Time to post at last

I'm back. After a very busy 2 weeks, I am finally finding time to post again. I spent most of last week in NYC for work. Software training to be exact. Wish I could say it was exciting, but it was rather dull actually. However, I did have my evenings free and I made the most of them.

First stop for me was the Strand bookstore. Where in the basement, they have shelves and shelves of hardcover review copies, marked 50% off. That's right, 50% off. And they seemed to have everything. EVERYTHING. I had to limit myself to only three though as my suitcase was already heavy enough. The three I picked were Jennifer Weiner's The Guy Not Taken, Steven Carter's Famous Writers School, and Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris.

The next night, I was in a fairly rotten mood after another long day of useless training and had about another 4 hours of work to look forward to that evening when back in my hotel room. So I decided to take myself out for a nice dinner, paid for by my company I might add. As I was wandering around, I stumbled across The Library Hotel (I mentioned this in a previous post), and noticed their restaurant Branzini, had a rather appealing menu. So I sat my tired butt down for a tasty meal of roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and winter vegetables, and two cranberry-apple martinis to wash it all down. Feeling slightly less moody after that, I was better prepared to face the mountain of work waiting for me back at the hotel.

And finally after a third full day of training I caught a flight home and fell into bed. Have been unwinding this weekend, trying to catch up on some reading among other things. My husband took me to dinner and a movie yesterday to celebrate my b'day and presented me with the most exquisite, delicate, and antique Edwardian pendant necklace which I have not taken off since I first put it on. Slept with it on and showered with it too - in fact I don't think it will ever leave my neck :) We saw The Departed by the way, and if you haven't already seen it, I strongly urge you to go do so. I'd never been a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio before this movie, but I am now. He was great, along with Alec Baldwin (one of my favorites), Matt Damon (another one of my favorites), Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, and Mark Wahlberg.

Speaking of movies, I am anxiously awaiting
Little Children to come to a movie theater near me. I've liked a lot of Tom Perotta's work, but this was by far my favorite.

And to wrap things up, still reading
The Devil in the White City (and thoroughly enjoying it), could not get through Sarah Dunant's Transgressions (disturbing to the point where it was just creepy), and still have yet to pick up one of my RIP reads. I obviously will not have any RIP reads finished by Tuesday, but I still plan on getting to them, preferably sometime during the remainder of 2006!

Airport Reading

Homecoming weekend has arrived at the University of Delaware, home of the Fightin' Blue Hens. I'll be making the trek to visit old friends and college roommates. Check out YoUDee to the left - is that not a cool mascot or what?

Being a typical bookworm I am actually looking forward to sitting in the airport later tonight - perfect place to catch up on my reading! I've already got my stash lined up. I decided to travel with 4 books (even though I know there's no way I am going to get 4 books read this weekend - I like to have options though, you know?) The lucky winners are Transgressions by Sarah Dunant (must have this one read for a book club meeting next week), The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (finally I am getting around to my RIP books), The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (heard him speak at the 2005 ALA conference, very funny guy), and of course my guilty pleasure 12 Sharp by Janet Evanovich (her books actually make me laugh out loud when reading them).

Next week, it's another airport as I make my way to NYC for business. What to bring then? Hmmm...I am not one of those people that will take advantage of the downtime to plug away at more work on my laptop. Nope, I take advantage of every precious minute to read my books. The work will still be there when the plane lands. Although I would probably never say that to my boss :)

Need a vacation

Ugh. This week at work has been brutal...no time to attend to my blog this past week. Not only am I behind on posting, but behind on my reading also. After three days of furiously programming for work, my fingers are now numb from all of the typing, I can only turn my neck in one direction (from stress and sitting in the same uncomfortable position while programming for hours on end), my head is pounding, and my eyes are a lovely shade of bloodshot.

It is also becoming more and more clear to me that I will not finish my Autumn Challenge books in time...I haven't started a single one of them. My goal is to finish one, maybe two. My pile of books to be reviewed is growing exponentially so that leaves me with little time for other reading (although I have enjoyed everything I've reviewed so far so that's a plus). In fact my first two reviews are finally posted. You can check them out here and here.

I also recently discovered The Library Hotel in NYC. I must get there some day and the rest of you will want to also once you check out their website. Looks divine.