My November Adventures

November started out with some challenging days as our community was still recovering from hurricane Sandy that charged through the area in late October. Our school district was closed for nearly two full weeks, Halloween was more or less cancelled and the school calendar had to be re-worked to account for so many missed school days. Spring break is intact, but we lost some other days off in 2013 and now the last day of school has been pushed to June 25th! As much as I love a snowy winter, I hope we're not slammed with too many snow days this winter or the school year's never going to end!

In books: 
I read twelve books this month, but don't be fooled--only five of them were full length novels. Two others were novellas, another a graphic novel and then I also read five short stories, which are even shorter than novellas. Those short stories are counting towards my annual count of books read this year, which may or may not be cheating since they are so short, but I'm not stressing over it because my goodreads book count for 2012 is slightly off anyway because most of my re-reads this year aren't included in my total.

Total books read: 13
Romance................ 5
    [Contemporary Romance.... 2]
    [Steampunk Romance ....... 3]
Urban Fantasy........... 6
General Fiction ........ 1
Graphic Novel ........... 1

1. Poison by Jennifer Estep [online short story]
2. Web of Deceit by Jennifer Estep [online short story]
3. Spider's Bargain by Jennifer Estep [online short story]
4. Web of Death by Jennifer Estep [online short story]
5. Dream Lake by Lisa Kleypas
6. Through the Lens by K.M. Jackson
7. Web of Lies by Jennifer Estep
8. Wasted by Jennifer Estep [online short story]
9. The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook
10. Here There Be Monsters by Meljean Brook [RE-READ]
11. Fever Moon by Karen Marie Moning
12. Mina Wentworth and the Invisible City by Meljean Brook
13. This is How You Lose Her by Junoz Diaz

My favorite book this month is The Iron Duke, which I finally got around to reading thanks to the TBR Challenge! I loved it and can't wait to read more in this world. I also really enjoyed Dream Lake by Lisa Kleypas. I also recommend This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz even though I didn't get anything really positive out of characters or their story. I'm glad I read it, but man was it sad in a pitiful way. It gets bonus points just for making me think about it so much.

In Photography: 

I'm still going strong with my Project 366 [leap year] photography project. I haven't missed a photo since one day last May, I think. I hope I didn't just jinx myself because I'm almost there!

Don't cry over spilt milk..
especially when you have kitties!
November 18. 2012

The spilt milk photo in the photo above was my 'most liked' photo of November. I had come home from the grocery store with a gallon of milk when it fell through the bottom of the bag onto the floor, splitting along the seam of the jug and a lot spilled out before I could pick it up and stop the spill. I only let them lap up the milk for a minute or two while I snapped the photo. They were so cute.

I've been having a lot of fun on Instagram, even though I think it is kind of silly from a non-user's perspective. I came across a link to a really funny spoof video about Instagram that shows you why. I laughed and cringed at the same time, because I do those things! So embarrassing, but who cares. I'm having fun documenting my year through photos and "meeting" people from all over the world.

Here's the link to the video:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6853117/look-at-this-instagram-nickelback-parody

But I swear wasn't being pretentious when I posted a photo of Anna Karenina! Honest!

The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
.. on a 34.4 mile bike ride in 41 F breezy weather..
November 24, 2012

Instagram has new user profile pages that can easily be found if you know someone's username. Here's mine: http://instagram.com/thehappilyeverafter . They don't always load properly for me, though, so I'm not sure what's up with that.

Anyway, that's it for my November adventures.. I'm sure I did more than read and take pictures on my iphone, but I can't think of anything else to report. lol

Moments from our first snow of the season.
November 7, 2012

December is always a busy month of activities and of course, holiday celebrations. It also mention lots of baking! And eating... oh boy. I'm already planning on a January detox followed by seriously healthy eating.

Have you had any adventures lately?

I wish you all a delightful, delicious and joyous December!

My October Adventures

October is one of my favorite months of the year. I love the change of seasons period, but summer to fall is my favorite with comfortable days and chilly nights, beautiful foliage and delicious fall fruits & vegetables. Like Pumpkin! And apples. Halloween was a wash around here, though, because of the hurricane. Trick-or-treating was rescheduled twice already and now postponed until further notice. I'm thinking until October 31, 2013 would be fine at this point.

Felled trees like this one on power lines,
houses and cars on almost every street.

I've already blogged about Hurricane Sandy here and here, so I'm not going to go too much into it again. It's an adventure that's more like a nightmare and is still ongoing. Power is still out for a lot of people and the last of our schools just got power restored this morning but a few hours later a transformer blew, knocking out power to a school and neighborhood that had previously been completely unaffected by the storm. I thought tomorrow was going to be the day of return, but now I'm not so sure. Students haven't been in school since October 26! It's been crazy to say the least.

Let's move on to happier subjects, starting with books!

Most of my book choices for October were well suited for the R.I.P. VII reading event I joined--dark fantasy, paranormal, crime fiction and thriller type stories. Even the two In Death books I read were apropos in their crimes for this time of year--one was a controversial murder of a priest inside a Church in Spanish Harlem and the other was a human sacrifice type murder. Spooky stuff.

In books: 

Total books read: 7 

Romance............... 1 

Fantasy.................  1 

Crime fiction ......... 2 

Young Adult ......... 3

1. Cold Fire by Kate Elliot
2. Demon From the Dark by Kresley Cole
3. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
4. Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb
5. Ritual in Death by J.D. Robb
6. Prince of the Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
7. Tales of Death and Dementia by Edgar Allen Poe,
Illustrated by Gris Grimly

My favorite this month was Demon From the Dark by Kresley Cole followed by Cold Fire by Kate Elliot.

In fitness:
I've been working out regularly as usual, but I have to admit since the Gran Fondo in September, I feel a little adrift without an event ahead of me. At first it was nice not to always be thinking about my next training ride, but that lasted all of a week or so. Now I miss those long 40, 50, 60, 70 mile rides that took hours on a Saturday morning to do. We're still cycling on the weekend, but since the days are so much shorter now and family calendar's so busy during the school year, we don't have as much time to ride.

Here they come..
I ride like a girl. Try to keep up. 

That's one of my favorite of my photos that I took last month for my Project 365. I went on a ride with the guys and had to wait for them at the top of the hill. I have to admit that felt really good.

Photography: 

I'm hanging in there with the Project 365 I started on Instagram on Jan. 1--haven't missed a day in a long time now! Of course, I probably just jinxed myself saying that. I followed the photo-a-day prompts from Fat Mum Slim over the summer and am thinking of doing it again for December. Anyone else want to do a photo-a-day project just for December? Maybe I'll share the prompts here on my blog once they're announced to encourage you to join. It's fun.

In the garden: 

I yanked it all up right before the hurricane. I picked all lingering green tomatoes that just weren't ripening and was too impatient to wait for them to ripen on the counter so I was considering making fried green tomatoes with them. My family grimaced at that idea, but thankfully Joy came to the rescue and hooked me up with this fabulous Indian recipe Green Tomato Sabji. It was so delicious that I'm counting on making it with green tomatoes next year! I already miss having fresh basil right outside my door and already we have only ONE jar of homemade pesto to get us through the winter. Bummer.

And that wraps up my October adventures. Wishing you all a wonderful November.

