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!