We've been through this before: I. Am. A. Terrible. Blogger.
But you have to understand, as much as I love school, I would forget to go if I didn't write it down. I am THE most absentminded person on the planet as far as remembering things goes. Another example is this - I logged into my Google reader this week and had >1,000 posts to read. I could hear it laughing at me, saying in a snide voice, "You're going to be here for awhile, you negligent blog reader."
However, I am determined, now, to do better. (I know, I know. You've seen me write that before... But seriously.)
I have the following things on the list to do:
Update the Unread Library list. Yes, I bought more books.
Post a couple of reviews, since I am making a little progress with those shelves.
Post my Buechner Institute guest postings. (See, I have been posting SOMEWHERE!!)
Hold me accountable, please!! (All five of you.)
Ta!
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The Unread Library - Book Review Construction
Alright. So, before I start talking about the books in my Unread Library, I wanted to be clear on how I was going to talk about them. Just so everyone (all 5 of you) reading is starting in the same place. I searched online for popular ways on how to construct a book review, and I found one website that just listed several different categories, each with it's own set of questions examining the book. I'm going to just post them here, so you're prepared.
Points to Ponder:
- What was the story about?
- Who were the main characters?
- Were the characters credible?
- What did the main characters do in the story?
- Did the main characters run into any problems? Adventures?
- Who was your favorite character? Why?
Your Personal Experiences:
- Could you relate to any of the characters in the story?
- Have you ever done or felt some of the things the characters did?
Your Opinion:
- Did you like the book?
- What was your favorite part of the book?
- Do you have a least favorite part of the book?
- If you could change something, what would it be?
Your Recommendation:
- Would you recommend this book to another person?
- What type of person would like this book?
I think that these questions will allow me to talk about the book without revealing too much about the plot, while at the same time let my opinion be known clearly.
Enough stuffiness for now. I'm ready to talk about the first book!!
Points to Ponder:
- What was the story about?
- Who were the main characters?
- Were the characters credible?
- What did the main characters do in the story?
- Did the main characters run into any problems? Adventures?
- Who was your favorite character? Why?
Your Personal Experiences:
- Could you relate to any of the characters in the story?
- Have you ever done or felt some of the things the characters did?
Your Opinion:
- Did you like the book?
- What was your favorite part of the book?
- Do you have a least favorite part of the book?
- If you could change something, what would it be?
Your Recommendation:
- Would you recommend this book to another person?
- What type of person would like this book?
I think that these questions will allow me to talk about the book without revealing too much about the plot, while at the same time let my opinion be known clearly.
Enough stuffiness for now. I'm ready to talk about the first book!!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
The Unread Library
One of the blogs that I follow (Jules at Pancakes and French Fries) recently posted the contents of her summer reading list, and entitled it The Unread Library. She had moved through her dwelling, collected all the books that she had purchased but had not read, and put them in one place where she would see them every day. She has vowed not to buy another book until this task is completed. I had already been building my summer reading list, but I have now decided that not purchasing any more books for awhile could be a good thing for me, too. So, below are some pictures of my summer reading shelves, and the entire list can be found at the bottom of this post. Let me know which ones you've read and enjoyed, or are planning on reading.
Now for the list!!
