Joined a Book Club.

I joined a book club.  I'm nervous but excited.  Last night I attended my first meeting.  I was surprised that not everyone had read the book, but it was a welcoming and interesting group. 

This month, we'll be reading Swapping Lives by Jane Green.  It seems like an intresting story and it is certainly a deviation from my typical reading categories.  I have until May to come up with my recommendation for a book.  I'm hoping to garner some more information on what types of books the group likes to read.  They say they read everything, but I'm not so sure how many of the books I like to read would go over (Atlas Shrugged, Ender's Game, A Briefer History of Time, and 1984 all come to mind).  I'm leaning more towards something lighter and easier.  Possibly (shudder) Malcom Gladwell or maybe Mary Roach.  We'll have to see. 

In the meantime, I was thinking how much I adore reading and have been having a hard time doing it.  It's a factor of both time and having a hard time figuring out what the heck to read and just being borderline.  So, anyone intersted in being book pen pals?  Taking turns picking books to read together?  I have lots of friends who love to read (Jen, Terrence, Alyssa, I'm looking at you!)   Maybe I'll call it re-read.  That will be sure to annoy Gavin. :)

My Foster Puppy.

It's been a kinda exciting week!

This little guy wandered into my life:

Likely abandoned in a nearby parking lot, he was scared, dirty, hungry and covered in motor oil.  I was eventually convinced (coerced?) into taking him home with the agreement that a friend's wife and daughter would come bathe him.

Before

After, what a difference a bath makes!

Gavin and I decided we didn't think he was the right fit for our decidedly... delicate animal family.  So the search for his family began.

Tuesday, I took him to the vet, just to make sure he was at least relatively healthy.  We were already in the process of removing the fleas, but a vet visit is always a good idea for a lost little guy. 

He was scared to death, but stole another medium sized chink of my heart by leaning up against me, sighing and calming down instantly. 

There's not denying the little guy adores me.  He follows me around and comes when I call or say... well, anything.  I called him ghost because he kept disappearing and reappearing, but I've since decided Boo was much cuter. 

I have a friend who INSISTS that everything happens for a reason.  I mostly think that's an idiom for nonreligious people to survive bad situations.  Still, I think this little guy happened to me for a reason.  Something about him and his timing has been good for me this week.  Last Sunday night I woke up and couldn't sleep.  I woke up the dog to sit and cuddle.  Not interested.  I woke up the cat to cuddle.  Nope.  Gavin held me and eventually I feel asleep.  Monday morning I meet this little guy who just needs some love and cuddles and I had plenty for him.  All week he's needed nothing but some attention, some food, some baths and lots of love.

Tonight Boo get's to meet his maybe forever mom.  I'm certainly going to miss him.  And it's not just me.  This little show stopper is gonna leave a whole trail of broken hearts in his path!

Writing prompts aka I might be cheating.

I mentioned previously that I signed up for NaNoWriMo.

It starts in November.  For those of you who don't know, it is currently September .

I fully intended to not think about my novel until after the best day of the year (Halloween, obv).  However, I did mention my latest adventure to a few people including my car pool buddy.  Conversation sometimes runs a bit thin when you have a 2 hour drive each way, so my theoretical book came up.

Only we came up with a topic.  Mostly as a joke. But I came home and made a mind map.  And now the idea is kind a rough outline.  And I'm kinda excited about it.  And the character is kinda a person in my mind at the moment.

Did I cheat?  Jen says no.  She's my writer buddy so I'm good.

I don't know if this book idea will stick.  Half of me wants to write it right now while I can see him and sense him. But then... if I don't remember him anymore by November doesn't that mean I should write about what I'm feeling then?

I've never wished it were November before.  Weird. 

What's for dinner? Vagabond Edition

This is a special "what to cook when you have no electricity edition".

Last night, all of San Diego County, as well Southern Orange County (aka here); lost power as a result of what is reported to be a switching error in Arizona that knocked the San Onofre Nuclear plant off line.

Interestingly enough, I didn't even know the power was out.  I was home from work cleaning the bathroom, watching a show on my iPad while my robovac vacuumed away without a concern in the world.  I heard a beeping downstairs and figured it was the fire alarm.  I got a battery and a ladder and climbed up to find out... it wasn't.  After some investigation, I figured out it was my house alarm notifying me that it had 'no ac.'  I guess I'm more girl than engineer after all was "Why the hell does my alarm need air conditioning??"  I figured it out pretty quickly and tested a few light switches.  I went outside to confirm it wasn't just my house that had tripped and quickly figured out it was at least a local outage.

You don't realize how helpless you are without electricity.  And I'm still much less helpless than people were even a few years ago.  I had my cell phone and could still do things like follow SDGE on twitter for the latest news.

Still... a coworker advised me to stay off the roads and my house was pretty devoid of any non frozen food.  In fact, in my refrigerator, I had only the following perishable items: happy cow cheese, 2 chicken sausages, sour cream, an onion and orange juice (does orange juice even count?)  I know you are suppose to leave the fridge closed, but I knew I had essentially nothing in there.

I decided it was enough to work with and created this

Vagabond Delight!

I singed a few arm hairs manually lighting the stove burners, but otherwise my potato/sausage/onion feast was pretty impressive.

After dinner, I light a million candles, grabbed my iHome and curled up to wait out the black out.

Sneaking back into life

This year has sucked.  Badly.  I can only hope it's the worst year of my life.  I declared it the worst year on January 8th, that's how bad of a year it is.

As a result, I've spent a good majority of this year escaping into the relative safety of my chosen profession.  Holidays, birthdays, and returning phone calls or emails have fallen by the wayside, along with, for the most part, this blog.  Lack of blogging has primarily been a function of lack of activities that I like to blog about.  If I had a blog about my adventures in Construction, it'd be alive and well, but crafting, cooking, hiking, etc have really been pretty minimal lately.  


But right now, I feel a bit like Punxsutawney Phil, the famous groundhog.  I'm ever so cautiously sneaking back into life, hoping to God nothing scares me back into the ground for another 6 weeks (months, years, decades?) of winter. 

So here's a toast to trying:

Our Purple Themed Drinks: Purple Haze and Story Nights to toast a new try

It's time to rejoin Jen for happy hour.  Plan that recurring game night at our house.  Do crafts.  It's at least time to try...

The OC Fair... Let's eat!

 I'm always excited by the idea of the Fair.  But then I get there.  I remember that it's hot, crowded, greasy and FANTASTIC! 

Deep Fried Kool-Aid.  Gavin couldn't help himself.

And last but not least, introducing my bounty.  On the left is Minion, my new pet goldfish.  He's currently in his third week, vastly outliving all predictions for his lifespan.  On the right is my new minion named Goldfish.  He's my carpool buddy.  Sadly, I don't think he get's my HOV privileges...