The Bookends discussion

Sooo, I started watching the Vampire Diaries first season and it's prety good so far!!! BUT I find it to be VERY similar to Twilight's first movie..from the acting to even the music! Anyone else think the same?

Vampire Diaries is only 6 days away from the return of season 4. I am itching to get back to it! So dark and twisted!

In case people haven't seen the previous post about this, I just wanted to remind people to get out there and vote for WINNIPEG!! *or your own town, I suppose* ;)
http://ya2u.blogspot.ca/p/contest-ent...
This is a contest to bring some phenomenal YA authors to my hometown *or yours*. A few more votes may even push us into the top 10!

Cool! I entered .... and I put the second city option as Winnipeg.... first option is Calgary for me!

Going through a chinook today. They're great relief from winter but man are they messy..... as long as we don't go into a deep freeze again before the roads clear, it will be all good.

Thanks for the Winnipeg mention, Sue! :)

We could use a chinook around here right about now. -30ish every day, with the 10cm of snow we got, blown straight into and over every sidewalk. Makes for miserable walking to the bus stop. :(

It's not called Winterpeg for nothing.

We had 10 cm of snow last thursday (more where I lived, but basically none where I work - 50 km away). Ridiculous. Now it's like slush soup on the roads ..... but you can walk out in the afternoon with no coat!!! ;). It's about 5 degrees out now and windy as all get out. I just hope it dries out the highway so it's not so treacherous to drive.

That is the danger of warm weather in winter. It doesn't help that drivers get comfortable in their spring, summer and fall roads, and forget how to drive in the winter. Don't tailgate, or speed. Simple as that.

Lordy don't drive in Calgary then. EVERYone tailgates and speeds. I think they think that 4WD means invincible. Unfortunately there are a lot of people that are new to the area and haven't experienced this crazy weather and what it does to the roads.

Oh well. Thankfully, most of my drive is on highways and I actually get to drive!!!

It's so nice to have more daylight hours too!!! It makes such a huge difference when you need to watch for deer.

Tasha wrote: "Sooo, I started watching the Vampire Diaries first season and it's prety good so far!!! BUT I find it to be VERY similar to Twilight's first movie..from the acting to even the music! Anyone else th..."

You know, I haven't watched this series - although it looks not half bad. Are you enjoying it? I don't seem to be able to touch the remote in my house!! So I knit. Working on a vest for the hubby and a shawl for me at the moment. But I have the wool to make a Harry Potter scarf in the queue!!! (and a dog sweater with the leftover wool).

I try to knot... I mean, knit... but I never seem to be able to finish a project. Same goes for quilting. And writing, I suppose. ;)
This is the first morning in a while where I am completely alone. Ahhhhh! I am cooking up a batch of masala chai tea, and then I will sit back and read. Bliss!
Then, my silence will crash down around my ears in about two hours, and I will disappear into the piles of dishes and laundry.

Boy I miss those periods of blissful quiet. They are such a recharge for me. Now I rarely - if ever - get them.

I am completely green with envy.

Enjoy!

Sue wrote: "Tasha wrote: "Sooo, I started watching the Vampire Diaries first season and it's prety good so far!!! BUT I find it to be VERY similar to Twilight's first movie..from the acting to even the music! ..."

Hi Sue,

Yes surprisingly it is good! I also started the first book which is very different I prefer the show.. the main character in the book is too full of herself where she is not in the series.

I'll have to check it out ..... if I ever get to handle the remote! Especially now that hockey is back.

Actually - I just take my knitting and sit and knit. So at least I don't have idle hands!!!!

I watch most of my shows online, since the TV is designated for sports and cartoons. Plus, then it's on my own schedule.

Good idea actually .... . I think my daughter does that. I'll have to check it out.

For those of you who don't know what this is a picture of, we call them Sun Dogs. It's when it is so bloody cold that the sunlight refracts in the ice crystals in the air, creating mini rainbows. This morning's sun dogs were absolutely amazing. It was almost worth the -40 weather. Almost.

Lindsay wrote: "


For those of you who don't know what this is a picture of, we call them Sun Dogs. It's when it is so bloody cold that the sunlight refracts in the ice crystals in the air, creating mini rainbo..."

Never heard of Sun Dogs, beautiful.

Lindsay wrote: "I watch most of my shows online, since the TV is designated for sports and cartoons. Plus, then it's on my own schedule."

I have been trying to watch season 4 of The Vampire Diaries online to catch up, but I cannot seem to find any site that will let me download it for free. What link do you use Lindsay?

