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| Via thedisneyprincess |
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Happy Fathers Day!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Monthly Reading Round Up - May 2011
The Witches Daughter by Paula Brackston - Finished May 1st
3 out of 5 stars
Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz - Finished May 4th
4 out of 5 stars
Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan - Finished May 7th
4 out of 5 stars
The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti - Finished May 17th
4 out of 5 stars
The Passage by Justin Cronin - Finished May 18th
4 out of 5 stars
Bumped by Megan Mccafferty - Finished May 25th
3 out of 5 stars
The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Finished May 27th
5 out of 5 stars
The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes - Finished May 29th
5 out of 5 stars added book to favorites
Books Finished: 8
2011 book total: 39
Favorite This Month: I really, really loved The Brightest Star in the Sky. I was really reluctant to read it because this book is listed everywhere as "chick-lit"so it sat in my to-be-read pile for months and months, but I'm glad I finally did because I loved this story. All of the characters were really fleshed out and I found myself really rooting for all of them. I read some reviews about this book after I finished it and a few people said that this is Marian Keyes' weakest book which kind of surprised me. I'm definitely going to check out some of her other books after this one.
Least Favorite This Month: I'm sad to say that it was Bumped. I was so excited for this book to come out because I loved the Jessica Darling series so much. I even made a reminder on my calendar. I think the characters were pretty well written and I liked the premise of the book, it was just the end that kind of threw me off. I know that this book is part of a trilogy, so I get why she did it but I guess it just ended kind of abruptly and weirdly for me. The Witches Daughter also moved really, really slow for me. It was a struggle to get myself to finish it.
Other: I kept reading reviews about how great The Help was, but when I read the back of the book it wasn't something that interested me. Someone from work suggested it so I decided to finally pick it up and I'm glad I did. There were a few problems with the book, but it was a quick read and I really enjoyed it. The Nature of Jade was a really lovely book and it had some beautiful quotes. Here is one I really liked:
"How does a person stay safe, always? Lock yourself away? You’re looking for a guarantee and there are no guarantees. If you love, you’ll feel loss. You can’t ‘careful’ yourself into avoiding loss. You’re trying to get day without night.”
Now that I've made it through one of my math classes, my reading has really picked up, I start another one at the end of this month though so I'm sure that there will be a dramatic decrease of reading time in July.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Most Well-Read Cities in America
I found this article on one of the book blogs I read and thought it was really interesting. The Most Well-Read Cities in America.
Monday, May 23, 2011
America's Roller Coast
I was starting to lose my voice when I woke up yesterday, but now it's pretty much so gone. That's what I get for screaming my head off on the magnum.
Friday, May 20, 2011
A life post
In December of last year I entered a contest through the Henry Ford to win a big giant Meijer gift card. I had no idea that there were any other prizes so I was shocked when I found out that I won a gift package to the Crystal Mountain Resort and Spa. I won a two night stay and a $100 gift card that I could use on property. It's a ski resort, but we wanted to go off season so it wouldn't be too busy so we made the trip up there last weekend. Since it was off season, there wasn't a huge amount to do but it was really fun to amble around the property and we even drove a little further up to Traverse City to explore around.
I decided to use the $100 gift card on a massage at the spa.
I should start this story off by telling you about the massage my mom and I went for around mother’s day. My lovely parents got me a gift card to a salon for my birthday so I decided to hold onto it until mother’s day where I thought my mom and I would go and get massages together. I called the salon and asked if we could both get massages at the same time, and they said yes as they had two technicians. They didn’t really ask me what kind of massage we wanted so I figured when we got there, we would get to pick. I guess I imagined us both going into the same room and getting our massages together. I’ve never had a massage before, but when I was looking at honeymoon things, I would always see these pictures of people all draped in towels getting their massage on. Granted, my mom and I weren’t on our honeymoon, but that’s still what I had in mind. As it turns out we had separate technicians in different rooms. My mom got a deep tissue massage, and I got a wat pho massage. If you’ve never heard of wat pho, don’t worry, I hadn’t either. It was a combination of yoga, some pressure on certain parts of my body, and being sponged down with this weird satchel thing. It actually was a very relaxing massage (except for the yoga stuff; that was kind of random) but it wasn’t what I pictured in my mind when I thought about a massage, which brings me back to last weekend.
They told me to get to the spa early so I could change into a robe and slippers and use the sauna, the steam bath or the outdoor hot tub if I wanted to. I was there by myself so I just changed into my robe and read a magazine in the meditation room. I did have to wander around and check out everything first though. It was SO NICE in there.
