Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Eclipse


I have breezed through the Twlight series. They are very quick reads. A lot of the boring parts that slow other books down, this series just skips over the long drive home, or the 4 page description of her hair color. Stephenie Meyer does an amazing job of getting to the things you want to read about the most. What's going to happen when the vampires meet the werewolves in field by moonlight with their mutual human friend there? How does it turn out? She's great and getting right to the point. But you also don't feel like she's left too much out. She's like the baby bear from the Goldilocks bedtime story; she gets it "just right". The mix of romance and action is perfect. You get to fall in love with the characters and their extraordinary relationship, but you also get to feel the thrill of a good vampire or werewolf fight. An amazing blend of the mystical.

I'm on page 448 of Eclipse and I plan to finish it this week. I only started it on Sunday. A few other things have prevented me from spending 8 hours a day reading. Like my job. And the fact that Mark came home from sea on Monday night and it also happened to be his birthday that day. So last night I through a surprise birthday dinner for him with all our closest friends and family. A lot of fun, but not much reading time. I'll get back to it tonight. Then I have to purchase Breaking Dawn so I can continue the saga.

Plot Status:
Bella has agreed to Edwards terms of marrige before turning her into a vampire. But she has some demands of her own. There is one particular human experience she wishes to feel before she is no longer human to feel it. Edward refuses to give in, not wanting to hurt her. But Bella is persistant. On Edward's bed, the two are entwined and Bella's heart is beating at a fast pace.

I have THAT waiting for me tonight. I'm excited!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Humorous Maine Article


I completely forgot to post this yesterday. I found this article online and thought it was pretty funny. If you're from any part of Maine, you'll appreciate this.

Overcoming Bangoraphobia

And a friendly picture to remind you.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Folded Forest

So I suddenly have this novel idea (whoa, no pun intended) to open a bookstore. Remember that rant earlier about trying to find the next book in the Twilight series, New Moon? Yeah, that inspired this.

I've come up with a name that I like, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to market. I'd like some opinions from readers (if there are any).

Name: "The Folded Forest: New and Used Books"
Merchandise: New and Used books (duh)

Now. The "Folded Forest" comes from a favorite author of mine. Saul Williams. It goes soemthing like; "a book is a carefully folded tree". Something like that. It's from his book ", said the shotgun to the head." Which is one of my favorite books! That and She.

What do you think? In a town with not a single bookstore, do you think it would do well?

Tee-V and Move-E's

I purchased a freshly (few hours anyway) roasted seasoned chicken and Wall-E on my way home last night. Oh, I got UFO Raspberry Hefeweizen too. Yummy, beer...... Oh. Where was I?

So I got home, heated up some chicken and popped in the movie. I got the deluxe edition with all the extras. Pixar puts out GREAT shorts. Like Presto, the one before Wall-E begins. And then they made one called Burn-E that was great too. But you would probably have to have seen Wall-E first to really get it. That was all just on disc one. I haven't made it to disc two yet. (House and Fringe came on.) The movie is so cute. I found myself laughing on the couch at home, alone. I jumped the cats a few times with my outbursts. :D

Tonight I head to the gym then my favorite show is on again, Bones. But between going to the gym and the the TV show, I've GOT to get my laundry done. It's overflowing and at night, in the dark, in the corner of the room, it's starting to look like a monster! Something straight out of Monsters Inc! (Ooohh, another good Pixar movie. Told you I'm a sucker for those things.) One of the things I love about Bones is the crazy sexual tension between the two leads. I mean he is gorgeous and she is beautiful and neither have steady parters, other than eachother. What's the hold up? But then if it DOES happen, where are they left? Would they still be able to work together? Hmmmmmmm. Dilema. We'll see how the show pans out. But it's fun to watch them squirm. Enjoy!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Wall-E

Last night after work I buzzed over to the gym. It felt good to go work out for about an hour. Some of my workouts are a little funny looking so I was kind of self concious of people watching. That whole "judgement free zone" thing doesn't really work. But I made it through everything and buzzed back out of there before I saw and laughing faces directed at me.

Today I am exceptionally excited because one of my favorite movies gets released on DVD. Wall-E was an amazing movie. I love how they gave him so many manerisms. And how he "talks", very cute. I saw the movie in the Theaters when it came out and instantly wanted to watch it again as the credits were rolling. I never made it a second time, so I'm relaly excited that I can finally OWN it and watch it when ever I feel like it.

I've always been a sucker for Pixar movies. I mean Nemo? Come on, who DOESN'T love that movie?!

Dory: "Hey, look. "Es-CA-pay". I wonder what that means? That's funny, it's spelled just like the word "escape."

