karenmarie, addictively turning pages, chapter 3

Welcome to my third thread of 2018! This will be my 3rd year of retirement from the 8-5, 5 day-a-week world. I don’t miss work at all. I read, am a charter member of the Redbud and Beyond Book Club, now in its 21st year, am Treasurer for our local Friends of the Library (henceforth abbreviated FoL), and manage our home, finances and etc. as my husband heads off to work Monday – Friday. Being an introvert (you’d never guess it from these pages!) I need and cherish the alone time to recharge my batteries.

I have been married to Bill for 26 years and am mother to Jenna, now 24, living about 3 hours away and starting a 2-year business administration program at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington. We have two kitties, 18-year old Kitty William and 10-year old Inara Starbuck. We live in our own little corner of paradise on 8 acres in central North Carolina USA.

The picture I’ve chosen for this thread is of my maternal grandparents, Viola and Leonard. Grandma is holding me, and Grandpa is holding my brother Douglas Lee. This would have been in late 1955 or early 1956, based on my brother’s age.




My goal is to read 105 books in 2018, 5 more than I read in 2017. I missed my pages read goal of 34,000 pages by 525 pages, so will keep the same pages goal.







And, in honor of Sue Grafton, I am going to re-read all her Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Series books this year. Alas, there will never be a Z.




A few quotes about libraries that mean a lot to me:

Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, reminders of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark. The pleasure they give is steady, unorgastic, reliable, deep and long-lasting. In any library in the world, I am at home, unselfconscious, still and absorbed. Germaine Greer

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book. – When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. Jane Austen

I like libraries. It makes me feel comfortable and secure to have walls of words, beautiful and wise, all around me. I always feel better when I can see that there is something to hold back the shadows. Roger Zelazny

And finally, very few books are worth slogging through when the inspiration to read them has gone. I abandon books with glee.

My theme for 2018, addictively turning pages, comes from an image on Mark’s thread first thread of 2018. In this case, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Books read

1. Every Dead Thing by John Connolly 12/27/17 1/6/18 *** 467 pages trade paperback
2. Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton 1/6/18 1/9/18 **** 283 pages hardcover
3. The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien 1/1/18 1/10/18 *** 1/2 175 pages trade paperback
4. You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld 1/1/18 1/15/18 **** 160 pages hardcover
5. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff 1/6/18 1/17/18 *** 1/2 328 pages hardcover, Kindle
6. No Middle Name by Lee Child 1/17/18 1/19/18 **** 418 pages hardcover
**abandoned after 90 pages** Brain Food by Lisa Mosconi 1/9/18 326 pages trade paperback ER Book
7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 12/3/17 1/22/18 **** audiobook, 19 hours
8. The Hounds of Spring by Lucy Andrews Cummin 1/23/18 1/23/18 ****1/2 160 pages trade paperback
9. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 1/20/18 1/26/18 **** 337 pages trade paperback
10. The Far Side Gallery 5 by Gary Larson 1/24/18 1/27/18 159 pages trade paperback 1995
11. A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton 1/26/18 1/30/18 ***1/2 209 pages hardcover
12. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens 1/1/17 1/31/18 **** 780 pages plus 9 pages introduction
13. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley 2/1/18 2/5/18 ****1/2 367 pages trade paperback
**abandoned after 32 pages Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright 2/1/18 266 pages hardcover
14. B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton 2/5/18 2/6/18 **** 186 pages hardcover
15. C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton 2/7/18 2/8/18 **** 181 pages hardcover
16. D is for Deadbeat by Sue Grafton 2/8/18 2/9/18 **** 184 pages hardcover
17. E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton 2/9/18 2/10/18 ***1/2 180 pages hardcover
18. F is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton 2/10/18 2/13/18 ***1/2 182 pages hardcover

Currently Reading:

Plainsong by Kent Haruf 2/13/17 299 pages ARC trade paperback 1999
Dead Wake by Erik Larson 353 pages trade paperback 2015
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1/22/18 audiobook 2007

Books Added

January - 16

1. SomeGuyInVirginia - True Tales from the Annals of Crime and Rascality by St. Clair McKelway
2. Thrift Shop - Secrets in Death by J.D. Robb
3. BookMooch - Guardian Angels & Spirit Guides by Brad Steiger
4. BookMooch - God's Fires by Patricia Anthony
5. Circle City Books - A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman for Feb Book club
6. Circle City Books - Plainsong by Kent Haruf for March Book club
7. Amazon - Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
8. LT ER - The Hounds of Spring by Lucy Andrews Cummin
9. BookMooch - The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black
10. Thrift Shop - The Princess Bride by William Goldman
11. Amazon - A Trail Through Time by Jodi Taylor e-book
12. Amazon - Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff e-book
13. B&N - Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
14. BookMooch - Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
15. Amazon - Kindred by Octavia Butler e-book
16. Amazon - Not Perfect by Elizabeth LaBan e-book

