By Golly, Ollie!

  • Feeling Crafty

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    Christmas Sheep

    It took me ten minutes to assemble the Christmas tree this afternoon, and even less time to regret putting it up as Fargo began launching himself into our four-foot, plastic Virginia Pine and ripping down both my Christmas ornaments. Yes, you read that right– both my Christmas ornaments– as in I currently only have two. It dawned on me that I’ll have to sew one every night until Christmas in order to fill up the tree. The two-foot Christmas tree that I stuck my nose up at is looking more and more appealing.

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  • A Work in Progress

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    Workspace

    Work took Jon to Alabama this weekend, and I found myself alone in the apartment without a voice of reason. This is how I am accepting the fact that I once again decided to give Books & Tea a makeover, I just spent $100 at Joanne Fabrics on a craft I have zero experience with, and I didn’t complete nearly as many chores as I had intended; although, in my defense, I’ve also completed more chores than I normally do in one weekend, so there is that.

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  • Wandering Through Chicago

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    Chicago Night

    I don’t know what I was thinking when I accepted an invitation to visit Chicago at “month end” (ie. the beginning of October. Accounting is weird like that). It’s the worst time to be away from work when you’re a bookkeeper, but I decided to ignore the anxiety brewing in my chest anyway; I submitted a time off request, booked a round-trip train ticket for $54 (how can you beat that price?!), and tried to push the thought of having to complete three days worth of work in 1.5 days out of my mind.

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  • I’m Disappointed…That it Took Me So Long to Read This Book! | The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

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    Percy Jackson the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

    There were two reasons why I didn’t read Percy Jackson the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan when it was released:

    1. In January 2005, I was a junior in high school, and I considered myself too old for middle grade novels.
    2. Yet, I wasn’t too old for Harry Potter, which is the other reason I didn’t read this book. Someone said it was “perfect for fans of Harry Potter“, which is an instant turn-off. Nothing can compare to Harry Potter!

    So, I’m not sure why, at the age of 27, I felt compelled to buy this middle grade novel (other than, it was on sale, and I’m notoriously impulsive when it comes to buying and borrowing books). Once I brought the book home with me, it spent a few months sitting on the floor beside my bed before I even considered actually reading it. It was because of mentions on two blogs, Reviews and Cake and J.Bookish, that I took as a sign and decided to finally give the book a read. Right from chapter one, I was totally engrossed in The Lightning Thief. Normally I can’t read in bed because I get drowsy really quickly, but this book had me thinking just one more chapter before lights out, and before I knew it, the clock read midnight. I even read this book with the teevee on, and I wasn’t distracted at all.

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  • At Least They Didn’t Die of Dysentery? | The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown

    At Least They Didn’t Die of Dysentery? | The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown

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    I guess you could say I’m fascinated by the Oregon Trail. Like many youngsters growing up in America during the 1990s, I was in love with the Oregon Trail computer game. My knowledge of survival was poor, of course; In Independence, Missouri, often the main starting place for the Oregon Trail, I would always spend too much money on salt pork (that’s practically bacon, right?), and oxen—mostly for lugging a wagon full of salt pork, but that would eventually run out… I also treated every scrape, gouge, and disease with turpentine—good for runny noses, not so good for dysentery. It’s a miracle my party ever made it to Oregon (most of the time they didn’t).

    There was also that time in college when I would escape to the library on cold, blustery days and try to read the Lewis and Clark journals—not quite as engaging as one would think—wait, does anyone even think that?

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About the Blogger

My name is Jackie, and I am a millennial / mother / Michigander / blogger / wannabe runner / accountant / local library enthusiast / gamer, kinda. This is a personal blog, which means I’m not entirely certain what you’ll find here, but it will definitely not show up on the first page of Google search results.