Reading Update (2025 #22-24)
[22] The Fall Risk by Abby Jimenez
Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, saw on Kindle Unlimited, Kindle
Synopsis: It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and the last thing apartment neighbors Charlotte and Seth want is romance. She’s in self-imposed isolation after dealing with a stalker, and he’s freshly divorced and wary of trust. But when a disaster traps them together for several day, their defenses start to crumble.
Review: This short story was cute, enjoyable, and funny. It’s impressive that Jimenez managed to cover some pretty serious topics in so few pages and resolve them. I regret not listening to this, since Julia Whelan narrated it!
Recommend? Yes
[23] Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell
Fiction / Women, heard about from Stephany, audio
Synopsis: In the summer of 1999, editorial assistant Sawyer faces a lonely few months as her fiancé spends more time at work, especially with his too-close colleague. When she unexpectedly strikes up a friendship with the colleague’s boyfriend, Nick, their “summer Fridays” turn into a tradition of exploring New York together. As they push each other in unexpected ways, their weekly adventures become the highlight of the summer.
Review: I was immediately in to this story – I mean, what an interesting dilemma! Sawyer’s lawyer husband is MIA and likely hooking up with coworker, even though their wedding is in October… and Sawyer is sneaking around with that coworker’s boyfriend?! DRAMA. I was expecting a huge blowout and hard conversation but (SPOILER) that didn’t happen. I felt like it was all this buildup then not even discussed with a jump forward to two years later with little about what transpired. What a letdown.
Recommend? Hmm, not really sure on this one. I really liked it until the last 5%.
[24] The Favorites by Layne Fargo
Fiction / Women, saw my friend Bobbi rate it on Good Reads, Kindle
Synopsis: As childhood sweethearts and champion ice dancers, Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha captivated the world with their performances, non-conformity, and ALL THE DRAMA. A decade after their last performance, a documentary rekindles public obsession. The story weaves documentary interviews with Kat’s account of their up and downs and the truth behind all the rumors that have followed them.
Review: This story had so many twists and turns, and I loved how unpredictable it was and how engaged that kept me. I loved the constant action and emotional ride. It was definitely a page-turner!
Recommend? Yes
Random Thoughts Thursday 493
- In Denver this weekend, Tiff, Val, and I all discovered we’re all Judy Blue jeans fans. I discovered them via Stitch Fix, and wore the hell out of mine until they got holes (not the stylish kind) and had to be thrown out. In fact, that’s happened to most of my jeans and I was down to one pair. So when Val mentioned there is a store nearby that sells Judy Blue I was so excited to go and hopeful I’d find a pair. I GOT FIVE PAIRS! I didn’t even realize how stressed I was about not having jeans to wear to work until I got them. It was like a huge weight off my back I didn’t realize I was carrying.
- My organization has never been in the news as much as it is now and it’s interesting reading articles and actually knowing what’s going on (vs what the articles say).
- Some people knocked on our door last night and I was all “UGHHHHHHHH I don’t want to answer the door” then it turned out they were looking for their lost cat and I felt sad for them and bad for not wanting to answer the door. Ugh. I hope they find their cat. I spread the news a bit more on our street so others can look for them. I remember how freaked I was when Khali ran away (hmm, looking back, that is one of the first times I realized I struggle to share difficult things I am going through because sharing makes me feel worse).
- I love my new mani from Lorena! People keep calling them my Easter nails, ha. Nah, Easter nails would be more pastel.
Reality break
I just returned from a lovely trip to Denver to see Val and Tiff. We had almost zero plans and wonderfully crummy (especially for Denver!) weather that justified us staying in for almost the entire trip to just paint and chat.
As I said, lovely. I already felt more like myself after just a few hours with those two. They always bring me back to me.
And it was quite the break from reality. I didn’t take my work phone with me or check in over the four days I was gone (Friday-Monday) and whoa, some stuff happened. Yesterday was kind of nuts. But I’d rather be overwhelmed for one morning than dwell over things on my time off. I texted Steven right away in the morning when I saw some info and he told me he saw it over the weekend but didn’t want to bother me about it. I appreciate that so much. He gets me.
The trip was also good practice for me to be around people and see how ranty I got. Verdict – quite ranty but I was 100% in a safe and welcoming space. So it was all good. But I will be toning it down for other groups. A LOT.
read more…Do you collect anything?