I ended up getting a full body deep tissue massage, which cost every penny of my gift certificate and then some, but it was SO worth it. Not only did she work out all of the tension in my neck, back and shoulders, but she massaged each individual toe and finger. She even massaged my face! It’s been almost a full week and I’m still feeling great. Afterwards there was someone waiting to give me cucumber and mint water and a heated towel. It was great being spoiled for the day! Needless to say if we ever make it back out there, I’m getting another massage!
In other news, we bought a Saturday ticket package for the minor leagues down in Toledo, the Mud Hens. The games have been really fun, but it’s been a pain in the butt making plans around them and trying to get the days off from work. The season started in April, but we bought the tickets in May so they sent us a few extra tickets that are sporadically through the week over the next few month.
School and work has been consuming the majority of my time. I've been really bad lately about losing track of days. I seem to just think of everything in terms of "I work the next two days, and then I'm off for two." or "I have a paper due tomorrow."
Here is how bad it's gotten: I forgot Ronnie's birthday...
Well to be fair, I knew that Ronnie's birthday was May 5th, but I had no idea that it actually was May 5th. At around 2 that day I just happened to look at my cell phone and see the date and felt really bad. We went to a Tigers game a few days before his birthday to celebrate so it turned out okay.
We got really great seats. We were playing the Yankees that night and we were right behind the dugout. It was kind of weird seeing Jeter up close and personal. It was even weirder when the guy behind us kept yelling "The Yakees suck and Jeter swallows!" When Jeter would look in our direction I wanted to point at the dude that was doing it!
In the last piece of life news, I dyed my hair again. I was on a mission to grow it out, but then I got a new badge for work. I hate the picture. I can't even describe how much I hate it and it's all because of my hair so I did what any good over-reactor would do and bought some dye to change it back to blonde. I bought the John Freida foaming stuff. Using the foam was nice and simple and the color came out pretty even despite how long my roots were, but the color isn't as nice as the Feria dye I used to use. I'm such a sucker for marketing.
 |
| The view from our room of the ski hill. As you can see, nothing going on |
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| Either rental bungalows or some peoples vacation homes... |
I should start this story off by telling you about the massage my mom and I went for around mother’s day. My lovely parents got me a gift card to a salon for my birthday so I decided to hold onto it until mother’s day where I thought my mom and I would go and get massages together. I called the salon and asked if we could both get massages at the same time, and they said yes as they had two technicians. They didn’t really ask me what kind of massage we wanted so I figured when we got there, we would get to pick. I guess I imagined us both going into the same room and getting our massages together. I’ve never had a massage before, but when I was looking at honeymoon things, I would always see these pictures of people all draped in towels getting their massage on. Granted, my mom and I weren’t on our honeymoon, but that’s still what I had in mind. As it turns out we had separate technicians in different rooms. My mom got a deep tissue massage, and I got a wat pho massage. If you’ve never heard of wat pho, don’t worry, I hadn’t either. It was a combination of yoga, some pressure on certain parts of my body, and being sponged down with this weird satchel thing. It actually was a very relaxing massage (except for the yoga stuff; that was kind of random) but it wasn’t what I pictured in my mind when I thought about a massage, which brings me back to last weekend.
They told me to get to the spa early so I could change into a robe and slippers and use the sauna, the steam bath or the outdoor hot tub if I wanted to. I was there by myself so I just changed into my robe and read a magazine in the meditation room. I did have to wander around and check out everything first though. It was SO NICE in there.
 | |||
| They don't let you take pictures because who wants to see people in robes, but here is one from their website. |
 | ||
| Will Rhymes. He was my favorite Tiger, now he's my favorite Mud Hen. sigh |
School and work has been consuming the majority of my time. I've been really bad lately about losing track of days. I seem to just think of everything in terms of "I work the next two days, and then I'm off for two." or "I have a paper due tomorrow."
Here is how bad it's gotten: I forgot Ronnie's birthday...
Well to be fair, I knew that Ronnie's birthday was May 5th, but I had no idea that it actually was May 5th. At around 2 that day I just happened to look at my cell phone and see the date and felt really bad. We went to a Tigers game a few days before his birthday to celebrate so it turned out okay.
 | ||
We got really great seats. We were playing the Yankees that night and we were right behind the dugout. It was kind of weird seeing Jeter up close and personal. It was even weirder when the guy behind us kept yelling "The Yakees suck and Jeter swallows!" When Jeter would look in our direction I wanted to point at the dude that was doing it!
In the last piece of life news, I dyed my hair again. I was on a mission to grow it out, but then I got a new badge for work. I hate the picture. I can't even describe how much I hate it and it's all because of my hair so I did what any good over-reactor would do and bought some dye to change it back to blonde. I bought the John Freida foaming stuff. Using the foam was nice and simple and the color came out pretty even despite how long my roots were, but the color isn't as nice as the Feria dye I used to use. I'm such a sucker for marketing.
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