Joyeux Anniversaire à Moi... (les 9 et 10 juin)

The entire month of June is devoted to celebrating my birthday, in case anyone was wondering.

I forgot to write in my first birthday post that the day before (le 7 juin), I treated myself to a facial* and a manicure. Nothing says eternal youth and beauty like glowing skin and sparkly nails!

Blue and silver

On Saturday, the boyfriend and I exemplified our nerdiness by going to the Ontario Science Centre. Our original plans of visiting the nude beach were rudely interrupted by a forecast for thunderstorms all day (which never materialized, of course). After a very late lunch and a stop by the liquor store for champagne (well, sparkling wine, but from Ontario, which I thought was cool!), we headed to the tattoo parlor!

Yup, I now have a black fleur-de-lis on my back, just under the left side of my bra band. It is beautiful.* The boyfriend was very supportive, holding my hand the whole time. It didn't hurt nearly as much as my foot tattoo, though.**

Sunday was gorgeous, and I wanted to enjoy it outside. We skipped Casa Loma and headed to the zoo! Basically we spent half our time looking at the polar bears. The boyfriend and I have decided to have a pet polar bear one day.*** They were just so cute! The Toronto Zoo has a polar bear cub right now, and he was seriously the most adorable thing ever. The adult polar bears were awesome as well.

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend.

Don't worry. We enjoyed lots of naked time too. ;)

*Checked off two goals from my list of 101 Things in 1001 Days!

**NO ONE IN MY FAMILY KNOWS! DO NOT TELL THEM!

***I wish we could actually have a pet polar bear. Alas. Only in our dreams.

Joyeux Anniversaire à Moi... (le 8 juin)

Last Friday was my birthday, last weekend was my birthday weekend, and June is my birthday month. Let the celebrations continue!

My birthday weekend was practically perfect, despite almost nothing going according to plan. (And I LOVE to plan things very precisely).

The plan: Spend Friday at the pool with the boyfriend, and after school, the kids too. After dinner, go to the cool adult after-hours event at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) with the boyfriend. Drink champagne. Go to the nude beach on Saturday, head home to shower, get my tattoo, and go somewhere nice for dinner. Spend Sunday at Casa Loma.

What happened: The only event that went according to plan was getting my tattoo. But the weekend was still awesome. :)

The boyfriend left work early Thursday and drove to Toronto so I could wake up with him on my birthday. He brought me this beautiful cake.
 

I used Paint to hide my real name (in M&Ms!) and age

Book Club Friday: Birthday Edition!

It's my birthday today! I'm 20-something years old! As opposed to yesterday, when I was 20-something...


Honestly, who can focus on books when birthday celebrations are to be had? Hence I'm actually writing this on May 27, 2012, but waiting to post it til June 8. I'm tricky like that.


But you knew that already, right? I mean, I totally 'fessed up to it with last week's Book Club Friday.


Thank goodness for goodreads.com, or I'd never remember all the books I read.

Today's two books are once again, bargains from Amazon. Every month, they offer 100 books for $3.99 or less. I couldn't resist buying four of them from the Kids & Teens category.


The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson and Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein couldn't be more different:

• the former features a modern setting whereas the latter is set in the 16th century
• the former is about navigating high school (and the consequences of failing) whereas the latter is about navigating Queen Elizabeth's court (and the consequences of failing)
• the romance in the former is young and innocent whereas the romance in the latter leads to devastating consequences

But I'm pairing these two books for Book Club Friday because of what they have in common: a discussion on race.

Virgin Search Keywords Continued

Confession: I had no intention of doing another post on keyword search terms, especially one so shortly after my first one. 

But someone found my blog by googling "boob popped out on mythbusters." How can I not share that with my readers?!

These are the search keywords that led to my blog 2012 May 28 23:00 – 2012 Jun 4 22:00.

I hope that I helped out whoever was scared about their first pelvic exam (since I was TERRIFIED before mine). I hope I didn't disappoint anyone looking for nerdy hot porn. (Future stories about the boyfriend and I having sex in our library will NOT be shared publicly. Sorry). Most of all, I hope I can inspire or inform or reassure any virgins out there who stumble across my blog, looking to find what they can't outside the Internet.

Book Club Friday: The Teacup Novellas

Friday rolls around, every week, right on schedule, just like Fridays tend to do. Every week, I tell myself "Link up for Book Club Friday." Yet, I haven't managed to do so since April.

It's not that I haven't been reading. Au contraire. I just get distracted with things like flying to Tennessee for a wedding, or finishing up a job application, or sleeping all day because I'm sick.

To keep myself in check, I am writing this June 1 post on May 26. Then, I'm going to write ANOTHER book review for my birthday. We all know I will not be blogging during my birthday weekend. Hello, the boyfriend will be visiting!

Trying to catch up with all the books I've read lately, I'll be reviewing two books. You're welcome.

Confession: Bargain books are not my only shopping problem with Amazon. I also can't resist buying Kindle singles. Priced between $0.99 and $2.99, they're an inexpensive way to discover a new writer. Since they're shorter than regular books, they're a nice alternative to magazines for folks who love to read, but don't have the time to tackle long novels.

Diane Moody has started the most delightful series called The Teacup Novellas. Her format is to tell a story within a story. Each novella is connected by one continuing storyline of an author writing books inspired by a collection of antique tea cups she inherited. Each novella starts with the author reflecting on her work and ends with her finishing each book.