100 Book Challenge: June Update

Apparently I am the biggest blog slacker in the world, but guess what I've been doing instead? Well, duh, reading! For the first time this year I am exactly where I should be on the road to my goal! Halfway through the year and I've just finished my 51st book (though 51 counts for July). Go me! In order to reach the midpoint at the midpoint, I had to complete 10 books in June. The books I read were:

1. The London Eye Mystery, by Siobhan Dowd
2. The 39 Clues: Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson
3. Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart
4. Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter
5. Goddess Boot Camp by Tera Lyn Childs
6. The Late Bloomer's Revolution by Amy Cohen
7. Privilege by Kate Brian
8. Heaven Looks a lot Like the Mall by Wendy Mass
9. The Beach House by Jane Green
10. Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles

Three of these books were parts of series that I really enjoy and one was by an author whose books I have read all of. Don't Judge a Girl... was my favorite. This was the third entry in the Gallagher Girl series and it didn't disappoint. The only disappointment was that I missed my chance to go to the Bay Area to meet the darling and talented Ally Carter! I can't wait for the next book to come out! Goddess Boot Camp was another fun book. I'm actually not so sure if it's a series that is going to continue, but this is at the very least, a sequel. My friend Lisa got me into the Percy Jackson series, and this story follows the trend of a child finding out s/he is a child of a Greek god. This book is much different from Percy because it's much more light and fluffy. These 2 books came together from Barnes and Noble.com and I couldn't read them fast enough. The other series book was The 39 Clues. I have been enjoying this series and the 4th installment, set in Egypt, was another fun and quick read. The Beach House by Jane Green was not part of a series, but I have come to look forward to Green's new books once a year. I'm always a year behind since I wait for paperback, but I guess it's ok since I still get a new one each year! The Beach House started off pretty slowly for me, but then I finally got pulled in and couldn't put it down. Parts were fairly predictable, but it was still thoroughly enjoyable.

By far, the worst book read this month, if not this year, was Dear American Airlines. I found it to be so boring. It is a long rambling letter to American Airlines after a man's flight is cancelled or delayed on his way to his estranged daughter's wedding. There are 2 things I think are somewhat ironic when it comes to this book - 1. During my days of travelling back and forth between Boston and Sacramento, I always wanted to write a book about sitting around in the airport (I so would have done a better job!) and 2. My mom was stranded for about a day and a half in O'Hare (the setting of the delay) on the way to my college graduation. It's ironic because, while these kind of major delays seem so crazy sometimes (I mean, we've all had delays, but I'm talking an overnighter), they really do happen, and it's probably going to start happening even more frequently. So the call to his daughter, her disappointment, these are things I can sort of relate to even though I am not estranged from my mom and she did make it in time. Anyway, I've brought too much attention to this awful book.

100 Book Challenge: May Update

May was not looking good. However, due to a major case of bordem in the final week, I made a great comeback and ended the month with 11 books to put me at 40.

1. How to be Bad by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle
2. Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
3. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
4. Pretty in Plaid by Jen Lancaster
5. The Prince of Fenway Park by Julianna Baggot
6. Dramarama by E. Lockhart
7. Three Tales of My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannet
8. The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman
9. Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys by Kate Brian
10. Allie Finkle's Rules For Girls: Moving Day by Meg Cabot
11. Allie Finkle's Rules For Girls: The New Girl by Meg Cabot

The 2 adult books were both very enjoyable. They were by two of my favorite authors (Lancaster and Giffin), so they were sort of no brainers. I loved PIP. Probably my second favorite of Lancaster's (after Bitter is the New Black). I liked LTOYW, but not as much as Giffin's previous books Something Borrowed and Something Blue.

Of the rest of the books, I would say that the 2 by E. Lockhart were my favorites. They were fun, quick reads and I was a big fan of both subjects (a road trip and musical theater camp). In How to be Bad, 3 authors tell the story from the different perspectives of the 3 characters. It was great!

