Weekly Wrap-Up #176 – June 30th, 2024

I’m connecting up once again with Kimberly at Caffeinated Reviewer.

Sunday was hot! Really hot as we were under a heat advisory. I was still in Branson with my mom. We stayed long enough so I could do the final White Trash Zombie Read-a-long chat. And then we just decided to stay the night like we’d originally planned. We did a little shopping at an Amish store, and also down at Branson Landing, where I found a type of scent at Bath & Body Works I’d been looking for. Then we went back to my mom’s cabin and took her golf cart out for another ride. When we got back we watched a scary movie, Imaginary. Right at sunset my mom went to sit on the porch. It was a little cooler with the sun down, though not a lot. But still it was nice to sit out and we stayed out there for a while as it got dark. My mom had seen some kittens playing on the porch on her camera when we were home a few weeks ago, and tonight we saw them come around the neighbor’s house. They started to come over till they saw us sitting on the porch. My stepdad hated cats and would not have liked them coming over! I’m allergic to cats, but still think they are cute.

Monday morning we got up and drove back to Kansas City after stopping for some donuts at Krispy Kreme. Some traffic with construction on the way back, but I was home by about 12:30 pm. I went to the grocery store, and then went and picked up my two dogs from my friend’s house to bring them home. It was still soooooo hot! I did finally get an email about the NKOTB concert for Tuesday night that I bought the Meet and Greet package this time. Then I got home and tried to keep my dogs inside as much as possible for the evening. My Day-lilies are finally blooming!

So Tuesday was a crazy day! First of all it was soooooo hot! Another heat warning, which really sucked because the concert I had in the evening was at an outdoor venue. And that was not fun! By the end of the night, even after the sun was down, I was so hot at times I had to sit instead of stand and dance to some of the music like I normally would. School was crazy, I guess a teacher supposedly got into an altercation with a student. Lots of stories that don’t match up, but the teacher was fired, and you can see in the video that she did hit the student, even if we can’t see any point before that when supposedly the student knocked the teacher’s phone out of her hand.

I had hardly any time between the end of the school day and when I had to be at the concert venue for the meet and greet. Plus I had to go home and let my dogs out. I left school a little early, stopped by my friend’s hair salon and had her braid my hair really quickly, ran home, fed the dogs, let them out, and changed into my “In My NKOTB Era Still” t-shirt I’d had made especially for the concert. The dogs wanted to go out one more time and I was in the middle of deciding which shoes to wear, and so I ended up leaving the house with two different shoes. I did not notice until I got out of the car at the venue, and at that point I was out of luck. A lot of people said they thought I did it on purpose when I told them what happened. But yeah, not so much.

I had to be at the concert venue an hour and a half before the main gates opened because I’d bought the meet and greet. Then you had to get into groups of 10 because two people got to be with each of the band members in each picture. My top choices were Donnie or Jordan, but I would have been good with any of them! I ended up getting to be with Donnie! You go in order of who you’re standing with, you get to hug and say hi to each of them on the way to your guy. Then they take the pictures, and you get to say hi and hug the other guys that you didn’t get to yet. Wasn’t much time sadly. Danny was nice, so was Donnie. Of course I was surrounded by people who were more outgoing than I am and they kind of got the conversation on them, what little there was. I did have to tell Donnie “hi to Danny Reagan” from my mom, who loves his Blue Bloods show. He said to tell my mom hi. When I was in front of Jordan, he wasn’t that personable, barely paid attention except when I was talking with the one after me and said that I got grounded for going to one of their concerts back when I was in high school. Joe was the only one who asked about my shirt. And I told Jon that I liked his show. I did not tell him that my 12 year old niece who also loves those types of shows said he had bad taste, lol.

Then we had to sit in heat with nothing but water because the food shops didn’t open till the main gates opened! I’d had plenty of free water but needed some food, and some sugary soda to help with not really having much at lunch or any dinner. In the end though, the concert was awesome, as they always were. And I do really hope next time is back at an indoor concert hall though! Since I didn’t get the tote bag last time they came, I had to buy it this time. They also had a fan that was perfect for how hot it was!

Since I didn’t actually get to bed until midnight, I was exhausted when I woke up Wednesday morning. I knew it had rained during the night, but wasn’t thinking much of it, until right before I was about to take the dogs out before leaving for work and heard a loud crashing sound, followed by my power going out. Well, when I took the dogs out, I saw that the big dead tree in my backyard had finally given out, and fallen. Fortunately, it fell toward the back of my yard, on my shed, and fence. But also onto the power lines. I called out for summer school that day. While the power company came and fixed power, I guess they didn’t realize my line was down to my house, so I had to call them again when they had sent out the notifications that power was back on. Again, fortunately, once they came out, that was an easy fix for them. But then I will be waiting on my insurance to get the tree figured out. Another lucky stroke was that since the tree fell on my shed and fence that will be covered under the policy, they will pay for the tree to be taken care of and I will only have to take care of my deductible. I’d actually not liked my shed, and that part of my fence had needed some repairs anyway, so in a way, I lucked out. My deductible is about the same as how much the estimates to get that tree taken out of the yard was before it fell. So overall a winning situation I guess. Here are some pictures of the craziness!

