"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Sunday Salon, April 13, 2014


Weather: Uncommonly lovely! Sunny and warmish! Great dog-walking weather.

Musical selection of the week: Josh Groban, Higher Window. Cue the music and listen while you read the this blog post.

Yesterday: We drove up to Seattle and took a walk around Green Lake. It is a lake in the middle of Seattle that has a park all the way around it. There were hundreds/thousands of people enjoying the beautiful weather. Every year, on a sunny day in spring, our local news station will send someone to Green Lake to film all the people exercising and just spending time outdoors. I've always wanted to go see what all the fuss was about. We called and invited our daughter, who lives in Seattle, piled the dog in car and drove. Parking was an issue, it always is in Seattle, but we found a spot and had a lovely afternoon. (See photo above and below.)


Perfect root beer: Our town has a store that only sells root beer. It has hundreds of brands of root beer (and root beer flavored stuff.) We have set out to find the perfect bottle of this delicious beverage. Rules: 1. we limit our intake to one or two shared bottles per week, recognizing that delicious isn't necessarily healthy. 2. we serve it cold without ice. 3. Each person grades it on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being best. After sampling eight different concoctions in as many weeks we have found a perfect ten: Bulldog Root Beer made by the Orca Beverage Soda Co. right here in Washington State. Look for it! Yum!

Books read this week:
  • Maddie on Things by Theron Humphrey, a photo journey of Maddie, a coonhound, on things all over the USA. Very clever and fun. Check out the website.
Currently reading:
  • Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I thought I'd be finished with this book by now because I have been obsessive about listening to its audiobook this all week. But alas I am only on disc 15 of 16. Look for the review sometime this week.
  • Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Almost done. I've been reading this in bite-sized pieces in a read-along format.
  • Cress by Marissa Meyer. Just started this book then got the audiobook from the library. Will commence reading in earnest after I am done with the Shadow of the Wind.

Holy Week: Today is Palm Sunday, a day on the church calendar that celebrates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This week represents the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. During this week Christ held his last supper with his disciples, was imprisoned, tortured, crucified, and finally, was resurrected on Easter. This week I am dedicating myself to prayer and fasting, each day with a different focus:

  • April 14th (Monday)- The children and youth of our church and community
  • April 15th (Tuesday)- The leaders of our community, state, country, world
  • April 16th (Wednesday)- Unity among those who disagree (in families, schools, churches, community, and workplace.)
  • April 17th (Maundy Thursday)- For those people I love
  • April 18th (Good Friday)- For those people who find themselves in a dark place
  • April 19th (Holy Saturday)- For family and friends who are grieving a recent loss of a loved one.

Have a blessed week!

9 comments:

  1. You have a Corgi!! They are soooo cute :) There were scads of people out here too for our first nearly 80 degree day!

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  2. I love parks/hikes. I can't believe how green it is there. Here in CO still brown everywhere. Plants and trees are just starting to bloom. Today of course we are getting snow. Come on Spring!

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    1. Yes, the west side of the state is usually quite green year round. It was a beautiful day.

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  3. So glad to see the country is finally warming up. Looks like you had a lovely time.

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  4. Isn't the warmer weather the best? I was so sick of winter. Hope you have another lovely week!

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    1. It was even warmer today. Our walk this afternoon was taken without jackets! Lovely.

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  5. I always enjoy your musical selections - then I hit the comment button and the music stops :(

    Looks like a gorgeous park and a lovely day. Very warm here this weekend - we went from 40's to 80 in a week! I'd like a little more spring weather before we jump into summer.

    Your root beer quest sounds like such fun! We are partial to Barq's mainly because it is from the New Orleans area, where we used to live. We have been trying all sorts of sugar-free root beers for our son who can no longer have sugar. Virgil's and Stewart's are good. There is a cool pop store (called Pops) on historic Route 66 in Oklahoma, just a few miles from my FIL's house - we love to go there and select a 6-pack of wild-flavored pops from all over the country to try. I like diet cream soda best.

    Enjoy the nice weather and your books!

    Sue

    Book By Book

    Book by Book is now on Facebook!

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  6. When I was in high school we did a pizza tasting (going out to pizza one night a week and rating them). It was really fun!

    I am reading Scarlett, the second Meyer book, and am liking it so far

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  7. I once lived near Green Lake circa 1991-1992 so you brought it all back to me. Yeah it's a good place to jog & walk. Those were the days. It looks like you even had sun that day too!

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