Weekly Wrap-Up #110 – March 12th, 2023

Posted March 12, 2023 by Lisa Mandina in Weekly Wrap Up / 36 Comments

As usual I’ll be linking this up with the Sunday Post (hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer).

First full week of March over. And this month is just so busy!

Last Sunday we were ending the weekend after some beautiful spring-like days, and it was 71 degrees, which is like my perfect temperature! But it didn’t stay that warm for long. I spent Sunday blogging, and running errands. Then we had our family Sunday dinner at my brother’s house where he cooked burgers and brats out on his grill on the deck so we could enjoy the beautiful weather.

Monday was busy at school. Then I went by my friend with the puppies and held them all for a little bit before heading home and actually cooking dinner for a change. Did some blogging and had a book I needed to finish for a review on Tuesday.

Tuesday I took a half day because the Google Fiber tech was going to come out and see why I wasn’t getting the 1G speed I was paying for that we tested everything on Saturday night after I finally got frustrated. The guy was a little early, and he fixed it really quickly and easily! He said the thing that plugged into the wall was one of the first editions they’d had, so he updated that, and he changed about the cable/wire. It was a flat one, the one that came with the little router thing. And he said those are not the best because they do wear out with braided copper wire inside. Oh yeah, and it was my 14th Twitterversary!

Wednesday was our usual early release day at school, but we had school-wide professional development in the afternoon. As usual, most of it doesn’t necessarily apply to me in the library, but I do like being included with the teachers to know what they’re doing and maybe I can help in some way. One of the sessions was a little more fun. You see I am in a district with only two high schools, so of course there is a big rivalry between us. After the big basketball game a week or so ago, the other school left their mascot costume, Carl the Cardinal, in the room they used to change in and out of it. We did nothing until their journalism class created a funny video saying we were holding Carl hostage. So then we sent back a silly hostage video. And I guess today they had kids come protest outside our school with signs today after school was out. All in good fun though!

Thursday was a normal day at school. It’s been rainy most of the week, which means I really just want to take a nap or stay home and curl up with a book. My library clerk’s husband ended up getting taken back to the hospital today. I also ended up DNFing a book that I wasn’t enjoying.

Friday was a normal Friday for the most part at work. And then it was also pay day, so I came home and paid bills and again felt like I had no money. But partly because I’m trying to save for my Scotland trip.

Saturday morning I met my friend at the Gem & Mineral Show. I told myself I wasn’t going to buy anything, but then I saw this brown opal, and I’d never seen that before, so of course I didn’t own any, and had to buy it. I bought the one in the top middle of this picture because it had pretty orange, my favorite color in it. But it’s so hard to see in any of the pictures I took!

I also found some other pretty stones, one I am going to give my mom for either her birthday or mother’s day, and then one of my friends who was with us for the day bought me the cool black one with the bright orange. I also bought a couple more little dinosaur figurines out of soapstone.

Books Finished

First was an e-galley I thought I’d finish last week, but didn’t get done till Sunday morning. Posted my review of that on Monday. Second was an e-galley for the author’s review team, and I posted my review of that on Tuesday. Third was an e-book that is another one for the Gateway reader award nominee books, review will come with my monthly L-L-L post later in March. And last was another e-galley from the publisher, my review was published yesterday.

New Additions to My Library

ARCs:

I got this ARC from Bookish First. It comes out in May, so look for my review then!

Audiobooks:

So, I returned the Thank You For Listening since I wasn’t getting into it, and instead used that refunded credit for the first one. The second one is for the Gateway committee again. Third is for the SmartyPants Romance upcoming releases. They’re doing the audiobooks for review this time. I just signed up for one since I know I am slow listener only listening in my car, and a lot of these are newer authors this time, so I wanted to make sure I liked it.

Bookish Stuff:

I got my March Picklegram from author J.J. Knight. I joined her Patreon for $5 a month just for the fun little things she sends out! I forgot to mention above that she had a Zoom get-together Wednesday night because she reached 30 members in the Patreon and so she said she’d eat/drink some strange pickle flavored items on the Zoom once we reached that number. It was fun, other than the people who left their sound on even when they were yelling at people in their house to leave them alone or had a loud tv, or whatever. She took a bite of a chocolate covered pickle, which was as gross as it sounds according to her, drank a sip of a pickle flavored soda which she enjoyed and ended up finishing the bottle, and then took a bite of what was supposed to be pickle flavored fudge, but she said had the consistency of frosting, and tasted sugary like frosting until the last little kick before she swallowed had a pickle taste.

E-galleys:

Technically I got the first one last week, but since the cover reveal wasn’t until this week, I couldn’t share it yet! Second was from Edelweiss, the publisher sent me a link. And third was for a blog tour review in April.

Free E-books:

Both were free on Amazon. Emma Hart is one of my favorite authors, so when she posted about it, I had to get one that I hadn’t read yet! Kylie Gilmore is another author I’ve enjoyed in the past, so when she shared about it, I got this one too.

Physical books:

I won a book from Kylie Scott on Facebook clear back in January. Come February I just assumed it wasn’t coming. I didn’t realize she was going to autograph it and send stickers, I just thought it was coming from Amazon, so it was a wonderful surprise when it came in the mail on Saturday.

What I’m Watching

Watching the usual stuff. Continued my rewatch of The Walking Dead by starting season 4. It’s so fun to see moments that I had forgotten about from the first time I watched that were such huge storylines at the time. And then for the first time in a while I recorded Saturday Night Live so I could watch when one of my favorite Kansas City Chiefs players hosted.

Coming Up Next Week on My Blog

Both are e-galleys for blog tour reviews.

