Weekly Wrap-Up #137 – October 1st, 2023

Can you believe it is October?

My mom and stepdad went to their cabin in Branson this weekend. They had found out that my stepdad’s cancer wasn’t responding to the lower level treatment like it had been, so they are going to have to start chemo in a couple weeks. But they do have a second opinion scheduled too.

So last Sunday I started out by trying to cook a pork loin I’d purchased already seasoned from the grocery store. In the past I’d put them in the crockpot, but I followed the recipe on the wrapper, and it came out looking gross so I didn’t even eat it. Then we had a Chiefs game in the afternoon. They pretty much beat the Chicago Bears with no problem, compared to the last two games. But what really stole the show for the whole game was the fact that Taylor Swift was up in the stands in one of the private boxes with Mama Kelce, Travis Kelce’s mom, enjoying the game. The tv station kept zooming in to show her watching the game.

I also signed up last week for the American Cancer Society’s Read Every Day in October Challenge that I saw on Facebook. Since I read every day, shouldn’t be hard to keep up! HERE is a link to the Facebook group if you’re interested.

Monday my library clerk had to go down to the auditorium all day to sit and make the digital e-hallpasses for the seniors returning to class after they got their cap and gown pictures taken. For the most part the amount of laptops I had to deal with was lower, although I did check out all but one of the ten loaner laptops we keep in the library for students who forget their laptops for the day, and about 10 loaner chargers. I’d say I only got 3 or 4 of those two things back before the end of the day. I was supposed to have a doctor’s appointment basically right after I got home from work, but I got a call during the day that my doctor had to cancel. The only way to get a rescheduled appointment at the time I needed meant I had to postpone the visit till the end of October. Oh well.

Tuesday was a day. I was irritated with some things, but also got to show a class about the databases at the end of the day, so that was good.

Wednesday was okay. I got to do another class with the database instruction, so that was nice. In the afternoon meetings we had district meetings, so I spent some time working with the other high school librarian. In the evening I went to see Whose Live Anyway. Since I bought the tickets, my friend Lisa offered to buy dinner for us. She picked an Italian restaurant neither of us had been to, and it wasn’t within walking distance to the theater like other restaurants were. When I got online to look at the menu, they didn’t have much, and a lot of it was stranger or more fancy types of dishes than I like, too many veggies, not enough meat. She had found another menu that had things she wanted. Well we got there and it was just the menu I’d found, so it ended up being a bit of a disappointing meal. Not bad, just so-so. Whose Live Anyway was fun, although my favorites from the show, Wayne Brady and Aisha Tyler weren’t part of it. So it was just 4 white guys, three of them old. And some of the people that they got suggestions from the audience from, well I was a little embarrassed they were representing KC a bit. But oh well. Now I’ve been and won’t wonder about going.

Thursday was a pretty easy day at school. I did have an English teacher bring classes in to do a genre lesson with them that he’d done last year as well. I was very tired when I got home, so I tried to take a nap, as much as my dogs would let me.

Friday was much quieter with technology than it has been for a while. However our elevator at school is broken, I guess someone put something other than a key into the key slot, and broke it. The principal was in the library and said it cost $14,500 to get it repaired. They’re still waiting on a part I think. But it was down most of the week, so we had one of our SPED kids in a wheelchair that spent all day every day in the library. I got my Banned Books Week display up, but forgot to take a picture before I left school.

Saturday was so wonderful to sleep in. Although one of my dogs wanted me to get up earlier than I wanted. I went and had coffee with my dad, stepmom, sister, and actually a cousin showed up as well. Then my dad, sister and I went to a movie.

Books Finished

Technically I finished the first one on last Saturday night, but it wasn’t before I set up last Sunday’s post so it got added to this one. I posted that review as part of a blog tour on Monday. Second was an ARC I got from the author’s Patreon book box, review was posted on Tuesday. Third is the next in the SmartyPants Romance releases, and it’s review won’t show up till later this month on the blog. Fourth was a shorter audiobook I fit in so I could get the number of books read this month higher! Review for it will be in my L-L-L Reviews for September which should have been posted yesterday.

New Additions to My Library

ARCs:

None

Audiobooks:

None

Bookish Stuff:

And I couldn’t help but go order some new shirts from Tara Sivec’s shop when she said she had some new ones. Both are based on settings from some of her books.

A friend of mine shared the Build-a-Bear ad for the Outlander theme on Facebook and of course, I had to buy them for myself, I’m calling it an early birthday gift to myself. I picked different bears/dolls than what was in the ad though. It’s really cool, if you squeeze one of their hands it had recordings of the characters’ voices saying lines from the show.

E-galleys:

The first two are for blog tour reviews, one in October, the second in November. The third one I found when going through Edelweiss on Tuesday, so I downloaded it. It comes out next year, so I’ll be reading it then. The fourth one is another SmartyPants Romance release. Will be reading and posting a review in October. The last two are ones that the publisher said I “won” the e-galleys from a Shelf Awareness giveaway. I usually only enter their physical copy giveaways. I didn’t download them yet, but I might. One comes out in November and one not till February.

Free Ebooks:

Saw this over on Books of My Heart last Sunday and so had to grab it since it was still free.

Physical books:

I had two gift cards from the points from using my Barnes & Noble mastercard, so I spent them on these three books. All ones I read, but needed for my collections!

What I’m watching

This week was brand new episodes of two of my favorite reality tv shows, Survivor and The Amazing Race. I didn’t realize also that the new season of American Horror Story had started last week, so I had to start that too. I feel like it would be one really hard for someone who has dealt with IVF or trying to have babies, and so needs a trigger warning for that. First new episode of Survivor had some crazy stuff! But I’m glad it’s back! And also enjoying the new season of The Amazing Race. I went to see The Nun 2 on Saturday. And I liked how at the end there was a little connection to the original The Conjuring movies. Of course my dad is funny because he didn’t remember seeing the first movie with me and my sister. And he was confused for part of this movie. Which I get a little because the beginning did jump around a bit without telling where it was when it went to different places.

Coming Up Next Week On My Blog

First is an ARC from the publisher, should be posting my review Tuesday hopefully. Second I read a week or so ago and the blog tour review post is Friday. Third is an ARC I started last week, and even though I usually love this author’s books, the way it had little sections in 2nd person kind of took me out of the story and made it hard to get through, so I put it down to get to the the 1st one. The last one is a finished copy I got from Bookish First and I’m hoping to post that review on Saturday.

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 current monthly giveaway started yesterday HERE! Remember if I get over 100 entries in that monthly giveaway I add more winners, and so far this year I’ve had over 100 entries every month. And for September I had over 700 entries, so I’ll be picking 7 winners! I’ll come back and update this post with the new giveaway link after it starts.

I also started a Fall Seasons of Books Giveaway last week, so be sure to go enter that HERE. It runs till later this year.

Final Thoughts

And we’re on the downswing to the end of the year! Did you read or watch anything good this past week? Get any good books? I’m so excited for October and my birthday and Halloween and the library conference I’m going to! Enjoy another shot of Taylor Swift with Travis Kelce in Kansas City this past weekend! Lol!!