Tony da Fish...the story continues

So I'm a little hesitant to write this almost a week ahead...a lot can happen to a fish in a week.

You may remember Tony da Fish and his friend, Goldy II, from an earlier post--New Fish.  I neglected to mention in that post that Tony is the most hyperactive fish I have ever seen. Since we brought him home, he literally spends hours a day zigging and zagging around the tank at a relatively high speed for a fish in a tank.  A few days after we brought him home, I googled "hyperactive fish" and read that hyperactive fish are reacting the chemicals in the water and will die shortly.  Clearly not the case for our friend, Tony, since he is still around months later.

I really thought I had written an update and given everyone the bad news that Goldy II had passed on to wherever fish go about a week after she joined us...but I can't find the update, so I guess I didn't.  One morning I came downstairs and Goldy II, who, it turns out, was the white fish, was on the bottom of the tank (yes the bottom) not breathing, or whatever it is fish do.  Tony was accused by The Girl of killing Goldy.  We of course, said, "no, no...blah, blah".  We replaced Goldy with snail, who, for a couple weeks, kept the tank slightly cleaner.  Then one day the snail's shell was empty and rolling across the bottom of the tank...um, where did the snail go?  This time Tony was accused of actually eating the snail, which, since we never found any snail parts, seems somewhat likely.

Here is Tony da Fish this morning, clearly outgrowing his (dirty) tank...yes, he is about 3-4 inches long.  It is hard to get a good photo, as the tank is dirty and he never. stops. moving.

And here he is in September, back when he could swim through the pagota (and before he had Goldy done away with...).

Hmm.  He might be a match for Alice the Cat after all...

More Boy-isms

"It's funny how they don't all wear shirts" (referring to sumo wrestlers).  Yeah, kid...their lack of SHIRTS is what I see as "funny".

Me:  "Are you chewing gum while eating pie?"  The Boy:  "NO!  I'm eating pie while chewing gum!" (cue hysterical laughter)

Me: "Go brush your teeth".  The Boy "No, I'm chewing gum".  Me: "What?"  The Boy:  "The gum wrapper says it fights cavities so I'm not going to brush ever again, I'm just going to chew gum."  Me: "Go brush your teeth."

Earthship, anyone?

Mr. Ranch has recently become fascinated with the idea of the Earthship style of building and living.  We think that the basic premise of the official Earthship is that one acquires a ton (literally) of old tires and then fills said tires with dirt (sometimes with rocks or cement?) and uses them as the walls of your house.  People seem to use water bottles (and other recycled glass/plastic) for "windows" and most that we've seen have a giant greenhouse as part of the plans.  I like the idea of the greenhouse.  And the idea of living off the grid, but still having functioning plumbing and electricity. And heat.  I like heat.

Since our library doesn't seem to have any "Earthship" specific books (we think it might be a name only used by one author/group?), I picked up a bunch of other sustainable living books there for Mr. Ranch to look at in his spare time (spare time...ha, ha!). One of our "favorites" so far has been Sustainable Living for Dummies.  Our giggles started when we realized the book was written about and published for the "Australian clientele".  Mr. Ranch said, "Um, why does our library even own a book written for Australians?".  The book really might be designed for dummies though...it suggests things like "consider having only 1, 2, or 3 tvs instead of one in every bedroom" and "open your windows in the evening to cool your house instead of using air conditioning, especially during cooler weather". It does suggest a couple things we've never thought about--such as "don't use bricks or concrete because they are heavily processed, use locally produced mud bricks instead" (where does one find locally made mud bricks, other than the local sandbox?)  And it suggests that we only use sheets and comforters made from hemp. Mr Ranch says, "oooh, hemp sheets...sound so soft...not!".  He also made some other hemp sheet comments, related to Colorado's new law(s) that I'm not going to include here.

There were some good ideas for "someday" and lots of pictures of really cool structures. We were a little mystified when the writers of several books said things like "this place would never pass a code inspection so its a good thing it was built before they had such things".  They all seem to have lots of plants and livestock, too...but I still refuse to have urban chickens though...I draw the line at chickens.  We also discovered that we are probably actually looking for "off the grid" books, not sustainable living books, so I'll be headed back to the library for another pile some evening this week!

The Winter Garden--outside

There's not a lot going on in the outdoor Ranch garden these days--here's the view from the deck the other evening though..reminds me why we put up with "the drive".

The garden is very bare--The Boy said yesterday, "Can I plant a tomato plant?"  Um, maybe inside buddy..

