Uninteresting items of note:

I haven’t gotten any new music in like, forever. I’m still in love with the Timbaland CD that I bought before xmas and I listen to it all the time, so much so that Hubby is like, “OMG, not that song again!” (Okay, he didn’t say it, but I’ll bet he thought it!!)

I’m a couple of days behind on my Backlash reading because, well, most of it is dull! I wish I found it more interesting I found myself skimming the readings over the weekend, and I haven’t read yesterday’s or today (I challenged myself to read 15 pages a day just so I wouldn’t quit altogether). Perhaps tonight I’ll try and force myself to skim 30 pages. Or maybe I’ll just give up and not read this one. Actually, that’s not such a bad idea — I should look for the more updated version anyway.

I read the first three chapters of the first Naomi Novik novel about dragons during the Napoleonic wars. It’s a fairly easy read even if it is kind of ridiculous (dragons are born speaking English and they will either attach themselves to one human immediately upon hatching or they will be forever feral – I’m so sure! *laugh*) but if you take the leap of faith and forgive the ridiculousness, it’s kinda cute. I’ll keep reading.

I read 100 of the 1001 romantic ideas book last night and figure I can probably read 100 a night for 10 nights. Hubby and I are already fairly romantic (as romantic as either of us can stand) and we’re quite happy together, so I don’t really need the tips, but they are cute. The book was laying around so I figured I should read it. It absolutely highlights how neat our marriage is. If you need a book to tell you that your marriage would be more romantic if you didn’t bitch at your spouse all day long, well, maybe you shouldn’t be married! I have other things I could say about what I’ve read so far, but I’ll save it for the “official” review of the book.

Speaking of romance, I found out when my husband’s former unit is having their annual military ball and I told him we’re going! I LOVE dressing up and going to balls! We have so much fun. Thank the gods I married a guy who loves to wear a tux and/or military dress uniform. (My Prince Charming! I get so disgusted at guys who think the world would come to an end if they ever had to dress up in any way.) Anyway it’s not until summer but my calendar is already marked! We can also go to my unit’s balls, but the cavalry balls are just so much more fun. ‘Least they used to be; I haven’t been to one in a couple of years. I hope they are still fun!

Hubby got our taxes done today and we’re getting a decent sum back. YAY for being semi-retired! Man, just think if we had kids, we’d be rich! *snort* I’m using some of that money towards the new energy-saver dishwasher I’m getting next month. Hopefully we can qualify for the the cash for clunkers appliance program and get money back for that!!

I’m taking tomorrow off and ha, they can’t fire me for it! There is a freebie at Panda Express, and I have to go sign our tax papers and hubby needs to get his volunteering paperwork done so he can start volunteering and I said I’d go with him to walk him through the process. So that’s our morning plans. Then in the afternoon he has classes and I’m coming home and spending the rest of the day writing, most likely. Speaking of, I redid my book covers, and now I have an image on the backs AND the spine of all three. FANCY! *snort*

While on the phone with Mother today, I made the mistake about talking about making proof copies of my first two books in this series — I totally didn’t mean to tell her anything about that. Now she insists she needs to read my books. Well, that’s not likely to happen, as I just don’t feel comfortable letting her read them. It isn’t even fear she’d hate them or worried that they are too “risque” for her (there isn’t that all that much sex or violence in them), but I feel, I don’t know. Maybe that giving it to her to read is letting it out of my control, because who the hell knows who all she’ll let read it. Right now I feel like I can control it somewhat and it’s “MINE” and not for every Tom, Dick, and asshole relative to read.

Longass Preggo coworker update/rant: Some of this is rehash but I feel like rehashing it. The preggo at work is driving me nuts!!!

First of all, she’s gone at least twice a week for (at least) half days for “doctor’s appointments” and she’s only in her 4th or 5th month — who the fuck needs to see the doctor twice a week for 38 weeks?! That’s ridiculous! She has had THREE ultrasounds in the last month (who the fuck needs an ultrasound every week?!) and brings them to work thinking we all want to see them. Here’s a tip: even people who are interested in that shit (not me) are bored by the second set of photos! I can’t imagine why anyone would be interested in even the first set, but even if someone is, it gets old really fast!

