Vacation Log: 2

Yesterday was a pretty laid back day. After taking a three hour nap to adjust to the time change, mom, dad, my brother, and I went to the gallery that hosts some of my dad's pictures. I have to say that the place looks nicer than I had thought it would be. It was very sophisticated. There is only one other person that takes pictures for the gallery, the other 58 artists are either painters or sculptures. When we walked inside, the lady at the reception desk handed dad a check because he had sold another picture. It was perfect, we walk in somewhere and we get paid for it. Dad was happy. Anyways, most of dad's pictures were located on the bottom level of the place--he has 6 or 7 pictures featured there and they're asking him to let them show another one. It was an extremely nice place, and we're honored that they chose dad's pictures to feature.

 After that, I went to Big Timber, Montana for lunch with the family and Aunt Barb and grandpa. The first place we went too was at the stage in between lunch and dinner. The second place was a Chinese restaurant and we left before they could get us our drinks. The third place was a bar where they had burgers and stuff--more our style--and Cheeseburger soup! It was pretty good actually, which surprised dad and I.

After that, my brother, Jake, and I went with my aunt back to her house and we stopped at one of her friends place to see all the new baby horses they had. Four all together. Three of them were considered buckskins and one of them was a really pale palomino. The owner let us go up and (attempt) to pet them, but the babies were too shy and ran away from Aunt Barb when she got too close. I was able to pet one of their noses for a millisecond before it ducked behind his momma. They were so cute! I don't have up close pictures, but I do have some from farther away.

When we arrived back 'home,' Jake and I brushed Micasa--Aunt Barb's dog. Well, we attempted to brush her. She's a hyper little devil with long hair and thinks she can fit in your lap. I can't tell you what kind of dog she is, but she looks like a slightly smaller, hairier, wolf. She is extremely pretty and loves to have attention. It's because she's so hyper that they have to keep her penned up all the time--which makes me sad because she's almost on the other side of their property (nearly fifty feet from the house). So whenever I see her, I feel guilty when I have to leave her there. It must be because I'm a animal lover. Because of that, I'm going to go down to see her every day we're here.

After brushing Micasa, Jake convinced me to go on the Gator--a large, heavy duty, golf cart. It only goes 35mph, but there's no windshield and no doors. Thankfully there were seat belts and handlebars to keep you in. Jake drove us and we went across the road to see the country side for a little bit. That was more fun than I had thought it would be. Especially with Jake driving. After that, we had dinner and played ping-pong for a few hours. I have to say, I've gotten extremely better than what I was earlier that day, usually Jake was nearly 10-15 points ahead when he won, but now it's closer to 4-5. What fun, lol.

Well, that's all for yesterday. I'll post what's happening today tomorrow morning.

You can see two of the baby horses.

You can see three of the baby horses. Two of them are laying down the other is the blond one looking at the photo.

MICASA!!!

From my aunt and uncle's house.

Picture of the mountains.

A cool painting from the gallery. It was almost $800!

This and the next picture are wood burnings. The artist burnt the image onto a piece of wood. The darker the color, the more it needed to be burned.

Vacation Log: 1

Well, I arrived in Bozeman last night and thankfully it wasn't completely awful. The flight from Minneapolis to Grand Rapids was late, so we didn't leave until around 8:35 and didn't arrive until 9 (because of the time difference that's). Unfortunately, our flight from Minneapolis to Bozeman was boarding at 9:25. We landed at gate A3 and we had to hike it over to F13. Let me tell you, we couldn't have gotten there faster even if we had run. We made it there in time, thankfully, and we arrived at our destination on time.

I have to say, when we were descending into Montana, the stars were out and extremely bright. I was able to see the Big Dipper perfectly through my window. It was pretty cool. And seeing all the city lights at night was awesome. You know those sets where you can build your own miniature town with cars on the streets and everything? Well while we were descending, it was like I was looking over one of those things and seeing headlight trails as they were on the road.

Since we arrived so late into Bozeman, we didn't do a lot of sight seeing. We just went to Wendy's and got a little something to eat before we went to my aunt and uncle's place in Livingston. It was sixty-seven degrees when we landed and it was a climate shocker from the high eighties it was in Michigan.

Below, I put in some pictures that my dad has taken so far. I hope you like them!

If anyone doesn't know...this is a Moose.

