thanksgiving, untraditional

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we are working in our community this year for thanksgiving. it is the first year either of us had to work on this holiday, and it is a little weird. last year we were in a whole other state celebrating by ourselves and this year we have 140 friends to celebrate with, although most of them were with their families for the noon meal.

our chef made a wonderful turkey dinner with all the traditional sides (well not all. there were no la seur peas). the phones arent ringing and our bosses arent sending out tons of emails, no one's toilet is overflowing... so far a good day.

there are so many things we have to be thankful for. obviously for our jobs and home and each other, our health, family etc. but there are other things.

things like feeling my baby move around inside me. this little guy has tons of energy y'all!
things like sitting in my rocker with my feet up and having a soft fluffy cat crawl into my lap and purr.
or hot apple cider available 24-7 in our coffee bar.
my netbook that allows me to get online anywhere my phone gets a signal.
our dvr.
my down comforter and quilts on cold nights like last night.
jeremy going to starbucks whenever i feel like a hot chocolate.
friends in new hampshire that we get to see on sunday.
friends in la that are having babies (and the ones that arent).
friends all over the country, and really the world, that love us.
half and half from nantucket nectar
granulated honey


there are so many little things that i take for granted all the time. today is a wonderful time to sit and reflect on some of those things.

what little thing are you especially thankful for today?

welcome to parenthood

yes, we will be parents. in april. but thankfully i have two amazing furry friends that like to give me wee little glimpes into what life will be like as a mom.

take this saturday as an example. it was like day 15 of working straight without a day off. i was tired. when my alarm went off at 6:$5am it was all i could do to peel myself out of bed and head into the shower. rumpy and cricket both wait very impatiently for me to wake up in the mornings so i can feed them. after i used the bathroom, i stumbled into the kitchen to get the cat food out and almost stepped in a special little gift in the middle of the rug. im still not sure which end of which cat it came out of, but i am sure that no one should have to deal with something like that before coffee. i put on gloves and dealt with the mess and put the rug in our empty laundry basket (yes they waited until i had finished all the laundry to make a nasty mess).

i fed the cats and the fish, took a shower, got dressed and got ready for work. jeremy got in the shower and i was in the bathroom burshing my teeth and putting on makeup. cricket and rumpy both came in, because they like being around and rumpy is obsessed with the shower. cricket looked at me, walked over to the bath mat and peed. right there. only about three feet from their litter box. looking at me the entire time as if to say "im mad that you are working so much so here's what you get." and she is supposed to be the good cat!

so, inbetween serving meals, answering the phones and all the myriad of other tasks that come on a saturday at windham falls, i got to do dirty nasty laundry. i thought i still had a few months of carefree living before having to deal with stuff like this!!!

book review: maybe this time

synopsis from barnes and noble's website:

The New York Times bestselling author of Bet Me, Tell Me Lies and Welcome to Temptation delivers her long-awaited novel


Andie Miller is ready to move on in life. She wants to marry her fiancé and leave behind everything in her past, especially her ex-husband, North Archer. But when Andie tries to gain closure with him, he asks one final favor of her before they go their separate ways forever. A very distant cousin of his has died and left North as the guardian of two orphans who have driven out three nannies already, and things are getting worse. He needs a very special person to take care of the situation and he knows Andie can handle anything.
When Andie meets the two children she quickly realizes things are much worse than she feared. The place is a mess, the children, Carter and Alice, aren’t your average delinquents, and the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeper since Mrs. Danvers. What’s worse, Andie’s fiancé thinks this is all a plan by North to get Andie back, and he may be right. Andie’s dreams have been haunted by North since she arrived at the old house. And that’s not the only haunting.
What follows is a hilarious adventure in exorcism, including a self-doubting parapsychologist, an annoyed medium, her Tarot-card reading mother, an avenging ex-mother-inlaw, and, of course, her jealous fiancé. And just when she thinks things couldn’t get more complicated, North shows up on the doorstep making her wonder if maybe this time things could be different between them.
If Andie can just get rid of all the guests and ghosts, she’s pretty sure she can save the kids, and herself, from the past. But fate might just have another thing in mind…

