One for Book Lovers

I found this online over at Stray Thoughts.

1. Do you remember how you developed a love for reading? The first time that I specifically remember reading was when I was in grade school. The first books I remember reading were The Runaway Bunny and Ping the Duck.
2. What are some books you read as a child? The above mentioned books, as well as Alice in Wonderland, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, Charlotte's Web.
3. What is your favorite genre? Fantasy and Science Fiction
4. Do you have a favorite novel? Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter.
5. Where do you usually read? The bathtub used to be my #1 place to read, but now that I have an infant probably the most uninterrupted time I get is when I'm pumping out breastmilk at work. My #2 place is in my reading chair in the living room. It's big, and you sink into it. From it you can see out in the back yard and it's close to the fireplace.
6. When do you usually read? Most of the time I read later in the evening or on my lunchbreaks, as well as the aforementioned pumping breaks. :)
7. Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time? Yes, I usually have several.
8. Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction? Not really, when a book gets me it gets me. Otherwise I'll make it about 1/3 of the way through and then I'll quit.
9. Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library? I mostly buy them. Amazon Prime keeps UPS at my door. :)
10. Do you keep most of the books you buy? If not, what do you do with them? I keep most of the books that I buy, mostly because I'm very lazy about taking them and trading them in.
11. If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them? Were they some of the same ones you read as a child? I bought several Eric Carle books - The Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. She's still too little to pay much attention to when I read.
12. What are you reading now? The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8 Lee and Einstein Never Used Flashcards by Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek and Eyer.
13. Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list? If you want to call the pile of unread books in my library chest a list then yes. :)
14. What’s next? Those two will probably take me until the end of the year. ;)
15. What books would you like to reread? Walden by Thoreau, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (annual event for me, or used to be)
16. Who are your favorite authors? Sharon Shinn, Mercedes Lackey (earlier works, about to the Owl-Knight series), JRR Tolkein, JK Rowling

Swimming

I have always hated almost every kind of organized exercise from the time I was very young. I always despised team sports, probably because I was almost always chosen last. In my very small school the only sports available were basketball and baseball/softball, so there wasn’t much available. When I moved to Minnesota when I was in high school a whole new world opened up to me because there was a swim team.

I have always loved to swim since I was little. I remember taking swimming lessons on cold Minnesota mornings. They wouldn’t open the pool until the water temperature was 55 degrees or some other insanely low number. We would hang on the sides of the pool shivering. When we were in Arkansas the only place to swim was over at the lake, and it wasn’t that often. Sometimes my mom would take us to a swimming pool at a hotel in the next town over. Swimming is the only sport/exercise that I have ever truly enjoyed.

It’s been 15 years or so since I swam very often. But now I have the opportunity to go on my lunch break and swim some laps. There is a pool within 5 minutes driving distance, and the facility is wonderful. We took Quickbeam swimming there this morning and she loved it. I’m hoping to instill a love of swimming in her too. This was the first time I did a lap since high school and I loved it, falling back into the rhythm like I just did it last week. The smell of the chlorine, the sight of the sunbeams on the water and watching the bubbles follow the wake of my hands in the water brought back good memories. My body felt light and buoyant and *right*. I’m hoping now that I have gone it will keep me from putting off going back again.

So.....

I haven't updated in a while, mostly because I am:

a. Very busy keeping Ms. Quickbeam happy
b. I have a new assignment at work that is sucking out my energy
c. There aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do

So here's to hoping that I can settle down soon. I spent the last weekend working on getting the computer room closet de-junked. It was the last rat hole that I had left to do, and I'm happy to say that I got it mostly done. I have a few more items that I need to deal with, and basically it's a whole lot better. Most of what I had to do was go through all of the old paperwork that I had left to file from when we moved from North Carolina.

On the gardening front, I am not doing a whole lot. There's a lot of weeding, spraying and propping up that needs to be done. I never have had plants flop as bad as these are...as in leaning to the side not as in failing. My roses, my dahlias, my peruvian daffodils, everything and its brother is falling over. So this weekend I'll be picking up some plant support hoops and maybe we'll restore some order. :)

Gingersnap

Here is Quickbeam's rose, finally opened up. :)