Now I'm Starting to Think About It More!

After saying last week, I didn't want to think about Halloween yet, now I want to even more.  Just this morning I drove past our empty Kmart building and while stalled at the traffic light before turning left to get into the parking lot, I saw an orange sign in the Kmart window. I knew what that had to be! And I had already getting emails about the stores hiring and one saying that the first store will be opening in New Jersey in August. I'm now hoping that the opening of the store in my town won't be delayed again this year. 

Halloween items still haven't appeared in most stores, but there were some fall pumpkins and candles at the Dollar Tree. As I've said, the summer stuff is now slim pickings, and that we're having a "No Beach Beach Day" at work on Wednesday next week. My friend couldn't find a lot of beach stuff there or at Dollar General last Saturday. I'm glad I still have some stuff I can wear. (More on "No Beach Beach Day" to come.) 

And just this morning I began searching for ideas fo alway decorations for Halloween using solar-powered light stakes. One I've seen is to cut a hole in the bottom of a plastic jack-o-lantern bucket (used for candy collecting) and screw the stake light into the hole. That sounds like a great idea. I'm almost certain I will do it. Such buckets often turn up at Goodwill, but not yet as far as I have seen. But I know I'll need to snag some as quickly as I can, once the starting pouring into the stores. I knew the light stales would be sold out before summer was half over. That is why I've bought those already. And glad I did, as I have not seen any left at either Dollar Tree or Dollar General (I got some form both stores). 

Trying Not to Think About It Yet

 

Not me, though. I haven't given much thought to Halloween yet, though I have been wondering if the Spirit Store is going to open in my town again this year. Especially after the delayed opening last season. And now the former Kmart is said to be the new building for a local charter school, though it will be some time before the building is remodeled for the school. Then again, the Rite Aid building is still empty, if they can get that one. Though the hiring page for Spirit gives  the address for Kmart.

While going to both Dollar General and Dollar Tree over the weekend, I noticed summer merchandise displays starting to die down, with back-to-school displays starting to be set up.  My friend was looking for summer stuff at Dollar General for a "No Beach Beach Day" theme day we have coming up at work later this month. Not much was left except for a few beach towels and I'm not sure what else. I still have some stuff I can use for that day.

Halloween seems to start popping up as early as August, so I expect that is when Dollar Tree and Dollar General will begin their displays. Before the summer season began, I bought some solar stake lights for holiday lawn decorating. I had to get these early or else they would be gone before summer even started! Sometimes you do need to think ahead. The lights are still in the package.

July Bookish Bingo

 The emoji-themed bingo card for July is here.

My Books:

1. The Gringo Champion--Aura Xilonen (6 squares): DNF Last Month, Physical Book, Library Book, Not in a Series, Shock/Surprise, Eye Roll
2. Star Spangled Murder--Leslie Meier (8 squares): E-Book, In a Series, Red & White & Blue on Cover, Fireworks, LOL, Free Space, Snazzy Dresser, Sarcasm
3. Taiwan Travelogue--Yang Shaung-Zi (1 square): Not a Normal Home
4. A Cat Was Involved--Spencer Quinn (2 squares): Audiobook, Animal is MC
5. Distant Shores--Kristin Hannah (3 squares): Book Club Read, A Favorite Author, Doctor or Nurse
6. Little Pieces of Hope--Todd Doughty & Josie Portillo (3 squares): Free Book, 2 or More Authors, Food on the Cover

13 Things About the Number 250 and Some Notes on the 250th

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. 

Last week, one fellow participant borrowed the graphic I created for my posts, so I decided to use one of the ones she's used on her posts. The colors go well with my topic for today.

In honor of the US 250th birthday, I chose the number 250 as the topic for today. 

