Saturday, May 19, 2012

Time off - which usually doesn't mean much

I have been having a terrible time convincing myself to sit down and blog, this week, and whenever that happens I consider jumping ship (but I've just ended up slowing the boat). Is that poster perfect, or what? Instead of jumping ship, I'm going to try to make every minute count by stepping away. Often, the moment I say I'm going to take time off, the pressure is lifted and I start writing up a storm. Weird, but true. We'll see what happens.

Before I do, though . . . an update and some miscellaneous jazz:

I am about 245 pages into The Reconstructionist by Nick Arvin. It's an oddly captivating book that I think I'm going to have a bear of a time describing. The protagonist is a mechanical engineer. I've been around engineers for so long that I get the way they think, so I'm enjoying that particular point-of-view. I think it's partly the weird relationships and not knowing how they'll end up, partly the math and the descriptions of how the "reconstructionists" go about reconstructing accident scenes that I find compelling. At any rate, it's an interesting book and I will probably finish it tonight.

I'm also reading Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman, a psychology/self-help book about turning yourself into an optimist (you probably figured that out from the title, right?) that is pretty fascinating. I considered skipping the introductory part and jumping right into the how-to, but decided not to and I'm glad I didn't. There's a self-test that was really quite interesting. I tested hubby, as well. I haven't added an image of the book to my sidebar because I have a tendency to stall on self-help books but . . . well, that was an interesting statement. The whole point of the book is not to tell yourself things like, "I tend to stall on self-help books," and learn, for example, to expect to finish. More on that, later.

Last but not least, I've started Play These Games by Heather Swain. Even though I misread the information about the book and expected something totally different, it's a book about making your own games for rainy days and such, which is something I can really get behind. As a kid, I used to do a lot of what is now referred to as "repurposing" -- making games, toys, desk shelves, etc. out of simple things like boxes, pipe cleaners, foil, paper . . . you name it. So, I'm hoping I'll find a few things to do, just for a change of pace. Besides how-to instructions, there are some terrific nerdy factoids thrown in. It's a really fun book.

The miscellaneous jazz:

I read Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption by Robert Fate (<---my review) in 2008. I can't believe it's been 3 1/2 years since I read it! I still remember several particularly vivid scenes. Anyway, Robert Fate's Baby Shark books are now available as e-books and Baby Shark is free for Kindle till the 22nd of May. I highly recommend grabbing a copy.

Kiddo will need to learn to cook a bit more (he's not afraid of the kitchen) because there's no room in the dorms at the university he'll be attending in the fall and that means he'll have to live in an apartment or rental house. So, we bought him a crock pot and I went hunting for crock pot recipes at a few favorite bloggers' websites. I failed miserably, but ended up looking for a recipe similar to a favorite restaurant pasta dish and found this:

Creamy Shrimp Artichoke Fettucine (there's no image available, so this link takes you directly to the print version)

Husband whipped it up in nothing flat and it was every bit as good as the restaurant recipe.

Feel free to share if you have any easy, delicious crock pot recipes. We have not used a crock pot in eons, so we have none.

The trouble with using available light when photographing cats (hand-held) is that they really like to move. But, I managed to snap a few nice images of Fi on a bright green background. I thought the green really brought out the color of her eyes:

Can you tell I've been in a super-close-up cat photography mood, lately?

Meanwhile, I started wondering what had become of Isabel when she disappeared for a nap, tonight. I like to know where my cats are hanging out because they have a tendency to end up in odd places like linen closets, but this is where I found her:

The cat carrier has been sitting out between vet visits for a couple of weeks and I just hadn't still haven't put it away, yet. Oddly, in spite of its association with a horrible place, both cats have been in and out of it the whole time it's been sitting in the living room. Dark, cocoon-like places are always favored retreats for cats but it still surprised me to find Isabel happily sleeping inside the carrier.

