Archive
Friday Fun! (A/C, Rent, Gardening)
Hello my lovely readers! Last weekend saw a heatwave here in Boston that finally convinced me to buy an a/c unit. My brother informed me that the new models use far less electricity than I previously had thought, and my dad offered to contribute some money toward one as an early birthday present, so one was acquired! Of course, the day it arrived was so chilly that I had all my windows shut, lol. We plan on installing it this weekend in preparation for the imminent return of the heat. Long as we can find an electric drill to borrow somewhere.
My lease is up the end of August, so I wound up discussing renewing it with my landlord. He told me he’s probably going to have to raise my rent due to taxes. A friend reminded me that it’s a renter’s market, so that’s a bit odd. However, I also just remembered that he gave me a deal when I first rented it, knocking $50 off the original monthly amount he wanted, so I guess that evens it out? Either way, I really don’t want to move. I haven’t been in one place for more than a year since I was 15 years old (15 through 18 consisting of switching back and forth between parents’ houses), and it would just be nice to have 2010 be The Year Amanda Doesn’t Move Anywhere. Also, with the job hunt and graduation in January, I’m expecting that my entire financial situation will be very different in a few months, so I’d rather wait to move until that happens. Anyway, cross your fingers for me that it doesn’t go up too much and that I’ll overcome my patriarchy-induced tendencies to not advocate for myself in monetary situations!
In container gardening news, one of my tomato plants is getting tall, and I’m wondering when I should stake it. I’m a bit clueless about tomato plants. The other one is kind of failing to thrive. It looks healthy, but it’s still only 3 to 4 inches tall. I added some dirt and watered it, but I don’t know what else to do. Thoughts on that? The good news is, my pepper plants are doing awesome! I may have discovered my gardening niche. I also just planted some onions (yes, in containers). I’m super excited about that, because they’re my favorite veggie! Unfortunately, two very sun-lacking days followed my planting of them, so I’m not sure if that’ll affect the germination. Next up, I need to figure out some way (*cough* some free way *cough*) to raise my long container for spinach so it’s closer to the light. I’m thinking using empty boxes since that’s about all I have laying around.
I have yet to decide exactly what I’ll be doing tonight and Saturday (but I guarantee some reading and some videogaming). Sunday I’ll be doing some invasive species removal on the Charles River. Stoked for that! What will you be doing with your weekends?
Friday Fun! (Biking, Lost, Holiday)
Hello my lovely readers! This week was the first step in hopefully, eventually biking all the way to work every day. However, an attempt on the weekend showed me that I’m not capable yet of making it the 6 miles (one way, so 12 miles round-trip). So, to work my way up to it, I’m biking to my bus connection, which is just about half-way there. It was a bit nerve-wracking being on the road with cars, let me tell you, but today I found myself having a bit more confidence on the road. Plus, I was able to move up a gear on the bike already!
Sunday was the Lost finale (and if you have yet to see it, you are not a true fan and deserve the spoilers), and of course I watched it, including the two hour re-cap. I appreciated the action on The Island, but I was disappointed with the spiritual direction the writers went. I’d been hoping the whole way through the series that we would discover that the mythology being yakked about by the older generation of protectors/evils was just a way to deal with science they had yet to understand. Instead we get handed a glowy light with no scientific explanation and a happy-go-lucky, feel-good after-life. Also, I never got to see Kate die, what the fuck is up with that?! However, I didn’t hate the episode, and I actually found myself almost crying when Vincent came and licked Jack. So the verdict on my end was meh. I didn’t hate it, but it also didn’t ruin the rest of the series for me. I’ll definitely be re-watching the seasons.
This weekend is a 3 day weekend here in the US for Memorial Day, which means I have Monday off. I’m so excited! I hope at least one day is beautiful out so I can go for a bike ride or a row on the Charles and have a picnic. Happy weekends everyone!
