"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...

The moment I got back from Ohio, it was pretty much Turtle's Birthday. Which means my time to shine, because I'm awesome at birthdays (especially when 1) you're my best friend and 2) I know you better than you know yourself, and 3) you live the same place as me. Heh. Birthday pretty much owned). I got her a computer game from my Childhood (since she'd been so taken with MYST), King's Quest. Actually I got the collection of all 7, and so we spent most of the day just playing that, enjoying ourselves. She loved it. Then we went out to a very elegant restaurant for dinner, where she ordered whatever she wanted, and I got her a super yummy dessert. The very next night we hung out with the S Family to carve pumpkins, which is always a blast for me. Now I will admit to being something of a pumpkin snob, and with good reason if you've seen any of my pumpkins. Turtle's Pumpkin: Last year I carved three pumpkins (I lived in a backwoods lodge and had tons of free time...

Grin. Disclaimer . Grin. I wish I had time to upload all 70 photos from my trip, but I don't. You can see them all here . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After what seemed like months of agony, discomfort, and incredible bad luck, I needed a freaking break. And Ohio was just what the doctor ordered. Tuesday, October 20th ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I got up butt early to get on a plane. Most of the time I spent reading. At the time, I was in the midst of Deborah Davis' Not Like You . As the plane descended into Ohio, I was overcome with a feeling of giddiness and elation. Home. TREES!!! FALL COLORS!!! I remembered to turn onto Sawyer to get to Broad Street, and then as I drove the memories just flooded back. Everything, everywhere, pieces of ME. I love this place so dearly. Of course I visited my old neighborhood. There's so much growth and change in my little town, it's definitely becoming full-blown suburbia. But thankfully, some things haven...

Heh. I totally have a DISCLAIMER . Even better? It still applies. :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So my summer of traveling began to wind down *tear.* And I was once again faced with the reality that I was a) jobless, b) still hadn't done anything about that "Grad School Thing" somewhere on the horizon, and c) I felt relatively directionless when it came to my life at large. But I blame that partly on someone trying to kill me and the subsequent lawsuit keeping me tied to this glorious (heh) State. One weekend Turtle and I did take another trip, (this one not nearly so far or extravagant as the previous) to Rexburg. Prior to this trip, I had been their only once with some co-workers for a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip because one of my co-workers was trying to hook up with at girl at the I. 1) It was so cold my nose hairs froze and made me never want to return. 2) Genius broke his car key in half trying to turn it in the frozen ...

Ugh. I need to blog. I want to blog. I just can't find the energy or the strength. Yes, I realize it's pretty much February, but I still need to end 2009 officially on here, and start into 2010 (which has been pretty great so far! :D) Having a full-time job just really puts a crimp in my motivation "after-hours." Okay, I won't lie, it pretty much obliterates it. Especially when on top of doing your regularly-scheduled job you have to try and figure out how to crawl yourself (read: your company) out a pit 40 ft deep because the last 4 people who worked your position didn't do ANYTHING (though they adamantly stamped and recorded and said that they did). Ugh.