Whine & Cheese

2008 Reading Challenge: Books 30 & 31

This is turning into reading/book week here at W&C, so just deal with it!  

I managed to close out my 2008 reading last night.  I had originally thought that it would take until today, but I forget how quiet the holidays can be if you don't have any commitments (coupled with an anemic amount of new television shows!).  While I am tempted to just wrap up these last 3 books of this year here in one swoop, I'll stick to my original idea of just grouping together the first two of the three...

... mostly because I don't have a lot to say about them!   Now that doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement, but I did enjoy both books.  The first one is Alexander McCall Smith's Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, which is the 2nd book in The Sunday Philosophy Club series, though I am also seeing it referred to as Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries.   I prefer the former since the latter makes me sound like I should making some tea to sit down with my mom and dearly departed grandmother for another fascinating episode of Murder, She Wrote (Seen it before?  Who cares!). 

As I said over and over, McCall Smith is one of my guilty pleasures... emphasis on guilty, since I do truly feel embarrassed over reading them.  In fact, one reason why it took me so long to get to this 2nd book in the series is that I couldn't even muster up the courage to walk up to a bookstore counter with a book called Friends, Lovers, Chocolate... cash, credit, debit, or any remains of your manhood... ha!  Ah, the anonymity of the Kindle!  It downloads in about 30 seconds and no one sees what I am reading!

Anyhow back (or onto!) the book, much like his other books/series McCall Smith just creates these wonderful little worlds.  His protagonists are charming women just trying to do good and/or the right thing, but just stumbling into situations that test their patience or good-spiritedness.  These books are labeled as "mystery," but I always think any serious fan of that genre would be disappointed as it is more slice-of-life/figuring out human nature than say an actual crime... and I love 'em!   So embarrassment be damned, I will continue to read these enjoyable little gems.

Next up, and continuing the emasculating theme (ah, that's why I felt comfortable grouping these two book together!) is Laurie Notaro's The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death.   Now this book was never on my radar, but since it was offered up to me at everyone's favorite discount price of 100% off - yes, free! - it seemed like an offer I couldn't refuse as Random House and/or Amazon made it free for Kindle users promoting a bunch of authors with new releases in early 2009.  That said, I was curious about the book since I was familiar with Notaro.  While I can't say I was a religious or even regular reader of hers she did write for my hometown newspaper The Arizona Republic for some time.  That said, I will plead ignorance that she had left Arizona (and the Republic) and had made quite a national name for herself with these books of comic, slice-of-life (there's that phrase again!) essays. 

There is some very funny stuff in this book and I flew through it, which kind of made me glad that it didn't cost anything as otherwise I would not have got a lot of bang out of my proverbial buck.  I particularly enjoyed Notaro's essays about life in Arizona, and more specifically Phoenix ("You don't understand 114 degrees, day in and day out, until you live in it and feel the life being roasted out of you, droplet by droplet").   But no worries there is plenty of stuff that anyone can relate to... one of the signature/promoted lines of this book is "You can't look bad ass in a Prius. Don't even try."

That said, I think Notaro tries a little too hard and, at times, the dialogue between Notaro and others do not seem/sound terribly realistic in setting up a good punchline (or else I do not hang out with witty enough folks, which I don't believe is the case!).  And while things that appeal to females often cross over to gay men, well this may have had a tad too much of estrogen even for me, though I can certainly see what Notaro is viewed as chick-lit (non-fiction) goddess!

So one more book to go to close out 2008 and then I must compile my big best-of/year in review book post... stay tuned!

12,038

Because I know you were just hanging on the edge of your seat... wondering how many pages I would finally end the ever so slightly non-calendar year that is my reading challenge year... well, that isn't just some random number above... I read 12,038 pages in 2008! 

So while I didn't reach my goal of 12,345 pages, I am still pretty impressed that I got this close.  If you don't feel like doing the math, that's 307 pages short.... which means that if I only read 1 more page a day, on those days I did read, I would have made it.  It is a tad frustrating to think of it that way!