What kind of adventures did YOU have in October?

My September Adventures

I haven't been very good with posting my monthly adventures in a timely fashion and I've lost a little interest in doing this kind of monthly recap, so I'm probably not going to continue with this feature in the new year. I might go back to just doing a monthly recap of the books I read each month. I haven't decided. What do you think?

So September is already a bit of a blur to me. Really there are two main events of September. One is that the girls started school shortly after Labor Day--Anna is in 8th grade and Maria is a senior in high school. The second is that I rode in the NJ 2012 Gran Fondo [Woohoo! GO, ME!] on Sept. 9. This was my first organized bike event and won't be my last. I had so much fun--taking in the beautiful New Jersey scenery, riding with so many friendly, enthusiastic riders and most of all accomplishing something for which I've trained so hard. What a great feeling. 

The girls had quite a few days off from school in September for Jewish holidays and teacher in-service days, so we took advantage of a freebie Monday off from school and went to the beach on a Sunday which is normally a big homework day, especially for my high school senior. We had a picnic lunch on the beach, read a book and just relaxed. It was nice to have some girl time like that. 

Last beach day of the season.
September 16, 2012

NYC Skyline from Sandy Hook Beach, NJ
September 16, 2012

See the tallest building toward the left of the skyline in the photo above? That's One World Trade Center. 

Surfer dudes at Sandy Hook Beach, NJ
September 16, 2012

What? You didn't know you could surf in the Atlantic ocean? In New Jersey? We're full of surprises. ;)

In books: 

September was a decent reading month for me. I read eight books! I've read 78 books so far in 2012, which includes the handful of books that I've re-read. I'm a few books behind schedule to meet my goal of reading 101 books this year, but I'm confident I'll catch up in the coming weeks when it gets too cold and dark to play [a.k.a. bike and garden] outside.

Total books read: 8

Romance................. 5

    [4 paranormal, 1 contemporary]

Urban Fantasy......... 1

Fantasy...................  1

Graphic Novel......... 1

She caught a spider!
Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep

1. Dark Desires After Dark by Kresley Cole

2. Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole

3. Ride With Me by Ruthie Knox

4. Deep Kiss of Winter by Kresley Cole & Gena Showalter

5. The Rift Walker by Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith

6. Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole

7. The Arrival by Shaun Tan

8. Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep 

My favorite reads of this month are probably Kresley Cole's short story "Untouchable" in Deep Kiss of Winter and Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole. Yeah, I'm digging that series that much. I guess you can say I'm on a paranormal kick! October has a new flavor, though, thanks largely to the fact that I joined R.I.P. VII this year. A lot more spooky and mysterious reads! 

Photography:

I'm hanging in there with the Project 365 I started on Instagram on Jan. 1--haven't missed a day in a long time now! Of course, I probably just jinxed myself saying that. The photos in this post are from my September instagram pics. 

In the garden:

Cleome or "spider flower"
in my garden

September brought in a lot of cherry tomatoes from my garden. I had one yellow and one red cherry tomato plant in my garden and both produced delicious little fruits. The yellow was particularly prolific and I was picking a handful of cherry tomatoes every day up until just recently. By the end of the month I picked the first ripe slicing tomato and only one or two followed. There are still several green tomatoes on the vines, but I don't think the days are warm or long enough for them to ripen so I'll probably pick them soon. 

I'm happy I finally got that patch of garden going this year, but I vow not to wait until the 4th of July to put plants in the ground. There just wasn't enough time for the plants to really do their thing in the warmer months and grow lots of tomatoes in the peak of summer. And plant more basil! Nothing beats bunches and bunches of fresh basil growing right outside your door. I swear I'd put it in everything I ate in the summer if I had enough of it! 

Those are my September adventures in a nutshell. Thanks for reading and I hope you're having an outstanding October! 

What kind of adventures did YOU have in September?

My July & August Adventures {in books!}

I fell a little behind with my monthly adventure posts over the summer. I think being away the week July turned into August did me in. I am going to keep the adventures brief because I've already highlighted the most important parts anyway with my vacation and cycling posts. I'll focus on what I read over the summer instead--especially since some people complained that I don't blog about books enough anymore. You know who you are .... this post's for you. ; )

In books: 
JULY: 
Total books read: 6

Young Adult ....... 1
 Romance .............. 5

1. The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa
2. The Witness by Nora Roberts
3. Danger's Kiss by Sarah McKerrigan
4. Somebody to Love by Kristan Higgins
5. Hearts of Fire by Kira Brady [novella]
6. Hearts of Darkness by Kira Brady

It seems like ages since I read this books, not two months ago! I really enjoyed reading one of Nora Robert's regular romantic suspense novels as opposed to her crime fiction books she writes under J.D. Robb. The Witness was a perfect blend of romance and suspense, with very realistic and likable characters. In the end, I'd have to say I would have liked a little more depth or elaboration to the romance, but overall I really liked it and would definitely read more of her books. Good thing I've got a mess of them on my shelves!

I'm a big fan of Kristan Higgins' contemporary romances. The stories are chock full of quirky characters, charming characters, humor, misunderstandings, relationship blunders, family drama we can all relate to, and a sweet romance. Somebody to Love features Parker Welles, a young single mom, whose filthy rich father is suddenly broke and in prison, even after having spent Parker's trust money. All she has to her name is a decrepit little house in Maine that she inherited from her aunt. Parker heads up to Maine to turn the house around and get some cash into her banking account and who shows up to help her out but her father's young lawyer and right hand man, James Cahill. Of course they fight their love practically every step of the way, but what fun would it be if they didn't, right? While not my favorite Higgins' book, this one didn't disappoint! Good stuff.

Hearts of Fire, the prequel novella to the new Deadglass trilogy by debut author Kira Brady, and the first full length novel in the series, Hearts of Darkness were the last two books I read in July. Well written, fascinating setting, characters and series premise, Hearts of Darkness is a very creative and suspenseful story. If you like romance or urban fantasy do not miss this one!

AUGUST:
Total books read: 9

1. Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb
2. Deeper by Megan Hart
3. Gold by Chris Cleave
4. Beautiful Mess by Lucy V. Morgan
5. Before the Moon Rises by Catherine Bybee
6. Embracing the Moon by Catherine Bybee
7. No Rest For the Wicked by Kresley Cole [re-read]
8. Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night by Kresley Cole [re-read]
9. Dark Needs at Night's Edge by Kresley Cole [re-read]

My favorite part of the day...
relaxing with a great book.
Deeper by Megan Hart
August 2012

It's always a good reading month when you've read a Megan Hart book. Entertaining, sexy and always thought provoking, Hart is always on the top of her game. I read Deeper in August, which was the perfect summer read from Hart's back list because it takes place in a beach town, but really, read it any time of the year.

Gold by Chris Cleave is a newer release book that captured the competitive spirit of Olympic athletes in training with a strong dose of women's fiction as the two main characters are friends, sometimes enemies and always competitors for the podium in women's track cycling. This book was at times uplifting and at other times, very heart breaking and frustrating. Not frustrating in the writing or story telling, but frustrating in that I wanted things to work out just so and they don't. Which is good actually, because you want a realistic story and real characters, flaws, mistakes and maliciousness and all. Because that's what life is like. Anyway, I highly recommend it.

