thoughts of Venus

Thursday, August 09, 2007

an update

I know, I know. I haven't posted in a while. My bad.

Well, I have been busy reading. I finished Dead is the New Black by Harper Allen. This is my first book by this author. I enjoyed it. It is the last book in a series, but the first one I have read. It wasn't my ideal ending, but one I could live with - I like happy endings (ha-ha!) I plan to read the other two and will look for them on PBS website and the used bookstore.

I also finished Nina Bangs A Taste of Darkness - shapeshifters and vampires. My favorite combination! Sparkle Stardust is such a fun character and I was glad to see her back in this book.

And I have also recently read The Passion by Donna Boyd. I did not enjoy this one, it was a very dark book, moreso than any other book I have recently read.

Another Invitation to Murder: A Cardmaking Mystery by Elizabeth Bright was a very good book. One that was a different kind of read for me - a mystery. It was funny to read a book centered around a hobby - cardmaking. The character opens a cardmaking store down the street from her sister that has a scrapbooking store, and the storyline revolves around a murder mystery.

I have just been doing my regular things, nothing new and exciting. It has been very hot lately so I haven't done much of anything outside. LeeAnn finished up her online class - Science - with a "B". She is just anxiously waiting for school to start back up on Aug 20.

I will try and write again soon.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Hump day

I have made it to hump day, some weeks I really wonder if I will make it. My job isn't hard, I just want to do something else. That is why I am looking into going back for a Master's. I would like to work in a library or bookstore, that would be my ideal job. Something to do with books. Too bad I can't figure out how to get paid what I get paid now and stay home.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Well, I sure am behind...

on writing here in my blog. I am going to try and keep more up to date. Last year I just had some problems with LeeAnn (daughter) over the summer and did not want to relive all the details here on the blog. Our relationship has improved some, we are past all that stuff from last year. This summer has been better, not as stressful. I have been in my new job for over a year now.

I am trying to make plans for myself. I would like to take the GRE and get accepted into a master's program. Hopefully it will happen.

I have been reading of course. The latest book I read was Carrie Vaughn's Kitty and the Midnight Hour - I enjoyed it very much. Kitty Norvill is a nightshift DJ and she is a werewolf. The book has vampires and werewolves in it. This was the first book by Vaughn for me, I thought it was well written and it was hard for me to put down. I looked forward to what Kitty was going to do next and am ready to start reading the next in the series - Kitty Goes to Washington. It is in my TBR pile (along with lots of others!).

I have decided to not continue to be a CM consultant. It was a hard decision but one that I decided would be for the best with me wanting to go back to college and this being LeeAnn's senior year in high school. I am going to just try and use up the stuff that I have and buy things as I need them for projects and stuff.

well, off to bed. tomorrow will come soon enough.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

just another day in my life...

Okay, so I haven't written in a while. What has been going on? well, I scrapbooked the other Saturday with friends - I made cards. Why? I don't know. I don't send cards. It was a kit on QVC and I had to have it. Guess I should start sending cards Ha-ha! Heard from mom and dad. They are in Las Vegas, Nevada. The RV needed some work done on it so they will be there til Sat. Sun they will try to head back to the Grand Canyon. Because of the fires in the area they weren't able to see it and that is something they really wanted to do. LeeAnn has been taking two classes online for high school. Earth & Space Science and Algebra 1b. So far she has an A in science and a C in math. Hope she continues keeping up the grades, I am real happy for her. I have been doing this temp job for about 6 weeks now. I hope I end up getting the job for good. Everyone seems to be happy about me being there, except the people I supported - they miss me. I picked up 2 new books at Target over the weekend - Christine Feehan's Dangerous Tides and Kim Harrison's A Fist Full of Charms. Dangerous Tides was as good as I expected. I was really looking forward to this sisters story. I did miss the Aunt (she was in the last story), but I am sure she will be back in another story. I am still reading A Fist Full of Charms. The storyline is a good one and it is keeping me entertained - I just don't want to finish it because then I don't have anything else good to read Ha-ha! I can't seem to find another book in paperback that I have been waiting for, I really don't want to pay the hardcover price - but I might have to. It is Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton. I have been following the series she has out (thanks Kathran!) and am disappointed that it seems to be only a hardback issue :( But they know I will be sucked into buying it - hope I can find it used somewhere at a good price. Well, need to get to bed... Nite.

Friday, June 23, 2006

TGIF - what a day!

