Whatcha reading? Watching?

I like to hear what everyone is reading and watching, to make sure I'm not missing out on the good stuff!  I was very slow on the uptake to The Soprano's, just having watched all 7 Seasons this year!  What an amazing show...the crazy thing was, I never really knew anyone that watched it so didn't have any spoilers to worry about.  It was the best series I've watched in a while.  We've moved on to another organized crime show, The Wire.  Another HBO show.  Seems like everything we watch and enjoy is on either HBO or Showtime!  Game of Thrones, True Blood, Dexter.  The Wire takes place in Baltimore and centers around a (I'm only on Season 3) couple of different inner-city drug dealers.  You watch from both the police and the drug dealers points of view.  Excellent acting and just a very well done show.  Shame there are only 5 Seasons total.  Thanks to HBO Go we can watch many HBO programs at our leisure...I LOVE that about the XBox!

Well, I gave in to the hype, like every other woman on the planet!  I started reading the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.  I am almost through the 2nd book and haven't been able to put these down.  Could it be written better?  Yes.  Is it a little cheesy at time? Sure is.  Do I love every minute of it?  Uh huh, sure do.  I can't get enough Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.  It's like Twilight for adults, without all of the vampires and werewolves.  I was pretty shocked at first when I'd read up to Chapter 7 of the first book, and we hadn't even gotten to a kiss yet.  However, when it picks up, it picks up.  If this movie comes out, I can't imagine it could be rated anything less than X!  It's pretty graphic...but, if you're not into that, don't let that stop you.  It also has a plot that moves quickly, and with some substance to go along with it.  It's not Shakespeare, but it WILL entertain  you.  Oh, if you haven't seen this SNL Sketch making fun of Mom's reading it...do yourself a favor and watch that here.  When I'm reading these books, I've certainly already cast my characters as well.  I can't picture anyone other than Ryan Gosling as Christian Grey now...Ana was a little harder.  I picture a younger, innocent, Dawson's Creek era Katie Holmes.  I'm not sure if anyone fits that bill these days.  I don't care who it is, but please don't make it Kristen Stewart!

Girl vs. Squirrel, and Updates

Wow!  Been a long time since I posted, so I'm going to do a rapid wrap-up of the last month or so.

1.  Girl vs. Squirrel.  Where to start...oh I know, I hate them.  As someone who unconditionally loves most furry, scaly, non-human creatures these heartless little terrors are now on my "no-fly" list.  They eat my flowers, they dig in my mulch, they scare off my birds, and they move the tarp in our koi pond and cause leaks!  We went the humane route, trapping and releasing.  No go.  We then tried feeding them alternative food so they wouldn't eat the bird seed, or dig in the mulch for food.  Um, fail #2.  Finally....air rifle it is.  Judge me, judge away.  I don't care!  You PETA alums can rest easy though...the current score is Squirrels: 972, Lindsey: 0.

2.  Dad and I attended our 6th Abbey Road on the River this past Memorial Day weekend.  We had a blast, drank some cold brews, and saw some AMAZING music.  We both agreed this was by far the best year yet for band quality.  We rocked until the wee hours of the morning, and braved the scorching heat all in the name of tunes!!!  Since the weather was so perfect, some of the bands ended up performing longer than scheduled and we were lucky enough to hear a version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody so perfect, I don't know if Queen themselves did better.  It was brilliant!

3.  Jake's 21!  We traveled to Western Kentucky to surprise Michael's little bro Jake, on his 21st birthday.  We enjoyed a PERFECT weather weekend, enjoyed the outdoors, visited with family, and hopefully helped Jake ring in his legal age in style.  We also go to meet Neko, our new "niece".  She is Pat and Ashley's (Michael's sister) new puppy!  She is half husky, half Great Pyrenees, and all cute!!!  She was running the show with the other dogs, and might be part polar bear too.

4.  We're going to be international travelers!  We booked our first trip to Europe for this fall, and I simply can't wait.  I've always wanted to go, passed up an opportunity in college to travel abroad but plan on making up for it!  We'll be spending 14 days in England, France and Belgium.  We have a full itinerary planned and I can't wait to soak up some culture and see some amazing sites!!!!  I'm also open to any and ALL advice/suggestions from folks who have been.  I know some things that top our list are Tower of London, West End Theatre District...a Jack-the-Ripper tour (even if it's cheesy I gotta do it), Palace of Versailles, The Louvre of course, River tour of The Seine, Sacre Couer, tour of the catacombs, Brugge...just to name a few.

I think that's it.  Oh, and thanks Rachel for the motivation :)