I Have A Life, Really!

I haven't updated in a while, but as my life is not generally a raging whirlwind of action and life-altering drama, I think we'll all manage to survive somehow. My time has been divided into a few categories:

Work - Currently planning 2011 education, our Fall Conference (it may be at the end of November but that doesn't mean we're not already harried and behind schedule), and working on cleaning out old files and doing some basic organization. Yeah, off-season!

Sooooo much shelf space!

Half-Marathon Training - Yes, contrary to popular belief I am physically active.

And this is what happens when you're not wearing your glasses while being physically active.

The race is on the 26th so this is my last week of hard training. I'm running 10 miles on Saturday(!!!). Liz is running it as well, and miss Joanna is flying up from CA to run it with us! (Yes, she is insane. That is why I like her.) Of course, these last two weeks of training also coincide perfectly with...

Choir - Two concert weeks in a row. This week it's Mendelssohn's Lobgesang, next week it's Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. I feel easier about the latter because I've sung it before and it's just plain fun. So I'm daily running too much, working, and then singing too much. Next week will be full of glory and exhaustion: a full week of work and rehearsals, then Saturday AM I run a half-marathon, sing a concert Saturday PM and another Sunday afternoon. I am taking Monday off so I can die in peace.

Etc. - My spare time lately has consisted of reading (a lot of fantasy, actually), watching FAR too many episodes of Bones on Netflix instant watch while knitting and I've also been trying my hand at container gardening. I thought I'd add it to the knitting/cooking mix to form a trifecta of domesticity. I've got some alyssum and two geraniums (looking kind of bedraggled right now), Liz brought me some chives that a co-worker gave away and I even started some vegetables from seed - chard, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes and basil.

I'm particularly fond of these little guys because I got them for donating to KUOW, the local public radio station - am I a double nerd?

I'm amazed at how terrified I am of killing these little guys. I haven't lost one yet, but if I do I'll probably be wracked with guilt. We went to visit Liz's family over Memorial Day weekend and I cannot tell you how fearful I was of leaving them alone for three and a half days.

And that is my life. I'm enjoying myself, but I'm also excited for July when I'll have more free time. I'm hoping that by the time I'm freed up the weather will have gotten better and we can start hiking! Oh, summer, I look forward to you.

Things I Read 'N' Things I Thought 2010: Part 1

I seem to have read at a swifter pace in 2010, so I thought I'd take a look back at my readings with a mid-year update. Looks like a lot of fantasy books. I guess I'm on a kick.

1. Beastly by Alex Flinn - Affably bland and unnecessary "Beauty & the Beast". Wish I could travel back in time and see what I'd think of YA books like this if I were an actual teenager.
2. The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander - I highly enjoy Eilonwy's constant use of analogies.
3. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire - He seems less unwieldy and enamored of his own writing style, meaning I can understand him. Tentative thumbs up.
4. A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce - Not at all crappy retelling of Rumplestiltskin. Don't know why I read it because Rumplestiltskin has always disturbed me. Witness this other terrifying illustrated version.
5. The Dark Divine by Bree Despain - He's a werewolf, we know, just spit it out.
6. The Dream-Maker's Magic by Sharon Shinn - More of a "follow these characters through life" story than an "I have a story to tell" story and I don't think I mean that in a good way (it makes sense).
7. Fables (Vols. 1-11) by Bill Willingham - Fairy tale characters are real. And immortal. And living in New York. Not life-changing, but pretty damned amusing.
8. The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl - Glory.
9. The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury - Did you know that when man gave up fiction in the name of science that the ghosts of authors and their stories went to another planet and now man is flying in spaceships to that planet and Edgar Allen Poe wants to make a glorious last stand but Charles Dickens is having no part of it?
10. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - So long, so good, so exactly like the movie. Scarlet is hilarious, hateful and sympathetic all at once.
11. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik - Dragons are branch of the British military during the Napoleonic Wars. Go. Read it now.
12. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith - Wish I were this British girl. I don't talk nearly well enough.
13. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - It will never be anything other than spectacular.
14. Just an Ordinary Day by Shirley Jackson - Not as mind-blowing as The Lottery, but Shirley is always entertaining.
15. Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder - I want to go barefoot on the prairie and spend my days knitting and cooking. I'll skip the malaria and blizzards and locusts and possible starvation.
16. Lisey's Story by Stephen King - Lisey. Her slightly crazy sister. Her husband's horrible life. Inter-dimensional travel. A good read.
17. Matilda by Roald Dahl - She likes book and has psychic powers and she's British? Done.
18. The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis - You know what the problem of pain is? We don't like it.
19. Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede - Magic and spellcasting are logical and fairly matter of fact. A less rage-enducing retelling of "Snow White and Rose Red" [see: Tender Morsels]
20. The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman - Unending drama. If I didn't love her use of language and delicate, soul-clutching magical realism so dearly I don't think her stories would interest me all that much.
21. The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan - Vampires are disgusting. Vampires are parasites. Watch out! your blood will turn white.
22. Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan - I try not to think about this book because it fills me with rage and confusion and wild disappointment and frustration and unbearable sadness. I will never recommend this to anyone. I desperately wish she'd left out 70% of this book and stuck with the 30% that had such amazing, heart-wrenching, human potential.
23. The Walking Dead (Vols. 10-11) by Robert Kirkman, et al. - Zombiiiiies! Human dramaaaaaa!
24. Watchers by Dean Koontz - One of my all time favorite books of ever anywhere.
25. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier - 12 Dancing Princesses meets Frog Prince set in Transylvania. Quite enjoyable! Gogu just about broke my heart.
26. The Witches by Roald Dahl - Do not accept chocolates from women in wigs.
27. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs - Yea, for he hath grown a mighty beard and did make me both laugh and think, even unto the end of the book.