February -
17. Jenn - Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
18. Scuppernong Books - A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
19. Amazon - The Power by Naomi Alderman
20. Amazon - The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Culls

1. Every Dead Thing by John Connolly first of a series I will never continue
2. Brain Food by Lisa Mosconi
3. Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright - references to The Matrix and powdered sugar donut analogies left me cold

Statistics Through January 31

12 books read
1 book abandoned
3560 pages read
19 audiobook hours
Average pages read per day, YTD = 115
Average pages read per book, YTD = 297

Author
Male 58%
Female 42%

Living 75%
Dead 25%

US Born 50%
Foreign Born 50%

Medium
Hardcover 42%
Trade Pback 42%
Mass Market 0%
Audiobook 8%
e-Book 8%

Source
My Library 92%
Other 8%

Misc
ARC/ER 8%
Re-read 25%
Series 25%

Fiction 92%
NonFiction 8%

Author Birth Country
England 17%
Ireland 17%
Scotland 8%
Sweden 8%
US 50%

Original Year Published
1838 8%
1960 8%
1982 8%
1995 8%
1999 8%
2005 8%
2012 8%
2013 17%
2017 8%
2018 17%

Genre
Cartoons 18%
Fantasy 8%
Fiction 33%
Mystery 33%
Politics 8%

Next one's yours!

Happy new thread Karen my dear.

Thanks, John!

So in addition to it being Jenna and Leo your cat's birthday, August 3rd is also my dear MiL Kay's birthday, and Bill's friend Geoff's birthday.

*smile*

Happy new thread- from the last one (re your coffee mill....I love my coffee mill - Kitchenaid KCG200OB.). Does that crush the beans, or make the coffee? Or both?
And re: the Larson cartoon that inspired it, I often leave my coffee til its cold (I like it to last for as long as possible) and sup away at it like its supposed to be that way :)

I'm here! Happy new one!

>8 karenmarie:, A nice day for celebrations my dear. *smile*

Happy new thread and Happy Monday to you :)

>9 LovingLit: Hi Megan and thank you. The coffee mill grinds the beans. My BUNN BX Velocity Brew 10-Cup Coffee Brewer makes the coffee. In 3 minutes.



I don't really like cold coffee, but in the spirit of open US-New Zealand relationships, if it works for you, then I'm happy. I personally like coffee hot, black, no sweetener. My mother AND my sister both put ice cubes in coffee if it was too hot - although frankly I don't know how it could be too hot once they put milk and sugar into it. Just sayin'...

>10 katiekrug: Hi Katie! Yay. Thank you.

>11 johnsimpson: Always a good day. Jenna was supposed to be a July baby (the 28th), but she was late and it worked out just fine.

>12 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba!

It's been a nice day so far.

Karen, I am enjoying your toppers! I am curious, how old would your grandparents be in that pic? I look at pics of my own grandparents and it always amazes me how *old* they look, in every photo, even though they were considerably younger than I am now. I guess people just looked older in those days

>14 jessibud2: Hi Shelley! Thanks. Hmm. Let's see. Late 1956 would be 47 for my grandmother and 49 for my grandfather (born 1909 and 1907 respectively). He died before he turned 50, of a heart attack - in my grandmother's arms while on vacation. Sad. She lived for another 46 years, never married again.

People dressed older, too. I'm 64 and always wear jeans, long sleeved shirt, and in the winter a down vest and scarf/gloves/hat if necessary. Bill's 61 and always wears jeans and a short-sleeved LLBean plaid shirt, Bean jacket if cold.

Hi, Karen! Happy new thread! Another good family photo up there.

Happy new thread dear Karen. xx

Happy new thread!

Hi Karen, happy new thread!

>15 karenmarie: I agree, I would have guessed that they were older, and how sad that your grandfather died so young. You were too young to remember him, I suppose?

Happy New Thread, Karen!

Fun to see the Roger Zelazny quote. Interesting way for him to put it, something to hold back the shadows, given his Amber books and Jack of Shadows.

>16 harrygbutler: Thank you, Harry.

>17 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul! Thank you.

>18 drneutron: Thanks, Jim! I’m keeping you busy, aren’t I? Three threads so far this year. My, my, my.

>19 EllaTim: Thank you, Ella! Sadly, I do not remember my grandfather. He died when I was 4, and they lived in Iowa and I lived in Southern California, about 1,850 miles (2,977 km) apart. We can only have seen them once or twice a year at the most, I think. I do have at least one other photo of him holding me, but I don’t think it’s scanned. (My other grandfather, my dad's father, died when my dad was 8, in 1929, but my paternal grandmother died in 1964 and lived with us the last 8 or so years of her life. I remember her very well.)

