I Barely Restrained Myself

From doing a little happy dance right in the middle of Barnes & Noble when the sales guy pulled a copy of Kiss of Death off the shelf and handed it to me. I stopped at Borders first because I had a coupon for 33% off any book, but they hadn't even received any Kiss of Death books yet. (I understand that it was just released today, but STILL!!!)

BUT...Here it is! I've got my copy and the only reason I'm not reading it RIGHT. NOW. is because I need to finish the series I'm right in the middle of at the moment.

But, OH! I'm not done. While I was searching for Kiss of Death at B&N, I happened to notice THIS book on a middle of the store display. TADA!!!

I DID do a little happy dance for this one. I had totally forgotten that it came out this month too. It's a good thing that April was my month to stop not buying any more books. (although, to be quite honest, I didn't really stop at all anyway. I only just barely managed to SLOW my book intake by becoming quite addicted to my library again.)

Have any of ya'll picked up these two books yet?

Things that Go BOOM in the Night

Last night we had the first full-blown thunderstorm of the spring here in Northern VA. (At least, the first that I've been awake/home for.) As I lay in bed watching the lightning flashes show through my blinds and curtains, I found myself picturing a few of my very rare childhood memories.

When I was little I used to be terrified of thunderstorms. I remember pulling the covers over my head so that I couldn't see the lightning flash and on the chance that I did see the flashes, I would carefully count the time between the flash and the roll of thunder that was sure to follow. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi. Four Mississippi. Five Mississippi. BOOM!!! It's okay, I would reassure myself. That lightning strike was a mile away. I was so afraid of lightning striking one of the trees across the street from my house that I would count faster just to convince myself that the lightning was further away than it actually was. What never failed to amaze me, though, was that while I was cowering in my bed, my older sister, Alicia, and my older brother, Nathanael, would be sitting out on our deck watching the lightning until Mom called them in to go to bed. I couldn't understand it. How could the lightning not scare them? Those trees across the street were close enough that if lightning struck one of them it would fall and hit our house. It would hit ME. In my bedroom. In my bed cause I was in the top bunk of the bunk bed that I shared with my younger sister, Rachel.

I don't remember how old I was the first time I sat on the deck to watch the lightning, but I'm pretty sure I was at least fifteen. I still counted to make sure the lightning wasn't going to fry me. Funny how that works. I mean, if the lightning was close enough to hit me, I wouldn't have been counting, but that fact never occurred to me. Not once. As time passed and I started college, summer breaks and summer storms found me out on the deck with a book in my hand. I would sit on the porch swing and read while the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled around me. When it stopped bothering me, I don't know, but I remember finding myself putting my book down to stare in wonder at the sky as it lit up bright as day each time the lightning came within a mile of my seat. Even in something as potentially devastating as a lightning strike, God saw fit to place a sense of beauty.

My favorite memory of sitting out watching a thunderstorm is one that was created in 2001. My family had gone down south to visit Alicia and her husband, Brian, to meet the first nephew/grandchild. I was enamored with Ethan and constantly wanted to hold him and entertain him. One day it started to rain so I took Ethan and a book out on my sister's front porch and while the rain was pouring, the lightning flashing and the thunder rolling, Ethan laid on my legs fast asleep while I read. Best day ever.

I cannot wait until Joseph builds our deck out back or a porch out front so I can sit outside and enjoy the summer storms again. Until then, I'll enjoy my memories and perhaps set up a lawn chair in my garage and read with the garage door open so I can smell the rain, see the lightning, and hear the thunder.

How to Get Back on the Horse...

or which book to read after a two-week period of time where you've not really read any BOOKS.

So, a few weeks ago one of the blogs I read issued a challenge to read books that had your/my name in the titles. (I'll post more about that later.) I decided to give it a shot. This means that I went onto my local library's website and searched by keyword in the title. "Hannah" It shouldn't have surprised me, but the number of Hannah Montana books was Overwhelming! (BTW, I HATE Hannah Montana.) Anyway, I did see a few books that looked interesting and I immediately put them on hold.

The first book that I read from this new group of library books was started on Tuesday and finished last night. The title? Hurricane Hannah. by Sue Civil-Brown. The genre? Romantic Comedy. My reaction? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Literally. Like seriously LAUGH. OUT. LOUD.

The main character of Hurricane Hannah is Hannah Lamont and let me just tell you, that girl has got a MOUTH on her! (not a dirty mouth...just a mouth) Of course, as a romantic comedy there is a guy involved. His name is Buck Shanahan. Oh! and to keep things interesting, Buck is not the only love interest. The second love interest is an alligator named Buster. That's right. An alligator. Buster is the Highlight of this book through and through. See, Buster is the only alligator on the island that this book is set on. And he has decided that he (Buster) is in love with Hannah. So he follows her around. Like a lovesick puppy dog.

