karenmarie's 75 Book Challenge for 2015 - Thread #2

I've only read about half as many books this year as in previous years - a combination of different eyes from my cataract surgery and watching more TV with husband. Sigh.

1. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell 12/26/14 1/17/15 *** 624 pages
2. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King *audiobook* 1/14/15 2/8/15 ****1/2 531 pages hardcover
3. The Photograph by Penelope Lively 1/17/15 1/22/15 *** 220 pages
4. The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry 1/23/15 1/29/15 ***457 pages
5. Death and the Dogwalker by J. J. Orde 1/29/15 2/1/15 *** 219 pages
6. Desert Queen by Janet Wallach 2/5/15 2/15/15 **** 377 pages
7. The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh 2/15/15 2/21/15 **1/2 356 pages
8. The Judas Pair by Jonathan Gash 2/21/15 2/24/15 ***1/2 182 pages
9. The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers 2/24/15 3/1/15 ** 163 pages
10. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling *audiobook* 2/9/15 2/20/15 320 pages hardcover
11. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling *audiobook* 2/23/15 3/1/15 352 pages hardcover
12. The Soul of Discretion by Susan Hill 03/01/15 3/4/15 *** 314 pages
13. Deeply Odd by Dean Koontz 3/4/15 3/13/15 ***1/2 404 pages
14. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling *audiobook* 3/1/15 3/12/15 435 pages hardcover
15. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling *audiobook* 3/12/15 4/1/15 752 pages hardcover
16. Saint Odd by Dean Koontz 3/13/15 3/15/15 **** 338 pages
17. Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore 3/19/15 3/25/15 **** 322 pages
18. Rage Against the Dying by Becky Masterman 3/26/15 3/28/15 **** 307 pages
19. Six Years by Harlan Coben 3/28/15 3/31/15 **** 351 pages
20. A Fine Summer's Day by Charles Todd 4/1/15 4/9/15 ***1/2 358 pages
21. Peter Pan Must Die by John Verdon 4/10/15 4/22/15 **** 440 pages
22. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 4/22/15 5/3/15 **** 530 pages
23. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 5/3/15 5/21/15 **** 771 pages
24. The Burning Room by Michael Connelly 5/24/15 5/25/15 ***1/2 388 pages
25. Fluke by Christopher Moore 5/26/15 6-5-15 ***1/2 317 pages
26. Finders Keepers by Stephen King 6-5-15 6-7-15 ***1/2 431 pages
27. Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo 6-8-15 6-14-15 **1/2 374 pages
28. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling *audiobook* 4/2/15 5/15/15 896 pages hardcover
29. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling *audiobook* 5/16/15 5/29/15 652 pages hardcover
30. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling *audiobook* 6/1/15 6/29/15 784 pages
31. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton 6/14/15 6/18/15 **** 398 pages
32. Southern Ghost by Carolyn G. Hart 6/18/15 6/21/15 *** 322 pages
33. Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman 6/21/15 6/24/15 *** 179 pages
34. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty 6/24/15 6/28/15 **** 459 pages
35. An Iron Rose by Peter Temple 6/28/15 7/2/15 **** 269 pages
36. Suspect by Michael Robotham 7/2/15 7/4/15 **** 351 pages
37. Lost by Michael Robotham 7/4/15 7/7/15 **** 324 pages
38. Ex-Libris by Ross King 7/7/15 7/19/15 *** 392 pages
39. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson **audiobook** 7/6/15 7/14/15 **** 1/2 560 pages hardcover
40. The All of It by Jeannette Haien 7/19/15 7/21/15 ****145 pages
41. Don't Look Down by Crusie and Mayer 7/21/15 7/23/15 **** 373 pages
42. Agnes and the Hitman by Crusie and Mayer 7/23/15 7/27/15 **** 384 pages
43. Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie 07/27/15 07/30/15 *** 384 pages
44. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell 07/30/15 8/15/15 ***1/2 400 pages
45. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson **audiobook** 7/15/15 8/16/15 **** 320 pages hardcover
46. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson 8/15/15 8/24/15 **** 304 pages
47. X by Sue Grafton 08/25/15 8/28/15 ***1/2 416 pages hardcover
48. The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny 8/28/15 9/7/15 *** 374 pages
49. The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz 9/8/15 9/18/15 *** 400 pages hardcover
50. Make Me by Lee Child 9/18/15 9/24/15 ***1/2 402 pages hardcover
51. The Overlook by Michael Connelly **audiobook** 9/14/15 9/20/15 304 pages mass market paperback
52. Killing Floor by Lee Child **audiobook** 09/24/15 10/8/15 **** 419 pages mass market paperback
53. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder 9/18/15 9/24/15 **** 92 pages in a trilogy
54. The Martian by Andy Weir 10/3/15 10/6/15 **** 369 pages hardcover
55. The Picnic and Other Inimitable Stories by Gerald Durrell 10/7/15 10/13/15 191 pages hardcover
56. The Drop by Michael Connelly 10/9/15 10/22/15 **audiobook** 419 pages hardcover
57. Fear the Darknesss by Becky Masterman 10/13/15 10/18/15 **** 322 pages hardcover
58. The Prophet by Michael Koryta 10/18/15 10/23/15 404 pages trade paperback
59. The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly **audiobook** 10/22/15 10/30/15 ****
60. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith 10/23/15 10/26/15 **** 489 pages hardcover
61. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 10/27/15 11/1/15 **** 333 pages hardcover
62. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber 11/2/15 11/18/15 **** **audiobook** 512 pages hardcover
63. World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters 11/17/15 11/23/15 **1/2 **ebook**
64. A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester 11/20/15 12/9/15 **** **audiobook** 480 pages hardcover
65. Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay 12/27/15 12/31/15 **** 288 pages trade paperback

finis

This is my official 2015 Acquisitions Message.

Source: BM - Bookmooch, AZ - Amazon, CC - Circle City Music & Books, TS - thrift shop, LT - LibraryThing

01/02/15 BM Angel Face by Suzanne Forster - I'm a sucker for her old high-sexual tension psychological thrillers
01/02/15 BM Death and the Dogwalker - Peggy, you're the inspiration for this one!
01/08/15 AZ The Photograph by Penelope Lively - Barbara, you're the inspiration for this one. Ordered just now (1/3/15)
01/08/15 LT On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi by Ryusho Kadota. Thank you, LoisB!
01/13/15 AZ Saint Odd by Dean Koontz - pre-ordered in December
01/13/15 CC The Man-eater of Malgudi by R. K. Narayan - Paul - this is the first one I've seen by Narayan, so had to get it.
01/13/15 CC How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein
01/13/15 CC The Holy Qur'an by Abdullah Yusuf Ali - I love that the dates of publication are 1409/1989!
01/13/15 AZ Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges - we saw The Imitation Game last weekend and I wanted to know more
01/24/15 AZ Desert Queen by Janet Wallach about Gertrude Bell, recommended by a dear friend
01/30/15 AZ Quiet as a Nun by Antonia Fraser
01/31/15 TS Second Watch by J.A. Jance
01/31/15 TS Pegasus Descending by James Lee Burke
01/31/15 TS Girl Reading by Katie Ward looked interesting
01/31/15 TS Dream Catcher by Margaret A. Salinger because I've always been enthralled by everything Salinger
01/31/15 TS Where the Moon Isn't by Nathan Filer
**only 16 books for January**
02/03/15 AZ The Soul of Discretion by Susan Hill
02/03/15 AZ The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh
02/04/15 BM Traveling with the Dead by Barbara Hambly
02/05/15 AZ The Judas Pair by Jonathan Gash
02/05/15 BM Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore
02/24/15 AZ The Winter Foundlings by Kate Rhodes
**6 books for February** gads, that's too few by far
03/11/15 AZ 10-day Green Smoothie Cleanse by J. J. Smith
Booksale:
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz
The House of Thunder by Dean Koontz
Rage Against the Dying by Becky Masterman
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diane Gabaldon
The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
The Blackhouse by Peter May
All My Enemies by Barry Maitland
Spider Trap by Barry Maitland
Chelsea Mansions by Barry Maitland
The Jackal Man by Kate Ellis
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
The Falls by Ian Rankin
Twelve Years a Slave by Soloon Northup
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
A Fine Summer's Day by Charles Todd
Peter Pan Must Die by John Verdon
Kraken by China Mieville
Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister
The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter by David Colbert
Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz
The Kings and Queens of England: A Tourist Guide by Jane Murray
what the night knows by Dean Koontz
Six Years by Harlan Coben
Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
The Burning Room by Michael Connelly
Pirate King by Laurie R. King
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
Creatures of the Kingdom by James Michener
The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Seize the Night by Dean Koontz
Fox Evil by Minette Walters
Southern Ghost by Carolyn G. Hart
A Very Private Plot by William F. Buckley, Jr.
Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie
A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement by Anthony Powell
A Dance to the Music of Time: Second Movement by Anthony Powell
A Dance to the Music of Time: Third Movement by Anthony Powell
Riven Rock by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Cousin Felix Meets the Buddha by Lincoln Kaye
Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter
Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks
Focault for Beginners by Lydia Alix Fillingham
The Second World War volumes 1-4 by Winston Churchill
Apes, Angels, and Victorians by William Irvine
Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope
An Iron Rose by Peter Temple
Vanishing World: the endangered arctic by Fredrick Granath
The Sherlock Holmes Companion by Michael and Mollie Hardwick
** 52 books for March ** - a respectable number

04-11-15 TS Day of the Dead by J.A. Jance
04-11-15 TS False Memory by Dean Koontz
04-11-15 TS The Devil She Knows by Bill Loehfelm
04-26-15 Ontario California Airport What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
** 4 books for April ** - way too low

05-01-15 Lisa Grafton Square by Alfred J. Batty, her stepfather
05-11-15 daughter As You Wish by Cary Elwes
05-11-15 daughter The Creature Vault by Jody Revenson
05-17-15 Louise The Siege by Stephen White
**4 books for May** - again, way too low

06-03-15 AM Finders Keepers by Stephen King
06-16-15 AM Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
**2 books for June** yeesh

07-03-15 26 books - from a box stored from my MiL and FiL
07-01-15 AM Suspect by Michael Robotham
07-01-15 AM Lost by Michael Robotham
07-03-15 11 books - more from boxes from MiL and FiL
07-04-15 8 books - more from boxes from MiL & FiL
07-10-15 5 books - more from boxes from MiL & FiL
07-10-15 TS Swamplandia by Karen Russell
07-10-15 TS Red Clay, Blue Cadillac by Michael Malone

Shiny new thread!

Happy New Thread, Karen.

Happy new thread. Your numbers are very respectable for someone getting used to new eyes!

Happy New Thread, Karen!!!!
I'd say that your numbers are very respectable for anyone at all - a lot better than mine! (*sigh*)

Thanks Doc, Barbara, Meg, Peggy!

As long as I'm reading, I guess it doesn't matter TOO much how many I get read, right?

Yesterday was an orgy of reading - I've almost finished Lost by Michael Robotham, a very good mystery set in London. It's not exactly a sequel, because the first book, Suspect, was from the point of view of a psychologist named Joe O'Laughlin. This book is from the point of view of Detective Inspector Ruiz, who thought Joe was the murderer in the first book. A book that makes me sad I have to go to work instead of staying curled on the couch reading. Sigh.

