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Currently: Babies, Booze and Bruising Hail

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Time // 9:30 a.m.

Place // At my desk in my office.

Consuming // At the moment, just some cranberry blood orange tea. But this week was our local county fair, so I’ve been indulging on lots of food on a stick, plus the most insane thing of all — deep fried cookie dough. Seriously, it was to die for.

Reading // I finished three books this week: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosch, The Hunt for Hitler’s Warship by Patrick Bishop (reviewed on Friday for a book tour), and Son of a Gun by Justin St. Germain (for another book tour coming up this week).

I normally try to only do one, maximum two, book tours each month, but interesting books and some delayed deliveries meant I have a tour stop every week this month. Sometimes I like being on a tour because it forces me to read and finish a book that I might have otherwise passed over. But other times it makes me cranky because I feel obligated to finish a book that I’m not entirely enjoying. The best way to deal with this crankiness is to limit the number of tours I am on, which is what I’ll be trying to do better in the future.

This week I’m going to try and finish Knocking on Heaven’s Door by Katy Butler. It’s great, but I’ve had to put it aside to finish up tour books this week. After that, I’m not sure what I am going to pick up next… there are so many good options!

Watching // Last Sunday I visited a friend and her new baby and we got talking about one of our favorite shows, Avatar: The Last Airbender. I got the itch to re-watch the show and was pleasantly surprised to find it available on Amazon Instant Video. So, that’s when I’ve been watching obsessively this week.

Making // Last weekend while I was helping my grandma move, she gave me the rest of her pretty extensive yarn stash. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with it and I think finally settled on a chevron throw pattern. I’ve got a ton of yarn remnants, so I’m hoping to make it with a lot of crazy colors just for fun.

Blogging // It was a really quiet week on the blog. I had to do a lot of other writing this week and just couldn’t muster the energy for book reviews. But, the boyfriend is working three evening shifts this week so I’m hoping I can use the time at home to myself productively and get caught up (and read a lot, and drink some good wine).

Hating // Storms! We had a really strange storm roll through this week — it went from a clear day to about 15 minutes of just terrible wind, pounding rain and enormous hail. I have an appointment with my insurance company later this morning to assess the damage to my car, so we’ll see what happens there.

Loving // Thanks to inspiration from my friend Erin, I finally came up with a name for a new fantasy football team: Touchdownton Abbey (or maybe it should be TouchDownton Abbey?)! I’m so nerdy excited about that, I can’t even tell you.

Avoiding // The gym. I know that I should be getting there more often to exercise (or at the very least getting outside for a walk in the evenings), but I’ve been totally unmotivated lately. And my e-mail… it needs a good cleaning out, but I haven’t bothered to open it all weekend!

Anticipating // I think it’s going to be a fun week at work. I have a lot of interviews already scheduled and a few fun stories to write. I like when I feel like I’m getting ahead and that I’m telling good stories. I’m also excited about two upcoming readathons: the Dog Days of Summer and Bout of Books 8.0. I don’t plan on setting goals for a specific number of books read, but I am going to try and limit my tv intake over the nine days to squeeze in as much reading as possible.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Sandy August 11, 2013, 11:03 am

    Touchdownton Abbey is so clever! Everyone is going to wish they came up with it first. I almost never do tours any more but all of the sudden I have like four books in a row I HAVE to read and review, and it is bringing me down. So I am back on my “I need to quit blogging” mindset…where I find myself about once a month! Ha!

    • Kim August 11, 2013, 5:14 pm

      Ha, thank you! Although it is a league made up entirely of men, so I’m not sure they’ll appreciate the reference 🙂

      I normally am very good about spacing out book tours because I know having too many of those sorts of reads makes me cranky. I’m not sure quite how this all converged, but I’ll get over it!

  • Bryan G. Robinson August 11, 2013, 12:56 pm

    Book obligations: It’s a topic I see again and again with various book bloggers and not one I completely understand myself, because I don’t accept ARCs or do book tours. I figure I have enough books that I want to read on my own. That said, today I don’t know what I want to read next. Oh, the irony.

    • Kim August 11, 2013, 5:16 pm

      You know, I don’t feel obligated when it comes to ARCs anymore. I get them and read them if I feel like it, trying to prioritize ones that have release dates at a certain time. But if I miss them, it’s ok. Book tours are a different animal with a date on them that I do feel obligated to meet. Which is why I try to do very few of them — low/no obligation reading is important to me.

  • Vasilly August 11, 2013, 1:31 pm

    What was up with that strange storm?! I saw your picture of hail on Instagram and was happy that we’re not in the same state! There’s nothing wrong with avoiding email; sometimes it makes the weekend much more relaxing! 🙂

    • Kim August 11, 2013, 5:17 pm

      It was crazy! We seriously went from clear skies to a tornado sighting/hail in a matter of minutes. And then the storm lasted all of 15 minutes before we had sunny skies again… so strange.

  • bermudaonion (Kathy) August 11, 2013, 3:37 pm

    That is some serious hail! Weather has just been crazy lately.

    • Kim August 11, 2013, 5:17 pm

      It was! We had a hail storm last summer, but it was much smaller than this one. This is the biggest hail I’ve seen in a long time.

  • Shannon @ River City Reading August 11, 2013, 7:27 pm

    That hail is crazy! I just got my copy of Son of a Gun this weekend, so I’m looking forward to picking that one up and taking part in the readathons, too.

  • Allison @ The Book Wheel August 11, 2013, 10:50 pm

    WOW. That is a huge chunk of hail! Glad you survived and were able to take a picture of it!

  • Jessica @ Quirky Bookworm August 11, 2013, 11:21 pm

    Oh deep fried cookie dough. HOW I LOVE YOU.

    • Kim August 14, 2013, 9:15 pm

      My gosh, it was delicious!

  • Jennifer August 12, 2013, 9:32 am

    My boyfriend is obsessed with Avatar. He loves rewatching them!

    I have also been struggling with working out. Since its summer, I’ve been doing less of the gym thing and a lot more of the walk/run/bike outdoors thing. However, I suck at running and always feel like walking isn’t enough so a lot of time that leads to me just avoiding exercise. But the boyfriend has been going with me lately so that’s motivating.

    And my newest stay on e-mail trick has been to make sure that my inbox is empty before bed every night. It makes me feel so incredibly accomplished even if all I do is empty all the spam.

    By the way, that enormous hail is crazy. I have never experienced anything like that!

    • Kim August 14, 2013, 9:15 pm

      I think I do the same mental thing about exercise. It’s nice so I want to be outside, but I don’t love to run, but walking seems lazy, so might as well not to anything. It’s totally ridiculous.

  • Andi @ Estella's Revenge August 12, 2013, 1:15 pm

    The tea sounds delicious. The fried COOKIE DOUGH sounds delicious, too. I cannot handle tours anymore. The deadlines feel like school. Cheers to a good week!

    • Kim August 14, 2013, 9:16 pm

      Feeling like school is the reason I cut back on tours, but once in awhile I think they’re fun. I just need to balance better.

  • Athira August 12, 2013, 7:12 pm

    Sounds like a lot going on! The readathons sounds exciting – I’m hoping to join the Estella Society readathon, if I manage to have a free-enough weekend.

  • Nikki Steele August 13, 2013, 1:28 pm

    Yay for yarn and reading books and drinking wine! (Those are all my favorites).

    I’m still absolutely snookered with those beautiful lillies you have going on there. I loves them.

    • Kim August 14, 2013, 9:16 pm

      They are gorgeous! This is our first summer in this rental, so all of the plants popping up are a surprise.