Friday, October 26, 2012

Fiona Friday - Checkerstripes (and an update)

I have way too much fun with my favorite online photo editor.  This particular pose was exciting because we've never seen Fiona inside the little cubby in the kitty tree prior to this week.  Lucky me, I had a camera handy.


I added the checkered overlay at pixlr.com.  Love their pixlr-o-matic!

And the update:

Remember when this used to be a really active blog?  Hopefully, that will resume, soon. There was actually one day this week that I unpacked books in our home library for several hours and then I walked through the kitchen, glanced at the computer (which is currently in the breakfast nook, of all places) and thought, "Oh, yeah.  I haven't even looked to see if there are any blog comments since yesterday!"  Nor had I bothered to write anything for at least 3 days, at that point, but I went through a pretty intense bout of migraine/insomnia that basically shot 2 weeks of my life and left them metaphorically bleeding on the pavement.

Hopefully, things will pick up on Monday.  We have guests visiting, this weekend.  Woot!  I'm so happy to have room for guests to sleep, eat and sit!

Kiddo arrived fairly early and we met up with his girlfriend at Mississippi College to check out the college's book sale.  Ohmygosh.  It was wonderful!  I bought about a dozen books, one of which was by an author I've never found *anywhere*, although I've been looking (Elizabeth Taylor).  Here is my goat checking out the spoils:


Purchases in no particular order:

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain by Christopher Monger
A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor (!!!)
Kennedy by Theodore C. Sorensen (my dad went to school with "Ted")
The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker (second in the Regeneration series, very exciting find)
The Faithful Gardener by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Snowstorms in a Hot Climate by Sarah Dunant
Immoveable Feast by John Baxter
The Short Stories of Saki (H. H. Munro)
The Four Seasons: Japanese Haiku
1943: The Victory That Never Was by John Grigg
Guadalcanal Diary by Richard Tregaskis
Bomber Country by Daniel Swift

I've gotten a few other books in the past 2 weeks and I'll list them in either a Monday Malarkey or Tuesday Twaddle post.

Currently reading:

The Longest Way Home by Andrew McCarthy (travel memoir - excellent, so far), The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro (fiction - just started and I'm enjoying it very much).  Occasionally, I'll dip in and read another chapter of Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure.  I've finished watching the program on YouTube and only occasionally remember I'm reading it.  It's the kind of book you can just pick up when you feel like it, so no big deal that I'm so forgetful.

Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend!

©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 new books!

    Great shot of Fiona. :) I haven't been playing with my pictures lately. Too busy!

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    1. Thanks, Kelly!

      Playing with pictures is something I do when I'm exhausted. I've actually awakened to find that I've played with Pixlr-o-Matic in an Ambien haze, a couple times. It's quite fascinating to see what I come up with while I'm a total zombie. LOL

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  2. Love the picture as usual. I've been on a blogging hiatus myself. Sigh! Stupid busy life.

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    1. I didn't realize you're on hiatus because I've been too busy to blog, much less visit other blogs. I can relate. Life gets overwhelming, sometimes. Hope you'll be able to return soon. I love your blog!!

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  3. Hope your migraines and insomnia have taken their leave of you! Kick those puppies out!! Hope that you find some time to read some of those books soon. Don't ya love a good book sale?!?! I went to one down Tucson way a few weeks ago and got two full boxes for my classroom for $3.00 each. I probably paid about $.06 apiece!! My students were SO excited.

    Enjoy fall in your new house and stay well.

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    1. I hope they have, too, Gaye! I'm up late but only because we have a full house. The guests are watching TV and this house has pretty intense acoustics. Kind of hard to read when the TV is on.

      Oh, that sounds like an awesome book sale! The books were more expensive than I'm used to paying at $1 and $2 each (they're 25 cents per stacked inch at our old library's perpetual sale) but they were still good deals -- cheaper than swapping or buying used elsewhere and so many good titles! I was really stunned.

      Thanks! We're loving the cold front!!

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  4. What does Fiona think of the goat? lol

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    1. She gave him a good checking-out before I took him to the patio. He's an outdoor goat and Fi's an indoor kitty, so they don't have much chance to interact. ;)

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  5. The only one of your books I've read is Immoveable Feast which I read last Christmas (I think it was last Christmas...maybe the one before...) and really enjoyed that one! Love your little goat :D Cute!! Sorry to hear that things have been so busy for you, but it's wonderful to see a post from you! These things happen though..and by these things, I mean life. Ashame that it gets in the way of our blogging, huh? :p

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    1. When you come up for a visit, I'll take you to the produce stand the goat came from. You'll love it, I'm sure!

      Oh, good, I'm glad you liked Immoveable Feast! Between that and a Christmas book that's just shipped, I'm looking forward to more Christmas reading fun.

      It's all been "good" busy, here, although we're about to start working on fixing up the old house to sell. Not really looking forward to that. I'd like to just forget the place exists. But, since we still own it and have a renter, that's not going to happen! :) Yes, terrible the way life gets in the way of blogging. LOL

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  6. Great that you had a camera handy to capture that moment! I hope you continue to feel better.

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    1. I try to keep a camera handy at all times. It never fails -- when I don't have one around, something wonderful shows up just begging to be photographed!! :) Thanks!

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  7. Fiona needs to meet my 4 month old lab puppy Stella, then she'd likely have another closet breakdown. Stella is too excited about everything! I like the book stack you got: Sorensen is interesting reading and I'd like to read the Pat Barker series someday.

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    1. Ah, yes, our doggy visitor is an active, muscular bundle of joy. Fi was only a little afraid; Isabel nearly lost her mind, poor thing. :)

      Thanks! I was really excited about my book sale haul. I looked up the Sorensen and it has gotten rave reviews. I've read the first in the Regeneration trilogy and I enjoyed it. It's an unusual war book, focused on psychology in WWI and a particular soldier's return to health. I'm thrilled to have found the second in the series.

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  8. I will definitely be checking out pixlr. Love that you have room for guests. Congrats on the book sale finds!!! New Boyfriend is going to a book sale this weekend in Waco, and I'm sending a list with him. lol

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    1. Pixlr is awesome! It's the "Pixlr-o-matic" feature that I use all the time. Totally easy and lots of neat effects.

      I love it that I have room for guests, too! We used to have a sleeper sofa but we got rid of it and haven't had a place for anyone to stay for several years. Now, we have a guest room, a queen-sized air mattress and we've ordered a sleeper sofa. I grew up in what I call a "swinging door" king of home. We had people coming and going all the time because of my extremely extroverted father. So, I've missed that. Hopefully, just having room to invite people will help us to veer that way.

      Ooooh, cool idea sending the fella with a list! You should send me a list, too. I'm really good at finding cheap books.

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