What I Read Last Week and My Vacation

Posted August 4, 2009 by Tracy in Features | 11 Comments

Hello again!

I hope you’re all doing well and that you had a good week. My plans to be on the computer a lot last week fell more than short but I had a wonderful vacation anyway.

I told you a little about the day we got there. After that we managed to make it to the KC Zoo where my oldest, who was in charge of the camera, managed to get lets of pictures of animal butts. WTF? lol She couldn’t quite explain that one but luckily she got their faces as well and the camera was digital so the delete button came in handy! 🙂 My sister, her s-i-l, my mother and my youngest and I all went out for my youngests birthday (my sister wasn’t around for her actual birthday so it was a delayed celebration) and went to the Webster House in KC which is a beautifully restored school house that was built in 1885. They have dining, antiques and a multitude of other things. My youngest thought she had died and gone to heaven. It was a fun day.

My father took us all out (and when I say all I mean there were 10 of us) to a Brazilian grill called Em Chamas which is in the town that my sister lives, Parkville. It is a fabulous place that offers incredible cuisine from southern Brazil (I of course thought of Ana who is from Brazil while I was there). It was pretty much a 2 course meal which starts with a buffet of 30 items: green salads, cold salads, seafood, cheeses, breads, mashed potatoes & steamed veggies, among other foods. Then when you are ready you flip over this little disc that is placed at each place setting and they start bringing the meat out: lamb, beef, pork, chicken – and 14 different kinds/flavorings (if you have a minute click on their menu). It’s amazing and so damned good! I’d have to say the Alcatra com Queijo (sirloin with provolone), the House Specialty (I can’t remember the name but it was the top of the top sirloin), and the pork ribs were my favs. Then when you’re done with the meat or just want to take a breather you flip your little disc over to the “no” side and they stop until you flip it back. Let’s just say we pretty much waddled out of there. lol

A lot of the time the kids just wanted to stay home and play pool in the basement. I seriously thought we were gonna have to start a 12 step program for my youngest since she was addicted to pool but since she’s been at my other sisters house (in Alabama) she’s calmed down (and yes they have a pool table as well).

My sister and her s-i-l run a Decorating Den Interior Designs business and though they run it out of the basement office they had a couple of installations while I was there and so I got to help with those. She said she’d email me a couple of before and afters of the rooms we did so I’ll be able to show you…later. My camera, for some crazy reason, is choosing to act up right now and so I can’t show you pictures. Bummer.

The other wonderful I did while I was there was meet fellow blogger and DIK lady Sarai!!!! We met at Cheeseurger in Paradise and talked for 3 straight hours. She is just so wondefully funny and so stinking nice! I loved talking to her. Then of course we made our way over to Books-A-Million (yes, I know I had just been there! And yes, I bought more books!) and talked more books for a while. Unfortunately the night had to end but I’m so very happy that we got that time together.

That’s about the extent of my vaca. It was fun and relaxing and it was so good to just sit and talk with my sister for hours – and play with the kids without having to worry about chores, etc. Just fun stuff.

And now I’m home and getting kind of another little mini vacation. My hubby has gone to Sturgis for the bike rally and won’t be back until Saturday and the kids are with my ‘rents at my sisters house in Alabama so I’m home alone for the week. I don’t have to cook, or clean (did that before I left) or get kids in bed at a certain time. Like I said, a mini vacation! lol

I didn’t get much reading done last week but what I did read was pretty good. And I just realized with all the new and new to me books that I’ve gotten recently that I’ve completely crapped out on my Tracy’s TBR Challenge the past two weeks. So – I’ll be better with that this week…at least I’ll try to be better.

First was Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh. No, I didn’t read the other books in this series but after reading Tumperkin’s post about this book I just felt compelled to buy it and read it. And I’m so glad I did. I really liked it a lot! There was a time when I was getting altogether too frustrated with the heroine because she was being unbearably rude, but overall it was just fab. It was one of those where you really can’t see the hero and heroine coming together but yet it happens and in such a realistic way. 4.5 out of 5 (thanks Tump!)

Then I read ePistols at Dawn by ZA Maxfield. This was the story of a man, Jae-Sun, who works for a tabloid who’s altogether pissed at the fact that someone has dared to satirize his most loved coming-out novel. He starts emailing the woman who has had the gall to do this but turns out she’s a he, Kelly. This was a good story but I’m not a huge fan of big misunderstandings and this had a couple. The writing was good but I felt an on again, off again connection with the characters which threw me a few times out of the book. I’m torn about my rating for this one so I’ll not say for now until I figure it out. 🙂

And lastly (I know, you’re shocked that there’s only 3 books) was Bengal’s Heart by Lora Leigh – book 19 in the Breed series – which I read for The Book Binge so I’ll let you know when my review posts.