Catch Up On The Last Few Weeks (Weekly Wrap-up Edition)

So I haven't done a weekly wrap up in a few weeks so I thought I'd do a quick recap.

Last I left it, my mom was having knee surgery.  She did great.  They had her standing and putting a little weight on it 5 hours after the surgery.  She went home 2 days later and has been doing great with her recovery.

My dad went into respite for the week while my mom recovered.  I think he did well.  At least that's what they said.  He is home now and hasn't lost his routine, which is what my mom was worried of.  He will be starting a day center next week, which will give my mom some time to herself and it will also give him other stimulation.  I hope it helps him.  I can tell things have gotten worse with him as he is quick to get frustrated, which then he takes out on whomever is trying to help.  It just makes me mad because that is not him.  He is such a gentle man and to see him do that is very upsetting because it's not him, it's the horrible disease.  So maybe having some trained individuals around him a few hours a day might help.

I just finished Robin Robert's book, "Everybody's Got Something", and as the title says, everyone does have something to get through.  It just seems like the right time to read this to know that I'm not the only one dealing with something.  I LOVED this book.  It was about her latest health struggle and throughout the whole book I wished she was my friend.  She is such a real person and so uplifting.  The next book on the deck is "The Handmaid's Tale".  It's not a type of book I tend to read, but my mom gave it to me for my birthday and I have had several people say that I have to read the book and then watch the series on Hulu.

 
I saw a couple of movies.  The first Guardian of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which I really enjoyed.  It was very funny, despite the boring family issue it was a fun movie.  I also saw Alien: Covenant.  It's the sequel to the prequel of Alien.  It was a typical Alien movie - fun and scary.

A couple friends at work decided to do a 30 day fitness challenge.  I've thought about doing one of these, but usually that was in the middle of the month and I am too OCD to start something like that in the middle of the month.  And I would never remember when it was the first of the month to start it.  So we are doing the 30 Day Buns, Guns, & Abs Challenge from Squishy Cheeks & Cupcakes.  We are on the 4th day and I need to get off my butt and do today's set.

I went on my first real ride on Saturday.  Probably did too much the first time.  The ride I like to do takes off a few miles from my house.  It's great because I don't have to load my bike on my car and can just ride up there.  Doing that, the ride turned out to be 25 miles.  About 10 miles more then I probably should have.  It was the first Saturday of the month and the bike group has a new rider ride.  I didn't realize that this year they moved it to a different place, so I was the only one there that wanted to do the smallest amount of miles.  So I was on my own on the way back.  I really wanted to wait for someone, but I had to get to my hair appointment.  It really wasn't that bad as there was very little traffic.  The only problem was that my ass HURT.  Like bad.  So bad that a few miles from my house I thought I was going to throw up.  I couldn't wait to get off the bike.  That'll teach me for doing too much too quickly.

I got home and quickly showered and headed to my hair appointment.  Since I cut it short, I have been on the fence on if I want to keep it short or grow it out again.   A few weeks ago I had a dream that told me what I wanted to do - grow it out so that I can cut it and give it to Locks of Love.  Locks of Love takes long hair that is cut and turns it into wigs for those going through health issues which makes them lose their hair.  So we have to grow out the dyed blond hair first so it will probably take a couple of years to get it long enough.  But I'm excited.

After my hair appointment I decided to look into getting a new bike.  Not really because of my bum, but just to make riding much more comfortable as my bike is just a little bit too long for me.  After a couple of years of saying I need to get a bike, I finally pulled the cord and did it.  I had been eyeing the Avail Advanced since I did a test ride two summers ago.  I went into a local shop here and did another test ride and I knew it had to come home with me.  I'll go back to the shop tomorrow to get it fitted and I'll bring it home then.  I'm so excited for my next ride next weekend.

Today I think I'm getting sick again, or should I say my allergies are kicking my ass again.   I was just dealing with this less then 2 weeks ago so it is very irritating.  We will see what tomorrow brings.

Have you read any good books lately?  Have you seen any good movies lately?  Have you ever cut your hair for Locks of Love?

