Winter is here

Fun weather - record wind chills, lovely snow, and a snow day when it's too cold to go outside. 

I finally managed to buy and install the heated bird bath (Husband did the buying and installing) before the weather hit, and it's been very popular so far.  Our neighborhood hawk was getting a drink yesterday, but I didn't get the camera in time.  The bird bath could use some improvement; the bracket design is pretty iffy, and the "powder coating" on the metal chipped off way too easily. But, it was below zero last night (Fahrenheit) and the water didn't freeze, so it's a success so far.

Heated bird bath

Imagine a red-shouldered hawk perched on the side.  I'll be looking out for a return visit.

The bird feeders are popular too, and the tree outside is full of cardinals, along with sparrows, blue jays, doves, titmice, chickadees, and a few juncos.  And pine siskins. 

Movie list - new for 2014

New for this year (because my memory gets fuzzy:  Movies I've Seen

1. The Internship (Redbox) - Not bad, actually.
2. The Heat (Redbox) - Okay
3. Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (theater) - Freaking Awesome!
4. Stand By Me (tv) - 1/3/14 - Can't believe I'd never seen the whole thing until now
5. Lego Movie (theater)
6. Percy Jackson & the Sea of Monsters (Redbox)
7. Turbo (Redbox)
8.  
9.  
10. Captain America: Winter Soldier (theater)
11. Thor: The Dark World (theater)
12. Amazing Spider-man 2 (with Kate)
13. Gravity (Redbox)
14. Monuments Men (Redbox)
15. X-Men: Days of Future Past (with Kate and Hadrien)
16. Philomena (Redbox)
17. Saving Mr. Banks (Redbox)

2014 Reading List

This year's goal: not sure.  Maybe 50 books (other than childrens books)?
(Trying to update this on the phone is freaking impossible, too)

1. The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star, by Susan Wittig Albert.  I like these, the author does a very good job of writing the "feel" of a place and time.  I've liked all of her series so far; the Dahlias and China Bayles are two of the very few series I buy in hardback as they come out. 
2. Jane Austen's Guide to Thrift (1/6/14)
3. Calvin Coconut: Rocket Ride - Juvie books that Son is reading, I've read the whole series and they're not bad.  Geared for boys, which are hard to find that don't focus on sports. 
4. Calvin Coconut: Man Trip  - Juvie books that Son is reading, I've read the whole series and they're not bad.  Nice to find a boy-geared book that isn't all-sports-all-the-time.
5. A Wilder Rose, by Susan Wittig Albert (1/10/14)  Novelization/biography of Rose Wilder and her work on the Little House books.  
6. The Sherlock Files: Official Companion - Haven't seen the series yet, but I've got the DVDs from the library. 
7. Wild Born, by Brandon Mull (1/27/14)
8. The Dead and the Gone, by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  The last post-apocalyptic downer of a book that I plan to read for a while.  2nd in a trilogy, depressing as anything.
9. Mr. Monk Helps Himself
10. Together, Alone - Susan Wittig Albert
11. Mr. Monk Gets On Board - the new writer takes over the book series
12. One Hundred and Four Horses:  A Memoir of Farm and Family, Africa and Exile By Amanda Retzlaff.  (2/6/14)  Interesting and heartbreaking.
13.  Captain Phil Harris: The Legendary Crab Fisherman, Our Hero, Our Dad, by Josh and Jake Harris, etc.  Phil Harris biography ((3/5/14)  Quick read, pretty interesting.
14. Lousy book, erotica masquerading as "urban fiction" - very badly written.  Like, crappy fan-fic level of bad, and how a publisher can print something without spellchecking is beyond me.  I can see things slipping through that spell-check won't catch (homophones, etc), but "panickicked" voice instead of "panicked" is pathetic.  (3/6/14)
15. Cherry Ames, Rest Home Nurse (3/8/14)  Yes, I have a thing for vintage ghost-written mysteries.  I've just gotten my hands on a stack of Cherry Ames & Dana Girls books, dating back to the 40s, and some original, un-revised Nancy Drew books.
16. 
    
17. The Pregnancy project 
18. Hark, A Vagrant - very funny 
19. when my name was Keoko.
20. Prince William: the Man Who Would Be King - Very interesting, lots of info about the British monarchy (5/15/14)
21.  
22. Hunted, by Maggie Steifvater (5/17/14) - second in series, pretty good
23. Bitter end Jennifer brown 
24. Young House Love - (5/28/14) - Lots of ideas here
25. Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All (5/30/14)
26. The Dana Girls - Secret of the Study Lamp
27. Dana Girls - Mystery of Lone Tree Cottage
28. 
    
