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Lets Talk!

How is everyone doing? Things can be tough and/or crazy right now. If anyone wants to talk, we are here for each other. How are things impacting your life?

What have you been reading? Other hobbies, interests, projects underway? Or are you one of those working more than ever and feel like you are forgetting how to be able to relax (I hope not).?

I'm okay. Really grateful my home life is stable but struggling with isolation a bit. I've been doing yoga and meditation and that helps a lot! I'm on a reading streak right now so im consuming manga and Gn's like crazy!

Jamie wrote: "How is everyone doing? Things can be tough and/or crazy right now. If anyone wants to talk, we are here for each other. How are things impacting your life?

What have you been reading? Other hobbie..."

My reading has been going great! My mood not so much but at least my reading hasn't suffered.

Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind) wrote: "I'm okay. Really grateful my home life is stable but struggling with isolation a bit. I've been doing yoga and meditation and that helps a lot! I'm on a reading streak right now so im consuming man..."

Isolation is hard. :(

I am finally pulling out of my slump. I kept waving in April (although part due to my focus on just organzing my books). Now I feel like really reading and am starting the month strong.
Even as an introvert I am starting to feel bogged down by this quarantine isolation. I just want OUT. I don't care where, just a hike, picnic on a blanket at a part, anything!
But on the plus my library shed now is amazing and I love going out there and reading! I've been doing short daily workouts and playing regularly with the dogs. We have the pool business set up so I stay home and deal with calls while my husband is the only one to physically go out. I think I might start doing more puzzles and am debating on which RPG game to start playing as well.
I am noticing that shorter books, MG, graphic novels/manga are a lot more likely to be read and enjoyed right now vs longer books.

That's awesome Jamie! ^_^

Same. I have taken to going for hour long car rides. Which is about what I did before. It feels good just to be OUT.

I'm very envious of your library shed!

It's great to play with the dogs. ^_^

I think I'm shifting to a manga reading as well. I'm just starting to feel slumpy.

Has anyone else tried a virtual book club? I participated in one that was a virtual silent book club a couple times. We join a Zoom call and each share what book we're reading, and then we mute ourselves and read for an hour. Then we unmute and share a little about what we read, and that's it! I've enjoyed it. I like having an uninterrupted hour of reading, and it feels nice staying connected on camera while we read, like reading with friends.

I've heard of Quarantined Pages, another group that hosts the same kind of thing every day on Zoom at different times each day. I haven't joined theirs yet but I think all this is a nice way for readers to join the videoconference revolution going on right now. Or I could just be really missing my visits to the public library and this is the closest thing I have to that. :)

There is a great readathon going on this week called Bout of Books. Today is the last day to sign up. Boutofbooks.com

@Talia. A virtual book club might be fun! I’ve done Buddy reads or book of the month type of things before but nothing on live chat!

@kai ooh I missed bout of books! Those are fun. I am not signing up though as we are busy this week and next.

I have some new pics of Ruby!



This is what she looks like now. She is in desperate need of a groom. Look at how hairy her feet are!

This is also a pretty current pic. I think I took it this month?



This is Ruby with her current favorite toy. She loves to swing it back and forth as she 'kills' it.

This is Ruby with one of her 'comfort' toys. She also loves to squeak them. She likes to carry it around but we have to it from her if she is unsupervised as she eats her plushies.

She is so cute. Although I do agree she needs grooming! Weston (our youngest dog that we took in last fall) won't let us do his nails so we have to get him in at some point...

Jamie wrote: "She is so cute. Although I do agree she needs grooming! Weston (our youngest dog that we took in last fall) won't let us do his nails so we have to get him in at some point..."

So cute!

I think dog grooming is the next wave of business that is opening in Ontario so there is hope. Her nails are soooooo long. She hasn't had them done since mid December... thank god for tile, concrete and other hard surfaces. I'd try to do them myself but I might injure her. She's not good a staying still.

At least there's hope he can get them done soon. :)

I'm hoping to get her basically shaved down for the summer. I have some pics of her with a very close cut and I want to basically do that again. It was a little cold for Spain at first and way to cold for Canada but we just bundled her up and then she was fine in Spain. Thank god we did as now she is only overdue for a cut by like 2-3 months?

Anna 'Bookbuyer' wrote: "This is also a pretty current pic. I think I took it this month?



This is Ruby with her current favorite toy. She loves to swing it back and forth as she 'kills' it."

Oh and that's also her 'bring' pose. That's what she does when I want her to bring her toy to me. I'm actually technically just out of range in that picture as she was bringing it to me in the chair. It's very handy so I don't have to keep bending down to pick up the toy.

Jamie wrote: ""

?