Then because preggo is out so often, we’re falling behind at work, which doesn’t hurt ME but it is screwing over the customers. Of course, the coworker who is bestest friends with her was making excuses for her saying, “Well, she can’t heeeeeelp iiiiit! She has appointments!!!” Don’t give me that! The number of appointments she has is BULLSHIT which is the very problem I have with preggos in the workplace! But okay, let’s say for a minute that she really can’t help it – that doctors FORCE preggos to come in for two appointments a week. Then women like her need to be moved to a different job with almost no responsibility or time-sensitive deadlines, even if they don’t like it. Obviously they can’t handle anything more than that. I’d say the same even if it was a worker who had some serious illness, though, just like Idid when one of Hubby’s former coworkers was out all the time due to her illness. It fucked over a lot of people because of her being out of the office so much. The Powers That Be should have moved her to a less important job for everyone’s sake, including her own. The last thing she needed when she was ill was to come to work and be stressed out because she was so far behind.

Meanwhile, unlike someone who didn’t CHOOSE their medical issues. Preggo did this on purpose and obviously didn’t have any consideration for the company or the customers when she chose it. So really, I’m not sure why the company owes HER any consideration. Hell, I have more consideration for the company, customers and coworkers and I’m a damned volunteer there! I show up more faithfully than she does. But I’m not a selfish, inconsiderate bimbo either!

Women who work only for the maternity benefits who really don’t take the job seriously should not take jobs where work actually has to be done. Let them work at jobs where they answer phones or get coffee or something bimbo-y like that — this way when they decide to show up only 3.5 days a week, no one cares. Oh sure, it’s annoying to customers when no one answers their phone, but it’s far less annoying than their paperwork not getting processed because some bimbo thinks she should get paid to only show up once in a while to check her messages but she didn’t take the job to work. And don’t give me this crap that the company should have to just hire more people to do the job so that no work gets slowed down. Why should the company have to spend more and hire more (redundant) people just to accommodate breeder bimbos who want a trophy job because they don’t really plan to do — just so they can a) pretend they are doing something with their lives and b) get maternity benefits? Ridiculous!

This gal was only at the job about eight months before she got knocked up — probably the exact amount the law requires one to be at a job before full milking-the-system benefits kicked in. It’s not like she’s been a faithful employee for years and years, and I doubt she’ll be a faithful employee for years and years to come — I bet she’ll quit as soon as she’s milked up the last of the benefits she can get. I really have no respect for her kind.

Yes, you can blame it on the company for not moving her to a different position, but for all I know, they tried and she whined “DISCRIMINATION” or whatever, or maybe they are afraid of that kind of bullshit discrimination suit so they are afraid to do anything. Preggos today are far too quick to claim victim while victimizing everyone else. *eyeroll*

I was TRYING to be patient with preggo at work and not assume she’s just a breeder bimbo, but the constant doctors appointments, the constant passing of ultrasound photos and the stupid “PMS” naming bullshit has made me decide she is nothing more than a dumbass bimbo. This is her third kid (second baby-daddy) so she’s pulled this crap at other jobs, too. She constantly calls the fetus by the cutesy name she picked out. Personally, I find it weird to name the thing months before it’s born… even if I was pregnant and decided I REALLY loved a particular name, say, Mariah for my baby, I would still wait until it was born in case I changed my mind or I looked at the kid and thought, “Oh no, this is not a Mariah. This is totally a Karoline!!” You know? It just rubs me the wrong way to name your kid way ahead of time and to refer to it as such constantly. There is something not-quite-right about it. But that’s just me. What do I know?

Love Poetry Out Loud by Robert Alden Rubin was book #14 of the year. I planned to read a little bit every night this month, but I got tired of it and finished it up tonight so I could move on to something more interesting.