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! (Featuring My Niece and Swaptree)
My lovely loyal readers and friends, so sorry there’s been no book reviews this week! The book I’m currently reading is really long, and I’m not enjoying it that much so the pace of my reading is a bit below average. I definitely should ring in next week with a review though, as it’s almost done!
This week I played pub trivia for the first time and discovered that I am not good at trivia. This is funny and ironic cause I know lots of random facts, but apparently I don’t know trivia type facts. I mean, really, who’s a tall athletic actor who guest starred in 1970s tv shows? Jeez, I dunno. I also didn’t enjoy that the music to keep teams from overhearing each other meant that I had to yell all night. That’s only worth it for a concert. Ah well. Lesson learned. I guess I should stick to arcade games, pool tables, and dart boards when we go out.
Some of you are aware that I welcomed my first niece into the world on December 23rd. My brother and my sister-in-law made the choice to have her, even though she has Down Syndrome. I know they have plenty of love in their hearts for a special baby, and they are just wonderful with her. Unfortunately, one of the elements of Down Syndrome is that the babies almost all have heart problems. They usually operate on the babies at 6 months (I have no idea why at that particular point, but I’m sure there’s a reason). Anyway, due to the heart condition, my niece is not very strong. She struggled to learn how to eat. I guess that takes a lot of energy she didn’t have at first. Finally she gained enough weight and was eating well enough to come home. I was going to go meet her and visit my brother and father this weekend, but unfortunately she had to get readmitted to the hospital. She wasn’t gaining weight, which babies are supposed to do. This is of course difficult for my brother and sister-in-law who also have an almost 3 year old little boy to take care of and a small farm to run. Thankfully, most of my family lives near them so they have lots of help. I wish there was something I could do from a distance to help my brother, but there’s not much beyond being an ear to listen when he needs to talk.
In much happier news, allow me to tell you guys about Swaptree. Swaptree allows you to list books you have but don’t want and books you want, and then it sets up 1:1 trades for you (or you can browse and request trades yourself). This works extra well since they set up 3 way trades, which helps you find a lot more books. The matches they make are in no particular order on your want list, so it’s a bit of a surprise what you get, particularly if your want list is as long as mine. Since part of ringing in the new year was weeding my personal library, I excitedly decided to try this out. It’s so awesome! So far I’ve gotten rid of 8 books for books on my tbr list. For those wondering, my weeded books were mainly textbooks I will never ever read again, some romance novels that came to my library for free that my boss gave me, and books from a point in my deconversion when I was wondering if maybe I should be pagan. For the record, I’m not pagan. I guess I’m deist. Anywho, so the books I’ve received in exchange so far are:
- Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford
Do not mock me. I have a thing for memoirs. - Living the Simple Life by Elaine St. James
I’m a big fan of minimalism, and this was highly recommended on minimalist blogs. - The Accidental Demon Slayer by Angie Fox
Yes, another paranormal romance. However, it’s supposed to be a comical one which will change things up a bit. - Life, The Universe, and Everything by Douglas Adams
I’ve already read this, but I love love LOVE the Hitchhiker series, and didn’t (still don’t actually) own them all, so I’m fleshing out the “trilogy.” - Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres
This memoir is by a woman whose fundamentalist Christian parents sent her to the same reform school in the Dominican Republic that my cousin’s parents sent her to, so I was intrigued. - Wild Swans by Jung Chang
I realized I haven’t read much non-western lit lately, and I enjoyed the nonwestern lit I read in college. This memoir is about three generations of Chinese women, and I think it looks really good! - Neuromancer by William Gibson
A classic scifi book that my nerdy friends have been berating me for not having read. ;-) - Feed by M. T. Anderson
A dystopian book about our heads being plugged into computers. Right up my alley.
All those books and my personal library size hasn’t increased at all! I encourage you guys to check Swaptree out. The only costs associated are shipping, and you can print labels directly from the website for extra ease. Each book costs around $2.46 to ship.
Have a nice long weekend, everyone! Rock on Martin Luther King Jr!
Friday Fun! (Happy 2010!)