>20 jnwelch: Hi Joe and thank you. I blush to admit that I was reading quotes about libraries and loved that one by him. I’ve never read anything by him. What do you recommend first?

...
People aged more quickly in the early years of the last century (meaning the 20th!), IMO. Here are the photos of my grandparents sometime around when they married – they married in secret in 1928. I don’t know when they made it public, and that information may be lost forever (gotta check with my Aunt Joyce or Uncle Doug), but my mother, the eldest child, was born in 1932. So roughly twenty-eight years from this photo to the one at top.

I love the pictures of your grandparents! Scanning the pics I have of mine would mean taking them out of their frames, and I'm so fiddle-fingered that I'm afraid I'd never get them properly seated again.
I look forward to your continuing story and your reading and reviewing!

Happy new thread, Karen.

>8 karenmarie: And August 3 is also my wedding anniversary!

>21 karenmarie: >20 jnwelch: If you have not read anything by Zelazny, I highly recommend his Chronicles of Amber series - the first one is Nine Princes in Amber. There is a considerable amount of world-building in the first book, as Amber is a different realm than earth, although Corwin and his brothers and sisters can pass between the different realms. It's a book that was a little confusing to me at first, but very readable, and as I progressed further, really enjoyed it. I've read and reread the entire ten book series several times.

Happy new thread, Karen. >14 jessibud2: >15 karenmarie: People dressed their age then and they had rules. I can remember my mother telling me never to wear heels with pants. Of course, I didn't listen to her. When height challenged you need all the help you can get. We threw out most of the rules about what you wear at certain ages. I still wear jeans like I did in my 20s.

>13 karenmarie: I prefer it either HOT or, in the instant the life's stuff has got in the way, then cold. V cold :)

>22 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy! I wish these were framed – they are in one of those cardboard folders. Living, reading, reviewing. I'm on it!

>23 rretzler: Thanks, Robin! Yay. Another August 3rd anniversary (some of birth, now one of marriage.)

I’ve added Nine Princes in Amber to my wish list. Thank you.

>24 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg! Oh, I do know about the rules! Dad wouldn’t let me wear jeans when we went to a movie one time in about 1963 - when I was 10. Couldn’t wear pants to school except on official Girls Pants Days (2x a year in high school only – never below that) until I got to college.

Part of it is stricter work dress codes – hence my grandfather in ‘work’ gear. I think that applied to church, too. My family never went to church ever at all in my entire life, and the only time I was in church with Mom and Dad were when my sister got married and when I got married. So, I didn’t have church clothes. I was always envious of the girls who got Easter Bonnets, new gloves, and white shoes at Easter Time.

>25 LovingLit: One or the other, Megan, then.

I woke up before the alarm today – I set one every two weeks to make sure I’ll be up for my cleaning ladies. They come about 7:50 or so. First sip of coffee taken, slowly waking up.

>24 Familyhistorian:, >26 karenmarie: - Rules! LOL! I remember those. No white clothes after September/October. And re the pants to school. I remember that we had school uniforms - those hideous navy tunics in elementary school and gray skirts, white blouses and the ugly school colour cardigans in high school. We staged a sit-in in high school to be allowed to wear pants (not jeans, but decent nice *slacks*). I do believe we won!

>27 jessibud2: Good for you, staging a sit in. No jeans, just nice decent *slacks*. I remember one Pants Day when I was a senior, when I didn't have any decent slacks to wear to school, so I slept with the window open and was able to truthfully say I had a sore throat and stay home. I simply could not imagine wearing a dress/skirt & blouse when every other girl in the school would be wearing pants.

The one thing my sister and I are agreed upon is that clothes are not a luxury like my parents made them seem. It's ironic, because while I had a lot of nice work clothes, now I just have jeans and a few shirts and etc.

>28 karenmarie: - Me too. I never wear skirts or dresses any more. I am just too comfortable in jeans and pants and that is all that comprises my wardrobe. Even when I was teaching - and I taught very young kids and was often sitting on the floor - I tried to wear nice pants, or at least, nice jeans (I honestly will never understand the mentality that favours *ripped* jeans as a fashion statement!)

Good morning, Karen! A light snow is falling here at the moment, so we'll see what happens.

The prices of clothes have fallen immensely as a proportion of personal income over the last 50 or 60 years, for a variety of reasons, and I find it can be difficult to get a handle on a situation in which the average person might only have two or perhaps three changes of clothes. One sign of that is the decline in aprons and housecoats, as there is less need to protect clothing when it is easily and cheaply replaced.

I gave up jeans around my early 30s and haven't looked back. For informal wear (e.g., most of the time), I opt for chinos. Frankly, I find gabardine trousers (and similar pants) more comfortable yet, but they are less versatile if I want to also put in some time gardening. I almost never wear T-shirts as shirts (I have a few), and that was true even when I was younger, or polos and other shirts of that ilk.

