping will be easy with uniforms.

It’s VBS week again, this time at the Baptist church. We do both because my daughter has fun and I get a few hours of free babysitting… it’s a win-win situation. Personally, I think the Baptists put on a better show than the Lutherans (they even hold a carnival for Family Night at the end of the week) but my daughter is a member at the Lutheran church and has to go to that one. So we double dip.

Tonight is the Jonas Brothers concert that I got sucked into attending. I don’t really know much of their music but I don’t think that will be a problem… I’ll be amazed if we can even hear the music over thousands of squealing pre-teen girls! My friend told me she’s bringing ear plugs, which is probably a really smart idea, but I’m just not ready to admit I’m old enough to be worried about hearing loss at a concert. I made bracelets for us, to commemorate the occasion and hopefully ward off any need for a $45 concert tee as a souvenir. Wish me luck with that ;)

 

a bit of this-n-that

Almost April and it’s snowing… I guess Mother Nature didn’t get the memo that it’s Spring now.

Here’s my cat square for the STO group monthly block exchange. I actually finished this a while ago, but I don’t think I ever posted a pic…the design is from Brittercup’s “Britty Kitties IV”.

I also finished my ornaments for the JCS magazine Halloween & Christmas issues… although I still have to finish the Finishing of them. (I suspect that if you aren’t a stitcher, that sentence won’t make much sense!) I can’t show them to you, but here’s a picture of the fabrics I used. Halloween is done on Belfast Vintage linen in Lime Green, and Christmas is done on Belfast Opalescent Platinum Pizzazz. I love the colors on both, and I’m sort of hoping they won’t be filed under the “what was she thinking?” category when you see them ;)

I started reading My Sister’s Keeper last night and so far it’s wonderful… I hope it stays this riveting until the end. I had heard that the movie version was going to come out in June of this year, and I wanted to read the book first. BTW, Jodi Picoult’s website includes a link to her podcasts, and in one of them (When Your Own Life Becomes Fiction), she talks about her experience with her son’s many surgeries.

Over at the Sew,Mama,Sew blog I found a tutorial for this pincushion organizer that looks like it would be very handy for stitching! I’m going to try to make one before my stitching camp in a few weeks… here’s a link to the blog post.

 

Revolutionary Road, etc.

I just finished reading Revolutionary Road; I thought it was really good in a sort of thoughtfully depressing way. There were several passages that struck a chord with me, like this one:

It haunted him all night, while he slept alone; it was still there in the morning, when he swallowed his coffee and backed down the driveway in the crumpled old Ford he used for a station car. And riding to work, one of the youngest and healthiest passengers on the train, he sat with the look of a man condemned to a very slow, painless death. He felt middle-aged.

When I read that, I thought yeah, that’s right; that’s what 40 feels like. Despite my best efforts, I’m tired and directionless… oh, I still have my basic cheery outlook, but there’s also a new underlying feeling of general malaise.

I suppose reading depressing books isn’t going to help the situation.

ON a cheerier note, how pretty is this square?! Susan stitched it for me as part of an Easter exchange and I love it :)

And hey, happy First Day of Spring!