Lost: A Sense of Proportion

Just got home from the cabin! It was such a wonderful, relaxing time. :) Didn't quite manage a reading record - finished 26, read part of a 27th - but if was pretty close.

Shall be catching up for a while, but I'll be typing up a books post, and probably pulling together some of the photos I took, soon. 

Finished getting together my traditional list of books read on the trip and review-ish thoughts on them!

So without further ado, here are the books! My feelings on them this year were a bit more of a mixed bag than has been the case in recent years, I think, but there were plenty that I really loved.

( Cut for many words )


Total pages read on the trip: Approximately 5880. (Some estimation necessary, based on other version lengths, to account for the fact that the library only had the large print version of one, which obviously has... a lot more pages. XD)

So yeah. Not a record-breaking trip, but definitely a good one.

Gettin' ready to head out tomorrow night on my annual "disconnect from everything as much as possible and binge-read ALL THE THINGS" trip to the cabin that we've been renting for... wow, the last 25 years now?

This year's going to be a little different from most, since it may need to be a semi-working vacation. I've got one new client who's in kind of a tricky place, so I probably won't be able to set everything aside while I'm gone. So... sadly, I probably will not beat my current standing record of 23 books in just over a week. I've got about 30 books to bring anyway, though, so we'll see how far I get. *g*

Anyhow - after tomorrow I'll be pretty well disappearing from the internet for about a week, but I shall catch up with you all when I get back!

Well, I'm back. ^^

Had a lovely trip, did lots of fun stuff, and read... 22 books, and about 50 pages of the 23rd. More details, and brief reviews of the books I read as usual, to follow when I get the chance!

I've got a ridiculous number of things to catch up on now, naturally. And tomorrow I'll be spending the vast majority of the day helping a friend's family cook and set up for her graduation party - and then Sunday afternoon will be helping host, and probably clean up afterward. So I'm kinda hitting the ground running, here. XD

Still, this trip always leaves me refreshed and ready to go like no other vacation can. Not "ready to be home" because I'm tired of traveling, but really mentally rested and eager to get back to work. It's a good feeling.

Hope life's been good to you all in the meantime! *hugs all around*

Bullet point version:

- Trip was lovely
- Number of books read: 21, and a bit of a 22nd. Not bad, considering...
- I am sick. Soooo sick. My brain has decided to go on its own separate vacation, and is currently refusing to provide an ETA for its return. I may have to fire it and get a new one. That kind of irresponsible behavior can not be tolerated.
- We are now in the middle of a very bad storm, and may lose our power at any moment.

More details, and comments on all the books I read, to follow as usual, once I have a functioning brain again.

(Started typing this up yesterday, and then got too tired to finish them meme and had to get some sleep. So let's try this again!)

Because I've been sick, I actually ended up not leaving home for the last week. (Aside from walking the dog, that is.) Not actually a big hardship for introvert-me. But then, today, my whole family went out to Applebee's for lunch. Which was lovely. Aside from the reminder of jus why shouldn't leave the house, that is. *g*

Basically - my meal had french fries with it. If I'm gonna have french fries, naturally I'm gonna need to have ketchup. So, I pick up the bottle, and open it to squirt on my plate. Only, it doesn't squirt. Even before I start squeezing, it... explodes. On my plate, over the edge of my plate, on the table, on my skirt, on the front of my jacket, on the sleeve of my jacket... *sighs* So now I'm in the middle of the restaurant, and I've gotta clean the ketchup off myself. Start looking for a napkin, and... manage to catch my hand on my water glass. My very large water glass, which, since it is the beginning of the meal, is also very full. Water goes flying, ice slides across the table, into the walkway... and, since I'm at the back of a circular booth, there's really nothing I can do to mitigate the damage. Or, y'know, flee the scene. I think we had three servers, all told, helping to clean things up. In the middle of the lunch rush. 

