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  • Booksigning at B&N in Colorado Springs

    Just wanted to give a huge shout out to my great friends (both new and old) in Colorado Springs who made my booksigning on Saturday at the Barnes and Noble in Colorado Springs such a big success. We had a great time, and the lady at Barnes and Noble, Mary, was delighted with the turnout. We sold about 25 books, which isn’t too shabby at all.

    A couple pictures from the event for you to enjoy (or make fun of).

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    Me and my good friend Johanna!

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    Me and my two roommates–Tracy and Amy.

    Huge thanks to Amy who stuck with me the whole time and brought me some water. Thanks, friend!

    Teaser Tuesdays – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

    teaser_tuesdays1MizB of Should Be Reading hosts the Teaser Tuesdays weekly event

    Here are the rules:
    * Grab your current read
    * Let the book fall open to a random page
    * Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12
    *You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
    * Please avoid spoilers!

    This week’s teaser is:
    “The worst had not happened yet: Voldemort was not here. He was, Harry knew, for he was fighting to resist the vision, in some strange, fortresslike place, at the top of a tower.”
    pg. 455 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

    – I’ve succumbed to my whims and have decided to reread some books that I haven’t read in a long time. After seeing the 6th Harry Potter movie, I was so in the mood for the 7th book. And so I have begun rereading it. I’m loving it! Again!

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    Friday Favorite – Less Than Perfect

    So a couple months ago Katie and Stephanie informed me that there was a show I just had to watch. It stars Zachary Levi (of Chuck fame). Being a fan of Mr. Levi, I decided I’d give it a try. Trouble is, it’s not available on dvd. But then they informed me that Lifetime is airing reruns of the show.

    Thus Less Than Perfect entered my life. With a little help from my dvr, I’ve made it through the first three seasons, and sure enough, it’s a hoot!

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    Less Than Perfect stars Sara Rue as Claude Casey, a young temp at GNB, who ends up getting the prime spot as the assistant to Will Butler (played by Eric Roberts, who is actually Julia Roberts’ brother. Who knew?). Will is the on-air talent of the tv station, and everyone wants the job that he offers to Claude.

    Claude shares an office with Kipp, our insatiable Mr. Levi, who is an absolute hoot! He’s so funny as the snobby guyzachary-levi-2 who’ll do anything to get ahead. Kipp’s best friend in the office is Lydia (Andrea Parker from The Pretender), who wants to marry rich and will do anything to be rich. Add in goofy characters played by Sherri Shepherd and Andy Dick, and it’s a free-for-all laugh-fest.

    I think my favorite part of the show is the witty one-liners that Claude and Kipp offer. For example:
    Kipp: Hurry! Quick, quick, quick quick, quick!
    Lydia: Are they coming?
    Kipp: No, it’s just really creepy down here. Somebody brought a lunch from home! 

    or

    Lydia: Your scent is supposed to linger, not change global weather patterns. 

    Just so funny! If you’re up at 7am and looking for something to watch, I definitely recommend Less Than Perfect.

    Thanking Lifetime for airing such a great show until next time. -LJ

    Teaser Tuesday – Where Honor Dwells

    teaser_tuesdays1MizB of Should Be Reading hosts the Teaser Tuesdays weekly event

    Here are the rules:
    * Grab your current read
    * Let the book fall open to a random page
    * Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12
    *You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
    * Please avoid spoilers!

    This week’s teaser is:
    “For much too long a moment, Rachel and Jake both felt the inertness of the ship. Then the sea came aboard a second time and the well deck filled, and the port wing of the hurricane deck touched the lifting waves.”
    pg. 135 – Where Honor Dwells by Gilbert Morris

    – I think I’ve read this book 6 times, but it’s in one of my favorite Civil War series. I’m 50 pages into it again, and I can’t stop laughing. Morris breaks every rule of contemporary writing, and I’m still enjoying it. Funny how the rules don’t count when I know I love the story.

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    Monday Movie – Push

    Saturday night Amy and I were housesitting for a friend. We thought it’d be fun to get some pizza, rent a movie, and push-movie-posterkick back with our friend’s huge flat screen TV. So we hit the redbox and picked up Push, a sci fi flick about mutant-like people who have special abilities. These people are classified by their skills. Pushers can push thoughts into other people’s minds, making them believe things that aren’t true. Movers can … well, move things with their minds. Watchers see glimpses of the future. Bleeders scream really loudly and make everything in sound reach explode. And the classifications go on.

    Push centers around Nick, a second-generation mover, who isn’t actually very good at it. He gambles, throws dice, and still can’t manage to win, even though he’s supposed to be able to move the dice with his mind. Nick’s dad died 10 years before, and the last thing he said to his son was that when a girl with a flower asks for his help, he needs to help her.

    Said young woman shows up in the form of a teen Dakota Fanning (who knew the girl would actually grow up to be a pretty good actress?). She plays a 13-year-old watcher, who needs Nick’s help to save her mother, who is being held by the evil Division. The only way to get her mom (also a watcher) back is by stealing a drug that Division has been testing. The same drug that is killing everyone it is tried on.

