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Terms of the Duel

New-Year's resolutions have a pronounced and infamous tendency to fall by the wayside by, say, the 1st of February. Perhaps, however, that is because they are resolved upon, adhered to, and discarded, by solitary individuals. Perhaps what's needed is some good old-fashioned competitive spirit.

The participants:

  1. Ilya Gandelman - desk jockey from 9-5:30, Monday thru Friday. Free time activities include, but are not limited to, writing, reading, watching tv/movies (very selective in this area!), eating Meredith's delicious food, playing with Gizmo, spending time with family and friends.
  2. Meredith Gandelman - also a desk jockey, from 9-6, Monday thru Friday. Free time activities include, but are not limited to, reading, watching tv/movies, cooking/baking for Ilya (and others), snuggling/playing with Gizmo and spending time with family and friends.

The resolutions:

  1. To read more books
  2. To watch less television
  3. To spend less money (by reading library books, and by making our way through unread volumes gathering dust on the shelves)
  4. To spend more quality time together with a shared interest

Therefore, the challenge proposed: who can read the most books in a year? On one side the wife, on the other the husband: who'll get the most volumes under her or his belt before 2015?

The rules:

  1. Books will be chosen independently. Any genre or subject is eligible.
  2. No second thoughts once starting a book. An uncompleted book is not counted, except of course as time lost. We shall have to choose carefully; and if a book seems to be disappointing, best to soldier on through to the end!
  3. A 300-page minimum. However, books briefer than 300 pages may be combined with others to count as one entry in the Duel.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Enough with the snow already!!



Apparently March decided to go out like Godzilla, as we got absolutely hammered with snowpocalypse #502 of the year  last night (see above, though it doesn't even come close to showing the mess that was out there).  Ok, perhaps I'm exaggerating... it's more like snowpocalypse #5...and while I do admit that I couldn't help but feel happy when I woke up this morning and looked outside the back windows and saw the beautiful snowy trees, any happiness quickly faded away when I looked outside the parking lot side (I didn't even get a picture, it was just too disgusting!).  
Normally we wouldn't even go anywhere on Sunday, however Ilya absolutely had to get in to work today to finish some things up before their deadlines.  And in keeping with our horrible luck in apartment-choosing, our section here at the top of the complex hadn't been touched by shovel, snowblower or plow.  So we figured we would have a nice leisurely morning and by the time we were done with breakfast they would have plowed.  I made us a new recipe I tried off Pinterest for stuffed french toast which was delicious (though probably the least healthy breakfast option ever), but when we were done with that and the dishes and whatnot at noon, the parking lot in our section had still not been plowed at all!  So we decided we had to go start shoveling (the couple who shovels together stays together!), since our car was buried on all sides because of where we had parked, so it would take a long time to get out.  Luckily the plows finally came through as we were shoveling, so it was a magical union of snow removal and after some serious effort we were able to get our car and our neighbor's car out.  So Ilya headed off to work and I am now recovering from the intense shoveling and preparing to immerse myself in my next read.
I finished up Sharp Objects yesterday, which I enjoyed all right, though it was my least favorite of Gillian Flynn's novels (I'm pretty sure it was her first, though, so I cut her a little slack).  I'm not sure what exactly it was that I found lacking, it just didn't hit the same, I guess.  
Now I am diving into Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane.  this is a fairly short read (246 pages), and after reading the first chapter it feels like it should be a pretty quick (and enjoyable) read.  So on that note, I am off to curl up with Gizmo, my Nook and my coffee to have a relaxing reading afternoon. 
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