Christmas has crept up on me so quickly! Can't believe it's here already! I got the last part of Adam's present yesterday, and my new winter boots! I'm so in love with these boots!


Just look at the traction on those things!!

Sorel is a Canadian company (I believe the shoes are made in Asia these days, a la Doc Martens and Blundstones and everyone else), and they're supposed to last for years. They're waterproof, and have this scrummy lining that you can take out. Makes me actually almost look forward to going out into the cold! I also got mittens - the kind with fingerless gloves inside and the mitten part can fold back - made of 100% marino wool, and a new beanie - plus I'm getting a new coat for Christmas, so I shall be prepared! The only thing missing is thermals (long johns); mine don't fit me anymore :(

Tell you what though, Canadians are crazy. Maybe it's just Torontonians, but you wouldn't believe how many people I saw yesterday, out on the street, with no gloves, no beanie, exposed skin on their feet, rips in their jeans, just a jacket on. Some of them were too fashionably dressed to want to spoil the look with a beanie, and maybe some were just too stupid. All I know was that I felt like I had frostbite, and I was wearing my serious North Face coat (minus the lining, silly me), woolly Explorer socks and a beanie - should have put on my scarf, and I didn't have any gloves which was part of my trip. But I was freezing!

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I only bought two books last week, Under the Dome by Stephen King and Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead - even with a 40% discount on the King book, I still spent over $40, so I couldn't justify buying more. Under the Dome is a mammoth book that hurt my shoulders carrying home, but I love the premise. If it hadn't been discounted I wouldn't have bothered with the hardcover - and there's nowhere for it on my shelves, it's just sitting on my desk, slowly being covered by crap.

Actually, I feel a bit booked-out. There's nothing I'm dying to have these days. It could be seasonal blues making me feel a bit apathetic, I don't know. Kind of like how I'm struggling to finish books. I've only read four books this month so far. I haven't even been watching more TV or anything - well I watched Twilight the other night, because I finally bought a copy, but that's it.

BUT, I have joined a challenge on Goodreads, the "2010 TBR Challenge" - to read 12 books that have been languishing on my shelves, unread, for a while, in 12 months. This is my list:

1. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
2. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
3. Dracula by Bram Stoker
4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
5. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
6. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
7. Immortal by Traci L Slatton
8. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
10. The Wild Swans by Peg Kerr
11. The Spellbook of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty
12. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood

I have until the 31st to change any or add alternates (for those that you absolutely cannot finish) but I'm not going to bother, because I try not to encourage myself to leave books unfinished and I need to read these anyway.

It was hard to pick them, I'll tell you that. I don't do challenges very often because I hate the feeling of being forced to read a book, but I've been thinking I need motivation. And there's even a prize! My competitiveness, such as it is, is making itself felt.

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This week I learnt that "oatmeal" means porridge. I did not know that. I did not know what oatmeal was, but I did not realise it meant porridge. Why do they call it oatmeal?

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I think I may have mentioned that they tore down the rotting balcony a couple of months ago. Well they came back and ripped off the hideous fake-stone facing too. It already looks so much better! We've gone from being the ugliest house on the street to being just another house that needs work.

BEFORE:



AFTER:



You can see that the neighbour's have already done their balcony. We won't get ours till next year sometime, so it looks unlikely that we'll be able to grow any herbs or lettuce next summer :(

I've just eaten a packet of Twisties for dessert, that my sister Fer sent me - God they were good! Maybe it's just as well I can't buy them whenever I want ;)

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I'm way behind on wishing people a happy birthday - mostly because I've only been able to manage one post a week. Pathetic I know. So I'll just recap :)

Happy Birthday for tomorrow, Fer!

Happy Birthday for the 9th, extongardener , aka Mum!

Happy Birthday for the 3rd, make_meabird !

Happy Birthday for the 4th, windandtherain !

Happy Birthday for tomorrow, literaturevixen !

Happy Birthday for the 20th, bookish_nerd !

Happy Birthday for the 23rd, onetrooluff and reading_is_life !

Happy Birthday for the 29th, eclipse_writer !



I'm sorry I couldn't give you the individual posts you deserve, but I hope you had/have a great birthday!!

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I think I have pepper up my nose. It's really driving me crazy.

Okay, am I seriously the only person who thinks Christopher Marsterson, from Malcolm in the Middle, looks just like Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother and Dr Horrible)??


(and come on, I know he's gay, but Harris is still really yummy!)

(Perhaps another reason why I've only been writing one post a week lately is because utter shite comes out when I write more! Life it quite dull at the moment.)

Do you ever sit down to write a post and completely forget everything you meant to say? I know there was stuff I was going to talk about but it's completely fled my head!

And do you ever want to make a post just so you can use a new icon that you absolutely love? Yeah that's part of it too! I have no idea who created this one but it makes me giggle. Spider-man is such a dag! :D

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We had our first snow this week - nothing like what everyone around us got (Toronto is in a weird weather patch because of the lakes - actually, all the towns and cities around are, but they're all different weird patches!). It snowed and then rained and we had loads of slush and giant slushy puddles and it was crappy. Then it froze into ice overnight which was even crappier. Luckily it also snowed a bit more and the snow gave it traction (plus it had frozen into footprint shapes which also helps). It's been really cold ever since - like -21 with the wind chill (wind chill is the worst, it goes right through your clothes and makes your face numb. Plus I don't have any gloves.

But I got the gas fireplace going (which involves unscrewing the glass face and fiddling with knobs and, because it doesn't work terribly well, getting out the matches to light the pilot light. Sounds dodgy I know, but I haven't blown us up yet) and even though our bedroom is freezing, the bookroom is pretty snuggly!

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This week I bought:



New editions of Wicked and Son of a Witch are out and I finally decided to read the first one. I've heard rave reviews and hated-it reviews so I was undecided until recently. I actually borrowed the audiobook of Son of a Witch from the library in the summer but while I liked the story I hated Maguire's reading style, so I stopped after a few chapters. I want to read it but thought I should start with Wicked - but I need to read The Wizard of Oz first. I do have a copy, and it should be a fairly quick read, but I don't know when I'll get to it.

Boneshaker was recommended by jawastew and a few others. It's kinda steampunk sci-fi and sounds really interesting (plus the typeface is a sepia-brown - very interesting!)

Ah, Fallen. You can tell I bought it for the cover, can't you. I've already finished it, actually. Should find time to write the review tomorrow (or it'll never get done).



Queen of Song and Souls is the final book in a romantic-fantasy quartet. (They have such airy-fairy covers too - very wishy-washy 70s cheese!) I really enjoyed the first two, though they had their annoying moments - really I was in the perfect zone for the story. Now the last two books are out and I've picked up both, but I'm worried I won't enjoy them as much because I've really struggled with romance-type books lately. I've just read too many duds this year.

Mystic and Rider is the first book in the Twelve Houses series. I love Shinn's Samaria books - Archangel etc. - and the few others I've read. A friend on Goodreads recommend Twelve Houses and told me where to start, and I was pleased to find it. Not sure when I'll get started on it though.


I'm currently reading The City of Dreaming Books - this one's going to take me a while - and I'm just starting The Scarlet Pimpernel. I still haven't touched the three books I started in November - or was it October? yes, October - and haven't finished yet. Shame on me. Such a bad habit. And yeah, I'm seriously out of room on my bookshelves. I'm having to mix genres in order to cram them in!

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My gift from the Advent Calendar this week was a book called 500 Cupcakes. You can guess what I'll be making tomorrow! Only problem is - where do I start??