Amazon discontinued the ability to create images using their SiteStripe feature and in their infinite wisdom broke all previously created images on 12/31/23. Many blogs used this feature, including this one. Expect my archives to be a hot mess of broken book cover images until I can slowly comb through 20 years of archives to make corrections.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Oh, Hi! I Have A Blog?

Wow. I have a blog? Who knew?

Yep, I'm still in Michigan, and still freezing my assets off. I'm also currently rubbing the fur off my lucky rabbit's foot that the crap weather they're predicting stays out of my way. I'm scheduled to fly back to California Saturday morning - so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully with as few problems as humanly possible. In the meantime, and since I have nothing else, I'm going to give you a hit list of random thoughts and observations from my vacation.

  • Getting to Michigan meant spending time in LAX and Chicago O'Hare. Yeah, still not convinced that eBooks are slated to take over the universe any day now. You know how many eReaders I saw while traveling? Three. And one of those three belonged to ME. Saw a Kindle and a Sony Reader Pocket Edition on my flight to O'Hare. The Sony belonged to an off-duty flight attendant hitching a ride, the Kindle to another passenger. As for my Sony Reader? I found myself, once again, playing show and tell with it - this time with the PR rep sitting next to me and the military guy sitting across the aisle.
  • Print is still king. I saw a mess of print books on my flight to O'Hare (Wow, people in L.A. can read? Kidding, kidding). A lot of what you would expect. Current bestsellers. A couple older John Grisham titles. Although I did catch one young woman reading the trade paperback edition of City Of Thieves by David Benioff. So there was some lit fic floating around as well. And lordy, the magazines and newspapers? Lots of those. A lot.
  • My Big Sis has graduated from nursing school! We went to her graduation ceremony Sunday night. The Fairy Princess (my niece) was a perfect, well-behaved angel and considering The Flash (my nephew) is a 5-year-old boy, he did pretty well. Of course it helped that the college kept things moving along and we were out of there within a hour.
  • Saw my BFF last night. Hit a local restaurant/martini bar (sooooo glad Appletinis did not exist when I was in college), saw the pretty Christmas lights downtown, and then wrapped up the evening at a local coffee shop where I got some yummy hot chocolate.
  • I haven't done much reading. I've started Scoundrel's Kiss by Carrie Lofty, and barring any massive brain melting on my part, will most likely finish it on flight home to California.
  • My Mom and I were feeling lazy and are not baking today. We suck.
  • We bought cookies at the store. We suck.
  • I still need to wrap my Christmas presents. Guess what I'm doing after I finish blogging?
  • My 6-month-preggers Lil' Sis is currently unthrilled with Air France and the country in general. It's a long, sad story - that involves jumping through French government hoops (so my U.S. Green Card carryin' brother-in-law could sleep overnight in Paris) and missing luggage for two days. But she has rediscovered one of life's simple joys. Happiness Is Clean Underwear. Amen sister. Amen.
And those are the highlights. Christmas Eve looks to be pretty mellow around here, with our festivities getting underway sometime Christmas Day. Then it's up early on Saturday morning (way early) and hopefully back to California without any hitches. Now where did I set down that lucky rabbit's foot. There's still a bit of fur left on it.....

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's amazing what a different picture of romance readers and readers per se you get when you unplug and actually interact with real people.

Hope you get home safely, and Merry Christmas!

Carrie Lofty said...

I am honored to be your flight reading. Have a good holiday in the land of ice and snow...

Katie Mack said...

While I am absolutely smitten with my e-reader, I am also the only person I know IRL who owns one. I've been playing show-and-tell with my family of voracious readers, who all study it and say, "Yeah, it's cool and all, but it's ... electronic!"

Hope the weather holds out for you! Merry Christmas

Renee said...

Have a great holiday, Wendy! And, a safe and uneventful flight home.

Really looking forward to seeing you in January! :-)

Wendy said...

Jessica: I use to get that "real people" fix when I was working with the general public every day. Now I mostly get it in airports. Also, I'm nosey as Hell and LOVE seeing what people are reading.

Carrie: I started it on the plane trip here - and have only managed a couple of chapters since. I should DEFINITELY finish it on the flight home - unless I'm so exhausted I end up sleeping.

Katie: The military guy I sat near really loved my Sony. Told me he was a big reader, and given his current vocation it would be good for his travels.

Renee: I can't wait to see you too! Really looking forward to our next get-together. I've got my audio U Is For Undertow set aside - just in case you haven't gotten your library copy yet by then.

One thing I didn't mention in my list? My damn mother got me caught up on The Young & The Restless again. *sigh* I will resist. I will not succumb.

Lil Sis said...

Don't worry if you don't catch Y&R after you leave - those same story lines will be there next Christmas. :)

Oh, and if I were home I would have made cookies for you. :) But nope, not there...but getting stuffed here in Turkey. I don't think the relatives understand the word "no" - I'll be 300 pounds by the time the kid is born!

PK the Bookeemonster said...

I'm wondering how many people received an e-reader for Christmas? I've wanted one for a long time but couldn't indulge in the price (was on unemployment for a while). Voila, my husband picked up on my not-so-subtle hints and I've received a bouncing baby Kindle. Woo hoo!
Merry Christmas and Happy 2010, Wendy. I'm glad I discovered your blog.

Wendy said...

Lil' Sis: There are so many new people on Y&R that it took me two days just to figure out who they all were. The highlight? Paul's nutty sister Patty is in the mental hospital. She somehow had that day's newspaper and SCISSORS (!!!) in her padded cell. Um, OK.

PK: And heavens knows they advertised the heck out of the Kindle this holiday season. I'm definitely going to keep my eyes peeled on the flight home. Although I'm flying back REALLY early and most people will probably be sleeping instead of reading :)

Enjoy that new Kindle!