I Promised Carl a "good stuff" Post.

Books are always good stuff… therefore: This is a photo of the three books I sent for with my birthday Amazon gift cert.

Fablehaven by Brendon Mull (book 5) the final edition to a fun series.

The Bone Magician by F.E.Higgins I got this thanks to Becky who listed it as one of her possible reads for Once Upon a Time.

Secret of the Dragon by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This is book 2 of a new trilogy from Dragonlance . When Weis and Hickman get together to write Dragonlance books, there are no better writers!

The books arrived today in the mail.. this is “good stuff”.

I am admitting to you, that I am a pessimist and between that and depression, I don’t see all the “good stuff” others see.  But when it’s a big one.. well that’s hard to NOT see.  …. and a few days ago I had “a big one”.

As some of you know I am of an age where I have to doctor more then some.  I have herniated disks in my low back, a pinched nerve in my right shoulder that even the chiropractor doesn’t seem to be able to get to, and sciatica problems on my left side… needless to say I live with pain all the time.. some days are worse than others.

So (as the story goes) I also have a bone in my right foot that began to hurt badly and I went to a foot doctor.  He said it’s either deformed or a spur (top of my foot not the bottom).  He puts a needle into it filled with Cortizon and gave me a prescription to get Naproxen which is an anti-inflammatory med.  I got it and came home.  I am to take 2 pills a day..it was late in the day so I took the first pill.  By the time I went to bed nothing seemed to have changed.  Then it happened……..

I fell asleep. …and stayed asleep (something I never do).  When I woke I immediately noticed two things:  one was that I could tell I never moved all night long (also something that NEVER happens)  ..and the second was I thought I didn’t feel pain.  I remained motionless.  I didn’t want to move.  I couldn’t remember the last time I didn’t feel pain.

BooBoo finally made me move and I sat up.  I turned my neck back and forth, it creaked and cracked loudly as always…. but I didn’t feel pain.

I stood up, and bent down to get socks…. and I didn’t feel pain in my back!

I sat on the bed in the dark and cried.  It was a good hard cry.

The entire day I was pain free.  Something I haven’t felt in 15 yrs!  It was a glorious day!  I was afraid for it to end.  …but end it did.  The following 3 days the pain has returned but still not near as much as before.  I know when I go off of the anti-inflammatory meds it will come back…

It has been a double edged sword.   On one hand ..it was glorious!.. on the other it was only for a day and odds are it will never happen again… but I ‘ll take it!

That was a big “good stuff”..

A totally unexpected, good stuff…

My back is hurting again but the full pains are not back yet…and I still have a vivid memory of a whole day pain free….! 

I am already back to waking many times during the night and the sciatica paining whenever I lay down….I wonder why it helped it so much with one pill but then on 2 a day it’s coming back slowly.?  Ah well..

So that’s it Carl… that was a biggie for me!! I couldn’t not see that it was “good stuff” even if I were blind!

From bigger then big.. to smaller then small………..

A tiny two finger stroke on the chest now and then…that has to be good stuff too!

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A Moment in Time

Sometimes… something small and minor, …..something you have seen before, suddenly transports you to another place… another world.. another time.

I was walking around the pond as I have more times then I care to say.  I looked down at the base of one of the Bald Cypress trees and saw this:

 

It’s the same at the base of all of them.. roots that come out of the ground and have been cut back so that no one will trip..

But for whatever reason, this time I looked down and my mind quickly took me to a forest.  I’m sure it was one I remember from all of the books I’ve read, for many of them have forests in the stories.  I don’t know which forest it took me to but for a brief moment I wasn’t here…. I was there…

….and oh how I wanted to stay. 

Now all I need is to see a dragon flying around in the sky and that will be all she wrote!

Meanwhile the BooBoo Kitty just thinks I’ve gone over the edge..

 

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The Enchantment Emporium

The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: DAW Hardcover; 1 edition (June 2, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0756405556

From Publishers Weekly

Thoughtful and leisurely, this fresh urban fantasy from Canadian author Huff (Valor’s Trial) features an ensemble cast of nuanced characters in Calgary, Alberta. Headstrong young museum research assistant Allie Gale takes over her missing grandmother’s titular junk-shop, which is supposedly crucial to the local community. When Allie arrives to find a leprechaun, a monkey’s paw and a magic mirror, she realizes her grandmother didn’t mean the human community. After spotting low-flying dragons and other UnderRealm creatures in the neighborhood, Allie calls on the help of her powerful family of modern, benevolent Toronto witches, who attempt to visit via a spacetime-spanning Wood until something shadowy begins pushing them out in inconvenient locales like Haiti. Fantasy buffs will find plenty of humor, thrills and original mythology to chew on, along with refreshingly three-dimensional women in an original, fully realized world.

