Book Review: Water for Elephants

I must admit that I have been beyond horrible with reading books this year. I used to be such an avid reader but the past year or two I just really haven’t been motivated to do much reading. I’m blaming it on the DVR. I always say I’m going to do better and make more of an effort to read books like I used to but life always seems to get in the way. Hopefully this time I will stick to what I say and get busy reading.

I started Water for Elephants on the plane ride over to France and read all of one chapter. I think I may have mentioned how miserable the flight from the States to France was and I really just didn’t feel like reading much. Then when I got to France, there was so much going on I didn’t have time to read. Finally, last week, I picked the book back up and decided I would give it a go – it was a slow week for the DVR – and I’m glad I did. Multiple people who saw me with the book at the gym told me how good it was which only made me want to keep reading it.

I decided to give this book a try after hearing about it from a lady at church. I don’t even know if she read it, but she mentioned it to me on a Wednesday night and I bought it the next week. The book is about a man who, by rather terrible circumstances ends up working with a traveling circus. If you’ve long been a reader of this blog, then you probably know I am a lover of the circus and have always thought it would be super cool to travel with the circus, so this book was right up my alley.

The man, Jacob Jankowski is ninety-three when the story begins and the books flashes between his present day life in a nursing home and how he ended up on the circus and all the craziness that ensues once he is fully employed with the circus. He ends up involved in all sorts of circus chaos and even falls in love with the show’s most beloved performer, Marlena, which is the main plot of the story. There are many side stories all intertwined with the main love story and there is a lot of good vs. evil throughout. The characters are each well developed, including the animals and you will find yourself loving someone who you at first thought weren’t so loveable. There are a lot of twists and turns in the plots as well, the majority of which you don’t even see coming.

This book was a very easy read and quite enjoyable. It will make you laugh and might even make you cry and will definitely make you want to turn to the next page to see what’s happening next. I have not seen the movie based on the film, but I am anxious to watch it now that I have read the book. If you’re looking for a good read this Labor Day weekend, check out Water for Elephants, I think you will be quite pleased.

Cooking In The Car: Brownies

Last Thursday, while I was getting ready for work, I noticed that the weatherman said it was going to be a blistering 96 degrees outside. It had been hot the day before (98 or so) and the forecast was in the low 90s. So, I figured if they were forecasting 96 and really hot then it would be a great day to try to get in a day of cooking in the car.

So, after I got dressed and put on my face (as the older ladies like to say), I grabbed a box of brownie mix from the pantry and got to work mixing it up. Soon after, it was in the pan and ready for a day of baking on the dashboard oven.

Once I got to work, I placed the dish on the dash and headed in. I forgot to get the exact time, but it was some time after 7:00. I did not go out and check on the brownies at lunch time because I knew they would need the whole day of undisturbed baking.

I left work and headed out to the car around 4:30 or so. I was excited to see the progress of the brownies. I opened up the car door and proceeded to take the pan out of the dashboard and let me tell you, people, that pan was HOT! I nearly needed an oven mitt to hold it and couldn’t hold it for a long period of time. I was going to set the brownies in my lap to take a photo but the pan was too hot to hold in my lap. So instead, I got out of the car and placed the pan in the front seat to take the photo.

The brownies had formed a thin crusty layer at the top – you know that flaky top brownie layer. The insides, however, were still pretty runny. There were small chocolate chips in the batter and they had all melted but the brownies were not cooked all the way through. They were a tad bit thicker than when I had first placed them in the car but no where near being able to cut and eat like a real brownie.

I ended up taking them home and finished the baking in the oven. I served them up at work the next day and they were eaten by many. I had some left over to take home too and ate the remainder over the weekend.

My phone told me the temperature got up to 99 degrees and the heat index was 102. I can’t remember if I mentioned it or not, but I would really like to get a thermometer to put beside whatever I’m cooking in the car so we can all see how hot it gets in there. I know, and you do too that the inside of a car gets way hotter than the outside temperature. So, I’m anxious to get a thermometer to see just how hot it gets on the dashboard oven.

