Hello World, how are you?

Meh. I had a horrifying reading year this year. I have sort of a plan for next year though. But I won't bore you all with the details. I will however, share my lame crafty project I just made to help me remember when my library books are due.

I know it looks like a first grader made it (especially with my cruddy webcam shot of it! :p) but it is exactly what I need. I had a lot of overdue books this year. Which has always been totally embarrassing no matter what age I am. It's meant to look like a bookshelf and those are books in there. All I have to do is write in the titles and the due dates. (Due dates in pencil of course, in case I have to renew it...) stick it up on the wall by my desk and that's that. Yay. :p

I have three library books staring at me right now so I'm off. Oh, & don't forget to check out my challenge and The Vampire Club - links to both on the right thanks! & Helping of spreading the word on them would be much appreciated. :)

One more thing, my library is having a bag sale on the 9th, fill up a grocery bag with books for five bucks. I'm SUPER excited. I'm also planning on cramming one or two with books. I mean cramming it. lol. Any titles I should try to look out for? Or tips? I don't know how I'm going to choose books, I don't want to be there all day..I'm thinking of going by catchy titles and a quick scan of the synopsis...also I'm going to try to get some books vampire club related so I can have a few giveaways on there if they're in good enough shape...wish me luck! :)

Check My Cookies!

I usually don't like trying new recipes because I'm scared I'll mess it all up and it'll taste horrifying, but these were actually pretty easy once I realized they're not that different from regular peanut butter cookies. :) And they are SO good! My cook book calls them Peanut Butter Blossoms.

There's Something Strange in Erik-Land...

Okay, so this feels like it's going to be (somewhat) a loaded post..here we go, wee!

Well, I gave up on Anna McPartlin's Pack up the Moon. It's not bad, it has me intrigued enough to keep going, but some other time - because I am no longer excited about it. I need to get re-excited about reading it and having it from the library. I also felt very strange not having read a Phantom of the Opera related book yet this year. The past two years in a row, I've started the reading year with a phantom book. This, I think shall be continued year after year, because well, I'm just obsessed with the character and it just feels right. :p Also I think it will be fun to have a *reading tradition* of my own of sorts.

So, now I am reading book two in Sadie Montgomery's Phoenix of the Opera series - The Phantom's Journey: Out of the Darkness. Call me crazy, but I think there is something a little strange going on with Erik and Meg in this book. They just don't seem like themselves..for me it feels like she strayed a bit too much from Leroux's original character. I realize this may be an attempt at making it all her own, but sometimes it can be a little over done. I'm finding myself not liking this new sensitive-man version of Erik. Oddly enough though, I can't stop reading. I also can't stop thinking, "God. This is getting worse by the sentence." But I still can't put it down! So I guess it's a good sign. I still intend to get the next book sometime this year, and then of course, the fourth and final book to see how this all ends. Oh, I can't stand Lucianna. I think she is a filthy-greedy Erik whore. I can't really blame her, but OMG, she completely molested him over and over, which was disgusting, and her excuse for it was definitely not enough. Yucky. If it were done to the old Erik I think he would have killed her, or at least given her a smack to put her back in line, right? Right! But enough about this disturbance.

I found out I won't have to be so very embarrassed at the library whenever I make it back in there, because I can pay my fines online, woohoo! I will definitely never slack this badly in the future. Ugh, one big mountain of never-had-to-be-this-bad it was. Never again will I be this lazy. Ever.

I don't know what will be next in line for reading after Out of the Darkness (56 pages to go), but I have some books on my own shelves that have been calling to me. Probably The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I really want to read that one this year, and soon. Oh! the movie comes on DVD today, so go buy it! I haven't actually seen the film yet though, but it is a wonderfully tragic story. And I don't think I will be able to buy it for a few more weeks (bleah), I didn't get a chance to see it because it wasn't playing anywhere around here at a theater my mom and I were willing to go to. So we missed it then. I can't wait to finally go and buy it though! :)

Anywhoo, that's all I can think of for now, and at the rate I've been devouring my current read, there might (FINALLY!) be a review tomorrow. Yay me. :p

shoo crickets, or I shall stomp you.