I wish I could read this book to ya'll cause it is SOOO funny! I had my coworkers laughing their heads off yesterday as I read bits and pieces to them. In fact, I have to bring the book into work again tomorrow to read some other parts to Stacey (my office mate).

The only problems I had with this book were the two (thankfully short) sex scenes. Because they were short I was able to skip right over them without a thought.

So, if you don't mind skipping over sex scenes and you are looking for an absolutely DELICIOUS book to lighten your world for a little while, definitely go check out Hurricane Hannah. My only recommendation - find a room where you'll be out of the hearing of anyone that is bothered by loud laughter. You're gonna need it.

What to do when you're so completely out of it

First, you start the day out by calling off work. Then you make your husband do the same thing so that you don't have to spend the day alone. All by yourself.

Second, you make said husband drive you to Blockbuster to return the DVDs that were rented, to the library to take back the few books that you managed to read in the past three weeks, then over to Target to look for that blasted game - Boggle. (Neither Target or ToysRUs had that game. I'm bitter.)

Third, while at Target, allow your wonderful husband to talk you into purchasing a padfolio from the fantastic Liberty of London collection even though there is absolutely NO pink on the padfolio. Wait...you've got Sharpie markers at home and you AREN'T afraid to use them.

Fourth, take a picture of the front of said padfolio when you get home.

BLAH

Fifth, dig out those Sharpies and get to work.

BLING!

Sixth, sit back and admire your quick thinking and hard work. It only took two episodes of Smallville, and the entire Beauty and the Briefcase movie to finish the back. Now I just have to color in the front.

What do you think? should I have colored, or left it the boring original black and white?

I Want to Write

I really do, but I keep drawing a blank when I try to think about writing something specific. Maybe if I write a post that has absolutely nothing to do with anything my writer's and reader's block will go away. Yes, reader's block. I just cannot get into any books right now. I have forced my way through two graphic novels this week, but that's it. In the past two WEEKS I've only read three graphic novels. Oh, and TON of online Harry Potter fan fiction. Like, twenty books worth of it. Who would have thought that I would actually be interested in imagining what it would be like if Hermione Granger married Severus Snape. Weird, I know.

On a different note, my mom came down to VA to visit and hang out this weekend. She came Friday afternoon and stayed until Saturday evening. Definitely had a blast with her. Always do. We went to the local library booksale together on Saturday. Then we visited the used bookstore in Manassas. Here's a random thought from my time with my mom. Do you have ANY idea how impossible it is to find an original version of Boggle? Like, seriously. Mom and I went to Target AND Wal-Mart and couldn't find it at either store. Both had an electronic version, but believe me when I say that it would never be able to handle the amount of play an original version would be able to.

I really need to catch up with all my blog reading too. I've been lurking on a few blogs, but for the most part I've not even read the blogs that I follow on a regular basis. How sad is that? I need to focus. That's my problem. Right now I feel like a little kid in a toy store. Too many toys, not enough time to play. *sigh* I don't have ADD, Mr. Policeman, but that bird that flew in front of my car was soo pretty that I just HAD to look instead of paying attention to where I was driving. I really didn't mean to hit the other car. (j/k I've not been THAT bad, yet.)

Anyway, I'm gonna go. See if I can convince my boxer baby to play fetch with me outside while the sun is still up. Gotta go grab a sweatshirt. Bye for now.

The Dog Days of Winter

Yes, Winter. I mean, we've had some pretty crazy weather in Northern Virginia this year. There were a few days in the winter where it got rather warm. Since the dogs needed something to cool them down. They were given ice cream.

Rocky

Lily

Must. Show. Cuteness!

Aren't they sooooo cute! The boxer is my Rocky (which I'm sure you recognized from former posts) and the pitbull is my brother-in-law's. Her name (the pit) is Lily. Isn't she gorgeous? Yes, the dogs sun bathe together in the front window. I just had to share.

It's Monday! What are You Reading? (13)

Welcome to It's Monday, What are you Reading?, a meme hosted by Sheila at BookJourney. This is our opportunity as bloggers to share what we've read in the past week and what we plan on reading this week. If you'd like to join in just stop by Sheila's blog and link up.