On my flight home from Denver yesterday the little kid sitting next to me asked if I collect anything.
I thought about it before I responded. I purposefully try NOT to collect things (besides memories, aww) but then I felt my head and my answer occurred to me, “sunglasses!”
Then I asked them if they collect anything. And they excitedly told me rocks. And I was like “OMG DUH KIM YOU COLLECT ROCKS TOO.” (Also, why didn’t I think of that? Don’t most kids collect rocks?)
As the little kid was enthusiastically describing all the rocks they found on their trip to Arizona to me, I was thinking they’d be excited when I told them about my painted rocks.
Fam, they were NOT excited. Ha ha ha. I explained that I was even on a rock painting trip, and had a backpack full of painted rocks and even offered them one when we landed (they were stored in overhead luggage) and they politely declined.
Then went on telling me more about different rocks in their collection.
I thought maybe when they saw mine after we landed they’d want one. Nope! Rejected! Although the adults around me were very interested in them.
It was so funny to me. Especially that this kid had already mastered the technique of asking someone a question in hopes they’d ask it back.
On my flight to Denver, we passed by Guttenberg, Iowa, where my family has cabins, and I could even see them from the plane!
We flew right by my hometown in Iowa too! That was a fun surprise.
We’ve flown to both these places in the Cessna, but it was fun to see them from above 30K feet!
Where is Penny?
Oh Pennifer.
Home girl really wants to live inside.
Let’s back up though. I was working downtown Wednesday and Steven texted me to ask if Penny was at the house in the morning before I left, because she was currently MIA.
I told him she was, and felt really bad when he told me he couldn’t find her. Steven worries so much about her wandering off and forgetting how to get back, and I was teasing him the day before about how I saw her wandering around in the woods that day. Oops.
So Steven walks all around the yard, calling and looking for her, and no luck.
He comes back inside and continues getting ready to leave and is about to remotely start his car and thinks “wait, what if Penny snuck into the garage when Kim left?”
It’s hard to see in the camera footage, but that is exactly what that little stinker did!
I was so careful backing up to make sure she wasn’t there, that I wasn’t even looking at the door and watching it shut all the way. Now I will.
Penny was fine, just waiting to come inside. So she got to walk through the house and go back out to her cat house and eat breakfast.
She keeps doing this – showing up when we arrive home or leave, to run into the garage. Most of the time it’s cute. Sometimes it’s annoying. Sometimes it’s dangerous. We don’t want her to come running when delivery people come down the driveway! They aren’t expecting her. Sigh.
Random Thoughts Thursday 492
- Steven is always making little (and big!) improvements to our house to make our lives easier. The most recent was a sensor he added to the washer and dryer to notify us via the speakers on our main level when the wash and dry cycles are complete (and to do a reminder notification). We don’t always hear the timer go off since they’re in the basement. And then we forget! It’s been really helpful so far.
- Another example? All the research Steven’s done to find the perfect enclosure for the cats’ litter boxes. Doesn’t this look so much better than an open litter box sitting on the floor? And he found one that fits perfectly in that spot!
- We have four litter boxes, so we’re testing this enclosure on one box before committing to more. Gotta make sure the cats will actually use it! So far, we’ve left the door open, and they’ve been using it that way.
- The litter box enclosures are just one of many projects we’re tackling before our summer guests arrive in August! Their visit is the perfect motivation to finally check off some things we’ve been putting off. This weekend/week Steven patched and painted some holes with rust stains in the living room ceiling too.
- I want to thank Past Kim. Sometimes she really has her shit together. Like when she had the foresight to put readers in her flying bag so she could see the ipad in the dark in the plane this past weekend. Good job Past Kim!
- Speaking of that flight, the Timmerman airport must have found that blog post because they sent me an email about some cool events they have coming up – a flour drop and spot landing contest (two separate events). For the flour drop you try to drop a bag of flour on a bullseye. Sounds like a blast! I’m glad they emailed me!
- I have a special obsession with All Dressed chips and was really excited to see them in the stores a few weeks ago. They were absent for a bit during the pandemic!