Sorry for the hiatus last week, guys. I was recovering from my New Year’s Eve fun. For New Year’s Eve I acquired First Night buttons so I could go see the Kaiju Big Battel (sic) taking place in Boston. (Side-note: I cannot for the life of me understand why it’s called First Night and not Last Night. It’s the last night of 2009, not the first night of 2010! Ideas?!) I happened to catch some crazy Middle Eastern dancing that was occurring on a stage nearby while I was waiting. I have no idea what kind of dancing it was. It wasn’t bellydancing, and they hopped around waving their arms and fake swords a lot. Anyway, so Kaiju Big Battel is essentially WWE only the wrestlers are wearing monster costumes ala Godzilla and the stage has miniature buildings set up that they also smash. Two of my favorite characters of the night were Plantain and Dusto Bunny. Dusto Bunny was actually dusty! (Sorry I have no pictures of Kaiju to show you. I have yet to upload them from my camera). Anyway, then I met up with friends in the Common to see the ice sculptures and rang in the new decade on the Esplanade. It was definitely a fun night!
This week has been busy busy busy at work. They’re renovating my library (again). Currently all of us are crammed in one room while they work on the rest of it, but the exciting part, you guys, is I’m going to go from having a cubicle to an almost office! It’s pretty much an office minus a door, but I’ll have a divider up in lieu of a door. Plus they’re building me bookshelves, and I’m getting a brand new wood desk! I’m excited to move into my new office. It’s going to make me feel much more part of the team, since currently I’m the only one without an office.
In cooking this week, I tried out making gnocchi from scratch for the first time using sweet potatoes. It’s pretty simple, actually. You just cook the potatoes, pass them through a sieve, then combine it with spices, egg, and flour. The tricky part, I discovered, is adding just the right amount of flour. The consensus upon eating it was that it was neither good nor bad. A bit too floury. However, on reheating the leftovers, it went to good. I’m thinking maybe I just didn’t cook them long enough? I’ll definitely try it again. I think it’s one of those recipes you improve with over time. Kind of like pizza dough.
Oh, also, I’m all caught up in Lost now, so I’m totally ready for the new season. Bring. It. On!
Have a great weekend everyone!
2009 Reading Stats!
At some point (oh, about two or three weeks in), this blog that started out as a purely opinions blog (with a focus on libraries) turned into an about 50% book blog. This really shouldn’t have surprised me. I mean a librarian with a blog about opinions is going to *gasp* review books? Say it ain’t so.
Being the reading freak that I am, I keep track of the books that I read over on LibraryThing. I just finished a book, and I doubt I’ll finish another one in 2009, so without further ado, here are my reading stats for 2009.
Total Books Read: 52
Average Books Per Month: 4.33
Month Most Read: August with 10 (The only month I didn’t have school? Surprise, surprise).
Month Least Read: January with 1 (I was really sick).
Fiction: 47
Nonfiction: 5
Genres (some books counted as multiple genres):
–Scifi: 12
–Romance: 12 (This really surprised me!)
–Dystopian: 10
–Horror: 8
–YA: 8
–Classics: 5 (Pleasantly surprised by this).
–Historical: 4
–Memoir: 3
–Contemporary: 3
5 Star Reads:
–The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, review
–Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
–The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
Honorable Mention with 4.5 Stars:
–Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Read and Reviewed on This Blog: 27
I’m not the type to set goals for myself with reading, since I do it for fun. However, I will try to work in a few more nonfiction books as I’m a big believer in life-long learning. I do think this is a bit skewed since a lot of my nonfiction reading is in the form of current scholarly journals as opposed to books. I also think a book a week is a good pace for reading to still be enjoyable, but also not a neglected hobby. We’ll see if I naturally speed up or slow down next year. If you guys have any suggestions as far as specific books or genres for me to try in 2010, I welcome them!
Friday Fun! (Merry Christmas!)
Ayla playing in wrapping paper. You can just see her ear sticking out.
I know, I know. I’m posting on Christmas! The thing is, I have time, so I may as well, eh?
