karenmarie's 2012 75 book challenge - No. 1

Well, here it is. 2012. A new year to read lots of new books and quite possibly to re-read some favorites.

My book reading New Year's Resolutions are to read more non-fiction this year than last year and to read more books that are NOT mysteries/thrillers. Stress always turns me to the tried-and-true. With (hopefully) less stress this year, perhaps I can be more adventuresome.

1. Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb 12/31/11 01/03/12 (Okay, okay, tried-and-true. But I'm in the middle of the series and can't just walk away from it!)
2. Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb 01/03/12 01/06/12 ***1/2
3. Promises in Death by J.D. Robb 01/06/12 01/09/12 ****
4. Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb 01/09/12 01/12/12 ****
6. Fantasy in Death by J.D. Robb 01/12/12 01/14/12 ****
6. Indulgence in Death by J.D. Robb 1/14/12 1/17/12 ***1/2
7. Mistress Shakespeare by Karen Harper 1/18/12 1/21/12 **1/2
8. Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb 1/21/12 01/24/12 ****
9. New York to Dallas by J.D. Robb 01/24/12 01/26/12 ****
10. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 01/26/12 01/30/12 ****
11. the Confession by Charles Todd 01/30/12 01//31/12 ***1/2
12. V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton 01/31/12 02/04/12 ****
13. Learning to Bow by Brude Feiler 02/04/12 02/07/12 ****
14. The Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill 02/07/12 02/11/12 ***1/2
15. Orlando by Virginia Woolf 02/11/12 02/15/12 *
16. The Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters 02/15/12 02/17/12 ****
17. The Echo by Minette Walters 02/17/12 02/19/12 ***1/2
18. Flirt by Laurell K. Hamilton 02/19/12 02/19/12 ***
19. Skin Trade by Laurell K. Hamilton 02/19/12 02/22/12 ***
20. Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton 02/25/12 02/28/12 ***
21. The Shakespeare Thefts by Eric Rasmussen 02/28/12 03/01/12 ***1/2
22. Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb 03/02/12 03/05/12
23. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult 02/28/12 03/08/12 ****1/2 (audiobook)
24. Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson 03/07/12 03/11/12 **1/2
25. The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper 3/11/12 3/15/12 ***1/2
26. Insomnia by Stephen King 03/16/12 03/25/12 ****
27. Room by Emma Donoghue 03/09/12 03/21/12 ****1/2
28. Shelter by Harlen Coben 03/22/12 03/24/12 ***
29. The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill 03/25/12***
30. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts 03/22/12
31. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins ****

*smooch* Glad you're here!

For NF inspiration, you might want to try the Non-Fiction Challenge group.

Happy New Year!

Thanks, RD! I think I was posting on your thread just as you were finishing up posting here. Great minds and all...

Thanks for the suggestion, qebo. I'll head on over there fora visit.

Today's lazy and relaxing. Daughter is asleep on the couch, fighting a cold. Husband is at his computer, I am at mine.

We visited husband's Mama yesterday. It was rather trying, since Daughter and I were both fighting colds. MiL was vague-ish and mentally a bit foggy. She nearly choked to death on her lunch and that exhausted her. She's 81 now, and really beginning to look "old". Sigh. We stayed 3 hours, yet she complained about the shortness of the visit. Sitting in a small room, with hospital sounds outside, with vague-ness and meanness, were really weirding out daughter. We also wanted to get back (2 1/2 hour drive) before it got dark and the drunk crazies got started. Duty done for a while. I'm sad that visiting Mama has become a duty instead of a pleasure.

Other MiL, the one with cancer and recently widowed, is doing pretty well, with moments of tears, understandably. She is going to have to sell her house, which is heavily mortgaged, and is already looking at apartments, cleaning things out, and organizing. She's okay with the idea of downsizing and I actually think it's exciting to her to be closer in to town and her friends. Every time I speak with her, to see how she's doing, she offers me something else that she is offloading. Thursday it was her Christmas dishes, a lawn sculpture, a Christmas reindeer, and some Christmas lights. We realize that either we or the other young-ish set of cousins will be hosting the Christmas Eve get-togethers from now on. Realized that things would change, and it's okay.

I have to go to work tomorrow for year-end support of the Finance department (me being in IT and all), but that will just mean a day I can take off before daughter goes back to school. Second semester starts up on January 16th, so my guess is that she'll leave on Saturday the 14th. Just a guess, but we'll see.

She finished up the first semester of college with a B average, which is very good for her. She's excited about school and misses her friends. That's the way it's supposed to be!

Off to read, straighten things up, possibly take Christmas stuff down.

I gotta say that the Eve Dallas series by J.D. Robb has me totally obsessed. I'm on the downward side, though, on book 26 out of 33. Only 8 more.....

I've got you starred. One Thousand White Women lives on MT TBR so I'll be interested to see what you think of it.

Hey baby girl!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, dear Karen!
I'm bringing a star and a hope that 2012 bests 2011 in wonderful books and conversation!

Welcome back Karen, I was wondering about you. I'm sorry about the MIL, I've been through that with my mother - the relocating, the cleaning out, the getting rid of. Too bad she's not more excited about it. Oh well, you do the best you can with what you have. Good luck and why don't the christmas fairies come take away all the Christmas stuff? I'm gonna run away and go shopping, just to give them a chance.

Welcome back!

Hi all! Thank you for the thoughts and wishes. Last year was tough, tough, tough. I'm hoping for a better year in 2012.

So far so good except for my home computer crapping out. Just wouldn't start the other day at all. Haven't told husband yet - fortunately I take weekly backups so am not worried about losing anything significant. It's just a matter of probably replacing the hard drive.....

Work's busy, I'm reading good books, and am having fun hanging with daughter when not at work.

I'll let you know about One Thousand White Women, streamsong. I just barely started it, but I already like the writing style.

I have One Thousand White Women waiting for me to get to it. Some day. But not today.

I'm on page ... 32.... and it's tough going. Sigh.

Hope you're doing well, Stasia.

Not a good sign, Karen. Sorry to hear that.

I am doing just fine. I hope you are the same.

I've abandoned it. This is not to say it's a bad book - it's more where I (still) am right now that's really preventing me from reading it. I just can't seem to want to read anything except mysteries.

Since reading's not supposed to be a chore - it's supposed to be fun!!! I'm just going to go with it. It's early days yet, so I have lots of 2012 to vary my reading. (sounds good, eh?)

The Wind Ensemble at Pfeiffer University performed a piece called Resurgence by Larry Clark in November - I love the energy of the piece and, of course, with daughter performing, it's special. Daughter's right rear - hard to see until about 1 minute 5 seconds or so in. Still don't see much of her, but she is there.

Here it is if anybody cares to listen: Resurgence Pfeiffer U Wind Ensemble

All in all I'm doing okay. Husband has now been moved to FIRST shift, 6 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Today's the first day, so we'll see how it goes. I have now lost any time alone in the house for the foreseeable future. Crap.

Love the Wind Ensemble! Thanks for sharing the clip.

Sorry to hear about the first shift move and you not having any time alone. I know how important that is. Why do you think I am up all night long by myself? lol

I hope the book slump leaves soon. In the meantime, go with the flow and hit those mysteries hard!

Cool clip! Wandering through and dropping a *smooch*

I hear you, I think we're in the same boat (more substantive work, less fluff). So far I've read nothing but fluff, but last night I was reading on my new Kindle- a zombie novel while playing thunderstorm sound effects on an app. I mean, how cool is that?

Was that clip shot in a church? What denomination? I'm wondering because of the two doors in the back. I've never been able to figure out how so much of the South went Baptist when we had a perfectly good Church of England or Episcopalian. There's an Anglican church in Marshall, Virginia that I'd like to drop in on just to see what the service is like. When I worked downtown I used to take a personal hour at lunch and attend mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral- talk about show! I think I even heard Latin mass there once, having no idea at the time that I was attending what was, in effect, a political rally. It must be nice to have a daughter who plays a musical instrument and have all that music in the house.

If you want to read mysteries, go with it. Reading's the important thing, the rest is just window dressing. Last year I read Dark Places by Gillian Flynn and really liked it (her Sharp Objects was meh+.) You may want to give her a shot. I also haven't read anything less than good by Mo Hayder, and Sparkle Hayter's Robin Hudson series of light-hearted mysteries are always worthwhile.

Thanks, Stasia and Richard! Approval and smooches accepted joyfully.

SGiV - Pfeiffer's affiliated with the Methodist Church and yes, the performance was in their Chapel. Good eye. It's a lovely little Chapel, peaceful yet accepting of "joyful noise" and other Pfeiffer activities.

I do love it that daughter is a talented musician. She makes me proud. I love listening to her practice and to pick things out on the piano. She plays trombone, but last semester she was allowed to play euphonium in Wind Ensemble sometimes. She wants to buy one of her own when she can afford it. That might include selling her acoustic guitar and alto sax.

BTW, my computer crapped out Monday. I'm getting it fixed this coming week, but in the meantime unless I can squeeze time in at work, I'll be a bit incommunicado.

Sorry to hear about the computer problems, Karen. I hope they are sorted out soon for you.

BOO HISS BROKEN COMPUTER!

*smooch* to multiple-challenge-beating Horrible.

I enjoyed the clip too, Karen - they sound great! I'll go back and listen to their other offerings when I have more time. Nifty music! I especially liked the percussion, but the trombones were good too!!!
I'll be glad to hear that things are looking up for you all around, but I know that having daughter home for Christmas has been a real boost!
Keep reading!
Mysteries are great. No apologies needed as far as I'm concerned.

Glad you guys liked the clip. (proud mother speaking)

Fortunately on the computer front, we bought a mega-super extended warranty and I'm supposed to get a call tomorrow from a local technician who will bring a new mother board and lcd screen. The woman in India thought one of those two things might solve the problem, so it arranging for both. If neither fixes it, we'll try something else. Fortunately, too, I have a full system backup with weekly updates just in case it's the hard drive.

It's been fun having daughter home. She goes back to school next Monday.

I have made a teensy resolution to continue reading One Thousand White Women after last night's bookclub discussion. I'll keep it at work and read it at lunch before reading other things. At home I will continue to wallow in mysteries.

Sorry to hear of computer problems, Karen; glad to hear that extended warranty seems to be working for you. Fingers crossed for a quick repair!

I'm in a finicky reading mood, too; not only do I need to read mysteries, they have to be the "right" mysteries for my mood. I was going into a funk, and had to pick up a mystery from James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series. (I've gone back and am reading over the whole series in order.) It was just the ticket.

I'm sure you must be proud of your musical daughter. I tried to interest my son in trying an instrument, but it's just not for him, which is OK.

Hi tymfos:

Success! Jason from a Dell tech support third party company came over last night and replaced the motherboard. I've had the computer for 4 years. I have 5 cats. Guess what fried the motherboard? CAT HAIR! I'm amused. But the fix didn't cost a penny. We didn't even have to sign any paperwork. If we had to pay for replacing the motherboard, we'd have gotten me another computer since they're so expensive. Butl all's well that ends well.

Cat hair. Sheesh.

By the time the cat hair gums up the works again, I'll have replaced the computer. Perhaps I should move it to another room where the cats hang out less. The question is, where? I have 2 walls of windows in the Sunroom, 2 bookcases, and a righteous office furniture setup. I guess I'll stay there and endure the potential for Cat Hair Motherboard Failure.

I've now lost 15.8 pounds. I even lost weight over the holidays. Only 1.4 pounds to be sure, but losing any weight is fantastic.

I agree about the finicky reading mood; they need to be the right mysteries. I read the first 3 Robicheaux books, then they got too violent for me. But since then I've become seriously desensitized by other series (Jack Reacher, Eve Dallas) so perhaps they'll fit in perfectly now.

Daughter's musical talent and perseverence are a wonder to me. She comes by the talent honestly - my mother played piano and cello, and my father played trumpet and cornet. He even played with some of the smaller "Big" bands in the early '40s before he went off to war, then came back and got a Masters in Music at the University of Iowa at Iowa City, where he met my mother, who was also a music major.

Daughter has given me her Piano I book. She's not going to continue taking piano, and since we have a Kawai piano and I've always wanted to learn, I might just take this (late) opportunity to try.

when I first bought my house it was full of cat hair, I threw out the stove as it was gas, gas is sticky and it was full of stuck cat hair (even in the oven, did she bake cat soufflés?) The coils on the back of the fridge (it was old) was carpeted in cat hair and the walls were thick with hair. It took days to clean up the cat hair, I think it's more insidious than sand. Now I'm plagued by dust bunnies, huge tumbleweed size dust bunnies. I think they've started a gang.

congrats on the weight loss! mine keeps following me around and jumping back on as soon as I ditch it.

