What's on my nightstand, so to speak

Y'all remember that I was sick with the head, chest, coughing virus thing for damn near FOUR WEEKS? Do you further remember that the meds and the coughing made it impossible to sleep?  How to while away the hours while the rest of the house slept was my dilemma.

Kindle to the rescue!


Oh, how I love my Kindle.  I love me some regular hardbound books, don't get me wrong.  I hold the written word in very high esteem.

So, I have been reading.  A lot.  I finally forced myself to read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.  I had tried and tried to start the first one, but it just wasn't striking my fancy.  Then finally, it did.

It's a crying shame that they were published posthumously.  I am sure he might have had a couple more good books in him.

Then I read this:

I can't remember who recommended this book to me, but thank you to whomever it was.  This was a really interesting read.  And then . . . .  at the end?

There's a conversation with the author and he goes into great detail about how this was one of those novels based on his very own personal family tree.  I really enjoy those historically accurate novels where you start out based in truth and then fill in the blanks with what you think would make a great story.

After that came this one:

Ok, now this book was recommended to me twice.  And when I read the little synopsis, I was immediately leary.  I thought it would be different than what it turned out to be.  So I did what any good Kindle owner would do, I got the free sample chapters to try it out.

Yea for the sample chapters!!

If they can hook you in the first couple of chapters, you are good.  If not, you've only wasted a little time and no money.

Back to Room.  This book was so clever, so intriguing and so gripping I don't even know how the author came up with this.  It does come to some good resolutions, but not so cute and "happily ever after" in a smarmy non-realistic way.

These were both really good books and I can recommend them.  After the dark subject matter of these I decided to go with a more light-hearted read and am currently reading a new Maeve Binchy.  More on it when I finish.

Oh!!  And totally off the subject of books, I got myself a new phone this weekend.  Yea!  I still like my old phone, but it was dying.  Is anyone else irritate that phones seem to be made to last 12 to 18 months while your contract is designed for 24 months?  And then you have to baby your phone along to get to the 24 month?  I am trying to get the hang of the new phone and find all new ringtones and Caller Tunes (as T-Mobile calls them).

In a couple of days it will be April Fools Day.  And that signals the beginning of all sorts of festivities around here!  Spring, wildflower sightings, Fiesta , Poteet Strawberry Festival , Easter, Earth Day , not to mention the NBA PLAYOFFS!!!  Time for our beloved Spurs to rally.  Yea!

Yep, April is a great month.  I swear to you there are at least 2 or 3 things you can find here to do every single day.  Most of them free.  If you are bored, it's because you want to be.

Every few years I update my inventory.  I do a complete inventory of everything in the house.  We have had to do this in the past because of all the international moving we did and keeping the inventory was a chore I took on and if we made a big purchase I would try to take care of entering the item right away from the invoice.  But sadly, since we have been planted for almost 6 years I have neglected my inventory.  So along with the spring cleaning mentality I get the "let's clean up the inventory list" fever. And that is my goal for the rest of this week, to work on the inventory.  Isn't that exciting?  Don't you wish you led the glamourous life I lead?  Real Housewives of SA, here I come!  Heh.

Enjoy your day.  

What are you doing for Mother Earth?

It's that time of year again, folks. Yep, a week from today is Earth Day. Do you have plans? Does this day even appear on your radar? Typically, Earth Day falls in the middle of Fiesta. What is Fiesta, you ask? http://www.fiesta-sa.org/ is the link to the Official Goings-On here for the next 2 weeks or so. There is more to do here than you can shake a stick at! Honestly, you can't do 1/4th of all there is fun to do. Loads of parades, contests, concerts, beads, etc. Think of it as a Mexican Mardi Gras that lasts a fortnight!

And in the middle of all the hullaballoo there is an Earth Day celebration at one of the small lakes in town. It is a really nice event. They usually give away small trees till they run out. There is a bunch of booths of people with information about the environment, lots of vegetarian food vendors, music, games and things for the kidlets, gardening (free seeds), water conservation, electricity, pretty much all the stuff you might imagine at an Earth Day event. It is a nice counter-point to all the other Fiesta party things.

Earth Day for me is a good time to take stock of what I am doing, what I could be doing and what things I need to strive to get to in my quest to have a lighter footprint and leave this planet a tid bit better than I found it. I have done a really good job at getting my paper and disposables down to a minimum. My big focus this year is water. There is a show on PBS I have caught a couple of times called State of Tomorrow that addresses all sorts of state-wide issues and one thing I paid particular attention to last week was this: In the coming years we are not going to be experiencing a big decrease in rainfall, HOWEVER we are definitely going to have an increase in temperatures. So the rain we get is going to evaporate more and at a faster pace. Essentially, that means less water overall going into our rivers, lakes, aquifers, yards, rain barrels, everything. Every drop has to count. If it can be saved and used again as gray water, it should be.

I called our local water company and asked about getting the water from my washing machine to my rain barrels instead of in the sewage pipes and they were no help at all. None. First I had to call 3 times to get an actual person. Then the person I got was not the right person. The right person I had left messages for and still to this day have never gotten a call back. I know that this can be done and probably easily, I just can't get from the planning stage to the execution stage. I need to go hang out at a hardware store in the plumbing dept. to find out the names of things so that I can draw up a plan of what I need. I have the Kenmore HE 3t washer and dryer set that are the most awesome machines on the planet. I love my washer and dryer so much!!! I know that I have sold 4 or 5 sets of these and Sears should love me and my efforts on their behalf. And the point of that is that I know my washer uses a paltry 15 gallons of water per wash load. This is opposed to the giant Maytag top loader types that use 45 - 50 gallons!!! Is that insane? I probably do 4 or 5 loads a week. Which in my head translates to 5 x 15 = 75 gallons a week that could be going on my flower beds, lawn, and garden. Did you know or am I the last person on the planet to know that you get billed by the water company for how many gallons come into your house AND for how many leave via sewer pipes? You are paying for water TWICE that you use ONCE. That is why I am trying to find ways to use it twice and not have it go into the sewer where I will get billed for it again. Makes sense to do this, right?

My other little contribution to this is to find some rubbermaid tubs the size of my kitchen sinks to run wash and rinse water in and then dump them on the lawn rather than down the drain. I haven't measured my water usage in the kitchen sink but I am sure it is astronomical. Especially since I am a "water runner". When I get the water to just the right temp I like to leave it on when I am using it because it is such a pain in the ass to get it just right again. This is a really bad habit that drives Rachel Pie up the walls and I am trying to find new ways, so hopefully this will be a thing of the past.

One of my friends told me she is getting married next week on Earth Day and I am now picturing her planting a tree on each of her anniversaries. Isn't that a great idea?

Have a wonderful Earth Day and find a new, small way or a big way to make a better impact on our Mother. I like the idea that we didn't inherit the Earth from our grandparents; we are borrowing it from our grandchildren. Let's keep it clean!

How are you helping the environment? Post some ideas in the comments and let's share new things we can all do.