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Sunday, October 5, 2014

Staycation Musings - Part 2

So, I wanted to see how this week would unfold. I admit I have a hard time taking vacation when I have no place to go, but if I don't use it, I will lose it. And while I have had errands to run and things to do in the house, I did not want to get away from being able to relax somewhat as well.

Saturday last: I spent most of the day reading, but I did watch a Penguins Preseason game and part of the Outlander marathon leading up to the mid-season finale. I haven't seen any posts about it, but then, I have not been on-line for a while. I have been absolutely addicted to the show. When I first saw Sam Heughan, I thought, "No, no, no, no, no! He is absolutely not Jamie." It didn't take me long to see the error of my ways. The show has been fantastic. They've been adding scenes not in the books, but this is done to flush out the characters even more and I have had no complaints about any of the changes they've made. But mid-season finale? The next episode airs in April 4, 2015. How is that mid-season? It's 6 months away!!!

Sunday last: This is the day I spent re-stacking my TBR piles in the bedroom after I had scanned them into Book Crawler on my iPad.

Monday: Monday was an errand day. I had to take my cat, Egg to the vet to have his teeth checked out and have a lump removed off his back. It is not expected to be anything but benign. However, he has gum disease and went in to the vet's office with four teeth. He came out with one. I had to drop him off, but then go back and get him. Monday was also the second episode in Season Two of Sleepy Hollow which I have been loving. Lastly, I worked on getting the rest of the Halloween decorations down from the attic. Sadly, my house is a mess.

Tuesday: More fun. My 14 year anniversary, although hubby and I have actually been together for 22 years. How did I spend it? At the car dealer getting service done. As a reward, though, I stopped at the big Barnes and Noble on the way home because they have a Used Book Annex. The YA section used to be two rows, but has now been increased to three and they had a lot of books I have on my wishlist, so at first, I just grabbed everything. My usual routine is to grab books, go to the cafe, get a drink and sit and read the first chapter of each to see if I want it. I also price compare, though, on my iPad. What I found is that the majority of hard covers were priced at $9.00 while some were $8.00, however, I found most of the books were actually cheaper buying them from Amazon used. I started out with a stack of about 12 books, but only left with three.

It got me thinking, though, since some of the books I was looking at were books two and/or three of a series, with the first being on Kindle. Now, I am currently at a place where I cannot afford to spend a lot of money on books, so I look for alternatives. But while I don't get so upset anymore about my books matching (so I will have a series with some in paperback and some hard cover), I have an issue mixing eBook with physical copies. I have downloaded the first books in some series and have been waiting for the subsequent books to be offered as a daily or monthly deal, the reality is that it is just not happening. But I guess that's how they get you. Offer book one dirt cheap and they zing you on the rest of the series. I have also noticed the types of books that are being offered for monthly Kindle deals are not what I might consider to be A-list book titles. Many of them are self-published or not anything I am interested in. Several months back, I found lots of books to interest me. I haven't purchased a monthly Kindle Deal in some time.

This lead to a long discussion with hubby about the state of the market for eBook publications. If I buy a CD from Amazon, I generally get the free download as well. But for eBooks, the eBook version is not generally cheaper than a paperback. So while the hard cover may be $14.00, I am still not spending $10.00 to get the electronic version. I would either wait for it to come out in paperback or look for it used in hard cover. I would love to be able to buy a physical book and have the eBook available at a significantly reduced price. That is what the Kindle Match program is all about. The trouble with that is while I have ordered hundreds of books from Amazon, there are not that many available for the Match program. So, that is also a Fail. I don't know if the eBook market will ever mirror the CD/mp3 promotions, but I hope it does eventually.

Wednesday: While I had things to do like bake an apple pie and finish Halloween decorating, I mostly lounged around reading, paying attention to Egg who is feeling more like himself after the surgery and I watched another Penguins preseason game. In the evening, hubby and I sat down to watch episode two of Season two of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which has been phenomenal!

Thursday: I started off the day with a visit to the gym and had an eye doctor appointment for the afternoon.  In between, and after I read.  I may have done dishes.  Maybe.

Friday: I worked on Halloween a little but spent the majority of the day looking for new books coming out in 2015 and updating my wishlist.  I have been working for some time on getting my wishlist cleaned up, so I was just removing books I know I will never buy.  For instance, I used to be a big Lynn Kurland fan, so I have been adding all her new books to my wishlist.  The majority of her books are mass market, but I realized I am probably never going to read all her books that I already have let alone any new ones.  The only one I kept on my list is her Nine Kingdoms book coming out in January.

Today: This weekend is the Ornament Premier weekend where the Hallmark stores release the Christmas ornaments that have an October release date.  I collect Hallmark ornaments, so could not miss the event.  I am being much more selective than I used to be as I can't put out everything I have every year and I am going to need to sell off some of the older ones I never use anymore.  After the card store, I went to the comic book store to pick up my reserves and then headed home.

The early part of the day was spent giving Egg rubsies.  The stitches are probably bothering him and he has managed to rub off his right eyebrow.  It's really strange looking.  I ended up flipping channels and watching some movies on TV I wasn't planning to, but the evening was spent finishing up the Halloween decorations.  I still have a little bit to do, but the interior is mostly done.  So that felt pretty good.  I will get the rest of it done tomorrow before heading back to work Monday.  Uggh.  Also, I still have to bake that apple pie.

So, while I have had a lot of things to do, I did not get everything done and the week wasn't a total drag. There are chores left undone, but I got done most of the stuff I needed to and still managed to find book time in reading, blogging, organizing and searching for new books. I managed to finish reading City of Bones, read City of Ashes and City of Glass and I am half way through 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson.  So I guess it's been an okay vacation despite not actually going anywhere.  I'm off to read some before turning in.  Night all!

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