Random Thoughts

HEROES, is one of the few TV shows I watch pretty regularly. Lordy it gets more confusing each week. Which begs the question...why am I still watching it?

All wrapped up. Snuggled. Spooned. How do you sleep with your significant other? GG and I are seasonal because he's always so dang hot. We haven't put the heat on yet but it's been a little chilly in the house in the early mornings and I go seeking the heat. In other words I send my foot out on expedition to find the warm and then scoot myself over there. In the summer time it's just the opposite. Since the person I sleep with is ALWAYS hot I go looking for the cooler spots in warm weather. Not very romantic, is it?

Having read some pretty good books lately I feel like I'm in a reading frenzy. It's all I want to do. The tbr beckons and taunts.

Is it weird that I'm anticipating the upcoming wedding like I used to anticipate Christmas as a kid? I just can't wait to see all my family and celebrate good times.

Speaking of celebrations... It dawns that in a month I will have been married for 28 years. 28 years! Hard to absorb. Let me just say I barely feel, despite how my outer shell looks, 28 years old let alone being married for 28 years. It continues to amaze me. Maybe I shouldn't tell GG that part.

Thinking, TV, brownies, but no reading...

Life is busy. Are you sick of my saying that? Well I'm sick of me saying that. Things just seem to be on fast forward all of a sudden. I haven't read since I posted on Monday. But I want to thank you all for your great suggestions, it got my curiosity sparked and I'm interested in a couple of things.

The possibilities are varied. My next possible reads:

BLOODFEVER by Karen Marie Moning

LADY OF LIGHT AND SHADOWS by CL Wilson

THE HORSEMAN by Jillian Hart

MAD DASH by Patricia Gaffney

One of the books in my TBR by Karen Rose

I had a grand time making the rounds today. I laughed quite a bit. Here are some posts worth checking out if you haven't already:

Zeek's post had a cute Christmas message. Loved it. I only wish I could actually send it in a card. Lisabea's post answering Sarah McCarty's ice breaker questions from eHarlequin was great, witty, clever and funny. Sarah had some really, really great questions. I'd love to use them at a SoCal Blogger meet up.

I also really enjoyed and got a hoot out of Jennifer Crusie's post. When you get to the part about the commune...well just be prepared. And finally, I'm tooting my own horn a little bit here, because she refers to a conversation we had at lunch on Monday, but check out SL Wendy's post about how an oldie might not be a goodie any more.

While I haven't done any more reading since last I posted, I did catch HEROES on Monday night. Isn't it always the way? Right after I complain how the series has pretty much sucked this season the last two episodes have rocked. I always know the series is cooking when my family is discussing and debating theories two days later. Shmoo is completely disgusted with my thoughts (Adam is a bad guy and tricking Peter) and has quite a theory of his own. It's loaded with lots of conjecture and subplots. I can't believe how much time and conversation we've devoted to the topic.

I'm thinking some of my malaise might be due to only going swimming once last week. Once your body gets used to a regular workout and you stop I think the muscles are talking to the bones and the bones to the heart and the heart to the brain and they all want to know why the hell they aren't getting any exercise. GG and I are back on the bandwagon this week. Who knew one week off would make such a difference?

Final note. We watched BIGGEST LOSER last night. Before I continue, I want to point out this is NOT a TV show I would ordinarily seek out and watch. However, once you tune-in it is morbidly fascinating and compelling. Go figure. Which is really curious for me because for the most part I can't stand any of the reality shows. Anyway, show of hands...was anyone else as thrilled as we were to see Amy go last night? Halleluia!! Although kudos to her for her end of show 'how they are doing now' segment where it showed she lost 100 pounds. I give credit where it's due even to lying, scheming witches.

Remember my post on the fabulous brownies? Well, I've made them several more times and they are still fabulous and yummy. Why mention them now? I'm chewing chocolatey goodness as I type this.

My October Reading List and What the Cat Dragged In

Ummmm...yeah, we don't have a cat. Shmoo is allergic and GG doesn't like 'em so that title is just a tease and I'm a dork.

Later than usual I know, but here's my October reading list.

An Enchanted Season - An anthology with Maggie Shayne, Nalini Singh, Erin McCarthy, and Jean Johnson
Decadent - Shayla Black
Caine’s Reckoning - Sarah McCarty
Secrets Volume 9 Anthology - Kimberly Dean, Kathryn Dubois, Bonnie Hamre, and Lisa Marie Rice
Trouble - Sasha White
Return to Me - Julia Templeton
Evermore - Lynn Viehl
Dark Hunter - Christine Feehan (Manga Version)
Mine Til Midnight - Lisa Kleypas
Beauty and the Black Sheep - Jessica Bird
His Comfort and Joy - Jessica Bird
All About Men - Shannon McKenna Anthology
Forbidden - Suzanne Brockmann
Demon’s Captive - Stephanie Snow
Demons on Horseback:Nate - Beth Williamson
Bring It - Louisa Trent
Lord of the Fading Lands - CL Wilson
Ice Storm - Anne Stuart
Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night - Kresley Cole

Nineteen books read. Three of the books are e-books. For the first time in over a year I had several new-to-me authors. The new ones were Wilson, Williamson, Snow, Templeton, White and Black. I got one ARC and won a couple of other books. Overall October was a pretty darn good month. Favorite read of the month would have to be EVERMORE by Lynn Viehl. I can't wait for it to come out so we can all talk about it.

Now for the stuff the cat dragged in...I suppose since I'm writing this I'M the cat. Hmmm....food for thought that.

