Book Chat - Children's Books

It's book chat time again! I missed it last week... Whoops. Oh well. This week's discussion topic is Children's books.

My blogger friend Mia is co-hosting today, nice!

The timing of this chat and topic is really ironic, actually. On Sunday I'm going to a baby shower for a good friend and I'm planning on buying her a baby book instead of a card, and writing the message to her and her husband in the book. So they can keep it for years and years! And they get a free present out of it too! I'm also doing this for another friend's baby shower in May and have asked the guests to do the same. 

I really like children's books. I don't' read them a lot, but I do like them. My favorite book as a child was definitely this one:

The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. Oddly enough, while I adored this one and read it about a hundred times, I never really liked Charlotte's Web or Stuart Little nearly as much. Or at all. And those are the ones you always hear about and think about when you hear E. B. White. Oh well, to each his own.

And I suppose it's a children's book, but it's one of those deep ones that you don't really fully understand until you're older...

I loved anything Shel Silverstein but this book especially. The tree... it just gives so much of itself... and the kid just takes and takes and then finally gets it. I practically cry just thinking about this story.

I actually only remembered it was book chat day when I saw this article on Half Price Books' Facebook:
As Seen on TV: 21 Books from Mad Men
So many good books! I only remember about a quarter of them being mentioned in the episodes though... The Chrystanthemum & the Sword, obviously, because an entire episode centered around it as they were trying to do business with ... Honda, I think. Lady Chatterly's Lover I remember too... I've never read that book. Ha! It's on my list. Along with about 500 other books...

Book Chat - Currently reading: Hero of Ages, The Dinner

Found a new link up on one of the blogs I follow that is so right up my alley!

Follow the link in the image if you want to link up. What else do you need to do? Just talk about what you're currently reading. Easy enough!

I'm almost always in the middle of several books. Kindle or actual books, it varies, but I do tend to read more on my Kindle than actual books now. It's just so convenient! So here are the books I'm currently reading, in order of how often I'm reading them.

Main book: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (Book 3 of the Mistborn series)
The Mistborn trilogy is one that my boyfriend had been trying to get me to read for awhile. How long? Let's see... we started dating in September 2011, and I put the first book on my Goodreads shelf in September 2011, and the second and third in July 2012.
I finally got around to reading them and I read the first one (Mistborn: The Final Empire) in January and finished the second one (The Well of Ascension) a little less than a week ago (yikes, on Saturday?) and I'm 90% through the third one now (it's about 570 pages total). I just have to know what happens!!
The characters are great and the world is interesting with a rich tapestry of a world it's set in. I think of all three of the books, I liked the first one the best, the third one next, and then the second one. The first one sets the scene (or does it? Cos as you read, you find out that so much of what you assumed was happening really wasn't what was REALLY happening) and draws you in. And the third one answers so many questions.
The series is about this group of rebels who plan to overthrow a tyrant ruler. I'm not going to tell you more than that. Just read it!

Book in waiting: The Dinner by Herman Koch
This is one I'm ready for book club. I'm not very far into it, only a chapter or so, because I've been so drawn in by Mistborn. I have until April 13 to get this book read, so no worries. Here's the synopsis. I'm not far enough in to give my own, so this one is from Goodreads:
A summer's evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. Between mouthfuls of food and over the delicate scraping of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of politeness - the banality of work, the triviality of holidays. But the empty words hide a terrible conflict and, with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened... Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. Together, the boys have committed a horrifying act, caught on camera, and their grainy images have been beamed into living rooms across the nation; despite a police manhunt, the boys remain unidentified - by everyone except their parents. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children and, as civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

I have some other books on my 'currently reading' list on Goodreads but I haven't touched them in over a month, so they don't really count. I'll come back to them eventually. After I read my next few bookclub books and this short story by Brandon Sanderson my boyfriend has been telling me about for about three months now. Got to appease the boyfriend...
I kid. He tells me about good stuff. Mistborn, Breaking Bad... Sh, don't tell him I respect his opinion, even if it takes me awhile to get to his recommendations. 


If these books interest you, you should check me out on Goodreads! Check out my books, read my reviews (though I don't have many, I tend to just star and move on), be my friend! 