We also watched the Women's World Cup, US vs Japan. Of course a big storm came through the literal SECOND that the ball was placed in play and knocked out power ..... 7 minutes later we got power back and the US was up 2-0. Then we lost power for most of the first half but got to watch the second half, the win, and the ceremonies after. Daughter kept us posted with texts while we couldn't watch.

I finished Lost. Extremely good mystery.

On the hunt for something else to read.....

As a preface to what follows, our Production Master Scheduler's last day of work was today.

Shellshocked. Got called into the General Manager's office late today and offered the position of head of the production planning department (don't know what the title will be exactly), reporting directly to the Plant Manager instead of Logistics, where it was reporting, with people reporting to me. I'm reeling. My plan was to see if we could afford for me to retire because I've hated becoming a "Help Desk Drone" as I put it - working in Information Technologies in a support role, no longer programming or managing projects or ANYTHING meaningful. One raise in 9 years. Dead end job, 62 years old, not marketable in my field anymore. The General Manager was very complimentary and supportive and giving me a heads up why he wants me to take this job - all hush-hush about meeting with him - so I'm supposed to act surprised when the Plant Manager and HR Director call me in tomorrow. I'm going to be offered promotion, a supervisory role, $$, and a scary new job trying to fix the planning problems we've been experiencing. High profile, high stress, high workload, yeeeeshhhhh!!!! Another department is being pulled directly under the Plant Manager too, and the head of that group is another woman, so we'll both be the highest-level women in our plant. Cool. Stressful. Weird. Hasn't sunk in yet.

I think I'll have a glass of wine before I go to bed, otherwise I don't think I'll be able to sleep.

Congrats! I think... :)

Thanks, I think. :)

I managed to sleep 'til 3:30. I've made coffee and am going to try to read Ex-Libris by Ross King. If I can't settle on reading I will probably play cell phone games..... pathetic, I know.

Woohoo, sounds great.

And you thought that nobody was paying attention! CONGRATULATIONS - I hope! They've made a smart move.

excellent gift from the universe :)

>9 karenmarie: Congratulations! For the morale boost if not necessarily the workload and the stress...

Barbara, Peggy, beeg, qebo - thank you all! Today I'm going to tell them I'm inclined to accept the job contingent upon a few things - planned vacation days still being honored and compensation commensurate with 9 years of no raises and new role being the two biggies - but also transition activities and one thing I may need to probably do in the new year to support finance (not worth training someone else because it will be the last time it's needed).

I'm not exactly a money whore, but the $$ had better be respectable.

I didn't wake up once during the night - amazing. No wine needed. :)

Very cool! Good luck today!

Came by to find out how it went..... I'll be back.

Thanks streamsong!

Hi Peggy - here's the Allstate:

Yesterday the ball was in my court. I had a lot of work in the a.m., then decided to speak with the Plant Manager again - called him, went up to his office, and we talked for about 30 minutes. I told him I was definitely interested. Went downstairs, sent an e-mail to the HR director telling HIM that I was definitely interested. HR Director called me into his office about 4:45. The upshot is that they didn't have a chance to come up with an offer, so told me to call him today after 10 a.m. I'm on a vacation day today, so will know more later this a.m.

Think I'll try to call him around 10:30.

In the meantime I'm absolutely whupped. Last night didn't sleep well again. Was up quite a bit of the night. Fortunately I can be lazy if I want today and watch tennis, putter around the house cleaning in anticipation of Sunday's Bookclub Meeting for 12 at my house. I've already got the menu planned, already got the shopping list prepared. Here's the menu:

Sesame Shrimp Streamers
Colossal Black Olives with Pesto-Cream
Homemade Cheese Wafers

Curried Tuna Salad with Mango and Date Chutney
Chinese Cabbage Salad
bread, butter

Homemade Blueberry Pies (I'm going to try a gluten-free crust recipe!)

Wine, lemonade, water, decaf coffee, decaf tea

Ooh, what time?

Wow!!!!
(Still waiting...)

beeg! Sunday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. between Pittsboro and Siler City NC!

Peggy - They came back with less money than I wanted - 4.5% - but most of that's because the field I'm currently in, Information Systems, is a higher-paying category than Master Scheduler. I know that I make significantly more than the previous Master Scheduler, so they're actually stretching to put me in this job. Having said that, I'm almost 100% sure they're not going to replace me, so will be gaining back the Master Scheduler's Salary plus benefits. And reducing the IT staff on site from 5 to 4. I'm already stressing out about telling my co-workers on Monday after I tell the HR Director. I called my IT boss today and we talked for half an hour. He didn't try to talk me out of it, bless him, but was sad about the timing because he's going to start implementing a new model for North America IT in 3-4 months.

However, I'm going to take the job for several reasons:

1. I hate my current job - I am no longer a programmer/analyst, I am a Help Desk Drone. IT projects are centralized in Italy and all we are is conduits, usually unsuccessfully, between what we want at the plant and what Italy is willing to do for us. Regardless of what my IT boss says, there's no guarantee that what he'll offer us all will be interesting, and there's certainly no money guarantee at all either. And even if we get raises, I would be amazed at 4.5%.

2. 4.5%. Minor money whore.

3. The job needs doing well and for all my complaining about the company I really want things to go right there. I honestly think I can do a better job than my predecessor and HIS predecessor. The man who held the job 3 people ago was ignominiously fired after 35 years with the company, unfairly, and from all I hear did a pretty good job. He's still a personal friend of mine. So it's a challenge.

Boy, am I whupped! Making a blueberry pie, watching Roger Federer beat Andy Murray in straight sets at Wimbledon to make it to the final on Sunday, and food shopping for bookclub meeting on Sunday made for a busy day. Plus the emotion of the change of a lifetime, from IT (since 1972) to Production Planning.

>22 karenmarie: I hate my current job
Well just this would seem sufficient, especially if you've been contemplating retirement; not much you can lose by switching to something different, especially with an optimistic attitude. Congratulations.

>23 qebo: Exactly!!!
Congratulations for sure!

Thanks qebo and Peggy. I'm starting to get excited about it - not too excited because there's too much to do for bookclub at my house tomorrow night - but still.

Tomorrow a.m. is watching Roger Federer (hopefully) beat Novak Djokovic, then lots of last minute cooking, baking, house cleaning and straightening.

I will be whupped tomorrow night and hope to be able to sleep well in anticipation of a Very Unusual Monday.

Happy Sunday, Karen and congrats on the job front.

Thanks, Barbara! Sunday was sad (Roger lost to the Djoker), busy, and fun. My feet hurt so bad last night!!! But I got a good night's rest and accepted the job this a.m. Things will move slowly because of some internal strangeness, but move they will.

Tonight is left over salads, relaxing, reading, sleeping.

I'm probably going to spend the rest of the week in IT, handing stuff off and documenting a few things (or, rather, polishing documentation).

Then on Monday I'll move to the "Old Mezzanine", now called the Logistics Offices, but always the Old Mez to me.

I hate insomnia. At least Kitty William is keeping me company. I won - he can't sit on the keyboard but can sit about a foot away from me on a couple of cookbooks.

HERE you are! I thought you were off doing summer stuff.

Mozel Tov, Karen, I'm so happy for you! I know you hated your old job and this one not only is a recognition of your skill, but will engage your mind. I'm really delighted for you!

Thanks, Larry!

I'm absolutely whupped, but in a good way. Finished up some tasks/projects, cleaned out my desk and got things ready to move upstairs, found a set of under-desk file cabinets that actually had a key (which I confiscated) and put notes on the fronts of them and sent an e-mail to Donnie in Maintenance asking him to get them moved for me.

Daughter just blew into town - we're all three going to Angus Barn for dinner to celebrate job and daughter's birthday. Angus Barn is not cheap, and now that daughter's over 21 she always has a mixed drink or two..... :) so it's additionally expensive. She was perfectly happy to combine her birthday with my promotion. And my plan is to get lobster.

Tomorrow morning we're going to go to a friend's pistol range - fancy name for a piece of plywood with targets on it in his side yard - and shoot the .45. Maybe we'll shoot the .22 revolver, too. Who knows. Daughter wants to go too.

Now it's nap time.....

GOOD for you!!!! I hope the new job will be challenging and fulfilling. I expect they know how lucky they are to have you.
Oh ----- Angus Barn. It's been at least 50 years since I darkened their door. Happy Birthday to the Daughter and Happy shooting!

Thanks, Peggy! We go to Angus Barn once a year, usually for daughter's birthday, but we combined it this time with the promotion and had a wonderful time. I did get lobster with drawn butter and lemon, and it was so good. Yum. Then we all came home and sat in a stupor watching soccer until bedtime.

I was having very bizarre dream last night - all anxiety dreams - so know I'm more stressed about this new endeavor than I think.

Sigh.

Today will be puttering around straightening up, finishing some laundry, reading Ex-Libris, and hanging out with husband and daughter.

I have finished Ex-Libris by Ross King. I'm glad I read it because there was so much interesting history and book lore in it, but the story was a bit thin. Now it's time to read The All of It by Jeannette Haien for August bookclub meeting.

That pretty much sums up my feelings about Ex-Libris, agreeable but thin. I read Brunelleschi's Dome years ago, that was pretty awesome. And I finished Lost on audiobook a few days ago, which I liked tons more than his Suspect. DI Ruiz is interesting in Lost, but in Suspect he just seemed to be another noir heavy (I pictured Bob Hoskins.)

How the new job going?

Hmmm. I thought I had read Ex Libris - I have a copy - but apparently not. I know that R. King has lots of fans here, but "thin" sums up my limited reading of him. I'll keep this one in mind for when I need something thin but not completely mindless.
Anxiety dreams. I'll bet they stop when you get in there and start working.

Hi Larry and Peggy!!

Very few dreams at all that I can remember, much less anxiety dreams.

One week down. Better than I thought, very busy, lots going on. I am responsible for the production plan, and the day after I told my new boss and the little twinkie intern that they could NOT change the plan without consulting with me and they did it again, I snarled at my new boss and told him it was unacceptable. The next day he said I owned the production plan and twinkie intern could work on the machining plan. Damn straight. My co-equal, the Customer Service Manager, who I will be working very closely with me, approved, and when she told the Assembly Manager, he apparently said "I like her."

I really think I'll like the job - seems right for my analytical, detail-oriented brain. I've gotta work on getting my cycle counters to work consistently on every problem, and am rather shocked to learn that there isn't a standard methodology for looking for a part. Have already created a preliminary concept for a Cycle Count Worksheet, including proposed solutions, actual solutions, and a place for my Inventory-Analyst-Who-Is-Currently-Acting-Like-A-Cycle-Counter to perform the final analysis on the root cause and proposed permanent fix. Whoo-yah! Plus I put a stop to random unapproved overtime. Am I kicking butt or what?

And we're going to start making newest cycle counter C.M.'s life hell by making her report back every 15-20 minutes so she won't be out in the parking lot shagging one of the material handlers. Sheesh. She's 19, he's in his 30s, with a wife and 6 kids. She won't have time to go to the bathroom when I'm done with her. Unfortunately for the other two cycle counters, they'll have to live with the same regimen.

My predecessor didn't want to manage them, was pretty wimpy, and let them pretty do much do what they wanted when. This week will be much more involved in structuring the cycle count group.

I think this is going to be fun. Stressful, many hours, but fun.

Yay, Karen!!! You are the WOMAN!!!!
I knew it. I know the good guys are cheering - that is to say the people who have a work ethic and some loyalty to the company. Maybe the others will leave.
And yes, you're kicking butt, and it sounds like it's high time some butt was kicked.
Have a great week #2!
(I do have to say that I'll be glad when it calms down for you and you get to read and talk about books again.)

