Random stuff

Just a few random thoughts to share. I'm still working out, using the Wii Sports almost every day. And hey, shoveling snow is quite a workout too! And I haven't had any soda, but I still miss it sometimes! I think it's just that I used to get a soda sort of as a reward for doing something that I didn't want to do.

The kids are getting back into school. We started a new semester for the girls, so new classes. Both of them have PE. I remember how much fun that was. (NOT) At least Ellen gets to do archery for PE!

Randy is feeling better. I don't think I blogged about our trip to the emergency room earlier this month. Randy felt like his chest was hurting, and not wanting to take any chances but feeling that we were probably overreacting, we went to the hospital. After several tests and lots of questions (Are you a diabetic? Do you have any heart problems? Do you use cocaine?), they decided he had pleurisy. Which is inflammation around the lungs, is probably viral, and very uncomfortable. I wasn't sure he'd be recovered by the Klondike Derby next weekend, which is the big camp-in-the-snow event with the Boy Scouts, but it looks like he'll be fit to go. Will is relieved, but Randy wouldn't argue if the doctor ordered another week of rest.

And my 999 reading challenge is going well, 12 out of 81 books finished so far. I really LOVED 'The Graveyard Book' by Neil Gaiman. And 'Airman' by Eoin Colfer is also very good. And this is reading weather, isn't it? I miss the sun!

Los Lobos in Concert!

Here are a few observations from last night's Los Lobos concert in Salt Lake.

1. I really liked the way they did the parking. We got to park for free at the University of Utah stadium and then ride a free shuttle over to the concert hall. Which was a good thing, because there were about 12 parking places over there.

2. Abravanel Hall is pretty swanky, but they have these huge paintings inside by the stage. They were so bad! Imagine a classical setting, with hills and a temple, and then actors wearing togas, dancers, Shakespeare, either Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton, and then a guy making a movie of it all. All so much larger than life. Yes, it was breathtakingly horrible.

3. Apparently everyone else in the concert hall knew at least 5 other people there. Everyone (but us!) was either waving at someone, going to chat with friends, or having theibr friends stop and chat with them. We didn't see a single person we knew until the concert was over, when Randy spotted someone he used to work with. Our conclusion? We are just cooler than everyone else we know. So it's a good thing I can tell you about the fun last night!

4. About the concert - It was so dang good! The first half was more acoustic stuff, with a lot of amazing guitar. They have some serious talent. I didn't know most of the songs, and most of them were in Spanish. But it didn't matter - they were great. Then they took a little break, when everyone visited with their good friends. (see number 3. above) When they came back, Cesar Rosas asked, "Are you ready to stand up?" And they started rocking! It was great. This was more of the music that I knew. They played a great set, including a fantastic version of The Who's "My Generation." 

5. The audience was great! We finally found the good seats. We sat up in the balcony, where we had room enough to stand up and dance. Plus, we could see the front row and the crowd up by the stage. And all sorts of people came to the concert, including white haired ladies that danced the whole time, girls who decided to shed most of their clothing, kids, and lots of folks like us. 

6. The encore - awesome. After they finished and left the stage, the crowd kept on clapping, getting louder and louder, and finally, the started pounding on the stage! So the band came back and played my favorite song of the night, "Don't Worry Baby." Then they did another song that ended with guitarist David Hidalgo pulling fans onto the stage to dance. It was the best concert we have ever been to.

7. As if that weren't enough, we got to get a CD signed by the band afterwards. They were so friendly and nice. 

All in all, it was a great night. I'm sorry the rest of you missed it, but aren't you glad you have me to tell you all about it?

A Meeting with Brandon Sanderson

I got to meet Brandon Sanderson! Almost. Here's the story:

William got a flyer for the Education Empowerment or some title like that for boys his age at the university. I gave it a casual glance and then saw that Brandon Sanderson was the keynote speaker.

Who is this Sanderson guy? I would love to tell you. He is an author of some of my new favorite books, Elantris, cleverly pictured on the left here for you to enjoy, and the Mistborn series. Right now I only own Mistborn, but the series includes Well of Ascension, and Hero of the Ages, just released. He has also written a series for kids starting with Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians. I am not making that title up.

Anyway, when I saw that, I immediately felt a burning desire for Will to be empowered by education. Or was it educated about empowerment? Either way, I signed him up for the conference, and because I believe in hands-on parenting, I signed up as well.

Who am I kidding? I just wanted to go! Plus they offered classes for parents on financial aid for college and becoming more organized. Yep, that's what I really needed, but sadly, the class was too full for me. So if I remain unorganized, that's why.

