I’m connecting up once again with Kimberly at Caffeinated Reviewer.
About 3:45 am Sunday morning I was abruptly woken up by a crack of lighting/thunder so loud even my dogs woke up and freaked out. The thunder after that was so close it shook the ground. I was freaked out the lightning had struck a tree or something nearby my house. Nothing that I know of though. It rained a bit early in the morning, but I woke up to what was going to be another hot day. Spent the morning blogging. Went with my mom to take her dog to Pete and Mac’s since she was going to San Diego with my brother’s family all week. We stopped at a few places to look for some things which I didn’t find, and she straightened up her little craft booth at the Painted Tree. Then I came home and did some more blogging. And some packing for my own overnight trip on Monday.
Monday morning I got up and packed and got the dogs to my friend’s house on the way to St. Louis. It was a nice easy drive. Got there with enough time to take a nap before the author event. The place where they had it was an event space, but outside of that there was like a food court, but it was like food trucks as they were pretty much all small businesses as opposed to chain restaurants. Ashley Poston was hilarious, and she was with Kirsty Greenwood, who was also fun. I will say as someone who has been to a LOT of author events, small and large, that I was not impressed really with how they organized the actual signing lines after the authors talked. But I did still get to have my books autographed and talk to both. I didn’t get back to my hotel till around 11 pm, and while I had planned to do this post before bed, did not get this bit done till I got home on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning woke up to rain. I did sleep in since I’d been up late. I got down to the lobby around 9:30, and I guess breakfast was over, so I went ahead and checked out of the hotel and went next door to the Denny’s for breakfast. By then the rain was pouring so hard. My drive home was long! In fact it took me an hour longer I think than normal, because that first bit was raining so bad even the semi-trucks were pulling over and stopping. At one point I pulled into a gas station and just went in and used the restroom and bought a snack before venturing back out to crawl along slowly and safely home. Once I got about halfway to KC from St. Louis though, it was just mostly cloudy with a few sprinkles. I got home and then mowed. Then went to pick up my dogs as well as one of the puppies left because my friend had a lot of other dogs she was watching. So I figured I’d give her a little bit of a break. Here is the guy with the silly name, Horwitz.
Wednesday morning was glad I could sleep in because it took a bit to get our visitor to quiet down in his crate and go to sleep. But then we played a bunch in the morning. I ended up taking my laptop over to my mom’s house since she was in San Diego with my brother’s family for the week, and that gave me a chance to do some classwork and blogging with no interruptions. Plus to read a bit since my reading is going to be hurting this week having to keep an eye on a puppy. I know I can put him in the crate too, but I feel bad and he knows it and cries the puppy cries that make me want to just let him out to play. I’m a pushover. But it means some of my commenting will be pushed off till he goes home most likely. I tried having him sit on my lap while we watched tv, but he just wanted to chew on the drawstring on my pj shorts, lol.
Thursday morning I had to get up and go get some bloodwork. My friend who is a nutrition researcher looks at my bloodwork for me, and she is worried about some of my numbers. Plus the fact that even though I’ve been losing weight, my face is kind of bloated and so that’s weird. She thinks it is maybe my liver, but we’ll see what the bloodwork says. I then went to my mom’s house again to finish up my classwork I also called the insurance again since nothing had been done about my fallen tree and destroyed shed, etc. Well, now they’re saying to go ahead and get the tree taken care of and then send them the invoice and they’ll pay me back. They went ahead and did an estimate on replacing the shed, and since they said they had to depreciate it, it isn’t worth more than my deductible, so I have to get the other info to them before they can say they’ll replace it. Such a mess. And the opposite of what they said originally would be done. We are still having cooler than usual temps. Only 77 degrees at noon!
Friday was a little harder to sleep in as the puppy wanted to get up sooner than we did. But that’s okay, today he was going back. I played with him for a bit in the morning, then put him in the cage to try to do a few things on the computer. He whined the whole time, so that didn’t last long. I went and had lunch at Applebee’s to be able to read while I ate with no interruptions. Then I drove the puppy back to my friend’s on the way to take my two for their annual vet check-up and shots. Both are in good health, so that is always good to hear. My mom and brother’s family got their flights canceled to come home from San Diego thanks to the big Microsoft issues of the day. They decided to drive home because they couldn’t find another flight home until Sunday. As they were driving they must have checked into other flights because I got a call a few hours later that they were going to stop in Phoenix, AZ and would be able to get a flight home from there on Saturday.
Saturday was a nice rainy morning for sleeping in. The night before hadn’t been great. Both dogs seemed out of it from their shots. Dora is always really tender on one side by her front leg where they give shots and take blood, and it’s so hard to pick her up without touching it. She’d yelp every time until I figured out how to pick her up without touching that. Fortunately by morning both seemed mostly back to normal. I also got an email from my principal saying that he didn’t think I came back on July 30th because he thought my contract was only 191 days. I found my printed out contract that I’d signed, and nope, just like the last 3 years, I have 196 days on my contract, which means I start back on the day I said. I spent the rest of the day blogging and doing other things around my house. My mom called around 6 pm to let me know she and my brother’s family had made it back to town. At 8 pm I had a Zoom “party” with author J.J. Knight and other members of the Patreon she has.
