Four Things

I saw this meme the other day and thought it would be fun.

Four jobs I’ve had in my life:

1. Bookseller
2. Member Services Representative for Louisiana's PBS station
3. Sales person at Godiva Chocolatier
4. Librarian

Four books I would read over and over:

1. Harry Potter
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Someplace to be Flying
4. Bellwether

Four places I have lived:

1. Houma, LA
2. New Iberia, LA
3. Lafayette, LA
4. Baton Rouge, LA

Four books I would recommend:

1. Harry Potter
2. Someplace to Be Flying
3. The Kid Table
4. The Dust of 100 Dogs

Four places I have been (outside the U.S.):

1. Florence
2. Rome
3. London
4. Paris

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Crawfish
2. My husband's spaghetti sauce
3. King Cake
4. Cinnamon rolls

Four of my favorite drinks:

1. Water
2. Coke Zero
3. Sweet tea
4. Iced mocha

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Florida at my in-laws' place
2. on a cruise
3. hanging out with my family
4. In my bed

Four things that are very special in my life:

1. my family
2. my dogs
3. my Nook
4. my friends

A meme about us

I saw this meme somewhere and thought it was cute.  A little info about me and BT.

1. What are your middle names?
Kay for me and Thomas for BT

2. How long have you been together?
11 1/2 years, married for 5 1/2

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating?
About 3 weeks I said.  It's hard to say exactly because time moved differently back when I was in college.  It was less regimental.

4. Who asked who out?
I made BT ask him by saying So are we ever going to do something other than hang out here? (at our friends' apartment) and then we went and playing mini-golf later that week.

5. How old are each of you?
Both 31. My birthday is about 6 weeks before his.

6. Did you go to the same school?
Sort of yes, we attended the same undergraduate school that I graduated from for a little while, but he moved on to 2 other universities before finishing his degree.  Then I went to grad school where he got his bachelors.


7. Are you from the same home town?
No.  He is originally from MA and we both moved to different cities in LA when we were 13 before meeting at college.

8. Who is the smartest?
Equal but in different ways.  He is really good with math and science and I am very language oriented.

9. Who majored in what?
I have an Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Masters of Library and Information Science.  He has his Bachelor of Science in Horticulture.

10. Who is the most sensitive?
Me, I get upset more often.

11. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Disney World in Florida for our honeymoon

12. Who has the worst temper?
Me, I'm more likely to get angry.  I also hold a grunge longer.

13. How many children do you want?
Two.  I've told BT that it's either 2 kids or 2 pregnancies.  So now that we have one, we can only have one more.

14. Who does the cooking?
BT because he is excellent at it.  Me, not so much.

15. Who is more social?
BT who is much more comfortable talking to people.  I don't do well with small talk.

16. Who is the neat freak?
Neither of us and it can be a problem.  He is more sensitive about crumbs though.

17. Who is the most stubborn?
Tie

18. Who wakes up earlier?
BT when he has to open his store at 4:30! 

19. Where was your first date?
Mini-golf

20. Who has the bigger family?
Immediate family - him.  He has a twin brother and a 8 years younger sister.  I have one sister, but I also have a larger extended family though.

21. Do you get flowers often?
No

22. How do you spend the holidays?
We alternate between our two families.  One gets Thanksgiving one year and then Christmas the next.

23. Who is more jealous?
Neither. 

24. How long did it take to get serious?
About 2 months.  I'm pretty sure it was a given that we were going to stay together even though we had some really rough patches.

25. Who eats more?
BT

26. What do you do for a living?
I'm a librarian.  He manages a Starbucks.

27. Who does the laundry?
Both though he has been doing it on his day off during the week to save me.  I wash Bub's clothes though because BT doesn't know what to do with them.

28. Who's better with the computer?
Tie.

29. Who drives when you are together?
Usually him especially since he got his new car.

30. What is your song?
Our wedding song was "When you say nothing at all" but I'd say that Nina Gordon's "Tonight and the Rest of your life" is a little closer to what it should be.

Quote It - Practical Magic

 Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can."

— Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)

Quote It Saturday - On My Bones

What these years have brought me
What these years have taught me
Heartache and fame
A chance to change
A Hope to be stronger
That beauty can smolder
A stage and a curtain
That nothing's for certain
Oh these years have been hard on my bones

- Kendall Payne "On My Bones"

50 Things

A meme someone sent me long ago...

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? No

2.WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? last night

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? It's okay, my calligraphy is pretty good

4.WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? roast beef, but only if it on the rare side

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? 1 crazy little man

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yeah, I'm nice and funny and try to be thoughtful

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM? ahahaha yes

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? no

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? yes

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Lucky Charms or Count Chocula, you know anything with marshmallows

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? no although I know I should

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Dippin Dots Banana Split

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? smile and hair

15. RED OR PINK? i want to say pink but really red

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? my temper

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? my friends from Iberia, it's quiet here

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST? it's up to them

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? blue jeans and brown boots

20. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Superior Saturday by Garth Nix

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? orange

23. FAVORITE SMELL? almond

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?  husband I think

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? But of course!

