No More Dead Dogs

Relax, it's a book title.

One of my bookworms brought home a book that made me wonder if I needed to start monitoring the reading lists a little more closely. The cover alone was enough to raise an eyebrow and the synopsis I was given was "like, there's this guy that always tells the truth but it gets him in trouble so he hangs out with the drama club and changes everything. And the teacher writes memos."

Isn't that enough to pique your curiosity?

So I was up way to late last night reading "No More Dead Dogs" by Gordon Korman. I didn't mean to - it was late and I needed sleep and I thought "I'll just glance through it."

Famous last words.

"I knew Old Shep was going to die before I started page one," I said.

"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Mr. Fogelman. "How?"

I shrugged. "Because the dog always dies. Go to the library and pick out a book with an award sticker and a dog on the cover. Trust me, that dog is going down."

What a great read! It was completely worth the dark circles under the eyes this morning. I'm only surprised that there's no award sticker on the front of this book (SPOILER ALERT!) 'cause the dog doesn't make it...but you'll have to read it to figure out why that's okay. It's actually even quite funny.


(You can click on the cover to see more reviews, etc at Amazon if you're curious now too.)

Christmas?!!?

First let me say there's a potty-mouth warning today. I don't use profanity (unless Mom was right about that whole tone-of-voice/intention thing) but sometimes someone else has said it too well. And this one hit the nail on the head. Thanks, Rick, for sharing.

As I mentioned earlier, I am involved in a Christmas musical and mostly have kept it to background matters - literally and figuratively. I agreed to paint sets and was doing the photos for the poster and am in the choir. So far so good. Besides, I'm assembling a fine art exhibit that will be happening next month (stay tuned) and have a three-week art residency starting in a couple weeks at an area school.

But then a couple key people had to back out or cut back and it just happens to be in areas that I have a great deal of experience.

Nuts.

I'm happy to help but this week it's started to feel like a race to see whether the director or I end up developing a nervous tic first. Dickens in detox, that's us.

Does anyone else have this reaction to Christmas?

A couple more hike photos...

Check out "Hiking Roxy Ann" for more photos

Happy Thanksgiving, eh?

For those of you in Canada, Happy Thanksgiving!!










For those of you still looking ahead to Thanksgiving in the US, get in shape - turkeys run faster than you think!








(Clipart courtesy of FreeClipartNow.com)

At least it's digital...

I was going through some of my hike photos and being thankful (once again) for digital cameras. It reminded me of this great video a friend had on her blog. If I can figure out how I'll post it here for you too.




Hmm - that wasn't too hard!

Hiking Roxy Ann

Today we (in-laws, DH, young 'uns and I) hiked Roxy Ann, a mountain peak that has been standing outside my front door for over 7 years. It's probably been standing there a lot longer than that but my front door hasn't.

It's an interesting climb - the trail to the summit is about 1.5 miles but you gain well over 1000 feet in elevation as you hike to the top. And if you take the trail that SAYS its the way to the summit, it's closer to 3 miles to the top. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to hike 3 miles up and 1.5 miles back (by a shorter and more scenic trail) and even on a sunny day, the temps varied depending which side of the peak you were on. Mount Shasta, Mount Ashland and Mount McLaughlin in the distance all had coverings of frost and snow and the wind blowing in from them was brisk. The last stretch to the top was steep enough I wasn't sure my legs would make it and my ears popped a few times as we reached the 3500+-feet-above-sea-level summit. Yep, I'm a wimp but it was a beautiful afternoon.

I'll post photos from the hike later but for tonight I'm really quite tired...



Added 10/14/08...

The peak (from the beginning of the trail) -

The peak (from about the middle of the trail) -
The views...

Hats Off to...

You may remember that my in-laws were coming to visit and it has been great to have them here. But apparently today they were done relaxing.

And by some coincidence, I had a number of undone projects around the house. My MIL pulled weeds and battled rosebushes for the afternoon and completely filled the yard bin. My FIL painted the bit of hallway that has been hovering in a multi-colored testimony to the before and after sections of the addition we put on our house last summer. He also replaced a light fixture, a dud light switch and lit the pilot light on my fireplace. My MIL is threatening to sort out my youngest's room - a daunting task at best. I worked alongside too (honest) and I am feeling months ahead of myself just because they were willing to pitch in for a day.

On top of their hands-on support for the projects, they are hands-on grandparents as well. They've played and joked and walked and teased and created their Miis and generally spoiled the young 'uns rotten. Aren't they great?

So today it's Hats Off to the inlaws!