How smart am I?

Apparently not very....

A few times a year I get "homesick" for London. No biggie. I usually pull out my "book" (former Pax Lodgers know what I mean) and I flip through it. Maybe I pull out my photos albums. Maybe I make a phone call, send an email, or chat with one of those Pax Lodgers and in a few days, I'm over it. London was a place I lived, oh, seven years ago, and it's a place I've visited a few times since and plan on visiting again in the future.

Yeah, so tonight, smarty pants that I am, I decided Google Earth was a good way to get my (woken up every 45 minutes to an hour last night) brain ready for bed. Why I thought Google Earth was better than pjs and brushing my teeth and actually getting into bed, I'm not sure. But it seemed like a good idea at the time. Famous last words.

Now I miss is even more. I would love to go for a walk on the Heath, eat some crepes, hang out with some friends, wander the city, visit Paperchase. You know, just be in London.

walk on the heath

eat crepes

hang out with some friends

hang out with some friends, some more

wander the city

Yeah, I miss it. And Google Earth made me miss it even more. Now, to find that bed I mentioned earlier....

Norway

Postcard from Norway from Lexidh

Description: None

USA - Texas - Texas Chili

Postcard from Texas from heatherbabe84

Description: Recipe from "Home on the Range" by Louise Henderson

What I (apparently, according to Google) like to do

And because I lost all ability to think of good things to blog about during pregnancy (and no, it has not returned), here's a list for you. "Shannon likes to" + Google gave me these results. These are just the top 20 as of right now. They may have changed. Go see for yourself.

So, apparently the following are things I like to do:

1. Shannon likes to yell at people.
2. Shannon likes to spend the week conditioning her horses out in the pastures.
3. Shannon likes to hike and hang out with her two lively Dalmatians.
4. Shannon likes to capture those adorable grins and giggles for that special baby portrait.
5. Shannon likes to keep the colors bright, the illustrations bold, and the stories entertaining.
6. Shannon likes to yell.
7. Shannon likes to get dirty…on her ATV.
8. Shannon likes to move around a lot.
9. Shannon likes to travel and read.
10. Shannon likes to go for hikes, camping, spend time with her family and friends and go horse back riding.
11. Shannon likes to sing while video by deserae!
12. Shannon likes to play handbells and the balalaika, play on the internet, as well as work on improving her Bulgarian.
13. Shannon likes to sit under the mulberry tree.
14. Shannon likes to create an atmosphere in her dining rooms for people to connect with each other and with the food that she prepares.
15. Shannon likes to get in some of her favorite activities... skiing, hiking, golf and tennis, with her husband and daughter.
16. Shannon likes to drink margaritas and walk her rescued dog Cooper (sometimes simultaneously).
17. Shannon likes to be mean!
18. Shannon likes to play fetch with Austin but finds it a challenging activity due to her limited arm movements.
19. Shannon likes to joke that she's slowly, but surely, "moving south".
20. Shannon likes to spend his time in the garden: digging holes, trimming shrubs and chewing mulch.

Okay, so

• I don't like to yell at people or otherwise (#1 and #6)
• I don't have horses (#2 and #10)
• I don't have Dalmatians (or any dog for that matter (#3, #16, #17)
• I do like to hike, I just haven't been in a very, very long time (#3, #10, #15)
• I do take a lot of pictures, but not portraits, and just of one baby! (#4)
• I don't illustrate books. I can't draw worth anything! (#5)
• Again, I don't like to yell (#6)
• I don't have an ATV (#7)
• I don't know if this refers to moving my place of residence or fidgeting, but since we've lived in three different places in the last 13 months and I squirm a lot, both currently apply to me (#8)
• I love travelling and I love reading! yay! one that's actually fairly accurate (#9)
• I don't like horseback riding much, maybe has to do with an incident with a sliding saddle when I was about 3 or 4 years old, but the rest are true, even if I haven't been hiking or camping for a while (#10)
• I'm not sure what this means (#11)
• I don't play handbells and the balalaika and I don't speak any Bulgarian (#12)
• I like sitting under trees, but I don't have a mulberry tree (#13)
• I only have one dining room, not multiple. But I do like cooking and sharing what I've cooked (#14)
• I haven't skied in years, I've commented on the hiking already and I don't like golf or tennis (although tennis on the Wii is okay) (#15)
• Margaritas are good (#16)
• I don't think I'm mean. I hope I'm not mean. I don't want to be mean (#17)
• There's nothing wrong with my arm and I don't have a dog to play fetch with (#18)
• No comment (#19)
• I'm not a male and I don't have a garden, but I wish I did. Have a garden. Not wish that I was a man. (#20)

Please tell me you don't agree with the yelling and meanness. Please!

