Insomnimusing: Allons-y!

Thanks to my insomnia, I've been doing a ridiculous amount of reading lately. I wish I had thought to start a book list six months ago, but being a new year, I thought this was as good a time as any. I'll probably go back and figure out my last half of 2009 book list later. For now, I'll start fresh with 2010. These are the books I have read thus far in 2010, beginning with the first of January: Cujo The Belgariad and Malloreon series (2 5-volume series) The Picture of Dorian Gray Frankenstein Dracula The Road The Wonderful Wizard of Oz The Importance of Being Earnest Gone with the Wind I just finished Gone with the Wind last night - or more precisely at 4 o'clock this morning. Seeing as it's one of my favorite movies ever, I'm not sure why it took me this long to get around to reading the book. Still, I was glad to have something nice and long to read. And I loved the book just as much as I do the film. I'd been told that Scarlett married more times in the ...

I wanted to post the actual video, but embedding seems to be disabled on all the ones I could find. Still, the song's worth posting just to hear. Because I just heard it on the radio (and almost forgot to post an FF today) it's Spandau Ballet's True.

Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, I lay in bed until about 4:30 a.m. hoping against hope to finally be able to fall asleep. Fortunately (though little fortune it was), there had already been a two-hour delay called for school the next day, so I wasn't obliged to get up until 9 a.m. to get the girls up. I did that, and afterward, I'd planned on going back to bed to try to catch a little more. To no avail. I got a call from the office and had things to do. *Sigh* Last night was worse. I was awake until 5 a.m., and there was no delay announced in advance for the snow, so I had to be up at 7 a.m. When I got up, it turned out they DID decide to delay school after all. I went back to bed hoping for another hour or so of sleep, but then there was a knock on my door. A very loud, very insistant knock. It was the mother of the girls' best friends, who'd come into town unaware of the school delay. She said she had a doctor's appointment and asked if her girls could stay with m...

Is there anything more stressful and nerve-racking than looking for a job? Having been kept well-occupied by my freelance work, I don't even really feel like I have been out of work. However, now the opportunity has come up to return to the fray full time... and I want it. The job is with the same newspaper company I've been working with for more than 10 years. It's a different position - and likely a different paper than one of my three "home" papers - but I still want it. I'm certainly qualified for it. I am, of course, a little nervous, after what happened with my last venture away from home in the work force. I often think that I should have stayed where I was. I suppose I really had no way of knowing how it would turn so dreadfully bad on me. There was no possible way to anticipate such a twisted, sociopathic publisher would be willing to act against the best interests of his own paper in order to further his petty need to manipulate and control lives. Th...

I don't take credit for the following. My son Pooh wrote it and put it up on his Facebook page a couple of weeks ago. I reposted it to my wall, and a lot of my friends gave it good feedback, so I thought I would add it here as well. *** If you don't want to hear a bunch of my angry thoughts, stop reading now! If your house is on fire, and you're still sitting at your computer desk, stop reading now! If you have a fear of things that are generally disorganized, stop reading now! I feel like I need to get some things off my chest about Valentine's Day. First off, I don't hate Valentine's Day because it's a "candy company holiday" or because it's cheesy and sappy, because you know what? I'm cheesy and sappy. I like the little romantic gestures. I like getting to perform the cheesy romantic gestures. I like singing a song to a girl and handing her a letter and a bouquet of flowers. And you know what? Few people actually do hate it, because it...

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hiltons of Branson . All opinions are 100% mine. Can't take that trip to Italy this weekend? Maybe you might want to consider the next best thing. How does an Italian Culinary Weekend in Branson, Mo. sound? The Hilton Branson Convention Center is inviting guests to taste a little bit of Italy close to home with an Italian Culinary Weekend Feb. 26-27. With packages starting at just $429 a night for two for deluxe king or double queen accommodations, it's a great couple's weekend away, with a reception Friday evening featuring antipasto, hors d'oeuvres and fine Italian wines. Then on Saturday, you'll be treated to a cooking demonstration featuring Friday's treats as well as some of the items in Saturday's five-course dinner. You'll even get to take home a bag filled with goodies for the home chef. Between all the Italian food fun, you can take advantage of Branson's other features and entertainments...