Yes, you are kicking butt and taking names. It sounds like you work in a mythical place, CM is shagging in the parking lot? DC's such an uptight town I worry when I tell someone their haircut is good- "Your appearance is a credit to the Workers' Five Year Plan, comrade." And a twinkie intern is acting up? Make him afraid. Make him very afraid. You sound like me, you love structure and are bewildered when it's missing from a work place.

More stories!

What someguy said!

Hi guys! Thanks for the support. I've snarled at my manager again, been busy on the August Production plan, will have to tell one of the other cycle counters that yes, she DOES have to do what the Cycle Count Team Leader tells her to do, even though she had the job when CCTL was out on medical leave and she did some of the work. And, she can't sit at her desk reading her bible and texting on her cell phone except on her breaks and lunch. When you're done with what you've been asked to do you need to ask what to do next. SHEESH.

Twinkie intern is a young woman. Gorgeous, smart, no practical experience at all. And the manager (unobtrusively but noticeably to some of us) has the hots for her. She's very pleasant but I'm sure she thinks I'm a total you-know-what.

And I love working with the Customer Service Manager and learning all this stuff, even though some of the planning methodology from our overlords in Italy is like a bowl of spaghetti. Today's snarl was to tell my manager that the best way for me to be trained on anything is NOT to have a conference call with an Italian (even though his English is better than my Italian) over a poor connection with lots of voices in the background training on the fly without even one of the people there who knew more about the "Pick and Pack" program than he did (don't even ask..... :) ) and that pulling up a spreadsheet and zooming around in it while I'm supposed to watch and learn wastes my time and gets me seriously riled. (I had fun. I must admit that I later apologized for my TONE, but not the content of my criticisms.)

So off to possibly read, possibly play games on cell phone. I need a glass of wine to decompress.

More fun and battles tomorrow.....

Woohoo!

>36 karenmarie:, >40 karenmarie: An opportunity to fix the world, with live soap opera entertainment; this new job is looking pretty good.

>9 karenmarie: Congratulations regarding your promotion, and the wonderful fact that you were watched, noted as a great worker and offered this new job.

How exciting for you!

>42 qebo: *grin* Agree!!!
Hope you enjoy your weekend, Karen!

Have you ever seen The IT Crowd episode Italian for Beginners? Very funny, kinda sorta reminds me of your call, in spirit.

Remember-breath.

Karen, you're great. Congrats and well done.

Thanks again, everybody!

I like this job.

Way too many hours, but I hope to get things under control within a month or so. Need to continue trying to rein in the cycle counters.

I found out today that when the Customer Service Manager suggested and I agreed that we needed to move some tall filing cabinets to a wall so that the Inventory Analyst didn't have a man cave anymore, I cut into his nap time. I also told him no more overtime until I said - he was coming and going as he wanted. Given that I was required to have one cycle counter stay home without pay the last 6 days of July (I split it 2 days each among the 3 cycle counters), his random overtime wasn't going to cut it.

This weekend I need to update the August Production plan and at least plan out the next 2 weeks. It's all new and there are so many variables that I don't understand yet, but nobody except me expects me to get it under control any time soon. My biggest fear is that I'll miss planning something that will prevent the MRP system from notifying vendors that we have requirements for their components.

In the meantime I've read 3 Jennifer Crusie novels, The All of It for bookclub tomorrow night, and am reading and Hugely enjoying Swamplandia! by Karen Russell.

Yay weekend.

And, daughter is working. She has a part time job making $10/hour cleaning beach houses. She's a good worker and they've already started calling her in to work extra days - in fact, the first week she was scheduled for 3 days and ended up working 6! And in the second work she's already worked one extra day. She loves it.

GOOD things for both you and daughter!
I'm encouraged that you are loving Swamplandia!. It's waiting for me.

Wow, you are really sorting that place out!

Hang in there. A new position brings stress as you try to prove yourself. Good for you for calling this guy on the carpet for his laziness. I also had an employee who did this, ie mark overtime, while in fact during work time they were surfing the internet shopping.

I once employed a student worker who was on the computer and cell phone 95% of the time she was supposed to be working. When I fired her, she went to one of my co-workers and said, "I CANNOT believe that Linda expected me to work during "work time!"

Oh, Linda, your employees sound like my high school students......... I had one kid who disrupted class and came after school for extra help until he said, "I like having you teach me one-on-one a lot better than paying attention in class."
Likewise the kid who turned in one assignment all semester. When he got his F, he came to inquire why and I told him. Said Travis, "Yeah, I know, but I didn't think you'd fail me."
Life Lessons. I guess somebody has to teach them.

Hi Peggy - I'm really loving Swamplandia!. I just don't have enough energy to read much at night lately.....

Hi Larry - The man-crazy cycle counter managed to get herself let go yesterday by turning in a faked doctor's note to me. I was suspicious, took it to HR, they confirmed it was fake (however they did that.....) and she was gone that day. I have brought back the cycle counter who went out on maternity leave in June, was supposedly promised her job by my predecessor, and just showed up Monday..... sent her home Monday, and called her back today. I told her and the other two cycle counters that I expected them to be professional and hard working, work together as a team, and NOT provide drama. We'll see.

I have heard that Fired girl is telling people she quit for a better job. Since I can't say anything about the reason she was terminated, I just smile.

Many hours, much hard work. I left early for the dentist today, have eaten dinner, and am here on LT for more than a minute or two. Husband is having dinner with a friend, so I have the house to myself for another glorious 2 hours or so.

Linda! I'm really liking this job so far - stress and all. The days zoom by. There's just so much to do!!!

YJCMTSU - you just can't make this shit up. That's what I've got for my screen saver - "YJCMTSU. Honest."

Ditto Peggy.

Wow!
YJCMTSU --- I think I like that better than my school mantra, ".....oh well."

YJCMTSU. I have a new saying. I'm packing up da cat and heading out of town for the weekend. Today's crummy but tomorrow and Sunday are supposed to be awesome. Whoo-hoo!

Employee problems can drag you down and take you away from the desired/needed goal. Good for you in handling these difficult situations right away. You are already on the right path.

Hi guys - YJCMTSU is quite wonderful, I agree. Larry - hope you and Parker D had a lovely weekend. Hi Linda - thank you!

There was another drama yesterday - almost-pointing-out Cycle Counter (if you get 5 points you're terminated and she has 4.5) accused the team leader of stealing money from Tattoo Cycle Counter. Tattoo cycle counter said she didn't think team leader had stolen the money. Got a text later on from team leader that tattoo CC found the money in her daughter's car seat. This am will be a team meeting. So much excitement. I'm hoping to get them lockers today and then if they bring their purses upstairs it's on them. Sheesh.

Swamplandia! is coming along, slowly, as I come home after 12 hour days and collapse after a quick dinner and a few minutes with husband.

Daughter, who has been cleaning houses at the beach for 3 weeks, was asked yesterday to start shadowing a Beach House Team Leader to become a team leader herself - her voice was just so happy yesterday. And she was talking about school in the spring. Deep sigh.

So off to work for another Interesting Day.

Karen, are you working on a tee-vee show set? The Office? Supernatural?

I hope these difficult situations will be a thing of the past when 4.5 becomes 5.0.

Hey! Did you know that if you buy a Kindle book and there's an Audible version available, you can get it at a discount for just a few bucks, even for free books. So many Wodehouse free downloads are available for $3 - $4. Hoelee cow!

Hi Larry and Linda:

The set of YJCMTSU had excitement yesterday - I made the decision to let Accusing-4.5-point cycle counter go. Today we were down to 2 full time, 1 part time, and one team leader. Accusing cycle counter's mother refused to talk to team leader today so there was conversation between me and her supervisor..... tomorrow I'm going to go over through a side door when my cycle counters are in the warehouse and see how they're treated by "mom" and other material handlers. whee!!!!!

What's funny is that team leader had nothing whatsoever to do with me letting Accusing CC go and in fact has no idea of exactly what happened because I can't and won't discuss it.

So home, dinner, ice cream, a few minutes with husband, and now off to read and go to sleep. Tomorrow up at 4:30, rinse and repeat.

I'm liking it.....

And my old boss was in town today from his headquarters in Michigan. Saw him around 5:30 and he invited me to lunch with my former department tomorrow. He asked how it was going and I said good - he said it must be because I was smiling.

It's really early days yet, but I think this might be quite wonderful.

Good stuff

Good googly moo! You've even had time to pull ahead of my in the reading challenge!

Happy Weekend, Karen.

Hi beeg, Larry, Barbara! Good stuff indeed. I'm not reading much, Larry, so am amazed that I've surpassed you. And thank you, Barbara. Happy weekend indeed - I was so glad when it was (finally) time to leave yesterday. I must say that working lots of hours and 6 days a week really REALLY makes me appreciate Saturday.

I slept in 'til 7:15. Load of laundry done, hourly folks hours approved for last week's pay period (well, didn't want to forget and get a nasty e-mail from my former co-worker in IT).

I finished Swamplandia! last week. I'm glad I read it, but it was not a Happy Ending Kind of Story. Beautiful writing, wonderful immersion into a very strange world.

I'm on a Bill Bryson kick, still - I listened to In a Sunburnt Country twice in a row, and am (re-)reading A Walk in the Woods on my Kindle.

Today is errands, relaxing. Tomorrow is work - from home - making sure the production plan is relatively accurate. I have a nice, new, shiny monitor that I can use with either my personal or work laptop, and my former teammates in IT let me have a brand new keyboard that I can also use with both laptops.

The drama continues, albeit at a lower level. This coming week will be Assigned Break and Lunch periods and re-iteration of the smoke on breaks and lunches. Plus my team leader's overtime is going to be eliminated except by exception. She's already complained that the inventory analyst makes $15/hour and she doesn't (he has a big mouth) and I'll try to get her pay adjusted up to that, but losing 10 hours of overtime a week, even with a raise, will reduce her income. But the pressure's on from up top and she really doesn't need to be here all these hours. Sigh. I think unhappiness will prevail this week. And Tattoo girl is getting on my last nerve and will probably not last the week. The good news from that is that I'll be able to hire someone who just might not introduce Drama.

Ugh, man I am glad that I have a stabilized work environment. Only six people and drama is kept to a minimum.

I dunno about Swamplandia! I try and avoid any book featured on NPR because they don't seem to be rigorous in their critiques (and I hate hate hate introspective, navel-gazing books about or for Bobos. Gad!)

Have you read Civilwarland in Bad Decline? George Saunders is the only modern writer who, actually, takes my breath away. And I'm sure he has been profiled, interviewed, and featured dozens of times on NPR, so go figure.

Another work week. Nail the skins of your enemies to the castle door.

Hi Larry!

Tattoo girl is gone. Too much drama, and direct disobedience of no-smoking-except-on-your-break. Plus she was apparently in the parking lot with her boyfriend outside of her lunch hour. Everybody's glad she's gone. Once I get back in the office I hope to have some people to interview.

I don't think I heard about Swamplandia! on NPR - think it was mentioned as a possible bookclub book.

I've finished with Bill Bryson for the time being. No books to listen to, so am back to .... NPR!

I'm reading X by Sue Grafton, which for some reason is not coming up in the touchstones. Light reading, just what the doctor ordered.

I wasn't at work Thursday or today - I have been temporarily felled by the second kidney stone of my life. This one is "medium", 4mm, and I was soooo glad for the double dose of morphine they gave me at the hospital. It is probably still lingering, although I was in such pain late yesterday that it may have escaped notice so to speak...... but I have enough oxycodone for most levels of potential pain. No pain today so far, though.