Happy new thread, Karen!
I only have nice clothes for work, I much prefer my jeans and tights!

Morning, Karen! Happy new thread!

>29 jessibud2: I used to wear my jeans ‘til they died. This included ripped knees and, when wearing bell-bottoms, shredded bottom hems because they were usually just a tad too long. This was up through my early 30s.

>30 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! We dodged a snow bullet this morning, fortunately. Do you want snow? Is that a dumb question? *smile*

I never wore a housecoat, and hate aprons. I use Amway’s stain remover and Amway laundry products, so can get stains out of pretty much anything. This was particularly helpful when daughter was young and I had grass stains, blood, and red clay in addition to grease and food.

I never thought about clothes as becoming less expensive, but you’re right. One can still spend a lot of money on clothes, but one doesn’t have to. I started buying clothes at thrift shops when Jenna was little – I found lots of good quality for just a couple of bucks. I didn't need to, but was doing so much volunteering at the thrift shops to get money for the schools that I finally started seeing that there were so many good clothes there. Of course I also spent oodles on Hanna Andersson’s, too.

>31 ChelleBearss: Thank you, Chelle. I remember coming home from work when I used to dress up (suits, dress shirts, nylons, dress shoes) and immediately change to jeans, or sweat pants, and a comfy shirt.

>1 karenmarie: I wonder if all Granpa's wore ties back in the day? I hardly ever saw either of my granddads without one on, and always in a picture.

I've often thought about how much older people looked way back. I think that people used to aspire to maturity the way our generation aspires to youth; they look older and, if our doctors are very good, we look younger.

Hi Larry!

They probably did. My dad did except when he was bowling - he had bowling shirts and was in a company league. I spent lots of time as a kid at bowling alleys, cadging dimes to play the little kids' bowling game and getting Shirley Temples. They called them Roy Rogers for my brother's sensibilities.

I wanted to be grown up. There were quite a few things that marked stages of growing up for girls - wearing nylons and garter belts, shaving legs, makeup.....

Yes. We, as a generation look younger.

Here's a fun photo from February of 1957. Leonard and Viola on the right, my Uncle Doug in front, and I have no idea who any of the other people are. Can you say dress shirts and ties?

>21 karenmarie: What Robin said, Karen: Nine Princes in Amber. It's a quick read, and hopefully you'll be as charmed by it as I was.

I've never been a fan of aprons, but my bride wears one I like, gray and black with a kind of abstract flying birds design. I prefer to get the mess all over me and revel in it.

Thanks, Joe! Good to know.

My MiLs both wore aprons. I used to have quite a few around here but gave them all away at one point.

Hi Karen!

Jeans are pretty much the standard Montana uniform. You could always tell the visiting scientists and professors at the lab where I worked. They usually wore suits and ties the first day or two of their visit, but quickly adapted jeans.

You can also tell a Montana airport by the fact that everyone is wearing jeans.

I am a **bit** fashion conscious. I have my good jeans and my doing chores jeans.

>26 karenmarie: It wasn't any fun being one of those girls with the white gloves, shiny shoes and fussy dresses especially when you had to sit through the sermon.

>27 jessibud2: I remember those tunics but our high school uniform was the grey skirt with a blue blazer. Those were pretty bad in the hotter months. We were never allowed to wear pants.

I prefer jeans but when I was working I was only allowed to wear them on "casual Fridays". Now I can wear them when I want.

>35 karenmarie: I think part of the reason the women in the photo look older is because of the colours they are wearing.

>21 karenmarie: I’ve got a photo of my grandparents with my father. Given that he looks around 10 or 12 it was have been taken about 1932, which meant they would have been barely 50. If you’d have been looking at them today you’d have probably put them at 70 or so.

Happy new thread, Karen, lovely family pictures!
I never knew my grandfathers. One died young, even his youngest children didn't remember him, and the other a few years before my birth.

Hi Karen, I'd echo Joe on Nine Princes in Amber - excellent read. Most of the books in that first series are strong, but the series about the next generation is worthless.

I love your homey threads, Karen. Congrats on No. 3. My theory on how old people used to look is based on their lifestyle. I know my grandparents worked WAY harder than I do...and I work harder than most of my friends, although it is by choice. I don’t want a housekeeper and I actually enjoy working in the yard when the temps are pleasant. And, yes, another jeans girl here with memories of wearing dresses to school.

Hi, Karen!

I just read your previous thread, and you had just given A Man Called Ove a very nice review! I'm so glad that you liked it (I thought that you would!) The book kind of sneaks up on you, doesn't it?!

Congrats on the new thread. I really liked your kitty pictures (we have four of our own currently). (Cats, not pictures of cats--we have a lot more of those!).

Karen O.

>38 streamsong: Hi Janet! Ha. Montana uniform. I like it. And I like that you have good jeans and chores jeans.

