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it's good to be home!

it's good to be home!

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i missed my cats! i missed my bed! i missed my hubby! it’ll be good to be home for a while! *thumbs up*
in other news, i tried out a graze box. i liked the portions and the variety, but oh my gosh i can’t justify the cost or the waste. i can recycle the box and containers, sure, but it’d be so much more efficient and eco-friendly to take my reusable containers to the co-op and get a bunch of stuff in bulk for on the cheap. is this something i’d do? there’s the kicker. a graze box comes ready to go for $12 to my door. i could see how i do with preparing.
if anyone wants to try a graze box, i have a coupon code!

a whole week?

a whole week?

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maybe i’ll work a whole week soon! this monday is MLK day, so i have that day off from work. in past years i’ve dedicated this day to some home improvements, but i’m not sure what it would be this year. maybe i’ll clean the basement out? not sure.
anyway, perhaps the following week i’ll be able to work 40 hours! normalcy would be nice. 
tomorrow charlie will be released from the hospital and ready to go home sans helmet! exciting for him. 
now we just wait to see what grandma’s doing. 
 

Review: Who Do You Love

Review: Who Do You Love

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Who Do You Love
Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
i’ve read jennifer weiner since her first book, good in bed, was published. i’ve enjoyed every book, but this was not one i particularly enjoyed. her other books, if i remember correctly, are not romance novels. they typically have a woman who is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t 100% revolve around a man. now, it’s been a while since i’ve read most of her books, so i could be wrong, but my memory tells me that her plotlines generally have other major issues and also include a romantic relationship issue along with it.
this book was pretty much how rachel finds her true love and gets him in the end. sure, she has other things happen in her life, but andy is the overarching theme and the other issues are just piddly things. andy also has his own chapters, describing his life and its ups and downs, and i feel like his life story is a lot more interesting than rachel’s. but rachel is his overarching theme.
and the smut! ok. i do not read romance novels. i am not a romance novel person. i will occasionally run into a book with smut, but generally it’s not pervasive enough to overwhelm the literary factor. i feel like this book’s percentage of smut is above and beyond weiner’s normal levels, and if i’d known it was going to be this enmeshed in the story, i probably wouldn’t have read it.
what could have made this book better? i think if she had written this in first person andy and let rachel take the other side, this may have had potential. less smut? maybe rachel really focusing on her heart issues more? more description and angst over andy’s running problems? i’m not sure.
anyway, i wouldn’t recommend this book with gusto. well, maybe a romance novel enthusiast, but not a jennifer weiner novel enthusiast. be forewarned, jen weiner fans.
View all my reviews

imagination

imagination

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here’s what i see when i read the harry potter books.
young neville? ralph wiggum.
ron? ron from kimmmmmmm possible
dumbledore? patrick stewart
and snape? jafar from aladdin. certainly not the snape they had in the movies.
alan rickman died yesterday, and the HP world is awash in horror. while he may have been a great choice, is physical appearance in the movies did NOTHING for me. he needed facial hair. he needed some unkemptness. he needed….to be the sheriff from robin hood: price of thieves.
you say alan rickman? first and foremost, PoT. then harry from love actually. then hans gruber. dogma, galaxy quest. his role as snape was nothing that moved me (i’ll probably get a lot of hate for this). 
imagination is a pretty amazing thing while reading. that’s why i never really enjoy movies made from books i really enjoy, especially ones where i read the book before the movie was even a blip on a radar. it’s the reason i never watched “the time traveler’s wife” and refuse to see a john green book movie. (especially looking for alaska. that is… no.)
of course there are exceptions: shawshank was so amazing in movie form that i picked up the book. lord of the rings was a lot easier to read after seeing the movies. i read the girl with the dragon tattoo and was disturbed, but not as disturbed as seeing the movie (although i enjoyed the movie as well [the swedish version]). 
turns out there will be no adaptation that matches your brain’s view of a book while reading unless you are the one making the movie. and while rickman did a darn good job at snape, it wasn’t what i was expecting and not at all what i wanted. but i’ll remember him in other roles, fantastically acted roles. “loxley! i’ll tear your heart out with a spoon!”

