Rib Cook Off, A Great Reno Ballon Race Teaser and a Book Challenge!

So last week we had the pleasure of hosting Chris' cousin Sam and her boyfriend Mike. They stayed during the labor day weekend and Chris took them to Virginia City (I worked all weekend), we went to the Nugget Diner so Sam could get her Awful Awful fix, and we went to the Nugget Rib Cook Off last Monday. Being a veggie at a rib cook off is not super awesome, but we had a good time, even if our mac and cheese and cole slaw were sub-par;)

Not a bad day to go, the smoke wasn't as bad (did ya hear about the Yosemite fire? Horrible!) and we got there early so we weren't elbow to elbow with rib munchers (does that sound weird?)

Gotta love $5 lemonades

Sam and Mike at their first rib cook off, awwww, cause Reno's awesome and they're gonna move here

Random photo, but you can see that there are more rib vendors

So our fun didn't end with the rib cook off, oh no, we went to the Great Reno Balloon Races this morning! What time do you ask? Um, yah, we woke up at 2:30, picked up friends by 3:30 and were at the park by 4:00...too early? I don't care, we got a parking spot and decent place to sit! I only offer a smattering of photos here due to the fact that I rely on Chris' fancy photo skills with his camera for the balloon races, so as soon as they're uploaded, and edited (a million times), they'll be on the blog!

Ah Dawn Patrol

Spider Pig's backside! Yes, Spider Pig! Unfortunately he was taking forever to inflate so we didn't get to see him ascend

Wells Fargo and Spider Pig "kissing"

Gorgeous balloons! I love the fishies

So pretty

I can go to the balloon races every year, see (almost) the same balloons, listen to the same cheesy music as the balloons ascend and take the same photos every year and still be happy.

Now onto my reading challenge! I ran across an article about a woman who read a book from every country in a year and I was so inspired! I'm so not going to take on that amazing challenge, but it made me stop and think about how many books I've read this year. I totaled it up and it only came out to 14 (however, I did read the complete Sherlock Holmes, that's gotta count as more than one book, but for my purposes I only included it as 1 just cause I can't figure out how many to break it up into). I say only because I feel I can do better, and when I told Chris what my number was, he thought it was awesome, but this is the man who's been reading Moby Dick since high school...Ha! I love him and he did make me feel better. I also have to remember that I was still in school for the first 4 1/2 months this year, and no, I did not count school books.

Anyway, so the point is that I want to read more books and have decided to read 20 more by the end of the year. It's not a huge challenge, 20 books gives me about 5.6 days to read each book, but I also didn't want to push it. If I go over 20, that's great! I have a list of 92 books currently in my "to read" section on Goodreads, so I have plenty to choose from. I don't want to spend a lot, or any, money on the books so I'll be hitting the library, borrowing and buying from a second hand store as a last resort. Thanks to my buddy Mindi for lending me What the Dickens, it's the first of the 20 books!

I'm excited about the challenge, I feel it'll get me off of my phone (damn you Candy Crush and Plants vs. Zombies 2!, but not Pinterest, never Pinterest...) and I'll knock out a good chunk of my reading wish list. Wish me luck!