>39 Familyhistorian: I can’t really imagine since I never did went to Easter services, Meg, but oh! I so wanted an Easter Bonnet, white gloves, and white shoes. The fussy dress, too, I’m afraid.

I’ve taken to wearing black jeans – people don’t assume they’re jeans and I can get away with a lot of fashion vagueness with them, dressing up or down with tops/shoes.

Yay jeans. Any color, any time.

>>40 SandDune: Hi Rhian! I believe it. The thing I remember about my great-grandparents was the size of their hands – farmers – working with their hands all day every day. Gnarled fingers, huge hands.

>41 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita and thank you! A definite hole where grandfathers should be, right?

>42 majleavy: Good to know, Michael. I’ve got it on my wish list.

>43 Donna828: Thank you, Donna! That makes me feel good. I think you’re right – even though my grandparents look ‘old’, they were city folk, having lived in Iowa City in the early years of their marriage and in Cedar Rapids when my grandfather went to work for Collins Radio. Grandma’s brother, on the other hand, inherited the farm, and he and his wife both looked much, much older than my grandparents.

I’m too sedentary. I’ll make the vegetable garden this spring/summer, and do odd stuff around the house, but basic housekeeping I leave to Pat and Pam, every two weeks. They don’t do as good a job as I would, but on the other hand if it was left to me it wouldn’t get done every two weeks. *smile* My one big physical activity is the frequent movement of books around the house as I change how I want them arranged. Also, getting up and down ladders for books up high and getting on the ground for books on low shelves for inventorying.

It’s a super blue blood moon tonight. Super because it’s very close to earth, blue because there are two full moons in January, and blood because of a total lunar eclipse. This convergence last occurred in 1866. If you can go look at it, you should.

>45 karenmarie: Easter bonnet, you've got me curious, what did that look like.

When I was in elementary school girls did not wear pants, no way. But in high school it changed, and I threw out all skirts. But now, with hotter summers I have two nice wide skirts and they feel very nice.

Thanks for mentioning the blue blood moon, never heard of it, but I noticed this afternoon, that I could see the sun going down, in the west and the moon coming up in the east at the same time, a full moon. I don't know if the lunar eclipse can be seen here? Ah, no.

Happy newish thread, Karen. Congrats on culling some books. :)

I see you're reading Grafton. Is this your first read? I've been thinking about starting.

>45 karenmarie: Looked out my window a bit ago and saw the super moon and thought I would see if I can see it when I'm up in the night (I think the eclipse is an hour or so before dawn here) but now when I look out the clouds have completely hidden the moon so...guess not.

I remember a story my Dad tells about his Dad, how he'd be in the field behind a mule waiting for it to be light enough to start plowing. They used a pole at each end of the field as a market to keep the rows straight. One day Dad looks up, sees the pole before him, and said out loud, 'Like hell'. Day after high school graduation he was on a bus to New York City.

Thanks for posting your memories, it's fun.

>46 EllaTim: Hi Ella! If you like wearing skirts now, more power to you!

This is what I remember wanting:



You're welcome re the moon - didn't know if it could be seen in Europe or not.

>47 BLBera: Thanks Beth! Nope re Grafton - this will be my second reading A-Y. Third for A-G, which I started in the 1980s and stopped.

>48 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! Bill said that somewhere around 5-6 a.m. when the moon was setting we would be able to see the beginning of the eclipse - which is what will give it the reddish cast. If I'm up then great, if not, oh well. Knowing me, though, I'll probably wake up about then, want to see it, then stay awake. Maybe the clouds will break up and you will be able to see it.

>49 SomeGuyInVirginia: Excellent story, Larry. Evermore the lure of the big city. I was born in a big city, so the lure for me was quiet, dark, country. I'm living my dream!

You're welcome re my memories - things people say here on LT often trigger them.

Off to continue A is for Alibi. I'm on 166 of 209 pages. And I'm on page 712 of 780 of Nicholas Nickleby, so I'm hoping to get some serious reading in this evening and tomorrow.

Ah yes. The only time we could wear pants was under our skirts when it was super cold out. I lived with permanent scabbed knees ( I was not the most graceful of children) from 3rd grade through 7th grade. I know I finally got some jeans in high school but don't think we were able to wear pants to school. Our skirts, however, had to touch the ground when we knelt. Our drill team, however, wore wheat jeans with long-sleeved white shirts, bandannas and cowboy hats and looked way more classy than today's dance teams. Being awkward, I was not on the drill team.

I was able to wear nice jeans to work, which was in an elementary district, but I also wore skirts and dresses when in the mood. Now I live in jeans (all colors but mostly denim, and now a selection of embroidered, all lengths from shorts (home) to capris and long) and t-shirts of all sleeve lengths, anything that doesn't need ironing! My grandmother, whom I remember at my age, never wore anything but dresses.