29.  Discover Magazine's Vital Signs (6/2/14) - Quick read, compilation of the articles from the magazine
30. Backwoods Home Magazine, best of first two years
31. Backwoods Home Magazine, best of third year
32. Get on Out of Here, Philip Hall (6/11/14)
33. Melissa Explains it All, by Melissa Joan Hart.  Interesting, although I missed out on Clarissa and didn't watch Sabrina a lot.
34. Do You Believe in Magic? by Paul Offit
35. Sew Smarter, Faster, and Better, the Thread Magazine sewing tips book (6/19/14)
36. Warriors Don't Cry - story of the Brown v. Board of Ed school integration
37. Junior Miss
38. Poisonwood Bible
39. Snail Mail No More
40. Sister of the Bride, by Beverly Cleary (7/13/14)
41. A Girl from Yamhill, by Beverly Cleary (7/14/14)
42.  
43. The Boys in the Boat
44. Death of a Perfect Wife
45. The Wave
46. 
    

First snow

Yes, the blog has been dormant.

We got our first snow of the winter today.  Just a dusting, but oh boy is it cold.  And, with perfect timing, one of the garage door openers gave up the ghost on Friday afternoon.  Too cold to park outside, so we're shuffling around opening the door manually - complicated by the fact that the only handle is on the inside. 

Michelangelo's cupcakes

You know, you get lucky twice with homemade costumes, and suddenly the 6-year-old thinks you can do the Sistine Chapel on top of a cupcake (or 20 cupcakes). 

Yep, it's birthday time again.  And a real genius would sell half-boxes of cake mix to make a dozen cupcakes.  I need 12 today and 18 next week - so, 2 batches of cake mix, 48 cupcakes, and about 18 extras that will be hanging around waiting to be eaten.  I plan to try freezing some, because we're knee deep in cake, with 3 birthday parties (family, school, after-school program).  El B's grandma made his cake for the family birthday dinner, and she still makes family-size cakes with 3 boxes of mix.  With three other desserts in the mix, we came home with about 2 cakes-worth of cake. 

This year, it's Disney themed (so much for the clearanced Angry Birds stuff I bought).  He thinks I can do Mickey and Minnie faces on each cake.  One idea he floated was to cut the faces out of soda bread (?why? - after he determined that there's no actual soda in it), black icing for ears, etc.  Or purple icing, with white icing for the face, black for the ears, and something about banana slices for the mouth.  Oy. 

What he's getting is white icing with - hopefully - a Mickey outline in black or purple, and a picture of Mickey, Minnie, Allie or Swampy printed out and stuck to a toothpick.  I'm not Michelangelo, and there's only so much room on a cupcake top.

2013 Reading List

I will try to keep this updated better than last year's list.  Not sure what happened to last year.

1. The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose, by Susan Wittig Albert (1-11-13)
2. Threadbare, by Monica Ferris (1-26-13)
3. Diary of a Player, by Brad Paisley (1-28-13)
4. And Then You Dye, by Monica Ferris (1-29-13)
5. lots and lots of magazines (stack to donate is 2 feet high and growing)
6. The Chosen One, by Carol Lynch Williams (1-x-13) - YA novel about a girl in an LDS-like cult
7. Thin Wood Walls, by David Patneaude (1-x-13 or sometime 12-12) - YA novel about the Japanese internment during World War II
8. Are You In the House Alone? by Richard Peck (2-20-13)
9. Chestnut Hill: The New Class, by Lauren Brooke (2-22-13)
10. Kevin Sorbo bio
11. Babylon Confidential
12.  A Horse in New York, by Cam Parker (3/5/13)
13. Conversations with J. K. Rowling (3/5/13)
14. Best (worst) School Year Ever
15. Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust (3/5/13)
16. A Group of One, by Rachna Gilmore (3/6/13)
17. Defiance
18. Someone Named Eva
19.  Wringer
20. Final Journey (holocaust)
21. 
    
22. The Surgeon
23. The Apprentice
24. The Sinnner
25. Body Double (4/23/13)
26. Vanish
27. The Mephisto Club
28. The Keepsake
29. Ice Coldd
30. The Silent Girl
31. Brio Girls x2
32. Amelia
33.  
34. A Feral Darkness
35. Counterfeit Son, by Elaine Marie Alphin
36.  Last to Die (5/15/13)
37. Rich Mitch, by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat (5/16/13)
38.  Father of the Orphans
39. Counterfeit Son
40. k. d. lang biography
41. Bruce Springsteen biography (6/7/13)
42. The Compassion of Father Dowling (6/10/13)
43. Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse (6/10/13)
44. Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii
45. Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu
46.  
47. Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants
48.  
49. Shipwrecked book 1
50. Shipwrecked book 2
51. Shipwrecked book 3
52. Uprising - Margaret Peterson Haddix
53. Unbroken - Jessie Haas
54.  Mr. Monk in Outer Space
55. 
    
