Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!

When I was younger, I thought of Chinese New Year more as “red envelope time!”, because my parents’ friends would give me red envelopes containing money as part of the New Year celebrations.

So I thought a picture of a red envelope would be a fitting accompaniment to this post!

It’s the Year of the Tiger. Were you born in the Year of the Tiger?

From Wikipedia:

People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the “Year Of The Tiger,” while also bearing the following elemental sign:

• 8 February 1902 – 28 January 1903: Water Tiger
• 26 January 1914 – 13 February 1915: Wood Tiger
• 13 February 1926 – 1 February 1927: Fire Tiger
• 31 January 1938 – 18 February 1939: Earth Tiger
• 17 February 1950 – 5 February 1951: Metal Tiger
• 5 February 1962 – 24 January 1963: Water Tiger
• 23 January 1974 – 10 February 1975: Wood Tiger
• 9 February 1986 – 28 January 1987: Fire Tiger
• 28 January 1998 – 15 February 1999: Earth Tiger
• 15 February 2010 – 2 February 2011: Metal Tiger

I was born in the Year of the Dragon. Coincidentally, I’m also a Leo. You’d think I’d be very dramatic and assertive, having been born with such auspicious signs, but I’m not. I’ve always wondered about that.

To celebrate the New Year, we’re headed out to meet up with my sister and her family, and my mom – we’ll be celebrating with Buddhist vegetarian food and then we’ll spend some of the evening walking around Toronto’s Chinatown.

It’s Valentine’s Day, too, of course, so happy Valentine’s Day to everyone as well!

Photo credit

It’s a tradition of mine, so I set aside some time this morning to think back over the past year.

What always astounds me is how many things happened that, on first acquaintance, seemed to be problems but turned out to be gifts in the end. This year has seen quite a few of these gifts, perhaps because I’ve been far more aware of this amazing ability of problems to turn into solutions.

It always feels right to me to give thanks on the last day of the old year, before turning my thoughts to the many wonderful things that the new year will bring. Looking back, there has been so much to appreciate; prominent among the gifts of the old year have been this blog, and all of you whom I’ve met virtually as a result of Ms. Bookish. Every comment, every email, every tweet – it’s all meant so much to me.

What I’ve discovered this year is that the world beyond my doorstep, beyond my own little nook of physical space, is filled with an abundance of kindred spirits – Anne Shirley would truly be in her element in today’s online world.

This morning, a poem slipped into my inbox, courtesy of the Panhala email list, and it was such a beautiful accompaniment to my own reflections:

As this year draws to its end,
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they became inlaid within
Where neither time nor tide can touch them.

…

We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.

- John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

I’d like to finish up this post with another special something that I received via email. Many of you have probably already seen this; I think it’s so appropriate to today, when we stand in that reflective gap between the old year and the new.

Because truly, all we need is love.

In … one breathtaking moment, musicians from 156 countries played “All You Need is Love” together. Watch now, as musicians from all around the world come together and share a song.

Happy new year, everyone!!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas for me is one of the most beautiful times of the year. I wish you all the very best for this holiday season: lots of fun, merry-making and love!

I moved on from reading Eye of the Crow to something completely different: French Milk, by Lucy Knisley is a memoir, written in graphic novel format, of a month-long holiday the author took with her mother in Paris, France.

I came across this novel when I was reading around the blogosphere (when I do this kind of surfing around, it’s extremely dangerous for my TBR list, which grows at an astronomical rate); I immediately put in a hold request for it from the library (I’m not sure whether my librarians actually like me all that much anymore, because I’m always putting things on hold).

This was a lovely, quick read; what I liked most about it were all the descriptions of the food that Knisley and her mother ate, accompanied by Knisley’s charming illustrations.

Interspersed throughout are black and white photographs from the trip; the photos are a nice accompaniment to Knisley’s drawings.

The preface to the book talks about the self-discoveries Knisley made during the trip, as well as similar revelations about her relationship with her mother, but I didn’t feel this to be the book’s strong point; it’s not so much about the author’s fully coming into adulthood while in Paris, as it is about all the wonderful sights and experiences she had while there. Her mother accompanied her, true, but I didn’t get much insight into their relationship. If anything, I got more of a feel for the author’s relationship with her father, who joined them for a few days of the trip.

French Milk is at its heart a wonderful and charming travel memoir – a fun, quick read that will leave you dreaming of leaving regular life behind for a few lovely weeks in Paris.

Want to buy French Milk? Support MsBookish by purchasing through one of these links: Amazon.com) | Indiebound | Chapters Indigo | Amazon.co.uk

It’s Tapas Night here tonight – which means I am, once again, cleaning house to get ready for the people who will be dropping by. Have you noticed I seem to do this fairly frequently?