I’m not a poet or a poetry lover. I read this book because it was one of the items in a romantic gift basket my husband got me last year, and I figured I should read it. Also, I thought it might help me appreciate poetry more. But not so much. There were notes on margins to explain what the poems were about, but even then, I found myself generally bored and uninterested. A lot of the poems were from earlier centuries, leaving them full of odd phrases and words which rather turned me off. And of course, they’d be written in code so as not to offend people. While I understand that, it’s still annoying. I hate trying to interpret someone’s code! Say what you want to say or don’t say it!!

I didn’t love this book, but someone who loves poetry might!

***

Next up, I’m reading another book found in that romantic gift basket: 1001 Ways To Be Romantic by Gregory Godek. I’m already enjoying it better.

I read the third Michelle Moran book, The Heretic Queen, over the weekend. This was book #13 for the year. This was the story of Nefertari, wife of Ramses II of ancient Egypt. The author takes some liberties so it’s not entirely true to history, but since most of us who read it won’t be uptight experts on the time period, it doesn’t matter.

I liked this one best of all the Michelle Moran books. The plotline was a bit more interesting and the suspense was a bit more fun (would Ramses ever pick a Chief Wife?!). I loved this main character better than the last two. All three of Michelle Moran’s female characters were almost too perfect, but this one somehow seemed more real somehow and her allies where better, too.

This wasn’t exactly a sequel to Nefertiti, but it did somewhat refer back to it, so I was glad i read this one after Nefertiti instead of before it. Still, you could read this one without ever reading the other. (Neither book connected with Cleopatra’s Daughter, which happened in a time period 1000 years after these two books.)

This isn’t in my list of favorite books, but it was certainly worth reading.

***

Next up I’m moving on to reading His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik, the first in a 5 part series.

I wore my jacket to work today in case it would rain, but it only sprinkled a bit (at least when I was out and about) so when I got home, I hung the jacket up. When we headed out again to do some shopping, I left the jacket because it wasn’t raining. Of course, six blocks from home it start pouring like someone turned a faucet on!

Then getting in to and out of Target we got drenched! Hubby was like, “Wait! I’ll get the umbrella!” and I said, “The wind is blowing too hard for the umbrella to make any difference!” So he insisted on dropping me off at the door but I still had to walk 6 feet from the car into the store and I was drenched from that. Oh well. I should BE so lucky as to shrink! :-)

Hubby parked the car and tried using the umbrella from the car to the store, and the wind bent it! So much for the umbrella!

When we came out, it was still pouring rain. He insisted on driving up to the door to pick me up after we were leaving Target and I got soaked (again) just from the door to the car. Still, we were laughing about it as we started driving home.

We were driving along the access road next to the freeway because that on-ramp is being worked on and is closed. Suddenly, there was nearly no visibility, and the construction barrels that were blocking that exit had blown all over into the road! So at the very time we couldn’t see more than like 2 feet in front of the car, we were driving through an obstacle course of construction barrels. It was SO FUNNY. Maybe you had to be there, but we found it hysterical. Hubby didn’t hit one of them! He’s such a good driver. I was laughing so hard there were tears running down my face. He was laughing too and joking about what a terrible time it was for an obstacle course but if that had been his driving test, he’d have passed with flying colors! He suggested maybe it was “pop” driving test! OMG, it was so funny.

Then I got to thinking about how totally pissed off my dad would have been if he had to drive through that. He would get so impatient and frustrated while driving! It makes me love Hubby so much more that he’s the kind of guy who finds humor in anything, even that craziness!

I can’t believe anyone (outside of Hollywood) still watches or takes seriously the Oscars or any awards shows.

In writing news, some very good ideas for my book came to me last night/early this morning. I’ve been struggling with how to build a religion for the people in my book. Kinda hard for an atheist who doesn’t believe, but a religion I get to control might be fun. I just wasn’t sure how. So far all I had was that there were “gods” who spoke to my main character and told her what needed to be done, but she couldn’t see them and she knew nothing else about them. I knew she’d have to figure out more about them once I got to the final book, as she’d have to teach the people about these gods, but I was at a loss as to what she’d say. Like, was I going to tell the people they would go to “heaven” if they were good? I hate that concept! But if not heaven, then what was their reward for being “good?”