This cooking in the car experiment somehow left a greasy spot on my dash which gives me a chuckle each day. Guess I should have put a towel up there or something. I wonder what people think when they walk by my car – do they even notice that there is something cooking on the dash? Hmmm, I wonder.

I’m not sure that we are going to have many more scorchers this summer, thankfully. The temps have been in the low to mid 90s as of late, unlike Texas where they are still suffering from 100 plus degree days. Yikes! I’ll keep my eye out for another hot day and see if I can’t come up with something else to cook before the summer is out. As always, your suggestions are welcome.

The Weekend

Hope everyone out there had a good weekend. I did, it just wasn’t long enough, but that’s how it always seems I suppose. This coming up weekend, however, will be a little bit longer as it is Labor Day, the unofficial end to summer. I wish it was the official end to hot weather, but unfortunately we will have to suffer a little longer when it comes to the heat.

Friday night I went to the Madison Academy game with my dad and brother. MA lost, but we still managed to have a nice time and see some decent football. The MA concession stand offered stellar food as always and I visited it twice, once before the game and once during half time. It’s just not football without a visit to the concession stand.

On Saturday morning, I got a haircut and then did my weekly grocery shopping. After I got home, I had a bite to eat and then loaded up The Tide and took her down to pet wash at Goin’ To The Dogs and Cats retail store in Five Points. I usually just bathe The Tide at home, but as you can imagine, it makes a huge mess and is a lot of work so I thought I would give this pet wash a try. It was the best decision I have ever made… well, as far as bathing The Tide is concerned anyway. The owner clipped The Tide’s nails for me and then set me up for bathing The Tide. The wash stand was awesome and I didn’t have to bend over far which was good for the ole back. The dog wash provides the shampoo and towels and even a super duper hair dryer which blows off excess dead skin and dog hair and the best part of all is that after you are done, they clean up the wash station in preparation for the next dog. I was so excited I thought I might cry from joy! The cost was $15 but it was well worth it, especially considering a nail trim alone at PetSmart is $11; not to mention the fact that I didn’t have to clean up a dirty/hairy bathtub after the Tide got all clean. I will definitely be using this place again.

After the dog wash was complete, I did a little straightening and cleaning of the house as best I could anyway. It’s hard to put things in order when things are piled on top of each other multiple times in multiple rooms. I at least got the sheets changed the floors vacuumed and mopped and some dusting done. I also replaced the air filters which were, as always, covered in dog hair, but also caked in sawdust from the room renovation. I also watched a little of the hurricane coverage and then saw on Twitter that Huntsville Utilities sent some crews up to Greenville, NC to help them with their power outages. Greenville, NC is where I used to live and where The Tide was born. Hope all you East Carolinians are doing okay!

Speaking of the room renovation, here are the latest pictures which I didn’t have with me last Friday.

Saturday evening, I went out with Jackie to a charity concert. Some of our friends put together a show to raise money for a child that has Muscular Dystrophy. The insurance the child’s mother has won’t cover a lot of the medical costs associated with the child’s MD and so our friends put on this show to raise money to pay for the child’s medical costs. There were a lot of different bands playing and it was a fun night. One of the bands’ even had a song called Ms. Parker. I couldn’t make out the rest of the lyrics, but every time they sang MS. Parker, I was intrigued. I had ridden with Jackie; so, about 11:00, I asked her to drive me home so I wouldn’t be too exhausted for church the next morning. If it had been a Friday night, I would have definitely stayed later because I was having a great time and all the music was really wonderful.

The band our friends are in, The Robertsons

Jackie took this with her iPhone.

I look really engrossed with what's going on.

