Tag: reading

Science and the Library

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn 2018, Random Musings, Reading Challenge, Summer at SonnystoneLeave a comment

I’ve taken Samantha to Pre-School Science at the Library for the last couple of weeks and have enjoyed it immensely!   Olivia joins in after the opening storytime, and it’s fun for all ages…

Last week we learned about chemical reactions and exploded some diet coke with mentos, blew up a balloon by adding baking soda to vinegar, then made a lava lamp with water, oil, and antacids.  Genius.

Science is magic that works…. Kurt Vonnegut

Paradise will be a kind of library. —Jorge Luis Borges

I’m sorry to admit that I haven’t been doing my usual amount of reading these last months.  I’m keen to get back at it, though…  There’s no happier time than when I’m lost in a good story, hopefully one with a happy ending.   I’ve got a list of “to-be-read” that I’m going to tackle today and try to get caught up.  To keep up with my goodreads challenge I need to knock out 4/month!!!  Daunting task, so I’d better get started.

Peace

Cool and Calm…

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn 2017, Autumn at Sonnystone Acres, updatesLeave a comment

I’ve been enjoying this down-time before the holidaze, just piddling around the house, cooking up some soups and casseroles.

I’m reading “Norse Mythology” by Neil Gaiman.  I love it!  I’ve been reading several chapters a night, like bedtime stories, and Love Odin, Thor, and especially Loki.  Though they are Not lovable, really.  Great Stories!

I’m listening to 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde  a live album by folk, country, and old-time music band, Old Crow Medicine Show. The album is a track-for-track tribute to Bob Dylan’s landmark 1966 double album Blonde on Blonde.  Old Crow re-imagined the arrangements of the individual tracks with manic fiddles and banjos, and it’s all good.

I’m practicing on the piano “Bridge Over Troubled Water”.   Seems like everybody in high school who could play piano could play this one, but I just found the music in a used book from a rummage sale.   It’s more difficult than I thought it would be, so I am challenged…practicing a lot…

My piano sounds better than that…

One more week until Thanksgiving, so I’d better pick up the pace and get ready for

Turkey and Tradition, the Opening Race of the Holiday Triple Crown.

I am so thankful for thankfulness, it just makes me feel so grateful for gratitude… I’m bound to win…

Peace

Reading Challenge, anyone?

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn 2017, Reading Challenge, Winter at Sonnystone1 Comment

Attention, Readers!  Are you wondering what to read next?

My favorite used-book store, Better World Books,  put out an interesting 2017 Reading Challenge.  Instead of them assigning you some books to read, you pick your own from their prompt.  They started the first of the year, so they are well ahead of us, but we could start now and see how many of the 25 challenges we complete before the end of the year..!  I have tried to link you to the list, but the best I can do is to link you to the blog and you’ll have to dig a little for it here

Let’s get started!  I’m headed to the library to choose a book to fulfill the first challenge:

Read a food memoir…

Ideas?  Suggestions?  What are You going to read?

shiftless (week-end wrap-up)

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn week-end wrap-up1 Comment

My to-do list for the week-end was full…and I did manage to get cross off everything except the outside-of-the-house stuff…meaning that I didn’t get off the property much.  There was a trip to the pumpkin store and I popped into the grocery.  I cleaned like a little scrubby-Dutch woman, sneezing the dust away as I went, and cooked up some soups (tomato/basil and grilled cheese;  hearty vegetable)…also read some Eudora Welty and Flannery O’Connor short stories, wishing I could write like that.

I did take some pictures, lucky you…

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This is a 4-day work-week, giving us a 3-day “Fall Break”—hahaha!   It’s the week that we Celebrate Grease and Embrace Obesity (it’s all about that bass) here in E-‘ville in our never-ending quest to stay on top of the fattest-city competition:  WestSide Nut Club’s Fall Festival!!!  I usually skip that, but you never know.  Casey and I have been planning a get-away to the mountains, but the weather looks shit-esque, and right now that’s on hold; I have seen the Appalachians in fog many, many times already.

I’ll let you know where we end up.  Till then, Happy Monday!

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I’m with the Wizard…

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn Sonnystone Summer SpectacularLeave a comment

up-all-night

If you’re a reader, you love a good series as much as I do.  My son introduced me to The Dresden Files series a couple of years back.  They are fantasy/mystery type novels, written by Jim Butcher, starring a Wizard/private investigator of the supernatural named Harry Dresden.  He deals with all manner of vampires, werewolves, faeries, and humans, too, barely surviving multiple whupp-ass assaults.  When I started reading them, he had already written 13 and was about to come out with #14, so I had the luxury of reading them back to back.   Then, THud…

I’ve waited almost 2 years for this one (#15)  to be published, griping as they pushed back the date of release repeatedly.  When I saw that it was Really Really going to be released 5/27, I started reviewing the last 2 so I’d be ready to plunge in…

I waited, still reviewing, till last night and I figured I’d just go ahead and download it, just to look at it…  I was up until my eyelids could no longer be propped up and my hands kept dropping my kindle…

That’s the plan for today, folks….Reading Skin Games…  And there’s nothing better I could wish for you than that you have a good book to read, as well.  Enjoy!

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Who knew?