- Every March our gym does 65 burpees at each class. It’s horrible and f*cks me up, even with modifications. I actually tried to cancel my membership for March (for other reasons) but was too late! Needless to say, I’m glad March is almost over.
Reading Update (2025 #19-21)
[19] Wild Side (Rose Hill #3) by Elsie Silver
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, third in series, Kindle
Synopsis: Forced into marriage to protect her nephew, Tabitha vows never to forgive Rhys Dupris – the brooding, secretive man who betrayed her – and she now calls her husband. But as they share a home, the tension between them begins to slip away and she discovers a fierce protector, a patient partner, and a man who makes it far too easy to fall in love… even when she swore she never would.
Review: This is an enemies to lovers, fake marriage tale with a fierce and stubborn female protagonist and I. Was. Here. For. It. There is a misunderstanding that gets resolved quickly enough, then we just get to enjoy these two falling in love. Most of the complaints about this book on GoodReads are disinterest in what Rhys’s job is – but that didn’t bother me! I’ve really enjoyed this series and can’t wait for the fourth book!
Recommend? Yes!
[20] All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells
Fiction / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure, was looking for something to listen to, Graphic Audio
Synopsis: Murderbot is a security android on a remote planet with one job – protect their set of humans. The problem is, Murderbot is bored and would rather watch serials then read the briefings they’re given or pay attention to what’s going on. When comms from a nearby mission go dark, Murderbot is forced to do their job, and interact with their humans.
Review: Sigh. I was looking for something on audio and was so excited when I saw these novelas (there are a ton of them!) were all available on Graphic audio on Hoopla, but UGH. This was so bad. And boring. It was hard to follow because it throws you right into the story and doesn’t explain anything and the characters names are unusual and I could NOT keep them straight at all. It’s supposed to be funny and lighthearted – like that this security android who is supposed to kill things would rather just chill and watch tv and wants to avoid humans at all costs cause they make them feel so awkward but it was NOT doing it for me! Nope. Pass.
Recommend? No
[21] The Locked Door by Freida McFadden
Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, received in the book club book exchange, paperback
Synopsis: Twenty-six years ago, Nora Davis’s father was arrested as a serial killer and sentenced to life in prison. Nora changed her last name, moved in with her grandmother, and later on built a quiet life as a surgeon, determined to keep her past buried. But when a patient is murdered in the exact way her father killed his victims, it’s clear someone knows the truth, and they want her to take the fall.
Review: Is this a page turner? YES. Did I feel like I was being lead astray throughout the entire book when I read the twist at the end? Yes. Did I care? No. Ha, this is what Freida McFadden does. You are sure you have it somewhat figured out but you never do. I enjoyed this one and was glad it didn’t get too gruesome, and that nothing happened to the stray cat that Nora takes care of.
Recommend? Sure!
Flying to Milwaukee (Timmerman)
Our latest flying adventure was to Milwaukee, WI!
Not the “big” Class Charlie/international Milwaukee airport (KMKE below), but a little Delta airport to the north of it – Timmerman Airport (KMWC).
Steven wanted to practice nighttime takeoffs and landings, but wanted to do something fun with it, rather than just hanging out in the pattern at our base airport an hour after sunset, so we found a restaurant to fly to.
So I researched and found a few restaurants with a vegetarian/vegan option and within walking distance of Timmerman Airport. Are these restaurants we would ever purposely drive to? No. Are we way less picky when flying because we are mostly doing it for the fun of flying and for Steven to keep building his skills and working on his proficiency? Yes.
We actually had this flight planned out for Friday a week+ ago but we canceled due to an incoming windstorm – it would have been safe to fly when we had it booked but the plane would have sat out all night and gotten beat up during the storm. Anyway! So we rescheduled for Saturday and had one beautiful non-windy day. Yay!
This trip required quite a bit of planning because we wanted to avoid different Delta and Charlie airspaces on our way up (hence the path not being a straight line below). You can actually call these airspaces and ask to fly through them, but that would be a lot more communications for a 30 minute flight than we wanted!
We aren’t super familiar with the GPS in the airplane – like we don’t know how to enter a route with multiple heading changes like this in it – so I went over the checkpoints with Steven several times to make sure I knew which and when to enter them. I’m getting ahead of myself though.