Also to "blame" was the amazing the year it ended up being.  It is not surprising at all to see that May and August were lows in terms of reading days.  So while 309 days of reading this past year seems pretty impressive... again, if you do the math, that leaves 57 days off (leap year gave me one day more!)... and when you give yourself a challenge that requires reading nearly 34 pages a day, every day... digging oneself out of a 1900+ page hole is... well... challenging!   But if not meeting a reading goal means another year of experiences that I had this year, well I hope that I keep NOT meeting reading goals from now on!  

However, on the days I did read I did read more vs. last year.  Last year, I "missed" 42 days and ended up at 12,204 pages... so I gave up 15 more days this year, but still got to 12,038... which I think is pretty good.

I also made a pretty amazing comeback in these these past two months and I have been on fire since I got the Kindle.  I thought that not having pages would be one of the things that drive me crazy about the Kindle, but it has been nice to let that go... and just reading.  With a tangible book, I think one consciously or subconsciously starts tuckering out after a certain amount of pages... or paging ahead to see where a chapter ends (which is another difficult thing to do on a Kindle and surprisingly another thing that isn't driving me nuts).  While the Kindle has numbered "locations" I am not good enough to do the math in my head to figure it all out, so I have found myself getting "lost" in the book.

When I finished my last "real" book back on Nov 10th, I was 865 pages behind pace, the farthest for the year.  Almost 6 Kindle books later and averaging nearly 45 pages a day (and btw, not missing one day!), I made up 550+ pages and ended up at that -307.  So not bad!

Now, if all this sounds like I am getting caught up in numbers and/or that it sounds homework-y or that I am putting pressure on myself, well that really isn't the case.  My love of books and reading is nearly equaled to my love of spreadsheets, so I love putting all the numbers and keeping track or comparing... and it was very motivating, but in a good way... not "work," honest!

I contemplated not setting a reading goal this year and just informally keeping track of things.  When I first started this, it was intended to get me back in the reading habit and in that respect it has been successful.  Finding some time to read nearly everyday has become no different than carving out time for TV or eating or the Internet (not necessarily in that order).  But then, since I did not make it to 12,345 pages I figure there's no harm in trying that one again... so while I won't focus on it in my individual book posts, that will be my goal once again!

Oh yeah... I still "owe" you posts on 3 more books for 2008.  Think I am going to do a combo on the first two (not a whole lot to say) and then the book I will likely finish tomorrow.  I am counting that one as a 2008 book, though pages read from this point forward will count towards 2009!  I will have my always hotly anticipated "best of" review sometime in early January... I hope!

2009 Reading List?

Now this is a rarity ... a Sunday blog entry!   Well, Todd is visiting family in New Mexico and since today is the last day of my 2008 Reading Challenge, it seemed like a good time to get this entry in.

Yes, I am a bit strange as the start/end date is not Dec 31/Jan 1... just think there is too much pressure on those dates... either with making resolutions and/or potentially having the inability to read on those days and that's not a good way to kick off a reading year!  

But yes, my reading challenge ends today/tonight and I will fall short of my goal... basically I would have to read an entire book today in order to reach it!  That said, I made quite the comeback in these past couple of months... but I'll save that another post... as this post is about the coming year!

One of my reading buddies Joanna blogged about a new reading challenge she will be tackling in the new year... the TBR (To Be Read) Challenge.  You can click that link to learn more, but basically the goal is to finally get to 12 (of 24) of those books that have long been on your "to be read" list.  On a sidenote, when I was researching the TBR challenge, I stumbled upon a serious reading challenge cyber-subculture... reading award winners, best of lists, translations, alphabetic (by author or book title), book to movies, classics,  100 books a year (!!!), "new to you" authors, etc, etc.  It makes my 'lil 'ole page count challenge seem pretty boring.