So I finally settled on a colour, and started painting the dining room. I will probably throttle my husband if he doesn't notice the minute he walks in the door.

What colour did you choose?

It's sort of a blue/green/grey colour - that's the best I could do to describe it. I think it's called April Mist. We have a dark chocolate colour on all of our trim, throughout the main floor. It was the last room to have the yellow walls that came with the house. I have nothing exactly against yellow, but when we bought the house, every. single. wall. was yellow. The exact same shade. I think the realtor probably told them to freshen things up with a can of paint, and they only wanted to bother buying one colour. They did an awful job of it too! I made it my personal mission to eliminate every single bit of yellow.

Hahhahah!!!!!! I love a house with colour.

When we moved into our home everything was a shade of grey. With hints of that mauve pink and two accent walls - one dark forest green and one (oddly) burnt orange-red. The worst was the carpet ... it was a shade of elephant skin (no lie). It went first!!!!!!

I am currently keeping my elephant grey carpet, only because I have young children, and it hides stains well. In the bedrooms, we have 70s rust shag. So retro! One day... One day, it will all be gone, and the value of my house will be doubled. lol

I want to do our main bathroom .... but we don't have an alternate to use (other than a sink and a toilet). It has been quasi revamped by a former owner - but not done well and some things they did drive me wild. But a bathroom reno requires mucho donaro to do properly so we haven't done it yet. :(

Nice touch that shag carpeting!!!!!! Man I had that in my bedroom and I hate to think what was in that...... ew.

Yeah, I try not to think about what's in it...

We redid our bathroom a couple years ago. It was priority #1 on my to-do list. It was a nice size, but the tub was awful, it had yellowing peel and stick tiles, and if I had to guess by the colours, was last done in the 80s. It was our only bathroom too, so we had to make do with driving to the gas station down the street for a couple days. Fun.
It looks sooooo much better now, but I'm still not happy with the work that the guys did. A good contractor is hard to find! I'm on the hunt again, now for my basement. This poor old house is a real fixer upper. This is her 100th birthday. We should have cake. :)

mmmmmmmm ......... cake ....

you replaced your tub? I have the plan, but you're right about the contractor - you have to have one that knows what they're doing, or has the right contacts to get stuff done. It's not easy. It's a multi-layered thing.

The tub HAD to go! It was clawfoot, and I know most people are all "Ooh! Clawfoot tubs are so nice!", but it wasn't nice at all. It was chipped and damaged, and couldn't retain the heat of a bath. My new tub is absolute heaven!
Here are a couple pics of "before". I can't seem to find a finished pic lying around, but I'll see what I can drum up.


Now you can see why this was #1 on my list!

Ok, I couldn't find a recent one, and it's way too messy to take a picture of right now. So, instead, here's one where the bathroom was at its ultimate worst, fully gutted.

Holy crap ..... *snort!* ...... did you find anything interesting when it was all ripped apart? How long was it down? Did you essentially keep everything in the same spots? I love renos. Or maybe it's job sites. Can't decide.

We did actually find something cool when everything was apart. There was a note, written in pencil, under all the wall tiles. It said "time capsule under floor". We never did find the actual time capsule, but the note itself was pretty awesome. :)
The whole reno took just over a month, but we were only without a toilet for a few days. The sink and toilet stayed in the same place, to save having to move too much, but we moved the tub. We had to re-insulate everything, and obviously build a new floor. It was pretty drastic, but SO worth it!
I'm hoping to have our basement under way in the next few months, although most contractors would want to do it during the winter months. We'll be replacing windows, putting up walls, and installing a second bathroom. BIG job!

Cool!!!!!!! A month down isn't too bad I suppose. It could always be worse I suppose.

We spent a lot of time at my Mom's. Otherwise, we would have gotten pretty ripe without a shower. lol

Just got back from tobogganing with my boys. It is the perfect day for it! Mild temp, no wind, and the school yard down the street has a wicked ice slide. So much fun!
Is anyone here stuck in the snow storm?

So... how many people here are parents? I have just experienced a massive six-year-old sized tantrum. Phew! Now I'm ready for the kidlets to head to bed so I can repair myself over tea and a good book. I'm reading Beautiful Creatures. Finally! It's a good thing it was picked as a book club read, or I might never have gotten around to it! I am enjoying it, but have a few reservations. Anyone else reading it?

Happy Easter and long weekend to everyone!

Same to you Lindsay!!! Just going off to bake dessert for the dinner ..... cream puffs that will be filled with ice cream then drizzled with caramel sauce. Soooooo yummy!

