We Interrupt This Readathon . . .

Somehow Readathon always seems to fall on the same weekend as our Brownville Concert Series tickets.  So we are taking a break to see: 

  Kim Smith starring in Misfit

In Misfit, Smith charts a dark and whimsical path through a ruined, musical landscape of disfigured pop and peculiar period treasures, mischievously proving that misfits have more fun. A celebrated Australian cabaret performer based in New York,Smith sings in German, French, and English, reinterpreting works by Weimar-era composers as well as modern-day artists including Friedrich Hollaender, Bjork, The Supremes, Kurt Weill, and a myriad of glittering others.

Can't say I know quite what to expect from that description, but I know I don't want to miss it.  So, I will return at approximately 10:00 to resume my cheerleading and reading.

Readathon: Marking Books Mini-Challenge

The ladies at Nisaba be Praised are asking "How do you mark your place?"  My favorite bookmarks are ones I created myself:

I created them using the Paint program on my computer, the background image from my blog, the laminating machine at work and some matching ribbon.  The include my blog title, URL and Twitter name.  I include a bookmark in any prizes I give away or just hand them out to people who want to remember my blog site.  Incredibly easy and inexpensive to make (just pennies for the paper, ink, laminating supplies and ribbon) and a fun way to promote my blog.

Readathon: Literacy Mini-Challenge

This hour's mini-challenge is dedicated to reading to children and encouraging children to read.  This picture shows me, circa Christmas 1963, sharing a book with my great-grandmother, Grandma Hattie.  Although, I'll admit she doesn't seem engrossed. :)

I have shared several time on this blog how much I loved book orders at school - you know, those little paper flyers the teacher handed out at the end of the day.  I ran home and spent hours pouring over the possibilities. My wonderful mother was always willing to order what I selected.  One of my favorites was The With Next Door.  I read it repeatedly. I even wrote about it in a letter to my grandparents in Arizona.  My mom found this letter when searching through boxes pictures and keepsakes to make scrapbooks for my sisters and I.

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,
Debbie (little sister) and I stayed at Bernice's (aunt) yesterday.  I would build up blocks and Debbie would laugh when I knocked them down.  It was lots of fun.

I ordered a book at school and it came today.  I payed for it with my own money.  The name of it is The Witch Next Door.

Love, Tami

I never pass up an opportunity to praise my mother - who is not a reader - for encouraging, or sometimes just enduring, my fascination with books.  Especially when they kept me from doing my assigned chores.

There is no greater gift to give a child than the love of reading.

Holy Cow and Pass the Tylenol . ..

Whew!  This has been a wild and hairy readathon so far.  I volunteered for a stint as co-host and just finished my shift (11:00 - 2:00 CT).  I really had no clue what I was volunteering for and, honestly, I was overwhelmed.  But it was a blast!  Andi and Heather, who put this whole thing together, are amazing.  They have a spreadsheet for everything. :)  Dave thinks I may have set a cussing record while trying to figure it all out - and I never did catch on to Google Docs - but overall a successful and rewarding three hours.  

Now - to actually read. And eat.  I got 18 pages read before the panic of not having my posts ready on time made it impossible to concentrate.  Now i can relax and read.  I still have cheerleading duties, but I can spread that out over the remaining hours.  We are attending a concert this evening - so I'm off to read until then.

The Readathon Begins ...

Good morning!  Welcome to my fifth visit to Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon - that awesome day each April and October when readers get the chance to set aside other responsibilities and just read.  Also, they play games, chat and win prizes.

This time around I was bitten by the "Helpful Bug" - who knows why - and I volunteered to co-host and to cheerlead, so I will be pushing myself to get off the computer occasionally and do some actual reading.  In  the past I have tried to follow a general schedule of 45 minutes reading, 15 minutes for grabbing a snack and entering the current mini-challenge.  Obviously, that's not going to work this time.  I will be co-hosting from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time) so obviously no reading during those hours.  As for the remaining hours, I hope to divide them half and half between cheering and reading.  Except for the hours from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. when we have tickets to this show.  Too many good things packed into one weekend!

The biggest bait to get me to unplug for as much as possible is A Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling.  I also have my Oct. T&T Book Club selection, Death by Diamonds by Annette Blair, and my final Mx3 read, The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley.  I might even throw in a few chapters of Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible.

If you're participating in the read-a-thon, I wish you hours of cozy reading and many wonderful prizes.  If you're not participating - why not?  There's still plenty of hours to read - sign up here.

Opening Meme:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? - I'm reading from the middle of nowhere - our little piece of the country we call Green Acres - between Verdon and Salem, Nebraska

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? - A Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? - Still trying to lose that last 8 lbs. so, sadly, my traditional bag of cheese puffs has to remain on the shelf.  But I've got lots of fresh fruit, yogurt and low-fat ice cream treats.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!  - I'm a former librarian (miss it so much!) and life-long book nut - mother of 3, grandmother of 2 (so far), and wife to Dave, Champion Awesome Husband. For more info about me, check out the "about" page.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? - This is my first readathon as a co-host and cheerleader - and I'm terrified.  That vibration you're feeling isn't an earthquake, it's my knees clacking. 