Thursday was the last day of summer school. It was pretty slow all day. Mostly had a few students turn in laptops because they weren’t coming back to the district for the school year. Teachers who weren’t going to be in the district also came by to get me to sign off on a sign out sheet. It was hot, but nowhere near as hot as it had been earlier in the week. When I got home I went to open the shed to get my mower out. The doors had been shifted of course with one side of the shed having been pushed in by the tree, so it was a bit of a struggle to get the lock off. Then the mower had been pushed over by the wall moving as well, but it was not damaged. Once I got it out I was unable to get the lock back on the door, but that’s okay, there’s not anything else in there now. I mowed the yard and then put my mower in the garage for now. It’s a tight fit with the car in there, and I’ll have to leave the big trash can outside too probably.

Friday was a wonderful real first day of summer vacation for me. It was a rainy morning, and I got to sleep in! Hung out around the house with the dogs, doing a lot of blogging and some reading. Finally got my Goodreads exported to the Bookly app, so really trying to use that and see if I like it enought to continue for long. Went to dinner with my mom. Continued watching My Lady Jane.

Saturday was a lovely rainy morning. Slept in. Got up did a tiny bit of blogging and reading. Then went to have the usual Saturday morning get together with my dad, stepmom, and youngest sister at Starbucks by my sister’s house. Although I have a feeling once my sister officially gets completely moved into her new house in our downtown area, we won’t go there anymore. I also realized I forgot to download and schedule a time to read and review a book I’d started seeing pop up on other blogs, so I may be fitting that one in last minute after I finish my current ARC.

Oh, and I started feeling like Jess at A Great Read because I had a Barnes & Noble order, the USPS tracking number said it had been put in my mailbox at 2:59 pm, but I’d been sitting right by the window and could see no one had been to my mailbox. I was reaching out to my neighbors to see if it had been delivered there, and right at that time, he walked up and delivered it to my house. I think he probably left the scanner in his truck and just carried the mailbag with him as it is hot and he just walks on our street, has to go up to each house. So I get that!

Books Finished

First was an e-galley I started for the author’s review team while I was in Branson and posted my review on Friday. Second was a poetry book by my co-librarian at my last school. I’m not a poetry person, but I had to buy it to support him. And while I don’t know if I understand why some choices were made in how it was written, that’s because I’m not a poet and I appreciate his work on it! My review for it was in my L-L-L Reviews for June. Third is an ARC from the publisher, review will be posted on Tuesday or Wednesday.

New Additions to My Library

ARCs:

None

Audiobooks:

None

Bookish Stuff:

None

E-galleys:

First one the publisher sent me a widget to on Netgalley, but I also got invited on Edelweiss, so I got it there so I wouldn’t mess up my NG percentage, lol. It doesn’t come out till October. Second was a for a blog tour next month. Third was also from the publisher, and I went ahead and got the widget downloaded from NG. It isn’t out till December though.

Free E-books:

This one was free on Amazon.

Physical Books:

The publisher sent me this one, not a request. It comes out July 9th, but I don’t have time to fit it into my reading schedule unfortunately. I will probably just donate it to my school library.

I finally found what I wanted to use my Barnes & Noble gift card on when I saw the new covers of The Dark Element series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I ordered the first book only for now, because my copy of the first book was a stripped cover paperback from when I worked at B&N. Of course now, none of my three covers really match, because the 2nd one is an ARC, and it was autographed to someone else. And the third one is a finished copy, but I think a different cover for it too!

What I’m Watching

Sunday night my mom and I watched a scary movie, one we’d wanted to see at the theater, but didn’t have a chance, so rented on Amazon Prime. It was pretty good!

Does the NKOTB concert count? LOL! DJ Jazzy Jeff opened and Paula Abdul also opened.

Did some rewatching of Outlander again, the deal on a cheap renewal rate ends this coming Saturday so I’ll be canceling until November for when the rest of season 7 comes out.

And also, even though I hadn’t read the books, although I wanted to because I love all the authors, I started watching the new My Lady Jane tv series on Amazon Prime. If you’ve read the books, I wonder if it is a risque as the tv show since it is a YA book. But I’m really enjoying it so far!

What’s Coming Up on My Blog Next Week

The first is an ARC from the publisher I read last week. Second is the e-galley I completely forgot I had until someone posted their review. Hoping to get it read this week! Fourth is another ARC from the publisher, if I get to it. Fifth is the e-galley for a tour I said I’d review last minute. Last is an e-galley for a tour I signed up for a while back. Last is the e-galley I completely forgot I had until someone posted their review. Hoping to get it read this week!

It will also be July, so my June wrap-up post will be on Monday.

Final Thoughts

Last day of June! July is tomorrow! And I’m finally able to have a teacher summer break. Fourth of July celebration this week, looking forward to that at my brother’s.

How was your week? How was your June? What are you looking forward to this week? Do you celebrate the 4th of July?

Here’s a picture of the pretty flowers in the side of my mom’s Branson cabin yard, and the sign she and my stepdad bought and picked up on their last trip down there in late April, but never got put up, so my mom and I figured out a way to hang it easily.