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? curling

27. HAIR COLOR? brown with blond streaks

28. EYE COLOR blue

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? yes I do.

30. FAVORITE FOOD? BT's spaghetti

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? happy endings

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? A Christmas Story last night

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? maroon

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? neither, spring

35. HUGS OR KISSES? depends on who you are

36. FAVORITE DESSERT? king cake

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Blue Moon by Alyson Noël

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Mr. Men and Little Miss

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? Scrubs

42. FAVORITE SOUND(S)? Little man's laugh

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Rome, Italy

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? IDK, I have good aesthetics


49. IS THE CUP HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? Depends of what's in the cup, but half full

50. IF YOU COULD SIT DOWN TO DINNER WITH FIVE PEOPLE WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE? Whoever is willing to come.

Quote It Saturday - Sing

Sing
Sing a song
Make it simple
To last your whole life long
Don't worry that it's not good enough
For anyone else to hear
Sing
Sing a song

Sesame Street "Sing a Song"

Quote It Saturday - Illusion

This is a weekly meme from the Chick that Reads in which you can quote from anything really. Favorite books, people, just anything that you like!

"Freedom is an illusion. It always comes at a price."

— Jonathan Stroud (The Amulet of Samarkand) 

Quote It Saturday - Maureen Johnson

This is a weekly meme from the Chick that Reads in which you can quote from anything really. Favorite books, people, just anything that you like!

"Claim whatever you want. Say you only want a happy family or a successful career or a big house. I say: no, that's not what you want. You'll settle for those things, but you really want a monkey that does your evil bidding. Pullman is a genius just for this."

— Maureen Johnson

Book Title Meme

What To Do: Using only books you have read this year (2009), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It’s a lot harder than you think!

Describe yourself: This Book Isn't Fat, It's Fabulous (Nina Beck)

How do you feel:  Something Wicked (Alan Gratz)

Describe where you currently live: Libyrinth (Pearl North)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go? Through the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll)

Your favorite form of transportation: The Luxe (Anna Godbersen)

Your best friend is: Eternal (Cynthia Leitich Smith)

You and your friends are: Enthusiasm (Polly Shulman)

What’s the weather like: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Judi and Ron Barrett)

You fear: The Dead and the Gone (Susan Beth Pfeffer)

What is the best advice you have to give: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Ally Carter)

Thought for the day: I SO Don't Do Mysteries (Barrie Summy)

How I would like to die: Wondrous Strange (Lesley Livingston)

My soul’s present condition: Evermore (Alyson Noel)

*cross posted with The Little Bookworm

Quote It Saturday - New Thing Now

This is a weekly meme from the Chick that Reads in which you can quote from anything really. Favorite books, people, just anything that you like!

"This is your new thing now
And it feels so good to doubt you
I could almost live without you
But not quite"

Shawn Colvin - New Thing Now

Quote It Saturday - Alice

This is a weekly meme from the Chick that Reads in which you can quote from anything really. Favorite books, people, just anything that you like!

"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

— Lewis Carroll (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

Book Nerd

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X+
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien *
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X+
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte *
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X+
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman X+
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X+
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller X+ (took me 3 tries but I did it)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare *+
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien *
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell X+
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X+
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X+
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X +
34 Emma - Jane Austen X+
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen X
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X+
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hussein
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X+
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X+
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X +
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude X+
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery *
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood X
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel X +
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X+
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley X
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon X
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez *
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov X
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold X
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X+
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker *
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X +
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce X
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray *
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X +
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad X
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery X+
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams *
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole *
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X+
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X+
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


READ: 38
LOVE: 23
WANT TO READ: 9

More book covers

Yesterday I did the YA Book Cover meme that I got from Amanda. Here is a gallery of other people who have done it too. Some of them are really cool and interesting. Alicia at The LibrariYAn did a version of Justine Larbalestier book, Liar. She took the first picture of a human figure which turned out to be a Lego. I took the first picture of a person and this is what I got. Not much better than Justine's real cover, but eh.



There is some ongoing controversy in the book world. Liar is about a black girl who is a liar, but the cover of the book features a white girl since the industry says that covers of black people won't sell. I don't know about that, but I do think that the cover should reflect the book. To read more about it, here is Justine's original post with her objection. Here's Publisher Weekly's article. There are a lot more blogs, etc. who have written about it.

And for fun, I decided to do Libba Bray's new book, Going Bovine. It's cute, I'd say.

Look at this YA book!

Check out this awesome book!

Well, not really...I got this meme from Amanda at The ramblings of a hopeful artist to create your own book cover. Here it is. I like it looks really cool and is a good word for that picture.

CREATE YOUR DEBUT YA COVER

1 – Go to “Random Name Generator” or click http://www.behindthename.com/random/

The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to “Random Word Generator” or click http://watchout4snakes.com/creativitytools/RandomWord/RandomWord.aspx

The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title.

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php

Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar to put it all together. Be sure to crop and/or zoom in.

5 – Post it to your site along with this text.

This was really easy to put together on Picnik, and the flickrcc website where you chose your picture links right to it.