January 2012 Reading list!

We are a month in to the new year!  Crazy how fast time flies.  Here are the books I read this month:

  Juliet by Anne Fortier
We all know the classic play written by Shakespeare. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl can't be together. Boy and girl end up dying.  End of story.  Or is it?  That is the exact question Julie Jacobs finds herself asking after her aunt's dying wish lands her in Italy searching for answers from events that happened centuries before. Her search leads her to the realization of a curse, murder and mystery.  The story bounces between the present day adventure and the original story of Romeo and Juliet.  Quite a few twists and turns await you in this book.  I thoroughly enjoyed it!



The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I wanted to read the book before I went to see the movie, which I still haven't seen actually.  Wow!  This book was right up my alley with my love of mysteries.  What happened to Harriet Vanger? That is what it all boils down to.  She disappears suddenly from the family island and is presumed dead.  Her great uncle Henrik thinks someone in the family killed her, but a body was never found.  Enter Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist who was just found guilty of libel and is looking to get away.  Blomkvist is hired to look into Harriet's strange disappearance.  Meanwhile we are closely following the work of a girl with a dragon tattoo, Lisbeth.  She works for a PI company that did some preliminary work on Blomkvist for Vanger.  Eventually their paths collide.  Do they solve the mystery in time? Violence against women is the major theme for this story.  Be prepared for some gruesome scenes.  

 Not sure if these books are quite what you are looking for? Check out the previous Reading Lists

2011:

September- Water for Elephants, Sarah's Key, If You Could See Me Now, A Child Called It

October-Eat, Pray, Love; The Wedding; Nights in Rodanthe, 51/50 The Magical Adventures of a Single Life, The Hunger Games

November- Can you Keep a Secret?, Twenties Girl

December- Inheritance, Thorn in my Heart, Fair is the Rose

A giant bug tried to eat me!

Giant bugs and I don't get along.  If they leave me alone, they have a better chance of living out the day.  Remember the spider that was in my office?  He lived. 

Here is another Florida mini-adventure. If you missed the last mini-adventure you can catch up here.

One day I went to watch one of the girls I used to babysit...who is now 14...sniff sniff...play some softball.  It was of course a beautiful day.  I'm just standing there watching her play when I feel a little tickle on my leg.  I look down to find....EEK!! 

Can you find him?!  He was about 1-1 1/2 inches long, no exaggeration.  Creepy bug tried to eat me!  I quickly flicked him off and the dad of my grown up little girl (sniff) killed it. 

DIE bug!!!  

Why do the giant bugs always find me?

I guess there is at least one bad thing about Florida. 

My mini-adventures in Florida

This past week I went to Florida.  I went for several reasons:

1. To visit some friends (miss you guys already!)
2. It's winter in Ohio.  :(  But it is warm in Florida!
3. I have Belongitis Southernexia

 I am trying to figure out how someone who loves everything about the beach, warm weather, palm trees and sunshine so much lives in OHIO!  It's just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.  Oh yeah, because my family lives here.  Hmmm...I'll have to see what I can do to change that. 

That's a problem for another day.

Focus.

I didn't keep you up to date with my adventures during my trip, so now it's time to get you caught up.

One of my mini-adventures was going fishing.  LOL!

I didn't make a good fisher-woman.  I had no idea what I was doing and even though I tried to help; I was kind of an epic fail.  It was very exciting seeing the pole twitch when a fish was nibbling on the bait.  Of course after I let out a girlish sequel of excitement, I would try to set the hook with not so much luck.  I had fun though.  I mean who wouldn't have fun sitting on the pier at Ft Myers Beach listening to the waves lapping up on the beach.

It was slow going, when the gentleman next to us got a bite on his line!  And boy was it a BIG one!  I was so excited.  We (uhem...my friend) helped pull his catch in.  It turned out not to be a fish but a stingray!  Amazing!

It was dark and not very good lighting, so sorry about the crappy picture.  He was a good sized stingray.  In this picture my friend is pulling the hook out of it's mouth.  Mr. Stingray was then returned to his watery home. 