Mansfield Park (Austen)
Jane Eyre (Bronte)
Wuthering Heights (Bronte)
Godric (Buechner)
A Dead Man in Deptford (Burgess)
The Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton)
Orthodoxy (Chesterton)
The Awakening (Chopin)
Heart of Darkness (Conrad)
The Stranger (Camus)
Walking Across Egypt (Dickinson)
The Triumph of Deborah (Etzioni-Halevy)
*The Perfectly True Tales of a Perfect Size 12 (Gold)
The Power and the Glory (Greene)
*At Break of Day (Grimes)
*The Road to Paris (Grimes)
*The Monsters of Templeton (Groff)
Jude the Obscure (Hardy)
The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne)
The Odyssey (Homer)
*The Reluctant Heiress (Ibbotson)
Music, The Brain, and Ecstasy (Jourdain)
The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce)
Ulysses (Joyce)
The Red Queen's Daughter (Kolosov)
A Swiftly Tilting Planet (L'Engle)
A Grief Observed (Lewis)
The Great Divorce (Lewis)
The Screwtape Letters (Lewis)
Til We Have Faces (Lewis)
*Lilith (Mac Donald)
*Phantastes (Mac Donald)
The Ragamuffin Gospel (Manning)
John Adams (McCullough)
*In His Right Mind (McDonald)
Evidence for Christianity (McDowell)
*In Quiet Light (McEntyre)
Blue Like Jazz (Miller)
Searching for God Knows What (Miller)
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (Milton)
*We Were the Mulvaneys (Oates)
Monster (Peretti)
The Oath (Peretti)
The Prophet (Peretti)
Don't Waste Your Life (Piper)
The Dracula Dossier (Reese)
The Mark of the Lion Trilogy (Rivers)
The Unlikely Disciple (Roose)
Nine Stories (Salinger)
Gaudy Night (Sayers)
*Murder Must Advertise (Sayers)
*Strong Poison (Sayers)
*The Bastard of Istanbul (Shafak)
The Complete Sonnets and Poems (Shakespeare)
Hamlet (Shakespeare)
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare)
*Oral History (Smith)
Liberty's Promise (Stockton)
Dracula (Stoker)
Letters to My Children (Taylor)
The Myth of Certainty (Taylor)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Tolkien)
The Hobbit (Tolkien)
The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
Brideshead Revisited (Waugh)
Descent into Hell (Williams)
War in Heaven (Williams)
Fireproof (Wilson)
The Dress!
So the dress finally got finished, and in time for the wedding. I was so excited!!
Here are some shots of pattern cutting:
And some shots of Mimi sewing (I wasn't able to do some of the stuff). And her beautiful pattern matching that she was oh-so-proud of.
Now, some pictures of the wedding. :)
The bridal party, pre-wedding with our fun mimosas.
And me, being ultra hot.
And the fun guy I sang with at the wedding (who I met two days prior).
All in all, the dress was fantastic. I'm definitely going to keep the pattern and try it again. The pattern also works for a tunic shirt that I so want to make. Mimi is going to give me one of her old machines so that I can get started in earnest with my sewing. Woohoo!!
That's it for this one.
Here are some shots of pattern cutting:
And some shots of Mimi sewing (I wasn't able to do some of the stuff). And her beautiful pattern matching that she was oh-so-proud of.
Now, some pictures of the wedding. :)
The bridal party, pre-wedding with our fun mimosas.
And me, being ultra hot.
And the fun guy I sang with at the wedding (who I met two days prior).
All in all, the dress was fantastic. I'm definitely going to keep the pattern and try it again. The pattern also works for a tunic shirt that I so want to make. Mimi is going to give me one of her old machines so that I can get started in earnest with my sewing. Woohoo!!
That's it for this one.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Okay, okay.
I'm a slacker. However, I do have finished photos of the dress and me at the wedding, so I'm working on it.
As of right now, I've been home less than 72 hours, and I've spent only 24 of those at home (not at one time), 20 at the BK, and the rest elsewhere. Tonight, though, I got to come home, take a four and a half hour nap, and I've just spend 2 hours reading the blogs that I missed while I was away (btw - I still have >500 left to read. Shew!)
So, just so we're aware, a real update is coming. Promise.
As of right now, I've been home less than 72 hours, and I've spent only 24 of those at home (not at one time), 20 at the BK, and the rest elsewhere. Tonight, though, I got to come home, take a four and a half hour nap, and I've just spend 2 hours reading the blogs that I missed while I was away (btw - I still have >500 left to read. Shew!)
So, just so we're aware, a real update is coming. Promise.
Monday, June 28, 2010
A New Dress
I'll be in a wedding a week from Saturday, and I don't have a dress. I couldn't find one that I really liked enough to buy, so Mimi and I are making one. :) Woooooo.
Here is the outside of the patter, M5882.
