Jen FitzGerald's Blog, page 2

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

 

Miscellaneous Monday

 

Image courtesy of Goodreads.

My Year in Books via Goodreads!

At the beginning of 2024, I pledged to read fifty-five books in the Goodreads Challenge. I'd completed fifty-eight books or 105% when Goodreads decided to send my Year in Books Review & graphics to go with.

The above graphic was one of the graphics and I was curious as to what that actually meant, so I Googled it. :0) There were multiple ways to qualify, but I knew exactly how I made the cut:

"High Review Volume: You consistently review a large number of books across various genres."

Now, to be honest, I don't write reviews but I do give them all a star rating.

In addition to those fifty-nine books, I read a boat-load of hockey articles.

Now, if you go look at my Goodreads Challenge Book List, be aware that I did not actually read all of the titles listed. That's not to say I didn't read fifty-eight (or more) books. I know I've mentioned this in previous years, but I read a lot of fan fiction. So some of the titles listed, like Gone With the Wind, are placeholders for a piece of fan fiction. I try to choose place-holder books that have roughly the same amount of pages/words as a given piece of fanfic. I'm not reading a 500-word fic and then using GWTW as the place-holder.

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The New Guy

Is working out great. He's smart and he learns quickly, which has been awesome. So a month + in and we're still very happy with our choice.

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Pain Management

I have good news and bad news.

Good News: I finally had my appointment with the rheumatologist.

Good Bad News: I don't have rheumatoid arthritis requiring life-long medicating. What I do have is osteo-arthritis--which the rheumatologist said just means "I'm feeling my age." (boooo!)

Good News: My primary care doctor put me on some pain meds back in October for the right hip / bursitis I can't seem to heal.

Bad News: the meds didn't seem to help

Good News: according to the rheumatologist, the meds I was given are very slow acting, so they should start to work any time now (thank goodness, lol)

Good News: this pain med is also a mild anti-depressant, so I've been a little more upbeat even though the pain hasn't quite been eliminated.

I also had a bone-density scan done to check on...well...my bone density and take corrective action if needed. I'll meet with the rheumatologist again at the beginning of January to go over all the results.

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Image courtesy of IMGBIN.

Book Binge

So I've started another book binge. I didn't mean to do it, but one thing led to another and, well, here we are. :0)

I've dipped my toe into some genres outside my usual purview of romance such as a police procedural, a cozy mystery series, some general fiction, and some self-help.

Didn't pay full price for any of it.

I suppose, as an author myself, I shouldn't be so pleased about that, but between the online library and some recent sales, and books just offered at $0, I'm set for books for at least a good month.

I'm currently reading a fictionalized version of Julia's Child's early career working for the government.

I've developed an appreciation of Mrs. Child after watching the dramedy "Julia" on HBO, which, sadly, was canceled after two seasons.

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Well, friends--this is it until the new year. Hope your holidays are filled with family, friends, food, and fun.

See you in 2025.

 

Miscellaneous Monday

 

Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving Day and weekend. We had a lovely day with family on Thursday and then spent the rest of the weekend eating deliciousness -- DH's word for the things that you can't eat all the time. I.E. Rotel Queso, pizza, brownies... I did make a lovely beef stew to balance things out though.

Anyway, today, I'm just gonna share some random things.

So I've had this oven mitt for over two decades--I still use it weekly and it has one job. And that's to hold the handle of my large stock pots while I'm cooking.

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Do y'all remember this mug? I got this early- to mid-2000s and I used it for ages and ages. These days, I'm using my tall Dallas Stars Tervis mug--which doesn't look like the picture because it's stained to heck and back with tea :0) -- but this was my go-to mug back in the day. I loved it so much, and I carted it around with me. I bought a second one in red on a subsequent trip to the USS Lexington and then broke it rather quickly. After that, I left the original at home. :0)

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Who's not familiar with Elf on a Shelf? Basically, you buy the little elf doll and move him around the house for the little ones of the house to find each day during the holiday season. DD was in charge of the "Elf Program" at her school for a couple of years. She passed it along this year because she's already at school early enough as it.

