50-Book Challenge FINISHED (Still Reading Though)

So, I've finished my 50 books, but I'm currently in the middle of 3 books actually made of paper and one on audio (which I've listed as finished, because I will be finished with it in the next couple days). All six of the books listed below are by Ilona Andrews, a couple who goes by the same pen name. The books listed are part of two series, and I think they're both pretty interesting. Due to mis-labeling, I accidentally listened to the second series out of order (book 1, book 4, book 2, then book 3), but I'm going to list them in the correct order here.

50. On the Edge (Edge series, book 1)
51. Bayou Moon (Edge series, book 2)
52. Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, book 1)
53. Magic Burns (Kate Daniels, book 2)
54. Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels, book 3)
55. Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels, book 4)

I'm also currently reading a collection of short stories that I found at Barnes & Noble while I was waiting for my eye doctor appointment time to get closer a couple weeks ago. I saw that it had a story in it by the author of the Sookie Stackhouse series (which is what the HBO show True Blood is based off of), so I bought the book. Ilona Andrews actually had a short story in the book too, which is why I looked up the series--the short was interesting, so I wanted to read more of their stuff. The book is called Death's Excellent Vacation, and I've only read 3 or 4 stories so far, but I'll get through it eventually.

Last month, I started reading the Changeling: The Lost RPG manual, and I'm on chapter 3 (there are 4 chapters, plus some appendices).

I haven't gotten much farther in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel than I was the last time I updated, but I'm determined to finish before New Year's, if at all possible.

R. I. P. Oreo

Today, Oreo, my brother's panda hamster, died. She's had a tumor of some sort in her leg area for months, and there just hasn't been money available to take her to the vet and find out what it was. At first, they thought she'd just been stung by a wasp or something, but it didn't go away, and eventually got so big she couldn't even crawl through the tunnel off-shoots on her cage.

As I type this, Jason and the others have found a box to put her in, and they're working on getting her in there; they'll probably bury her out back next to O'Malley.

On a not-so-morbid note: Kayla's uncle Stephen (or Steven) has left the house to go back to her other uncle, Peter's, house until New Year's, when he and his mother (Kayla's maternal grandmother) will be going back home to Alabama.

Yesterday, I took Anna to Miyako for a late lunch/early dinner. It was yummy. Anna got the steak and shrimp combo, and I got the steak and chicken combo. We both also got fried rice. I love the soup and salad they serve before the hibachi chef comes out too--Anna gave me her mushrooms from the soup, but even just the broth is to die for.

In the next week or so, I'm going to take Kimba to Outback one evening, and Kayla to Ruby Tuesday.

What spurred this whole "Take each family member to a nice restaurant" thing? Mostly, I was craving a bloomin' onion, but I didn't want to take all of them to Outback, since I also wanted to go to places like Ruby Tuesday, Miyako and Brewer's Alley. So I decided that this month, I'm going to take Kimba, Anna and Kayla for individual meals, and then next month (or next month, going into the month after) I'll take Dad, Mom and Jason. I haven't decided yet whether to take Mom and Dad at the same time, or individually like everybody else though.

Anyway, after our lunch/dinner, Anna and I walked around the mall (we'd gone to the Miyako at FSK instead of Patrick Street, since Kayla, Jason and Stephen asked us to drop them off at the good theater on our way to the restaurant) and I got my shoes for her wedding. We also stopped by the calendar kiosk outside of Barnes & Noble, since I needed a 2009 calendar to keep track of things at work, and I decided to get a calendar for everyone else too. I bought one called "Solitudes" for work, which is basically scenery--pretty, but not distracting.

I got Anna a Crossword-a-Day tear-off desk calendar, and Jason got a Fold-a-Day paper airplane calendar. Kimba was given an Audrey Hepburn theme, Mom got Magic Eye, and Kayla got Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I also got two other calendars: M.C. Escher and Dragons. I gave Stephen a choice as to which one he wanted; he chose the Escher calendar, so I gave the dragons to Dad.

I read What Would MacGyver Do? yesterday--it was hilarious, ingenious, and a quick read. One of the people who contributed a story to it actually wrote the book I'm currently reading: The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible--as Literally as Possible.

In the story, he wrote about his first book, The Know-It-All, a memoir about reading the Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z, and how he was petrified of being quizzed at signings. So, he tried to cram-study for weeks, but then realized that he could "MacGyver" a solution--if he didn't know the exact answer to a specific question, he'd give an answer that was related to the subject, but interesting enough so that the questioner didn't realize he hadn't answerd their original question. I've gotten through Month Two of his book, and it's fascinating so far--funny at times, serious and introspective in others.