Eh, maybe I should just stay home for another week. XD


And now - a couple of memes! First one's a literary one from goldvermilion87. If there are a bunch of typos in my answers, it'd be because things have been glitching oddly. My browser, my computer, LJ in general... I tried to go through and fix them, but I'm not sure if I caught everything. 

( Long meme of longness under the cut! )


And a second meme, this one from hakaisha   -

Name me a character and I will tell you:

- Why I love them or why I wish they'd go die in a fire.
- My OTP for the character
- My favorite gen relationship with this character.
- An unpopular opinion about this character.
- One thing I wish would [have] happen[ed] with this character in canon.
- An idea I have for the character that I haven't written yet/won't ever write for whatever reason

Can be for any of my fandoms. If you don't know/can't remember if I like one that you do, just ask. ;D


ETA: Seriously LJ, what is up with this? It seems to be removing the characters immediately before and after any italicized section, even if I go back and fix it. Whyyyyyy....

And a lovely trip it was, too. Well, two trips, really. Wow, going to Nebraska feels like a really long time ago, now. But yeah, we had a good time with our grandma, and our... er, step-cousin, I guess she is? And various other step-relatives-in-law-whatever-you'd-call-them. Wasn't really a long visit, but fun.  

Neffie and I had quite the little "aww" moment when we got to the hotel - I started going through our suitcase to get stuff out and discovered... a toy mouse tucked down among the clothing. Our Ro-kitty has a tendency to sit forlornly inside suitcases and laptop cases whenever packing starts, as if he's hoping that one of these times he won't get forgotten at home. Apparently this time he felt we needed a little memento to bring along. <3

And the cabin was wonderful and relaxing, as always. Hard to believe that we've been going there for 21 years now.... A lot's changed over the years, but one thing hasn't: seems like every year, at least one thing has to break or otherwise Go Very Wrong. This year, we arrived to find that, among other things, the freezer was absolutely covered in nasty mold, the boat wasn't working, the stove wasn't working... and then the grill quit too. So things looked like being a bit of a potential disaster, possibly even one to rival the year when we were trying to clean the place without running water. But we got things sorted out in the end - except for the boat, but that was mostly okay anyway because there was much better fishing right off the dock than usual. So it was good. 

Among the things that did change were the friends and family that we visited, which was tough. One of the family friends we usually visit (who we've known since I was about three) did come to see us, but it may be the last time we see him for a long time because he and his new wife are moving to Florida. We didn't get to see my uncle at all, mostly because he just had cataract surgery and wasn't up for it. But the hardest was not seeing my great-aunt Helen, because she's almost certainly going to die any day now. And I just... will probably post something about that later, because right now I'm still in full-on avoidance mode and just trying not to think about it too much.

But. Happier note: it was a really good trip, and we had mostly great weather, and everyone had plenty of time to do whatever they wanted. So Nef and I swam almost every day, and she wrote a ton, and I read a ton, Mom scrapbooked and wrote, the guys golfed and fished, and we ate junk food and stayed up late and slept in, and all was good. *g*

We also went to see Avengers again while we were there! It was insanely hot on Saturday, the cabin doesn't have any kind of air conditioning (we're lucky to manage a few functioning fans), and we didn't feel like fighting with the Weekend Hordes for the lake (okay, it wasn't as busy as all that, but considering things are pretty much deserted during the week we'd rather do stuff when we had the place to ourselves). So we went to Avengers. And it was just as awesome the second time. \o/

Although I did notice one thing that's now driving me just slightly crazy. It was only on the second viewing that I realized that Hawkeye was shooting left-handed, which surprised me. At first I thought it might be an interesting and subtle way of showing another difference when he's being mind-controlled by Loki. But no, he shoots lefty afterward, during the final battle, as well. But... he shoots with his right hand in Thor. And I don't understaaaand, because if the actor is just left-eye dominant and/or more comfortable using his left hand, then why wouldn't he do it that way for both movies? But if it was a matter of conforming to the comics (no idea if comic-verse!Hawkeye is left- or right-handed)... then again, why not both movies? *flails* Okay, yes, Nef finds it hilarious that I'm bugged by this. But I think that I just need to watch the movie again, to see if the bow's design allows for ambidexterity. 

