March for Babies

I walked for March for Babies yesterday. It was my third year participating in the fundraising and the walk. The walk was pleasant. I met new people, who were friendly even after they found out that I am an internal auditor of the company. Usually that is when people rather get a mean look on their faces. I guess these individuals had not been in the company for long. I am just joking about the mean look part.

The weather was nice and windy. The walk was five miles with rest areas every mile. At the first stop, Continental Airlines had set up a stage and there were Hawaiian dancers there. Their dancing moves were hot. Here I am at 3-mile checkpoint:

Somewhere down the walk, we saw Mr. Snuggles, the bear. I still do not know which company he was representing. I felt sorry for the person in the bear costume since it was hot outside. I think somewhere around 4 miles, the person just could not take it anymore and had to step out because we saw deflated Mr. Snuggles. I did not take a picture of that but that was funny. I believe the person finished the 5-mile walk in the bear costume. I bet he lost a bet with his co-workers and had to wear the costume. Anyways, here is a picture of Mr. Snuggles from the back:

Close to the finish, the volunteers were distributing Blue Bell ice cream sandwiches. We made it to back to our company tent and enjoyed the cake. There was food but I skipped it since I am a vegetarian and it was all non-veg. My goal was to raise $110 and I successfully raised $110.  I am hoping that next year we can make it bigger. Our company only raised about $6,500 and our goal was $20,000. I think everyone is feeling the pinch. I am looking forward to next year's walk.

I believe my next break will be when Shrek 3D will be released. I am looking forward to that movie.

Ever Searched for a Book...?

I decided to make a list of books that I had read and enjoyed over the years. Facebook Visual Bookshelf is really helping me with that. Initially it was only books that I had read 2008 (that is when I joined FB) and after. I thought about all the books I had read in junior high, high school, and college that I really enjoyed and starting adding those. Now this is going back 5 years and more and I do not remember all the books. There were a lot of books. There were three books that I just had to add. I remembered the title of one, The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright, but I had forgotten the name of the other two. I remembered the stories and I thought that would make the search easier.

Anyways, the second book was about a boy who has this special ability of telling when somebody is lying. His arm tingles when somebody lies. I knew the title was something like "Lies" or "Liars." Now imagine searching that on Google. They should ban the authors from using that as a title. Eventually, I found the book and it is titled Liars by P.J. Petersen. I went to the author's website and sadly, he does not even list the book on his site. It is a great book and I really enjoyed it.

The third book was the most troublesome. I vaguely remembered the story as I read this book 6+ years ago but I remembered enjoying it very much. It was about a boy who is researching his family history and comes across the family secret about murder and lies. I knew there was an old woman in the story who gives him misleading information. I told the librarian about it and she said she will look for the book. Yesterday she emailed me and gave me couple of titles but none of them sounded familiar and one of them was written recently. I told her again what the story was about but this time I thought about how there was something about a shadow. After emailing her, I went to the library's website and looked up "murder" and "shadow." I got too many hits. Then I thought that maybe one of the famous children's authors had written the book and thought about Lois Lowry. I misspelled the last name and searched "Lowery." I hit books by Joan Lowery Nixon and that surely rang a bell. Then I went through the books by Nixon and FOUND the BOOK!!!!! I was so excited. It was Search for the Shadowman by Joan Lowery Nixon. It is interesting how mind works. I think I will make a decent librarian. :)

More about books: I am not listening to any books for now. I listen to CPA related material and the radio. I was looking forward to end of May when I can go back to listening to books. I found out that my brother got an internship at a hospital (which is awesome) that is 2 miles from my work, so I will be his ride. That means no audio books until he is done with internship, which is will end of July. Therefore, until August, I can say good-bye to audio books or listen to 10 minutes every day.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow

I finished the novel end of March but didn't get around to posting my opinion about it. I usually do that in lunchtime or in the evening at the library. I have been studying non-stop during those hours as I am so close to finishing the CPA exams and do not want to screw up. Due to which, I have stopped reading and listening to books. No No...I take that back. I am reading CPA related book and listening to CPA related material. I will post my opinion about those later (just kidding...or maybe I should do it). Anyways, after this post, I am taking a break from the blog until end of May. Time to get serious about the exam!

Now back to this book. Heidi W. Durrow has done a great job. I really enjoyed this book. Here is a description from the author's website:

A timely and moving bicultural coming-of-age tale about the daughter of a Danish immigrant and a black G.I. A beauty with light brown skin and blue eyes, she attracts much attention in her new home. The world wants to see her as either black or white, but that's not how she sees herself.

Meanwhile, a mystery unfolds, revealing the terrible truth about Rachel's last morning on a Chicago rooftop. Interwoven with her voice are those of Jamie, a neighborhood boy who witnessed the events, and Laronne, a friend of Rachel's mother. Inspired by a true story of a mother's twisted love, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky reveals an unfathomable past and explores issues of identity at a time when many people are asking "Must race confine us and define us?"

The book is beautifully written and the narrators did an excellent job. I did not like few things but I will talk about those later. The concept is original. I picked up this book by reading "inspired by a true story." Now I am curious to know how much of the story was actually true and which parts were fictitious. The book is thought provoking. I think this book would appeal more to others but I still liked it. Lastly, I don't know why, but the whole concept of a "blue bottle" inside everyone intrigued me.
 
Bad points: I felt the characters were not fully developed especially the grandmother, the father, and the aunt. I think the author should have written more about them to give the full picture. There were few events in the novel that I felt were unnecessary, and the story would have been better without them. I won't elaborate more on that. I was highly disappointed with the whole mystery. The author built it up by mentioning minor details here and there.
 
I give this book 8.5 out of 10.
 
This book qualifies for the Audio Book Challenge.