December has begun!

Good Evening (or morning or afternoon depending on when you are reading this).

I have been away from this blog for too long and I felt I needed to post something to move past the Thanksgiving post. I am back in Portland after having a fabulous time in Phoenix. I loved getting together with those I was able to and as usual I wish we had more time. I also missed a few people this trip and I wish that had not happened. Either way I was truly happy and ready to be heading back home. I enjoy visiting Phoenix but more and more, Portland is becoming my home. I was a little homesick while I was in Phoenix. I spent a lot of time wishing you all were visiting me and we could go out to eat at Pambiche, the little Cuban restaurant near me. It is truly good to be home.

Unfortuantely, school is back in session and I am completely not ready for it. I want another week or 2 off. Of course we usually don't get what we want.

I may have landed a teeny tiny part time job.... I will know for sure after Thursday! Woo!

I failed to finish my NANOWRIMO novel this year. I hit 16,000 in the first week and then the two school classes just got in the way. I ended with 26,000 words, yep, 10,000 words in 3 weeks versus 16,000 in one week. I am not planning on quitting just because I failed to finish in a month, I plan to get going on it again soon. I had some people, Betty being the most vocal, who were wondering when I would be posting a fictional story on here again. I am working on one called Time. As soon as it is done, or halfway done, I will post it.

I want to tell you guys some more stuff.... lets see.....

I bought Generation Dead for Jessica to read and she was enjoying it last I checked. I gave her permission to loan it out so you may want to bother her about it if you want to read it.

I saw Quantum of Solace while in Phoenix with my mom and Becky. I loved it. I am not so sure Becky did even though she was interested in it because Judi Dench was in it. She apparently thought it was going to be more Pride and Prejudice and less James Bondish. Of course she was right about it not being a typical Bond movie, this new Bond is not really your typical Bond, he kicks butt and never actually gets around to asking questions or being suave. I actually really like the new Bond, so much so that I own Casino Royale and plan to purchase Quantum of Solace. I do not own any other Bond movie. Usually once I have seen them I have no desire to see them again. Just to be perfectly clear, I think this was a good flick and one you should go see.

One of my favorite books, Lovely Bones, was written by Alice Sebold. She has written a new book called the Almost Moon and I picked up a hard cover copy super cheap while I was in Phoenix. It is a horrible story so far, I don't mean poorly written, it is not poorly written just very crazy. I will finish it and do a review as this book is pretty intense.

I picked up J.K. Rowlings latest book today, Tales of Beedle the Bard. It has five fairy tales including the one alluded to in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the 7th book). It was a quick read (under an hour) and the fairy tales were not too bad, with good morals in them. If you have a young Harry Potter fan you might want to get this for them, I plan to hold onto it and keep it in my future classroom.

I have stretched this entry enough and will soon end it. First... one last thing, I have pictures from my trip, most notably some fantastic shots from the Desert Botanical Garden featuring Dale Chihuly's glass artwork. I will clean them up and put them in a slide show sometime this week.

Your humble blogenator, Mike

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