Books, books, books ... and more books

I have been on a reading tear the last month or so.

I discovered the joy of the Kindle and Nook apps on the iPod Touch. And free books.

Oh wow the free books for Kindle and Nook. I've got so many books sitting on there, just waiting to be read.

I've also discovered a few authors. T.L. Higley, for one. I got "Pompeii: City of Fire" as a free kindle book. After I tore through the book I requested "Guardian of the Flame" from the library and I purchased "Marduk's Tablet"

Her books are a bit historical. I like the books that are set back in Biblical times. There is also a bit of romance in the books I've read so far. Nothing to graphic, which is a huge plus for me. There is also a bit of Christian spirituality thrown in the mix. Nothing that I felt was very heavy handed. All in all, I've enjoyed the books immensely.

In between reading the ebooks I've also been listening to audiobooks in the car and at work. I'm just surrounded by books and I'm really enjoying it.

I have had no knitting or spinning mojo to speak of. On the one hand I'm sad that I have no interest in it. But then I have all this time for books, which makes me so happy. I haven't tore through books like this since I discovered the "Left Behind" series.

One thing I had planned on doing when I first started this blog was to write book reviews. I'm writing reviews but they are over on GoodReads. I'm now behind on updating my books over there. Gradually I may move them over here.

In other news, this is my 250th post on my blog. This is mind blowing to me. I was surprised when I reached 100 posts. I guess the next milestone is 500 posts. Wow. For someone who could never keep a diary going as a child I'm impressed that I'm still trucking along.

So if you've been along the whole time I say thank you for reading my rambles, successes and disappointments.

P.S. If you have any book recommendations, please leave them in a comment or send me a message over on twitter. Thanks!

Busy organizing

I gave myself August off (you can't see the air quotes) from knitting and spinning. That way, I figured, I could concentrate on the bounty that is coming from the garden. I am doing a bit of canning and processing. I'm also tearing through the house and cleaning/sorting/organizing.

Sept. 1 my son goes back to school and I'm sure it will take a while to get back into the school routine so I wanted to get some of this stuff taken care of before the "crazy" known as school starts.

It makes me sad as well. This summer went by way too fast. We didn't get to spend nearly as much time as we wanted out at our happy place. Most weekends it rained and one wants to sit indoors in a small cabin.

This past weekend we packed up and headed out there as soon as we got home from work. Oh, it was the perfect evening. Hubby was teaching our son how to cast a fishing reel. (Did I say that correctly?). Our son picked up on it pretty quick and was casting the nut tied on the end of the string pretty far. Now he needs to work on his aim a bit.

I was sitting by the fire when I looked up when I noticed the sky changed. I quick grabbed the phone and took this shot before running to get the good camera.


It was simply breathtaking. I haven't looked at the other photos yet but I'm really hoping they turned out.

Then on Sunday we had a visitor.


I was harvesting stuff from the garden (Yum) and setting it on the picnic table. I mentioned to hubby that there was a frog at the picnic table and my son heard the word "frog" while he was down at the creek and he ran as fast as he could to come check it out. Those two had a blast talking to and about the frog. I think Mr. Frog finally tired of it all and hopped into the grass. I'm pretty sure he said "Wow, what a jungle." I can only guess that it was his kind way of saying that we really need to cut the grass.

Another sort of exciting thing coming up is that I will be taking a camera class to learn how to use my office camera. I will learn how to use a Nikon D90 DSLR. It will be great to finally learn my way around that beast. I have no experience with D/SLRs. It will be an experience to say the very least.

Flooding

This past week it rained over night Monday or Tuesday. It rained hard. There was a few times it rained so hard I thought it was hailing. It woke me up several times during the night. When I got up it was still raining. While my son and I were watching PBS a weather thing flashed across the screen saying there was the possibility of flash floods in my county. I was a bit surprised at that. I looked outside and didn't see much rain on the ground.

We did have flash flooding. It was bad. Heading out in the county there was standing water on the road. I live just a few miles away from the Nemadji River and I have never seen it this high. I'd heard of it ocassionally flooding the road that goes by the city's golf course. Well, this was it just a few days ago.


There is no road. It just leads to water.

This is a house that is just on the outskirts of the city. Last time I went past. The garage was standing in at least four feet of water according to DH.


I know the photo isn't very big, but let me say that the water you see in this photo should be at least 500 feet away to the left from where it is now.

When you look at the other side of the road, this is the river. The river was running across the road.


Normally the river is at least 1/3 the width it is in this photo.

On our way to the happy place we drove past this house. Again, none of this water is supposed to be there.


We have been really fortunate. Other than the garden looking like it's been trampled on, there is no damage or flooding at the land, or at the house. I heard that the Red Cross was set up out in the county to help those who couldn't get back to their homes. There are people who couldn't leave their homes.

Definitely not what I expected for this week.