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Cool Website for Readers

Lee over at Why isn’t There Mouse Falvored Cat Food posted about this site…and I just had to pass it along.

Goodreads.com is a website that will keep track of the books you’ve read!! You can rate them and you can tag them with one of three things: read, currently-reading, and to-read. You can get recommendations from your friends. If you join and want to add me as a friend, used no_zimmer at yahoo.com 🙂 Fair warning: I read lots of trashy romance novels, mysteries, and young adult books. *grin*

And speaking of great websites for readers (and writers)…have you ever checked out Levenger? This great website is totally commercial, but I *LOVE* the (expensive) stuff from here. I use the lap desk daily with my laptop. And the circa notebooks are KICK BUTT. I use the larger size at work, and the little one as my favorite recipe book. My mom lives by the outlet store (I’m so jealous!!)

Anyone have any other great sites like these two?

Staycation – Day 7

Another pretty cool day with a lot of nothing. 🙂

We got up and skipped church (I know….BAAAAAAD!! But the rationale was that we wouldn’t have gone if we’d been out of town, so…) and made breakfast: pancakes and bacon. My first time making pancakes (yep. for real) so they weren’t exactly my Dad’s … but the first batch wasn’t bad. I had the pan too hot for the rest of the batches though…live and learn.

Then Mike took care of the twins so that I could go take a nap when Logan went down for one. (Have I mentioned that Mike is awesome??)

Then the power went out…which means the A/C and the noisemaker in Logan’s room turned off…so he could hear Burke saying “Lights broken!” at the top of his lungs…short naps this morning 😉

We headed out to meet Aunt Cathy for a late lunch/early dinner at Fridays. One word for you: MUDSLIDES. YUM! And Logan ate about 1/2 a plate of mac & cheese. heh Maggie got her groove thing on and was dancing by her chair (much to the delight of the wannabe Goth chick at the next table).

Apparently, even though Mike and I were not in the least bit hungry … by the time bed time for the twins rolled around they were *starving* and ate about 10 “dinonuggets” each. YIKES! (yes. at bed time. oops…perhaps we should remember to actually feed them more often *blush* )

I have to say that the entire Staycation was *really* nice. I don’t even feel like I need a vacation from my vacation – which is what normally happens. I will say this though:

I don’t want to go back to work tomorrow!

Staycation – Day 6

Another great day! We did *nothing* and it was awesome.

Logan was up from 1:45am to about 3:30am (still not sure why – but he was *not* happy)…so Mike, the wonderful man that he is (again), let me sleep in again. (Thanks honey!!) I woke up to Logan crying around 10:15. YES!! 10:15!

We spent almost all day in the back yard and in the kiddie pool. Aunt Cathy came to visit and hunted dinosaurs with the twins. (They showed her how to do it just right…) And they had bouncy ball races, chasing after Cathy. Pretty cute.

Mike grilled up some grub: Bacon wrapped pork chops, kielbasa, green beans, asparagus, and potatoes. MAN than man can grill! TA-STY. Can’t wait for the pan fried left overs again 🙂

I think we may do the same thing all over again tomorrow.

Staycation – Day 5

Mike says that I didn’t do justice to how much fun the kids had playing with the trains yesterday. so…I will elaborate a bit 🙂 Burke was literally jumping up and down while the train was going around and around and around. There was a little hill, and the little thing couldn’t QUITE make it up, so Burke was more than happy to give a push each time. (Better, honey? 🙂  )

As another example, Burke was up at 4:30 this morning looking for his white train…and then again at 6:30 to play some more with them. Silly. 🙂

Today felt like a Saturday…we did our typical Saturday stuff because Mike had to go in to work to split his cells. Before he left though, the wonderful man let me sleep in until 8:45. Woo hoo!!

The kids and I hung out and played (with the trains LOL) for the morning and then went to pick Mike up at the subway station. We then went to Burger King for lunch (Logan had about 1/2 of a cheeseburger!) and headed to Costco. (Our typical Saturday stuff.)

When we came back we hung out in the back yard and the kiddie pool (a common theme this week!) Mike and the twins were hunting dinosaurs. It was VERY cute. Mike would whisper “oooh – there’s one over there! See it?” And the kids would look intently, nod solemnly, and sneak up. Mike would whisper “One….Two…Three…” And then they’d all yell “BOO!” to scare it away. And then on to the next one. It was pretty cute.

Friday’s Foto Finish Fiesta

Candid Carrie sponsors this one – head over to her blog and find LOTS of links for bloggers who’ve joined in!

This is actually going to be 2 pictures. The first one is when Burke was about 1- 1/2…he’d just “moussed” his hair up with some pear juice at lunch time.