Sheesh.

I was able to do some work from home today, although I did spend quite a bit of time resting and even reading. I'm so glad it's the weekend.

>66 karenmarie: X by Sue Grafton
Hah. Thanks for the reminder. I'd preordered for the Nook, and this is exactly what I need for winding down the week.

Oh good grief! A kidney stone!?!?!?! I hope that it has passed by now. At least you can drink lots of beer if you're so inclined.
Hooray for Karen as New Broom! Hope you can get good rest this weekend and be ready for them Monday....and I'm thrilled that you were so impressed with Swamplandia! I'm also thrilled that it's on my shelf.

I qebo - just finished X and thoroughly enjoyed it. But the title is .... just wrong. X is for.....?????

No more kidney stone symptoms, Peggy - I don't know if that means the sucker passed unnoticed or is building strength for a final assault.

We did the normal weekend errand thing. Spoke with my sister - her husband's kidney stone problems make mine look like absolutely nothing, I promise you - read in the hammock, and am now doing a bit of work and a bit of personal computer stuff.

I now have The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny, the newest Armande Gamache. Yay. Plus the other 1100+ books I've designated "tbr".

Just finished Nature of the Beast I don't think it's my favorite.

Hi beeg!

I must admit that I'm beginning to think that the characters are becoming characterizations of themselves - too eccentric, too understanding, too happy, too sad. I've read about 25 pages and so far it hasn't grabbed me at all.

Happy Sunday, Karen. Sorry to hear about your kidney stone issue.

Hi Barbara! Thank you. I'm feeling pretty good right now.

The Nature of the Beast ha.s grabbed me. Took about 70 pages.

Good lord! Kidney stones, brrrr. I'm glad you're in the mend, and sorry you had to go through with that. Morphine and oxy don't lend themselves to reading, but they make for great tee-bee watching. I hope it's passed, Karen. Really sorry to hear that.

Hi Larry! Brrrr is right, although so far so good. Like I said above, don't know if it's passed or is lurking..... :) Didn't do much reading 'til Saturday. Tee-bee is Harry Potter and the 3rd season of Orphan Black. Weird shit but good.

I don't think I mentioned that I did get rid of Tattoo Girl. She came to work loopy, disoriented, didn't even clock in or out last Tuesday. Had a talk with HR and she was gone. I've got an open req for another cycle counter.

No drama. Mostly. My team leader isn't working overtime, says she needs a second job, or might even have to look for another job. My boss is terrified of losing her, and I'm not terrified because nobody's irreplaceable, but it would be tedious and she does good work. So I've written up a "compensation adjustment" request, just need to spend 5 minutes with boss's boss to get his signature then turn it into HR. It would put team leader on a par with the inventory analyst. It would also be about 12% more, which I'll have to be VERY persuasive about. Ah, well, we'll see.

Home a bit early - we took half day vacation each to go see our financial planner. Good stuff.

I'd keep team leader, too. Replacing people is time consuming and expensive, and doesn't always work out. Fingers crossed on the stone, it's just so...I mean...don't....

I turned in the compensation request to HR on Thursday. HR Manager hemmed and hawed about reviewing compensation for everybody, meaning they might not even consider this request until the new year, but I'll persevere and enlist the help of my ersatz manager, Luigi.

Saturday of a 3-day weekend, yay!

I'm looking forward to relaxing, hanging-out-in-the-hammock weather, and reading. I have The Girl in the Spider's Web, the fourth in the Stieg Larsson Millenium series, written by David Lagercrantz on tap.

I'd like to see the movie A Walk in the Woods, based on Bill Bryson's book this weekend. And pick out doors - we need new French doors and a new front door. All the measurements are done, just have to go to Lowe's and pick what we want.

I'm on page 317 of 374 of The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny. I'm getting. Very. Tired. Of strange punctuation. Is there a restriction on the use of commas that I'm unaware of? People are becoming caricatures of themselves, and I feel emotionally manipulated. The book is good, but not outstanding.

I finished The Nature of the Beast and was, once again with a book by Louise Penny, strangely disappointed. And. Of course her. Irritating lack of. Real sentences. And. Disconcerting breaks in the. Flow by. This. Style.

Sheesh.

And so am now reading The Girl in the Spider's Web. We night go out today to see A Walk in the Woods, and/or get me some new safety shoes. Whoo-hoo. Major excitement.

I'm enjoying The Girl in the Spider's Web. It's only when I look at the spine of the book that I remember it wasn't written by Stieg Larsson, so am happily involved again.

My husband is ecstatic that Serena Williams lost to Roberta Vinci. We didn't watch, of course, so he couldn't gloat point by point. Ever since the foot-fault US Open event, he's totally dissed her. She's a good tennis player BUT.....

Roger Federer is in the final tomorrow against Djokovic. I'll pull out FederBear, my signed pic of Roger, and hope hope hope he beats Djerko.

In the meantime, a mostly relaxing weekend is in store - errands, tennis, some work, and book-picking meeting for the next 12 months of bookclub. I currently have NO idea what book I'm going to pick, so there will be some decision making this weekend, too.

Cheesy mystery! Cheesy mystery!

Hi Larry! Nope. Chose Go Set a Watchman, the new Harper Lee. Well, old in that it was written before To Kill a Mockingbird, but just published. YOU know what I mean.

Interesting book year coming up. I will be publishing our choices soon.

In the meantime, today was Friends of the Library Sale. I scored big time. What's funny is that I bought $160 worth, was getting ready to write the check, then they told me that if I bought $200 worth of books, I'd get 20% discount, so go find $40 more worth of books!!! So I did. I got $200 for $160. And I got $3 off for being a member. whoo-yah.

And I'm taking tomorrow off, too!!!

Trade Paperback:
The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
The Long Fall by Walter Mosely
The Whites by Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt
Interventions by Noam Chomsky
Second Fiddle by Mary Wesley
Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett
Field Gray by Philip Kerr
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
A Dubious Legacy by Mary Wesley
Jumping the Queue by Mary Wesley
The Vacillations of Poppy Carew by Mary Wesley
A Man without Breath by Philip Kerr
Down Among the Dead Men by Peter Lovesey
River of Dark by Rennie Airth
Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe
The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah
Rotters by Daniel Kraus
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

Hard Cover:
A Thornton Wilder Trio by Thornton Wilder
The English Spy by Daniel Silva
The Heist by Daniel Silva
The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva
Roots by Alex Haley
Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton
One door Away From Heaven by Dean Koontz
Cold Fire by Dean Koontz
Just One Evil Act by Elizabeth George
Broken Harbor by Tana French
The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins
The Last Girls by Lee Smith
Faithful Place by Tana French
The Secret Place by Tana French
Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva
The Messenger by Daniel Silva
The Defector by Daniel Silva
Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis - slipcased, published during WWII

Audiobooks
Lost in the Amazon by Stephen Kirkpatrick
Innocence by Dean Koontz
The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
The Drop by Michael Connelly
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
Skink No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

Heritage Club Slipcased Books
A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
The Notorious Jumping Frog & Other Stories by Mark Twain
The Singular Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolph Raspe & Others
The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin
Medea Hippolytus The Bacchae by Euripides
The Georgics by Virgil
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Lysistrata by Aristophanes with illustrations by Pablo Picasso
Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam rendered into English Verse by Edward Fitzgerald and with illustrations by Arthur Szyk
The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling
Billy Budd and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville

Good lord! Whatta haul! What are you going to read first?

Oh my goodness!!!! What great choices! You aren't new to Dorothy Dunnett, are you? She's either LOVE or HATE. I'm in the LOVE camp and hope that you will be too. (There are 6, I think, in the Crawford of Lymond series, and I wish there were 6 more.)

Hi Larry. Actually, I'm going to read the new Jack Reacher Make Me first, then The Bridge of San Luis Rey because it's our bookclub read on October 4th. That's why I bought the book. After that..... I don't know.

I spent quite a bit of yesterday cleaning off tagged-shelf S15. Empty, glorious shelf space. I got rid of some books, moved some to a shelf in the library that was just calling out to be double stacked..... and moved a few down to S16 and S17. There are still a few classified S15find - I think they're in some of the stacks in the sunroom.

I've got another session going right now where I'll start cataloging the books to shelf S15. I haven't figured out yet what do with the Heritage Club books - most of them are oversized to begin with and with the slipcases need some consideration.

Peggy! Thank you. It was an orgy of book buying indeed. I'm not new to Dorothy Dunnett, although after powering through the first in the Lymond series I lagged a bit. I've got 6 of hers total, some the Niccolo series, some the Lymond series. I just saw Checkmate, checked my LT catalog with my cellphone (I love being able to do that!!!) to confirm that I didn't have it, and plopped it into my bag.

Coffee, breakfast, books. Cool crisp morning, NPR, day off. Life is good.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey seems interesting, I might check it out of the lie-berry. I've also been dreaming about the day when all my books are on shelves one deep, and organized. Right now it's catch as catch can, with a concentration of mysteries in one case. NPR tomorrow morning! No radio/music at work. Hellish cold, going to lounge around all day and read or sleep.

I don't even know what The Bridge of San Luis Rey is about - it's next month's book, found a deliciously old copy at the Friends of the Lie-berry sale, and it's short. :)

Ah, all books one deep. Fantasy land. Of the 15 shelves I'm looking at, only 3 are one deep. One is across the top and is too small for more than one deep, one holds oversized books that it's hard to stack around, and the last is the shelf I cleaned off yesterday and don't have enough books to require more than one deep .... yet.

That's the beauty of tags, which I couldn't live without.

I wouldn't want radio/music at work - it is too distracting.

Tomorrow's plan sounds good - lounging around and reading or sleeping. Sorry you're sick - when we're sick our kitties are all over us, so I expect Parker to be all over you.

11:33 a.m. Everything cataloged, with correct covers (had to scan some), EXCEPT the Heritage Club books.

It took 2 1/2 hours to catalog the Heritage Club books. I put them in by hand and scanned almost all the covers. Good stuff, though.

I finished The Girl in the Spider's Web and was more disappointed than the beginning of the book would have led me to expect. It became rather choppy and hurry-up towards the end, and after one of the things I expected would be near the end was about 80 pages from the end it seemed somewhat anticlimactic.

So now I'm happily zooming through Make Me by Lee Child. I think I need to go back and re-read Killing Floor to see if Lee Child has always had the habit that Louise Penny has acquired with joy and abandon or has unhappily subtly acquired over 19 books. I'm speaking of the habit of Writing in Incomplete Sentences. Which are so irritating. Used for emphasis. It seems to me that a properly constructed sentence would be more powerful. Sigh.

My afternoon has been lazily spent in the hammock, reading, dozing, listening to birds chirp and squirrels chatter, with background traffic noises from the 4-lane about a mile away. I have righteously emptied the clean dishes from the dishwasher and put the dirty ones in. It has been a very nice day. I have two more days off, although most of Sunday will be spent working.

>84 karenmarie: Two very different reads. Definitely I'd enjoy the Reacher more!

>81 karenmarie: Fifty-eight additions, Karen, well done. Makes me quite itchy too I have to say. I will try to stay away from the bookstores this weekend. But..........

Have a lovely weekend. xx

Happy weekend, Karen.

Hi Paul! Definitely two different reads.

58 books Thursday and .... see below.... a few more today. 43 to be exact.