China - Ancient Banyan

Postcard from China from lachlan

Description: Ancient Banyan

Germany - Hannover

Postcard from Germany from Lindwurm59

Description: Hannover an der Leine...and a long German description

Finland - Lappeenranta

Postcard from Finland from mmombasa

Description: Lappeenranta Villmanstrand Suomi Finland

Six percent?

Okay, I stole this from Hans' Facebook page...apparently most people will only have read 6 of the books on the list. Hans has read 16 which I think is pretty impressive since most, but not all, were originally written in English which is not Hans' first language.

Thanks for giving me something to blog about Hans!

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - Yes, in high school, university, for my book club and just because I liked the book
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - No...I've read The Hobbit a couple of times, but could never get into Lord of the Rings for some reason
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - Yes - In university
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - Multiple times
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - Yes, many times. I love this book!
6. The Bible - Yes, most of it actually because I took one class devoted to the entire Bible and its literary influences and one class devoted to the New Testament in university.
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - Yes, in university
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell - Nope. I've read Animal Farm though.
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - No
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Yes, this was the first Dickens novel I read and I love it. I read it in high school first, then university twice and at least once, maybe twice, just because I felt like it.
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - Yes! Lots and lots and lots and then once in university for a class and then lots and lots and lots more!
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - Most of it. I liked Far from the Madding Crowd better.
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - No
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - Not the complete works, but a large portion of them
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - No, but not because I didn't try, many many times! I just couldn't get into it.
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - Yes. I loved it.
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk - No
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - No
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - Yes!!!!
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot - Yes. For university. I hated it!
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - Yes
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald - Yes, for the first time for my book club.
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens - No
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - No
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - No
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - Yes. For a university class.
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - No
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - No
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - Yes
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - Yes
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - No
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - No
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - Yes, a long, long time ago!
34. Emma - Jane Austen - Yes
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen - No
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - Yes
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - Yes
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres - Yes
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden - Yes
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne - Yes
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell - Yes
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - Yes
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - No
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving - Tried to many times, but never finished it.
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - No
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - YES! I think I've read almost all of her novels.
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - Yes
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood - Yes
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding - No
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan - Yes
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel - Yes
52. Dune - Frank Herbert - No
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - No
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - Yes
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth - No
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - No
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - No
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - No
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - No
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - No
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - No
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov - Yes. But it was hard to read.
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt - No
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold - Yes
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - No
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac - No
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy - No
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding - Yes
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie - No
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville - Yes
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - No
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker - No
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - YES!!! I loved this book so much, mine barely has a spine left!
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson - No
75. Ulysses - James Joyce - No
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath - Yes
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome - Yes
78. Germinal - Emile Zola - No
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray - Yes
80. Possession - AS Byatt - Most of it.
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - Yes
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - No
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker - Yes - for summer reading at HPA
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro - No
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - No
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry - No
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White - Yes...for the first time not as a child, but in Children's Lit. I liked it then, but never got into it when I was little.
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - No
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - No
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton - No
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad - No
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery - Yes in English and French
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks - No
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams - No
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - No
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute - No
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - No
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare - Yes (Isn't this part of the Complete Works of Shakespeare?
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - YES!!! I still love this story. Danny the Champion of the World was probably my favourite Roald Dahl book though.
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - No

I think that's 45/100 plus six that I've attempted or haven't read all of (Complete Works of Shakespeare), but I should qualify that by saying I did do a degree in English Literature.

So, it appears I have my reading cut out for me. There are a bunch of books that I would likely put on my own favourite 100 books of all time...and many on this list that wouldn't be on my list, but that's for another day!

How many have you read?

Germany - Hambacher Schloss

Postcard from Germany from komet83

Description: Hambacher Schloss - with a lengthy description in German...

My Baby

As photographed by Heddy.