Reading Challenge Update 1

I figure I'll try and do these updates quarterly. That seems like a good interval.

For the Reading Suggestion Challenge, here's where I stand

January: A book published the year you were born

At the very end of January, I decided to jump on this challenge and picked up Shards of Honor. It's close to the beginning of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga and was published in 1986.  I didn't quite finish it in January, the last 20 pages spilled onto February 1st. But it's close enough so I'm counting it. It also means that I've managed to commit myself to an epic series of 15 or so books. At least they're all fairly short.

February: a book recommended on a blog

I actually find a lot of the books I want to read on blogs. I follow along with Mark of markreads.com, though not as closely as I used to. At any rate, suggestions are constantly flying in his community and it's where I find maybe half of the books I want to read. This is where I first saw a recommendation for Beloved that convinced me I should read it. That was probably a year or so ago, but I finally got around to it this month.

It was also because of Mark's book club blog that I started reading NK Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy. Although, that's not actually where I first heard about this trilogy. I first saw Jemisin's name on Patrick Rothfuss' blog, in conjunction with his annual Worldbuilders fundraiser. They had put together a pin up calendar using fantasy characters, and one of Jemisin's characters was used for the month of September. He linked to her blog, where she talked about the process of creating the image. There are some spoilers for the trilogy in the post, but it's worth checking out the image of Oree, the narrator of the second book. That picture is the biggest reason I hunted these books down and read them. How could I not? The timing worked out pretty well with Mark's schedule, and I read the first two books along with him, finally tracking down the final book, Kingdom of the Gods, in February this year.

I also first heard about Alloy of Law on Patrick Rothfuss' blog. It had been nominated for the same award as Rothfuss' The Wise Man's Fear, which I had recently finished and loved. And Rothfuss seemed to be endorsing Alloy of Law over his own book. I filed that information away, along with the fact that Sanderson had recently won a Hugo, but I didn't think much more about it. A few months later, Zach mentioned the name Sanderson, and it rang a bell. He and Sarah had read and loved the Mistborn trilogy (to which Alloy of Law was a sequel) and he was saying I should read it. It took a while, but I did get there eventually.

So I read a few books this month that I initially found on blogs. These recommendations may be months and years old, but that's just because my reading list is so long that it takes a while for new books to work their way to the top. I'll almost never pick up a book immediately after seeing the recommendation. Unless I get bombarded by recommendations from a bunch of different places all at once.

March: a book that has been made into a movie

I was a little tired of trying to sneak this challenge in under the gun, so in March I made sure to get it in during the first week. For this month I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which inspired the movie Blade Runner. I'd been half meaning to read some Philip K Dick for a while, and this was a good excuse to shore up a hole in my cultural knowledge. Not to mention appreciating some late 80s Harrison Ford.

I've also made a lot of headway on the Monopoly Genre Challenge. As you can see, I'm way further along than I need to be at this point to complete this challenge on time. I've completed three monopolies completely - YA, Non-Fiction, and Science-Fiction. I'm almost done with two others, and I've gotten started on two more. I've actually read more than half of the books needed for the year, and at a quarter of the way through that's not a bad place to be. Of course from here on out I'll be diving into genres I have less familiarity with/interest in. So it may take me the rest of the year to find and read some of these books.

Out of Whack

It's frustrating when the progress you're making doesn't quite match up with the progress you want to be making. It's even more frustrating when it feels like there's nothing you can do about it.

I still have yet to lose any weight. Whatever I do that scale remains stubbornly at the same level. I signed up for this slow and steady method because I know it would be healthier and more sustainable than trying to lose a bunch of weight quickly. But I really hoped and expected to have seen that number go down by now.

On the other hand, I am getting a lot stronger. I can lift more weight. I can do more repetitions. I have more energy both at the gym and after I finish working out. And with my new trainer, I'm typically sore for days after my hardest workout of the week.

Since I'm building muscles, I am getting smaller. I may not be losing pounds, but fat is certainly being converted to muscle, which is denser. And I can sort of tell that I'm getting smaller. My clothes are fitting a bit better, getting a bit looser.

Mostly.

The problem is that you don't get smaller all over in a uniform way. My breasts and hips are getting smaller, but my stomach is, so far, staying the same size. The result is that when I look into a mirror or try on new clothes, I look fatter than I did before. My proportions are shifting, and they aren't shifting in the way I was hoping for. When I do push-ups now, my stomach touches the floor before my breasts do. And never mind the fact that I can do a bunch of really awesome push-ups, the act of doing them makes me feel bad. It makes me feel fat.