my review: if you haven't read a jennifer crusie book and you like fun, flirty chick lit, then you better get started. her characters are funny and quirky and off-beat, and the plot lines, while a little odd, keep one's attention and keep me laughing. this book was no exception. i loved the characters, especially the kids she is taking care of. if you like ms. crusie's work already, then rest assured that this one is just as good, if not better, than her previos novels. definitely read it.

baby pictures!

this was our ultrasound at 12 weeks. i'm 17 weeks now and scheduled for my anatomy ultrasound in a couple of weeks. yay! you can see baby's head, wee little hands, and belly in this picture. cute, isn't he? (or she...)

book review: A Deadly Row

A Deadly Row

Casey Mayes

Capturing the hot new craze:
The new Math Puzzle mystery series.

Math whiz Savannah Stone makes a living creating Math puzzles in rural North Carolina. But when the mayor starts receiving death threats, Savannah needs to solve this puzzle-before the next box to be filled is the mayor's coffin.

my review: this was a fun mystery, not too brain bending or terrifying. savannah makes math puzzles (i assume sudoku but it is never explicitly stated what kind of puzzle) and her husband is the retired chief of the charlotte police. i had a pretty strong hunch who the killer was throghout the book but there were other plot points and interesting tidbits to keep the story moving. it is a genre mystery, meaning if you like math puzzles and mystery books you would prolly like this one more, but i prefer the siamese cats of the cat who series for my genre mystery reading. there was nothing objectionable or exceptionally bloody in it. i'd be interested to see what subsequent book sin the series are like.

life's always better with the bestie

anna came to see me last week. it was awesome. she flew into hartford. i picked her up at the airport and we headed to the atheneum museum of art. our local library has passes for area museums that you can check out like a book so we got to go for free. we came home and jeremy finished up working, then we cooked dinner and watched k-state destroy the jayhawks. you know that's a good night.

friday morning we woke up late and had a lazy morning, before getting dressed and heading to bluff point state park for a little hike. the shoreline was gorgeous and we got some amazing nature pictures. after the hike we went to the grocery store and bought ingredients for gourmet grilled cheese. (thanks to martha s. for the inspiration). our favorite new flavor was apple slices and gruyere. sounds weird but it tasted yummy! jeremy was in charge of grilling the sandwiches, a task at which he excels. :)

friday afternoon we drove to new haven and took a quick tour of the yale campus, before heading up to wallingford for a concert. justin as playing with david nail, who opened for lady antebellum. yeah it was a great show. we got to be all vip and hang out for sound check, which took me back to our days to stage managing mosaic services at beverly hills high school. justin rocked the house and both acts were great. we got to meet david nail and his band, as well as some members of lady a after the show. everyone was super nice and it was great to see justin again too. all too soon it was time for us to head home and leave anna to her fate on the tour bus with all boys. for a short visit we packed a lot in and it was so great to see her again!!!!

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book review: brain jack

from the back: Right now, as you read this, i am sifting through the contents of your computer. Yes, your computer. You. The one holding this book.

You could race over and turn your computer off, but you'd already be too late.

I could delete a few files, but I probably won't. I could change your password and lock you out of your own system, but I can't be bothered. I am not malicious or evil, or even particularly bad.

I'll just quietly leave, and erase all trace that I was ever there.

But I know you know. I know who you are. I know where you live. I know what you've got. And if the time comes that I need something from you, something that you might or might not want to give up, I'll be back.