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn RandomLeave a comment

Who knew that Yoga could hurt so much?  Why didn’t you tell me??

ooph, I’m feeling my legs and shoulders today and it hurts so good.  I’ve discovered that I’ve been doing the Sun Salute wrong all these years;  the old way was much easier…  It definitely helps to have someone make you hold the poses, whereas I was rolling through them pretty quickly before.  I shouldn’t have pushed myself, though, because now I’m not feeling too keen to practice them…

Winter has gone all wintry on us again and there’s nothing to be done but hunker down and keep the fire burning.  I saw the eye doctor (new bifocal contact lens) and the MD last week (getting labs drawn tomorrow), so I’ve pretty much no place to go.

Did I tell you that I recently purchased a Kindle Fire HD?  I started e-reading with the Original Kindle, then switched over to Nook a couple of years ago.  I wanted to use the Amazon amenities like Kindle Singles and lower prices on nearly all the books, but was also hoping that a larger screen would be easier on my eyes.     I bought the 8.9″ and it is kinda of heavy, not too portable.  But I do love the Amazon prices and shopping.   (Bargain-brag:  I used coupons and discover points to buy and only paid $75)

Oh, yes, the shopping…  And since there’s yet another storm on the way, I’ll be taking advantage of Prime to spend that overtime that Casey’s out earning.   Really…  a girl’s gotta have fairies…and fairy benches…and teeny-weeny little fairy pets.

Be careful…it’s slick out.

minute missive

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn RandomLeave a comment

I’ve got that nasty respiratory thingy that’s going around;  red nose and eyes to prove it.  That’s the norm for the season, isn’t it?  We pass around the viruses with the Thanksgiving turkey…

It’s cold and ugly outside, and we’re moving all of our large planters from the back porch into the garden shed this week-end.  This is their final stop for the winter…  Our woodpile is piled, our leaves are spread over the perennials…time to come inside and curl up with a good book, a steamy cup of tea, and mellow music.

Reading Now:  Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage  Stories ,  a collection of short stories by Alice Munro.  I’ve been a little unfocused with my reading since finishing up the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin mystery series, trying to get caught in a series or drawn into an author as good as Rex Stout.  This title was recommended by BN, I noticed it at the library earlier this week and checked it out.  I had read some of Munro’s stories in The New Yorker and truly loved her style, so I’m not surprised that these stories are all brilliant.  (She won the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, but don’t hold that against her)

Listening Now:  Neko Case, Iris Dement….2 extraordinary ladies;  they both recently released some new music, but I’m still listening to “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” and “Infamous Angel”.  I need to buy their new stuff, too.

Counting down Now:  I’m skipping over Thanksgiving Day and skimming past Christmas Day to 12/26/13, the day we’ll all check in down at Walt Disney World for our bi-annual visit with Mickey.  This one promises to be a doozy, as the imagineers test out some new technology with our family.

You might have noticed that I’ve been fiddling with the look of this blog.  I like it, but it screams for photos, don’t you think?  I’ll be snapping some shots this week-end, but until then……

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A, B. B, and the E’s…

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn RandomLeave a comment

My grand-nieces, whom I love dearly and do not see enough, visited yesterday.  I was thrilled that we were graced with the presence of a Teenager, actually 2 of them…(but I only got a picture of 1)…  Alex came by to grill Melissa about NYC and her boyfriend picked her up later.

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But the younger girls, Berkeley and Briley, played with Emma and read to Eliza…

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Emma said that my blog posts do not contain enough words, but I can’t quite help it right now…a picture is worth a thousand words (and a gallery must be worth about a million):

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just one more cup…

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn RandomLeave a comment

We got new carpet laid yesterday…in the dining room adjacent to the living room.  This floor has always been wood, so it has taken me 10 years to quash the guilt and cover it.  I like wood floors as much as anybody, but this floor had a large (inherited)  sun-stain the size of an oval rug,  as well as my contribution of water-stains.  A fella came in a couple of years ago and helped us wax and shine them, but he said then that they needed to be sanded and completely revamped.   While that might have been less $$ than carpet, I HATE  cleaning wood floors. (don’t get me started about cleaning ladies again).   So I’ve spent the last 2-3 days in a mess, and now I can put it all away, obsessing  over each little arrangement of Stuff on the shelves, placing my beloved junque just-so…

The Sun is Shining!!  After last year’s drought, I’ve learned to appreciate the rain, but  this Spring is tediously wet.  While I admit it gives me time to get some of this indoor stuff done, I’ve had to be very creative when it comes to getting in my walking…but I am keeping up.

The Summer Reading Program, wherein I stated I was going nook-free, is a bust.  I just can’t do it…  I finished up Little Women and have some good books from the library.  Right away I noticed that I have to use reading glasses for Real Books, so I bought up 3 pair and have them scattered throughout the house, ready to read…  Right now I’m about 1/3 through Wild  (Cheryl Strayed) and like it, but I couldn’t resist downloading another Nero Wolfe yesterday and finished it up in a day…  I’m sounding a little bit lazy, here, aren’t I?

We’ve got some music on the agenda again this week:  WC Handy Blues Festival is On over in Henderson and we’ll be having a little family outing on Wednesday.  In the meantime, I’ve got to get the dust off the dishes…

good day