The solution is simple, shave the cats. Cats appreciate it when you cut their hair off because they like any kind of attention.

Poor beeg! Sounds disgusting. We do have cat hair even with lots of vacuuming and lots of brushing the beasties, but nothing on the fridge, in the oven, or on the walls. Eeeeewwwwww.

Well, SGiV! What an elegant solution. Too bad the kitties would freeze to death in the winter - they're indoor-outdoor kitties with their own kitty door so they can come and go as they please. Except when Inara tries to bring in her latest catch. We can see them as they approach the kitty door and if one of them has something in her/his mouth, we run over to the cat door and lock it for a while. We still get mice, skinks, snakes, lizards, and the occasional bird though.....

I do have slightly depressing news - our oldest kitty Magic has probably had a kitty stroke. He's 15 1/2, has been going deaf for a while, but in the last 3 days seems to have slowed down significantly and has started bumping into things. Tomorrow he goes to the vet. I know they can't miraculously cure him and we certainly don't have the bucks for lots of expensive tests and whatnot, but I would like to see what Dr. Bonnie things about our poor old ratty boy. He's sleeping on one of the heating vents right now - old kitty bones. I just put his picture up as my profile picture.

That's a good looking cat. I'm sorry to hear about his health. I found out from my folks that vets make leetle kitty kalmers for taking critters to the vet. Half of one will do to take the stress out of going. I really hope he's going to be around and comfortable for a long time.

Thanks, SGiV. He's always been my sweet boy. I wish he could be around a long time, but Dr. Bonnie mentioned hypertension, lymphoma, toxoplasmosis, infections...... so many things they could test for, but it won't be worth it. She said we don't have much time with him. We all took turns holding him last night. I put him in one of the bathrooms with a blanket. I had to block off under the toilet because he kept getting stuck on the plumbing. This morning he was in a stupor. He won't drink water or wet catfood juice.... He's much worse this morning and I think he's suffering - I'm going to have to call the vet and take him in this morning to go to kitty heaven.

I held him for an hour this morning, and he just kept burrowing under my chin.

>29 karenmarie: That makes me so sad. I'm sorry you are losing your friend.

>29 karenmarie:: I'm so sorry. :(

Karen, that is hell. He needs your help by putting him to sleep, if not it would take him days top die through starvation and dehydration. My hear is broken with yours.

Hugs for the hole in your heart.

Thanks, guys. It was rough. I'm still crying. Husband met me at the vet for support and they made it easy for Magic to let go and go to kitty heaven. They were caring, careful, and sensitive.

He was my sweet boy. He's probably romping around with Imsai - she was my crazy calico who died in 1997 at the age of 16 1/2.

I'm hugging Merlin, Coco, Kitty, and Inara lots today.

Hug them all, then take a stiff shot. Some pain is teaching pain, in my experience grief is just hell.

Oh, I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes for you right now. That's easily the hardest part of having a pet - being strong enough to do the right thing for them when it's the most painful thing for us.

Karen, great big furry cat-hair full hugs and smoochies from one cat lover to another. Nothing I can say can help. We just keep loving the ones we have, smiling at the memories, and taking in new ones to fill the void.

Today we're going to bury him beneath the tulip tree that my department got for us in 2006 when my dad died. We're also going to get a stone like the one we got for Imsai in 1997. Her stone is not out in the yard because Imsai went off into the woods to die, and I've derived great comfort from it just being in the house with us. We'll do the same with Magic's.

Husband's off getting the shovel from the tack room and deciding just where to dig. We'll wait for daughter to get home from work - she's working her last day at Andy's Restaurant before going back to college tomorrow.

And so it goes.

Thank you all for your support, recommendations, and kind words.

*huggings* for my dear, wonderful Horrible

I agree with SGIV...grief is just hell. I wish I was there so I could make you a carrot cake. (My personal "if I'm gonna grieve it's gonna TASTE GOOD!" solution, and to hell with weight.)

Karen, I'm so sorry. Their short little life-spans break our hearts, but I would never willingly be without cats. Continue to hug Merlin, CoCo, Kitty, and Inara. They're likely grieving too.

Ah, RD! If we lived closer I'd take you up on your carrot cake offer. Grief requires indulgences. Thank you.

Hi LizzieD. It does break my heart. 15 1/2 years was a good run, but certainly not enough, and certainly too sudden. We buried him this afternoon and went round-robin several times remembering favorite Magic memories. My personal favorite is my puppy cat ones - if we were outside he was there with us just like a dog - running ahead, circling back and walking with us, then running on ahead again. Second favorite is when I'd be in the vegetable garden and he'd come out to keep me company, meowing loudly to let me know he'd arrived. I would never be without cats either.

Gads what a week. And daughter goes back to Pfeiffer tomorrow. Feeling a tad bereft here.

I see good things in your future!

Thanks, beeg! I certainly hope so. I'm trying to keep optimistic and "up".

Tonight is chili night - making a pot to take to work tomorrow for Soup Day. The meat and onions are cooking right now. Pain in the ass, but it will be fun when it's time to eat tomorrow! Cream of something soup from Robin, homemade chicken salad and crackers from Michele, pimento cheese and bread (well, what can one say about pimento cheese unless one is a southerner?) from Deborah, cake from Kazuko, something from Mary, and sweet and unsweet tea. Paper products from John, and an appetite from our boss Joe, who will be retiring at the end of February.

I have lost 17.8 pounds.... that's something good.

I don't know if I mentioned it anywhere earlier on, but I bought a Quantum scale. It records your weight and then only shows you what you've lost or gained. It's for those of us in denial about how much we weigh but who still want to be motivated to lose weight. It's working for me, for sure.

Daughter got off safely to school. She cleaned the living room, emptied the dish washer, did all her laundry, and left her jewelry box of coins out for me to look at - we're all coin collectors and she was rather proud of what she'd done for her "display." I haven't looked at it yet - will later on tonight.

I ***LUUURRRVE*** pimento cheese scooped up with Fritos!!

Pimento Cheese - the ultimate comfort food!

Hi Karen - I just wanted to offer my condolences over the loss of your cat. We had to have our own dear old kitty put to sleep this past Wednesday and so my heart aches along with yours.

I must admit that I don't "get" pimento cheese - not being a Southerner and all - but will try some at lunch today and report back.

Thanks coppers. I'm sorry you lost your dear old kitty too. It's one of the hardest things we can ever do for our kitties. They are so much a part of our lives, aren't they?

#47: I'm a Southerner but never understood pimiento cheese until I had the homemade variety. The kind in the plastic tubs at the store has always tasted a little off to me, but the homemade stuff is amazing.

Your Magic was a sweet-looking kitty.

ditto on the southern homemade pimento cheese

My report on pimento cheese: Mary brought two kinds, both homemade. The first was with Velveeta and was really sweet and most of my department had seconds and thirds. I had about 1/2 teaspoon worth. Sweet cheese (except cheesecake) doesn't do it for me. The other kind was sharp cheddar and I liked it well enough but not enough to make it or eat it in any large amount. Richard - I told my department about pimento-cheese-with-Fritos and they all said it sounded good. Unfortunately, we didn't have Fritos to conduct the experiment.

Lunch was fun and tasty. Robin brought cream of broccoli soup which was pretty good. (My chili, of course, was excellent. Ahem.) The chicken salad was homemade and excellent as always. We had an Orange Crush cake - I didn't have any because of my attempts to not eat too many sweets right now - but I would probably have passed anyway because I'm not a fan of Cool Whip.

Hi carlym - Magic was a very sweet kitty. The sweetest of the five. Coco is the most aloof, Inara is the friskiest (being the youngest), Kitty William is the most playful, and Merlin is the shyest (she's at the bottom of the kitty pecking order.)

Now back to work.

...Orange Crush Cake...oh dear oh dear...it's taken forty years to erase that from my memory banks...Orange Crush Cake *urp*

Ah, you remember it? Sorry to dredge the awful reality of it back up, RD. It certainly looks pretty, but I'm against box cakes in general and in particular. I can usually taste the chemicals.

I always make cakes from scratch. Frosting too. Pie crust too. Cookies too. It's always worth the effort.

Absolutely! (And so is pimiento cheese - made with extra sharp cheddar. So there!) I told somebody here my experience last year of going to make Christmas cookies with women in the violence shelter. They were all young. I took the ingredients for brown edged cookies. Everybody else to a woman took prepared/bought stuff that didn't have to be baked at all. I came home and made my cookies which we enjoyed.

As a gentleman of the south, I'd like to thank you all for your efforts in the kitchen and offer whatever encouragement I can for you to get in there and rattle those pots and pans. (Ow, gowddamit, that was stainless steel and that hurt.)

Ah, LizzieD! Good story of a sad experience. I can relate. When we bring food for front office stuff (includes accounting and some managers), there is a plethora of bought cookies and cakes and what I call "church food". Church food is anything that uses Campbell's Cream of Anything soup, any Lipton dried soup mix, jello, box cake mixes, cream cheese, or Cool Whip. We get lots of church food here in rural NC. Last week I was given a recipe for Key Lime Cake - box cake mix, jello, AND cream chese among other ingredients. Yesterday I was told how to make macaroni and cheese in a crock pot - "It's perfect to take to church - takes 4 hours and when you start at 8 it's ready at noon!"

There's a recipe that my sister gave me decades ago called Skillet Pilaf that uses Liption Chicken soup mix - the teensy dried noodles and "flavor" blob. I do make it for my family occasionally and actually enjoy it. We call it Church Rice and my 18-year old daughter doesn't know any other name for it. When I spoke with my sister on Sunday she was making dinner to celebrate her 31-year-old son's birthday and she was making Church Rice. She called it that so I would know what she was making - her family calls it Skillet Pilaf.

You're welcome, SGiV. I love to rattle those pots and pans, make a huge mess, clean it all up, then enjoy the fruits of my labors. The smack was actually Calphalon, not stainless steel. :)

Well, Kitty William has officially taken over loud meowing and whining duties with Magic's passing. He was in the kitchen waiting for food when I got up, yowling and pacing. He used to leave that to Magic, but has now filled the void, drat him.

#46 coppers - a belated thank you about Magic.

Momentous event - I have actually started and like a book that's not by J.D. Robb and is not a mystery! Mistress Shakespeare by Karen Harper is for our March bookclub meeting and I'm on page 66 and plan on actually reading the whole thing.

The curse is broken! *confetti toss*

Wise guy.

This book is becoming tedious, but I am firm in my desire to finish it. "I love him, I love him" blah blah blah "I hate him, I hate him, I hate him" blah blah blah. I so dislike novels where the protagonist blathers on about their 180 degree feelings for someone. Developing feelings, consistent feelings, or abrupt changes that stay consistent are okay, but this is romantic drivel.

Anne Whateley is in London helping her landlady give birth. Will Shakespeare comes in because this is the day that he's going to pimp Love's Labour's Lost to Henshawe at The Rose (I think The Rose), and helps. Anne rhapsodizes about how wonderful he is in the middle of this horrific scene.

Anachronisms abound.

Egads! What sense is there in finishing the book if it's just pissing you off?

To the bin with it!

It's a bookclub book (actually February instead of March like I wrote above), and it's not intolerable. Irritating, cloying, shallow what-iffy, but I didn't read the last two books (March for December and One Thousand White Women for January) so really think I can easily make the effort. Besides, I'll be able to trash it with gusto. It's a fast read and I'll probably have it finished this afternooon or evening.

The Night Circus arrived yesteday - God bless Amazon! - and I just may start it after I finish this one. (Or I may start Treachery in Death.) Hmmm..... I know what you'll say, RD. :)

Treachery in Death for sure! No way in Hades should you approach The Night Circus with a mediocre book cluttering your circuitry! And those "in Death" books give you a happy, so read that first to restore your joy in reading.

It snew, and now it sleeteth. I am inside for the duration. If I need anything that isn't life-saving, it can wait.

Yeah, don't waste your time with it. And pull the pin on your book club, tell them to read something that isn't a complete stinker.

Thanks, guys! Still want to finish it for blasting rights.