That's all for now! I'll be back when I return. I never know whether it'll be a day or two weeks, when I take time off, but I do tend to walk away from the computer as thoroughly as possible. So, don't freak out if it takes me a while to approve comments and/or reply to them. I will at least drop in daily and I often approve messages from my iPad but don't respond till I get to the computer (since my wonderful, hard-shell iPad case with full-size keyboard broke).

Happy Reading!


©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

16 comments:

  1. Enjoy your time away! I can't believe Isabelle is in there either. Our dog avoided her crate like the plague and only went in it when we made her. Where's your son going to school in the fall?

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    1. Thanks, Kathy! Yes, isn't that odd about the carrier? I guess curiosity wins out. Both cats have been in and out of the carrier, just like it was any old box. It might be because I usually take them in a smaller carrier but Fi's gotten a bit too big for it.

      Kiddo is going to the University of Mississippi, aka "Ole Miss". We love Oxford (Square Books! Faulkner's home!) so it'll be fun to have an excuse to go up there, again. :)

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  2. Love the pictures. Enjoy your break. The only thing I ever do in a crock-pot is pork roast which I shred and dump a barbecue sauce in for sandwhiches. ;) I'm just that lazy.

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    1. Thanks! Ha - that's a lot more than I've done with a crock pot in too many years to mention! We just stopped using ours, for some reason. I can see Kiddo enjoying roast with barbecue sauce, though. It's worth a try. :)

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  3. Enjoy your blogging vacation--we all need time away! Fiona is gorgeous-love the closeup! And how off that Isabel is sleeping in the carrier. I had to fight my cat tooth and nail to get him in it...unless of course we were at the vet in which case I had to fight to keep him out of it! lol.

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, it's time. I still don't feel like writing, so I'm just going to take off till the mood to return strikes me.

      I've been through that with cats (although mine are pretty mild-mannered and don't do the spread-eagle thing). They definitely know what it means when I close the zipper and try to get back into the carrier at the vet's. If that isn't a sign of intelligence, I don't know what is. Cats are smarter than they really want to let on, if you ask me. LOL

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  4. Enjoy your break! I often find that just saying that I'm taking a break is enough to inspire me for some reason too. :) I love the photo of your kitty with the green background!

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    1. Thanks, Alyce! Yes, amazing how that works, isn't it? This time, I've been so busy that I haven't felt tempted to sit down and write. This may end up being a real break, for once, and I'm fine with that. Sometimes it's nice to just read, do housework and stay away from the computer. :)

      Thank you! That green background is one of my exercise shirts. LOL I've decided I need to work on playing with background color when the cats are in a place that I have a convenient way to drape fabric behind them.

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  5. ah, closets. Casey is still small enough that she can jump up on the hangers in the closets and then from there to the top shelf. It's always interesting when I am looking for her and she is sleeping on the clean sheets or there is one closet we use for storage and she jumped down and took a pile with her...

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    1. Ha! That's what happens in the towel cabinet! Either they spill out when the cats are climbing in it (they can open the cabinet on their own, so it's a favorite hiding place) or they knock a few out to make space. Pretty funny.

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  6. Fi looks a lot like my late cat, Sachi. <3 Beautiful kitties you have!!! :)

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    1. Aw, sorry you lost your Sachi. Thank you!

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  7. An ironic post for me since this week, I decided to revive all my blogs.

    Blog when you can...a time off never hurts.

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    1. I think mine may need to take a rest for a time. Might do a post about my week off and then take off another week. Apparently, I burned myself out thoroughly. Thanks. :)

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  8. Kiddo might enjoy this easy crockpot recipe. I know my husband does!

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    1. Thanks, Les! I'll hang onto that. The guys are trying one new recipe a week. This weekend, they tried the Crock Pot Girls' potato soup and it turned out awful, so Huz did a redo using the ingredients he's used in the past (no recipe) and it was excellent. Unfortunately, he did it by himself so Kiddo doesn't know what was in it. LOL It's a keeper, though. Kiddo loved it so much he wants his girlfriend to come over to try it.

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