It's Monday.... and I've been sooooo lazy, (grin)

 I've had a whole entire week of being lazy...the extent of my activity has been reading, sleeping, watching t.v., and thinking about dying my hair -  I've been getting very tired of my gray and white hair.  I've even gone so far as to send off for a copperish color of dye. I used to be brunette - the type of brunette with auburnish highlights from the sun. Kind of waffling on this, because I know I'll have to deal with the white roots coming in, and there's nothing worse (with hair, that is) than having a bunch of white hair in skunk like roots coming in - it can make you look pathetic pretty quick.  within two to three weeks of coloring your hair.  One option, is deliberately leaving a few chunks of white, hoping for a streak effect.....

I did re-arrange drawers in my kitchen - or rather, I FIXED the drawers, since a house full of men means that things get put where-ever they end up - no rhyme or reason, just stuff things where-ever the whimsy strikes.  grrrrrrr.

I usually link to Sheila's It's Monday, What Are You Reading? post, but I think she's still out of town, on her weekend getaway - I don't see a Monday post to link to yet.  So I'm linking to her home page,  we'll just have to see how things go.

Anyway, I haven't been doing very good on these posts.  I've missed a few, and then last week, when I finally posted, I didn't visit very many other blogs - being the lazy person that I was this past week.  LOL, who am I kidding?  No One!  I'm always lazy - but I've been lazier than normal (it all stems from a childhood of having to work very hard on the weekends,CLEANING house, doing laundry - and babysitting my little bros after school! like many people my age, we children had to work - do chores,we didn't just play.  lol - don't get upset, young ones.  I know some kids do have chores nowadays, but a lot of kids don't)

So - It's Monday, What Are You Reading? - the usual.  We visit each other, see what we've all been reading, or finished reading (if we've managed to finish any books).

What I finished reading:

Just two novels - 

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

 

by Douglas Adams

One of two books that feature Dirk Gently.  I think this is the first one...(The second one is better...)

This one jumps back and forth between another dimension and a monk who happens to ride a horse and college professor and one of his students - this goes on for almost half a book before something actually HAPPENS and we finally meet Dirk Gently, who is not a very likeable person.  He's a bit of a con.  There are some snooze-worthy bits, but there are also some very chuckle-worthy bits, so I stuck with it.  :)

and - 

Once a Hero 

by Elizabeth Moon

The story of Esmey, not one of the Serranos, (there are quite a few books featuring the Serranos, a space/military family) but a woman who finds herself on the same ship as a Serrano more than once; one time there is a mutiny, and the other time with a different Serrano there is an attack on the  Deep Space Ship Repair vessel that they're on.  It was interesting, even though the character could be considered a Mary Sue - she's just so.... unassuming and barely has any experience and yet manages to play a huge part in...well, you'll have to read the review.

What I'm currently reading:

The Dead Of Winter

by Lee Collins

This is a book I've started previously - and as usual have flitted around to many other books in the meantime...but I do keep coming back to this one - even though I'm in a SciFi mood.

The Wild West...Mining towns, Old Miners....and a woman who happens to hunt monsters.  Vampires, and other critters from hell.

I already have the sequel here to read; it was one of those books that i accidently bought the second in the series.  But so far, this is interesting enough for me to think I'll want to read the sequel so 'sall good.

My sleeping habits have completely turned around.  My nights are wide awake - my days are spent either sleeping or extremely sleepy.  I wouldn't mind this, except for the vaguely guilty feeling I'm having.  Like I should be at work - or being productive.

We did go to the beach one day with the grandchildren.  That was fun, even though I thought we should have stayed a bit longer.  We were only there for about three hours.  But the kids played in the sand, chased the waves - staying a good length away from the water (granma is very paranoide about riptides and losing kids to the ocean)- played with seagulls, found some shells and bought some taffy.  yummy.

One moment that stays in my mind - hearing the two of them in the back seat harmonizing to "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift.  They sounded so wonderful singing together, and like many children were completely unaware of being heard, and therefore sang completely in tune.  Five and six years old - I wish I had had something with me to record them at that moment... ah well, something for the memories.

I hope everyone is having a good summer so far

Happy Reading All!

April Round Up

http://profile.cheezburger.com/Mardel/lolz

 This is really my dog, and the beautiful curtains I used to have....before my grandchildren and the dogs kind of...got to them.  between the couch being pushed against the curtains, the grandchildren playing IN the curtains, and the animals getting caught up in the curtains....they didn't last long.  Now I just hang an old sheet from the hem - works just as well, and I didn't have to spend forty bucks on a set of curtains that are just going to get treated too rough.  I'll wait until the grandchildren are a little older....  ;)  Oh yeah, and my dog really does sit like this - all the time and for rather long periods of time.  You can even walk into a room where there is NO ONE else, and find him just sitting like that.  Randomly.  He's random.