Anywho--one of our employees has a 3-D printer and created a glow-in-the-dark skeleton whose joints move. We ended up with him somehow and DH left him in the bathroom one day, and then the next day, someone (DD) started moving him around the bathroom. Then it became a game. Whoever found him moved him to a new spot. But the bathroom is only so big, so we moved the game to the kitchen and the living room.

He's been found and moved several times since his stint in the light fixture.

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Stars Win!

So DD and I got to watch a game from one of the suites. Someone donated two suite seats to the school fall carnival silent auction which DD won. We even got "gold parking" as part of the package.

It was a really fun experience / opportunity to enjoy the game from a suite. The food there was free, but we had to pay for our beverages, which was fine.

Here are a few pictures...

Our gold parking was under a restaurant next to the American Airlines Center and we got to take the elevator right up to the level our suite was on. Fancy!!

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Take care and catch you in a couple of weeks.

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 

Image courtesy of IMGBIN.

I have so much to be thankful for. And I've taken to speaking my gratitude out loud each and every morning on my way to work and on Sundays on my way to pick up groceries.

I have a whole list of people and things that I speak my gratitude for. 

And today, we'll be visiting with DH's family, enjoying good company and good food.

May your day be filled with the same.

See you Monday.

Miscellaneous Monday

 

It's finally official--I'm no longer treasurer for my writers group. I handed over the reins at the beginning of October and I haven't looked back. It's been nice. Now, I am still on the board as I'm the website person and the Classroom Coordinator. But the workload is less and different.

* * * * *

As for being a member of a writers group--I'm not writing. I've had no interest and no motivation to work on the revamp I've mentioned in previous posts. I've been meaning to contact my cover artist and rework our agreement a little bit to forgo the print cover options and just get all seven covers and the Amazon A+ graphic and move on.

* * * * *

Hip, hip, hooray--we have finally hired a new employee to replace the guy that quit back in the summer. New guy starts today. We really enjoyed the break in expenses, but DH (aka bossman) was being run ragged; plus he'll be selling fireworks come mid-December so we really needed another tech in the fold to compensate. This is the "slow" time of year, so it shouldn't be too much of a challenge for him to get ramped up. Not only that, but he's young--early thirties--so he should have the energy and none of the other challenges bossman is hampered with. Primarily that of being the owner and having to do owner tasks.

* * * * *

The weather has been gorgeous. Cool overnight and lovely during the day. Who'd have thunk a mere few years ago, much less a decade or two, that I would have embraced sleeping with the windows open with temps in the 50s? Certainly not moi. But as I'm now a woman of a certain age, the body is requiring less warmth, especially while sleeping.

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Last but not least, I want to share The Asher House.

The Asher House is a 240-acre animal sanctuary in Oregon, run by a guy named Lee Asher. He LOVES dogs. You can tell so easily.

The Asher House mostly rescues dogs, usually from shelters where they're in danger of being euthanized or from bad home situations. But they will rescue any animal in need. There are horses, alpacas, llamas, cats, birds, goats, cows, and pigs. I'm sure there may be a few more species in the sanctuary, but those are the ones I've seen on videos.

Now, when I dream of winning billions of dollars via the lottery or some old relative coming out of the woodwork and leaving me a fortune, this type of place was the "dream." But watching this guy and these videos, you see just how much money and work and time and effort it requires.

And since he's got things sorted--if I do play the lottery and win, I think I'll just make a huge donation!

If you're interested in more information, here are the social media links:

https://www.theasherhouse.com/https:/...

And if you have some spare money, please consider helping Lee and his crew help these animals. There's a donate button right at the top of the website (the first link).

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Hope you're well. Catch you in a couple of weeks. And...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

 

Snoopy-O-Lantern!

 

Here it is, finally. I messed up the ear a little bit. Should have carved things in a different order. But over all, I was mighty pleased with the result. I love Snoopy. :0)

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Now that Halloween has passed it's time to look forward to Thanksgiving and to Christmas...although Christmas is already on the radar. I've been buying presents here and there because I hate late minute shopping and I like to have most of the work done and dusted so I can actually enjoy the season.