 Liberty doesn't mind the lack of foliage though, she just wants to lie in the sun.









My gnomes don't seem to mind either..they just keep on "gnoming"...

 And this, of course is how it looked last weekend...little styrofoam snow  balls--yuck.

 It should only be a few months until the apple tree starts blooming, right?

The Ranch Winter Garden--Inside...

I'm always jealous of people who have a viable, real outdoor winter garden.  Someday (maybe not at this house) I'd like to have a greenhouse, or even a small "green box" so that I can grow spinach and tomatoes year round...but at the moment our winter garden is limited to what lives inside.  Not much food growing inside at the moment, maybe that is a project for this weekend.  I did impulse buy a packet of spinach seeds at Target the other day...thinking that maybe I can plant them outside in a few weeks?

This is my aloe plant.

I bought it, as a 2 inch tall, sickly, clearance item at home depot for about $1.  He has outgrown several pots and is well on his way to being sacrificed to the yard.  Although, since he is next to Liberty's kennel, occasionally Liberty helps by nibbling off branches.  Alice The Cat also likes to eat the aloe...maybe that is what makes her coat so silky.  Those are Mr. Ranch's ski racing gloves from high school by the way.  Yes, he does still wear them. Yes, they are held together with duct tape.  Yes, I have purchased many "replacement" pairs over the years.  Yes, he continues to wear the high school pair.

In the same category of rescued plants are these cacti and this ivy..both rescued from the clearance bin and dragged home--the cacti have actually outgrown their original containers and had to be replanted into the larger pot.  The pink flowered plant was a birthday present from the family.  I noticed after I took these pictures that the cacti are blooming--you can't see it in this picture, but they have pretty little yellow flowers now!

This container of dirt is actually cilantro...really.  I just planted it this week.  Last winter I had a decent crop, but when I harvested it realized how little there really was...but a nice addition to a bowl of guacamole in any case.

Then, we have this mysterious plant.  It is supposed to be a Christmas snowball plant, or something like that.  The first year I had it there were gorgeous (smelly) flowers.  Every year since then the green part has grown, but not flowers.  This year I wasn't sure that I would even get greenery, since it didn't even start to sprout until after Christmas.  We'll have to wait and see what happens, I guess.



And finally is my little pine tree...he was on sale at the grocery store right before Christmas, complete with little Christmas bulbs and a little star on the top.  We used to have a slightly bigger tree of the same kind, but Tigger kept using it as a litter box.  I'm hoping this one survives better on the counter. Tigger, you better stay away from this one or you might not survive to write another Christmas letter.  Seriously.

It's a good thing that we aren't really homesteaders...

because these are the last of the carrots from the garden!

Luckily we still have lots of pickled things.  And a smudge on the camera lens.

Saturday morning check in

Yes, I know this is posting on Sunday morning, but I'm writing it on Saturday, so there.

Originally I was going to call this "Teachers in Tights" (see the next paragraph) but then I decided to write a brain dump instead.

This spring our faculty is putting on a parallel musical to the one the kids are doing.  We are doing "Once Upon a Mattress", which I feel like I've seen, but don't recall a lot about.  I started watching this on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfHDRIYtAxM and then didn't finish, so I'll get back to you on that.  I'll be one of those characters in the background...not a major character.  I'm sure I'll have some exciting stories about participating in this event...stay tuned. We had our first read through on Friday and it went well--there are lots of talented folks at my school.  I sat with the choir director and one of our tech guys, as well as my good friend who retired last year and came back just to sing with us.  We all had a lovely time humming along to the "chorus" parts and laughing at the main actors lines.  Should be a good show.  For those of you who are local (or who have a driving desire to see me in a high school play), I'll make sure you get details later.  I'll be the one in the back.

Mr. Ranch and the kids left at 5:30 this morning to go skiing.  They are going to one of the resorts where they eat lunch "on the mountain".  I got up about 5 to tell them to have a good day and The Boy had a melt-down because I wasn't coming with them (he better be growing, because these melt-downs are killing me...).  I said, "um...you guys eat lunch on the mountain and I usually fall asleep in the car...do you really just want to watch me sleep in the car? Really?"  He was eventually pacified by my statement that I'd go to the library and get him some more books.  Excellent.  So I went back to bed, intending to get up at 6 and walk...and hit my snooze 9 times...so I got up at 7, walked on the wii, broke up a couple dog fights, and now am enjoying some Starbucks Mocha coffee (on sale and $3 off coupon last weekend and Mr. Ranch hates it...so today, while he is gone, is a good day to brew it).