I downloaded a few quick ebook reads that caught my eye on goodreads and twitter and I wasn't disappointed. Beautiful Mess by Lucy V. Morgan and two werewolf romances by Catherine Bybee--Before the Moon Rises and Embracing the Moon. Nothing earth shattering awesome or anything, but seriously fun and sexy reads.

Then as you can see, I indulged in a re-read of Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series. I read the first five full length books back in 2007-2008 as the books came out, but then I failed to keep up with new releases after that. Back in April, I decided it was time to catch up, so I picked up where I left off, which was the 7th book--Kiss of a Demon King. I got maybe thirty pages into the story when I realized I could use a refresher. The details about the other characters, the world, and all the little subplots were very fuzzy. I probably could have forged on through and done just fine, but since I really love "getting" all the little inside jokes and nuances between characters who know each other through past books, I knew I'd be a lot happier reading books 7 through 12 if I re-familiarized myself with this series. And what better way to do that than to go back to the beginning and re-read the first six books? So that's what I did. I put Kiss of a Demon King down and went back to the beginning, starting with the prequel novella that I never read, The Warlord Wants Forever, which is Myst the Coveted and Nikolai Wroth's story. I had a lot of fun re-reading these stories and have to say reading them in a row one after the other is very cool because these stories all overlap the same timeline so I'm remembering where people are going and what they're doing in other books as it's all mentioned again in subsequent books. It's been really fun!

Do you read the Immortals After Dark series? 
Which book is your favorite so far?

In photography: 

Butterfly in my garden.
July 2012

I had fun participating in a photo-a-day challenge hosted by the Fat Mum Slim blog, or @fatmumslim on twitter. I kept up for all of June, July and August. The fun daily prompts helped me stay on track taking a picture every day and the best part? I made some new friends on Instagram! I decided not to continue with that particular challenge through the fall and instead go back to just doing my own thing for my daily photo. I'm still determined to complete my Project 365! It's been almost 9 1/2 months now. I think I'm going to make it this time!

As always, you can follow my photography challenges on http://web.stagram.com/n/thehappilyeverafter

In the garden: 
My five tomato plants are doing pretty well considering I planted so late. I've been picking red or yellow cherry tomatoes almost every day in the last several weeks. Finally! I still haven't picked a ripe slicing tomato--they're all still green and growing. To encourage the plants to put their energy to fattening up and ripening their fruit instead of generating new plant growth, maybe two weeks ago I pinched off all the growing ends of the plants and any flowers that had not yet set fruit. I think it helped because now the green tomatoes have gotten bigger and just this week, two of the tomatoes have started turning red. I was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen and I'd be stuck eating nothing but fried green tomatoes from my garden! This is what happens when you wait until the 4th of July to get your tomato plants in the ground! Remind me next year to do it in May..

Thanks for reading about my July & August adventures.

Here's wishing you an stupendous September! Even if it is half over already. ;)

Hello July! ..What Happened in June?!

Holy smokes it's July 4th already! I hope you had a wonderful holiday and the fireworks were spectacular by you.. whether you saw them at the park or made some of your own at home. ; )

Well, I sure am starting to sound like a broken record, but dang it.. life has been busy, leaving me too few minutes in the day to read or blog and blog hop as much as I'd like. I thought the school year was never going to end there for a while, but it finally did on June 20. I swear we were the last schools in session in the whole country by then. Both girls brought home awesome report cards. My youngest ended 7th grade with all A's and a few B's.. honors in several of her classes, high honors in Language Arts. That's my girl! My oldest finished 11th grade--her junior year with a stellar report card. Also A's and a scarce B, most of her courses being honors and honors AP courses. She did so well, she boosted her overall GPA a smidgen and now has over a 4.0 GPA! YES! My girls are some smart cookies! So proud. ^_^

I imagined summer break was going to be lazy, easy, breezy, but alas it's been quite hectic. All good things, but my time management skills are forever a work in progress so I'm not very methodical about getting stuff done. Everything always seems half finished and I can't seem to carve out a decent block of time for myself to read or blog. I always think I'll get to it in the evening after dinner, but I don't know what happens. Well, I do know. I end up being too tired to be on the computer, so I decide to read instead, which ends up being pitiful anyway because I fall asleep after just a few pages. It's a vicious cycle.

My youngest is away at sleep away camp for the first time ever this week. We were busy getting ready for that last week, including packing, shopping for some supplies and getting a physical, etc. No phone calls to or from camp are allowed unless it's an emergency. It drives me batty not being in touch with my kid, but I'm trying not to worry about the little things and trying instead to picture her having a great time, making new friends, trying new things and basically having a really positive experience. I admit I'm looking forward to picking her up on Saturday.. seeing her face, hugging her and hearing all about her adventures.

My oldest landed a nice nanny/babysitting job three days a week for a family with three young girls... ages 10, 8 and 4, I believe. Even though it's a lot of work caring for and playing with the girls, taking them to the pool and activities, I'm not sure who's having more fun here... the little girls or my teen! She loves it. She's also in Volleyball training three nights a week and on her days off from babysitting she's out and about with her friends or her boyfriend. Never a dull moment.

Before I forget, here's a quick look at what I was up to in June. My memory's already getting fuzzy. :/

In fitness & health: 
My workout schedule has been pretty similar each week lately. Strength training, a weekly kickbox class, running and biking. I've spent most of my workout time on the bike, having ridden 274.6 miles in June! My longest single ride was 70.4 miles which was nearly five hours of cycling. Boy, was I tired that day!

I finished June with 133+ fitness challenge miles where 1 fitness mile = 1 mile run = 15 minutes of other cardio or strength training.

I have also been participating in the weekly Reader's Workout Meme hosted by Joy. Check it out over at her blog if you're interested in joining in. It's a low-key, casual thing.. and very welcoming. In the Reader's Workout Meme, some of the participants are tracking their exercise in total minutes spent exercising. I clocked in with 1884 minutes in June or 31 hours and 24 minutes! That averages to about 63 minutes a day. Not bad!

I recently recommitted myself [again, I know] to losing 20-25 lbs. between now and Thanksgiving. I'm working on a few aspects of my diet plus I want to add more strength training to my weekly workout plan. I'll keep you posted.

What did you do to keep moving last month?

In books: 
I read only five books in June.. I guess it's indicative of how busy I was with other things last month. Still, the five books I read were pretty darned good so I'm not complaining!

Romance .............. 4
                  Historical .... 3
                  Paranormal...1
Children's Lit........1

1. The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley
2. Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage by Jennifer Ashley
3. Odd And The Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
4. Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh
5. Caine's Reckoning by Sarah McCarty

My favorites are The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie and Tangle of Need--both books get five stars from me.

What noteworthy books did you read in June?

In photography: 
I had fun participating in a photo-a-day challenge hosted by the Fat Mum Slim blog, or @fatmumslim on twitter. The fun daily prompts helped me stay on track taking a picture every day and the best part? I made some new friends on Instagram! Yay! :) I've decided to do the #photoadayJuly challenge too. As well as a fun daily picture challenge for book-mided people hosted by Cassandra at Indie Reader Houston. You can follow this challenge on twitter or instagram using the #dailybookpic hash tag.

