Bloggy Stuff

So I've been tinkering around with a new blog since, well let's face it, I am no longer a New Yorker. I need all your help. Will you check it out and give me any feedback?

A Library of My Own

I always love constructive criticism.  I'm still working on it so take that into account.  Also, if you have a blog of your own, do you have any tips or thoughts of what works well for your blog?  If you are a reader of blogs, what do you like to see?

Kentucky Home

I took a couple pictures of our new home with my husband's phone. We're still in the process of moving it all in, getting a new bed, and looking for a new couch and all that fun stuff.

The pups are enjoying their new home too. Here's Charlie Dog on the back porch.

Born to Read

Hello all!

Well, I am on the last leg of our trip and should be back in Kentucky the first of May. We are enjoying visiting with my husband's family in Texas and letting the puppies swim in the nearby lake.

Speaking of families, my lovely aunt sent me this photo of me and my older brother. I thought I'd share since it looks like I've always loved reading. Do you all have fond memories of reading when you were a child?

From the Road...

Hello all!

I'm just popping in to say hello from the road. My husband and I have driven from Kentucky to Texas. Our goal: to see some beautiful National Parks, take pictures, relax, and camp. So far we've been to Guadalupe N.P., Carlsbad Cavern N.P., Big Bend N.P. and are heading out to see a band play at a Texas dance hall.

We've been listening to some fun books on CD while we drive. We finished a funny detective story by Jasper Fforde called The Big Over Easy.We're currently listening to The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss.
Sporadically I'm reading the new Brunonia Barry novel The Map of True Places. I just love her writing.Here's my husband and I in Carlsbad Cavern which is in southern New Mexico. A very cool place if you've never been. And no...I did not see any bats. Phew.


I should be back and close to regular scheduled postings in May. Thank you to all my loyal readers for sticking around while I've been M.I.A.!

Hello from Kentucky - And a Winner!

Hello everyone!

Sorry I've been a bit lax in my posts lately. Right now I am sitting on a friend's porch in the sun, cows are next door mooing away, dogs are on long leashes staring at the cows, and I'm enjoying a nice cup of coffee. Quite different from the New York City life.

After doing a bit of searching, it looks like we found a place to rent for a while and will be moving in May 1st. I can't wait to show you all photos of our new place. Hint: There is a fireplace and a tree growing in the middle of the porch. Too cool.

What am I reading? It's been slow but steady and I'm loving this book called The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno. It takes place in New York City in Barnum's (yep, the circus Barnum) Museum. Bartholomew is "the world's skinniest man" and his friends are all other other interesting characters living and working in the museum. It comes out this summer.
But my main news is to finally tell you all (or ya'll) the winner of the book Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein.

Without further ado, the winner is:

Margie

Congratulations!! I'll send you an email right now for your snail mail address.

Thanks everyone for entering! I have a couple more giveaways lined up and will be posting some fun Kentucky pictures (including one of Charlie Dog barking at the cows).

That's How I Blog

I have something really cool going on tonight. Nicole from Linus's Blanket is going to be interviewing me for That's How I Blog, an on air show where we talk and anyone can participate as well. The show is tonight, February 23rd, at 9:00PM EST. Here is the link for you to call in to participate. How exciting! (Side note: I am a bit terrified of public speaking so come and help me out!)

I've been meaning to post this earlier so you'd have extra notice but I've been a pretty bad blogger lately so I apologize. But, lots of cool things are going on so you might want to check out the show.

For instance, we'll be discussing a book we are reading by Dan Simmons called Black Hills about a Sioux named Paha Sapa (Black Hills) and the ghost of Custer. So far I am really enjoying this book, although I haven't finished it yet. Eek! I read and reviewed his book The Terror and loved it.

Also, I have big big news that is going to be affecting my blog. You'll be the first to hear about it!

Go check out the That's How I Blog website and see the schedule! You can always hear the recordings of past shows.

Quick questions:

Is there anything you would like me to discuss? If so, email Nicole at nicole [at] linussblanket [dot] com.

Have you listened or participated in any of the past shows? If so, what did you like or dislike?

Learning Patience in 2010

There a ton of pictures and posts I've been meaning to do but our Internet service is mysteriously down in our apartment. Time Warner...why do you hate us!?!? Just kidding...it's probably something silly like pressing an "on" button or plugging something in. Until then, here's a couple pictures of my snow bunny-dog.



**Disclaimer: Photos were taken a few years ago in Southern Utah (Brianhead). We've gotten some snow here in New York but not THAT much!