Books Finished
All of these were e-galleys from the publisher, or the second one an e-audiobook from the author. All reviews were posted this past week.
New Additions to My Library
ARCs:
The publisher had reached out to me about this one and I said I was interested. It comes out in October, so look for a review closer to then!
Audiobooks:
None
Bookish Stuff:
Got my July Picklegram from author J.J. Knight. It was a fun baggage tag!
E-galleys:
First is for a review beginning of August, from the author’s review team. Second I requested on Edelweiss but it doesn’t come out till January, so look for my review closer to then. It’s a rewrite of the original, and I’m very excited for it! Third is the sequel to an ARC I got of the first one and loved. I went ahead and requested this after seeing the link for it in the Shelf Awareness newsletter from Edelweiss.
Free E-books:
First is an extra epilogue to the story. Second and third were freebies on Amazon.
Physical books:
So, yeah, I gave in and bought all the books at the signing this past week. A Novel Love Story kind of came with the purchase of the ticket. Then I decided while I was there to go ahead and buy The Love of My Afterlife so I could get it autographed. While I waited for my turn to get in the signing line, I ended up just buying the other books they had for Ashley Poston since I figured why not! Then, I was lucky and won the full paperback set of the WTZ series from the giveaway with the read-a-long over on Books of My Heart. Unfortunately Anne found out the person at the publishers who had promised that was no longer there, and so instead they only had 3 of the books and said they’d let me pick others from their current catalog. I chose to get the 3 they had, and then some other books I found that either looked good to me, or were ones I knew my students would like. They’ll be arriving one at a time I’m guessing, lol. The first one came on Saturday.
What I’m Watching
Continued trying to rewatch Cobra Kai before the new season came out this week. Between being out of town and my puppy house guest, didn’t get as much as I wanted!
What’s Coming Up Next Week
So, first is an e-galley and second is an ARC from the publishers. I’m hoping to pull out one of my beat the backlist books this week. Maybe Fourth Wing, but we’ll see how this week goes since I’ve got some school meetings starting up a couple days.
Final Thoughts
Ugh, July is almost over, which means, yes, eventually cooling temps. But it also means back to school. This is the last week I don’t have to start reporting in at my usual 7 am. Although I do have two days of meetings this week. There was NOT enough time off. I really need to try to NOT do summer school next year.
Still working to get the insurance things done with cleaning the tree off the shed in the backyard. Found out I had to actually get estimates to them before they’d give me the money, which was what I’d assumed before they said at first, the first week of July, that they’d just write me a check. And now I’ve got to see what I can get done before going back to school! Ugh.
Might try going to the Disney 100 this week. Hoping to also have more blogging time too! Here is this week’s Bookly graphic!
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A busy week but you fit in some fun events. There’s never enough time. Teaching may have some long nights but it also has a lot more holidays and winter break and spring break and summer break. We had to take our 2 weeks of vacation separately to cover all the days when my daughter didn’t have K-12 school. It wasn’t enough and we had to really scramble to cover days with no family in town. And there was also days she was sick. Our corporate schedule gave us (2 weeks) 10 days plus the 6 major holiday days. I found the period from New Year’s Day to Memorial Day the most depressing because there were no days off unless one took vacation. I also have Bananapants. Glad to see you are getting some of the prize books!
We do have good breaks kind of. But we also can really only take breaks at that time. When everyone else is taking them. Whereas with other jobs you can take a vacation any time. Of course having kids always makes taking the same breaks as school more necessary. From what I hear these days though, many jobs have better vacation that they used to. At least according to my sisters.
How exciting to meet some authors – I’ve read both of their 2024 books and loved them. Enjoy your last few days of vacation Lisa.
I read Poston’s, but just started the other and am enjoying it so far!
I’m glad you got to have a little fun this week. The doom starts to set in around this time as all the “back to school” stuff starts going up. And the sucky thing about summer is it is UNPAID vacation time. We just spread our pay for the 196 days (in your case; 185 in mine) over 365 days. And we can’t really get any other time off to do normal people things. So we spend the summer in doctors appointment and stuff we put off all year. Its not a glamorous as people think! I go back on the 8th, so not too long after you. Hope you have a great week!
Yeah, people don’t realize that we aren’t getting paid during the summer, we just get our working time pay split over 12 months. I did not get all the things I needed done this summer, have to see how many things I can fit in this next week, lol.
Yeah puppies and kittens are a challenge we usually try to keep kittens we rescue in a kennel when we sleep so they don’t get in trouble with our other animals. Well since this one is much older then the ones we usually rescue the son gets kitten duty at bedtime and he sleeps in his room so lot less quiet and we know there no scary encounters between the older cats and the baby. Weather is still icky hot here. College doesn’t start here tell late september for my kiddo so he still got some summer vacation but he is taking on class a photography one but it all on line which is not my favorite way for him to take classes or that i had to pay 750.00 for one class online. Hope you have a great week.