Mx3 - Week 2

I hear tell the road to hell 

is paved with good intentions, 

but Mama, my intentions were the best...

Merle Haggard and Randy Travis must have been window-peeking at my house when they wrote those lyrics.  I really had good intentions of reviewing one book and one movie per week during Mx3.  And I made it one week - but then life crept in and I didn't quite finish the book and I didn't find/make time to watch the movie.... and I have all kinds of excuses, but truth is, I just didn't get it done. However, the book is short stories and I did read SOME of them so I'm going to share my favorite - so far.

Ghosts of the Missouri River is a volume of "real" ghost stories collected by a local author.  We live along the "Big Muddy", and these tales were repeated to her by long-time residents who heard these stories from their grandparents or who just know them because  "people say..." It's not a particularly well-written book, but the idea of passing along with tales handed down over years is good.  My favorite story is The Bells of St. Deroin.  We recently visited what's left of that small town and saw the school house where the  story takes place.

The story tells of Haggai Craterman - "a river rat, a rough and bearded codger who worked loading and unloading the river barges...[He] stood about 6'7", a whale of a man who could pick a 300 lb. hog above his head and toss it, oinking and squealing, onto a barge" - who was killed inside the school, supposedly by a frightened school marm who bashed him with the hand bell she used to call the students from recess, then disappeared. An unlikely scenario considering Haggai's size and strength, but that's the legend.  People say that "on many dark nights the bell in the schoolhouse tower dongs loudly."

St. Deroin is now located within Indian Cave State Park and Dave and I were at the park to hike.  You may recall from my earlier post about that trip, that when we reached the bottom of the trail, I asked Dave to snap a picture, using my cell phone, to commemorate the moment.  We stood in front of a log cabin just across the road from the St. Deroin school house.  When I downloaded the picture to computer, it was slightly dark so I began mess with the brightness and contrast.  The instant I did, this image appeared.

No, the scary part is not that my make-up has sweated off, my hair is flat and I'm *gasp* wearing a tank-top in public.  It's the shadowy image behind me. 

  

Is that Haggai Craterman, biding his time in the cabin across the road, waiting for the school marm to return so he can exact his revenge?  If you asked me on any random day if I believe in ghosts, I would answer with a quick and decisive "of course not".  But that picture's just weird.

As for this week's movie - I was scheduled to watch Murder on the Orient Express, which is waiting patiently on the DVR, but it just didn't happen.  The one evening that we found time to watch a movie, Dave requested a movie a friend had loaned him and I agreed, assuming I would find time for my movie during an afternoon.  However, the movie we did watch turned out to be even scarlier.

Taken is the story of a 17-year-old girl who takes a trip to Europe against her father's better judgment,  Sure enough, she's kidnapped and sold into prostitution within the first day and Daddy has to go to her rescue.  Fortunately for this girl, she has a father with an extreme skill set - detection, computers/electronics,  survival, and multiple ways to murder people without rumpling his shirt.  Normally, I would have seen this movie as just another shoot-em-up thriller, but with a son set to go to Europe next summer, it hit a little close to home.  Although, as our 6'3", 250 lb. son is fond of saying "Fat kids are harder to kidnap."  So maybe I don't have much to worry about.

How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck . . .

 Last week, while driving the back roads to nearby Dawson, NE, Dave and I saw a critter we weren't immediately able to identify.  A little internet research, coupled with knowledge of the color, size and tail shape of the mystery varmint, lead us to believe we had spotted a woodchuck, aka ground hog or whistle pig, depending on where you live.  

A few days later, when  Dave and I set out on our daily BDW (Big Dog Walk) - necessary to keep us both healthy and Gabby from driving us nuts with her high energy level - we decided to explore farther from home and see if we could spot Mr. Woodchuck again.  Since we're trying to be healthy, but aren't fanatic, we decided the 10 mile round-trip was a bit much on foot, so we parked a little over a mile from the spot and walked in.  

Along the way, Gabby made a few new friends - what is the fascination cattle have with this dog?

That's a donkey hiding behind the longhorn

 

When we reached the spot where the woodchuck had scurried across the road, we went "off-road" and discovered a shaded, dry creek-bottom bursting with autumn color.  

 No luck spotting the woodchuck again, but Dave thought that surely he had been there because there was lots of wood chucked around (groan).  After about twenty minutes of exploring, it was back out to the dusty, sunny road and back towards home.

Dave spotted this interesting juxtaposition, but unfortunately my camera didn't have enough zoom to capture it clearly.

What are you missing?  If you look closely along the horizon, those vague gray shapes are wind turbins - the modern counterpart to the abandoned windmill.  Clicking on the picture to enlarge may help, but if you still can't spot them, here's a hint:

Still don't see it?  Well trust me, it was cool.