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Friday Fun! (Classes, Surgery, Water)
Hello my lovely readers! What a busy week it’s been for me. This week was the last week of my semester. Finishing touches were placed on classes, and as of Tuesday night at around 8pm, I was finally on vacation! No more classes until July.
My brother, sister-in-law, and niece are in Boston for an indeterminate amount of time. My niece, who is about 4.5 months old, was born with a heart defect, so she is in Children’s Hospital getting it fixed. Monday night I went to the excellent parents’ hotel to see them before her surgery. Her surgery was Wednesday, and I took the day off to wait out the 6 hour surgery with my brother and sister-in-law. The surgery went better than the doctors were hoping for, so that was good news. They were just starting to wake her up slowly Thursday afternoon. I have yet to see her post-surgery, as only parents/guardians have been allowed in the recovery room so far. Her parents are holding up quite well, I think.
On top of all that, last Saturday a water line broke in Weston, which meant that all of Boston was under a drinking water ban, as the water could be contaminated. You had to boil the water for at least 2 minutes to make it safe for drinking or washing dishes. You also could wash dishes by adding some bleach to it. Well, I didn’t have bleach and wasn’t about to buy it for only a couple of days’ use. I had made a large dinner Friday night, and since I am not one of these “wash dishes instantly” women, I had planned on washing them Saturday. Ooops. Between everything else going on, I didn’t have a chance to wash them, along with all the other dishes dirtied during the incident, until Wednesday night. I got to spend many many hours doing dishes, let me tell you.
All in all a busy week, but not a bad one. Happy weekends, all!
Friday Fun! (Sarah Silverman)
Hello my lovely readers! Sorry there was no Friday Fun post last week. I had the day off and was staying as far away from the computer as possible. :-)
Last weekend I got to meet Sarah Silverman! She was in town for her book tour for The Bedwetter. She read a portion of the book featuring her father’s hilarious voice mails to her. This was followed by a Q+A session that I’m pretty sure nobody in the audience was aware was going to happen. It took us a bit to come up with semi-good questions. Among the things I learned:
- She doesn’t drink. (Say what?!)
- Her feelings were hurt by the whole TED fiasco, and her presentation for it is still unavailable online.
- She originally mocked twitter, but now loves it as a “message in a bottle” feature for her life.
- The only topic she personally has boundaries for is making “fat women” the butt of jokes. She said that “America as a society has this idea that fat women don’t deserve to be loved or happy, and I just think that’s really wrong, so I don’t go there, but other comedians have the right to do what they want to do.” Classy lady.
- She wants to adopt a mentally challenged kid, but she doesn’t want to feel guilty for dying and leaving a mentally challenged adult with no one to care for him/her, so she decided she should adopt a mentally challenged child with a terminal illness. Lolz.
After the reading was the book signing. There were probably around 150 people in line. She was sweet, but a lot more demure in person than I was expecting. I suspect she’s got the classic case of a shy person who comes alive when performing. She was nice to everyone, and I’m pleased to say I came away still glad to be a fan.
Also last weekend I dropped off my bike to be repaired and now it is all shiny and awesome! I was shocked to ride it and discover the gears are supposed to be smooth, not difficult to cope with. I’m hoping to start biking my commute soon. I just need to practice the route on a non-work day to get the hang of it.
As for grad school, my final projects for the semester are done! Now I just have to attend one more class session for each of my classes, and then I am home free with two months of vacation. Oh happy day!
What have you guys been up to in the last two weeks? Anything exciting or awesome?
Happy weekends!
Friday Fun! (Finals, New Neighbor)
Hello my lovely readers! I’m smack dab in the middle of finals period, which for some bizarre reason consists of two group projects and two presentations (one solo, one group) this year. I gave my solo presentation this week. It was a database teach; I really enjoy those! Oh, heck, I just enjoy a bunch of people listening to me talk. It makes me all warm and glowy inside. Anyway, the two group projects mean that I can’t procrastinate this time around like I normally do. My team-mate for my face-to-face class is awesome, though, and she and I are motivating each other via GoogleDocs.
