Sweet surprise
I'm just going to link to Val's LJ because she has a good clear shot of the surprise letter and photo Jensen's brother and sister-in-law sent out to the fans who donated to the Down Syndrome Guild of Dallas in honor of Jensen's nephew Levi. I got mine yesterday. What a lovely and generous thing for the Ackles family to do. Reason #182 why I can't ever quit you, Jensen. Dammit. ;D
So this weekend is Easter, which comes with all the negative connotations attached to it being the one year anniversary of The Maternal Unit's stroke and death, not to mention the little fact that The Paternal Unit also died at Easter years before. On top of that, the time of year marks what I now understand was the official, though entirely unspoken, dissolution of what I thought was a very good friendship, which hurt for a while and now just really pisses me off. Therefore, not exactly my fav holiday - and since I don't have little kids anymore, I choose to mostly ignore it.
Next week The Girl Child drops off the grumpy dwarf rabbit and will join The BF's family when they fly out to see him graduate from Navy boot camp - in Illinois, not Michigan as I had previously thought (eh, I was close). TGC is still waiting on official word as to whether she snagged a spot in the summer field study. Fingers and toes crossed.
Not getting a chance to read any faster than I did last year. So far ...
1. The Threesome Handbook: A Practical Guide to Sleeping With Three, by Vicki Vantoch, aka the wife of Misha Collins. I have no personal interest in the life, but kronette and I were talking about it when she visited last June, and so that was my Christmas pressie from her. I told her it would be the first book I read in 2012, and it was. ;)
2. Dance For the Dead, by Thomas Perry. vala3 gave me this one, and I really liked the protagonist, Jane Whitefield. So I think I'll try another one in this series, at some point.
3. Americana, by Don Delillo.
4. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville. I was in the mood for something wildly different when I started this book. Mieville is one of The Spousal Unit's favs, so I gave it a go. The guy is a master of world building and rich layered language, and the book is a veritable tome, which is what stalled my reading progress for a few weeks. A very engaging read, if time-consuming; but Mieville has a fetish for lengthy detailed description of just how gross his universe is, and he's relentless in that portrayal throughout the entire book. After a while, it just made me a little nauseous and even took me out of the story at times. I mean, I get it, the place is disgusting - move on!
5. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark. The movie of the same name being one of my top five all time favorite movies - yet I'd never read the book until now, and did so from beginning to end on the plane to LA. Now I feel like I know the whole story, in particular what happens to Jean after her dismissal from Marcia Blaine School for Girls, as well where her creme de la creme ended up. The biggest surprise is the direction in which Sandy takes her life.
6. Breakfast at Tiffany's:A Short Novel and Three Stories, by Truman Capote. Another fav movie, another long overdue reading of the original prose, and three short stories.
7. Ragnarok: The End of the Gods, by A.S. Byatt.
It's too hot already, and the mosquitoes are the size of my freaking hand.
So this weekend is Easter, which comes with all the negative connotations attached to it being the one year anniversary of The Maternal Unit's stroke and death, not to mention the little fact that The Paternal Unit also died at Easter years before. On top of that, the time of year marks what I now understand was the official, though entirely unspoken, dissolution of what I thought was a very good friendship, which hurt for a while and now just really pisses me off. Therefore, not exactly my fav holiday - and since I don't have little kids anymore, I choose to mostly ignore it.
Next week The Girl Child drops off the grumpy dwarf rabbit and will join The BF's family when they fly out to see him graduate from Navy boot camp - in Illinois, not Michigan as I had previously thought (eh, I was close). TGC is still waiting on official word as to whether she snagged a spot in the summer field study. Fingers and toes crossed.
Not getting a chance to read any faster than I did last year. So far ...
1. The Threesome Handbook: A Practical Guide to Sleeping With Three, by Vicki Vantoch, aka the wife of Misha Collins. I have no personal interest in the life, but kronette and I were talking about it when she visited last June, and so that was my Christmas pressie from her. I told her it would be the first book I read in 2012, and it was. ;)
2. Dance For the Dead, by Thomas Perry. vala3 gave me this one, and I really liked the protagonist, Jane Whitefield. So I think I'll try another one in this series, at some point.
3. Americana, by Don Delillo.
4. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville. I was in the mood for something wildly different when I started this book. Mieville is one of The Spousal Unit's favs, so I gave it a go. The guy is a master of world building and rich layered language, and the book is a veritable tome, which is what stalled my reading progress for a few weeks. A very engaging read, if time-consuming; but Mieville has a fetish for lengthy detailed description of just how gross his universe is, and he's relentless in that portrayal throughout the entire book. After a while, it just made me a little nauseous and even took me out of the story at times. I mean, I get it, the place is disgusting - move on!
5. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark. The movie of the same name being one of my top five all time favorite movies - yet I'd never read the book until now, and did so from beginning to end on the plane to LA. Now I feel like I know the whole story, in particular what happens to Jean after her dismissal from Marcia Blaine School for Girls, as well where her creme de la creme ended up. The biggest surprise is the direction in which Sandy takes her life.
6. Breakfast at Tiffany's:A Short Novel and Three Stories, by Truman Capote. Another fav movie, another long overdue reading of the original prose, and three short stories.
7. Ragnarok: The End of the Gods, by A.S. Byatt.
It's too hot already, and the mosquitoes are the size of my freaking hand.