It occurs to me that I've never done one of those end of month summaries of books read - much less end of year summary (hahaha, as if I'd ever be that prepared...)  Seems like it might be encouraging....to myself.  ;)  So I'm starting this for April, 2013.

April Books in alpha order

American Vampire (Jennifer Armintrout, UF) ***** 

Boyfriend from Hell (Jamie Quaid, UF) ****

The Burn Zone (James K Decker, SciFi) ******

Clean (Alex Hughes, SciFi) *****

Hex Hall (Rachel Hawkins, YA/UF) ****

Midnight Blue-Light Special (Seanan McGuire, UF) *****

(I usually rate up to six stars.  Five if they're pretty good, six if I Love it Lots, four if it's good...and so on)

Short Stories

Brown Goes Full Steam Ahead (J.A. Campbell, fantasy) from Penny Dread Tales 3  = loved it

Notable Children's Books

Are The Dinosaurs Dead, Dad? (Julie Middleton)

Claude in the City (Alex T Smith)

Pete The Cat: Rocking In My School Shoes  ( Eric Litwin and James Dean, illustrator)

I know I've read way more children's books - but I don't keep track of them.  Maybe I should, especially since I'm finding that I have to ask each class..."have we read this book yet?" before I read to them.  lol.  Nothing like getting forgetful with a room full of books to read to children. :)

kid style world building; the beginning of something

My granddaughter was drawing a picture tonight during a family gathering.  We were sitting on the couch, the gathering was taking place because my youngest son was flying out that very night to Boston, so there was a lot of noise, emotions and general family chaos going on - the type of chaos that comes with a family when they're all having fun, enjoying each other and trying to be heard over each other.  We can be a little loud.  

So my granddaughter just sat quietly by me with a pad of paper, and some markers that I keep for the grandkids to draw with.  Now, understand that she is five going on six, and is in her first year of any type of school at all - never attended preschool because her parents didn't make enough to afford and weren't quite poor enough to get assistance for preschool fees. It happens.  So her mom (my daughter) has always been wonderful at providing craft and art times, cooking sessions, as well as reading to her every night at bedtime.  In fact, when my g-daughter was only three months old, I found them together on the couch with my daughter reading to her.  I thought at the time that it was too early, and told my daughter "wow -you're already reading to her?", which in hindsight was kind of silly, since I firmly believe in reading to children.  Just never thought of reading to them at three months of age.  My daughter was so happy, she responded - "look mom!  it's a pop up book, watch when I read to her".  Sure enough, as she read to my g-baby, and turned the pages, g-baby's legs would pump and kick out and her eyes would get huge, and her arms would reach out and wave excitedly.  What a sight!

So, to get back to tonight:

G-daughter's narrative (as well as I can remember) while drawing.

• This girl has purple hair, but every morning it starts out orange and by the time it's night her hair has turned purple.
• This world has two moons (as she is drawing two crescent moons with patterns, and they're blue)
• The world is named Strange World
• There is NO flowers that grow - but there's a lot of grass.  (as she is drawing a flower on the girl's dress)

G-daughter starts a new page, of the same world, with the same girl, only this is a morning scene so of course, the girl now has orange hair.  Dialogue while drawing:

• Not only does this place have two moons, Gramma, there are three suns. (she has drawn three suns, all different colors)
• her house is very weird, it's got a window that isn't held in by ANYTHING, it just floats there! (as she draws this very tall house, very narrow with a window and slanted roof)
• Gramma, know what's weird about Strange World?  (me) no, what's so weird about it?  (her again), It USED to be Santa Rosa, but it moved away and ended up in another place so now it's Strange World.  Everything is different here!

Oh.  My.  Goodness.  After reading a post about world building by L.M. Preston, I realized that my granddaughter was doing her very own version of world building with a bit of storytelling....Need to encourage her, so she develops this wonderfully creative imagination!  

A world with two moons and three suns.   I've read SciFi novels with settings similar, but I haven't read SciFi books to her yet - of course!  The longest novels she's had read to her are the Junie B Jones book series; and as far as paranormal reading, we've read a couple books about monsters like No Such Thing, and I Need My Monster.  

our version of Wild Thing

She drew a bit more, and then wanted to do one of her favorite things;  We read a picture book, then we draw a picture together about the book, or try to copy a picture from the book.  Tonight it was Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak - one of the best ever children's picture books.  That guy is a genius.

Grandma's Feather Bed

We've done this a few times, with books like Grandma's Feather Bed

and a book that I cannot remember the name of but we call it Mousie Fair.

**Found it!  Mouse in Love by Robert Kraus

Mousie Fair

That's probably all the bragging about grandchildren that should go on in one post...

Anyway, this reading a book and then drawing a scene or our impression of the book is one of the funnest things I've ever done with a child.  Wish I had thought of it when my kids were little.  :)