It's Still August, Right?

 What a neglectful blogger I am. Not only did I not post a lucky rabbit picture for August, I haven't posted anything! And the month is mostly over.

I am late, to be sure!  Good thing there's not much of an audience, here. 

What have I been doing? It'll sound like so little. I currently have a 106 day streak on Duolingo, I've read some books, watched some documentaries, listened to music and podcasts, spent time at Planet Fitness, and sometimes I actually clean the house. 

Duo is a very effective nag, and I'm delighted that I can also use it on this Chromebook, since my pecking skills on my phone are sad. 

...That reminds me, I just found out about a game called Dino Jump, starring that dinosaur you see on the screen when you've lost your internet connection.  It's an offline game! To play, you tap on Dino to make her jump over the cacti that will be in her way as she sprints through the desert. So exciting.  If you time the jump too late, Dino crashes into the cactus, and if you time it too early, she'll be impaled by a cactus, and that's when you have to start the game over.  But then, the points start back at zero every time Dino crashes into a cactus.  Anyway, I'm pathetic. I had one job, but can't even make it to 200. 

When it comes to reading, I'm taking a break from Netgalley, after making it through the newest John Irving book, The Last Chair Lift. Suddenly, I feel that perhaps Moby-Dick wouldn't seem so long, after all. I liked it, it was very much a John Irving book, but--too much of a good thing. Then, I embarked on our next group read, called Westward with Giraffes, a historical novel that reminded me very much of Water for Elephants, except not quite as engaging.  (Authors Lynda Rutledge and Sara Gruen, respectively). I'm now reading a nonfiction/autobiographical book of essays by Samantha Irby, which is both hilarious and very sad. It's called We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.

I must confess to spending a lot of time scrolling through Reddit. Oh, it's not the worst place to spend time; I've actually learned stuff and gotten quite a few chuckles. It's how I learned about anther reading site called The StoryGraph, for instance. And all kinds of random stuff I don't need to know, and perhaps isn't even any of my business, like the fact that Beyonce's dad had breast cancer AND tested positive for BRCA. That worries me. See? random, and none of my business. 

Also, I am currently making my way through the second season of Stranger Things. I'm finding the characters likable and the plot interesting enough to keep watching.

Meanwhile, our local school district starts back on August 31, just about a week away. The school district I attended is starting two days earlier, while some school districts in PA actually started today. Every year, it's a surprise to me to see all the kids in the neighborhood suddenly appear and disappear at certain times of the day. If they didn't come out to get on a bus, I'd have no idea there were that many children living in this area!  

And though it is still August, I'm so looking forward to our December cruise.  It'll be the longest one we've ever taken, and it will be substantially different--not just beach flopping. 

Enough for for now. Whatchaupto?

P.S. I did put those book titles in bold text, even checked the html, but oddly, it's not appearing that way on my end.  That blogger. 

When I researched the problem, someone said it could be the font, and to go to here and there and paste this and that, but I couldn't figure that out, so after discovering that bold didn't work in any font, I simply colored the text. See? That's how I murder time.