I’ve been a member of www.goodreads.com long enough to have rated 1317 books and some even reviewed. I’ve become a librarian and I enter the book contests. I won a book contest offered by St. Martin’s Press and today I received my prize.

Part of me wants to curl up and read it right now and get the review post up on I Just Read. You’ll just have to wait through the weekend though. Library books come first and I’ve been spending more time there since going on the budget and the abstinence wagon – No spending on hobbies until January 2010. I’ve met some good books from both the library and my goodreads friends.

Jasper Fforde is the current author of note. After starting his Thursday Next series, I know I’m going to have to read Dickens Great Expectations, Eliot’s Mill on the Floss and re-read Wuthering Heights (Heathcliff anyone?). Wouldn’t it be great if work were much like school and we got summers off? As it is, I’ve been reserving my weekends for reading fluff. This weekend though, I have a long one and for the first time in forever, I put a book down with the intention of never picking it up again. It’s going back to the library unread.

I wonder if it has to do with my sudden urge to read either business or programming books. Suggestions anyone?

and no this is not about the kids. The kids behaved quite well. It’s the parents I’m concerned about. I’ll confess to checking my Twitter feed during the concert but the people behind me chatted all the way through the choral performance. I joined one part of the conversation when they said that the Hanes T-shirts made the chorus look like candy – I said it reminded me of Skittles, they mentioned LifeSavers and Tropical Dots, I finished with Starbursts. Then they started singing the next song.
After the chorus finished over 1/2 the audience got up and left. I was reminded of my daughter complaining that by the time the orchestra performed there was no one to listen. It’s been 9 years and the pattern is the same. By the time the orchestra played, less than 1/4 of the hall was still there. By the time the jazz band came on – the only people were the parents and friends of the jazz band – all 50 of us.
It reminded me that the jr. high my older son went to had the choral performance bracketing the band and orchestra – so everyone could have an audience.

By the way, everyone who left early? They missed an incredible jazz and blues performance that sounded closer to professional than junior high. I’m not just saying that because I’m the drummers mom.

I’ve been enjoying insomnia for the last several months. No really, I have been enjoying it. The family goes to sleep and I have several hours to do whatever I would like to do. I can quilt, read, stitch or just surf. I’ll admit that I’ve probably spent too much time playing PuzzleQuest and following people on Twitter.

Last night though, I slept well. I’m not sure if it had to do with flushing my brain and putting together a new plan of action or if I just hit the wall and crashed. However, when I’ve hit the wall before, the sleep hasn’t been restful, just plentiful. This morning, I woke up rested. I was ready to hit the day running. I set up a goal for the week, 3 to do items for today which will get me to my weekly goal and headed to work – only to find I’ve left my phone and iPod home. No worries, I ran home on my break and grabbed them. Rest of the day was productive even with the standard run of interruptions.

Best interruption to the schedule was going to DS#1’s radio performance as school. He was John in The Battling Bickerson’s The Operation. He did a great job except his snoring could use some work. I still have a few things left on my to do list for today and I have time to do them tomorrow and still get my list for tomorrow done. It feels so great to be in control again.

So, I’m off to the gym and then another restful night.

Ever feel that life is getting cluttered and at some point soon you’ll need to sit down and clear up the “D-priority to do” pile? I’ll admit that I’ve been neglecting all the icons building up on my desktop. They cover the focus picture on my background. Mind you the focus picture is a project that was completed several months ago and I just haven’t updated it either. Frankly lots of things haven’t been updated recently. I’ve been focused elsewhere and I’m realizing that focus has been diluted by excess baggage. Basically, I’ve had mental constipation going on in my life.

A month or so ago, a speaker told our group that every so often he performed a brain dump so that he could move on to the next project. I’ve been mulling over the idea and thinking about how I would do a brain-dump – – Well, the universe may have assisted in cleaning out my system. I was trying to do something in Firefox that I had never done before and it didn’t work. So I suggested that the system “undo” it. Well, not only did it take off the new files it installed, it removed everything on my desktop except for the program icons. For about 24 hours I panicked and then I realized that only 2 files were critical – and both had been emailed in the last 6 months so I had copies of them.

So my system has been flushed and all the waste eliminated. It feels great. I’m glad it happened now and I’ve learned, don’t leave files on the desktop – move them to My Documents and back that up.

At Quilt Guild tonight, Bruce from SewBatik gave the presentation on how batik fabric is made, how to tell the real stuff from the fake and then he sold fabrics at 15% off. I went through the line, drooled, picked some fabric bundles up, thought about the challenge and put them back. So I get to the cash register with nothing in hand. Bruce asks where my purchase is as someone trips on the extension cord and unplugs the cash register (he came to the Guild meeting and the only desk for the register was nowhere near the plug). I plug it back in and park myself on the cord so no one else will trip on it. I tell Bruce that I was really tempted but I’m part of an abstinance challenge and can’t purchase anything new until January.
I catch the arm of another woman who almost trips on the cord I’m still standing on so this time the cord didn’t come unplugged. Bruce asks if I can stand there a bit longer. So I stand there and watch what everyone else buys and give my opinion on a few more and we get to where there are only 4 people in the line. Bruce asks them if they can all avoid the cord and when they agree, he tells me to pick a fabric bundle since after all, if I don’t pay for it, it couldn’t count against my challenge, right?
I thanked him profusely and picked up a bundle of the black and white batik fat quarters.

So if you need fabric for finishing – – There is cool stuff at www.sewbatik.com