Come back later for my favorite photos from my Project 366.. [I'll post them in the morning.]

As always, you can follow my photography challenges on http://web.stagram.com/n/thehappilyeverafter .

In the garden: 
I finally finished the new vegetable garden. For the most part, anyway. You're never going to believe this.. but I'm not so crazy with this location anymore. I think I might be re-re-establishing my vegetable garden to the backyard next year. So indecisive, I know. In the meantime, at least I have some tomato plants in the ground and growing! Finally! I'll edit pictures into this post tomorrow.. I want to post this now before I delay it another day. And it's time for me to get my beauty sleep. Zzzzz...

Thanks for reading about my June adventures. Here's wishing you a jubilant July! ^_^

My May Adventures

If you stopped by looking for my Neverwhere Read Along discussion, I'll be posting that tomorrow.

It's June! June! Three more weeks of school and then summer! This is such a busy time of year around here. I'm sure it's the same for all of you as well.

I posted earlier this month about my youngest daughter's dance recital--such fun! She's also been busy with girl scouts as her Cadette troop is working towards their Silver Award. I am starting to feel tapped out as a leader, so I'll be glad to have a bit of a break from it over the summer.

My oldest has been busy, too. Mostly with schoolwork and a very busy social life. Last week we attended a small Academic Awards ceremony at the high school at which she received an award from Brandeis University for outstanding academic achievement and civic service. She also recently completed a wonderful project for her high school orchestra for which she filmed, photographed and edited a video about the impact of water on our community that accompanied the orchestra's performance of a beautiful piece by Philip Glass. The video was projected on a large screen behind the orchestra. It was quite moving.. especially given the devastating effects Hurricane Irene had on our community last August.

Lots of proud moments in May! While I couldn't possibly top the accomplishments of my kids, I may as well tell you what I've been up to last month. ; )

In fitness: 
I easily met my 100 fitness mile goal for May with a total of 120 miles. Interestingly, I took quite a few rest days this month, but apparently I made up for it on the days that I did workout, especially in cycling. Most of my rides these days are 30-40 miles which is at least 2 hours on the bike. On Memorial Day, my cycling partner and I clocked just under 4 hours to bike 59.4 miles---my new longest distance in a single ride.

I mentioned last month [in April] that I wanted to increase strength training and aside from my Monday powercuts class and maybe 15 minutes of abs, light weights at the end of kickbox class and a bonus TRX class, I haven't been doing any other strength training. I need to work on increasing that. Here's a look at what I did in May:

Run 23.07 miles :     ~241 minutes
Bike 170.54 miles :   ~705 minutes
Kickbox & Abs : 300 minutes
Spin & Abs :       150 minutes
Strength training:        240 minutes
TOTAL:   1636 minutes     or     27 hours 16 minutes

What did you do to keep moving last month?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

In books: 
I read eight books in May and from quite a few different genres, too. I'm pretty happy about that.

Non-fiction ...... 1
     [Health & fitness]

Romance .............. 2
     [Historical]
Crime fiction ....... 1
Young Adult ....;;.. 1
Fiction .................. 1
Fantasy ................ 2

1. Creation in Death by J.D. Robb
2. The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan
3. Saving Grace by Julie Garwood
4. If I Die by Rachel Vincent
5. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
6. Food Rules by Michael Pollan
7. Cold Magic by Kate Elliot
8. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

I have to say that I loved all of these books and would recommend each and every one. If I HAD to pick favorites? Hmm... The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan is a wonderful novella and the first in a new series. I have a review partially written that I hope to finish, but know that I did love it. It's Kindle lendable, too, so let me know if you're interested in borrowing it. I think I can lend it out at least twice.

Saving Grace by Julie Garwood. A timeless medieval romance and a favorite among so many romance readers. You can read my review HERE.

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell is a really solid, engaging read, too. A lot of readers classify it as romance, but it's not exactly. It's more general fiction with romantic elements. Not quite chick-lit either because most of the book is really about the male protagonist, so it's really more dude-lit which is a brand new sub-genre coined by Brie from Romance Around the Corner. You heard it first from her, folks. Remember that when dude-lit goes rampant. ;o)

Gigi likes Cold Magic by Kate Elliot!

Honorable mention goes to Cold Magic by Kate Elliot. I originally shelved this book in young adult, but it really straddles into adult fantasy fiction. The protagonists are not minors at nineteen years old and older and in fact at the marriageable age. The setting is Victorian-England-esque alternate history with a steampunk component. A lot of fascinating people--powerful mages, princes, spiritwalkers and others-- cultures, histories and politics between peoples and three main characters whose fates get personally entangled with each other and those of power. There is a lot of information to digest in this book, but the story premise, setting and characters were so interesting that it was so worth reading. I'm looking forward to reading the second book in this trilogy, Cold Fire. The concluding book in the trilogy, Cold Steel comes out in 2013.

What interesting books did you read in May?

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A bouquet of African Roses

In photography:
My Project 366 is now a Project 362. Yes, I missed another TWO days in May. Ugh. Oh well. I decided to have a little bit of fun this month by participating in the photo a day challenge hosted by blogger fatmumslim who blogs at Fat Mum Slim. There's a daily prompt every day for the month and users post their photos on instagram, twitter, facebook, a blog, flickr or pinterest using the hash tag #photoadayJune. Fun!

As always, you can follow my photography challenges on http://web.stagram.com/n/thehappilyeverafter.

Are you on instagram? Friend me!

In the garden: 
The deer are in my yard almost every night munching on anything and everything green. I know what they're all saying..

"Hey, have you been to that organic salad bar down the street yet? It's amazing! They've got a wide variety of plants to choose from, loaded with tender shoots, plump flower buds, and lush leaves. Not only is it 100% organic but it's all you can eat AND open 24/7!" 

Nice. I woke up one day last week to discover they ate most of the tops off my budding purple coneflower plants last week. This means my coneflowers will be blooming late and won't be so lush this year. Again. I know they have to eat, too, but sheesh, I sure wish they knew how to show a bit of restraint so I could enjoy a few flowers. I have an inkling that the day lilies are on this week's menu. I haven't seen a day lily flower bloom in my yard for a couple of years now. But really, what are you going to do? They're only doing what they're supposed to do, right?

I started converting that section of my perennial flower bed into a new vegetable garden, but I haven't yet finished. In fact, that's on my to-do list for this week. A friend of mine gave me several pots of tomato seedlings that sprouted up in her garden from the seeds of last year's dropped fruit and I've got to get them in the ground soon. I'm already a couple of weeks late. A few of them even have flowers already. Oh how I love the promise of homegrown tomatoes! I'm not sure what else I want to try to grow this year. At this point, I'll be happy just to have a nice harvest of herbs and tomatoes.

Are you growing an edibles in your yard?


Thanks for reading about my month! Wishing you a joyous June! xo

My April Adventures

"Time flies when you're having fun." That explains why it's May already! 