My question is, why doesn’t the house stay clean in between get-togethers?

Anyway, I’m sitting here and procrastinating, like normal. Writing a blog post is far more fun than cleaning the bathroom, when you get right down to it.

(I’m also having that old internal debate about whether I should clean up my office or not – if I do, I will use the “sweep everything into a lot of cardboard boxes and hope for the best” (patent pending) approach.)

Tagging: Now I Get It!

I’ve been using a bookmarking service that I’ve been really loving: Diigo. They have an iPhone app, which means I can bookmark even when I’m away from my computer.

I’ve used different bookmarking services before, but part of the reason Diigo has really clicked for me is this video. I know – it’s funny how things “click” when you’re ready for it. I don’t think I really “got” the concept of tagging until I watched this video, which I found at Library Bytes.

And, with some lovely synchronicity, I also discovered Diigo at about the same time.

I anticipate that I will be sharing a lot more links with everyone as a result!

And Now, The Links

Dorte’s What’s in a Name reading list. For those of you in Beth Fish Read’s What’s in a Name reading challenge, Dorte has put together a great list of possible reads. I’d sign up for this challenge, but we all know how terrible I am at completing reading challenges!

Classic Books Every Kid Should Read. I loved this list of children’s classics – lots of my own best-loved books as a child are on here. It really makes you think about what makes a children’s book a true classic. And there are some titles here I haven’t read yet, so now I’ve added to my TBR pile as well! I found this one via @bookclubgirl on Twitter.

10 Literacy/Writing Tools This is a list for the classroom but there are some really good ideas in here for anyone interested in writing and literacy. And it’s not really a list of ten things – ten alternative tools are included too!

100 Holiday Crafts. I have only one word for this post – awesome. There are links to 100 different tutorials for creating holiday crafts. Just amazing. Now if I only had the time to try my hand at these!

And before I forget, here’s the latest from Muse in the Kitchen (and you can expect to see a bunch of appetizer posts going up after tonight’s Tapas Night!):

Scallop Ceviche – a great holiday appetizer that’s really simple to make.

Spinach and Yogurt Dip with Caramelized Onion – we served this up at last month’s open house dinner and it went over quite well.

Mussels and Clams with Lemongrass – this is a Thai version of steamed mussels and clams that’s very tasty.

The Best Chicken and Sweet Leek Pie with Flaky Pastry – chicken pie is the ultimate in comfort food, and this chicken pie is the best one I’ve ever tasted!

That’s it for this Saturday’s ramblings. Hey! I wasn’t all that long-winded today, was I? This untidy house is calling to me now to get things into ship-shape order now.

How’s your weekend shaping up?

What better thing to do on a lazy Saturday afternoon then doing some fun linking around (nope, I’m not out there battling other holiday shoppers – yet)? And it’s such holiday fun!

Holiday Card Exchange. Haley, at The Life (and Lies) of an Inanimate Flying Object is holding a Holiday Card swap. You fill out her form, and on the 10th she’ll send you an email with someone’s snail mail – you’ll get a surprise holiday card from someone, and you’ll get to send a surprise holiday card out. It’s a lovely idea – I’ve signed up!

Exchange cards with me! Speaking of which, I love sending and receiving holiday cards. If you’re a regular reader here, and would like to exchange holiday or Christmas cards with me, email me and we can exchange addresses!

Christmas on the iPhone. Are you an iPhone user? The AppventCalendar offers up an iPhone game a day up until December 22 – you only have 24 hours, though, to download that day’s game for free.

Handmade holiday giveway. The Handmade Holiday Gift Guide Giveaway: This is one amazing giveaway. A group of Etsy sellers have put together an incredible package of goodies from their various shops. Three winners will split the prize package. Last day to enter is January 6, and all you have to do is leave a comment telling “about one handmade gift that you are giving to someone this year. It doesn’t need to be handmade by you, but handmade by someone, not a big company.” Me? Ward and I are going to be trying our hand at food gifts this year – maybe even truffles!

And my own giveaway. Of course, there’s also my December giftaway. Enter now if you haven’t yet!

The Dewey Tree. Lisa, at OnlinePublicist, is hosting The Dewey Tree donation project. Lisa notes, “It’s a little bit The Giving Tree, a little bit Dewey, a little bit charity.” I’d love to participate, if I can find a Canadian charity that accepts book donations (our local library and all its branches doesn’t accept book donations, unfortunately). You can find a great list of places that accept book donations at the American Library Association’s list of book donation bookmarks at delicious.

Recycled Magazine Gift Bows. One of my favorite weekly links round-ups is Janel’s Jumblicious posts at Janel’s Jumble. It’s a great list of food and craft links and I always find something interesting there. In this Jumblicious post a while back, I discovered this great post on how to make a gift bow from a recycled magazine. I haven’t tried it yet, but I really hope I’ll be able to set an afternoon aside to have some fun with this. (It will also make me feel a tad better about my magazine addiction.)

