September 30, 2011
Friday...
September 29, 2011
Almost Ovals, Finally Progress.
Unblocked...U.G.L.Y. I hate the way lace is so ugly before you block it. I keep pulling the the fabric out to look at it over and over again.
I love the fall light right now. It's so soft and beautiful.
When the light is like this, I want to take pictures all day long.
September 28, 2011
Shalder is done!
September 27, 2011
Oktobrewfest!!!!
September 26, 2011
Book# 74 of 2011...
From Goodreads.com:
A MYSTERIOUS CONTAGION. MASS HYSTERIA. SUDDEN DEATH.
And a warning that would come all too late . . .
Forest Peak, California. Fourth of July. Sheriff Danielle Adelman, a troubled war veteran, thinks she has all the problems she can handle in this all-American town after her kid sister runs away from home. But when a disease-stricken horde of panicked refugees fleeing the fall of Los Angeles swarms her small mountain community, Danny realizes her problems have only just begun—starting with what might very well be the end of the world. Danny thought she had seen humanity at its worst in war-torn Iraq, but nothing could prepare her for the remorseless struggle to survive in a dying world being overrun by the reanimated dead and men turned monster. Obsessed with finding her missing sister against all odds, Danny’s epic and dangerous journey across the California desert will challenge her spirit . . . and bring her to the precipice of sanity itself. . . .
Filled with adventurous human drama—and shocking inhuman horror—Rise Again marks a vivid and powerful fiction debut.
My take:
3 out of 4 stars. A thriller for sure but I didn't love the end.
September 25, 2011
Time for a New Training Plan...
Since then I’ve been running for 60 minutes on each of my run days. It’s taking me about 75 minutes to run 10k and I’m not sure that I care that much about picking up my pace. I’d like to run it faster but I think I want to start thinking ahead to begin training for a half more then I want to run faster.
I’m planning on continuing to run 10k 3 times a week until October. In October I have to switch my work hours and will be working a later shift. So I’ll be able to run in the mornings every day that I want to train during the week instead of just 2 days a week during the work week with runs on the weekend when I feel like it.
Picking a training plan is so hard! There are so many out there and I just don’t know what to chose. I’ve had recommendations for the Jeff Galloway plan, Runner’s World Smart Coach and Hal Higdon’s plan. But how do you choose? I’m thinking of printing out the training plans and doing a comparison. Hopefully this will get me a step closer to making a decision. I still have a week before my work schedule changes and I’d like to have at least some idea of how I want to proceed before October 1.
September 24, 2011
Have you seen Sugarbunny Yarn from Knitpicks?
Sea Spray, cool and inviting.
September 23, 2011
Book# 73 of 2011...
Together with a bunch of inmates—some innocent kids who have been framed, others cold-blooded killers—Alex plans an escape. But as he starts to uncover the truth about Furnace’s deeper, darker purpose, Alex’s actions grow ever more dangerous, and he must risk everything to expose this nightmare that’s hidden from the eyes of the world.
September 22, 2011
Ya think?!
— Lousia May Alcott
September 21, 2011
Book# 72 of 2011...
Sounds easy. Sounds wonderful. Except that everything that can go wrong does. Before they can even leave there is a shocking zombie attack in town. But as soon as they step into the Rot & Ruin they are pursued by the living dead, wild animals, insane murderers and the horrors of Gameland –where teenagers are forced to fight for their lives in the zombie pits. Worst of all…could the evil Charlie Pink-eye still be alive?
In the great Rot & Ruin everything wants to kill you. Everything…and not everyone in Benny’s small band of travelers will make it out alive.
September 20, 2011
Book# 71 of 2011...
The wars that followed The Collapse nearly destroyed civilization. Now, twenty years later, the world is faced with a choice—rebuild what was or make something new.
Stephen Quinn, a quiet and dutiful fifteen-year-old scavenger, travels Post-Collapse America with his Dad and stern ex-Marine Grandfather. They travel light. They keep to themselves. Nothing ever changes. But when his Grandfather passes suddenly and Stephen and his Dad decide to risk it all to save the lives of two strangers, Stephen's life is turned upside down. With his father terribly injured, Stephen is left alone to make his own choices for the first time.
Stephen’s choices lead him to Settler's Landing, a lost slice of the Pre-Collapse world where he encounters a seemingly benign world of barbecues, baseball games and days spent in a one-room schoolhouse. Distrustful of such tranquility, Stephen quickly falls in with Jenny Tan, the beautiful town outcast. As his relationship with Jenny grows it brings him into violent conflict with the leaders of Settler's Landing who are determined to remake the world they grew up in, no matter what the cost.
My take:
4 out of 5 stars. I hope there is a sequal to this book. I'm intrested in finding out what happens to Stephen.
September 19, 2011
Have You Seen This?
September 15, 2011
September 14, 2011
Book# 69 of 2011...
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.
September 13, 2011
Book# 68 for 2011...
September 12, 2011
9/11 Memorial 5k
September 11, 2011
Book#50 of the 50 Book Challenge
September 10, 2011
9/11 Memorial 5k
September 9, 2011
September 8, 2011
A New Toy...Sort of
We decided to buy a new machine but just keep running the old one until it finally died before purchasing a new one. I got top loader this time instead of a front loader. This sucker has such a huge tub that I washed about 2 dozen towels at once. It was almost too much for the dryer to handle. But I love my new machine, it's quite and so easy. I love new toys.
September 7, 2011
Book# 49 of the 50 Book Challenge
September 6, 2011
I thought you weren't supposed to labor on labor day...
September 5, 2011
A New Book!
Congratulations to both Jeff and Gertie on the new book! I'm sure it will be a huge success!
September 4, 2011
Book# 48 of the 50 Book
September 3, 2011
A broken Rule and a New WIP
But in being true to myself I had to have a new project to take on vacation with last weekend. I can't help it. The thought of being at the beach with nothing to knit makes me stir crazy. I like going to the beach and hanging out with Hubbs and our friends but I can't just sit, I need something to do and still be social. Enter Shalder by Gudrun Johnston.
Beautiful lace yoke
September 2, 2011
Book# 47 of the 50 Book Challenge
In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.
My take:
4 out of 5 stars. I really enjoyed this book. Lots of action and it totally set it up for the next book, Dust and Decay. I've already requested it from the library!
September 1, 2011
Book# 46 of the 50 Book Challenge
"Part novel, part survivalist-handbook, Patriots tells of a small group of friends facing every American's worst nightmare - the total collapse of society. The stock market plummets and hyperinflation cripples commerce and then a seemingly isolated financial crisis passes the tipping point when an unprepared government fails to act. Practically overnight, the fragile ...more"Part novel, part survivalist-handbook, Patriots tells of a small group of friends facing every American's worst nightmare - the total collapse of society. The stock market plummets and hyperinflation cripples commerce and then a seemingly isolated financial crisis passes the tipping point when an unprepared government fails to act. Practically overnight, the fragile institutions of democracy fall apart and every American is forced to survive on their own." Evading mobs of desperate, out-of-control citizens who have turned Chicago into a wasteland of looting and mayhem, this novel's protagonists make their way to a shared secure ranch in the wilds of northern Idaho. Here the survival-driven group fends off vicious attacks from the outside and eventually assists in restoring order to the country. The compelling, fast-paced action-adventure novel has readers jotting notes and referencing the book's impressive index for informative survivalist tips on everything from setting up a secure shelter to treating traumatic flesh wounds.