Anyhow, I have vowed to stay away from book-oriented challenges.  The major reason I decided on a "page" challenge was that I didn't want to be discouraged to read longer books... and I can't help but think one would be tempted to go with shorter book (especially if you are time-challenged).  So while I won't officially be participating in the 2009 TBR challenge, I still thought I would list out 24 books that are on my "Save For Later" list on my Kindle (full disclosure, the list currently 30 books!). 

A lot of books get added to my list this time of year thanks to the year-end best-of lists, so I would think/hope that it wouldn't be too crazy to think that I would get to 12 of these, but I also know how easily distracted I get with new releases or buzz about another book. 

This first group of books have made several best of 2008 lists.  I am too lazy to tell you which ones, but I have perused lists from  NY Times, NPR, Time, Entertainment Weekly, and People.

Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
The Book of Dahlia - Elisa Albert
Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
Say You're One of Them - Uwem Akpan
Lush Life - Richard Price
Netherland - Joseph O'Neill

Two books I currently have on hand:

Prague - Arthur Phillips
This has been on my mental TBR list for awhile now and Random House and Amazon were nice enough to provide it for free on the Kindle

Beijing Coma - Ma Jian
Todd checked out my Kindle "Save For Later" list and got me this one in hardcover for Christmas.  Since our Beijing trip I have been obsessed with all things China.  (Sidenote:  It has a beautiful cover, one downside of the Kindle is definitely no book covers!)

Alexander McCall Smith is one of my guilty pleasures and my go-to author when I need something to cleanse the reading palette after a long and/or challenging read... so the next books in The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency and The Sunday Philosophy Club series are very likely/no-brainer 2009 reads:

Blue Shoes and Happiness - Alexander McCall Smith
The Right Attitude for Rain - Alexander McCall Smith

Speaking of guilty pleasures, vampires are another of my weaknesses...

While I wasn't terribly impressed with Twilight, my inner-teenage girl seems to want to give New Moon - Stephenie Meyer another chance... and I have loved HBO's vamp series True Blood, so am curious (though have somewhat low-ish expectations) about the series of books that inspired it, starting with the first in the series: Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris

I have had a fair amount of success pulling books from Booker Prize winners or even those that made the short list.  The Booker is kinda the British equivalent of the Pulitzer, honoring the best novel written in English by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations or Ireland... so that covers pretty much current/former nations of the British Empire (UK, Canada, Australia, India, South Africa... to name a few!).  Anyhow (!!) here are those books:

The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
The White Tiger - Aravind Adaga
A Fraction of the Whole - Steven Toltz

Ok, the rest I can't easily classify/group these others (and besides, this post was really just supposed to be a simple list anyhow... ha!)

Last Night at the Lobster - Stewart O'Nan
Hurry Down Sunshine - Michael Greenberg
One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson
Bright Shiny Morning - James Frey
The Geography of Bliss - Eric Weiner
Brother, I'm Dying - Edwidge Danticat
The Abstinence Teacher - Tom Perrotta
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
The Hour I First Believed - Wally Lamb

So there you have it, 24 books on my TBR list going into 2009... and we'll see (unofficially) how many of them I get to... seems easy enough, but I know myself well enough to know there could very well be a book not listed above that I just have to read as early as next week... ha!

Thoughts/comments about the above titles are certainly welcome... and would love to hear/read what's on your TBR list for 2009!

Happy Holidays 2008

Since the blog and online world in general will likely be taking a breather - both in writing and reading - it is probably time to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Festive Kwanzaa, Joyous Festivus or whatever you do/do not celebrate... but Happy New Year (at least that one applies to everyone!).

While the stresses of the holiday season often seem to get the best of us, it really is if not the most wonderful... at least one of more special... times of the year.

