# 84

84. Read 2 new books a month (16/68)

Yesterday, I finished reading A Clash of Kings, book two of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. I really enjoyed it, and found it just as engaging as the first one. I've already started book three, and I'm glad that book five will be coming out soon, so I should be occupied for a while. I'm a little concerned with books six and seven, since it seems like it will be a while before they are released, and I know that I am going to want to know what happens.

# 17

17. Make something for each family gathering

For the Fourth of July barbecue at Dan and Sue's, I decided to bring a red, white and blue dessert. I wish that I could have knocked down a few items with this, but I decided against baking the angel food cake from scratch.

June Status Update

The 365 project is still going strong, updated through the holiday weekend. There have been a few days where I felt that there was nothing for me to post, and then there were days where I wished I could post ten pictures

I actually made it to church one Sunday this month, which is not nearly as much as I would like, but still better than I had been doing. I'm hoping to make it more in the summer, with the sun waking me up so early.

The only item that I have seemed to have done a good job with last month is the reading, which I believe had a lot to do with not being able to get up. Sometimes it is very good to not have a tv in your bedroom.

I am still one item behind on my new year's resolution, but I would like to try to do some of the outdoor items this month, so hopefully I will be able to catch up.

# 84

84. Read 2 new books a month (15/68)

An Acceptable Time is the last book in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet, which I just discovered wasn't a quartet (and since the book was published in 1989, I'm not sure why I didn't know about it earlier). Since I loved the first four books so much, and have re-read them more times than I can count, I wanted to read this one too. While I did like it, and obviously read it quickly, I didn't like it nearly as much as the first four books. I think that had to do with the fact that the main characters from the other books were not in this one, and there were only a few passing references to some of them. There were also a lot of references that I did not get, and I am guessing they were to books I haven't read.

But this was the last of the library books that I had taken out. Now to find something to read on the Kindle!

# 84

84. Read 2 new books a month (14/68)

Maybe it's because TV for the most part is in repeats, but I seem to be going through books a lot quicker right now. Over the weekend, I got two books from the library, one of which was The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory. I did enjoy it, but not as much as I enjoyed The White Queen. I think that I just didn't like Margaret Beaufort has much as I enjoyed Elizabeth Woodville, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who liked The Other Boleyn Girl.

I am really looking forward to reading The Lady of the Rivers, the next book in the cousin's war series, which is coming out this October.

Also, once I am done with my other library book, I'll get to start using my new Kindle, which I am very excited for.

# 84

84. Read 2 new books a month (13/68)

Last week, Geoff surprised me by bring me home George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones. I had finished it by Saturday. I absolutely loved it and didn't want to put it down. While I thought that I would have a hard time with the names, I actually found it easier than The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. I was intrigued by the HBO series that started this year, even though I have not yet been able to watch, so I had been thinking of reading it for a while. He decided to get me the book when I told him that I was number 36 on the hold list at the library.

The book definitely fits into the the medieval fantasy genre, and I would recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in those kind of stories. It was not a difficult read, and I am very much looking forward to the next book in the series. That one will have to wait until I finish reading the two books that I just got from the library, which hopefully won't take too long.

# 19 and # 20

19. Use the crockpot for dinner sixty times (15/60)
20. Try at least two new recipes a month (23/68)

Tonight, I finally made my own pasta sauce. Using the slow-cooker. It was something that I had been meaning to do for a while. I made Slow-Cooker Macaroni and Beef, using penne instead of gemelli and leaving out the cheese. It was a hit. I loved it, Geoff loved it, even Peter loved it (the little that he got). And this recipe made a ton, so there was plenty of sauce left over to have again soon. It was also something that we would definitely make for company. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I really don't want to heat up the kitchen, so hopefully I'll be using the slow-cooker more often.

# 84

84. Read 2 new books a month (12/68)

The one good thing about throwing out my back, if you can call anything about that good, is that yesterday I had plenty to time to read a book. In fact, I finished of The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. I thought that it was great, just as engaging as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Now I can't wait to read the third book, but I've made myself a promise that I won't be getting it until it is out in paperback. So now I just need to find something else to read until then.

# 89

89. Back up digital photos

I probably should have marked this item as complete sooner, but I've set up a new system of backing up my photos which makes me feel a little better about this task. All my digital photos are now backed up on an external hard drive, which is the one thing that I had been waiting to finish to mark this as done. I am also going to back up any new pictures to the drive every Sunday, which hopefully will mean that I won't have the pain of salvaging everything if something happens to my computer again. I also have online back-ups, which I have been doing for months now.

One more item done!

May Status Update

Once again, I did not get as much done this month as I would have liked. There were a couple of items that I made progress on.

I am still going strong with my 365 project, with the blog updated through May. I've still been taking pictures, but a computer problem has made it so that I can't download the pictures from the camera at the moment. I'm hoping to get that fixed soon.

Geoff and I have moved out all the items from Dan and Sue's basement. I'm not counting this item as done yet since we have to finish going through it all, but right now it is in our storage space.

I also had made a big push to work on captioning the digital photos, but I had to stop when the computer crashed.

Now that we are fully in summer, I'm hoping to make a big push to get some more items done. I'd really like to have more to report in the June status update.