Just a quickie review, partly because this is a very short book . . .Flying by the Seat of My Pants tells about the author's experiences as a flight attendant. Because the book is a mere 144 pages and immensely entertaining, I think I can safely assume that she limited herself to the best anecdotes from her many years of working in the airline industry. There were at least three stories that I enjoyed so much I felt obligated to rush to the den to share them with my husband.
A note: My husband is not easy to entertain. He's a serious, taciturn sort of a guy who seldom laughs. So, to see him tip back his head and laugh as I related one of the stories was enough to have made the book worth full price. But, I got it 80% off because our Bible Factory Outlet is running out of books - they're shutting down. I've probably told you that. Did I tell you Vicksburg has also lost its only theater? Things are getting dire, here.
Anyway, definitely a fun book and great for a lift - lots of smiles and a fast read, perfect for the busy holiday season. I'm going to hang onto this one for a reread when I need an upper.
5/5
Still reading Summer in Tuscany by Elizabeth Adler - I just picked up Flying, etc., last evening and couldn't put it down.
Latest on the blog update I kept putting off: They're out of beta? Okay, well, I've saved my templates and I'm going to wait to update my links because I'm not sure just when this update thing is going to happen, now. Sigh. Life is funny that way.
Best things that happened, today: A nice wind blew most of the oak leaves off our roof and I managed to get a lot of Stuff thrown away (very important, as we've run out of space to put things). Okay, not exciting, but you have to take joy in the little things.
Worst thing: You don't want to hear it, but I'm ventilating, okay? Today's bad news was that the eldest found out his truck's axle was damaged in the recent automobile accident his mother tries not to dwell on. So, he will not be able to drive home for Christmas. And, he was shopping when he called to tell us this tidbit. He's down to a few scrappy dollars in his savings and he was shopping instead of working. Hubby said, "I'm gonna kill him." The feeling was mutual, I can assure you.
Off to soak in a hot tub and meditate on the positives. Books. Books are good. I'll meditate on books.
Yikes, only 10 days left till 2007!!!! Gosh, where does the time go? Aren't we having fun? Yes, yes, we're definitely having fun. Positive thoughts all around.
:) You always make me smile, Bookfool!
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds good. I think I'm going to look into it some more. Thank you.
It's sad when Christian bookstores go out of business.. actually, any bookstores.. lol.
ReplyDeleteI just don't shop them often when I can find the same book for less money at Borders, plus I always have coupons and gift certificates. I feel bad that I'm not supporting them, but I'm not loaded.
Anyway, that stinks about your son's car! At least you can go up to see him. It's funny that he's shopping when he should be saving, because that's what I did in college too.. went overboard buying gifts for my parents at Christmas with money I didn't have.
Thanks, Joy,
ReplyDeleteI love hearing I've made you smile. :)
I'm going to look for Marsha Marks' other books. Tell me if you happen to get to any of them before I do. I recall you have a better library (most everyone does)!
Angela,
We've lost two bookstores in just a few months' time, so it's extremely sad. The deal is apparently that our outlet mall came under new ownership and raised the rent, but that's just rumor. At any rate, we're losing stores like crazy. Just when it seems things in Vicksburg are improving, we have a massive exodus of businesses. Ugh.
My son doesn't know how to save a cent, unfortunately. We knew when he got a job as an RA in his dorm that it was intended to earn him some "fun money". But, now he's in an apartment and money is tighter. He should be setting as much aside as possible. The last time he was home, he asked me to buy him lightbulbs and socks. I said, "Babe, skip one meal out and you'll have the money for those - neither are expensive items." He hadn't even bothered to look. But, believe me, he'd eaten out and gone to plenty of movies. Sigh. I just want to get him off my payroll!!!! LOL
BTW, normally the girlfriends get really nice gifts and we get forgotten at holidays.
Niiiice. Bad son. But sort of typical. Hopefully he'll grow out of it, when he finally hits the 'wow, I'm kind of an adult' stage. Some day.
