Where have I been?

I know, I know, my faithful fans are missing my posts and reviews. I have been really busy with a couple of work projects. I've been putting in a lot of hours at the office. By the time I get home, I'm exhausted and do not want to spend any more time staring at a monitor. But, my vacation starts Friday!!! Yay!!!

If you get a free moment, check out Shellie's contest here. She's giving away a Radiohead CD. All you have to do is EMAIL her your top 5 favorite albums and explain why your top one is your favorite. This was a very hard choice for me. I own over 700 albums, so I consulted my faithful friend, iTunes. I sorted my library by play count and here are the top 5 albums I listen to:

1. Some Mad Hope by Matt Nathanson

2. All Sides by O.A.R.

3. The Fray by The Fray

4. Busted Stuff by Dave Matthews Band

5. The Glass Passenger by Jack's Mannequin

In other news, some of you know my beloved 2002 Volkswagon Jetta has been acting up. It's been running weird and the front end was shaking when I go above 35 mph. Then it started dying on me. So I finally took it to my mechanic. Basically, my problems were a combination of a cracked drive axel, my transmission going out and 3 out of the 4 ignition coils were really bad and the 4th one was only kinda bad. Luckily, I still have 2400 miles left on my warranty so they are footing the bill to repair everything!! Sadly, I have been without a car because of diagnotics and the warranty company taking their sweet time to inspect the damage so they can approve the claim so my mechanic can do the work. I have my car back for now, but my new transmission will be ready to be installed on Wednesday, so I will have to be without my car again for a few more day. But when I get it back, no more shaking and dying!!

As for book related news, I was recently given a Barnes & Noble giftcard. I have over 200 books on my to-read list, so choosing books to purchase at Barnes & Noble was very hard. I decided to buy a couple of books that I've been waiting for from the library for a while and a new release that I really wanted to read. The new release is Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I recently read Lament: A Faerie Queen's Deception by Stiefvater and really liked it. The other 2 books I got are Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris (the book HBO's True Blood is based off of) and Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Dave, Logan, Krista and Shellie (their blogs are all awesome! If you don't follow them, you really should!!) all have been talking about Mistborn and how awesome it is. I didn't want to feel left out, so I jumped on the Mistborn bandwagon. I'm excited to read them all.