Reading Update (2024 #34-36)
[34] It’s a Date – Again by Jeneva Rose
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, saw on Kindle Unlimited, Audio
Synopsis: Peyton finally realized who the love of her life is and as she rushed off to tell them she got hit by a car and ended up losing her memory. Three men show up in her hospital room all claiming they are dating. With the help of her two best friends, Peyton plans to figure out which of the three men is the one.
Review: Wow, this was really bad, cheesy, and INCREDIBLY predictable. I knew who it was going to be from Chapter 2. The only fun thing about this book is it’s set in Chicago, so I was familiar with the places they were going. Other than that, it was very painful and I only finished it because I forgot I had another audiobook to listen to.
Recommend? No
[35] Wilder (The Renegades #1) by Rebecca Yarros
Fiction / Romance / New Adult, buddy read with Anita, Kindle
Synopsis: Leah has the opportunity of a lifetime – to spend an entire college school year sailing the world in the “Study at Sea” program. The only way she could afford it was to tutor someone, and she gets paired with Paxton, aka Wilder, a daredevil, X Games medalist who’s part of a group of adrenaline junkies called the Renegades. Leah has recent trauma from a car crash over a cliff and is terrified of heights, but keeps finding herself in risky situations with Paxton… and even finds herself falling for him (buah ha ha, love the pun?).
Review: I sent Anita a copy of In the Likely Event by Yarros and she loved it so we decided to buddy read this together. Anita finished it in 1.5 days! Ha! It took me 6 days. Anyway. This book is so ridiculous and out there. The premise of a semester at sea? That Leah keeps ending up in this high risk situations or in harm’s way? That these two would ever fall for each other? But hey, romance does not have to be realistic, and this plotline does make for exciting events. So I mostly enjoyed it, especially a twist and high stakes ending. But I also rolled my eyes A LOT. So far, I like the Flight & Glory series better.
Recommend? Nah
[36] Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Fiction / Romance / Fantasy, checked out since I read the ACOTAR series, Audio
Synopsis: Celaena Sardothien was the world’s best assassin until she was sentenced and forced to serve hard labor in the salt mines until she dies. Prince Dorian removes her from the mines and promises her freedom if she can act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin, win the competition, and serve as royal assassin for 4 years. Celaena agrees and travels with him (to the capital?) where she trains, is utterly bored by court life, makes one friend, flirts with the captain of the guard and Prince Dorian, and avoids getting killed because of course there is some evil magic thing killing off the competitors.
Review: Similar to the ACOTAR books, this one is slow slow moving until an exciting ending. I’m not sure if I can do that for many more books (it’s an 8 book series with a complicated reading order)! It’s well done, and interesting, and great world building and character development, blah blah, but ya girl is a bit bored.
Recommend? Nah
Random Thoughts Thursday 454 Part 2
- I have to share a feel good story before I get into the whiny stuff. I sent a package to Katja and she sent me thanks, a voice memo thanks from her daughter, and cute photos of the kids with the things I sent. Then she told me my timing was absolutely perfect – her daughter had been bullied by some older kids at school that day and was feeling low. When Katja was talking to her about it and cheering her up a bit, she mentioned our special day together in Leipzig, and that she doubted those mean kids got to miss school to meet their friend from the USA, or have a “big sister” in the USA who sends greetings (I am very honored to be held in this regard!). Katja said that really cheered her daughter up, and then when they got home, there was a package waiting from me for them all. What incredible timing, right?
- Oh my gosh! I don’t think I wrote about this! When we were in Leipzig, we went into a store that specialized in American candy and treats. Katja and her family were very excited to see Twinkies, because they’d seen them in the movie Zombieland but had never tried one. So they got a box to try. The catch is that they were banana flavored (the store didn’t have regular vanilla). Interesting, right? Anyway, the kids loved them, so I put a box of the regular ones for them to try in their package and they were VERY excited.