Over in my apartment, the painting guy came to check out the massive wall stains from the leak. He says it’s still too wet to fix, and it’ll be another 3 to 4 weeks before repainting, so my apartment still looks like Big Bird’s blood was smeared up and down the wall. In related news, my new neighbor moved in yesterday. She’s my age, has cats, and isn’t married. Even if we don’t wind up friends, that’s still a major step up from the we-got-married-and-immediately-turned-grouchy-and-started-acting-old folks who used to live under me. My tomato seedlings are actually starting to look plant-like now, the herbs are all fluffy and adorable, and the peppers finally sprouted! I would show you guys pics, but I don’t have a good digital cameras so taking and uploading pics is mind-bogglingly frustrating.
I get a three day weekend this weekend since Monday is Patriot’s Day. I know that’s not a holiday you get off in most of the US, but here in Boston it’s also the marathon day, so if you work nearish the marathon route, you get it off. Yay! Happy weekends everyone!
Friday Fun! (Movies and Gardening)
My apologies for no book reviews this week! The reason is three-fold. First, I’m reading a graphic novel series, and I wanted to just review the whole series in one post. Second, my regular book I’m reading is really long, and I’m not enjoying it that much, so I tend to wander off and play Plants vs. Zombies on my iTouch instead. Finally, the auudiobook I’m listening to is crazy long. We’re talking a grand total of 7 days worth of audio. Like whoa. However, all three will be finished next week, which means you will be inundated with reviews!
Last weekend, I attempted to see Hot Tub Time Machine. About 3/4 of the way through the movie, the fire alarm went off. We all evacuated and were puzzled to discover zero employees anywhere in sight. Finally, a fellow movie goer took the initiative to call the fire department, as the alarm was still going off. The firemen showed up and went in the building and miraculously an employee finally showed her face. We got free passes to another show, which means I can see a 3D movie even though I’d only paid for a 2D one. Score!
While I was in Home Depot getting my huge planter pots for when my seedlings become, y’know, big plants, I noticed people buying seed pots. Some of these babies even had complex clear plastic covers to simulate a greenhouse. I feel that I should at least save my readers from this marketing scheme. You really don’t need to buy seed pots! Look in your recycling bin. Empty plastic food containers make excellent seed pots. I currently am using hummus containers, cheese spread containers, and a yogurt cup, but pretty much anything that’s about that size and plastic can be used. Put the dirt in it. Add a bit of water and stir it up. Put the seeds in it. Now, take the plastic wrap you’ve got in your cupboard, put it over the top, and hold it in place with a rubberband. Voila! Nearly free seed pots.
Happy weekends everyone!
Friday Fun! (Visit to VT, Gal Pals, Wii)
Although the reason for my visit home last weekend was sad, I had a wonderful time getting to see my dad’s side of the family mostly together for a change. My aunts, uncles, and cousins were all wonderful, although it’d been so many years that I did shock a few by having beer at the wake. Hah! Apparently, me being 23 snuck up on them. I also got to see my nephew, who is now talking in complete sentences. I was shocked at how well he remembers me, as well as at how much time he wanted to spend with me. It was fun! Apparently, I like toddlers. Who knew. I also got to meet my niece for the first time. She’s got her daddy’s red hair, so she’s bound to be a bundle of trouble. ;-) Really, though, she’s looking quite good for all the time she had to spend in intensive care at first.
Back in Boston, I hung out with my ever-lovely gal pals, Nina and E. I, shockingly, got to introduce them to the infamous Telephone music video, which they naturally fell in love with. Bonding occurred over Thai food, and Nina sent me off with a bottle of vodka. The gal knows me so well. :-) Meanwhile, all three of my herb plants came up and seem to be doing relatively well. *fingers crossed* Also making an appearance is the seedlings from the mystery seeds I got from Old Navy. I have no idea what flower it’s going to be. We shall see. I’ve been playing my way through wii’s Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. It’s the furthest I’ve ever made it in that type of game. I will say, getting to swipe the wiimote in the air and having it kill troll things on the screen is AWESOME. I think if I ever actually manage to defeat this, I’ll have to try another game where I get to wave my arms around and kill things.
Happy weekends, everyone! Here’s hoping the gorgeous weather holds out!
