this little life of mine

Sepia Scenes: Vineyard

Teaser Tuesday: Montana 1948 by Larry Watson

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week I started reading Montana 1948 by Larry Watson. (An actual book this time, with paper and stuff, not off my e-reader, Nicky.) I bought this one during my last trip to the used book store along with a couple more Redwall books, before I bought Nicky, and I've been so enamoured with Nicky I haven't picked up any of my "real" books. However, I have several that I need to read and "get off the shelf", and this is one of them. I signed up for this year's Off The Shelf challenge and decided to start with this one. Here's my teaser from page 74: 

Then Frank took a sudden step toward my father. Frank's arms were spread wide, beseechingly, yet his movement was so quick it seemed threatening. 

Out with the Old, in with the New

So, among the many things we did over my four-day weekend (Jiffy Lube both cars, buy groceries for the week, bake cookies, clean up the back yard, and, oh, yeah, watch the Packers *sniff* LOSE!), my mom and I bought a new washer/dryer. Both of the old machines were starting to make funny noises and because they are about 20-plus years old, we decided it was time to replace them before the washer died with a full load of soapy wash and the dryer decided to implode. Also, our local Idler's was having a massive moving sale, so the timing was perfect.

 

When we pulled the old machines out to clean behind them we discovered both of them still had the labels from the place they were purchased back in my old hometown of Colfax, WA (GO BULLDOGS!!). I wonder if Randy is still in business after all these years?

And, here is our brand spankin' new washer and dryer combo! SO SHINY!!

I love how the new dryer comes with this nifty little pop-out rod where you can quickly and easily hang up freshly dried clothing!

We haven't tried them out yet - mostly because we spent all of Saturday and Sunday washing every possible thing in the house in an attempt to kill the old machines - so we don't know how well they work, but we have very high hopes!

Teaser Tuesday: Cinder by Marissa Meyer #teasertuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Yay, I am finally able to start reading Cinder by Marissa Meyer! I've been very excited for this book to be published ever since I first heard about it last year, and I pre-orderd it as soon as I was able. I've read everyone else's teasers for this book over the past few weeks, and am finally able to add my own. Enjoy my teaser from page 80 on Nicky the nook:

"Eventualy, Your Highness, we will have to discuss Queen Levana and what you indend to do about her. It would be wise to have a plan."

This is What a Police State Looks Like

I'm sure you're wondering why I posted a photo of a boring old house. Well, this is the house where the gentleman who refused to come out back in December lived. It's still being worked on and I'm not sure when it will be habitable again, but the interesting part is that someone wrote a little message on the side of the house. I know it's hard to read, and I tried to blow it up here:

If you still can't make it out, it reads:

This is what a police state looks like. 

Apparently someone is unhappy with the way the entire situation was handled.

Photo Friday: Day's End #holidailies

I don't know why this short week was so hard. Maybe it's because I went back to Kennedy after two weeks or so without seeing my trainer (ow! ow!), or we were down people at work, or the moon is getting puffy again so all the crazies are coming out, or I blew my eyeball out again (the right one this time, though, not the left like the last two months) so I get to look like a goddamn freak for another two weeks. I don't know. It shouldn't have been bad at all. Sure, I had another birthday, but it was nice and I got a great prezzie which I'll introduce later - oh, heck, it's a new iPhone 4s!! - but, still, it wasn't that bad a week. And yet I'm exhausted, and I'm annoyed at the world.

And, I absolutely cannot WAIT to sit down with a lovely glass of wine tonight!  Cheers!

Another Birthday #holidailies

So ... another birthday has come and gone. I hoped to get by quietly, but here at work, that never happens. I got happy birthday wishes, birthday cards, little gifts, cupcakes, and I got to wear the adorkable pink birthday "crown".

Sepia Scenes: Ducks at the Lake #hoildailies

Teaser Tuesday: Bumped by Megan McCafferty #holidailies #2012readingchallenges

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Welcome to my first Teaser Tuesday of 2012! This week I've started reading Bumped by Megan McCafferty, a book which will count towards my goal of reading 20 books for the 2012 YA Reading Challenge. My teaser comes from page 12 on Nicky the Nook:

Angel screamed, swerved, screeched the breaks, and screamed some more. We are blessed that there aren't too many cars on the road at sunrise. 

