Whoot Whoot!

CONGRATULATIONS Go out to my friend Jane who just got engaged to her boyfriend Eric this weekend!! I'm happy to see them so happy.

Books a Million

In all of the craziness lately I haven't been very good about keeping my reading list updated! However, I have made my way through a few pieces of literature lately! Here is your update.

The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney

We read this novel for August's Book People meeting. It was amazingly well written for a first novel. Had I not known any better I would never have guess it to be a first. This piece of historical fiction takes place in rural Canada during the 1870's. It starts with the murder of a local fur trader and the disappearance of a 17 year old boy, Francis Ross. Obviously Francis is the key suspect. The novel continues as Francis's mother goes off into the Canadian wild in search of her son in the company of another suspicious character. The Hudson Bay Trading company becomes embroiled in the scandal as they attempt to ensure that justice is served. It was an interesting book, with a fair amount of detail. There were some pieces of backstory that we were interested in knowing more about, and our character analyses found several to be quite unique. All in all, it was a rough time and place and I wouldn't have wanted to have been caught up in it

The Madonnas of Lenningrad by Donna Dean

This was a book that I picked up based on the name. It just sounded interesting. It was the haunting story of a Russian woman working as a docent at the Hermitage during the siege of Leningrad during WWII. The story is told in flashbacks as Maria is visiting with family and traveling for her granddaughter's weddding. She is falling vicitim to Altzheimers, and is often confused between the present her her life back in Leningrad. During her stay at the Hermitage her lover joins the Army and she if forced to live through horrendous conditions. Her memories of the museum are breath taking. Meanwhile, the loss of these memories as she succombs to Altzheimers is incredibly sad. This was a good read, although I think I need to re-read it since I think I missed a few detials.

Songs without Words by Ann Packer

On the way back from Houston I picked up this novel. My cousin Abby had mentioned it to me, as we had both enjoyed Packer's previous work. I give Ab kudos for the recommendation! It details the friendship and lives of two Californian women, Liz and Sarabeth. They grew up across the street from one another in Palo Alto, until Sarabeth moved in with Liz's family after mother's suicide. The book deals with their lives as adults and the intricacies of their lives. Liz has a picture perfect life as a housewife with two teenage children while Sarabeth is still a free spirit, single and living a carefree life exploring her artistic side. They carryover a friendship that is more of an unbiological sisterhood, despite San Fransisco Bay lying between their lives both physically and emotionally. They are shocked by the attempted suicide of Liz's daughter, and their friendship and their individual lives undergo a series of trials. Some reviewers did not enjoy the book, calling it boring. I still enjoyed it as I saw it exploring the friendships of women and how we lead our lives versus the view from the exterior.

Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

This is no novel, but rather a true story. The first thing I say is, read it. Really, you should. It was a great book. It told the story of two men who grew up with distinctly different lives - and how the actions of one woman changed them and the people of the city of Fort Worth. Ron grew up in TX, in a middle class home. He worked on his grandfathers farm and made his way into college, falling in love with Deborah. After their marriage he became an investment banker, eventually moving into the world of high class art dealer! While living the high life of the upper crust crowd Deborah decided that they needed to do God's work. Volunteering at Union Gospel Misson Mr. Ron and Miss Debbie met Denver, a homeless man with a story. Denver grew up share cropping in Louisiana. It was a horrible time and a horrible place to be, but the black sharecroppers knew no better - their property owners denied them access to education that would make them aware of the current state of affairs. Eventually Denver left for TX, where he survived as a homeless man - a plight far better than his life in LA. Miss Debbie's work brought them all to God and has shined a spotlight on the homeless. I highly recommend this book, which chronicles the lives of these three individuals. It was so hard to believe it was reality and not a novel - no one can be ieve that this is the way things were. It moved me.

For more information check out their website.

http://www.samekindofdifferentasme.com/default.aspx

Paws Garage Sale

This weekend we had our annual garage sale for Paws Pet Rescue (http://www.pawsrescuepets.org/). Some of Vicksburg’s finest gave some great donations, and the sale was an overall success. Of course, I am reminded that I’m just not a grage sale person. Getting up early, hunting through junk, and haggling are not my deal. In particular, folks who haggle over $0.50 when the money is going to charity really annoy me. We had some folks come through the night before and try to buy off all of our good stuff before we even finished organizing for Saturday morning. It is hard to feel considerate for people who tell you how much work they do for animal rescue and how you should be donating money when they act the way these folks did. Grrr. However, the garage sale was a success, and that is all that is important! Plus, where else can you find a real Prada wallet for $0.25?

While at the garage sale we got to play with one of Paws' current foster dogs, Owen. Owen is absolutely a hoot, and the sweetest dog ever. He is a black lab, and approximately 11 months old. A kind man found him when he wwas about 3 months old, and Owen was in severe pain. His eye had been damaged by a barbed wire. Owen was a bit of a crazy dog. Unfortunately he lost the battle with his eye recently. Since then he has healed and become a crazy fun dog. His entire body shakes when he whacks his tail around, and he only stops wagging to sleep! He will make a great pet for some lucky family.

Survival

I returned from Houston just in time to prepare for our late friend Gustav. While in Houston I watched a lot of news, concerned that the Hurricane would hit Houston and I would have trouble getting home – or that it would hit here and I would have trouble getting home.

