Carbs, Crafts, Sickness and a Very Special Lady's Birthday!

I’m sick.

Clearly no one wants to talk to me because I look and sound like I have been smoking a pack a day since I was four and have been forced to walk across Canada all summer in the same outfit without showering. That might be a little harsh but I bet you are get the picture, I feel pretty gross right now.

My weekend was a celebration for my weakness for carbohydrates disguised as my Grandmother MacDonald’s birthday. So I am feeling doubly crappy today. It is like a massive food hangover crossed with a fall flu. Yes, it is totally possible to be hung from food.

Anyways, I bet you never would have guessed that this blog was crafted to wish my Grandmother MacDonald a big ole’ happy birthday. She reads these blogs when I’m not around so someday she will stumble upon this and hopefully smile.

My weekend was incredibly productive until the sickness hit me Sunday morning after a quick staff meeting at work. The productivity started when I made a delicious dessert for our fish and chip party at my parent’s house Saturday night. Peanut butter bar squares garnished with a little grated skor bar.

To be honest with you, my food hangover pretty much centers on these squares. My amazing dessert arrived at the party via a proxy and had melted together so I may have had a little cry in my childhood bedroom with the pan before supper. Yes, that happened. Sometimes I am a grown ass child about things. It is not a family event until someone cries, right? That only lasted about 10 minutes and only a third of pan was sacrificed to my sad. I call it having a sad. Having a sad happens every once in a blue moon and usually before sickness hits.

On top of getting my bake on in a totally domestic fashion I also crafted this weekend. Like most crafts, it sits nearly complete today (Monday) and cost way more than just going to Walmart to buy the item that I originally needed. Breanna and I set out to make corkboards this weekend, hopefully next weekend we will finish them and I will tell you about them here in the blog. You can see it truly is a beautiful work in progress…

As you can tell, now that we have a house I am attempting to be more domestically inclined. This is really conflicting with my desire to not bring in any crap to my house that I do not absolutely love for furniture. I still do not have a dresser, but that is on my list of musts for the week. Our house is a mess.

Anyways, in my hunt for things to make our new house our own I am constantly snooping around my family members homes for things we can use for our house (with permission of course) and I found this hilarious read at my grandmother’s house.

Part of me wants to read this cover-to-cover and learn from it. I hope this book was important and informative for young adults in my Grandmother’s day (much like Adulting by Kelly Williams Brown was for me). And the cynical/bitchy part of me is angry that there are only women on the cover of a book for “Young Canadians”. I am a little conflicted; maybe I will come back to this topic in the future.

Regardless, a big “Happy Birthday” to Grannie MacDonald! I was a tad craft-bitchy at her house on Sunday so I will leave this apology here as a permanent tribute to such an important lady in my life. Sickness and failing miserably at crafts are not a good combination; I hope to someday lose my temper and gain some patience. I also someday hope to be as happy with a Palm Bay tiki girl for my birthday as you were after your trip to the LC with Lisa and Kim. Seriously.

Until then, I’m just a (temporarily) sick 25-year-old inadequate crafter with a weakness for carbs. Happy Birthday Gram, I love you!

Mountain Middays - Daily Dose of Weird May 05, 2014- Topless Reading Club Aims To Make Reading Sexy

Let’s get weird and read together… topless. This Daily Dose of Weird talks about a reading club like no other in New York City (where else right?) where members are attempting to “make reading sexy” by reading topless.

Meh. I’ll continue to read with my top on… I’m not even sure how to have gender equality for this; it is just not the same for topless guys. Bottomless reading could be a little more interesting… until 50 Shades of Grey comes up on the reading list.   

Jay Onrait's “Anchorboy: True Tales From the World of Sportscasting”

Jay Onrait’s book “Anchorboy: True Tales From the World of Sportscasting” is one of the best books I have read in along time.

I am a huge Jay and Dan fan, I actually read the book a couple months ago and wanted to re-read it before I posted about it. I had been anticipating the release of “Anchorboy” before it was released because of all chitchatting about it on the “Jay and Dan Podcast”. I read the book in about a day, the chapters are very short and you don't want to stop reading Jay's story once you start. 

It has taken me so long to post about "Anchorboy" because I had loaned this book out to other people and finally just got it back. My boyfriend then read it in two days (he couldn't put it down) and then I finally got a chance to read it. It is that good.

The book lives up to all the promotion; it is hilarious. I'm not going to give away any of the stories because they are so good you really should buy the book. I have a couple and it has also been my go-to gift lately for pretty much any guy in my family. 

As a broadcasting nerd myself I really relate to Jay’s idea that everyone in our industry truly is nerdy in one-way or another. We all have a thing. It was my favourite thing he talked about in the book. 