When we got to the airport, we saw all of the school’s airplanes were out! We haven’t seen that in a while! We preflighted on the ramp (outside) – also hadn’t done that in a while. We even had to wait in line on the taxiway for other GA (general aviation planes). Again, it’s been a while.
We took off at 5:34. It was a beautiful clear day to fly with hardly any traffic in sight.
I enjoyed seeing the Milwaukee cityscape from the plane. It doesn’t show up in a photo, but of course I tried.
Our planning paid off, too. There was a certain point on course when Steven had to turn and fly between the Charlie and Delta airspaces, but it was right as he had to call the Timmerman tower to announce himself and state his intentions. And he had to listen to the weather before that turn so he could tell tower he’d listened (Ah! I just remembered. When we listened to weather it had a warning about birds in the vicinity. Eek. I did see a few right before we were landing but they weren’t in our flight path.). Blah blah blah, it went well.
And we found the airport right away! Go us!
You could see the city off in the distance when we landed. I enjoyed it. Steven was focusing on landing. I tell him about these things later.
We landed at 6:09 and tied the plane down. One of the interesting (???) things that happens to general aviation ramps in the winter is the tie downs fill with water and freeze so you can’t use them (and use chocks instead). The good news is they are thawed now! The bad news is they are full of mud. It’s a bit messy.
On the way to our base airport, Steven was telling me how he listened to an aviation podcast this week and they were saying to always check the FBO (fixed base operator) hours so you don’t have to do “fence jumping” to get in and out if you leave after hours. I never thought of that.
So I called the FBO before we left and they closed at 4:00. Oops. I told Steven we should just check it out – maybe there was a clear code to get in and out. And if not, we’d be waiting a bit so that we could fly back (hungry) at official “nighttime.”
Good news – there was a clear code to use and we were able to leave!
The restaurant I found, Syrs, was so close to the airport. Below is a view of the airport from the restaurant. And there were even sidewalks to walk on. It was about a 5 minute walk. Woo hoo!
Ha. So this is funny and a bit long to explain (but is anyone even reading this?). We were originally going to go to a different restaurant but they close at 4:00 and weren’t an option. I found Syrs as a backup (open until 2 am!) and text Steven about it this week saying “This place by Timmerman shows a veggie burger on their menu 🤷♀️ also looks like a vibe 😂 Like it’s also a hookah lounge?”
So I knew the restaurant was also a hookah lounge but didn’t know it was going to have security to get in because it was also a club! We had to go through a metal detector. And Steven always has a multitool on him with a blade and they kept telling him he could take it back to his car. And twice he was like “I flew here.” Like… I don’t have a car to take it back too. Like that even matters. Buah ha ha. Eventually he asked if he could throw the blade out and they were cool with that. They were nice the whole time and it wasn’t weird – we just weren’t expecting it!
But wait for this – we sit down and Steven goes “I didn’t know this place was an actual hookah lounge. I thought you were just saying it looked liked one.” I laughed so much!!!!!! Still laughing about it now as I type this.
I was glad I pregamed with Tylenol for an existing headache on the walk over, cause the hookah smell got to me a bit by the end. The food was great though! We had fried okra and burgers.
We enjoyed chatting (Steven got his weekly work dump/rant from me – it always seems to come out at restaurants) and did our flight planning there before heading back to the airport.
We preflighted, did run-up, and discussed several times how we’d keep an eye on altitude because of the nearby Charlie airspace. The runway we were taking off on pointed right at the MKE Charlie airspace. The airspace shelf starts at 2200 MSL (meaning we have to stay under that altitude) so not a lot of wiggle room there!
We left at 8:27, and sunset was at 7:05, so we were well within the nighttime flying time starting at 8:05.
And Steven was able to turn off course and avoid flying under the Charlie airspace, and slipped right between the Charlie and Delta easy peasy (ha, said as a passenger).
The Milwaukee skyline looked amazing all lit up but nighttime photos from my iPhone suck. Here’s one anyway:
The flight back was a little shorter, with a tailwind (we landed at 8:57).
Our home airport tower closes at 8:00 so it was up to the pilots to communicate what they were doing with one another. Someone was talking off to the west a bit before we were landing, and we had them in sight, so all good!
When you approach the airport you can press the comms button a certain amount of times to turn the runway lights on. This is what they look like when you hit it 7x:
Max brightness! Too bright! Steven only hit it 5x after that.
