Sunday Salon: October - It finally begins...

October 01, 2012


 
I had fully intended to this Sunday Salon on time - honest! - but things didn't work out that way. Spent a wonderful day with my 11 year old son, Gage. In reality he spent much of that time on the Xbox talking to his friend from school over his headphones while I cooked us lunch, cleaned, and we watched some shows together. We've been revisiting a fun show from my youth that he wouldn't have heard of otherwise, Are you afraid of the dark? We've also finished up season two of Good Luck Charlie, another fun show, but one he introduced me to instead of the other way around.


In between cleaning and having so MUCH to clean, I made us a homemade Pumpkin Latte with loads of cinnamon. I had one of these at Starbucks a few weeks back and it's delicious. For this homemade
version I went to the store on Saturday and picked up some pureed pumpkin and a new bottle of cinnamon spice. Also grabbed some bananas to go with my apples since I need to restock on the tea munchies. Have a freezer that still has three different scones left, but those are dwindling fast and I'm in the mood for some new experiments. Found a few recipes I want to try heavy with cinnamon for apples, and another for a banana cinnamon cake that seems divine. As if you can't tell, I've been craving cinnamon for the fall month.
My plan of frothing milk backfired when I filled the processor too high, and it splattered EVERYWHERE. I had already had a headache I was trying to get rid of which was getting worse, so I delayed some cleaning for later (tonight). I ended up laying down to try and let the pain meds kick in and went to sleep instead, sleeping until the very early morning hours.

So, the Sunday Salon is technically a day late, even though Mondays sun has not yet risen.

The Upcoming Week

This week marks fun, and busy times, for the site. Monday is the first day of the Edgar Allan Poe week, something I'm doing until Saturday the 6th. I don't think I have enough done for Monday, but I have a good bit ready for Tuesday and Wednesday. September 30th was also the first day of Banned Book week for the year, something I've been keeping up on for months. I can't think of the right thing to do with the site for that week, so will likely just pop random stuff throughout with my thoughts on it. I would have read a banned book for the week, but this month is already so busy with my reading planning.

I have a pretty detailed layout for the month to get the horror and gothic reading done for the RIP challenge, and also these fall under some of the zombie challenges. I wish to read two classic horror novels for the RIP challenge, horror challenge, AND classic challenge. This week is Edgar Allan Poe week so will be reading a lot of him for that time period, as well as watching films. And of course there's also that October is just a busy month all around - I have my movie convention a few weekends from now, and a Halloween party for my son, his friend, and my best friend to plan.

Last Week

I keep talking about next week though, before recapping the previous week. It seems that, even though I haven't been working, the days have been flying by and I was busy. Monday was mundane, but Tuesday my friend Melissa came over early. We had a girl's night and watched Friday the 13th part 6 and the remake for some fun horror times to bring October in right. We also had a tea with some delicious Pumpkin Caramel chocolates and some Monterey Jack cheese cubes on crackers. Wednesday was another day spent doing quality time with Gage, and Thursday Nathan, Melissa, and I went to our Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights. It was a first time for all three of us.

We had the plan to attend early in the season so that the lines would be shorter. The lines are still incredibly long, even though it was on a Thursday and nowhere near Halloween. It was a fun experience but we were sore afterward. The Walking Dead was a bit of a disappointment, and we did Silent Hill last, which turned out to be the best. They could have done a lot more with the Universal Monster house of horrors than they did, and  I think since it's a staple and they don't expect it to draw as much attention, that they didn't put as much into it. The line for that actually took longer than the others, which is odd, but it hardly moved. Dead End House was also a bit average but the first we went to. The Universal Monster Cafe was a HUGE treat for me as I'm such a big fan of the classic monsters, so I took a lot of pictures and will put a post up about them.

Friday I went to Melissa's house to help her clean up. She's getting a new kitten soon so had a lot to do to prepare for it. We watched a rerun of the Vampire Diaries, ate some Hungry Howies pizza, scrubbed, said goodbye, and then I went to get Gage from his fathers house for the weekend.

Last Week's Reading

So yes, a busy week that was fun but flew by. I didn't get to read that much really. I am almost done with the Agatha Christie biography and spending a good bit of time with that. I also finished up the special edition of Dark Prince by Christine Feehan. It's supposed to have 100 extra pages added in, but I really couldn't find them. At the most I see maybe ten extra pages. 

The weekend before this one I finished Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich and a quickie Harlequin, Stranded Heart by Vanessa Grant. Lately I seem to be cursed with mediocre impressions from Harlequins.

What mainly kept me busy was movies for the Edgar Allan Poe week and the reviews I'll be doing for them, as well as reading the stories and poetry surrounding the stories.

 Last Week's Site Progress


I finally got around to making the post I have been meaning to about Asspocket Productions and her amazing bookplate stamps for the Reader's Shopping Area of the site. Here's the post.

Added a LOT of stuff to the Paperback Stash's Pinterest account, both in crafting, cooking, and book-related stuff of course. A few days added quotes and pictures to the Facebook site as well, which is starting to grow.

Ending Thoughts

Not a lot done last week for the site but a lot upcoming for this week and the next few. Reviews are in draft and scheduled for publishing, a lot of quick work to get the stuff done for Edgar Allan Poe and Banned Book thoughts, the regular weekly features, and I'm going to try and sneak in some Halloween stuff and goodies also. Adding in Dracula and Frankenstein to the planned list to fit in the Gothic theme too, so we'll see. 

Here's hoping everyone had a great week filled with the magic of reading.