    Sound conveluted? It is. Throw is extra watchers, bleeders, and pushers, and it begins to not make much sense at all.

    I love those movies that make me think, that don’t  make sense until the very end. Case in point, The Prestige. I love how that movie just messes with my mind. But at the end it’s wrapped up so nicely that it all makes sense. It’s unbelievable, yet every piece of it fits so perfectly together that I don’t have to spend hours wondering what piece of the puzzle I was missing.

    Push has an interesting premise, but the conclusion is so underwhelming that I just walked away feeling confused.

    Worse … about half way through the movie, I thought I had figured out how Nick and Dakota’s character were connected. I was so convinced that that was how it should be that when it turned out worse than my imagined ending, I was even more let down. *shaking head* Bad move on my part.

    So … I won’t be watching Push again, but that’s okay.

    Looking for good movies until next time. -LJ

    Friday Favorite – Ice Cream Sandwiches

    What is it about the summer months that makes ice cream sandwiches so wonderful? It’s like combining my two favorite foods: ice cream and cookies. I love all sorts of flavors of ice cream sandwiches, but the mint Skinny Cow ones are probably my favorite.  They’re so soft and smooth and yummy!

    While the winter months in Colorado aren’t quite conducive to a good ice cream sandwich, these summer months have been great. Especially since we don’t have air conditioning.

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    So what’s your favorite sweet treat for the summer?

    Enjoying a treat in the heat until next time. -LJ

    The Perfect Ratio

    This week I had a terrible revelation! My books are piling up at an exponential rate. I’m having a terrible time keeping up with reading the books that I’m buying.

    See, I like shopping. A lot. Call it therapy or just a way to support the economy. And as previously revealed, I especially enjoy using a good coupon–which usually requires me to buy more than one book. Before I know it, my room starts looking like this:

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    Piles abound, and the books–books that I really want to read–don’t get read. I just keep getting more books, and not reading them. At this moment, I think my current ratio is about 3:1. If I’m only reading 1 book of every 3 I’m buying, that’s not ideal. Mostly because I want to be reading them. But also because I’m feeling a little wasteful (even if a lot of the books I’m getting are being traded for on paperbackswap.com). I don’t want to be wasteful.

    But also, I love books. I love being surrounded by them. Someone said something amazingly creative enough to get published, and even if I don’t know the words yet, there’s something thrilling about knowing they’re there, on the printed page, covering my floor.

    But sometimes I think I need to only buy books that I’ll actually read, so I have a quality 1:1 ratio. But then … well, how will I know if I’m going to read every book that I get? And just because I haven’t read the books yet, doesn’ t mean that I don’t want to.

    Which all leads me to the all-important question. What is the ideal ratio for book buying? Is it only 1:1? Or is it 3:2, so that you have some spares for next year or the next? Or is it 5:1 so you always have more books than you could possibly read?

    Pondering the big questions until next time. -LJ

    Brandon Heath update

    I know! It’s been forever since I shared any new news about Brandon, but the good news is that he has a new single out with Leeland called Follow You. It’s amazing! I just downloaded it on iTunes, and I have a terrible feeling it’s going to get worn out. I mean, I know it’s not a cassette or a record, but still … my iPod could get a mysterious shuffle right in the middle of it, if I’m not careful. 🙂

    Anyway, check it out! Enjoy!

    Return of the Random Post – Toothpaste Fiasco!

    So I miss posting about random things. I got busy and haven’t been taking time lately to tell you about the really strange things goin on. But that stops today. Or more accurately, I’m stopping today. To share more than you ever wanted to know about me …

    While I wish I had the beautiful skin of my 5-year-old niece, all perfect porcelain and adorable freckles, I do not wish I had the skin of a girl half my age. But last night, that’s exactly what I got, the skin of a 14-year-old. Pimples and all. Three pimples, to be exact. On my nose, on my cheek, and my chin.

    It was the perfect trifecta of complexion bummer!

    Per my norm, I was oversharing with Amy. She suggested I put some  toothpaste on my “problem areas” to dry them out. Hmmm … I hadn’t heard of that. But I figured it couldn’t hurt, so before bed I plopped three dollops of Aquafresh on my nose, cheek, and chin.

    No problem. Until I woke up to three large blobs of toothpaste on my pillow case.

    That’s right! My dollops had morphed into blobs and spread all over my pillow. Turns out I may not be the most … hmm … demure sleeper. And I totally dirtied up my freshly laundered pillow case. Bummer.

    Oh, well. No problem, right? I figured I’d just wash it off in the shower, right? Wrong. Even hot steamy water wasn’t washing off the crusted toothpaste. It took some seriously scrubbing to finally get a clean face, an unexpected side-effect.

    And the worst part. My pimples? Oh, they’re totally still hanging around.

    Seriously considering using windex to fix my face until next time. -LJ