What a month. It's been joyous, but also a bit bittersweet, when my baby.. whom I birthed, nursed, nurtured and protected all these years.. turned 17 years old this month and is now driving a car. This is way harder than the first day of school, first time away at camp, first period, first boyfriend... seeing your child get in car and drive away from home is SO SCARY. I am proud and happy to see that she has become a strong, capable, independent young woman so anxious to get out there in the world, who by the way, learned first hand how to jump start a dead battery about 60 hours after getting her license, but at the same time I miss the little girl who is no more. Never has childhood seemed more fleeting to me than it has this month. Did I mention she's smart, too? She was inducted into the National Honor Society in April. :)

In fitness: 
My workout pattern has been pretty predictable this month. I've been running twice a week outdoors and biking on at least one weekend day. At the gym, I'm either in spin or kickbox class. I haven't been keeping up with strength training this month and I can feel it! I'm making a point to get weights, planks, push ups and ab work back into my weekly workout plan--even if I have to do it on my own at home. Here are my running and cycling stats:

Run 21.0 miles [33.8km]
Bike 191.5 miles [308.2km] <-- A new monthly record for me!

I know there are many, many cyclists out there who bike way more than this in any given month, but for a weekend cyclist like me, I think 191.5 miles rocks! I'll probably end up breaking this record before the summer ends, but for now.. I'm pretty happy with this mileage. I also made some new personal records with distances in April. One is for the most miles in two consecutive days, which was 68.4 miles [110km] (42.5 on Saturday and 25.9 on Sunday). The other record was for my longest ride yet at 52.2 miles [84km]. This route was mostly easy rolling hills, with one climb at the very beginning (4 mile mark) and one at the very end (48 mile mark). Most of our rides have several climbs interspersed with rolling hills. Did I mention we're signed up to ride a Gran Fondo [103 mile (165.8km) cycling event] in September?

What did you do to keep moving in April? 

In books: 
April was yet another productive reading month for me! I read twelve books! Well, three of them were re-reads of a graphic novel and a fourth was another graphic novel, but since Lover Reborn was over 500 pages, it kind of evens out, right?

Non-fiction...... 2
   Health & fitness... 1
   Memoir ..................... 1

Romance ............ 6
     Paranormal ...........3
     Contemporary...... 2
     Historical ..............1

Graphic Novel .....4

1. Crazy, Sexy Diet by Kris Carr
2. The Warlord Wants Forever by Kresley Cole
3. Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas
4. A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole RE-READ
5. Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward
6. A Dangerous Beauty by Sophia Nash
7. The Sweetest Thing by Jill Shalvis
8. Amulet: Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi RE-READ
9. Amulet: Stonekeeper's Curse by Kazu Kibuishi RE-READ
10. Amulet: The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi RE-READ
11. Amulet: The Last Council by Kazu Kibuishi 
12. Paris in Love by Eloisa James

I plan to review Paris in Love by Eloisa James, so stay tuned for that.

Do you read memoirs? If so, what compels you to chose the memoirs you read?

A girl and her cat

In photography: 
I missed another day in my Project 366, but I decided against starting over from the beginning. I'm just going to continue doing the best that I can and if I miss a few days in a year, so be it. I'm not perfect and the project is still fun.



In the garden: 
I haven't done a thing! I'll be so annoyed with myself if I fail to get my vegetable garden re-established again this year..



Thanks for taking the time to read about my April adventures!


Here's wishing you a marvelous May! :) 

My March Adventures

Time sure does fly, doesn't it? March was a good month, busy as usual, but aren't we all? The biggest adventure around here last month was having my baby turn 13 years old! A teenager! Now husband and I are the parents of two teenage girls. Wow. Talk about adventures! :D

In health & fitness: 
Have you noticed the Crazy Sexy Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It! Diet book by Kris Carr on my sidebar that I've been reading for the last couple of weeks? I read most of it last month and just finished this morning. It's a fabulously inspirational and instructional book on revamping your lifestyle choices for optimal health, happiness and overall vitality.  I have to admit that my focus on healthy eating has slipped in the past several weeks after having completed that WholeLiving action plan back in February. Crazy Sexy Diet has helped (re-)inspire me to get back on track. Today I did a 24 green juice fast as prescribed by Kris Carr in her book and starting tomorrow I am back to 'Crazy Sexy - Whole Living' eating. I'm not doing the 21 Adventure Day Cleanse in Kris' book. I'm just not ready for another cleanse after having done the WholeLiving one in January. But I am going to use it as a guide to keep myself in check. I know I've said this often, but this time I mean it. :o)

March was a good workout month for me. I stepped up the running quite a bit and was kept extra motivated by my husband who has been joining me once or twice a week. We came up with a 5 km loop from our house, so that's the minimum distance we do now. I'm still biking and can't believe that I biked all winter long. I'm looking forward to the earlier sunrises so we can get out on the road nice and early on the weekends, ride 40-50 miles [64-80 km] and be home by lunchtime. Here's a rundown of what I did in March to keep my body moving:

Bike 80.78 miles | 22 fitness miles | 5.5 hours
Run 30.57 miles | 30.57 fitness miles | ~5.5 hours
Kickbox . . . . . . . . 14 fitness miles | 3.5 hours
Spin . . . . . . . . . . .  16 fitness miles | 4 hours
Powercuts . . . . . . . 16 fitness miles | 4 hours
Cardio Interval . . . . 4 fitness miles | 1 hour

Total fitness challenge 'miles'* = 102.57 miles

Which is approximately 23.5 hours of biking running kicking spinning lifting and cardio blasting. Yeah, baby!

*[My monthly goal is 100 miles where 1 fitness challenge mile = 15 min of cardio or strength training = 1 mile run.]

What did you do in March to keep moving?

In reading adventures: 
I read 13 books in March! Hooray! This puts me on schedule to reach my goal of 101 books this year. Assuming I keep this pace, of course. And the year is young, so really.. it doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot. Of the 13 books, 3 were novellas and 4 were graphic novels.. but the other 6 books were full length novels, including the 500+ page book Eona by Alison Goodman which is the second book I vowed to read for this year's Big Book Challenge. Which means... ta da!!! I completed my 2012 Big Book Challenge! One down ... um.. a lot more to go?

Here's a look at which books I read last month:

1. Capturing the Silken Thief by Jeannie Lin  
2. Eona by Alison Goodman
3. Ecstasy Unveiled by Larissa Ione
4. Eternity Embraced by Larissa Ione
5. Sin Undone by Larissa Ione 
6. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
7. A Lot Like Love by Julie James
8. Where She Went by Gayle Forman 
9. Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones 
10. The Good Neighbors Book One: Kin by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
[RE-READ]
11. The Good Neighbors Book Two: Kith by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
12. The Good Neighbors Book Three: Kind by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
13. Eternity in Death by J.D. Robb

My favorite books this month are: Eona by Alison Goodman, Sin Undone by Larissa Ione, Where She Went by Gayle Forman and Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones.

I couldn't narrow down to just one! Interestingly, they're all SO different. I like that.

What great books did you read in March? 

Other projects and adventures: 


Behind the lens:
I'm still plugging along with my iPhone instagram Project 366. Well sort of. I had a Project 366 fail when I forgot to take a photo on March 16. Ugh. I'm really bummed about this. I decided to give myself a get out of jail free card just this once because it's leap year. Lame excuse, I know, but if I still take a picture every day until the end of the year I will have completed a Project 365. I know it's not the same as going 365 days STRAIGHT but it is what it is. :/ The following is my favorite photo from March..

