Double-Stacked Bookshelves

Well, we've done it fellow A-Zers; completed the A-Z Blogging Challenge and done so with style.  I stumbled upon so many wonderful blogs throughout this month and want to thank everyone who checked mine out.  Thank you for sharing your insights and thoughts with me and for allowing me to do the same.  And now for the last letter in this wonderful challenge....Z... Zoos There is something magical about zoos.  No matter how old you are, a zoo brings you right back to your childhood and fills you with this incredible sense of wonder.  Perhaps it has to do with the fact that you're looking at animals that you normally don't see walking down the street.  Whatever it is, I think that going to zoos should become more of a regular activity in our lives.  This can be accomplished relatively inexpensively in some places.  For instance, the Oregon Zoo is free for every visitor on Tuesday.  Granted, Tuesdays are not the most convenient, but it's a star...

You are calm and reposed... "You are calm and reposed / Let your beauty unfold / Pale white, like the skin stretched over your bones / Spring keeps you ever close / You are second-hand smoke / You are so fragile and thin, standing trial for your sins / Holding on to yourself the best you can / You are the smell before rain / You are the blood in my veins" These are my all-time favorite lyrics from Brand New's "The Boy who Blocked his Own Shot" off of their second album, Deja Entendu .  Soooooo good.  Definitely one of my most loved songs as well.  Check it out.  Have a lovely Saturday everyone!

We're coming in to the homestrech of the A-Z Blogging Challenge and it's time for one of the most difficult letters of the alphabet...that pesky X.  Here's my solution: The X in My Name (1993) the poor signature of my illiterate and peasant self giving away all rights in a deceiving contract for life Francisco X. Alarcon...brilliant. An interview with Fransisco X. Alarcon for Colorin Colorado where he discusses his cultural heritage and how it shaped his poetry.  It's long, but good. TGIF fellow A-Zers...remember whe that was good television?! 

World Competitions I like big sporting competitions, especially those that bring together multiple nations and cultures.  There is something magical about them.  Some of my favorites are: The World Cup (both men's and women's) Oh man, oh man, oh man...the World Cup is a party in my world.  As I stated in a previous post , I am a huge, huge, huge soccer fan and this competition is one of my all-time favorites.  Everything from the qualifiers to the championship game, I'm down with.  I'm able to cheer on the good ole USA (though the men's team hardly make it as far as I want them to) and my favorite team, Germany.  Good deal!  When it comes to the Women's World Cup...USA all the way!  Next one...Brazil 2014! The Euro Cup Definitely along the same lines as the above, but this competition is awesome all on its own.  It fuses my love of Europe with soccer.  Word.  Again, my lovely German national team is always in it for the win...and ...

Vienna, Austria Oh Vienna, land of Mozart, Sachertorte, Kaesekraeners, and delicious Eis.  I spent an amazing year living in Vienna in 2006/2007 teaching English just north of the city in Klosterneuburg.  The school I taught in specialized in wine production and vineyards...sweet deal!  Needless to say I learned a lot about wine and was even able to sample some of the bottles my students helped to cultivate.  Pretty awesome.  While living in the city (right near the Suedbahnhof), I had the opportunity to explore a lot of things.  Here are just a few: Schoenbrunn Palace from the Gloriette with a view of the city center behind. The Reisenrad at the Prater (boardwalk).  Those are railway cars that rock. The Gloriette behind Schoenbrunn Palace. Belvedere Palace, now a museum, where Gustav Klimt's The Kiss is displayed. The entrance of the school where I worked. Courtney and I cooling down our gluewein at a Christkindlmarkt. St. ...

Though I'm still reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , I have picked up a read to break the heftiness of it up.  Something that can be plowed through quickly and that I can easily read between spurts of Tattoo .  That book is Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.  I found this, randomly, at Wal-Mart (I know, I know) on the cheap.  It sounded good, so I picked it up and here you go: "Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth?  That morning, my brother's was worth a pocket watch" (27). This looks like a pretty good read to me and it's been decent so far.  Fingers crossed that it continues to be so.  Happy Tuesday everyone!

Utopia I've always meant to read Thomas More's Utopia ...pretty much since I watch Ever After starring Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston (I love that movie despite Barrymore's atrocious British accent and the fact that everyone has a British accent yet it's set in France).  Recently I found an extremely inexpensive copy of the book and am bound and determined to start is soon.  Here's hoping it's sooner rather than later. Take a peak at the trailer for the movie...good stuff.  Have a terrific day everyone!