It doesn't help that everything has felt off for the past couple of weeks. I haven't been getting to the gym as much as I want to. Part of it is my body feeling funky. Part of it is that work things have been coming up. But the biggest part has probably just been apathy.

There's a bunch of other life stuff that's piling up and distracting me. We keep getting these hints of Spring, but it's cold again before I can properly enjoy it which sends me back into hibernation mode (I've read almost twice as many books as normal so far this year). I'm stressed about work because my performance review keeps getting shifted back, and I'd like to just get it over with. I'm stressed about the wedding in the most frustrating way possible. Everything's under control, but I keep having these awful dreams where everything completely falls apart.

Basically it's just been a rough couple of weeks, and getting to the gym is both my biggest priority and the last thing I want to do. I feel like I'm right on the cusp of actually losing some weight, but I've also felt like that since July.

All I can really do at this point is keep on going. I need to get to the gym four times a week, twice for weight lifting and twice for cardio. And I need to figure out a way to intensify my cardio workouts without hurting myself. Maybe it's time to trade out the treadmill for the elliptical.

Wish me luck. Wish me the ability to look awesome in my wedding dress and still fit in it. Wish me time and motivation to put this plan into action. I can relax on the honeymoon. That's what it's for.

The Mystery Present

Kevin and I have been receiving a steady stream of wedding presents for a while now, and they're all wonderful. We're so excited, and we feel so loved. And while most people are including a note so we can send a personal thank you note, we recently received one present without a note.

We got this rectangular stoneware baking dish in the mail with no identifying information at all. The gift receipt actually said that I'd paid for it, which I definitely didn't do. So I'm putting up a public thank you note to make sure that whoever purchased this for us knows how much we appreciate it.

Isn't it lovely? This baking dish was one of the first things I put on the registry. As I've gotten more interested in cooking, I've discovered that I need a few more tools than I currently have in order to make some of the dishes I want to make. This baking dish was key to two dishes I've been wanting to try forever.

Lasagna:

And Chicken Enchiladas:

Both came out spectacularly, and I'm hoping to make them more often in the future. So thank you so much to whoever sent us this lovely dish. We really appreciate it, and it's already getting a ton of use.

Transplanting the Family Tree

Last weekend my brother came up to tour George Mason University and start looking at apartments in the area. He has yet to be accepted to the school (he just needs to finish a math class and send in his transcript), so I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high. But it would be so awesome if he moved here. Especially since the school is only about 5 miles from my house.

After Connor's tour of the school in the morning, I met up with him to look at some apartments in the area. Due to some poor planning on our parts, we only managed to actually see two apartments, but we got a sense for where things were in relation to the school and what prices might be like. Even with the lack of selection, I think the apartment we looked at is pretty much perfect. It's right across the street from the school, meaning he could walk both there and to downtown Fairfax. Keep your fingers crossed that he gets into GMU and that the apartment complex has openings that line up with his move dates. I'd love to have my brother living so close (even though I know my parents would prefer he move back to Colorado).

Given that one of my cousins currently lives in and is hoping to stay in NYC and the other just got accepted to school in Boston, I'm starting to get more family on this coast. I'm really happy, since one of the things I miss most about Colorado is being so close to so much of my family out there. Now that people are moving east, it will be that much easier for us to see each other. We're already beginning to establish a few traditions with my family (like Thanksgiving), and I'm hoping to see that continue in the years to come.

Oh Right. The Ceremony.

Everything was under control. We'd ordered the flowers and bought our clothes and tasted the food. People were booking rooms, gifts were arriving. The playlist was beginning to take shape. I had a couple of details to take care of. Things like Buy a Guestbook and Finalize Guest Count. But there was nothing immediately pressing and I mostly just wanted to skip forward two months to this big party with all our friends and family.

Then I remembered the ceremony. That fifteen minutes that is technically the whole point of the day. When we make our vows and say something flowery about love and everyone cries or tries not to cry.

You all don't mind if we skip that part, right? You're just coming for the open bar, anyway.

Kidding.

I spent some time looking for readings, but everything felt too sappy or too religious or just wrong in some way. Or they'd already been used at our friends' weddings. I looked and looked and couldn't find anything that seemed like it might work.