What fun links have you discovered this week? Anything interesting for the holidays? I always love this time of year – people always post such fun holiday-related stuff!

Updates

I will keep coming back to update this post with my current word count. Doing updates here is the best way I know of keeping myself on track and getting those 13,413 words written.

Nov. 28, 4:14 pm:

Current total word count: 38,203 words. Required to complete NaNoWriMo:  11,797 words.

Nov. 29, 3:08 pm:

Current total word count: 39,971 words. Required to complete NaNoWriMo: 10,029 words.

Nov. 29, 6:05 pm:

Current total word count: 41,602 words. Required to complete NaNoWriMo: 8,398 words.

Nov. 29, 8:26 pm:

Current total word count: 42,877 words. Required to complete NaNoWriMo: 7,123 words.

Nov. 29, 10:02 pm:

Current total word count: 44,030 words. Required to complete NaNoWriMo: 5,970 words.

Nov 30, 12:47 am:

Current total word count: 47,110 words. Required to complete NaNoWriMo: 2,890 words.

I’m debating whether to stay up and finish, or go to bed and write more when I get up …

November 30 Final Update: I did it!

*************************************

I woke up today and realized there’s only three more days before the end of November – three more days to reach 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo.

After a glorious start, I find myself woefully behind. Right now I’m at 36,587 words. If I want to complete NaNoWriMo this year, I will need to write 13,413 words between now and the end of the day on Monday.

I’ve decided I’m going to do it. Things are so much clearer in my mind now that I’ve had my moment of bathtub inspiration. I just have to find the time to sit down and write.

With that in mind, I thought I’d go through the obstacles standing in my way and how I will master them:

Dojo Holiday Party

Tonight my husband’s dojo is holding it’s yearly holiday party. Because our house is too small, it’s usually held at one of my husband’s student’s houses, and this year is no exception.

So all I have to do is get myself ready for it. No need to clean up the house! It’s a potluck but Ward’s handling that end of things – he’s in the kitchen right now cooking up a storm. We’ll be bringing chicken pot pie and homemade lasagna (homemade, right down to the sheets of pasta – yes, he’s a brave man, my husband).

I, of course, won’t have to worry about any of that. I have three hours before we have to leave, and I’ve decided I’ll spend some of that time writing. So that’s one obstacle down.

By the way, you can see Ward in action in the dojo here. If you’re wondering which one he is, he’s the one wearing the black belt who’s ordering everyone else around. The video features the three martial arts he teaches (karate, aikido and jodo) and when you get to the aikido portion of the video, he’s the one wearing the long black skirt-like thing (a hakima – it’s actually a skort, not a skirt but it’s hard to tell) and throwing people around.

The Shoe Issue

I was worried I’d have to run out to the shoe store this afternoon and pick up some dressy sandals or pumps to go with the dress I’m wearing tonight. I don’t have much opportunity for wearing dressy shoes, and I was hunting through the front hall closet but couldn’t find anything appropriate.

Ward said something about how I’d only be wearing it to the house, where I’d be taking my shoes off at the door anyway, but as I told him, that’s not the point. One has to have decent shoes, regardless of whether anyone actually sees one in them or not.

Luckily, though, it occurred to me that this summer when I went to my cousin’s wedding reception in New York City, I wore a black dress and when I thought hard about it, I remembered I’d worn these gorgeous, strappy black sandals to go with them. Another moment’s thought, a rummage through my own closet, and I found them!

Another writing obstacle down.

The Deadline

I have an index due on Monday and at first this kind of threw me for a loop.

But then I had a thought. I have to face facts: until the day I become an NYT bestselling author, I will be dealing with non-writing, work-related deadlines. There’s really no way around it. That’s just the way it is.

So obviously, I will always be writing around my work deadlines. Why should NaNoWriMo be any different?

Tomorrow and Monday, I will write. And then I’ll work. And then I’ll write. And then I’ll work. And in that way, I’ll meet both my NaNoWriMo deadline and my work deadline.

Another obstacle down.

The Sunday International Book Giveaways List

I will, unfortunately, have to postpone this list until next Sunday. The good news is that next week’s list will be a nice long one. See? There’s always a silver lining.

Happy Halloween to everyone who celebrates Halloween! It looks very windy outside my office window right now – hopefully the wind will die down before all the trick-or-treaters hit the sidewalks tonight.

I’m feeling a little random today (have you noticed I get this way at least once a week?) So I thought I’d throw all my scattered bookish and non-bookish thoughts together into a post for today.

