Rebecca Homecca

I recently finished reading two books. The Palace Thief by Ethan Canin and The Day I Turned Uncool by Dan Zevin.

I wanted to branch out a little so I got The Palace Thief because it is 3 short stories. Turns out, I am not a fan of the short story genre. It usually takes a good 50-60 pages to get a story going, and that’s about how long these stories are. So just about the time stuff starts happening, it’s over. Also, I thought there was usually some sort of theme involved. If that is the case here, I totally missed it. I kind of thought each of the stories was kind of pointless. Even though I just got done reading it, I can’t really remember what any of them were about.

Becky’s totally scientific rating: 2

The Day I Turned Uncool:Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-up is more like a collection of essays. It had some funny moments. It’s one of those it’s funny because it’s true type books. He takes on different topics that come up in that time of life after college before kids. Getting married, home ownership, all your friends having kids, and so on. It was a short read (2 days). I would recommend it to take to the airport or something like that. But I wouldn’t rush out. Since we don’t have kids, our grow-up status has been delayed some, so I could relate to some of his stories.

Becky’s totally scientific rating: 2

We made it back from all of our Christmas travels (well, until next week anyway) and it was whirlwind as usual. Luckily we had decent travel weather. Since back, we have been working on house things.

It has been a nice long weekend and I am not looking forward to work tomorrow!

I have been painting closet doors, which is kind of pain. I decided it would be easier to leave them up while painting. Not sure if the “easier” part is panning out. But I am plugging away. It’s a bit of a slow process. I have the small broom closet door down on the sawhorses. It did not come primed, so that teeny tiny door will be the most work. The only good thing is, because of it’s size, we had to order it plain instead of decorative. That makes it slightly easier to paint.

We have had crazy weather. Almost all the snow melted because it was 50 and raining on Saturday. Then last night it got really windy and you could hear things flying around and hitting the roof. Too scary! I don’t want any big trees on my roof! It looks like it was mostly smaller branches (that we will be picking up out of the yard for a bout a month in the spring) but nothing serious. It sounded freaky though and I could not sleep.

By morning it was snow again, but only a dusting.

We got MORE snow over night. It was still snowing quite hard when we got up. Hubs went out to shovel and when he got done, he had to do it again!

Of course they finally plowed our road yesterday, so that lasted about five minutes…sigh…

It finally stopped snowing and now the sun is shining. It’s quite pretty now.

You know, looking at it from inside, where it’s warm.

Overnight we got what can only be described as an insane amount of snow. Unfortunately it was still snowing while I went to work and continued for several hours after I got there.

It was a mess.

They don’t really plow our road out here in the woods. Although, they didn’t plow our road much in town either. Not sure why we keep living on roads that don’t get plowed. However, our road now, being dirt and all hilly, is much more treacherous (sometimes even in good weather).

The old Souped up Roo busted out here like it was nobody’s business and got me to work on time (and by on time I mean 15 minutes late).

It stopped snowing around 2 pm, so by the time I had to drive home the main roads were pretty clear. Our road, not so much.

It took a couple of tries to actually get my car onto our road (something about turning into a hill, just doesn’t work out in winter conditions). Once I was able to get going however, I just plowed through. The snow pulled me around some, but I never felt out of control.

I do love that car. My mind is boggled as to why there are not more all wheel drive cars sold in Michigan. I mean, we have winter like 11 months out of the year. It’s totally worth it (kind of the opposite of swimming pools).

Between getting ready for Christmas, having Christmas parties, end of year meetings, and car trouble, I have been a little MIA on the ol’ blog.

Well, I can tell you, it’s probably not going to get any better until after about Jan 5.

We had my work Christmas party on Wednesday, and it was not horrible. The food was decent and the social interaction was not awkward. So, much improved over last time.

However, because our lives are not busy enough, my car broke a belt on the way home Tuesday. Which was very inconvenient, but mom let me borrow her car to get to work. However, we have been too busy to return it, even though my car is fixed. Good Grief!

The boys are coming this weekend for their annual shopping trip. So I am trying to clean, do laundry, and get snacks ready.

Also this weekend, I have cookie baking scheduled. I won’t be making quite as many as usual, for various reasons. However, I am sure a mess will be made anyway.

Then before I know it, It will be Dec 24! We have Christmas with my fam that evening. Christmas day we will be representing the inlaws at Grandma & Grandpa’s house and pinching babies. Don’t know how long we’ll be up there.

THEN!! come New years will be making the big trip down to Ohio to have Christmas with the rest of the in-laws. I can’t wait to see everybody though!

So, yeah, I’ll see ya Jan 5. Happy Holidays!