Pear Juice Mousse

Pear Juice Mousse

The second one was taken last week. I’d just put Aquaphor onto Logan’s head to try to combat some cradle crap cap. Burke took one look and said “Logan’s a Dinosaur! ROAR!” LOL

DinoLogan

DinoLogan

I posted both because the similarities are just crazy! When I took Logan’s picture, I was immediately reminded of the pear juice mousse – but I hadn’t gone back to look at it until right now.

5 Things Friday

Join Cat in her 5 Things Friday!

5 Things you might or might not know about
Things I won’t eat:

  • Sea food. Any of it. Well, the occasional tuna fish sandwich … and clam chowder from the Naked Fish…but definitely not a sea food lover.
  • Mushrooms.
  • Avocado. Do you sense a pattern here? Texture, baby.
  • Wings. C’mon – really? THAT much mess and THAT much work for such a little payback?? right.
  • Recee’s Peanut butter Cups. Or anything that’s peanut butter and chocolate. Peanuts and chocolate are great – peanut butter and chocolate – not so much.

Staycation – Day 4

Another really great day! (except for one melt-down where Burke had buyer’s remorse and wanted Maggie’s toy choice instead of his own…)

We took a train trip! (well, a commuter rail trip, but that’s still a train!!) Daddy and Brenda (the nanny) take the train all the time, so we knew the kids were very curious about this…and have even tried to sneak out with one or the other.

Waiting on the train

On the train

On the train

So today we walked the 3-ish blocks and took the train two stops down to a “new-to-us” beautiful town park. THE best trees there!! One was the *perfect* climbing tree. I put Burke up into it, and at first he was like, “Hey woman, what the heck are you doing to me??”

.

But then he got it and was totally into it.

One in the tree

One in the tree

Maggie went up next.

Two in the tree

Two in the tree

…and even Logan got in on the fun!

Three in a tree

Three in a tree

The other tree was just so big and beautiful; it gave off lots and lots of shade. We sat and had snacks under it, and then got a little wet because the fix-it guys were playing with the sprinklers LOL (For some reason, Logan wasn’t laughing as much as I was…)

Snacks

Snacks

We walked around the town and played tourists for a little bit. Went into the cutest bookstore and then another pretty cool toy store. We got some new Sandra Boynton books and then Burke and Maggie picked out trains to match the tracks we have at home. It TOTALLY felt like a “real” vacation 🙂

Then back on the train to come home. We tired the kids out so much that we didn’t even get the typical “NO HOME!!” screams on the way back! They were walking pretty slowly those last 3 blocks…

Going home

Going home

All this before lunch…

Burke wasn’t interested in eating, he just wanted to open the new toys and set the tracks up – which is when he realized that Maggie’s train is a wee bit cooler than his is. Not good. Luckily, Maggie was a sweetie pie and let him play with it just enough to make him *almost* think it’s his. (She reminded him enough in certain subtle ways that it’s not…)

More back yard play with daddy until the trains were missed. LOL It was also pretty hot again, so it was good they weren’t out for too long.

In keeping with the impromptu train theme, the kids had fun playing train in on of the empty boxes we have around. Well. I should say that we have boxes that are supposed to house toy parts…but very typically end up empty. 😉

Box train

Box train

And the trains are now upstairs in bed with the twins. I’d say the theme day was a success!

Staycation – Day 3

Today was a GREAT day! The kids were really good (well, as good as kids can get anyway 😉 ) Gabriel came home, and it was a pretty relaxing day.

We started out lazing about until the twins’ gym class. As always, they have super fun…and are always the ones running around and not necessarily following directions. Mike was able to see them in action – so that was cool.

We came home and went for a short drive to bring the lawn mower to a local repair guy. (hopefully he’ll be able to fix it before the yard looks like a jungle, and for not too much!!).

Then we went for a short walk around the block to hang up posters for the missing cat. MAN OH MAN it was hot today!!

We hung out in the back yard and in the kiddie pool for the rest of the afternoon. Heaven. 🙂 Logan had a few firsts as well: waving to daddy and riding on a tricycle!

Believe it or not, this next picture was not staged. (okay, anyone with kids believes it – they don’t cooperate enough to sit still for a picture like this LOL!)

At dinner time, we came in and Logan had a few food firsts as well: real sweet potatoes (instead of the Gerber smooshed-up kind) and raviolis (Costco brand – which are actually quite tasty!).

Mike went outside to move the sprinklers and gave a happy shout.  I knew immediately that he saw Gabe…and that he’d probably scared the crap out of him LOL But he was able to calm Gabe down enough to snag him and bring him back inside. (He’s sitting at my feet right now…)

A good day. 🙂

Found!!

Gabriel showed up at the door tonight! He’s hungry, wet (from our sprinklers) and a bit shaken up…but he’s home 🙂

Lost

The only down side about last night’s gathering was that with all the people coming and going, both cats escaped. Tiger came back in when I realized I hadn’t seen him in a while and poked my head out the door. Gabriel is still MIA 😦

Keep your fingers crossed that we find him soon!