Happy Pardoning the Turkey Day!

Tomorrow I will be with family, being thankful for my life.  I am truly blessed.  I hope that all of you will all be with loved ones, celebrating all of the good things.  I am very thankful for all of my wonderful blogging buddies and wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving.

Today President  Obama pardons a turkey.  Heather at The Secret Adventures of a Writer Girl  featured this clip a few days ago and I loved it.  You don’t have to be a fan of the show to appreciate it.  Enjoy two minutes of fun

A Little Housekeeping

The winner of Killer Mouse by Melinda Wells is RAELENA – thanks Raelena!

The winner of Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons is ALITAREADS- thanks Alita – it’s on the way

I haven’t received  an email with mailing addresses, so please email me your mailing addresses at stacybooks@yahoo.com.  Once you’ve done this please leave a comment so I know it should be there. I’m thinking there could be a problem with my email.   If I don’t hear from you by Wednesday I’ll draw another winner. 

And don’t forget to sign up to win one of these books by Carly PhillipsGo to my interview with Carly to sign up.  I’ll draw for a winner this Friday, the 25th.

The State of my Blog

For today’s BBAW assignment we are asked It’s time to show off!  Tell us and this is really important, in 50 words or less what you love best about your blog!  And then in 50 words or less where you want your blog to be by the next BBAW!  Okay, let’s give it a try…

Love my Commenters, Monday Quizzes, Author Interviews, and Movie Reviews.  Love the challenges I’ve joined and Teaser Tuesdays and Monday Movie Meme.

Want to work on the quality of my book reviews and my HTML knowledge.  Want to read more books! 

I really appreciate all of the bloggers I’ve met!

Exactly 50 words

MY BBAW Shortlist

For the first day BBAW we are asked to highlight a few blogs that did not make a shortlist for the big awards.  It is hard because I have close to 100 blogs in my Google Reader and they are all there because I like reading them!  But, it’s always nice to give a shout out to other bloggers who are extra special to me.  I have a 9 in ‘09 feature and my interview partner for tomorrow answered 9 questions, so I think I’ll pick 9 blogs. 

Margot at Joyfully Retired – Her blog makes me feel right at home.  If you haven’t stopped by, you are missing out on a great blog and a great lady

Molly and Andy at The Bumbles – Fun and fresh these two always have something interesting going on.

Trupti at Violet Crush – Creative and a good mix of books.

Heather at Book Addiction - Her reviews are top notch.

Staci at Life in the Thumb- She’s a fellow midwesterner with a cool name   and her blog is a must read.

Wendy at Musings of a Bookish Kitty – She’s got a little of everything and it’s all good.

Debbie at Wrighty Reads – For some reason I am obsessed with her hammock, oh, and her other posts

Jenny at Jenny Loves to Read – I feel right at home at Jenny’s and you will too.

Michael at A Few Minutes with Michael – Wonderful new blogger who jumped right to the crazy blogging community.

Don’t see your blog on here?  You might have been next.  I started typing  and then I realized I had 9, but I’ve still got lots of very cool and awesome blogs I want to include.  But I can’t.  When I get some time I need to update my blogroll which I haven’t done for ages.  I guess the blogroll has my nominations, these 9 are the shortlist, and the winner is me because I get to interact with these great bloggers everyday.

Kelley’s Island

I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day weekend.  Today we are heading to Kelley’s Island for the week.  It is a short drive (less than 1 1/2 hours) and it is a small island in Lake Erie.  We rented a house there a few years ago and this year we’ve rented a condo.  There’s no bridge, so we have to take a ferry.   There is a winery (they also have great pizza) and a nice butterfly preserve.  It is a relaxing place in the off season.  Which starts tomorrow.

I have a couple of reviews that will be posted this week AND and interview with Carly Phillips with A GIVEAWAY!  Check back on Friday for that.  So, I’ll have posts up this week, but you won’t see any of my oh-so-witty comments  til we get back.  Have a great week!

Title Meme

This has been going around the blogs and thought I’d give it a try.  Using only the titles of books you’ve read this year answer the following questions…

Describe Yourself…The Angel (that was almost too easy, LOL)

How do you feel…Salty Like Blood

Describe where you currently live…House of Many Shadows

If you could go anywhere, where would you go…The Inn at Eagle Creek

Your favorite transportation…The Time Machine

Your best friend is…Comfort & Joy

You & your friends are…Smart Women

What’s the weather like…Yesterday I Saw the Sun

Favorite time of day…Shoot the Moon

If your life was a…Pot of Gold

What is life to you…What I Did For Love

Your Fear…The Pigman

What is the best advice you have to give…Dreamers of the Day

Thought for the day…A Body to Die For

How would I like to die…Dead Sleep

My soul’s present condition…7th Heaven

Go ahead and give it a go.

ABC’s of Me

I was tagged by Carrie over at Books and Movies for this fun meme. 