Was going to share the dogs but nope. Trying to get pictures onto goodreads too difficult. I won't pay for photobucket.

Jamie wrote: "Was going to share the dogs but nope. Trying to get pictures onto goodreads too difficult. I won't pay for photobucket."

Awww. :(

I just use my blog. It's free and I can post as many pictures as I want. It's been great for the past year because I also literally am just using it for pics right now. lol.

Not a bad idea. I just use my phone for most pics not and just using instagram has become so much easier than uploading to my computer. I've gotten lazy lol.

Here is the link though so you can still see them
(I think):

Jamie wrote: "Not a bad idea. I just use my phone for most pics not and just using instagram has become so much easier than uploading to my computer. I've gotten lazy lol."

I use my ipod for pics too but I don't have instagram so I have to upload to my comp and then my blog.

I want to try something. Just a sec.

Yeah. I can see why you can't post pics from Instagram now. You need to be able to click 'copy image address' and instagram doesn't let you.

Beautiful pic of the dogs. I love that they are both black and white with a little bit of grey. Sooooo pretty.

Haha. Our cat is black/white too. Don't ask how we ended up with this theme. Lol. Random luck.

Jamie wrote: "Haha. Our cat is black/white too. Don't ask how we ended up with this theme. Lol. Random luck."

lol. I love it. They are like a matched pair! I love how the one has more black on his face and the other on his body. ^_^

Reminds me a bit of our neighbours new puppy. He is mostly black and white with some brown and grey.

I'm going to guess by the alertness in the face the one with the most black on his face is your foster and the other one is the older one?

I see the cat now. I missed it the first time. He blends in to the black and white pillow. I'm really sensing a theme. lol.

Lol. I never noticed the sweater he is lying on!! I had to check when you said pillow I was confused. Yeah apparently we have a thing for rescuing black and white animals.

Jamie wrote: "Lol. I never noticed the sweater he is lying on!! I had to check when you said pillow I was confused. Yeah apparently we have a thing for rescuing black and white animals."

I did notice after it was more of a blanket or something but a sweater makes total sense.

lol. At least you have a theme.

I just realized but is he there the entire time and just blocked by the dog? O.o

So can I rescue a panda next then? Panda cubs are so adorable. Lol

Beats what my husband says. He keeps wanting a skunk. Seriously. I have no idea why but he does. No thanks for me!

Jamie wrote: "So can I rescue a panda next then? Panda cubs are so adorable. Lol

Beats what my husband says. He keeps wanting a skunk. Seriously. I have no idea why but he does. No thanks for me!"

Uh I might go zebra instead. Panda's might look cute but they are a bear and will probably maul you...

Skunk is an interesting choice. I wouldn't recommend it unless you have no sense of smell and don't have other animals it can spray. lol.

Zebras!! I was blown away when I found out and saw zebra's running (somewhat) wild here in California. Was so cool to see!

Jamie wrote: "Zebras!! I was blown away when I found out and saw zebra's running (somewhat) wild here in California. Was so cool to see!"

O.o Running wild? Like not in a zoo or anything?

Nope. They are fenced in (mainly so no one goes near them and that they don't go roaming the entire state or killed by car, etc) but they have miles and miles to roam.

between 70,000-80,000 acres of ranch land and hillsides to roam. :)

So with how little participation this group has and that Sans is been too busy and has a lot on her shoulders, and I am getting busier- I think I am going to have to nix pick it challenges longer and may or may not continue future challenges. We only get a few that make the picks and 1-3 that actually read one and that is discouraging in a way if I take what little free time I have to do them. It might be the last quarterly too. Either we need more participation and I am not sure how to go about that right now; or I need more help.
So I think I am going back to the basics and using this group as just a way to track series progress and chat and motivate each other. That could change in the future if we get more active people again or I can get more weekly help. I just feel utterly unmotived to try right now. Sorry to those who do participate and like the challenges. The current quarterly will continue and we will see how things look later.
If anyone has ways they'd like to help, a challenge they'd be willing to initiate and help run or ideas on how to increase participation I am all ears.

I appreciate all you guys do! I don't have any ideas but maybe taking a break is best

Jamie wrote: "So with how little participation this group has and that Sans is been too busy and has a lot on her shoulders, and I am getting busier- I think I am going to have to nix pick it challenges longer a..."

Awww. I'm sad but I understand. :)

Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind) wrote: "I appreciate all you guys do! I don't have any ideas but maybe taking a break is best"

Agreed. I'll still pop on and chat and maybe try to do a weekly challenge thing myself. :)

Yes talk and chat and still work on series! I don’t think this will be permanent. But I am a reader before a challenge creator.

My hubby broke my kindle trying to replace the battery I just ordered..... so I got the excuse to order the fire 10.