Website woes, garden pics and books

Good evening! I’m a couple of days late getting this post up, because Friday morning my website decided to stop loading. I finally made time to contact tech support this morning–after verifying that no, the site still wouldn’t load. The support analyst said it loaded for him. I tested again, and of course it worked perfectly. I remember when I used to do tech support in libraries, and staff would ask me to stand next to their computer so it would start working again. Apparently I’ve either lost my tech support devil magic, or it doesn’t work with cloud-hosted websites. Dammit.

Update: right after I typed that paragraph, the site went down again. This time tech support informed me it was known issue with no estimated time to fix. It’s now after 6 PM on Sunday, and my site is up (for now). So let’s get this party started before it goes down again. This post is part of the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer, and the What’s on Your Bookshelf Challenge, hosted by Debbie (Deb’s World), Jo (And Anyways), Sue (Women Living Well After 50) and Donna (Retirement Reflections).

What I’m Reading

Books Finished in the Last Month

Here’s what I’ve finished since last month’s What’s on Your Bookshelf post:

  • Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park – Conor Knighton. When Knighton’s fiancé dumps him before their wedding, he gives up his apartment in LA and commits to spending a year visiting every national park in the US. Wonderful memoir–loved this book!
  • Anonymous Sex – Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan (editors). A collection of short stories from well-known literary authors but with a catch: the authors are listed alphabetically at the beginning of the book, but we aren’t told who wrote which story. The idea is that they can write more honestly about sex if they get to be anonymous. Some were wonderful, some just OK. An interesting collection.
  • Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal – Christopher Moore. Parts of Lamb are laugh-out-loud funny (though very irreverent, so if irreverence bordering on blasphemy bothers you, beware). I enjoyed this book, but I got a little bored about halfway through, because it started to feel repetitive.

Books Currently Reading

Not a book, but…

  • Deathbed Confessions – a Spotify original podcast. I’m taking a class on thriller writing, and my instructor suggested this podcast since my novel-in-progress includes a deathbed confession. It’s well done and highly entertaining. If you like true crime, check it out.

In the Garden

Our urban cottage garden is starting to come together! Paths are laid out, and we’ve started mulching with compost. I’d planned to do more work this weekend before the weather gets hot again, but I may not have time. Ah, well, little by little.

The Weekly Memes–Literary Edition

Since we’re talking about books, we’re doing book memes this week.

That’s me when an author kills off one of my favorite characters. I’ve been on edge ever since I started reading the newest Outlander, because I have a hunch she’s going to kill someone important.

And I will go to bed as soon as I finish one more chapter, and I’ll clean the house as soon as I finish one more chapter, and… right. Maybe I should do this:

I’d certainly never run out of material.

I can’t begin to tell you how true this is. And it leaves me with a long list of these:

I can think of a few people who’d be much more interesting as books too.

When librarians go rogue:

The Rogue Librarians is now my band name.

While we’re on the subject of my profession:

My bookshelves are only loosely organized–and I used to be a cataloger. Yes, I’m bringing shame to the noble profession of librarianship.

Speaking of shame:

This person has a point. My reading material is usually filled with murder and mayhem.

And on that note, I’m going to sign off and get this thing posted before my site goes down again.

What are you reading?

20 Comments

  • Bobbiem91

    I am still going through Paolini’s To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. I’m reading The Break Out Novel and workbook by Donald Maas, (doing his Virtual workshop in June) and halfway done with Cormac which is an erotica book that wasn’t labeled as such–whatever.

    I related to your meme about life and work interrupting you reading (and writing).

    • Janet Alcorn

      I’ve been meaning to read the Maas book for awhile–in fact, it’s sitting on the shelf above my writing desk right now. I hope the virtual workshop is good.

      I haven’t heard of the other 2 – are they good?

  • Natalie

    I hope your website issues are gone. Your garden is looking good. Thank you for your weekend coffee share and the funny memes. Have a great week!

    • Janet Alcorn

      Thanks! So far the website is staying up, thank goodness. Hope you have a great week too!

    • Janet Alcorn

      Yep! I had fun reading the author bios and guessing. Some seemed like easy guesses based on where the authors were from and what else they wrote.

  • leannelc

    Hi Janet – I hate it when the internet doesn’t behave itself. We had 2 years of spotty connection and finally bit the bullet and changed providers – it’s so lovely to have it working all the time and not seeing that little blue spinning wheel of death appearing all the time. I also love Diana Gabaldon’s books and wait with impatience for each new one to come out.

    • Janet Alcorn

      I feel your pain. We lived in Flagstaff for > 6 years, and our internet up there was slow and cranky. One of the best things about moving to a city has been fast (really fast) reliable internet. I’m now too spoiled to go back to a rural area.

  • Kirstin

    Sorry about your tech problems…ugghh! I need to do some serious cleaning of my computer…I have hardly any space left.

    • Janet Alcorn

      Minimal space can definitely cause issues. Get rid of unneeded files, then give it a good defrag. If all else fails, back it up, wipe the hard drive, and start over (though that’s definitely the nuclear option).

  • Retirement Reflections

    Hi, Janet – Thank you for joining us at WOYBS/FFC. I’m sorry to hear about your website woes. Hope they are all fixed now. I love the diverse range of books that you have shared here. ‘Leave Only Footprints’ has now been recommended to me several times — I am taking this as a sign from the Universe and have now added it to my (tragically long) TBR list. 😀

    • Janet Alcorn

      Leave Only Footprints is wonderful! It reminded me of how much I miss long road trips to national parks. I need to make time for those again.

  • jlennidorner

    Great looking garden. I had to pin the quote about reading books for younger people– ha ha ha, true.
    Thanks for visiting me during the Theme Reveal. I used your prompt of time travel in my A to Z story.

    • Janet Alcorn

      Thanks! And glad you were able to use my prompt! I’d hoped to do the A-Z challenge this year but realized I didn’t have the time or energy. Maybe next year.