Linking up with Holly and Tricia's Weekly Wrap Up.

What I'm Loving (Friday Five Edition)

I have to admit I've been a bit slacked on the blogging front.  Most of that is not having a real routine right now, but I'm slowly figuring that out.  But for now here are a few random things that I have been loving recently.  



1. Not Working - I am really enjoying my time off right now.  Like really really a lot.  That thought might change in 6+ months, but I love having my days to spend how I want.  I go to the gym, I go out to lunch, I read, I watch TV.  Whatever I'm wanting to do.  If I didn't have my pesky bills, I think I would enjoy an early retirement.  I could find a Sugar Daddy, but I don't want to be dependent on someone that way.  Or I could win the Lotto, but that would mean I would have to play it.  For now, I will enjoy my time while looking for another job.

2. Cleaning - I have to admit, I hate cleaning, but I have been on a mission to declutter my house.  I am basically done with my upstairs and halfway done with downstairs.  This is more then just cleaning, but getting rid of things.  I've taken several trips to the Goodwill and a ton of things have been recycled and thrown out.  When I'm closer to being done, I'll do a post about it.

3. Avenger Movies - I have been watching all of the Avenger movies from the first Iron Man to Captain America: Civil War.  These are fun movies and the more you watch them, the more you see how they are all connected.  All the little details and Easter Eggs are fun to figure out.  And there are some really good looking heroes to watch.  Yum.  I wold love for them to do an origins story of Black Widow.  I find her very fascinating being a bad-ass chick in a room of super powered testosterone.  Very unlike the boring waifs of Pepper and Jane, waiting for someone to save them. 

4. Trigger Point Foam Roller - I got this roller for Christmas and I LOVE it.  It's a bit harder then traditional foam rollers and get deep into those tight muscles.  It hurts so good.

5. Snuggle Time - With all this time off I get extra time to cuddle and snuggle with my kitties.  Brianna is 17 and while she still is getting around well, I know she doesn't have that many years left.  And Riley still has a lot of feral in him, and even though he has been with me for almost 3 years, he still is very skittish.  The more time I'm home, the more he seems to relax.  And then there is Aiden, my snuggle bug.  I just love spending time with him.

Brianna, Aiden, and Riley watching Big Bang Theory with me

Brianna, Riley, and Aiden

OK, there is one last thing that I have loved this week.  The weather.  We had a couple days of beautiful weather this week and I tried to take full advantage of it.  I actually enjoyed running on Wednesday because it was almost 60 degrees when I went out first thing in the morning.  All the windows in my house were open for two days strait.  A cold front has come through and we are back to normal 40 degree high temperatures, but the sneak peak of spring has made me so happy.  I can't wait for the spring!

What are you loving?

I'm linking up with Fairytales and Fitness and Running on Happy for Friday Five 2.0

What's Next? (Friday Five Edition)

So today is my last day at work.  I have vacation that I'm using till the end of the year and then that's it.  So a lot of my thoughts are on what will I be doing next.  I have 7 months of severance so there are a lot of things up in the air right now.

1. Job hunting - I get this question often.  And really, right now, most companies are not hiring because of the end of the year, holidays, and budgets.  I have done a great deal of networking the last couple of months and will start up again in January.

2. Traveling - While I don't want to spend too much money on vacations, this is a perfect time go do some traveling.  I already had a couple things on the schedule and I'm trying to decide if I want to do anything else.  The only problem is that all my friends still have jobs, so it will be a little harder to find someone to do something spur of the moment.

3. Cleaning - I have to admit I'm a bit of a pack rat.  It doesn't help that I have very little storage in my house.  So I want to use some of this time to just purge and get rid of things out of my house that I really don't need.  Hopefully I can stay motivated and get a good amount done.

4. Classes - Our severance package includes some money to use for training.  We have two years to use it and it doesn't have to be IT specific.  So I'm looking around to what might be useful to my career and more importantly, what might be fun.


5. Relaxing - December and most of January probably won't be the best time for me to have a lot of time to relax as I have so much going on.  But it will be nice not to have to worry about work on top of everything.  So I'm hoping to get some reading done, binge some TV shows, and cuddling with the kitties.



