Too...much...rain...

I was just outside to water my plants. Yes, I know that sounds crazy with all of the rain we've had the past two weeks. But, it is necessary for the plants that are on the front and back porches covered by the porch roofs.

Seriously, when the rain stops long enough for the ground to dry out a bit, I have a TON of weeding to do. Blech!

I'm so proud of myself!

I've been diligently going through the emails that I've been receiving and unsubscribing myself from newsletters and emails that I never read. Mind you, none of these that I'm unsubscribing to are the ones that end up in my spam folder. Those you should NEVER respond to in any way because then the sender knows that they have a "live" email address. I've just been trying to clean up the clutter that I never read that comes to my inbox on a regular basis... I feel like I've done spring cleaning in my inbox!

Now, if I could only harness that motivation and start working on my closet to go through my clothes and shoes...

One of my favorite things about summer...

...is FRUIT SALAD! Living in Florida, summer is kind of a yucky season. I often tell my friends from up north that it is like winter in Pittsburgh. We don't go outside much, and instead find things indoors to do. It is just way too oppressively hot during the summer months here in FL to be outside for very long. If you ARE outside for any amount of time, rest assured you will be taking a shower the minute you return back indoors. Between the general heat, the humidity and the blistering sun, I prefer the day or two of fall and then the two weeks of winter we get ;)

But, back to the fruit salad. I love summer fruit. Yesterday, I made a giant fruit salad for us to enjoy this weekend. Watermelon, (Florida) cantaloupe, pineapple, grapes, cherries, strawberries and blackberries. YUM! And it is so pretty!





The only thing about making your own fruit salad in this way is that the trash bag was pretty heavy to hoist out of the can with all of the melon rinds and other fruit scraps... so, bonus points... healthy snack AND a workout! ha!

June and July Book Club Selections have been chosen!

I'm happy to report that the June and July book club selections have been chosen, and I already own BOTH! :)

June's book club selection is Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella of the Shopaholic fame. Funnily enough, you can see the book on my book shelf in the background of this blog (yes, the background is actually my very own book shelf!). See the red book on the right hand side?





July's book club selection is Second Chance by Jane Green.





Oh, and in other news, I'm now the organizer of our book club. Fun! :)

I'm addicted to Podcasts

My latest obsession is Podcasts. I'm constantly listening to them... I listen to them in the car on my way to work, I listen to them at my desk when I'm doing work, I listen to them when I'm driving home from work (I drive a lot... 45 min to 90 min, depending on traffic), I listen to them when Chris is playing video games, I listen to them when I'm waiting for Chris to arrive somewhere that we're mutually meeting (I often arrive first - sorry, hon ;)

Anyway, here are my favorites:
The Answer B!tch - this is a podcast from E!. The host, Leslie Gornstein is an E! insider who answers questions about how Hollywood works. I have to say, it is pretty darn entertaining. I've been listening to this one for a few years now. This podcast has new episodes each week.

CRL with Vickie Howell - CRL stands for craft.rock.listen. They also stand for the host's line of yarns, Craft, Rock, Love. This is mostly a knitting blog. Howell used to host a show on the DIY Network called Knitty Gritty. But, since DIY Network eliminated their craft shows, Knitty Gritty got the axe. Howell hosted 8 podcasts, all of which were super informative about some of the fiber industry insider info. I wish she had more to download. Last week I finished my last from her.

Crochet Unraveled - This is the official podcast of the online crochet community, Crochetville. There are 4 episodes that are OK, last one was recorded on 08/13/2008.

Fiber Lust - Hosted by a SAHW/M, Kat records her podcasts complete with potty mouth and on-the-fly disorganized segments from her bed using her laptop while her husband works nights. Sound quality of the podcast is surprisingly good. I personally find this podcast amusing. It is quite self-indulgent on the part of the host who freely admits that she loves being the center of attention and probably even more, loves talking about herself. Hmm... a girl after my own heart! :)

Yarn Thing: Crochet and Knitting - I just barely listened to the first episode and it was weird. Lots of shrieking and odd music fading the segments in and out. Too soon to tell on this one, the jury is still out.