- I have to say, I’m loving using WhatsApp for keeping in touch with my European friends! It’s a million times better than using Instagram, where most of us met. And it’s really well integrated into Windows, so I can type responses from my laptop which is great because…
- I am so so sick of using my thumbs to type on my phone. I say this all the time. I just hate it! It’s not a difficulty or autocorrect annoyance… just more of an annoyance about how inefficient it is to not use a full keyboard and all of my fingers. I get a lot of long messages and don’t want to type that all out with my thumbs.
- I’m really proud of myself for being less anxious about getting back to people and being immediately responsive in my personal life. That’s just how I operated before, and didn’t realize how draining (and usually, unnecessary) it is. Now (for example) if I see a text come in but I’m about to read my Kindle and go to bed I leave it to read in the morning. I don’t feel bad taking time to respond to things. People know to call if it’s urgent. I have such a hard time focusing as it is, it’s better if I look at communication in chunks of time, rather than stop the task I am doing to respond.
- You guys. We get the nastiest responses on the Fake Meats Facebook and YouTube. It’s really helping me develop a thick skin! I can’t imagine taking the time to leave hate comments about a lifestyle choice you don’t understand. Who cares?
Random Thoughts Thursday 454
- I’ve kind of lost sight of how I’m supposed to be eating a consistent diet for my blood thinner management (consistent meaning what I eat and how much I eat. It can be whatever, it just needs to be consistent.). I’m fine, it’s just that I have to go in more (pay more for visits, more time off work, more wear & tear on my car) to get care if my INR numbers aren’t consistent. I’m just NOT a big picture gal. Ugh. And you’d think that marathon training had me paying much more attention to my diet. Nah, I was eating more to make sure I was fueled for my runs. I’m trying to be more consistent now, until I forget.
- Since I mentioned it, I will put some marathon comments here! First – I saw my massage therapist this week and she was telling me how other people she’s known have done races in Colorado and felt like they had heavy legs too. That made me feel better.
- The second comment is that someone I know is running their first marathon and I am biting my tongue so hard not to be like “OMG YOU NEED TO ACTUALLY FUEL,” etc etc. Instead I listen, and ask what is working for them, then sent them an Instagram link to a sports dietician I follow. Ha. But I just listen. If people want advice, they will ask for it (and this person does!).
- The third comment is that the Colfax Marathon used a photo (it’s the second one) I am in on their feed for Global Running Day!
- Ha, so I’ve been using that fake Stanley since December, and I took it with me to Iowa for Ella’s party. I left it in a room and when I came back I was surprised to see my snister had adorned it with a backpack! Thanks, snis! I’ve gotten a few comments on it at the gym – people think it’s super cute. I put my keys and a Softlips in there (and added a “just in case” GU to it today).
- This tumbler is too heavy and it’s annoying it doesn’t sit well in my car and that it spills… but I love that it holds 40 ounces of water. The one I’ve been using for years only holds 24 ounces. Now I only have to fill it 4x a day instead of 7x. I’m saving so much time!
- Okay, speaking of saving time. Ha. Steven sent me this article about how Millennials and Gen Z don’t use top sheets. Read at your own risk. Kind of hard to take an “article” seriously that has misspellings and uses such casual language. But a few thoughts:
- I’m sick of seeing articles like this. I don’t care if the generation behind me (I’m a Millennial) doesn’t use a top sheet, doesn’t wear skinny jeans, wears crew socks, or parts their hair down the middle. IDGAF. You do you. I know it’s tradition to pit the generations against each other, but, eyeroll. IDC.
- All that being said, the reasoning for not using it had me ROTFL: “But why on earth do Millennials and Gen Zers hate top sheets? It turns out it’s mostly about practicality. Many Millennials are on the move holding a full time job and a side hustle or two to make ends meet, adding and extra step when making the bed seems unnecessary.” IT’S TO SAVE PRECIOUS TIME WHEN BED MAKING!
