Weekly Wrap-up: June 27, 2010.

This has been yet another crazy week. I came out on Friday night absolutely exhausted from working 9 days in a row and having a few nights of restless sleep. I also was super busy on my two nights off dealing with the kittens we took in on Wednesday.

Both of them are adjusting well and seem to be bonding with both of our cats. Hemi, who is 3, was the last to come around. She really isn't a big fan of other animals on her turf, but she took to the kittens in only 2 days, which was a lot quicker than she did when we brought Sparty home. She is still a little wary, but its fun to watch her watching the kittens.

Sparty is in his glory. He is 6 months old now, so he almost full grown. But he is loving the fact that he has two new playmates to wrestle with and chase.

The first night the kittens were here was kind of horrible. Both of them were dehydrated and starving in addition to having fleas. Matt's sister Sarah, who is a vet tech, came over to check them out and confirmed that they were both girls. She helped me wash them and get rid of their fleas...which was a horrible experience. I have never felt so bad for an animal before. Especially the gray kitten, who was far more infested.

Since then, they have become more comfortable with us and even affectionate. However, when you reach out for one, they bolt, leading me to believe they were abused, which breaks my heart. But they are very comfortable with us now and love to cuddle.

The tiger looking one we have named "Lou," in honor of the guy who found her. Lou was originally going to keep her, but has asked us to find her a good home. She is super playful and pretty spunky. She actually reminds us a lot of Sparty when he was a little smaller. So, if you know of anyone in Southeast Michigan who would love to take her in, we are still looking for a good home for her!

The little gray one took my heart the moment I saw her, so we decided to keep her. After this, I don't think we can take in any more. And even though we love Lou just as much, we just can't keep both in our apartment.

I decided I wanted a literary name for her (to contrast Hemi and Sparty), and Matt shot down some of my other choices, so we decided on Lily, after the character Lily Bart in one of my all time favorite novels The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. She is a super sweet little kitten and I am love with her adorable little face.

But no more pets until we have a bigger place!

Anyway, moving on from the kittens, I have been feeling super under the weather the last few days. I spend almost all day today, except going to see Toy Story 3, in bed sleeping. I haven't felt like doing much, so our apartment is a huge mess as well. I am hoping I am not seriously ill, but I think it might be mono. One of the girls at work came down with it a month ago and a week before that we shared a drink at the bar. I have some of the symptoms so I am waiting to see what happens.

In reading news, I didn't get much accomplished. I was having a hard time getting into a few of the books I was reading, so I gave up and went on to a Wharton novel the same night we decided to keep Lily. I'm in the middle of The Glimpses of the Moon and loving it. I just wish I had more energy for reading!

I don't have big plans for this week except to get through The Inferno, but if I don't feel better, that might not happen.

Happy Reading!

Illness, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Sparty,

I have been feeling very under the weather since Sunday. When I am ill, I tend to get a little forgetful and scatterbrained. Matt might say I am like that all the time, but it gets pretty bad when I don't feel good.

I also get whiny and demanding, which Matt bore the brunt of last night when I made him go out and buy grape popsicles because my throat hurt at 11 at night.

But that is another story.

I have yet to start reading Slaughterhouse-Five since finishing The Shipping News late Sunday night. I have only managed to read a page or two before my mind wanders elsewhere. I last gave it a try yesterday afternoon. I set it down somewhere and this morning I could not find it anywhere. I also could not find Sparty (our kitten).

Matt had left this morning for class while I was still asleep and usually Sparty comes and cuddles with me once Matt is gone. But I could not find him, or my book, anywhere.

Then it dawned on me that the second bedroom door was closed. We use that bedroom as our office. I opened the door to find my book and Sparty in the same place.

(I should note here that our wall is covered with car posters, and the leopard print monstrosity is a Snuggie Matt "won" at work. So this picture is a whole lot of PAZAAM! in regards to color and pattern).

It seems as though Sparty found a great place to sleep and it was on top of my book. I did attempt to remove it, but Sparty got a little possessive of his new bed, so I let it be.

Needless to say, I am giving up on Slaughterhouse-Five fow now and I am reading something different.

The kitten wins...for now.

Sunday Salon: February 7, 2010.

While Matt is in the other room cuddling with the cats and watching the Super Bowl, I decided to sneak into the second bedroom, aka our "den," to write this quick little post of the week. It's how we do things. :)

I am not a big professional football fan. I mainly watch for the commercials. My two favorites this year were the Doritos commercial with the little boy teaching his mom's date a lesson, and the Dodge Charger commercial. Both were winners in my book. But I still don't like Doritos (I actually don't like any kind of chip), and I can't afford a Charger. So I guess those ads didn't fulfill their purpose, huh?