After church Sunday morning, I went over to my friend Robert’s house to see his newborn baby. Little Aston is a little over two weeks old now and it was my first chance to stop by and see him and his parents. Robert and I used to work together but he moved on to bigger and better things at the first of the month. It was really nice visiting with them. After a Sunday afternoon nap and evening church service, I came home and ate dinner and watched most of the last day of this year’s Tour de France. I recorded the last day and the Alpe D’Huez stages while I was gone and haven’t watched them yet. Some may think it’s weird to go back and watch but I rather enjoyed watching last night and plan to finish it up this evening. I may save the Alpe D’Huez stage for a rainy day but am looking forward to watching it almost as much as I was looking forward to being there that day.

I guess that’s it for this Monday’s weekend recap. Hopefully there will be some progress made on the room renovation this week because I am ready to get everything back where it belongs. Keep your fingers crossed.

More Progress and an Unrelated Dilemma

Yesterday even more progress was made on the floor in my spare bedroom – you can actually walk in there again. All of the subfloor is now in place awaiting the hardwood to come in. I took some photos with my camera, then neglected to upload them; I meant to take a photo with my phone and then in a rush to get things ready this morning, didn’t do that either so there will be no photos of the subfloor today I’m sorry to report.

There was a lot of sawdust in the room and so I vacuumed a good majority of that up when I got home. It was while I was vacuuming that I noticed all the old floor had been tossed out of the window and was laying in a pile beside the house. I hadn’t noticed it before because I had not been able to get over to the window and I don’t really venture over to that side of my house unless I’m mowing the lawn; so I had no idea the pile was there until I happened upon it yesterday afternoon. I’m assuming at some point the repair guys will clean it up; or at least I hope so.

I also managed to dig the paint cans out of my bedroom closet and what do you know, the paint can for the spare room was in there so I am set as far as getting paint to match the room, which is great news. Now I will have to dig out the paint samples from my scrapbook of the house renovation and see if Home Depot can still make the colors for the hallway and the trim – here’s to hoping. I don’t really know at what point I can start painting; but I can assure you I am not looking forward to it in the least.

After vacuuming the room and making some food for a baby shower we are having at work today, I headed over to the lovely Erika’s house and had dinner with her and her delightful mamma. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of Beef Stroganoff and had even better conversation which lasted until I called it quits some time after 10:00. I think we could have talked all night long, but I’m a lover of sleep and had to cut it short. When I got home I read a chapter of the book I’m reading (a review coming soon) and then went to bed.

This morning, when I got up, I had a text from the newspaper (sent at midnight) about an assignment for tonight. When I got in to work this morning, I emailed and declined the assignment. I had already made plans with my family to attend the Madison Academy game tonight and really want to go to it. Plus, I’ve really gotten to the point where I don’t much enjoy covering high school games any more. I always get the worst games and when one team is beating another team 49-0, well, it’s just not much fun to watch or write about for that matter. I felt guilty about not taking the assignment, but I’m not keen on last minute assignments. I know it was an honest mistake, but still. So, now I’m debating about whether or not I should just “retire” from my newspaper writing days. I will miss the extra cash, but when you break it down with gas and the time I spend working, it’s probably less than minimum wage and I know I would have more fun if I just was a spectator. So, I’m kind of at a crossroads here and will definitely be pondering my newspaper writing future over the course of the next few days.

I think that’s about all the information I have to share with you all today. I certainly hope you all have a great weekend and if anyone is interested in helping me paint this next week, be sure and let me know in the comments. I won’t hold my breath for a large response.

A Little Progress

I’m happy to report that when I arrived home yesterday afternoon, a little progress had been made on the guest bedroom, which is great news, people, great news. It may not look like much, but it’s getting there slowly but surely. Apparently the reason no work was done on Tuesday was because the repairman wanted to give the room and the joists another day to air out, which makes sense considering how saturated the wood was.

New floor joists went in yesterday. I was under the impression from speaking with my dad that the new joists were going to go in between the old joists, but it looks like the went in directly beside the old joists. I guess there was a change in plans or maybe I just misunderstood which is highly possible. It also looked like the repair guys cleared out some of the crawl space making it a little easier to maneuver around. That might just be a figment of my imagination, but I’m pretty sure that’s what it looked like.