Maybe reading about all these Egyptian gods in the Michelle Moran books inspired me. I’d never intended to personalize any of the gods in my book, but now I decided why not? It’s easier for people and for my story. So I have an idea of who the three biggest gods are, and what their “reward” is, etc. I figure there will be “lower level” gods and maybe even some “upper level” gods that are above the three main gods but are unreachable to the people. I kinda like this. It’s fun!

Also, I got an awesome idea about the storyline involving the guy she need revenge on. It’s still not quite what she’ll do to get revenge on him, but I think it’s another step closer. But it’s such an interesting plot twist I’m excited to execute it.

In reading news, I’m almost done with the third Michelle Moran book and I think I like this one the best. I hope to finish it today and then move on to the first book in the Naomi Novik series so maybe I can get these books returned to her and move on to reading my own.

Took Hubby out to dinner with a coupon, and afterward he wanted to see a movie, so we went to the theater, thinking we’d see Shutter Island, but it didn’t start for over an hour, so we decided to see the next movie that started: Brooklyn’s Finest.

I don’t know if I liked it or not. Sometimes it seemed to drag, but parts of it were interesting and exciting. Then there were the loose ends, and then the meaningless ending…

Richard Gere’s character, Eddie, was kind of annoying. He seemed to have a death wish but it wasn’t clear why. Was he depressed because his wife had left him, or because he was retiring, or because he was just bored and disillusioned with life after 22 years as a cop?

Sal (Ethan Hawke) and his wife had umpteen kids — such an Irish Catholic cliche that it made my brain hurt. Sal desperately needed money to save his family from the health issues related to living in a mold infested should-be-condemned home. The only way to get the money is to steal from the criminals, and I was rooting for him because, hell, it’s just drug money. It’s not like he’s stealing from hardworking, honest people! Still, he proved to be too incompetent to be able to steal, which really didn’t make sense. When he mentioned that they don’t pay cops enough and that they are worth more dead than alive, I actually thought he was going to get himself killed on purpose just so his family could have the money.

Tango (Don Cheadle) is an undercover cop who is desperate to get out of it, as it’s starting to fuck with his mind and he’s starting to forget which side he’s on. They tell him they’ll get him out from undercover if he does one last deal for them — set up his best friend (Wesley Snipes) and take him down. He can’t bring himself to do it, but the cops won’t let him out any other way…

Wesley Snipes pretty much played himself, some guy who is bitter and angry and thinks the cops and the whole “system” are out to get him because he’s black. Talk about type-casting!

Meanwhile there where about four subplots, some that didn’t really go anywhere and one that went somewhere, but I wasn’t sure it worked very well. *shrug*

I kinda liked the movie, flaws and all, but I kinda didn’t like it. Hubby liked it better. This was the first or maybe the second time when I’ve been to a movie that was sold-out and every seat was taken. I rarely go to the movies and I almost NEVER go to a movie on opening night.

Today’s reading had me learning about Deborah Sampson and Loreta Velasquez, women who posed as men to fight in the early wars of our nation. Of course these are women I admire because I, too, served in the armed forces, but I didn’t have to dress as a man to do it. These women paved the way for women like myself to serve.

Deborah Sampson served the Continental Army during the American Revolution under the name Robert Shurtliff. She served from May 1872 through September 1783. She was injured once but survived. Her secret eventually got out, but incredibly, they still honorably discharged her and later gave her a pension. (I’m surprised they would be so fair to her, when a) men were more misogynistic in those days and b) she did enlist fraudulently.) After the war, she married and raised four children, and later went on a lecture circuit telling people of her experiences during the war.