Hello all in blog land. Have you ever gotten completely consumed in something and not even noticed you neglected everything else you loved to do? That's what happened to me. My Sansa Fuze mp3 player completely kidnapped me. Sorry about the absence.

I haven't read a thing in weeks and boy is that jarring considering I could barely live between books last year. I also racked up a huge fine at the library. Confused due dates, and laziness at checking on when they were really due is the cause. I know it's around ten dollars now. Wow, now that I'm typing it it's really embarrassing! And now that it's truly starting to sink in as my Watchmen hold gets closer to coming, I don't even know if I'll be able to look my favorite librarian in the eye! I was doing so good with my returns, and oy, I bet she wonders what happened to me. I haven't been there in over a month I think.

I'm going to try my best at finishing Anna McPartlin's "Pack Up the Moon" before it's due, and then I'll go in and get it over with. All I have to do is ignore my mp3 player as much as possible. I don't know how it happened, but it made me feel like I couldn't do anything without it being in my hand or in my vision somewhere nearby. lol. Damn those obsessive little things. And omg, when I figured out to put videos on it, I think that is when I was completely gone and ignoring books. lol.

Ugh. Hi, I'm a music junkie again. *waves* And to prove it I got this phat-ass chain. (It's a boombox and headphones.) So me.

So, let's all hope I have a review to put up next week!

View Over Inkdeath.

While reading Inkdeath a couple of nights ago, I looked up, and saw this, staring at me over the book. That's my dog Brownie. :)

As I'm nearing the very end of Inkdeath (121 pages to go!), I'm a little scared at how the story is going. Everything just seems awful and is just going wrongwrongwrong. I do not like the look of things to come. Resa and Elinor are getting on my nerves and I wish someone would kill Orpheus already. I just hate him.

Anywhoozer, I went shopping yesterday, woohoo! I love to shop, even if I don't buy anything. My mom needed some last minute things for her trip with dad to Reno this weekend, and I went with her, to Kohl's. I bought these jeans, and these shoes that I am in love with. They're really sleek looking and oh so comfortable. I can't wait for a chance to wear them. I'm going to be home all weekend with the doggies, which I don't mind at all because I love them. I have a weekend filled with reading and audio books ahead of me. Oh, and brownie making. I love them. I am a choco-holic and brownies are heaven to me. :p

No Longer M.I.A. I Feel a Squeal and a Rave.

Yep. There is definitely a squeal and raving coming on. I am a huge Everlast fan. Again. I sort of rumbled off of the music scene for a while. I still listened of course, but I lost track of my favorite artists, carelessly. And I fell into a comfortable groove of the same ol' stuff over and over again. I got a Sansa mp3 player for Christmas (and I freakin' love it!), and it came with a free trial to Rhapsody, I searched for him and became very thrilled to see he had a new album out. It is freakin' awesome. It's so different from anything he's done. It's sort of like he re-invented himself. You must give it a little listen at least. It's called: Love, War, and the Ghost of Whitey Ford. I loves, I loves. &, here's his official site: here. Even if you don't like his music you might appreciate the man himself, cos he's one good lookin' Irish man. (Well, I think so at least.) :p Hee!

Anywhoozer, I downloaded the audio book of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I haven't started listening to it yet though, I can't seem to stay away from the music on my player long enough just yet to give the book my full listening attention. But I plan to try to do that tonight. also I haven't even touched any of my current reads. I really need to pick up on them again. Oyness. I also want to try to read at least one little chapter in each of them tonight.

So that's all I've been up to. I'm really excited for my blog in the new year, lol, because it's going to get a new name, & not really a new look, but I made some new graphics, and I plan to cut some stuff from my sidebar and re-arrange it a little. Oh! And, my reading challenge that I'm hosting begins! Woohoo! So that's it on my shameless plug. :)

Up Since Five.

