2021 Reading Challenge - Update

I failed miserably with my planned quarterly updates.  Two months left and I've read 46 of the 48 books I wanted to read this year.  I think I've mentioned before that I don't have a lot of time to read - I'm a little addicted to Netflix while I scrapbook and if I try to read in bed, I end up getting hit in the face as I fall asleep and drop my book!  So my reading time is confined to my lunch time and the ride home on the bus.  Four books a month seemed like a lot when I set the goal in January but it's been going very well.

I loved discovering Kate Quinn this year and I read a lot of World War II fiction as well as a healthy dose of books set in picturesque English villages with the odd Danielle Steel thrown in when I want a quick read and of course, you know me, a few Christmas books.  I still have 56 books on my Want to Read list and I keep adding to them with recommendations from fellow bloggers or when I go to Barnes and Noble, I snap quick photos of covers that appeal to me, and then request the titles from the library.

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Wednesday Hodgepodge - Volume 439

    

I haven't hodgepodged for a while so here goes.  Click here to join in.

1.  Is Halloween a big deal in your neighborhood?  Was it something you celebrated as a child?  With your own children?  Do you like candy corn?

We live in a very quiet, somewhat out of the way neighborhood where at least 60% of the residents are retired so no, Halloween is not a big deal.  There is a family with two young boys who "adopted" me when Vic was overseas.  They would stop by with cookies or some other baked treat every so often just to say hi and to see how I was doing.  They always attend a function at their church on Halloween but their mom would bring them by my house first so they could trick or treat.  They were my only trick or treaters.  Sadly, they are moving out of state.

We celebrated Halloween off and on as it depended on where we lived.  I can remember being a hula girl with the grass skirt and lei I got when we lived in California and flew to Hawaii to meet my Dad during his R&R when he was in Vietnam.  We celebrated Halloween when we lived in Belgium because we lived in an off-base housing area that was full of Americans.  I don't remember any of my costumes.  I do remember the Dutch lady who responded to our "trick or treat!" with a "thank you" as she reached into my pumpkin and helped herself to a piece of candy!

I loved Halloween with Sophia - there were always events at school, at Girl Scouts, and at church.  Here are a couple of my favorite costumes:

Teletubby Po in 1998 and Madeline in 1999

And finally, no, I don't like candy corn.  It's too sweet and waxy.

2.  Are you a scaredy cat?  About what?

I don't like most bugs, especially ones that move quickly but I can't really say that makes me a scaredy cat.  I'm not afraid of the dark.  I'm not crazy about heights but that didn't stop me from going to the top of the Sears Tower or the Empire State Building.

3.  Last time you were somewhere that should have been busy but felt like a "ghost town"?

I ran into our local mall to pick up a gift card at Bath & Body Works and the mall was like a ghost town.  A lot of the smaller, independent businesses have closed and all of the major stores have blocked their entrances into the main mall.  You can only enter their stores from the parking lot and then you have to go outside to use a mall entrance to get to the main mall.  I'm sure a lot of people don't bother anymore.

4.  Do you like chili and if so, how do you like it?  Beans or no beans?  Meat or no meat?  Beef or chicken?  Spice or no spice?  Favorite toppings?

I love chili, with beans, without beans, with meat, without meat.  Beef, ground or cubed.  Mild spice.  Shredded cheese and scallions are my go-to toppings.

5.  Would you describe yourself as a night owl?  What time of night qualifies?  What are you doing while everyone else is asleep?  Do you then "sleep in"?  Define "sleeping in".

I am definitely a night owl and if I don't have to get up at 4:00am to get ready for work, I'd probably be up half the night.  I stay up very late scrapbooking on Friday and Saturday (midnight or 1:00am sometimes) because I can sleep in the next morning.  Sleeping in is usually 8:00am on the Saturdays the gardener comes because I have to be up and presentable to pay him!  The Saturdays when he doesn't come and Sundays, sleeping in is usually about 9:00am.

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

I'll leave you with a little humor.