We're having a nice quite Christmas here. We celebrated the holiday with Todd's parents this past Sunday. As I type, the ingredients for our traditional Christmas Eve meal of posole (a spicy and savory Southwestern pork stew) is simmering on the stove and we plan on getting together with some friends for the holiday tomorrow.

I hope this finds you spending time with the ones you love, either near or far.

American Wife (#29)

As mentioned in my last book post, I love this time of the year with all the "best of" lists.  The good new/bad news scenario is I find myself with a lot of books being added to the "to be read" list.  Typically, I have not ready (m)any of the books on these lists since they are still in hardcover and, in the past, I generally waited until they were released in paperback (both my frugal-ish side coming out and a reading list so long that I am never lacking a book to read to justify a hardcover purchase/price).  But, thanks to the Kindle, I am getting to some of these books earlier.

Such is the case with Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife.  There was a lot of buzz when it came out and it has been one of the staples on these year-end book lists (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and in the Top 10 Fiction books for Time and Entertainment Weekly... and People).  Normally this would have been a book to put on my "wait for paperback" list, but thanks to a $9.99 Kindle Price (retail: $26, Amazon sells the physical book for 40% off/$15.60), I didn't hesitate to get right on it.  On a Kindle sidenote... yes, I still feel guilty for not supporting "brick and mortar" bookstores... but then again, this book won't be sitting in a landfill one day... though yes, this device with toxic ingredients and significantly less degradable will be... oh, the moral dilemmas!

Anyhow back to the book!  American Wife is one big character study.  Meet Alice Blackwell, a teacher turned librarian who ends ultimately ends up falling for a somewhat bumbling son of a rich, political family... where bumbling son ends up buying a baseball team, having a bout with the bottle, gets into politics himself... eventually becoming a state governor before ascending to the White House in the tightest election ever and he is ultimately bogged down by his decision to go to war after a terrorist attack on US grounds, that coincidentally enough took place on September 11th.  Sound familiar?  Well, I don't think you'd be too deserving of a prize if you figured out that our protagonist and title character here is a thinly veiled fictionalized version of Laura Bush.  

But apparently the soon-to-be former First Lady is a tad too boring to really carry a book.  As just mentioned above, there are a lot of similarities... and Alice is also haunted by her participation in a car accident that resulted in the death of a high school classmate... but Sittenfeld (who, btw, is female... my 2nd "male first name/but actually a female" author of the year - the first, Lionel Shriver) takes lots of additional and juicy/soap opera-y liberties to beef up this small town girl to First Lady saga. 

But thus lies my dilemma with this book.  I don't know how much credit to Sittenfeld for basically take a true story and just beefing it up and/or doing creative revisionism... i.e., wouldn't it be fun if Laura Bush was secretly a Democrat!  See that's the thing, I think the reader is constantly asked to do "what if?" scenarios with Alice and thus she was never able to be her own unique character/not Laura Bush... even when the story goes "rogue"... i.e. Alice does not have twin daughters, you wonder why not?  Though at times, you really do not want to make comparisons, particularly when the Blackwells got jiggy with it... let's just say Alice is being "serviced" by Charlie was one mental image I did not need to be imagined by their real-life counterparts!

Anyhow, the book is well-written, interesting, and entertaining... and feel that it can be recommended on these/many counts, but ultimately I felt that Sittenfeld is a talented enough writer/story-teller that she didn't need the hook, gimmick, crutch of the Bushes.

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 556 Pages (Total: 11,086 pages - Finished: 12/6/2008)
-549 pages behind pace for the year (+116 change in pace since last book).

Photo Friday: Best of 2008

I'll be the first to admit this year was an embarrassment of riches.  I went to places I always dreamed of going and even to someplace I never dreamed I'd go...

This week's challenge for Photo Friday - and the last of this year - is not surprisingly, the Best of 2008... and I had so many amazing things to chose from... and I can't take much of the credit as a photographer when you are dealing with such amazing subject matter.