We potentially have a real offer on the townhouse... cross your fingers, say a prayer, whatever you are willing to do that it works out.  I am really tired of being a landlord...lately the tiny benefits have been outweighing the detriments.  We've had a couple of other offers in the last few weeks--I think two, both really low for what we want to sell for and low for the market, as well as asking for a lot of closing costs.  The townhouse two doors down from ours (which is nearly identical, except it has "new" counter tops) allegedly sold last week and the current offer on ours is very similar to their selling price.

My school finally had our annual holiday party yesterday.  Since we have finals after winter break, having a party before winter break is challenging--lots of folks live far enough away that we don't want to go back to the school neighborhood for an evening party and after 3 is tricky for those of us with kids.  Since last week was finals week we were able to start about 2 (students left at noon) and end by 4...taco bar followed by cake, some door prizes (I didn't win this time, but once I won a Santa night light and once an school t-shirt). The Ranch Children actually had a half day as well, so Mr. Ranch picked them up, took them to Jimmy John's for lunch and then let them watch the Great Muppet Caper while he got an oil change.  By the time I got home about 5, they had dealt with this year's Christmas tree, cut up last years for firewood, filled, run, emptied and filled the dishwasher and started dinner...whoo hoo!  Of course, I just found a machete on the patio table...weird...whatever. Maybe I should go to office parties more often.

 Thanks to all of you on Facebook who gave me ideas for future blogs...like I said though, some are a bit intellectual for me (after all, this is a blog about "nothing", right?) but there are a couple possibilities.

Hope you all have a lovely holiday weekend and that you get to sleep in for MLK day!

Maybe only funny if you're here?

This is Elmo.  I'm sure many of you recognize him. Sometime around the time he "jumped" into a pitcher of beer, we decided we better get a back up Elmo.  Unfortunately, we never found an identical friend, so we resigned ourselves to Elmo taking vacations to be bathed, stitched up, etc....and sincerely hoped that he never got lost...







Soooo...we thought we were so smart when The Boy's friend, Aardvark (whose brother is a Tiger) joined our family...Shortly afterwards we purchased (and hid) "Emergency Aardvark".  For a few years, Emergency Aardvark served his purpose well, filling in for Aardvark during many emergencies (including the time that Aardvark hid in the entertainment center, with his brother the Tiger and friend,Skyper, the tree kangaroo, for three months.  This morning, The Boy (who discovered the existence of Emergency Aardvark a few years ago), said, "Hey, Aardvark is filthy...where is Emergency Aardvark? Maybe Aardvark can take a bath!".
Well, here are the Aardvarks...can you tell the difference? (Notice Liberty's nose, she clearly thinks they smell differently...) Can you hear me laughing hysterically?

"Oh, yeah, they are TOTALLY identical"

 This was The Boy's reaction, by the way...

Blah...

There is definitely a full moon this week...during my English 9 class I had a student in tears because I wouldn't let him read his book.  He was supposed to be writing an essay for his final exam.  Egads.  He said he'd rather read his book.  I mean...I get wanting to read, but seriously?

Then tonight The Boy had a full on melt-down in the middle of our local music school...luckily it was not his night for a lesson, so we retired to the car.  After dinner, a shower, and an episode of Agents of Shield, The Boy seems glued back together....we'll see what happens with English 9 tomorrow when we finish the final...

Teacher retention, the January blahs, and all that...

Recently another experienced teacher and I were chatting with a teacher new to our building this year.  He was expressing his frustration with all the usual teacher frustrations--student behavior, parent behavior, administration actions.  We chatted about the ideas of planting seeds, of doing what we can do the very best we can, of taking time for ourselves to keep perspective, of choosing what battles we want to fight (with kids, parents, admin, our own families)...but I left wondering what else can be done in our crazy society that sometimes seems outright hostile to teachers.  The problems in schools don't go away after January, but there is something about this month that makes it all more unbearable.

I think this is a time of year when a lot of teachers struggle--when we question why we do what we do.  We are about half way through the year--past the fall, when the kids are (generally) on their good behavior, deep into grading essays late into the night, and seemingly far from graduation and all the celebrations that spring holds.