That time is coming. Sooner than you think.

my review: this book was different from a lot of things i read. the first half reminded me of cory doctorow's little brother. the techno-thriller aspect was cool without being way over my head or inaccessible to someone who couldn't hack into someone's yahoo account if her life depended on it. through a series of events our main character, sam finds himself on the run. the second half of the book is alot more action-adventure, save the world type of stuff. it was fast-paced and i read it in one afternoon.  this is a book that computer minded teenage boys might enjoy. (or other people since i am not a computer minded teenage boy and loved it). it was set a little bit in the future, not too much to make it crazy and a whole new universe, but enough to make the technological advances that carry the plot believable. if you like young adult novels and/or techno thrillers - try this one on for size.

jessie's visit pt 3: nh, me, ct

on monday of jessie's trip, we drove from mass up to maine, where we visited our favorite lighthouse, nubble, in york. we stopped in at the kittery trading post for old times sake, then back over the bridge to portsmouth, nh for lunch and some time in downtown portsmouth. one of jessie's visiting new england goals was to see the quintessential lighthouse and this one couldn't be closer to that. while in portsmouth, jeremy and i stumbled across the coolest thing in a store we hadn't visited before. we were on a mission for a new hampshire shirt for jess which we never procured, but we walked out of the store with a wick attached to a cork and some parafin oil. now, any empty wine bottle is a candle, with no dripping wax or smoke. it is awesome.

we made our way back home. on tuesday we had originally planned to head to new york city, but the travel logistics did not work in our favor. instead, we explored the mystic seaport, which jeremy and i had never done when all of the exhibits were open. they are working on restoring a tall ship from long ago, and they have a row of shops that resemble what would have been open in a port town like mystic in the late 1800s. It is the coastal version of cowtown. :) we got to go on several boats and peek around.

after lunch at five guys, we hit the road for thompson, ct. there was a giant corn maze there waiting for us. it took us an hour and a half and i bet we walked at least three miles inside that hing, but we conquered it. then we had farm-made ice cream and apple cider. talk about visiting new england in the fall!

jessie's visit pt 2: boston

on sunday we got up early and started driving. we drove through rhode island and up into massachussetts. we stopped at a couple of places on the way to boston. we hot up foxborough to see the patriots stadium. it was insanely huge. then, we drove to cambridge for a quick tour of the harvard campus. i much prefer yale. :) we were planning on meeting ryan and stephanie at the prudential building in boston for lunch then doing some exploring. there was a cool infinity pond/fountain across from the building so we stopped for a few photos before eating. after lunch we went up to the top floor of the prudential building (that's the 52nd!) and took in the breathtaking views of the entire city. 

after lunch we hopped on the t and headed for fanuiel hall and the sights around it. we stopped in at christopher columbus park and the north end to check out the hahbah. the water was beautiful and the weather was perfect. we walked around the area and saw the site of the boston massacre, the holocaust memorial and quincy hall. jessie got to see the cheers bar and the hard rock cafe boston, both things that were high on her list of activities.


we spent the night up in bedford, mass, so we were ready to go on monday for our tour of new hampshire and maine. it was so much fun seeing ryan and stephanie - it made been almost two months since they came down here to visit, and i was overdue for my stephanie fix!

jessie's visit pt 1: hartford

 jessie came and visited us last week. she flew in and out of hartford, our state capital. we spent saturday afternoon driving around the city, sightseeing and doing a few fun things. the hartford marathon was just finishing up as we drove into bushnell park. the park's entrance is a beautiful bridge with a castle/tower over it. that was the finish line for the race - how fun is that? the park has a really old carousel in it - it ws built in 1914 and is a historic site. i had to ride it, and for a dollar, who could resist? i kinda love carousels, and always have. i used to have an old carousel horse in my room when i was younger. jessie wasn't quite as excited as i was, but we had a good time. jeremy refused to participate so he became the official ride photographer.

we drove out of the park past the capital building - it is pretty! the grounds are beautiful but there was orange construction tape up everywhere (i think they were re-landscaping or something) so i didnt take any up close pictures. you can see the gold roof of the building from almost anywhere in the city.

after hitting the main sights in hartford, we drove the hour back to groton and hung out for the evening at home. jessie got to meet rumpy and cricket and see our community. we went to bed early because we had big plans for sunday and monday!

banned books week #speakloudly

this week is banned books week. i have posted about this before, so you probably know that i think banning books is ridiculous. the most recent incident of this that made the news (at least the news that i pay attention to) was in missouri. a man wrote a 20-something page letter to the school board of his county about any number of things, including the history and science curriculum, but what was most talked about was his accusations that the english teachers that were assigning their kids to read speak by laurie halse anderson were promoting pornography and teenage drunkeness etc.

