Yay for Royal Weddings!

Sigh. What lovely day.

And a new pretty, pretty Princess to admire! (I know, I know, she's a Duchess. Shht! And let me enjoy.)

A Tale of Two Vanities

A couple of weeks ago (before I came down with THE SINUS INFECTION FROM HELL), I made a solo trip to Ikea (which I have never done) to procure a new vanity. I loaded it in the car, carried it into the house, and assembled it all by myself. This may sound like a very small achievement, but that bitch was heavy. The vanity I had before was cute, but in a very dainty, girly way. And although I am girly, I'm not the least bit dainty. And as you can see by the plastic sets of drawers to the right, the vanity cannot contain the mass quanitites of crap I have. Seriously - my scarf, headband, and sunglass collections are something to behold. (Apologies for the cell phone photos. I've been too busy to upload from my camera.)

The Malm dressing table from Ikea (not currently listed on the website) is larger, sleeker, and fits in with the modern (and also birch colored) furniture in our bedroom. The drawer was a bear to assemble and I'm not positive I got it in right, but it holds about three times what the previous vanity could. As you can see, I still have too much stuff and have the storage cube underneath (from Target's Itso line). But overall I think the effect is more attractive and more streamlined.

Don't you just love Spring cleaning?

March Reads: 50 Books for 2011

Reading was definitely too slow this month. We've been busy with visiting family members, house projects, LIFE, etc. I did re-read a book or two, but I need to pick up the pace if I want to finish 50 new books this year. I really should be averaging 4 books a month. Eek!

#7 - It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita by Heather B. Armstrong - Successful mommy blogger (http://www.dooce.com/) Heather Armstrong writes about debilitating post-partum depression with her trademark blend of humor and exageration. It was very funny and touching. The only thing I really disliked was the epilogue about how easy baby number two is since she stayed on the anti-depressants this time. She left out the part about how it might also be easier now that her website makes so much money that she and her husband now work from home with a nanny and a personal assistant.

#8 - Deadly Vows by Brenda Joyce - I've written about this series at length including the fact the final installment in the series was being held hostage by the publisher. I was so excited they finally decided to release it and the final Francesca Cahill mystery does not disappoint.

#9 - Demon Possessed by Stacia Kane - This is the final book in the Megan Chase series about a psychic psychiatrist who's been swept into the world of demons. This was a mostly entertaining series and a satisfying end to the series though I definitely don't feel the same affection for Megan that I do for Stacia Kane's Chess Putnam (heroine of the Downside Ghosts series).

Spring Cleaning

Spring always puts me in the mood to organize. I guess it’s the need to start fresh to match everything green and blooming outside. But my mind these days is overflowing with ideas for projects, new furniture (to better organize), better storage space, cleaner spaces. Unfortunately my wallet is not overflowing with cash for all of these projects.

We’re starting with the master bathroom out of necessity. While bracing my hand against the shower wall, the tiles collapsed under my hand. Unbeknownst to us, we had some water leaking through the grout and now have water damage in the walls. This is what we currently live with.

So while a new shower was definitely an unplanned expense, I’m looking forward to the nicer and larger one we’re going with. Since we’ll have a new shower, I’m taking the opportunity to spruce up that bathroom. Since we’re the only ones who ever see that bathroom, I’ve never really taken the trouble to add an pretty touches (other than a shower curtain and mats). It’s been a fairly utilitarian room except for the massive lack of organization. The counters are covered with hair products, prescriptions, and assorted ugliness. I’m posting the before picture in an effort to shame myself into fixing this space. Don’t judge!

Additionally we’ll be adding a new shelf and bringing in some decorative baskets to store some of that unsightly mess in, some fresh new rugs, and some pretty decorations. Yes, no guests see that room, but Rob and I see it on a daily basis. And I think we deserve to have a fresh and serene bathroom to enjoy.

Bathroom after photos coming in May.

Other projects I’m currently planning: new vanity and makeup organization, and the great closet cleanout part 2. You may remember the great closet cleanout of 2008.

The moments that make us fat.

Last week CNN helpfully posted an article designed to make you feel shameful about pretty much every bite of food you put in your mouth: The moments that make us fat.

