Lovejoy's Bar and Grill

Notes from Jess: Apparently I've summoned the mountain fairies, some way or another! This post was originally written Thursday but the mountain fairies have been having fun stealing my posts!

I'm currently sitting in the McDonald's off of the interstate in Rawlins, Wyoming waiting on my online school websites to load.  I decided now would be the perfect opportunity to use the wifi while I have it and talk about a wonderful experience dining out last night in Laramie, Wyoming.

My brother has been working in this area since around the beginning of February and he and his crew has found their favorite places in Laramie and Rawlins.  Last night for dinner we headed into Laramie and my brother took us to their favorite place, Lovejoy's Bar and Grill.

Lovejoy's is downtown Laramie and parking is a bit difficult to come by in the evening.  We ate a early dinner and had arrived downtown around 5 o'clock.  We got super lucky because of the largeness of my brother's truck we had to go around the block to get parking big enough...and then my dad decided he couldn't walk all that way because of his bad knee. We ended up back in front of the bar and just our luck, someone was leaving and left us plenty of room for the truck right across the street! Score!

Book Haul

Notes from Jess: The fairies are at it again.  Thankfully this time they gave my post back a bit faster than last time.  Don't feed the fairies chocolate guys, they like to steal my posts when their tummies are full of chocolate.

I don't know about you but when I travel I have to have a book with me.  It's nothing for me to start a book once we get on the road within a few minutes from our house and have the book completed by the time we arrive at our destination.  In 2012 when I went to New Orleans I was on a charter bus for over 17 hours.  I read three books that day and contemplated starting a fourth but I was just tired and hungry, oh and my Kindle had died.

Since we're getting ready to leave for Wyoming early Tuesday morning I hit up our local bookstore that Ma and I have credit through selling our books to and picked out a few to take with me.  I was short on time so I couldn't just browse away like normal, but I ended up picking up three that looked promising.

Get this, my grand total for the trip to the bookstore was $11.25 (including tax).  Warlord was the only book I was able to pay half with my store credit since the other two, Rules of Civility and Dark and Stormy Knights was on their massive clearance shelf.  Not bad considering I had to drive into the city to get these books!  Totally worth the gas in the truck to buy from there because the ladies that work there are so wonderful and have helped me make some serious book decisions before!

Totes cheesin' it up on the webcam because I was having issues with
my camera and I'm wayyy too tired to sort it out right now.

I'm sure you're dying to know what I've chosen.  Is this how this works? I just tell you about what I bought? Is that a book haul?

Warlord by Ilario Pantano with Malcolm McConnell

Why I chose this book: Every once in a while I love to read a good military fiction book.  I've been due to read one for a while now and I wanted something that I could somehow know what was going on.  I saw the Marine Corps emblem on the spine and pulled it out to check it out.  I've only ever read one book on the war in Iraq and it was written the year following 9/11.  Considering that the person who wrote this was a sniper in Desert Storm and lead an infantry platoon in Iraq after 9/11, I was drawn to this book over others because I felt it could give me some insight to the life of these guys and gals that served and in some cases still serving in this area of the Middle East.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Why I chose this book: Set in the late thirties I was immediately drawn to this book because I've read so much futuristic/alternative universe books recently that I was definitely ready to pick up something that was set in the past.  Basically, from what I understand of the synopsis on the back, Katey Kontent, 25, meets this handsome banker dude in a jazz bar on New Year's Eve and the story follows her year long journey to the upperside of the New York society.  It sounds quite a bit different from what I normally gravitate towards at the book store like all those murder mysteries my Ma has me hooked on.

Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P.N. Elrod

Why I chose this book: Whenever I buy more than one book I usually always pick one with little to know thought process.  Picking at random basically. This one is it.  From the sounds of it, this one is more supernatural based, or maybe not. I can't tell from the synopsis.  What I found interesting from further inspection one I got to the truck to head home was that there isn't just one author.  There's more than the four names that are listed on the front cover.  Should be an interesting read in general!

I will also take along The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien that I'm currently reading as well as the book I need to finish for school and can not for the life of me remember what it's called right now.

What was the last book you purchased?

Tuesday of Thanks

Note from Jess: This was originally written Tuesday around mid day but it never got posted because of an internet outage from a large weather system moving into the area.  Think of this as the fairies that kidnapped this post deciding that they weren't bad fairies and have decided to deliver it.  Better late than never, eh?  Keep an eye for those fairies if you're in Kansas.  They like to come out when it's about to rain.

It's Tuesday, and I'm thankful.  That pretty much explains this post.

• It's Tuesday and not Monday.  For some reason, yesterday was just a big case of Monday times five and I'm thankful that we're done that for a few more days.
• I'm thankful for the blown out tire on my dad's truck that is allowing us to spend time together to fix it.  It's hot outside and we're not happy about how difficult the process of fixing the tire is but it's been a great bonding moment for my dad and I.
• I'm thankful that in a week we're going to be on the road to Wyoming to see my brother.  I've been waiting for months now to get on the road!
• I'm super thankful for great managers who look out for me.  Yesterday I was getting dizzy and the stubborn me decided I could fight through it.  Eventually they ganged up on me and talked some sense into me. I ended up sitting down for ten to fifteen minutes to get over the dizziness.  Of course, they made sure I hydrated too.
• I'm thankful for our veterans and all that they've done for our country including lending a helping hand wherever they can now that they're out of the service.

What are you thankful for this Tuesday?