Happy Birthday to Me!

Soon after my breast cancer surgeries, my husband booked a cruise. He said it was something to look forward to. It was to ports we've been to before but it was a new ship and we were both looking forward to it.

We were supposed to be leaving today.

So, my brother and I have cabin fever. My dad asks if we're still in lock down most every day. The stroke victim is the one that remembers what day it is, mostly. They've all blurred together for me. In fact, if my calendar reminder about the cruise hadn't popped up yesterday, I would have forgotten my birthday!

Except my husband didn't. My laptop is old enough (it's 10!) that Apple won't service it and my hard drive is dying. Everyday I wonder if it is the last day. He got me another one. We did try a Chrome book but I left it at home when I first came over, after all it was only for two weeks. I've got to order a new mouse and an adapter for my external drive but my next post should be on my new laptop.

Stay safe.

Staying at home but not at Home

Our caregiver is not coming so while I'm following the stay at home orders, my current home is my dad's. My brother Tim and I are taking care of Dad.

Good news? We're healthy.

Bad news? Getting a little paranoid.

Hang in there everyone, stay away from everyone.

Just a Thought . . .

We have a camera set up in my dad's bedroom. I actually caught him just before he fell out of bed! While I'm sad about his lack of privacy, I'm glad I don't have to actually sit in his room all night.

I think back to being a new parent standing over a crib watching my child breath. Now, I watch the camera's feed on my phone, waiting for my dad to move, even just a little, so I know he's okay.

good news bad news

My treatments are over and I'm now at a monthly shot and daily pill. That's the good news. The bad news is that my dad had a stroke.

He was driving on a Friday and had a stroke sometime Saturday morning.

So I'm now trying to figure out my RL, still sucked into fanfiction, and being weekend graveyard caregiver for my dad. My brother who is living the closest is out of town on a job (wild fire team coordinator) so I've moved into his place to be closer. Luckily the siblings/dad can afford a part-time caregiver or I'd never make it!

All thoughts of talking to/with you at least weekly after treatment has flown the coop. I hope you enjoy whatever challenges you signed up for and have a GREAT reading year. I'm crossing my fingers that I can post challenges for 2020 but right now it doesn't look good.

Gina, a book dragon
because books are a treasure worth protecting

Wow, February already?

I spent the first part of January doing laundry and shopping and the last part of January on a cruise. Fourteen mostly beautiful days. We did have to sail through storms off the coast of California and they were ROUGH! Hawaii was wonderful and I learned I need to fly over and spend more time at each island. No way is a partial day enough.

Now I fully understand what my Mom was going though before her knee surgery. She went through drawers and closets clearing this out. I have surgery scheduled for Monday. It's out patient but I'll still be put under for it. I'm still going to leave a note on my keyboard. There wasn't time to go through drawers and closets. I'm truly hoping to be back soon after but give me a month to get my brain working again.

I bought two books while in Hawaii and even visited the State Library. I can hardly wait to tell you about it.

Hugs to all - go read a romance this month ;-)

Gina

January's Books Read

Main page

~ January ~

1. 204 - Put a Ring on It by K. A. Mitchell  (Mania)
2. 48 - The Adventure of the Gloria Scott by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
3. 165 - Alone for Christmas by Ashley John  (Mania)
4. 32 - Lost Cat by Roger Mader  (Mania)
5. 227 - Wish by Barbara O'Connor 
6. 266 - Buried Passions by Aiden Bates  (Mania)
7. 272 - Adrenaline Rush by Aiden Bates  (Mania)
8. 40 - Gertrude and Toby Meet the Wolf by Shari Tharp  (Mania)
9. 149 - Screw Santa by Joyee Flynn 
10. 143 - Hell's Bells by Joyee Flynn
11. 141 - Stupid Mistletoe by Joyee Flynn 
12. 145 - Tristan by Joyee Flynn  (Mania)
13. 282 - Borrowing Blue by Lucy Lennox  (Mania)
14. 183 - The Road Home by Elsa Winters, Brad Vance  (Mania)
15. 142 - Carson by Joyee Flynn  (Mania)  
16. 70 - Dare You To by Riley Hart  (Mania)
17. 146 - Edric by Joyee Flynn  (Mania)
18. 145 - Lennox by Joyee Flynn  (Mania)
19. 142 - Dewey by Joyee Flynn 
20. 142 - Vencentio by Joyee Flynn  (Mania)  
21. 26 - The Musgrave Ritual by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
22. 143 - Wesley by Joyee Flynn 
23. 144 - Brody by Joyee Flynn  (Mania)
24. 150 - Romance Omega Style by Joyee Flynn  (Mania)
25. 48 - The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
26. 149 - Sampson by Joyee Flynn  (Mania)
27. 162 - Baptista by Joyee Flynn  (Mania)
28. 204 - A Taste of Love by Andrew Grey  (Mania)
29. 176 - Mighty Men with Weapons by Addison Avery  (Mania)
30. 200 - Shiny! by Amy Lane  (Mania) 
31. 36 - Do-over by Amy Lane 
32. 37 - The Adventure of the Yellow Face by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
33. 204 - Fish Stick Fridays by Rhys Ford  (Mania)
34. 230 - Clear Water by Amy Lane  (Mania)
35. 266 - Omega's Kiss by Aiden Bates  (Mania)
36. 69 - Monsters Don't Scuba Dive by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones  (Mania)

