~ ~ Reading Laziness and Turkey Day ~ ~

It's damp, cold and rainy here in the NYC area.  This kind of weather makes me feel lazy and slow to get things done, especially today. It probably has partly to do with the bronchitis infection I've had for a couple weeks that just refuses to go away.  But I think it mostly as to do with the fact that, although I have some things I need to do, I'm having difficulty putting down the book The Street Sweeper, that I'm reading (among others!).  It's just such a good book, so interesting.  And yesterday I started reading Labor Day, wow. I cannot believe it took me this long... I wish there were more hours in the day!

So, although I'm tired and lazy today, I'm not quite at the point my adorable little Fig is... 

I hope you all have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow, whatever your plans may be!  Enjoy and eat lots of yummy food!  And Thank you for hanging in with me!

~ Sunday Salon ~ Thanksgiving, Cats, Blogging and Books!

In five days it's Thanksgiving! I think here in NYC we're going to copy Floridians and grill or barbecue our turkeys. It's over 60 degrees here today! (Never mind that it was in the 30s a few days ago!) This is shorts! I recall past Thanksgivings that were so cold I chose to watch Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV rather than stand outside and freeze! Of course, the weather has been so wacky and indecisive, we could have a blizzard come Thursday! lolol Whatever the weather is for turkey day is fine but for Christmas I like a little snow...just a little bit, it makes the days that much more festive!


Anybody who visited my blog this week noticed that I didn't post any new content. I joined Molly of The Bumbles Blog and a few other bloggers for the first Reclaim Your Reader week. Unfortunately the week didn't work out for me quite as I hoped. I spent most of the week with my doctors as they dissected the results of the procedure I had a few weeks ago, finally deciding what new meds I should take. My body seems to enjoy being a challenge, though, so, of course I had a reaction to the first medication! The 2nd medication is fine, so far so good! So, I may still be stressed about not having the time and energy to read all of the blogs I want to while also posting on my blog but hopefully I'll feel better and have more time to work on both issues! lol And I'll probably try another week of Reclaiming my Reader in a few months.


The cats are all doing well. Many of them are filling out with winter coming. They tend to eat more and sleep more as the winter months approach. Not only does their fur get thicker and even softer, but some of them get fatter! Hennessey is a white female with a few grey spots, a grey tail and ears. She's small and slim, at least in spring and summer.  Henney spends most of her time outside, she just loves wandering, but she always visits at least twice a day for some food!  A couple of years ago, Henney got very round and chubby during the winter (I thought she was pregnant even though she’d been fixed!!). We figured she was also eating somewhere else. But when summer came around she was small and slim again!  Ever since, her size and shape completely fluctuates with the changing seasons!  What’s really weird about it is it doesn’t look like a gradual change, it's more instantaneous!  Henney seems to go from slim to adorable, fluffy butterball almost over night! And she slims down again just as quickly! !


I didn’t do a lot of reading this week, either. Ugh! I was distracted and had difficulty focusing because of the medical stuff. I’m reading Mozart’s Last Aria by Matt Rees which is not what I expected. I’m reviewing it this week and then I will sit down and finish The Lotus Reader by Tatjana Soli and The Easter Parade by Richard Yates two great books. I’m also reading Volt  by Alan Heathcock,  a collection of short stories . This is his debut and the stories are fantastic. The author is available at Goodreads this entire month answering questions about the stories and anything related to writing and being an author. He’s very accessible and enthusiastic. I won Volt from a Goodreads giveaway hosted to highlight the author and his debut and I’m so happy to have won Volt.

Have a wonderful week!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday Thoughts and Reading Weekend!

I woke up very early this morning, I'm not sure why. I think it may have been because Betsy was chasing Magoo all over the room and I was jumped on and run over 3 or 4 times! I have a hazy recollection of a cat landing on my chest and one running down my leg and then stepping on my head. Oh well! So I decided to read. And several hours went by. It was great! I thought about getting on the computer to check my mail and blog about reading for Thankfully Reading Weekend but I knew I would get sucked in to the blogosphere and be on-line for a while!

Sam and I and the kitties had a lovely, quiet Thanksgiving yesterday. We watched a little bit of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. There were some wonderful floats and performances...and a few weird ones like the large group that jumped rope. But they were good. We watched a short movie my husband wanted to see because the singer and song-writer, Maynard James Keenan, from one of his favorite bands, Tool, is in the movie. I also like Tool and Maynard is an interesting and very talented guy. The movie, Sleeping Dogs Lie, is a mystery story and it's good but could be better. It should be longer. The cool part was that I didn't recognize Maynard at all, even after Sam told me which character he was! I've seen him in a couple of other movies and he just disappears into the character he's playing, completely. It's pretty amazing. We also watched some of the Godfather I and II and played with the kitties. I read while Sam did a NY Times crossword. And we cooked, of course! Dinner was great and so filling. But when we were cleaning up we realized that we completely forgot about the stuffing, it was still in the Turkey! LOL Nice moronic move, uh?! lol We had a good laugh over that! Good thing we have lots of leftovers. Bob, Betsy, Magoo, Huxley and Dopey really liked the turkey. Jazzy, Hennessey, Sadie and some of the other visiting kitties didn't seem to care much for it.

As far as reading goes, this morning I read more of Double Take: A Memoir by Kevin Michael Connolly. I am almost finished this book. I also started Perfect Life by Jessica Shattuck can't decide if I like this book. I want to like it, but I'm not sure. There are 4 or 5 major characters and I think I might dislike 3 of them. Not good odds. But I want to see where the story goes so I'll keep reading.