Luckily, awesome blogger extraordinaire Lesley Kinzel of Two Whole Cakes has re-worked that article into something useful: Helpful Tips: How not to be a boorish body-policing jerk.

Trust me, you will never lie on your deathbed thinking, “I wish I’d berated
myself more for not looking like a photoshopped-to-perfection model in a
lingerie ad,”

The Kid's Speech

My son Cooper will be four years-old next month. He has blonde hair and dimples, with his daddy’s eyes and his mama’s eyebrows. He’s bright, funny, shy, and testing his boundaries on a daily basis. He loves cars, superheroes, Pixar movies, and macaroni & cheese. And he stammers.

It’s very common for toddlers to stutter as they’re learning to speak. They often get so excited over new discoveries that their mouths can barely catch up with their brains. We read up on it and talked to his pediatrician and then didn’t worry about it. Early childhood stuttering usually disappears within six months.

In Cooper’s case, it’s been going on for over a year. So we made an appointment for him to be evaluated by a speech pathologist. She was very impressed by his vocabulary, but even I could see that he became reluctant to identify items on her flash cards, once he realized that we were focused on his speech. And for days afterward, his stammering became much more pronounced and he would refuse to say words that he’d said a hundred times before, as if afraid of stuttering over them. It was heartbreaking.

Then the diagnosis came: moderate fluency impairment. It’s very hard to not think “wow, we screwed him up fast”. The King’s Speech aside, most experts don’t seem to think that parents actually cause stammering. But what if it is our fault? Was it our repeated insistence to “use your words”? Or the many times we’ve tried to instill better manners by having him repeat himself so as to ask for snacks and TV shows instead of demanding? Was it the genetic combination of my mild OCD and Rob’s anxiety?

And here we are now. Paying $75 a week (which insurance doesn’t cover, since his impairment is not the result of a birth defect - see? The insurance company thinks it’s our fault too!) for Cooper to meet with a speech therapist. She’s made suggestions for behavior modification we can try at home. She thinks we should speak more slowly, pausing for 1-2 seconds before responding to a question or a comment from him, and decrease the amount of questions that we ask (instead of directly asking questions like "Which color do you want?", she suggests rephrasing them as a statement like "I wonder what color you want.") The idea is that these modifications will help to create a more relaxed conversation environment, and decrease time pressure to communicate. This is a very difficult challenge for people who choose to speak in 140 characters or less.

So my precious, beautiful child, who is pretty much perfect in every way (except for the occasional epic toddler meltdown) is learning that it’s okay to communicate more slowly. And mommy and daddy are endeavoring to do the same.

January and February Reads: 50 books for 2011

Below are the books I've read so far this year. I probably won't be doing individual book reviews anymore. It seemed to just be setting myself up for failure since it requires a lot of time. Which, I don't know if you've noticed this yet, but I don't have a lot of time.

#1 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) by JK Rowling - Didn't really miss the lack of Quidditch matches in this one. Could NOT help picturing Robert Pattinson as Cedric Diggory despite not having seen any of the movies.

#2 - Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Book 5) by JK Rowling - This was the beginning of the series turning much darker. The Umbridge character was truly horrifying and there's an overwhelming helplessness about the entire story.

#3 - Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner - I was attracted to this book due to the plus size heroine (though repelled by the $9.99 Kindle price point for a 10 year-old book). It went the usual chick-lit path and then veered off in a direction I hadn't anticipated. Fairly long for the genre, but enjoyable.

#4 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) by JK Rowling - Reviewers claim this to be when the series turned dark, but I disagree of course (see above). It's without a doubt building on the darkness, with a truly traumatizing ending.

#5 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by JK Rowling - The series came full circle and yet it's a fitting adult end. And war is hell.

#6 - For a Few Demons More (The Hollows, Book 5) by Kim Harrison - I was becoming apathetic about this series (the main character has never really clicked with me) and then Harrison blew the whole thing apart and everything has changed. I feel re-invested in the series.

