On my least favorite season

Well, we are snowed in. Again. Most of you live in the mid-Atlantic region, so you know. For those who may not, let me explain.

I live in Virginia. It is a state generally considered by its residents to be in The South. That means we do not expect metric craptons of snow (and yes, that is an official measurement term). In my current town of residence, the lovely Charlottesville, our average snowfall per winter is about 17 inches, which is skewed to the high end because of winters like this. This is my tenth winter in Charlottesville, and most of the winters I've spent here have had, at most, two to three snowfalls of 2 inches or less. That suits me fine. It's pretty to look at, doesn't screw up your travel plans too badly, and is gone the next day. I like the climate where I live. We get four distinct seasons; it rarely gets hotter than 90 degrees F in the summer and rarely gets colder than 30 degrees F in the winter. I do not like cold weather, but it is nice to look at pretty snow falling every now and again, provided it doesn't bring the entire world to a halt.

Now let's talk about this winter specifically. We got our first snow the first weekend of December. It was nothing - the kind of snow I like best, just about an inch of accumulation. It was early for us - we don't usually get any snow at all until January - but it was sufficiently cold and it was December. It was within the realm of the acceptable. Then, the weekend of December 18th, we got 18-20 inches. Okay, that's insane for us. Our "deep" snows are 6 inches. It was dubbed the Snowpocalypse by the local media. It took days to dig out. For those from particularly snowy regions who may be laughing at that notion, you need to consider that (a), we don't get enough snow to be used to driving in it; (b), we know no one else knows how to drive in it either; and (c), we get so little snow that our Dept of Transportation doesn't have the equipment or staff or budget or experience to remove it efficiently. So. The parking lot and sidewalks of my condo complex were still treacherous 3 days after the snow stopped falling. At this point, before December was even over, I was done with snow for the year. I wanted no more, and I was ready for spring.

Sadly, that was not to be. We got another small snow in early January. Then we had rain that finally melted almost all of the snow still left from December...and that also flooded all of our rivers. We live in the bend of a river, and we have lived in this condo for almost 5 years, and I have never seen this river flood. It's come close, but never happened. There's a trail behind our complex that winds along the river, and while that has developed large puddles, it's never flooded. Until now, anyway - the entire trail was under 3 feet of river water. So. Massive flooding. A week after the massive flooding, we got another foot of snow. And then 2 days later, another small snow with some sleet mixed in. That brought our running total for the winter to about 36 inches. Remember how I said we get an average of 17 inches per winter, and that most winters we actually get about 6 inches or less? Yeah. This is a lot for us. By the end of January, the Virginia Dept of Transportation had already spent their ENTIRE snow removal budget for all of 2010. In the first month of the year. They'll be dipping into emergency funds next, and then they'll have to start taking from other budget expense funds, meaning they'll have to postpone road repair and construction projects (because those are "non-essential") if they have to remove too much more snow.

That brings us to today. Saturday, 5 February 2010, aka Snowpocalypse II. It started snowing at dawn yesterday, and it hasn't stopped yet. There's at least 14 inches out there (I haven't measured, that's just an eyeball figure), and it's still coming down hard. It's not supposed to stop until tonight. Let's add another 16 inches to that total, conservatively - that brings us to 52 inches for the winter, a record winter for this town. And winter's not over. The forecast already shows snow again Tuesday and Wednesday of the coming week, and then again next Sunday. The kids only had one day of school last week and are clearly likely to miss more this week, and while I don't have kids, it affects my co-worker's work schedules (and as a former teacher, I can sympathize with the teachers who are starting to see their spring breaks disappear). The snow this weekend means we can't attend a party tonight that I've been really looking forward to. I hate winter right now, more than I ever have, and I'd stab it in the heart if I thought it actually had one.

Listography!

I tried yesterday to write a review of Ender's Game, and I found myself absolutely incoherent. I got about halfway through and realized I sounded like a blathering idiot. I'm not feeling a whole lot more eloquent today. Maybe tomorrow? Not sure.

In the meantime, in order to keep my few but beloved readers entertained, I thought I'd share another part of my life. I am an absolute list addict. I make lists all the time, of everything. It makes me feel like I'm in control, I think. Which makes me a control freak. Anyway, I have a few other friends who also are list addicts, and I found this 2010 planner called Listography that I thought would make a perfect Christmas gift for some of them. And then I couldn't resist getting one for myself, too. Basically, this is a weekly planner that has a prompt to make a list for each week in the year. And I've enjoyed making the lists so far - some of them are dumb, and some are fun, but I like making them nonetheless.

