Off spelunking

I love that word - spelunking - and I recently heard on Grammar Girl that words with k's in them have the most comedic value. I won't go into what this means for my last name, although I swear it has less comedic value than my maiden name, but I digress...

Tomorrow, we go off to explore caves, flashlights in hands, light up tennies on our feet (or on the 2 year old's feet), baby in his baby backpack, panic whistles at the ready!

DH assures me there are no bats. My toddler keeps assuring me that there MUST be bats and that we are actually going to the Batcave.

I'll return on Saturday with much to report and some book recommendations. I've made a dent in the pile. WOO!

Also, on a more somber note. Those of you who know me well, know that my little sprite of a toddler was born with a hole in her heart. We were told it would probably close immediately, but it did not. We went to see the cardiologist again today and are praising God that it is, finally, closing. I had visions of open heart surgery in my head and thought I was holding it all together till I got really quite ill before her appointment. She was a brave little girl and told us that she KNEW it was healing and that it was. WHEW!

Now, if we can just get her through the cave safely, I'll be fine. ;)

See you on Saturday, blog buddies!

And I now have half the local library...

on my bookshelf at home, or so it seems. I'd put a few things on the "holds" list that I wanted to take a look at. It can take weeks to get holds sometimes. But, um, this time, all 20 came in at once. Oops. Guess who's doing A LOT of reading over vacation!?

Most of them are mysteries but I have one "adventure" novel, a historical romance/literary novel, one writing book, and three or four non-fiction 'sort of research sort of I'm just interested in baseball and India' books.

I'll be sure to post the titles of anything that hits it out of the park. ;)

Slow and Steady

4,002 / 65,000 (6.2%)

Need a good mystery?

I just discovered this site: StopYou're KillingMe. I had all sorts of random bookmarks all across the internet reminding me of who won what award when and various lists of mysteries that people recommended... now I have it all right here in this handy dandy site. My first read at their recommendation is going to be The Guards by Ken Bruen. It sounds fantastic. I'll let you know what I think!

Also, it's summer in Seattle which means I'm sitting here in a sweater trying not to think that I need to plan my trip to the pumpkin patch and get started on my Christmas shopping. On the upside, I'm not too hot. ;)

Cover Art

Question, my blog buddies - do you ever buy (or check out) a book based on the cover art alone? Or do you maybe pick up a book based on cover art and if the back cover copy sounds good leave with the book?

I do this all the time. If I see anything with a lamp post, I'm all over it, or anything vaguely 20's or 30's, especially if it looks like it's set in India or Egypt in the 20's... or anything noirish. Usually this works out really well for me. Here are some that I stumbled on based solely on cover art and ended up loving:

So my question to you is - do you ever do this? If so, what sort of cover art makes you pick up a book?

Overheard around 11 pm....

My little red head comes downstairs while I'm watching who gets kicked off the dance show (Kherrington people, are you CRAZY!!! And GEV?!) and says with a scowl, "Why aren't you coming up to check on me?!"

Me -- "Your dad just checked on you, I was coming up as soon as the show was over." She likes frequent checking.

So then my husband, stoic, stalwart guy that he is grabs her to himself and starts talking a mile a minute, "Oh my little red head! I am so sorry no one checked on you. Your are my little red headed angel! I am so glad that I have my little red head!" This always drives her banana sandwich. She can't stand it. She says, "Daaaaaad! Stop talking repetatively...."

Dad, -- "How about if I rhyme? Would that be fine? I'll only talk to you in verse. It couldn't get much worse. I love to make you laugh..."

Pause... pause... pause...

Me, "Really? You can't rhyme laugh?!"

Him, "I seem to have rhymed myself into a corner."

Red Head "You can't get much warmer!"

Which makes no sense at all and only sort of rhymes but she completely cracked herself up with that one....

And now I need to go check on her... again...

Tonight...

I invited my sister over. We had nachos and movie treats. We turned on the Bachelorette....

And then... Jason opened his mouth... she said "I can't..." and I don't know what came next because we screamed. I ran to the kitchen. She grabbed the remote and got the horror off of the tv.

And now The Bachelorette is dead to me. I couldn't even watch the end of the show. Not to mention the post show analysis. I am putting my head in the sand and pretending it didn't happen.

Jesse who? Deanna who? The last thing I remember is Shayne saying yes to Matt...

Happy 4th!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

I'm headed to a BBQ for some fun, family, food and fireworks. WOO!!! Last year I sent DH with my 6 year old and the neighbors to walk down to the lookout and watch the fireworks over the water. I stayed home with our 1 year old because I'd been throwing up all day and was afraid to move 2 inches from the bathroom. It's amazing what a year will do.... The 6 year old became a 7 year old, the 1 year old became a 2 year old, and the flu became my 6 month old. ;)

For the life of me I can't remember why I didn't send the 1 year old with them...

Still Going

3166 / 65000 words. 5% done!>