56.  Mr. Monk Goes to Germany
57. The Most Beautiful Walk in the World
58. Exit Wounds, by J.A. Jance
59. Dead Wrong, 
60. Mr. Monk is Miserable
61. Damage Control,
62.  Fire & Ice,
63. Judgment Call, 
64.  No More Dead Dogs
65. Secrets from a Dead Girl
66. 
    
67. 
    
68.  
69. Mr Monk and the Dirty Cop
70. Mr. Monk in Trouble (7/3/13)
71. the rest of the Monks
72. 13 Reasons Why
73. Touch, by Francine Prose
74. The Best Horse - Elizabeth Van Steenwyk (Girl sells spoons for barrel race entry fee, realizes her horse isn't a racer, uses the horse they're boarding instead)
75. Wildwood Stables: Daring to Dream - Suzanne Weyn (typical girl wants horse, gets free horse, has no way to keep it, miracles occur)
76. Scott Westerfeld Midnighters 1 & 2
77. Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet
78. Calvin Coconut: movie
79. Calvin Coconut: Dog Heaven
80. The Ruins of Us, by Keija Parsinnen
81.  The Watsons Go to Birmingham (9/29/13)
82. Canterwood Crest
83. Silver Creek Riders
84. Sandy Lane Stables: a Horse for the Summer
85. Brio Girls: Good-bye to All That
86. 
    
87. Before I Fall, by Lauren Oliver (9/30/13)
88. Revenge Wears Prada (10/5/13)
89. The Dark Horse (Longmire) by Craig Johnson.  (11/14/13)
90. The Woman Who Is Always Tan and Has a Flat Stomach
91. Life as we Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
92. This World We Live In (skimmed) by Susan Beth Pfeffer - Two books of a semi-related trilogy.  Fulfilled my quota of post-apocalyptic gloom-and-doom for a while, and I'm still of the opinion that the moon-meteor collision suffers from iffy science.
93. Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella (11/x/ 13)  Not as good as the Shopaholics, but still fun.
94. Changes (Collegium Chronicles)
95. Redoubt (Collegium Chronicles)
96. Bastion (Collegium Chronicles #5) by Mercedes Lackey (11/30/13).  Glad she's still writing Velgarth/Valdemar books, but these are geared it seems more to the YA market.  
97. Turn and Burn
98. Kissin' Tell
99. Chasin' Eight
100. Family Italian by Gennaro Contaldo (12/7/13)
101.  The Litter of the Law, by Rita Mae Brown (12/8/13)  Finished in one afternoon, which is why I sadly stopped buying these in hardback.  I get the library's copy, saves money and space.
102. 
     

Fun with Tech Support

You know it's not going to end well when even the tech support guy on the phone sounds confused by what he sees. I've spent way too much time talking to CenturyLink's tech support this week. Our Internet died on Wednesday, mid-use. Phone was fine, just no broadband. And as I was trying to narrow it down to "their problem or mine" we get a call asking if we'd gotten the new modem for the new TV service. Which, no - the TV is satellite, and we don't (didn't) need a new modem. So I called Tech Support, got transferred at least once - because we have "special" broadband and had to call a different number than the main broadband TS number - and confused at least two people. Because apparently what our account says at CL is abnormal or something. Long story short, I spent Thursday waiting for the technician ("any time between 8 and 5" but you can call to see how is workload is). He spent an hour fiddling with things, inside and outside the house, left a new modem, and we have internet again. But, the Kindle now can't get a signal farther than halfway down the upstairs hall. With the old modem, I could get a signal all the way down to the basement door (two floors down). So, on Friday, another call to Tech about the possibility of boosting the signal. And hour and a call-back later, our account may be more accurate on their end, but our only solution is to buy another WiFi router and run the signal through it. And we may not have the "special" broadband - there's some confusion over whether we have bonded, fiber, DDSL, VDSL, or who-the-hell-knows. But at least we have internet again, although the Kindle is used a lot less when I can't netsurf on it. And apparently the trigger for this whole mess is that we called two weeks ago to cancel the inside wire maintenance plan ($5.99/month).