 

2012 Reading Challenges #holidailies

Once again I have signed up for some Reading Challenges for the coming year. I'm hoping to keep it down to just a few so I don't get totally overwhelmed, so I've chosen the Off the Shelf challenge, 2012 Debut Author Challenge, and 2012 Young Adult Reading Challenge. 

For the Off the Shelf Challenge, I've randomly chosen six books from my bookshelves:

1. Montana 1948  by Larry Watson
2. Mariel of Redwall  by Brian Jacques
3. 5th Avenue, 5 A.M.  by Sam Wasson
4. There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbour's Baby - Scary Fairy Tales  by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
5. Waterfall  by Lisa T. Bergren
6. Hunter Brown and the Consuming Fire  by The Miller Brothers

I've chosen to read 20 books for the 2012 Young Adult Reading Challenge, and most of them will just be added as the year goes on. For the 12 Debut Author Challenge books I've chosen:

1. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
2. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
3. Above by Leah Bobet 
4. Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard 
5. Storybound by Marissa Burt 
6. The Cabinet of Earths by Anne Nesbet 
7. The Vanishing Game by Kate Kae Myers 
8. Unbound by Emily Goodwin 
9. Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown 
10. May B. by Caroline Starr Rose 
11. The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long
12. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman 

There is sure to be a lot of crossover and I'll probably change my mind on some ofthe books I choose to read, but those are the lists for right now. 

 

Atascadero Lake Walk #holidailies

This morning after watching the Rose Parade, mom and I went down to the Atascadero Lake for a walk. It was brisk and cloudy, but not too cold. There were a few birds out - mostly coots, geese and ducks, but there were also some egrets and herons. The two swans were there, too, but they were always on the opposite side of the lake, so I couldn' get a shot of them.  We haven't had any rain for along time and the water level was really low, and kinda stinky on the back side of the lake, but it was nice to get out and get some fresh air and exercise anyway.

Top 10 Photos of 2011 #holidailies #youcapture #top10picsof2011

For this week's You Capture I present my Top Ten Photos for 2011 (in no particular order):

1. Perfect Shell 1, Avila Beach, CA,  June 2011

2.  Atascadero Lake Sunset, Atascadero, CA,  June 2011.

3.  Dolly Portrait in Sepia, Atascadero, CA, July, 2011.

4.  Monorail, Seattle, WA, August 2011.

5.  Wolves, Seattle, WA, August 2011.

6.  Old Boots, Seattle, WA, August 2011.

7.  Morro Bay Sunset, Morro Bay, CA, September 2011. 

8.  Perfect Shell 2, Avila Beach, CA, June 2011. 

9.  Sepia Sailboat, Morro Bay, CA, September 2011.

10.  Under the Pier, Avila Beach, CA, June 2011.

2011 Year in Review #holidailies

Amazingly it's time for the End of the Year Meme I've been doing since 2004.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before? Moved over to the Family Law Department and started helping customers over the counter and on the phone.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't recall making resolutions last year (and I can't find them in my archives), so I think I'm exempt from this one!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?  My cousin, Jess, had an adorable baby boy earlier this year and a couple co-workers had babies, too.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, my grandma died in September.

5. What countries did you visit?  Sadly, despite getting a passport, I didn't make it out of the country this year.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2010?  Courage.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? September 27 - the day my grandma died (though we didn't learn about it until the following day).

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Being promoted to Family Law and working counters. (It was no more money, however, just the new experiences and ablility to update my resume!)

9. What was your biggest failure? Not finishing my NaNoWriMo novel.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? No injuries, but several illnesses - just the usual colds and flus, though, thankfully nothing serious.

11. What was the best thing you bought? I bought a new computer, a nook colour, and stock in the Green Bay Packers.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Pretty much all my friends simply for being awesome.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? A relative of a friend of mine behaved very, very badly, but I won't mention which friend to protect his (or her) feelings.

