There have been many quotes I would have liked to respond to from A Fancy Word for Simple, but by the time I get to looking at my favorite sites at night, I’m too tired to write anything sensible. Saturday’s, however, struck a chord—weekends always seem so short.

"Weekends are a bit like rainbows; they look good from a distance but disappear when you get up close to them."

—-John Shirley

This weekend was wonderful—warm, in the 70’s (haven’t seen that since November!), and sunny. We had to have our photographs taken for the church directory Friday night. I had high hopes of accomplishing quite a bit afterward, but they were running well over an hour behind. We went to dinner and to my mother-in-law’s to wish Bill a Happy Birthday. It ended up being a really nice night, very relaxing in the end—but nothing accomplished at home.
Saturday was better. I went to the gym early and then met my friend Mary. Our favorite stamp store is closing so we went to say good-bye to Linda and to wish her well. I was able to buy almost a whole spool of my favorite black and tan checked ribbon and loaded up on a variety of envelopes as well as one set of journaling stamps. Got all the bills paid, and found a birthday gift for a good friend, cleaned and organized my study, and had time for a glass of wine and dinner on the patio.
Today Tracy and I got up, went to breakfast at Papa Jack’s in Victor, and went to Bristol Garden Center. We bought two 6-packs of pansies for along the front walk, two holly bushes for the hill near the patio, and lots of black mulch. While I planted the pansies and cleaned out the large flower bed, Tracy got the mulch down in the beds in the front yard. We’re way ahead in lawn clean-up. Spent the afternoon organizing the photographs from our Kiawah Island vacation earlier this month and started on a scrapbook/album of the trip. Tonight I worked on next year’s school budget—almost done. So could I use another day? You bet, but it was a pretty productive weekend after all.

Her space : My space photo for the day is FENCE. Once again, I’m using a photo from last week’s vacation in Charleston. We do have a fence, but it’s too rainy to take an SLR out in it. So here’s a pretty fence from Charleston (much fancier than mine.)

The Her Space : My Space challenge today was "bug." No bugs to be found in western NY today–cold rain and now snow. But here’s a lizard I "captured" in Charleston on Wednesday.

"It’s paradise." That’s Matt’s opinion and none of us are disagreeing. It was a picture perfect day. The guys got in their third day of golf and it was warm enough for me to sit in the sun and read. Tonight after dinner we went for a bike ride. The photo supports Matt’s opinion.

I’ve been following Her Space : My Space for several weeks and have often wanted to join in. Today’s prompt was daisy and I had one right on the table here. Being on vacation gives me time to take on these challenges, so here’s my daisy:

We’re on vacation! Tracy and I drove to Charlotte and spent Friday night with friends. Arrived on Kiawah Island yesterday afternoon. Sarah and Adam arrived by dinner and today, my brother Dane, arrived. We’re on vacation and enjoying every minute although it’s too cold to sit on the beach.

Too chilly to sit but it was a beautiful afternoon for a walk.

Sarah & Adam

I feel like I’ve been among the missing on the blog scene, and in fact, I have. Not because I haven’t ideas for posts, but there’s been just too much on my plate and blogging falls quite a way down the long list. Finally the light is shining at the end of the tunnel. Report cards are done, the spreadsheet with recommendations for middle school math and literacy programs is done, and all the plans needed for after vacation are done. It’s a relief–and the thought of vacation is so exciting–even if the weather forecast isn’t all that one would hope. Aside from school work and getting ready for a week’s vacation on Kiawah Island (our favorite vacation spot), I’ve been trying to keep up with my work for my Photo 101 class. I’m getting more and more comfortable with all the options on my Digital Rebel. This week we were working on depth of field. No pretty flowers or budding trees here so I took a shot of our patio light with my new 50mm/1.4 lens. It, too, has a learning curve, but I know I’m going to love it once I’ve had some more experience.