Fun NYC Apartment

While I was writing my review of How to Save Your Own Life, I mentioned that my lovely apartment is currently having a HUGE mold problem which is driving my allergies, asthma, and eczema crazy...for like a year! We knew there was a leak over above our apartment which was supposedly fixed, but it wasn't until I moved our Christmas tree box from the closet that I knew something was awry.

Exhibit 1
The leak in our bathroom. The super kindly offered to fix it by painting the wall. I think that's how 99% of NYC apartment problems are fixed...just shellac over it with a huge coat of latex paint.

Exhibit 2
The culprit which was hidden by our tall Christmas tree box. The box actually stuck to the wall. So gross.

Exhibit 3

Robb got a mold test kit from Home Depot. This was just left sitting open in our living room for a bit and then closed. A few days later....even more disgustingly gross. I can't believe we are breathing and living in this air!!

Well, at least I've learned some lessons:

1) Super's don't really ALWAYS know what they are doing.
2) My allergist is HORRIBLE. (My derm doctors plain just told me they didn't know. Helpful.) I asked a YEAR ago if my problems could be due to mold and she told me no...it's probably a food allergy. Uh huh. After eliminating most food, living off chicken and rice and my problems got way worse...I Googled allergy symptoms of mold and Ta Da!!
3) Go with my gut. I thought it was mold and was talked out of it. While there are some amazing doctors out there, many are still just in it for the money. Thousands of dollars later, I have learned this important lesson.
4) My body doesn't just plain hate me, which is what I was starting to think. A new year and moving on to being healthy and happy.

Memories are made of these

Yep, we went camping again this year for Thanksgiving and had a ball. Per usual, I had our yearly family photo taken.

Obviously this isn't the one going on the cards, but my sister says it's the one that suits us the best. I'm not sure that's a compliment ;)

Street where I live

Last Saturday during Dewey's Read-a-thon I realized that I had a package to pick up at the Post Office (check out the blog post from The Streets Where We Live for great photos of that post office). So I grabbed the umbrella, put on my iPod to listen to Gourmet Rhapsody, and trekked off.

On my way home I thought I'd take a couple photos with my phone of my street with the fall rain.

Here's looking South...

Here's looking North...


And here's looking down...
It's dumping rain today so I thought these photos were appropriate for a rainy fall day.

2nd Anniversary

Today is Robb and my second wedding anniversary. Woohoo! I can't believe it's already been two years. Although we have gone through a ton of stuff since then...you know, a whole move to New York thing.

Robb is an amazing, wonderful, and thoughtful husband. I fall in love with him more and more each year. And he makes me laugh. :)

For our First Anniversary, we took the weekend off and went to a relaxing cabin in the Catskills. This year we are a bit more broke since Robb just got back from a fishing trip in Florida with the guys and I'm going to London with my sister next month. So we're just doing dinner and a movie tonight and are just going to enjoy each other's company this weekend.

Random Me

A short while back my husband decided he was going to sign up for Twitter. This just cracked me up coming from a guy who hates any social site such as Facebook, MySpace, etc. So he had me join too. You can follow me here.

I do have to warn you that I'm really not that good at it yet. It's been pretty boring here recently because all it's been doing is rain rain...and then more rain. And I'm horrible at keeping my phone charged...or using it. But it is nice to sometimes take pictures with my phone. Here's just a couple random ones:

A view from the office one rainy morning. Yes...it was around eight o'clock in the morning and this is what it looked like...sigh:
And the biggest city rat I've seen so far, taken just up the block from my work:
The view from our seat at our local Shakespeare in the Park...Merchant of Venice was showing (they asked to not take photos of the actual play):
The margaritas we had at Blockheads Burritos (try with delicious stuffed quesadillas) before the Pink Martini show at Carnegie Hall:Do you use Twitter? If so, why did you join?

Last Exam Day

A few days ago I celebrated taking my last final exam for my degree-- hopefully last exam EVER.  I just have to complete some hands on work this summer and I'll get my degree in August. Woohoo!!

My husband was too sweet and celebrated by getting me some flowers and cooking dinner.  He even let me pick the movie to watch (I made him watch a girly movie) and he stayed awake through the whole thing. That's love right there.

Anyway, we also celebrated by opening a bottle of wine we got when we were in Texas. It was delicious. 

Sisters

While writing about the book Practical Magic, I kept thinking about my sister...for obvious reasons. I think that we both related to the sisters in Practical Magic. But I'm sure we'd debate who is who.

My big sis and me:

I'm Back!

