Happy Halloween!

With all the excitement done for the evening I can not relax and think about what has happened today. The day started out with a trip to the Barn for trick or treat storytime. Nicholas wouldn't get dressed up so I took a baby cow and a pirate and a non dressed up Nicholas out for the show. We then came home and waited for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive. We also attended a autumn festival at our friends non-denom church. It was a huge building, they had a moon bounce and a big blow up slide. They set up all types of games so the kids could win candy. We all had a ball. We then came back to catch the tail end of Trick or Treat here at the house. We got to see all the neighbor kids dressed up. My favorite costumes of the day were the little girl of about 3 dressed as a Peacock and the little girl of about 2 as a pink cat. So cute!

Baptism

This Sunday is Tristan's baptism so we have all kinds of company coming in from out of town. You would think I would be getting things ready but I'm not! Instead of cleaning and putting things away I'm sitting here blogging and trying really hard to ignore all that I have to do. Too bad I can't do a 24 blog where I just sit and type all day. I bet that would get boring after about 20 minutes...

Oh well maybe I should go do what I need to do and stop procrastinating

My Barnes and Noble

So I went ahead and tried it, put in 5 titles as favorite books and lo and behold I got absolute crap back as recommendations. Out of the 12 books they recommended 5 of them were titles by the same author...as if I wouldn't read other things by an author I liked. I put in Atlas Shrugged, The Eye of the World, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, The Romonov Prophecy, and The Lightning Thief. The recommendations I got were: two different editions of Fountainhead, Anthem, the Stand, Catcher in the Rye, another edition of Atlas Shrugged, The smithsonian guide to birds (WTF?), the 2009 complete Runner's day by day Log engagment calendar (yeah cause that has anything to do with what I put in), a CD version of Lord of the Rings that runs $100, On Beauty, the Ladies of Grace Adieu, and the Trudeau Vector. What absolute garbage, what possible reason do they have to recommend two of the same version of not just one book but two books. And I think I am quite capable of reading the remaining books by an author I liked. How about giving me an opportunity to read an author I may not have known about based on my responses. Only one book in that whole list fit that profile so I guess it wasn't a complete waste but still...The Smithsonian guide to Birds?!?

Things I want to read

OK so I have decided that since I can never remember what I want to read after I see it and thing 'Oh hey, I want to read that' I will make myself a list of things I have seen and really want to read!

1. Anything by Wilkie Collins - I read mysteries all the time and have never read the father of the mystery genre, how sad is that!

2. War and Peace - I even broke down and bought the new translation thinking that spending $40 on a hardcover will make me read it...so far it hasn't worked.

3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - there aren't many books that are that yellow and I like it! Yes it's true I judge books by their covers, I have been known to not read a book when the cover is horrid looking.

4. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - I have heard raves about this book but I haven't been able to bring myself to read it. I hate when that happens.

5. Historical fiction, preferably something with Kings, Queens, and crazy followers that either love or hate them.

6. Something new by Brandon Sanderson...come on get that Wheel of Time number 12 out already!

7. the Georgia Nichols series, since Terra gave it such a glowing recommendation. http://terrabehindthebooks.blogspot.com/2008/10/omg-i-love-louise-rennison.html

I suppose that will keep my busy awhile...

Boo at the Zoo

Last night my husband and I took our kids to Boo at the Zoo. We went two years ago and the place was packed with companies giving way stuff. There were booths giving away big bags of M&M's, Cape Cod chips and Starbucks Coffee. Last year we didn't go as we were out of town for Halloween so we had high hopes for this year. I was a little let down by what we saw. The first year we went the place was packed with companies giving away freebie products or candy to kids of all ages, this year the Olmstead walk was comparitively empty of booths. Now I'm wondering if this is because we went on a Sunday instead of Saturday and companies ran out of product or if the economy has just driven the freebie's away. Probably the latter...
Either way we had a good time, we met some friend there with their kids and we walked most of the zoo before they were too tired to go on.

To save brain cells

After watching yet another episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse I broke down and started to blog. I feel my brain cells slip away with each children's show that I watch...what better way to keep myself sharp than to set my thoughts down online for all my friends to see and harass me on if they aren't coherent! I miss speaking with adults on a daily basis...other than my husband. I miss my friends from BN, and I miss being around books and knowing what is new and what is selling. I wish there was an online bookclub that actually read books I might read...

Speaking of bookclubs, the Barn sent me an email touting their new My Barnes and Noble program. They have you add your favorite books, movies and DVDs in and then they give you recommendations. I wonder if they will actually give you recommendations that go along with what you read or if they will just push the stuff that people pay them to push. One can only hope they will actually give you real recommendations as I'm always looking for new things to read.