Tracy has wanted a tree face for a long time, and Sarah and Adam ordered one for him for his birthday. It was nice enough this weekend to put it on the tree beside the patio. Here are two shots of our tree guy:

We leave Friday for Kiawah. Can’t wait. Sarah, Adam, Matt, and my brother will all join us for part of the time and everyone will be there on Tuesday. It’s a rare event to have everyone together and I can’t wait.

I’m taking Barbara Carroll’s photography course on BPS, and I’m loving it. I’ve owned a Digital Rebel XT for a year now, and I’ve learned more about my camera in two weeks than I managed to teach myself in a year. This week I got a new lens and now there’s even more to learn. I’ve managed to complete most of the assignments although the cold, snowy weather has prevented me from talking Tracy into going out to sit in the same spot six different times in the day to evaluate how light affects your pictures. Maybe next weekend. Today I put together two layouts with photos I’ve taken for the course. All the photos are of Matt, who has been an incredibly patient and willing model for me every time he stops by. The first layout is my favorite photograph of Matt so far, and the second is a collage of photos I did for the Designing with the 2007 Calendar Challenge at 2Peas. I have some other photos to upload to the Photo-a-Day blog on the sidebar as well. Maybe later tonight.

Here’s today’s Fancy Word for Simple journaling prompt. It was accompanied by a photograph of a stack of books. My pile of books—partially read, waiting to be read—is considerably higher than the one posted. In fact, it fills a bookcase. I used to feel guilty about it until I read a little volume last year entitled The Little Guide to Your Well-read Life.  Leveen says that it’s important to have books in your library that you know you’ll want to read eventually. The old adage:  too many books, too little time, certainly fits.

“I had just taken to reading. I had just discovered the art of leaving my body to sit impassive in a crumpled up attitude in a chair or sofa, while I wandered over the hills and far away in novel company and new scenes… My world began to expand very rapidly,… the reading habit had got me securely.”

H. G. Wells

Okay. I’ll admit it—today’s Trendy Tuesday is completely selfish on my part. I’m a reading teacher aka a reading nerd, geek, or dork. The picture above is actually my stack of unfinished (in some cases unstarted) books. I’m a chronic non-finisher when it comes to books–especially those I really love. If I don’t finish them, it’s like they never end.

Tell me about who you are as a reader. What are you reading right now? What are some of your habits as a reader? Best book you’ve ever read? Worst book you’ve ever read?

I am always reading a book. Currently I’m reading three—two nonfiction and one fiction. The best of the bunch is a wonderful collection of essays written by famous and ordinary folks for NPR’s “This I Believe” program. I read about a third of the book at Sarah’s while I was visiting last week, and bought my own copy when I returned. I’m reading one essay a day as inspiration during Lent. I’m also reading a collection of profiles and essays by the late Marjorie Williams called The Woman at the Washington Zoo. I’ve learned a fair bit, and find most of her writing thought-provoking and interesting. I still have the last third of the book to go. I think this will be more difficult to read as these are the pieces she wrote as she unsuccessfully battled cancer as a mother with young children.

I’ve read a lot of great books. It would be hard to pick one as a favorite. Recent favorites from the last year would be Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

The worst book I ever read was Tom Wolf’s Bonfire of the Vanities. I couldn’t find one character I liked or anything redeeming about the characters or the plot. Usually if I really dislike a book I abandon it, but I finished Wolf’s because it was a book group selection. Truth is, I don’t always finish those if I don’t like them. My allotment of reading time is so small, that I’ve come to resent time reading books I don’t like.

My book group, by the way, is a group of four couples. We’ve been reading together since 1990, and it’s a diverse and interesting group of people. We go out to dinner and then to someone’s house for dessert, coffee, and discussion. It’s become one of my favorite social events. I’ve read a lot of fascinating books I would never had found if not for this book group. We’ve even taken an overnight field trip to tour the sights of one of our favorite book group books—City of Light by Lauren Belfer. It’s a great historical (mystery) novel about Buffalo, NY, at the turn of the century and the development of hydroelectricity using Niagara Falls. We even got a private, hard-hat tour of the power plant as part of our field trip!