"I write, therefore I am."

Somehow I seem to have taken up reading almost purely books that are part of a series. Call it laziness? I dunno. I call it, hey that book was pretty good, there's another? Fantastic! Gimme, gimme. Heh... Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragons of Winter Night - Grade: A+. What I said before. Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief - Grade: A. I 100% felt like a 10-year-old prepubescent reading this book! L O V E. This book was...genius. The pacing was spot-on, the characters believable, lovable, AND validly humorous! Win, win, win. Let's just hope they don't screw up the movie. Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games - Grade: A. I'm not sure what it says about me that I like this book. I feel in a twisted way that makes me just like someone from the Capitol. Hmm. But wow! What a great read! There were slow parts and things that annoyed me, and an occasional unbelievable moment, but I let almost everything slide because the story was so grippingly wonderous. Jame...

Here's to 2009 (screw you!) and all the memories (and nightmares...) Let us recap the best of the best. Best Trip of 2009: Idaho/Washington Trip with NFJ (which pretty much is the whole post). Hands down, no contest. That trip RULED my summer. Best Restaurant of 2009: I'm actually going to go with most FREQUENTED restaurant of 2009, which makes the best. Obviously. That would have to be Toaster's, the coffee shop right down the block where I work (hence part of why I frequent it so freaking much *grin*) Best Article of 2009: Yeah, I don't read too many articles, just blogs? So I'm going to opt out on this one. Best Book of 2009: Yikes. Hold on to your hats for this one. I mean how many books did I read in 2009? Oh wait 45 (including 11 I haven't reviewed yet - that's coming soon, don't worry!) In reviewing the thousands of pages I've devoured, I'll add myself a caveat here and make this best NEW book of 2009, because let's be honest I did m...

And cue Winter. Though I don't really know when because there's pretty much been no snow this whole winter in the valley. Not that I'm complaining. Ushering in December brought its own slew of Holiday get-togethers and reasons for me to make amazing appetizers including my now-famous Bacon-wrapped Water Chestnuts. Yummmers. I think that's really all I want to say about that. I took cute pictures though of my new suit and Turtle got a smokin' new dress. Toward the end of the month, I of course went home for Christmas. Thankfully it went pretty fast. My synopsis of the experience is: "It could have been worse." Christmas heralded the attempt to get me a new phone - again. This would mark #7 in one year. Can you believe that? 7 phones. Wow, not the best of years for me and phones. The pre-festivities went rather quickly, and Christmas arrived. Yayness. Christmas day after opening presents I wanted to get away so BigBro, LilBro and I all went Christmas caching...