Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Wednesday Scramble

Thursday's Guest

Actually, Jaxine Daniels will be my guest both Thursday and Friday in a two-part post about her military romance series featuring the Air Force PJs, or pararescue jumpers. For a sneak peek, take a look at this book trailer:





The Vacation Reading Binge

When I took my little blogger vacation, I went on a binge. It was great. Read four books in six days, including A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, The Innocent by Harlen Coben, Paranoia by Joseph Finder, and Smoke Screen by Kyle Mills. I won't start anything new until I've put my 2011 calendars and writing planner in order.


My Movie Goal for December

I didn't quite make my goal of seeing one movie a week in a theater for the month of December. I missed week three because I managed to pull a muscle in my back and spent most of my time reading while applying alternate hot and cold packs to ease the pain. If all goes well, however, I will get to my third theater movie this afternoon. I'm planning to see True Grit.

There were DVDs and Netflix films to watch via Roku, however, so I do have a recommendation for you. I thoroughly enjoyed a movie called Easy Virtue, starring Jessica Biel and Colin Firth. I actually watched part of the credits to see who wrote the story. Wouldn't you know it? It was Noel Coward.

I could also mention the most preposterous, ridiculous movie I've seen this year: 2012. Even so, I watched every minute of it, ducking, moving to the edge of my seat, and gasping in all the appropriate places. Crazy.


Did You Notice the New Blog Pages?

Two pages have been added to the blog so far, one for those cute blog awards (to free up some space in my sidebar), and the other for the links to my 2010 guest bloggers. My sidebar now reflects most of the guests I have lined up for the first quarter of 2011.


The Weather

While almost everyone else in the country has suffered from too much snow or too much rain or too much cold, my corner of Northern Colorado has been dry and relatively warm (40s and 50s). That may change on Thursday when it's forecast we'll get anywhere from a dusting to several feet of snow. Don't you love a precise forecast like that?

We'll be prepared with plenty of food, books and movies, and all the makings for a big pot of homemade vegetable soup. I'm ready for a blast of winter, and a white New Year's Eve is almost as good as a white Christmas.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pat - Thanks for that enticing trailer! I'm eager to read Jaxine's posts.

It looks as though you got so me great reading done during your blog-break, and that's wonderful. I'll look forward to reading what you thought of what you read.

And...I like what you've done with your blog pages. I moved my awards, too, to a separate tab. It does keep the sidebar cleaner.

Anonymous said...

You have certainly accomplished a lot of productive relaxation!! And I like the new blog pages and cleaner sidebar. I like a clean sidebar, too. You are so organized, you have spurred me on to use the Write Planner I recently "won" from Michelle Teacress so I'll be more organized with writing, reading, and blogging.

May you and your husband have a wonderful New Year's weekend!!!

Mason Canyon said...

Looking forward to Jaxine's posts. I like the idea of adding a page for guest bloggers' links. I've heard good things about True Grit. Looking forward to your take on it.

Mason
Thoughts in Progress

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Patricia .. interesting video intro trailer - I look forward to seeing Jaxine here. I like your clearing up sort out .. - it certainly is less cluttered. Enjoy the rest of 2010 .. Hilary

Patricia Stoltey said...

Hi everyone -- In the process of re-organizing this blog and adding pages, I accidentally deleted my Statcounter button, which is what tells statcounter.com to keep track of my visitors. Imagine my shock when I got my weekly report on Monday and saw zeroes for 5 out of 7 days last week. It does pay to be very careful when making changes to our blogs. :)

Unknown said...

I'm impressed you're cooking again. We still have leftover onion soup which should disappear today. Then, I'm going to rely on the freezer.

(Yes, I will be labeling stuff to avoid the mystery frost filled packets.)

Jan Morrison said...

oh a white New Year is better in my books than a white Christmas! I love a reason to stay home. This year we are going to a small party if it doesn't blizzard but now that the weather was semi-decent for Gomish, the rest of the year I'm not so fussy!
Your site looks good and I want more pages! I'll figure it out.

Notes Along the Way with Mary Montague Sikes said...

Your site looks great! I admire you for straightening it up for the new year. I can't get to my computer yet because of a strange situation that occurred a few days ago. Hopefully it will be straightened out soon--not having access to my own computer is misery! Thanks for the trailer. I'll look forward to Jaxine's posts.

BTW we got your white Christmas where I live in Virginia!

Monti
Mary Montague Sikes

Arlee Bird said...

Your blog page looks nice--clean and easy to read.

Happy New Year!

Lee

Patricia Stoltey said...

Thanks, everyone. Now if I could just get my office to look as tidy as my blog...

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I'll have to check out the pages! And let me know what you think of True Grit.

Patricia Stoltey said...

I liked True Grit a lot! Spielberg and the Coen Brothers were an interesting combination, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very pleased. The tension level was high throughout the story, which sometimes sacrifices character development. Not in this movie. The character development is excellent.

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Loved the post Patricia.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.
yvonne.

Bob Sanchez said...

Pat, I enjoy the look of your blog. It makes me want to spruce up mine.

How did you like the Khaled Hosseini book? I read it a year or so ago and found it well-written and intriguing.