I don't want to share all of the lists with you, because some of them will be extremely boring for you (i.e., names of children I know - YAWN for you), but I thought I'd share some of the others. Maybe this will break my writer's block throughout the year if a good list comes up. So! Without further adieu, a few lists from my Listography planner.

List Your Goals for the Coming Year (28 Dec 2009 to 3 Jan 2010)

• Organize the house
• Buy a new mattress
• Keep losing weight
• Get better control of finances
• Send real birthday cards
• Get a working printer (for home)
• Earn Copyediting certificate from UCSD
• Reduce to-read pile

List Your Favorite Dance Songs (22 Jan 2010 to 17 Jan 2010)

• "Dancing Queen" - ABBA
• "Tainted Love" - Soft Cell
• "You'll Never Be Famous" - The Clutters
• "I Saw Her Standing There" - The Beatles
• "Hey Ya!" - Outkast
• "Should I Stay or Should I Go" - The Clash
• "Graycoated Morning" - David and the Citizens
• "Gay Bar" - Electric City
• "Hate to Say I Told You" - The Hives
• "Purple Haze" - Jimi Hendrix
• "Mr. Brightside" - The Killers
• "Lady Marmalade" - Christina Aguilera, Pink, Mya and Lil' Kim
• "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" - Aretha Franklin
• "You Really Got Me Going" - The Kinks
• "Deceptacon" - Le Tigre
• "I Will Survive" - Gloria Gaynor
• "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley
• "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" - Michael Jackson
• "Son of a Gun" - Nirvana
• "Oh My Golly" - The Pixies
• "Vertigo" - U2
• "Blitzkrieg Bop" - The Ramones
• "You Keep Me Hangin' On" - The Supremes
• "Blister in the Sun" - Violent Femmes
• "Technology" - The Whigs
• "Hotel Yorba" - The White Stripes
• "We Got the Beat" - The Go-Gos
• "Nature of the Experiment" - Tokyo Police Club
• "American Girl" - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• "Land of 1000 Dances" - Wilson Pickett

List Your Heroes (18 Jan 2010 to 24 Jan 2010)

• My mom: even though she doesn't believe much in herself, she raised me to believe in myself and to think that I can achieve anything if I set my mind to it - she set me up for my greatest successes, and picked me up from my biggest failures
• Chet (one of my grandfathers): the sweetest, kindest, smartest, happiest person I have ever known
• Jimmie Holland: the founding grandmother of the field of psychosocial oncology and someone I have been blessed to work with for the past six years; a brilliant mind, an unfailing work ethic, and a kind heart, but who won't take no for an answer
• Abraham Lincoln: another kind heart, albeit one that had to lead his country to war against itself, he did the worst imaginable task for a President who loved his country with grace, intelligence and eloquence
• Albert Einstein: eccentric, brilliant, funny, and not afraid to admit when he was wrong
• Gandhi: a man passionate about what was right and fair in the world, but who refused to resort to violence even when it would have saved him severe injury, he turned nonviolence into an action that got more attention than violence
• Martin Luther King, Jr: like a combination of Lincoln and Gandhi, MLK used his faith, nonviolence, and the strength of his convictions to move an entire nation to action to attack one of our country's most horrible injustices
• Jane Goodall: if you have ever heard her speak, you know that Dr. Goodall is poised and passionate simultaneously; she has contributed significantly to our knowledge and understanding of primates, ourselves, our environment, and our relationship with the other living things of this world
• Nawal El Saadawi: a woman of uncommon bravery, she has fought with her writing and her teaching for women's rights and women's modern healthcare in Middle Eastern countries
• Frederick Douglass: he educated himself and used his education to better the plight of black slaves in America to the best of his ability, as well as all people; he firmly fought for equal rights of women, African Americans, Native Americans, immigrants - equal rights for all people

Irish Slices of Life Improve with Time

Argh! I wrote this review two days ago and the internet ATE IT. Ate it right up. It disappeared into thin air. So...here we go with take 2!

I downloaded The Tea House on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens from Audible.com back when I was closing my subscription with them. I had a bunch of credits to spend on audiobooks, so I downloaded about 10 to get to whenever I had time. I have no idea where I got the recommendation for this particular book, but it must have resonated with me because I have three or four more books by her sitting in iTunes for me to listen to when I get around to it. I've seen other reviewers compare Owens's books to Maeve Binchy, if that's any indication for you (having never read Binchy, it didn't give me a clue).