The view at the park on one of my March runs.
Camera: iPhone 4S

In the garden: 
I'm still hoping to finally re-establish a vegetable garden this year before it's too late. I had a backyard vegetable garden for years but our home addition a few years ago took over where the garden was. I don't really get enough sunlight anywhere else in the yard except my flower garden between the house and the driveway, which is kind of a weird place for a vegetable garden since it would be visible from the street. I think I can still make it pretty. Well, until I have to put netting around it all to keep the deer out. Hopefully I'll carve some time this week and next to start transplanting the flowers to other areas of the yard to make room for neat rows of vegetables. I can't wait! :)

Do you have a vegetable garden?

So that's about it for my March adventures. Thanks for reading all about it and I wish you an Amazing April! xo

My February Adventures

Happy Leap Day!

There's just something really special and fun about February 29, don't you think? For most of us it's like a freebie day, but for some... it's the birthday that only comes around once every four years! Can you imagine? I remember a few leap years ago, an elderly woman with whom I was acquainted was so excited to be throwing a Sweet 16 party for one of her girlfriends [64th] birthday? How cute is that? Sixty four years old and your true birthday only came around 16 times! That's special all right! :)

German Chocolate Ganache Cake 

Speaking of birthdays ... my husband celebrated another one earlier this month and for the third year in a row, I made him his favorite cake ever... the amazing German Chocolate Ganache Cake pictured above. Fortunately for me, his birthday was on the first day after I was liberated from the cleanse diet I was following. Very serendipitous, don't you think?

Health & fitness adventures :
I finished the Whole Living Action Plan detox cleanse diet thing earlier this month. Yay!!! I learned so much doing that cleanse and felt so good in the last week or two, but it was hard work. A couple of weeks later, I have to confess that I haven't been as good at sticking to the healthy eating since then as I had hoped. I did develop some new habits that I've been very good at keeping up, such as no caffeine [can you believe it?], hot water with lemon first thing every morning, drinking more water, eating more vegetables and nuts, but I also resorted to some of the old not so good habits. In the form of cookies. :-/ It's not that I'm eating whole sleeves of girl scout cookies or anything. Honest! They haven't come in yet. But a cookie here and a cookie there every day.. it adds up. :/

This week my 16 year old and I started a "healthy eating diet" to help us get on track with healthy eating. We're going [mostly*] vegan and gluten free for two weeks, eating lots of fruit, vegetables, beans, soy, nuts and seeds, with moderate servings of oats and rice. We're starting every morning with a mug of warm water with fresh squeezed lemon to stimulate our liver followed by a fruit and soy smoothie for breakfast. I haven't made us a green smoothie yet.. wonder how that will go over. No processed foods and no refined sugars. My daughter's looking to simply eat healthier, more vegetables and fewer chips and snacks, and also hoping eating better will boost her moods. Yes, please. Minefields. Seriously. I'm looking to improve how I feel digestively again--I really did feel SO much better when I wasn't eating as many gluten foods on the cleanse. I wouldn't be disappointed I got back on track losing some extra pounds, too!

[*My daughter is being strict about the vegan part, but I'm allowing some Greek yogurt, fish and lean chicken or beef because I feel I need it to fuel or refuel my workouts.]

I'm finally working out every day-ish again after a bad head cold took me out of the gym and landed me on the sofa for a almost a week! Needless to say, my fitness hours reflect some of that downtime, but at least I still got my body moving when I could! Here's a look at what I did in February:

Bike . . . . . . . . . 2.5 hours [34.3 miles]
Run . . . . . . . . .  2.5 hours [14.34 miles]
TRX. . . . . . . . . 4.0 hours
Kickbox . . . .  . 3.75 hours
Spin . . . . . . . . .  2.5 hours
Powercuts . . . . . 2.0 hours

Total fitness challenge 'miles' . . . 72.34 miles

[My monthly goal is 100 miles where 1 fitness challenge mile = 15 min of cardio or strength training = 1 mile run.]

That's 17.25 hours biking running kicking spinning lifting TRX-ing.

All of a sudden it doesn't seem like a whole heck of a lot of activity...

What did you do in February to keep moving?

Adventures in reading :
After a very slow start in January, February proved to be quite productive with 14 books read! Possibly a new record for me, but in truth, some books were pretty short--three graphic novels and two novellas, so it's not that crazy. I did read a long one, though--Eon Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman, which is one of the books I chose for The Big Book Challenge [500+ pages]. I loved it and am going to start the sequel Eona tonight! Here's a list of the books I read in February:

1. Born in Death by J.D. Robb C+
2. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, graphic novel B
3. Innocent in Death by J.D. Robb A
4. Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt B+
5. Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison [re-read] A
6. The Bro-Magnet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted Thanks, Brie! :) B
7. King Lear by Gareth Hinds, Shakespeare graphic novel, original text B+
8. Eon Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman A
9. Conor's Way by Laura Lee Guhrke A
10. "Thicker Than Blood" by Meljean Brook, novella A
11. Archangel's Consort by Nalini Singh B+
12. Archangel's Blade by Nalini Singh A
13. Anya's Ghost by Vera Brogsol, graphic novel B
14. Forever Mine by Delilah Marvelle, novella C-

Unfortunately, I was horrible at writing reviews or even mini reviews on goodreads for most of these books. I really need to get into the habit of writing at least a few lines, but once I move on to the next book, I lose reviewing momentum rather rapidly.

Are there any books listed above that you'd like to hear about?
Maybe I'll try to write up a few.

What great books did you read in February?

Other projects and adventures :
Guess what? I've been keeping up with the Project 366 [leap year ;)] photogrpahy project to take a photo every day of the year. I think I'm finally going to pull this project off after three prior failed attempts! Wahoo!! *knock on wood!*

I'm still thinking of a way to make a monthly collage to post here, but in the meantime, to see my photos click on My Project 366. All photos are taken with my iPhone 4S. Lots of pictures of cats and food.

Traveling adventures :
I met up with blogging friends Hilcia, Mariana and Natalie on Saturday afternoon. We met at a cool fondue restaurant in Hoboken called The Melting Pot where we ate fondue of course! Cheese fondue [with bread, apples and vegetables], Seasoned broth fondue [with meat, fish and vegetables] and of course.... chocolate fondue! We had a milk chocolate and white chocolate yin yang fondue with fresh strawberries, marshmallows, red velvet cake, brownies, cheesecake and rice krispie treats. Wow. Pictures of fondue on my Project 366 link above! And while the food was delicious and fun. .. the best part was hanging out with these lovely ladies chatting about books, jobs, family and life. Hilcia came with a generous bag of books to share with us [Thank you, Hils! xo] and we had the loveliest of afternoons. I can't wait to do it again soon.

Do you ever meet blogging friends you've met online in person?


That's about it for my February adventures. Thanks for reading all about it and I wish you a marvelous March! xo

My January Adventures

Instead of doing a 'Monthly Reads' post for each month, I thought I'd try making a monthly post recapping anything noteworthy that went on in my world such as the books I read, athletic adventures, travel or anything else interesting. Interesting to me, anyway, but hopefully to you, too.