Good idea, RD! Cleanse my palate, so to speak. I wish we had snow or sleet. Now that daughter's safely back at school and happily starting a new semester, it can snow, sleet, or rain and freeze. She's safe and sound where she needs to be, so the weather can do what it wants to.

Okay. Want opinions. Here are the books chosen by the 12 members of the Redbud and Beyond Bookclub for the period June 2011 - May 2012. Each member gets to choose a book. Unconditionally, no veto power.

Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
Carry me Across the Water by Ethan Canin *read
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud *read
She's Not There: A life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan *read
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger *read
The Shallows by Nicholas Carr *read
March by Geraldine Brooks
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus
Mistress Shakespeare by Karen Harper *will finish reading
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Most years I read 6-9 of them, like 3 or 4, and REALLY like 1 or maybe 2. Any guesses as to which was/is my choice?

Jesus Karen, you're in the south. I can't believe nobody's chosen Dante's Inferno or The Help or Valley of the Dolls. Baby girl, you need to find a club where they serve sweet tea and bourbon in coffee cups.

Last year was The Help. We didn't form the bookclub soon enough for Valley of the Dolls. What's wrong with Dante's Inferno? At least it's not The Left Behind series.

Bourbon is a good idea. Hmm. The meeting at my house will be in April. I'll try to do something with bourbon. Perhaps Pecan molasses bundt cake with bourbon blaze? Or should I bring out the coffee cups?

If I chose a southern bookclub, we'd read Tami Hoag, Nora Roberts (Okay, okay I know that J.D. Robb is her alter ego), Wendy Corsi Staub, Lisa Jackson, James Patterson, etc. And I'd have to eat pimento cheese (regardless of your love for it,RD!), and desserts with cool whip and/or cream cheese. Have pity on me. At least we usually have good food and non-church-food desserts.

Well, off to do dishes then read more of Mistress Shakespeare.

Did you pick Lark and Termite on that list? Please, just not Room. I will lose all respect for you and begin calling you Karen if you admit you chose Room.

Thank God I didn't choose Room. I would not want to be relegated to "Karen" with no respect.

No to either. My book was She's Not There. I really liked the book, although I got seriously irritated at the constant discussion of sweater sets and skirts. I guess if you're not born a woman in body and want to have been, skirts and sweater sets can represent some level of femininity to be attained. And I felt horribly for Jenny's wife Grace, as she's called in the book. She didn't sign up for a husband who became a wife. The book didn't shirk this issue, but Jenny only really presented it because the absence of presenting it would have seemed remiss. There was humor and a good view of a transgendered person's feelings about themselves. It was pretty much ME ME ME ME ME, but all in all, it was a great book for discussion.

I am not really looking forward to reading Room. We'll see how I feel once I start it.

I finished Mistress Shakespeare while hanging out on the bed with kitties Inara Starbuck and Merlin Marie. I ended up feeling less animosity towards it than I was feeling halfway through. It did get me interested in the Anne Whateley vs Anne Hathaway issue at any rate. I've read two biographies of Wm Shakespeare but neither focused much on the Annes - whether one or the other or both - just his writings and life in the theater. I'll still have fun blasting it. I think what I really like about it is the afterward by Karen Harper and her discussions of Shakespearian scholarship.

So now on to Treachery in Death, to cleanse the palate.

*whew* Enjoy the latest in Death, Horrible!

Thanks, my dear!

Why didn't you read March or One Thousand White Women? I thought they were both pretty good. I gave the Brooks an 8 and the Fergus a 7.

I absolutely would have quit my book club if we picked books that way! You are very patient to put up with others' silly choices. We come up with a list based on suggestions, and then everyone gets to vote for the ones they want and veto two. If a book is vetoed, it is axed forever. Plus, I count the votes, so sometimes sense rather than numbers guides the selections :)

March was related to Little Women, which I've never wanted to read anyway, so that was one strike. Second strike is that I didn't like People of the Book. And, when I started March, it just didn't go anywhere for me.

I started One Thousand White Women and there were a couple of glaring anachronisms. I'd read quite a bit about the book being taken for non-fiction because of its accuracy, and the anachronisms leaped out at me, glared at me. I just didn't want to continue. Plus the time period isn't one of my favorites.

Admittedly not logical, but when is liking a book logical?

In addition, when I'm stressed, and I've been terribly stressed for about 8 months or so in addition to all the normal stresses, I tend to read "comfort" books. Neither was a comfort book for me.

Good question, though, Morphidae.

The newest comfort book, Treachery in Death is coming along beautifully.

Plus, I got up at 3 a.m. to watch Roger Federer play Bernard Tomic at the Australian Open. Roger won in straight sets, so I'm happy. He's my guy. He plays Juan Martin del Potro next.

This afternoon we're going to a family do about an hour away from the house - my husband's step-mom's nephews/nieces, grand nieces/husbands, and the 2 newest babies, Colton and Beckett. MiL is coming down to our house so we can drive her over there. This will be strange because this will be the first time daughter won't be there - she just got back to Pfeiffer for her second semester. She could have driven over, but I understand her wanting to settle in completely her first weekend.

When we get back we're going to watch the second playoff game, 49ers/Giants. We're going to miss most of the Patriots/Ravens game 'cuz of this party thing. Combination grumble/happy to see people.

Carly - I can't imagine doing it any other way. This way there's nobody dominating the selection process and no particular theme or style that gets emphasized. Believe me, we have several VERY STRONG (read: want-it-their-own-way) women. This way gets some stinkers, but also some good books too. Plus, I count the votes, so sometimes sense rather than numbers guides the selections :) - does that mean that you ignore the votes and just choose? That's exactly what we didn't want. We started in 1997, so I think we're doing something right, at least for us.

#72: Ha, no, I don't ignore the votes and just choose, although it's tempting. Sometimes we have a tie, and I break the tie, or I use an extra veto to strike out a book I don't want to see reappear on the selection list (usually because it's really long, and most people in our group won't finish something over 300 pages). The biggest reason we choose the way we do is that with the vetoes, no one has to read something they absolutely don't want to read.

That is amazing and awesome that your group has stuck together since 1997. Everyone has to find the way that's right for them!

#72: I read Treachery in Death and loved it. I thought it was one of the better recent installments in the series and although the newest, New York to Dallas is good, I thought Treachery in Death was better.

Sorry to hear the news about Magic, Karen. Please accept my belated condolences.

Our book club selections are done very lightly, I guess you could call it. Most times the ladies are easily led. *coughByMecough*

Out of this year's selections over half were suggestions made by me. Part of this is because our library has "book club kits" where you get 8 to 10 of the title and a reading guide. This makes it convenient for many of us. I picked out a bunch of titles from the book club kit list that I wanted to read and brought it to the ladies and rather than picking one or two, they picked a bunch. Another time I picked a bunch of local titles and, again, they picked more than one.

Otherwise, someone will make a suggestion or two at a meeting for a book and tell a little about it. Half the time many of the participants have read the book already so it gets vetoed.

It's nice that we're reading a variety of books - both fiction and nonfiction as well as literary and genre fiction.

carlym - interesting. If somebody doesn't want to read the book, they just don't read it. Rarely does everbody read the book completely in our group. They just have to listen to the opinions and spoilers from everybody else. Most come even if they haven't finished the book because of the socializing in addition to the book discussion.

thanks Stasia! We do miss the boy desperately. I've even accidentally called Kitty William Magic a couple of times - fortunately when husband and daughter weren't around.

Treachery is great - cop coruption with bad-ass Dallas against an uber-bitch corrupt lieutenant of illegals (no spoiler there, gang - it comes out right away). So far there hasn't been a single Eve Dallas book I haven't thoroughly enjoyed. I also want to thank you for being the inspiration to read the Eve Dallas series. You mentioned last year (? possibly year before) that you had re-read the series. Respecting your opinions about books, I checked out Naked in Death and haven't looked back. I've read them all in order and love them.

hey Morphidae - you go girl. however, I think you would be mincemeat in our group because of the afore-mentioned several VERY STRONG (read: want-it-their-own-way) women, but if it works for your group, then great. Because of the WITOW women in our group, we also have a rule that whoever's book is being discussed gets to determine how the discussion goes. One woman wanted everybody's discussion to be free-for-all, another woman's wanted there to be a talking stick for every discussion (talking stick? gads.) and most like each to be able to give her opinion then usually open it up to general discussion. Rules prevent the WITOWers from taking over. At one point some newbies in the group made the rule that you HAD to have read the book prior to presenting it to the group so we wouldn't get stinkers, but several of us charter members blithely ignore that add on "rule", so about 3/4 have already read their book and 1/4 haven't. I'm in the 1/4th group, always. Even if some of the people have read the book, it doesn't prevent it from getting chosen, since each member gets un-veto-able rights to select her book.

The problem we have in our group is no one will lead! I ended up "leader" by default. No one else would do it. The first meeting where we were discussing how the book club would work drove me nuts. "Well, maybe we'll do this." "Well, maybe we'll do that." "Perhaps we'll do this." Ugh! Give an opinion! Make a decision!

Now, the person who recommends the book, leads the meeting. It's held in the church library and typically doesn't last more than an hour or so. The first few minutes, I do "group business" like asking for recommendations. Everyone reads the book. A few have finished it just minutes before the meeting!

Exactly opposite problem than we have - we have too many leaders. And too many people who want it their way. Our meetings are typically 2 hours - 7 - 9 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month (holiday months move it to 2nd Sunday). Each of us hosts, usually not when it's our book. Some people make snacks, some people cook full meals. But it's always fun, even if the book's a stinker. One of my books, When We Were Orphans, was one of the real stinkers of all time, but we actually had more fun dissecting it and explaining our reasons for hating it than when we really all love a book.

Sometimes I've finished a book just before the bookclub meets too. The one I remember most vividly is Sophie's World. One of the stranger books I've ever read. I also recall that only 3 or 4 out of 12 had finished it. That in itself is a statement, too.

One of the problems we have is a lot of people use the library for the books, and there aren't very many copies of ANYTHING at our teensy library. So there's a lot of e-mail chatter during the month about books being available, someone needing the book, who's going to drop a book at whose house, etc. Even though we're pretty broke these days, I always acquire the book - Amazon, thrift store, Bookmooch.

I liked The book thief :)

I'm looking forward to that one, beeg.

Momentous occasion - I've read the last published Eve Dallas, New York to Dallas. I now have to wait until February 21st, when Celebrity in Death comes out. Twitch.

In the meantime, I have just started The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Only on page 17, but at least it's a start.

The house is pretty empty without my Magic kitty. It seems strange to say that we have 4 cats, not 5.

On a brighter note, although it was fairly stressful and we learned a whole bunch of what to do better next time, by renting and buying from Amazon we saved about $271 on daughter's spring semester books. Daughter initiated the cheapness. This is a good thing. Oh, and she also sold some fall semester books for $80. As my MiL says, "She's Scotch". That's a compliment.

I always used to tell my students *not* to go to the college bookstore to buy the books for my classes, but to go to Amazon or half.com or some other such site. So much cheaper!

And you were right! Next semester we'll go online a week or so before she returns to school and start buying them then. This time she got BACK to school before finding out what the books would be. Since we have Amazon Prime and daughter has a PO box in the town her school's in, we'll be set. Having graduated from college in 1975, way way before the Internet, I didn't even think about checking earlier. Now we know.

Here's a funny one. Daughter's taking Economics this semester, and the book required is McConnell Economics, 19th edition. So we rented it and it's great. I still have MY 14th edition McConnell from 1972 on my shelves. I only saved 4 of my college textbooks, and that's one of them. (Accounting, Principles of Management, and a Literature book are the others).

Tennis update since I'm a serious tennis fan. Bummer. Andy Murray lost to Novak "jerkovich" Djokavic in the men's semifinal in Australia. Five sets, and Andy almost got him. And, since Roger lost to Nadal, AGAIN, in the semis the other night, it will be two of my least favorite people slugging it out. And the women's final - gaack - Maria "Shriek"apova and Victoria Azarenka, who sounds like she's getting sexual gratification each time she hits the ball because she moans and warbles. If you can bear it, listen to a minute or so of what we have to look forward to: Shriekapova vs. The Moaner

The Night Circus is getting interesting. I'm on page 51. I don't understand much of it yet, but it will unfold in its own way over time.

Here's a bit of a tip: Tell your daughter that if she emails her professors before the semester begins, chances are they will send her a list of the textbooks for their courses ahead of time - professors have to turn in their course book lists ridiculously early, so they likely already know what the books are a couple of months ahead of time, and I always liked hearing from students before the semester like that and was always happy to send them my lists. That way, you have more time to order the books.

