Sunday, July 21, 2013

Sunday Salon: Back in action

Hey you!  Long time no see!  It's been awhile since I've caught up with all of you.  I returned back from Poland last Sunday night, had three days to do laundry and get over the time change (still not sure if I'm there yet!), then the kids and I flew up to Indiana to see my parents.  We will be up here for a couple of weeks before we go back home, start football and prepare for the beginning of school.  So while I'm back from the land of no Internet and no clothes dryers, I'm still officially on vacation so I'm going to ease back into things.

Lack of Internet and clothes dryers aside, we did have a good time in Poland.  We spent lots of time with my husband's family, allowed his mother to stuff us with wonderful food, and caught up with their lives.  As we always do, we also try to hit a few sights while we are over there.  This time we spent a few days in Warsaw, and saw the castle and the new Warsaw Uprising Museum.  That place deserves its own post...it was amazing.  We also went to the Jasna Gora Monastery in  Czestochowa to see one of the most famous religious icons in the world, the Black Madonna.  Thousands of people have a pilgrimage each year to see the painting.  We visited Auschwitz, which was my second time, but I really wanted my kids to see it.  And we spent a few days in Prague as well.  I have a bunch of pictures, I just have to figure out how and when to share them with you.

Up here in Indiana, we are a little more relaxed.  We visit county fairs, we see movies, eat sweet corn, and catch up with friends.  Every year I have a weekend with two other girlfriends from high school, and we do a download of the year and sometimes will get together with other classmates (this actually was the weekend of the event, and I'm sitting here in our hotel room typing this post!).  Next weekend we will be having a party to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary, so that is going to be fun.

I've been busy with my reading, at least while I was in Poland.  I've read Kate Atkinson's "Life After Life", Mo Hayder's "Poppet", Lionel Shriver's "Big Brother", Marybeth Whalen's "The Wishing Tree", and "How to Break a Terrorist".  All excellent books!  I'm now in the middle of "Requiem" by Lauren Oliver.  On audio, things have been slow since I'm basically always around people.  But I did finish "The Good House" by Ann Leary and "Panorama City" by Antoine Wilson.  Right now I have just started the new IT book that everyone has been talking about called "This Town" by Mark Leibovich, the New York Times national political correspondent.  The real challenge will be getting all these reviews written!

So I will be lingering around, trying to catch up with posts for the next couple of weeks, but it will be hit or miss.  It does seem that things have been slow while I've been gone.  What have you all been up to?
   


16 comments:

rhapsodyinbooks said...

Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the end of Requiem!

JoAnn said...

Welcome back, Sandy!! It's good to see you again :-)

Anonymous said...

I've missed you! Glad to hear the Poland trip went well and I hope you enjoy your time in Indiana. :)

I'd love to discuss Life After Life and Requium! Let's get together once you get back into town.

Bryan G. Robinson said...

Eh. A little bit of this and little bit of that...but nothing as exciting or as interesting as Poland. Look forward to seeing that post on the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Hint, hint, hint. :)

bermudaonion said...

I hear you on getting the reviews written - I have a stack of books waiting for me to write about.

I am so out of it, I've never heard of This Town and didn't know it was the new it book.

Iliana said...

So great to see you back, Sandy! I can't wait for more of your travel posts.

Looking forward to your reviews too - sounds like you read some great books. I've heard just bits about the Lionel Shriver book so can't wait to hear what you thought of that one.

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to your thoughts on the new Shriver. I'm listening to Requiem on audio - I LOVE Sarah Drew's narration.

Did you love The Good House as much as I did?

Peppermint Ph.D. said...

Glad to have you back and cannot wait to see pics!!

Heidenkind said...

Oh cool. Did you take pics of the Black Madonna?

Unknown said...

Welcome back! It is good to hear that you had a good time. You haven't missed much - I'm sure everything you did was far more interesting. Have a lovely time in Indiana!

Unknown said...

Keep enjoying your family and vacations!! Real world with school/sports/carpools etc will be here soon enough!!

Ti said...

I do think the blogosphere has slowed down over summer but I still can't manage to keep up.

Marie Cloutier said...

welcome back! your trips sound so great. we've missed you!

Anonymous said...

Welcome back :) I never knew you had family in Poland. It is one of the countries I have never visited before (that sounds as if I have visited many but the contrary is true). And good to know you had a great time. Enjoy the last weeks of vacation with the family!

Darlene said...

I'm glad you had such a good time visiting in Poland. I always look forward to those pictures. I'm amazed you got that much reading done with being on holiday although I bet you miss your audiobooks. Hope you enjoy the rest of your visit with your parents.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to your parents!!!