Posted in Life on January 4, 2010 | 4 Comments »
And so.. with the new year (and a bit of crash-learning) I finally made up my mind to move away from the confining safety of wordpress.com and get my own domain name. Thanks to Geof, I’m all set up and running (although still a bit rough while I learn my way around!)
Update your bookmarks to http://thelostentwife.net! Hope to see you there.
Posted in Life on January 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Several of my .net friends, Kari, Geof and Brandi, do this and I’ve been wanting to start it for a while. I was tempted to start in January and do it as a resolution, but I have a feeling December will be filled with quite a few good things – so there’s no harm in a little early resolution!
1. Made gingerbread cookies for the first time – and tasted them for the first time. They were delicious.
2. I got to babysit my neighbors young ones. They are Cole and Grace’s age and are so much fun to watch!
3. Cole’s school got out early due to a gas leak, so I got to spend the day with my buddy.
4. Cole and I watched Labyrinth
5. My Huskers played the Texas Longhorns. While we didn’t win, we sure put up a good fight! Love watching that Suh play.
6. Grace and I went shopping and bought her the cutest Christmas dresses ever!
7. I got to see The Pioneer Woman 
8. I met a great gal at Barnes and Noble today and we exchanged contact info! She has the same taste in books that I do. Should be fun.
9. I made Malboro Man’s favorite sandwich from my new cookbook. It was delicious!
10. I was blessed yet again today and got to babysit some kiddos that I hadn’t sat for before!
11. Cole’s school had an HVAC issue, so, as a surprise, I got to pick the kiddo up at 11. We had some good Aunt/Nephew time.
12. I got to spend some time with Gracie when I took her along to play with a friend during a sitting job!
13. Cole, Grace and I had hot cocoa and watched movies together.
14. I read a really good book today.
15. I met Neil Gaiman today.. and he signed my copy of The Graveyard Book
16. I got a nap today. It was amazing.
17. Grace’s Christmas program was today. Not much else good happened – but lots of bad things did so I’ll just hang onto the memory of her program.
18. Cole’s Christmas program was today. He looked adorable and did such a great job. And I may have cried during Happy Birthday, Jesus.
19. Cole had a half day of school. And then we all had a great nap.
20. I actually got a lot of laundry done..and put away today! This was a good thing!
21. Arrived in Illinois to spend Christmas with the family.
22. Saw Avatar with Mom, Alec, Candace, Ethan and Evan. We all loved it.
23. Got to spend time with Meggan. It’s always a good day when I spend it with Meggan.
24. Christmas Eve with the family… I went to bed wearing Rubber Ducky Footie PJ’s!
25. Christmas!
26. Took my mom and dad to see Avatar again. Dad loved it as well!
27. Spend the entire day inside while it snowed outside. Read a lot. Relaxed.
28. Spent the day relaxing again! Got woken up early by my brother, but he made me laugh so it was okay.
29. Introduced my youngest brother, Evan, to The Princess Bride (20th Anniversary Edition)
30. Totally lucked out and replaced my five year old, broken glasses with a pair of glasses + lenses for a cheap $69!
31. End of the year 2009 – spent with just my parents watching Charlie Wilson’s War. Goodbye 2009!
Posted in fun, Life, Reading on December 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A week ago Monday I woke up and experienced one of those nagging feelings in the back of my mind. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was I was needing to do and it wasn’t until about 10:30am that I figured it out.
In Decatur, GA there is a locally owned bookstore named Little Shop of Stories. Little Shop of Stories held a “Graveyard Book” Halloween party this year for a competition and, along with a story in Winnipeg, they won! The reward? A Neil Gaiman book signing. And last Monday they opened up their phone lines to give away 100 tickets – 1 per each phone call.
1 1/2 hours later (and one phone death just as I’d finally gotten through), I had myself a pair of tickets. Tina and I were going to see Neil Gaiman at Agnes Scott College. I was thrilled!
So off I went, armed with my copy of The Graveyard Book. Now, I don’t know what made me think that there would only be about 200 people there (The shop had given out 100 tickets in person as well), but what a silly thing to think. The final count was 1050 (according to Gaiman). And there were children, lots of them as well!
Neil started the evening off by reading from Odd and the Frost Giants. He told us how this book came about. Apparently, in Europe, there is a National Reading Month (I couldn’t hear very well, but I think this is right). And for this celebration, the authors write a short novel, for free. The publishers publish it, for free (it must be short because that’s how much “free paper” they said they have, quipped Gaiman). The bookstores give the books out in exchange for tokens, which children get, for free. What an incredible and awesome idea.
So Gaiman began to read and everyone went silent. In his dry, “British-y” voice, the story came to life. We all giggled and were enraptured by the story.
Gaiman then answered some questions. We learned how the story of Coraline came about, and we learned of the background to The Graveyard Book. We also learned that people in the movie business are.. not all that bright (Does the Graveyard Book movie need to be set in a Graveyard?). He gave us his opinion of T.S. Eliot, he spoke on the meaning of life. He entertained us greatly for about 30 minutes.
And then he read from The Graveyard Book. And the experience was.. incredible.
Afterward, Tina and I waited with some new friends until midnight to get our books signed. He personalized each signing with a drawn graphic or a word suited to just that book. Tina’s copy of Coraline got a picture of a mouse creeping across her title page. Odd and the Frost Giants received the word “Dream”. And my copy of The Graveyard Book … well…
Some other photos from the event. Our new friend, Venessa, took these (www.venessagiunta.com) and graciously shared them with us!
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