Staying away from bookstores is usually pretty easy for me, as I have been working late recently pretty much every day and we only have used bookstores in our town anyway. My problem is Amazon..... and, of course, the semi-annual Friends of the Library Sale.

Hi Barbara - my weekend is lovely indeed. Blue skies, puffy clouds, good weather, lots of books to catalog (see below).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So. Ahem. Er. Yes. I went BACK to the Friends of the Library sale to see if they had any Heritage Club books left, as I was feeling like I should have bought more. I planned on just a quick in and out, 15 minutes max.

No Heritage Club books left. Drat.

There were, however, lots of other books calling my name. Let me preface these first 15 books by saying that I read the first 5 or so Sue Grafton Kinsey Millhone when they came out in the 80s, then stopped for some reason. About 5 or so years ago my cleaning ladies gave me P-T in hardcover, which got me inspired to start the series over. So I collected A-O, but some I could only find in paperback and wasn’t willing to spend $$$ on hardcovers. Today I was, again, going through the mysteries at the book sale and there was “A” is for Alibi in hardcover. I thought, “Too bad, I have that one in hardcover.” Then I saw B, C….. all the way to U. Excitement. The first box were A-O and There They All Were in hardcover. All have dust jackets, are all in Very Good or better condition. Score!

At $5 a bag, this was what I got for $10:

“A” is for Alibi by Sue Grafton
“B” is for Burglar
“C” is for Corpse
“D” is for Deadbeat
“E” is for Evidence
“F” is for Fugitive
“G” is for Gumshoe
“H” is for Homicide
“I” is for Innocent
“J” is for Judgment
“K” is for Killer
“L” is for Lawless
M is for Malice
N is for Noose
“O” is for Outlaw
“G” is for Grafton by Natalie Hevener Kaufman and Carol McGinnis Kay
Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva
The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva
The Prophet by Michael Koryta
The Darkest Hour by Tony Schumacher
Van Loon’s Geography by Hendrik Willem van Loon
My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook
Betty Crocker’s Ultimate Cookie Book
Cooking Secrets of the Culinary Institute of America
More Cooking Secrets of the Culinary Institute of America
Denali’s Howl by Andy Hall
Presidential Quiz Book by E.H. Gwynne Thomas
The Character & Faith of Robert E. Lee In His Own Words Edited by Curt Steger
How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen
The Dutch Windmill by Frederick Stokhuyzen
Life with Maxie by Diane Rehm (signed copy – “Diane and Maxie”)
Basic Field Manual – Soldier’s Handbook by War Department “FM 21-100”
Three Lincoln Masterpieces by Benjamin Barondess
My Life in France by Julia Child
Versus by Ogden Nash
You Can’t Get There From Here by Ogden Nash
The History of Ancient Egypt by Professor Bob Brier
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Umbrella by Will Self
Parting the Curtains Interviews by Dannye Romine Powell
Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva
Under the Beetle’s Cellar by Mary Willis Walker

So, 104 books - three more at the end of the sale on Thursday. My absolutely best haul, quality AND quantity, ever.

Jeeze I love lie-berry book sales. You done good!

HOLY MOLY!!! You done wunnerful!

That's a book haul, wow. I've read some Sue Grafton books and I'm a huge fan of Daniel Silva.

Hi Larry! I never go to the big one in Raleigh, fortunately. I'm not sure my Ford Escape would be big enough to hold everything. Thanks.

Hi Peggy! I think I did wunnerful, too. I'm extremely happy with the semi-annual haul.

Hi Barbara! I've never read any Daniel Silva. Rhoda, former President of the Friends of the Library Sale, sorts books during the half year between each sale, and since she loves mysteries she always knows good authors and where she's tucked books on the racks. This time she asked if I'd ever read any Daniel Silva. I said no, and she said that she recommended him. She pulled the newest one for me, and then I started finding them all over the place.

Today is a work day. I'm girding my loins, so to speak, to work on the planning. It needs to be done by midnight tonight because that's when the weekly recalculation of demand is done and all requirements placed on a website for the vendors to see their orders. This is one half of the major portion of my job. The other part of the major portion is planning the day to day schedule (I'm only doing assembly now, will expand to the subassembly areas eventually). The other part is managing the cycle counters and the inventory analyst.

Off I go!

You...you....SIT OUT...hooge sale...I don't.../thunk/

Great score on the Grafton hardcovers! I am slowly working my way through the Kinsey Millhone series as audioreads. I am currently up to L is for Lawless. Fun series.

Ah, poor Larry! Me not going to the huge Raleigh sale. A shocker indeed. Current count of books I've got tagged tbr - to be read - is 1,522. I think I could go a while before needing the Raleigh sale. I get into enough book-buying trouble with Amazon, a used book store in town, 2 thrift stores in town, and 2 Friends of the Library Sales per year. I just ordered the next two books for bookclub, too.

Hi lori! I was so happy to get those books. I saw "A", felt bad 'cuz I already had it, looked down the box and saw ALL OF THEM. Best score of the day. I like the series too. I'm from California and I love "Santa Teresa" and all things California in the books. The other California-based series I love is Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly (and Mickey Haller, more recently). When Harry describes where he's driving or one of the 'burbs of LA, I usually know it and enjoy revisiting. Mind you, I'm glad to be from LA. I do miss some things from there, but love my 8 acres, small town living, and quiet.

I just visited one of your threads and will be visiting more. Lots of good conversation and books.

Speaking of bookclub, here's the 2015-2016 schedule. We picked books 2 Sundays ago and although several aren't immediately appealing, I will at least start them all. I'm a founding member of this bookclub (1997), and there are 3 other founding members left. I mostly love the group, with the occasional sigh of exasperation, but I'm sure there are sighs of exasperation about me sometimes, too! Many of the books listed here are absolutely representative of the women who chose them, all the way from the SF by Nancy to the YA by Nancy. Oh, and the dog stuff by Karen C.

October 4 The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
November 1 The Martian Andy Weir
December 6 Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel
January 10 "The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared" Jonas Jonasson
February 7 Hector and the Search for Happiness Francois Lelord
March 6 Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs Heather Lende
April 3 Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson
May 1 And the Mountains Echoed Khaled Hosseini
June 5 Z Therese Anne Fowler
July 10 The Story of Land and Sea Katy Simpson Smith
August 7 The Light Between Oceans M.L. Stedman
September 11 Go Set a Watchman Harper Lee

My book is Go Set a Watchman. Now, finally, after my entire life of NOT reading it, albeit not on purpose, I have deliberately forced myself to read To Kill a Mockingbird. I have an original Bookclub edition on my shelves, complete with Perfect Dust Jacket, inherited from my husband's mother. Since we're reading GSaW in a year (to either allow the paperback edition to come out or the furor at the local library to subside), I'll probably read TKaM in August.

I had a very rough work week. Logistics Manager, my boss, was eased over into a support role for WCM (World Class Manufacturing. I Am Not A Fan.) this was a good thing IMO, but the purchasing manager is, temporarily, filling the role of Logistics Manager. Great guy, but for some reason he's rubbing me wrong right now. Every thing I say he challenges, and yesterday he asked me how I got the Master Scheduler job, like he was surprised. After I explained that They tapped Me, he said he thought I'd be better suited to an Inventory Analyst job. Nettled, I said that if they wanted to keep me at my present salary they could move me over to that job. Although, come to think of it, that would probably be the impetus for me to retire. Nothing like that to boost my confidence and make me feel better about the job, no sirree. I was deflated all afternoon, and there was even a tear or two on the way home.

I did hire a new cycle counter though. She has computer skills, I see a spark of intelligence in her eyes, and she was assertive without being aggressive about her strengths and wanting the job. She starts October first.

Ugh. I hate office politics. As long as it's temporary, concentrate on his being a great guy.

Brother! I think that you can safely ignore the purchasing manager's personal comments. It's pretty obvious to me that the people you work with and your bosses value your abilities and are patting themselves on the back for putting you where you are.
*sigh* Our Friends of the Library sale was this weekend - nothing for me. I already own the few things that looked interesting to me, and they had fewer books out than ever. That's just as well. It's not as though I have nothing to read here, but I would love to get to Raleigh or even Fayetteville. *sigh*
Your book club list looks interesting though.

Happy Sunday, Karen.

Hi Larry! Okay, will concentrate on the good stuff. I even said to my husband on Friday night that I'd probably be fine by Monday, so here's hoping.

Hey Peggy! I hope they are patting themselves on the back. I haven't figured everything out and I had some information late Thursday that could have avoided scheduling then cancelling weekend work on one of the lines. It's just too much information. I'm sure they won't yell at me, but being a perfectionist makes it hard when things aren't perfect.

Today is system production planning. I've been at it for 1 hour now and have just gotten the files up (central NC - Sanford NC - Italian server - Sanford NC - central NC. I was able to save two of them to my desktop since I won't have to make changes to them. I'll probably be at it for another 6 or 8 hours..... sigh.

Pretty picture. Thank you. Same to you!

Good grief! Are you managing to keep you head above water?! You guys are getting some serious rain.

We've gotten about 5 inches since Friday and haven't had any flooding. Most of it's been at night at our house. We had a few power flickers but no power outage.

Today is cool and overcast. I am going to see a play in Chapel Hill with my friend and neighbor Louise. We bought season tickets to The Playmakers Repertory in Chapel Hill and this is the first of the season. We'll have lunch first, then tootle over to the Paul Greene Theater at UNC.

Tonight is bookclub, first of the new "year", to discuss The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. The language is just stunning - simple and complex at the same time - and I hope we'll have a good discussion.

Want to get some reading in before I leave at 11:15..... I have started The Martian by Andy Weir. It is next month's bookclub read.

Wishing you a dry Sunday, Karen. xx

I'm making a Cheesy Mysteries list!

Happy weekend, Karen.

#104 Paul - we didn't get washed away. We had several dry-ish days and now it's supposed to rain again today. It may or may not be porch-sitting-hammock-swinging weather.

#105 Larry - cool. I'll check it out as soon as I finish this message. Checked out. Edmund Crispin??!!? Really? Well, perhaps. Good stuff.

#106 Barbara - thank you. Wonderful looking cake - reminds me of pineapple-upside-down-cake with apples. cinnamon.... yum.

Big GOOD change in my job. Instead of Master Scheduler, I am Inventory Management Supervisor. What that means is one of the planners, Nanda, gets the headaches and stresses of scheduling, and I get to work on inventory accuracy and inventory reduction. I will still have my same cycle count team. I was getting to the end of my rope with the two f@#$-heads who manage mfg - one manages Die Cast and Machining and the other manages Assembly. The chemistry was not there, the willingness to work with me was not there, and I am more passive-aggressive than forceful. And, because the Plant Manager clearly doesn't like the (now former) Logistics Manager, we now have a NEW manager of Logistics who is a 180 degree change from his predecessor. It's a fantastic 180. A real, professional manager, who manages people and tasks and doesn't try to take all the credit and throw his people under the bus.

I'm hopeful. I told this new manager Thursday week that I wanted to quit. He said "Don't quit, we'll make it right." And he has. No telling how successful I can be fixing the systemic, procedural, and people problems creating the inventory CF we have, but we'll see.

Husband and I have a meeting with our financial guy October 29th to continue the "Can Karen retire and what will our retirement finances look like" process.