This is my aunt and uncle's farm. They just redid the barn so it's nicely painted and everything.

This is the Diamondback Rattle Snake that my dad almost STEPPED ON!! He says that it didn't even rattle or coil up. He says that it might have been too cold or it had eaten recently and was digesting it. Either way, he was REALLY lucky.

Old Classics

For next fall semester, I am taking this English class called "blah blah blah...19th Century Thought." For this class, I have to read the following books: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Silas Marner and Two Short Stories by George Eliot, and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. So when I started reading Mary Shelley, I got to thinking that I haven't read a lot of the old classic novels. How can I call myself an English major if I haven't even read Bram Stoker's Dracula?

So I'm going to compile a list of all those classic books that I need to read, and read them all in the next year. Now, I know you're probably thinking that this is an impossible feat, but I will make myself do it. I'm going on vacation in a few weeks and I'm going to be on a plane, and driving home, to/from Yellowstone National Park (FYI I'm going to be doing a 'series' of my time there with pictures and [hopefully] a day-by-day update on what I'm up to there). That means that I'll have a lot of time on my hands that is better used reading classics than playing games on Facebook and waiting for someone to comment on my status.

So below is a list of all the books I'm hoping to have read by August 30th of next year (I want to be finished before next fall semester):

Mary Shelley:
Frankenstein

Jane Austen:
Pride & Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Maybe Persuasion and Northanger Abbey

Charlotte Bronte:
Jane Eyre

Emily Bronte:
Wuthering Heights (Wish me luck on this one)

Homer:
The Illiad (I've already read The Odyssey)

Bram Stoker:
Dracula

Leo Tolstoy:
Anna Karenina

 Alexandre Dumas:
The Three Musketeers
The Man in the Iron Mask

Robert Louis Stevenson:
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde 

Frederick Schiller:

Joan of Arc

I think that's a good enough list for the following year. If there are any that you would like to recommend, please put that in a comment. I would love to see what people like so I don't get bored out of my mind. 

 

Wedding Shows are Addictive

If you've ever watched "Say Yes To The Dress" (or any variations of it) and "Four Weddinngs" and shows like that, don't you find yourself thinking what the dress they're trying on would look on you? Or what you would do differently to the reception, or what you might use for your own wedding? Or if you have a friend that's getting married, you get the "Wedding Bug" that makes you start thinking about all this stuff. Well, that happens to me all the time. And for some reason, I keep getting wedding magazines in the mail (I never signed up for them and I'm not paying for them) and I feel the urge to look through. I can't seem to help myself.

It gets scary when I start planning my wedding and I'm not even dating anyone. I already know what colors I want, who my Maid of Honor is, what dress I'm getting (shown below), what designer my bridesmaids dresses are coming from, and what Bridal store I'm going to to get my dress, and in what months I might want my wedding to be in. How sad is that? Pretty sad, from what I've been told.

Part of me thinks that it's good to think ahead so everything isn't crammed together and I get stressed out when the time comes (if it comes at all). But by the time that happens, all my friend would have already gone through it and I would have people to help me. The only thing I'm dreading is having to talk to a pastor for our "marriage counseling" before hand. Oh well. I'll worry about that later. Much, much later.

Christopher Titus - Love is Evol

So last night, I was staying with my family at a hotel and I was channel surfing when I stopped on Comedy Central. There was this guy doing his thing, and I instantly loved him--his work I mean, not him himself. It even got my family to enjoy it even with the swearing and political statements. So I wrote down his name to be able to YouTube him when I got home. I couldn't find the one from last night which was called "Neverlution" but I did find the one titles "Love is Evol."

If you ever want to laugh your hardest, and I'm talking having trouble breathing kind of laughing, then you need to watch the video below and hold on tight. There are nine parts, each at ten minutes, and there's no way that I feel like I wasted my time. There was a point at around video 7/9 to 8/9 that I had to stop watching because  I was having trouble breathing. I was getting light headed and my stomach felt like it was caught in my throat. I've never gotten to the point where I couldn't laugh any more; but Christopher Titus went above and beyond.

Cripes, I think I'm losing my voice from how much I was laughing. But it's when I was wheezing that I knew, as well as anyone around me, that I couldn't be laughing harder.

Below is the first part of the "Love is Evol" show, and if you don't find it appealing, I'm sorry but there must be something wrong.