  (Mania) = used for Monthly Mix-up Mania
I think I read something between Dare You To and Edric 16/17 but can't find it.

~ Books read in January: 36 ~

~ Pages read in January: 5,328 ~

Number of Print books: 4
Number of ebooks: 32
Number of audio books: 0
List of genres: 

~ Book/Reading Goals ~

Read and review at least one review book
Review at least one other book
Read one book from my dusty TBR pile
Read one book from my current TBR pile
Read one book from my ebook TBR pile
Read at least one library book
Read at least two children's books (12 and under) [1-Wish] [2-Monsters Don't Scuba Dive]
give away two books


 . . . blogging and real life goals have changed for January and February. Not sure about March

~ Blogging Goals ~

Am hosting EIGHT reading challenges this year!
Will need to say hi to everyone by end of March
Visit at least twice more during the year

Happy Monday - Mailbox and list of what was read
Terrific Tuesday - 1st Paragraph Intros and Teaser
Wednesday - WWW Wednesday
Purrsday - Cat Thursday and Purrs-day
Finally Friday - Friday 56, running/real life
Saturday - Shelf-ies, Quotes and Cozy

~ Real Life Goals ~

RUN! 1,000 miles the 2,017
Strength train
Keep uncluttering - not sure how much of my stuff will get done, I'm busy helping my Dad with all of Mom's stuff


Mileage:
Strength workouts:
Uncluttering victories:

Finally Friday

And I'm going to start having a couple of memes on Friday. To start, just the one but I hope to add Fitness Friday/Real Life stuff too. Friday 56 will be first so you can skip the other stuff if you want to. ;-)

The Friday 56

hosted at Freda's Voice

#Friday56

Rules:

• Grab a book, any book.
• Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that's ok.)
• Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it)
• Post it.
• Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url.

*It's that simple.

The tall man said, "The way of the world is to bargain. But we're not buying camels. So our answer is simple." 

The messenger inclined his head again, and turned it a little, as if presenting his ear.

The tall man said, "Tell the American we will pay his price."

Night School by Lee Child

 - just started so I haven't read 56 yet plus it's the end of the chapter.
Maybe if I tell it's a Jack Reacher novel this will make more sense ;-)

edit: whoa, on page 22 is says that the American wants one hundred million!

~*~*~

I'm not even sure what week I need to tell you about. The week after the cruise? Laundry, some cleaning, didn't make my mileage goals.

I started this week less than a 5k (3.1 miles) away from my next hundred mile goal. Husband was going out of town so I figured I could knock out the 5k on the first day and get two more in on the next two days.

Except, I didn't go Monday. Then Tuesday morning I waited until after he left and my knee hurt a bit. No bigger. I'll take it easy today and be right as rain tomorrow.

Nope. Wednesday saw me hobbling around and in more pain.

Thursday I was still hobbling but I got a dinner invitation from my MIL so I went. My SIL and a niece were there too! Then a trip to the library and Target before heading home. Gosh, I even went to bed before Midnight! Husband made it home okay.

I woke up in tears sometime Friday morning and couldn't get comfortable. It was the potty stop that did me in. The 90 degree angle had me wanting to scream.

Son was up so he took me to ER. The Doc was able to rule out some stuff, including any kind of crack/break after xrays. I've got crutches, a knee brace and pain meds O_o plus an appointment with orthopedic in December.

My planned December break may happen sooner because of pain. Or not at all because I can't walk around!

Have a great week!

copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2016

Finally Friday . . . picture heavy

And I'm going to start having a couple of memes on Friday. To start, just the one but I hope to add Fitness Friday/Real Life stuff too. Friday 56 will be first so you can skip the other stuff if you want to. ;-)

The Friday 56

hosted at Freda's Voice

#Friday56

Rules:

• Grab a book, any book.
• Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that's ok.)
• Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it)
• Post it.
• Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url.