Friday Fun! (Rain, Gardening, and Cooking)
In spite of the torrential downpour that Boston experienced last weekend (check out pics of the sinkhole that erupted under a line of the T here), I still managed to have a very nice weekend. I got to flex my Beirut playing muscles Friday night and got to spend most of the rest of the storm holed up inside, except of course for Monday when I had to commute to work. Also, inside didn’t exactly mean no rain as both my library and my apartment sprung leaks in the roof. They thought they had fixed the library ones. They were wrong. The hospital didn’t even bother wet vacing the carpet this time around. As for my apartment, it held strong for most of the storm, but on Monday morning, I woke up to water running down one of the walls. It appears some of that wind finally took its toll on the roof tiles. Almost everyone I talked to though said there was at least some water damage to their homes, so it has been proven yet again that I am not a unique snowflake (thank you, Fight Club).
The weather the rest of the week almost totally makes up for it though. It’s been in the high 60s to low 70s. I haven’t had to have my heat on in days! I took this as a sign of spring and started my herb and flower seeds last night. I’m planning on ordering my veggie and strawberry seeds today and hopefully will get them planted soon as well. I’m honestly pretty darn stoked for all the food aspects of summer–plants in my kitchen, farmer’s market on the way home, possibly taking a whack at canning by myself for the first time, berry picking, etc… So much yumminess and new skills to learn!
I tried out two new recipes this week. The first was a low-calorie, low-dairy mac and cheese bake (I printed it from some random website, which I can’t remember off the top of my head). It used pureed butternut squash to replace most of the cheese. The only cheese used was 1 cup of mozzarella and 2 tablespoons of cream cheese. Naturally, the pasta was whole wheat. I enjoyed this, and I think it will be a good recipe with time. A little something was missing from it, though. A wee bit bland. My dad suggested nutmeg. Any other thoughts?
The other recipe was for stuffed eggplants from my cookbook The Vegetarian Bible. Basically you halve the eggplant, scoop out the insides, then mix the insides with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and al dente pasta. Then you stick it back in plus mozzarella and bread crumbs then into the oven. This wasn’t a bad recipe. It was nutritious, filling, and tasted fine. I just didn’t love it or really like it enough to warrant the labor intensity of it. I doubt I’ll make it again unless I randomly have lots of eggplants I need to use up. The other recipe I’ve tried from the cookbook was really good though, so I think this might be a personal taste thing.
What did you guys get up to this week? Any new things tried? Happy weekends!
PaperBackSwap
A while back I told you guys about a book swapping website I’ve been using called Swaptree. In the interim I started using PaperBackSwap, so I thought I should let you guys know about it too.
PaperBackSwap is slightly different from Swaptree. You acquire books using credits. (You are given some free ones when you start. I believe it’s 3) You can get credits either from sending someone else a book or you can buy them. The credits are $3.45 a piece, but if you buy larger batches of them they cost less. So even if you buy your credits instead of only using credits earned by sending books, you’re still getting books for $3.45 or less, which is wicked cheap.
Since PaperBackSwap doesn’t use a direct swapping method, you wishlist books you want. When a copy of the book becomes available, it is first offered whoever first wishlisted it. This sounds like a long wait, but I haven’t had to wait too terribly long for anything yet. Also if you put in a large wishlist, you tend to get a pretty steady flow of books being offered to you. Another cool feature of PaperBackSwap is PBS Market, which is basically an overstock shop of books. You can get these for super-low price either paying just money or just credits or a combination of money and credits. When a book you’ve wishlisted becomes available in PBS Market, they notify you but your position is also maintained in the wishlist unless you choose to buy the PBS Market book.
You should be aware though that PaperBackSwap leaves it up to the requester to set the specific condition requirements for books. The website generally requests that the book be in “good condition” with “no markings,” but anything beyond that is up to the requester. Say that you don’t want books that have been in a smoker’s home. You would say in your settings “No books from homes with smoke please.” This message would be visible to the giver when you request the book. They can then reject it for the “doesn’t meet requester’s requirements” reason. However, I found that you should put some sort of requirement in because it makes givers think twice about sending you an iffy copy. For mine I just reiterated PaperBackSwap’s “no excessive highlighting or writing.” Since then I’ve been receiving better quality books.
I like using both websites, because if there’s a book I really want, I can get it quicker for cheap on PaperBackSwap, but if I’m a bit more patient Swaptree ensures that I’m doing a 1 to 1 trade. Whereas on PaperBackSwap I’ve sent out 2 books but received 10. Oops, lol.
