Currently reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Infinite Home. Picked up 5 books from the library (Fates and Furies, Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Norther Michigan Farm, American Salvage, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Mothers, Tell Your Daughter) and if you can’t tell from the titles, I’m getting prepared for my winter reading challenge. I also got two books from NetGalley. GIVE ME ALL THE BOOKS!!!

Thanks to everyone who joined me and Steph for Show Us Your Books! We have a bonus edition coming your way on December 29 and the next regularly scheduled one will be January 12, 2016.

For those who asked, the criminal justice book I read for work is Cold Serial: The Jack the Strangler Murders by Brian Forschner. You can buy it from Amazon or his website (where you can also learn about the crimes, see pictures, and other cool shit)

SERIAL STARTED AGAIN THIS WEEK!!! Did you listen? To say I am intrigued by this story would be an understatement.

Finished my first Whole30. Lost just about 10 pounds, a few inches, and learned a ton. Will be sharing my experience next week.

My daughter turns 9 on Sunday. NINE. How is that even possible? I mean, I am filled with crazy amounts of gratitude because I hit the kid jackpot with this one but still. She’s 9. We had her friends party last weekend and four of her friends slept (I use this word loosely. VERY loosely) at our house. We had a popcorn bar for them. If you plan to do this, make sure you have 80 billion bags of Gummi Bears because that’s what they will go apeshit for. Trust me.

Had these songs on repeat: “Blow” by Theory of a Deadman, “America’s Sweetheart” by Elle King, and “First” by Cold War Kids. Very different types of songs that make no sense together. But such is my eclectic taste. Listen to Elle’s song and tell me it’s not awesome. 

Found out that the 10 episode miniseries or whatever it’s called for Prison Break debuts in March. I. CANNOT. WAIT. I am also looking forward to the return of many shows I enjoy like American Crime, Bloodline, House of Kevin Spacey, Better Call Saul, Orange is the New Black, and Silicon Valley. And John Oliver. Or as he’s known in our house, the reason we have HBO.

Since I always miss the confessions post, I’m going to start doing a confession of the week in these recaps. Here’s my first: This week, at the child’s cheer gym, I was talking to another mom who, last week, made some arrogant, unnecessary comments (no joke, cheer moms are worse than pageant moms) so she sort of already left a bad taste in my mouth. Then, this week, she called “rhinestones” “rhiMestones”. I confess that I can’t talk to her anymore because I have zero patience and tolerance for people who mispronounce words that under no circumstances should be mispronounced.

Laughed at these

We have a full weekend with the child’s family birthday party and a trip to see Santa at the beach. Hope you guys have a great weekend, too! Make sure you stop by next week for a recap of my Whole30 and an edition of Judging Covers with the Husband!

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This week’s edition brought to you from a haze of NyQuil.

• • Finished Gangsterland and Maybe in Another Life. Started Beneath the Bonfire. Picked up Some Luck and Rising Strong. I am now fully stocked for my readcation next week. And don’t forget, next Show Us Your Books linkup is December 8. We have another giveaway planned for you.
  • Thanks for all the suggestions about what to binge watch next! And since the most commonly suggested show was Master of None, I’ll be making my way through that series during some down time from my readcation.
  • So Kurt Sutter canceled his own show. That’s pretty badass. Au revoir, The Bastard Executioner. Although I have a feeling you might get picked up elsewhere.
  • Our first full week at the child’s new cheer gym was awesome. I am beyond pleased with the staff, the child is happier than she’s been in a year, and one of her friends from her old squad even joined as well! It proves that sometimes, a hard decision is definitely for the best, even if it’s uncomfortable.
  • After not wearing nail polish for over a month because of the horrid conditions of my nails, I finally painted them the other day with a brand new color (Essie Frock N Roll. It’s a dark, sparkly purple. LOVES). I feel like myself again.
  • We are now just about 2 weeks through our Whole30. Definitely eye opening, some days are harder than others, but I’m glad we bit the (grain-free, dairy-free, sugar-free) bullet and are doing it. I don’t know that I can go back to eating the way I’d been but I am looking forward to maybe adding back some cheese. I’m thinking about writing a post about our experience with it. Would anyone be interested in a post like that?
  • Some internet reading about reading–20 problems only book lovers understand (from Goodreads’s blog). This very long piece from The New Yorker, Can Reading Make You Happier (side note, I want to be a bibliotherapist). This Bookish Mix-Tape from BookRiot (a post idea I’m borrowing at a date TBD). And, while this isn’t bookish or reading related, Broadway is now offering a $15/month streaming service for their shows (h/t Lifehacker). As someone who loves Broadway but doesn’t have the funds to afford all the shows, I will definitely be checking this out.
  • This funny:

Have a wonderful weekend and to those who will be celebrating, Happy Thanksgiving! I’ll only be posting once next week (in a joint playlist post with Erin) but other than that, I’m taking a much needed internet and social media break. I’ll see you soon!

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Not much to report this week. Let’s get to it anyway.

• Thanks again to everyone who joined us for this month’s Show Us Your Books. Steph and I genuinely appreciate your participation and enthusiasm and we have another giveaway planned for you next month (linkup is December 8).
• Finished Ready Player One, almost finished with Stoner, picked up God Shaped Hole (a book I read years ago and saw a picture of on IG but didn’t remember what happened so maybe it’s worth a reread).
• Obsessively listened to Welcome to Night Vale. It’s genuinely the weirdest podcast I have ever listened to but it’s so, so funny and creative.
• Stuck to my TV regimen of Fargo, The Bastard Executioner, Big Bang Theory, Mom, How to Get Away with Murder, and John Oliver. Looking forward to the next seasons of all the Netflix shows I enjoy (and the new season of Prison Break!) and am currently in the market for a new show to binge watch. Suggestions?
• Everything in the next paragraph is true–On Monday, I got an email from the child’s principal that they had to put the school on soft lockdown due to police activity at a house a bit up the road from the school. Fortunately, she stayed home on Monday and I breathed a sigh of relief because I freaked out a bit that their lockdown drills had to actually be applied (note: a soft lockdown is one where the building is locked but normal activity continues inside the classrooms. Not an actual lockdown where they lock the school and the classroom doors and the kids and staff and teachers go into the breakout rooms). So I keep reading the email and it turns out, the lockdown and police activity were due to the emu that’s been running loose in my town for the last 2-3 months. Guys. We have an EMU on the loose AND NOBODY CAN CATCH THE DAMN THING. Everyone around here is mildly obsessed with this rogue emu because it’s hilarous. Our residents group posts pictures of emu sightings. People debate the emu. The thing is a freaking legend. We were even in the news!
• I also learned that there have been orders to shoot him on sight, provided he’s not on private property, since apparently animal control or fish and wildlife or whomever has been charged with capturing him don’t have the capacity to humanely tranquilize him and he’s become a “safety hazzard”. I have so many thoughts on this, the least of which is I am appalled. He’s not harming anyone or anything and if people wouldn’t stop their damn cars to take pictures and/or selfies, he wouldn’t pose a traffic problem. If he were aggressive, I could understand. But he just wants to be left alone. And people and deer and cats and groundhogs run out in the middle of the road, too, and no one campaigns to shoot them. Fortunately, there are some great people where I live who are trying to get him captured safely and humanely. ETA: The emu has been caught, unharmed, and relocated to a farm.
• Ticked a couple of items off the fall project list, which felt great, even if I’m sucking ass at NaNo (seriously, my goal is simply to finish my book not write 50K words so I won’t actually be a “winner” if I get to my goal). But I am writing a little bit at a time so I’m getting closer to the end.
• Haven’t read much on the internets since I’ve been obsessively researching how to run my writing contest and podcast for work, recipes for the Whole30 the husband and I are currently doing, and all the tweets from The Bloggess’s thing about awkward moments. If you have a few spare hours and haven’t read those yet, DO IT. You will not regret it.
• Got this funny from the husband:

This is our last weekend with the cheer gym we’ve been going to for 3 seasons. It’s a very bittersweet parting but one that’s necessary. She’s superexcited about her new gym and as a parent, I’m very pleased with it, too. Other than that, we’ve got nothing planned. Maybe a movie and some (necessary) food prep. Definitely books.

How about you guys? Any big plans?

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