Ultimately, the photo I decided to chose was this one:

It was my immediate gut instinct when I read/saw the "Best Of" theme and I remembered being wow'd by it when I first looked at in on my computer screen... so I guess that's saying something since we always tend to be our own harshest critic.

My other two "finalists" were from the China trip.. The Forbidden City and The Great Wall

3rd Annual Out of iTune(s) Post

It's that time of year again... time to look at the 100 bestselling singles on iTunes for the year and see how many of those are part of my music library.

As you may have noticed above, this marks the third year that I have compiled this list.   In 2006, we checked in with 14 songs, which I thought was pretty bad... until last year when it dropped to an anemic 8 of the Top 100 songs from 2007.

So, I figured pretty much I had fallen off the listening to relevant music wagon for good... or at least got onto the adult contemporary/"oldies" bus.  This was only further driven home this Thanksgiving when one of Todd's nephews quite seriously asked us who we thought was better: Elvis Presley or Li'l Wayne?   While we still had to pick up our jaws from the floor, the good news here is that at least I had heard of Mr. Wayne, though sampling his songs on iTunes when we got home got our jaws dropping again (amazing how many f-bombs and euphemisms for loose women can be dropped in a 30-second preview of a song!).

Anyhow, when I heard the Top 100 Bestselling iTunes song list was available, I wasn't holding out much hope or optimism... but what do you know, it ended up being a record year!   21 or 18 songs out of the Top 100 (we admit to buying 3 songs after looking on the list and realizing/wondering why we didn't have them).

Here's the list (in sales rank order):

#1 - Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis

#2 - Viva La Vida - Coldplay

#8 - Pocketful of Sunshine - Natasha Bedingfield

#10 - Don't Stop The Music - Rihanna

#11 - 4 Minutes - Madonna f/t Justin Timberlake

#13 - I'm Yours - Jason Mraz

#21 - No One - Alicia Keys

#24 - Stop and Stare - OneRepublic

#25 - Whatever You Like - TI

#27 - Apologize - OneRepublic

#29 - Say - John Mayer

#36 - Bubby - Colbie Callait

#58 - The Time of My Life - David Cook

#65 - Won't Go Home Without You - Maroon 5

#68 - Rockstar - Nickelback

#71 - In Love With A Girl - Gavin DeGraw

#74 - Don't Stop Believin' - Journey

#84 - Love Remains the Same - Gavin Rossdale

#88 - Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's

#94 - If I Never See Your Face Again - Maroon 5 f/t Rihanna

#98 - Last Name - Carrie Underwood

Rafa: Best of 2008

I love this time of the year... oh sure, it's the holidays and all, but I really love the year-end "best of" lists.

I was perusing the ATP site looking at their gallery of the best pix from men's tennis in 2008... and I have to agree (and no, there was no public online voting that I was aware of and/or could manipulate) with one of their choices... here's a screen-cap:

This shot of Rafael Nadal is from his first round match at the Beijing Olympics,so I missed out seeing this "celebration" by two matches as we saw his 3rd round match vs. Igor Andreev (I still can't believe we were there!)... of course, Rafa went on to win the Gold Medal.  Vamos!

For plenty more of my posted pix of Rafa, browse my Rafa category!  

Also, here's a link to my Rafa Beijing Olympics pix.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (#28)

Got to buckle down here with these book posts!  Less than 2 weeks (eek!) until this year's reading challenge is over (my start/end is between Christmas & New Year's, which tends to be a fairly quiet time for me and none of the Jan 1st start-up/resolutions pressure!) and I would like to be pretty caught up with my book posts so I can pull together my much anticipated "year in review"/best of 2008 book post.

I am pretty sure I would have not read this next book (at this time) if it wasn't for my Kindle.  One of the good things about the Kindle is the anonymity of it, there is no book cover to glance (a bad thing for fans of book covers, which I am)... and while I very rarely read in public, I think I still would have been pretty embarrassed even taking this book up to counter at the bookstore.  It has been difficult enough 'fessing up and buying books in The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, but I think The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows may just be the all-time emasculating title of all time!   And another pro-Kindle aspect was the price, this one is still in hardcover (I typically wait for paperbacks), so retails for $22 and I got it for $9.99. 

