27 to go

Reading total: 3 books
Books to go: 27
Months before 30: 16.5
Library Fines: undetermined but somewhere over $10 (I was a month and a half late on returning the last book...oops!)

So I stuck with it and finished Wuthering Heights. I ended up really enjoying the story and the characters and have this desire to move out into the country. I love how books can transport you to a different time and place. Reading is truly magical.

So, what book is next to read? Here are the ones I have left:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
2. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexander Dumas
3. 1984 – George Orwell
4. Guns, Germs and Steel – Jared Diamond
5. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
6. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
7. Crime and Punishment – Dostoyevsky
8. Gone With The Wind – Mitchell
9. The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
10. The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett
11. The Giver – Lois Lowry
12. Perks of Being a Wall Flower – Stephen Chbosky
13. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
14. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupéry
15. The Great Gatsby – Fitzgerald
16. Watership Down – Richard Adams
17. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
18. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
19. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
20. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
21. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
22. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
23. Catch-22 – Heller
24. Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathon Swift
25. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
26. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
27. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
28. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
29. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
30. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

Seeing as how I'm apparently reading every other book, I guess I'll pick Crime and Punishment. Anyone out there own it? I'm thinking I might need to go the borrow route rather than the library route as I have this horrible tendency to keep books LONG after their due date.  I'm thinking one of my New Years Resolutions should be "Return library books BEFORE their due date."

Leg 1 of the journey begins

Marta ride to the airport. My biggest pet peeve about Atlanta and the
one reason I have a hard time qualifying it as a "big" city is because
of the transit system. There are two lines that intersect downtown to
form a big t. If you need to get to a point not on one of these
lines, good luck! I've heard rumors that there are buses that take
you to these other places, but haven't ever taken one. So for most
Atlantas, using public transit as your main mode of transportation
isn't as easy as in say NYC, Chicago or Boston. But I can't complain
too much because my office building is at one of the train stops and I
can easily ride the train to the airport...which is what I'm doing as
we speak. So is Mr. Cob...but he's a few cars back.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Can I send Pictures from my phone to the Swans too?

Uh oh world - pictures direct from my phone to you!

What do you think about my new glasses??? Mr. Cob is not a big fan. But I love them. Did I mention they're purple??!!

Third post about Technology Rocking...

So I can now update y'all via text message AND from my email. Lucky
for you I have a blackberry so I'm always email-ready/capable!
Someone is very bright to have figured out all this technology. 15
years ago the internet wasn't big. 10 years ago cell phones were
massive and very expensive (mine was of the "emergencies-only"
type...but I did have a very cool neon aqua-marine pager! 1-4-3 ...).
And today we have small phones that let us bring the internet with us
wherever we go. Even on airplanes miles above the Earth! (Side note:
I am against this new technology. I like being "unplugged" on a plane
- its a great excuse to ignore emails and everything associated
therewith)!

Speaking of planes, I'm supposed to get on one in 2.5 hours. I say
"supposed" to be because we are currently 1 hour and 35 minutes
delayed. Stay tuned for more updates as the day (and inevitable night
at the airport) unfolds!

--
Sent from my mobile device

I can now update the blog from my phone via text message! This is test text 1...are you there? Hello? Fellow Swans?

Technology Rocks!

I recently downloaded a new "app" for my blackberry (and yes, for those of you wondering, i-phone isn't the only one with apps!). The app is called Bodies in Motion or BIMActive. It is a GPS for your phone that tracks your progress as you are running, walking or cycling. You can set the intervals so your phone beeps when you've gone 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile or mile. And then it links to the BIMactive internet site and you can chart your progress. I've used it once on a run - which was amazing and helped me go a mile further than my usual 3 mile loop. And then this morning the puppy and I went for a walk and I tracked our walk. It's a really cool device and I thought I'd share it with y'all. And the other two great things is that (1) it can link externally to my blogger (as per the current post) and (2) someone at home can "live track" your route if you give them access. So, lets say I want to go for a run but it looks like it might rain. If it starts pouring on my run, Mr. Cob can go online and find out where exactly I am in my run and come rescue me! (That's assuming Mr. Cob would be my knight in shining armor in said situation.) Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1027 ft Location: Decatur, GA, Elev. Gain: -4 ft Date: 12/16/09 Up/Downhill: [+127/-131] Time: 07:55 AM Difficulty: 1.5 / 5.0   Weather: Partly Cloudy   37 F temp; 78% humidity   37 F heat index; winds NW 9 mph Performance Distance: 1.46 miles Time: 0:26:47 Speed: 3.2 mph Pace: 18' 45 /mi Calories: 141 Map   Elevation (ft)   Speed (mph)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 18' 24 -0' 21 3.3 +0.1 +23 ft end 18' 14 -0' 31 3.3 +0.1 -26 ft Versus average of 3.2 mph

Posted from bimactive.com

I have AMAZING girlfriends

Every couple of months I get forwarded the email about a young woman who just got married and is talking to her mother. Her mother advises her to "Always keep your girlfriends." To which the girl kind of laughs and thinks is strange advice since she just got M-A-R-R-I-E-D. Now that she's betrothed, why on earth would her mother be advising her to stay close to her friends. Didn't she now have a companion in life who she could tell everything to? He's her husband, so he'll take the place of all her friends, right? Luckily the girl listens to her mother and keeps her girlfriends, and the email goes on to tell us all why it was good thing, etc. etc.