There was a hole leading to the back of the washer that had not been there before; so, I am assuming the leak at the washing machine was repaired, which is definitely a good thing since it was the cause of all this madness.

Also, there was one new sheet of sub flooring installed. The other sheets are on my front porch and I assume will be put in today.

At some point, I’ve got to dig out the paint can for the bedroom and take it to Home Depot to get some new cans of paint. I’m praying I still have the can for that room, but can’t be for certain. I had stored a lot of the old paint cans and buckets out in my shed and finally disposed of them last year. I think that the bedroom paints are in my bedroom closet; but not 100% certain. I will soon find out though. As for the hallway, it will have to be repainted as well but I’m not too concerned with that paint color. I know I don’t have anymore of the beige paint that covers the walls in most of my house. All of those were in five gallon buckets and they were disposed of last year. I do still have the paint samples I used when we renovated my house so I can probably take those to Home Depot and hopefully they will still have the paint formulas there. If not, then I’ll just go with darker beige in the hallway, which really doesn’t bother me at all.

The hallway actually needed to be repainted before I knocked a hole in the wall. While I was renovating the house, and older man from church came over to help paint one day and he started painting the hallway the green that is in my bedroom. I noticed the mistake and gave him the right color – he then told me he was color blind. Most people will not notice it, but in the spots where George started out painting green, you can still see some of the green coming through the beige. So, a fresh coat of paint will definitely do that hallway some good.

Clearly, the repair work will not be finished by tomorrow, but at least they are making progress and before you know it this little project will be a thing of the past.

The Day That Nothing Happened

I had grand intentions of writing a post today updating you on all the glorious progress that had been done on my spare bedroom… and then I got home last night, opened the door, and found that nothing had changed since I left the house about 12 hours earlier. The wind was knocked out of my sails. C’est la vie, I suppose.

Yesterday morning, my dad met the repair man at Lowes and bought materials to be used in the house. My dad called me soon after and said that the plan was for the new floor joists and sub floor to go in. I asked about the leak and my dad said that the repair man was going to figure out where the washing machine was leaking and repair that and then put in the joists and the sub floor. In the meantime, the hardwood floor would probably have to be ordered and I would get an update on that later on.

So, when I got home from the gym last night, I expected there to be a new sub floor in the spare bedroom. I was so excited to see the progress being made, hoping that I would soon be done living the life of a hoarder. Then when I opened the door to the spare bedroom, I felt so defeated and crawled under a pile of stuff and cried… well, not really. I was really disappointed, but I actually just fixed myself a sandwich and then took a shower. I also called my dad to see if he knew what was going on. I thought maybe they had just spent the day repairing the leak or something but everything was in the exact same place as before so I’m pretty sure that absolutely nothing was done yesterday. My dad didn’t answer so I left a message and haven’t heard back; so, your guess is as good as mine. I told you that no construction project only takes a week! I just hope it’s completed by Labor Day weekend so I will have the extra day to put my life back in order.

In other news, high school football season starts this weekend and I still have no idea if I’m working for the newspaper on Friday night or not. I’m inclined to think not, but then again, I have received assignments as late as Thursday before, and wouldn’t be surprised if it happened again this go around. In addition to not yet receiving an assignment, the newspaper has also made a tremendous amount of cutbacks in recent years, which is one of the many reasons why our newspaper isn’t as readable as it once was. Is anyone else as sad as I am that the newspaper will soon be extinct? Anyway, the paper also used a lot of interns last year because they like to keep it cheap and my guess is they are going the cheap route again, which in all honesty is fine by me. I don’t really think I’ll miss it all that much. I will, however, miss the extra cash.

The weather is gradually cooling off which means there might not be any more cooking in the car segments this summer. I really should have started earlier this year. Not that I’m hoping for really hot days, but I would like to get at least one more cooking in the car post up before the fall. I’ll keep my eyes out for an upcoming scorcher and hopefully remember to place something on the oven dash.