Read Last Week:

Gettin' Lucky ~ Micol Ostow 3/29

The Sherwood Ring ~ Elizabeth Marie Pope 3/29

Song Quest ~ Katherine Roberts 3/31

Tithe ~ Holly Black 4/1

Valiant ~ Holly Black 4/1

Ironside ~ Holly Black 4/1

Hex Hall ~ Rachel Hawkins 4/2

Currently Reading:

Kissing Frogs in Cyberspace ~ Dianne Sweeney

lessons from a dead girl ~ Jo Knowles

Planning to Read:

Wish ~ Alexandra Bullen

So I didn't read as many books as usual this week, but if you've been reading my blog over the weekend I'm sure you know why. I got to go home to visit my family in Pennsylvania this weekend. While I was there I helped my mom start her very own blog. (I think I may have created a monster. heehee.)

What did YOU read this week?

My Little Seester

If you've read my blog this weekend, you probably noticed this conversation that I held with my sister on my blog while watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End on Friday night. You may have even followed the link on her name to her blog. At which point you may have seen her profile picture which has another girl in it. So, which one is Rachel? I'm here to solve the dilemma. Rachel is the one in the below pictures. She's my beautiful younger sister.

All of these pictures were taken LATE Saturday night so you'll have to forgive any red eyes. She was tired and I made her let me do her eye makeup. Doesn't she look fabulous!?!

I had her laughing so hard that she couldn't even keep her eyes open for the pictures.

No, she's not flying. She's posing like the conductor on the TV. Silly girl.

oosta! I LOVE my lips!

And I love my seester. She's alot of fun as long as you don't make her mad. Of course, I suppose the same thing could be said of me. Maybe it just runs in the family. LOL

Conversations with Rachel

Hannah: Can I just tell you how happy I am that I get to be at my parents home for Easter weekend?

Rachel: Tell me - how happy?

Hannah: Oh, Rachel, if only mere words could describe my feelings.

Rachel: Oh! GROSS! YOU JUST KISSED ME!! You are waaay too excited!

Hannah: LIAR! Liar. liar. liar. I did NOT kiss you. EEEEEW! Now, where was I? Oh, yes. How happy I am to be home for Easter. Do you realize that I haven't been at home for Easter for 10 years. TEN. YEARS.

Rachel: Uh, wow. So are you saying I'm not kissable? Thanks. You've really helped my self-esteem. My sister won't even kiss me. Blimey.

Hannah: You? Kissable? Ummm. no. Stop interrupting my feelings of excitement. I shall have a magnificent garden party and YOU'RE not invited.

Rachel: It's still too cold and none of the flowers are blooming. I don't want to come to your garden party, you lumux. I wash my hands of this weirdness! I refuse to be followed by rocks.

Hannah: You know, not everyone is watching Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End while they read my blog. They may not know what we're talking about.
So, Rachel, what did you do today?

Rachel: Went to a Good Friday service this afternoon. Listened to the volume level in my house raise ten times louder than usual - my sister came home for Easter. SHE SMACKED ME!!

Hannah: Who smacked you? I think watching Jack Sparrow is messing with your mind, dear sister.

Rachel: You smacked me instead of kissing me! I'm over it. I feel for your readers though - if they've read this far.

Hannah: me too. They must be really bored tonight. Maybe they can come over and watch At World's End with us. They could have sooo much fun. I have to say, though, that Elizabeth Swan is the weakest heroine ever written into a movie.

Rachel: I can't wait for her inspiring speech that fails to inspire anyone except for those looking at her lips. Have I mentioned that she has weird lips?

Hannah: I don't know that it's her lips so much as the way she talks. It's ever so distracting. It's so pouty. Like in Sense and Sensibility. Whiny. Are you ready? We're gonna flip the ship, now.

Rachel: Up is down. Well that's just maddeningly unhelpful. Like most instruction manuals. Who read those anyway? Name one instruction manual more than two pages long that you've ever read? Digital camera? Cellphone? Anything? nope.

Hannah: What IS that!?! instruction manuals? yes, the swingset manual was longer than two pages. And Rachel, you can't call your students "bilge rats". That's just not nice.

Rachel: I was thinking of "bilge rats" as an affectionate nickname. A step up from "nincompoops."

Hannah: "Nincompoops??" Really? I need a pistol. hahaha A water gun! You know you shouldn't be so mean to your students.

Rachel: I'm nice to them. "We be nice to them if they be nice to us. *gollum, gollum*" Ooops, wrong movie.

Hannah: aye, darlin'. definitely the wrong movie. granted Orlando Bloom IS in both, but he's much better looking naturally. Oh dear. poisoned water. Now what are we going to do???

Rachel: I'm not sure I can survive any more visits from old seesters.

Hannah: *gasp* but. but. but. I thought you liked me! *tear*

Rachel: Close your eyes and pretend it's all a bad dream.

Hannah: honey, YOU are a bad dream.