Loreta Velazquez’s husband served the Confederate Army in the Civil War, but when he died, she decided to take up his cause. She enlisted in the Confederate Army under the name “Harry T Buford.” When she was discovered as a woman, she ran away and gave up fighting.

According to this book, “research has shown that three hundred or more women actively served as soldiers and spies on both sides during the Civil War.”

Thanks to all the brave women who served our country in those days, paving the way for future generations of women to openly serve without having to cross dress!

Cat news: Last week I found a $15 coupon off some new litter box system that Pet Smart sells, so we stopped by PetSmart yesterday to check it out. Hubby talked himself into buying one. After the coupon, it was $15. It uses pellets instead of litter, and has some sort of filter that needs to be changed every so often, so I don’t know if it’ll be that much cheaper in the long run. Still, we’ve long talked about trying to get away from the litter since the dust probably isn’t good for us, especially since we’ve been keeping the litter boxes in the master bath for the last few months. We’re breathing all that crap in at night! We’ve started off with just one of those, but I have another coupon, so we might get a second one if this goes well. We’ve had it about four days now, and they will pee in the new one, but won’t shit in it. Crazy animals.

Coworker news: My coworkers and I are all on a challenge to use our Wii games more often. One gal is really trying to lose weight and I’m supposed to be. The other one is just trying to improve her balance, which she says is horrible according to Wii Fit. Anyway, it’s silly, but we nag each other every night on facebook to go work out, and rib each other at work the next day if we don’t. It’s kinda fun to have them motivating me. Now if only they’d motivate me to stop eating so much junk. I might be working out more lately, but I’m not losing because I’m eating junk and cheesy stuff and potatoes. I wish I could control it. Can I blame peri-menopause? I think I will.

One of the gals at work is so scatterbrained that it’s funny. I only go in the afternoons, so I came in one afternoon earlier this week and she and I and another coworker were talking about something, and then I went back to my desk in the dark hole at the back of the office. Latter, Ms. Scatterbrain came back there to do something and said “Hi! How are you doing? Have you been here a while and I just noticed you now?” and I said, “We were talking earlier today. Up front.” It was so funny. She thought I was joking at first, but the other coworker confirmed it. It had us giggling all day.

Preggo found out she is having a girl and wants it’s initials to be P.M.S. That’s almost as bad as the news I heard today that someone named their kid Voltaire. *eyeroll*

Decluttering news: We dropped a bunch of stuff off down at the thirft store yesterday to get it out of our garage. Then we went to Hastings to trade in books and DVDs, but they were all picky and the gal said they only take hardback books, even when I saw that they had used paperbacks on the shelves. Maybe they have too many paperback right now. Then, two of my books that were in almost new condition had highlighting in them and they wouldn’t take them. They weren’t textbooks, so I don’t know why someone highlighted in them. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me, as I don’t really use highlighters and certainly not on books. Well, whatever. I got $30 in store credit! Woot! I need book store credit like I need a hole in my head!! We took the other books they wouldn’t take over to the used book store, but apparently it’s gone out of business! Tch! See what happens when I stop buying books? I put people out of business!!! I feel so guilty! *laugh*

Reading news: The poetry book has me reading about four love poems a night and I thought maybe this would get me to appreciate poetry more, but no, it makes me realize how annoying poetry is. What’s the point? If you can’t say what you mean, why say it? While I like the lyrical nature and cadences of rhyming poetry, I always think, “So you can only say something if it rhymes?” but I find the non-rhyming poetry even more annoying and confusing. I’m going to finish reading it, but I’m not going to promise to like it. Oh, to be fair, a couple of poems I thought were okay or amusing. Most I thought were dull, though.

I;ve already been telling you about the Herstory book.

Backlash, while dated, is interesting, although it can be boring, too. It helped me realize what types of backlash are going on now, and while I guess I knew it, I didn’t really think about it in those terms. I am enjoying the book, mostly, but I can’t read more than 15 pages a day or it gets too boring and I zone out.