First, Some Halloween Pumpkin Awesomeness

Twilight fans, wouldn’t you just LOVE to have this New Moon pumpkin standing outside your front door? I’m rather partial to the Yoda pumpkin myself.

There are many more incredible pumpkin carvings here!

NaNoWriMo Starts TOMORROW!

Yes, that’s worth some caps. And I am so behind – I’d planned to get some work deadlines tucked away before November 1st, and now I have one day to get at least one finished (the best laid plans, and all that …).

And when it comes to my NaNoWriMo novel, well, let’s just say “unprepared” is the word that comes to mind. I don’t even know what the names of two of my three main characters are.

Luckily, Twitter came to my aid. This morning, I met @CarmenRenee, who sent me a link to this great article on succeeding with NaNoWriMo. I felt much calmer after reading the article. I might end up at the starting line calling my two characters Thing 1 and Thing 2, and you know what? I’m okay with that. Truly. If it gets me writing the approximately 1700 words I’m aiming for tomorrow, well, that works for me!

And Speaking of Twitter

I’ve decided that Twitter + #NaNoWriMo = Writers’ Watercooler/Cocktail Party/Awesome or What (take your pick). Writing my NaNoWriMo novel this year will not be an isolated experience, and I’m looking forward to taking part in the community feeling as I write (or after I write).

I have also been on Twitter much more now that I’m using Evernote. I hadn’t really been going on Twitter all that much when I was on my iPhone, mainly because one of the things I like most about Twitter are the links I come across, and it was just too frustrating for me to see a great link that would be useful for the future (I’m a link packrat), and have to get out of my Tweetdeck app and email the link to myself.

But now with Evernote, I just send a quick DM (direct message) to the special account Evernote has set up specifically for this kind of thing, and the tweet gets saved. So quick, so easy!

My Husband Has Become a Blogging Machine (Or, What I’ve Been Dining On This Week)

I mentioned recently that my husband has taken over blogging at our food blog, Muse in the Kitchen (after a year of persuading on my part, I might add). And he’s loving it! My job is to edit and format his posts (he insists he’s not a good writer, but he is. He just has his own style, that’s all) and add my two thoughts in at the end of each post.

Unlike me, Ward is not a procrastinator. And since he cooks at least one or two recipes five nights of the week (the other two nights he’s teaching classes at his dojo) he’s got a lot of blog posts in the works. Every time I log on, there are three or four new draft blog posts waiting for me to edit (at least, it seems that way!)

Here’s the latest good stuff we’ve been eating this week:

Spicy Spiral Bread: perfect for the lunchbox, and it’s got a great vegetarian bean filling!

Green Tea Cheesecake: this was an unusual and not-too-sweet dessert that we served at our dinner party last Saturday (the night of the Readathon)

Grilled Sesame Baby Bok Choy: one of the first recipes Ward created, this is our “go-to” dish when we want a quick and easy vegetable entrée

Asian Marinated Flank Steak: another go-to recipe of ours, Ward tinkered with a Martha Stewart recipe and came up with this delicious and very easy flank steak

Grilled Shark and Bakes: I wasn’t here for this one, which is actually the reason Ward made it (I don’t really like shark). I can vouch for the fact that the “bakes” (grilled) are delicious, though!

Comments and Commenting

I’ve been so busy doing things (well, thinking about doing things, I guess) to get ready for my very busy November that I haven’t had a chance to respond to comments here, or to go visiting all the wonderful blogs in my Google Reader.

So I just wanted to end with a huge thank you to every one of you who’ve stopped by this week to read my ramblings! You’re what makes all this blogging stuff fun!

What are you up to this Halloween? And how’s your November shaping up? If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, are you raring to go, or feeling unprepared?

It’s funny how a month can go by, just like that – and before you know it, the new month is literally just a handful of days away.

So, much like I realized yesterday that NaNoWriMo is nearly here, this morning I sat down and entered in all my latest work deadlines. October has been a very slow work month for me, which was a little bit unusual because between now and February is normally my “busy season”.

So last week I sent out an email to a wonderful client of mine, and she let all her colleagues know that I had time available.

And now my November is crazy busy. And yes, it’s also the month I’m going to write a 50K novel.

But I figure, no worries. My main problem has always been procrastination. So, surely, the answer to the dilemma is, quite simply, forego the pleasures of procrastinating between now and November 30.

(Because, no doubt about it, procrastination is pleasurable. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t indulge in it so much. Right?)

Plus a boatload of deep breathing and relaxation exercises might come in handy.

I’m also trying not to think about Christmas, my favorite time of the year. December’s looking nice and slow right now, so I expect to have time to do all the holiday things I love in December. It’s okay that I can’t get a start on things in November. Really. It’s okay …

What about you? How’s your November shaping up? And, for those of you who celebrate Christmas, when do you get a start on all your holiday shopping?