My first year of teaching someone gave me a chart that I wish I could put my hands on.  It had each month and then a tongue-in-cheek description of how a new teacher might be feeling.  Over the years, I've realized it is pretty accurate for how I feel every year.  August was something like "hopeful, idealistic, energized", May was something like "thankful, feelings of accomplishment, and tired".  And in the middle was January, described something like  "desperation, self-doubt, want to leave teaching".  Ouch.  And usually true for me...maybe not want to leave teaching...but many years I want to go to another school or go back to teaching social studies full time instead of special ed.  And some years I'm ready to quit and raise goats, run away and hide in Mexico...well you get the idea.

Compounding my "blahs" is the fact that one of my favorite team teachers ever is resigning at the end of this semester.  There are many reasons, which are hers to tell, not mine.  I'm happy for her, because she has some opportunities that will be great for her family...and I'm sad for our school, because I think there were things that administration, as well as us, her fellow teachers, could have done that might have helped us keep her with us a little longer.  It is the same phenomenon that we see in  all the time--that good teachers (great teachers!) leave the field because there is something they need that they aren't getting from our current system.  And worse, they sometimes leave the field sad and frustrated, being pushed out, rather than pulled out for something different or something that they really want to do.

I know I don't have the answers...there are lots of folks who think they do (just google "teacher burn out prevention").  There are lots of ideas out there.. but my hope and prayer is that we are all just a little kinder to each other--especially to the adults we expect to educate our kids--and especially during January. Spring is coming...we can do this!

Stupid toe

On New Year's Eve morning I managed to trip over a box of Victrola records in my room.  Yes, we have box of Victrola records in our room.  No, we don't own a Victrola.  We do own a record player though...but they don't work on it.  Initially I just said, "ow, ow, ow" and kept walking...then I thought, "uh, oh...that really hurt...I hope I didn't break my foot...d'oh".

When The Boy was about a year old we were rushing around the house getting ready to go to The Girl's January program and I stepped off the bed (I was standing on it, to put the attic ladder away, duh)....and broke my foot.  Yowsers...that hurt.  I was on crutches for a week until they put a walking boot on and then in a boot for 12 weeks.  I had to take it off to drive to school everyday...good times.

So anyway, back to late 2013...I took a look at my foot and decided that I had only broken the little toe on my right foot.  I actually broke the same toe in college--in almost the same way..well, there wasn't a box of Victrola records, but there was music.  In college I hobbled around and convinced various boys to give me piggy back rides...ah, the joy of being 19, right?  This time I taped up my foot, took three Advil, and stuffed my foot into my Uggs.  Mr. Ranch and The Girl were skiing so it was just The Boy and I.  I settled down in the living room with an ice pack on my toe, just in time to see The Boy pop a very large balloon...right by his eye.  So then both of us were sitting around with ice packs and neither of us had left the house..nice.  I had planned to run all kind of errands and run around those last few days of break..but maybe the broken toe was God's way of saying, "Sit down and read a book, or watch old episodes of Downton Abbey...but just sit".  The toe is much better today--still taping it every morning ,but it is much less purple and I no longer have the urge to scream every time I take a step, so that's progress, right? And several days of sitting, while not good for my walking regimen, did help me review all of last season's Downton before the new season started.  Yay!

Is there a moral here?  Well, maybe that we shouldn't buy Victrola records just because they are cool...and maybe breaks are for sitting and watching Downton...

What I read in December..

Despite having "Reader's block"...I still managed to read about 110 books in 2013...Granted, some were on CD in the car and a great number were "young adult" books...but comparable with 2012, when I read 121...I'm not going to go look up earlier years though, because I think I broke my little toe and I'm sitting in the kitchen with my foot elevated.  Grr.