I also really enjoyed The Gollywhopper Games. Unfortunately I read this so close to the end of the year that I wasn't really able to share it with any of my students. Hopefully I will be able to next year.

Now that summer is here I am hoping to get way ahead on my list. The good news is that we have only been out for 3 days and I've finished 3 books - yay! I'm also really excited for some books coming out this summer - especially Ally Carter's Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover which comes out on Tuesday!

100 Book Challenge: April Update

Well, to put it simply, I seem to be failing at my quest. And by failing I know I'm being dramatic. I still read way more than the normal people out there. But I'm way failing on the number I should be at by now. And you know what? I don't really care. I need to stop obsessing on the number I "should" be on and just continue to read what I want and as much as I want. I still have faith I will make it to 100. I may just be doing A LOT of reading in December... Oh well!

So here are the books I read in April. This brings the count to 29 (instead of 33 1/3... I'm just saying...)

1. Anne Frank and the Children of the Holocaust by Carol Ann Lee (I also read Who Was Anne Frank? by Ann Abramson but it doesn't really count because it took about 15 minutes to read and did not meet the 100 page requirement!)
2. I Was Told There'd be Cake by Sloane Crosley
3. Belong to Me Marisa de los Santos
4. The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares
5. The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner
6. The Boy Book by E. Lockhart
7. Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

So most of this month was spent reading adult books because I read most of them on my trip to Europe. The movie selection on my flight and my sleepiness impeded my ability to read a lot! I have quickly become a huge fan of E. Lockhart and will now pretty much pick up anything she writes. The Boy Book is the second in a series and I can't wait for the third to come out in paperback at the end of the summer. Marisa de los Santos has also found a place among my favorites. I know I will pick up anything she writes as well. I was not totally in love with The Last Summer.... even though I totally love Ann Brashares. Don't get me wrong - it was good and I enjoyed it, but I love her Sisterhood books and 3 Willows so much more!

I'm excited that summer is almost here because there are soooo many books I can't wait for that are coming out soon. This week I will get The Last Olympian and Pretty in Plaid and I cannot wait!

See You Soon!

Well friends, this adventure is about to come to a close. We will get off the boat in a little while and then mom and I are staying in Amsterdam one more night. Yesterday started out phenomenal and then the afternoon sucked big time. I don't have time to write at the moment, but I'll fill you all in when I'm stateside... TTFN

North Sea Delta Project

(Wednesday)
We arrived this morning in the town of Middleburg (which sounds much more like a MA town than a Netherlands one, but whatevs). It was another darling little town with picture opportunities at every turn. Unfortunately it was quite early and nothing was really open. Of course, we didn’t really have time to look at anything other than the picturesque sights anyway. Two things that made me laugh were a café called Cheerz and another called Fonsie’s Big Snack. Fun, right? Anyway, we finally had a tour guide that walked at a good clip. She was pretty funny. My new pal Corie was counting the amount of times she said, “okay ladies and gentlemen…” I’d say in the hour and a half it was probably well over 50. From Middleburg we boarded buses to head to the Delta Works project. This is basically I giant dam along the North Sea. We first went to a visitor center where we watched a(n extremely old) documentary about the whole project. I’m sure it was interesting, but I slept through half of it. Then we went across the street to another visitor center where you actually went into one of the piers and learned a lot about the history and development of the whole project. I bought a book to read and look at, because this guide was quite long winded. As I pointed out to mom, Corie and her mom – perhaps the guides should learn the social cue that if your entire group has passed you by, perhaps you are going a bit slow. It was very interesting. I got a little nervous when crossing one of the little bridges though since the North Sea was crashing below us and I have never had big love for anything above water! Next we were off to meet the bus again, but fortunately it had sailed while we were busy so we didn’t have to backtrack. The drive was quite lovely – dikes, canals, sheep, cows, and even the occasional windmill. Back on the boat it was lunchtime and we immediately set sail for Rotterdam. We just got through a lock, which I find quite fascinating. Well, let me clarify – the engineering and theory is quite fascinating, but the actual watching of the going through? A little like watching paint dry!