Yarn Craft - This is the official podcast of Lion Brand Yarn. This is a VERY organized podcast with regular segments and two hosts. If you can get over the Liz girl's gravely voice, the podcast is really quite interesting and informative. This is an ongoing podcast and posts episodes every-other Tuesday.

Podcasts I have downloaded and haven't yet listened to:
The Adam Carolla Podcast
The Crochet Student: Where Textbooks Meet Yarn
CrochetCast
Crochetlocket: running with needles
The FiberCast
Getting Loopy! with Mary Beth Temple
Imprint: The #1 Twilight Podcast
Stash and Burn
Stitch Stud and his Bride
Yarn Talk

Lonely Blog

This blog is very lonely. I don't update it very often, even though I continue to read all the time. My apologies. Lately, I've been working to finish the Twilight series. Most people think I'm crazy for not finishing these books in a week or less, or some other such crazy time frame. The truth is that I've been very busy with work, and then when I'm home and relaxed, even the Twilight books have been putting me to sleep. So, I've been spending the bulk of my at home idle time crocheting while watching TV. But, as of around 10:30 PM last night, I finally finished Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer.





By far, this has been my favorite Twilight book. It is really funny because there were parts of it that I complained about and hated... but in the end it was truly my favorite of the series. I would say that I'm grief stricken now that I've finished all of the books in the series, but I have a little bit of a reprieve in that I'm already now reading the pdf version of Midnight Sun made available on the author's website. After reading the author's notes about the partial book, I'm saddened for her that someone had leaked it without her permission, and will read the book with an open mind (as it is an unfinished work). I really do hope that the author is able to overcome the violation of trust that lead to the book being leaked before it was ready and eventually continues to write about the Twilight saga. It is a wonderful escape for myself and I know many others who have read and love these books.

My May book club meeting is fast approaching, and I haven't read that book yet. I'll be at Barnes & Noble later today to buy the book since it is not available on the Kindle. May's selection is Naked Came the Manatee by Carl Hiaasen.





Speaking of Barnes & Noble... when I just went to their website, I found a new Jen Lancaster book! I had no idea she was writing another! The Twilight rock I've been living under has obviously been all-consuming. Apparently, Pretty in Plaid was just released on May 5th, this past week! I'm having a vision... I'm seeing my bill at Barnes & Noble going up by about $15 today... and yes, I want this book in physical form (as opposed to Kindle form)...

I Heart Mom

To all the mothers I know, I hope you have a very special day today filled with doing things you simply love.

To my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law, it was great to see you yesterday!

To my own mom... I send you 10 dumptrucks full of love this Mother's Day!

New roses + bone disappearance conviction!

The bone stealer was caught! In my last post, we saw Al, a sensitive pug who was mourning the loss of his bone. Now, we see that it is official. Bauer stole it. Count the number of bones in his mouth... I say we have our culprit! I only gave out three bones. Mrka still had hers, Al was missing his and two show up in this turkey's mouth:





Here are some roses from the new bushes in the garden:

I LOVE Totino's Pepperoni Pizza!

Yes, that cheapo pizza with the crunchy crust... but with GOBS of extra shredded cheese added by moi. Only 5 minutes until the oven timer dings!

More roses - just words, no pic yet!

This evening, I bought some more rose bushes... FYI, Lowe's in Orlando has them as cheap as $7.99! I bought five new ones... a light pink, a blush with light pink edges, blush with dark pink edges, a bright pink one, and an grafted one that has pink and red. I cut some of the blooms and shoved them into the same vase as the others. I don't want to get the camera out and take a pic, maybe I'll do that tomorrow :)

BTW, YAY, THE WEEKEND IS HERE!