Vampires and Such

The latest phenomenon around here has been the book series "The Twilight Saga." I kind of scoffed at them at first as they were originally intended for young adults and include a line of vampire characters, but I kept hearing about them. The girls at work talked about them, the people on TV talked about them. And the books were all over the stores. Rob has a thing for vampire stories, so I told him about them and the next time we were at Walmart, we picked up the first book.

He finished it in less than a week and had to go and get the second book immediately.

That's when he started pestering me about reading them. I was in the middle of another book that I just couldn't motivate myself to finish and I wasn't up for starting something new...much less a silly book about vampires.

Well I got bored the other night. I picked up the big fat book and decided to see if it was worth digging all the way through. The book is written very well. It just keeps you reading. I think I read 120 pages the first night more because it was an easy read than due to the story line. But the storyline picked up and then I couldn't put the stupid book down. I think I finished the 500 page bohemith in 3 sittings.

So I'd heard about the obsession people had with the characters and the storyline and kind of laughed at them. But as I got into the story, it was all I could think about. Yesterday I couldn't wait to get home to continue reading. I looked up stuff on the internet. It was pathetic. I was one of those people I had been laughing at!

The author does such a good job at capturing feelings and putting them in words. I was transported back to high school and was giddy with excitement for Bella when she got to see Edward. I remembered that butterfly feeling of seeing the guy you had a crush on and the all-consuming thoughts of that person. The excitement of a new love! I miss that. I could do without the vampires and oddities, but the book reminded me of a feeling that disappears after a while in a long term relationship. It stirs something inside of you!

Needless to say, I can't wait to start the second book. Thank goodness it a series, because I would seriously be disappointed if I didn't get more of Edward and Bella!

My 1/2 Birthday

Yesterday (Sunday) was my 1/2 birthday. I figure its a good excuse to eat good food and have some cake. :) Everyone knows I LOVE cake. Specifically, yellow cake (from a box) and chocolate frosting. Mmmmmm. I'm drooling over here.

So anyway...I was watching Rachael Ray when I was bored a couple weeks ago and was sucked in by some delicious looking food she was making. I watched and drooled and by the end I declared that I would find that recipe and make it. It didn't seem like it would be too hard.

Cooking for two is better than cooking for one, but even that isn't all that exciting. Having people over and cooking all together is even better! So I declared that in order to make this recipe, I would like to have guests over. AND since my half birthday was coming up and on a Sunday, I declared that would be the day!

So, the point is, we invited Elizabeth and John over to celebrate (i.e., EAT). This delicious meal consisted of italian sausage meatballs with centers of mozzarella, roasted broccoli, homemade cheesy pepper mashed potatoes, and of course cake. :) Actually two. I made the yellow cake with chocolate frosting and Elizabeth and John brought a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. Mmmmmm. It was delicious. Soooo good! I am really proud of my meal and that I have been trying new things lately. Yay me!

So happy half birthday to me. I am 1/2 a year closer to 30. I try not to think about that though. I've still got some time. Besides, its just a number!

Rain, rain go away...

First it was Gustav and then it was Ike. But don't forget about the little ones between.

I live no where near an ocean or even large body of water, but don't you doubt that I have seen these storms up close and person. Ok, well maybe not in the full force that they hit down South, but they sure have brought A LOT of rain to Central Illinois. In the last 9 days, I believe it has rained 7 of them. Sometimes its heavy rain, sometimes light. There have been days when its 63 and raining and then days when it hits near 80. AND the weather last night said it was 104% humidity. Didn't know it was possible, but if you walked outside you sure could feel it.

Now, I don't really mind rain. I generally enjoy a rainy day...ideally spent at home with coffee, good movies and a good book thrown in for good measure. Seven days of it has been a little much. I sympathize with Seattle-ians.

Anyway, we've been lucky and had no rain water in the house for quite some time, so I figured we had fixed whatever the major problem was. NOPE! I was wrong. Last night we stood out on the porch watching it rain and watching the water run down the drive way and flow directly into the basement door. Its a bit odd to stand there knowing what is going to happen and realize there is not a damn thing you can do at the moment to stop it. Here are some pics and a video of the event. The video actually shows up better...

And the video of it happening...

Thankfully, we've learned (the hard way) to keep everything off the floor so not much of anything got wet or ruined. We also watched the water enter, so we were able to pull up those few things did make it to the floor. The floor, for the most part, slopes to the drain, so the water pretty much clears itself, but it does have a tendency to leave a lovely muddy residue. So this afternoon I'll go down there and start cleaning up a bit.

I'm thinking of taking the pictures and video to the city to see if they can come dig the ditches a little deeper. The one on the right side of our house is barely there...that doesn't help! I know the other part of it is needing to fix the grade of the drive way though too. Ugh. This is when owning a house sucks...