We had the most delightful Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday; Ward brined and roasted a turkey (the very first time I’ve had a brined turkey), and because our daughter is vegetarian, he also made two kinds of stuffing (vegetarian and regular) and two kinds of gravy (vegetarian and turkey).

Accompanying these Thanksgiving essentials were French onion soup, garlic and chive mashed potatoes, sautéed Swiss chard with shitake mushrooms and homemade multi-grain dinner rolls. He also prepared an amuse bouche of asparagus mousse and crab-stuffed mushrooms as appetizers. (This is what happens when my husband takes charge of the menu. I usually pick the recipes, and I’m normally far more restrained in my choices.)

We also had family over, and while Ward slaved away in the kitchen cooked our Thanksgiving feast, the rest of us played Rock Band, the Beatles version, in the sitting room.

Since our kitchen is separated from the sitting room by an open counter, Ward joined in occasionally, so not to worry – he definitely wasn’t left out of events. I have to say one thing, though – when you actually read some of the lyrics for the more psychedelic-sounding songs, you’ve got to wonder exactly what the Fab Four were up to when they came up with the words. Just saying.

For dessert, Ward baked TWO kinds of pumpkin pies: one with spiced rum, the other with scotch. They were both really incredible, but the Jamaican spiced rum one won the taste test by a smidgen:

Eventually I’ll get around to writing up the recipes at our food blog (I’m trying to encourage Ward to take over posting there, as I’m not doing a very good job of it, I’m afraid – I’m promising that I will edit as he doesn’t trust his writing skills).

Update: My husband’s started blogging about his cooking! For those of you who are interested, here’s his post about pumpkin pies, including the recipes he used.

So all went well and fine for Thanksgiving. We had such a good time, and then after everyone left and we finished cleaning up the kitchen, we watched Dirty Dancing and both of us cried a little.

But then on Sunday, we got ready to go on a little outing to this steam train event (our little one, Dylan, is crazy about trains) – and we both got hit with a head cold thing. It snuck up on us, little by little, but by the time we were in the van ready to start the hour-long drive into the country to see the steam trains, we were both very stuffed up and not feeling particularly adventurous at all. So we came home instead, as the event will also be running this coming Sunday.

This head cold has been quite persistent. It’s Wednesday now and I think I’ve finally shaken it.

On the bright side (there always is one, of course), I got to lounge around on Sunday and Monday reading The Likeness in my special reading chair, all wrapped up in a warm fleece blanket, and on Tuesday, when the head cold really hit me hard, I spent the day in bed listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

And that’s what’s been happening around here: a Thanksgiving feast, Beatles’ psychedelic lyrics and a head cold!

I should be back to regular posting tomorrow …

Several of you have mentioned you would like to see more of our summer vacation photos (well, okay, two people vaguely said something about this in passing). We took 100s of photos while on holidays, most of which feature much the same elements: sand, surf and blue skies. So I thought it would be far more fun to show you “our summer vacation video”. Technically, I can call it “our summer vacation video” because my daughter Hayley and her friend Heather filmed it on location at the beautiful oceanfront cottage in Nova Scotia where we stayed during our holidays.

Trust me, this is a lot more interesting than any video Ward or I would have taken: it’s got a plot, some funny bits and a fight scene at the end. What more could one ask for? And a bonus: you can even see the Atlantic Ocean in the background. Enjoy!

Today’s word count: 2,409 words

NANTUCKET total word count: 69,816 words

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Day 4 of my goal to make my writing a priority. Yes, I worked on NANTUCKET before I blogged or worked on my paying deadlines. And yes, it feels good, as I type this post this before I go to bed, knowing my writing is already done for the day. It felt good most of the day, actually.

I think I might have a little bit of a problem here, though. Yesterday, I posted that I am falling a bit behind on my work deadlines.

Well, I was supposed to be working on an assignment today. And no, I didn’t. At all.

I think, though, that this is more a post-holiday ennui thing, and has nothing to do with making my writing a priority. I mean, it’s only an hour that I spend writing. I have all those other hours (well, minus time spent on things I have to do, like email, Twitter, eating, family time, writing blog posts) in which to do my work.

I always have a tough time slipping back into work mode when I get back from holidays. After two lovely weeks with no work and no deadlines, it can be difficult buckling down and getting back to work.

The really lovely thing, of course, is that obviously neither writing or blogging feel like work to me. There was a time when I wasn’t so sure about the writing, at least. Now I know. Despite the fact that I didn’t write during my two weeks of holidays, I’ve had no problem slipping right back into writing.

I’m really pleased about that. I must admit, though, that I did wonder if I’d blown my newly write-every-day habit.

I’m back! And of course, feeling rather like I could use a little break. Isn’t it funny how that works?