Excellent idea, thanks so much scaifea! We'll definitely do that.

By listing her unwanted books on Amazon & Halfdot. DD was able to get significantly more from them from than from the 'buyback' at the U bookstore. ($100 vs $20 for one of them). Of course she went back to school and I ended up packing and shipping the books she sold, but that's what Mom's are for, right?

Then she moved a few of the unwanted ones (older editions) on to Bookmooch and was happy they found homes with people that wanted them.

Hmmmmmm

Not hearing ecstatic Azarenka-esque warbles from Horrible re: The Night Circus...could this be a biblio-misfire?

I noticed Amazon's buy back program, and will check out Halfdot's at the end of the semester. Daughter did sell some of her books to friends last semester and might want to do so again. That's fine too.

No, RD it is not a biblio-misfire. Great word, by the way. The more I read, the more I adore it. It's intricate, intriguing, and involving. 3 I's. But no warbling. No moaning, no shrieking. Just quiet appreciation. I particularly like Poppet and Widget Murray. The only thing that's a tad offputting, until you get used to it, is the time shifts, back and forth, back and forth. 1884 to 1902. 1902 to 1891. 1891 to 1895. 1895 to 1884. 1884 to 1902. I'm getting the hang of it now,though.

It's slow going since Friday at lunch time, because we were busy Friday night and yesterday we spent from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at MiL's house packing books and memorabilia to bring to our house. Husband's Freestyle and my Volvo XC 70 miniSUV were packed to the gills. I'm looking at 6 boxes of books that are now mine. Plus, there are 6 boxes in the garage waiting to to to the Friends of the Library for their semi-annual sale.

Husband brought home his great-grandfather's diploma from Davidson College from 1918, his father's favorite baseballs from his career in the minor leagues, Davidson college annuals, the fourth bookend of a set that we have 3 of, another bookend carved fom poison ivy wood during the Korean War by a friend of my FiL's, etc.etc. Probably 20 college annuals from Davidson, one as old as from 1920, because FiL's father was Registrar there for 40 years. The Christmas dishes that will now be used at OUR version of the family Christmas Eve celebration. A few linens and runners. Stuff.

Well, Nadal lost to Djokovic in 5 sets. We didn't plan on watching it at all, but when husband turned on the TV around 9, it was 4-2 Nadal in the 5th set. He got broken back immediately, then got broken at 5-5. Djokovic served out the win. Longest majors final in the open era, about 6 hours. Epic. Too bad I don't particularly care about either of them. Sigh. Still, what I watched was quality tennis.

This morning I finally put away all the christmas wrap, ribbons, cards, etc., that were in the guest bedroom. Now that room is usable again. I unpacked the car of said books and dishes. We're going to go to the dump (lots of trash buildup),have lunch, and go to the food store. We might also go to Wally World so I can get another set of pajamas - major excitement at the Hengevelds!!!

After that, probably lots of laziness will ensue.

Lazy is good, put me down for a load of that pleeze. I have The Night Circus in my TRB pile, is it worth owning or getting from the Library?

4 word review of The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern: I am a rêveur.

**** = four stars

Note: I am extremely stingy with stars. 4s and above are definitely keepers.

I will be starting Charles Todd's newest Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery today - The Confession. I adore this series.

I keep hearing about the Charles Todd Ian Rankin series and would love to get into to it. Do I need to start all the way back at the beginning?

Oh, so glad that you're a Morgensternian! So so so glad! My recovery has taken an upswing from sheer happiness, and I think I coughed less this past few minutes because of it!

But wouldn't you be a rêveuse, not a rêveur, being a girl and all?

xoxoxoxo

Hi tututhefirst - I really think you should start the Ian Rutledge series from the beginning and read them in order. Several series don't seem to require it, but I feel this one does. A Test of Wills is the first one. Oh, I hope you enjoy them!

Nit-picker RD: I don't have the book here with me at work, but I don't recall it differentiating rêveuse from rêveur. However, I bow to your superior knowledge. :)

I am a rêveuse.

Regardless, I am enamored of the book am very glad to have read about it on your thread. I thank you profusely. I am also happy to be contributing to the upswing in your recovery. Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

Madam, who could rêveuse you anything.

I don't think I'd like series books, it's such a commitment. Those freakin' Harry Potter books about killed me.

Good one, SG!

Nobody should rêveuse me anything. I deserve it all.

Series. Now that's where we're different, dear one - I love series. Heck, I just finished the Eve Dallas series, 34 books. YES, 34 books. I read them for months. And before that it was the Jack Reacher series, and before that the Kinsey Millhone series. And before that..... ad infinitum.

But were the HP books worth it? Even if it took 7 books and and ... x? ... years? I thought they were. (shall I mention yet again that I listen to them all, in order, to and from work once a year? It takes about 5 months. Mindless, joyous listening.)

So I had dinner with my friend Vanessa tonight after my chiropractic visit. Hip feels better, right arm feels better (lateral epichondolytis - tennis elbow), had an hour massage, so my mind feels better too. Our insurance got worse at the beginning of January, but it's still better than it could be. Vanessa and I spent 2 hours at a local microbrewery/restaurant. Neither of us drinks very often, so I'm probably going to regret the iced tea about 2 a.m. when the caffeine kicks in.

Off to continue reading V is for Vengeance, the newest Kinsey Millhone.

Du rêveuse.

Je rêveuse!

On principle, the Zola joke hadda be made.

At the risk of disillusioning you forever, I have to admit that I've never read Zola. I have a lovely volume of his complete works, tooled in leather, 1938, Walter J. Black Inc.

What do you recommend that I read?

Insomnia rears its ugly head.

On the plus side, I just finished V is for Vengeance, the latest Kinsey Millhone book. It was unusual in that it was written from 3 points of view. The character studies of Nora and Dante were very well done, I thought. Kinsey's motives were a bit illogical regarding Pinky, but that's okay. Her normal cast of characters, most especially Henry, were missing from the action, Henry off to Michigan helping after his 99 year-old sister Nell broke her hip, and Rose and William only peripherally involved at all. Really, a rather unusual book.

Time to find something new to read.

I'd choose from among the following:

Nana...famous, fast, and easy to immerse yourself in

L'Assomoir...often listed as "The Drunkard" or "The Tavern/Gin Joint/Place Po' Folk go to get hammered fast"; not cheerful, but gripping

The Flood...novella; gets very little critical love, but to my mind its bleakness is dosed out pretty much exactly right

Germinal...this is the best novel he ever wrote, if really what's desirable is Having Read Zola, go straight to the top and bugger the rest.

Most of humanity hasn't read Zola, Horrible, how could something as ordinary as that disillusion me? Not everyone has had the luxury I've had of reading without interruption for years.

Philistine.

Did I say that out loud? Oh dear.

Merriam-Webster definition 2b:

\ˈfi-lə-ˌstēn; fə-ˈlis-tən, -ˌtēn; ˈfi-lə-stən\

Definition of PHILISTINE
1: a native or inhabitant of ancient Philistia
2 often capitalized
a: a person who is guided by materialism and is usually disdainful of intellectual or artistic values
b: one uninformed in a special area of knowledge

In addition to being a rêveuse, I am a Philistine. I actually like the idea because it affords opportunities to be less so.

I think Nana or L'Assomoir since I was wrong about the book - it's the Collected Works of Emile Zola not complete works. Germinal doesn't appear to be there, nor does The Flood.

I don't think I want to read Zola to put a notch on my bookcase, as it were, "Having Read Zola", but still.... having a book and having it come to the forefront is not a bad thing.

BTW, I am proud to be a Philistine re Virginia Woolf - can't abide her stuff and gave it all way on bookmooch recently without having ever completed one book. Don't plan on changing my status there.

So before the recommendations I found Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell. It's a book of amusing essays about her growing up in Montana and young adulthood.

Anti-Woolfian tendencies *entry in BiblioInquisition dossier*

Vowell's a never-fail fun read!

Between Nana and L'Assomoir, it's a mood choice. Neither is upliftingly liltingly chirpy as an "Up With People!" revival, but Nana throws in the occasional bit of dry humor.

My BiblioInquisition entry should also probably include my total avoidance of Little Women.

"Up with People" was a big favorite of my 7th grade LASS teacher (Language Arts Social Studies) at Richard Henry Dana Junior High School in Hawthorne California. Mr. Johnson adored playing their records.

"Up, up with people, you meet 'em where ever you go! Up, up with people, the best kind of folks I know. If more people were for people, all people everywhere, There'd be a lot less people to worry about and a lot more people to care."

Sheesh. And to think I've got brain cells tied up with that song.

I just came back from a new type of experience for me - the funeral of a co-worker's 26-year old son. Sad, sad. It was at a Black Baptist Church here in Central North Carolina. I was one of five white shiny faces. Lots of music, lots of wailing, some fiery preaching. Being as how I'm not even Christian, and when I did go to church it was white bread Presbyterian, this was eye-opening. It's not quite right to say I enjoyed it, but I felt comforted by the ritual and awed by the combination of ceremony and informality. Shaun and Sharon are long term church members, and it was just one big family surrounding her with love and comfort.

The most unusual part (for me) was when Sharon and the rest of the immediate family followed the casket out of the church. Most of us were still inside, but near the front doors. A man from the funeral home had 4 white doves that he released - one for Shaun's spirit, and one each for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Quite moving. Even for a non Christian.

Shaun is Sharon's only child and died of a heart attack, apparently after several weeks of chest pains and hospital visits. I can't imagine what she's going through.

I'm not a church-goer myself, and was also raised in a white bread protestant church, but I do love the atmosphere and the spirit of the kinds of churches you describe. I can imagine that that kind of atmosphere would be very cathartic for those who have lost loved ones, and I do envy the family-like love of that kind of church group.
On the other note, my brother died quite suddenly and unexpectedly nearly 2 years ago, and it was, of course devastating, but for no one more than my mom. I have a 3-year-old, so I felt agony for her both as a daughter concerned for her mom, and as a mom myself who couldn't quite face the idea of losing my own little boy like that (on top of my own horrible grief at losing my brother). I honestly think that having my son around for a full week after Steve died saved my mom's life (she's a type 1 diabetic and the shock, without some sort of distraction like her only grandson very well would have done it). No parent should have to outlive her/his child.

Amen, sister. I have an 18-year old daughter, away at her first year of college. I cannot imagine the horror of outliving her.

There is no worse thing that can happen to a person than to bury her or his own child. I have done it, and I never, ever, ever, ever want to do anything that horrifyingly painful again.

If my daughter dies, I'll just crawl in the oven with her and let 'em light it up.

But pardon me for a moment while I shout: A 26-YEAR-OLD DIED OF A HEART ATTACK?!? How? Why?

I just went to a memorial service (Episcopalian, but a small, close-knit church) today for a former piano student. She was 32 and was run down by the young girlfriend of a teen-age boy who was teaching her how to drive. It's devastating for sure, and I'm very sorry for your loss of your brother, Amber. Her mother is going to be lost. More than most mothers, Marilyn had built her world around Anne Marie. On another note, I was the baby who saved my grandmother's sanity when two of her sons were missing in action during WWII. (Both of them came home, I'm happy to say.)
And the reason I dropped out of lurk was to say, "KM! Give March a chance!" It's not at all Little Womeny - although I have loved and adored *LW* all my life. I read it back-to-back with The March and liked it better even though the two books have a lot in common. I think that Cutting for Stone is the only other one from that curiously mixed that I've read. Loved it, of course!
And my copy of The Night Circus is finally on its way from PBS. I can hardly wait!

I agree with Peggy - March is really good, and not really at all like Little Women.

scaifea, I neglected to tell you how sorry I am about your brother. I focused on the last sentence of your message. I do apologize, and am sorry for your loss.

Richard, dear, I remember that you lost your son and almost didn't post what I did, knowing you'd read my thread. *smooches* I do not know why a 26 year old would die of a heart attack. I do know his mother has serious heart problems so it might be hereditary. He was also a gy-rene in Iraq, so somehow that may have contributed. Sometime after things settle down I may ask around. I don't even know if Sharon's coming back to work tomorrow. She's hourly and they have viscious rules if you're hourly, but maybe with bereavement and vacation days and whatever she might be out a while longer. Her boss is my friend James, and I know he'll do everything he can to make it as easy as possible for her work situation.

