Random stuff

It's really hot here in Virginia. 100 today and yesterday. Too hot to breath. I just saw on the news that the average temp for this time of year in our area is 75. So I was outside at Harbour Pointe today and there was this squirrel on the patio concrete just laying there with his little legs stuck out on the sides and his belly on the concrete. Just chilling. It is that hot. I wished I had a camera. I got a peanut from a resident and squatted down and he got within inches of my hand but I got scared and dropped the peanut. It was all kinda funny. Lori thought it was going to attack and she backed away. I saw some birds with their little beaks open today too. I wonder whats up with that? North Carolina is burning again and the smoke has blown our way. Its so smokey outside you feel like you have been standing by a bon fire.

I took this watercolor class, this is the second one I have taken. I don't seem to be inproving and if you like watercolors that look like a 6 year old did them, then I am the artist for you. At any rate the Suffolk Art Museum is having its annual member show and since I signed up and paid my dues to be a member I thought I should submit something. I was more than a little embarrased but bit the bullet. I took in a tiny tiny lemon that I painted last year and had given it to my sister and I was struggling to find something to put in the show and I was at her house and I snatched it off the wall and said Give me that!! She fussed and said she wanted it back because it matched her kitchen. I got Gary to put a wire hanger on it and I trotted my little lemon to the Museum today. When I get there it wasnt as intimidating as I had anticipated. However, I named the tiny little lemon, Leslie's Lemon but when I got there I had to put a PRICE on it. LOL. I thought hell's bell's what in the world. So I wrote out $50.00 LMAO That's the funniest thing I ever heard of. I talked to Becki and she told me that when she was in art school her teacher said, count your time and supplies and then times 3 with whatever you come up with. If you value your work, others will too. Well my renderings are somewhat of a joke and only my family wants them, but I do enjoy it, and thats what counts.

BOOK BLOG

I am trying to keep up with the books I read so I thought I would start a blog.
The book club I am in reads one a month but I usually read one in between. So here we go so far this year:
June 2008
The Memory of Running by Ron McClarty
This book had a great character development. I twice found myself crying. Not like boo hoo crying but just tears streaming down my face. It was sad and full of hope. I like hopefull. Oh and I loved the 2nd sentence of the 2nd paragraph. I will find it and type it in. We havent had bookclub yet and I just finished this afternoon.
The guy that wrote it was supposed to be in some movies but I can't place his face.
Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
Ok I LOVED Odd Thomas. Then the next one was was a little worse, Brother Odd was a Little better but this one has you set up to never find out how poor Odd Thomas turns out. On and on and on. But this pregnant girl appears and he goes off with her and I think she is giving birth to some sort of saviour. but i don't know of what. I guess I will tune in again and again. The thing I hate about Odd Thomas's character is that he is so nice all the time. All these nice manners and it is completely unrealistic. Even if you do see dead people all the time I was sitting at Mount Trashmore one day reading. The same week that someone had DROWNED in the lake there chasing down his remote control speed racer boat. and I thought what if that dead guy just rises from the lake and starts walking towards me. All drippy and dead. Ok if the book made me think that then I guess it did its job of scaring me a little. or it could just be my overactive imagination. or it could be the book inspired my overactive imigination.......hmmmm

How come I can spend so much time reading and then can't remember what I read? Does that mean reading is a waist of time??

Frankenstein City of Night Book 2 by Dean Koontz
Well it took me 3 months to read this. off and on. Here we go again with the sequels. Apparently it is not going to end here. Book one scared me a lot. even though I read it several years ago. This one did not hold up at all. I doubt I will find Book 3. I have taken to buying books used on Amazon or at yard sales or whereever I find them. Books cost so much money now, like everythihg else. I only buy new books when It is one I can't wait for. Like Odd Hours.

Oh yeah while I am at it. Amazon has shorts!! Yeah. they cost like a buck or something. You can down load them to your reader or to your laptop. I tried to get some but they were having technical difficulties.

Speaking of shorts. I read the last issue of Tin House. That should count. Lots of stuff in there. The most memorable one was essay about the Bathrooms in Paris. lol. An essay about the Utopia camp in Louisa Virginia. I like the essays. They are most interesting. The only thing i didnt read was the one about skate boarding......Just couldn't make myself.

Plum Lovin by Janet Evanovich
Love me some Stephanie Plum novels. lol This was an in between. No sex in this one, either.

Duma Key by Stephen King
Ohhh how I do love Stephen King. He has a way of making you just fall in love with the characters. And then there is a monster or two for good measure. That's how I found Tin House magazine. I read that he had written a short and it was in there, so I subscribed. It comes out quarterly and its not cheap. So the story he wrote for Tin House was about Edgar Freemantle, and Edgar was the main character in Duma Key. All I can say about this book is that I hated when it ended. I wanted MORE. I wanted more of Edgar. It was beautifully written and it was chilling and haunting and all the things you expect from Stephen King. Plus some. I had the same feeling when I read Bag of Bones. I read that twice in fact. I might read Duma Key again, soon. Or The Stand, my all time favorite. I read that he has an audio only you can download called the Gingerbread Girl. I haven't downloaded yet.,as I am having technical difficulties. Did I ever tell you that I once was visiting my Grandfather in Maine where he lived on Moose Head Lake and my Uncle lived in East Corinth and Me and my Mom went and gawked at Stephen Kings house? I feel bad about that now. Everyone should have privacy. My uncle says he is a regular guy. You see him in the drug store or wherever around town. This was many many years ago. I have since reformed from gawking status. But when I finally get to the Sundance Film Festival its going to be all out gawking I can promise you that, but no autographs.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult
This was our last months book club selection. It was about a kid who was picked on his whole life and then he just went to school one day and opened fire. I felt so sorry for everybody. Him too. His parents, it was just horrible all the way around. The ending was such a cop out though. Nothing good could really come of the situation but it just didn't end well.

The Heroines by ?? I forget
Book Club selection. Nobody liked it. Including me. We didn't have much of a discussion about this one.

Cross by James Patterson
Who doesn't love a good James Patterson and who doesn't love Alex Cross? Since all the movies I can not think of him as anybody but Morgan Freeman. I hear his voice and see his face as Alex.

Mary Mary by James Patterson