Finished Nefertiti and am going to start The Heretic Queen today, so I can get those books back to Morgan when I see her in a little over a week. I still have FIVE more books from her, but they are a series, and if I hate the first one, I won’t read them all.

Writing News: I haven’t done much writing this week, but I did do a little bit, and I had a great brainstorming session the other night about a couple of plotlines. When I don’t try to force these things, they come to me. I have a particular character who my main character has to get “revenge” on, and I had no clue how to do it. She’s not really a “vengeful” kind of person, but she let him get away with some crimes at one point because she was afraid it would adversely affect more than just him. But she still needs to find a way to “deal” with him or it’s not a satisfying story. Anyway, I still haven’t completely decided how she’ll do this, but I came up with some other aspects of his life to develop and I think that will lead me to what needs to be done. I love when my muse comes back around like this! I’m itching to get back to writing, but I’m still waiting for some of these ideas to cement.

I made book covers for all three of my books and I tweeked them some more today so I could add an image to the back page of all of them. It was fun! I started making a book cover for my HCF book that might never come to fruition, but I was just having so much fun!

What I’m watching news: Amazon.com was allowing people to watch an episode of Parenthood for free, so I did, kinda out of curiosity. With a name like that, I thought it would be breederiffic. It’s not so bad (yet) but has the potential. I don’t think I’d like it. I’m not much into television anymore, and the thing is, it’s the story of four siblings, their spouses, ex-spouses, parents, lovers and children and it seems almost too big a cast to keep track of! There are twelve adults and six kids and while the first episode clearly established everyone’s name and relationship without being too complicated, it was just a LOT. Why do you need a cast that large? Ug.

I was going to do a long rant about Tyler Perry, but I’ve decided I’m above all that. But you know I hate him.

HCF News: Have not done much work on that doctor resource list the last couple of days, but perhaps tomorrow I’ll do it. I now have had 20 people send me information on their doctors! YAY! I’m glad people are responding. I’ll be sure to ask my readers for input on other topics in the future since I’m getting such a good response!

Facebook News: Someone a while back posted some dumb “pass around” status about Autisim awareness and a friend was bitching to me about how stupid that was. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who thought it was lame. Lost of parody “pass around” status have shown up since then and today was my favorite:

Please copy and paste this to your status if you know someone, or have been affected by someone, who needs a punch in the face. People who need a punch in the face affect the lives of many. There is still no known cure for someone who deserves a punch in the face, except a punch in the face, but we can raise awareness!!

So I just HAD to share it. That’s so amusing!

Finally, I’m taking my husband out to eat this weekend… with a coupon. What? It counts!

My internet was out last night so I didn’t get to post about the interesting women of my reading last night. I didn’t find them so interesting, though. I read about 5 women last night and found none of them exciting enough to talk about. There were two queens, two painters and a poet. Maybe I’ll have some women I find fascinating enough to write about after tonight’s reading.

Nefertiti by Michelle Moran was book #12 for this year. It was a pretty good fictionalized book on the life of Nefertiti. It was told from her sister’s point of view, and Nefertiti was portrayed as quite a spoiled brat and a bitchy, demanding, older sister.

Still, like the last Michelle Moran book, there wasn’t a lot of compelling story to keep you interested. Mostly it was about “Nefertiti is pregnant again. Oh, now Nerfertiti is going into labor.” Or “Another wife is pregnant and Nefertiti is jealous and scheming.” Or “Someone else is pregnant now.” Seriously, it was all about prengnacy! Nefertiti was pregnant five times in the book, the other wife two or three, the sister twice, the sister’s best friend twice… Geez, was ANYTHING else going on in ancient Egypt? Oh, that’s right, supposedly the Hittities were invading somewhere else, but we mostly ignored that.

Still, I think I shall read the last Michelle Moran book that was loaned to me, since it’s kind of the continuation of this one. (Nefertiti is dead, but it’s more about the sister’s life and the life of her children).

I didn’t hate the book, I just expected more from it, I guess.

***

Next up: The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran, as well as finishing the other three books I’m working my way through.