To give you a better idea of some of the things I like to read, here are some books I have recomended to various bookclubs I'm in that we should read.  Several of these did get chosen and the members loved them, for the most part.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
What Alice Forgot by Lliane Moriarty
Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The Hunger Games (trilogy) by  Suzanne Collins

 Some of my recent suggestions, that are currently being voted on. I hope one wins, I really want to read these!
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Sunday Monday Confessions!

It's that time of the week again!


1. I'm just going to start calling these my Monday confessions. I just never can seem to get this done on a Sunday! It's on my calendar, I think about what I want to post, I just never get it done.

2. I'm getting a new kitchen doohickey this week! It was recommended to me by one of my awesome friends who loves to craft, bake, and is a great mom. She's like Martha Stewart. But cooler. Cos I can ask her questions. And she never went to jail.
So this is what I'm getting:

You can get your own at Amazon!

It's a Matfer 321005 Exopat 11-5/8-by-16-3/8-Inch Nonstick Baking Mat. I've been using parchment paper when I bake, which makes clean up so much easier, but it's a bit of a pain (I'm also just lazy). I don't want to spend the time cutting it, and then the paper is wider than the pan so I have to squash it down so it doesn't hang all over the place. And then I saw my friend posted a pic of her cookies out of the oven and I was all, 'yum! Hey what's that mat they're on....' I was sold.

3. I plan to test out my new baking mat this week! I have a game night with friends coming up this Friday so I'm going to make Funfetti cookies! Everyone loves the dip, and the same blogger who posted the dip (http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/) has a post with them in cookie format... So I want to see how they translate. Will report back soon.

4. I am Zelda obsessed! Reading The Legend of Zelda; Hyrule Historia, finding out about the Wii U Zelda in the works and the remake of Wind Waker has totally inspired me to play the old games again. I dug out my old Nintendo DS, the one that still has the GameBoy Advance slot, and started replaying Minish Cap from the beginning. I'm already about halfway finished. I tried to continue playing Ocarina on my 3DS but I don't remember where I am or what I was doing so I turned it off, I'll come back to it. I plan to also replay the Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons games -- flashback to GameBoy Color!! Pretty sure they'll play in the GBA slot on my older DS. And awhile ago I restarted playing Twilight Princess. Will pick that up again in awhile.
And I still have no plans to even try to finish Majora's Mask. Stupid game. I just can't do the lover's mask task, I can't do it!

5. I think I need to amend my 2011 taxes. Ew. :/ Should be pretty easy... thank you Turbo Tax!

6. I worked out Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and I'm working out tonight. Go me!

7. I read What Alice Forgot last week, in about 3 days, and it's seriously made myself think -- if it was ten years ago and then the next thing I knew, it was today, what would I think of my life?
That makes very little sense... Here's the book synopsis, to help explain:
Alice Love is twenty-nine years old, madly in love with her husband, and pregnant with their first child. So imagine her surprise when, after a fall, she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! she HATES the gym!) and discovers that she's actually thirty-nine, has three children, and is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. A knock on the head has misplaced ten years of her life, and Alice isn't sure she likes who she's become. It turns out, though, that forgetting might be the most memorable thing that has ever happened to Alice.
 So let's see... ten years ago, I was almost 22. (I was probably playing Oracle of Seasons/Ages, lol.) I was living with my parents in Lake Jackson, after nearly flunking out of TCU. I wasn't in contact with any of my friends from TCU because I was so ashamed of how badly I'd done and how I had to leave. I was going to Brazosport College to appease my parents... It was my second semester. I think it was around this time I was taking a computer programming class and realizing that I could do college, I wasn't dumb, and I had decided on a major that I could graduate with in a year. I think I was still terrified of my parents' idea that after I graduated from BC, I needed to go to a university and finish up my bachelor's degree. I was working at Hallmark/Coach House Gifts. I was totally frivolous with my money and accumulating a lot of debt that future me would get to deal with. I spent most nights hanging out at IHOP with my friends -- ah! The start of my chub! Eating a club sandwich or pancakes or fries or a sundae at 11pm then going to sleep an hour later... My dating life was pretty nonexistent.
Now? (I'm still playing Zelda!) I'm living in the Galleria area with my long term boyfriend. I've reconnected with my really close friends from TCU. Do we see each other? No, but I do want to change that and soon, Miss Polly and Miss Lissa! But our lives are busy. :) I have an MBA and a payroll certification. I work for the Houston Rockets. I have seized control of my debt and am much more aware of my expenditures and my disposable income. 
If I had short term amnesia today, and was thinking it was 10 years ago, and I was looking at my life, I definitely don't think I would recognize it. But I'm actually so thankful of that. I have grown so much in the last ten years and I am in such a better place, in all aspects of my life. Financially, emotionally, mentally, physically.