- So, I had to laugh at myself this past week, when I decided I’m over matching my running socks and I’m just going to put them in the bin and pull two out to wear and go from there. I don’t care if they match and it saves me time SO I CAN FOCUS ON MY SIDE HUSTLE. (Not really, I usually put laundry away before bed so it gives me more time to read or sleep… but the real reason I am not doing it is because I AM SICK OF IT.)
- If you followed all that, congratulations.
- I had a few more bullets but this is already pretty long. Maybe I will come back tomorrow with a part 2!
Updates
I had so many things in my Random Thoughts Thursday post for tomorrow that I pulled some of them for today. So, a few updates:
- The cats are all feeling better since Friday’s barfpocalypse – it was definitely the food!
Saturday nap. Can you find all 4 cats?
Sunday balcony time
- There was a surprise wonderful outcome from all that happening. My German friend Dunja, who reads my blog, read about it and learned a new English word – barf. I’m so proud of myself. Ha ha ha.
- Steven got his 10 night takeoffs and landings done Friday night! Check that off the list! “Night” is defined by the FAA as one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise, so he started around 9:30 and got home at 11:30.
- FAA is one of my clients at work. I was on the phone with someone there a couple weeks ago and they said an acronym I didn’t understand and I was really excited to use the NATO phonetic alphabet (I learned it for flight purposes) to repeat it back to them to make sure I got it right. I did, and then they used non-NATO phonetic words back at me (Sam for S instead of Sierra)!!! I was so surprised.
- We weeded the garden Sunday and put in the next row of green beans. The stuff we planted a month ago is looking good!
Cilantro, basil, and cucumber
Carrots, pea pods, and green beans
Yesterday’s run
On my run yesterday I approached a group of women sitting in chairs with a dog off the side of the trail. I was paying attention to see what the dog was doing and the women didn’t really register until I could tell one of them was speaking to me.
She said “I wish I could run!”
And my first thought is “why don’t you?” (thinking this encouragingly, not in a bitchy way)
But I didn’t say that. Then I looked at her and realized her chair was a wheelchair.
Then I’m thinking “is she being funny?” (Mind you, all this happens in a few seconds because I kept running.)
So I say “I could push you!” And they all laugh.
Phew.
I really wasn’t sure how that was gonna turn out. I couldn’t tell if she was joking or upset! I’m glad it was the former.
Then I got attacked by a red-winged blackbird as I have every time I pass this portion of the trail for the last week. Fun fun.
Since I’m here, I’ll mention a few other workout related things.
- I mentioned it last week – that I’m proud of my body for being able to run a marathon. But the interaction yesterday reminded me to think about how grateful I am that I can run at all. That’s kind of been my attitude since I came back to running after a four month break last year, and why I’m not upset my paces are slower than they used to be. I’m just grateful I can do this.
- Going to WWM (my gym) has turned me into an afternoon runner, and I’m a morning runner at heart and it sucks to be missing out on the cool spring mornings to be running in the hot afternoons. But I know I am more likely to run after work than I am to take an afternoon class, so that’s the schedule that works for me.
- The instructors and students at WWM have been welcoming since my first class last August but I’ve felt more and more lately like I’m really part of the community. People greet me by name, ask me questions about things going on in my personal life, send me messages, etc. It feels good to belong.
- Random, but last week Marybel (our main trainer) was telling us to push off our toes when coming out of a reverse lunge and I realized I’ve been trying to power them from my quads. What the heck, Kim!!! It’s so much easier when you push off your toes! When she gives cues like that I really try to remember them and do them so I’m actually working the part of my body she intends for us to.
The main reason I still blog
Last month I searched my blog to figure out our favorite green bean variety from last year, so we could plant mostly those this year.
Last week I searched my blog when Steven asked the name of the hotel we stayed at in Dresden.
Last week I searched my blog for a specific date my mom asked me about from June 2006.
Yesterday I searched my blog to find my review of a book so I could tell Anita what I thought of it.