Rachel: Sweetheart, I'm your worst nightmare. "Your such a girl. You're such a little girl. I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you." Different movie. Ugh. This "Pirates" confuses me. Too many double crosses.

Hannah: Stop touching ME! I KEEEL YOU!!! oh wait. that's the wrong dvd too. But, I agree with Achmed the Dead Terrorist.

Now, I have to post this now. It's gonna be way too long soon.

Rachel: "Buh-bye. Buh-bye now. Okay. Are they gone? Is everybody gone?"

Hannah: And that was without a single drop of run. But, honey darlin', seester dear, "everybody" will never be gone. They're all only in your head. It will be okay. I'll get you a pretty purple jacket and put you in a pretty blue padded room with no windows. All will be okay in the end.

Rachel: Ooooh! and shiny things! I want many, many shining things, coteledon!

Hannah: Shiny things are much too dangerous. maybe I'll give you a plastic window that you will be able to see your shiny things through. Did your Beckett tell you that? That you can have shiny things in your blue room?

Rachel: Why is my room blue? Why not pink or neon green? And does my straightjacket have polka-dots? Didn't we say we were ending? Maybe we should be institutionalizing YOU instead of me.

Hannah: Your room is blue because I said so although if neon green would make you calm DOWN, I'll consider repainting. No, your jacket does not have polka-dots. Dots make you crazy. We'll end when you stop telling me your butt hurts from sitting on the floor.

Rachel: Stop passing me this laptop!! NOOOOO! Okay "this is the end. I'm going now. I regret to announce that this party is over. Goodbye." Different movie.

Hannah: We are watching POTC: At World's End and you keep quoting other movies. What kind of movie watching seester ARE you!?!

Rachel: Heehee.

Thus ends Rachel's participation in your entertainment tonight. Maybe she'll come back some other day.

Twilight: What If...

I've read the Twilight Saga twice through. The first time I read the series I really enjoyed the books. The second time - not so much. I saw all of the faults the second time through. Anyway, it's rather obvious that many bloggers are quite excited about Stephenie Meyer's announcement that she is releasing a new Twilight story. But wait. The story isn't about Bella and Edward. It's about a new vampire named Bree Tanner. Have you ever wondered what Bella's reaction to this news would be? Read Here. I promise you won't be disappointed. You'll probably laugh your head off just like I did. Maybe you'll laugh so hard that your family will ask you what is so funny. Just let them read and they'll understand. Enjoy!

March Tally

Just wanted to start my post with a picture of where I'd LIKE to be right now instead of at work. That's the Jefferson memorial in Washington D.C. during the Cherry Blossom Festival which just happens to be going on this week. Would you believe I've lived in the area for 4 years now and still have not been to D. C. for the Cherry Blossom Festival yet?

Anyway, my total books read this month is 67. That number includes manga. Without manga, my book total is 26. Not bad at all, I think. I'm not sure which book was my favorite, but I'll think about it today and try to remember to let ya'll know tonight.

Happy April Fool's, everyone!

**Edited to Add**

The following are the books I read in March:

Fake Boyfriend ~ Kate Brian
Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment ~ James Patterson
Prophecy of the Sisters ~ Michelle Zink
Broken ~ Shiloh Walker
Austenland ~ Shannon Hale **
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ~ Sherman Alexie
Vampire Diaries: The Awakening ~ L.J. Smith
VD: The Struggle ~ L.J. Smith
When Heaven Weeps ~ Ted Dekker
BoneMan's Daughters ~ Ted Dekker
VD: The Fury ~ L.J. Smith
VD: Dark Reunion ~ L.J. Smith
A Match Made in High School ~ Kristin Walker
Beastly ~ Alex Flinn
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 ~ Alan Moore (graphic novel)
Magic Under Glass ~ Jaclyn Dolamore
Tantalize ~ Cynthia Leitich Smith
Eternal ~ Cynthia Leitich Smith
Meridian ~ Amber Kizer
Another Faust ~ Daniel & Dina Nayeri
Rapunzel's Revenge ~ Shannon & Dean Hale (graphic novel)
Calamity Jack ~ Shanon & Dean Hale (graphic novel)
Getting to Third Date ~ Kelly McClymer
Gettin' Lucky ~ Micol Ostow
The Sherwood Ring ~ Elizabeth Marie Pope **
Song Quest ~ Katherine Roberts

& the manga that I read:

Tsubasa Vol. 9-18 ~ Clamp
Skip-Beat! Vol. 1-24 ~ Yoshiki Nakamura
Midnight Secretary Vol. 1-7 ~ Ohmi Tomu

** These two books were my absolute favorites this month. I'm sure I'll mention them in a future post or two. :-)