Weekly Goals 20-12-21

 I just realized I missed my Celebrate the Small Things post on Friday!  I guess I have a good excuse in that I had surgery and had to be at the hospital at 7:15 in the morning.  And it wasn't the hospital close to where I live either.

It seems to have gone well.  It took very little time and I was home by early afternoon.  I've been quite tired from the anesthetic, but haven't had much pain.  Which is good.  I have a couple of days off work to recover.  On Saturday I wasn't sure I was going to need them, but now I'm thinking I probably do.

So goals for this week...  Mostly getting ready for Christmas.  I haven't done much yet, so I need to get onto that.  Get wrapping paper and a few gifts I still haven't managed to get yet.  I think that will be a job for tomorrow.

What are your goals this week?

 

This is another one of those books that was a fun read, not groundbreaking at all, but a good way to spend an afternoon.  Obviously I was attracted to it because it's about the movies, but there is actually more to it than that.

Liz's mother died when she was still a little kid, but she keeps her memory alive through watching and re-watching the romantic comedies she and her mother once shared.  Her entire view of romance is coloured by these films, so when the boy she loved as a kid returns for senior year, she's determined he will be her prom date.

But said childhood crush, Michael, picks up his friendship with Liz's neighbor and arch-nemesis, Wes, almost as soon as he hits town.  If Liz wants to get close to Michael, she's going to have to make friends with Wes too.

Using all the tools in her romantic comedy toolbox, Liz fumbles her way toward a relationship with Michael.  But why does she have so much fun with Wes on the way?  As the pair spend more and more time together, Liz begins to realize her Mr. Right might not be the guy she's always regarded as her Happy Ever After.

As I said, there's nothing particularly new or different about this book.  It follows romantic comedy tropes to a T.  Liz is delightfully quirky without being unlikable, and Wes is the perfect foil for her.  The only thing I didn't love was the way Liz treated her best friend throughout the story. I truly felt for the poor girl as Liz ditched her time and time again and repeatedly lied about what she was doing.  No guy is worth ditching your besties for!

But overall, I enjoyed this.  Not a bad way to spend a weekend afternoon at all.

But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:

Liz Buxbaum has always known that Wes Bennett was not boyfriend material. You would think that her next-door neighbor would be a prince candidate for her romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only proven himself to be a pain in the butt, ever since they were little. Wes was the kid who put a frog in her Barbie Dreamhouse, the monster who hid a lawn gnome's severed head in her little homemade neighborhood book exchange.

Flash forward ten years from the Great Gnome Decapitation. It's Liz's senior year, a time meant to be rife with milestones perfect for any big screen, and she needs Wes's help. See, Liz's forever crush, Michael, has just moved back to town, and—horribly, annoyingly—he's hitting it off with Wes. Meaning that if Liz wants Michael to finally notice her, and hopefully be her prom date, she needs Wes. He's her in.

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz her magical prom moment, she's shocked to discover that she actually likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love—and rethink her own perception of what Happily Ever After should really look like.

Weekly Goals 13-12-21

 I have four days this week before my surgery to get everything done at work that needs to be done for the year, plus get all my Christmas shopping done.  I may have a couple of days of work next week to tie up loose ends, but that really depends on how I'm feeling.  

Plus we have our staff Christmas party on Wednesday which takes out a few working hours.

Aaahhhgg!

Forecast is for rain all week so I'm resigned now to not getting the deck done until after Christmas now.  I have a week or so here before we go to the beach, so I will do it in that time.  Hopefully it won't get too hot.  I was trying to get it done earlier in the summer because I've heard it isn't a good idea to do it when it's hot.  

And that's about it for goals.  What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 10-12-21

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small things...

What am I celebrating this week?

I'm not sure I am celebrating.  The end of the year seems to be racing toward me at great speed and I'm not prepared at all. I have done virtually no Christmas shopping at all.  I will have to get on that next week because my surgery has been moved to the 17th and I'm not sure how I'll feel afterward.  I may not have any more days to get ready for Christmas.  Eeeekk!

It hasn't helped that I got a cold this week.  I took the day off (sort of - I worked at home for most of it) yesterday, and I feel a lot better today.  Fingers crossed I'll be fine tomorrow because I have a friend coming down from the coast for our annual pre-Xmas lunch.

And that's about it for this week.  Once again the weekend weather is against me staining my deck.  I'm beginning to think I'm cursed or something! 

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: What I Like About You

 

This is a quick, fun read that I tore through in a weekend.  It has some Jewish representation in it too, something that I don't often see in YA books I read.

