Hey, friends.  Happy new week.  How were your weekends?  Mine… SUCKED.  There’s no other word to describe it.  It was just total crap, pretty much from beginning to end.  I have a huge work thing coming up in mid-March, and it is the kind of thing that involves all hands on deck for about a month leading up to it (#vagueblogging) so it’s crunch time.  For the second weekend in a row, I worked until about 11:00 p.m. on Friday – and that was after a week of working looooooong days and not getting home until after everyone in my house was sound asleep already.  Then I worked from 6:00 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, with just about an hour’s break to put the kids to bed.  I had a brief window of time on Sunday morning in which I didn’t have to work, and I desperately needed to get out on the trail and breathe some fresh woods air, but the rest of my family was not into it and we ended up bumming around the playground instead.  I managed a quick walk to the library to return two books and pick up a hold, seething the entire time.  And then it was back to my computer for Sunday afternoon.  So – yes.  It really, really sucked.

Reading.  ‘Twas a pretty good reading week, even if it was a terrible weekend.  Early in the week I finished The Poisoned Chocolates Case, which was a lot of fun.  Then, in order to knock another off my library stack, I turned to Well-Read Black Girl, a collection of essays by black women writers, activists, playwrights, poets, etc. – about when they first saw themselves in literature.  It was wonderful, and normally the kind of book I would have flown through, but see above re: horrible workweek.  Anyway – over the weekend I started Daniel Deronda.  I am trying this new thing where I read enormous tomes on the weekends and slimmer books on weekdays (while commuting).  I didn’t get very far into Daniel Deronda because, again, see above re: horrible workweek that extended into the weekend, blah.  I’m about 150 pages in as of the writing of this post, and enjoying it.

Watching.  Um, I’m not sure?  I think earlier in the week Steve and I watched a few episodes of Bake-Off, before things got terrible.  And I watched half of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone over the weekend.  Otherwise, I avoided television.  Peanut is back on a Doc McStuffins jag, which I am hoping is short-lived.  On top of the fact that I find Doc’s toys insanely irritating (Doc herself is fine, just her toys make me want to punch the TV) I need Peanut to forget about this jag before she asks for her Doc doll and stuffed toy gang… which I gave away over the summer.

Listening.  Podcasts, here and there.  Since I didn’t get to go hiking over the weekend like I wanted, I listened to a few episodes of The 46 of 46 Podcast to make myself feel better.  It did not work.

Making.  Lots and lots and LOTS of work product, and a clean pantry.  That’s it.  But guys, the clean pantry is so satisfying.

Blogging.  Bookish week coming atcha – what else is new?  I am showing you a new cozy book corner that I set up in my living room on Wednesday, and on Friday, a book review.  (I have two in progress, so we can all be surprised about which one it ends up being!)

Loving.  Um.  I am really, really out of sorts today, so not sure how I can answer this one.  Oh!  Here’s something!  I got a nice new standing desk at work.  My old one was really old, and the hydraulics just stopped working one day.  It was insanely hard to heave it up and down, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much easier my new one is to operate.  I guess because it’s new?  Anyway, I am really enjoying being able to stand up at will.  I kind of hate the way the standing desk is set up in my office – it looks messy – but it’s worth it to be able to stand.  Sitting is worse than smoking, you guys!

Asking.  What are you reading this week?