This has been a relatively decent week in reading. I am still behind in reviews (about a week or so), but I am slowly catching up. I don't like to post more than once a day, so I am trying to space out the posts I already have written. Hopefully it all evens out soon. I don't like being so far ahead. The pressure of not having a post written makes me read faster. Er. Not really. I just pretend it does.

Anyway, I managed to finish The Winter's Tale last Sunday night like I knew I would. I picked up The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain shortly after and managed to fly through it. I finished it Friday night. It was still just as good as I remembered. I started Washington Square by Henry James yesterday and I only have about 30 pages left, so it should get finished tonight.

I'm not really sure what I should read next. I've been more or less just staring at my shelves until a title pops out at me, but nothing is popping. I'm thinking I should read a romance (maybe Wuthering Heights?) seeing as it is February and all, but I don't know if I want to tackle that.

Well, I best go join the husband.

Happy reading everyone!

Sunday Salon: January 24, 2010

It simply amazes me how fast time goes! Over a month and half have gone by since I last wrote a Sunday Salon entry, but it doesn't feel like it. I suppose a lot has gone on in the last month and a half. I got married, went on my honeymoon, moved out of my parents' house, and have settled into life in the apartment.

This last week has been especially eventful in our house. Since getting back at the beginning of January, Matt and I have been searching high and low for a kitten. We already have an adult cat, Hemi, who has been with Matt nearly her entire life. She was found, abandoned, under his sister's front porch. His mom and sister helped bottle-feed her until she was old enough to eat normal food. She's probably never even seen another cat, seeing as her eyes were still closed when they found her!

Since moving to the apartment, Hemi has been lonely. There is a lot less hustle and bustle going on over here, so we decided she needed a buddy. But it is HARD to get your hands on a kitten! We tried Craigslist with no luck, then turned to Petfinder.com to search some local rescues. I was getting discouraged until Thursday afternoon when I stumbled on the cutest group of kittens. They had Star Wars names, so it was pretty much meant to be.

By the time we got to the shelter Friday morning, 2 had already been adopted, leaving us with the choice of Vader or Leia. We ended up bringing Vader home, and he is a spunky, mouthy little thing of 6 and a half weeks old and we are already in love with his precious little face. Hemi, on the other hand, was not to excited and starting hissing and growling immediately. After belatedly reading up on introducing cats to one another, we corrected out mistakes and isolated him, so she could dominate the house.

It must have worked. Tonight both of them were in the same room, playing and walking around with minimal hissing. I think in a few days they will be the best of friends and we'll find them cuddled up together.

We did change his name, to Spartacus, or Sparty for short. My college mascot is a Spartan and we both go up yearly for games and events, so we thought it fitting. As soon as he is less squirmy, I am sure he will end up in some pictures with books. He has already tried eating them, which I told him was definitely a NO.

Anyway, here is a picture of the little guy trying to climb up my leg:


He is a cutie, isn't he?


In book news, I have been working on trying to catch-up on the backlog of books I have. There are only 2 more books to review and discuss before my current novel. Look for entries on Ethan Frome and Sons and Lovers in the next few days. I don't like being behind, but it does give me more material to write more often!

I have also been trying to get back into the habit of reading every night before bed. It has been difficult to keep up that good habit in the last 6 months or so. I have been so busy with wedding planning and moving that reading took a far back seat. It is time to shift some other things around to make room for reading as a priority. Even if I don't have as much "me" time anymore, I still need to make an effort to continually read.

I'm halfway through my current book, The Dollmaker, and I have a lot to say about it already. It is definitely a chunker of a book, at over 600 pages. Even more difficult is the dialogue. While I love when authors make their characters sound like the region they're from with phonetic spellings of words, it makes my brain work a little harder, making my reading pace slow down. Oh well, I still enjoy it and my brain needs the work out.

Anyway, the goals for this week are these:

1. Write and post reviews for Ethan Frome
2. Write and post reviews for Sons and Lovers
3. Finish reading The Dollmaker
   
4. Write and post reviews for The Dollmaker
5. Read a new Shakespeare play; perhaps The Winter's Tale?

I think those are all perfectly doable. Let's hope for a good week of solid reading, yeah?

Happy reading everyone!

Oh! And one last thing! I have a new poll up and would appreciate you voting! Have at it!