Could all of these things potentially be found in other systems – calendar, notes, GoodReads, etc.? Yes.
Is it super convenient to just search my public diary and find them? Also, yes. I don’t document everything (publicly) here, but it sure does come in handy to have a lot of my life documented!
(I’m listening to a really cheesy/bad book right now about a woman who has amnesia and can’t remember which boyfriend (of THREE she was casually dating) she was about to tell she loved before she was hit by a car, so she is going on dates with all of them to figure it out. She’s missing A LOT of information about her life, and my first thought was “too bad she doesn’t have a blog.” Ha.)
Reading Update (2024 #31-33)
[31] Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
Fiction / Women, was looking for something to listen to & have liked her other books, Audiobook
Synopsis: Nine people show up for a week-long wellness retreat in Australia and quickly discover it’s nothing like they imagined it would be.
Review: This is VERY character driven and Moriarty does such a wonderful job building her characters and making them realistic. I thought it would be hard to keep the nine of them and the staff at the retreat straight, but it wasn’t at all. I was a bit bored listening to this though. It moves along pretty slowly until the middle. Then it’s all suspense but by that point I was over it. I liked how she wrapped it up at the end though. This is a good book, I was just in the wrong mood for it. I would like to watch the TV version to see how it compares!
Recommend? No
[32] Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, #3 in Part of Your World Series, Kindle
Synopsis: Justin and Emma have the same curse – whenever they break up with someone, that person goes on to find their soulmate. So they hatch up a plan – if they date and break up on purpose, then they’ll find their soulmates! The only problem is Justin lives in Minnesota and is about to have a lot of family responsibility, and Emma is a traveling nurse with a lot of emotional baggage, headed to Hawaii. Emma moves her plans to be in Minnesota for one of her contracts, and Justin and Emma quickly discover they’re going to have a hard time purposefully breaking up.
Review: This book sounds really gimmicky and silly but I promise you it’s not. There’s a lot going on besides them trying to break their curse, which becomes much and much less of the focal point as the story progresses. I don’t want to spoil all that though (but do note there are a lot of trigger warnings at the beginning of the book (that I skipped right over to avoid spoilers)). I loved these two characters together and how their relationships tied in with the characters from the previous two books. It’s been so long since I read those I’d forgotten the plots and I was a bit shocked when it all came back to me.
Recommend: Yes! And you don’t need to read series in order
[33] The Reality of Everything (Flight & Glory, #5) by Rebecca Yarros
Fiction / Women, Saw on Kindle Unlimited/last in series, Kindle
Synopsis: It’s been two years since the man Morgan loved died in war and she’s still paralyzed with grief. She uses the life insurance money from him to buy a beach house in the Outer Banks – a place they both loved. She plans to spend the summer remodeling the house and getting her life together before she starts her new teaching job. She does not plan to fall for neighbor Jackson, a single-dad and Coast Guard search-and-rescue pilot who flies the exact same helicopter the love of her life did.
Review: Wow wow wow. I absolutely loved this book, and am kind of shocked because Morgan was such a background character in the rest of the series. But so was Samantha, and I loved her book (#3) as well. So, yeah, wow. I tried to savor this book and enjoy is slowly because I didn’t want it to end. Morgan is dealing with so much grief and goes into special therapy for it and Samantha comes out to spend the summer with her. Jackson, of course, is completely perfect, loving, and patient. It’s a super emotional book, with everything Morgan is going through with her grief, how her friend group has been treating her, with Jackson also being another military pilot, and with Jackson’s drama with his daughter’s mom. And there are some super intense rescue scenes that made the book unputdownable at the end (so much for savoring it). I will be thinking about this book and characters for quite a while!
Recommend? Yes! I think it would help understand Morgan’s situation if you’ve read books 2-4 though, so… that’s a lot of homework.
Happy Friday.
Sigh.
This is a story about cat barf (including a link to a photo), so skip if that’s somehow not your thing. Ha ha.