I had a grand time in Nova Scotia, and it was fun blogging about it occasionally. Thank you to everyone for your comments – I can’t tell you how lovely it was to hear from each of you. It was almost like you came with me on holidays.

The air conditioning people have just left; our new air conditioning unit is now installed! Our old air conditioner died on us when we turned it on for the first time this year about a week before we left on holidays. We had to endure a bit of a heat wave during that week; it wasn’t very pleasant, so it’s so nice to know that we’re prepared again for whatever temperatures summer might bring us.

Traveling with Audiobooks

Audiobooks made our 19-hour drive back from Nova Scotia (spread over two days) a rather fun event. While we were away, my husband had picked up a small battery-operated iPod dock. So, while the kids were engrossed in their movies on their portable DVD players, we listened to Bill Bryson’s I’m a Stranger Here Myself (Notes from a Big Country) together.

We could only listen for a couple of hours at a time, though; my face would start to hurt some time around the two-hour mark, probably because of the giant grin I wore more or less the entire time. This is a very funny book, and a perfect choice for audio.

We also listened to several BBC Radio productions of Agatha Christie mysteries: Hercule Poirot in Death on the Nile, Miss Marple in A Murder is Announced and then Poirot again in Five Little Pigs. These dramatizations are perfect for a road trip, as they are well acted mysteries each about two hours long.

I would have liked to listen to Janet Evanovich’s Finger Lickin’ Fifteen during the drive, but that had to be done through headphones (the language not being appropriate for certain little ears) and it was much more fun sharing the audio experience with my husband during the drive.

I did, however, start Finger Lickin’ Fifteen last night, and so far it’s off to a good start; I must admit, though, these days I enjoy the series only in audio. Lorelei King is a suberb narrator, and her reading of the Stephanie Plum series has made the more recent books fun for me again.

My husband enjoyed the audiobooks so much, he started listening to Tilt-A-Whirl by Chris Grabenstein at the hotel we stayed at part-way through our trip home. The audio version is read by Jeff Woodman, who is a very good narrator (he does such great voices, and even his female voices sound, well, like women).

This Week at Ms Bookish

I came home to a rather large stack of new books still patiently awaiting their Incoming! posts, plus some new additions, so I’ll be buckling down this week in an attempt to make a dent in the pile. I also have a few reviews to write (for example, I’ve finished all of Chris Grabenstein’s John Ceepak mysteries but haven’t written any reviews yet).

I’ll also be getting back on track with my daily writing goal of 2000 words. I didn’t write at all while I was away, despite early intentions to do so, but I’m itching to get started again.

And I’m looking forward to getting out and about in the book blog world again. I’ve missed reading everyone’s posts and the fun of commenting and Twitter!

Not very original, I know, but I can’t believe how this week has just flown by. I seem to be caught up in a routine of eating, drinking, reading and relaxing, not necessarily in that order.

My husband is on his way back from the fish market right now, with fresh lobster and deep fried clams, and I finally managed to snatch my netbook out of the hands of my daughter, so the time feels perfect for blogging.

This Week’s Reads

After finishing The Strain, by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, on my first full day here in Nova Scotia, I decided the atmosphere was perfect for some L.M. Montgomery – we aren’t that far away from P.E,I., and the sand beach near us has red sand in it, which reminded me of the Island. I have almost all of Montgomery’s works on my netbook in ebook format, so I decided to re-read The Blue Castle, one of my favorite Montgomery works. Unlike Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon, The Blue Castle is the story of an adult heroine, Valancy Stirling. It’s a wonderful Cinderella tale, and I’ve read and re-read it many times. I’d forgotten that it’s set in the Muskokas in Ontario, rather than P.E.I., so I will probably read Emily of New Moon sometime this week just to get my Island fix.

After The Blue Castle, I started Jim Butcher’s Storm Front, Book 1 of the Dresden Files series. I’m about halfway through – I love the concept of a wizard detective in current-day Boston, and it’s a fun book, but it wasn’t quite fitting my mood, so I also started listening to Hell Hole, by Chris Grabenstein, the fourth book in the John Ceepak and Danny Boyle series. I am quite addicted to this series now, and finished Hell Hole yesterday while we were at Crescent Beach in Lockeport, N.S.. Jeff Woodman, who narrates the series, is a superb narrator, and if you’re wanting to get started with audiobooks and like mysteries, I’d definitely recommend the audio version of this series. Just make sure you start with the first book in the series, Tilt-a-Whirl, not because each book doesn’t stand on its own, but mainly because characters from previous books do show up again (or not, as the case may be), which can give clues to the mysteries in the previous books.

Rounding up my reading for the week, I also started Wayne Dyer’s Excuses Begone!. It’s a great read so far; I like in particular its emphasis not on our feelings or desires, but on our identity.

