Don't Be Afraid of the Dork: Saturday in the Garden

OUTSIDE

The garden is well and truly dead now and looks pathetic. I want to leave most of the dead stuff standing over the winter (for insects) but it really does look depressing. I did make some progress - dumping pots and squeezing them in the over-stuffed garage for the winter. Nothing like waiting until the very last minute.

Meanwhile, as I work, this is Jasper's favorite thing to do:

If you can't tell what he is doing, he is lovingly finding just the right stick to gnaw on and then gnawing so sweetly and contentedly. So cute, though hopefully he doesn't grow a tree in his stomach. What? That's what my mom told me would happen whenever I ate inappropriate things - is it not true?

One of my goals this weekend is to re-pot and re-organize my houseplants as well. One thing I got done today was combining all the succulents.

GAK

After being exceedingly lazy the last two days (it was a major holiday here in the U.S, and I, thankfully, have a job that provides this time off), I got the gumption up to do All The Things today. I walked the dogs down to the grocery store, and got ingredients for a beet salad that I made to take to a gathering tonight. I made some homemade dog biscuits, did some brisk house-cleaning and worked on the yard a bit. I also swung by the local indie bookstore and took advantage of some small business Saturday deals.

I got a couple of gadgets in the mail as well that I am SUPER DUPER excited about. One is an Amazon Echo which makes me feel like I am living on a Star Trek ship, if only it would make me tea (Earl Gray, Hot). I am still learning all that it can do and will post about it more later, probably. I also got one of these:

Any idea what the disc on my bedside table is? It's a light alarm clock! Basically it gradually gets lighter over the 30 minutes before your wake up time so you theoretically wake up gradually as if with the sunrise and then are fully awake when it reaches its brightest. I struggle with getting up in the morning, even when I get a good nights sleep. I want to try and get better because I'd like to add some more exercise to my morning routine (I walk the dogs but that's mild exercise at best). It doesn't work for everyone but I have hope. Do any of you, dear readers, use one of these? How do you like it?

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching

After all the discussion about Anne of Green Gables last week, I got a yearning to watch the beloved 1980s mini-series (still procrastinating Arrow). I own both Anne of GG and its follow up Anne of Avonlea on videocassette (yes I still have a VCR) and it never fails to inspire and bring a smile to my face. Anne is such an interesting character because she's in danger of being a Mary Sue (as Diana says in the mini-series when Anne is fretting about performing a poem "Anne Shirley, you've never failed at anything" with a wistful affection tinged with jealousy). She is saved from this by honestly being SO annoying, lol. I mean you love her but she really is irritating - the way she treats Gilbert, the way she prattles on, the way she says cutting things without even realizing it. She's also so self-absorbed - she is pretty clueless about her bosom friend's feelings and aspirations. I'm getting a kick about how she is constantly rejecting Gilbert because he doesn't match up with her imagined romantic ideal. Meanwhile, every female reader of these books/watcher of this mini-series thinks Gilbert is absolutely the ideal man. Out of all the fictional men I've ever met I think he's probably my favorite. Silly Anne. She really is so unfair to him on so many levels.

Reading

Finished Since the Last Time I Posted

Etiquette and Espionage (Finishing School #1) by Gail Carriger: I loved the Parasol Protectorate series so I enjoyed this YA offering in the same world by Ms. Carriger!
The Fold by Peter Clines: A really fun blend of sci-fi, mystery and suspense-thriller.
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns: Despite being published in 1984 this book has the air of being a classic. It is kind of a presentation of an eventful year in the life of a family in small town Georgia in the early years of the 20th century.
The Olympians: Athena and Hera by George O'Connor: A middle-grade graphic novel series that tells the most prominent myths surrounding each of the Greek deities.

Currently Reading:

A Plain Death (Appleseed Creek #1) by Amanda Flower: An Amish mystery/romance by an author that appears to be quite popular. Set in small town Ohio.
The Old Fox Deceiv'd (Richard Jury #2) by Martha Grimes: The second in this classic British mystery series. Centers around interestingly name British pubs.
H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald: A non-fiction book, primarily memoir, about the authors training of a Goshawk for falconry in an effort to heal after her father's sudden death.

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!

On Living by Kerry Egan: Recommended on Book Riot's All the Books podcast. It's a non-fiction memoir about the author's experience as a hospice chaplain.
Victoria by Daisy Goodwin: A fictionalized depiction of Queen Victoria's early reign as queen. Companion to a BBC show of the same name. I found this book on Eclectic Tales.
Crime and Poetry (A Magical Bookshop Mystery #1) by Amanda Flower: A pretty highly recommended cozy mystery. As you'll see above, I couldn't get my hands immediately on this book so decided to try another by this author. Recommended by The Bookwyrm's Hoard.
Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation, edited by Ken Liu: An anthology of short Chinese Science Fiction. Recommended by Danya at Fine Print.