>33 karenmarie: That's the first thing I do as well! Nate laughs at me but the second I'm through the door I am in comfy clothes and lose the underwire!

>50 karenmarie: Thanks Karen, that picture made me smile. I remember coveting skirts like that, but have never worn them. And the bonnet, no, never seen anything like it.

Good morning, Karen! I hope you have a great Wednesday. Chilly here, and so far I've not seen much around the feeders but the juncos.

>50 karenmarie: Before I went to bed I checked and learned it was supposed to be 100% from 5 to 6 a.m. here. I happened to wake up right at 6:00 and thought I would take a peak. Sky was completely clear and the moon was where I could see it (living in a mid-rise my view is blocked to the south) so I got to see the last few minutes of the 100% and then checked again about 6:15 and saw it at about 50% coverage. Of course I never went back to bed.

>45 karenmarie: - Re the blood moon. We couldn't see it here because it was total cloud cover. It's been snowing for about an hour now (still is) so I guess I'll have to check it out online.

>51 ronincats: Hi Roni! Ah yes, another jeans woman!

My paternal grandmother, who was born in 1882, and was Victorian through and through, never wore anything but dresses. I need to find a photo of her to put here. My maternal grandmother was wearing pants by the 1960s – she would have been in her 50s then.

>52 ChelleBearss: Off with the dress clothes! Lose the underwire! Potential TMI about underwires: I used to wear underwires. They’d snap out of the hem and gouge me and just plain hurt, in addition to leaving red marks. I now wear a minimizer with NO wires.

>53 EllaTim: I’m glad you liked the picture, Ella. I guess it must be a US thing.

>54 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! It’s been a busy Wednesday- prep for a FoL meeting, meeting, lunch, home quickly, visit friend/neighbor Louise, and now home for good. I’ve got a lot of Cardinal and Finch activity. Louise saw 9 Waxwings again yesterday – I’ve never seen one out here. Drat.

>55 RebaRelishesReading: Glad you got to see it, Reba, sorry you stayed up the whole time. Historic, though, right?

>56 jessibud2: That’s sad about the cloud cover, Shelley. We don’t have any snow in the forecast (knock on wood).

I am going to sprint to the Nicholas Nickleby finish line today – I have 65 pages left. My goal was to get it read in January, and by gum! that’s what I’m going to do.

Hey, hey, Karen. Get across the finish line.

I did it last night. And I read the unabridged edition! 835 pages. I think the extra 50 or so pages were all Mrs. Nickleby's monologues. I am glad it's done.

One aspect of ladies dressing older than their chronological ages--back in the day--was the lace-up shoes with blocky semi-high heels.

Happy New thread, Karen! Here's hoping you get Nicholas Nickleby finished today. I recall reading Great Expectations last January , and while I enjoyed it. I was happy for the story to come to a close.

Among the many, many, many reasons I declined to attend religious school was the uniform. I wore jeans and t-shirts the instant I could and now, what with my knee problems, wear flannel PJ bottoms and t-shirts. People in Long Beach are accustomed to it; tourists are a bit nonplussed.

>58 weird_O: Hi Bill! Congratulations, all 835 pages of it. Mrs. Nickleby was definitely wordy and self-centered, wasn't she?

My paternal grandmother wore shoes like that.

>59 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah! I've enjoyed NN, and just finished reading it about 10 minutes ago. I'm pumped, glad to be done, glad I read it.

>60 richardderus: Hallo RD! I was always fascinated with the uniforms that the Catholic kids wore and the fact that they used fountain pens. I can't remember when we got to use pens, but it certainly wasn't in the early grades like they did. I was jealous.

Flannel PJ bottoms and t-shirts sound absolutely lovely. You're entitled. *smooch*

>55 RebaRelishesReading: sounds like a prefect viewing!
Here is was from 1115pm, and I was too hot and too tired :(

11. A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton
1/26/18 to 1/30/18





From Amazon:

Take it from the top in #1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton's knockout thriller that introduced detective Kinsey Millhone―and a hot new attitude―to crime fiction…

A IS FOR AVENGER
A tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. A twice-divorced loner with few personal possessions and fewer personal attachments, she's got a soft spot for underdogs and lost causes.

A IS FOR ACCUSED
That's why she draws desperate clients like Nikki Fife. Eight years ago, she was convicted of killing her philandering husband. Now she's out on parole and needs Kinsey's help to find the real killer. But after all this time, clearing Nikki's bad name won't be easy.

A IS FOR ALIBI
If there's one thing that makes Kinsey Millhone feel alive, it's playing on the edge. When her investigation turns up a second corpse, more suspects, and a new reason to kill, Kinsey discovers that the edge is closer―and sharper―than she imagined.

Why I wanted to read it: Sue Grafton died in December of 2017 and I want to re-read the entire series.