Work is crazy busy. Home is crazy busy. New tires yesterday on one car...new brakes today on another. Thank God we don't have car payments. Cars have been a real trial in 2007. Speaking of which, there is some good news relating to cars. We think we've finally gotten the settlement finalized with the insurance company handling Shmoo's car accident which was over 8 months ago. It's going to be a relief to not have to deal with it every month. Halleluia!

On the TV front: Finally! We had a half way decent HEROES episode last night. Praise be. Hopefully we will get a couple more good eppys in before they go on holiday hiatus.

Reading update: I just finished Suzanne Brockmann's ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT and am looking forward to starting A GENTLE RAIN by Deborah Smith. It came in the mail while we were out of town. I also picked up a couple of Jillian Hart westerns at the UBS after reading this review by SL Wendy a couple of weeks ago.

My sister emailed me her pictures from our trip to Las Vegas. The picture of the birthday people and the nieces and nephews have been replaced. Hers were much better. I'm leaving you with this photo. For some reason our family likes to take photos where we are either making weird faces, tickling one another, or in this case pinching each others arses. Check it out.

(click to see larger)

North and South - Part Deux

So the long awaited DVD arrived. NORTH AND SOUTH the BBC version was in my mailbox yesterday afternoon. Okay I exaggerate when I say long awaited because it was really only a week, but it seemed like a long time waiting and checking the mailbox. Of course I had to watch it right away. Which means dinner last night was comprised of sandwiches and fruit.

I enjoyed the 4-hour mini series greatly. My only wish was for Richard Armitage to have more screen time. Talk about brooding! Whew! I don't think there's a woman alive that wouldn't react to that intensity. I gotta go find what else he's been in.

Aside from the longing looks and subtle love story this is also a history lesson about the industrial revolution in England and the beginnings of changes in the class system. I'll be watching it again soon to catch stuff I might have missed the first time around.

If you like period pieces, costume drama, and romance you might like this one.

Final thought for Mondays...why am I still watching HEROES?

So...

Just a few quick things. I'm writing this early Tuesday morning and I have to go to an early morning meeting at work. With the boys both in full swing at school and the first quarter coming to an end I'm low man on the totem pole for computer time these days.

My response to everyone's comments on yesterday's blog posted from Anonymous. That cracked me up. I don't even know how that happened. I thought I was signed in. Anyway, if you were wondering...

So, last night was the first night of the new TV season here in the good ole U.S. Beanie convinced me to watch a few minutes of THE BIG BANG THEORY. At least I think that's the name of it. It's a sitcom on CBS. I did laugh a couple of times which is pretty amazing because I think most sitcom humor is lame. This show, at least last night, seems to have some decent writing. It doesn't really have any "names" in it and it will be really something if it gets enough viewers, but I thought it was funny enough to mention. Ironically, since GG and I don't watch much TV I wonder if I'll ever see it again. :)

Okay, a show of hands now. Who watched HEROES? Shmoo thinks it's getting too complicated. I reminded him we were all over the map for several episodes last year, but he doesn't want to work so hard to figure things out. Beanie, my superhero and comic book geek is all over it though. Nathan's back with no wife, no kids? BTW, someone tell me, because we had a big debate here, whose reflection did he see in the mirror in the bar?

Sadly, I can't think of another program I want to see this season. My boys might try to convince me to tune into a couple of things, but for the most part I'd rather read.

Speaking of reading. Shmoo and I will be making a trek to the bookstore after school and work today so I can snag LOVER UNBOUND. Lots of mixed reviews out there in Romancelandia, but I have to see for myself. At least I'm going in without big expectations.

I have to admit I'm quicky getting addicted to not proofreading before I press 'PUBLISH'. No time to do anything this morning anyway. Here goes...

ONE SEASON ENDS AND ANOTHER BEGINS

Nope I'm not talking about summer turning into autumn. Although with temperatures still in the 90s autumn is taking its sweet time to visit southern California. Thank goodness the mornings and evenings are cooling off now. I love the warm weather, but we had a very warm summer without much respite. I'm ready for a season change.

As frequent visitors here know I don't watch very much TV because I usually read in the evenings, or blog hop, or write blogs, lots of things but not a lot of TV watching going on here. The men in my life on the other hand always seem to have a TV on somewhere. Sometimes more than one TV. We have sports, music videos, lots of Comedy Central, CSI and Law and Order re-runs. Is it a wonder I don't watch much TV?



Anyway last night was the season finale of one of my favorite shows, RESCUE ME. Yeah, it's pretty much just the one show I try to catch every week. All other TV watching (recent documentarys included) is all by accident while GG is clicking relentlessly through the stations looking for something to watch, which drives me crazy by the way, especially when he's trying to entice me to watch something with him and just won't land on one program and stick with it. Aiiiieee Carumba!


Fortunately even though my current favorite show is ending tonight I read in the paper this weekend that the new season of HEROES begins on September 24th. Just a week and a half away. It's so very nice for the networks to plan things so nicely for me like that. I'm very appreciative. I don't think I could handle trying to keep track of two programs at once. Something might explode in my head. I continue to marvel how there can be so many channels on TV and I find so little to like. Although I still like watching movies. Movies uninterrupted by commercial breaks that is. So yay for HBO, STARZ, AMC, TMC and all the other networks that provide movies old and new without commercials.

Is there anything in particular you are looking forward to watching this new TV season? The only other show that mildly interested me was JOURNEYMAN because of that guy from ROME is in it. There's something about him. I looked him up. His name is Kevin McKidd. That deep voice of his is very appealing to me. I might check that one out. Other than that na-da. Shmoo is intrigued by the clever promos of IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA. Anyone a fan?