Movies, Movies, Movies

It’s turning out to be movie night for the family every night here at the beach cottage – there’s just something really nice about gathering together after a great seafood dinner to watch movies (especially since it’s pretty bug-heavy outside at night).

So far, we’ve watched Music & Lyrics, The Dark Knight, Dirty Dancing, Miss Congeniality, Disturbia, He’s Just Not That Into You, and Gone in 60 Seconds. My older son did excuse himself to play the Sims 3 on the nights we watched Dirty Dancing and He’s Just Not That Into You, but otherwise our movie nights have been perfect family time (the little one was in bed, of course).

Writing (Or Not)

I think I must have been dreaming when I last blogged that I was thinking about writing 6,000 words a day! The only writing I’ve done so far has been in my journal; not only has it been tough to lay my hands on my netbook, but the ergonometric keyboard I brought along in order to, well, write, isn’t working very well – the “o” and the “b” keys don’t work at all.

And really, the days have been so lazy and idyllic, I just haven’t felt like doing much except (have I mentioned?) eating, drinking and reading.

Pictures!

I finally started remembering to bring my camera with me when we went on our our outings, which have been mainly to beaches so far, although next week we plan on heading out for day trips to Yarmouth and Mahone Bay. A visit to Peggy’s Cove is also planned, although the days are slipping by so fast, I’m not sure we’ll have time to do everything on our list.

The beaches here in Nova Scotia are just gorgeous – many of them are white sand beaches, and if it weren’t for the weather, you’d think you were in the Caribbean. I don’t actually like to swim, and I love cool, windy weather, so it’s been perfect for me. While they’ve been calling for clouds and rain every day we’ve been here, the weather has been beautiful and sunny  so far (just not particularly hot).

Sandy Point Lighthouse Beach

Red Sands at Sandy Point

Dylan & Daddy at Crescent Beach, Lockeport

Oops! Forgot My Sand Bucket!

Beautiful White Sands

Bit of Sand Beach at Our Beach Cottage

View from the Side of the House

This morning two technicians from Aliant swung by and set us up with a new modem – and now we are back online. But having the bit of downtime made me realize I was being a bit unrealistic, expecting to blog regularly while on holidays. I will definitely keep blogging, but won’t stress myself about missing a day here or there.

Much as I love Twitter, I suspect I’ll also be mostly absent from the Twitterverse while on holidays (I admit, IF my new-to-me BlackBerry hadn’t died on me, and IF we had cell reception here, I’d probably be tweeting regularly …)

The Strain

I read the The Strain, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan yesterday – I started it in the afternoon and found I couldn’t put it down. I finished it last night before going to bed. It was such a good read, and yes, I can definitely see it as a movie.

It’s got such a lovely mix of ingredients: science, vampires, zombies, evil mastermind plot, rag tag band of heroes … the kind of thriller I like to read. I know it’s billed as a horror, but it felt more to me like an action-packed thriller that just happens to have zombies/vampires in it. You definitely want to clear a chunk of time for it, because it is an extremely exciting read and if you’re like me, you’ll find it hard to tear yourself away for mundane things like dinner.

On Writing

I won’t be working on NANTUCKET while I’m away – most of my files are on my desktop, and I think I’m in need of a break from it anyway. Instead, I have this dream that I might actually finish HARPER. I need to rewrite it from the beginning anyway, since I’m changing the tense of the sections that are in first person narrative. I’m aiming for 60,000 pages, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that I might actually be able to write 6,000 words a day …

I won’t stress out about it, but I’m definitely going to write every day, so keep your fingers crossed for me and HARPER!

The Touristy Stuff

The sun is fighting a battle with the clouds right now – it’s likely to be cloudy and rainy for much of the time we’re here, although we knew that when we booked our holidays. But it’s more warm than not, and since we just lived through a heat wave in Toronto with a broken air conditioner, the weather actually feels rather perfect to me. Spring and fall are my two favorite seasons, and it definitely feels spring-like.

I’ll post more pictures later – I’m just lazing around right now, having my coffee and enjoying being online.

We arrived yesterday at the beach house we rented in Nova Scotia – we are on the South Shore, right on the scenic Lighthouse Route. The house is beautiful – there’s a screened in veranda so we can sit outside at any time and not worry about bugs. We’re about 100 metres from the ocean (my husband tells me that’s about 300 feet), so the beach is just a short walk away.

The only glitch to our holiday? We’re supposed to have high-speed Internet access. The beach house has a router with a DSL connection but that beautiful little light on the router marked Internet? It flashes on and off.

So I’ll only be able to post sporadically instead of regularly as I’d hoped. I blog using Windows Live Writer, so I’ll keep writing my posts and saving them as drafts, and then when we go into the nearby small town for provisions, I’ll be able to upload my posts (with thanks to our USB modem – unfortunately, our location is so remote we don’t have cell phone access either).

