Stories and Preparedness

I have been reading a lot of books lately. Well, I guess not enough, because my Shelfari shelf says that since I have only read 34 books this year it puts me behind on my pace from last year. Good grief. Anyway, my books have had a theme lately. I started out with this book. It's about what happens when an asteroid hits the moon and pushes it closer to the earth and the ensuing meteorological consequences. It's a young adult book, so when I was done with it, I let Buttercup read it. I was so delighted to find it has a sequel. And then another sequel coming out in the next couple of months.
This is the first sequel. It's the same timeline, but the first book occurs to a teenager in fairly rural Pennsylvania and the second to a teenager in New York City. I was fascinated by the comparisons and contrasts between the experience of the asteroid for each teenager in different areas. There were a lot of things occured that seemed fairly plausible and it started me thinking about our church's views on being prepared. First, a 72 hour kit and then having progressively larger amounts of food storage, say a goal to have a month or 3 months, or ultimately, a year's supply of food. We have at least a 3 month's supply of stuff that we could eat. I know there are areas that I could step up on, especially water and canned meat.
Then I continued with this book. The last time I read Stephen King was back in high school when I was feeling rebellious. But this wasn't so much horror as more of Lord of the Flies for adults. Once again, it made me aware of how we would fare should our supplies be cut off. This one I can't freely recommend because Stephen King has a fondness for profanity. I am a speed reader, so I skip over stuff. If it starts annoying me it's got to be pretty bad.
Now I want to find more books like this, but I am not sure how to find semi post-apocalyptic books...if that's exactly what I am looking for, but I am not sure. I guess I will keep digging on Barnes and Noble.com. I do highly recommend the first two books. I know Buttercup is waiting for me to get my hands on the third so that she can read it too.

*update* apparently it's easier if you just type apocalyptic into the bn.com search engine...

Short Hair

This is for all of you who can't quite picture me with short hair. Once upon a time, I guess it was about 5 years ago, I got my hair cut really short. I liked it, it didn't seem too high maintenance and I had a fabulous hairdresser.
She moved away and the next year was when Fiona was diagnosed. I started growing my hair out for a couple of reasons. Sleeping in a hospital room with Fiona wasn't conducive to hair doing time, add my glasses at night and it was just plain annoying all of the stuff I would have to do just to function.
The other reason was since our biggest hairball was going to be losing her hair, I wanted to balance out the hair in the household.
Now, with a good cut and hair products, my long hair is fun and easy to do. If I have to get up in the middle of the night, I just grab my ponytail holder and put it in. That's assuming Dukie hasn't made off with them all. He has a bizarre fascination with regular ponytail holders and I often find him in my drawer in the bathroom searching for them.
So....there it is! Oh and I am with my brother and his family in a McDonald's in Augusta, Georgia. He was in South Carolina at the time and we were in Atlanta and we met at a kid friendly spot. His lovely wife had just had their youngest and are you really surprised that I spent my entire time holding him?

Avatar

I know, we were probably the last people on earth to watch this movie. The theater we were in only had 4 other people in it. Granted, it was the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, but I think most people have already seen it. That let's me talk all about it!
This was a pretty good movie. I am not sure it would be on my top ten list of all time. I think part of it had to do with wearing the 3-D glasses. Having spent most of my life trying to avoid my glasses, wearing a different pair for 3 whole extra hours isn't my idea of a good time. Plus, there were some shots that they needed to not shoot in 3-D. You just can't do the running camera thing in 3-D without making people ill.
The story was fine, I really like war type movies or thrillers and for the most part those usually have pretty thin story lines. I go to be entertained, not instructed usually. I did notice that he seemed to borrow from a few movies. When they first meet the Chief, I made some joke about missing Magua from Last of the Mohicans and guess what?! He was the one that voiced the chief. That scene totally reminded me of when Nathaniel went to ask for the lives of the English girls in that movie.
Side note: I love Last of the Mohicans. When I was pregnant with Fiona and half dead on the couch, puking non stop, I watched Last of the Mohicans and The Mummy every single day for at least two weeks. Funny, I never have any feelings of nausea (which I have associated with other movies from this time) with those movies.
James Cameron did an amazing job with CGI in this movie. Most of the time we really forgot that these people weren't physically real.
Oh! Another thing that killed me about this movie was the expense. We were looking at our local IMAX theater which, when combined with 3-D, would've been about $40! For the two of us to watch a movie. That's just ridiculous. I told TD I couldn't say I would spend that much to watch one of my favorite movies ever, much less something I hadn't ever seen. We managed to compromise at a regular theater for $16. Much better. And the movie industry wonders why people aren't watching more movies. We could've purchased a couple of movies on DVD for that price and watched them until they fell apart.
I would have to say see this movie. It's amazing in the theater and I am not sure you can get the full effect at home.