The story is told from Private Investigator Kinsey Millhone’s point of view. She interjects personal information and opinions and is immediately likeable. Corpses and potential murderers abound. We learn a bit about Kinsey. She’s already renting living space from Henry, knows Rosie at the diner, is twice divorced, runs, and is a loner. She drives her VW bug down to LA several times and drives over to Vegas and back to interview people, finds interesting evidence, and is open about her thought processes as the action’s occurring, unlike say, Hercule Poirot.

The story takes place in 1982, in a thinly disguised Santa Barbara, California, up the coast north of Los Angeles. Grafton uses recognizable street names in LA and gets the flavor of various parts of LA. She is deft at quickly and vividly describing a character. She's also rather cruel in some of her characterizations - women who are overweight, wear a lot of makeup, are 'trophy' wives; men who are overweight, play around, act arrogant. It makes Kinsey human and not perfect.

Kinsey also makes some serious miscalculations and opens Pandora's box in her search for the real killer of Laurence Fife.

Pre internet, pre cell phone, accurate to the time and methods available, this is a good start to the series.

12. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
1/1/18 to 1/31/18

Apologies for the boring cover, part of a very old set of Dickens given to me by my friend and neighbor Louise.



From Amazon:

The novel has everything: an absorbing melodrama, with a supporting cast of heroes, villains and eccentrics, set in a London where vast wealth and desperate poverty live cheek-by-jowl' Jasper Rees, The Times

When Nicholas Nickleby is left penniless after his father's death, he appeals to his wealthy uncle to help him find work and to protect his mother and sister. But Ralph Nickleby proves both hard-hearted and unscrupulous, and Nicholas finds himself forced to make his own way in the world. His adventures gave Dickens the opportunity to portray an extraordinary gallery of rogues and eccentrics: Wackford Squeers, the tyrannical headmaster of Dotheboys Hall, a school for unwanted boys, the slow-witted orphan Smike, rescued by Nicholas, the pretentious Mantalinis and the gloriously theatrical Mr and Mrs Crummels and their daughter, the 'infant phenomenon'. Like many of Dickens's novels, Nicholas Nickleby is characterised by his outrage at cruelty and social injustice, but it is also a flamboyantly exuberant work, whose loose, haphazard progress harks back to the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. In his introduction Mark Ford compares Nicholas Nickleby to eighteenth-century picaresque novels, and examines Dickens's criticism of the 'Yorkshire schools', his social satire and use of language.

Why I wanted to read it: Group read, mentioned enough times in 2017 by enough people as being a desirable way to start the new year.

Once again, a meandering, character-, description-, and action-filled novel by Dickens.

Coincidences abound. To describe the plot is to describe the lives of dozens of people, with actions taking place some twenty years earlier having significant effect on the current story. Sometimes I felt like I was wading through molasses. Some sentences and paragraphs are almost unintelligible to the modern reader. I re-read quite a few to untangle a sentence or try to get to the true meaning.

The social outrage and muckraking nature of Dickens are very apparent here with the horrendous conditions at Dotheboys Hall and criminal behavior of the entire Squeers family. Ralph Nickleby seems to be an early version of Scrooge, with moneymaking and sharp business dealings providing the source of his happiness in life.

Nicholas and his sister Kate are gentle and kindly people. Mrs. Nickleby, their mother, reminds me strongly of Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, although to do justice to Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Nickleby is more flighty, self-centered and ineffectual.

I was particularly charmed by the Cheeryble Brothers, who embody the best motives and good will towards humanity that I have read about in a long time, perhaps forever. They do good works in a humble and self-effacing way, almost paranoid in their unwillingness to take credit or gain from their thoughtful saving of the lives, reputations, and health of the unfortunate people they run across. They do good for as many people as they can, in whatever way they can. Their actions also bring bad people to justice.

Smike, ill-fated, slow-witted Smike, breaks my heart. Abandoned to the Squeers and then financially abandoned so that the Squeers family turns him into a slave, his fate is sad yet almost predetermined. Consumption takes him in the end, but in the meantime Nicholas has rescued him and provided safety, love, and care. Their relationship is touching.

And finally, Newman Noggs, with that glorious name, is one of the prime movers and shakers of this book. He is behind quite a few of the actions that pull together what appear to be separate plot threads. He works for Ralph Nickleby, but is instrumental in how the lives of many of the characters are changed.

All in all, a long, rich, detailed, read. Also frustrating and occasionally slow. The beginning was quick paced, the middle rather bewildering. However, as many of the subplots turned out to be part of one big plot, things picked up again in the last 100 or so pages.

>64 karenmarie: Congratulations Karen. It is a chunk isn't it. But I was glad I read it, And glad for the group read, providing the motivation to keep reading. So Thanks for setting that up!