politics 101

politics 101

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i’ve always been a big proponent of voting on regular elections, but this year i might actually check out what the caucus system in minnesota is like. 
states either have primaries or caucuses (i think primaries are more prevalent). a caucus is sort of a representative system versus a voting system. this year it’ll take place on march 1 (super tuesday). i’ve already checked out where mine is (the st charles high school), and i’d go and sit in the back to watch how it works. and maybe raise my hand for bernie.
this election cycle may turn out to be very interesting. trump is a blowhard who’s going to alienate a lot of people, and if bernie gets the dem nomination, his lenient view of gun reform may just pull over a few republicans. (although he’s pretty socialist in other views.)
i’ll report back after march 1 and let you know how the system works!
while we’re here, i want to remind myself to spend a blog post looking at the militants in oregon (what exactly is going on? what’s the deal?) and another to express my extreme ambivalence on gun control (literally can’t even make a decision). 

if i win…

if i win…

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  1. a pink helicopter
  2. cat haven
  3. house on every continent
  4. chauffeur for the lady who hit charlie
  5. a helipad for my pink helicopter in the middle of the maple grove walking track/veladrome
  6. fancy yurts for everyone (with electricity!)
  7. teslas for everyone
  8. buy as much farmland as possible in SE mn and make it butterfly fields and honeybee sanctuaries
  9. pay off my student loans
  10. BUY A HOUSE WITH A DECK.
now back to your regularly scheduled programming

now back to your regularly scheduled programming

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remember before binge watching? before you got an entire season of a show at one time and you got every episode with no waiting between shows? 
remember when you got a week’s worth of buildup between shows? the cliffhanger endings of each show?
i kind of miss that. 
i looked forward to every sunday when xena and herk were on, waiting each week, getting my popcorn, sitting down to watch at the same time each week. there was just something about the structure of it, that fact that you couldn’t just watch it any old time. 
when the new sherlock holmes abominable bride was scheduled, i got really excited, and not just about the episode; i was excited because it was in the future, and i could let the excitement build up.  (B-T-Dubs – great episode!)
so while i’m excited about all these great netflix shows that i gave reviews to, i’m also very excited thinking about taking it one episode at a time. looking forward to the next sherlock holmes season!

collision

collision

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one of the best moments from the last four days happened on the last day. i’d seen grandma’s reaction to everyone who’d visited her over the days: her kids, her sister lou, nurses, grandkids. her reaction was never really over the top; just even-keeled grandma.
but when charlie walked in the room, the reaction was instant and amazing. she perked up and said, “well look who it is!” and had a very happy reaction to him being there. 
charlie has his last big surgery this thursday to put his skull piece back in his head. i’ll be taking him up there and staying with him while he’s in the hospital recovering so my mom can be in st cloud with my grandma. 
i’m thinking maybe i’ll try to get up to STC one more time if grandma’s still alive. we’ll see what happens. 

sorry (notsorry)

sorry (notsorry)

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yesterday i failed at blogging! i am going to post date this, though, so it’ll be on yesterday’s date. (i know; i cheat.)
the last four days i was in st cloud with my grandma. i went up on wednesday with my mom  and came back yesterday with my sibs. it was nice to spend some time with her, and i’m pretty sure my mom was happy i was there. 
friday melissa came down to visit with me for a bit. we went to lunch and then she came back to check out the hospice house. i was glad she was able to come! it was nice to have a moment of non-family 🙂
then yesterday a lot of family showed up to have a birthday party for grandma (she turns 95 on the 14th). there was cake, singing, and a lot of people around her. 
she’s been more and more confused, talking in her sleep, and a lot of in and out of sleep. 
i’m glad to be home with nate and the kitties (and my BED). i just realized i didn’t say goodbye to her 🙁 but she won’t remember that much anyway, so i’m going to be ok with it.