Wildlife

We always seem to buy a house near interesting wildlife. When we lived in Portland, we lived near a wildlife refuge and the birds seemed to enjoy our fence to perch on. There was one time I was sitting on the family room sofa and I saw a sweet little bird fly into the yard. I turned back to what I was watching and I saw a huge white explosion out of the corner of my eye. A hawk had swooped down and literally exploded the smaller bird. All I could find later was a few feathers, EW!
Here in Texas, I am lovin' the squirrels. They are everywhere. I think we have a cool tree in our front yard because we seem to be squirrel central. Not just my house, but the Y is overrun with them as well. I usually finish off whatever workout I am doing by sitting on a bike reading my latest book. I could be doing the same thing at home, just this way I am burning calories. Heck, I should count it for double calories because I am not sitting at home stuffing my face. (Like I am right now!) The bike I usually ride is right next to a huge window and it's like a squirrel amusement park out there. Just this week I saw a squirrel playing with roofing paper. It was wadded up, so when he walked over it, it literally flipped him into the air. I almost fell off my bike laughing he was so disgruntled by the whole thing. Another time, one of them brought his nut up to the window, sat on the outside windowsill and ate it while watching us, like we were his entertainment. I suppose when you think about it, we look like hamsters with their wheels, pretty ridiculous.
TD is not the biggest fan. It may have something to do with Christmas Day, the smell of rotten meat and a bloated squirrel in the attic. Talk about a Christmas to remember. Since then, we have had a few more squirrel visitors, but TD blocked off their entrance to the attic and the culprit had a giant meltdown in our palm tree. I don't think I have ever seen a squirrel behave that way.
So if you see me at the Y, riding the bike and laughing....the squirrels are entertaining me again.

Random Fleeting Thoughts

I know y'all were just waiting for me to get Vomit off your feeds...can't say as I blame you. Thank heavens no one else has gotten sick.
Once again I am full of just random thoughts, none of which would make a full post.
I just cannot wait for the gym crazy to die down. Zumba classes have been over full in small rooms. When the teacher says, "to the right", she means your other right. I worry about getting run over or a random elbow to the eye. The new area is supposed to open next week, let's hope that happens.
Valentine's Day is coming up. I am not your typical girl. I don't want jewelry or flowers and if it's a cool house item...great. I watch those commercials where the guy gets into trouble for buying a Dustbuster. Well, was it a cool Dustbuster? Flowers die and jewelry is expensive! Plus I just don't wear that much. Td's lucky if I get my wedding ring on before I head out the door.
Buttercup is wearing me out. Let's just say she's maturing early, ie she's starting to roll her eyes like a teenager. What gets me more is her indifference to schoolwork. Anyone who knew me when... Liz, Mrs. B?, can testify to my Need for good grades. Buttercup treats school like social time and has started fudging about whether she has homework or has done it or not. I just can't hardly comprehend not worrying about grades. So I am working her over. I am sure I am making her crazy, but I am just returning the favor and I have all of the power!
I am over watching romantic comedies. I get so embarrassed for the way people act and they are very predictable. I don't get much pleasure out of it and I have finally given myself permission to no longer torment myself.
And I think that's the end of the fragments in my brain. Of course, until tomorrow that is... I am sure there will be plenty more floating around soon.