January 2012 was surprisingly jam packed with adventure for me. This post ended up much longer than I expected. Feel free to scroll to the parts that most interest you. ;)

Reading adventures:
I had my all time record low reading month since December 2007 when I didn't read a single book! Last month, I read only THREE books!

1. The Longest Night by Kathleen O'Reilly
You can read my review for this book HERE, which I read for January's TBR Challenge.

2. Tides of Passion by Tracy Sumner
This book had the makings of a great story--interesting characters, a fun premise and a wonderfully unique setting. Unfortunately, I felt the main characters said or did things out of character one too many times and it weakened the credibility of their story.

3. Wife by Wendesday by Catherine Bybee
This book has been on the top of the Amazon Kindle charts for a really long time now. I don't know if the author has any secrets for keeping it up there, but I can tell you this story was really fun and I thoroughly enjoyed reading every page! It's a contemporary marriage of convenience turned true love story. Utterly adorable and believable, too! The ebook is only 99 cents!
Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords

I sure hope February is a better reading month for me or I'm never going to get to 101 books by the end of 2012! Good thing February has an extra day this year. ;)

Did you read anything good in January?

Health and fitness adventures:
So what was I doing with all that time that I clearly wasn't spending reading? Detoxing, working out and a bit of traveling, that's what!

As many of you already know, I started following the 28 Day Whole Living Action Plan featured in Whole Living magazine and on their website earlier in January. It's a food based detox-type-mind and body cleanse. It's kept me busy preparing new food dishes, healthy snacks and smoothies and because my caloric intake was naturally so low because of the plan and I wasn't drinking any coffee or tea with caffeine, I admit I napped a lot the first week or two. I have a few more days to go before I'm finished.. but already my diet feels close to normal again, but heavier on the fruits and vegetables. That's always a good thing!

Since the detox-cleanse is meant to be restful and healing, I eased up on my regular workout schedule a bit, which I thought would drive me crazy, but actually felt welcomed in the early weeks of the plan. Giving up coffee for the diet combined with fewer calories overall made me very tired and sleepy this month! I still managed to keep my miles and hours spent exercising at a decent level, though, so I'm happy about that. Here's a look at what I was doing in January to keep my body moving and my heart rate up:

Run ...................... 14.0 miles
Bike ..................... 56.7 miles
Snowshoe .............  3.5 miles

Spin class ................. 2.5 hrs
Kickbox ................... 3.5 hrs
Strength training .....  5.0 hrs
Cardio interval ......... 2.0 hrs

Total fitness challenge 'miles' ..... 77.5 miles
[My typical monthly goal is 100 miles where 1 fitness challenge mile = 15 min cardio or strength = 1 mile run or snowshoed.]

Other highlights:
I ran a 5K Race on New Year's Day hoping to break my 30:02 PR, but ran 30:31 which is still under a 10 minute mile, so that's cool. Maybe next time. :)

I started new small group TRX training classes in January after my gym had TRX Suspension Trainers installed. TRX suspension training is a fully body strength training workout in which you suspend your body weight by straps and do various strength exercises all the while your core is fully engaged.
Want to see a video? Visit trxtraining.com or go straight to the video HERE.

I went snowshoeing for the first time when I participated in the Tubbs Snowshoes Romp to Stomp out Breast Cancer Snowshoe event. and loved it! I want my own snowshoes! Thank you again to everyone who supported me and donated to the cause on my behalf! xo

How did your workouts go in January?


A photography adventure:
One last adventure to share with you. After three failed attempts at doing a 365 Project, I started fresh again for the fourth time on January 1 and so far I haven't missed a day! I'm doing this project exclusively using my iPhone 4S and Instagram. I know this is probably a ridiculous way of doing a 365 Project when I have a fantastic digital SLR, but the iPhone is SO convenient and I always have it with me, so I'm hoping the convenience of it will enable me to stick with the project and take a photo every day. Oh wait... I just realized this is a leap year. I guess this is a 366 Project? ; )

Have you ever done a 365 Project? 

Traveling adventures:
My husband, daughters and I took a long weekend getaway to Florida over Martin Luther King Weekend and had a really great time even though it was really cold that weekend! I wanted sunny warm 70s--not chilly, cloudy 50s. I heard it got warm the day after we left. Figures.

We have very close friends who moved to the Orlando area several years ago and who were always inviting us to come down to visit them, trying to lure us with all of the theme parks in the area. [We are more of a National Park kind of family--not the amusement park kind, but it was still really fun.] We really enjoyed visiting our friends the whole weekend in their lovely home. It was so relaxing staying with them!

Hogwarts
 Harry Potter World in Universal Studios
Orlando, FL

The first day we went to Universal Studios and pretty much beelined for Harry Potter World which was SO COOL!!! It really felt like you were walking through Hogsmeade and into Hogwarts castle. The ride in Hogwarts is a simulated broomstick ride and omg it felt so real! I admit I screamed when the dragon ... well, I don't want to give anything away. We went into Honeydukes, Ollivanders wand shop and of course, Zonko's! And we ate lunch at Three Broomsticks. We even had Butterbeer!
How cool is that? :)

Totoros!
From 'My Neighborhood Totoro'

The second day we went to Epcot. We had fun walking around, doing some of the attractions, visiting the international pavilions, but I don't know... it didn't seem so amazing. Even the fireworks were just okay. We ate lunch in 'Japan' and got giddy over the souvenirs from our favorite Hayao Miyazaki films.

The third day we went to an Indian Kite Festival with our friends. I had no idea kite flying was so competitive! We arrived with numerous kites in our arsenal. You'd think it's challenging enough to just get your kite up and flying, but no! All the other kite fliers will start maneuvering their kite to cross yours and with the right tension and direction, their kite string--which is actually finely coated with glass--cuts your string and your kite falls to the ground! So you have no choice but to be both an offensive and defensive kite flier to keep your kite in the air. On a side note, I ate some amazing Palak Pakoras [spinach-chickpea fritters] there. I had forgotten how much I LOVE Indian food. Mmmm I want some right now!  photo to come... maybe.

The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)
Kennedy Space Center
[photo taken from tour bus]

The fourth and last day, we went to Kennedy Space center. We spent time walking around the visitors center and then took the up-close tour of the space center and Vehicle Assembly Building. We actually got to walk inside the VAB and see the orbiter Endeavor up-close! Then bus took us around to the launch pad. Afterwards we spent an hour or two in the Apollo Saturn V Exhibit.

Endeavor 

I loved the up-close tour! I think it was especially meaningful for me because after college [I had just earned my B.S. in Electrical Engineering] I worked for an aerospace company that was a subcontractor of a subcontractor of NASA, updating and writing new test software for two electrical devices we built for the space shuttle program. So I was familiar with the very basic picture of preparing the space shuttle for launch and then the retrieval of the solid rocket boosters after each launch. Anyway, visiting the Kennedy Space Center was definitely a highlight of this trip for me!

Did you go anywhere special in January? 

Thanks for taking the time to read about my January adventures. I assure you January was unusually adventurous for me and future monthly posts will be much shorter!

Wishing you all a fantastic February! xo

I Read 100 Books in 2011!

I'm super excited that I reached my goal and managed to read 100 books in 2011! I finished my 100th book this afternoon with a little less than eight hours to spare before the clock strikes 2012. Phew--that was close! I admit that December sort of looks like the month of the novella, but what the heck! I say as long as a book has its own ISBN number, it's fair game.