The Rules:
- Link to the person who tagged you
- Share your ABCs
- Tag three people at the end by linking to their blogs
- Let the three tagged people know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website
- Do not tag the same person repeatedly but try to tag different people, so there is a big network of bloggers doing this tag.

Available or single?
I’m neither available nor single.  I’ve been married for 10 years  (11 in October).

Best Friend?
Well, my husband, of course!  And my wonderful mom

Cake or Pie?
Chocolate cake with chocolate icing, please.

Drink of choice?
Coffee in the morning, Diet Coke during the day, and red wine in the evenings.

Essential item for every day use?
Without a doubt my toothbrush.

Favorite color?
Red.

Google?
Everyday.

Hometown?
Heath, Ohio

Indulgences?
Book buying.  Big surprise right?  Take a look at my May post for proof.

January or February?
I do not understand the choice here.  Neither? 

Kids and their names?
Well, I have a cat Scout, who is 11 and a dog Max, who is 5.

Life is incomplete without…?
Faith, family, and friends, oh, and a good book!

Marriage date?
October 1998

Number of siblings?
Zero.  My husband is also an only child.

Oranges or apples?
Apples.

Phobias and fears?
I hate to fly and all phobias or fears pale in comparison.

Quote for the day?
“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say: I used everything you gave me.”   Erma Bombeck

Reason to smile?
Life is good.

Season?
Spring and Fall

Tag 3 people?
Are you reading this?  YOU are tagged.

Unknown fact about me?
If you only know me from my blog you may not know I sell Mary Kay cosmetics…and no, I do not have a pink Cadillac!

Vegetable you hate?
Broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, beets, … this list could go on forever.  I think you get the idea.

Worst habit?
Procrastination.

X-rays you’ve had?
None

Your fave food?
Love Chinese.

Zodiac sign?
Libra

Now it’s your turn!

Half Year Round Up

Obviously, I missed the exact 6 month mark, but close enough for me!  I’ve enjoyed seeing other recaps for the year so far and thought I’d take stock of where I am.

Books read – 68    Goal for the year – 130 - This goal is definitely doable, but I’m wishing I hadn’t set my goal so high!

Books I’ve added to my Top 100 list so far this year – The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Watchers by Dean Koontz, The Time Machine by HG Wells, Joy School by Elizabeth Berg, The Pigman by Paul Zindel, The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil by John Berendt.

Challenge Progress-

Read Your Own Books challenge – My goal is 50 and I’ve read 40 so far.  I’m feeling pretty good about this one!

A-Z Challenge – I chose the difficult path of reading a title AND and author for each letter of the alphabet.  That is 52 total.  At the moment I am 9 short, but the 2 books I’m currently reading will count for this which will get me down to 7.  Shouldn’t be a problem.

Southern Reading challenge – 3 books in 3 months.  I’ve finished 2 and have to read the last one by August 15th.  Not worried.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything Austen challenge – 6 books or movies before Jan 1st.  I’m currently listening to my first one in the car.  Still have plenty of time.

New things on my blog this year-

My 9 in ‘09 author interviews.  I’ve done 10 so far and have enjoyed the authors who have participated. I still have not gotten a male author to say yes!  I’m working on that.

Quizzes on Mondays.  Sometimes I make them too hard, but I love when you guess anyway!  My censored covers seems to be the most popular.  Maybe you’ll see it again on Monday

My favorite movie reviews.  This is relatively new.  I came up with my favorite 100 movie list and started writing mini-reviews of these movies.  I’ve only done 3 so far, but look forward to more.

And finally, the post that generated my favorite comments -I loved the responses to my Book Problem Year 2  post.  Everyone refused to believe my piles had gotten smaller!

And thanks for helping me clear my shelves. So far this year I’ve sent readers 28 books from my shelves.  I always post these on the 1st or 2nd  of each month.

We have winners!

 

 #40 Susy  is the winner of Eva Etzioni-Halevy’s The Triumph of Deborah!!!

 and #7 Trisha of Trisha’s Book Blog is the winner of my used copy of Children of Eve!!!

Congrats ladies!  Your books are on the way.

Everything Austen Challenge

I’ve decided to join my fourth reading challenge this year (and, no, I have not finished my first three – yet)  I have never read an Austen novel, which I find embarrassing, so this challenge will help me get busy.  Here are my 6 goals to finish in the next 6 months…

1. Listen to Sense & Sensibility on cd (started today!)

2. Watch a Sense & Sensibilty movie

3. Read Pride & Prejudice

4. Read or listen to Mansfield Park (loved the movie!)

5. Read the Jane Austen Book Club

6. Watch one movie based on her books.  I’ll have to look around to decide which one.

I’m really looking forward to this.  Why not join me if you haven’t already?  Visit Stephanie’s Written Word to sign up.