Up since five. No really particular reason. I heard my parents talking loudly (my room is closest to the living-room and the kitchen, so I always hear everything), and my dogs heard them too and started walking on me and scratching at my door and slamming themselves against it when I told them no on waking up yet. This lasted only about ten minutes though, the talking was too loud so I figured what the heck. I got up and made some hot chocolate for my mom and I, while my dad drank his coffee and got ready for work. Stared at the TV for a good while, then at around seven mom and I decided to go out and get the last of our stuff done. This included grocery shopping, and pet gifts.

The stores we went to weren't as crowded as I thought they might be, so it was pretty simple and enjoyable. :) First stop was grocery store number one, to cash in the change I have been saving all year for the pet gifts. Then grocery store number two, because dad's work gave him a gift card there like they do every year. Then grocery store number three to get the dogs chewie toys for tomorrow because they are the cheapest there. :p Then on over to the bank, and then the bookstore, because the money I got was burning a huge hole in my pocket. :D I had forty bucks. And I spent it all on books.

I definitely knew two of the books I wanted: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (last copy left!), and Marley and Me. (Please don't laugh at my cover choice, I have a celebrity crush on Owen Wilson right now and I couldn't help myself, lol. Also the movie is what has really driven me to buy the book and not wait on it from the library.) I wasn't even sure if I'd buy a third book today, especially after wandering around the bookstore checking out books I found in the library catalog currently on my TBR list...but being too worried about hating the third book, I didn't buy any of the ones I made a short list of last night that I wanted to look at today. (I did look at all of them though - very very tempting.) I ended up deciding on one that I instantly knew I would love, False Colours by Georgette Heyer. This is one of the first one of her books that I came across, (which the library didn't have, grr!) so I hurried over to the romance section of the store, and I felt so relieved and happy when I saw they had it. So yay. :) I gots new books! I'll probably read them in January. After I finish the big pile on my night stand. :p

Oh, I also considered buying The Watchmen, (graphic novel) by Alan Moore. I came across it in someone's blog the other day, and I thought to myself, "Oh yeah, they're making a movie out of that, I wanted to check into it months ago." (I never did.) I saw it at the bookstore and flipped through it, but it was too much money so I didn't get it. I'm just relieved I put a hold on it at the library (I'm number 38), because it looks really good and will probably get even more popular as the months fly by getting closer to the movie. I also took a longing look at the Inkheart books. Strangely enough, they only had "Inkheart" out in book form; which irked me to no end.

Soooo, after all my wandering there, we went over to Petco, to pick up the rest of the pet gifts. Dog cookies, catnip, and a new seed-bar thing with berries in it for my bird. Then we came home.

Wow, I didn't think this would be such a long post, so I shall end it here. And I still have two more things to write about. Eep!

Updates; of Sorts..

I went to the library today, to pick up Coldplay's Viva La Vida in which I am planning on listening to tomorrow. I also took back a book and the MGMT cd, and I took in a book for donation. It was actually my first donation, which felt pretty good. :)

I haven't been reading much, it's not that I don't like the books I've got, it's just that other things get in the way, and I hate that! Oh well though, at least I was able to renew them today.

After the library stop my mother and I went over to Target, where one of the things we picked up was the "Prince Caspian" DVD. I can't wait to watch it, but since my mom paid for it, she told me I can't have it until Christmas, lol. She can be so cruel sometimes. :p (kidding, of course!)

I didn't do the Mad for Movies yesterday because I decorated for Christmas instead, but I love doing that so it was no big movie night loss. :p I decided to do it tomorrow night, since I usually watch three shows regularly on Tuesday nights..I've no clue what I'm going to watch yet though for a movie. Probably something funny.

I've already given up on my challenge, pretty much. I wouldn't mind adding a few more books to the list but there is no way I'm going to make it to 50 since I'm not that fast of a reader, but at least I've done better than last year's count. :) I thought about doing it again next year, but decided not to, because it would just suck to bomb on it two years in a row, lol. Besides, I already have a few other challenges I am going to participate in.

I'm off for now, to hunt for sugar cookie ingredients for tomorrow, and then to watch TV. Yay. :p