100 Books for 2010... or not quite

I really haven't even come close to reading 100 books a year. So I've decided 50 new books a year is a more realistic goal. I definitely read more than 50 books a year, but I love to re-read favorites all the time, and that cuts down on time left for new books. Like right now, I'm re-reading Charlaine Harris' An Ice Cold Grave (Harper Connelly #3) while simultaneously reading Brenda Joyce's brand new Deadly Vows (Francesca Cahill novels, #9). So in order to be more practical, I'll be resetting my annual goal to 50 new books.

Below is a wrap-up of 2010 books read. You'll notice it's heavy on the urban fantasy series and YA books. I guess that's my new thing. Can't recommend Stacia's Kane's Downside Ghosts series enough. She's built a fascinating world and created a compelling and yet deeply flawed heroine. I'm breaking up with the Anita Blake series. She's gone off the rails and I've taken it as far as I can, which is further than most people would. Most advice I've read online is to stop at Obsidian Butterfly. Wish I'd stopped before then. Oh, and if you haven't read The Hunger Games series, you must.

#12 - Narcissus in Chains (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 10) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#13 - The Vampire and the Virgin (Love at Stake, Book 8) by Kerrelyn Sparks

#14 - Incubus Dreams (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 12) by Laurell K. Hamilton

#15 - Every Which Way But Dead (The Hollows, Book 3) by Kim Harrison

#16 - Cerulean Sins (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 11) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#17 - Micah (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 13) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#18 - Unholy Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 1) by Stacia Kane

#19 - City of Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 3) by Stacia Kane

#20 - Unholy Magic (Downside Ghosts, Book 2) by Stacia Kane

#21 - Danse Macabre (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 14) by Laurell K. Hamilton

#22 - Fantasy in Death (In Death series, book 31) by J.D. Robb

#23 - Personal Demons (Megan Chase, Book 1) by Stacia Kane

#24 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1) by J.K. Rowling

#25 - Demon Inside (Megan Chase, Book 2) by Stacia Kane

#26 - A Fistful of Charms (The Hollows, Book 4) by Kim Harrison

#27 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) by J.K. Rowling

#28 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) by J.K. Rowling

#29 - Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

#30 - Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

It's Pouring

Today I wrote a letter to a Republican senator. No, I didn't call him any rude names. And no, I haven't hit my head.

See, Texas is on the verge of an economic crisis. Many would argue that we're already there, but really, it can get worse. The state is broke, and there are budget shortfalls in every branch of government. The state will likely have to lay off 9,000 employees. And many teachers are going to lose their jobs (1,500 in Austin Independent School District alone). They may even have to close schools. And it's not because we don't need the teachers and the schools. Even though Texas is like 49th in Education in the country, we can't even afford to maintain that level of abysmal quality.

We have a despotic governor that has been driving the economy into the ground for years because he refuses to consider raising taxes, for fear of alienating his donor base. We're a diverse state, but less than half of the population votes, and the ones who do vote tend to be conservative. And we have no term limits in Texas.

I'm not pretending to know how to fix this problem, but it seems like common sense that when you're out of money, and you have no way to pay for the necessities in life, that you need to do whatever is necessary to raise money.

Dear Senator Deuell-

I wanted to thank you for your stance on raising taxes in order to address our current economic crisis. It's time to spend the Rainy Day Fund and it's time to raise taxes. These are hard times, and cutting education and firing teachers and state employees wouldn't have to happen if we were willing to pay a little more in taxes. As a parent who can only afford public education, I'd like my child to get a better one that what's being offerred in this state right now.

My mother is a state employee and my step-father is a teacher and neither of them is ready to retire. It's shameful that they could both be unemployed, due to no fault of their own, by Summer.

Your constituents expect you to defend education and public service and to be realistic about how it needs to be done. I hope you'll continue to support raising taxes and I hope the Democrats I voted for will stand with you on this issue.

Thank you-
Kandis S.

100 Books for 2010... the first 6 months

I've been really into the Anita Blake series so far this year. However, I'm now on book 10 and it's growing increasingly intense: "porny-er" (as my friend Heather calls it) and also just really disturbing with its villains and crimes. But the reason I continue to stick with the series is that I really just love Anita. She's tiny and tough, and she worries a lot about whether she's becoming a sociopath because she kills so easily. But really, she nearly always kills to protect herself, and more frequently to protect others. She's always defending those that are weaker than she is, and hardly ever with her limited powers. She's much more likely to defend with her huge arsenal of weapons that she's adept at wielding. And I'm okay with that.