My brand new hand-me-down BlackBerry (my sister got a new one so she gave me her old BlackBerry Curve 8310) also died (the Universe is telling me, I think, that it’s time for a break from everything online – what do you think?); in the few days I’ve had it, I’ve come to really like it, so I will miss being able to access my emails and Twitter as we’re driving about!

As to what to do about three teenagers who had been promised their MSN and Xbox Live abilities during the two weeks we’re away (they’re not particularly outdoorsy kids …), thank goodness the girls have their camcorder, my son has Sims 3 on his laptop, there’s a gorgeous ocean and beach in front of us, fresh seafood galore and satellite radio and TV, and we brought a ton of board games for family fun.

Currently Reading

During our nineteen hour drive (which we split over two days), I finished Mad Mouse and Whack-a-Mole by Chris Grabenstein on audio. I get motion sickness if I read in the car, so the audiobooks are perfect.

Today is our first full day, and the weather is cool and foggy, so it’s a perfect setting for reading The Strain! I am very glad I packed so many books – over the next two weeks I expect to be able to get through a lot of them. We will do a little bit of sightseeing, but mostly we are here for rest and relaxation, which to me always means tons of reading.

Pictures

I haven’t had much time to take pictures – it’s cloudy and chilly outside right now and we arrived late in the evening last night; here are some shots of the view from the veranda (you’ll be seeing the view through the mesh):

Ocean View

The Side Yard

Posting Schedule

I should be able to upload posts every few days; I will definitely miss being able to check out everyone’s blogs, though – not to mention Twitter.

And of course, there’s always the possibility that Internet access will be fixed!

I can’t believe we’re already a week into June. It’s shaping up to be a very busy month for me, as I’ve shifted several deadlines from July to June so that I can actually take off for a few weeks for a holiday. One thing about being a freelancer is that a real vacation can be tricky if you don’t plan well for it; I’ve learned my lesson after several “holidays” turned into working vacations. Not exactly what I’m aiming for!

The Strain, by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

After reading this review of The Strain at Debbie’s World of Books, and then coming across this interview with The Strain co-author Chuck Hogan at Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind I realized The Strain is definitely one book I want to read while I’m away on holidays. We’ve rented a beach house in Nova Scotia, and it seems like it will be a perfect, eerie read for those foggy nights, and out along Nova Scotia’s South Shore, there are many foggy nights.

So I picked up my own copy of The Strain yesterday, and now I have two must-reads on my vacation list: The Strain and The Language of Bees, by Laurie King (which I’ve already started, but I’m deliberately setting aside so I can enjoy it while I’m on holiday). Another tentative addition to my holiday reads list is Holly’s Inbox, by Holly Denham.

Ideally, I’d like to take six “must reads” with me on holidays, so I’m keeping my eyes open. I’d love to hear your recommendations, too!

It’s Dumpster Time

Seven years ago when we began our (still ongoing … sigh) renovations, my husband and I packed up a lot of things in boxes and stuffed the boxes into our crawl space in order to get them out of the way. Seven years later, we’ve just added more stuff to the places where we used to store these things before we packed them up and put them in the crawl space – and we haven’t taken anything OUT of the crawl space, either.

So we recently decided it was time to really do something about all this clutter. We’ve been in a process of de-cluttering for the past two months now, and while we’ve made a small dent in things, we still have a lot of stuff that simply must go. The problem is, no-one else wants them, either (don’t blame them).

Sometimes you just get to a point where you know you’ve got to do something about things. We’ve reached it. We’re renting a dumpster and we’re going to be going through everything over the next few weeks, and sorting them into the following categories: to dump, to recycle, to give away. Hopefully we’ll have an uncluttered house again. Sure, it still needs things like drywall and doors but at least it will be uncluttered! And I was happy and encouraged to read that the rent-a-dumpster route worked exceedingly well for author Holly Lisle.

This Week’s Picture

I was absolutely thrilled to find that the peony I planted last year is filled with buds. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it in full bloom!

We made it back from Disney World more or less still sane (and since we were packing two teens and a five year old with us, I assume you all know how huge an accomplishment this is) – we had a fabulous time. Disney was crazy busy over most of last week, but in the last stretch of our holiday, things calmed down as we entered the off-season and we really enjoyed Disney during those last two days, when the parks were not very busy at all.

But despite the fabulousness of the holidays, it does feel good to be back home. While I was away, I did get some reading time in, so I have several reviews to write.

I’ve come back to my huge TBR pile which somehow, looks bigger than it was when we left – like maybe it grew during my absence … now that’s a scary thought.

And it feels very good to be back in the book blogging world!