I'm putting together a 'Best of 2011 in Books' post to go up in January--I'm still having too much fun crunching my book stats ;) --but if you're dying from curiosity, you can see the 100 books I read on my 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 post OR my 2011 Reading Challenge on goodreads. I love the visual of all those book covers lined up like that.

In the meantime, here's a quick  look at what I read this month [December 2011]:

Romance ................ 4
Crime fiction ........... 3
Young adult ............ 2
Graphic novel .......... 1
General fiction ......... 1

Total books read ............... 11

Of those books, SIX were novellas.

1. Origin in Death by J.D. Robb
In Death, Book #21
GRADE: C
Mini reviews of the In Death books I read this month can be found on the December In Death Reading Challenge post HERE.

2. Once Upon a Winter's Eve by Tessa Dare
Spindle Cove, Book #1.5
HOLIDAY READING CHALLENGE BOOK!
A very sweet romance about a young woman who has only loved one man since her childhood... and the love she finds with a stranger who literally stumbles into her world who looks remarkably similar to her one true love. GRADE: B

3. A Taste of Midnight by Lara Adrian
Midnight Breeds, Book #9.5
This is the first ever published novella in the Midnight Breed series and takes place between the events of Deeper Than Midnight [Book #9] and Darker After Midnight [Book #10], which will be released in January 2012. A Taste of Midnight is the story of a long lost friendship between Breedmate Danika MacConn and Malcom MacBain, the once best friend of Danika's deceased mate Conlan, who you may recall was killed in the first book of the series, leaving Danika widowed and pregnant with his child. Danika is still grieving over her mate's death while she visits with Conlan's family in the Scottish highlands for Christmas with her newborn son. After overhearing horrific talk about human trafficking for the pleasure of the Breed's most depraved, Danika makes the mistake of publicly insulting the dangerous Breed named Reiver who is a mob leader of sorts behind the "blood clubs" in this region. Now he is out to kill her and she can barely believe that the man she once knew and was close to--Malcolm MacBain is one of Reiver's closest associates.

A Taste of Midnight is a thrilling little teaser for fans of the Midnight Breed series and contains all the key elements for a satisfying story--a strong heroine, a brooding but fiercely protective Breed male, an evil villain with nefarious intentions and a touching romance. The result is a short, but intense story that with a logical connection to the series arc but can also be read as a stand alone story. I enjoyed this novella, but I must confess that Danika makes some careless decisions that jeopardize her safety and that of her newborn son, which felt largely out of character for someone so vulnerable in the Breed world. Also, while the attraction, concern and ultimately the budding romance between Danika and Malcolm was believable, I felt the professions of love were a little too much too soon for both of them, which inevitably made the happily ever after come across very rushed. Still, A Taste of Midnight is a great morsel for fans of the series who are dying to get their hands on the next book in the series, Darker After Midnight which will be released on January 24, 2012. Which, by the way, is the long awaited story of Sterling Chase and his mate! Finally!
GRADE: B

4. The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland -- For A Little While
by Catherynne M. Valente
Fairyland, Book #0.5
This is the prequel novella to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Written in Ms. Valente's signature whimsical prose, this short isn't nearly as captivating as the full length tale of September in Fairyland. It took several pages of what felt like a long winded introduction to get this short story going and then just as it gained momentum, it was over. Still worth the read, though, if you're interested in an introduction to this author's talented story telling.
GRADE: C

5. Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson & Lauren Myracle
HOLIDAY READING CHALLENGE BOOK!
This book is a collection of three intertwined short stories written by three of today's wonderfully talented young adult writers and a perfect wintertime-Christmasy read for teens. All three stories expertly capture the trials and tribulations and intense joys of being a teen and the crazy and confusing and often wonderful things that can happen when you least expect it. GRADE: B+



6. Memory in Death by J.D. Robb
In Death, Book #22
GRADE: A-
HOLIDAY READING CHALLENGE BOOK!

7. Haunted in Death by J.D. Robb
In Death, Book #22.5
GRADE: C
Mini reviews of the In Death books I read this month can be found on the December In Death Reading Challenge post HERE.

8. To Desire a Scoundrel by Tracy Sumner
Southern Heat novella
HOLIDAY READING CHALLENGE BOOK!
I purchased this ebook after reading an interview with the author on the Book Lovers Inc. blog and became intrigued by an American historical romance set in North Carolina in the late 1800s. To Desire a Scoundrel a sweet and sexy Christmas romance about a second chance for a couple whose love fell apart after a betrayal and lack of communication two years prior. I liked this story a lot, got a little frustrated when the characters repeatedly passed up every opportunity to talk about their past when so clearly they both wanted to. There were also a few times when I stumbled on a sentence or two that pulled me out of the story. The story was still charming, though, and I'm already reading another book by this author.
GRADE: B-

9. The French Maid by Sabrina Jeffries
This is a very short novella about a married couple at the cusp of their one year wedding anniversary who each receive a little push from an unusual French maid to work harder at making their marriage a happier, more mutually satisfying relationship. It was short and sweet, but I was disappointed that the woman needed to make herself more beautiful and seductive in order to get her husband to notice her. There were other positive messages in the story, however, to still send valuable messages about how a husband and wife need to work at their marriage, not take each other for granted, and speak up when they need something from their partner.
GRADE: C +

10. Macbeth by William Shakesepeare,
Graphic novel, script adaptation by John MacDonald for Classical Comics
This graphic novel makes a fantastic supplement to Shakespeare's original work or in my case, a fun and easy way to refresh my memory after having read Macbeth years ago in high school. It would also serve wonderfully as a introduction to Shakespeare for the reluctant reader. I highly recommend this and all other graphic novels from Classical Comics.
GRADE: B

11. after the quake by Haruki Murakami
A collection of short stories

after the quake is a collection of six unique short stories about characters whose lives were indirectly transformed by the disastrous Kobe earthquake in Japan in 1995. The impact of the earthquake on these characters' lives is in fact subtle, but in a way also quite profound as it serves as a catalyst in personally meaningful ways that give each of them a new direction in their lives, or at least peace of mind.

" 'Strange and mysterious things, though, aren't they--earthquakes? We take it for granted that the earth beneath our feet is solid and stationary. We even talk about people being 'down to earth' or having their feet firmly planted on the ground. But suddenly one day we see that it isn't true.' "[quote from the story "thailand," p. 92]

Murakami shows how earthquakes are a lot like life. The world as we know it can change in a heartbeat, suddenly shifting our lives in ways we never expect. It's unpredictable and often out of our control. What ultimately matters most is how we choose to embrace life and love when adversity strikes.

I enjoyed this collection of short stories--the stories are meaningful and show how a natural or man made disaster can spark self reflection and positive change to even those remotely affected. The final story in the collection, "honey pie" is my favorite and perhaps the easiest with which to identify in the way that a tragic event can provide the inspiration to not waste another day not being with the one you love.
GRADE: B+

I also met both my Holiday Reading Challenge 2011 hosted by Book Lovers, Inc. AND my Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge hosted by tanabata this month! Yay!

Here's to another year of great books in 2012 for all of us!