Gads … If I were an author I wouldn’t give me your book to read right now.  I have no idea what my problem is but lately the books I pick up take me forever to read and now, twice in a row, there were times in a book when I wasn’t sure what the heck was going on!

This story starts our throwing me for a loop.  (please remember I am horrible ate remembering names of people/characters)  So right away they toss out so many names (main characters and sub characters *all the aunties*) that I am lost, lost, lost.

So when the story really begins, which is when Allie takes over her grandmothers junk-shop, and introduces more characters… well.. I really felt like I didn’t know who or even “what” the characters were or where this was going.

Eventually I caught on to the story (which was very good and I felt very original) and my reading picked up a little, but not a whole lot but that’s just because my reading has come to a crawl.

So.. to me the bad side was too many characters to remember (and me a character driven person!..so it has to deal with poor memory on my part) and the fact that, either I missed something important, or they never really said what these people were.  I don’t want to extend on that in case I missed it in the beginning.

The last third of the book I enjoyed quite a bit so those of you with better memory than mine (and that would be most of you!) would more then likely enjoy the whole book rather then half of the book.  I am sure If I reread the book now, I would enjoy much more of it… but that’s for another time.

It would not be like me not to include an small excerpt from the book and for those of you who know me you will immediately see why I chose this one. 

“As Mr Spock said, in what as undeniably the best of the movies…”

“Kay has a Ricardo Mantalban fixation,” on the the older aunties interrupted.

“Lovely man,” Auntie Kay agreed.  “Amazing pecs.  May his should be at peace.” She frowned. “Where was I?”

Graham want to kiss the corner of Allie’s mouth where it curled up, fighting a smile.

“The needs of the  many…” Auntie Muriel sighed, waving a knitting needle.

“..outweigh the needs of the one. Of course.  Had you killed the boy, we wouldn’t have needed to come to Calgary to save the world.”

This completes “The Journey”…

Now on to Quest the First…

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Bread Anyone?

The one Moorhen is beginning to think they will get bread several times a day!..  I took some photo’s of my son feeding them.. last time he was here the babies were so small they didn’t leave “gilligans island”.. an now they travel around the pond edges all day long..

Here’s mama racing up for the bread..

..woo hoo I got the picture just when she grabbed the bread~

…and here she is about to turn and run with the bread back to the babies.

“well, maybe just one more piece of bread!”  (note the other adult in the water and one of the babies )

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Ok, Here’s the thing…

I looked out yesterday and saw the Egret was back!!! (he’s not been around much all winter) He was calmly walking and looking and looking and walking when all of a sudden he flaps his wings and looks like he fell into the water!…………

…but.. he came up with a Mullet! heh..

Then I went out to feed the Moorhens.. and I’ve found if I stay low to the ground and not tear off bread for them to grab and run they will pull a tiny piece at a time off of the slice and while they do that one of them lets me get away with stroking his chest!!!!! (she feels like satin!)  I did it again today so I guess she doesn’t mind. (he? she? dunno which is which)

 

 

Then last night I had another treat… I saw that HBO was going to show Einstein and Eddington! I knew this was a small series in England and one of the stars was Andy Serkis, who is such a wonderful character actor .. I  really like him! (it helps he was so sweet to talk to when I met him at a convention too).. anyway.. I was thrilled to see this!

…but not thrilled to find out that it is only out in PAL dvd format, so I cant add it to my Andy Serkis movies   :o(

..he was a great Einstein!!

 

And then there was today!… today my sister in law came over with my son Tom for us to go to lunch and my daughter in law happen to be in town on business and came with us too!..

..it was my b’day ..Kath and my other son George gave me something they know I love: an Amazon gift card LOL…oh yeah.. it’s already spent! hahahaha. (thank you Kath and George!)

 

(and I DO NOT DO b’days!)..but we went to Olive Garden for soup and salad..(lunch was a present from my sister in law Pat).. it was all very nice, very nice in deed. (thank  you again Pat!)