If you do choose to join PaperBackSwap, please let them know that I referred you as it will get me free credits. My username is tapcat16. Also, please check out the books I have available and see if you want any. You’ll know for sure that you’re getting your copy from a reliable giver and a super-speedy shipper, if I do say so myself. :-) I also frequently add books, possibly even ones I’ve reviewed here, so check back often. I’ve added a widget on the right-hand side of my blog that will link you directly to my profile for future reference. I like my books to find new homes. It makes me all happy inside.
So there’s the inside scoop on PaperBackSwap. Cheers!
Friday Fun! (Grad School Returns)
Grad school is fully back in swing. While I still wish I could miraculously have the copious amount of time I had over winter break when I was just working full-time, instead of working full-time and attending grad school part-time, I don’t totally hate my classes this semester. Yet.
One of my classes is on being an academic librarian in science and technology. The professor is an adjunct, which means he works in the field and knows what he’s talking about. Miraculously, I have yet to loathe any of my fellow students in that class. In fact, I even like some of them. A couple of them were in my medical librarianship class last spring, and I enjoy hanging out with them while they smoke on our break. They don’t have this false sense of being superheroes a lot of students in the program do. They just want a good, stable career, like me.
My other class is an online one on academic libraries. I’ve found I learn more in online classes, not sure why. I pretty much can’t stand any of my fellow students in it, but that’s ok. It’s easy to just roll your eyes at the statements made when you’re not trapped in a classroom with them. I like the professor though, and the assignments seem like I’ll actually learn something from them.
I’ve reached the climax in the novella that I’m writing. I’m excited to get to edit it and send it off to a friend for critique. I seem to actually be following through on my, totally not officially made but thought about a lot, resolution to write my novellas/books more. I really feel like the time I’m spending working on improving my writing is well spent, which is a pretty darn good feel good pill. Maybe someday you guys will get to review my books! Lol.
Happy weekend!
Prolific Blogger Award
One of my fellow bloggers, Jessica of The Bookworm Chronicles has passed the Prolific Blogger Award on to me. It goes to those bloggers who “read voraciously, blog tirelessly and have made the blogging community such a vibrant place,” according to the creator of the award, Hazra of Advance Booking.
I am pleased and surprised to have won my first blogging award, and I feel honored that it comes from one of my most loyal commenters! I do put quite a bit of effort into this, so the recognition feels good. Thanks Jessica!
Part of receiving the award is passing it on to 7 others. So without further ado, here are my nominations:
- Meghan of Medieval Bookworm. Although she now lives in Britain, I first met her in undergrad. Reading her thoughtful reviews of literary fiction, historical fiction, nonfiction, romance, and more make me wish we’d known each other better then.
- Debbie of Different Time, Different Place. She’s one of the few book bloggers I’ve stumbled across who predominantly reviews nonfiction. Her reviews give you enough of a taste of the style and content of the book without trying to tell you everything you’ll learn from it.
- Katie of Read What You Know. She’s a fellow librarian, and her blog reflects her enthusiasm for the ya lit she encounters in her day to day work as a teen librarian. Her reviews take into account the perspective of adult and teen readers of ya lit alike.
- Ana and Thea of The Book Smugglers. They not only take turns reviewing books, but also do joint posts. I like that in the posts you can see the interaction and learning that comes from sharing a reading experience, plus they’ve added to my scifi tbr pile quite a few times!
- Nymeth of Things Mean a Lot. She reviews an eclectic mix of books, but my favorite are her reviews of graphic novels. She includes shots of the art, and her reviews were a part of what spurred me on into the very enjoyable graphic novel land.
- Helgagrace of Title and Statement of Responsibility. Another blogger I know in real life, due to the fact that we’re both Massachusetts librarians. I enjoy sharing reading stats with her. Her reviews read like a conversation, and I’m not just saying that because I’ve actually spoken to her. ;-) She also talks about life and library issues.
- Last but not least Rob of Books Are Like Candy Corn. He’s based in Hawaii, so his blog is kind of like a tropical vacation for a frozen New England gal like myself. His reading choices broaden my horizon, as he is not only older and at a different stage in his life than most of the book bloggers I read, but also is male. (We are a predominantly female group).
It’s kind of odd to me to have the power of bestowing an award, but there you have it! At the very least, if you’re named above, you know I’m a loyal reader of your blog. If the above-named recipients choose to take part in the award, please go check out the rules.
If you’re a reader of my blog, but not the type to comment, please let me know if you have your own blog. I’d love to check it out!
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This work by Amanda Nevius is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Opinions of a Wolf 