12-of-12: Fail

I had such good intentions to complete the 12-of-12 yesterday... but also a HUGE to-do list.  The to-do list won, unfortunately.

BUT... I did get a couple interesting shots in first thing in the morning.

6:30am @ home - The moon was beautiful!  My camera focused on the trees, but I still like the effect.

7:30am, leaving home - My sister asked me to watch her kids for the morning, so off I went to her house.  This is a shot of the same hill you saw in October... far fewer leaves and, yes, snow on the ground.  (We got about an inch Thursday night).

See the moon?

.... and that's the end of my 12-of-12. (frowny-face)

There is A LOT happening in my life in the next couple weeks which I suspect contributed to my lack of inspiration this month.  You'll hear all about them in future posts... hold tight till then, I'm SURE there will be plenty of pictures to make up for those lacking today.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend... see ya next month for Chad's final installment of the 12-of-12.

Turn the Page... Tuesday

Hello November!    (and hello 11/1/11!)
It's the first Tuesday of the month... that means book review time with Adrienne and Turn the Page... Tuesday! 

You might be interested in knowing... I have an alarm set on my phone to remind me about TTP...T every month on the first Tuesday.  I was prompted to post at 7:45 this morning... I even went to read Adrienne's post, then get started on mine... then... oops... I got distracted (probably by something shiny) and didn't RE-remember to post till just now (7:43pm).

BUT, it's still Tuesday, so I guess I'm not late!

I'm in the middle of two books, again, this month. Two VERY different books, I might add.

hmmm, which to comment on first...

I know!  I'll talk about Born to Run by Christopher McDougall first.

www.chrismcdougall.co

This summer, I have had no fewer than three people suggest I read this book... including Arienne!  (a marathoner friend was another, and my Triathlon club, too)

I'm about 1/3 of the way through and so far, it seems to be more of a "hunt" than a book about running, tho I see where it's going because we have just met one of the amazing members of the "Hidden Tribe" and I suspect this is where the story is about to take off.

I've been running now for almost 2-years... I still don't consider myself a runner, but I do enjoy the calorie burn and the amazing physical change my body has gone through since starting it.  I'm hoping Born to Run has a few secrets to share about additional ways I can be a better runner... even if it's all in my head.  :)

I'm looking forward to finding out what happens in the rest of the book.  Stay tuned!



Also, I'm reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22

I thought I had a copy of this on my book shelf, but after a couple days of searching (not 48-hours of searching... I would check the shelf, not find it, leave, go back, check again), I came to the conclusion that we didn't own it.  I wasn't sure I wanted to own it, so I did something I haven't done in a LONG time... I went to the public library!

Side note... WOW, the library has changed a lot since I was there last.  I used self check-out... where you just place the books on a little "scale" and *POOF* the computer lists the books you are taking home and posts them to your account.  NEAT-O!

So, after I got over the euphoria of borrowing books the new-fangled way, I started Catch-22.  Set during WWII, the main theme of the book is the ass-backwards reasoning and bureaucracy of government and war.  For example, you can't fly bombing missions if you're crazy, and only crazy people would WANT to fly missions.  But if you ask not to fly you're obviously NOT crazy, so you have to fly them... and things like that.

I'm not loving it.  I understand the power of the story (the insanity of war) and why it made such an impact on the literary world... but I'm not devouring it like I have other books.

Side note #2... 2011 is the 50th anniversary of Catch-22, so that's kinda cool.

Anyway, I'm reading Catch-22 for our Book Club meeting next month.  I'm wondering if the discussion will change my feelings about the story, or if it will just reinforce my current opinion.

I may rent the movie before our meeting later this month... I read that Alan Arkin does a great job as Yossarian (tho he didn't really think so), and that it's quite a good adaptation of the book.

HOWEVER... I'm not finished with the book, so who knows, maybe things will change before I'm done.  I'll have to let you know next month.

Till then, happy reading!