So Glad I Christmas shop on line in November…

My BFF Sarah stopped by yesterday with one of her three boys (honestly, how does she do it? THREE BOYS). He is six (when did that happen?) and very funny and sweet. We made popcorn in the popcorn maker and that was a big hit.

We also peeked at the cat under the bad, which was not such a big hit for the cat. He’s not a big fan of strangers especially the short ones.

We don’t get to see them very much so it was good to see her. She is planning a mission trip to Romania. I know that is something she’s wanted to do for a long time, so I am really glad it’s working out this time. How big her heart is to find room for this when they have so much going on already.

Dad will be staying home for 10 days with the boys. Male bonding and all that.

We are planning to get together at their house after the new year. They like to have us over because we don’t have kids and are readily available. Also, I think they like to know what people with out kids talk about.

But honestly, it’s probably not that different, because we mostly act like kids ourselves. You know, I like to talk about my professional status in Wii bowling, doing arts and crafts, and watching Christmas specials on TV. Hubs might want to talk about go-carts and how he does not have professional status in Wii bowling. Actually, I guess he doesn’t like to talk about that second thing so much…

See, not so different.

I have been having knit-nite with some girls from work lately (even though I don’t actually knit) and we have a lot of fun hanging out. One of the other ladies at work wanted to hang out too, but she doesn’t craft. So she suggested we go to dinner and a movie. This is inspired some other non-crafty girls to come hang out too.

So Thursday night 7 of us met up and had dinner and it was so much fun! It was so great to sit around and laugh and talk about stupid things. One lady has a new boyfriend so there was much talk about that and you would have sworn we were all 15 again.

Then we went to a movie. Well, except the pregnant gal, she went home. Something about being all tired from creating a life or something.

We saw The Secret Life of Bees. I was little worried about seeing this movie because it is one of my favorite books of all time. I did not see how the movie could possibly hold up to that!

I could feel another White Oleander situation coming on. Awesome book, terrible re-telling of the story in movie form leaving me confused and unsatisfied.

But Bees did not disappoint. It was so good! It was very close to the book and was able to hit on all the important parts while maintaining good flow (unlike White Oleander). The actors were amazing.

Dakota Fanning plays the lead and I’m telling you, if she can stay off the smack, she is going to grow up to be an amazing actress. She is so good for her age, not like that kid that played Anakin Skywalker.

Queen Latifa plays the other main character. She is exactly like I pictured the character in my head when I read the book. She stole the show for me in Chicago and just keeps getting better I think.

The other two main characters were Alicia Keys (who is GORGEOUS) and Jennifer Hudson (who just broke my heart every time I saw her because all the personal stuff she has going on right now) and they were both so great.

It is a little sad in parts and some people (you know who you are) may have cried their faces off. But there also some really sweet moments. Whether you have read the book or not, I recommend seeing this movie.

Yesterday I thought I would bring my bookmarks, note cards, and a few matted paintings to work and try and sell them. We have a couple of people who make things and have brought them in to sell.

I thought maybe I could make ten or fifteen dollars. That would be pretty good.

So I set everything out on an empty desk. I had a pre-printed price list from my show and put the paintings on “sale”.

As people came by I told them my store was open, and they should feel free to browse. Two ladies bought almost $30 worth within the first 1/2 hour.

By the end of the day I sold over $100 worth of stuff.

I almost sold out of note cards. I just have a few bundles left (I sell them in packs of 4 for $5). I still have a ton of book marks left, but that is because I made a ton. I was really glad to have a couple of the paintings go too.

So, all in all, I would say it was a good day. I was quite a bit over my forecast and cleared out some inventory.

I don’t know why I find this so funny. But go here to make your own Bus Sign.

One of the great things about having the Netflix on demand box thing (it’s technical name) is that I found out I can put workout videos on there. I put a Pilates video on there that I have been doing (off and on) for a month or so. Hubs informed me the other day that Jan 1, it would no longer be available.

So today I thought I would check out some other ones to download.

One of the fun things about Netflix is that as you rate movies you watch, it makes recommendations. I really liked that video, so I rated it to get a couple of suggestions. I was expecting maybe some other Pilates videos or more the the 10 Minute Solution series.

Here’s what came back:

Innocent Voices, described as A young boy, in an effort to have a normal childhood in 1980’s El Salvador, is caught up in a dramatic fight for his life as he desperately tries to avoid the war which is raging all around him.

And

Sophie Scholl The Final Days, anything with The Final Days in the title does not sound like something to work out to. It’s described as A dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.

They both appear to foreign films that sound quite dramatic and somewhat depressing.

Perhaps Netflix was confused by all the fleeing and fighting and thought it sounded like a workout.