Hellooooooooo

 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! 

This is a pic of a potato from our local farmers market and seemed appropriate for the upcoming holiday. I see a heart - Kevin sees bunny ears and a few Instagram followers saw...something else lol

What do you see?

Long time no blog!

I've been away for a LONG time! My last post was July 2025 when I did a mid-year update for my audiobook challenge. 

So what have I been up to? Does anyone care? Is anyone still reading this or any blogs? I went through my blog roll and deleted another 5 blogs that no longer post or have officially quit. I'm still holding hope out for Greg  You still out there Greg - or does anyone know how he is?

Anyhoo...

Reading: It's still a bit of a slog but more than I expected for 2025. I read a total of 25 books (you can check out what books here) Almost all were on audio. I still can't multitask while listening but I also can't sit still to read anymore so it works lol Genre wise - I'm ALL over the place.

Life: Things are moving along. If you recall, we bought a camper van last year and have been traveling around the PNW for long weekends. My plan was to sort of abandon this blog and start a new travel one. I did start the other one but abandoned both. As is my way lol

The adventures have been a balm to my soul though. Just getting away from the internet, life drama and go out in nature has been one of the best things we've done. We belong to a program called Harvest Hosts where you stay at places like farms, breweries, wineries for one night free. We do that instead of RV parks and we've met really incredible hosts with such interesting stories. I'll have to tell a few some time but it re-centers me every time we go on one of these trips. And the dogs love it! I think they think the van is a giant crate and we are now a pack lol

Blogging: The blog turned 16!!!! this past December. A huge accomplishment, even if it's not what it used to be or isn't as active, No matter how bored/irritated/insert adjective I get with it - I always end up missing it and wanting to come back. So that's something. 

Going forward: I'm clearly horrible about planning anything for this blog. I don't read much, don't have any interest in writing formal reviews anymore. I post a lot about my life on IG, so it feels weird to repeat it here to an even smaller audience but again...I miss it so I think I'm going to start posting small snippets of stuff. Maybe what I'm reading or what I just finished reading, a show I'm watching or pics from a trip I just took. 

If you are so inclined, stop by and read/comment. I do try to visit all of you when I can but it's, admittedly, much less than I used to - but I have missed you all. 

Tell me - what have you all been up to? Any blogs that you would recommend to build up my follow list again? It can be for books, hobbies, travel - anything that sounds interesting!

2025 Audiobook Challenge Mid-Year Check-In

It’s the half-way mark for 2025 and time to check in on our Audiobook Challenge. This event is hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer and That’s What I’m Talking About. Are you on target? Perhaps you are ahead or fear all is lost? Check-in and be sure to enter the mid-year giveaway.

Just a refresher on 2025 Achievement Levels.

Achievement Levels

• • Newbie (I’ll give it a try) 1-5

• • Weekend Warrior (I’m getting the hang of this) 5-10

• • Stenographer (can listen while multitasking) 10-15

• • Socially Awkward (Don’t talk to me) 15-20

• • Binge Listener (Why read when someone can do it for you) 20-30

• • My Precious (I had my earbuds surgically implanted) 30+

• • Marathoner (Look Ma No Hands) 50+

• • Over-Achiever (Power Listener) 75+

• • The 100 Club (Audiobook Addict) 100+

• • I Can’t Hear You (earbuds always in) 125-150

• Audibly Addicted (listening to all the books 24/7) 150+

It's been a minute (actually, since May 7th) since I've last posted, but here I am, managing to post an update to my audiobook challange - which I'm acutally doing pretty well with!

I've listened to 12 books (2 - The Usual Mayhem is a DNF - too silly for me & The Glass Girl - DNFFN - good but not in the mood for this one atm).

I was aiming for Weekend Warrior but I have made it to Stenogropher level. Even though I really can't multitask while listening lol & it looks like I might make it to Socially Awkward (now that's me!).

The rest have all been winners. I wish I was in the mood to write reviews because there were a few here that I really loved and would want to say more about but...alas - I am being a summer slug lol Maybe one day the urge will hit.

Topic detour while you're here.....

So, I have a little bit of blog-ish news. Kevin and I bought a travel van and plan on taking extended/long weekend type trips with the dogs and I started a blog to post pics, talk about my travels. 

I feel - and have felt this for a long time - like I've outgrown FWIW and book blogging and want to start something completely new. I have the domain and all that but haven't set anything up yet but I will keep you all posted, if you are interested at all in following along. I will still talk books sometimes. Probably a wrap-up once a month.

I do have an IG account set up - @shamble_on (a nod to Kevin's love of Led Zepplin: Ramble On & zombies: shamblers IYKYK) and hope to start posting soon. Our first overnight will be at an alpaca farm lol 

I hope you are all having a good summer!

Spring has sprung!

My posting groove took a nosedive again. Oops lol

Spring has finally sprung and I have been out and about with dogs and gardening. This is my favorite time of year and I try to absorb all the good sunshine vibes while I can.

So what have I been up to? So glad you asked!

We saved a bee - well, Ripley saved a bee (or she found it and we provided food and shelter for it's recovery). It was on our living room carpet, slowly crawling across when Ripley found it. I don't know why but she likes bees lol We have a very docile species out here called Mason Bees and she is always investigating them and there she was - worrying over this little bee. (which is funny because she's normally an evil little dog lol). We took it outside and placed it on the only thing blooming at the time - our rosemary - and waited for pollen and sunshine to do it's thing. It did seem to revive and start feeding in the morning, so hopefully it went on it's merry way. 

We had the best sundaes at a place called Sugarpine Drive-in. It's out in the Gorge area of Oregon and they have great food but their monthly rotating sundaes are next level. 

I had the Coffee and Baklava - vanilla soft serve with Arabic coffee caramel, cinnamon-toasted filo crisps, crushed walnuts, pistachio, cocoa nib, whipped Arabic coffee cream.

 

Kevin had the Strawberry Ridge - a mix of strawberry/almond soft serve, lemon ricotta shortbread bites, basil whips.

And I spotted these little goslings on our morning walk through the park. 

I've also been reading more! These were my April reads. I reviewed the Princess Swap on the blog a few weeks ago and hope to get reviews written for the others as well. I really enjoyed them all! 

That's all for now because - still feeling lazy (about blogging) lol But I was hoping if I got something up it might motivate me. 

Let me know what you've been up to in the comments!