Beer and Waffles and Chocolate - Oh My!

Dateline: Antwerp, Belgium; April 13, 2009
Today began with overcast skies and a very boring bus tour around a very closed Antwerp. Being Easter Monday, we were warned that most things would be closed – lame-o. I pretty much slept through the bus ride around the city and when I woke up I proceeded to take random pictures of myself for amusement sake. Good times. We got off the bus and walked through the city walk portion of our tour. Still pretty lame-o. Fortunately, at least the sun started to come out – woo hoo. When we were at the Cathedral in the center of town things looked a little more hoppin’ so we ditched the tour. We had pizza for lunch and it tasted so good! I think a week is the longest I’d ever gone without pizza – eek. We walked around the little market square but unfortunately there was not much of interest to buy. We had dessert at a waffle shop, because when in Belgium… It was delicious! We walked around a little more and then we decided to walk back to the ship (boat?). It was not a bad walk at all and I was able to get us back easily, despite my mom’s protests with the map J So Antwerp ended up redeeming itself in the afternoon because the beginning part of the day did not hold a lot of promise.
Dateline: Bruges, Belgium: April 14, 2009
The word of the day – Charming (unfortunately, not as in Prince). We arrived in a very, very foggy Ghent to set out on a bus towards the town (city?) of Bruges. It was definitely a highlight of the trip so far. It was a beautiful, charming little area. My aunt and uncle had been and my aunt had told my mom it was her favorite part. I just checked my facebook and my friend Nathalia asked if we were going. Others on the ship who have been to this area said last night that we were in for a treat. In other words, this is definitely a spot that you can’t go to and not fall in love with!
The day started out with a long bus ride and another annoying tour guide. Let me stop here to explain that the tours each day are included and this is all part of the cruise. It’s not like being on an ocean liner where you have to pay extra. If we’d been paying extra for all these lame tour guides – good grief! Pretty much everyone wanted to just sleep on the bus, so that’s exactly what we all did, despite her talking. It’s not like there was anything to see anyway since we were on the highway and it was foggy.
We began with a long walk into the center of town. It seemed at first that mom’s decision that we would stay in town and come back on the late bus may have been for no reason. It seemed a very small town with not much to see. I was so wrong. We walked through a place whose Belgium name has no translation and which I cannot remember, but it was basically like a convent of sometime. It was very quaint and the lawn was covered with daffodils. We walked along the first canal that had a bunch of geese in it- apparently they are famous and one of the main symbols of the town (my actual info about Bruges is spotty at best because I was having too good of a time talking with our new friend Marty from Houston to care much about what was being said). We kept walking through all these little streets and over bridges on the canal and every turn just called for photo taking (which I happily obliged, of course). It looked like a town in EPCOT center with its total cuteness and perfection. The canal boats also reminded me a lot of “It’s a Small World.” Weird. We went to the cathedral in town- Cathedral of our Lady. In the cathedral they had a Michelangelo statue of Mary and baby Jesus. Apparently it was like the only one let out of Italy or something. The church visit was lovely and then we kept moving to the main square, where finally we could give the guide the old heave-ho.
Finally on our own, we decided to have a snack. Waffles and beer. How much better can life get? For those saying, but Casey, you don’t drink beer… Well, it was raspberry beer. Not wonderful and certainly not as good as raspberry cider, but I felt that I had done my part to take part in Belgium. Yay me. We popped in and out of lots of cute little shops. Mom was trying to find one random store we had passed earlier – we never did. I was, of course, most interested in the chocolate shops – YUM! I had such issues making decisions and ended up with purchases in 3 different stores. In the first I had a whipped cream truffle that was absolutely to die for! Finally it was time for another break and we went back to the main square where we shared pizza and another waffle- this one with ice cream and chocolate. It was so good! We did a little more walking, but were pretty tired by this point. Walking around on the cobble stones is not so easy. Finally we met back up with our group for the bus ride back to the ship. I’m pretty sure that just about everyone (except my mother – miss chatty Cathy herself) slept the whole way. We deserved it though. Bruges is definitely a spot to see if you ever get the chance. Oh – and in case you are wondering, the fog burned off and it was a gorgeous, sunny day!