Keep your fingers crossed for some progress on my house today. I’m ready for the madness to be over. Have a great hump day!

It’s Completely Chaotic!

A crack in the floor

Well folks, the chaos that is home renovation has begun. I really don’t even know if you can call it home renovation when it’s actually repair work, but we’ll go with that. It sounds lovelier, or something like that.

Over the weekend, I moved almost everything out of my guest bedroom. I took the little stuff out first and the small pieces of furniture that I could move on my own, as well as the bed linens. Most all of this was done on Friday night. I didn’t do much at all on Saturday since I went to the lake for the day; and on Sunday, I finished up what I could. I moved all of the clothes out of the closet and even bagged some up to give away. I also moved the desk out of the room so that I would have somewhere to put all the hanging clothes. Otherwise they would have had to lie on the bed and I would be sleeping on the couch which didn’t sound like too good of a plan to me.

By the time Sunday night was coming to an end, the only things left in the room were the bed, the cabinet that holds my DVDs (without the DVDs in it) a storage box full of books that was too heavy for me to move and the TV. I left the dress I had worn to church on Sunday laying out on the bed so that I could wear it to work on Monday. Otherwise, it would have been a wild goose chase trying to find something to wear.

I left the house yesterday morning for work and the man doing all the work at my house came over around noon, or so I’m told. Since I wasn’t there I don’t really know what time he showed up. I also don’t know what he did with The Tide. I wonder that too. Did The Tide just hang back and watch all the destruction or did they let her outside? She didn’t tell me. She’s very tight lipped about what she does during the day.

When I got home from work yesterday, the floor had been ripped out of the bedroom. I could smell the mustiness of the crawl space as soon as I walked in the door. I don’t know why, but that is one of the smells I dislike the most. I guess it has something to do with the fact that I like a clean house and the smell of dirt is not something with which I tend to fragrance my home.

The cabinet I had left in the bedroom was in the middle of the kitchen floor. I eventually moved it beside the stove so that I could get the dishwasher open. I needed to put my lunch dishes away. The bed and storage box were both moved to the hallway along with the two closet doors and was therefore blocking the way to my bedroom. The only way I could get to my room was through the door that connects to the end and I would have to crawl under the desk holding all my hanging clothes. So, I proceeded to move the bed, the mattresses and the doors so that I could at least walk into my bedroom like a civilized person. I also managed to knock a small hole in the wall in my hallway which will now have to be mudded and painted. I’m guessing the walls in the bedroom will have to be repainted too – just when you think you’re done painting a house for 10 or 20 years.

So, needless to say, the house looks completely chaotic right now. I seriously feel like I’m living an episode of Hoarders. I also feel like all the stuff is suffocating me. It makes me feel more than a wee bit claustrophobic. Erika was privy to the chaos last night when she stopped by to pick me up for the Ladies’ Night Out event. I told her I might have to come stay with her a night just so I can breathe a little bit.

This morning, I squirmed around all the things in my house and managed to pull together a lunch for today. It was quite interesting picking out some clothes. I luckily found some brown Capri’s close to the top of the pile of hanging clothes and spotted a short sleeve grey shirt that I often wear with those pants. After struggling for about five minutes to get the shirt out of the pile, I stopped for a breather, let go of the clothes on top and then couldn’t find the shirt again. I ended up with a lightweight long sleeve shirt instead. People probably think I’m nuts wearing long sleeves in 90 degree weather, but it is cool in my office so that will be my excuse.

The madness is only supposed to last a week but when was the last time a construction project only lasted a week? Let’s hope this one does. Otherwise, I may be checking in to the Motel 6.

This is in my bonus room -

clothes and towels and lots of other things.

A view of my bedroom

And another - with a confused Tide

And another - with a still confused Tide

My temporary "closet"

The guest bedroom almost cleared out.

Another view

The guest bedroom on Monday afternoon

Another view

The bed in the den.

Here, The Tide is not confused, just staring a her jar of treats.

She knows what she wants.

The cabinet in the kicthen