Here's the December list and commentary:
1. Catching Fire-After we saw the movie I wanted to fill in some "blanks", so I read it (again...maybe the 4th time?).  Still a great read, entertaining, engaging, etc, etc etc...
2.  Five Days in November  Written by Jackie Kennedy's secret service agent.  Interesting book, includes lots of pictures and family stories.  It was more of a memoir than an analysis of the shooting--not very long, but interesting.
3. Maria Von Trapp: Beyond the Sound of Music  We watched the Carrie Underwood version of the sound of music and started talking about the real Von Trapps--I think this book was actually a biography for children, but it did fill in the gaps about the real story.  Quick and easy read.
4.  Mockingjay  I wasn't going to read it, because the 2nd half of it isn't my favorite of the series...but then I re-read the last chapter....and then I re-read the beginning...and then I just read it again.
5.  Sleepwalk with Me  Hilarious book...a bit vulgar in places, but still very funny.  Written by Mike Birbiglia, who has a sleep disorder that causes him to act out his dreams (really).  He also covers his childhood and anything else that he thought would be funny.
6. Trojan Gold  Ah, here begins my mindless descent into Elizabeth Peter's world(s).  This is the 4th book in the Vicky Bliss series--one of my favorites, since Vicky searches all around Germany for a treasure and blames the Russians for hiding it (this was written before the USSR folded...).  It is based on a real lost treasure, which did turn up in a Russian museum in the early 90's...and it features a cameo by some Krampus like creatures.  If you google it, instead of using the link...beware, apparently there is also a Harlequin-like novel by the same name...the cover was a doosie...
7.  The Laughter of Dead Kings  The 6th (and last) Vicky Bliss novel--tried to tie the Vicky and Amelia novel series together.  Vicky, of course, solves another mystery and might actually live happily ever after this time since the author passed away last August and I haven't heard of any "unfinished manuscripts" involving Vicky...the book's happy ending might "stick" this time.
8.  Tomb of the Golden Bird The last of the Amelia Peabody books, chronologically.  The author wrote A River in the Sky after she wrote Bird, but it is set earlier.  This book (I think) was designed to be the end to the series, as it also seems to leave the main characters living happily ever after.
9.  So then I decided that I should start at the beginning of the Amelia series... so, Crocodile on the Sandbank it was...This book starts with a young woman in the 1880's who has a small inheritance, travels to Egypt and solves mysteries...Most people either love the series or hate it...if you love it, you'll enjoy the rest of the series...and if you're nice and promise to return them, I might even loan you my copies (might...).  I did start The Curse of the Pharaohs,(book 2) but I don't think I'll finish it by midnight..so it will go on January's list :)
10, 11, 12, 13....The 39 Clues, books 6 ,7, 8, and 9  We are continuing to listen to these in the car...the good news/bad news is that there are two more series after this...Amy and Dan, the heroes of our story, haven't found all the clues yet, but are almost there!  Or not...since there appear to be 2 more books in this series, then 6 in the next and apparently 4 written in the 3rd series.  Hmmm.
14.  Then, as mentioned in my Jan 1 blog, I finished the Daily Bible.  So I don't know if that counts as one book or a bunch or if it counts, since it took a year...but anyway, I finished it...

So on to 2014 books....Happy New Year (again)!

And the total is...

The total number of books I read or listened to in 2013, that is..the total is 110. Yay, me?

I started keeping track in July 2003 for a lot of reasons--one reason being that I have trouble remembering the titles and authors of books.  I recently gave one of my co-teachers a hard time when our pop-quiz of the day consisted of two questions--1.  What is the title of the book you are reading?  and 2.  Who is the author?  At the time I was reading one of the horrible vampire books and had no clue what the name of it was or what the author's names are...I told him I would fail that quiz..I could tell about the plot, character, setting, similarities to other books (not their title or author though)...but couldn't recall title and author...

The first year I kept track only from July to December 31. I read 64 books--impressive, but I only had one child and one dog (still two cats, but they tend to be helpful towards reading, rather than destructive, right?).
 I ended 2013 by reading Crocodile on the Sandbank...and it was the first book I read in 2004. I ended that year by reading Vanish with the Rose to a 3 week old Boy...I only read 85 books that year...an average of 7 a month (ooh, statistics!).

I read 95 books in 2005...some to The Boy, since he was young enough not to argue.  Several Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters (easy reading, I'm telling you) and a few Dean Koontz.  I don't think I read those to The Boy though...

In 2006 my book club tried to expand our horizons and read several contemporary popular books, as well as a few "classics", like Madame Bovary.  I don't think I was appropriately scandalized.  That year The Girl started kindergarten and we buddy read many in The Littles Series, so that "upped my count" a little, but ending with "only" 81 books read that year.

The last Harry Potter book was published in 2007...so to get ready I re-read the whole series...that year I finished 103 books, including those Harry Potter and again a lot of buddy read books.

It looks like in 2008 I read (or re-read?) the Twilight books--ending the year by finishing 91 books.

I think that it was in 2009 the kids and I started listening to books on CD in the car.  We had listened to some before, on long trips, but this was the year after we moved and increased our commute...so that boots my reading a bit. I couldn't read to them while driving...but I could pop in a CD...we listened to all the Harry Potter books...despite the "warning" on the label saying that they were designed for kids ages 9 and up.  Oh, well.  Even with that "boost" I read only 63 books that year-- but it looks like there were a lot of new (to me books).  And those Harry books are long!