The story centers on a tea house (Muldoon's Tea Rooms) in Belfast, Ireland, and all of the people whose lives pass through and are affected by the tea house. There's Penny and Daniel Stanley, the proprietors of the tea house whose marriage is on the rocks. There's starving artist Brenda Brown who lives in an apartment next door and comes in to drink tea and write love letters to Nicholas Cage. Henry starts coming more often to get away from his wife's obssessive re-enactments of Victorian literature and ends up falling in love with Rose, the florist across the street from the tea house. Sadie comes in to comfort herself with Daniel's delicious desserts when her husband is mean to her (which is often).

They're a lovely cast of characters - compelling, with believeable quirks and struggles. While I was listening to it, I thought it was a little slow and melodramatic, but two months later, I still remember the characters very fondly. I got attached to these people! Brenda and Sadie were my favorites, but I really enjoyed the entire cast. I don't wonder what happened to them, though, because Owens did a really good job of giving closure to all the stories. The voice actor read with a lilting Irish brogue, which was quite appropriate for the story. This is possibly the first time I have liked a book more two months after I finished it than I did right after I was done. In November, I would have given this three of five stars, but now, I give it four!

Naked Once More

Oh, lordy be. I have begun another online class - this time Copyediting I - toward my Copyediting Certificate from UCSD. I hope to learn a lot, but this class is going to take more time than the last one. There's a lot more reading. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. But I finished all of the assignments for the first week, so only nine more weeks to go... In the meantime, I'll distract myself by continuing to try and catch up with my book reviews. What will happen if I ever actually catch up?! What will I write about? :)

Today's review is about mystery novel Naked Once More by Elizabeth Peters. I downloaded this as an audiobook when I had an Audible.com subscription because...well, I don't remember why I chose it, exactly. As you all know, mystery novels are absolutely my personal guilty bookish pleasure, so it's not a stretch to imagine that someone recommended it to me and I picked it up for that reason. Regardless, I greatly enjoyed it. Plot summary: Jacqueline Kirby, loud-mouthed, brash, fearless, hilarious, best-selling romance author, needs a vacation from the publishing biz. Unfortunately, she's also out of money. So when she hears about the opportunity to write a sequel to one of the best-selling books of all time, which also happens to be one of her favorite books ever written, she jumps at it. The book's author, Kathleen Darcy, disappeared in the middle of nowhere seven years ago, and she's now presumed dead. Her family is interviewing candidates to write the sequel, and Jacqueline very much wants to get the job. The more she pokes around in their family business, however, the more certain she is that one of them wanted Kathleen dead - and she's determined to get to the bottom of that particular mystery.

This was a fun, fast, entertaining story. The actor who reads the book captures Jacqueline Kirby PERFECTLY, which made the audiobook that much more enjoyable. I believe that this is the second or third Jacqueline Kirby book, and I definitely want to read the others in the series after experiencing this one. When I mentioned on Facebook that I'd read it, one of my friends said she liked to describe Elizabeth Peters's books as a peanut M&M - candy-coated chocolate with a nugget of protein in the center. I think that's a dead-on description. It is a fun, fluffy, cozy mystery story, but there's something weighty about it. It's well-written, and I can tell Peters is a smart woman. Five of five stars from me!

The Eyre Affair

Tell a former English major who loves mystery novels and has an interest in science fiction that there's a mystery series out there involving sci-fi and famous classic literature and see if she doesn't snap up a copy of the first book in the series as soon as is humanly possible. I certainly did. I laid my hands on a copy of The Eyre Affair, the first novel in Jasper Fforde's series about Literary Detective Thursday Next, less than 30 days after I first heard about it. It combines lots of my favorite genres into one, with the added bonus of being set in Britain (I'll confess to being a bit of an Anglophile). Of course, that does not necessarily make a successful novel, but Fforde has some talent with his pen as well, so the characters are interesting and the plot is compelling, making an altogether successful book.