#1 - Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 1) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#2 - The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 2) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#3 - Circus of the Damned (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 3) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#4 - The Lunatic Cafe (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 4) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#5 - Bloody Bones (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 5) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#6 - The Killing Dance (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 6) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#7 - Burnt Offerings (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 7) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#8 - Blue Moon (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 8) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#9 - Obsidian Butterfly (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 9) by Laurell K. Hamilton
#10 - Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 10) by Charlaine Harris
#11 - Going in Circles by Pamela Ribon

This list does not include the number of books I've re-read (including the entire Twilight series- it's a sickness I tell you!) which I do over and over again, every year.

Maybe I should be shooting for 50 books in a year?

100 Books for 2009... or not quite

Okay, here's the part where I stop pretending that I'm ever going to finish summarizing the books I read in 2009. So the final additions are:

#60 - Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts (straight modern romance)
#61 - The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (sad and disturbing)
#62 - Rainwater by Sandra Brown (lovely and unexpected departure from Sandra Brown's usual romantic suspense and scary ass killers)
#63 - Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris (final satisfying end to the Harper Connelly series)
#64 - My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler (silly and entertaining)

2010 Oscar Picks at 6:49 p.m.

Say what you will about James Cameron, and hell, I've said it too- but Avatar was a crowning achievement in filmmaking. And who says we didn't need a 3D Dances With Smurfs? And I adore Sandra Bullock. I think she's lovely and talented (in certain roles) and an incredibly good sport who seems like she'd be great to hang out with, but I just don't see the Academy taking her seriously for Best Actress.


Best Director
James Cameron 'Avatar'

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges 'Crazy Heart'

Best Actress
Meryl Streep 'Julie & Julia'

Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz' Inglourious Basterds'

Best Supporting Actress
Mo'nique' Precious'

Best Animated Feature Film
'Up'

Best Original Screenplay
Mark Boal 'The Hurt Locker'

Best Adapted Screenplay
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner 'Up in the Air'

Best Documentary Feature
'Food, Inc.'

Best Cinematography
'Avatar'

Best Costume Design
'Nine' Colleen Atwood

Best Picture
'Avatar'

excuses

Hi, I'm behind. I KNOW. This whole life thing has totally been keeping me from doing just about anything, but especially from summarizing the trash I've been reading. I'll get right back on that as soon as possible.

Book # 59: Kindred in Death

Kindred in Death is Nora Roberts' (writing as J.D. Robb) 30th novel in the In Death series (also referred to as the Eve Dallas series).

We return to kick-ass homicide detective Eve Dallas in 2059 New York City. Eve's rare holiday weekend with her hot husband is interrupted by murder as usual. This time a fellow cop's teenager daughter has been brutally raped and murdered in her own home, and her father has requested Dallas take the case.

Eve and her team pursue the needle in a haystack by trying to find who would want to harm a cop's family, before he goes after others. She also has to squeeze in her matron-of-honor duties for Louise and Charles' impending wedding. And as has been established numerous times, Eve handles vicious murder far better than social obligations.

The later novels in this series have lacked the grit and drama of the earlier stories. The cases are getting fairly predictable, but it seems like it would be impossible for that to not happen after 30 books. However, this series continues to be a solid entertainer.

Book # 58: An Echo in the Bone

An Echo in the Bone is the seventh novel in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. I’ve been reading this series since high school and it’s one of my all time favorites. It centers around World War II combat nurse Claire Randall, and her accidental journey back in time to the 1700’s and Jamie Frasier, the Scottish warrior she falls in love with there.

Outlander novels are a big commitment, with nearly all of them topping 800 pages. They’re also an extremely dense combination of historical fiction, war strategy, political intrigue, botany, and medicine. The newest one in the series takes place 33 years after the series begins, and unless you’ve read all of the previous ones- and even if you have- you could find yourself hopelessly lost.