We landed, then did 3 more takeoffs and landings. It’s required to do nighttime takeoffs and landings every 90 days to stay “current” so you can fly at night with passengers. Steven has told me several times (and I’ve read it in books and heard it on podcasts) that proficiency is more important than currency, which makes sense! So he wasn’t at his 90 day limit, but wanted to practice. If he waits 90 days to do this again it will be the summer solstice and quite late. Ha. We’ll see how much nighttime flying we do until then.
And that was our Saturday night! I had so much fun. Our last landing was at 9:22 and I think we got home around 10:00 – that’s late for me. Hee hee. But it doesn’t bother me at all when we are out flying!
Book club & volunteering
Look at me, I’ve been so social this weekend. I’m proud of me. 🥹
Friday night was book club at the gym to review Saving Noah. I didn’t care for it, but it was insightful hearing what everyone else thought of it, and someone pointed out part of the twist at the end that I didn’t figure out on my own when I read it. So that was interesting!
We’re reading The Let Them Theory for April. Book club switches back and forth between fiction and non-fiction each month. The picks have been super meh thus far, so at morning class another student and I asked our trainer if she could suggest a top-selling non-fiction instead of what we normally do (let everyone suggest a book and read the last one that is drawn). We suggested that book as an option and I am glad that’s what she selected (watch, I will dislike this one too!).
I brought a chickpea salad to book club and it was a huge hit, which made me feel good!
This also made me feel good – afterward when I was getting ready to leave and was chatting with a group of people, someone came up to me and said “Kim! I just learned something about you!” I was like, “ooo, tell me.” And she said “You paint the rocks that are here at the gym?” She was acting like it was some secret I was keeping, and the people in the group were like “you didn’t know?!” It was cute. Then she was very complimentary to me and I gave her one from my stash and encouraged her to take the one that’s been in the gym for ages so I can replace it.
On Saturday morning I volunteered at a food bank. Today is my friend Kris’s birthday and that’s what she wanted to do for her birthday – get a big group together to volunteer.
It was my first time volunteering there and our job was to put 6 single serve cereals in a mesh sleeve, then put 10 of those sleeves in a box, tape it up, and put it on a pallet.
There were 20 in our group, and there was another group there, and together, over 2 hours, we prepped 19,260 servings of cereal to go to food pantries.
I had a lot of fun. It was very fulfilling and satisfying!
Okay, I guess that is where my “socialness” ends. So maybe it wasn’t actually that much! It just felt like a lot because I got home late Friday night, and again last night because Steven and I went out for dinner (flew there then did nighttime takeoffs and landings when we got back – more on that in another post).
Random Thoughts Thursday 491
- First, how cute is this mani? I love how it turned out.
- And loved that it matched my Starbucks from Sunday! I don’t often get Starbucks on the weekend but I woke up Sunday with a killer headache from the pressure change, and caffeine helps (ha, although, that marker smell was NOT helping with my headache! I dumped it in a mug when I got home).
- We’re having a typical March here. Friday it was sunny and in the 70s. Saturday it was warm and hella windy. Then Sunday it snowed (hence the pressure change).
- Lately, when I wear my hair down and curly, people ask me if I cut it! Nope. The curls just shorten it that much.
- The dentist appointment happened on Tuesday! Woo hoo. And I impulse bought a retainer. I had braces in high school and had a retainer then that I wore for a few years and quit in college. I was asking if your teeth are at risk of moving when you age and the dental hygienist said yes, then I was asking what I could do to prevent it because I like how my teeth are now … and here we are! I had NO idea they just put a wand in your mouth to map your teeth and order your retainer. My mind was blown! The last time I had one made I put my teeth in that clay/foamy stuff.
- I stumbled across an article on toxic positivity yesterday and the explanation of why people do it was so insightful: “some people are uncomfortable with negative emotions, and so they invalidate your sadness or disappointment. Their response is disingenuous, and it comes at the expense of your well-being because we have to process our feelings in order to grow.” “Even though the person expressing toxic positivity wants to make the disappointed person feel better, the ‘suppression makes a person feel worse because they are alone in their reality.'” Yep yep. That explanation seems so obvious but it was helpful to me.
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and work in an account management role. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