The Thursday Next series deals with an alternate reality - it's our world, in 1980s Britain, but there are special bureaus in the national law enforcement arena that deal with all sorts of crimes that don't generally happen in our reality, such as crimes against literature and crimes connected to time travel and vampire exterminators. Thursday Next is a Literary Detective in London. Being a Literary Detective is not generally one of the more exciting special agent jobs. It mostly involves desk research and hunting down counterfeit copies of alleged "new" scripts discovered to be written by famous long-dead authors and stopping the counterfeiters. Thursday gets pulled into a much more exciting case, however, when a special bureau unknown to her recruits her to help them catch a criminal she knows from her past. Her life becomes inextricably tied up with a murderous sociopath who used to be her professor. He takes advantage of some new technology developed by her absent-minded professor-like uncle to begin kidnapping and threatening to kill characters from classic novels. She has to stop him before he kills Jane Eyre herself, forever changing the literary canon.

As far as mystery novels go, this is one of the more original and interesting I've ever read. It embraces and combines both the mystery and science fiction genres and turns their focus to classic literature with a writing style that is light-hearted and humorous. It's no classic literary masterpiece itself, but it is a really fun read with an interesting set of characters and an entirely unique plot. I'll definitely seek out the other books in the series. Highly recommended; five five of stars!

New Year's Giftolutions

So, I read a lot of other blogs. About all sorts of different things, not just books. Some are friends' blogs whereby they update the rest of us on happenings in their lives and daily musings; some are topical, about books or publishing or fitness or entertainment; some are written by authors I really like; etc. I have recently started reading a blog called Cranky Fitness, written by Crabby McSlacker, which really appeals to my feelings about working out - it truly truly SUCKS but we should really try to do it anyway and here are ways to make it a little easier. Anyway. So Crabby wrote a post earlier this month about a friend of hers who's all one with the universe and whatnot. And this friend of hers doesn't make resolutions at the start of each new year. She makes a list of gifts she's going to give to herself. It sounds a little hippity-dippity and corny, but I kinda like it. I mean, making resolutions has certainly never worked for me, so I might as well give the positive spin thing a try.

Therefore, today's post has nothing in particular to do with books or reading. It's just about me and my life. Here is a (short) list of gifts I'm going to give myself in 2010:

• The gift of a house I feel comfortable living in. This means organizing so that we don't feel we're bursting at the seams. I think if I commit one weekend day per month to this task (and a little money on organizational tools), I can give myself a house I love to come home to and some peace of mind.
• The gift of smaller jeans. I have made no secret among my friends of the fact that I'm trying to be all healthy, both for the sake of my health and the sake of my waistline. I will never be a teeny-tiny waifish person, but I am still definitely overweight. I've lost 25 lbs since June 2009, and I plan to continue that trend by keeping on with my current eating habits (and tracking everything I eat on SparkPeople) and by exercising - either at the gym I'm currently trying out to see if I want to join it or on my own at home. But I kinda like the gym, and I've been good about going, so it may just be worth the money.
• The gift of a good night's sleep. Or actually, many good nights' sleep. We need a new mattress. We've known this for about a year. We've put off actually going out and shopping for a new mattress for about a year. It's going to be expensive, and choosing the right one is going to be a pain in the butt. But no more procrastinating - our good sleep (and uncricked backs) is the most important thing!
• The gift of financial security. We've done pretty well with budgeting and saving money in the past year - but I think we can do better. And that would make me feel better. I seriously worry about what would happen if one of our cars (both of which are over 10 years old) were to die AND one of us lost his/her job at the same time. Or a major appliance needed replacing or any other infinite number of bad and expensive things. We have a hefty emergency fund - about 6 months of living expenses - but it's still scary. We're young enough that our 401ks and IRAs are not as flush as they will be in 20 years, so borrowing against them (if that became necessary) would be a really, really bad thing and set us back possible decades in our retirement. I want to do everything we can to ensure our financial security, even when things are bad. I think this means a big, scary money conversation with my husband and possibly adjusting our budget to make better financial decisions.

So what are your giftolutions for 2010? Think we can all stick with them?

What I Got for Lootmas

Joshilyn Jackson, an author I love and adore, has dubbed the gift-giving portion of Christmas as Lootmas. I have gleefully adopted the phrase.

