The lighter side of ...

I don't have anything new to write about, but I left my blog on such a sad note that I wanted to cover my last post up. So I thought I'd write a little bit of this and that to create a lighter post.

First up, BOOKS! If you really want to have an excuse to sit around and read A LOT, check out a really long book for a really short period of time from the library. This was the case with Bill Bryson's At Home, which I wrote about in this post. (Also in that post, I wrote about Women Food and God by Geneen Roth, which was an altogether waste of my time and I didn't finish.) So, I've been reading and reading and reading, and it has been awesome!

Next up, I have the following books:

• Warman's Fiesta Identification and Price Guide (y'all know I love Fiestaware, right?)
• Not Your Mother's Slow-Cooker Cookbook, which I want to actually buy and cook every recipe in. And they tell you how to adapt an oven recipe to a Crock Pot, which is just the coolest.
• Sleepwalk with Me by the hilarious comedian Mike Birbiglia
• A Short History of Nearly Everything, which is another Bill Bryson book, but this time I have 3 whole weeks to read it, with the option of renewing it for another 3

Obviously the last two are the only books that really require reading every word, so the book list is not as overwhelming as it looks. I was overwhelmed with books in the last few weeks, when I had put several on hold at the library and they all came in at once. I ended up giving a couple back without reading them, so nobody tell me that Fly Away Home or The Forgotten Garden was a life-changing book.

Also has anybody read Room? I'm thinking about getting that for my Kindle. The Kindle is cool by the way, because you know how I complain a lot about books with tiny print and single spacing? With the Kindle you can change the font/size/spacing however you want. (The funny thing is that I don't dislike the tiny font and single-spacing because my vision is bad. I just feel more accomplished when I can turn the pages more quickly.)

In other news, I have a new strategy with my running. I'm going to just run until I'm tired, then walk until I catch my breath, then run some more ... and repeat until I get to 5K. That's my philosophy based on my extensive knowledge of exercise science. The 5K is November 6, and that will be the beginning and end of my competitive running career. (Is competitive even the right word for it? I mean, it's not as though I'm competing against anybody else, at least not in the sense that I would actually win. Maybe timed is a better word.)

Also I got a heart-rate monitor strap that you wear under your shirt, and it projects your heart rate onto the treadmills, bikes, and ellipticals at my gym. I really like this because even when I'm not feeling like I'm living up to the exercise standards of the class instructor, the Internet, or society in general, I can see that I'm keeping my heart rate in the target range for a prolonged period of time. So you can nag me all you want, Ms. Sandi You-Must-Never-Go-Below-65 RPMs, but I'm sending a signal direct from my heart that says I'm doing just fine. (P.S. Your musical choices for spin leave something to be desired.)

Three other bits of news:

1. I have a new blog in the works, but I can't unveil it until the banner is done. And then you all better go to it a million times a day, because otherwise I won't get paid. It hasn't been assigned a URL yet, or otherwise I'd be linking profusely.
   
2. I can't make a decent sourdough in my bread maker to save my life, though I enjoy eating all the failed attempts.
3. My completely sedentary, indoor cat caught a mouse in the basement! She is 7 years old, and it was her very first kill. I screamed a lot, and not because I was proud of her.
   

I'm looking forward to Halloween, especially the mini Snickers. I don't have a good picture of Nathan in his costume yet, but here's a picture of me as Raggedy-Ann when I was Nathan's age: