• Finished Did You Ever Have a Family and Thirteen Ways of Looking. Picked up Jesse Eisenberg’s book of short stories and also started Who Do You Love. Thanks to everyone who joined us for the one year anniversary of Show Us Your Books and there’s still time left to enter the giveaway! Next linkup is November 10. Second Tuesday of the month, per usual.
• Completed 1 of 10 fall projects, the TBR Jar. Because of course I started with the one about reading. I made some modifications to Heather’s version. For instance, instead of a Mason jar, I used an old pencil cup I had on hand as well as popsicle sticks for the titles rather than scraps of paper. I took to ye old Goodreads list for what to add, and it’s color coded only for nonfiction. I used different Sharpie colors for the rest mostly because it was pretty.
• Watched almost nothing because my TV time has been exclusively devoted to baseball. First of all, fuck you, Chase Utley. Second of all, the Mets are making me crazy. I’m used to a certain level of frustration being a lifelong Mets fan, but this is ridiculous. As of this writing (Thursday morning), we’re going into a game 5 that shouldn’t even exist. And they need to win because I don’t want staying up WAY past my bedtime to be for nothing. Edited on Friday AM–THEY WON!! Daniel Murphy, I heart you.
• Watched the child land her back handspring. I can’t even express what a victory that was (no joke. She’s been working on it for months. MONTHS. Many tears have been shed from not being able to do it). Now we just need her to stick the landing every time so she doesn’t look like a big heap of cheerleading mess. Or get hurt or break something.
• Stopped keeping track of my cat’s body count. It’s too high and also, it’s gross. My cat is a serial killer.
• Went all fangirl crazy when I saw that Dean Bakopoulos left a comment on one of my posts. Yes. That guy. The one whose books I am always cramming down your throats because they’re just that good. #authorsaremyrockstars And since he followed me back on Twitter a few weeks ago, we’re clearly besties now.
• Downloaded The List App. I know that no one NEEDS another app in their life but trust me, get this one. Especially if you love lists. Also, it’s BJ Novak’s project. So that’s cool.
• Read some pretty interesting stories around the interwebs. This one about a guy who lives in his car (it’s not what you think). Two stories on gun violence, the first an open letter to Congress from a mass shooting survivor, the second is an analysis by Malcolm Gladwell of how school shootings have spread. And also this list of 18 academic papers about 90s TV shows (why didn’t I think of this in grad school?!)
• Laughed at this

That’s all for this week. Busy weekend ahead, between cheerleading and the husband’s birthday. I mean how can you not celebrate the man behind this:

You know, if I opened a hot dog restaurant, I would just tell people to go home, cook a hot dog, take $10, set it on fire, and then eat the hot dog.

Have a great weekend everyone! See you on Tuesday!

Save

• Finished Undermajordomo Minor. Started Dumplin’ and Thirteen Ways of Looking. Picked up a book for the husband and Hate List for me. Show Us Your Books on Tuesday with extra surprises because it’s the one year anniversary.
• The Martian. It’s been a week since I’ve seen it and guys, it was so, so good. They did give it the Hollywood treatment but for the most part, it was a pretty faithful adaptation of the book. There was still all the math and all the science (you can’t tell the story without it) but it was extremely well done. And manageable and understandable for people like me who can’t math. Matt Damon was perfect casting. Sadly, though, I don’t think it was his butt they showed.
• Started using the Nike Training app on my phone. I think Nadine and Kathy have mentioned it and another friend of mine, Tonya, who is also crazy fit, recommended it. So my fat ass listened to those without fat asses. So far, so good. My one first world gripe is that it doesn’t sync with my FitBIt. So even though I’m exercising, it’s not registering it and not counting towards my steps.
• Did a bunch of laundry. Folded none of it.
• Binge watched all of the first season of How to Get Away with Murder last weekend. Will work through the first few episodes of this season on Saturday night because that’s what old married couples do. Then we’ll watch Amy Schumer on SNL. Which actually isn’t terrible. I mean, the skits are but the cast right now is ridiculously talented.
• Tore it up in the kitchen. I made lemon and garlic chicken with red potatoes and green beans, mushroom gnocchi (with store bought gnocchi ’cause ain’t nobody got time to make that shit from scratch), and something else I know was delicious but I can’t remember right now what it was.
• Debated with the child if The Flash or Billy Thunderman would win in a race. It was our equivalent of “could Mighty Mouse beat up Superman”. If you know who Billy Thunderman is, feel free to weigh in. If you don’t, consider yourself lucky.
• Internet reading. Didn’t really do much. Saved a whole bunch of links but didn’t read through any of them. I apologize to those who use the links to waste pass the time at work on Fridays.
• Got these funnies from the husband:

Outdoor cheer competition this weekend. Send me all your warmth. Hope your weekend is great and fun and relaxing and productive. Or filled with naps and books and puppy/kitty hugs.

Save

At least I think it’s volume 34. Maybe it’s higher. I’ve lost count. But I don’t really think it matters much since today is THE MARTIAN DAY!!! Or, as it’s known in my house, the day I got my husband to use a vacation day so we can go see a movie while the child is in school because The Martian is the only book we’ve ever agreed on in our 19 year relationship so of course we have to go see the movie at the earliest time possible.

Also, Erin told me that you get to see Matt Damon’s ass in the movie (and even if it’s a body double I’m pretending that it’s not). Alerting you to a sighting of your celebrity crush’s naked butt is the sign of a true friend.

Let’s see what else happened this week.

• Added Radiant Angel by Nelson DeMille to the DNF pile. Finished Modern Romance and picked up 4 more books. Lots of rain and impending hurricane means hours of reading time. Also, don’t forget that Show Us Your Books is on October 13. It’s the one year anniversary and Steph and I have some presents for you to thank you for a year of support and engagement.
• Gave a couple of new shows a spin. The Grinder (with Rob Lowe and Kevin Arnold Fred Savage), The Bastard Executioner, and The Muppets (of course). Love the first two. Hopefully The Grinder didn’t use up all its good stuff in the first episode. The Bastard Executioner is violent and disturbing but quite good. The Muppets, though. I don’t want to say anything bad about my beloved Muppets but this show? Not so great.
• Speaking of TV, does anyone know where I can watch Fargo, Season 1 for free? I really want to watch season 2 but not without watching the first one ahead of time.
• THE METS WON THE NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 9 YEARS!!! Let the playoffs stress being.
• Worked on one of my fall projects: organizing all my Pocket links. I have a ridiculous amount of saved links and need an easy way to access them, specifically the recipes and the ones I want to share with you guys. I’ll be publishing the full list of fall projects on Tuesday.
• Read author profiles on Patrick deWitt and Andy Weir. My #booknerd heart is full.
• Read these interesting articles: Buzzfeed nailed the differences in the way people treat physical and mental illness. Mashable shared some Easter eggs in The Martian inspired by actual NASA things. This post on envying wealthier parents. Rage Against the Machine’s bassist apologizing for Limp Bizkit. And this infographic with the 69 rules of punctuation.
• Found this funny around the interwebs: 

Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend, whatever you choose to do. See you on Tuesday!

Save

Last week I was on Charlotte NC for FinCon15, which is a conference for personal finance bloggers and those in the finance industry to connect and learn and also drink. I mostly did that last one because I am not a finance blogger (obviously). But I did return home with some new friends, great memories, a bag of white chocolate Oreo popcorn (thanks, Tonya!), and a horrible, terrible cold that has been kicking my ass all week.

As a result, I haven’t done much except sit on my couch and so this week, I bring to you all the excitingish things that happened from said couch:

• • finished $2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America and started Radiant Angel.  I also picked up Did You Ever Have a Family and discovered a new bookish podcast, Overdue. Reading doesn’t take a break because you’re sick.
  • binge watched “Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp” so you don’t have to (trust me. The movie? Excellent. TV show? Abomination. Hopefully on purpose). I started “Hand of God” and you should get on that one.  And kudos to Netflix for scoring “How to Get Away with Murder” so I can finally catch up on that.
  • ordered a whole bunch of storage containers so I can start prepping my weekday lunches ahead of time. Lunch annoys me and I’d rather just take the headache and decision making out of it. Speaking of which, what’s your favorite make ahead lunch? Let me know in the comments.
  • booked my room for FinCon16 which happens to be in San Diego next year and also I’ll be doing another mentoring session which I love to do so hooray for that!
  • made a list of fall projects I want to work on. They’re easy and not too crafty so I should be able to complete them  (I’m obviously still on a completion high from the Literary Ladies challenge). Would you guys want to know what I’m planning to do?
  • watched a YouTube video on how to do an upside down French braid because #cheerhair.  I *might* have cursed at the child’s coach when she announced this was the style because really, what the fuck? Why is this necessary? They don’t score points for hair.
  • read some internet stuff: How to lose weight in four easy steps (it’s not what you think). 10 ways to stay healthy while working from home (really great tips that I definitely need to employ. Especially the one about getting dressed). This story about a man who embezzled $8.7M and hid for 6 years on the Appalachian Trail (there’s a link to the longform story at the bottom of the post I linked to). Why women love crime (guilty. Also, the woman who wrote the article, Megan Abbott, has written a bunch of book, some of which I’ve read. No real point to that fun fact except it is fun).
  • laughed at this:

I was more productive from my couch than I thought! Who knew? Anyway, have a great weekend! See you on Tuesday (oh, I think I’m done with Monday posts for now. I struggle with Monday appropriate topics).

Save