After surviving Katrina I have learned a lot of lessons about hurricanes. I battened down the hatches and spent Labor day awaiting Gustav’s arrival. I turned the AC waaaaay down while waiting for the power to go out. I also made sure to have stock in bottled water and canned goods. I even remembered to get fill the dog’s water jug up since a power loss would lead to boil water orders. Luckily the storm didn’t hit too hard. Unfortunately it was my first experience on the east side of a hurricane. We had 10.75 inches of rain over the course of 3 days, as well as 50+ mph winds and tornados. My yard gained a few limbs and sticks that needed to be cleaned up. On Wednesday I came home to a tree in my yard! The neighbors across the street had a 60 ft.-tall oak tree blow over in the wind. It was lying across the street and partially in my yard. We are all incredibly lucky that the tree didn’t take out any power lines or fall towards their house. The county came out and removed it, nice to get to see my tax dollars used for something! The good thing that came out of this – all of the rain filled our subdivision lake!

Here are some pictures of the damage. By the time I got the camera on Thursday afternoon the tree was gone, but you can see the 'leftovers' in my yard and the stump in the neighbors yard.

A close up of my yard and the tree debris!

Unfortunately, now we are waiting out Ike who looks posed to potentially follow a similar track right now. After Gustav I didn't fully go off of hurricane alert since it looked to be coming.

Labor Day Vacation means no Labor

Hi Boys and Girls! Time for an update from blog land! Last week I took off a few days and headed off to Houston for some fun with my visitors!

We drove most of the way to TX on Wednesday night, making a gas stop in Kenwood, LA (home of Brittney and Jaimie Lynn Spears). Thursday we finished the drive into TX and hit the beach in Galveston. It was pretty neat. I always think of Galveston as being particularly petro-chemicaly, or oily at the very least. Turns out it is just like any other beach town! We had lunch overlooking the gulf, and watched some dolphins frolicking out in the ocean. After eating a buger and some unsweet tea we went wading in the ocean. I really love the ocean, and I love water. Be warned, Palko clan, I may be inviting myself out for shore week again sometime soon!

While on the ferry to Galveston we saw a coast gaurd cutter -

Katie Grace, this is your shout out.

Thursday night we got to pick up Jane's new man Eric at the airport. This was my first chance to meet him and see if he passed the test. Friday was the beginning of the fun. Nik and I did a qick run by the Macy's across the street from our hotel. Seriously, that was awesome. Then we all met up and went to the Johnson Space Center. It was pretty neat to see the room featured in Apollo 13. I enjoyed the tram ride and looking at all the cool space stuff. It brought back good memories of my times at Space Academy in Jr. High. One of these days I need to make my way down to FL to watch a shuttle takeoff!

Me with a Saturn V rocket

The Mars Rover - You saw it here first!

Friday night I attended my first Cardinals game - AND my first Astro's game! The 'Stros won. I must say, their ballpark was neat! It has a really cool retractable roof. The engineer in me was absolutely loving it. Plus it makes cool inside during a hot TX game. They opened it up Friday night so that we could check out the post-game fireworks. That totally made my night. After the game Nikki and I found this really cool bar, The Flying Saucer. Check out their website! They had over 200 kinds of beer there. I enjoyed a semi-local Live Oak, brewed over in Austin.

Saturday morning Nikki and I headed over to the Houston Downtown Aquarium, which also happened to be across the street from the Hard Rock. The Aquarium was smaller than the Shedd, but well put together. Very cute! Plus we caught a nifty little presentation where a diver was in their Gulf of Mexico tank and talked about the fish in there and the advantages that oil rigs can bring to the aquatic community.

I also got to see a big yummy Red Snapper!!!

They had a cool Shark Tunnel too! It reminded me of one of the Jaws movies... although not nearly so large, and we were on a trolley.

Saturday afternon we took a tour of the park and saw another game. I don't really get why the Houston Ladies like Hunter Pence so much. He needs to learn what type of product is best for a curly mop like his! Sunday I grabed a flight home, read a good book (more on that later) and made it home just in time to prepare for the storm.

For some reason they had White Tigers at the Aquarium too. They were gorgeous, and about as lazy as smokie!

For more pics and videos check out Jane's blog at Jano Fabulous!

Visitors from a far far away place..

I would like to put out a warm hospitatilty state welcome to Nikki and Jane. They decided to come spend their vacation here in the beautiful south. Sunday they drove down from Champaign to hang out at Chez Jersey. All of the jersey girls have enjoyed having visitors. Nik and Jane have been exploring Vicksburg by day while I've been working (ugh). I've been ready to bust my tail all summer on my project. Now that I finally have a fun trip to take the project is finally going and my days of vacation are getting in the way.

Thus far we have hit several of the Vicksburg standby's, including the Ameristar and Rusty's. Check out Jane's blog for your amusement! Their videos are cracking me up. Today I'm working half a day and then we are heading over to Houston to enjoy a weekend away, provided Gustav doesn't decide to join us! We are a pack of goreous women, so I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to.

Project Runway.. and my Return

Ok, so I've been a really lazy blogger. I've been working on the house and reading for book clubs and traveling and trying to get caught up at work, among other things. Instead of trying to catch up on what has happened lately, let me just pretend it never happend.

So I am loving the fact that Project Runway has returned. I claim to abhorr reality TV, but I heart this show! It is so funny! Wednesday night I went to Book Club and then caught the Olympics and watched Walsh and May bring home the gold. I didn't realize it - but I had missed my precous Project Runway. Last night I caught the re-run. OMG. It was fabulous. Drag Queens. Need I say more? They were absolutely fantabulous. It sort of reminded me of last season's wrestling episode. Most of the time they get called out for being too dramatic - but this week was the oppertunity to show their inner sparkle!

I loved the Pink Sailor Outfit and the Red Flame Dress that made the final 3. They were awesome and sparkley!

I particularly enjoyed Tim's description of Blayne's design as a crazy gay Jurasic Park pterodactyl. I really don't understand how Blayne is still on the show? And licious makes me vmoit. I can't say I really got the Japanese Kimono Outfit.

It was an all together enjoyable episode. Seriously over the top and seriously had me laughing all night long!!!!!