The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun book. Great mash of Roman and Greek mythology. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

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Anxious for the Year-end Close to End

Getting my clock cleaned.

photo by Profound Whatever via PhotoRee

Commence belly-aching.

There are a few times each year when work just gets to be very demanding. It is always challenging. I can appreciate that — it beats being bored, after all.

However, in the environment I am in, some of the more challenging times are during quarter-end and year-end closing of the financial books. This is especially true when auditors are involved. The auditors are good people, who I actually enjoy being around. But the nature of the work that they do is usually mind wracking. After all, who likes having someone look for errors in the work they are doing.

For some reason, this is especially true with this year-end close. The closing of the books themselves, this time around went fairly well. We made good time, and there weren't too many last-minute adjustments.

However, the aftermath with explaining differences from the target and having to explain the financial calculations with the auditors has been more challenging.

I am ready for a nice vacation.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Last night instead of watching a movie from Netflix like we normally do, we watched the finale of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. After nine seasons, the series is coming to an end. Apparently, due to sagging ratings. (In my opinion, this is one of the few reality shows worth watching.)

The series finale found Ty Pennington and his crew in Joplin, Missouri where a tornado tore apart the town in May, 2011. In the show, the crew built seven new homes for seven families in the Joplin area. Not only did the show share the heart tugging experiences of the families whose lives had been unglued by the tornado.

Mary Ann Riojas a former recipient of the work done by the show shares about hearing the end of the series. "I was kinda bummed cuz I was hoping they would come back to Fresno so we could see the other end of it. Get to be here when all the action was taking place, Cuz we missed all that when it happened to us yeah, I was kinda bummed out."

Not only did the show build Riojas' family a new home that enables her to maneuver throughout in her wheelchair but also provides a nice environment for her four children. The show also gave her the hope and courage to change her life. Since the show, she has become a full-time sales director for Mary Kay Cosmetics. Her then fifteen-year-old son, Angel, who was drifting at the time, was given the chance to go onto college where he is preparing to become a registered nurse.

In the final episode, Ty and crew built homes for seven families in a newly created neighborhood near a park that they brought back to life.

The seven families were

1. The Howard family. Dad, Kyle is firefighter who was one of the first responders to the aftermath of the tornado. At home, wife Jill, huddled in a bathtub with her sons Konnor, Korbin and Kevin.
2. Crystal Cogdill, who lost a son in the tornado.
3. Crystal Whitely, who happened to be a neighbor to Cogdill. She lost two children in the tornado.
4. Natalie and Scott Gonzalez. The two were living together at the time of the tornado. After the tornado, they determined to get married. During the show, the two were surprised with the opportunity to get married on the show.
5. The Nguyens. Than Nguyen served in the Vietnamese Air Force alongside American troops. He was held captive during the war for eleven years. He migrated to the United States to begin a new life. At 71, he had recently retired.
6. The Nevins family.
7. The Walters family.

All of the families served their treasured town of Joplin during and after the tornado. Whether that was in their professions as teachers, firemen, and nurses, or as neighbors concerned about the welfare of those around them.

As a family, we will miss watching Extreme Makeover. ABC network indicates that there will be future special episodes

Malaprop's Bookstore

Malaprops Bookstore, Asheville, NC

This past Saturday, our family decided to go to downtown Asheville to hang out and see the sites. It's telling that the place our family decided to go was to Malaprop's bookstore. Malaprops is a great independent bookstore in the heart of downtown. (Not far from the downtown public library, incidentally.)

Our family is a lover of books. Everyone from Carolyn on up has a love affair with books. We each have our own interests, but it's not uncommon for the same book to pass through several hands before our family is through with it. (This Christmas break, Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series passed through our family. My favorite book was The King of Attolia, the third book in the series.)

Back to Malaprop's though. The bookstore has been at the bedrock of Asheville from the downtown revitalization that began back in the 1980's. In fact the owner of Malaprop's, Emoke B'Racz, indicates that when she first opened the bookstore she was able to spend most of her capital on books rather than on rent. At that time, she says, "you could walk 3 blocks in any direction before you found a door not nailed down."

Her purpose in starting Malaprop's was to create "a place where poetry matters, where women’s words are as important as men’s, where one is surprised by excellence, where good writing has a home, where I could nurture my addiction to literature, and play, enjoy, and entertain people drawn to quality books."

On our trip to the bookstore Saturday night, I noted as the family ambled through the rows of bookshelves that the store embodied the essence of the quirkiness and homeliness of Asheville--current, suburban, with an emphasis on conscious living.

I found a whole bookshelf on Yoga. While next to it was the business section which only had a few books.

When we lived in Seattle, there were bookstores focused on computers and technology. In Asheville, there is a bookstore that is dedicated to poetry, consciousness, and sustainable living.

While our family is not the most liberal, we enjoyed our trip to Malaprop's and will be back for more.

Happy New Years!

Well, we're off to a new year. The year was off to a quiet start with church on Sunday being our primary event. On Monday, I had to head out for work as this week is the week of year-end close. (My life revolves around a financial calendar.) In my case, a 5-4-4. That is to say, a five week month, then two four weeks to make up the fiscal quarter.

Almost needless to say, the year-end close is one of the periods that is most scrutinized from an auditing perspective. It is also the period on which the year is finally based. So, the close this week has been important—to say the least.

The children had Monday off with the intention of heading back to school on Tuesday. However, we had a wee bit of snow on Monday night, so school was cancelled Tuesday. The kids were more than happy to stay home another day.

Martha will start school tomorrow, Thursday. She will have two days of clinicals and then two days of classes each week.

With everybody but me and Carolyn being in school, I think one of our New Year's resolutions will be to make it through the year.