Mmmmmm..... it's a good thing you don't live closer! lol
I'm starting to panic, since I just discovered that there is a bizarre lack of candy in the house. I think I'd better make a late night trip to the grocery store before Sunday morning, or the Easter Bunny is going to be in the kids bad books. ;)

My kids are older now and either aren't around for it or don't want it .... so I'm giving a Tim Horton card. Good for coffees and bagels for school!! Good luck getting your candy!

Thanks! :)

Yes, I'm aware that it's not April anymore, but we're not exactly a chatty bunch, so I'll just keep going with this thread.

Anyway, I've just started planning a very elaborate across Canada road trip this summer. Not exactly across ALL of Canada, but from central to the west coast and back again. The first big trip with the kids. YIKES! I know there will be bickering etc. so I'm doing my best to be creative with my distraction tactics.

Luckily, the library has audiobooks, that can be taken out for three weeks at a time. I'm starting a list of kids audiobooks for the road. Can anyone recommend any good ones?

Do your kids have story preferences?
I know when we did roadies with the kids I would dole out little 'surprises' at various intervals along the way .... depending on the length of the trip. Usually something they were into that was inexpensive - matchbox cars or crayons. It worked like a charm!! And do pack snackies .......!!!! Hopefully your kids will be sleepers and sleep some of the time away. Mine were not. *sigh*

My kids are most definitely car sleepers! I'm more worried that they'll sleep so much in the car that they won't go to sleep at night. I guess we'll just have more late night campfires and bat watching. :)

I have memories of my parents giving my brother and I cups of trail mix (aka peanuts, raisins and chocolate chips). Plus, I will be making a trip to the dollar store to load up on activity books and hot wheels. I can only play so many games of eye spy before I lose my mind!

My kids are pretty flexible with their books, but it can't be filled with words they don't understand or they space out and lose interest. I was thinking maybe some Roald Dahl. I just heard about The One and Only Ivan, and my library is ordering an audio of it. I don't think they're old enough for Harry Potter yet. It's too long, and I suspect it might be hard for them to follow.

Roald Dahl is great!! Lots of silliness! I liked Matilda and the BFG. I will put my head into this! I've listened to afew that have been great! How old are your boys again?

This is the hard part: they are 4, 6 and 14. It will be a near impossible task to please them all. Although, I suspect that the 14 year old will simply put in his earbuds and listen to music, or play on his iphone.
I had a shift at the library this morning, and asked another mother about the audiobooks she was returning. She recommended Chomp, Wayside School Boxed Set and The Bad Beginning.

So... has anyone heard of our new local celebrity? TOILET SQUIRREL! Seriously. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitob...

Hahahhahahahahaaa!!!!!!!!

So how was the rain storm at your end? We got hammered here this last weekend. Thankfully where I live was well above the river valley that got so incredibly damaged.

On a side note..... I just put down the Beautiful disaster book. Lord is was dreadful. Couldn't make myself finish it. Don't know how young women think this is sexy and desirable. Beats me. Have you read it yet?

I'm afraid I'm a little behind my reading lately. I'm sorry that it's so dreadful! I know people who really enjoyed it, but not because it was sexy or romantic. I'm always worried about the young girls who read books like that and get the wrong idea about "love".

The storm was pretty good going through here. My bush out front was completely flattened! Nothing like what you guys got though!
On a weather note, were you anywhere near that tornado that went through there a couple weeks ago? There were a few water spouts over Otter Lake, I saw. Yikes!

No - no tornado here. Thank goodness!

What did they find inviting on Beautiful Disaster? It's only plus side for me was the title.

I am totally going to throw my friend under the bus and give you a link to her review. She'll forgive me... probably. ;)
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Out of my friends who have read this, there were five 5 star reviews, three 4 star reviews and one 3 star review.
I have to admit, I'm a little curious now. I'll give it a shot, probably next week. I wish my library carried it though, so I didn't have to spend money wondering if it would be any good.

Hahah!! I'll check out the link later! I have had several long conversations with my kids on this ..... trying to decide if I felt so pissed at the book because I've finally crossed that 'age' line that I now view the antics of the young with a judgemental bias or if it's because I can't believe that girls these days sell themselves so short. It's been eating me up! I mean, if you had kids and juxtaposed your daughter into this character you would shit yourself. (Sorry). This book would be a great one for a book club - with that question poised.

I don't know - I had it on audio and I do find that when you listen to a story, you hear it differently than when you read it. The audio version was done well - no complaints there - but it just seemed to hammer it home faster somehow. Anyways, I would see if you could get it second hand if the library doesn't carry it.

Sorry to blather on....