Part I - some of Easter

See the full gallery on Posterous

Part III

I appear to be having problems with posting... so this is part three- but two parts before part 2 and 3 are going to be posted, so technically this would be part 4. Indeed. :-)

See the full gallery on Posterous

Part II

See the full gallery on Posterous

Mega Post

So here are most of the pictures I took from when Em was visiting... :-)

Mom- let me know which ones you want, and I can have them printed up at Walgreens. :-)

 

 

[[posterous-content:pid___0]][[posterous-content:pid___16]][[posterous-content:pid___1]][[posterous-content:pid___2]][[posterous-content:pid___3]][[posterous-content:pid___4]][[posterous-content:pid___5]][[posterous-content:pid___6]][[posterous-content:pid___7]][[posterous-content:pid___8]][[posterous-content:pid___9]][[posterous-content:pid___10]][[posterous-content:pid___11]][[posterous-content:pid___12]][[posterous-content:pid___13]][[posterous-content:pid___14]][[posterous-content:pid___15]]

5 of 4

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Petit machismo 8 hour kart enduro. Race day fontana

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Lia's new haircut!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

My three year old writes!

Amanda shocked me today when she presented me with this and many other words lia started writing today. No we have not been teaching her other than to give her some alphabet toys and books... I am shocked!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The "new" layout at LMK

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

"Hunger Games"

This is the first book I have finished in one weekend since Dumbledore died.  I didn't have very high expectations for this book, mainly because it was recommended to me by my Twilight obsessed wife, who said "it's like twilight, but in the future!"

Thankfully it is nothing like twilight.  The main character is a teenage girl, there are two love interests, and many people are trying to kill her, but that is where the similarities end.  Katniss is no damsel in distress, but the hard core angle is not overplayed either.  The author is not trying to create a badass yet "vulnerable" heroine, as much as some anime fans might have wanted her too.  What she comes up with is something better:  A character who is driven by love of family and responsibility.  The whiny, selfish, characters in twilight may be more realistic in terms of what teenagers are, but those in Hunger Games are more like you would WANT your teenagers to act, while still being accesible enough that teens ready this book will want to emulate them.

As the critics have already said, this book made for some great suspense, so I won't reiterate.  I will comment on some other things that make this book enjoyable for me personally, such as feeling like someone had put any Gary Paulsen book and "Under the Tuscan Sun" in a blender and baked this up.  So much of the story is focus on the specifics of the food, from the decadent meals served in the Capitol to the squirrels cooked on a spit or eaten raw, I could tastes every bite in my mouth, even when I didn't want to!

The story is fairly predictable, but still smells fresh.  I guess that is the sign of a good storyteller.  Next weekend, I am reading the second installment.