LizzieD. How awful, all around. Horrible, horrible situation, nothing good in it at all. Thanks for delurking, by the way. Sigh. I'll have to see if I can muster the energy to try March again. I do hope you enjoy The Night Circus. The magic of the circus is wondrous.

And the joy of children is not to be underestimated. You saved your grandmother's sanity. My husband's great grandmother Elva Lou Steele Cranford was dying but fiercly clung to life long enough to see her great grandson born and to hold him in her arms.

scaifea - okay. Another vote for March. I'm not even sure I kept it.....

No worries, me luv, I'm only a little shocked that my son's been dead for 31 years! While I appreciate the sensitivity, please don't ever worry about that. I live in the world. It doesn't live in me. *smooch* for kind thoughts.

I cannot *believe* my eyes...26, dead of a heart attack?! That is appalling. It's not like it was some mysterious horror of a disease from out of the silent planet. And the symptoms were classic. What happened to your friend was unnecessary, preventable, and someone should pay dearly for the oversight that deprived her of her child.

No jury of parents would convict her if she went and opened fire on the place.

RD,s right. A simple EKG would pick heart trouble up and if there's negligence then Sharon should consider suing, while remembering that it can come with a serious emotional price, often numbing and caustic to the memory of the deceased. They're going to put a price on the kid's life, but if Sharon's pissed off enough it can be a way to seek vengeance which, being a southerner, is sweet as honey.

I have to tread carefully, of course, but will try to check out the situation after Sharon gets back to work. I also wonder where the VA was/wasn't in this, too.

I'd just let it go unless she asks you a question about it. Way to emotionally laden, and believe me she's already thought of every damn way to strike back.

Sharon is back today. I saw her and gave her a hug, but did not discuss her son. She brought thank you cards by to be distributed to the groups that wrote her cards and gave her money for her son's funeral. Sigh.

I just finished a very interesting book called Learning to Bow by Bruce Feiler about his year as an English teacher in Japan. Well written, well balanced between Japanese culture and US perceptions of that culture.

A buddy of mine from college was a stunningly handsome blond guy with a genius level IQ (I know, just shoot me in the face.) In the states he was treated like a star where ever he went because of his looks, but he lived in Japan and said that a lot of times nobody would sit beside him on the subway because he was a 'barbarian' and unclean. God, those were the days- we used to tear through Georgetown like a hot knife through butter.

Sounds wonderful, SGiV - the tearing through Georgetown like a hot knife through butter. I had a great time in college, too. We tore through the ghetto near Pepperdine University when it was still in South Central Los Angeles. In hindsight I'm surprised I'm alive..... a very rough part of town. Peppy Tech was in the process of relocating to Malibu, but the School of Business was one of the last ones to remain in LA and I majored Business Administration. Partied hard and worked hard in my classes - a memorable combination.

Feiler was called barbarian, hairy, too tall, with too long arms, etc. His love for the Japanese and the culture come through regardless. I really enjoyed reading this book. I've also read Feiler's Walking the Bible and love his style.

I tore through the latest Simon Serrailler book, The Betrayal of Trust. Every once in a while you read a book in which you're in the zone, fully involved, loving every page, every sentence, and then the author stops the book before you're ready. I literally read the last sentence of a chapter, fully expecting to turn the page and have more and the damned thing was over. Hill has always presented this series as a continuous story (inconveniently) broken up into separate books, but this time I was really caught off guard. Simon's feelings for a woman, Jocelyn's dealing with her terminal illness, Cat's issues and he son's Sam's problems, and the actual solution to the mysteries are all left hanging over a very tall cliff. Now I've got to wait for the next one. This will be a while since The Betrayal of Trust was only released last November. For me it could have gone on for about 50 pages more. I don't always need everything resolved, but here almost nothing was resolved. Good story writing on Hill's part but it left me frustrated.

And now.

For someone who has always hated reading Virginia Woolf and who recently gave away all her books except A Room of Ones Own, which I only kept for sentimental reasons, I find myself in the strange position of reading Orlando. I admit that I was struck by the movie-tie-in cover with Tilda Swinton dressed up in male Elizabethan splendor, but I'm truly enjoying it. Very surprising. This movie came out in 1999, so where have I been? Oh wait. 6 year old daughter, full time work..... yup. I was missing a lot during that time.

However, I surprise myself.

I loved the movie :)

Orlando is such a wonderful story. I am delighted it's made its way through whatever chink in your mental armor that it found!

I want to see the movie. I'm continuing to enjoy the book.

The movie was quite interesting. The book is a little different, and possibly because the subject matter is so quirky, imagination might still be the best filmmaker in this case.

Up to page 140. Orlando is now female. Interesting and strange. I absolutely adore the portraits and photos or Orlando. I'm always enamoured of a book that does that - Water for Elephants comes to mind.

Icky ptooie. First and last Virginia Woolf ever to read in this lifetime.

My review of Orlando contained here since I'm banishing the book from my library and offering it up on Bookmooch soon:

Orlando by Virginia Woolf One Star
Orlando had great promise - I mean, how can a book about a man born in the Elizabethan Age who morphs into a woman and lives through the 1920s miss? It certainly did for me. Blather blather blather. A few memorable images, one great description of how the baudy, lively, vivid 18th century gave way to the cold, damp, stifled 19th century. Other than that I started repeating the mantra "Blah blah blah why should I care? Blah blah blah is any of this meaningful?"

One source said that this is the most accessible of Woolf's novels. OMG, if this is the most accessible, then how can anybody read her, hold her/his head up, and actually say "I like her works" or "I understand what she's saying?" I must suppose, based on generally accepted opinion of Woolf and her works, that what it really means is that I am truly the philistine re VW. And I don't care. This book was boring as batshit after about page 150 or so. It didn't live up to the promise. It played mind games and I Was Not Amused. Couldn't wait to finish. Didn't put it down because it became a test of will and perseverance. I won, but at the cost of reading something else that I might have actually appreciated. Like another Eve Dallas book or a nonfiction book about the Arctic or some lively porn perhaps.

The pictures and portraits were truly the best part of the book.

And I checked out some clips of the movie on youtube and the pain of seeing what was written made me drop my idea of watching the movie, regardless of how marvelous Tilda Swinton is.

aww, the movie really is nice, but maybe it's just seeing Billy Zane with long hair on a horse...

>122 karenmarie: So...not so much on the group read of Mrs. Dalloway, then?

Too bad.

The Coroner's Lunch should get the nasty taste out of your mental mouth!

#123 If the movie shows up on my doorstep I'd probably put it in and watch it, but to actually pay for it, which I was considering, now seems a waste of money.

Aw, RichardDear! No group reads of any VW, alas and alack. I might even get rid of my copy of A Room of One's Own, which I was keeping for sentimental reasons, just to be done with it.

On a gooooooood note, I picked up The Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters. Extremely interesting so far, gripped me from page one.

I'm home today - have a sore throat, clogged ears, congestion, blocked sinuses, etc., and am going to the doctor at 10:30. It's to be hoped she'll give the antibiotics I want.

This is a good situation, though - I've always said that I like to be home sick when Im just sick enough to need to stay home but not too miserable to actually enjoy it. Coffee, breakfast, reading book in the living room, gloomy rainy 50s day outside.

You do know that what it seems like you have is a cold, which is a virus, and antibiotics won't do a thing for a virus.

Hi Morphidae - I honestly don't think I get colds - or they turn into sinus infections so quickly that by the time I get to the doctor they almost always give me antiobiotics. Today was no different - I'ved got augmentin. I neglected to mention above that my face was burning, which is another dead giveaway that it's a sinus infection for me. The doctor and I were discussing that I get 3-4 sinus infections a year, many less than when I first moved to NC. Then I got sinus infections/bronchitis and would be miserable for weeks at a time.

So I'm happily esconced back at home. Ate a bit of lunch so I could take the augmentin. Now it's time to get back into jammies and read and doze.

Excellent plan! Now go and get The Coroner's Lunch.

Ack! I'm home with the same thing. I'm going to put on my earphones and listen to The Woman in Black. I can't do squat about the sinus congestion, but my doc gave me antibiotics, too. Pseudophed just makes me twitchy and as centered as a Dead Head. Plus, what the hell does the government want to scan my effing driver's license when I buy it?! Fight the power, peeps.

I was almost better from a cold myself but it seems I've relapsed and my sinuses are filling all up again, I'm sneezing again and my throat is sore. Ugh!

Hallo RD! I read, dozed, ate, read all day. It was fun. The Coroner's Lunch will have to wait because I've spent a bit much on books lately. It's in my Bookmooch wishlist, though..... we'll see.

Larry: I'm sorry you're sick too, glad you've got antibiotics. Scanning the DL? Probably to have proof when they find your meth lab. :) Feel better, m'dear.

Hi Morphidae: Oh no! I've heard that this thing comes and goes, lulling people into thinking they're over it then WHAM! gobsmacking them again. I hope you have a chance to go to the doctor.

I'm feeling better but decided to stay home again today to feel more better-est and not share germs. I'm convinced that in addition to husband's germs, which did not include clogged ears, I got some germs from Debbie McL - clogged ears being a major complaint. So I'm doing my company a great service to not going to work today.

I finished The Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters this morning. It was a wonderful book, gripped me from page one. I devoured it. Good palate cleansing after Orlando.

After finishing The Shape of Snakes, I immediately picked up The Echo, also by Walters. I also turned on the Idiot Box and watched Biography of Marlon Brando. He fascinates me. I've got the Bosworth and Manso biographies, a book of film stills edited by Truman Capote, plus Brando's autobiography Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me. Fascinating, sexy man.

Back to reading.....

No, I don't go to doctors for colds. Just take over-the-counter stuff to lessen the symptoms until it's over.

I'm thinking this is a different cold than I had before. The first was fatigue and laryngitis. This one is fatigue and nasal congestion. And I have a test to take today, too. Bah!

It's not a meth lab, it's a cold fusion experiment. I feel a lot better after 12 hours of sleep. Morphidae, I'd really consider going to the doc if I were you especially if you develop a cough or lung congestion; at least one strain of what's out there has a high rate of developing into pneumonia after several days.

Karen, if you have a Kindle I can recommend P.M. Hubbard's The Holm Oaks. It's available for 4 bucks and I'd never heard of it or Hubbard before. Stylistically it's a cross between Patrick McGrath and camp horror of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?.

I'm glad you're doing a bit better, Larry. Cold fusion experiment *snort*.

I want a Kindle, I want a Kindle, I want a Kindle! My sister was given TWO last year, promised me one, then reneged because her husband, who does NOT read anything except tech manuals and magazines, decided he had to have it. Mr. Illiterate with a Kindle. Oxymoron.

Now I want a Kindle Fire. Perhaps Anniversary (April) or Birthday (June).

The Holm Oaks sounds interesting and "unrelenting", as the single Amazon reviewer writes. It's in a trilogy that includes a book by Charlotte Armstrong - one of my favorite writers. My favorite book by her is A Dram of Poison, but I have quite a few of her books, mostly in trilogies, and love them all.

Just looked up P.M. Hubbard, and apparently he wrote sixteen adult novels. None, alas, available on Bookmooch.

Here they are, just for the heck of it:
Flush as May (1963)
Picture of Millie (1964)
A Hive of Glass (1966)
The Holm Oaks (1966)
The Tower (1968)
The Custom of the Country (as The Country of Again in US) (1969)
Cold Waters (1969)
High Tide (1971)
The Dancing Man (1971)
A Whisper in the Glen (1972)
A Rooted Sorrow (1973)
A Thirsty Evil (1974)
The Graveyard(1975)
The Causeway (1976)
The Quiet River (1978)
Kill Claudio (1979)

Here's an interesting link about him: Philip Maitland Hubbard

Had a nice dinner out with work friends. I felt good this afternoon, hope this is a good sign and a sign of the antibiotics doing their augmentin-ish job.

Tomorrow we go off to visit 24/7 MiL (not to be confused with Stage IV Lung Cancer MiL). We're trying to get her into a medicaid facility because her money's running out, and the great state of NC, in its wisdom, needs a special number, a "secondary social security number" if you will, for her to be able to move there. Her doctor's evaluation apparently wasn't enough, so now they're going to conduct a "level II screening" tomorrow. Sheesh. Husband's beside himself. We're going to speak with the evaluating doctor, then spend time with MiL, then, as a reward, stop off at daughter's college (which is on the way home) and take her out to dinnner. We haven't seen her in 4 weeks and 4 days (but who's counting?), so this will be a nice reward for what promises to be a day filled with much angst.