Giveaways

Don’t forget that I do now have the nice little box on the right hand sidebar so you can check out giveaways all the time! My new monthly giveaway started this past Wednesday HERE. Remember if I get over 100 entries in that monthly giveaway I add more winners.

Scotland Tour Tidbits

So I did buy my plane ticket finally. It was $1700, the cheapest I’ve seen for non basic economy. I just wanted to be able to pick my seat and have a carry on and a checked bag. I wish I had someone in my family with extra Mileage Plus points through United who could loan me a few so I could upgrade to the little bit better seats on the long flight. Don’t care so much on the two that are still within the US, but that long one would be nice to be in the little bit nicer area with just two seats on each side. But that would be another like $200 for just that plane ride.

And back to the fun stuff about the trip! On the 2nd day for dinner we will be eating in the historic village of Dunkeld. This area has a few locations that were used in season 4 and 5 I believe. I don’t have a lot of images to share, but I like this one from the hermitage that shows the wilderness they used in scenes to search for Ian when he’d been taken by the Mohawk. I doubt we’ll be doing any hiking since we are just stopping for dinner in town. Although there are other locations there I know were used for things in those seasons, just not sure what they were. I’m sure after the tour I’ll know it all!

Final Thoughts

How was your week? Did you read or watch anything good? Get any good books? I’m still counting down till spring break here!

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36 responses to “Weekly Wrap-Up #110 – March 12th, 2023

  1. Sounds like a good week all in all! Congrats on your twitter-versary! It’s always fun to see how long we’ve been on certain social media platforms. I think mine is sometime in the summer and for the life of me I can’t remember when I joined…sometime after I got my first smartphone I guess! Lol! Ooh a gem show! I’ve a fascination with gemstones myself! I love learning their meanings and things like that! Also love the carvings! Very cool!

    Nice new reads too! Those are some new to me ones but I hope you enjoy them all!

    Here’s my StS

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower 🙂

    • Lisa Mandina

      I wouldn’t have known it was my Twitterversary if I hadn’t just happened to get on that day. I don’t do Twitter as much these days. I used to be a science teacher, and my major in college was earth science, so I love minerals and fossils and all that! Thanks for stopping by!

    • Lisa Mandina

      It is always fun and it was very busy this year, it was nice to see people out and about. Thanks for visiting!

  2. Wow, I’m so glad that you were able to travel. I have a friend who went to France this year and I was so close to going to Spain, but maybe next year?! I hope everything turns out for you and sending you good vibes.

    • Lisa Mandina

      Well, I haven’t actually gone yet, that will be in July. But the price of the ticket was crazy! And of course now I see prices for $100 or more less than what I paid. But that’s the story of my life!

    • Lisa Mandina

      I love the little dinos. Was only going to get one, but both were too cute. I’ll be visiting a bunch of Outlander sites with my tour in Scotland, but bringing a book to read at night for sure.

    • Lisa Mandina

      It was very pretty in person. It was neat to see, and the guy selling them was really interesting to talk to! The mascot thing is fun so far!

    • Lisa Mandina

      I used to post on Twitter as I was walking at the park when I was walking like three miles a day. Talked to a lot of authors that way back in the day! We had chilly this past week, and lots of rain. I think we might get up to the 60s this week, but lots of wind they’re saying.

  3. 71 is perfect. lol I wish we could have that weather just year around. Love those dinosaur figurines! And that mascot situation is funny!

    Your Scotland tour looks like it’s gonna be awesome.

  4. YAY for Scotland Trips! I adored Scotland, even though we were only there for a day. Its cold especially this time of year, but GORGEOUS! I hope your visit is wonderful! Congrats on your twitterversary. I really want to read that Meghan Quinn soon. I have really enjoyed Emma Hart so I hope you end up loving that one. Have a wonderful week!

    • Lisa Mandina

      I think in July it will the warmest weather they have, but not as warm as it gets here, so I’ll probably like it a lot since I think our summers are too hot sometimes. I do love Emma Hart too! Don’t know when I’ll get to this one, but hopefully soon!

    • Lisa Mandina

      As long as March is, it is going fast. Although with my spring break not till the last week, it is dragging at times for me too!

  5. Yay! So glad you got your tickets to Scotland! That’s fantastic! And that’s also a funny story about the mascot. My town’s school district only has one small high school, which is how I grew up too. These big high schools or more than one high school per town are hard for me to imagine!

    S. J. Pajonas recently posted: Sunday Update – March 12, 2023
    • Lisa Mandina

      My last school district had 5 high schools! And my old district where I graduated, and live now, had 3 when I was in school, and 4 now. However my first teaching job the whole district was in one building, lol. So I’ve been around all types. Thanks for stopping by!

  6. Sounds like a pretty good week. Glad the wifi situation was easy to fix! I love the brown opal, I’ve never seen or heard of before.

    Last week was a blur to me. But we had a lovely weekend. My son is home from college and we went out to dinner with neighbors to celebrate a college acceptance. My daughter also went back to work – the first time since her back surgery 3 months ago!

    Jen Twimom recently posted: #FitReaders Check-In: March 10, 2023
    • Lisa Mandina

      Glad your daughter is able to go back to work. My mom has had two back surgeries, so I know how much of a waiting time it is afterwards. Hope you have a good week!

  7. The trip to Scotland sounds amazing! I love rainy days but only when I can stay home because something about grey and rainy days just make me want to hibernate. Glad your internet issue was resolved quickly and how amazing that the tech actually showed up early! Have a great week!

    • Lisa Mandina

      Yes, the rainy days just made me want to go home and curl up on my couch with my two pups and read. Or take a nap, lol.

    • Lisa Mandina

      We had a little bit of snow last night, but the ground was warm enough it didn’t stick. I know we’ve had a big snow in April before, but I’m guessing we’re done for the year. Hope your snow is gone soon too!

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