If I didn't do a massive email dump every couple of months, I could've inserted said email [HERE]...but alas, I don't have it so you're stuck with my horrible summary. But, my point is this: I thought about that email last week and think all ladies should really heed Mamma's advice on this one. And it suprised me and caught me off guard, because this thought (and email) struck me during a happy time, not in a sad time when you need to lean on other people.



Last year a few of my girlfriends started a monthly supper club where we get together at a new restaurant and eat, drink and goissip. It's grown to include a few more girls over the year and I would anticipate it'll grow and retract in the years to come as people move away, or new friends move to town. It's one of my favorite days each month because I know I'm going to laugh, sometimes cry and always come away feeling love and happiness. Well, last Thursday we had our First Annual Supper Club Holiday Party and it was on my way home from the party that I thought of the email. One of our girls recently got engaged - so we chatted about her upcoming nuptials. And another recently found out she's having a baby, so we gushed over her wonderful news. It was just such a happy night.



I feel very lucky to be married to a wonderful man who adores me and who would go to Hell and back any number of times for me. He laughs at my not funny jokes, puts up with my every changing moods and borderline craziness, and he even listens to me gossip about work and life and things he couldn't care less about. That's just the kind of man he is. And that's the kind of love we share.




But, I'm glad I have kept my girlfriends. Some I've known for many years, while others I'm just now getting to know. Others live far too far away, while others live in walking distance. Some I talk to every day and others only every now and again. But one thing is always constant, I love them dearly and feel so blessed to have them all in my life.


So if any you ever are asked to give an engaged woman or newly married lady some marriage advice, I'd repeat the advice of the wise woman: Always keep your girlfriends!

Who Me????

According to my husband, I can't be trusted. Well, it's not that he doesn't trust me in the overall sense of trust (at least I think). You see, we have a solid marriage...an open forum for discussion...mutual respect for one another. Love, lots of love. And until this morning, I thought we had mutual trust in one another.

But apparently it is only one-sided. He even admits that he thinks I can't be trusted. And you know what? He's right. It's true. At least not at this time of year. Not with the holidays and gift buying in the works.

But let me back up, its his fault, really. When we got married I took a stand for having separate checking accounts. But as he can't trust me (or my love for buying shoes and purses), he convinced me that we just needed one joint checking account. (It would be easier to pay the bills...how would we determine whose money to spend on what? Etc. etc. etc.) So I gave in and we have one joint checking account. But I maintained my independence by keeping my very own credit card, which he doesn't have access to. (Ok, he really does have access to it, but he doesn't care to look. I think...) And he has his very own credit card. Only his is linked to our checking account. So I can see when the balance creeps up, cent by cent. And I'll admit, I often peruse the credit card statement - but just to make sure everything is correct. I'm not looking to see what he buys. Honestly, I'm not. It's just that I'm in charge of our bills and finances, so I need to look at these things.

Well being the diligent bill-payer that I am, I went to go check out our banking situation this morning. I pulled up the Bank of America site. Entered our user name. Hit enter. Everything was normal. I was next prompted to enter our password. First try: FAIL. Ok, I must have entered it incorrectly. Second try: Access denied. Ok, I must have had cap lock on. Third try: INCORRECT PASSWORD. It was at this point I knew something was up. So I called Mr. Cob.

Me: Did you change our bank account password.
Mr. Cob: [Chuckling] Yes.
Me: Why on earth would you do that?
Mr. Cob: So you can't snoop around and see what I've bought you for Christmas.
Me: Who Me? NEVER!

You see. My own husband. He doesn't trust me. Sigh.

Then again, he probably has a point - I did call him the other day asking why he spent $40 at Jimmy Johns. I thought perhaps someone had stolen his card and gone on a sandwich buying spree. I was concerned, that's all. I'm not a snooper. I swear.

Sweet Pup

Wrigley is settling in to her new home rather nicely. She is espeically loving and cuddly with her mamma and papa. She's trying to befriend Bailey Ann, but it's not going so well... Bailey drives a tough sell.

Just thought I'd share another pictuer of our pup!

WARNING: Totally Vain Post to Follow

Does anyone else out there obsess about their hair? I feel like I'm on a constant hair roller coaster ride. When it is short I want it long. When it's long I can't wait to chop it off. When I have bangs I think I'd look better without them. When the bangs grow out I feel like cutting them. Is it just a girl thing? Do other people have these thoughts?

If you can't tell, I'm considering chopping my bangs again. And maybe my hair. And its not even long right now - it's "mid-length". Thoughts? Here's some pics to help you decide:

Current hair:


Other options:
Longer hair, short choppy bangs -


Short hair, medium length bangs -


Long hair, medium length bangs -


I realize this is silly, but thought I would share my silliness with the world.

And don't say I didn't warn you that this post would be all about me. In my defense, I'm trying to deflect my feelings and fears about the fact that roofers are ripping off our current shingles and potentially finding rotted wood. Which leads to more $$$$$. Yup, that's my story. I'm not really this vain. Really. I'm not.