Monday, November 17, 2008

Book Hunt

I finished Twilight this weekend and loved it. I went on a massive hunt for the next book, New Moon in my town, which is a pretty good size, and couldn't find it! The best selection of books in town is the Wal-Mart mini-section. I can't even begin to tell you how much I hated going in there. (Wal-Mart is the number 3 Worst company in the world. I try to never go in there.) I tried all kinds of stores, no books. I might have to open a book store just to keep myself in good books! I managed to find Eclipse, the third book. So I bought that. Now I'm reading a different book while I hunt down New Moon.

So I'm currently reading Fortune and Fate by one of my favorite authors, Sharon Shinn. I've read all the previous books in the series and didn't know that this one had come out till I saw it in the store. This book won't hook me like Twilight did, but I'm back in a familiar world. And that is always nice.

Weekend Summary: I had a great night out with the girls on Friday. We ate at Margaritas and then went accross the street to The Stadium to see a friend's band play. A good band too, SlyChi. A little hungover on Saturday morning, I hung out with the girls a bit. One left to work on her house, the other made me a bagel and scrambled eggs for breakfast. How nice! Then we went shopping. Always fun! And it poured rain. A very warm day here in Maine for the middle of November. Saturday night, we stayed in but didn't get hungry till late. We ended up eating dinner at 10pm. I never do that! It was way too late. I passed out hard and ended up with a stomach ache because I went to bed so soon after eating. Sunday I just relaxed as my girlfriend had to go back home. It was so good to see her. What a great weekend.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Twilight


I'm going completely crazy! When I find a new good book or new author, I just can't stop!

I purchased Twilight on Monday night along with a few other new books that I found. I started the book on Tuesday night while sitting in my car in a parking lot waiting for a friend. It's now Thursday and I'm on page 322.

I got home last night a read for hours. Then watched one of my favorite TV shows, Bones, and then read for at least another hour. I was mad that I got too tired to read any more and fell asleep.

It's hard to focus on anything other than reading. The plot plays in my mind like a movie. And I've got the movie on pause all day long while I work, but I'm still thinking about it. I mean, I take a lunch break not so that I can eat, but so that I can sit in my car in the parking lot and read. Mind you it's 37 degrees out. Does that tell you how crazy I am?

Plot Status:
Bella just spent the first night falling asleep in Edward's cold arms. She awoke in the morning to find him still there. Elated, she struggles to complete her morning routine. Now, she's off to meet his family. More worried about them liking her than about her own well being as she ventures into a houseful of vampires.

Seriously?! Who can foucs on anything when a plot like that waits for you?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Affiliate Marketing

I found affiliate marketing completely by accident. I knew nothing about it only a few short months ago. I joined an online forum to promote a program I was in (a horrible cash gifting experience that I would rather not re-live) and a kind soul wrote me a private message. It pretty much said this "Hey, you idiot. Cash gifting sucks and is pointless, try affiliate marketing." So needless to say I asked him what it was and what it was all about. He actually took the time to explain it all to me. He even went so far as to walk me through each baby step of getting my own domain from GoDaddy (one scary website!) and setting up my first affiliate site. He was great! There is no way possible that I would have figured all that out without some serious help. Personally, I think he should cash in on his ability to get people up and running. If he'd had an affiliate program, I would have joined in a heartbeat! (Without his permission I won't say any more about him, but you can check out one of his sites here. Ready Ramps.)

So my goals with affiliate marketing are to learn all that I can about it and maintain my sites in my "free" time. Not that I have much of it working a full time job. But it never hurts to have a little extra income. So my goal is make a few hundred bucks extra a month. If it takes off more than that, it's icing on the cake. Because I like working on the sites. (Though sometimes I make them more complicated than they need to be.) So if I sometimes have large gaps between posts, I've probably fallen into the bottomless pit of html code and gotten lost somewhere between databases and domains. But I should resurface at some point.

Again, welcome to my life.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Monday

My weekend was interesting. Saturday I visited my friends who live down the road and helped them install some insulation in the home they are re-building. A gloomy rainy day, but I would rather spend it with friends doing something not quite fun than alone. Then they came over for a soak in the hot-tub and a glass of wine.

Then we had a massive debate on where to eat dinner. Sushi at Benkay or Fuji. Or chinese delivered to the house while we watch a movie. Or out for Thai food. Or to Friendly's for crap and some ice cream. Good god, we ended up at Friendly's. Now, greasy food alone makes my stomach unhappy. Add on top of that the fact that I am mildly lactose intolerant but decicded to have some ice cream anyway, and my stomach wasn't happy for hours. No wonder I didn't eat much on Sunday.

