The Harkers

One of my favorite fashion blogs (okay, possibly the only fashion blog I read) just posted about a super-cute internet clothing store here. We’re talking super cute, customizable, affordable dresses and more! Check out eShakti here.

{You’re welcome.}

I should probably preface this post with an acknowledgement that I am the WORST BLOGGER OF ALL TIME. I have been terrible about writing over the last several months and I’m hoping to turn a new leaf this year. I think I’ve just been feeling blah and didn’t have anything positive to say. Nothing new in reproductive news, so we’ll skip that. The only major news – and it is major news – is that Jim just got a new job! He starts this Thursday. He’ll be doing basically the same type of work – marketing design – for a company in Sandy. It is a great opportunity for him so we are excited.

To celebrate, we decided to finish furnishing our basement. In our quest to find the perfect sectional, we visited TEN different furniture stores. TEN. My problem with all kinds of shopping is that I generally know exactly what I want and usually can’t find the perfect item in my price range. So imagine my surprise when I found EXACTLY what I was looking for at just what I was willing to pay! And at Macy’s! I don’t think I even knew they sold furniture, but check out the beauty we just ordered (top). It’s microfiber, so it’s durable and pet (and child) friendly, and it’s modular, so each piece is separate and can be rearranged into different configurations.

The second photo is a darling sofa we considered, but it’s a bit more formal than we were looking for. But it gives you a good idea of the cuteness that they have available.

My sister-in-law Kelly just opened a new Etsy shop, here. She’s just getting started, but right now she’s got cute onesies, pacifier clips, and headbands like this one. She’s local (like five blocks away local), so you can skip the shipping charges if you are too. Happy shopping!

CJane is giving away a family pass to Thanksgiving Point! I think it’s clear from the endless number of photos I’ve taken there of Elijah that I am a HUGE FAN. If I’m not the lucky winner, though, it would be a consolation to know that one of my friends won. Enter here!

This time of year, especially, I miss the Gardens! Photo by Liesl.

Here’s my yearly reading roundup, with ratings for each book. I hit 29 last year, with an unexplained zero books read in November. (Actually, it can probably be explained by my watching seasons 1 and 2 of Veronica Mars. Love that show!) The five-star books I read this year were Harry Potter #7, The History of Love, a children’s book called I Am David, and Jesus the Christ, which was an accomplishment in itself since I’d previously started it twice. Great doctrine, but not an easy read!

Three of my least favorite books were by Nobel Prize winners/finalists, The Interrogation, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and The Shipping News. They all made me seriously rethink my practice of finishing every book I start. My favorite book  group read turned out to be a classic I hadn’t read before – The Scarlet Pimpernel. If you love it as much as I did, I also highly recommend the Jane Seymour movie adaptation. So good!

I didn’t get around to writing many book reviews this year, but I do have a few notes on my Goodreads page here.

Happy reading in 2010!

January

Timeline, by Michael Crichton **2 stars

Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell ****4 stars

February

Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke ****4 stars

February – April

Harry Potter (all 7 of them!), by J.K. Rowling **** – *****4/5 stars.

March

The Wednesday Wars, by Gary Schmidt ****4 stars

April

The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss *****5 stars
The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch ****4 stars
I Am David, by Ann Holm *****5 stars

May

World Without End, by Ken Follett ***3 stars
The 5000 Year Leap: The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World, by Cleon Skousen ****4 stars
Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt: A Novel, by Anne Rice ****4 stars
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini ****4 stars

June – July

The Interrogation: A Novel, by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio **2 stars, but barely

August

Olive Kitteridge: A Novel in Stories, by Elizabeth Strout ****4 stars

September

The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Emmuska Baroness Orczy ****4 stars
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers *1 grudgingly given star
The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, #1), by Suzanne Collins ****4 stars
Catching Fire (Hunger Games, #2), by Suzanne Collins ****4 stars

October

Spilling Clarence: A Novel, by Anne Ursu ****4 stars
Jesus the Christ, by James E. Talmage *****5 stars
The Shipping News : A Novel, by Annie Proulx **2.5 stars
Circle of Friends, by Maeve Binchy ****4 stars

December

A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving ****4 stars

So yesterday was my 32nd birthday, and everyone really came through for me. Jim and Elijah got me McDonald’s breakfast in bed, roses, and a GPS. Danny and Kelly were kind enough to watch Elijah while we hit Market Street Grill for my yearly crab dinner and then went to a movie. And last but not least, my super-cool friend Jen R made me this:

Awesome.

This post is for all of my fellow bookworms. I blogged about bookmooch awhile back, a site that lets you swap books with other people just for the cost of shipping. The downside, for me, is that I was sending out a lot more books than I was mooching because the books I wanted were never available. So I always have tons of unused credits.

Enter Goodreads. I’ve been a fan of their site for ages. Finally I could move my Excel spreadsheet of books I’ve read (yes, I really did have one) to a well-designed online catalog where I can share reviews with friends and get recommendations for new books! And now they’ve added the swap feature!

The way Goodreads swap works is that you pay for shipping the books you want. No unused credits, no sending out more than you’re getting. They do have a “handling fee,” so you’re paying a bit more than the media mail shipping charges, but it’s still cheaper than buying books! I suppose if I had a decent library I wouldn’t be so excited about this, but as it is, I can’t wait to try it out.

More info here.

Last night just after midnight I was lying in bed thinking about the V episode I’d watched earlier. For those of you who aren’t watching it, it’s about aliens. So you can imagine my alarm when a bright blue flash lit up the bedroom, followed by a streak of yellow shooting across the window. At first I thought a helicopter had shined a light straight into my bedroom window, but there was no sound. I woke Jim up with some exclamation like, “What the crap was that?!” He must have thought I’d lost it when I told him, “I think… I just saw… a spaceship.” He was still awake when there was a boom a couple of minutes later.

I was relieved (and gratified) to hear this morning what everyone’s talking about – it was a huge bolide meteor sighted across several states, and the boom we heard afterward was a sonic boom. Whew – I’m not crazy.

This is the best youtube video footage I found:

Did you see it?