An hour or so later we finally got a fish!  My friend pulled this guy in....

We decided to name him Fred.  As my friend cleaned and sliced him up, I thanked Fred for giving up his life so we could eat him.  It was kind of a sad moment for me.  I guess even more sad for Fred. 

He was a tasty speckled, spotted, freckled, polka-dotted trout.  I can't remember exactly what kind of trout, but you get the idea he had spots on him. 

I can now say I went fishing.  Too bad that wasn't on my bucket list.  I'm kind of tempted to add it, just so I can cross it off.  I think in this case that is cheating though. 

Making boys cry

Did you see my t-shirt? Yeah, it's kinda true.  I don't mean to do it, it just kind of happens. 

Remember, I was doing an experiment with Match.com?  I joined for a couple months just to see what would happen, but secretly wondering if I would meet a lot of guys and go on some dates.  I did meet a few guys, and I did end up going on a couple dates.  But as nice as a guy that he is, he just isn't for me. 

Here comes the awkward part that I hate.  Telling him that I was pretty sure he liked me a lot more than I liked him.  I still haven't officially done that. 

Unless he reads this blog...oops.

He hasn't text me for a couple days, so maybe I'm off the hook altogether. If only I could be that lucky.

I realized from the beginning that interacting with guys online was different than trying to form relationships face-to-face. I feel like there was a different code.  In real life I am all about telling the person how I feel face-to-face, not over a text or email.  In this instance, I almost feel like I have to go the less personal way since that is the main way we communicate. 

Either way I don't want to make him cry.  Actually I'm sure he won't cry, but it is always a ping to the ego.

So what do I do?  How do you tell a guy you're just not that in to him in a gentle, not-so-horrible way?
Readers I need your advice.

Yes, that's you.  Leave me a comment. 

And then I'll give you his number an you can tell him.
Ok, ok, I'll do it.
Gosh you guys.  ;)

Sand and Sunshine

Take a good look...

Palm trees, beach, water and sunshine.  Four of my favorite things.  After three years of hoping and wishing, I am finally going back to Florida.  I am so excited you have NO idea!  Well, you might have a little idea if you know that I have Belongitis Southernexia.  It is a real disease, just look it up in the Jenny Dictionary.

I leave Friday for a much needed, long-awaited vacation on the beach.  A week in paradise.  And while it will be in the 40's or lower here in Northern Ohio, it will be in the 70's/80's in wonderful Florida.

I started packing like 5 days ago. 

You would too if you were going here.

 

So true!!  Can't wait!

Random Friday thoughts....

A friend got this shirt for me a long time ago, and I laughed so hard when I saw it.  Mostly because it's kind of true.  I like to think there are many other ladies out there that have done this, so I'm not alone. I don't do it on purpose, it just kind of happens.  Oops.




We are now almost a week into the new year.  How are your resolutions holding up?  I'm working on my bucket list.  My latest endeavor is beginning to take shape...

I got a few books from the library and some help from a couple friends.  (It is hard to learn to knit form a book.)  Here is a close up of my practice knitting project.  I have no idea what it will be since it isn't very big.

It's only 20 stitches across, so maybe it is a Barbie blanket for my niece....when she is old enough to play with Barbies...in a couple years.  :)

I work at a school so I enjoyed a great Christmas break!  I did so many fun things, like...

go to my first NBA game.  A small group of friends decided to go to a Pistons game!  As you can tell it was very crowded....uhem. Well, it was just an off day.  They won though!  It was very fun.


One of my favorite things to do is sing.  I think I'm pretty horrible at singing, but I love it.  So at a New Year's party we played:

Glee karaoke!  He he he.  Yeah I'm a Gleek!  I can't help it.  My favorite episode so far is the Singing in the Rain one. Singing in the Rain/Under My Umbrella mash up is A.ma.zing!

Ok, that's enough of my random bits.  Have a great weekend everyone!