Catch up - did you miss me?

Oh my gosh, busy January, how you thwart my blogging schedule!

Phew... it's been a busy month. Can't believe it's been more than two weeks since I last touched this thing. I kept meaning to blog but I spend so much time starting at a computer at work it's the last thing I want to look at on the weekends sometime and especially the week nights.

So time to play catch up. What have I been up to? Warning... I don't know why, but there are links all over the place with this post.

• W-2 Season. It kills me dead every year. There's just so much to do with the year end wrap up. I've kept my calendar relatively clear this month because I have to with my work demands. Not doing something every night though, I must admit, has been nice. Must continue to keep control over my schedule like I was forced to this month! I'm not going to bore you with the details of what I've been doing day to day at work. It's done, for the most part. I don't really want to think about it anymore.

• Won an award at work! Go me! It's basically an Employee of the Month program we have, except it's quarter based instead of monthly. Every quarter, they ask for employees to nominate their peers as the new One Team All Star -- basically the best of the best, an employee who always gives it their all and exemplifies the core values of the company. It's kind of a big deal.

My first trophy in forever!

• Have not been cooking a lot but I was able to try out a few restaurants I've been meaning to for awhile: BRC Gastropub on Shepherd -- so yummy! -- and Mother Teresa's in Lake Jackson. Authentic Italian food! So delicious. Chris and I went down to have dinner with some friends who live in LJ. Figured it was only fair, almost all the other times we've seen them, they've come up to Houston. 288 is a two way street!

• I've done some Zumba at Tropa Z Fitness. Not nearly as much as I should be doing, but things come up. I'll be better! And I have a year long membership that I'm going to be charged for each month. I MUST be better. I also used a Groupon deal with a friend that we both bought for Vault Houston - we tried out an intro class to Vault AIR-TONE. It was interesting... different. I'll try it again. And this Sunday, the same friend and I are going to enjoy another Groupon deal we bought for a class at S Factor. Pretty excited about that. I've tried out another pole dance workout class and enjoyed the class itself but not the location. 

• Successfully hosted a Slumber Parties party at my apartment this past weekend! Had to kick the boyfriend out for that. Slumber Parties is a direct sales, home party company for bedroom accessories. Let's just leave it at that? ;) My consultant is great - here's her website. My party is still open until the end of the month -- if you see something you want, contact her and let her know you were referred to her by me, Laura B. All of their products are great. I got $400 in product for $150, thanks to free or discounted merchandise hostess benefits! I had so many ladies in my apartment, oh my gosh, and it's really not that big, when you start talking about fitting 15 people in the living room. I actually  had to borrow folding chairs from E&A earlier in the week. I was looking at the RVSP list and the number of people who'd said yes, and looking at my living room, and the two recliners and one desk chair and four kitchen table chairs.... yea, that wasn't going to work. Thank goodness I was able to borrow chairs! Life savers!!

•  Finished reading The Hobbit! One book on the BBC Big Read List, down! And to stick with my 2013 reading challenge, 2 more to go! Or 12. But I still don't know if I'm that ambitious... We'll see. Next on the list... I think I'll try reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles.Got it for free on Amazon for my Kindle! 

• Ordered this -- The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia. It's a little embarrassing about how much I'm looking forward to getting this. But not really. If I wasn't a nerd, Chris and I wouldn't work as well as we do. 

• Loving on Pandora!!! Seriously, was I the last person in the world to discover how cool this thing is?

• Watched Spank! The 50 Shades Parody, a Fifty Shades of Grey parody. Pretty funny. It did inspire me to read more of 50 Shades, before I was only about one chapter in... Oh my god, it's so bad but oddly compelling. I don't understand it! I am so tired of reading about the main character's "inner goddess". Just call it what it is!