In 2010, I read 87 books, including A Girl of the Limberlost, just because I found it free on Kindle.

2011 was a "big" year--I read 118 books.  I think I joined a 2nd  book club that year though, so it pushed me a bit, right? I also read several on my Kindle while the family skied.  I would go up to the mountain with them, have breakfast, then read and drink coffee until lunch.  Sometimes one of the kids would stay with me for awhile while the other had a couple runs with Dad and sometimes I would spend the afternoon reading if no one stayed with me.

In 2012 I had to start a new notebook--the original was full!  For some of the same reasons as 2011, I read 121 books that year...now I feel like I didn't read enough last year.  We'll go with I'm reading books with more substance. Let's see what this year holds...

A Snowy day

Written on Saturday 1/4/13


Mr Ranch and the kids were going to get up early this morning and go up to Vail and ski, but when he checked his road alerts at 5 am it said that conditions were deteriorating and that I-70 was closed west of Vail.  He didn't really want to spend a huge amount of travel time in the car with a very sleepy Girl and a slightly grumpy Boy...so they all slept in.  Needless to say, this has derailed my plans to "do nothing" and "maybe go to Savers".  I did do a couple more loads of laundry, as planned, then loaded, ran, unloaded (and repeat) the dishwasher a couple times.

The predicted "dusting" of snow appears to be about 8 inches, the last time I looked.  The kids have been out, not to the sledding hill yet, because they can still see grass on it, but to the backyard and to the park across the street.
And the dogs have been out...and in...and out...and in...







The Boy entertained himself for about an hour just in the backyard.
 At one point Mr. Ranch looked out and wondered where The Boy had gone--turns out he was hiding behind that pile of debris in the side yard.

Other than playing in the snow, we introduced The Boy to "Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail".  He was slightly entertained--we were glad that he seems to have missed a couple lines that we'd forgotten about.

The Girl has spent the day napping, except for a few minutes of playing with her brother in the yard.  Apparently New Year's followed by a "sleep" over has worn her out...as Mr Ranch put it, "skiing with an exhausted pre-teen might not have been much fun after all".



Alice the Cat, of course, is keeping busy...after stalking Tony the Fish for a couple hours she swarmed up the curtains (leaving another trail of puncture marks) to hang out and stalk all of us.

I should work on taking down the rest of the Christmas decorations...but since Christmas isn't over until Monday, there's no hurry, right?  I did take the ornaments off the tree--so really that only leaves some lights, the stockings and holders, and the nativity sets (and the nativity sets actually all live inside, so they are fairly easy to put away, not too much box schlepping...)

The Boy and I also made cookies (don't tell anyone, but they were scoop from the tub and bake) and cornbread muffins to go with Mr. Ranch's chili contribution.

It looks like a I have a few more minutes until dinner, so I think I will return to my Elizabeth Peter's  fiesta (I'm up to #4, Lion in the Valley).  Stay warm, especially all of you headed back to school Monday!

Reader's block?

I guess I'm in a bit of funk when it comes to reading....in the last week I've picked up and put down without reading:  A biography of Pope Francis, Wally Lamb's new book, Parenting Teens with Love and Logic, and a book on Castle Rock History.  I have read several Elizabeth Peter's books though--seriously out of order, of course, but kind of like visiting old friends.  Tomb of the Golden Bird, Crocodile on the Sandbank, Trojon Gold, and Laughter of Dead Kings are the most recent on the reading list--just started Crocodile actually.  I can't decide if I don't want to think, so I'm reverting to books that I "already know what is going to happen" or if it truly is a case of "I can't find anything good to read".  Hmm.  Might have to visit the library and see what I can find.  Or just keep reading Elizabeth Peters...whatever, once I go back to school I probably won't read much other than essays anyway!  Happy New Year!

I finished!

Since I was about The Boy's age I've had the goal (on and off) to read the entire Bible.  I've made good starts before...making it a good way through the Old Testament or the New (depending on where I started) before stopping for various reasons.
Last year about this time, Mr. Ranch's dad asked a bunch of us family members if we would be interested in a copy of the Guideposts Daily Bible--it is set up with a reading for each day--The Daily Bible, for sale on Amazon  I said, "sure, I'll try it"...and it has worked out well!  I have to be honest, there were a few days I didn't read the assigned day--in fact, I started reading on about January 7 and spent the first few weeks playing catch-up.  It includes explanations and information about each book of the Bible...not a bad way to read the entire Bible!  Now I have to find a daily reading for 2014...hmmm...