On other fronts, daughter finally got her car inspected after 2 1/2 months of begging, haranguing, and finally, telling her that we would get points on our insurance if she didn't get it. And this a.m. I went online and re-registered her car. Done deal except for mailing it to her when it arrives. She also has gotten her financial information to us so her dad can prepare her taxes. My husband got 2 extensions on our taxes, which always makes me crazy. Then he complained when daughter delayed getting us her information! Procrastinator + procrastinator = Mommy headache. Sheesh.

I finished The Martian early this week and found it a wonderful read. Some of the science wasn't terribly interesting to me, but the book was thought-provoking and inspiring.

I've picked up The Picnic and Other Inimitable Stories by Gerald Durrell. I'm not usually a fan of short stories but am enjoying this immensely.

I do have to work tomorrow, AT work, with the new master scheduler, but doing that will get me out of the master scheduling business more quickly. He's willing to meet me there so we can hack this out. I envision perhaps one more Sunday working, then back to 2 days off on a weekend. What a concept!

Today might be going to see the movie version of the book I just finished - The Martian - which husband has expressed an interest in seeing. We might also go to the Verizon store to exchange our cell phones, but we may do that next week after work instead.

Off to read! Off to drink coffee! Off to enjoy my single day off this weekend!

Wow! I just realized that on October first I celebrated my 8th Thingaversary.

This is my favorite website in the world, a real life-changer for me.

Happy Thingaversary!

YAY for a better work environment. You already sound calmer, so that's all good stuff. I just don't get work politics, get in there, do you job, keep your nose clean and don't play for the fold in the back row. Not sometimes the case, though.

Re: Cheesy mysteries, yeah I got to think about that. I always called them cheesy mysteries because I meant 'not serious reading'. bluepiano posted a few books and 'cheesy' threw him, too. You should post something. It's a work in progress!

Thank you, beeg! I love LT. My favorite website in the world.

Hi Larry - For the first time for since July, I am not working on Sunday. And won't ever have to again for Master scheduling. Physical inventories and other stuff, maybe.

But yay. Work is better. I'm still toying with the idea of retiring in early 2016, but hey. Until then, I'm happier with Inventory Management. We've also got a big project to offload our original reason for being - carburetors - to Edelbrock. Lots of inventory stuff with that project, plus offloading bills of materials, routings, material master stuff, etc. That will all be mine, I think.

Daughter's home for later celebration of her 22nd birthday. She came home Friday, went to visit friends yesterday/last night, and will return this a.m., then head back to Wilmington to get ready for work tomorrow. So far it's been a good visit.

Her favorite birthday "cake" is pumpkin pie, so off I go to make it. Scratch crust, recipe for the pumpkin from a 1950s cookbook..... good stuff.

9 books for your Thingamajimy?!

Have a lovely Sunday, Karen. xx

Happy Thingaversay. Enjoy your Sunday off!

WOW! Such a lot happening since I was here last!! Belated Happy Thinga and congratulations on the newer new job and the satisfactory logistics person and NO SUNDAYS working! I hope you enjoyed this one!
I loved The Martian too although I'm not sure I can watch it..... And we are having a gorgeous fall all of a sudden. I'm off to a little bedtime fireplace therapy.

Thanks, Paul, Meg, Peggy! Sunday off was great. Daughter visited and we had a wonderful time. And the Panthers won. 5-0.

Today is a vacation day. I haven't gotten out of my jammies. I read all morning and finished a wonderful book, The Prophet by Michael Koryta. I've gathered up 6 bags of books to take to the thrift store tomorrow, all to make room for new books, you understand! Back to reading, relaxing. I think the hammock is calling..... and, I think I'm going to start the 3rd Cormoran Strike book by Robert Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling, Career of Evil.

I'll check out The Prophet. I listened to a Koryta audiobook, So Cold the River and all I remember about it was it's being about water and odd. Done, I just downloaded the audio version of The Prophet from the lie-berry. Whoo-hoo!

Happy weekend, Karen.

Hi Larry! So Cold the River was a very good book, full of portents, atmosphere, and evil. The Prophet is a very good character study, besides having an interesting mystery.

I'm on page 97 of Career of Evil and it's riveting.

Thank you for the weekend wishes, Barbara. So far so good, plus with Friday off, I'm feeling pretty content. We saw a doe and her fawn walk across our yard 2 nights ago - the baby had outgrown its spots but was still just a little 'un. The deer have started going into hiding because it's bow season and the hunters are out.

Dropping through doing stats and wishing you a wonderful weekend. xx

*sigh* Very glad that *Career* is riveting. I'm ready to be riveted if I can make myself get to our library to reserve it - always assuming that our library gets a copy!
Hope the rest of your weekend is as wonderful as yesterday! (Off to investigate Kortya!)

Hi Paul! Low stats girl, here, I'm afraid, but I cherish every message from every visitor.

Peggy - just think - when you do get a copy of it, you'll be riveted too! Up to page 150 now. I was going to listen to the first two books prior to reading this one, but it was just Sitting There on the breakfast table, waiting to be read. As it turns out, there's not much lost from having read the last book so long ago.

I'm cleaning up the sunroom in anticipation of friends visiting tomorrow to watch The Boys, as they put it, play (Dallas Cowboys, for the uninitiated.) Husband and his friend Geoff have been fans forever, so after Geoff married Diane, we've started having football 'dates', usually at our house. Sometimes it's Panthers, sometimes it's The Boys. They're bringing pizza, I'm making Trash (aka chex mix) and probably brownies for dessert. Sweet tea for Geoff, probably water for Diane, diet green tea for me, soda for husband. Easy peasy. But the sunroom was a disaster, what with books still not cataloged from the Friends of the Library Sale in September and bags, empty boxes, and etc., everywhere. Now it looks like a room, not a trash repository.

Sat in the hammock for a while, reading, playing on my cell phone, talking with daughter. Our younger cat came to visit and was clawing at me from the bottom of the hammock! This is a Pawleys Island Hammock made of woven hemp, not a solid canvas thing, so her claws made an impression! Not a pleasant impression, so I dragged her up and she sat next to me on the hammock for a while.

Oh may gawd. I do surely miss a hammock. Totally jealous. Tot!

I love my hammock. Can't wait for Saturday afternoon, if the weather's good.

I finished Career of Evil by John Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling. The writing is so intelligent, and the characters are well developed. I adore Robin and Cormoran, although occasionally Cormoran is smackable. And once again, with the newest book in a series I love devoured, I have to wait a Long Time for the next one.

I've started Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel for December's book club meeting. We're discussing The Martian Sunday night. So far this book club year I'm two for two. And Station Eleven is shaping up to be three of three. Unprecedented.

We went to visit our financial planner this afternoon and it looks very good for me to be able to retire next year, new job notwithstanding. Shiny.

Off to read!

Good for your book club for picking real winners! *sigh* Our library doesn't have a copy of *Career* yet. I'm first on the list when (if?) it ever comes in, when (if?) they think to call me.
Oh, I know the Pawley's hammock well! Our late, lamented Chibby loved to play in ours. I was always afraid that she'd hang herself.
Once you open yourself to the possibility of retirement, nothing else will do. It is WONDERFUL!!!!!

Hi Peggy! My husband says that since our meeting with the financial planner on Thursday I look calmer and happier. I feel calmer and happier.

Today was supposed to be the landscape architect coming over to design a couple of areas around the house that have sorta gotten out of hand over the last 16 years, but her son had to have emergency heart surgery and it's been postponed until next weekend. We straightened up the house and got the leaves blown off the back desk and porch in anticipation of her (and her husband, who I work with) coming out, so now we are done with morning tasks and don't have anything to do until we go out to run errands in about 1/2 hour or so. Shiny. Back to my book.....

Hammock swinging, reading, relaxing, reading.

I finished Station Eleven and thought it was a wonderful book. Here's how Amazon describes it:

"Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed."

It's more than just Kirsten, it's about Arthur and other people. It has a way of making you think "What if we heard about the Georgia flu here, today, at our house? What would we do? How would we survive?"

Highly recommended.

Off to find another book.

Ah, Station Eleven. A great read that I think will need to be a re-read for me some day. Envious of your hammock swinging.... ;-)

How long, oh Lord, will I be without a hammock?! Man, I really really miss that. Good times. Still tot jealous.

Happy two days after Halloween, which I hope was fun. What did you think of Peter Pan Must Die?

Hi Lori! I need to find more of her books. The hammock is relaxing and conducive to reading and cell-phone surfing. I like both, and one of my kitties, Inara Starbuck, likes to come visit. If I can grab her and get her up on the hammock, she'll stay for quite a while, either on me, or nestled into my side.

Hey Larry - Halloween was, and always is, a total bust. Daughter stopped being interested when she was 12, and we live in the middle of nowhere and get no trick-or-treaters. A couple of people dressed up at work, but one of them is a macho Italian who dressed as Robin Hood but hasn't figured out American hygiene standards yet and was particularly pungent that day, and the other one was a 40-something woman who had no business wearing the slinky dress and high heels she wore, plus the hair and makeup were ..... disconcerting. I think there was a witch in the Maintenanance Crib..... I personally think Halloween is overrated.

Peter Pan Must Die was wonderful. I'm sorry I dropped into the middle of the series, and thank you for reminding me of it - I loved the mystery and enjoyed the husband-and-wife stuff.

We'll see how far I get, but I am reading van Loon's Geography by Hendrik Willem Van Loon. It's beautifully and intelligently written and I love his whimsical drawings. He says to use an atlas while reading it, so I'm going to go sit in the library with my National Geographic Atlas, Ninth Edition, open on the coffee table. It's a monster of a book and will help me with van Loon's high level descriptions and concepts.

Today I'm taking a vacation day. The County is sending an inspector to inspect our new HVAC systems and husband doesn't have too many vacation days left so I said I'd ***suffer*** at home reading and hanging out. :)

Oh lord, today is supposed to be brilliant and warm here. Sounds like perfect hammock weather?

Halloween? Overrated? I don't...it's just that....I mean..../thunk/ (Look. Now you've killed him. Happy? -ed.)

I didn't mean to kill him.....

If I take it back, will that resurrect him?

Okay, Halloween isn't overrated.

(P.S. It's cold and overcast with drizzle here. NOT hammock weather, for sure.)

You don't have the new Stephen King??!!

What?! New Stephen King!!??!!

Harumph.

I do not particularly like short stories, so am passing. Just saved $18.00 (Amazon's price).

On a happy note, daughter got me three books for my birthday (which was in June, but she just gave them to me):

Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling - special edition with illustrations by Jim Kay
The Beatles Lyrics by Hunter Davies

I have the new Stephen King, it's how I plan to spend the weekend.

Hi beeg! I love curling up with a new book. I hope you enjoy it.

Speaking of new books, I have the new Harry Bosch, The Crossing by Michael Connelly.

I'm about halfway through Van Loon's Geography and really enjoying it.

I'm also listening to The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber. I think listening to it is fantastic because the Oasians' difficulties with pronouncing English are beautiful rendered by the reader (whoever he is). I am not Christian and the faith-stuff, central to the book's plot, is squirm-inducing sometimes, but I plug gamely on, genuinely liking Peter and Bea and JesusLover1 and Granger and others.