So why did I read the book?!   Well, it seemed to have good word-of-mouth which I think is the best kind of buzz (cynically I suspect publishers are the impetus, but still if it takes off, there must be a reason).  Also I was looking for something easy to read, my first non-fiction Kindle experience was a good one, but fiction requires a little more attention... so I still felt the need to just stick a toe to test out the e-book waters with something light-ish.  I succeeded.  This is an epistolary novel... love that word (just in case, to avoiding having folks run off to the cyber-dictionary, it just means a novel told completely that just means a novel told in a series of letters)... but anyhow, I sped right through this post-WWIII novel... and loved it!

This book was picked as one of Time Magazine's Top 10 Fiction Books of the Year... #7 to be exact (this week's print year-end list issue only highlights the Top 5 Fiction and Non-Fiction books) and Lev Grossman so perfectly and succinctly summarizes my feelings about this book, that I'll happily give him credit and quote him (and I just researched that he's male (thought so, but didn't want to assume) and is  two years younger than me, so that makes me feel better):

The result of (Shaffer and Barrows) joint efforts is a con job: it comes at you like a quirky, fluffy piece of chick lit about a lonely thirtysomething writer named Juliet in postwar London. But once you're in the door Guernsey reveals itself to be an entirely different animal, a story about war and peace and love and death that's much smarter than it has any right to be. Through a chain of used books and charming letters, Juliet ends up visiting the war-shattered Channel island of Guernsey, where the gutsy, eccentric inhabitants are trying to reconstruct their lives in spite of all the missing pieces. Guernsey proves that love stories don't have to be fantasies; they can be tart and wise and real.

After wanting to like so many WWII-related books (i.e. Suite Francaise, A Thread of Grace), it was so nice to finally be fully engaged in one... and I credit though the book's format and charm, which made it very readable without dodging the atrocities of war. 

This is certainly one of my favorite/best books of the year... but (always the dreaded "but"!) what will likely stop it from being the top book of the year is that while there are literally more than a dozen of folks writing letters to and from each other (and much to Shaffer's credit this was rarely confusing), I found that while the characters of differing age and genders certainly had different personalities, they didn't have a unique "voice"...  and while it didn't bother me while reading the book (and was something I only thought of in the post-reading digestion process) it is really my only quibble with the book.

But otherwise, this is one of those rare books that I feel I could recommend without (m)any reservation (now watch, I'll inspire someone to read it and they'll hate it!). 

A sad postscript and an explanation for the dual authorship is that Shaffer died early this year, leaving her niece (Barrows) to put the finishing touches on for what now will be Shaffer's only novel and that she never did get to see the public or critical success of this book. 

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 276 Pages (Total: 10,530 pages - Finished: 11/23/2008)
-665 pages behind pace for the year (+107 change in pace since last book).

Weekend Review

It was a pretty busy weekend, but oddly enough not much had to do with the rapidly approaching holiday.  As I suggested last week, my panic holiday post tends to kick me into gear and things tend to fall quickly into place once I get going. 

So, pretty much there are a lot of things that would be worthy of a full post, and I might get back to those I skim over, but here we go.

On Friday, ended up having a good talk with Todd over dinner... well, it wasn't about dinner... but about me.  I have self-admittedly been in a big 'ole funk lately... it has been the proverbial "perfect storm" of things, but I have been pretty moody and usually takes one of those mood swings (in the bad direction), to get around to talking about things.  It's nothing bad, but just some mental homework so I don't get too/further down... and admitting you have a a problem (or the start of one) is always the big first step... even that makes it sound more serious than it is... it's more like that Cher "Snap out of it!" slap from Moonstruck.  