ReplyDeleteWe've had two Christian bookstores go out of business around here in the last year. Well, one went out because the mall revamped considerably, but the other was doing really well for a long time, so I'm not sure what happened there.
How can they be "out" of beta? lol.
Carrie,
ReplyDeleteSupposedly, my eldest is better than most kids his age - has a job, doesn't drink to excess, doesn't smoke, and some days he thinks he knows what he's going to do for a living (he's a little flighty, but so am I). Still, there are days . . .
We can cry over our root beer together, about those store closings. Sigh.
I think my jaw hit the desk when I saw that "We're out of beta" note. Say what? You've been annoying me with extra screens saying, "Switch over, switch over!" for weeks and now you're what? So a beta is like, what? Soup? You can only share so many cans and then you run out?
There are many things I don't understand. :)
LOL bookfool! It doesn't mean they've run out! 'beta' is a version that still has a few bugs to work out, now that they're out of beta means that the new blogger is fully up and running. You can still switch, and should as they'll eventually be moving everyone to the new version.
ReplyDeleteToo bad about your son's truck, but at least you'll be able to visit.
I spent way beyond my means in uni too. They really shouldn't give credit cards, even with relatively small limits, to students. Of course I wisened up and got everything paid off, but it's such a tempting time! New freedoms and all that.
Nat,
ReplyDeleteI wondered about that, but I couldn't figure out how to switch over and when I took the tour of the "new version" it said only a limited number of people were being allowed to sign up - and if you didn't have a blue button inviting you, just wait. So, I'm waiting. But, I've got my templates so I'm probably okay if they switch me unexpectedly. :)
I totally agree with you about the credit cards. I'm reading Dave Ramsey's book Financial Peace Revisited and it says universities are paid quite a bit of money to give out student addresses and allow on-campus advertising. That's new info to me, but getting credit card offers for Daniel has been a monthly paper flood since he left home. He has actually signed up not once but three times - once to get a free calling card, the next time for something else ridiculous like pizza (that one involved a more vehement lecture - he was made to call the company and cancel on the spot, with me standing over him, as it had an annual fee) and the last time it was because he thought he might need some extra money "now and then". There are certainly a lot of temptations and a different attitude about patience in acquiring things than even in our day.
BTW, Daniel is going to be able to come home after all. Oh, boy, is he going to love coming home while Mom's reading Dave Ramsey! I have ideas to help him save!! LOL
I see they're a bit inundated (from Blogger Buzz):
ReplyDelete* = Update, 12/20: If you don’t see the “Switch Now” button on the homepage, it’s because a ton of people are already switching to the new Blogger, and we only let so many run simultaneously in order to give everyone a good experience. Just log in to old Blogger for now, and we’ll give you a heads up on your Dashboard when we’re ready for you.
So I guess you'll just have to wait a bit. Glad Daniel can make it home for Christmas, although he may think otherwise when you fill his ear with ways to be smarter with his money. :) If I don't talk to you before then, have a very Merry Christmas!
oops. I could've sworn I'd signed in. That last anonymous was me! :)
ReplyDeleteWell, okay . . . Nat? Angela? I don't know who I'm talking to because I did manage to switch, today (at least this blog) and they were definitely swamped. I got my new ID, hit the button to get set up and then couldn't get back into my blog. And, now I guess the unswitched souls are showing up anonymous? Yeesh. I'll check to see if I lost anything, tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI've been busy cleaning and then chatting with Daniel and, yep, he's not thrilled to hear our thoughts on money and school. I keep telling myself, "Just one more year, just one more year." :)
Nat!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was probably you, although I noticed Angela's messages turned anonymous on me. LOL
Thanks and Merry Christmas to you and your hubby and fur baby! One of my kitties tried to take a bite out of a snowflake ornament and came out of it with a mouthful of glitter. Hope Bailey is behaving. ;)
I just noticed that my previous post is also listed as anonymous, but you replied to me on that one so it's ok. The Blogger gremlins, I think!
ReplyDeleteBailey's mostly behaving. We don't have a tree so that helps. I just know he'd try to eat it. That was probably a great moment when your cat realised about the glitter!