When I first heard of the book, I thought I'd hate it, then Gene told me a bit about it, and it sounded at least fun. Now I'm reading it, and it's so much more than that--the guy really is at least trying to live a better life by following the Bible. He hasn't changed much yet, but he's already noticed some changes he's had that are more than the obvious physical ones. Like he's noticed that he (or rather, his biblical alter-ego "Jacob") is more careful about what he says, and is somewhat repulsed by certain things he wouldn't have thought twice about before.

He doesn't see "Jacob" as himself yet, but I think his two "personalities" might merge by the end of the year. Not sure yet if I'm going to read another month's worth tonight or not, but I'll definitely pick it up again tomorrow. I want to finish at least this book, if not this one and the Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition by 11:59:59 p.m. on New Year's Eve.

Scheduling Fun

I'm a big follower of the belief that "you can't schedule fun," but I've got so many hobbies and things I can never decide which ones I want to do when. So I usually end up just reading all the time. I've been toying around for a while with the idea of scheduling time for hobbies, exercise, laundry, cleaning, and other things, but didn't actually get around to making up said schedule until this evening. I did it in two-week intervals, because some things only need to be done once every two weeks.

Here's what I have for the time before school starts (this coming Sunday until the week of January 28, 2008). Sorry about the small print--it wouldn't fit on the blog screen otherwise. If you click on the images, you will be taken to the full-size versions, which have larger text.

Time Sheet Week

Pay Day Week

Those schedules will have to change slightly if I actually get a part-time holiday job at Barnes & Noble, like I want to. Here's my scheduling plan for after school starts.

Time Sheet Week

Pay Day Week

So, what do you think? Am I crazy?

Renn Fest . . . And Other Exciting Things

So, Anna, Kayla, Jen S, Jason and I went to Renn Fest a few weeks ago. I bought outfits for Jason and Jen. I also rode an elephant with Anna and Jen! It was pretty fun, except for the fact that sitting on the elephant kind of threw my hip out of joint--that was a little uncomfortable. I've been meaning to post pictures from the Festival, but Anna hasn't downloaded any from her camera yet. As soon as she does though, she's promised to e-mail them to me, and then I'll post them.

Things have sort of settled down on the roommate front now. Jen C. kept calling and e-mailing me (can you say "harrassment?") about Amit's part of the security deposit. Finally, Amit called TC (the landlord), and he said he'd take care of it and that Amit can pay TC back. Whew.

Amit and Jen S. are pretty fun, and Amit cooks for us every now and then. Yummy. I don't see much of Stacie, but so far, she's loaned her DVDs for the first and second season of Bones to both Anna and Kayla. Bones is pretty interesting; I think I might just be the next one to borrow the DVDs.

Anna TiVo'd the first two episodes of this new show called Pushing Daisies. It's about this guy who brings people back from the dead, asks who killed them, and then makes them dead again. (If he doesn't, then someone else dies, and he can never touch the first person again, or they'll die too.) It's narrated by Jim Dale, the guy who narrates the (I think) American version of the Harry Potter audio books, as well as the video games. Kayla and I watched the first two episodes last night, and it is hilarious! I'm definitely going to be watching every Wednesday at 8pm.

I took my car in for an oil change and a tune-up on Saturday. Didn't get it back until today though, because it was 1pm when I dropped it off, and they couldn't get to look at it until today. Turns out, the car needed a lot more done than that, especially since I hadn't had any regular maintenance done on it at all, and I've had it for more than a year and a half. I just sunk $677 and change into it today (good thing I had some savings), and it still needs about $1,300-worth of further repairs. Although the two most expensive repairs can wait as long as I'm careful and pay attention to the level of coolant in the reservoir.

I'd been thinking for the last few weeks that I'd go see if the bookstore across the street from my work is hiring part-time holiday help. So, I went over there today at lunch time, but they're only open from 10am-4pm Monday through Saturday. Considering I was looking for a 5:30 or 6pm until about 10pm job for two to three nights a week, plus a Saturday or two per month, that would not have worked.

So, I looked up bookstores in town. There are a lot more than I thought--three on Market Street alone. Then this evening, Kayla came with me to the new Barnes & Noble in the mall so that I could fill out an application. Kayla's friend Madison works there, so I put her name down as a referral. Just waiting to hear from them now.