Saturday: book review

Today I finally finished "Pandora's Star" by Peter Hamilton.  It was recommended to us and it sounded like a funny scifi, so Ben and I read it.  It was not funny, and we realized that pretty quickly, but it was still scifi so we continued on.

It turns out the genre is actually "space opera."  I'm going to admit that it did a fabulous job at putting me to sleep.  It probably took me a month to finish because some times I would start reading and literally didn't get more than a paragraph before I fell asleep.  It was a good book and the stories in it were very interesting...and very good at putting me to sleep.

It is book one of a two book series.  I think I'm going to try and listen to all 41 hours of the second book.  Most of the story lines were not tied up very well as the book ended and I'm quite curious as to how they will resolve.  In some ways I think this is the option Ben is hoping for too so that I can give him the cliff notes as I go through it.  He can then enjoy the story without all the extra...extras that a space opera includes.

I ended up giving it a 3/5 stars.  I wanted to give it 2, but the stories really were interesting.  It was just a really hard read.

Friday

 Isaac's watermelon never grew very big.  He finally picked it and then made a throne and crown for it.  Obviously.

Most of the day was normal chores: grocery shopping, laundry, and cleaning the fridge to be specific.  I did work a bit on dusting for O:CtH, which resulted in vacuuming the top of the cabinet (I'm pretty sure it had never been done since we've been there) and taking off the light fixtures to be washed.  I absolutely felt weird doing it, but they were so dusty that the duster wasn't doing anything except moving dust around.

We also stopped by the thrift store after I picked up the boys.  I was pretty happy with what we found.  Joshua ended up with several pairs of "soft" pants and Isaac got a nice fall coat.  We didn't get everything that we needed, but it was still worth our while.  Speaking of picking up the boys, this year they have something called "early release" days, where the kids are let out two hours early.  I understand that it's important for staff development and whatnot, but having half days, early release days, and normal days seems a bit over the top.  I'm sure there are good reasons for it though, so I'll just say it's a bit weird but doesn't really affect me otherwise.

Toothbrushes

While cleaning yesterday, I found that Joshua has 5 toothbrushes in his drawer.  One is unopened.  Only one is used on a regular basis.  Anyway, I told him his lightsaber toothbrush is going to disappear soon.  I understand he likes it because it makes sounds, but it's old and not used that often.  So we took a picture of it.  (He looks a lot sadder in this picture than I think he actually is.)

Wednesday: O:CtH - guest room

It's officially finished!  It's been dusted, vacuumed, and decluttered.  The furniture was moved.  And so, I present to you...the Guest Room!  (I don't have pictures from the worst of it...but just imagine the whole floor covered in some game and the edges piled a little higher.) 

From the door:

 

From the window:

I don't have a full picture of the game closet before, but it was full.  Not really messy, but I added three shelves on the left side and got rid of several games so that it isn't so full anymore.  

Now...to keep it clean. :D  Next up, I'm taking Annette's advice and tackling something small: the purple bathroom. 

Monday: game closet

Today's O:CtH project was to deal with the game closet.  It also involved adding some shelving that I've been waiting to do for about two years now.

I got the laundry started and then started on the game closet.  I had some of the parts I needed, but had to make a stop at Lowes.  Then after getting one rod up I realized that I needed better drywall anchors because I only had one stud...and so I went back to Lowes.  It felt like the days of my childhood, helping Dad do the house chores and going to the hardware store multiple times.  I was also surprised when I took a break near the end only to realize it was already 11am.

I don't have a before picture.  I'll wait on the after picture until I do the whole room.  The closet looks better and the games are more accessible.  However, the only reason it has a bit of room in it now is because I got rid of several games (vs having more room because the games are stored better.)  I expect it'll be good for a few years until it fills up again, at which point Joshua will have outgrown some of the younger games and we can get rid of those.  I'm not sure what we'll do after that, but we'll deal with that then.

It was also exercise day for the boys and they elected to run in the rain.  Joshua loved it; Isaac put up with it.  I gave him an alternative, but it was warm out and I was glad he elected to run.

Saturday: orchard and corn maze

Today we picked up Aunt C and went to the apple orchard and the corn maze.  I was trying not to get too many apples but absolutely did.

Joshua has one lost tooth, one front wiggly tooth, and a missing side tooth.  Apples were tricky.

Then we went to the corn maze.  It was a little longer than Joshua wanted it to be, but I think everyone enjoyed it.  It was the perfect day to be outside, so that helped.

Friday: mop

 Ben and Isaac were horsing around, and Isaac decided it would be a good idea to open Ben's water bottle to get things wet.  So Ben used Isaac as a mop; Isaac was laughing so hard.