Playing Catch-up

My best efforts at keeping everyone updated are not up to par – clearly! It’s not completely my fault though. Getting on the internet is like playing roulette or something (I mean, not that I have or anything, I just think that’s probably the feeling). I can be in the middle of something and it goes down again. It comes and goes like the waves. Oy vey.

Yesterday I had a huge summary written in blogger. Well, that was stupid. When I went to post it deleted the whole thing and said there was no connection. Awesome. So I’m smartening up today and composing in Word. Then I can do a quick copy and paste into blogger. So, in other words – if you are reading this: YAY!

As I’m writing, it is afternoon on Easter. I’m looking at the time on the laptop which is 4:58 am (at home) so I’m thinking of my friends and what are they doing for Easter. Egg hunts? Eating sweets? Whatever you are doing my “peeps” Happy Easter!

And now for the updates. I think I’ll work backwards, so starting with this morning…
This morning we docked in the town of Dordrecht. We boarded buses to take us to the Kiderdijk Windmills – a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We took about a 30 minute drive through the countryside to the site. It was lovely. When we arrived we saw some of the 19 windmills. It was pretty darn cool and definitely accomplished the windmill part of the “Tulips and Windmills” tour! There was one windmill you could go in and climb to the top of. (Bad grammar… I know) It was very crammed since there were a ton of people. It was interesting to see the living quarters. Apparently there are volunteers who take care of the windmills throughout the country and they live there rent free. But man, they must be squished in there! Aside from going in the windmill there was lots of picture taking (as you can imagine). It was a little overcast unfortunately, but hopefully the pictures will still come out nicely so that you can see them and enjoy! After that it was back to the ship for lunch. We are still docked in the port and have “free time” to walk around, but a – it seems there is nothing to walk to and b – even if there was, duh, it’s Easter and nothing would be open anyway! Tonight we sail to Antwerp. Fun.

Now, a bit of catching up… let’s see how well I do!
Saturday we were in the town of Arnhem. We docked right next to the “Bridge too far.” Now, you are probably asking, too far from what? I certainly did (to anyone who would listen… I’m all about a cheap laugh!) Apparently it’s an old war movie based on a WWII battle. We went out on a bus ride through the country to the Paleis Het Loo. They had a beautiful garden out in the back where I did my best to have my mom take the most absurd pictures possible with the statues and sculptures – good times! I tried out my standard joke on everyone in earshot – if it’s Baroque, why not fix it? I didn’t get many laughs. Ah well… We walked through the palace, but really, if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. The talk of the table last night at dinner was the room with all the antlers from various animals. Gross! Literally the walls were covered floor to ceiling. That’s just wrong! Some people paid for earphones for the guided tour. I gave my mom my own version. I’m pretty sure we had more fun! After that it was back to the ship for lunch. Our tour guide (a Donny Osmond look-a-like) was a total tool. Our friendship was over on the way out there when he told us no less than 25 times where and when to meet. So on the way back we dropped him at the train station. Well, the silly people on the bus gave him tips (I convinced mom not to because of the previously mentioned toolishness) and he dropped them getting off the bus! What a dweeb. Everyone was knocking on the windows and pointing down but he just looked back and waved. How do you drop 2 wads of cash and not know??? I felt bad for the people on the bus who gave him that money. They felt sorry for him. I guess that makes them probably nicer people than me, but that we knew. After lunch we had free time and the town was apparently known for its shopping. We walked through a little market where people were stocking up on fruit, veggies, fish, and flowers for their Easter feasts. Then we made it to the shopping area. If I’d wanted to shop for real, maybe this would have been the place. Mom and I were more interested in souvenir shopping, and this was definitely not the place! So we got some yummy french fries and headed back to the ship to visit our friend Richard – the bartender! We set sail during dinner and landed in Nijmegen a little while later. Mom was happy because there was a casino there. I was happier because she didn’t make me go!