As for Thanksgiving, we'll be spending the day with DH's family. 

But before we head out for good eats and good company, DD and I are planning a trip to the zoo on Thursday. The last time we went to the zoo on Thanksgiving, we'd planned to make a tradition of it, because we both love the zoo. But along came Mom and it's taken me a while to recover. 

When were last at the FW Zoo, there was some new exhibit construction going on, so we're looking forward to seeing the new stuff this year.

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Running a little behind on the blog post today, but here it is finally.

Not much to share at the moment, so it's also a bit short.

Take care.

Miscellaneous Monday

 

Image courtesy of IMDB.

DH, DD, and I went to see this a couple of weeks ago as part of DH's birthday celebrations and it was really cute and somewhat of a tear-jerker. (Your mileage may vary on the tears, but mine flowed.)

From IMDB: After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.

DD and I saw the trailer in one of our viewings of Twisters and made definite plans to see it. It's based on the book of the same name by Peter Brown.

I highly recommend the film, although I think by now it's no longer in major theaters. But if it comes to a streaming platform, definitely give it a watch. Also it has a message or two or three.

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I'm a little late in my fresh start goals third quarter review, so quickly -- I'm not doing all that great. I made progress on five of twelve line items. *shrugs*

Sometimes life takes a detour. It's not a bad thing, but you're just not traveling the road you thought you would be. We'll see how the fourth quarter goes.

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HOCKEY IS BACK !

So DD and I attended the home opener, which our boys in Victory Green won. They also won their season opener a couple of days prior as well as the two games following, to start the season 4-0... Then they lost game five to a team they probably shouldn't have lost to, but losses happen--can't win 82 games. We have tickets to Teacher Appreciation Night in December and the two bobble head nights in the spring. :0)

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Hope you're well. Back in a couple of weeks.

It's Fall Y'all, (a Part II)

 

Image courtesy of Deposit Photos.

 

FIRST--If you can help the bee hives / farms in Florida and North Carolina devastated by the hurricane, please do so:

https://greatergood.org/help-save-bee...

GreaterGood.org is collecting money to send some sort of pollen substitute.

* * * * *

Since I postponed the previous post by a week, I thought I'd get back on track by posting this week. Not that it matters, really, lol. I just have stuff to share, so I decided to surprise y'all with back-to-back Monday postings.

Last post, I said I was going to bake and bake I did. I didn't make pup-cakes as I had been thinking I might. Instead, I tried a lemon poppy seed pound cake recipe that's on the back of my lemon extract box. I also wanted to experiment with it a little and make it pumpkin flavored rather than lemon.

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake with Homemade Icing

And guess what? Both versions were tasty. I think the pumpkin version needs a bit more pumpkin flavor but otherwise, the experiment worked. I also saw a mini bundt pan while I was in Walmart, so I ended up impulse buying it. Now I need to test how much batter to put in it so that the end result isn't some over-puffed up bit of baked goods. A quick Google search said 2/3 to 3/4. Good to know for next time.

* * * * *

I've been tackling some backyard tasks in an effort to A) get the backyard tidied up and B) stay as active as possible each day. One of the projects I started last weekend (not this past weekend, but the one before that) was clearing out the pile of dead branches and limbs that we've just piled up anytime something fell. I got tired of looking at the untidiness of it and decided to get started.

The brush, limbs, and chunks of old tree trunks came out to where the green stuff curves. There's still more to go as you can see, but for several hours worth of effort, it looks waaaaay better than it did.

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In between bouts of the above yard work two Saturdays ago, DD and I went shopping and, along with some cool Christmas yard decorations--images to come in December, I bought a carving pumpkin. I've opted for a Peanuts theme. Pictures of my Snoopy-o-lantern also to come!