So, of course I don't get up for work when I want to, but I roll out of bed anyway and get ready for work. Well, I get to work & of course everyone else's priority is above what I had planned for the day, doesn't that always seem to happen? I decided to start actually writing in my Franklin Planner so I could see what I am in fact accomplishing - that actually made me feel better about the day. The fact that I was actually accomplishing things, even though they weren't actually what I had wanted to do today. Well, in helping LeeAnn with her homework last night I found out that I really need to get the "high-speed internet" stuff that I keep hearing about and not paying attention to. She wasn't able to view a video here at home cause it was taking too long to download. So, I am taking her to work on Sunday so she can view the video & submit her assignment. So far she is getting stuff done & has 100% in the class. I know she is worried about it and her Algebra class. Already has a stomach ache. There is not much I can do about it except reassure her that I will help her all I can, that the school has tutors, to ask questions and think positively. Since I will be getting that internet connection I will have to move things around here in the livingroom, more than what I had planned because I will have to move the computer desk on the outside wall of the house to get the internet cable from my cable company. I am going to have the TV in the corner and I guess the couch along the wall by the windows... I don't know. I'll have to see how things fit. I guess I need to quit talking and do it, next weekend. I am planning to scrapbook with some friends at a scrapbook store tomorrow all day. And then Sunday LeeAnn and I will go by my work to get her schoolwork done and get the groceries. Never a dull moment! Ha-ha. Heard from mom today. They are still in Utah. Dad took her on a canyon walk I think she said. The brochure said it was a "sedate walk, even path, etc" Mom said the brochure lied. It was uneven & crumbling-like in some areas. She mentioned they are leaving the campsite they are at on Sunday I think (very bad connection for cell phone & can't do computer at all) and will be going to another area of Utah, and then on to the North Rim and Grand Canyon and on to Las Vegas. I can't wait to see all the pictures! Well, I need to get going so I can get to bed... ciao!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

another day in my exciting life

So, I had someone today comment that I hadn't updated my blog - again I say because I don't think I have much exciting news in my life. Well, I was excited to see that I had Cathy Clamp comment on my last post asking for my address because she wants to send me the next book in the Sazi series, autographed and 2 months before it will be released in the bookstores. I was very thrilled to have her actually stop by my little blog on the web. Very cool. I haven't read anything "new", I have been just re-reading some favorites - Sherrilyn Kenyon's Seize the Night and 2 of Christine Feehan's Dark Demon & Ocean's of Fire. Well, I am on my 4th week of my new job. I took a temporary (4 month) detail to a GS-07 secretary in the executive office at the place I work. I took it for the experience and because I hoped that it would give me an advantage to getting the job on a permanent basis. I am enjoying it for the most part. Both of the bosses are great and easy to get along with; and I work with 2 other secretaries that are also easy to get along with. I do miss all the interaction in my other position, and some key people that I talked to on a regular basis. So, I do try to take a walk and stop by for a quick chat - one of the ladies is pregnant and I like to get an update on how things are going as it hasn't been an easy pregnancy for her. Anyway, cross your fingers that this becomes permanent cause it would be a good career move for me. LeeAnn has started her online Earth & Space Science class with the Florida Online Virtual School and will be starting her Algebra 1b class within the week. She doesn't know any grades so far but she feels real good about the whole online thing so I am hoping that it is a good way for her to get some good grades and bring up her GPA. I think mom and dad are in Moab, Utah. I can't keep it all straight. They are just jetting all over the place. Mom mentioned seeing a national park, seeing canyons and following the Colorado river back to their campsite. That the weather was fluctuating between 98 and 103 degrees and just too hot for them to have to walk a long while to see stuff. They are having the time of their life and taking lots of pictures. I know my job when they get home will be to help mom out with getting those pictures in a nice album so she can show them off to all her friends, and family - which I am looking forward to. I have done all the babbling that I am going to today. ciao!

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Saturday musings

So, I have grand ideas that when I get up this morning I am going to do all this wonderful stuff. Not! LeeAnn (daughter) comes in to let me know it is 9am, I mumble "another 1/2 hr please". So, then she comes back in to let me know my 1/2 hr is up. So, I roll out of bed. She tells me she made breakfast, which surprises me, but I am willing to eat since she fixed it - scrambled eggs, toast, bagel chips, banana & milk. Filled me up. I decided to read the day away - C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp "Moon's Web" - the 2nd in a series (first was Hunter's Moon) & it was just as good as the first. Paranormal - shapeshifters and magic. So, since I wasn't going to be productive today I told LeeAnn that she could go ahead over to her friends earlier if she wanted since she was going to spend the night tonight. Reading, watching TV - that is about all I did today. Oh, I forgot, I changed the furnace filter Ha-ha! LeeAnn was bummed because her "Mary" (my aunt, her great-aunt) sent me a package and not her. Realized it was a trip album that Mary had mentioned in an email, sending it to me for me to pass on to my parents. Enjoyed the pictures and seeing a finished album (hoping that it will spark some interest in scrapbooking in me). I am sure my mom and dad will love the album when they see it. So, LeeAnn asked where I wanted her to put it. I told her out in the livingroom was fine, now that I am out here after she has left - I don't see it. Bet she put it in her bedroom, or took it with her to show her friends. My friend left me a voice mail (okay, I slept also) and said that she didn't find any chairs at the garage sales today, but she did get a great bargain on a box of Heidi Swapp stuff - albums and other goodies for only $20. I say she got a bargain. Well, when LeeAnn is gone I get lonely so I guess I am off to bed. At least I got a kiss and "love you" before she left. She will never be to old for giving me a kiss and saying that she loves me. I am so glad I had a girl...