Friday we went to the towns of Hoorn and Volendam. In Hoorn we had a boring tour guide and did a ton of walking, but the town itself was cute so it was an enjoyable morning. In Volendam we had fun because they had the right kind of shopping for us. I would call Hoorn quaint and Volendam picturesque (of course there will be plenty of pictures of both!). If you’ve been to Gloucester, MA, that’s about how I would describe Volendam. We walked, stimulated the economy, and tried a few semi-local treats. First was Dutch pancakes. They are about the size of silver dollar pancakes, but are thicker in the middle - yum!. Then mom got to try a Palm beer, which her brother had told her to try. She enjoyed it. This was a fun afternoon! The consensus was that it was more what people had been expecting and gave a nice little insight into Dutch life.

Thursday we were still in Amsterdam. We began the day with a canal cruise on a glass topped boat. It was a little drizzly, so this was a perfect way to get around and see the town. I think Amsterdam is a beautiful city. I love the architecture and the people are friendly. Much to my friend Rob’s chagrin, we have not visited the (in)famous “coffeeshops” for a smoke! Nor have we visited the Red Light District in case anyone is wondering! After the canal tour we went to the Van Gogh museum. We walked around a special exhibit and then went to the permanent collection. We still didn’t see “Starry Night” so we had to ask around. Turns out there was a second floor to the special collection, so we went back and paid it our respects. It is my friend Tamara’s favorite, so I couldn’t miss it! We had much more fun in the gift shop, of course. Mom and I apparently are not so much museum people. Sorry to disappoint. I was more interested in seeing if we could go to the bartending school across the street for a “Starry Night Cocktail.” Sadly my tour guide said no. (Tamara- if you are reading this I swear I will try to go back and have one for you! What could be better than that??) We went back to the ship after that. In the afternoon we went back into the city on a bus for a “Diamond Factory Tour.” Well, clearly the cruise line must be getting a commission because the “factory” was one room and the “tour” was about 5 minutes and then we sat in the showroom. Nice. But it was interesting in the 5 minutes they did talk. They showed a model of what a natural diamond looks like and the steps until it becomes the stone you wear. It was neat. But the “tour” was worth it anyway because it gave us a free trip back into and out of the city. We walked around a little flea market too, but the emphasis in that place seemed to be on “flea” if you get my drift. We didn’t stick around long. We will have one more day there when we get back and it will be a busy day. I want to go back to the Anne Frank House, to the floating flower market, and to take lots of pictures of course!

So what else? Everyone on the boat is really nice. We have continued to meet lots of people at meals and they are all lovely. Yesterday we met another mom and daughter team from Novato and have met a really nice couple from Davis. Kind of crazy. The staff on the boat are really nice for the most part as well. The Maître d’ is my new BFF. He asks me like 3 times a day if I’m finding things okay at meals and if he can do anything for me. On the other hand, the waiters don’t like it when I ask for peanut butter packets at lunch, so I’ve tried to remember taking them at breakfast so I can eat a PB&J for lunch. I know that’s horrifying to my friends who want me to try new things, but trust me – even my mom isn’t crazy about some of the food selections! (I’ll be looking forward to some good pizza when I get back. Sidebar – I have 3 crushes at pizza places in Sacramento, so I need to work on them).I am looking forward to getting to Belgium because I will just have to have some waffles and chocolate, right?

Anyway, I guess that’s it for now. I’ll keep you posted when I can!