It says it right there in my Book Review Policy: “I am not an especially fast reader, and I have a family, a full-time job, and other responsibilities unrelated to book blogging.” When there are days when you can barely cobble together thirty minutes to read, you’re not going to get through most books very quickly. My average time to read one book is a little over a week. But assembling that thirty minutes a […]
Tag: mostly true stories
I Believe in Questions; or, Why I Joined the Faith and Fiction Roundtable
I was honestly a bit surprised when my application to join the 2011 Faith and Fiction Roundtable was accepted. After all, Amy has heard me call myself a heathen. But she’s also heard me – sometimes, still – call myself a Catholic, although it’s been a while since I’ve been active in the Church where I was raised. However, I’ve found that you can take the girl out of the Church but you can’t take […]
Bullet Points; or, me and a gun
Image by ksbuehler via Flickr Whenever there’s a newsworthy shooting somewhere in this country – most recently, the one in Tucson earlier this year – the debate about guns gets revived. America is a nation born from war; it wouldn’t have come into existence without firearms. Our Constitution’s Second Amendment was meant to ensure our right to bear arms in defense of ourselves, our families, and our country. However, all too often, they’re used for […]
Packing my Bags – With Books! (Weekend Assignment #357)
Weekend Assignment # 357: The Art of Packing When you go on a trip, do you travel light, or try to make sure you have everything you might conceivably need? Specifically, what do you bring along by way of electronics? Extra Credit: What’s the most important thing you ever lost, broke, or forgot to bring on your trip? I don’t usually pack for a trip until the night before I leave, but I’m thinking about […]
Week-End Review: 5 things from me, and 5 (links) for Friday
Five things from me: Looks like things are going well 2 weeks post-shoulder surgery! The incisions are healing nicely and the X-rays look good. I’ve been given two new exercises to do 2-3 times per day. Otherwise, I’m to stay in the sling and basically try to forget I even have a right arm for another 4-5 weeks, and I see the ortho again on February 21, exactly one month after the surgery. Aside from […]
In which I pessimistically admit I *could* be an optimist
People tend to think in terms of binaries – optimist/pessimist, good/bad, dark/light, full/empty, heads/tails – although most things are more complicated than that. But at the same time, one part of the pair can’t exist without the other – and at some point in the mix we might find those elusive things we call “truth” and “balance.” My sister and I have gone back and forth on the optimist/pessimist thing for years. She’s fundamentally an […]
Ten years of (sometimes reluctant) adventure
This post was inspired by BlogHer.com‘s year-long “Own Your Beauty” initiative and its January theme, “Adventure.” And sorry to disappoint those of you who would marvel at my speedy recovery, but it was written prior to my surgery last Friday. If I were still married to my first husband, we would have celebrated our twenty-seventh wedding anniversary on January 7. (Hopefully, “celebrated” would have been the right word.) We would have been married to each […]
Friday Foto: Hello, Old Frenemy
The Ultrasling and I will be reunited today! I am not as enthused about the prospect as that exclamation point might imply. My shoulder surgery – rotator cuff repair and anterior stabilization – is scheduled for 7:30 this morning. It’s estimated to take two to three hours – which I will never remember, because I’ll be under general anesthesia – and when I wake up in recovery, my right arm will be cradled in the […]
Major Medical: The next episode in the Shoulder Saga
You may have heard something about this before, but I hope you’ll indulge my ruminating for a minute or two… In a little more than a week, I will be having Major Surgery. At least I think it’s Major. It’s outpatient surgery, since it will be done at a surgery facility and not in the hospital and I’ll go home the same day. It’s an arthroscopic procedure, so it will be less invasive. However, it […]
Working through Winter (Weekend Assignment #352)
Weekend Assignment # 352: Winter Work Now that the new year has begun, most of us are back at work, with only a few holidays to look forward to over the next several months. Most of us in the Northern Hemisphere wake now to cold, dark mornings, and may see little or no daylight on our morning and evening commutes. What is this time of year like for you? Are you more productive in the […]
Tuesday Tangents: Early Christmas Gifts!
I set it under the tree for a few days, but in the end, I couldn’t hold off on opening the package I received from my Secret Santa in the Book Bloggers’ Holiday Swap! Santa checked my list and chose one of the books on it to send me, along with a some Christmas-themed decor (if I don’t use the cookie cutter for its intended purpose, it could always be an ornament). Many thanks and […]
From the archives: Christmas Spectacle!
These were taken during my family’s 2006 and 2007 visits to the place my sister calls “The House That Threw Up Christmas.” This truly is a local institution – according to their website, their first Christmas was in 1964, the same year as my first Christmas. They’ve got a photo archive through 2005, so you can see how the display has evolved over the years – well, “grown” is a more accurate word than “evolved;” […]
