BuckStopping

Serena by Ron Rash My rating: 4 of 5 stars Wow . I read it a bit over 24 hours, because I wasn't sure where it was heading and what would happen and I couldn't wait to find out. The end was a surprise, sort of, but I could also see it coming. This is a book that sticks with you. One thing that kept the tension building is (view spoiler) [that you never know what Serena is thinking, or what is her motivation, or what really happened to her family in Colorado. (hide spoiler) ] She's just ruthless and horrible and I can see Jennifer Lawrence being very good in this part in the upcoming movie. There are a group of loggers that serve as a sort of Greek Chorus, and they bring some levity to the proceedings. But not too much. The reason I only gave 4 stars was the very end. The epilogue. It was too neat a package. I wish that had told us what happened in Serena's past to make her such an evil monster. Otherwise, it's a great book, solid, superb writing. I've foun...

I was hesitant to post this, but as I think about this latest murderous rampage in California, I am compelled to write out my thoughts, just try to straighten them out for myself. A commonality in most of these horrible incidents is that the murderer has been taking, or has taken in the recent past, psychotropic drugs. Does this show that the drugs cause psychotic behavior, or that the person taking them had exhibited that behavior, thus causing the prescription? Or could it be that these drugs are unnecessarily prescribed and are causing the behavior? I'm not saying this lightly, because I take Wellbutrin for anxiety and depression myself. It has helped me more than I can say. I wouldn't want these drugs to be banned because some people who use them seem to have had a mental break.  Another common aspect in these crimes is that the perpetrators are often young people who are on psychotropic drugs, sometimes more than one at a time. Is it possible that an undevelop...

It's been an exhausting week and it's only Tuesday morning! Last night we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a dinner here at the house. My in-laws and my dad, our little family and The Boy's girlfriend made it over. We had enchiladas, tacos and pico de gallo, as well as a homemade Tres Leches cake. It was very good, except that I forgot to put extra sauce in the enchis and they were pretty dry. Which was sad. Because I love enchiladas the best of all Mexican food and they were un-savable. My dad is here from Indiana, which is good, we don't see each other too often. I'm off work, which is also good, because I was really needing a vacation. I was very sad to hear that one of my co-workers is battling a wildfire that burned 80 percent of his land. We had a fire at the power plant here in town yesterday. I still feel scarred from 2012, these fires are so scary. Thank goodness it's a little cooler today than it has been the last three days. The weekend was prett...

I have been an Internet Explorer booster for years, but this whole Homeland Security thing just has finished me off. They need to scrap it and start over, because I truly NEED 3 different browsers on my computer for work, and I've always used IE for my personal stuff, so that I didn't have to constantly clear my cookies to look at websites and Google ranks. Sigh. Life, it does go on. Have you ever had a Dream Board? You know, where you paste pictures of things you want to do someday, or goals that you have? I've not done one, but maybe that's what Pinterest is for these days. I really love Pinterest! In the spirit of the dream board, I am going to list some pictures of outfits and clothes that I will wear when I get in better shape: 1. Any tightish top with any kind of pants with a waistband just doesn't look good right now. I will wear things like this in the future!   2. I love these cowgirl Western shirts, but they don't look good with back fat. ...

I've just finished with work and am putting off the making of dinner by posting to the blog. I've been working out most days and not having dessert most nights. I hope that is a good way to start the process of becoming more fit. I just wasn't ready to go full-bore into massive calorie reduction and heavy-duty exercise. I don't want to get all worn out on it and I also could feel myself becoming anxious when I thought about giving up pizza, Carls Jr and cake. Ok, Russell, whatever you say, baby. I am struggling with this whole Clippers owner situation. I am disgusted by his remarks, yet I am also disgusted that the man was taped talking to his MISTRESS (which apparently isn't a problem for the NBA, go figure), after doing all kinds of truly racist things for years, like denying people housing on the basis of their color and the thing he's being censured for are his remarks about black people on this particular call. And that it's all based on a private,...

I have always struggled with blue moods. I fight it and try to rise above it, but it's always been this threatening little cloud following me around. This came to a head a few years ago after my mom passed away. It was very sad in that I got to her side just after she died. I hadn't seen her in 7 months, and sadly she had told me that she was in remission from her lung cancer, which wasn't true. I think she was addled from all of the different drugs she was on, in addition to the chemo.  I stayed in Indiana for a week to help my dad get things settled a bit, then flew home to find that my part of the state of Colorado was on fire. It was the start of the horribly destructive Waldo Canyon Fire. So, the week after my mom died, I was sitting in a closed up house (because of the heavy smoke) in hundred degree weather, waiting to be evacuated. On top of all that, I had been bitten on the foot by something while in Indiana, and that bite became horribly...

So yesterday, with all my morning gumption wasted away, I ate the chocolate almond eggs. They were delicious. And now they aren't tempting me anymore. So. This whole thing has gotten me to thinking about the idea of what is beautiful again. I am a Facebook fanatic, and follow all kinds of fitness people. I see lots of pictures of women of all ages with washboard abs and sleek, tan biceps. It makes me feel inspired sometimes, but it also makes me feel pretty bad about myself, too. Like, if she can do it, why can't I? Is it a woeful lack of will-power, or a genetic predisposition to the enjoyment of starchy carbs and a soft cushy belly? Or something in between? Last summer I lost 18 pounds over the course of a couple of months. I worked out every morning to a killer Jillian Michaels video, took an hour walk most afternoons and counted every calorie. I consumed between 1200-1500 calories a day, and it worked. My belly was on the way out, my biceps were shapely. And it was SO H...