A to Z Blogging Challenge Wrap Up

Well. Whew. It's been... interesting. But... I DID IT! The A to Z Blogging Challenge! Yes, every day I blogged a different letter. Only missed one day, but caught up the very next day. And made the day I missed fit into the line up anyway. I don't know. It was fun. It was hard. It was a pain. And I think I may have actually lost readers instead of gained them! But, still. It was all good!

I think if I were to do it again, I might do a themed thing. We'll see.

Here's a wrap up list of all my A to Z posts:

A: April Fools Day Auto Awesome
B: Oh Balony!
C: Celebrity Crushes
D: Dauntless from Divergent
E: England, I Love You
F: On Being a Fan
G: Geocaching
H: Hans Zimmer
I: We Scream For....
J: John and Josh
K: K-I-S-S-I-N-G
L: Let's Laugh
M: Monsters!
N: Nano-ing
O: Overkill?
P: Palaces
Q: How about a little Queen?
R: I Love to Read!
S: Skipping
T: and Talking
U: Utah
V: Villages
W: War Horse Review
X: Xanadu
Y: YYZ by Rush
Z: ZUSAK!

So... there's some you missed I know, and now you want to go back and check them out right? Most of them are pretty silly and fun, so if you're in the mood, go for it!

Thanks for hanging in there and having blog posting fun with me! Now, on to regularly scheduled programming!

A to Z Blogging: ZUSAK!

I had plenty of Z ideas for the A to Z Challenge, but yeah, I'm still going with Zusak after all... Markus Zusak that is!

And how did I miss these videos that he did for Banned Book Week last year? I've not been as good a fangirl as I thought I was! So anyway, I'm sharing them now. Watch and swoon.

This first one is our favorite author telling us why he loves reading and why he feels it's important to have the freedom to read:



And in this one, he talks about his favorite book growing up, The Outsiders, and then he reads the first little bit.

 

 Yes agree MZ,  I bet S. E. Hinton would die if she heard that! In a good swoony, I've-gone-to-heaven sort of way! :)

Sigh.

We need another Zuask book.

A to Z Blogging: YYZ by Rush

How about a song today for the A to Z Blogging Challenge? The first thing that came to mind when thinking for the letter Y was this song... YYZ. It's an awesome jam song by the brilliant band members of Rush. Are you a fan of some jamming guitars and drums? If so and you haven't heard this... what are you waiting for?

A to Z Blogging: Xanadu

I'm guessing only a handle of you will remember this movie (and later musical) but when it came out, my family LOVED it! We ended with the album:

... and we played it constantly.

Yep, I'm talking about Xanadu! Anyone remember this? Maybe you've seen it since? I haven't seen it since I was a kid so I don't remember much except there was roller skating, Greek muses, and awesome ELO music that I loved.

Here's a few songs from Xanadu:







Ah, what memories this music brings back! :)

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A to Z Blogging: War Horse Review

So the other night we got to see the play production of War Horse. Oh my gosh, it was AWESOME! When we knew we'd be seeing this one, we wondered how they could do a play about a horse, on the stage.

With the coolest puppets ever! That's how. I can't describe it so let's see if there's something on YouTube....



There's three people making him work, but after awhile, you forget about them and it's just a horse, a horse that seems totally alive. It was awesome. And with our front and center seats (literally front and center) we got a very close up look at this most awesome puppet. I have no words. It really was amazing.

The kid that played Albert was awesome too. He could show emotion like you wouldn't believe.

And the war scenes. So intense! It felt like we were right in the middle of the action. Guns, and smoke and scary scary stuff.

It's a play, not a musical but there was music. Lots of wonderful  Irish folk songs, complete with the accordian and all.

It was definatley a hold your breath sort of play. I loved it. So glad to have had the opportunity to go. If you get the chance, don't pass it up. Go!

Here's a little trailer:

A to Z Blogging and British Isles Friday: Villages

Another thing I love about Britain is the awesome quaint villages that are scattered all over the countryside. The first time we visited there, we made it a point to get off the beaten path and see these country villages. Some of them we went to as part of a tour, some of them we went to on our own as part of looking up our own ancestry.

Oh, and the official definition of a village, by the way (according to Wikipedia) is that it has its own church, whereas a hamlet does not.

Once again, as in weeks past, I'll share a few pictures.