Hey, Bookfool! I made the switch to Beta the other day, too, and so far, so good. I didn't even lose my sidebar stuff. Whoohoo!
ReplyDeleteI am with you 100% on this college-kid financial headache situation. And don't hold your breath about one more year. As you know, our daughter just graduated last week and we've agreed to continue to help her with some of her finances until she gets a job. Of course there's a limit to that help (amount and duration), but you do what you have to do for your kids. It's annoying, yah, but it's pretty much impossible to make it on your own flipping burgers at MickeyD's. Hopefully, she'll land something that pays a decent wage in the next couple of months. If not, she has a few Plan B's (sales associate at Nordstrom where she worked a few years ago - kind of dangerous for a clothes horse, but at that point, we WILL say, "The bank of Mom & Dad is officially closed!"). I supsect there are many, many college-aged kids sitting around with their folks during the holidays getting the money lecture once again. I can't begin to tell you how much I look forward to just visiting and not nagging/lecturing. Sigh.
Merry Christmas! :)
Nat,
ReplyDeleteI noticed your other post had turned anonymous, too. Yeah, I'd say that's just the little blogger meanies playing tricks on us.
Not having a tree surely helps! Ours is just a little one with nothing but snowflake ornaments. I was sitting on the floor when Sunshine took that bite out of one snowflake and came away with a mouth full of glitter. It was hilarious. She made a yuck-yuck face for a while after. LOL
Give Bailey a Christmas ear-rub for me, would you? And, I hope you have a lovely holiday!
Les,
Me, too - so far, so good and nothing disappeared, not even my weather sticker. Yippee! I need to do the photo blogs, soon, but not just yet.
What did Amy major in? Daniel is already one semester behind, so while I'm not holding my breath I'm also not guaranteeing him that he'll stay on the parental payroll past December of next year. You're right, there are no guarantees. I keep trying to get that point across. Daniel has a Jackie O-sized set of rose-colored glasses.
I'm reading Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace and we just watched the DVD. I love Dave Ramsey. Daniel kept trying to find reasons to sneak out. Would you believe, we had a glitch during which the DVD wouldn't play so he jumped up and said he HAD TO GO FLOSS right now? Okay, that's just funny, now that I reflect on it but both of us said, "Get your butt back in here." LOL
I imagine we've got a long way to go, but I expected that with Daniel. What I didn't realize was that the classy apartment he's living in is a rip-off. So, we'll have to figure in all those extra things into the budget we're going to help him with. We're doing our own budget, at the same time, so it's not a "pick on Daniel" thing.
Ask him if he believes that. Hahaha. Incidentally, my MIL went to TCU. The mascot and that purple are a really wild combination, aren't they?
Merry Christmas!!!!
Nancy, your other blogs automatically switch when you switch one. At least that's how I understand it. Unless you have a bunch of separate accounts for each. Correct me if I'm wrong!
ReplyDeleteShe majored in Fashion Merchandising with a minor in Film/TV/Radio. So we shall see. I may have to snag a copy of that book for her!
Les,
ReplyDeleteI have separate accounts for the photo blogs and they didn't switch over. I'll probably stick all three together or lump them in with the book blog, although I'd rather keep the book blog separate because I want to be able to speak freely and there are times that I don't want family to hear me whine. LOL
I really like Dave Ramsey. He's Christian, so he does mention scripture. But, his books lean more heavily toward being about how to make your money work for you than about what God thinks you should do (in case that part bothers you at all). He allows for a little splurging when you budget and warns you that it will take a few months before you stop screwing up. LOL I love that.
Oh, Les, forgot to say thanks for telling me what Amy majored in. Sounds like a fun combination, really!
ReplyDeleteHi, Marsha Marks here - just saw where you reviewed my book FLYING BY THE SEAT OF MY PANTS: Flight Attendant Adventures on a Wing and a Prayer. Thanks so much for your nice words!
ReplyDeleteMarsha,
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! It's been just over 3 years since I read your book, but I still remember it well. :)