King Arthur Movie Tristan

Really Random Tuesday is hosted by Suko.




I can't believe we are near the end of August already. Can you believe summer is almost through?

Our back to school shopping is done here, thank goodness that headache is over. Running around like a chicken with its head cut off in search of all those items on my kids school lists was no fun.



On a bookish note, I've been immersed in Georgette Heyer's regency romance called Bath Tangle this past week and my review will be up tomorrow.






I'm also reading Nicholas Sparks The Rescue. All I can say is *sigh*.


Does anyone else have a Nicholas Sparks crush? Please step forward.







I've got plenty of good books in line to be read next, two of which are Blood Memory & The Perfect Suspect (Berkley Prime Crime Mysteries) by Margaret Coel. These were sent to me by the Penguingroup and I can't wait to dive into these thrilling mysteries.













On a crocheting note, hubby got me a new model form so I can take better quality photos of my crochet for my ETSY shop. What a difference this thing makes! I almost want to crochet things just so I can put them on the model and take photos...lol.












That's all for now. Enjoy your Tuesday. What are you reading?

Really Random Tuesday is hosted by Suko (she's currently on vacation, enjoy it Suko!).





Happy Tuesday everyone :) Today is Tuesday right? lol. I'm still on vacation so I've lost track of days and times. It's such a lovely thing to be able to wake up whenever I feel like it and go to bed at whatever hour as well. Naps in between are fantastic. I'm lucky that I have a teenager and a tween, so my kids let me relax for the most part.




I spent a fantastic week at Lake George with my family and this week we are just taking it easy. A few day trips here and there and hanging out by our pool for the most part.

(stay tuned tomorrow you will see a photo of me on a horse in my Wordless Wednesday post...in case you want a good chuckle.)







On a crocheting note, I design my own patterns and have been published in the Crochet-Pattern-A-Day calendars. My neck cowl pattern made it in next years calendar. Accord, the calendars publishing company, sends each designer a free calendar per pattern they have published. My Crochet: 100+ Patterns Throughout the Year: 2012 Day-to-Day Calendar arrived last week.





I submitted my Neck Cowl pattern; I'm August 30th :)

In the calendar photo I am modeling it.






On a bookish note, many of you know Borders is closing its doors. I was happy that the one nearby us remained open for some time after many others closed. However this week I saw the Going Out of Business banner out front. It saddens me. This was the Borders I'd go to on my lunch break or where I'd take my kids for a quick book fix. It was just ten minutes away. There's really no other nearby bookstore. The one consolation I have is that the Target near me has a book section, I do find some good reads there every once in a while. They don't however have much selection.



I went to Borders yesterday to see if I could find a few things. I grabbed:




The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage








Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life








I'll be going back to Borders a few more times before the store officially shuts down in September. That's all for now, enjoy your Tuesday.

Really Random Tuesday is hosted by Suko.





Good morning blog friends, I'm back from my mini-vacation. Those of you who are facebook friends may know that I recently got back from Miami, Florida.
I went to Southbeach for three days with my sister.


It was a fun trip, and a nice getaway. I enjoyed the sights and sounds of Miami. It was almost like New York, but livelier if you can believe it! I am happy to be back home though, I missed my hubby and kids dearly. It was my first time away from them, and I've decided, my last. I'll be posting pics on my Wordless Wednesday posts.






In the meantime, I have tons of emails to get through and blogs to visit and I'm still on vacation mode, so I'm moving in slow motion. Please bear with me as I get back into the groove. I want to see what everyone has been up to, reading and reviewing.

Really Random Tuesday is hosted by Suko.






Hello everyone, I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday.


Last weekend we took the kids to Raceway Park which promised to be a rip-roaring, fun filled, exciting race car/monster truck show.

Now mind you, we've never been to this type of show before and I'm not into race cars or drag races, but my son is currently obsessed with cars. Making him happy, moody fifteen year old that he is, can be tricky. He's at that age where he thinks he's too cool to be seen with mom and dad in public...yadda ...yadda...yadda.

Let me tell you, as soon as we arrived at the car track, my sons eyes were a huge as saucers. I haven't seen him that excited since Christmas when he was still little and believed in Santa.



Funny enough, I didn't think I'd enjoy watching monster trucks or drag racing, but it was lots of fun. We all wore ear plugs due to the loudness of car engines. There was car smashing, bike tricks, drag racing, fireworks and even an explosion at the end. Good old-fashioned fun! We're already planning to go back for the next show a few months from now.

I kept expecting to see Ricky Bobby come out yelling 'Shake n Bake!'



I'll leave you with some pics. How cool is the first pic above? It's a school bus turned monster truck. I think that would be a great way to get kids to want to get on the school bus and go to school every day.



I was so happy to find funnel cake to munch on while I watched the show. It's a favorite summer treat.











The show started at around 7PM, and we were there till nearly midnight. Here you can see the sun setting as the cars drag raced.





This truck was hooked up with a jet engine. Necessary? Not at all. Cool? Very!




Some of these cars were going at speeds over 200 miles an hour.











The show ended with the track being lit up while the last of the cars raced and fireworks followed.






Here's one of the videos I recorded of a monster truck. (if you listen closely, you can hear me screaming at the end)






That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my post that has absolutely nothing to do with reading...lol.


Stay tuned, tomorrow author Johanna Garth is stopping by for an interview.

Really Random Tuesday is hosted by Suko.