When Halle moves in with her grandfather for a year to concentrate on her online life and college applications while her parents head to Israel to make (another) documentary, she can't believe the house is the same one her grandmother once lived in.  All traces of her beloved Gran are gone.  What's more, her grandfather is a shell of the man he once was.

All the more reason to escape into the online world she's built over the years, the one where she isn't socially awkward, book-nerd Halle but smart, savvy and popular book blogger, Kels.  Online Halle has a group of friends including her bestie, Nash, a talented cartoonist with whom she shares a burning desire to get into NYU.

So when Halle runs into Nash at the library in her new hometown, she's flummoxed.  Her online life and her real life aren't supposed to meet.  Not yet, anyway. Maybe in college...  But in this small town, being the new kid makes you conspicuous and Halle is quickly absorbed into Nash's friend group.  And the more time she spends with them, the harder it is to admit that she, super-awkward and shy, is actually Kels.

As her online life becomes more and more successful, it becomes harder and harder for her to keep her secret.  Especially once she and Nash get close in real life.  The only problem is that Nash is secretly in love with Kels...  But how can Halle tell him the truth now?

I loved that this was essentially a love triangle, but the third person was just another side of Halle.  I also really liked the behind-the-scenes look at the book blogging scene.  I know I blog about books, but publicists are not exactly beating down my door to send me ARCs or asking me to do cover reveals for hot new titles.

I also liked that Halle's family were Jewish, but didn't really practice, while her grandfather and new friends did.  Practicing Jews aren't something I see a lot of in YA books, so this was refreshing.  I've actually read more about Muslim and Hindi families than about Jewish ones, to be honest.  Interesting...

I'd recommend this one if you're looking for a light, breezy romance.  It doesn't do anything particularly out of the ordinary, but it is enjoyable.  You may want to make yourself a batch of cupcakes before you start because the descriptions of Halle's cakes made my stomach growl!

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Can a love triangle have only two people in it? Online, it can... but in the real world, it's more complicated. In this debut novel Marisa Kanter explores what happens when internet friends turn into IRL crushes.

There are a million things that Halle Levitt likes about her online best friend, Nash.

He’s an incredibly talented graphic novelist. He loves books almost as much as she does. And she never has to deal with the awkwardness of seeing him in real life. They can talk about anything…

Except who she really is.

Because online, Halle isn’t Halle—she’s Kels, the enigmatically cool creator of One True Pastry, a YA book blog that pairs epic custom cupcakes with covers and reviews. Kels has everything Halle doesn’t: friends, a growing platform, tons of confidence, and Nash.

That is, until Halle arrives to spend senior year in Gramps’s small town and finds herself face-to-face with real, human, not-behind-a-screen Nash. Nash, who is somehow everywhere she goes—in her classes, at the bakery, even at synagogue.

Nash who has no idea she’s actually Kels.

If Halle tells him who she is, it will ruin the non-awkward magic of their digital friendship. Not telling him though, means it can never be anything more. Because while she starts to fall for Nash as Halle…he’s in love with Kels.

Weekly Goals 6-12-21

Because I was expecting to be off work this week following the surgery, I don't have a lot of plans for this week.  I'm sure there will be work to do, but I was pretty organized about getting stuff done ahead of time.  I guess that means I might have a quiet week at work...

I got all my water blasting done over the weekend, so the goal for this week is to get the deck stained.  It's absolutely hosing down with rain right now and there's a heavy rain warning for most of the day, so I suspect it will be a few days before everything has dried out enough to do it.  Fingers crossed it's fine (ish) over the weekend so I can get it done.  The good thing about the rain is that it will wash off the house and everything else that got splattered with water blasting scum.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 3-12-21

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small things...

What am I celebrating this week?

Weekend!

A friend lent me a water blaster to de-scum the deck before I stain it, so that's what my weekend has in store.  I did some after work yesterday and it's surprisingly fun.  Not to mention effective.  Unfortunately the forecast is for rain all weekend, so I don't imagine I'm going to get the staining done until next weekend at the earliest.  What is it with bad weather all weekend?  I feel like it's been weeks since it was fine over the weekend.  I have a pile of new canvasses and paints I want to play with too, and the weather is not cooperating.

My surgery has been postponed so I won't be going under the knife on Monday.  Not sure when it will be now.  Probably into next year, which is something of a pain.  I was hoping to get it over with this side of Christmas.  But them's the breaks, right?

What are you celebrating this week?

Cheers,

Kate