I shocked myself - I started Michael Connelly's newest Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller, The Crossing, and was immediately put off by the writing style. I get irritated when an author doesn't know what to call his character (alternating between Harry and Bosch and Mickey and Haller), and I'm getting increasingly suspicious of books that seem to have only one sentence paragraphs. So far this seems rather one dimensional. I may pick it up again later, but for now I'd rather read about 1930s geopolitical boundaries, racial and national stereotypes, and the innocence prior to WWII, when what we now call WWI was called The Great War. With multiple sentence paragraphs, of course. And, here's a beautiful quote:

Meanwhile the forces of Nature's laboratory continue their patient labors. Incessantly the winds blow from the ocean carrying billions of tons of moisture on their way from west to east, drenching the land and giving it moisture, covering it with a wide blanket of grass and ferns, arranging for the maintenance of shrubs and trees. Day and night and night and day and year after year after year, the tireless waves beat and pound and grind and file and crunch and rasp until the shores of the land wilt and crumble as the snow melts and crumbles before the rays of the insistent sun. And then suddenly the ice- the slow, merciless wall of death that groaningly hoists itself across the steepest side of the highest mountain-ranges, that rumbles ponderously down the slopes of wide valleys, that fills deep gorges and narrow ravines with frozen water and pieces of rock from the wasted hilltops. (page 217-218 in my copy)

Good stuff.

I hear you about being put off by styles. I've given up on novels that are more than 400 pages. The minutia can really chap by britches. I've also given up on Michael Robotham, in part because of length but mostly because the last few have been boring.

I get irritated when an author doesn't know what to call his character. Oh, you are so right, Karen, and I've never articulated that thought. Thank you!

Hi Larry! That's sad about Michael Robotham - I have Suspect all queued up so to speak. That's #3, so we'll see.

Hey Peggy - you're welcome. :)

Off to Atkinson, NC, to visit husband's best-friend-in-high-school's mother. We visit her every Easter for a delightful time with friends and family, and I said I'd visit for a day or two. She's 91, not too frail yet, but getting there. After a quick Friday-Saturday visit I'll drop over to visit daughter in Wilmington, spend the night, then come home early Sunday.

Hooray.

So now it's print mapquest maps ('cuz I really dislike using gps), packing a bit of stuff, then hitting the road. I'll be offline til at least Saturday night.....

I just started the 3rd of the Last Policeman series (the Kindle is in the other room so can't remember the title). This is the first time I'm reading two books at a time in years and years.

The Robotham thing could be because I've listened to audiobooks. Usually that enhances the experience for me, but I just don't like the reader (forget his name.)

There's one reader I can't stand, Scott Brick. I think I've mentioned him before. Every time I hear that overproduced warble I want to punch him in the throat.

>139 karenmarie: This is the first time I'm reading two books at a time in years and years.

I don't expect to be able to say that anytime soon.

Have a lovely weekend in Atkinson, Karen.

Hi Larry. I'm very funny about readers too. I've automatically excluded half of the readers out there, I'm sure - I absolutely cannot abide female readers unless there is a woman for the female voices and a man for the male voices. Other than that, blech. No matter how many times I try, I just can't hack it. Go figure. "Overproduced warble...." Not bad. Pretentious. I just listened to a bit on youtube.

Hey Paul. You are amazing for the quantity and quality of your reading. I'm humbled. However, I'm reading the 3rd Last Policeman book on my Kindle and still reading Van Loon's Geography. Both quite good.

Atkinson was enervating. I had to pace myself because dear Frances is 91, slowing down, almost blind, and has a permanently paralyzed vocal cord that takes serious and focused listening to understand. I was exhausted by the time I got to daughter's in Wilmington. We went to Barnes and Noble and I didn't buy a single book (all I could think of was "Amazon" has it cheaper.....), Walmart to get me some my favorite new safety-shoe-thick-wool socks, and then to dinner at Bdobo Mongolian BBQ. Fun times. Then we watched Arsenic and Old Lace and chortled our way through it. Bed, up early, back to central NC in time to watch the Panthers go 9-0 over the Tennessee Titans. Hoo-rah.

Work was the shits, mostly because inventory is so inaccurate, so many people are doing the wrong things, and it is disheartening. Paralyzing, too. Home, dinner, and will probably watch a bit of whatever Monday Night Football is on.

Tomorrow I go to get an impression for a night guard - I grind and clench my teeth and besides wearing them out wake up with headaches most mornings. Yay.

I got 3 books in the mail from a dear friend in Montana over the weekend:

Lord Peter by Dorothy L. Sayers
North Carolina Architecture by Catherine W. Bishir
North Carolina Pottery - the collection of the Mint Museums

*sigh* On one of these trips to the coast, you just must take a rest stop here and let me meet you......that is if you're traveling 74 or 211.

I'd love to visit you, Peggy!

I'll tuck the invite away for (near) future reference.

If I've got it figured right, and I actually go through with it the way I am envisioning it, I have 40 more days of work. 5 days in November, 15 days in December, and 20 days in January. Then I want to visit niece/niece's wife/my great-nephew in Northern California (they're moving there January 15th for niece to work at Stanford), then drop on down to SoCal to visit my sister/mother. Then end of February is husband's 60th birthday and I want to surprise him with a trip away for 3 or 4 days.

Huge potential change, so much fun to think about.

Every day confirms that I just don't want to be at my company any more. Too many things to do that are NOT work.

Oh, dear Karen! Once you begin envisioning what RETIREMENT will mean, there's no way you can help but do it as quickly as possible. I don't expect that I need to say that it's as wonderful as you're imagining!

Wow, retirement. Free days and free nights. Wow. I am totally jealous. What are you going to do with yourself? I'd love to be able to afford one of those land yachts, just cruise around the country in a floating hotel room. Or an actual yacht. Wow. Just to be able to read when it's cold and rainy would be great. I'm sorry you've got such a stinker of a place to work in, that stinks.

Hi Karen, I finally find time to do some weekend greetings. Wishing you a most lovely weekend.

Hi Peggy. Oh yes, how true. I put a post-it note in an unobtrusive place in my cube with a big 40 on it. That was Thursday. On Friday I wrote another one with a big 39 on it.

Larry! What am I going to do with myself? Nothing, read, clean closets, shelves, cupboards. Sleep in without feeling guilty or feeling like it's the (weekend) exception to the rule. Hang with the kitties. Listen to music. Visit with my neighbor more than I do. Have dinner with friends more than I do. Take better care of my health (lose weight mainly), exercise some. After some length of time, whatever length of time that is, look for part time work and look for some opportunity to volunteer. Go to museums during the day. Go to historical sites around my adopted state. All fun to think about. I'm tainted - the idea of working past the end of January makes me sick to my stomach. I hope I can go through with it. There have been a few layoffs in recent weeks again, and husband is nervous about his job. I want him to work, provide the insurance we need, and let me have time alone in the house for the first time in 24 years. He's younger than me and can't afford to retire yet, but if he gets laid off will have a hard time finding a job since he doesn't have a college degree and is almost 60. Plus, he's a people person and I'm a loner. He NEEDS to be around people all day, I'd just as soon see people when I choose and not otherwise. (if they laid me off I'd be offended but do a happy dance. the decision would be taken out of my hands.)

Thank you, Barbara! So far I've gone through a couple of weeks of accumulated snail mail, written a shopping list for Thanksgiving, and ordered my Letts of London Desk Calendar. I have temporarily lost a letter from a friend in Montana, found the temporarily missing fruit order form (I still pass around a fruit order form at work for the high school band boosters - friend Vanessa still has a son in band). Now I know who ordered what for when it arrives mid-December without looking like a dork and having to ask people.

It is gorgeous out. Clear, blue, 34F. Today is getting a haircut and buying most, not all, of the ingredients for Thanksgiving. One big thing will be to pick up the turkey specially ordered from the Chatham Marketplace. Not cheap, but really wonderful, plus it supports a local turkey farmer. Then relaxing, reading, puttering around getting a few things organized for T-Day.

We're going to be a very small group this year. Our Aunt Ann and cousins David, Rebecca, Jordan, and Cassidy are going to Utah instead of being with us. This is only the second time in 23 years they haven't come over so I understand, but it's a tad depressing. We'll have friends Geoff and Diane, who we love dearly and have a good time with, but also her 27-year old mildly autistic son who is a trial at the best of times. Sigh. Only 6 of us. I'm going to be totally self-indulgent and decree that dinner will be at 3 p.m., a full hour earlier than usual, so we can watch the Panthers and Cowboys. Husband is conflicted - long-time Cowboys fan but seriously distraught over the Hardy wife-beating thing, happy 'cuz the Panthers, our "local" team, are 9-0. Geoff is a serious Cowboys fan. Changing the habits of most of a lifetime, I have become a serious Panthers fan. Go figure.

Off to continue reading World of Trouble, the Last Policeman Book III by Ben Winters.

Retirement plans and Thanksgiving holiday coming up - GREAT! Enjoy!!!!
For some reason I was just looking at your books read..... A.J. Orde is O.K., but have you read Sheri Tepper's B.J. Oliphant mystery series? I love Shirley McClintock! If I've said that before, it bears repeating.

I will have to get to that Ben H Winters series, Karen, as you seem to like it so much.
Have a great Sunday.

Hi Peggy! I've read one book by Sheri Tepper, The Family Tree, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I just bought Dead in the Scrub from Amazon..... Thanks.

I have taken today as a vacation day, am straightening up things in the kitchen, chopping onions and celery, cutting bread for dressing, going to make pie crusts and stick in the freezer so I can make pies tomorrow. I'm going to cook the sweet potatoes today so I can bake them tomorrow with brown sugar, butter, S&P, and ginger.

Daughter will not be coming home, first time she hasn't been here for Thanksgiving. I understand the reason - she feels loyalty to her boss who needs her to work tomorrow and needs the money because things have been slow lately. Sigh. I think I was 24 the first time I wasn't home for Thanksgiving..... Anyway.

We're either down to 4 if our friends Geoff and Diane come, or the two of us if they have to take care of her brother who just got out of the hospital and may not be able to be alone tomorrow. Either way I'll cook the HUGE turkey I bought (prior to learning that our cousins weren't coming), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, dressing, green bean casserole, and, the fourth food group, gravy. I think I'll only make banana cream pie and pecan pie - bc for me and pecan for husband. Geoff and Diane will just have to pick between the two. I normally make a pumpkin pie but since daughter won't be home don't feel an overwhelming need to.

I have some errands to run today - bank, pharmacy, food store. But all in all it's been fun to just be here at the house with things to do but not frenzied things to do.

I finished the Last Policeman series, and the third one was quite disappointing, all in all. His obsession with his sister is tedious and the mysteries are banal. There are a couple of bright spots when he meets interesting people coping with the impending end of the world as we know it, but overall meh.

I have started Shatter by Michael Robotham but am not committed yet..... still working on Van Loon's Geography and have finished with India and am reading with interest about Indo-China. There was no Vietnam yet, he only mentions Laos for completeness' sake. Interesting. It's become more a political analysis than geographical analysis, especially with India, as he discusses the French and British interests in the region. He does mention the mountains and the rivers, but less than in previous "countries".

Happy Turkle Dee, Karen! I'm on the road so more later. You know, I think I was about 24 the first Thanksgiving I wasn't at home also.

Hi Larry, thanks! Have a safe and fun T-Day.

Good change! Daughter is coming home. So last night I made a last minute food store run for a few of the things she likes, came home and made another pie crust because now I have to make the pumpkin pie, and am switching gears and making the sweet potato casserole she likes (sweet potatoes, milk, eggs, butter, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar with pecan/brown sugar topping). Geoff and Diane are coming, so there will be 5 to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm happy.

Dianne will leave just around when the football game starts, taking a plate of food to her brother in the hospital. Geoff will stay and watch the Panthers/Cowboys game with us. I normally don't plan around football, but since the cousins aren't coming and the rest of us really want to watch the game, I figured, why not?