Oh..yeah.. there is one more thing… (saved the “best for last”).. my son gave me…. CADET MCCOY!!!!  lol.. I don’t generally collect the dolls.. but hey.. it’s Karl Urban! What’s not to like? lol lol  He said when he saw it  he laughed and got it for his 66 yr old mother.. don’t all old farts want a Karl Urban doll?.. the kid knows me well LOL LOL.

So it was two days with neat things happening.. the egret gets the fish, I get to pet the Moorhen, then get to go to lunch with my sister in law (Pat), daughter in law (Kath) and my son (Tom)… whew.. now I will sleep for 2 days from all the activity!

So how was your day?

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Anticipation..

One might well wonder how someone who has over 100 books in her TBR pile could possible get excited over more books (and movies) that haven’t even come out yet! 

If someone knows the answer please let me know!

Chris, from Stuff as Dreams are Made On,wrote about his excitement waiting for new books to be released and I thought I would copy his idea and give you my list ….

There are a few books coming out that I look forward too and I don’t know how to break the vicious cycle long enough to get the tbr pile under control !  And we won’t mention the “m” word (money)

So.. with that said here are a few things I am looking forward to:

The first is a movie.. April 22nd  Avatar comes out on DVD!!! 

   I’ve seen it twice but I can’t wait to have it here to watch it more!!!  How I can sit for 3 hours and have it NOT seem like 3 hrs is beyond me.  I am very glad that I now have a wide screen tv to watch it on!!

Next up is a YA series that I  have gotten hooked on…from the very beginning each book of the series, The Secret Life of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel,  just gets better and better!  I really loved the last book “the Sorceress” so I cannot wait for the Necromancer to come out!! (release date: May 25)

   I just want to thank Michael Scott for such enjoyable writing!! He did his homework and it shows!

Then there is  Laurie R King.  What can I say? I have enjoyed each and every book she’s written about Mary Russell and her famous husband Sherlock Holmes!.. I am more then delighted that a new book will be released soon!   The God of the Hive .(release date: April 27)

I saw this next book at Becky’s blog.. the book cover intrigued me and I checked it am Amazon and the Bone Magician went directly to the wish list!   (some of the books I am anticipating are already released)

The House on Darrow Street by Galen Beckett.  There’s not even a cover to show  yet! This will be the followup book to the Magicians & Mrs Quent.  (release date: Sept 28)

… and here comes Brandon Mull once again with yet another book in the Fablehaven series! Keys to the Demon Prison, book 5!  This one was just released! 

I have not read any of Robin Hobbs books yet  .. yet.

This one , Dragon Keeper, looks like something I would like, I’m just not sure if it’s something I can read as a first book of hers or if I need to read others first for background and such?.  But it has peeked my interest! (just released)

Ah.. well now… Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman combined with “Dragonlance”.. I’m not sure they can ever go wrong!  Now comes book 2 of their new trilogy, Secret of the Dragon!  (just released)

As I made my rounds checking blogs not long ago I discovered that Carlos Ruiz Zafon (author of Shadow of the Wind and The Angels Game) has a new book, the Prince of Mist,  due to be released May 4th.  His other two books were excellent reads so I have high hope this one will be too!

There are a few other authors I have enjoyed  and wish that they would come out with their next books but so far, I think this is it! 

So are you anticipating any new books??

( Some people try to turn back their odometers.  Not me, I want people to know “why” I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way and some of the roads weren’t paved.)

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Hi-biscus, Bloomin’ Roses, & Chicks

The Hibiscus are blooming outside of my sliding doors..

The color must appeal to me because I just finished a new afghan (note the colors)

From real Hibiscus to crochet “roses”..  the latest afghan…

 

Changing subjects……

And then there were Four…

George and Gracie have the babies all over the pond now… but the count has gone down another number.. now there are only 4.

I don’t know how it happens.. it sure isn’t lack of “parental care”!…

They finally have learned “follow the leader”…

When I come near them now I don’t even have time to crouch down before both parents come running towards me for their bread!  It’s too funny… they pretty much ignore me until they have babies and then it turns into “hell has no fury like Moorhens wanting to feed the babies!” lol

But no matter what happens outside or inside, Boo always lets me know one little fact:  “It’s good to be king!”

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