Gabaldon spends a lot of time taking her characters on solo journeys, which can get a bit boring, to read only one person’s thoughts and observations on the landscape for such a long time. She catches up with her sprawling cast of characters and even adds some new ones in the form of an adult William Ransom (Jamie’s illegitimate son) and a Quaker brother and sister. The entire first half of the book was a bit tedious to get through, but the second half had tons of twists, action and surprises.

The book did end on a nearly absurd cliff-hanger (given the frequency of hair-raising adventures amongst this family). Which seems a bit cruel considering it takes Diana Gabaldon about four years to write the next Outlander novel.

Book #57: A Touch of Dead

Charlaine Harris' A Touch of Dead is a collection of all of her Sookie Stackhouse novellas. They have all previously appeared in other compilation collections featuring various authors.

I had previously read two of the five short stories in A Touch of Dead. Harris writes these to fit in between books in the Sookie series. So unless you've read the entire series already, the circumstances in the stories might not make as much sense.

These were mostly light entertaining fluff. There's not a whole lot of details in this collection that you couldn't live without, though they do help provide a little backstory. Like I always wondered when reading the series, when had Sookie met Claude the fairy, or found out Hadley was dead, or gave her grandfather a tie for Christmas? Now I know!

The only story that really didn't work for me was 'Dracula Night'. The whole situation just seemed too far out of character for Eric. Don't re-write my Eric, Charlaine.

Book #56: Desperate Duchesses

Eloise James' Desperate Duchesses takes place in 18th century England among the landed gentry and London's notorious "ton".

Robert St. Giles is intent on marrying the Duke of Villiers. Why? I'm not quite sure. He's rude, quite possibly gay, and has hardly noticed her. But he's the most sought after catch in England and Roberta is tired of living with her father in the country, and tired of being a laughingstock thanks to her father's horrendous poetry and scandalous liasons with showgirls.

Roberta goes to London and shows up uninvited on a distant counsin's doorstep, desperate for entré into the Duke of Villiers' social sphere. Luckily her cousin Jemma is just eccentric enough to take her on.

After that, there are sexual escapades, confusing social politics of the time and chess, chess and more chess. This novel is 400 pages and I hardly remember a thing except that those people were obsessed with their chess.

Book #55: Touch the Dark

Karen Chance's Touch the Dark was my second attempt at urban fantasy. This was also the first in a series, but I don't think I'll be continuing with this one.

Cassandra Palmer has spent half of her life as an unwilling member of the vampire royal court, and the other half of her life on the run. She is sought for her clairvoyant abilities. Beyond that, everything is extremely muddled.

The author spends pages explaining some things, and then no time at all explaining others. Her vampires are also able to feed off humans by absorbing blood (sometimes from across the room) and no biting is necessary. That was a little too much artistic license for me to swallow. It kind of completely eliminates one of the things that makes vampire legend so compelling.

The main character also seems to jump around in time to a dizzying degree and I rarely wanted to follow her.

Book #54: Dead Witch Walking

Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking is my first foray into urban fantasy. The Sookie Stackhouse novels would probably fit into that category if they weren't, you know, rural.

Rachel Morgan, witch and bounty hunter for the government, ends up on the run when she quits her job. She's wanted dead or alive, gets kicked out of her apartment, and has to move in with her new partners: a vampire and a pixie.

It was interesting to read something from the witch vein instead of vampires for a change. Though the book feels a bit vague on whether or not witchcraft is inherited or anyone can pick it up. The fact that charms can be purchased in stores and witches have to train in school, takes away some of the mystical aspect.

This is the first in The Hollows series and I will likely continue on in the series.

Book #53: Smash Cut

Smash Cut is Sandra Brown's newest novel, using her newest formula. Two main characters meet, become intimate ridiculously fast, and then get to know eachother and solve a mystery. (See: The Switch, Exclusive, and Play Dirty)

Criminal lawyer Derek Mitchel and gallery owner Julie Rutledge are drawn together by the murder of her lover and benefactor. Of course many things will throw a wrench in their relationship, including psychopathic stalker Creighton Wheeler.

This was fairly quick paced though I found myself irritated by Sandra Brown's ability to write flawed and complex men, but mostly bland fragile women. But what she does is exceptionally well is psychopaths. (Her villain in Unspeakable will scare the crap out of you.)