The Library

Before

After

TGIF, people!

Hello, loves

I'll see you tonight.

Source

It feels like a Monday - but it's not!

Gotta love holiday weeks.  Although here's hoping it's not five days of work crammed into four.

This is what it has come to, folks.  G and I took a self-portrait in Wal Mart of all places.  Why, you ask?  I have no idea!  We were standing in line and I was like, hey, let's take a picture.

Blue light special on this dorky couple!  Aisle 5!

We managed to make a lot of progress while G was out here.  We transformed the library into a real room (pics to come, as soon as I can clean the remainder of random stuff off the floor) and more importantly, we put up decorations on the wall!

This is my favorite little section, on a wall between the "dining room" (that's being generous) and the living room:

After so many weeks of de-personalizing the house in order to rent it, and then living in someone else's house, and then living in this apartment with no decorations at all, it is starting to feel like home.

Also, I am loving fall!  It half snowed half sleeted while we ran errands on Saturday, which was the perfect weather for chili.

And lastly, what I am lacking in good books these days, I am more than making up for in good TV shows.  The Good Wife is rocking it, as usual.  After months of being pestered about it, I borrowed the first season of Revenge from my coworker, C.  OMG - very good.  I'm about 5 episodes in, and right now it is the perfect mixture of vengeful, pretty, lusty, cooky goodness.  Gotta love a good vindictive plot.

Happy Fall, peeps!

Books, Books, Books

It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to pull the plug on this one.  I hate to be a quitter but life is too short for boring books, which is what this turned out to be for me.  And it kills me to say that about any work of J.K. Rowling.

When I found out that she was writing another book after the Harry Potter series, I was thrilled.  And when I discovered that the new book was for adults, and did not have to do with witches or sorcery or magic, I was even more intrigued.  As much as I enjoyed the HP series, I thought bravo for her, branching out and doing something different when she could so easily lean on her past successes.

But.

Even with what I believe were realistic expectations on my part, I was too disappointed in this book to continue reading it.  I made it into the 200-page mark and pulled the plug.  The book is about a small English town, and begins with the death of a likable, prominent member of the local society.  The reader is introduced to various personalities and struggles and ambitions of the town folk and how they each face life in light of this death.

I believe that what makes Rowling a good writer is her use of language and her ability to craft sentences.  She is witty with words, particularly descriptions of people and their actions and thoughts.  She is a master of wit and of the classic British understatement.  But she is also a master of plot, which is absent from this book.  Maybe that's a little strong: technically, there is a plot, but it is not compelling enough to hold my attention.  Let me put it this way: if the book had been by any other author besides Rowling, I would have quit reading after about page 50.  Because it was her, I hung on for another 150+ pages.

I was an English major in college and I can remember plodding through certain books, barely able to stay awake, hardly able at all to recount anything I just read.  And after spending an hour or two in lecture, I gained a whole new appreciation for the work.  A few times, I have even gone back and re-read some of these books with a new outlook (or bias?) and enjoyed the experience.  I keep thinking that is what I need in this case.  I need to go to a Works of Rowling class this week and actually deconstruct the book with others and I would probably write a much better review.  But alas.

I would be very interested if any of you read the book and have a different opinion of it!  If so, let me know!  But for now, this is going in the "trade in" pile for those bookstores around the corner.

Can you spot the leopard?

Pun intended.

Can you see it?

The people sharing our rover during one of the safaris got a much better pic than we did and sent it to us.  This leopard was guarding her kill and her cub, so she did not want to be seen.

If you can spot her tail, can you spot the rest of her?  Here's the catch: it is too late, because she has already spotted you!  Mwahahahahahaha!

{hint if you are having trouble:  look in the right upper corner, then look down just a bit.  See those eyes watching you?}

All Messed Up

In the past two months, I have experienced all the seasons, out of order.  I am all messed up.

It has gone like this:

summer --> winter --> spring --> fall --> winter

SUMMER in VA

WINTER in Africa

The beginning of SPRING in Africa

FALL in CO - my walk to work on Thursday

WINTER! The very next day!  My walk to work on Friday

My very stylish - but warm - commute fashion these days

The rapid changes in seasons have made life interesting.  Layers, people.

In other news, guess who is here this weekend?  G!  He is going to help transform our library into a functional space that no longer contains cardboard.  We are in for some hard work but it will be nice doing it together.

Here is the current damage:

But there is some home made chili and a movie night in our future if we survive.  Hope you peeps have a great Saturday!  (Is there any other kind?!)