Woot!
Change of plans! We're flying out to see my family this year and we leave TUESDAY! I won't be back until January 5th. That's right, I get a 2 week vacation.
Life is WONDERFUL. One more work day and I can spend my holiday in peace. I really need a break from work. I'm starting to get burned out and I have been very negative lately. I need some space to just remember that it's just work, not personal, and time to take a step back.
Nathan had his first Christmas play today. He was a shepard and had actual speaking roles. He did very well. I was so proud of him and I can't believe how big he has gotten. Such a great kid I have :)
Finished The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This is a prequel to my favorite book ever, The Shadow of the Wind.
This is very different from Shadow of the Wind but it's still great.
Here's the synopsis from the back of the book--I don't want to spoil anything, because this is really good.
"In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city's underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at an unsolved mystery.
Like a slow poison, the history of the place and an impossible love bring David close to despair. But then he receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike any other - a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realzies that there is a connection between this haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.
Set in the turbulent 1920s, The Angel's Game takes us back to the gothic universe of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and the Sempere & Sons bookshop, in a masterful tale about the magic of books and the darkest corners of the human soul."
The Cylon tester is now operational and Adama and Roslin each want the other to get tested first. Adama thinks it's a good idea for people to have confidence in the president and Roslin remembers that the captured Cylon told her that Adama was another Cylon.
It's hard for her to doubt that when he starts acting very strangely. He's distracted a great deal of the time, and he's been making mysterious phone calls and takes a ship, leaving no flight plan.
Turns out he isn't doing Cylon business--he's picking up Col. Tigh's estranged wife, Ellen.
Ellen's pretty awful. She drinks a lot (she was drunk in almost all of her scenes) and she's manipulative and just wretched.
Adama canceled his test and had Baltar test Ellen first (only one test can be done at a time and the results take 11 hours to come in). Ellen is not a Cylon, just an awful person.
(Except, of course, the "Cylon detector" is a joke and all the results will come back human. So I guess technically, she could be a Cylon after all.)
Here's Bekki's take. She didn't like Ellen Tigh, either.
I can feel the baby! It is awesome. Just little quivers for now but it is enough to make me smile.
Still feeling morning sick. Still exhausted.
I'm ready for bed at about 6pm...which is pathetic.
I'm excited about the next two weeks in Nevada and California. It's amazing to think by the time I get back I'll be 17 weeks and just about ready to find the sex of the baby. Which means we're 1/2 way through the pregnancy. I cannot believe how fast it is all going. I cannot wait to hold the little one in my arms :)
I am so freakin' sad and depressed.
That's all.
Thanks for looking.
Finished Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl.
This book is a mix of two of my recent favorite genres--paranormal YA and gothic fiction.
It's set in the south, a town called Gatlin. (There are not corn children and He Who Walks Behind the Rows does not appear.)
Ethan has been having a lot of weird dreams lately--he's trying to save a girl he loves (who he has only seen in these dreams) and failing. When he wakes up, there's generally a ton of dirt in his bed.
A new girl shows up on the first day of his sophomore year and it's the girl from his dreams. And things get weirder from there.
Such a fantastic book.
Up was just named one of AFI's 10 best of the year. (In case you're curious, the others are Coraline, The Hangover, The Hurt Locker, The Messenger, Precious, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Sugar and Up in the Air.)
I just watched Up a few days ago, so I'm counting it as one seen. :)
It's the latest Pixar offering, so not surprisingly, it's really good.
From the time he was a child, Carl has wanted to be an explorer like his hero, Charles Muntz. That's how he met the girl who would become his wife, Ellie. They never ended up going anywhere, though. After she dies, he decides he's going to go on an adventure, the one he should have taken with her. Except there's a stowaway (Russell, the little boy on the cover) and things continue to not go as planned.
This is a really cute movie, and I liked it. (But why are you so bloodthirsty, Disney/Pixar? Why do you always kill people?)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/
photo courtesy of Mike Licht
I admire people who are strong. People who lift objects with ease. Someone who moves quickly and works hard and appears to be tireless. My neighbor stands out in my mind as an unusually strong woman. I watch her fearlessly tackle household projects that many men would avoid. Up high on a two story ladder scraping and then painting the outside of her house, mowing her lawn, building a stone walk way in front of her home, moving a bureau twice her size. She is amazing and carries it all off with a feminine flair. She has to be tough living in a household filled with men. I wish I could be more like her. Of course, coordination helps. Sometimes I feel like I'm all thumbs. I would trip on my own shadow if it were possible. I drop things, I bump things, and my senses sometimes fail me. I want to get stronger though. And its time to get serious. A little less thinking about it and talking about it and a lot more action. It will be my New Year's resolution. Not like I want to be a female Atlas. Just a little less flimsy and flamsy and a lot more firm!
Finished The Lightkeeper's Daughter by Colleen Coble for Thomas Nelson.
Addie learns (as an adult) that her parents aren't actually her parents. Instead, she's the daughter of Henry Eaton (beyond wealthy man) and has been presumed dead for 23 years. She wants to get to know her family, but won't say who she is without more proof (all she has is a locket that belonged to her biological grandmother). So she decides to become a governess to her nephew (by marriage).
Her nephew's father turns out to be quite the good looking widower and sparks fly pretty much immediately. (Again, they're not related, John was married to Addie's half-sister.)
It's an entertaining book, but I had two problems. The first was that John and Addie fell in love pretty much instantly, which I didn't think was all that realistic. And the second is that Addie is perfect. Like Beth in Little Women, perfect.
Still, a fun book and especially appropriate to read at Christmas. There are also a lot of twists and turns (some I did see coming and some I didn't).
This is my photo of the day on facebook:
Such a sweet, feisty pug. She's over 10 years old. Somehow, I don't think she'll go quietly into the night when her time comes. Somehow I sense this....