Last night one of the cats threw up in two spots in the bedroom. I noticed a hairball in the barf and thought maybe that was what caused it, but told Steven we should keep an eye out for increased barfing (our cats rarely barf) because I had just switched their food. Chewy didn’t have their normal dry food so I tried another flavor from the same brand and product line.
When I woke up this morning I thought I saw some dark spots in the hallway and sure enough, there were two more barf spots. I thought about pretending I didn’t see it and leaving it for Steven but SIGH I cleaned it up. I mentally told myself that if this keeps up, we’re getting rid of that new food.
Then I went about my morning routine before driving to the 5:45 strength class. I was feeling proud of myself for having extra time and not being rushed as I walked into the foyer to put on my shoes, and, yeah… there was barf on the foyer stool, running down it, on the floor, and, AND!!!!! in the shoes I wear to class, that I store on the stool. (photo here)
Who did it?! (old photo from March)
So much for not rushing. I tried to clean that as best I could and wore different shoes.
I threw the food out when I got home. I should have looked at it more closely – it has sweet potato and our cats don’t process that very well (obviously). Poor things.
Happy Friday! Cross your fingers that was the end of it for me!
Random Thoughts Thursday 453
- Steven’s long solo cross country flight yesterday was a success! (Cross country is landing at an airport 50 nautical miles away from where you started). He flew from Waukegan to Madison (77.7 nautical miles), then from Madison to Oshkosh (61 nautical miles), and from Oshkosh to Waukegan (98.5 nautical miles). It took three hours. He said all of his landings were smooth as butter, and that Madison was a bit intense because it’s Class Charlie airspace, but the air traffic controllers were really nice and helpful. What’s next until he gets his license? Here’s what I know:
- He needs to do 10 nighttime takeoffs and landings with his instructor (all together, not 10 separate flights)
- He needs 1 more hour of cross country time
- He needs another instructor to fly with him and vouch that he’s good to go/safe/whatever
- Could be another endorsement step here, not sure
- Take the oral exam and do the check flight
I tracked Steven on all his flights!
Oshkosh Airport
Staying out of MKE airspace
- Speaking of Steven… it’s funny (odd) to me when I write his name S-T-E-V-E-N in something, then people write back S-T-E-P-H-E-N. Maybe it’s an autocorrect thing?
- I randomly received four mugs that I did not order and they have no packing slip. I sent them with Steven to use at this office.
- People are being nice and asking me about the marathon and I just don’t know how to sum it up. I’m still processing it. I do have one thing to add though – I’m so proud of my body for holding up for the entire training cycle and race!
- Oh! And I started speedwork this week. 10×1:00. Woo hoo!
Ella is 2!
Our niece Ella turned 2 on Sunday! Gah, if you find a way to slow down time, please let me know. I can’t believe she’s already 2!!!!
I’m so glad I could be there for her party. Ella is such a sweet, smart kid. I love watching her grow and learn and take in the world.
Per usual, my snister had an adorable themed party. It was “Two the Moon” with space themed food (think veggies cut out in star and moon shapes, not actual space food), decorations, and goodie bags.
And I got a space themed mani for it too!
Notice the Ella callouts on the mani?
I arrived Saturday afternoon, the party was on Sunday, and I came home Monday. A short trip, but I am hoping to see more of my family this summer at the river.
Other trip highlights, besides the party:
- Chasing the kids around outside on Saturday night (not pictured: William)
- Laughing so hard I cried, many, many times
- Yummy vegan cupcakes
- A walk with Dad before I left Monday
- Listening to Iron Flame (part 1) on the drive there and back. Sigh. You guys. I was so excited for it to come out on Graphic Audio on Friday May 17 only to find out YESTERDAY that part 2 of the Graphic Audio does not come out until July 12th! WHY YOU DO THIS TO ME GRAPHIC AUDIO?! I thought it was just a glitch that Hoopla didn’t have part 2 yet.
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 am employed by the federal government. 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! 🙂