Maybe I'll reward myself with the Kindle Fire after all.

I do love mine. It's backlit so you can read at night, but it does soak up the battery. Lots of free apps, too.

Oh.mah.gawd. Amazon has a Kindle version of Night of the Jabberwock by Fredric Brown for $1.79. That's a steal.

I have the Kindle app on my netbook while I await the funds to buy myself a Kindle. It works fine. And the expansion of my reading possibilities is exponential.

Larry: You're providing the A-list of "novel noir" so far in 2012. Fredric Brown is another author I've never heard of who sounds intriguing. You're beginning to rival Richard in Books I Must Add to My Wishlist.

RichardDear: I'll have to check out the Kindle App. I don't even know how apps even work - so now I've got homework.

Visit yesterday was a bit upsetting. Mama may forget it by today, as she forgot the phone call Friday explaining everything when we got there yesterday, but yesterday she realized that she has to move out of The Pines. The state interviewer was a very sensitive young woman and her report, while it has to be neutral and devoid of opinions, will be neutrally favorable, I'm sure. Husband and I went over to the medicaid facility after visiting Mama, without notifying them, and were happily surprised at how clean, cheerful, and well run it seemed to be. Even though Mama will have to share a room after having a private room, they are large and well laid out. And finally got to visit daughter and take her out to a late lunch. She then took us through the Pfeiffer Library - joy! rapture! - and I wandered over 5 floors of books, bound periodicals, reading rooms, cubbyholes for students to work in, and glorious old bathrooms and nice views of the school from upper story windows.

Then I came home and relapsed.

Nyquill and more antiobiotics have gotten me back to where I was feeling on Friday. So today's jammies, reading, one trip out to get husband's birthday cards, cheesecake fixin's, and nice food for a birthday dinner tomorrow night. Cheesecake's easy to make, we'll probably have London Broil or even a standing rib roast.....

But now's time to get the first cup of coffee, freshly brewed, and continue reading the excellent book The Echo by Minette Walters.

I don't know how you've managed, I haven't left the apartment since Thursday afternoon except to take the garbage out and I still feel like hell. Is your mom going to a dementia facility? Sorry. I'm glad you found a good place, though.

Frederic Brown is a master of creepy crime books. Night of the Jabberwock and The Screaming Mimi have been available since they were first published (either in print or just out of print and available in used book shops.) If you like English cozies, Catherin Aird isn't as popular as she should be.

I ordered Night of the Jabberwock (yay for reading other peoples threads) The Shape of Snakes looks good, but I read a review about animal abuse? Is it bad, I kinda hate reading about animals being harmed - people no problem, but animals...

I've managed by just soldiering on. Feel like crap. Yesterday I took Dayquil every 4 hours. It's perk me for 3, then I'd fade. Another dose, 3 hours, fade. Last night we got home about 5. I immediately put jammies on, crawled into the upstairs germ-free bed with my book. Woke up at 8 pm with glasses on face and lights on, book on the covers. I went downstairs, ate something so I could take my antibiotic, stayed up for an hour total, then took nyquil and went back to sleep. Got up at 8 this morning - very late for me.

So husband went with me to Walmart. We spent $200 - he needed supplements, bought food for his lunchbox for this week, I bought food for his dinner and the fixin's for cheesecake, which is now in the oven. After it's done and cooling, I plan on retiring upstairs again with book. I'll probably nap for a while.

Oh. I cleaned the cat box a while ago, cleaned out and re-filled the cat waterer, and cleaned up the kitchen. I just keep doing things so I won't collapse before the cheesecake's done. THEN I'll collapse. Dinner will be easy - baked chicken with onions, potatoes, mushrooms, and carrots. Sometime today I need to wrap husband's present - I got a fabulous photo of daughter (11" x 14") that's my husband's favorite picture of her nicely framed last week before the creeping crud caught up with me.

beeg - yes, there's cruelty to and torture of cats. Since I have 4 kitties and just recently lost another, it was rough going. Very graphic and I didn't even realize people could do things like that to cats. **shudder** I liked the book so much that I simply skipped over it every time it came up after the first time I read it and realized what I was reading. It was a major part of the story, actually, but I still stand by my good opinion of the book. This second book by Walters, The Echo has no animals in it, one way or another, really. It's very good too.

Larry - regarding Mama. At this point we do not know if she'll get the PASARR number and get into The Brian Center. We're hoping, and hopeful. She's got senility, but she never forgets who she is, doesn't show any symptoms of Alzheimer's or dementia per se. If The Brian Center doesn't work out, husband will be in despair and we'll have to go through this again. So we're hoping that things will go smoothly this week.

Good news! There's the possibility of 1" of snow tonight. Just enough to enjoy, not enough to mess up the commute or Life in general.

*smooch* for my favorite sickie

Thanks, darlin'! *smooches* back

Sickie's feeling some better, although now my ears are clogged and pop occasionally. This is with augmentin, which usually works well for me. So feeling a tad puny still.

Daughter may come home this weekend - exciting.

Don't know about MiL's situation yet - haven't heard back about the PASARR number. Blech.

And, for the ultimate in escape reading, I've read Flirt by Laurell K. Hamilton, about Anita Blake, Vampire Slayer, and and am reading Skin Trade, by ditto about ditto. Sometimes ya just gotta revel in pure D escapism.

And, I just got Celebrity in Death in the mail, J.D. Robb's newest Eve Dallas book. Okay, okay. I'll try to read something serious soon.

I mean to say, it's only February. I still have time to log some serious stuff this year. :)

Two words- read Shutter Island and Pig Island if you haven't already. Tres uber groovy.

I hope you get the PASARR number but don't take any crap from the bureaucrats. Raise hell, hire a lawyer, and 'slip' on a puddle of water in the courthouse. Damn bastigs throw money at everything else, no sense in not helping folks in need.

You tell 'em, SGiV! Feel free to do it, KM! I do hope the PASARR # comes through without a hitch. If so, you may feel singularly blessed. I'm sorry that you've been ill so long. I was catching up with 30+ posts to read (actually, I spent a lot of time looking for the post that says your friend's so n had a heart attack and can't see it yet - I worry about myself) and it seems as though you've had the crud for a long time. Robeson County is the sinus capital of the world, so I can sympathize a little. I keep a minor sinus infection all the time.
I'm envious of your having read *Betrayal of Trust*. I guess I should be glad I don't have it yet since I'll have less time between it and the sequel whenever she gets it done. I haven't read either *Shape of Snakes* or *Echo*, but I used to like Minette Walters a lot. I have both of the books, so I'm glad to hear that she wasn't slacking.
Off to investigate *Night ot Jabberwock*. I like the Kindle price. And I hope you get one soon! Mama loves her Touch, and I am still quite happy with my 2nd generation. A Fire would be nice though -------

Ha! I just finished reading every Hamilton while I was sick. And then I read Holiday in Death by Robb. We have the same tastes in "comfort while sick" reading.

LD, you will probably love Night of the Jabberwock. Be sure to buy The Screaming Mimi while you're at it.

SGIV, I ordered The Screaming Mimi (99Cents for kindle) after realizing I have The best of Frederic Brown and forgot how much I liked him. Thanks

#144 SGiV - I tried Shutter Island and got grossed out. This was quite a while ago and I think I've become much more desensitized since then. I might give it a try again. I'll have to check into Pig Island.

#145 Peggy! Good to hear from you. I now officially adore Minette Walters and want more of her books. And of course I love the Simon Serrailler series. I'm being a bad financial girl lately - any series that I'm very into I simply buy the new one on Amazon. I'm now up to
Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris
Simon Serrailler by Susan Hill
Ian Rutledge by Charles Todd
Armand Gamache by Louise Penny
Eve Dallas by J.D. Robb
Anita Blake by Laurell K. Hamilton (off the bad guy list now that I've read Flirt and Skin Trade
Linley/Havers by Elizabeth George - but I must admit that I've only read the first 4. Maybe I'll start working on them again.....

Sorry about the sinus stuff - I pretty much have it all the time too. I take Claritin every day and it usually helps. I'm slowly getting better. I keep hearing about relapses so will try to not overdo.

I want a Kindle Fire I want a Kindle Fire I want a Knidle Fire.

#146 Great minds, Morphy! I may have to go back and re-read Anita again simply to keep everybody straight. So many characters now.

#147 and #148 - hooray! A new author. I need one like a hole in the head, but rejoice. Something fun to search for.

We got the PASARR number. We're probably going to move Mama next Wednesday. The Pines, where she is now, has been very insistent that she not be moved on a weekend, but all of a sudden it seems to be okay to do so - they just want her gone. Nevermind that she's paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to them over the years..... we're very upset with Stephanie right now (social worker at the Pines) because now they'd like her gone this weekend.

Daughter is coming home this weekend AND we're going to help other MiL clean out a storage shed on Saturday, so can't take Mama to the Brian Center 'til Wednesday.

Stress, stress, stress. Deep breaths. Escapism literature. Next on tap is Celebrity in Death - the newest book to show up on my doorstep. Whoo-yah.

Back to work.....

I liked Shutter Island
must be some daughter stuff in the air, going to New Orleans to see mine this weekend as well.

Huzzah! I'm realty glad you got your mom into a proper care facility. That's a big deal.

Pig Island is genuinely creepy; have you read any Mo Hayder?. I can see where you got grossed out my Shutter Island, but I dug it. Give it another shot.

I feel kind of bad again today. Not sure if it's a relapse or allergies. Leaning toward allergies/bug 80/20.

So are we!!! It is a big deal, getting through the bureaucracy of North Carolina in a timely fashion with the desired result.

Haven't read Mo Hayder. I'll check out Shutter Island again - I'll have to find it at the thrift store. I see it there occasionally, so will pick it up next time I see it.

Sorry you were feeling kind of bad on Thursday - I hope that 2 days have made a difference and that you are feeling much more the thing. Of course, if it's allergies, then the mild winter will bring things out earlier. At that point you'll have to hope for a hard late freeze. :)

Today's gorgeous out here in central NC. Blue skies with puffy white clouds. Lots of wind, mid-50s. I can see the haze of new growth on the trees. We'll probably get that hard freeze I mentioned above. I have a friend who told me that he always knew when we'd get the last freeze of the season - the day that his peach tree was absolutely loaded with blooms. Never failed.

We went to help the other MiL work on her house getting it ready for sale. We had a great time - just a few tasks. The bonus was that daughter was with us and our cousins also came to help. Daughter's been hanging with cousins since they were all little, so many hands made light work. Then MiL took us out to eat lunch at Applebee's - all 8 of us. Fun. Now we're back home, hanging out, just the three of us. Bliss.

beeg - I hope you enjoyed the time with your daughter. Ours came home Friday and left Sunday. We had a good time. Watched a couple of movies, played Yahtzee.

I read Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton. I finally feel like I've escaped enough for a while, although all fiction is escape. I think I'm going to start The Shakespeare Thefts by Eric Rasmussen.

Room by Emma Donoghue was dreadful. I read about 30 pages and stopped. I found it cutesy and irritating. Bookclub is Sunday, and I will will be interested to hear what everybody else thinks.

Looks like we're going to move MiL on Wednesday. I'm so not looking forward to the day for so many reasons. Ah well, duty.

Karen thanks for asking - great visit with the kidlet, the mall not so much. In other exciting news, my espresso machine is arriving today and I can hardly stand it :)

Sorry about the downside of moving the MiL :( sometimes I wonder what will happen to my mother but so far my sister is dealing with her and I thank my lucky stars for her.

(oh yeah, I'm reading The screaming mimi thanks to SGINV so far it's excellent)

Sorry you've been feeling poorly. So glad that you got the magic number to get MIL into proper care. Such things can be so stressful! Hope you feel better, and that Moving Day is not too traumatic.

beeg - a new expresso machine sounds exciting. And glad you had a great visit with kidlet. Continue to thank your lucky stars for your sister.

It wasn't pleasant moving Mama. She had forgotten again that we were doing this and we had to go over the anguish and questions again. She had so much stuff crammed into that little room! We couldn't even put half of it in her new shared room either. We couldn't move her lift chair because of the weather. Fortunately The Pines will store it and her desk and pictures for us - we couldn't fit any more in husband's SUV even after he took most of her things over to The Brian Center.

