Window Shopper

When I came across this contest at Simply Stating the Obvious, I figured out that it’s got a fantastic prize package. And you get the benefit of being able to see the new Andromeda Strain on AETN. It’s a two night television show called “The Andromeda Strain” which airs in High Def Monday, May 26th and Tuesday, May 27th from 9pm to 11pm ET/PT. You may remember the movie and the book by Michael Crichton. This is a four hour original A&E television movie.

Andromeda is reeking havoc again in a small town when a U.S. military satellite crashes into the street. Two people survive when the deadly Andromeda Strain is unleashed. Of course, the military gets into it, quarantining the area. And there is a nosy reporter trying to find out the truth. A great cast stars; Benjamin Bratt, Eric McCormack, Ricky Schroder, Andre Braugher, Christa Miller, Daniel Dae Kim and Viola Davis.

For more info on this new aetn event, please click on Andromeda Strain!

Hey, I forgot to mention the prizes:

1) The Andromeda Strain t-shirt,
2) The Andromeda Strain DVD Collection featuring both the 2008 A&E miniseries and the Oscar-nominated 1971 film
3) The Andromeda Strain novel by Michael Crichton

Thanks for reading and hope you take the time to enter today!

UPDATE ON THE CONTEST: We WON!!! It is a fun contest!! Thank you to Simply Stating The Obvious for her wonderful blog and thanks for choosing us!

One of the things that is such a pain is that there seems to be no time left to do anything we like. If we need to put up blog posts, then there isn’t any time to go out to the store. If we have to go to the store, there is no time for the one show we watch every week, no matter what. And if we need to do any of that, there simply is no time to do that special blog post. Sigh. I think I need some time management.

One of my favorite things to do is sit down and just read books. You know, those weird looking things that have pages with writing on them? Yes, I did almost forget what they were myself. With all the time taken blogging and shopping, it is so hard to just relax with a good book, living in fantasy land. I love it. The last one I read was a mystery/love story. It’s when they combine the chair gripping mystery with the love story that it touches me. I love them and recommend that combo for books to read when you have the time. Ugh. Time.

Now what??!!!! Have you signed up for those book clubs yet? You know the ones, monthly clubs that you can buy one or a hundred books. That’s one kind. Then there are those who are willing to ship out 2-4 books each month so that you can always have reading material. Uh huh. Well, I signed up for both. At the time, I was really missing my reading. We did not have that many books and all had been read a couple of times, at least.

I had been to our small library several times. When that happens, it’s over until they get more. Sigh. But then I got some info in the mail about book clubs. I went online to see what was what. Not bad. I could get up to 4 books a month for not that much money. I signed right up. That wasn’t all. I also signed up for 3 book clubs that had genre specific books. Well, it was really 4. I forgot to count the cooking book club. So, after it was all said and done, I had 4 book clubs and the one that was sending out 4 books at a time. Not enough!!! I was constantly running out of reading material. I should say here that I didn’t get new books from the big 5 every month. Those were held in reserve for when I was really needing a book.

When the offer came out that I could have some suspense books from that place that sent out the 4, I could not stand it. I had to have them. Now I had 8 books a month. The company was not satisfied that I was getting just the 8 so they sent out some more for free! These were so that I could get an idea of a different kind. I ended up with them too!!! Are you beginning to get the picture here?

Picture this: A mountain of books and me in the middle. ACK!!! A nightmare? Not really. I would have loved that. Eventually, it wasn’t about the books but about the bills that came with them. I admit it. I am a bookaholic. I need my books. I must have books. But maybe in the future I could try to have them a few at a time.

Want to know the really crazy part? Now that I blog so much, I don’t have time to read but the books keep coming every month!!! I have boxes and boxes of books to read. What a life! I love it.

This book by Terri Blackstock is fantastic. It is a thriller with much drama. She tells the story of a world gone mad. Nothing is the same as it was. There is a catastrophy so large that no one is beyond being affected. All of the world is dealing with the results.

There is no electricity. Cars do not start. Airplanes literally fall out of the sky. No help because your cell phone is completely dead. You go to buy food and other items but the store cannot sell you anything if you have a credit card or check. You need money. Then you find out that the whole city is blacked out. There are no communications of any kind anywhere to anyone’s knowledge. In order to get home, you must walk or ride a bike, IF you can keep it from being stolen. The world is in a panic. People do not know what to do anymore.

This is an absolutely gripping story that is the first in a series called a Restoration novel. I recommend this one as highly as I can. It will certainly make you think. Of course, you will say to yourself that this cannot possibly happen to us. Oh really.

This summer our nieces are studying a bit more so that the lame school system in our area does not totally trash their shots at college and a Magnet school that teaches 11th and 12th grades. Because we see a real hole in the system, our family has decided that the girls could use a bit more extra study than the usual.

Our solution to the problem has been some really good books bought online at pretty affordable prices if you really shop around. In this case, it is “Complete Idiot’s Guide To Life Science”. Once you get past the idea that someone is calling anyone who buys it…an idiot, then you will find that the book is great for sort of a catch up and go forward deal.

There is an unfortunate side to this book. As seems to be the usual, it teaches about evolution as if that were the actual way things happen. Our belief says otherwise but the girls are grounded in God and see it as  something to take with a grain of salt.

This book is good for several things though. It will teach the facts and functions of DNA and RNA. Those were a mystery to me.  It gives explanation about fungi and algae. How plants and animals grow. Also, there are facts concerning genetic engineering.

This book does have enough to keep them busy this summer along with the other books they are studying. It will give them that “leg up” they need to go forward instead of slide back with the school curriculum. As you can see, I am not a fan of our extremely lame school district.

Have you ever checked out those “For Dummies” books that are all over the place. They have titles for nearly anything and everything. They are certainly informative although I will say that some are better than others or so we have found out. Shop carefully on these. They are usually pretty affordable if you look for the deals.

We have “Spanish For Dummies” because we have nieces that are going to be heading into that class at school one of these years and it never hurts to have a step up. Of course, their older sisters took that language and talked spanish at their Grandmother’s so much that these girls had to try it out.

It does have a dictionary of words as well as being a reference guide. The new copies have a CD with them for pronunciation and have dialogues on the them. It is not a pocket guide but it does have everyday words and phrases to learn in chapter form. This is the way to learn everyday conversations, finally make sense of the grammar, get a grip on those pesky verb conjugations (hated those myself), use popular expressions, improve pronunciation and when you are pretty good, get around in a spanish speaking country. Not too bad for a few bucks.

I will be giving reviews on a few more of those books from time to time.