Hibernation

During these last few weeks, as the sun sets earlier and earlier, I find myself going into hibernation mode. All I want to do at the end of the day is snuggle beneath a blanket on the couch with a cup of tea and my puppy at my feet. It's a cycle that I slip into every time this year.But I don't let it get at me for too long. I've got holiday activities and shopping and projects to complete (43 days until Christmas) so, next week it's full steam ahead. For tonight I'll curl up, enjoy the quiet moments and finish my book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Have a great weekend!

Giant Book Sale

On our drive back from Oktoberfest we past by the Kitchener Public Library where their sign declared "Annual Giant Book Sale - Oct 17 and 18th." Lucky for us it was the 17th. With a quick u-turn we were parked and in the library basement going through boxes of books. A massive amount of boxes on tables, under tables, along hallways and on shelves. It was sensory overload. We had only paid for an hour of parking so we had to plan our attack and act swiftly. We covered all four corners and were ready (really ready) to leave when our hour was up.

The Bag Deal included a KPL bag (regularily $2.99) and as many books as you could fit inthe bag for $10. Books have individual prices (I believe mainly $1 each) but the Bag Deal is by far the best option.

Here is our full and heavy bag.

On the right we have assorted issues of Better Homes and Garden Magazines from 1958 to 2001. How often does gardening change? or recipes for that matter? Then A Christmas Carol by C. Dickens and The Best Christmas Pagent Ever by Barbara Robinson. On the left (thank you for pointing Bauer) we have a car maintenance manual for RJ's 1992 Ford Probe, A Christmas Treasury idea book, a Jack Nicklaus biography, a Benjamin Franklin biography, and Value Investing Today.
And on the very top 101 card games. A book for the cottage.

A very successful detour and an event that I'll make sure to get to next year. The KPL holds the sale every October. The WPL also has a book sale but it's date isn't consistant.

It's Thursday

Today is my Thursday. Yeah! I'm off this Thursday and Friday and am looking soooo forward to it.

I'm cramming all my work into three days this week which is quite the feat but I'm still smiling.

I hope to get caught up on posting this weekend. There are a lot of posts in the draft folder that need some love and attention. That's if I can pull myself away from the book I'm reading (The Warrior Princess)

Until then here's a picture of the sky from last Friday. We've had some serious thunderstorms moving through. I'm not one for lightning or high winds but I'm fascinated by the cloud formations before and afterwards.

Speech (1)

Excepts from a commencement address given by Kurt Vonnegut in 1978 (via secret genius)

We are so lonely because we don’t have enough friends and relatives. Human beings are supposed to live in stable, like-minded, extended families of fifty people or more. In Nigeria it’s common for Ibos to have a thousand relatives who know them quite well. When a baby is born, it is taken on a long trip, so it can meet all it’s relatives. This sort of thing is still quite common in Europe today, although the number one-thousand is far too high for there. When we or our ancestors came to America, though, we were agreeing, among other things, to do without such families. It is a painful unhuman agreement to make. Emotionally, it is hideously expensive.

Marriages are collapsing in this country because our families are too small. A man cannot be a whole society to a woman and a woman cannot be a whole society to a man. We try, but it is scarcely surprising that so many of us go to pieces.

In an extended family, anybody can bug out of his or her own house for months, and still be among relatives. Nobody had to go on a hopeless quest for friendly strangers, which is what many Americas try to do.

So I recommend that everybody here join all sorts of organizations, no matter how ridiculous, simply to get more people in his or her life. It does not matter much if all the other members are morons. Quantities of relatives of any sort are what we need.

Book Club: Water for Elephants

A brief description of Water for Elephants: Set during the Great Depression of the 1930's, Water for Elephants tells the story of a young man who leaves his life as a Cornell University veterinary student and jumps onto a train that happens to house the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. After a short confrontation with Blackie, a bouncer that stops stowaways, and Camel (a limp old worker) promising him a job and an audience with Uncle Al (The Ringmaster) Jacob decides to stay aboard the train. Jacob is employed as the show’s veterinarian and he faces a number of challenges in dealing with the head trainer, August, while also learning how to function in the hierarchy of the circus and falling in love with August's wife, Marlena. The story is told as a series of memories from Jacob, who is in a nursing home and reminisces about his time with the circus.

Overall I liked the book. The characters were likable and the description of the circus and life in the 1930's was very interesting and well written. Gruen bases a lot of the circus moments on true stories that she uncovered while doing her research. I had a problem reading the parts were the animals were mistreated. While the abuse is never fully depicted in the book, just eluded to, the thought of it gave me knots in the pit of my stomach.

Grade: I would give it a B-. (did I grade the other book?) I wouldn't have selected this book on my own (as the back cover description does not do it justice) and I did find it a bit slow. And they never really say straight out what the term Water for Elephants means. Even Wikipedia is vague about it.

Final word: My favorite part was the ending, but I'm not about to give it away!!

Book Club: The Memory Keeper's Daughter

This Saturday was my first meeting of Book Club. My friend Krista invited me when she found out that I was currently reading the same book. It was a lot of fun. Excellent eats for lunch, a few glasses of wine and a group of very lovely girls. I had a wonderful time considering I was the new member. That's saying a lot. I usually hang back like a wall-flower when it comes to socializing. But everyone was very warm and friendly. We spent the first few hours talking and eating and then we talked about the book. It was a very interesting discussion. As Krista said "It's so much fun to have 10 people read one book and hear such diverse points of view." I'm really looking forward to the next meeting.

BTW: My opinion of the book was 'Alright'. I think I enjoyed the book more after having discussed it. The most interesting question was 'What would Phoebe's life have been like if David hadn't given her away? What would the other character's lives have been like?'