Monday, October 31, 2016

Monday Musings: Happy Halloween!

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We carved our pumpkins yesterday; I think they came out great this year! Happy Halloween!

My week: I turned 31 last week and I had a decent little birthday. I spent the afternoon watching "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which I hadn't seen in forever, then we went out to eat and to see "Inferno" at the theater. To be honest, while the year started out great the second half has decidedly not been my finest chapter, so I was glad to leave 30 behind. Here's to 31 being my best year yet!

Reading: I finished and enjoyed "The Last Days of Night" by Graham Moore, a historical fiction novel about the battle between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse to power America. Then I read -- and hated -- "Die Like an Eagle," the 20th installment in Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow cozy mystery series. I've read every book in the series, but I think this one may be my last. It was filled with awful typos, lackluster writing and a snooze-inducing plot.

Next I finished up "All the Winters After" by Sere Prince Halverson; I started it way back in April when I was staying with my parents during our move and had to abandon it about 1/3 of the way through because it was time for us to leave for Hawaii. I finally got it from the library here, and luckily the plot came back to me pretty quickly. I enjoyed this novel of grief, second chances and moving on set in beautiful, rugged Alaska.

And now I'm just a little ways into "The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton. Already it seems different from the other books of hers I've read, and while I've loved them all I think this one may become my new favorite.



Knitting: I decided to try my hand at hat pattern designing this weekend. Not long after I took this photo I realized it wasn't coming out as slouchy as I wanted, so I ripped it out and cast on again with larger needles. I was a little bummed about losing all that work, but I'm knitting with my favorite yarn (Malabrigo), which is always a joy.

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Watching: As mentioned, we went to see "Inferno," based on the Dan Brown book, for my birthday. It was pretty good -- and I totally loved Felicity Jones in it. We also watched the new "Ghostbusters" movie; it was silly and entertaining and perfect for Halloween. And I started re-watching "Gilmore Girls" in anticipation of the revival. I don't have time to make it through the entire show so I decided to start on season 5. I always did like Logan best of Rory's boyfriends anyway.

Eating: Instead of birthday cake this year Jarrod got me a chocolate macadamia nut pie from a well-known Hawaii bakery -- yum! Our little veggie garden is flourishing and this week we ate cherry and regular tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, okra and bell peppers from our own backyard!

Blogging:
Monday Musings
10 Good BOOks for Halloween Reading
Book Review: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (3.5 stars)
Book Review: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (5 stars!)
10 Intriguing November 2016 Book Releases

Looking forward to:
Trick-or-treaters tonight!

I'm linking up with Kathryn of Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

10 comments:

  1. Lindsay we have a reshowing of the Harry Potter movies here at present on TV and having never really watched them I have decided to view them and enjoying the second one at present.

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    1. Ooh, perfect Halloween-watching! I hope you enjoyed them! Have you read the books?

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  2. Happy Belated Birthday! Love your Lumos pumpkin!

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    1. Thank you, Amy! I hope you had a good Halloween!

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  3. Very nice pumpkins. All The Winters After sounds good. I loved The Forgotten Garden. Have a great week. Happy Birthday.

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    1. Thanks, Nise! We had fun carving them. I'm totally loving "The Forgotten Garden" so far! It's hard to put down.

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  4. I just posted about The Forgotten Garden today. So good!

    For years I kept thinking I should try pattern design, but it can be so hard to have a knitting project come out well even when someone has already tested it. Which I think is my way of saying that I'm too lazy :) I do share your love of Malabrigo though!

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    1. I've always been pretty content to knit other people's patterns, but since I'm not working at the moment I've started tossing around the idea of an Etsy shop... which means I'd have to come up with my own. Kinda fun, kinda not. I've never been a huge fan of math!

      I'll have to check out your thoughts on "The Forgotten Garden" -- I'm loving it so far!

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  5. Happy belated birthday! Here's to each year being even better than the last one. I turned 32 this year....eek! I swear I'm still a teenager inside....! I watched the new Ghostbusters with friends recently, and it was pretty silly but definitely still enjoyable.

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    1. Thanks so much, Jane! I'm totally with you -- when I was working at the library I'd have to remind myself that I'm a real, actual adult and kids would probably listen if I told them to stop doing something!

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