Categories
Books

The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen

The Silent Girl

I read The Silent Girl this weekend–first book I’ve finished in awhile, for whatever reason. I really enjoyed it (more than the previous book, Ice Cold), but it made me think of all the tropes that it seems like every series–be it book or tv–feels the need to cover at some point or other. In this case, it was Chinatown, but on the bright side, it didn’t have anything to do with Asian mafia groups. I loved the character of Iris Fang and totally want to be her when I grow up (which will be never). Rizzoli’s male family members continue to drive me bug-nuts crazy and I really wish pianos would fall on the lot of them. And sadly, Isles was just a peripheral character in this one (although at least we weren’t subjected to (too much) moping about her affair with the priest).

My goal this month is to finish four novels, so that’s one down, three to go. To that end, however, I probably shouldn’t have started A Discovery of Witches, which appears to be as long as a hefty Harry Potter adventure. We’ll see how that goes.

Categories
Dollhouses and Miniatures Hobbies News Shopping

Dollhouses and miniatures

Once upon a time I was big into dollhouses and miniatures. I was fresh out of college, unemployed, bored, a little depressed, and on a whim I purchased a kit to build a dollhouse. Building it, painting and decorating it, furnishing it–it all became an obsession (as many of my hobbies do), and not a cheap one at that. I eventually moved on, gave the house away (keeping the awesomest furnishings and dolls, of course) and never went back.

Until now, that is. For some reason (I think it might’ve been something on Pinterest that sparked it), I’m all about the miniatures again. I’ve already ordered a new dollhouse kit from Amazon, and I’ve been plowing through dozens of blogs and tutorials, perusing the online hobby stores, and checking out houses on the streets looking for the right exterior finish for my (not-yet-arrived or built) new house (I’m thinking brick, or maybe stone). I dug out a box of the old furniture, and still need to find the box with the dolls (which, it turns out, are pretty rare and expensive now–who knew I had such good taste at 22?).

It’s all very familiar, yet new at the same time. The world wide web didn’t even exist the last time I was into miniatures! So many blogs and forums and pictures and experts and ideas and stores and damn, I love the internet. It really does make everything better.

I couldn’t find any digital pics specifically of my old dollhouse, but it’s here in the background behind Skitzo, our beloved and very much missed orange tabby:

Skitzo showing off my dollhouse
Skitzo showing off my dollhouse

Categories
News Travel

May already?

So it turns out I’m not ready for a Kindle. I’ve been carrying around the Kindle from the office with a bunch of books loaded on it, and I NEVER TAKE IT OUT. And that’s with four plane trips in the past month. So, no Kindle for me yet.

Nye's - Polish karaoke piano bar in Minneapolis (on Hennepin)

ION, I’ve been a traveling FIEND. Houston (wedding!), Dallas (nephew is permanently my nephew!), Minneapolis (zombie bars and Polish karaoke piano bars!), I’ve been to them all in the past month, and I’ll be heading to Vegas before the month is out. I am SO OVER traveling, yo. I miss my couch. Where I happen to sitting at this very moment, with a cat attached to my side.

On the plus side, I’ve been making new friends, from lots of places–L.A., northern Cali, Texas, D.C. and even Sweden. Hopefully Facebook will help me maintain and possibly grow these new acquaintances into more permanent fixtures, ’cause they’re all pretty awesome.

Dao, Moppety, Katie and me, on the dance 'floor' at 'stina's wedding

My knitting has been mainly scarves lately–quick, easy, and lightweight, so I can carry them around with me. Maybe I’ll post more on them later.

Saw the supermoon last night, and it was very impressive. No pictures, though, since my moon pictures always come out fuzzy, so I didn’t even try this time.

Saw the Avengers yesterday–so!awesome! Awesome enough to merit a second theater viewing, possibly even in 3D. (I hate 3D–headache inducing and generally not worth the extra $$. Might make an exception in this case, though.)

Let’s see, what else? Work is work. I need to practice more at pool before the tournament. I really need to do some grocery shopping. Oh, and my weight is out of control. Must!Move!More!

Ok, the end.

Categories
Books

Am I ready for a Kindle?

I have been obsessed with Kindles lately, and it doesn’t help that every time I go to Amazon.com, Kindle promos are front and center right above the fold on the homepage. I have thirty gazillion physical books in my to-be-read bookcase, I do not need to be purchasing digital books too! And yet, I drool over the Kindle Fire every day. Is it the tech of it? The instant gratification of being able to buy a book from anywhere at any time? Knowing I can get to my book from any computer?

I’ve been borrowing my department’s Kindle to try to get the temptation out of my system, and so far I’ve finished one book on it (Scepter of the Ancients (Skulduggery Pleasant)) and am about a quarter into my second (Unholy Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 1)). I’ve also purchased several ebooks from Amazon, when they’ve been cheap enough that I couldn’t resist.

So far, it’s cool. I’m reading just fine on it. Any more than with physical books? Maybe not so much, but it does help curtail spending in physical bookstores (not necessarily a good thing, though, since I don’t want physical bookstores to go *poof* like Borders *sniff*). But in 2011, my reading volume went down significantly from previous years, and I believe part if it can be attributed to me trying not to buy new books, yet not being particularly interested in the books I’d already bought.

This post is all over the place, isn’t it? What is it even about? Not sure. Let’s try to break it down to bullet points:
1. I’m not buying a Kindle yet because I can’t afford it.
2. I’m borrowing a Kindle, so I can buy books by new to me authors without spending too much or taking up space on my already crowded bookshelves.
3. I’m newly inspired to find new authors.

i.e., I’m trying harder to spend more time reading, whether it’s an ebook or a physical book. (Finished three physical books this year already.) So, there’s that.

Whatever, I think I’ll just go read something now.

Categories
Knitting and Crochet Shopping

Happy New Year! Let the new knitting projects commence!

Per usual, I spent the Christmas holidays in New England, and the combination of awesome baby nephew and getting Baby Beanies: Happy Hats to Knit for Little Heads for Christmas meant getting back on the knitting wagon. Of course, that also meant a trip to Michael’s for yarn, circs and double-pointed needles–always fun!

I finished this hat in two days:

Riley's hat
Choc....something hat from Baby Beanies

Which looks even more adorable *on* him:
Riley in hat
Riley in the first hat his Auntie Polgara made for him

I made another hat as well–a pointy one in blue and green–but for some reason completely forgot to take a picture of it. Plus I suspect it’s already too small for his head. Obviously this means I’ll need to make another in the next size up!

I also picked up some marbled yarn (don’t have it with me, will try to remember to add the name later) in cranberry colors to make a Big Bad Baby Blanket, which I wanted to get started on a couple of days ago, but I can’t find any of my size 11 or 13 circs. I know I have them, ’cause it’s my favorite size, so I can only assume I have a gazillion WIPs still on needles hiding in the many nooks and crannies of my apartment. Question is, do I go in search of them, or do I just buy more needles? Hmm. I think I see some new Addi Turbos in my future! 😀