•  Got a new battery for my car. That was... thrilling. It could have been a lot worse though. I thought it was going to be much worse. Luckily I was off on Monday. So discovered my car wouldn't start, Chris tried to do a jump start, didn't work. Called my dad and told him the issues and he thought it might be something wrong with the relay. So Chris heads back to work and I call up Honda Care to set up a tow to a dealership. The tow truck comes by and takes a look and he is able to jump it! Yay! I guess the tow truck had a lot more juice than Chris' car, cos we did everything right. So then I headed over to AutoZone to get the battery tested and it was bad, so I bought a new one. The annoying this is now my car says Enter Code when I try to turn the radio on, since the battery was disconnected. Need to find my owners manual, I need the car-specific security code.

I think that's it...  Phew. And there's still a week left to this month. I need it to be February already!!

But then it'll be the month of All Star. Yikes.

New Years 5 for Five!

Yay Monday. Time for this!



Let's see how I did on my list from last week... Green good, red fail!

1. Put away Christmas presents - new fan, new blender/processor, new pots and pans. So close! I put away the new blender/food processor, pots and pans, but not the new fan. 
2. Go to Zumba twice. Well when I failed on this I failed hard. I didn't go once!!
3. Strip the bed and remake it with fresh sheets. Did it yesterday - it counts!
4. Keep your schedule how it is now... open. Non chaotic. Yay. Did it. 
5. Just... make it through the next few days. I hate the end of the year at work -- SO MUCH to do! Well it's a week later and I survived so... well done, self!

Not touching the long term ones this time... I didn't do anything on that list.

So we're doing it a little different this week since Monday falls on New Years Eve. Usually I would now make a list of things to accomplish in the next five days but.... drumroll please...


Five things I want to accomplish in 2013... Hm. Okay go!

1. Complete my 2013 Reading Challenge - read 3 or 13 (aim for 3... if you hit 3 early on, go for 13!) books from the BBC Big Read list in 2013.

2. Lose 20 pounds. I'm not putting my weight here... I have other tracking methods. I know what it is. And I know what it needs to be. And those numbers are not really very close. But they CAN be.

3. Cook more often! What's more often? Hm... I guess I should make these goals SMART -- Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely. Okay so let's make it measurable.
Cook at least once a week. Use the crockpot for a meal at least once a month. That's pretty attainable.
Take a cooking class? Maybe.. those are stupid expensive. And I have plenty of recipes I want to try (thank you, Pinterest!). I think I'm good on my own.

4. Oh this one's pretty important... and I've been telling myself for weeks I need to do this. Control your schedule! Too many times I joke, "I don't know how many hours in the day I thought there were when I made this week's schedule" because I'll have something planned every single night and still need to do laundry, clean, sleep, etc. My sister can see my Google calendar and tells me often she has to hide it because it makes her feel a little crazy. So yes. More me time. Remember to have at least one night a week where you're not doing a damn thing and it's so glorious.

5. This one's a little vague but okay. Do something adventurous I haven't done before. I've gone sky diving, rappelled down a building, rock climbing (indoor), scuba diving... So what's next? Bunjee jumping? Base jumping (lol right)? Trapeze work?

Sunday Confessions - Look guys, on a Sunday!

It's that time again! And look, I'm even doing it on a Sunday. I haven't done that in about three weeks...


1. I kind of totally bailed on the pub crawl I organized last night. Well technically I didn't organize it, St Arnold's did, I just found out about it and made a Facebook event for it so my friends knew it was happening.
Chris and I were running a little late but as planned we were able to eat beforehand at Le Madeline with some friends and then headed over to meet up with more people at Buffalo Wild Wings, which was one of the first four stops. I didn't want to eat there because I was afraid everyone would have that idea since it was one of the pub crawl stops. Guess what? I was right!! Got a text from one of my friends while at BW3: 'Understand now why you ate at La Madeline. They took forever with Sheldon's burger!' See? Sometimes I do know what I'm 'talking about.
BW3 was so crowded!! A bunch of people were eating so we stayed awhile and then most of the group was ready to go so headed on out to the next place. My other friends who were at another table were finishing up beers, and they were nice beers, no chugging, so we stayed another five minutes or so to let them finish then headed out. Next place was Little Woodrow's on Morningside which is pretty much all outdoors and a bar with no real front wall, just open air... so! Crowded! And cigarette smoke filled. Gross. I did find the rest of the group but they were "inside" near the bar and I stood with them for about a minute before I started to get claustrophobic from the press of people and had to escape. Chris, a friend of his, and I decided to just hit the rest of the places to get our stamps since they were all so close and then camp out in Black Walnut Cafe, which was NOT on the crawl, until it was time for the final stop and the pint glasses. So that's what we did. I did at least text as many people as I could think of to let them know that's what we were doing, and they could join us if they wanted, and Black Walnut had beer and wine if they wanted to drink! I got accused of cheating. Whatever. I can't deal with crowds and cigarette smoke. Ok I probably could but I choose not to. It's not my idea of fun. I like being able to hear the conversation I'm having with someone. I like personal space. And I like AC!
So if anyone who came out is reading this... I hope you had fun. I  hope you didn't feel abandoned by me, that was not my intention. I hope no one was off by their lonesome. That was not my intention.
And if anyone is still saying I cheated, haha, shut up. I got the same glass you did. Look how my collection grows!