One of my favorite discoveries of the 80s was British comedy. To this day, I'm hooked. I started out with Benny Hill at a very young age (that probably seems VERY WRONG), then I found Monty Python, and in my high school years, I was fortunate enough to find MTV airing episodes of The Young Ones. I've since expanded my horizons - but I still think The Young Ones is timeless (so far), so here's a clip for this week's Flashback Friday. By the way, Bottom is another great one - it's from the mid-90s and stars Rik Mayall (Rik) and Ade Edmonson (Vyvyan) from The Young Ones. My latest discovery is Shameless, which is more of a drama now but with some fabulous comic elements too. (Note: non-Anglos/Anglophiles probably won't get much of the humor in it though.)

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Pexagon Technology . All opinions are 100% mine. About a week ago, I got the coolest Blackberry skin ever - and I got it for only $5! Now, you can get one too. I was so impressed with my Blackberry skin that I went back to the site to see what the regular price was. I wanted another one. Well, it turns out the regular price is $14.99, plus shipping. Imagine my delight when I saw that they are again offering the $5 deal, with free shipping! There's no minimum order, no set-up charge, no other fees whatsoever. It is $5 each for personalized Apple & BlackBerry cases with your choice of logo and text. And these silicone skins are very nice quality, too, as I can personally attest. The logo (ANYTHING you want - you can even design your own!) and text are not printed on the sleeve - they're laser engraved. The image is crisp, clear, sharp and will LAST! The Blackberry sleeves are soft silicone and the Apple sleeves are availabl...

Well, this winter decided to sneak up on us a little, didn't it? After a mild December and January, we were suddenly hit with a February of fairly mind-boggling proportions. Actually, I wasn't all that surprised. When winter was slipping quietly by, people kept commenting on it, and I kept responding, "Just wait. We've still got February." This is Ohio. I know how it gets. It's done it before. Well we heard the reports of heavy snow coming in Friday, but first thing in the morning, my lawn was still green/brown and bare. By noon, all that had changed. By early afternoon, it got bad enough that the kids were sent home early from school. And it went on.... I canceled getting Book again for the weekend, because I knew the roads wouldn't be fit to travel. I didn't think it would last though. Wrong. I ventured out to the store on Sunday afternoon - a full day after the snow had stopped - and the roads were still in horrible shape. School was canceled on Mon...

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile . All opinions are 100% mine. You want a mobile phone, but you don't want a contract. And you want a cool phone that doesn't cost a fortune. And you don't want to have to watch every single minute when you talk to your friends. And you want to send texts without having to keep track of how many you're sending to avoid those outrageous overage prices. And you want web access. By the way, make that as much web access as you want without having to constantly check your account to see how many megabytes you're using. And give it one of those full keyboards to make the texting and web use so much easier. Oh, and a camera. A good camera that takes video, too. And you want nationwide access, of course. And you want it for 50 bucks a month. Wait, 50 bucks a month? Deal. With Boost Mobile, you can get the ultra-cool SANYO Incognito flip phone with a full QWERTY keyboard for just $129.99 plus tax, with FREE shi...

I've been trapped in the house by snow since Friday, and though I never do get out much, this forced confinement is starting to get to me. I watched the Man United-Portsmouth match yesterday, and though I did sort of enjoy the thorough trouncing (5-0), I couldn't much get into the match because my connection was awful. Besides, I wouldn't have expected anything less in a match-up with the bottom team on the Premier League table. It put Man United back on top, but not for long. I started watching the Chelsea-Arsenal match this morning, but it was proving to be a waste of time there too, as Chelsea are up 2-0 at the moment - putting them back at the top of the table again. Ah well, can't count on Arsenal to fight our battles for us I suppose. I took a shower to wash away the filth of cheering for Arsenal for 45 minutes then settled in to start on some much-needed housework. When I got out, I found that the girls had done a runner. I shouldn't have warned them before m...