Sunday, February 3, 2013

Sunday Salon: Shine on you crazy diamond

 Hello my long lost friends!  Yes I am officially back from my extended blogging vacation.  Kinda weird, me sitting down to write this Sunday rambling.  So I guess I need to get you all caught up on what I've been up to.  

Pretty much sloth is what I have been up to.  Reading-wise anyway.  I HAVE been reading, but sort of a meandering kind of reading.  Taking my time, indulging in longer audio reads and books that have been sitting on my shelves for awhile.  This may come back to haunt me, as now I have to keep up, but I'll give it my best shot.  

I've been seeing a lot of Oscar movies.  So expect some belated reviews of those over the next month or so.  I'm certainly not cutting edge at this point.  I apologize if you have heard enough about Les Miserables, for example, but I have to get it all off my chest.

The kids' business still keeps me running around like my hair is on fire.  My daughter made the track team, so she is participating in practice five days a week, and meets start on the 15th.  She is also on some crazy mission to hit something like 500 community service hours in high school, so she keeps cracking the whip on animal shelter volunteerism.  Ryan started wrestling, only to wrench his back all to hell, so now he is on drugs and in PT twice a week for who knows how long.

My LASIK-adjusted eyes have finally outgrown the procedure from a decade ago and I had to break down and get glasses.  Special way to make me feel old.

Still obsessively training for my half-marathon in a few weeks.  I am SO ready for this thing to happen.  I'm sick to death of getting up at 4:30 in the morning to run during the week. And my feet and left butt check hurt all the time. 

February is #shineon month, or in other words, when all of us apostles of Uncle Stevie read his early treasure "The Shining", hosted by Fizzy Jill.  (I'd add the link here but I'm having trouble calling up her website...I'm sure it is something I'm doing.)  And because she is Fizzy Jill, we get accessories and stuff.  (Note that I have my ORIGINAL Shining book from high school.  I have to show the back of the book because the front page was ripped off in some earlier fit of terror, or over-reading, or something.)  






















I'm also happily participating in C.B. James' annual Double Dog Dare, where I read only my own books, with exceptions made only for book club reads.  I so look forward to this every year.  It has changed my life.  Speaking of reading my own stuff, I just had a huge purge of books from my shelves...over a hundred titles were quickly spirited off to the library.  















Right now I am really close to finishing Uncle Stevie's collection of short stories called "Night Shift".  My son the non-reader actually read this book and begged me to re-read it so we could have an educated and spirited discussion about each story.  I'm also within a few discs of finishing "Catherine the Great:  Portrait of a Woman" by Robert Massie on audio.  This was a big stretch for me...I am not a history buff.  But I have very much enjoyed this audio.  Fascinating stuff, with all these young, hunky "favorites" and beating up on Poland and being a badass type A woman of her time.

There are big plans brewing today for the Super Bowl, as well as animal shelter and some homework assistance squeezed in there for good measure.  Hope you all have a wonderful day.  I'm so glad to be back!       



17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I for one am excited to hear your thoughts on Les Mis. :)

Unknown said...

I so wish I could openly stock Stephen King on the shelves of my classroom library. I've a group of boys this year who went out and got their own copies of The Stand for their book club. It looks like they may move on to more 'Uncle Stevie' books once they finish, too.

Julie P. said...

I am so ready for this run to be over too. I am extremely frustrated right now. Supposed to run 13 today and way too cold, so I did five on the treadmill instead. The issue is that the rest of the week isn't great either with snow and cold, and I'm freaking out because I feel like I'm not doing the entire training plan... I know I'm ready but if I have even the slightest issue with the 13.1, I'll blame myself for missing the one final big run. GUILT!

annieb said...

I'm glad you're back too. Although the couple of check-in blogs helped.

annieb said...

I'm glad you're back too. Although the couple of check-in blogs helped see me through.

Darlene said...

It's nice to see a Sunday post from you again. Hopefully we can both keep it up without blogging. I did the same as you and indulged In a few longer audios that I doubt I'll eve write reviews for. Anyhow sorry about your sons back. Ouch. Hopefully it heals up good. Hope you have a good week ahead Sandy!

Iris said...

I admire you so much for running a half marathon in a few weeks! I really want to start running seriously again, but it's the getting up early that makes it really hard for me. I'll miss your short updates on twitter (I think?) or facebook? about the miles you ran. It always makes me do a double take and motivates me a little. I hope the run goes well!

My Recent Favorite Books said...

I found your blog thru Pinterest, and really enjoy it! =)

Im a new GFC follower.

Unknown said...

Welcome back again, and sounds like you've been enjoying reading and movies.

bermudaonion said...

My reading is at a snail's pace right now and I don't even have kids to shuttle around. Between going to my mom's, going to Asheville, and volunteering at the store, I have NO time for anything these days.

I wonder what it is with the butt cheek hurting? When I drive long distances, my right butt cheek hurts like crazy.

Wait 'til you see the movie I saw this weekend! lol

Anonymous said...

You're not the only one who's had trouble getting my blog to come up this week. I do believe it was OJ who called it my poopy blog. Of course, it always behaves for me. :-D

I can't believe you have your original copy of The Shining! That's true love.

Iliana said...

So good to see you back. I've been so out of the blogging loop that I know what you mean. I feel like I will never catch up but oh well. Your marathon training sounds grueling to me but I'm sure you'll do great! You go girl.

Marie Cloutier said...

NICE glasses! i look forward to your movie reviews. you know i've never read stephen king? for shame!

Unknown said...

4.30am? Wow! I knew you were running lots, but that is the middle of the night! That explains how you manage to fit everything in.

Glad you managed to have a month of reading how you like. I hope you can still do some of that. Have a good week!

Jenners said...

Yay … I'm glad you're back. (Loving your giant glasses!) And now I'm joining you in the movie reviewing business so that will be exciting for me -- we have even more in common to discuss. And Night Shift is freaky. I'm still freaked out by some of the stories. Is that the one with the alcoholic dad who turns into slime? FREAKS ME OUT!!!!!!

Melissa said...

So glad you are back and I love the glasses!!

Kathleen said...

Welcome back Sandy! I'm behind in my blog reading again so I know there are more wonderful Sandy posts waiting for me in my Reader! P.S Adorable photo of you in the big glasses!