Weekly Update

Welcome to my weekly update for December 15, 2024! Since we had recovered from our Thanksgiving colds, my husband and I decided to drive from Phoenix up to Sedona last weekend and spend a few days. This was our first visit and we fell in love. It's gorgeous with all the towering red rocks but it still has enough trees and green scrub to satisfy my East Coast heart. We stopped by Montezuma Castle National Monument on the drive up. This was our second time seeing cliff dwellings since we arrived in Arizona and it's just amazing to me that these structures are still standing. We did a lot of hiking the other two days. Slideshow: Montezuma Castle Overlooking Sedona Close to the beginning of the Boynton Canyon trail. We walked beside the grounds of a resort for a while then left it behind as we entered the canyon proper. My husband taking pictures at the mouth of Subway Cave. We were not sure I was going to successfully clamber up the rocky entrance and getting down was an even dicier prospect but I did it! Posted: Nothing this week. Read: The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily (Dash & Lily #2) by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, read by Tara Sands and Ryan Gesell--3 Stars (Link to my review on GoodReads) Currently Reading: A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter, translated by Jane Degras Amari and the Despicable Wonders (Supernatural Investigations #3) by B. B. Alston, read by Imani Parks Wishin’ and Hopin’ by Wally Lamb, read by the author Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Matt Patterson Up Next: I have a review for American Christmas Stories, edited by Connie Willis, scheduled to post on Wednesday. I'm linking it…

Welcome to my weekly update for December 8, 2024! My husband and I picked up lingering colds the week of Thanksgiving so we've been taking it easy for a couple of weeks. We're planning to start exploring again this weekend. There's so much to see around Arizona! One of our first excursions when we arrived in the Phoenix area was to Lost Dutchman State Park. We hiked to the base of these rocks and back down. When I flew home to NC a few weeks ago, my husband decided to hike/climb to the very top of the rocks (Named the Superstition Mountains). I knew that was more than my creaky knees could handle! Posted: Sign ups for my 2025 Books in Translation Reading Challenge and 2025 Southern Literature Reading Challenge. You can read one book for each of these challenges and be successful or you can choose a different level to make it more difficult if you'd like. I've pinned the images in my sidebar for easy reference. Just click the button and you'll be taken to the challenge page. I hope you'll join me! Read: I was almost finished with a couple of these last week and a week of lying low gave me plenty of time for reading. Would you believe that all of these links go to my reviews on GoodReads? I've been in a definite review slump. I won't promise you that they're stellar reviews but they're something! The Hush (Johhny Merrimon #2) by John Hart, read by Jeremy Bobb--4 Stars Cannery Row by John Steinbeck--4 Stars I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversations by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers--3 Stars Cute Toot by Breanna J. McDaniel, illustrated by Olivia de Castro--4 Stars Christmas Bliss (Weezie and Bebe Mysteries #4) by Mary…

Welcome to my weekly update for December 1, 2024! I hope that all of you who celebrate had a happy Thanksgiving! Since my last update on September 15, my husband and I wrapped up his work assignment in Schenectady, NY; went on vacation to the Azores (Islands practically in the middle of the [...]

Welcome to my weekly update for September 8, 2024! My husband has a lot of long weekends on his schedule suddenly so we took the opportunity last weekend to visit Connecticut and Rhode Island, two states we haven’t visited before. We only count a state as “visited” once we’ve actually done [...]

Welcome to my weekly update for September 1, 2024! I didn’t have anything to report on the personal front as I wrote last week’s post but that weekend we visited New York City. For all intents and purposes, this was my first visit. I’ve never been drawn to large cities because I’m not a fan of [...]

Welcome to my weekly update for August 25, 2024! This has been a quiet week so far so I don’t have much to report on the personal front. If you were here last week, you know that my local-for-now library was having a contest to name their new carts. I voted for Wheel Gaiman but I was in the [...]

Welcome to my weekly update for August 18, 2024! I made it back for a second week in a row! Woohoo! On Tuesday, we went to Lake George, NY. It’s a beautiful, clear lake nestled in the Adirondacks. We took a ride on a steamship called the Minne-Ha-Ha, named after a character in Longfellow’s [...]

Welcome to my weekly update for August 11, 2024! Well, I certainly didn't mean to disappear for six months but, you know, life. The last time I posted, my husband, a travel nurse, was working near our home in North Carolina. We wrapped up that work assignment in May and took a couple of weeks off [...]

Welcome to my weekly update for February 18, 2024! On our second day in Florida a couple of weeks ago, we just took our time driving down through the Keys. I've only made the trip one time and that was with my in-laws. We were able to stop and look around a little more freely this time on our [...]

Welcome to my weekly update for February 11, 2024! I missed posting the past couple of weeks because we were in south Florida to do some touristy things and then visit my in-laws. We visited Biscayne National Park and went snorkeling our first day. I would not recommend snorkeling in January, even [...]