Sunday I stayed in my sweats all day and did nothing. I could have done about a million things. But my body just wanted a day off. So I sat on the couch, watched some horrible movies, and then went to bed. Yup, I didn't leave the house once. It's nice to have a day like that once in a while.

Last night I had to fight my kitties for a place to put my legs in my bed. The whole other half of the bed is empty yet they still sleep on my side. I end up diagonal, sideways and upside down. How can two kitties take up so much space? And WHY do they need to sleep ON my stomach or between my legs?? And WHY does Trouble have to headbutt the crap out of my arm/face/elbow first thing in the morning? She sounds like a turbo jet about to take off! So, a frustrating kitty morning, but I made it to work on time and I managed to actually almost finish my tea before getting in the car to leave.

The lady from the shelter is visiting the house tomorrow so we can get approved to adopt a doggie. I"m excited.

Tata for Now!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Need New Gear?

Ok, I'm not one to normally advertise. But this is one of my favorite stores and they are having a HUGE sale this weekend. (Just in time for early Holiday Shopping.)

My bf and I just got an amazing tent there and we used it for our numerous canoe trips on the Saco river this past summer and I think it's the best tent we've ever had. It has a screen room, vestibule, as part of the rain fly and we were so hapy to have it. Because we had so much rain this year the bugs were insane and we had to hide in the tent. But the vestibule allowed us to sit in our folding chair with our toes in the sand and watch the winding river go by but get away from the bugs. Great tent!

So just check out the site and see if anything catches your eye. This sale ends on Monday and it's totally worth it! I love this store, that is only reason I'm doing this.

Friday, Dogs and Books

Today is Friday. I'm so happy about that.

On the doggie front, it looks like I got the go-ahead from my better half to fill out the adoption forms so we can at least meet the little fellow. Though, because of vacations and the holidays coming, we couldn't add a new family member till the end of January/ beginning of February. It really wouldn't be fair to us to do that, but even more unfair to the poor dog. We'd be off jet-setting on our next vacation and the poor mutt would be stuck in some unfamliar, unpleasant kennel.

So I'm hoping we'll be able to meet the sweet boy and if we can do nothing else, we'll wish him well in his new home, no matter where that may be. The shelter doesn't "hold" dogs so we couldn't adopt him and then wait till January to bring him home. Which sucks, but makes sense for the best interest of the dog.

I hope this weekend brings lots of sleep, a new great book and a fun night out with friends.

Has anyone else gotten as enthralled with the Eragon book series as I have? Granted I'm not their target age group, but I really like those kinds of books. I began Brisingr on a Saturday, it was finished that Tuesday. I couldn't put it down. And I was pissed when I got to the last page and only then found out that I had to wait for the conculsion to come in the fourth book. A trilogy with four books? Who does that?

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

First Post

Well... Welcome. I'm not really sure what this blog will be about but hopefully you will find something to be entertained by.

I live in Maine and I want a dog.

On leap year day, February 29th, of this year my boyfriend and I moved into our new house. He promised me that after we had been there for a year, he would start considering a dog.

Now. We have two indoor, absolutely crazy cats. Andre and Trouble. Both of which are rescues. Trouble is a funny torty/calico girl who is a slim love bug of a 4 year old. Trouble I got from a shelter when she was two. Andre is a big burly boy. He's almost two times the size of Trouble and only half her age. He is mostly white with some grey tiger spots. He likes to boss Trouble around and start fights with her. But they do love eachother. Even if Trouble has to hide behind dressers where Andre can't fit.


The picture to the left was taken when Andre was still a kitten. He wasn't his massive self quite yet. I will post more pictures of them soon. I have a million of them.

Back to the dog issue. I have always had a dog. Since the day I was born. Both of my parents still have a dog and my brother just got a puppy. He got a puggle and she is adorable. But, she's not the type of dog for me.


What I want in a dog. Hmmmmm.... Let's see. I would like a smart, medium energy, mutt. Yup. A mutt. I like mixed breed dogs and I think mutts are some of the smartest pets out there. Of course I'm going to adopt from a shelter, I would never pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a pure breed anything. Now. I would post a link to the little guy I'm interested in right now, but I don't want anyone to snatch him away from me. I'm still hoping I can convince my boyfriend to foster-to-adopt in time to get this little angel! But here is a picture, to the right. Adorable right? I thought so.

So I'm in the middle of a dog battle. Vote Yes! for shelter dogs! Wow, I'm glad that election day has come and gone. I think I was starting to dream about all the damn road side signs I see millions of every day.

It is slightly odd that I begin this blog the day after our presidential election. But I'm not hugely into politics so it's not really that odd.

Welcome to my life.