Running Round-Up {9/4/2012}

I just realized I’d forgotten to write up a Running Round-Up post for today But in running news, I registered for my first half marathon yesterday. The Owens Corning Half Marathon Event is part of the bigger Glass City Marathon, which will take place April 28, 2013 in Toledo, Ohio. (Toledo’s nickname is the Glass City.) I feel the distance of 13 miles is totally attainable–I can easily run six miles now and I have just under eight months to train.

I know I only ran once since last Tuesday–I got 5 miles in on Thursday. It was just too humid this morning. Hopefully I can go tomorrow.

I’ll forego the normal smaller questions and skip right to a big one:

In which sorts of events do you run? 5Ks, marathons, etc? Or do you skip events and just go for your own bests?
I have only done one event so far, a 5K. I loved it, even though I was in last place from the get go. I still finished it with a personal best as far as minutes/mile at that distance go. I imagine I will be one of the last to cross the finish line in April, but I don’t do it for the ribbons or medals. I do it for the t-shirts and bragging rights that I CAN run that far

Sunday Salon {8/19/2012}

This week Nick and I had our first–and hopefully only–homeowning crisis. I came home from work Wednesday to find a mirror fallen off the bathroom wall, which had turned on the faucet full blast Needless to say, our basement was wet, the hallway was wet, the two bedrooms across the hall were wet, and (obviously) the bathroom was wet. But, thankfully, our insurance is giving us ample money to repair. However, the housewarming party we planned for next Saturday is postponed.

In other news, this coming week will be my last week working full time at the daycare I’ve been at since April 2011. Starting the last week of August, I will be working for my county educational service center. What that means is that I will be substituting for teachers and paraprofessionals all over the county. It’s not exactly better, financial-wise. But it helps me get my foot in the door in those various school districts, so hopefully it will help get me to a full-time teaching position sooner.

This week I finished Fifty Shades Darker by EL James. I do still need to write up a review, but I loved it I am currently reading Fifty Shades Freed. I also decided to stop waiting on that audiobook is waited at least two weeks for and started listening to The Storekeeper’s Daughter by Brunstetter. This is an inspirational for my Inspiration Resolution–another Amish-setting and, oddly enough, it has some ironic similarities to Shunned, which I listened to a couple months ago.

Audrey Hepburn, 1929-1993

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Some of you may recall that I love Audrey Hepburn and consider her one of my role models. Well, on this day eighteen years ago she passed away. A few years ago I read a book called How to be Lovely: The Audrey Hepburn Way of Life, which is essentially a collection of quotes from Audrey, about many different things in life. So, as a little tribute, I will post some of my favorites quotes.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others.

This one (above) I actually have printed and framed very nicely and it’s on my makeshift vanity in my bedroom. Such a wonderful way to express what beauty is

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.

Another one near my vanity.

The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.

So simple, so true.

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.

I find this to be very true, and I try to keep it in mind when I start talking about other people (especially if I don’t care for them).

Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering – because you can’t take it in all at once.

I guess my 20-or-so different diaries I kept over the years will help with this

Since the world has existed, there has been injustice. But it is one world, the more so as it becomes smaller, more accessible. There is just no question that there is more obligation that those who have should give to those who have nothing.

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new blog feature: WHEN I’ve Been in Books

Over on the sidebar of my blog, I have a couple of linked images to take you to Google Maps that show you WHERE I’ve been in the world, via the books I’ve read.

But then I got to thinking…

I love history and, therefore, historical fiction. While historical fiction isn’t the only genre I read–I consider my taste “eclectic”–I tend to visit different times as well as different places in my books. So, I did a little research and found out how to make a timeline using Microsoft Excel! Now, its not exactly a looker as I can’t really figure out how to change much about the way it looks without ruining it–I’m not that computer savvy in the Office 2010 stuff.

Also, it’s not as easy to update as are the Google Maps, because I’d have to upload an actual image file each time I’d add something. So I’m going to update it at the end of every month. Nevertheless, there is now a linked image on my sidebar called “When I’ve Been in Books”. I hope you enjoy it!

And, as a sneak peek, here is what my trial run of the very few books I’ve read so far this year look like on it. Check back at the end of each month to see what has been added! (If you click it, the image gets bigger and easier to read )

not exactly a book-ish thing…

I try as much as possible to post only book-ish things on this blog. But I’m just so happy about this that I decided to let you all know: I got married this weekend! Nick and I have been together for 7.5 years, so this was a long time coming

Happy Roald Dahl Day!!

Today is Roald Dahl Day!!
(September 13th was his birthday)

Roald Dahl has a special place in my heart. My 3rd grade teacher (yes, this is back in 1997), Mrs. Bernardo, used to read Roald Dahl to us quite often during our class reading time. She loved his books and I, personally, loved listening to them.