Santo - from Dec crawl, C Ale - from Nov crawl, Summer Pills - from a crawl years ago I did  in Market Square area with my sister and brother-in-law, Lawnmower - from when I went to the brewery a few weeks ago.

2. Do you want to see my Christmas decorations for the apartment? Boom! That's it. :) I know. I go all out, what can I say?

3. I need to put laundry away. Seriously. I did laundry on Wednesday or so and it's all in a basket in the living room, just waiting for me. Maybe today. Maybe. I should today.... or else when the heck will I?

4. This weekend is just way too busy... I just want to hide. Yesterday it was the spa at 9, get gas, go to the bank. Book club holiday book exchange at 11 (I gave World War Z, I got Little Bee. PLEASE don't tell me anything about it! Somehow I've gone this long without being spoiled on it). Pick up equipment for ultimate frisbee today on my way home. Get ready for the pub crawl. Crawl. And then I was actually invited to two other parties last night, and my singles group had a games night. I called it quits after we hit up Chocolate Bar after getting our pint glasses. Enough is enough! I'm tired. And I wanted to spend time with my friends who drove up from where they live, an hour away, And then I wanted to spend time with my boyfriend. I felt like I never saw him this week cos I was sick and sleeping almost all the time I was home.
And today is just as crazy... Dim sum brunch with one of his friends at 11. I may have to bail early because I have ultimate frisbee that I'm hosting for the singles group at 1. Then this evening, we have dinner with Chris' family at 6 to celebrate his grandmother's 80th birthday.
All fun but aaaah! WTF! Did I even look at my calendar when I made my schedule this weekend, to notice the other events scheduled?
At least I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping.

5. I'm going to a screening of The Hobbit tomorrow with a friend -- IMAX!! Not 3D, I think. I meant to read the book before I saw the movie... whoops.

6. My blog hit 700 page views today!!

7. My confessions will probably never be juicy... sorry. This is my personal blog but it's still the internet, not my locked away diary. I still am very cautious the amount of deeply personal information I put out here.

2013 Reading Challenge!

I am making this reading challenge to myself -- feel free to challenge yourself as well. If you do, let me know!

I already do the Goodreads Annual Reading Challenge -- in 2011 and 2012 but I really want to read more classic novels and literature. Because some of the stuff I read is not quality literature... but I don't care. I'll still read it!

So in addition to doing the Goodreads annual reading challenge, starting in 2013 and forward, I am going to challenge myself to read a certain number of books per year from the BBC Big Read list. It's a list that's.... 8 years old, but I think it holds up.

I also have the Big Read books in Goodreads lists -- Books 1-100 and Books 101-200

How to decide how many of the books should be from the Big Read? Hm... Easy!

2013 - 3 books from BBC Big Read (Or 13? I don't know if I'm that ambitious...)
2014 - 4 books from BBC Big Read
And so forth. I'll figure out 2020 when I get to it. (2019 - 9 books. 2020 - .... 20 books?)

Blogger book club - She's gone, move on

I was very excited to see that a blog I read often and that does the Sunday Confession link ups hosts a Blogger book club and this month's book is actually one I've already read. It's also one I plan on recommending to my in-person book club to read in February. So I decided to join in.

BTW, points to whoever can name the reference to my blog entry title!


The book is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I've read one of her other books Dark Places and really enjoy her writing style and story telling. Now that I've ready two of her books I need to read the third, Sharp Objects.

I'm going to try to keep this post rather spoiler-free because I would NOT have wanted to be spoiled for this book. So I'll return the favor. I really enjoyed this book. It sucked me in pretty early on and I could not put it down and once I got about a third-way through, it really drew me in and there was no way I could stop reading it. What's surprising about how much I liked this book as by the end, I didn't like any of the characters much, which usually throws me out of a book, but for this one, I kept right on rolling. While I didn't like them much, I still wanted to know how it would all play out.