14. Where did most of your money go? Travel - I vacationed in San Francisco and Seattle this year.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Visiting Seattle with one of my besties! I hadn't seen DeeDee in ages and I haven't been to Seattle in forever and we saw and did tons of awesome stuff, so it was very, very cool!

16. What song will always remind you of 2010? Galaxies by Owl City.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? a little sadder because I miss my grandma.  

b) thinner or fatter? thinner, but only by about 10 or 15 pounds.
c) richer or poorer? poorer due to the once-montly unpaid furlough days.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? I wish I'd spent more time at the beach, did more rubber stamp art and did more writing.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Laying around on my fat ass doing nothing and/or watching stupid things on television.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? I spent Christmas with my mom and grandpa. We had a lovely dinner and celebrated my grandpa's birthday with chocolate cake. 

21. Did you fall in love? Oh, hell, no!

22. How many one-night stands? None.

23. What was your favorite TV program? I totally love "Glee", "Doctor Who", "Fringe", "Terra Nova", "The Big Bang Theory", and "Chuck".

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Yes.

25. What was the best book you read? That's a loaded question, as I read over 40 books this year and really enjoyed several of them, but here's my top 5: Purple Daze by Sherry Shahan, Diary of a Witness by Catherine Ryan Hyde, Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan 

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? Owl City - I absolutely LOVE the fun lyrics and the great beat of their songs.

27. What did you want and get? A nook colour. 

28. What did you want and not get?  A new cell phone, but I'm working on that now, so perhaps I'll have one very soon!

29. What was your favorite film of this year? I think I only saw one new movie this year and that was Breaking Dawn Part 1. And, yeah, it was good!

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 45 and didn't do anything special. 

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?  Attending Weetacon VII. 

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?  Absolute and total comfort.

33. What kept you sane?  Music. 

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?  I've wound up with a slight crush on Jim Parsons from "The Big Bang Theory". He's hilarious!

35. What political issue stirred you the most? Meh, I don't want to get into politics. 

36. Who did you miss? My grandma. 

37. Who was the best new person you met?  Liam - my adorable second cousin.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010. Everything can be fixed. 

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. 

Dear God, I was terribly lost,
When the galaxies crossed,
And the Sun went dark.
Dear God, You're the only North Star,
I would follow this far.

Oh telescope, keep an eye on my only hope,
Lest I blink and be swept off the narrow road.
Hercules, you've got nothing to say to me,
'Cause you're not the blinding light that I need.

For He is the saving grace of the Galaxies!
He is the saving grace of the Galaxies!

Galaxies by Owl City

 

In With the New #31photosin31days #holidailies

Well, there she is: my new computer. It's a Sony Vaio all-in-one, so there's no tower, just the screen, keyboard and mouse. So far I'm really enjoying it - mostly I'm enjoying having a computer that works!! My old computer started dying last summer - July or August, I think - and finally gave up the ghost around the beginning of November, taking a majority of my NaNoWriMo novel with it.  (sad face!)  Anyway, it took me a while to look into different computers, but I kept coming back to this one. I loved the sleek look of it, the large screen that is a touchscreen, too,  as well as the reduced desktop clutter. I'm hoping the two of us will be very happy together for years to come!

A Sunset #31photosin31days #holidailies

A bright and brilliant sunset this evening!

The Mayfly Project 2011 #holidailies

I was thrilled to see Meg is doing The Mayfly Project again this year. It's a simple, yet difficult concept: sum up your year in only 24 words. Here are my words, for what they're worth:

Work, work, furlough day, work … Halloween in San Francisco, wine tasting in Napa Valley, Atascadero & Avila Beach, adventures in Seattle, losing grandma.

Frozen #31photosin31days #holidailies

It has been very , very cold here. That is all.

Teaser Tuesday: The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawan #31photosin31days #holidailies

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 

This week I'm reading The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa. I believe it's the final book in the Iron Fey series, but I'm not 100%  sure. I've enjoyed every book in this series, and this one is no exception! Here are my teasers from pag 30 on my nook:

I have him a brittle smile. "Then there will be a lot of fallen soldiers before the day is done," I said quietly, and walked out of the gorge.