* * * * *

And something really cool happened--I recently discovered that an audio book narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch that I'd downloaded from YouTube and converted for my iPod many moons ago and whose files I can no longer find is available from Audible! I hadn't thought to search for it but I just so happened to hear it as a preview after the end of some other book I listened to. I can't tell you how excited I was to hear it and also to be able to buy/download that sucker into a safe place (that being my Audible account) where I'll have it for years to come!!

* * * * *

And last, but not least--

I finally found and tried the new Coca-Cola flavored Oreos. I wasn't impressed.

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Well have a super week. Catch you in two!

 

Fall is in the Air!

 

I'm so delighted with cooler temps and looking forward to sleeping with the windows open.

I might even have to break these out and make some pumpkin cake.

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I've also started feeling crafty/creative again. I've finished two cross stitch projects and am working on another. I've even been working on a pair of terracotta pots. Mom was awesome at this stuff (tole painting); me--not so much, but I like doing it.

I have one pot done but the other pot design presented me with a bit of a challenge. But DD will be coming to the rescue.

The Pride pot still needs a coat of varnish or something. And then I need to plant something in it.

Here are my finished cross stitch projects...

Here is the finished pot...

The other pot is going to have a bees and gnomes theme to it -- stay tuned.

* * * * *

In other news, our guest room finally, really looks like a guest room. We'd had a big wood-framed futon bunk bed thing in there for years. It was Sonshine's, and though he's been gone for a decade (IS THAT REALLY TRUE?!?!), we've just never taken it down. Not even for Mom, bless her heart. But after she passed, we discussed whether DH wanted to move back into that room or stay in the garage. DH opted to stay in the garage for the additional space. And it's taken another two years to disassemble that bed, lol.

But here's the room now. It still needs a few more things on the walls, but that's just a matter of deciding what I want. Although one of those things will be the cross stitch sampler that I'm working on.

Rascal says hello and welcome!

* * * * *

I have also finally started walking the dog. Not the dog I meant to walk for all those years -- sorry, Reyna! But little Rascal and I have been walking for a month or so. I needed to up my activity level and he definitely needed the exercise and the getting out of the house and I'm hoping it'll keep his little nails somewhat in check. He does need a trim though.

And then DD decided she'd start walking with us. So that was a nice surprise, and it's doing us both good -- we've both felt our pants fit just a tad more comfortably.

* * * * *

And apologies for this not posting last Monday. I forgot to add images and I just wasn't ready for the post to go live on time. So I opted to hold onto it for another week.

Have a super October!! It's fall y'all! And I'm excited.

 

Family!

 

Sweet baby angel Caleb, the newest member of the family.

I traveled to Omaha this Labor Day -- as I have done every Labor Day for the last decade or so -- and met that sweet little boy pictured above. He's just turned three months old and is a sweet natured baby.

I also saw my oldest daughter who drove from Colorado, so that was a nice treat as well.

But let me tell you, my family is a hot mess. Mostly lovable, but such a hot mess.

I also went to visit my dad's grave and left my traditional offering of pinwheels. There was a lovely breeze, and I did get video, but as I'm technologically challenged sometimes, I messed things up and now can't get the video to play. (Bah!) But here's a picture:

* * * * *

And I've finally, finally gotten to work on the revamp of Series One, Book One!

Yeah, remember that?

I've struggled to make progress over the last four months because there were more changes/fixes than I expected there to be. But I kept reading / reviewing and making notes. Finally figured out some of the things that were holding me back and now I'm able to move forward. Whew!

* * * * *

Oh, guess what? I'm no longer an official member of my writers group board of directors! Someone else ran for Treasurer. I still manage the website, but I'm gonna work on documentation so that someone else can take on that job at some point. Maybe even next year. :0)

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I've also made some progress on those clay pots I mentioned wanting to paint. Here's the first one:

And, yes, I obviously went with a Pride theme. :0) The other one is going to have gnomes, but I'm still searching for a simple pattern that I like and can pull off with my rudimentary painting skills.

Once I plant something in this pot, I'll share the completely finished project. And once I finish the other, I will of course share that as well.

Take care and see you in two weeks.