The end was a little frustrating but I wouldn't call it a let down. I honestly could not have thought of a better ending. It's really almost the perfect ending for a story like this.

Definitely check this book out. I think most people would enjoy it. And the more people read it, the more I can talk about it!

Spoilers in the comments are fine, I just wanted to keep them off the main entry. So see that people? You've been warned. Spoilers in comments!

Weekend Recap (AKA, Thank you Pinterest!)

Just a quick little weekend recap this morning.

The Game Night went awesome! Everyone who was invited except for one person was able to come and everyone who said they'd come, actually came -- amazing!! We played a lot of games, had a lot of laughs, drank a lot of beer and Chris and I still have so much beer in our fridge! And my food was a hit. Yaay. I am the hostess with the mostest. Ranch dip made with low fat yogurt? A hit. Ham & cheese roll ups? A yummy, so easy to make, hit! Pizza rolls? A delicious hit! But the big winner of the night was definitely my Funfetti dip. Oh my god. It is definitely something I can only make when I am going to be around a bunch of people who will help me eat it. Chris is no help, he doesn't really crave sweets and most of the time, sweets are too sweet for him. I wish I had that problem. But back to the Funfetti dip... It's so thick and creamy. It's like eating cake batter -- which it essentially is. It made a lot more than I thought it would. I ended up having to change bowls as I was mixing it. I ended up with about a cup and a half remaining, that is now in my fridge and being snacked on day by day. A cup and a half I can handle. About 6 cups I cannot. I don't want to just give myself diabetes. According to the recipe though, 1/4 cup of the dip is only 3 Weight Watcher points.

Not sure exactly what that means, never done Weight Watchers, but it sounds a lot better than just sitting down and eating frosting straight from the tub. Which I used to do in college -- it was my finals study snack. But that's basically what the Funfetti dip tastes like. Frosting. Yum.

Didn't have a chance to make the chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookies again before the game night. So that means I didn't have a chance to test out my new cookie scoop. I figure I'll just hold onto the ingredients in my pantry for another two weeks and just make them for Thanksgiving. I really don't need anymore sweets at home -- not while I still have Funfetti cake batter deliciousness dip in my fridge.

The rest of the weekend was nice and relaxing. Slept late on Saturday -- I woke up at 7am to feed my cat then went back to bed then woke up at 2. PM! I never do that anymore. Hung around the house then headed out with Chris to meet up with a friend for dinner at Les Givral's on Milam, then the three of us headed over to watch the home opener Rockets game against Portland. Great game, didn't get the win though. But it should be an interesting season with the brand new team.

Sunday was another lazy day. I woke up at my regular time though and then pretty much read the entire day. Went through about 6 issues of The Walking Dead. Ahh so good! So dark... Now I need to head to the library and pick up the next few issues and then I'll almost be caught up. Also read some more on J.K. Rowling's most recent book, The Casual Vacancy. It's an interesting read just... very slow going. If I didn't have about 3 other books I'm juggling I'm sure it would go a lot faster.

Finished off the weekend with dinner at House of Bowls with Chris in Chinatown then we swung by Jusgo to see if they had red bean popsicles. Something Chris has been wanting to buy and get me to try since he found out I like red bean, probably about a year ago. We were pretty freshly dating. They did have the red bean popsicles, and I stole some of Chris' when we got home. Yum. They also had...

MONSTER POMEGRANATES! Seriously, I bought one at HEB about a week ago and it was the size of a small apple. These things were all the size of grapefruits. That's Chris' hand for comparison. Here's the monster at home in my fruit bowl with some small Red Delicious apples for comparison:

Pomegranates are one thing I really love about this time of year. (I also love Cuties -- the little super-easy-to-peel tangerines. They just smell like Christmas to me.) But now I know I definitely have to buy them in Chinatown. I can't go back to little poms, I just can't!

Did a bit of Thanksgiving menu planning with my sister via email. I really do love this time of year. It's made even more interesting as I'm getting more into cooking. Going to make my green beans this year and the chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookies, Chris is going to make his signature cheesecake... Most of the other food still is falling on my parents and my sister and brother-in-law to make. I'll have to do my share by helping to cook stuff that morning for the meal.