Have you had some extended time off before?  What did you do with your time?

I'm linking up with Fairytales and Fitness and Running on Happy for Friday Five 2.0

Tons of Books

Starting at the beginning of this year, I have been really obsessed with reading.  I can't get enough of the written word.  My favorites seem to by mystery/thrillers, especially when they have to do with a strong female role, especially if they are P.I.s.  I don't know what the drawl is, but it has me reading and that's great.  I use to be an avid reader when I was a teenager.  I hit college and found that I had better things to do.  A few years back, I started up again.  And this year I'm devowering every book I can find.  Here is the list of books I have read this year.

1) Eat, Pray, Love - Now not a normal type book for me but a friend let me borrow it several months before and I thought I should just get it read.  It does have some interesting tidbits, but I'm not a huge fan of the last part of the book.  And I watched the movie after I finished the book and all I have to say is that it's too long.

2) Murder... Suicide... Whatever... - This is a new P.I. writer that took a real long time to get to the jist of the story, but the last third picked up enough that I just ordered the second book in this series.


3) I is for Innocent - This book I borrowed from my mom.  I have never read the Alphabet series, but I did listen to U is for Undertow on my cross country trip last November.  Both books were light and a fun read so I decided to start from the beginning.

4) The Red Garden - I loved this book and would recommend it to almost anyone.  It's a bunch of short stories (sort of) that have to do with a town from it's founding to present day.  You follow the generations of families in this town through the different short stories and just fall in love with the town.

5) A is for Alibi - So I started the Alphabet series from the beginning.  A light quick read, that is enjoyable.  Though it is weird to read books from the '80s and see how things have changed.

6) Postmortem - This series fallows a Chief Medical Officer as she gets the mysteries that surround her "patients".  I got into this series from a recommendation from someone because it takes place in my home town.  It's real cool to read about the different parts of town and roads that I really know.

7) B is for Burglar - Another Kinsey Milhone story.  Not much to say about the series beyond they are easy and fun reads.  Though I have started to notice that the Epilogue is never even a page long, so I feel like the arc of the story comes, we find out who did it, and then that's it.  No real end to the story like I would like to see.  But the books are still fun and easy reads.

8) Body of Evidence - The second in the Kay Scarpetta series.  Same as the first, though I missed having her niece around.  She was a fun character that added balance.  This series also was first written in the 80's so I'm having to remember that cell phones were not normal and they really had to look for a pay phone to talk to anyone. 

9) Jane Eyre - This was a book on CD that I was listening to when I had time.  There are a lot of classic books that I never read and always wanted to.  I really enjoyed this story a lot.

10) C is for Corpse - Same as all the other Kinsey Milhone series.

11) All that Remains - The third in the Kay Scarpetta series.  And more of the same.

12) The Spellmans Strike Again - This is the fourth in the Spellman series that I have read over the last couple years.  I really do enjoy this series.  It's a P.I. that has grown up in a family of P.I.s.  The family is nuts and the stories are fun.  I would really recommend this series to anyone that likes a quick mystery involving crazy people.

13) Cruel and Unusual - This is the forth in the Kay Scarpetta series.  I am now noticing that every case she gets involved in, turns out to be all about her.  I understand that the investigator has to get involved, but the reason of these bad things can't always be because of the main character.  But over all the book was good, just starting to be a little bothersome.  I have been told her latest books aren't any good, so I'll keep reading them till I'm not happy reading them at all.

14) D is for Deadbeat - The forth in the Kinsey Milhone series.  Again enjoyable and a little put off by the lack of conclusion.  But not enough to stop reading the series.


15) E is for Evidence - The fifth in the Kinsey Milhone series.  Same as the rest.

Currently I am reading the next book after Murder... Suicide... Whatever... I'm also reading a book on a Kindle which is going slow as I save that for when I'm out of the house, and just started a book on CD which will also go slow as my commute is not long so I don't have that many opportune times to just listen to a book.  I will review other books as I finish them.