The 30 Day Blog. In 30 Days or More.

Day 1- your favorite song
Day 2- your favorite movie
Day 3- your favorite television program
Day 4- your favorite book
Day 5- your favorite quote
Day 6- 20 of my favorite things
Day 7- a photo that makes you happy
Day 8- a photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 9- a photo you took
Day 10- a photo taken over 10 years ago of you
Day 11-a photo of you recently
Day 12- something you are OCD about
Day 13- a fictional book
Day 14- a non-fictional book
Day 15- your dream house
Day 16- a song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17- an art piece (drawing, painting, sculpture)
Day 18- my wedding/ future wedding
Day 19- a talent of yours
Day 20- a hobby of yours
Day 21- a recipe
Day 22- a website
Day 23- a youtube video
Day 24- where i live
Day 25- your day in great detail
Day 26- your week in great detail
Day 27- my worst habit
Day 28- what's in my handbag/purse
Day 29-hopes, dreams, and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30- a dream for the future.

Yeah, so I stole this from dawn, so what.

Autumn

Autumn is my favorite time of year. If winter didn't have freezing temps, horrible weather conditions and was basically more like fall; I would like winter a whole lot more too, but it is fall that i look forward to every year.

I love the leaves changing, the colder weather, outdoor activities, such as apple picking, and hiking. The cool nights that bring nice sleeping temps, sunny crisp days that make you want to be outdoors to enjoy the few perfect days our state offers.

Some things I would like to do this fall is:

-to go on a long drive when the trees start to change color, just to drive around for the day on back roads around the St. Croix river exploring and looking at all the different colors.

-Go apple picking a couple of times before the season is over. I love apples from the orchard. They are so much better than from the store. Plus they have the nice gooey apple cinnamon bread at the orchard too.

-Get to the zoo after the leaves change colors.

-Go to the Autumn Festival Craft show at Canterbury Park Nov. 11-14. This is a huge! Craft show that literally takes all day to attend. I go every year.

-Attend the Chocolate: The Exhibit at the Mn Historical Museum on Oct 2. Mmmmm. Exhibit includes chocolate history back to Mayan and Aztec times through today.

That's all I can think of so far, but I know my list will grow.

I Gots One!

So back in 2009 I wrote this post about how I really wanted a Nook, the new e reader from Barnes and Noble. Well I didn't know how I was ever going to afford one. At that time they were 259$. Then they dropped in price to 199$ and came out with a new Wi-Fi version for only 149$. This seemed more manageable... I could do this. I could save that much...maybe. Well one day it got to be too much. I just needed one. So, with some money I had saved, and some money I got from selling some movies and books to a used book store in my area (this almost cut the cost of my Nook in half) I was able to get one!

I love it! Reading on it is so smooth, I can carry so many books, buy books whenever I want to. If I suddenly think about a book I want I just buy it, or add it to my ewish list. I can't tell you the many times I was driving home late from school and I knew that the store was closed and I would want to stop and pick up a book, and now I don't have to!!!

I pre-ordered a book, and the morning it was released i got up and it was right there on my Nook, no getting up, getting dressed and trudging down to the bookstore to buy a copy. I feel treasonous as I write this, as I am a bookseller, but the convenience just cant be beat! Plus, my new cover makes it uber cute!*

*(cover shown above is my new cover)

Here I Go Again.

After a year off, I have returned to school. I have figured it out and if I take my regular 2 classes a semester I will graduate at the end of next fall's semester. It doesn't seem like it can come fast enough, but at the same time it seems like this part of my life (schooling) shouldn't really be done yet. I know right...YET! i have only been getting a four year degree for the last 7 years of my life, how long do I think I can make this last? However, this has become all I know now, and I have always hated change to my life.

This semester I am taking Shakespeare, and The Publishing and Commerce of Books, Yesterday and Today. The second on is online and I took it as my last elective, and so I wouldn't have to drive to the campus this semester:)

I am excited about my Shakespeare class, on the surface it looks pretty easy, 2 essays, one analytical, and one research. My two favorite kinds.

Next semester I am going to take my Capstone course, which is like your big, final, prove you have learned something in your disciple course, before they will let you graduate. My friend Julie is also an English major, and one of our favorite teachers is going to be teaching the Capstone next semester, we are so signing up for that class. Then I just have three of my required classes left and I will be finished.

At this point, it may change as i get into the semester, i just want to complete the work. I am not so concerned about doing everything perfectly anymore. Just keeping my gpa above the necessary line, but not killing myself is going to be my goal to start out!

Tastes of summer.

To me there are certain foods that mean summer to my taste buds. It is not that I can only eat them in summer, but they evoke memories of summers past and they just trigger summer memories.

A ripe watermelon, the perfect tomato, a juicy strawberry, a ripe peach, food off of the grill, potato salad, scotcharoos, lemonade, and homemade ice cream.

Like I said these things are not limited to just summer, though some are ripe in the summer, but some were served at summer picnics when I was young, family get togethers during summer, and summer birthdays. They have come to represent the taste of summer to me. The picture above is probably the best tomato I have ever tasted! I am sad that it is all gone.

Devil Of A Car.

The other day was just kind of a mess. It was the Tuesday that my dad ended up in the hospital. I woke up with the whole day in front of me and nothing much to do except clean out my car (inside and out) hardcore. Then at about 730 am my mom comes rushing into my room with a horrible look on her face telling me that she needed help, dad had fallen again.
Thus started the trip to the hospital that lasted until about 130 I believe. You can read about that here.
After we got back home, I still felt I had plenty of time to clean out my car and shouldn't really waste the rest of the day. So, I changed clothes and took off to the closest Holiday station that had both a car wash and a vacuum. I was just about done vacuuming out my car (including the back-i have a wagon) and I had shut the doors and the back hatch when I heard all the locks repeatedly lock -click click click click click! Now, this had been happening on and off for a couple of weeks but never on it's own like this. It was always triggered by me pushing the button inside the car or hitting the button on my key fob. This time it went off and locked itself with my keys, purse, and phone inside of it!
After cursing at the car for a while, I went into the Holiday station and used their phone to call my mom to bring me my extra keys. After my mom stopped laughing at me...she looked around and couldn't find my keys. I told her to just come and get me and i would look for my keys at home. As soon as I got back in to the apartment I remembered where my extra keys were! They were in my PURSE! In my CAR! Not helpful. So then I had to call AAA (thanks Jess!). I called them and they asked me for my AAA member number! I told them it was in my PURSE! Which was in my CAR! They said that was okay and looked me up using my name and came 30 minutes later and unlocked my possessed car.
So, my chore that should not have taken very long took about 2 hours longer, but boy my car is clean.

Is It August Yet?

While all the other months of this year have flown by, the month of July has just kinda dragged. Now I am not complaining that my summer is taking a while to pass, but I have some cool stuff planned for August that I am excited for!
The first two weeks of my August are jam packed with zoo visits, family parties, friend parties, and more. Then the end of August brings a potential balloon ride (DON'T JINX IT!!), the fair (which I love), and unfortunately school, and maybe more Zoo! While July was not as bad as some of the first months of the year (DON'T JINX IT!!) I am still excited for the approach of August and all it has to hold. It will hopefully bring with it some cooler weather also.