Sunday Salon ~ April 5th (Already?! What?!) 2009

This past week was a tough reading week for me.  I started reading Graceling by Kristin Cashore on my Kindle and I also started reading Sandra Gulland’s Mistress of the Sun for an upcoming review.  Planet Books will also be a stop on Ms. Gulland’s book blog tour on April 29th. 

Graceling is a young adult fantasy fiction piece that is really enticing and enjoyable so far.  A “Grace”  is a special gift that develops in a select few in the fantasy world of “The Seven Kingdoms” and the main character, Katsa, has the ability to kill people with her bare hands.  She discovered her “Grace” when a cousin tried to have his way with her when she was eight years old.  He winded up dead after a kick to the face from Katsa.  

 

Mistress of the Sun is from the author who brought us the Josephine Bonaparte trilogy, Sandra Gulland.  When I received an e-mail from her publicist I was incredibly excited and flattered that Planet Books was asked to be a stop on Ms. Gulland’s book blog tour.  An old friend of mine had gifted the Bonaparte collection to me in 2002 and I really enjoyed the three books.  Gulland’s latest book (to be released in paperback on Tuesday, April 7th) is an imagined telling of the life of Louise de la Valliere, mistress to Louis XIV, France’s Sun King.  So far I’m really enjoying it as well.  Since I am not a fan of reading more than one book at a time I put Graceling on the back burner and have only been reading Mistress of the Sun this weekend but life keeps getting in the way of my reading time. 

We are getting ready to move back to the states after living in Okinawa for the last four years and all the stuff I have to do to prepare for this are keeping me from reading as much as I need to.  Tomorrow I know I will have about an hour of definite reading time while I’m getting an oil change and detail service for Hubby’s car but the calendar is filling up with lunches and get togethers.  So, if I don’t have much to talk about in the coming weeks regarding books, please bear with me.  I will again soon.

Ready, Set, Move! Part 1

Some of you may know and some of you may not, but Hubby, Rocky and I are preparing for the big move from Okinawa back to the D.C. area.  YAY!  We have been procrastinating our butts off over the last month and though our paperwork to make things absolutely, positively, no doubt about it official haven’t arrived on Hubby’s desk yet, we have flight reservations for mid-May and a separation date from Hubby’s job. 

Well, the moving bug finally hit yesterday with a BANG!  Whew!  When you live over here you have to sell your cars and though you could give power of attorney to a friend if you can’t sell them before you leave, we don’t want to do that.  Hubby didn’t think that we would get a whole heck of a lot for our cars.  No one really has used cars here if you are SOFA Status.  The Japanese requirements on cars are pretty strict and you have to get them inspected and the insurance renewed every two years.  This is called JCI.  It’s not really hard to do but can get expensive if the vehicle doesn’t pass inspection.  Well, Big Kahuna passed with flying colors last week.  Yes, I named my van Big Kahuna.  I LOVE him!  He’s the best and technically he is the first car that is solely mine. Ever!  His JCI was coming up in May so in order to sell him more easily I JCI’d him on Tuesday. 

Yesterday I posted an ad for the van on www.OkinawaYardSales.comwith some pics and a write up and in less than twenty minutes from posting it, I had an e-mail from someone who wanted to see the van.  Within three hours I had received nine e-mails and over eighty-five views!  We met with the first person yesterday evening and they want to buy my van!  I am so relieved because it’s one less gigantic thing to worry about.  Now I have to take Hubby’s car in for an oil change and detail service tomorrow morning then get an ad on Oki Yard Sales for it and see what happens.  Wish me luck! 

This morning I purged my drawers and I have a huge pile of clothes to take over to the thrift shop on base.  I still have to do the closet but I feel much better now that the ball has started rolling.  37 days left in Okinawa!