Oh yeah, I definitely kept the puppy in the kennel at night. We had cooler temps this week, and I think coming up the next few days, but then back into normal temps by next weekend I think. Ugh, $750 is crazy!
Glad you had a good trip into St. Louis! I do remember now that you say it was raining Tuesday, that might have been the day where it rained pretty much all day for us! It was nuts! If I am remembering right, I think we got close to 6 inches of rain that day! I remember last year for Ashley’s event you got a line group number but I am not sure what they’ve been doing in that space since I haven’t been to it myself. Usually depending on the author’s popularity they do line groups for the most popular ones otherwise it’s sometimes a free for all about how you go about getting in line. Sometimes it’s also dependent on where the signing is being held too. It’s weird. But Ashley was a lot of fun to listen to last year so I am glad you had fun in that respect!
Ugh the insurance issues do not sound fun at all. Not one of the things I look forward to whenever I do find my place, which is slow going. The last few my realtor sent to me only had outside pictures which some of that left a lot to be desired and after checking back on those for a few days and still not seeing any new ones I decided they were nopes. I want to see if it’s worth seeing in person before starting the whole process and so far a lot of what I have been seeing are the ones that need desperate TLC and that’s just not in my budget even with a Mr. Fix It stepdad! Lol. So yeah, definitely slow going but I hope when rates supposedly go down in fall something might come along.
Nice new reads! That’s a bummer about the WTZ win and the person not being there anymore now that it’s time to give out the prize. But at least you got some runner ups in it! Hope you enjoy all of your new reads!
Here’s my StS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
I can believe you got 6 inches of rain, it was torrential and crazy! But as I got back to KC it was like we hadn’t had much. They had line groups, but the way they did it didn’t seem like it worked any better than just let everyone line up and go. Of course both Ashley and Kirsty were talkers! My stepdad was a Mr. Fix-It too. I miss having him to help, but then he hadn’t really been able to help a lot the last year or two with his health any way. All these issues are reasons I will probably move into a rental apartment or something once I don’t have dogs anymore. But then I’ve really only rented my last year or two in college, and then my first two years of teaching when I was down at Lake of the Ozarks. Once I moved back to the KC area my mom used to be a real estate agent so insisted I buy a house. Which I’ve now owned a few houses since then. But I know I was lucky to get this one when I did with the way the housing market is. Have a good week!
What a fun event! I read all the books you bought. I adored them all, and I hope you do, too. Puppies are so cute, but they are a lot of work. I hope you get everything worked out with the shed. I always find any type of insurance company is quick to take your money, but super slow to pay out.
I haven’t read Dead Romantics yet, and just started the Kirsty Greenwood one. Yep, I am cured of any puppy fever for a while now! lol Insurance is such a racket it seems.
The puppy is so cute, but yes, they’re a lot of work! Love author events, but they can be exhausting even when well run. I’ve been woken up by lightening and then a crack of thunder so loud I thought a bomb went off. Scared the hell out of me so I can understand what a fright you had! Glad you didn’t have any more damage. Dealing with insurance is such a hassle. Hope you get it all sorted out! Have a wonderful week, Lisa!
And it’s like I know I need to be calling and doing things to get the tree taken care of, but I also just want to be home and relax and read, so I have been bad about getting stuff done.
The thunder/lightning sounds so scary! I’m glad it didn’t damage anything. And wow, so cool you got to meet Ashley Poston. I really want to read The Dead Romantics, everyone says it’s her best book. Have a good week😁
The Dead Romantics is the one I haven’t read yet of her books. I liked the other two and her YA ones!
That puppy is so darn cute. Mr. Barb left this morning for a 4 day training so I know my days will be interesting to say the least. The author signing sounds like a good time and you’ve reminded me I want to crap a Kindle version of Love of My Afterlife. Insurance is such a PITA to deal with! Hope you have a great week.
Totally true about insurance! I want them to just come take care of it and they don’t have to give me any money if they just come do it all, I’ll be happy! lol If only it worked that way.
Wait. you’re going to be starting school soon?? 😭 I just finished this past week and I only have like a month off before we have to go back and I’m just not ready 😭 I really don’t think I’ll be doing summer school next year. It wasn’t bad, but I just need a break from that sort of environment, especially the specific school I work at 👀
So, I have to go back to work 10 days before the teachers go back. And school doesn’t actually start for students until August 21st. So technically we still have a month, I just start back in a week. 🙁 I’m going to go in with the hope that this year will be better!
UGh. Sorry to hear about the mess with your insurance and getting the repairs done. Also, I hope your health improves and you get some answers. Is Dora better now? Poor girl. I hope you are enjoying your last few days of summer vacation!
Dora is doing just fine now of course. 🙂 Still hoping I get the insurance stuff taken care of soon!
Oh, man, I’m jealous that you had a puppy for a bit. Seems like the perfect arrangement because you get to enjoy a puppy for a short while and then send it off! 🙂
It was definitely fun, but a reminder I don’t really want a puppy. I love that my best friend is a dachshund breeder because I get to play with puppies all the time!
I know – I’m very jealous of that!