Breaking Dawn

Well, I finished up with the Twilight series...no more Bella & Edward. The 4th book definitely was a bit different than the other 3, but it was an interesting wrap to the series. If you haven't read any of them, I highly recommend it. If you have read some of them, then finish up the series.

I think Stephenie could have ended the series with the 3rd book, but the 4th book answers the "what happens next," which I know many readers always want to know when they are done with a good book.

In the meanwhile, I did have the opportunity to see the movie Twilight last week before it was gone from the theater. As always, the book is better...more descriptive. I'll probably see the movie again when it's out on DVD or HBO. They picked a great person to be Edward...a little too much on the lip coloring though. But, as a friend of mine indicated over the weekend, it really seemed more like a "low budget" movie, not realizing how much of a "cult" followed the books and what a hit it probably was at the box office.

So, if you saw the movie, but didn't read the books, let me know your thoughts.

Eclipse

Okay, I finished up the third book in the Twilight series....now I'm on a manhunt for the fourth and supposedly final book in the series. I've got myself on the library hold list...I'm number 9...fortunately not too far on the list, but it will still be probably 3 weeks away before my number comes due. I can not believe it takes 3 weeks or more for someone to read a book! If anyone has it out there...I only need it for 2 days...possible 1 :)

No School Day

It's January 16 and we are already having our 2nd "No School" day. The first we missed as we were already in California for the holidays before the 12-14" of snow blew into Rochester. This one, well you would look outside and see the absolutely blue sky with sunshine and wonder, what were these people thinking. Well, since it's 10:00 am now and it's still -6, with windchill of -22, I could only wonder what it really was at 6:00 am when we got "the call". The sad thing is, it's only the 2nd day for middle & high school, the elementary schools already had this as a "day off" for in-service or whatever they call it these days. Today was the last day of finals for 1st quarter...guess it will be fun Tuesday when they go back to school!

So, now we're bundled up in my bed watching movies, while I read Eclipse....bummer that pretty soon we are going to have to brave it and go to the market...the cupboards & frig are quite empty.

The dog doesn't even want to go outside to chase squirrels :)

The New Comcast...

Well, if you are like me, a Comcast user for emails, you would have turned on your computer this morning to find a whole new comcast email system. Since I run my emails thru Comcast's system vs. Outlook to help keep out the virus', I was quite surprised to find the new set up as appealing as it appears, wiped out my whole address book....on all accounts.

So in trying to regenerate it from my yahoo address book, I now have to collect my addy via Plaxo? Someone explain that one too me...obviously being out of work for a year I have limited my IT interface on all the new and upcoming things. So, sorry if you received an message from me to join Plaxo, or whatever it asked as I was trying to generate new address books. I am sure I haven't hit all the snags yet. Some I have recovered, others will be lost forever :(

So, basically to avoid the mental breakdown I know I would have had dealing with it all at once, I just continued reading my Stephenie Meyer's book. Now I'm at peace with the world and can once again figure out what I do next with my Comcast accounts.

New Moon

Funny to write about New Moon when we just finished up with our Full Moon. But what can I say, another Stephenie Meyer book completed. I think I liked this one better than Twilight. I wonder what will happen in Book 3, Eclipse. I guess I'll start it right now to find out. These books just suck you right in....pun intended. "Lifetime Fitness, what's that?" Fortunately the dog sleeps most of the day :)

Twilight

So, I decided to get onto the teen bandwagon and read Twilight. My friend Kathy provided me with books 1-3 back in December. I finally finished up with a slew of books that I had picked up from the library...or actually came due on the Hold List at the library, so it was time to pick up the first book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.

Well, less than 24 hours later (including sleeping time), I finished the first book, all 498 pages of it. Although I thought it was a bit slow to start, for some reason...could have been the "vampire glamor" effect...I just couldn't put it down. I started it last night during the normal "bedtime reading time" and before I knew it, it was 11:30 and I needed to go to sleep. Then I started reading it again this morning, ended up blowing everything off today just so I could read it.

If you haven't read it, I recommend it. I kept the Oxford dictionary close by as Stephenie used some unique words in the book...and although I could decipher the meanings accordingly in the context, I'm trying to teach the kids not be afraid to look up the words that are unknown...and I really wanted to make sure I had the true meaning of the words that she was using.

Now, I have to see if it's too late to see the movie...or if I have to wait until DVD. Now, it's time to move onto "New Moon".

New Year Resolutions

Well, another year has gone by...how well did you do with your 2008 resolutions. Here are the results of my 2008 resolutions:
(1) Read 50 Books: I have 56 listed in my log, I know there are probably a few more books out there I read that I forgot to add to my list.
(2) Life at the Gym: Outside of summer & vacations, I managed to work up to 5 days a week, with a minimum of 3 days a week.
(3) Blog Twice a Week: Well that didn't go so well...I'm just not a slave to my computer, so I'm just not on it that much, but I do look at it as a success as I have kept it up versus letting it drop.
(4) Get & Stay Organized: Always a continuous process and always underway. Did a lot of "Clean Sweeping" this year, of course now I wonder "what did I do with...." I'm sure it was part of the toss pile.
(5) Make My Family #1: Well, I did a lot more things with school, attended all the sports events that I could, help with homework, and spent more time with my husband...is that always a good thing? I'd give myself a 8 out of 10 for sense of accomplishment.

Now, onto my 2009 New Year Resolutions. I've really had to think about this one and some of the items continue from last year....needing to make sure I keep the commitment.

(1) Complete Album Projects: Get current in my kids albums & stay current. Tackle other album projects like my kids first year's album, Richard's auto album, and start on historical albums. I'd like to target completing 240 pages in my albums. This is actually less than I ended up completing in 2008, but the projects require more research.

(2) Continue Reading: I will target 60 books this year...an average of 5 per month. This may be tight at some times, but I think it's still reachable.

(3) Start a daily journal: I know I have the blog, but that's for sharing. When I was in Lexington in November, I discovered the importance of writing just a simple daily journal that can be reviewed by future descendants.

(4) Continue a minimum of 3 days at the gym.

(5) Finish the remaining house projects: Haven't been able to turn back to the items that need finishing yet, so I will make a plan of action to get those items completed.

So, have you set yours yet?