I really did have a lovely week. I was home sick Monday, and I spent the day destressing and recentering myself.
Tuesday night I went out for dinner with my friend and her boyfriend. My friend is moving to California on Sunday, so this was our goodbye dinner. It was sad, but also lots of fun. My friend chose the restaurant, so I had Peruvian food for the first time ever. It wasn’t bad, but it was a bit bland for my taste.
On the 23rd, my sister-in-law went into labor and gave birth to my niece via a C-section. Welcome to the world, Clara! She’s just over 5 pounds, and I’m excited to get to meet her next month.
Yesterday I was the only librarian in my library, something I actually enjoy. This may be a sign that I’m suited to small hospital libraries, hehe.
Today I’m actually just chilling at home. I’ve already been to see my family, since we knew my sister-in-law was due right around Christmas, and we thought it’d be best to visit prior to the baby being born and after sometime in January. Since everyone else is obviously with their families, as they should be, I’m enjoying a day of watching Lost, snuggling my kitty, baking cookies to mail to my librarian friends, and reading obviously! Tomorrow one of my best friends is coming over to hang out for the day, which will be our last chance before she goes to Israel for two months. I should go get some of that reading and baking done. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and happy day off to those who don’t!
Friday Fun! (On Thursday)
You guys get Friday Fun a day early this week, since I’m taking a three day weekend to visit my family in Vermont–father, brother, nephew, sister-in-law, grandmother, aunt, and uncle. I didn’t go up for Thanksgiving, since I had to work the day after, and Christmas is out of the question since that’s pretty much exactly when my very pregnant sister-in-law is due. So, we decided to do a visit mid-December and a visit mid-January instead. I like it. It means I get to skip lots of the holiday traffic.
Last Saturday was the first time I’ve washed my laundry in machines since June. Now, don’t think I’ve been wearing dirty clothes; I haven’t. I don’t have a washer/dryer at my apartment, and the nearest laundromat is a solid 1.25 miles away, so I’ve been handwashing everything. Yes, including towels. Well a couple of weeks ago, my drying rack broke (we’re fairly certain the kitty broke it), and I hadn’t had time to pick up a new one, so my laundry pile was enormous. Thus on Saturday I decided it was necessary to use machines if I was ever going to catch up, and guys can I just say, holy crap I’d forgotten what fabric softened clothes and towels feel like. *sighs* I don’t mind the upper body workout of handwashing, but my god I miss the fabric softener.
Also this weekend I officially became addicted to Lost. I’d almost finished the first season, which I was enjoying but not loving. But I decided to watch the season finale and start the second season anyway. Omg, the second season. I wound up having a mini-marathon, and I am now determined to catch up before the new season starts in February. The only other shows I’ve ever enjoyed this much are Buffy and True Blood, and I have to say that I think True Blood comes slightly behind Lost. I know; I can hear you gasping now. I am so into it; I even do the yelling at the screen thing. (Please remember I’m only in the second season, so no spoilery comments puhleeze!)
I wrapped all the presents I’ve bought so far, and they are now camped out under the tree. I’m almost completely done with my Chrismukkah shopping. I need to pick up a couple of little things, a present for my grandmother, and something for the kitty (yes I buy my pets Chrismukkah presents). Also a few presents I bought online haven’t arrived yet, and I need to bake cookies. It all sounds so busy, but it’s all stuff I enjoy doing, so I don’t mind.
I had really meant to get a book review up this week for the next Dark Tower book, but I still have about 50 pages to go, so it looks like you’ll have to wait for that until next week. It has been a very busy week with finals and life and all that, so I’m not too surprised I haven’t quite finished it.
Next week I’m giving my final presentation in class with my teammate, and then I’ll officially be on winter vacation! I’m also having some friends over for a Chrismukkah gathering, and other holiday activities. As long as I survive the visit home, it should be a pretty awesome week.
Support my work with a tip or browse my shop for curated book club guides, how to guides, cross-stitch patterns, and more!
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 