Janet Evanovich

Out of all the books that I have, Janet Evanovich is the only one that writes humor like Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel (if you follow my meaning). I have read all of her published works, but it's her Stephanie Plum series that are the funniest books that I've ever read in my life so far. I love them enough to buy all seventeen of them and will continue to buy the ones that have yet to be released. I don't consider them a waste of money, time, and paper or ebook space. Now that I have a Nook, I pre-order her books before they even come out and start reading them on the day they're released instead of waiting for them to be shipped on the release day.

I was first introduced to the series by a co-worker who's in her sixties. She told me that the humor was mainly light dirty humor, but I would find it an excellent read. I work at a library and there isn't a librarian there that hasn't read the series. This tells you that the books appeal to women of different ages and they keep readers coming back for more. Believe me, after seventeen books there has to be something about them that keeps people interested.

If you aren't even interested in reading them yet, here's the synopsis of the first book in the series One for the Money (fyi, you'll never be confused about which book is next because the number is in the title.):

Watch out, world. Here comes Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. In Stephanie's opinion, toxic waste, rabid drivers, armed schizophrenics, and August heat, humidity, and hydrocarbons are all part of the great adventure of living in Jersey.

She's a product of the "burg," a blue-collar pocket of Trenton where houses are attached and narrow, cars are American, windows are clean, and (God forbid you should be late) dinner is served at six.

Now Stephanie's all grown up and out on her own, living five miles from Mom and Dad's, doing her best to sever the world's longest umbilical cord. Her mother is a meddler, and her grandmother is a few cans short of a case.

Out of work and out of money, with her Miata repossessed and her refrigerator empty, Stephanie blackmails her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, into giving her a try as an apprehension agent. Stephanie knows zilch about the job requirements, but she figures her new pal, fearless bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her what it takes to catch a crook.

Her first assignment: nail Joe Morelli, a former vice cop on the run from a charge of murder one. Morelli is also the irresistible macho pig who took Stephanie's virginity at age sixteen and then wrote the details on the bathroom wall of Mario's Sub Shop. There's still powerful chemistry between these two, so the chase should be interesting.

It could also be extremely dangerous, especially when Stephanie encounters a heavyweight title contender who likes to play rough. Benito Ramirez is known for his brutality to women. At the very least, his obsession with Stephanie complicates her manhunt and brings terror and uncertainty into her life. At the worst, it could lead to murder.

Witty, fresh, and full of surprises, One for the Money was among the most eagerly awaited crime novels of the season.

I implore you to try out this book. If you're interested, go to Janet's website and you'll see the order of the books so you can either get them from your local library, or, if you're as impatient as I get, go to Barnes&Noble (or wherever you get your books) and order it.  If you're not pulled in by this, or if you don't like the dirty humor that's in it, I'm sorry.

Well, there's my advertising for the afternoon. Have a great day everybody! And if you're living in Michigan right now, grab a book instead of going outside--you'll melt the minute you're outside.

 

Historical Fiction

So I've read two historical fiction books recently and I have mixed feelings about them. I read The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory and The King's Mistress by Emma Campion. I believe it's safe to say what king and time period Gregory's book is from--if you know nothing of King Henry VIII that's pretty sad. The other one is in the mid 1350s through 1370s and King Edward II.

Both were great stories, in their own way, but I very disliked the way the main characters were treated. I know that it was the way things were back then, but still. Henry VIII throws mistresses away faster than a hotcake and washes his hands of them immediately. Edward II loves his mistress until the end of his days, but when he dies everyone believes that it was because of her that all their money was gone and she had something to do with his death. And I absolutely hated the ending of that book. Don't ask me why. She ends up with the man she loves with all her surviving children by her side and she doesn't die at the end. But there were a lot of deaths in that book, most of them were either related to her or to King Edward II.

Even though I haven't been completely moved by those books, I've found a few more that I'm interested in reading. Secrets of the Tudor court : Pleasure Palace by Kate Emerson and To Serve a King by Donna Russo Morin. If you are wondering, yes, I like reading about the Tudor family--which both of those books are mainly about or affiliated with.

If there is a book like the ones that I've mentioned and you know of one that you enjoyed, please comment it. I would love to give it a try.

Here are the covers of the books that I was talking about: