another ridiculous quote from work:

Julian to a client:
“penetrating the backend would definitely be a violation”

He said this in all seriousness – and he’s already one of those people who takes himself too seriously. We work for a software company and clients are not allowed to make modifications to the backend SQL tables of their database without violating their maintenance contract… but really?! How do you say that to someone without cracking up!? I laugh every time I think about it.

I need to catch up on my reading…

I went back and looked at my reading list, and I realized I am very behind in my reading this year. In case you’re wondering (which you’re probably not) I don’t set a goal for a specific number of books to read each year, or even specific books I want to read. However, I realized that last year I read 34 new books. This year I have only read 26 so far. Granted, there are still a few weeks left in December, and I might catch up… but I’ve had such a busy month at work, that I’m not sure if I will.

I’m sure you don’t care, but I’m such a nerd bookworm, that I felt like sharing. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. ha.

(p.s.- This does not include books that I re-read during the year – and there are quite a few of those – I only count books I read for the first time during the year)

This about sums it up:

But I never get sick…

I think I’m sick. I say “think” because I never get sick, so it’s hard to say. I feel a little achy and I have a gross, growly kind of cough coming from my chest.

It all started after the Charleston Reindeer Run last Saturday. The Reindeer Run is a 5k through downtown Charleston. People dress in Christmas-y outfits and dogs are allowed, so people dress them up too. I enjoyed it last year, so I was looking forward to running it this year – especially since Howdy would be in town for it this time. The morning of the race it was raining. Cold, windy rain. But we were determined to run it, and got downtown about an hour ahead of time. We had planned to be there earlier, but we overslept slightly and decided to make a run to Sbux on the way. It turned out to be a good thing, because it was miserable outside. We stood in the rain in our running clothes at the starting line – and then they started the race 20 minutes late because of an electronic issue! (I think the clock at the Start/Finish was malfunctioning in the rain). I was not happy.

But, we ran the race and the endorphins put me in a better mood by the time we were done. We came home, took a hot shower, put on warm, dry clothes and had soup for lunch. The sickness wasn’t too far behind. I started feeling achy and getting a headache about an hour later, and the cough settled into my chest on Sunday. I called in sick to work on Monday, and am now officially out of sick days, vacation days, and any other time that would get me out of work until 2010. So I’ve been toughing it out the last 2 days and it’s really wearing me down.

Hopefully I’ll be feeling better soon and have something more interesting to post about.

Book Review: Once on a Moonless Night

Once on a Moonless Night by Dai Sijie was a case of judging a book by its cover for me. I liked the cover of this book, its size, and the fact that it takes place in China. The jacket describes this book as “a haunting tale of love and of the beguiling power of a lost language”. The story is told by a student in China in the 1970s. She is from either Europe or America, but we are never given this information or her name. She falls in love with a Chinese man named Tumchooq, who tells her the story of a silk scroll that was torn in two by the teeth of the last emperor of China when he was exiled to Manchuria in the 1930s. The scroll was written in the forgotten language which gave Tumchooq his name. His father, a French linguist, is imprisoned when he obtains half of the scroll, which may be a lost sutra of Buddha.

Tumchooq grew up not knowing his father. After he finally discovers his father’s identity, and finds that he is still alive in prison, he begins to visit him and form a relationship. During these visits, his father teaches him the lost language he was named for, which Tumchooq later teaches to our narrator. When Tumchooq’s father is killed in the prison, Tumchooq disappears to continue his father’s quest to find the other half of the lost scroll. He does not know that when he disappears our narrator is pregnant with his child.

I felt this book took itself a little too seriously. I also did not find the love story particularly compelling. The book jumps around from the past history of the scroll, to the present, to Tumchooq’s past, and everywhere in between, which made it a little cumbersome to follow. I thought the ending was very anti-climactic as well. I gave this book 2 stars on goodreads. It was just okay and I would probably not recommend it.

For all my teacher friends…

A ridiculous number of my friends are teachers, and since they all seem to have the same type of complaints, I figured this would be right up their alley.

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

Yes, it’s a few days late, but my posts like to make  fashionably late appearances (or something). You know, better late than never and all that jazz. Anyways, after work last Wednesday Howdy and I dropped the boys off at the kennel and caught a flight to Detroit to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my mom and her family (aka – my stepdad and sisters). Since Howdy hadn’t been up there since 2005, before we were married, it was nice to get him back up there to see where I spent the first 15 years of my life.

Watching football is always a big Thanksgiving tradition around our house. Since I am from Detroit and Dallas, and the Lions and Cowboys play every year – it’s a no-brainer. This year, we actually went to see the Lions/Packers game at Ford Field in downtown Detroit. The stadium is really nice – although I’ve never been patted down before going into a pro sporting event before (Not a joke, by the way – There were separate lines for Men and Women, and they literally had each person open their coat, while they felt along your arms, body and waist. They also made you empty your pockets if they felt anything). The Lions lost, which we expected, but there was some terrible play calling on their side, as well as a couple of bad referee calls. Luckily the quaterback and one of the receivers from the Packers are on Howdy’s fantasy football team, so he was happy.

We also had a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the Renaissance Center (RenCen) in downtown Detroit, and walked around the GM and OnStar headquarters (where my mom works) for a little while. There was a great view from the top looking out over the Detroit River to the Ambassador Bridge and Canada.