First, before I get started on my multitude of goodies received, I wanted to share what I got for my husband. Mostly because I'm super-proud of my purchases - NOTHING that I got was on his wishlist, which is terrifying and heady all at the same time. I got him:

• black leather messenger bag (the canvas one he's been toting around for a few years has a broken handle and he's always complaining about it; leather is much nicer and doesn't break!)
• 3 months of Audible.com membership (2 books per month - he listens to audio books like a fiend at work, and 2 per month won't even put a dent in what he listens to, but he normally gets free ones which are in the public domain, so this will let him listen to some more modern stuff)
• Super Mario Bros. Wii (he said he wanted it but never put it on his wishlist; I obliged)
• small chess set (he wanted something that would fit on his desk to practice with when he does chess puzzles and tutorials online, so he'll have something tactile to use to play out the scenarios before he "answers" on the computer)
• iTunes gift card
• candy and nuts

Now! On to me! I got lots and lots and lots of Lootmas gifts, and they're not all done yet - I have several friends with whom I haven't exchanged gifts yet! But these are the bulk, and I'll add to this post when I get more. But I have quite a haul listed here already!!

Books:

• Mental Floss History of the World - the husband
• Mental Floss magazine subscription - the parents
• My So-Called Freelance Life - the parents-in-law
• Tender Hooks (poetry) - the sis- and bro-in-law
• Murder and Obssession (murder mystery story collection) - the sis- and bro-in-law
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Arthur, Yi Ru and family (friends)
• People of the Book - Paul (friend) *added 1/1/2010
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Paul (friend) *added 1/1/2010
• Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies... - Kristine (friend) *added 1/1/2010
• Hungry Girl: 200 under 200 - Kristine (friend) *added 1/1/2010

Games:

• EA Sports Active: More Workouts (for Wii) - the husband
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (for DS) - the parents-in-law
• Rhythm Heaven (for DS) - Kristine (friend) *added 1/1/2010

Music:

• Christmas in the Heart by Bob Dylan - the husband
• Maybe This Christmas Tree - the sis- and bro-in-law

Food:

• Crazy good high-quality dark chocolate bars - the husband
• Assorted candy - the parents
• Assorted candy - the parents-in-law
• Assorted candy - Wanda and Mickey (aunt/uncle)
• Whitman Sampler - Steve (uncle)
• Homemade Gourmet mixes (assorted) - Janet (aunt-in-law)
• Harry and David pears - Paul, Jackie and family (uncle/aunt-in-law)
• Small box of assorted See's candy - Lynne (coworker)
• Homemade gingersnaps - Peggy (coworker)
• Homemade vanilla rum truffles - Erin (coworker)
• Small bag of Jelly Belly jellybeans - Emily (coworker)
• Merci chocolates - Kristine (friend) *added 1/1/2010

Kitchen/Housewares:

• Wine fridge (to both of us) - the parents
• KitchenAid food processor (to both of us) - the parents
• Flamingo ornament - the parents
• Black & Decker cordless screwdriver - the parents-in-law
• Silk placemats and chopsticks for six - the parents-in-law
• Snowman figurine - Mike and Patti (uncle/aunt)
• Angel figurine and teddy bear ornament - Stephanie and family (cousin)
• Snowman photo holders - Shannon and family (cousin)
• Frog princess ornament - Barbara and Ricky (aunt/uncle)
• Girly flask - Jean and David (aunt/uncle-in-law)
• Martini glasses and mixers - Allison B (coworker)
• Ribbon ornament - Barb (coworker)
• Snowflake wine glass - Erin (coworker)
• Cocktail party plates and wine glasses - Janet (aunt-in-law) *added 1/1/2010
• Cheese board and cheese knife - Janet (aunt-in-law) *added 1/1/2010
• Recycled wine bottle bread dipping/serving board - Janet (aunt-in-law) *added 1/1/2010

Money/Gift cards:

• Cash - the parents
• Real silver dollar - the parents-in-law
• Check - the parents-in-law
• LOFT gift card - the sis and niece
• Target gift card - Mike and Patti (uncle/aunt)
• Cash - Wanda and Mickey (aunt/uncle)
• Donation to Feeding America - Josh, Lauren and family (friends)

Other:

• My favorite foot lotion (from Earth Therapeutics, and ridiculously hard to find) - the husband
• LL Bean flashlight that charges in your car cigarette lighter - the parents
• Flip Ultra video camera - the parents-in-law
• Sweater - the parents-in-law
• Two necklace pendants - the parents-in-law
• Calendar and small Maglite-style flashlight - Wanda and Mickey (aunt/uncle)
• Handmade soap - Jean and David (aunt/uncle-in-law)
• Chinese hair accessories - Arthur, Yi Ru and family (friends)
• Earrings and frog toy - Allison T (coworker)
• Fancy soap - Judi (coworker)
• Funny post-it notes - Emily (coworker)
• Sparkly bracelet - Arthur, Yi Ru and family (friends) *added 1/1/2010