But Roald Dahl was even more special than that to me. When I was young, I didn’t read very well–I still consider my reading speed to be pretty slow. Somehow, I got a hold of the book Matilda just before Mrs. Bernardo began reading it to us. Thanks to Roald Dahl’s amazing stories and Mrs. Bernardo being a great teacher, I was allowed to sit at my desk (away from the rest of the class) and read my book along with Mrs. Bernardo reading it to the rest of the class. I believe it was this particular time and book that made me start to LOVE reading

So, I thank you, Roald Dahl (and Mrs. B), for sparking my love of reading

In order to celebrate Roald Dahl Day, I’m going to be reading some of his work. While Mrs. B read us Matilda, Danny the Champion of the World, The Twits, Witches, and The BFG–and I read my older sister’s copy of Esio Trot on my own–that is not all of Dahl’s work. I still, to this day, have not read or seen the movie version of James and the Giant Peach. So I’ll be reading this first (*FINISHED*). And then I’ll read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as I’m about 80% sure Mrs. B did not read that one to us, as well. Oh, and since it’s honestly one of my favorite films, I’ll be watching Matilda (1996) at some point today, as well

*UPDATE: Here is a link to my “review” of James and the Giant Peach*
*UPDATE: Here is a link to my “review” of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*

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And I also want to point out that Roald Dahl’s books are made even better by the illustrator Quentin Blake. I can’t imagine reading one of Dahl’s books without seeing Blake’s drawings inside. Below are some of my favorites.

Matilda

The Witches

The BFG (Big Friendly Giant)

the US Postal Service’s birthday gift to me: “Uhhh, we gave your package to someone…”

August 17th (Tuesday)

• I order Soulless and Changeless by Gail Carriger via Amazon.com

August 20th (Friday)

• USPS deliver my package around 11:30 am (I am not home)

August 27th (Friday, today)

• I go to Post Office: “The tracking tells me this package was delivered and I never received it.”
• Postal Worker looks for it in the back room: “Well, we don’t have it here and if it says it has been delivered but you haven’t received it, you’ll have to report it stolen.” (PS- How do I report something stolen that I’ve never seen and can’t describe?) “But check with your apartment office, maybe it was delivered there.”
• I go to the office of my apartment complex: “Is there any chance a package of mine was delivered here?”
• Office Manager: “No, we can’t sign for anything unless you give us written consent.”
• I’m very sad by this point
• I call the Post Office again and they tell me: “The carrier who delivered that package is here and says he gave it to some guy who looked about college-age.”
• My reaction: “Well, I didn’t receive it.” (And thinking, “What the heck is he doing giving my package to someone else?!”)

• I look online for how to handle Amazon.com package that hasn’t been delivered and call the Customer Service.
• I explain what happened to them (read all of the above).
• Guy says: “Okay, would you like to be reimbursed or have a replacement sent?”

• I order a replacement, to be delivered to my parents’ house, not my apartment. (PS- They shipped it with Two-Day Express!!)

The moral to the story: I LOVE AMAZON! And will, as long as I’m at an apartment (especially if the package is important/expensive), ask the Post Office to hold any packages for me to come pick them up

Is this a bad reading habit?

There are certain authors that I tend to steer clear of. To name a few they are authors such as James Patterson and Nora Roberts (Janet Evanovich, Jude Devereaux, Sandra Brown, Nelson DeMille, and Alexander McCall Smith also get honorable mentions here). “Why do you stay away from authors like those?” you might wonder. Well, here goes.

Nora Roberts: 29 years of writing + 165 books published = about 6 books a year
James Patterson: 34 years of writing + 82 books published = about 2.5 books a year

I do not stay away from either of these authors because I necessarily think I will be disappointed in the stories–not to mention, I’m not a romance fan so Nora Roberts might not be the best choice anyway. But, I mean, come on! How can an author write 6 books a year, on average?! Essentially, I stay away from authors like these because I think, if it takes you about 2 months to write a novel, it can’t really be that good. Not to mention that, if I read all of Nora Roberts’ or James Patterson’s books, I think I would be bored: 165 and 82 books honestly can’t differ much from each other, especially if they’re written so quickly.

Now it’s up to you: Do you think this is a bad reading habit I have? I want you to be honest.

I want to know if you think there’s any of these authors’ novels I should give a chance, or if you have different views.

some book photos

As I was looking around some blogs today, I came across a question of what makes some pages in some books unevenly cut in appearance. (It’s called deckle edge and is done for aesthetic and functional reasons, by the way.) This question reminded me of old books, in which the readers had to cut the pages as they read. This, in turn, reminded me of the photos I have of a book in which I found uncut pages. I haven’t posted them on this blog, so I thought you all would enjoy them, as they are books

Of course, a public library having such books is totally pointless. I mean, the second picture is case in point: How do you read the pages, when you can’t see them?! But, anyways, I thought it was cool anyway. To have had such an old book was cool…

new addition to my blog

As some of you RBC-ers might remember, there is a thread in the book forum called “Where Have You Been in Books?” (you might not recall, however,  that I began this thread ) On this thread, we discussed the locations of our various books; if nothing else, we just said where we currently were in our reads.

While browsing Shannon’s list of bookish blogs, I came upon another blog I never seen before: Book Journey. It was Book Journey’s blog that brought to light a lovely way of recording where books take us, using Google Maps. I (essentially) stole this idea from her, and for that I greatly thank her.

I know have, on my sidebar, right beneath my blogroll, it says “Where I’ve Been in Books” with a picture of a globe underneath. If you click on the picture of the globe, it will take you to a map that looks, pretty much, like this:

View Larger Map

If you see nothing in the map, try clicking the zoom out button on the left a bunch and it should show you the map. For some reason, it loves to come up as fully zoomed in (which is very stupid).

I think this is so cool! It shows you in a more physical way where you’ve been

(PS- There is a list to the side, if you actually go to the map at Google Maps, that names the title and lets you click on them to see what pin goes with the title.)