Going from expensive private to public medicare/medicaid was a shock. One small nightstand, one small dresser in 1/2 of a closet with one shelf over. One shelf near her bed. I think it's an advantage that she has a window bed. Her roommate is very inquisitive and has a dead sister that she speaks of in the present tense.

Long, sad day. Guilt inducing too. I'm probably going to back this weekend and take more/different clothes and some more pictures for the walls. Husband may balk at going back this weekend - we're both still sick AND the weather is supposed to be very threatening, possibly dangerous. Blech. Crap. Hand-wringing and other signs of anguish.

hey tymphos - the care is proper if not deluxe. I actually was impressed with the nursing staff, who did a thorough intake interview. They made sure she had dinner, and checked on her frequently. I wish we didn't even need a magic number, but when the money's gone the money's gone. She's down to about $20K, which will last about 3 months, just enough time to apply for and (hopefully) get, Medicaid.

On a brighter note I finished The Shakespeare Thefts - an interesting book about The First Folio, published in 1623. Eric Rasmussen and a team have searched down and documented all First Folios that are available for scrutiny - some private copies are not available - and he does a lot of talking about specific First Folios, how they were stolen, how they were proven to be such-and-such version, etc. Interesting notes about forgery and bookbinding too. Pretty lightweight, which was good for me, but with enough meat so that I didn't feel too condescended to.

I've started Magic by William Goldman. Strange so far, we'll see if it can maintain my interest. I'm at a bit of a loose end reading-wise right now.

Sorry about Mama forgetting and having to go through it all again. I took my granmother out of a cheeseburger one day and when we got back she didn't remember the home and accused me of setting her up. Broke my heart.

Magic is worth a read, but it's not mt favorite from Goldman. Do try to finish it, and promise me you'll give Control a shot. And Marathon Man and Princess Bride if you haven't read them. His Adventures in the Screen Trade is a classic.

It is always such a shock when I realize Mama doesn't remember something we've told her, especially if we've told her more than once.

Earlier on, say about 2 years ago, I might think she was maliciously not remembering on purpose, but that's not the case any more. She just keeps getting upset, genuinely upset, every time.

We had a very good Saturday. We found the missing Confederate Money. Husband remembers his grandmother showing him his grandfather's grandfather's Confederate money that was in the family Bible. When we got the Bible, no money. When we were going through things from the nursing home Mama was in that we didn't take to the new nursing home, we found a box. It had mostly extra buttons and empty glasses cases, but it also had some old newspaper clippings and an envelope with the grandmother's handwriting on it describing the bills and who they belonged to. So we now have $120 or so in Confederate money. It's very cool even though I'm a Westerner and am glad the South lost. And husband was extremely happy to see Carolina beat Duke AT Duke by 18 points.

Flitting around, not comfortable with any of the last 3 books I started, so I turned to the newest Eve Dallas, Conspiracy in Death and am about 30 pages from completing it. I can't promise to finish Magic, but it's still in my bookbag here at work and if I finish Conspiracy at lunch I'll continue with Magic.

I'm sort of headachy today, not feeling 100%.

Give Magic a shot. If you like it at all, definately read Control. I like William Goldman a lot.

Is this the same Goldman who did Princess Bride? I may have to check him out.

Same guy, ditto Marathon Man.

I've (temporarily?) abandoned Magic. I have picked up Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson and so far it's holding my interest.

I also just finished listening to My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. It's one of those books that I think of as chick lit and avoid like the plague, but my neighbor gave me her copy of it, then that same night I saw it in the audiobooks section of the library. I thought someone was trying to tell me something, so started listening to it. I had to stop listening to it just before I got home tonight, couldn't stand the suspense, and found my place in the book and finished it. I gave it 4 1/2 stars - stunning - surprisingly - and can't say enough good things about it.

It held my interest, it talked about serious subjects, it had an amazing ending. I couldn't wait to get into the car to listen to it and even took it into work at lunch time to listen to on my computer. I'm shocked at how much I liked it, actually. Beautifully written, well drawn characters. Whew. Not the ending I wanted, but in some ways the only one possible.

So back to Human Croquet.

Daughter is interested in changing colleges - wants to go to Appalachian State University here in NC because Pfeiffer has pretty much given up on its music major. Daughter didn't want to major in music, but did want to continue performing her entire college career and she said that without recruiting new music students they won't have enough people to play in the ensembles by the end of next year. Plus, the history major is only being taught by two professors, and that's not enough variety and depth to provide a good degree in daughter's opinion. So she's got the on-line app almost ready to go.

Inara Starbuck brought in a snake tonight - cat, cat door, etc. Husband said that she tried bringing it in earlier and he blocked the cat door and brought her in. She then went out after he re-opened the door. We thought she'd forgotten about the snake, but while we were working in another room, Inara snuck it back in. Husband found it while on his way to bed. Small snake, about 1/4" in diameter and about 12 inches long, but still..... we do not like snakes in the house. We've had two in this house, both small, and a 5' black snake in our old house after Hurricane Fran in 1996. Barefoot in the finished basement looking for something, and this snake pokes its VERY large head out from underneath the sofa. Husband could hear me screech from upstairs. I was standing on the sofa back until husband removed the snake. Brrrrr.

And on that reptilian note, it's off to read then sleep.

I was going to say something about My Sister's Keeper, which I loved, but I'm too squeamed out by the snakes to say anything.

the movie was worth watching, which is usually not my thing either. my dog lays land mines I have to dodge, a snake might be a nice change of pace.

Sorry about the squeams, SugarCreekRanch - we live in the middle of nowhere and creepy crawlies and other assorted wildlife are part of our homelife.

I finished listening to the book on tape even though I read the ending last night. I wanted to hear the last character's voice - it was so good, the book, the premise, what came out at the end.

beeg - I heard that the movie's ending was different than the book's - but don't know of course. Land mines. Hmm.... snakes might be an improvement. Small ones, of course.

Book club's discussion of Room by Emma Donoghue was interesting. I don't want to read it, but Bookclub Diane has loaned me the audiobook. She's a teacher at the elementary school, so I dropped by this morning to pick it up. Daughter hasn't been in elementary school for 9 years... sigh.... it was strange to go back there.

Jack's voice is a bit toooooo cutesy, but I'm actually enjoying hearing Ma's voice. I shall persevere.

Hello snoogums, back online at home at last. Thought I'd pass beyond the veil of sanity before this whole flippin' nightmare ended. It has, so yay me.

Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie She's Dead. Indeed. Tart-tongued haint, devil-induced apocalypse prevented by LA witch living in Wisconsin's North Woods, and it manages to be frothful fun.

Go Appalachian State!

Peace and blessings and hopes that Mama is settling in well. We got my ma home from the nursing home in mid-February and she's doing very well - going to PT twice a week, swimming 3 days a week, now playing bridge again - in short (too late to be "in short") getting her life back. It's wonderful each and every day!
I downloaded The Screaming Mimi since it was 79¢ cheaper than Night of the Jabberwock! If I like it, I'll go Brown wild.
Your young one seems to know where her act is and to have it together. Good luck to her!
HOW 'BOUT THEM HEELS!!!!!!
Sorry about the snake and Ms. Starbuck. The strangest one I ever heard was when a neighbor called DH (the local animal man) in a panic because she had found a baby possum in her dishtowel drawer.....really.
Great about the Confederate money too!
Take deep breaths and keep reading!

Yay, indeed, Richard! I'm glad things are settling down for you. And, another Freebie on Kindle? I want a Kindle! Except I read an article about iPads and wonder what's going to have fallen out in a couple of years. Of course most of us have obsolete technology littering our houses, so what would a Kindle be if iPads become the norm?

Yes, indeed, go App State! For Christmas daughter brought me a gorgeous Pfeiffer coffee mug - the right shape, the right size, black. Perhaps I'll get an App State mug out of this! Daughter was very interested in App about 4-5 years ago, so perhaps this is karma.

Ah, Lizzie! Good to hear about your Ma. Ya gotta try to enjoy every single day. And, book-wise, 79¢ is 79¢, after all.

Truly daughter is looking ahead, thinking about her life. Did I mention that she's got all As at midterm? Stunning for my girl, really. I'm proud of her.

And the Heels! Yay and double yay. Husband's upset,though - we're going to visit his Mama today to take her lift chair, get the last of her things from the old nursing home. We're convoying with daughter since she has a truck. We'll all visit Mama/Gran then come home so daughter can spend Spring Break with us. Nice times ahead. BUT, we'll miss the 1 p.m. game with State.

And we did watch the Duke game last night. Husband always wants the in-state team to win, even if it's Duke or State, but I wanted Duke to lose. Didn't happen, though Virginia held them to an unbelievably low score. But I still remember, non-fanatic that I am, Carolina whupping Duke at Duke to take the regular season. The same day we found the Confederate money.

Possums are nasty critters, but perhaps babies aren't quite so ..... hissy and evil-eyed. I can imagine her panic.

About 6 or 7 years ago I wanted to make some pasta, so got the Tupperware Celery Keeper which is in actuality a Hengeveld Pasta Keeper out of the pantry. Set it down on the edge of the kitchen island, opened it, and a mouse leaped out and scurried under the refrigerator. Scared the hell out of me. It was wasteful too, because I had to throw all that pasta out and wash the Pasta Keeper a couple of times before I felt like I could use it again. Always interesting Animal Times at the Hengeveld Manse - the ladybug infestations, the little moth infestations, brother-in-law shooting down wasps with rubber bands, etc. And finally, regarding a domesticated pet, Jeremy the Albino Leopard Gecko shed his skin again this morning. Fat little dude that he is.

Well, off to get dressed and start the day. Daughter, MiL, on the road. Taking my book, taking my iPod.

You know, Horrible, the thing about the Kindle is that at $80 (with not-too-intrusive "special offers" aka advertising) and with a Prime membership. HUUUUUUGE numbers of books are free to read if not to own and even huger numbers are free as the birdies. For someone as involved in eldercare as you're coming to be, this device could prove to be the best investment you'll ever make, and even *save* you money in the long run.

Richard's right, buy the cheapest Kindle and use it only for reading. The Fire is a limited functionality tablet and it's great as an Amazon content device, but let the tech heads duke it out and buy something with that much functionality in a year or two. The basic Kindle easily worth $80 for reading and the battery life is 2x or more than what the Fire is. I also like the ads- I bought Kitchen Confidential for a quarter.

I woke up this morning (OK, noon) and there were pigeons in my apartment. Gah! to uninvited animals.

Thanks, guys! Just might finagle $80 to buy a regular Kindle.

As much as I love Kate Atkinson and her Jackson Brodie series, I didn't particularly care for Human Croquet. Ultimately I didn't get it. There were a few lyrical passages and a few good lines, but I'm going to remove it from my library and put it up on bookmooch.

Lazy, lazy day. Next book is the new one by Harlan Coben about Myron Bolitar's nephew Mickey, Shelter, and should be interesting.

Daughter's home for spring break. Yesterday we met her at Pfeiffer, got all MiL's things from the old nursing home and put her lift chair, a new TV, and lots of summer clothes in her closet. I had to mark EVERY SINGLE PIECE of clothing - and just remembered that I forgot a few things in a drawer. Oh, well. At least most of her clothes will get washed now - they refused to wash them without labeling. Long successful day.

I'm making some beef jerky today.

Sorry the move was so difficult for your mama. Seeing that a loved one's memory is failing so badly has to be crushing. I hope she's getting more comfortable in her new surroundings.

You've made me re-evaluate my bias against Jodi Picoult. Perhaps I'll give My Sister's Keeper a try at some point in time.

Best wishes to your daughter in changing colleges. It sounds like she's thought things through quite sensibly.

Thanks, tymfos. It's been difficult. Mama is now exhibiting "attention getting behaviors" - aka fake falls. She'll go out into the hallway, make sure a nurse is looking, then fall out of her wheelchair. Last night she carefully removed the alarms and fell out of bed. Honestly, I just don't get it. But I guess negative attention, to a total egotist, is better than no attention at all.

I told my sister in an e-mail today that WE WILL NOT DO THIS KIND OF CRAP WHEN WE'RE OLD. She agreed.

I really did love My Sister's Keeper and have been thinking about it ever since finishing it. I'm not sure I want to read any other of her books, but this one has stuck with me.

Thanks too about daughter. She occasionally makes me crazy, but in her life decisions, I think she's got it lots together.