So there was nothing better to cheer me up after that then to head off to a angsty musical about oppression, suicide, a botched "medical procedure," and lost love... Spring Awakening... pretty an R-rated Romeo and Juliet set in 1890s Germany... fun, huh?!   Well, I loved it.  It's still all sinking in, so I am really not sure how much I can honestly say about it.... but I will echo what I twittered about it over the weekend, that it restored my faith in musical theater.  As a season ticket holder, we see so much crappy theater ... that it was great to see something so different, edgy, and ambitious.  I kind of felt old, as I found myself thinking that the youth of these days have their musical... much like I feel about Rent (even though I was likely a bit too old for that to be my show either).  I've been hesistant to download some of my favorite songs from the show as I'm thinking I should just download the full cast recording. 

Then, Saturday night was some good 'ole Southwestern holiday celebration... more so of the New Mexican variety than Arizona.  First, we went to one of our favorite restaurants and decided to change it up a bit and just get some appetizers and soup instead of our favorite entrees.  We definitely wanted some posole (a pork and hominy-ish, red-chile based soup/stew) and then we got some loaded nachos and foo-foo'd it up a bit with some crab cakes (the habernero aioli is the star ingredient for me)... and we ended up more stuffed than usual (and the check pretty much came out to be the same vs. just order two regular entrees).  But good stuff!

Then we were off to the Desert Botanical Garden for Las Noches de las Luminarias... in my 18 years here in Phoenix, I am kind of embarrassed to say that I had never been to the Garden... not even for the Luminarias, which is a big 'ole holiday tradition here in the Valley.  Despite seemingly expanding the number of nights each year, the event -- where over 7,000 luminarias placed around the Garden -- sells out each and every year.  

But I am so glad we went this year, because in addition to the "lumis" (as the signs around the Garden seemed to like to call them) they are currently in the midst of a 6-month exhibit of the incredible glass artwork of Dale Chihuly - and his first outdoor exhibit in a desert setting.  Before this, I was most familiar with Chihuly's stunning glasswork flower ceiling in the lobby of the Bellagio in Vegas.  But the combination of the luminarias and the glass work was stunning, though Todd and I both felt it certainly detracted/distracted from the traditional Southwestern holiday display of luminarias. 

And the night proved to be a challenge for me from a photography standpoint, I had kinda sorta thought I figured it out when I was experimenting with the "Manual" mode of my camera while in Paris.  I was thrilled with those results and intended to repeat them here.  But quickly things did not seem to be jiving.  The difference was that I was dealing with a whole lot of different settings and lighting... and unlike the stationary Eiffel what worked in one picture didn't work for the other... it wasn't just a matter of changing the shutter speed or aperture. 

Fortunately, Todd was able to talk me down from my frustration/panic (are you detecting a behavioral pattern here!?!) and get me using the flexpod was very much needed (though I am kinda kicking myself that I didn't bring the "real" tripod) and calmed me down enough that I was able to talk out a Plan B (manually focusing and going to "program" mode, giving the control back to camera in making those aperture and shutter speed "decisions").   

Ultimately, I would say about 60% of the pics did not turn out well ... which sent me spinning, but then I just needed to flip that around that I did have 40% that were acceptable, which after some thought was still a pretty good.  Now, probably half of those (so we're down to 20% of the total shot) are good enough for Flickr or to share... but those I am very happy with!   And even before I get them up on Flickr, I'll share a couple of them with you here (and no post-processing either!):

Here is one of the Chihuly installs... and by far, my greatest success when it came to the Chihulys:

And one of my unofficial goals of the evening, was to get an image that I could use for a future Christmas card... and I think this one is it!   

For my photography buddies, this was a craaaazzzy 20 second exposure... and it was way darker out (probably around 7:30pm)!!  For my non-photography buddies, one can typically "hand hold" a camera for maybe 1 second without blurring/shaking it.