First things first: Will had a great time. He didn't get into all the classes he wanted, but he got his number one class - aircraft pilot. He loved it. And they got to watch footage of the Hudson river landing which made it really topical for the boys. Will said every class has a genius, and in that class, he was it. He also took classes on geology and environmental science. He's already told me one thing I should do to save the earth, and I foresee more coming.

OK, now that you all know about my brilliant son, let me tell you about Brandon Sanderson. We got there late (sorry, but the thing officially started at 7 am. On a Saturday. Um, right.) and he had just started. He talked to the boys about finding the own Dream Job. He gave them these tips:

1 - Try many things.
2 - Work is work, even if it is mostly fun. It's still work.
3 - You can do it.
4 - Not everyone becomes a rock star.
5 - You need both talent and dedication.
6 - Luck happens.

He told lots of fun stories to help make his point. He said that his mom gave him some advice when he told her he wanted to be a writer. She said, "Writers don't make any money. Be a doctor." But as he got into college, he realized that he really wanted to be a writer. So he got a night job where he could write at work, working as a hotel desk clerk, and he went to school during the day. He wrote 13 novels before any of them were accepted for publication. He says that tends to discourage people who just think how cool it would be to be a writer, but don't want to put in the work.

Then for the 'luck happens' part, he told this story. Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time series, died before finishing his last and final book in the series. His widow wanted to find someone to finish the book. So she asked Jordan's editor who he recommended. He said, "Well, I like Brandon Sanderson. He always gets his books in on time. And I know on his web page he mentioned that he likes Robert Jordan." So she got in touch with him and the rest is history.

After his presentation, he did a brief Q&A with the boys. Here are some of the answers, as best I can remember.

The next Robert Jordan book will probably be out on shelves this November, but because it is going to be very long to wrap up the series, it will probably be broken into two books, with the next book coming out next year.

Dreamworks and Pixar, the ones who did Kung Fu Panda and Shrek, bought the rights to Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians. Provided they do make a movie (not always a given!) it will be out in 2010 or 2011.

The next Alcatraz book will be out this fall.

His favorite authors are whoever he's reading at the time, but tend to be Terry Pratchett and Robert Jordan.

His first book published was Elantris, which was actually the 6th book he wrote. He had sent it out to an agent, and by 18 months later, he had moved, gotten a new email, and changed his phone number. But he still had a webpage, and that's how the agent tracked him down.

The first book he wrote was a bad derivative of Dune by Frank Herbert. It had a desert.

Anyway, for fans of the author, I thought I would post this. It's not exact, just according to my notes. I was hoping to speak to him afterwards, but he had to go, so maybe another time. It was still really cool!

If you want to read my review of Elantris, use this link. I'm afraid you'll have to sort through for it. I'm listed there as Cindy B and I gave it 5 stars.

Slightly late Christmas photos

All right, I am late with this, but I did want to document our Christmas in some way! We had a good year and here are a few photos of the fun.

Me with my new movie, Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry. Yes, it could only be Veggie Tales. (And I look like my grandma in this picture.)

Ellen and the new Sharpies. She's very pleased.

Sarah tearing into another fun package.

Will and his new CSI kit - better watch out!

And the big one this year:

No, not Ellen! The Wii! That was the biggie.

We are still having so much fun with this. Sarah is playing a little Super Smash Brawl right now, or whatever the name of it is. Not one I like at all. But I like the Wii Sports that it came with and we also got Wii Play. That one only has one or two good games on it, but I love the billiards! 

I know I am doing this totally out of order, but I will post some pictures of Christmas Eve later. And maybe other random stuff. You never know!

Pizza and Movie Night!

We had the best family night the other day - and it was on Wednesday! We ordered pizza from 5 Buck Pizza (they have this great deal - 2 pizzas, soda, cinnamon bread and cheese bread for $23!) and watched Jurassic Park. The kids had never seen it and I only saw it once ages ago, so it was very fun.

I was thinking it would be fun to watch after we went to the Dinosaur Museum in Lehi, so Randy checked it out from the Orem Library. It was a good family movie - some swearing, but only once or twice, and no sex, but there was violence! We tried to guess which person got eaten by the dinosaurs first. We all picked the same guy, and we were right! If you have little ones, it might be too scary, but Sarah and Will thought it was great. Unfortunately, the next day was a school day so they had to go to bed before we finished it. Randy and I stayed to watch. I am such a girl! I screamed and jumped and squealed several times. Sarah kept getting up to see what she was missing. What can I say? I can't help it!

Poor Kitty

Here's my exciting story:

My black cat Spooky got into a cat fight on Saturday. By Sat. night he was acting a little sore. So we took a look and he had a few wounds, but nothing that looked too bad. By Sunday, one of them was infected. So yesterday I called and made an appt. with the vet.