I'm not normally a fan of potty talk. I actually usually hate discussions about poop. Jay talks about doody lots. Be warned. He actually makes horribly gross situations hilarious. 

One note: I wouldn't read this book in public places. I was in hysterics throughout the book and would have been pretty embarrassed to have anyone see my laughter tears. It totally would have messed up my mascara.

At this point I feel like I know both Jay and Dan. After listening to every episode of the original Podcast on our last drive across Canada last year and continuing to listen and watch whatever we can from them, I think things would get weird if I ran into them. In a weird way I hope I never work with them only for that reason.

If you are American and a fan of Fox Sports Live you need to read this book to get a little history about our national treasures Jay and Dan. If you are Canadian (like I am) this book is a reminder of an amazing period of sportscasting here in Canada and a sad reminder of what we are missing out on.

Read it, love it and tell me what you think!

Click here to checkout the Jay and Dan Podcast. 

**Again, a big THANK YOU to Jay and Dan. Without Sportscentre I would have missed going to so many morning classes during university. You guys gave me a reason to haul my ass out of bed.

NaNoWrMo Update #2

We are seventeen days into National Novel Writing Month and I am still going strong with my efforts.

Yes, I am still behind but I am currently at 19,170 words (that is 30,830 words away from the goal of 50,000). I am working at a pace of 1,127 words a day. What this means is I have to work at a pace of 2,203 words a day to finish on time (November 30) rather than the original 1,667 words.

Is my novel good? Nope. I completely understand why people criticize ‘National Novel Writing Month’ it doesn’t promote actual good writing, it promotes quick writing. I am still having fun with it though and it is nice to see my progress climb a little bit everyday, hopefully I will pound out a whole lot of writing and get closer to be on track. Right now I will finish on December 15.

NaNoWrMo Update: Week 1

I am constantly challenging myself to try new things. Like oysters (growing to love them since my NYC visit), Pimms (new favourite drink thanks to Vancouver), I tried bell peppers for the first time the other day (they will have to be over powered by other foods for me to ever mistakenly eaten again); those are just a couple examples of new things I have tried recently. Oysters, surprised me, Pimms not so much and well let’s be honest with each other, I am never going to want to eat bell peppers.

One of the things I have always wanted to do but I have never done is write a book. Now, I am convinced it won’t be a best seller. In fact I have no desire for anyone else to ever read it, I just want to put my pen to paper (okay my fingers to the keyboard) and hash out a story to its completion. There is something eerily fascinating about the potential of creating something that may be bigger than you, something that will outlast you. That is why I am excited to be taking part in National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWrMo for short. Every November people take part in scribing around 1,700 words a day and crafting a novel. 

Now, I must admit, I am a little behind. I have just hit 6,500 words. By the end of today to be on par with the program I will need to have around 11,900 words. My plan is to sit and embrace this snowy weather tonight and hash out some more of my first novel. Saturday is a big word count push day too, so the push is on to get back on track and working towards my goal of finishing November 30^th!

Current Word Count: 6,500

Words Needed To Finish On Time: 11,900

Difference: -5,400

Looks like I better get at it!

It is not too late for you to join in, check it out at http://nanowrimo.org!

*This is approximate; the actual word count calendar is below. 

Kate's Reading Challenge Book 8: 'I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales from a Happy Life Without Children' by Jen Kirkman

OOne of my goals I set for myself on my twenty-fourth birthday was reading a book a week.  I am a little behind, moving twice and finishing school put a damper on my plan. To help motivate myself to finish books on time every week my new plan is to share my latest read with you on my blog. I will read anything and everything and I would love your suggestions, feel free to email them to me at kate@mountainfm.net.

Book 8:  'I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales from a Happy Life without Children" by Jen Kirkman 

I did not finish this week’s book review; I will not make this a habit. I was pretty bored with the book in general, which I guess I should have realized by the title. At a solid 400 page plus book on my e-reader all about not wanting to have kids and not wanting to be judged because of it. I am not huge on the idea of having kids, in fact right now at twenty-four I am pretty dead set on not having them; but I don’t feel the need to write an entire book about it.

I know this book is a bit of a bio of Jen Kirkman, but it really feels like it is loosely strung together by the fact that she does not want to have kids. I think with all the other books written by funny gals on the market these days this book just does not hold up. It does have its fun moments, moments that will make you laugh… but I am not sure they mesh well with the theme of the book and I really don’t think they are worth the pages it takes just for Kirkman to say that she does not want to have kids.

FYI, I still don't want kids. But, I'm not going to write a book about it.