This is the dress we're doing.
Below are the fabrics that we're using:
The daisies go on top; the yellow is for the waistline and tie, and the bottom section; the stripes are for the big section of the skirt. I'M SO EXCITED!! Mimi isn't too fond of the three patterned fabrics, but I think it'll look fantastic.
We're cutting out the pattern tonight and the fabrics tomorrow. I will keep you posted!
Here is the outside of the patter, M5882.
This is the dress we're doing.
Below are the fabrics that we're using:
The daisies go on top; the yellow is for the waistline and tie, and the bottom section; the stripes are for the big section of the skirt. I'M SO EXCITED!! Mimi isn't too fond of the three patterned fabrics, but I think it'll look fantastic.
We're cutting out the pattern tonight and the fabrics tomorrow. I will keep you posted!
What I Had for Dinner
I don't cook often anymore, just because I live by myself, and there's really no need to cook a full meal every night for one person. That, and most things you buy at the grocery store (boxed meals, etc.) are family size, and frankly, I have no desire to eat Hamburger Helper five nights in a row to keep it from going bad. I know I could freeze it, but I don't have a lot of time right now, so it's mostly Healthy Choice.
However, about three nights a week I am graced by the presence of my Mimi, who makes me cook for her (she lives alone, too, and is in the same boat).
For about a week I've been absolutely CRAVING soup beans. Call it the Harold Nichols in me, I have wanted them so darn bad! So my beautiful Chattanooga Grandmother heard my cry and answered; I found a surprise quart of soup beans in my refrigerator after she left following a short visit this weekend. :) Yay!
Of course, cornbread was in order (Mimi swears mine is the best she's ever eaten). This photo is pre-baking.
And after baking/cutting. It was pretty much perfect. (Don't worry, the recipe will be at the end of the blog!)
Yay, dinner!! It was insanely good.
Dessert consisted of the following:
Very pretty South Carolina peaches that Mimi got on the side of the road. And then we added some cooked blueberries and whipped cream. I ate until my mouth started breaking out, and then some. I like to live dangerously.
So darn good.
Okay, now for the recipe I promised.
Corn Bread
(This is from my summer at LHF in Des Moines, and is the one we used at the 1850 site)
2c. Indian Meal (Corn Meal) 1c. flour
1 egg 1tsp. + baking powder
1 tsp. salt 1c. hot water
butter the size of an egg enough milk to make batter
sugar to taste
Mix meal, butter, and hot water first, then add the rest. Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. This won't get very brown on top, but you can remedy that by letting it bake almost done, taking it out and buttering the top, and finishing the bake on broil.
However, about three nights a week I am graced by the presence of my Mimi, who makes me cook for her (she lives alone, too, and is in the same boat).
For about a week I've been absolutely CRAVING soup beans. Call it the Harold Nichols in me, I have wanted them so darn bad! So my beautiful Chattanooga Grandmother heard my cry and answered; I found a surprise quart of soup beans in my refrigerator after she left following a short visit this weekend. :) Yay!
Of course, cornbread was in order (Mimi swears mine is the best she's ever eaten). This photo is pre-baking.
And after baking/cutting. It was pretty much perfect. (Don't worry, the recipe will be at the end of the blog!)
Yay, dinner!! It was insanely good.
Dessert consisted of the following:
Very pretty South Carolina peaches that Mimi got on the side of the road. And then we added some cooked blueberries and whipped cream. I ate until my mouth started breaking out, and then some. I like to live dangerously.
So darn good.
Okay, now for the recipe I promised.
Corn Bread
(This is from my summer at LHF in Des Moines, and is the one we used at the 1850 site)
2c. Indian Meal (Corn Meal) 1c. flour
1 egg 1tsp. + baking powder
1 tsp. salt 1c. hot water
butter the size of an egg enough milk to make batter
sugar to taste
Mix meal, butter, and hot water first, then add the rest. Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. This won't get very brown on top, but you can remedy that by letting it bake almost done, taking it out and buttering the top, and finishing the bake on broil.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