(This is the same cat who got a huge abscess also because of a fight in Sept. That was super fun. Because I am the mom, I am obviously the only one qualified to do the really gross and icky stuff. So I grabbed poor Spooky and squeezed - ewww! Lots of stuff came out, it smelled disgusting, and by the next morning, he was fine.)

This time around I wanted to get him to the professionals. By the time I had to leave, a snowstorm had moved in and was coming down like crazy, we couldn't find the cat carrier, and we stuck poor Spooky in the laundry hamper.

As soon as we got in the car, he was trying to get out. Ellen came along and it was her job to keep the cat in the hamper. But as soon as she let go to put her seat belt on, he started climbing out. So I went in the back, rearranged the hamper and held him down until Ellen had her seat belt on.

The drive was horrible. It wasn't the cat, so much. He cried a little, but he was really pretty good. It was the snow. We were creeping along. Visibility was bad. We finally got to the vets and and I was so glad to get out of the car!

Spooky hates the vet's office. He hates dogs, and he could hear the dogs. He doesn't mind the vet, much. But after an exam they took the little guy in the back and brought him back with his shoulder shaved. Now not only does he have a wound, but he's funny looking because he's bald! The vet cleaned out his wound and asked what kind of antibiotic I wanted. Choice one - shot + pills, slightly cheaper. Choice two - one shot, no pills, slightly more. Duh! Give the cat a big shot! Do I look like I want to shove pills down my cat's throat? I've done that. Not fun.

Then we had a fun ride home, again with the snow, again with the sad cat. But this time we bought a little cardboard carrier at the vets, so it was much easier.

He seems to be feeling better. We're trying to keep our other cat away from him, because she's always fighting, and he needs his rest.

So that was my fun day. I'm happy it's over!

Happy 2009! And my 999 Challenge.

I am so behind! I have lots to say about Christmas and other fun stuff, but we are having a few technical difficulties, so that will have to wait a bit. But in the meantime, I wanted to tell you about my 999 challenge.

Over at Library Thing, we had an 888 challenge - you needed to read 8 books in 8 categories in 2008. You were allowed 8 overlaps, or books that counted in 2 different categories, but I didn't do that, so I wound up with 64 books. For me, that's not very hard, because I am a fast reader, so I made it more challenging by having to read them all by August 8th - 8/8/08. I finished my goal and it was so much fun that I wanted to do it again this year. Here is a link to my 888 list.

So I started a new challenge for 2009, with - you guessed it - 9 books in 9 categories in 2009. Amazing how that works, isn't it? I know that some of you who visit the blog are also from Library Thing, but if not, this is still a fun way to keep track of what you are reading for the year. 

Here are my categories:

Books from Library Thing or Good Reads

1. Well of Ascension
2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
3. The Graveyard Book
4. Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go
5. The Lost King of France - done! 3/5 stars
6. We Have Always Lived in the Castle
7. Hattie Big Sky
8. The Uncommon Reader
9. The Spellman Files

Health - Mind/Body

1. You Can Heal Your Life
2. Heal Your Body
3. Man's Search for Meaning
4. Bonds That Make Us Free
5. The Bright Red Bow
6.
7.
8.
9.

New Authors

1. Africa Explored
2. Advance of the English Novel
3. Cross Creek
4. The Queen in Winter
5. The Tale of Genji
6. Barchester Towers
7. The Wooden Overcoat - done! 4/5 stars
8. A Doll's House
9.

Teen Books

1. Airman - done! 4/5 stars
2. The Host
3. A Company of Swans
4. The Ruins of Gorlan
5. The Bar Code Tattoo
6. The Faerie Path
7. The Warrior Heir
8.
9.

LDS Books

1. A Marvelous Work and a Wonder - currently reading!
2. Fire of the Covenant
3. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
4. Doctrines of Salvation, Volume 3
5. Yearning for the Living God
6. The Faith of a Scientist
7. Broken Things to Mend
8. Hope: An Anthology
9. Jesus the Christ

Short Stories

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Audiobooks

1. Living Faith

2. Fer-de-Lance - currently reading!

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Just For Fun

1. The 39 Clues: One False Note

2. Macbeth

3. Men at Arms

4. Life's Handicap

5. A Circle of Quiet

6.

7.

8.

9.

Cookbooks and Food

1. 

2. 

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

I may wind up changing things around, but that's how it stands for now. If you want to sign up, either join Library Thing or through the group blog  http://the999challenge.blogspot.com. But even if you don't, I'll be updating my progress once in a while. The idea is to broaden what I'm reading and to find new books or authors I will enjoy. It should be fun!