I'm reading a great book, The Book of Joe, and listening to Room. the Book of Joe is an easy fun read - an angsty successful novelist returns to his home town when his father goes into a coma. He trashed everybody in town in his novel, so they all hate him, and he revisits high school memories while dealing with the current situation. It's amusing.

I started reading Room and HATED IT, but after bookclub's discussion I borrowed the audio book and can't wait to get into the car after work to have 1/2 hour on the way home to listen some more. Yesterday I even brought it in at lunch to listen.....

Had a nice lunch with daughter - she drove down here to have lunch with me and pick out new cell phones with her dad.

ugh, my mother is a faller as well, first she was a fainter but that must be so last season, now she stumbles and either catches herself or goes down depending on the audience. Sigh, I've made a pact with my daughter to put a pillow over my face when I get too out of control. heh she'd do it too.

I suppose there is something to be said for having MiL 2 hours away in a nursing home. We don't have to deal directly with the behaviors except via phone calls.

I'll have to ask daughter if she'd put a pillow over my face if I got too out of control. I'm sure she'd smile and say "Who knows?"

The Book of Joe was a very good book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm either going to start The Music Room by William Fiennes or The Bachelor's Bargain by Catherine Palmer. Knowing how it's been going lately, I'll end up reading something else entirely.

NCAA March Madness has started. Husband and I have brackets on our local TV station's website. Usually I win because of picking neat uniforms and strange upsets. But I do want Carolina to win for sure.... that's what 20 years of living near Chapel Hill will do to a person. And I picked Davidson to upset Louisville (13 seed vs 4 seed) just because they're in state.

I know myself so well...... I tried both books above, The Music Room and The Bachelor's Bargain last night and went to sleep instead. This morning I pulled down Insomnia by Stephen King and am 68 pages into it.

Husband's home from work, daughter's upstairs vegging, and I'm a bit restless. I took the day off work. Daughter and I had a great morning playing cards and running errands.

This evening we're having dinner with friends. I like them but always have a hard time getting in a word edgewise with Diane. She can evermore talk.

Tomorrow's the funeral for a dear friend's mother. Then Sunday daughter goes back to school. Strange 3 days off.

A. Hem. A certain Laotian coroner awaits.

Hem's are down this year, Richard Dear. Oooooh, Stephen King. I can't help but think that he'll still be read in 100 years. Wouldn't it be funny if we entered a new dark age and Stephen King became our Homer? I've been listening to the audio version of Salem's Lot, but since I don't put more than a tank of gas in the car a month it's going to take a long time.

A. Hem. In. Deed. What can I say? Insomnia, with its red and white dust jacket, simply called out to me from the top shelf.

The one advantage to having a 56-mile round trip commute daily is that I get about 1 hour 10 minutes of audiobook listening in each day. I put in a tank a week, AND I use midgrade. I might could try to half and half with regular, but that's not what the owners' manual says.

Duke lost. Mizz lost. The entire left side of the bracket is gone for me. Totally embarrassing. Whew. Fortunately, I'm only competing against husband, and so far we're tied at 36 points each. I must admit that it was fun watching Lehigh outplay Duke, though..... and husband has some Duke friends that he is going to have fun with.

OH, my...Oh my! A snake in your house...This gives me the willies. Years ago I worked in the Pocono Mountains here in NE Pennsylvania. Snakes in the summer were a daily occurrence. Tragically, one of the retreatants at the center where I was the Program Director stepped into a bush, did not see the Copperhead therein and was bitten. By the time I drove her to the hospital five miles away, her leg was so swollen that the skin was almost ready to split.

She lived, but had severe damage to her leg for a long time. Snakes are scary things....

It sounds like there is a lot happening in your life right now. I'm sending hugs.

Thanks, Linda, for the hugs. There's way too much happening right now. I just keep swimming....

Just Keep Swimming

Fortunately, our snakes are small and (mostly) non-venomous. We think one that I previously described as a small rattlelsnake is probably a small copperhead too. Our friend at dinner last night said "copperhead" as soon as we said diamonds on back. No snakes for the last day and a half.

Husband and I are tied at 44 points each in March Madness. That means we each predicted the winner of 22 games of the 32 games played over the last two days.

Today's the funeral for our dear friend James' mother. She was a 5 year cancer survivor and had a good long life and slipped into a coma late last week and died on Tuesday.

Insomnia is a good book. An easy read with vivid characters and a very interesting plot. I'm about 170 pages in.

Off to hang in the living room with family. I just made them homemade buttermilk waffles with real butter and real maple syrup, and bacon.

*sigh*

*smooch*

*sigh*

I wish you were my mom, I wish my daughter appreciated I'm that mom... what ever

Sorry to hear that your mom's acting out with fake falls. How frustrating!

I love Stephen King, but haven't read Insomnia yet. Sounds like one to cure your issue of falling asleep instead of reading! And I know what you mean about certain books calling out from the shelf.

Best wishes to you.

Thanks, beeg! What a compliment. Daughter's turning out pretty good if I say so myself, even though I went through 1 1/2 years of pure D hell with her at the end of high school. But the basics are sound, I think, with her.

Hi tymfos - yah, Mama is a real piece of work. I hasten to add that this is my mother-in-law. My mother has different interesting behaviors, but never tries to get attention negatively like Mama.

Insomnia is coming along. I'm about 600 pages in and it's a very good read.

Tonight's March Madness - both Carolina and State play. Husband's a serious Carolina fan and is stressed because Marshall probably isn't playing because he fractured his scaphoid bone (wrist). We'll see. Time for jammies, snacks, and couch potatoing over basketball.

And, glory of glories, no obligations this weekend. I'm going to get caught up on laundry, reading, some powerwashing of backyard brick if the weather holds, and reading and relaxing. Hoo-ya!

I finished Insomnia by Stephen King. It was excellent. A very interesting concept of layers of reality.

We cleaned out the closet under the staircase and founds lots of interesting things and created a big pile of things to take to the thrift store including daughter's crutch when she got a bone bruise on her heel in 4th grade (9 years ago), lots of Melaleuca stuff and a Gevalia traveling coffee bag that we'll never use.

We have way too much stuff. Husband is actually beginning to let go of some things - a desk he used when he was living at home as a teenager can go. We have a secretary AND another desk in addition to daughter's computer desk, husband's computer desk, and my computer desk. So we still have 5 desks (6 until I actually get rid of the childhood desk), but it's a start.

And for new stuff, we went to Sam's Club today and spent way too much money, but I got a new iron and The Hunger Games and lots of good basics. Two inferior irons, one mine and one MiL's, are going to the thrift store. I also bought the wine for next week's bookclub meeting at my house and London Broil for same.

Now more laziness and Men's basketball watching in addition to a terribly addictive stupid computer game called Angry Birds. I guess it's been around for a long time, but husband discovered it on his new smartphone and I have started running it on Facebook..... aack. Mindlessness. Sometimes heavenly.

Next book should be The Coronor's Lunch to make points with RichardDear. We'll see if I can read the second and continuing pages - I read page one about a week ago.

One tentative point for planning to read pp2-272 *plink*

A 14kt gold star (aluminum clad in 14mg of same) awaits Horrible's completion of same.

*smooch* for a very soothing weekend, and in hopes for a boring week ahead

35.29% of a point.... up to page 96 and actually enjoying it very much, thank you! I will definitely continue it and actually finish it, I'm sure. I enjoy Siri's point of view. Lots of laugh out loud humor, too. I'll be happy to claim the 14kt gold star when finished.

I'm listening to Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. A friend at work bought it for his wife for their anniversary last year and since I had Amazon Prime I was able to get it for a good price AND with no shipping or sales tax for him. I didn't want to buy it for myself, but found the audiobook at the Library last week. I'm not sure I would enjoy reading it as much simply because the reader is wonderful with accents - Indian, Australian, German, Spanish, English, French.

For me, some books just need to be listened to and this is one of them.

I'm so glad Dr. Siri is making another conquest!

SIGH....I am SO anxious to read the Dr. Siri books, but have been on the library's waiting list for #1 for EVER!!! Don't want to leap into the rest of the series w/o reading the 1st one.

Agreed, Tina, it's really important in this series to read them in order.

I'm glad you liked Insomnia. It's on my 'to read' list.

Hi Tina - you'll enjoy it. I'm about 3/4 of the way through.

Hallo RD! Some series are okay to not read in order,but I'll make sure I read Dr. Siri in order per your recommendation.

Hi Larry! It's not as scary as some of King's books IMHO, but there is definitely a lot to think about. I only started reading King about 3 years ago, if you can believe it. I have 46 of his books on my shelves, and every once in a while there's absolutely nothing else that will do. Insomnia was on of those times and one of those reads.

I just got back from the Friends of the Library Book Sale and got two more Dr. Siri books - the 3rd one and the 7th one. I'll hold them as Richard thinks they should be read in order.

Here are all the books I got today:

Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill - 3rd Dr. Siri book
Love Songs from a Shallow Grave by Colin Cotterill - 7th Dr. Siri book
The Third Man and The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (sigh, just couldn't resist the cover)
Kingdom of Shadows by Alan Furst
The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst
The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst
Nemesis by Jo Nesbo
The Showman by Jo Nesbo
The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
The True Darcy Spirit by Elizabeth Aston
The Rubber Band by Rex Stout
The Red Box by Rex Stout
Sabine's Notebook by Nick Bantock
The Golden Mean by Nick Bantock
Beneath a Marble Sky by JohnShors
The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O'Brian
The Mummy by E.A. Wallis Budge
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys
Spider Trap by Barry Maitland
The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig
Resilience by Elizabeth Edwards audiobook on CDs
No Country for Old Men DVD movie

Not bad for $55, eh?

I've got about 1 hours and 15 minutes before I head back to the book sale as a volunteer, so will read a bit, possibly hose down my car to get rid of the worst of the pollen, and revel in my acquisitions.

*vibrates with book-envy and Day-Glo orange loathing and jealousy*

But you love me, right? Even in all my Horribleness?

*smooch*

*grumble* Yeah. But don't push it. *grumble*

After volunteering 2 hours at the Book Sale cashiering, I continued shopping:

Pompeii by Robert Harris - free book for working a 2-hour shift
The Four Corners of the Sky by Michael Malone - free book for workind a second 2-hour shift
Tales of the City
More Tales of the City
Further Tales of the City
Babycakes
Significant Others
Sure of you all by Armestead Maupin

I finished The Coroner's Lunch. It was a surprisingly good read. Sly, witty, sarcastic, full of humor and interesting. I look forward to the rest of the series.

I think I'm going to start The Hunger Games.

I am overcome with book envy....but not enough to want to go out and repeat your endeavors. We're just starting the annual cull through the donations to see if we have enough books, people, space, and ENERGY to do a book sale in June. Just got off the phone with the volunteer who SWORE she'd never do it again and who called to ask if I had any objection to her beginning to pull out the obvious "off the dumps"....

Hey Tina - Thursday was a fun day but certainly not a relaxing day. Many books acquired, though.

Today and most of tomorrow will be spent getting ready for my bookclub's meeting - which is at my house this month. Gotta feed 12 of us. I think I'm going to make London Broil with a mushroom and wine sauce, twice baked potatoes, green bean salad with apricot vinaigrette. Haven't figured out appetizers yet but will make my grandmother's applesauce cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert. Yup. So cleaning and shopping and table setting and etc. It's rainy here today but tomorrow should clear up. Husband will do some outside work tomorrow.

The Hunger Games is a wonderful read. I just finished it, actually! Now I want books 2 and 3. And I want to see the movie.

Cleaning awaits....

*wrings out drool rag* What time shall I be there?

7 p.m. The book is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which I haven't read. I'll probably get around to it eventually.

Okay. Appetizers are Parmesan and Panko Roasted Asparagus, Church Food Turkey Dip (ground turkey, cream cheese, and lime/cilantro RoTel) with pita chips, baked crisps, and celery, and dishes of black olives and homemade sweeet pickles.

(Church Food is what I call anything made with cream of anything soup, Lipton boxed anything soup mix, cream cheese, or cool whip).

Daughter brought home the turkey dip recipe from college and was very proud of herself since I'm trying to avoid carbs and the turkey dip is mostly protein and fat. It's very yummy, too. It turns out that people from work make variations of it - one with sausage, and one with ground beef.

Dining room table and breakfast room table are polished and have place mats down. All food is purchased. All wine is purchased. Working on the living room now. More cleaning and straightening to do, but it's not rushed (yet).