My feet will hurt terribly and I will collapse from exhaustion, but will be glad that they day has gone so well.

Pecan pie is in the oven, pie crust baked for the banana cream pie. Tablecloth and napkins are ironed and ready for the table to be set. I'll leave the decorating to daughter - we have some cute turkey candle holders and a few ears of Indian corn and small gourds for decoration.

In the meantime, I've picked up Wolf Hall and the first 13 pages are more interesting than the first 28 pages of Shatter are. So I'll continue with it. And I'm listening to A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester about earthquakes, geography, and the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Two of the three books I'm "reading" have to do with geography and both are very interesting.

Vacation day, installed new printer 'cuz old one died. I'm rather proud of myself, installing a printer wirelessly and actually getting it to work!

Wishing you a lovely weekend, Karen.

Congratulations, you techy person! Also congratulations you very foody one. I'm glad that you had folks for your feast after all.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Thanks Barbara and Peggy!

Today I'm going to see Peter and the Starcatcher at the Paul Greene Theater in Chapel Hill with my friend Louise. Lunch first, matinee, then home by about 5. Then quick turnaround and out to bookclub to discuss Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

A busy day.

I've ordered all the presents that have to get mailed to California - they'll arrive mid-week and I am taking next Friday off so will be able to wrap, box, and ship. Gotta work on my Christmas letter, find the cards I bought last year for this year, finalize the Christmas Card mailing list, and start on them. Next weekend I'll be baking - got 15 boxes of cookies to make for people at work and my friend Louise.

I'm getting tired thinking of it, but it's all good.

Wait! I like cookies! What did you think of Station Eleven? I've got a kindle version, but it's one of those books profiled on NPR and I usually get my fill of those about 1/3 in.

Okay, Larry. SIXTEEN boxes of cookies. The question is, when are you leaving for your awesome Christmas vacation? PM me with current address if you think mailing them on Dec 14th will get them to you in time. :)

I really liked Station Eleven. I am enthralled with the idea of a post-apolcalyptic symphony/acting troupe. I loved the nicely intertwined lives, coincidences, and missed opportunities. It felt complete and satisfying. Irony had its place too.....

I hadn't heard the profile on NPR. It was a bookclub book, Tamsie's book, and so far I've liked all three of the books of the new bookclub year. (The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Martian, and Station Eleven. The next book is The Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. We'll see.....

I finished listening to The Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester and adored it. I love that kind of history - a combination of all encompassing and high level with fantastic details and sidebar stories. So much so that I'm re-listening to The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto.

And continuing to read Wolf Hall and Van Loon's Geography. Nothing lightweight right now, for sure. Perhaps I should re-read some Charlotte Armstrong or one of my favorite romances just to get a sense of accomplishment.

Shucks Karen, that is really thoughtful but I'll be in in the Caribbean before they would get here. Oh, I'm sorry, what was that? Yes, in the Caribbean. You know, white sandy beaches, sunny and high 70s all year long? Yes, that Caribbean. ...la la...Jingle bells, Batman smells, pass the rum and ganja...la la...

Wishing you a wonderful weekend, Karen.

Yes, yes, Larry, continue to rub it in!!! White sandy beaches, sunny and high 70s. Soak up the rays for those of us NOT near white sandy beaches, sunny and high 70s. Harrumph.

Thank you, Barbara! Yesterday was a vacation day. Some of it was taken up with work (grumble, grumble) but mostly had a great time figuring out how to print on legal paper on my new printer, going to Wally World for stocking stuffers, and just being in the house without the TV on.

Today is errands, starting Christmas cards, baking, etc. Tomorrow is the same minus the errands but add in Panthers football. :)

Well, I put 'start Christmas cards' on my to-do list. That's progress, right?

It is. Everything counts.

I wrote 58 cards today - most of them get a family letter. I have 43 to go, some of them being handed out at work.

I made a pot of chili, I watched the Panthers go 13-0 with a 38-0 win over Atlanta. I made 2 batches of the best sugar cookies in the world (they roll out like a dream and taste wonderful), bought a Christmas tree and wreath, wrapped 4 presents, watched 3 Dexters, and am tired.

Going to bed to read a bit.

Tomorrow is post office to buy stamps, Wally World or K-Mart to buy boxes to wrap presents and tags (I absolutely cannot find the tags left over from last year. I have found the paper, the ribbon, the tape and scissors, the tissue paper, but no tags.)

Work's going to be a bear - 5 days, 2 weekend days, then 2 days next week. 9 days straight. Then I'm off for 5 days, work for 1 day, then off for 6 days. Then the new year, then sometime in early January, turn in my resignation.

Just gotta get to January.....

Oooh Kaaren, I'm at seventy thrreeeee...

And the winner is.... Karen with 76 done and ..... 13 to go.

Of course I finished the ones that had to go to the post office, sealed them, stamped them, return-address labeled them, put them in the car, then promptly got busy at work and forgot to mail them.

Crap.

Tomorrow I will mail them in the morning.

Tonight is more baking and getting up boxes of sweets to take to work.

Whaaat?! You.are.a.GOD!

Wishing you a lovely weekend, Karen.

Yes, Larry, I am a God, yet humble. :)

Thanks, Barbara. Unfortunately I worked from 7 a.m. til 9:15 p.m. Friday, then had to turn around and go back to work for physical inventory for a product line we're selling. That was from 6:30 a.m. until 4 p.m., when I drove to a family Christmas party. Was there 'til 9:30, got home, immediately went to bed, and am getting ready to get off the computer, get dressed, and go back at 8 a.m. today for heaven knows how long.

I am definitely turning in my resignation in January.

Our cousins got me The Quartet by Joseph Ellis. Can't wait to start it. Of course, that will be when I have TIME to read. Yesterday was one of the first days in I can't remember how long that I didn't crack a book.

Off I go.....

O.K., Wonder Woman, take a day off! I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted just reading about you.

Darling Horrible, I'll bet you know what I got today! xoxo

Wonder Woman is tired, indeed. I have today off from work - but here goes: wrapping presents, baking, massage therapist/chiropractor visit, food shopping, last minute husband and daughter Xmas shopping. Visiting neighbor Louise if I can manage, if not, then tomorrow a.m.

Yoiks.

And yes, Darling RD, I know what Santa got you!!! Enjoy.

Off to.... wrap presents, I guess. The butter is on the kitchen island softening but not quite ready to bake with.

Normally on a rainy day off I'd be curled up on the couch with coffee and a book - I'm currently reading Van Loon's Geography, Wolf Hall, and The Mystery of the Hansom Cab. Plus I'm listening to The Island at the Center of the World.

Have a lovely holiday, Karen

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas, karenmarie!

Paul - thank you! It's clever and perfect.

Hi Lori, thank you! Your snowman above is the closest we'll get to snow in this end of the world - it's 75F at 5:30. We had 4 1/2 inches of rain yesterday, and there was lightning and thunder. It feels like late summer, muggy and close.

But so far our holiday is great - daughter came home this afternoon, we hung out for a while, then she took advantage of Mom and Dad's Present Wrapping Station upstairs. I'm baking Pastitso, we'll eat, then we're going to watch Christmas movies. A lovely Christmas Eve, in my opinion.

Tomorrow is stockings and Santa Claus (it's amazing that Santa still visits our 22-year old!). Presents, more hanging out, relaxing and just the three of us having fun. Dinner will be prime rib, twice-baked potatoes, fresh green beans. Dessert will be some of the many cookies we were given and left over cheesecake.

Saturday we're thinking of going to see Star Wars, having lunch, then braving the Verizon store to trade in our cell phones for new ones. We'll see if we have enough energy, and if we do, whether the Verizon store is mobbed or not.

I only work one more day this year - Monday the 28th. Oh, the luxury of time off!!! And, then, of course, the joy of giving notice in January.

Merry Christmas, Karen, and a very happy 2016 too! I do wish you a vibrant, WONDERFUL RETIREMENT!!!!

Merry Christmas Karen! May 2016 be the best year yet.

Thanks Peggy and Larry.

Happy Holidays Karen :)

I refuse to believe it, but I'm ahead of you in reading for the very first time. GIRL! WAZZAP?!

Thanks beeg - so far lots of fun.

Larry. Believe It. Cataract surgery in early 2015 and brain-frying-killer-hours-soul-sucking work schedule since July 20th.

Light at the end of the tunnel when I give notice on January 15th. I anticipating reading more books than you next year, you know. :)

Last day of the year, I just finished Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. Totally macabre and wonderful. We're watching the series and are just getting ready to watch The Final Season (season 8).

Off I go to update the first thread of 2016 with the books I didn't finish this year.

And the final count is 65. Didn't read 75, but with all that went on this year, 65 is a respectable number.

I really plan on pulling the trigger in January - quitting my job of 20 years with the intent of retiring. If an interesting job shows up cool, otherwise my intent is to bask in non-working until I get bored, then either find something innocuous and Not Stressful and/or volunteer work somewhere in the county.

Either way the mental letting go has begun. I'm still working my butt off but will start to reorganize my work archives on Monday so that people will be able to find things if and when they need them after January 29th. At this point I plan on giving notice as soon as I can confirm how many vacation days I have for 2016. In writing.

My sister and I are going to have to have a serious talk with our mother, and at this point I think I'll have to be there for it. So perhaps the 2nd week of February I will go to California to support sister in her efforts to get our mother OUT of the idea, planted by oh-so-helpful-brother-in-law without discussing it with my sister, that she can live with them when she can't live alone any more. Sister is 59 and has quite a few years to go before she can retire. Her husband will never work again and they're trying to get him on disability. He's only 59, so that's been a serious blow to their financial plans for retirement. Our mother is 83. She's started falling, doesn't control her diabetes well, and won't use a walker. She has a female boarder who we're considering asking to become a caregiver - shop, drive Mom to where she needs to go, prepare meals for her, and control her medications. Mom's like a turtle - poke her and she retreats into her shell. It will not be pleasant at all, so I figure let Mom get mad at both of us and split the waves of resentment and resistance. As long as the end result is Terril helping Mom, receiving a stipend, and Mom taking better care of herself, it's worth it.

Third week of February is husband's 60th birthday. Can't miss that. March may be a roadtrip with sister to visit my niece, her wife, and their 6-month old son - they're moving to the Bay area of California next month.

So I won't even have TIME to start getting bored until oh, April or so..... and I anticipate that it will take much, much longer than that.

Happy New Year! Sounds like it's going to be better, anyway. I don't envy you the talk with mom; don't be surprised if nothing comes of it. But who can say.

I'm glad you're retiring, you already sound more energized. Reading and traveling are two great pleasures and I hope you get to do lots and lots of both. YOU'RE AWESOME!!!

Thanks, Larry! It's always nice to hear someone compliment me, and your observation that I already sound more energized, except for my being sick as a dog right now with husband's germs, is how I feel.

Onward to 2016!

>183 karenmarie: pulling the trigger in January
And I can see why from your day-to-day descriptions. Though it doesn't look like the life stress will ease up for awhile.

Happy 2016!

Thank you qebo. I've been living a very stressful life since .... oh..... about May of 2011. Some work related, some family related. I am actually amazed that I haven't given myself a heart attack or acquired an Interesting Disease.

But I really consider that January will be a fun time. Nervous making, but ultimately good in pursuit of my mental and physical health. Getting rid of the work stress will free me up to actually deal with the family stress in a constructive way (mostly, I hope, to put things behind me) and Get On With My Life. I will be 63 in June and based on family history, have a good 20-30 years ahead of me.