Christmas Eve Tradition #31photosin31days #holidailies

In my house Christmas Eve is defined by a good bottle of wine, a delicious light dinner and a viewing of It's a Wonderful Life.

I bought this Alpha Omega chardonnay back in October during the Rehab Napa Wine Tour and have been saving it for a special occasion. It's SO good!

This year mom and I went with a Surf and Turf theme with our dinner, and bougfht a couple frozen appetizers - bacon wrapped filet mignon and mini maryland crab cakes. They were yummy!

Merry Christmas!

Cookies #31photosin31days #holidailies

Today I baked up some cookies for Christmas! Not from scratch, and not even from a box mix. Nope. These cookies came pre-made and pre-sliced, and were super easy!

 

 

I ordered these Red and White Cranberry Delight cookie dough from my co-worker's son who was participating in his school's fundraising program. I've ordered cookie dough from him before, a few years ago, but only got the frozen tubs of dough and it took me years to get round to dealing with them, and even then it was kind of a pain digging the dough out of the tub!

This year I really wasn't going to order any because of the pain-in-the -butt factor, but when I saw the pre-cut cookies in the catalouge I immediatly ordered them!  (I also ordered Double Chunk Chocolate cookie dough, but my dyslexia must've gotten in the way when I wrote out that order because I ended up with a tub, but whatever. I'll deal with that over New Year's!)

This pre-cut dought is awesome! Look at how easy and convenient this is; one layer of cookie dough fits perfectly on one parchment-paper-lined baking sheet, and since I have two baking sheets, I was able to get a lot of cookies baked at one time! It literally took me one hour to bake all 36 cookies!

 

 

And, yes, these cookies taste delicious, too! So, yeah, I'm a lazy bum and all, but I also have 36 freshly baked cookies to enjoy with a cold glass of milk (or some festive eggnog with nutmeg) and share with family for Christmas!

Shareholder #31photosin31days #holidailies

I got my Green Bay Packers stock certificate in the mail last night. I know some people think it's kinda silly - I'm not going to make any money off this stock purchase or anything, so it's basically just a really expensive souvenir, but I'm still very excited to be part owner of an NFL team!

Leaf #31photosin31days #holidailies

It may look like this oak leaf is lying on cracked ice or maybe even a bed of diamonds, but it's not. It's lying on a pile of broken glass. Some knucklehead kicked in the side of the bus stop, shattering the safety glass and making a huge, annoying mess! Still, I got an interesting shot out of it, so .... a little good from the bad.

Sepia Scenes: A Gift #31photosin31days #holidailies

I'm not sure this gift would go over too well here on the Central Coast of California where we don't get snow, but I'm sure someone who lives nearthe mountains would enjoy it. I used to have a sled like this one and had a fantastic time racing down the hills when I lived in Cle Elum, WA. It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time!

Toys for Tots 2011 #31photosin31days #holidailies

Well, our annual Toys for Tots campaign didn't do so well this year. I'm not sure if it's the economy or the fact that our usual Toys for Tots party organizer is out, but we ended up with only a handful of toys for the tots.

In past years we've made the charitable toy gathering a big party where we'd draw names of our coworkers who were each assigned a random child's age (for example: Lisa-Marie, age 12), and would buy a toy based on that. We'd wrap them up and having them sitting on the back counter for everyone to see (and wonder what it is!) until our party where we'd each open our "gifts" as well as have festive refreshments and listen to Christmas music.

This year, however, our party organizer is out, so we skipped the party and just bought toys to display on the back counter in the hopes that people coming in would see them and want to bring in toys as well. It's worked pretty well in the past.

I only hope it's enough.

Neon Sign #31photosin31days #holidailies

 

Another sign for the art studio in downtown Paso Robles. I peeked in the window and saw they have everything from oil and watercolour paintings, sculptures, pottery and jewelry. It looks fun and I wish I'd had more time to go explore inside.