Friday my mom made a traditional Thanksgiving dinner (of course I only ate potatoes, bread, green beans, corn, and sweet potatoes), and we relaxed and spent some quality family time together. Saturday was more family time, with a late breakfast followed by an even later lunch at a delicious sushi place. Howdy and I were on a plane back to Charleston via Atlanta by 7pm on Saturday, and we landed in Charleston at midnight. Incidentally, there happened to be 3 people I knew on our flight from Atlanta to Charleston.

We did nothing interested on Sunday, just picked up the puppies and “recovered” from our travels. I am not going to go into details about all of the things I’m thankful for… there are too many and this post is already long enough. But suffice it to say, I have been very blessed this year (and always), in more ways than I ever thought possible and definitely more than I deserve.

Now – on to the Christmas season. Strap on your helmets kids, it’s gonna get rough out there.

Thanksgiving Traditions

This will be the second Thanksgiving Howdy and I have spent together since being married (that’s 2 out of 4 now – woohoo!). I love the idea of the Thanksgiving holiday- taking the time to remember and acknowledge all of the things we are thankful for, but Thanksgiving has been my least favorite holiday for as long as I can remember. 90% of it is due to the food. I have never liked turkey, even before I stopped eating other types of meat. I don’t like stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, or creamed corn (although I love regular green beans and corn). I also hate pumpkin pie (I’m not really a fan of pie in general) – I know, it’s shocking, right? I do love potatoes and bread, and I don’t mind cranberries… but it’s hard to make a meal out of that.

So, Howdy and I began our own Thanksgiving Tradition last year. We went to a seafood store in our area that gets fresh seafood every day and bought 3lbs of HUGE King Crab legs. We replaced the turkey with crab legs, which we ate with crescent rolls, potatoes, corn and green beans. We were so full, and it was the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had. No guilt trips or half-joking ribbing from family members for my food choices… just a wonderful, delicious meal with my husband. I was so thankful that he was willing to make that change in tradition, since he has always been a big “turkey-gravy-stuffing-pie” kind of guy.

This year we will be spending the Thanksgiving holiday in Michigan with my mom’s family. We leave tomorrow afternoon, so we won’t be home to actually have our “new tradition”, but we celebrated tonight instead. Howdy flew to Nantucket and back today, so he picked up some live lobsters and brought them home for dinner. He made an amazing meal of lobster, new potatoes, corn on the cob, and dinner rolls with a spätlese wine, and we devoured it. I am completely full and I couldn’t even eat half of my lobster! I am so lucky to have such a fabulous husband, who is also such a good cook! It’s a nice change to come home after a long day at work and not have to cook dinner, or worry about eating out and all of the money/calories that can add up that way.

I need to go pack before my glass of wine kicks in and puts me to sleep… but I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday wherever you may be! Do you or your family have any fun or different traditions?

 

Book Review: The Next Thing on My List

The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski was the November book for my book club. June Parker attended a Weight Watchers meeting looking for motivation to lose those “last 10 pounds”. Afterward she offers a ride to a girl she met at the meeting. Marissa is 24 and recently lost over 100 pounds. During the drive home, Marissa takes off her seatbelt to reach into the backseat. At that moment, a dresser falls off of the truck in front of them, June swerves to avoid it, and the car rolls several times. June survives, but Marissa does not. Among Marissa’s things June finds a list entitled “20 Things to Do by My 25th Birthday”. Ultimately, June decides she wants to complete the list before the day that would have been Marissa’s 25th birthday.

This book is about the various things that June must do to complete Marissa’s list, and how she changes her own life in the process. I read some other reviews where the reviewer found the ending disappointing. I actually thought it was realistic and appreciated the way the author wrapped up the story. The book made me think about the things that I would like to do in my own life. It was also interesting, and gratifying, to realize how many of things I would have put on such a list when I graduated high school that I would be able to cross off now. This was a thoughtful, quick read. I read the entire book in about 3 hours the day I bought it. I think it’s a perfect book club book though, and I gave it 3 stars on goodreads.

Nice, Lazy weekend

This weekend has been so nice, I hate to see it end. Friday evening Howdy and I went to an “empty house” party to say goodbye to some friends who are moving to Oklahoma. It was great seeing everyone and catching up, even though it was a farewell party. I feel like I’ve been so out of the loop lately – except for what I’ve been able to gather from reading the blogs of my friends who have them. We ended up staying and talking until about 2am. Howdy and I got up and drove to Towne Center in Mt. Pleasant on Saturday morning. It was a perfect, beautiful day. We bought a few books at Barnes, because that’s what we do… got some food, and hung out. We made a stop on Daniel Island, and then headed back to our side of town for reading and relaxation.

I finally watched the Twilight movie. I bought it back when it was first released to DVD because so many of my friends were saying how they watched it 10 times or more, and couldn’t seem to get enough of it. I had never seen it… and I didn’t even take it out of the plastic until last night. But I am going to see New Moon with some friends next week, so I figured I’d better know what happened in the first one. I haven’t read the books either – which if you know me, or have been reading this for a while, is not typical for me. I just have a hard time jumping on bandwagons. Anyway, I convinced Howdy to watch it with me. He thought it was ridiculous, of course. I didn’t mind it, although it wasn’t the greatest movie I’d ever seen. It does make me want to read the books now, but that’s more because I want to know what happens since I know the story isn’t over (and I really don’t want to wait 3 years until all the movies have been released).

Today we hung out at home all day. I did one load of laundry (although I should have done more), made a couple of delicious home-cooked meals, watched some football, cuddled with the husband and the puppies, and just generally relaxed. We were even going to get a massage today, but my therapist called in sick. I rescheduled for Wednesday, and they are giving me an extra half-hour for the inconvenience – score!

I hope everyone else had a good weekend!