(this next paragraph prolly contains spoilers)

first, the book (also a lifetime movie featuring none other than everyone's favorite vampire lover kristin stewart) is about a girl who is at a party with her firend at the end of junior year and is raped by a popular guy. she calls the cops who bust up the party, but never tells anyone about the rape. everyone hates her because they think she randomly called the police. she goes through senior year as an outcast, and finally works up the courage to express herself through art and speak up about what happened to her.

that is the super simplified version - the book is absolutely amazing. seriously, go read it (or anythign else by laurie halse anderson for that matter). bascially this dude in missouri thinks that by having a scene in the book where teenagers are at a party drinking that it will cause teenagers to go party and drink. now i wasnt into that at all in high school but i know plenty of people  are/were. and i highly doubt that any of them got the idea to do a keg stand or whatever from reading a book. just a thought. also, equating rape with porn is messed up. although i know that some people have strange and out there fantasies, including the rape of a teenage girl in the same category is just wrong.

so what does it all mean?

well, if you are a parent, you have the right to watch over your kids and keep tabs on them. i think that if the kid wants to read, let them, but that's me the voracious reader talking. if a kid wants to read something that a parent objects to, maybe the parent should (shocker!) have a conversation with their kid about what is in the book (or movie or tv show or wahtever) that they disagree with. i think open and honest conversations are a lot more likely to prevent kids from partying or doing drugs or having sex or doing whatever the objectionable thing is. keeping them from reading a book that mentions it probably isnt going to do the trick.

what do you think?

do you think keeping kids from reading stuff is important?

just a side note - i dont disagree with making grade level appropriate choices for kids in general. obviously you arent going to give a copy of speak to a first grader. however, some kids are more mature than others. i read gone with ithe wind in fifth grade and that book has all kinds of adult themes and potentially objectionable things in it, but it was handled appropriately. i didnt go buy a slave or start using the "n word" just because i read that book. in middle school i read a christian series of books where the main characters held hands and (gasp) kissed and i think she might have even snuck out of the house and ran away. did i do any of those things? no. (well, obviously i have held hands and kissed a boy now, duh, but i didnt do it in middle school!)

anyways, take it for what you will, but if youve read twilight, youve read a banned book. or to kill a mockingbird. or huckleberry finn. or a separate peace (required reading at trinity in my day). so go read another one.

better yet, go buy a banned book. use your purchasing power to show that you think banning books is as silly as i do. go buy speak. you wont regret it.

check out these articles for other's take on banned books week and the debacle in missouri.

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book review: warrior by zoe archer

Warrior

Zoe Archer

from the back:

To most people, the realm of magic is the stuff of nursery rhymes and dusty libraries. But for the Blades of the Rose, it's quite rael, and in danger of being misused by a powerful enemy...

In Hot Pursuit...

The vicious attack Capt. Gabriel Huntley witnesses in a dark alley sparks a chain of events that will take him to the ends of the earth and beyond - where what is real and what is imagined become terribly confused. Intrigue, danger, and a beautiful woman in distress - just what he needs.

