Book Reviews

So I'm sure many of you don't come to my blog to get book reviews (but what else are you really here for? Not the 50th picture of one of our animals...no one can tell them apart anyway!)

I've been doing a lot of reading this summer since it's been to freaking hot to really do anything and it's a good activity I can do while spending time with Eric while he's recuperating from the midnight shift.

If you are looking for some quick, easy chick-flick books then I highly recommend anything by Jane Green. The one I started with was Jemima J. My coworker just read it and really enjoyed it. It's by a British author and is kind of an ugly duckling to beautiful swan story.

I just finished my marathon reading of the 600-page book, "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Phillippa Gregory. It's historical fiction surrounding King Henry VIII's court and the lesser-known sister of Anne Boleyn, Mary. It spans about 10-15 years, I think and is a fast, easy read. It just sucked me in. I was so hooked that I ran back up to my hotel room during a 15-minute training break to keep reading!! This is the first book I've read by this author and I plan on hitting the library to read them all. So now I'm currently obsessed with Henry VIII and that whole period. And I found out that it's being made into a movie to be released in Feb '08 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467200/).

Getting Cracked

I started seeing a chiropractor to determine if my headaches and neck pains were related to that. I'm thinking they are. For the last several months I was getting some wicked headaches that I think may have been migraines. But since I don't like going to the doctor for stuff like that (and it costs me $30 for them to say "track your symptoms and take some advil.") I sought out a massage. The massage felt great and the massage therapist suggested I might try a chiropractor. OMG. I went for a consultation and had an x-ray taken and some other scans done. I was a little hesistant about the "quackiness" factor of this field, but I am a believer and now a pusher. The x-ray showed my upper part of my spine completely jacked up. And the scan showed me in black and white where my muscles were screaming at me. It completely explains the headaches on only the right side of my head. Toothaches on the right side of my body, etc. I've gone in about 5 or 6 times now and she cracks the hell out me. The first time actually scared me because it sounded like my head was snapping off. But immediately the pressure that I've been feeling for years was gone. It's been amazing -- no headaches since. What I learned about chiropractic that I didn't know before is that it's not just about the bones of our spine. It's about the nervous system since all of our nerves are intertwined with our spine. If the bones of the spine are off it puts pressure on the nerves which really can trigger any sort of pain or "illness" in every part of our body. So enough about me.

Eric is doing fine. He's been working those crazy 8pm-4am shifts and now is going in from 11pm-7am tonight. It is really starting to suck. He's completely disoriented during the day and so we don't do much together or outside. But I can hardly blame him. It really feels like our life is on hold while he's at this job. Needless to say...this won't last long. Don't even get him started on how much it affects the hunting season. It's pure torture for him.

Speaking of Fainting Goats

I don't know where I saw this but I thought it was pretty dang funny. I don't think I'm friends with any animal activists, so everyone should get a kick out of this (plus, I don't think this is cruel, just hilarious).

Little Babushkas

So is anyone sick of our pets yet? Yeah, well, it's this or looking at my ugly mug all the time. I could start taking pictures around the house...that might be interesting. The mutant crickets who dwell in our basement might be entertaining. They are easily 2 inches long.

Ok, but anyway we were bored the other night and put a biker scarf on Lily & Baxter purely for our own enjoyment...certainly not theirs. I guess it was a moment only a Mother could love, but I thought they look pretty cute. Kind of like Russian babushkas...or pirates possibly. I'm thinking that would make a cute Halloween costume. They could be our little candy mascots.

We haven't put anything on the cats yet, but a dog sweater was once used to torment Bingo. He stiffened up like a board and fell straight over. Like a fainting goat.