1. The Roman numeral for 250 is CCL.
2. The Ferrari 250 GTO is a sports racing car dating back to the 1960s.
3. In space Bettina is asteroid number 250. It was discovered by the Vienna Observatory in 1885.
4. The numerology energy represented by the number 250 resonates with intuition and introspection.
5. 250 is a 5-smooth number, meaning that its divisors are all less than or equal to 5.
6. In terms of telephone codes, in North America 250 is the area code for the Canadian Province of British Columbia, and it is the international dialing code for the African nation of Rwanda.
7. The food additive E-250 is Sodium Nitrite, which is classified as a preservative. According to some sources, the E-250 additive is considered dangerous.
8. Beware of the number 250 in China as it is often used as an insult to describe someone as being stupid, slow-witted or inappropriate. (See here).
9. The British Parliament celebrated its 250th in 1957, and the Taj Mahal reached its 250th milestone in 1898.
10. Harvard's 250 anniversary was in 1886. Yale's was in 1951, and Princeton's in 1996.
11. In biblical contexts, the number 250 appears in several significant passages, often associated with events of rebellion, judgment, and divine authority. 
12. Angel number 250 is a combination of the vibrations of the numbers two, five, and zero. These digits carry different energies and offer a deeper understanding of the meaning behind angel number 250.
13. Semiquincentennial is just one word used to mean 250th anniversary. See below.

Some side notes:

Semiquincentennial is derived from the following Latin roots:

• Semi: Half
• Quin: Five (specifically derived from quinque)
• Centennial: A hundred years
• Essentially, it means half (0.5) of a quincentennial (500 years), equaling 250.

Alternate names for "250th anniversary" include "Sestercentennial." The etymology for this one is:

• Sestertius: Meaning "two and a half" (from semis, meaning "half," and tertius, meaning "third"). The Romans used this to count units; literally "halfway to the third".
• Centennial: Derived from centum, the Latin word for "hundred".

"Quarter-Millennial" is also used, as 250 years is one-fourth of 1,000 years (millennium).

"Bisesquicentennial" has also been used. This is derived from:

• Bi- (two) + sesqui- (and a half) x centennial (100 years) = 250 years.
• This term was used by Princeton University in 1996, Reading, Pennsylvania in 1998, and Washington and Lee University in 1999.

US History Quiz

Last week for my trivia class at work, I chose to use US history as a topic, with the 250th birthday of the US coming up. I watched the video below, then wrote questions based off the ones in the video. 

One guy who participated knew most of the answers. He seems to like history. I hated having to take it in school because I had to do it so many times and it was so repetitive. What was considered important to learn then now just sounds like trivia.

How many of the questions did you know?

Mid-Year Reading Progress

 

Every year around this time, I do one of the posts. Last year at this time, I found myself at fewer than 100 by this time of year, with only two needed then to reach 100. This year, however, I have even fewer, not even at 90 yet. I'm slowing down even more than I realized. I now wonder when I'll reach the 100 mark this year.

As far as my challenge progress goes, I have already finished four, one back in February. I did a discussion post on that one then, but no one seemed to notice! It was this one, that only has nine categories.

Then three more finished this month alone:

Color Coded 6/2

The last one I needed to find was one for Brown. It seems that color is getting harder to find in titles. I attempted to look for this book, but to no avail. The Zip Books at the library is currently on hold, something unbeknownst to me when I attempted to order it that way.

What's in a Name 6/4

This was one was late in getting posted, and the last one I needed was for "Peace." I often finish this one early. 

My Reader's Journey Bingo 6/25

I was surprised how fast I got this one done.

As always seemed to be true, there are several challenges for which I am one or two books short of completing. For Alphabet Soup Authors, however, I still need three more. I actually found an author whose last name starts with X, an always-challenging letter. I have a book by a Y author lined up as well. Still trying to find an O author. U is the only one I need for Alphabet Soup Titles, but I do have something planned for that one. For X on that one, I had to once again use something with X somewhere in the title. 

How has your reading been so far this year?

 

13 Things

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂  

A random mix of stuff. I wanted to get one more Thursday 13 this month. Another month almost over. 

Stuff like this below was inescapable this past week.

But enough of that.  Here is some more stuff I decided to share.