Coffee Break–Volume 95

A weekly list of things accomplished, enjoyed, learned, tried and remembered.

1. Gig night. SofaKillers got to play another gig at Boot Barn Hall this week. Oh man! I love this place. It is such a cool venue–with a great atmosphere, a huge stage (the guys love that),  and a friendly staff. There was even a nice write up about them in our local newspaper this week.  It was a super fun night listening to the best band and dancing the night away.

2. What I read last month. I read several good books last month. For my self help/inspiration category–I read Fast, Feast, Repeat. My friend Lara White told me about this book when I saw her at the end of January. I hadn’t seen her in probably a year and she was noticeably a smaller in size. Since I have struggled for years to lose the excess I put on during my pregnancy’s (that’s embarrassingly 12 years now), I was naturally curious to know what she found that worked. The secret? Intermittent Fasting.  I’ve been hearing about it and was VERY skeptical. BUT, to see that a real live person that I know found success–well, sign me up. I will write more about my experience since starting this, but if you are even remotely curious about it–I highly recommend this book. The author, Gin Stephens is a former school teacher and writes in a very easy to read way.

For my learning book, I read Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas. I’ve been making my way through a list of books on writing that a famous author recommended on his blog. I have to say, though, this one was not very good–even the title makes me cringe. I don’t know why it bothers me, but anytime someone tries to break creative processes down into a formula for success–it just doesn’t sit well with me. It’s not just that–it’s kind of a boring read too. There wasn’t really anything new to learn and I found that I read it kind of like I used to with required reading in high school–with not much enthusiasm and only because I felt I had to.

For fiction I read another Mary Higgins Clark called My Gal Sunday. This one was a compilations of short stories about a character named Sunday who is married to a former President of the United States. These are much more light hearted stories–kind of like that old TV show Hart to Hart. I really enjoyed it.

And finally, I got to read the latest one from my most favorite author–Janet Evanovich. For years now I have gifted my Mom the newest in the Stephanie Plum series (One for the Money, etc) –and then she always loans it to me when she has finished. This one is called Fortune and Glory Tantalizing Twenty Seven. It has everything that I love–loveable and memorable characters, humor, and a fun adventure to read.

3. A jump start on gardening. It’s spring and in warmer climates, your gardens are probably already planted, your trees are leafing out and all the flowers are starting to burst with colors. Here in Colorado–not so much. It snowed on Friday. It will snow again later this week. We are still in the arctic tundra of Sprinter (it’s technically spring, but still very much winter). One learns very quickly to wait until at least mid-may to plant anything or it will die. Since our warm weather arrives so late and leaves so early–our growing season is much shorter. My gardens often just start to look glorious come late August and then WHAM we get an early freeze and everything that had been growing dies. So, this year I decided to try the whole seeding indoors method. I got my red solo cups, a bag of dirt and a variety of vegetable seeds. I’m hoping to get a head start and not just have green plants in my garden, but actual vegetables that reach maturity this year. We’ll see. I’ll let you know how it goes.

4. What we watched. Super Rockstar and I finished our Star Trek binge. We watched the last three that are the newest versions of the Star Trek story; Star Trek, Star Trek: Into the Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond. I love all three of these movies so much–perfect casting for all the original characters, good story lines and great action. I highly recommend. The boys have watched these with us before. They are rated PG-13 and have some a couple of adult situations (some brief nudity) and some foul language here and there. I think they are appropriate for tween/teen.

We also started watching a new TV show called Poldark. It’s on Amazon Prime (originally a PBS Masterpiece series) and is about a man who comes home to England after fighting in the American Revolution. He discovers that his father has died, his sweetheart is pledged to another and his family estate is in ruins. Sounds fun, right? I really enjoy historical fiction and this one has been pretty good so far.

The boys and I watched Madagascar 3:Europe’s Most Wanted while Super Rockstar was playing a gig. This is the one where they are on the run from a particularly persistent European animal control officer and join the circus to escape her and get back to New York City. It is so good and I loved seeing it again.

5. My Favorite Memes of the week.

 

As always, I would love to hear from you. I hope you have a great week!