Ahem.

Anyhow! Now for my traditional commentary on the books I read while I was there!

( Books! Also, new puppy picture. :D )


Oh, and on a final note... Um, I have committed Avengers fanfic. I didn't intend to. I really, really didn't. But then I just happened to stumble across a prompt that went and took my brain hostage. So I had to write it. XD Anyhow, if you care to read it, it's posted here on AO3.

Okay, maybe it's technically impossible to actually hug a season. But boy, I sure do want to this year. *g*

Y'know those huge piles of ice and snow that accumulate over the winter from the plowing of parking lots and such? (Well, at least... in certain parts of the world they do. This is one of those parts. So if you're not familiar with them just imagine, if you will, very large heaps of compacted snow, ice, and dirt, and sand, and the occasional bits of trash. It's about the closest we get to mountains, around here.) I realized that, as of when we were in town Thursday... not all of them had finished melting yet. Srsly. But things are looking up, because... 

Spring! It looks like Spring! There are actual teeny little leaves on some of the trees, and visible buds on the others! And I've seen... *counts* I believe it's four varieties of flowers blooming, now. If you count the dandelions. Which, at this point, I totally do. ;) And the birds are going crazy! And the hummingbirds are back! And a falcon grabbed one of the redwing blackbirds off our feeder today, and hit our window in the process! Yeah, er, that one was interesting. *g* And... I do believe some otters have moved into our lake. \o/

Naturally, with all the spring-ness here at last, I'm finally starting to think June might actually get here for realz someday. And thus, starting to look forward to our yearly June trip to the cabin. And starting to gather together my reading lists for the trip. Last year, if I recall correctly, it was something like... fourteen books in ten days? At any rate, most years I finish approximately a book or two a day. It'd be kinda fun to see if I can get to twenty, one of these years. *g* Which, of course, means the traditional yearly request...

Anyone have some good book recommendations? 

My typical genres of choice tend to be Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but I'm definitely up for recommendations outside what I'd normally gravitate to, fiction or non-fiction.  (Loved your Western and Mystery recs from last year, cairistiona7! In the past I've thought that Westerns were one of the few genres that just held no real interest for me... but experience has taught me that all it really takes is the right book.<3) For this trip, I tend to gravitate toward mainly lighter reading - by which I mean, not overly dark/depressing, not a lot of major tragedies. I'm all for tougher reads/thicker books, though, not just fluff. (Though I usually bring some of that too. Ah Star Trek novels... I know you're rarely great writing, sometimes not even the best of fanfiction, but I do so enjoy you anyway. *g*) And even the whole "not too tragic" thing's just a general preference, not a hard and fast rule. ^.^   

So... thoughts, ideas, recommendations? All are much appreciated, and even if I don't get to them on this trip, I save the titles to look into at later dates. :3

 Lookit! I got myself a writing progress meter! 



Hehe, didn't do it earlier 'cause I kinda thought it'd wind up more depressing than motivating. But things are still moving along! I'm even ahead of schedule - a little. ^.^

And in the spirit of further motivating myself I have ordered the Prince of Egypt movie soundtrack. Because fun music is always inspirational, even if it has nothing whatsoever to do with what I'm writing. Plus, I found a copy of the CD in new condition from Alibris for six dollars - that's including shipping. Considering this is the same price as the Amazon download-only MP3 file, which might or might not work with my iPod? Oh yeah. 

I have also ordered rj_anderson's Wayfarer. I tend to be hesitant to buy hardcover copies of books unless I'm very sure that I'll like it (even then... usually wait for paperback), but I am sick of sitting around being frustrated by our library not having the books I want to read. So on cirtholien's assurance that it's at least as good as the first book, I went ahead and got it. This'll be... either my end-of-NaNo relaxation, or my halfway point reward, depending on how the writing goes. *g*