Monday Night

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely...”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wow....I like this quote. 

My day is done.  It's late and I'm sitting here in my  jammies and I have a cup of--I want to say hot tea, but really it's a coke in my hand.  And there might be an empty popcorn bowl by my side, so if there are misspelled words in this post, it's my buttery fingers making the mistakes.

Yesterday was Halloween.  And now it seems as if time is spinning faster and faster towards the end of the year.  So much to do.

I love the fall....and the hustle and bustle of holidays and school activities  (even tho I am beyond my own kids in school, I do have a grandson there, and he has many cousins to follow).

At the end of this post, I'll tell you more about why I like the Halloween....

....but for now, this is a "book" post.  Even tho it's the end of the day, I still wanted to get my  "It's Monday, What are you Reading" post up as well as "Musing Monday's".

I will always be known as that last person to sign Mr. Linky.   Please do not tell my husband.  He thinks he is always waiting on me anyway, he doesn't need any more ammunition against me.

This weekly recap is hosted by Shelia of One Persons Journey Through a World of Books.

Each week we recap what we’ve read and look at what’s coming up this week. If you’re interested head over to Shelia’s site and get involved!

So...what am I reading?

I have just started "The Privileges" by Johnathan Dee.  It's for my on-line book club, Hot Picks for Book Club  Chicks.  Yes, I do know how to choose names. 

For now, it's myself and a few of my friends who live in different states, hence the 'on-line' part.  We all just like to read and we e-mail our essay's/opinions on a certain agreed on date.  This week it's Saturday....I have to have it read and written by Saturday.
(Which really  means Friday morning to me.....cuz the Handyman and I won tickets to  a Kenny Loggins concert in Reno.  He's very excited, let me tell ya.)

Last week, I had two book club meetings to go to.
Totally Lit and Lit Wits.

At the first one, we discussed "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo". 
I will be honest, sometimes when books are touted as SO GOOD, I resist reading them.  I don't know why.  
And now...I will probably be tarred and feathered here: but I while I liked Tattoo Girl, I didn't LOVE it.  It was good, and I read it and enjoyed the time I spent reading it.  I always am amazed at a good mystery/suspense book, how the author can think of such things!   I would be such a ditz when it came to all thinking up all the twists and turns in a mystery book.
Having said that,  one of the ladies in book club was extremely bothered by the story.   She worries about such monstrosities and other seriously deranged people reading them and getting ideas.    Most of the others in the club, didn't think of the story in those terms, they were better able to just accept  it as a fiction/mystery book.
The discussion was not what it usually is, because some of the ladies had read the 2nd and 3rd books, and they were biting their tongues to keep quiet about things they know and the rest of us were wondering about.

My 2nd book club met at a local wine bar and we discussed "Bella Tuscany", the companion book to  "Under the Tuscon Sun".   Sad to say, our review was not very complimentary.    We all decided the author could have written that book as a magazine article and it would have been wonderful....instead it seemed to drag on and on for most of us.  BUT, we appreciated parts of it and we drank a few bottles of wine in honor of the title.

As I said earlier, time is coming fast at us, and I have these books on the table for my book club books Nov and Dec.

An American Wife
Half Broke Horses
The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
At Home

Let's check out this weeks Musing Monday question from MizB Should Be Reading...

This week’s musing asks…

Do you have any special reading that you do as it gets closer to Christmas? If so, tell us about it! And, if not, tell us why not!


My answer is yes and no. I would really like to.  I don't always have time  to do any of my regular reading during the holidays tho. The idea sounds wonderful to me.... I imagine, a fire in the fireplace, snow coming down and me not having to bake, wrap, send, buy, write, bake some more, shop, so that I can enjoy my special holiday reading.    I've always wanted to read "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.  Perhaps I'll try to work that in this year.
I do have a stack of seasonal novels and short stories I pull out every December that sits on my coffee table---for people to pick up at will.  I have the Autobiography of Santa Clause.  I've never read it.   But there it sits year after year.  I'll get to it....right after I finish  "A Christmas Carol."

Now, I'll tell you why I like Halloween....
.....because of these guys!   Seeing all my little grandkids in their costumes.
If you remember, Camron came on Saturday to help us with the garage,  then as a surprise,  Eli and Emmy came  (they drove over from Reno)  (well, their parents did)  It was a nice surprise, since we weren't expecting them.  They got to see the haunted graveyard/garage.   No one is afraid. 

And Camron with his Stepsisters  (the step sisters are not my grandchildren, but they are very nice girls)

I do miss seeing these guys tho!  The grandkids who live far away -- I have to be satisfied with  pictures. (and there are still more whom I didn't get pictures of)  It seems Fairy Princess was the theme of the night this Halloween.

My granddaugther Cassie in Arizona

My granddaughter Evalynn in Virginia

They are the cutest fairies in the world!

and below

I love this girl!!  My friend's daughter... she passes out my Halloween candy, and has for the past 3 years.  We have over 300 kids come trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and she is such a great help.

Makenna on my front porch....the  unraked leaves add to the evening, don't you think?

I like how we have friends who use our house as their base camp for Halloween night. We just buy some take and bake pizza  and some salad in a bag and have a fun evening. It's been a tradition for quite some time now.  They come, they go...all thru the night.   And that's why I like Halloween.