Saturday in the Garden | Washington, D.C.

OUTSIDE

I got my seeds started, Woot!  I planted tomatoes, peppers, green onions, chard, kale and basil last Sunday.  The chard, kale and basil are up, everything else is sulky because I just put it on heat mats a couple days ago.

On Monday, I saw my first red-winged blackbirds of the year so it looks like spring is kicking into gear early!

LIFE

It was the most insanely busy week I will likely have all year.  Monday through Thursday I spent in Washington, D.C. so that Wednesday I could run around on Capitol Hill and visit with congressional offices about an issue.  It sounds nerve-wracking and it is a little but it's also surprisingly fun.  I like my quiet life in Iowa but the occasional connection to the excitement of our nation's government is nice, even considering how generally wackadoodle it is.

A Rally at the Supreme Court

The Halls of Congress

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

Well.  After a 12 hour work day on Saturday, I wanted something to zone out to and ended up firing up the first couple episodes of Glee (after I discovered that Netflix only has seasons 4 and 5 of Eureka anymore, boo and hiss).  In so doing, I realized to my shock that there are actually three seasons of Glee that I haven't watched (how did this happen??) and that I felt a little sad about Cory Monteith.  Finn was never my favorite character but Cory did a pretty good job with him.  Pretty darn sad that he had such struggles with addiction and that it finally killed him too young.  Anyway, now that I've started I will likely continue.

Reading

Finished Last Week: 

• American Rose by Karen Abbott:  A biography of Gypsy Rose Lee. 
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey: This haunting sounding fable retelling set in a historical Alaska has been on my TBR for many years.  I started and finished it this week  - it was wonderful.

Currently Reading:

• One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein: A gardening book about maximize food production in a small space.  An ARC from Netgalley (though I think it's an older title).   
• Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones: A stand alone novel I ran across at the local used book store knowing nothing about it except that it was by Diana Wynne Jones:0).  It is taking its time to get going so I hope it picks up the pace soon, simply because that's what I'm in the mood for now. It has an awesome atmosphere, though, that is really sticking with me.
• The Woman Who Rides Like a Man (Song of the Lioness #3) by Tamora Pierce:  Finally getting back to this series - not sure why it took me so long!
• Sorceror to the Crown (Sorceror Royal #1) by Zen Cho:  This was release in the latter half of 2015 and has been raved about non-stop ever since.  It also sounds like a book designed just for me,  Set in Regency Era England it follows the Sorceror Royal as he tries recover the magic levels in England and give women a place in the magical community.
• The Round House by Louise Erdrich:  I started this in D.C. on my kindle and it pretty immediately sucked me in despite the brutality of the subject matter (violent rape against a minority).  

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

• Tiger Eye (Dirk and Steele #1) by Marjorie Liu: This is a paranormal romance recommended on the Get Booked Podcast that featured Sarah MacLean.  The hero is a Djinn type creature which sounds pretty fun.  
• Firelight (Darkest London #1) by Kristen Callihan: Steam punk romance recommended on the same show as the above.  
• Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye: I'm not sure where I ran across this but Lyndsay Faye is an author I like and this is apparently a Jane Eyre re-telling featuring Jane as a serial killer.  Holy intriguing premise batman!

Blogging 

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

• SUNDAY: Review of Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare. 4 out of 5 Stars. 
• TUESDAY: Top Ten Tuesday | Books to Read When You Want To Laugh
• WEDNESDAY: Review of A World Without Princes by Soman Chainani
• THURSDAY: Parent Of Virtues - Week 9. I am experimenting with the 365 Grateful project to help me be more mindful and less of a crabby ass.

On the BLOG NEXT WEEK:

I actually ended up doing pretty well on the blog last week- two reviews! - despite traveling and being crazy busy.  Unfortunately, I think the busyness of last week is going to really impact this week.  It's late Sunday afternoon and it's the first chance all weekend I've had to even think about the blog so yeah.   The Top Ten Tuesday topic this week is really interesting (characters you hate that everyone else seems to love or vice versa) so hopefully I can manage to post on that this week at least.