Yay! I'm back!

My husband and I spent a long weekend back in Las Vegas for a little vacation and to be in our friends' wedding. The groom was an old co-worker of Robb's back when we lived in Vegas. And I became friends with his girlfriend so we were both in the wedding. How cool is that! We somehow crammed bachelorette/bachelor parties, rehearsal dinners, the wedding, all into a few short days. I don't have any photos of the actual wedding yet, but here's some of our little slice of vacation.

Can you tell where we stayed? I was so excited when my husband told me. Here's the view from the pool:
And just a random pool shot. I didn't want to be too creepy and photo people sunbathing :)
And they made the best bloody mary's. I asked for extra olives and got SIX! Yum!
I'll post more photos when I get them. Now I'm on to catch up on some blog reading. :)

See you in a few days!

I am taking just a few days off for a little weekend vacation. I will definitely have pictures and posts when I get back. Oh...and a few pictures from last weekend and our jaunt around Manhattan. Hopefully I'll get a few books read as well!  AND...I'll have a fun little giveaway with three book packages.  So stick around!  

How Evil?

What can I say, it's a slow day at work.

Thanks Amy at Passages to the Past for giving me something to do!



Raw evil score: 62.22%Hehehe...I like the evil smiley face.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope everyone has a happy St. Patrick's Day!

My husband and I will probably have one or two of these tonight:

Our first date was over a pint of Guinness so it brings back memories.

We even celebrated our wedding with Guinness:
And there's tons of great little Irish pubs in the city:I thought this one of Robb was pretty cool. Very old-timey feel:
Here's where I blogged about one of our favorite Irish pubs:
And here's where I've blogged about the Irish Hunger Memorial down near Battery Park.
And I'm currently reading a great novel by Irish author Tana French called The Likeness. It's sort of a stand alone sequel to In the Woods. LOVED that book. And I don't know about you, but from all the great reviews I've been reading, I NEED to read Galway Bay.

Check out NYPL's article Beyond Shamrocks for other interesting St. Patrick's Day stuff.

And just because, here's a video of one of my favorite bands, The Pogues. Enjoy!

Egypt - Post One

So I'm finally getting around to posting some of our photos from our trip to Egypt. If you've been following this blog, you'll know that my husband and I went to Egypt for our belated honeymoon trip this past November. It was the perfect weather and time for Egypt. Mid seventies and not very many tourists. We had only booked the first four nights at the hotel in Sharm el Sheikh and the rest we played by ear. I'll be posting these pictures in increments. I hope you enjoy them :)

I came up with the idea to go to Egypt because while riding the subway one morning and reading the ads, I noticed that Delta just opened a direct flight from JFK to Cairo.


We took the overnight flight from JFK and this is us flying over Cairo. Yeah. It was huge. Think about this: NYC has 1,104 people per square kilometer while Cairo has 9,031 (via Wikipedia). Yeah. NYC really felt deserted after Cairo. And yes...that is a ton of smog:

But I'll come back to Cairo. We flew into the airport and then took an Egypt Air flight to Sharm el Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula. (Quick note: we found out once we went there that the Sinai Peninsula is considered part of Asia. And because of it's turbulent history, you don't need a visa to go to Sharm or other resorts, but if you travel on to other parts of Egypt you will need one.) I've lived in different areas of Nevada so I thought I knew what "desert" meant. I had no clue. This is the Sinai Peninsula from the air:

From the airport at Sharm we had to figure out how to get a taxi to the hotel. There really isn't much information. If you go, look out for the black and white cars...they are the taxis and you have to go searching for them. We got a hired car which cost a little more but we learned :) The driver was nice and swung us by a very cool green mosque that I had seen from the road.We stayed at the Hilton Waterfalls and our view was gorgeous. Here's the view from our room's balcony that night:
And the next morning we could see the pools and the Red Sea in the background. Beautiful.And here's views of the hotel grounds as we made our way down to the pools and the Red Sea.

Here's Robb (he said I can use his name instead of "my husband") testing out the Red Sea. It was so clear you could see the colorful fish swimming around:Here's the resort's beach:And this is me chilling with a good book:
I loved seeing the oddness of resort life which is definitely not anything like traditional Egyptian culture:I did get to go snorkeling for the first time. And this was a perfect place to do it. The reef dropped off sharp, I literally gasped which isn't a good thing when you are snorkeling :)
And here's us after snorkeling:
Hope you enjoyed this post. My next Egypt post will take us to the souks of Sharm el Sheikh and to the top of Mt. Sinai.