With Memorial Day weekend just having passed, summer has unofficially arrived. We had a busy weekend here with opening up our pool and bbq'ing.


Now, whenever we bbq and invite family over, my sister brings her Morkie (maltese/yorkie), Archie.
Archie is Diego's cousin, but Diego tends to be snooty-patootie and wants to be left alone. Diego is older, he's 2 1/2 and Archie is barely 2 years old.

(My younger sister is a copy-cat and shortly after I got Diego, she decided she wanted a small dog too) But anyway....



Our two dogs are very different, Archie tends to be more hyper and playful, Diego tends to be more laid back. I think deep down inside, my spoiled Diego doesn't believe he himself is a dog, so why play with another dog?




I tried to get a photo of the two of them together, but it was near impossible.

I caught Archie mid-run here:






While Diego was just sitting down and relaxing here:









On a reading note, summertime does make me want to sit out on my back porch with a nice cold glass of something, iced green tea preferably, and a good book. Which is just how I've been spending these past few afternoons.

Currently reading:



Forever by Judy Blume.







Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.






Under The Dome by Stephen King






Losing Beauty by Johanna Garth.




I know that seems like a lot of reading, but I'm nearly done with Through the Looking Glass and Forever. I'll finish up Losing Beauty next while Under The Dome will probably take me a few weeks to get through.

I will say, I'm enjoying all of these books.



That wraps up my Really Random Tuesday post for this week. Thanks for stopping by.


What are you up to? What have you been reading?

Really Random Tuesday is hosted by Suko.






It's Tuesday and I'm in the middle of reading When No One is Watching
by Joseph Hayes which is a political thriller that has me good and hooked. My review will be up later this week.





On another note, I found this quote and I can totally relate to it.

There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag — and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty — and vice versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.


-Doris Lessing

Isn't that a great quote? Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.

It got me thinking of what books have 'opened doors' for me at certain times in my life. Wuthering Heights was on the summer reading list when I was in high school, and so I checked it out of the library but I only made it through about 10 pages before giving up on it. When I chose to start reading the classics in my late twenties, I picked it up again and it's become an all-time favorite. Same goes for Austen's work, I don't think I would have enjoyed Pride & Prejudice or Persuasion if I read them as a teenager, yet now these are among my favorite books. I enjoy my beloved classics as an adult, as a teen I found these types of books boring.
I was more into Stephen King (still am), lots of Agatha Christie and cozy mysteries as a teenager.


What about you? What books have become favorites now as opposed to years ago?
Do you still read the same kind of books now that you read back then?



Enjoy your Tuesday! We've got some beautiful weather here, it's been in the 70's all week.

Really Random Tuesday is hosted by Suko.






I've been totally hooked on Animal Planets tv program called Fatal Attractions. In a nutshell, it's a show about everyday people who have deadly pets.

Watching the show and seeing footage of these people interacting with these animals actually makes me nervous.

Check this clip out, Wild Thing the Buffalo:






I really wonder why these people risk their lives this way. I don't think these wild animals are meant to be pets. It's not the animals fault when it does what is in its nature to do.

What do you think of this? Do you have a pet that can be dangerous? Or do you know of anyone who does?

My 7 lb Diego is quite harmless ;) The pic above is of him cuddled up yesterday morning. He's in his fav blanket and still has his coat on after his morning bathroom break outside. It snowed again yesterday.







Anyway....onto bookish news...
I have a few book reviews coming up soon.

Wuthering Heights, The Case for Falling in Love, The Shepherd, Gideon's Sword, Immortal Obsession and The Liberation of Alice Love will all be reviewed in the following weeks.







And last, but not least I'd like to share the link to an article called 25 Films That Bibliophiles Still Love. This list includes films based on some of our favorite books.


Some of my favorite films are on this list including The Princess Bride, The Shawshank Redemption, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Gone With the Wind.



Check the list out here. Did some of your faves make it?




Enjoy your Tuesday :)

Really Random Tuesday is hosted by Suko.





Hello everyone, I hope you all had a sweet Valentine's Day.

I had a nice one here. Hubby treated me with takeout (chicken milanese) from one of my fav restaurants so I wouldn't have to cook dinner.
He knows the key to my heart is chocolate, so he also got me chocolate covered strawberries and little heart shaped chocolate mousse cakes:P







A frog balloon to boot...








As far as reading goes, I'm almost done with Wuthering Heights and am truly enjoying this re-read. It's all so dramatic and gloomy, the perfect read for curling up on the couch during these cold winter nights.




I'll sneak in a teaser:





Teaser Tuesdays asks:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

'He might spare himself the trouble,' said Heathcliff: 'I could do as well without his approbation. And as to you, Catherine, I have a mind to speak a few words now, while we are at it. I want you to be aware that I KNOW you have treated me infernally - infernally! Do you hear? And if you flatter yourself that I don't perceive it, you are a fool; and if you think I can be consoled by sweet words, you are an idiot: and if you fancy I'll suffer unrevenged, I'll convince you of the contrary, in a very little while! Meantime, thank you for telling me your sister-in-law's secret: I swear I'll make the most of it. And stand you aside!'

I'm also reading and will be reviewing very soon:




The Shepherd








The Case for Falling in Love






The Liberation of Alice Love




Last but not least, I made Devil's Food chocolate cupcakes this past week as part of a Valentine's office party. I'll leave you with a few pics. For quick and fluffy icing, I like to mix even amounts of Cool Whip with canned icing.










Enjoy your Tuesday. What are you up to this week?