In Hotter Water...
Raised thousands of miles from England, Thalia Burgess is no typical Victorian lady. A good thing, since as a Blade, she's trying to protect a priceless magical artifact. Huntley's assistance might come in handy, though she has to keep him in the dark. But this distractingly handsome soldier isn't easy to decieve...

my review:
as you can tell my the cover, this hero is indiana jones-esque. and as you know (if you know me at all) indiana jones is the best. well, harrison ford really, but i digress. this book had lots of adventure and several interesting side characters. it was set in the wilds of mongolia, which is an usual setting for lots of fiction books of this type so it was fun to read something different. there are three more books to follow in this series, each featuring one member of the blades trying to save an artifact and presumably falling in love. the "magic" elements of this books werent like witches and spells, but also similar to the temple of doom stuff. lots of folklore mixed with physical danger and drama. i liked it.

close encounters of the sea kind

we spent the day at the mystic aquarium. the groton library has these great passes that i checked out with my library card that got us a great deal on the entrance fee. so it was a thrifty and educational outing. im feeling smarter already!

the first thing we did was head to the theater for the sea lion show. there were four sea lions performing and they did all kinds of fun tricks. we also learned the difference between seals and sea lions which is a question that has surprisingly arisen more than once in our marriage. one of the outdoor exhibits had even more sea lions and this guy saw me with my camera and hopped up on a rock and posed. then he waited for me to throw him a piece of squid. unfortunately, all i had in my purse were boiled peanuts from our trip to kittery yesterday. not exactly sea lion fare.

we walked around many mroe exhibits, including penguins, swamps and deep sea exploration (with stuff from the titanic).

my favorite stop of the day had nothing to do with the ocean, or really even water. we got to go in the aviary and hang out with 300 birds from down under. they gave us millet on a popsicle stick to feed to them. they were quite tame and hopped right on us to eat. different birds even got into fights over who got to eat off my stick. there were bigger birds that looked like parrots that would tear a huge chunk off the stick then hold it in their claws and eat it from there. it was really cool to watch.

the jelly fish exhibit and the beluga whales were very cool also. i had never seen a beluga whale in real life before and they had jellys that i had never seen. there were ones that lived upside down on the ocean floor and their tentacles stream upwards. crabs will pick them up and carry them on their backs to protect themselves. cool, huh? there were rescued loggerhead turtles and sea lion pups too. great day (and it threatened to rain all day but held off while we were outside!) at the aquarium!

yalies for the day

jeremy and i drove to new haven for the day on monday. we spent some time exploring the yale campus. it was gorgeous! it was everything i dreamt ivy league and new england meant. the residence halls were gorgeous - even the dining hall seemed like it could be a theatre or something. beautiful. if i had an extra 50k laying around i would totally go to school there. there were mysterious looking gates and doors everywhere. everyone on campus seemed focused and studious, even though it was a holiday!

after lunch we went to the peabody museum of natural history. there were dinosaur bones and stuffed wildlife everywhere we looked. i felt like i was in the land before time. :) there was a whole section on connecticut wildlife with glass cases containing stuffed birds, pinned insects and other examples of animals found here. very cool to learn more about this state too.

it was only about 45 minutes away so i would love to go again, maybe in the fall or winter when the campus will look different. there were other things we didnt get to do while there too - the rare book museum was closed - we both really wanted to see the gutenberg bible that resides there but maybe next time!

my green thumb (or lack thereof)

i got this african violet about a month and a half ago. i have been watering it and talking to it faithfully and it is blooming. beautiful. you can also see the cat hairs where crickey and rumper have helped me talk to it and love it. thanks guys! she doesnt have a name yet. violet is what i named my first african violet that gma koci gave me. she didnt last long. i have become a better plant mother since then though. or maybe not...

remember fred the bonsai? jeremy bought him for me when i was in new hampshire and he was in california and it was one of the best gifts he has ever gotten me. fred hasn't adapted too well to all the stress of moving jobs and states and our hours. he looks it too. jeremy thinks it is time to just throw him away but i have a hard time with that. i want to bring him back to life. bonsai require lots of patience and i think i can wait him out. although patience isnt normally my strong suit, i think we can make this work. at least that's what mr. gunn told me to do.