*It's that simple.

After Lucas had broken up with her two nights ago, she’d been down in the dumps. She couldn’t wait until he got back to Australia so she could have a long talk with him. He’d said he wasn’t after a relationship, but she bet that was just an excuse. She was sure that what made him distance himself was her forcing him onto Thomas Bilton— a man Lucas didn’t trust yet.

The Unwilling Executive by Miranda P. Charles

ebook, 56%

~*~*~

So I was gone a week, went on a cruise, so I'm playing catch up with chores, reading, and blogging.

Week of Sunday, October 30. Halloween! We usually go to our church where they have trick 'n treats in the parking lot but this year we went on a cruise and Monday was boarding day. Lots of people dressed in costume or at least Halloween themed clothes. My husband included. I didn't think of it but I really only have one t-shirt and I'm not sure how it fits.

We spent Monday night out at sea. Far enough into International Waters that they could open the casino ;-) then headed in to Catalina Island for Tuesday. I didn't see the seagull, at least he's in the water not across the land. The round building on the right is the old casino. It's a beautiful Art Deco building. When we walked over to it, there were ads for a theatre group as well as concerts and behind-the-scene tours.

We also went to the library while we were on Catalina. The funny thing is that the Catalina Island library is part of the county system at my house so they were able to look up my info so I could check out a book. Of course I did! Susan Mallery's The Girls of Mischief Bay.

We went to one of the comedian shows Tuesday night and a "live" game show called Hasbro. I didn't take pictures but it was fun and the winner got three pocket games and a $150 gift card for the Hasbro store.

Wednesday was spent in Ensenada! These are the shops right at the port. It's a bit of a walk to get into town and we didn't feel like it this time. This is the view right out of our window, we could almost jump down ;-)

We did spend time on the treadmills this day. My husband won a trivia contest. Again! This is the only day I missed eating breakfast with him.

Thursday was a "Day at Sea". I'm sure a lot of people spent the time by the pool but we went to 3 comedian shows (one was PG-13 and 2 were more adult), a love and marriage game show (FUNNY), and a Harry Potter related quiz and I only got 4 out of 20 right. O_o I've got to make sure to re-read them before our next cruise ;-)

We missed the productions put on by the crew we'll need to be more careful next time, a couple of the comedian shows were repeats. 

view from the treadmill

Monday afternoon to Friday breakfast we had 24/7 access to food. True it was ice cream and pizza at 3 a.m. but it was still food. I lost 2 pounds. :-)

The cruise ship also had a fitness center and I was able to use the treadmill two of the days. For some reason, they weren't that busy ;-) I tried to use the jogging track but the cigar guys found it first. Not only was it stinky, there were 7 of them!

As for my sleep? Still messed up but my alarm went off at 9:30 and knowing M was waiting for me to eat, I was able to get up and ready. My blood sugar numbers were great, especially considering all the food and desserts available. We added up my fitbit miles, which includes the treadmill workouts, and I walked over 22 miles that week. Guess I'll repeat that this week and see what happens.

Have a great week!

copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2016

2017 Reading Goals

I'll get some cute pictures and will probably adjust the goals in the coming weeks but I need to get this out there where I'll see it.

Every Month
Read and review at least one review book
Review at least one other book
Read one book from my dusty TBR pile
Read one book from my current TBR pile
Read one book from my ebook TBR pile

Okay, that's 5 books each month. How many can you make challenge books?

edit: read at least one library book
and two children's books (12 and under)

Add to that . . . .

join to advertise but don't stress about reading challenges
maybe join fewer reading challenges - yeah, that didn't work!
April's A to Z
need posting goals too

Am hosting EIGHT reading challenges this year!
Will need to say hi to everyone by end of March
Visit at least twice more during the year

Posting Goals
Happy Monday - Mailbox and list of what was read
Terrific Tuesday - 1st Paragraph Intros and Teaser
Wednesday - WWW Wednesday
Purrsday - Cat Thursday and Purrs-day
Finally Friday - Friday 56, running/real life
Saturday - Shelf-ies, Quotes and Cozy
(yikes)


IRL
keep with the uncluttering
RUN!
keep strength training
give away two books every month

Okay, that's all I got for right now.

edit: 2,017 miles is too far for me to run by myself, I was going to go for half that and found this: 1000 mile challenge. Yea, I can go for this one! Still signed up for Run the Year

copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2016