Aren't they beautiful?

For more A to Z posts, click here.
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A to Z Blogging: Utah

Utah is a "pretty great" place to live. After all, we have:


mountains

and fry sauce

and Osmonds

and Arches National Park

and David Archuleta

and the "greatest snow on Earth"

and The Great Salt Lake

and Mormons!

Yeah, I like it here pretty much!

(Check out other A to Z posts here.)

A to Z Blogging: Skipping and Talking

Yes, I know, yesterday was S and... GASP.... I SKIPPED it!!! And I had so many ideas too. But the day got away from me and it didn't happen and oh, well.

But today... today is T. And I have no ideas.

I talk about TV too much already, so we'll...skip... that.


I could tell you about Titans, which is my high school mascot. And that has relevance since I was at a meeting yesterday "helping" to plan our reunion this summer.

I could do a Twitter tutorial of some kind. Everyone loves tutorials. I would say... "Tweet a lot, talk back a lot and don't retweet a lot." And P.S. why do people keep unfollowing me? Am I that boring?

TOM

Oh, and let's see, whose name starts with a T? Hmmm.....


Or, I could talk about treats, like Twinkies, Twizzlers, Triscuits, Twix, Tootsie Rolls, Toblerone, and.... what else?

Maybe I could share a song, because you all love songs, right?


TRAGEDY!

Or I could talk about toast, because toast is the best. I would literally die without it I think.

Or.... maybe I could just talk about a bunch of random T words and call it good?


Find A to Z posts here. 

A to Z Blogging: I Love to Read

Of course my A to Z post is about Reading today. I skipped books when it was the B day, but today, I'll not be skipping Reading!

In case you wondered, I really love read.

I'll read pretty much anything and I love pretty much everything I read.

I love
coming of age stories
love stories
historical novels
vampire tales
werewolf tales
and angel tales,
I love
stories about cowboys
and Indians
and hobbits and dwarves
and people from all over the world
real or make believe.
I love stories from the past
and from the future
and from the alternate future.
I love stories based on myths
and fairy tales
and classics
and real lives of real people.
I love stories
that are hard and make you think
that are easy and fluffy
that are short and sweet
that are fat and chunky.
I love to read
and I love to read it all!

A to Z Blogging: How About a Little QUEEN?

Have you I told you? I love Queen. Like pretty much every song. And since the beginning too, I think. When did they begin anyway? I got the 45 record (look it up if you don't know what that is) We Will Rock You for I think it was my 13th birthday and I was in heaven with that. And in 9th grade I was totally obsessed with Another One Bites the Dust. Oh my word. I loved that song.

Here's my little 45 record collection. Queen is in there somewhere.

But my all time favorite was and still is Bohemian Rhapsody. There is no way, NO WAY, you can listen to this song and not break out singing right along with them. Am I right?



 I always wonder that had I been a teenager in YouTube days would my obsessions have been different? I had no idea what these guys looked like. I'd never seen them perform live or anything. We didn't have MTV yet, or it was just new (besides it was on cable and I didn't have a TV let alone cable!) and I didn't go to concerts or anything. I was just totally in love with the music and the singing itself. Nice.

 Anyway, just because I love it so much too, I must also include Another One Bites the Dust:

   

What's your favorite Queen song?

 For more A to Z posts, check the link!

A to Z Blogging and British Isles Friday: Palaces

In order to combine posts today I needed to come up with an England sort of thing that starts with P. And so that's how I've ended up with palaces!

If you ever go to England (or anywhere in Great Britain.. or even anywhere in Europe) be prepared to see a lot of palaces and castles. Which, by the way, I'm not sure what the difference is except that castles make me think of old ruined buildings and palaces make me think of newer currently used buildings. Am I right? What do you think the difference is?

But regardless, here's hoping you are fascinated with seeing these buildings because it's truly a key part of any British Isles Experience!

Anyway, here's a few pictures of the different castles and palaces we've been able to visit.

Windsor Castle

Bamburg Castle

Blenheim Palace

Edinburgh Castle

Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh

Ollerton Manor

Warwick Castle

York Castle ruins

British Parliament Building
(housed in a former palace)

Tower of London
White Tower

Stirling Castle, Scotland

Buckingham Palace

For more A to Z posts, here's the link. 

For more British Isles posts, here's the link.