So I asked Kevin to help, and he found two perfect readings in about half an hour. I have no idea how he did it except to assume that he's magical. Really, he was probably smarter about searching for them.

There are still probably some details to iron out, but I feel more in control of the ceremony now. If all goes well it should be short and sweet and perfect for the two of us. And then there will be good food and drinks and what promises to be a pretty awesome party.

SHIELD: Yes Men

See, this is what I was always hoping for from an episode of SHIELD. We've got minor characters from the cinematic universe who get to have expanded plots on the TV show. We've got clever foreshadowing of things to come, both in the show and in future movies. We've got humor and depth and shifting alliances. And we've got a bunch of awesome ladies kicking ass and taking names.

 I loved that this episode brought the Lady Sif in and turned it's eyes back to what's going on in Asgard. There are fun hints at where the next movie might be heading, especially with Loki pretending to be Odin wanting Lorelai alive. I wonder if she'll have a big role in the next film. I wonder what Loki is up to. I wonder how mad Sif will be at herself for not letting Lorelai goad her into murder.

But beyond all that speculation, this was a fun adventure, too. It was nice to see Melinda go up against some Asgardians and hold her own. It was heartbreaking to see her flat-out reject Ward after everything was said and done. And it's intriguing to know that she's been spying on Coulson all along. I'm so glad her character is finally being given so much to do, and it looks like there will be even more in the future.

I don't really have a lot to say. This episode was just fun, with some nice hints of what's to come. It's all I really want out of this show, which finally appears to be delivering with some consistency.

SHIELD: T.A.H.I.T.I.

Man, SHIELD really likes their acronyms. But they don't seem to have any interest in ever explaining them.

So this episode. There was a serious lack of Skye, which is interesting because it's not like she's the most interesting character ever. And she's obviously not going to die. Not when there are still so many mysteries about her origins. Not when she hasn't even gotten her superpowers yet. She really needs to get some superpowers.

I also wish that Simmons' new love interest had been fleshed out at all. He got a name and some familiarity with Ward and then he just mooned over her for a couple of scenes. Is there any reason (beyond his good looks) that she would be interested in him? Or is this just because they can't actually set up Ward/Simmons, what with Ward sleeping with Mae and all.

There just doesn't seem to be a lot to talk about, even though there should be a ton to talk about. I'm actually at the point where I feel like my lack of comics knowledge is hurting my understanding of this show, which probably shouldn't be happening. I mean, it's always nice to have easter eggs for people in the know, but I should be able to follow along. Instead I'm wondering if I should know who that alien in the tube if. Does G.H. mean something? And should I know who this Lorelai is? Obviously a seductress, but just as obviously not from Stars Hollow, CT.

At least Mae continues to be awesome. And she finally gets to show some emotion, between her concern over Skye and her fury at Quinn.

And there's Sif to look forward to next week.

Wedding Shoes

I got the call last week that my wedding dress came in. When I scheduled the fitting, the lady reminded me to bring my wedding shoes. Which meant that it was time to buy wedding shoes. I'd been trying to put this off in the hopes that there would be more selection when Winter turned to Spring, and this ultimately left me with a single afternoon to buy shoes.

I didn't think this would be a problem, since I had a good idea of what I wanted. But it turned out that what I wanted wasn't really for sale. There were plenty of styles I liked on the internet and I foolishly assumed that Bloomingdales and Macys would also carry them all in store so I could try them on. This wasn't the case.

I walked all the around Tysons Corner, which is a sizable mall, twice and found only four pairs of shoes in the color I wanted. Two of them pinched in weird places and were a bit too high to actually wear all day. The other two were fine, though not quite as special as I was hoping for. But they are the sort of shoe that I'll still be able to wear to the office after the wedding, which is probably important given what I paid for them.

I ended up with a pair that I like and that I should be able to wear all day long. Though I should probably try to spend a bit of time breaking them in around the house. After I bought them, Kevin and I met up to do other wedding related shopping. We have now purchased all of the bridesmaid gifts, groomsman gifts, paernt gifts, and wedding favors. We also looked for a guestbook, but ended up even more indecisive than we had been when we started. But we still have time on that.

It's nice to have so many of the purchases out of the way. At this point it's just a matter of paying off balances once we get a final head count and doing some of the things that we aren't spending money on. Like putting together a playlist. We should probably get on that. The wedding's getting close and it's nice to have so few things left to do.