>65 EllaTim: Hi Ella! Thank you. So glad to meet my goal of getting it read in January and glad I read it, too. You're welcome for my setting up the group read.

Good morning, Karen! Well done on completing Nicholas Nickleby in January! Have a great Thursday.

>68 harrygbutler: Hi Harry and thank you. 789 pages, whew! Today I'm going to visit Jenn, @nittnut in Greensboro, meeting at Scuppernong Books for books and lunch. This will be my first meet up EVER with anybody from LT.

Peggy - I want to come visit you soon, too! And then eventually the three of us need to meet up in Pittsboro, have lunch at S&T Soda Shoppe and walk 1/2 block to Circle City Books.

Edited to add: I absolutely could not bear to watch drumpf's speech, but it turns out that my first cousin once removed, Ryan Holets, and his wife Rebecca and baby Hope, were guests of Melania Trump. Nobody in the family let me know - I MIGHT have watched just to see my cousin. I hasten to mention that I've never met him, but am proud from a distance at what he and his wife did.

>69 karenmarie: How fun! Enjoy the meetup and the book-buying!

Hi Karen,

I also did not watch the SOTU address the other night. trump is not welcome in my living room. However, I decided to watch saner analysis yesterday. So I tuned into the late night host's reports, online, via youtube. Trevor Noah was as great as you'd expect him to be. Also caught Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon (though I wasn't all that impressed with the last one).

>57 karenmarie: Ouch! That's a good reason to switch!

>72 ChelleBearss: Hi Chelle! No more pain to make any kind of fashion statement.

Love the fashion/age discussion. I gave up wearing skirts and dresses many many years ago...I would have worn a classy pants suit to my daughter's wedding if I could have found one I liked. My mother DID, but she needed to be talked into it. I could tell she wanted to, but her generation didn't DO that kind of thing, and she was a professional woman in a man's world for so long that "proper" was her middle name. She would have been scandalized to see how I dressed for work sometimes in the last few years... I have to admit that nice dresses do seem to be making a come-back, and I admire the style on many of the women on news broadcasts, etc.

In elementary school, until I was in 4th grade (early 70s), we were not allowed to wear pants, except on very cold days and only under a skirt. Like Roni, I can recall that there was a way to check the hem length, but I think ours was that with our arms down to our sides, the skirt had to go past our fingertips. My arms must have gotten shorter as I have aged because that would make for a very short skirt nowadays. After college in the mid-80s, when I started at Ernst & Whinney (now Ernst & Young), the international accounting firm, women were required to wear suits with skirts, and those knotted ties that women wore in the 80s. We weren't even allowed to wear dresses for a couple of years, and it wasn't until the mid-90s that women were allowed to wear suits with pants. Casual Fridays followed about a year or so after that. It's so funny to think about how much fashion has changed over my work career. Now working from home, I don't think I have put on a pair of pantyhose or high heels for years and years, and I don't miss them a bit! Now a nice pair of pants and a twin set is about as dressed up as I care to get - with some nice flat shoes. (And Karen, I'm with you - underwires are way too pokey!)

Congrats on finishing N2.

>63 karenmarie: So glad it was a successful re-read!

>64 karenmarie:

>69 karenmarie: Have a great meetup!

*smooch*

Congratulations on finishing Nicholas Nickleby, Karen! Your comments all made sense to me. As I got into the last part of the book - the hundred pages or so - I couldn't put it down. I was touched by the Smike-Nicholas relationship, too.

>69 karenmarie: Have fun meeting up with Jenn! LT people are the best.

>63 karenmarie: My aunt loved this series. Too bad she died before Z.

>70 harrygbutler: Thanks, Harry!

>71 jessibud2: “not welcome in my living room.” You got that right. I think I’m glad I didn’t know my cousin would be there – my head might have exploded from the conflicting messages. *smile*

>74 laytonwoman3rd: Hi Linda! I got rather lax in my last several years at work, too, I must admit. One of the women on our TV news, which I only see if I’m passing through the Living Room, wears nice dresses, the other wear strange ones with large bizarre jewelry.

>75 rretzler: I think our skirts had to be past our fingertips, too, Robin. I wore those suits with the silk ties in the 1980s and even the year or two after I moved to NC in the early 1990s. Still have a few of them tucked away in the closet. I really need to get rid of sooo many clothes.

Thanks re N2. It’s a big weight off my shoulders, for sure. In a nice way, but a weight nevertheless.

>76 richardderus: Yes

*smile*

Thank you.

*smooch* from Horrible

>77 jnwelch: Thanks Joe, and I’m glad I wasn’t too far off the mark.

>78 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel. No Z is very sad for those of us who have loved the series. Ah well, it is what it is.

It was my first meet up with anybody from LT ever, and we had a great time. We talked about books and families and kids and … books books and books and had lunch at the Café. The menu at Scuppernong Books is very clever. I only remember a couple offhand, but we each had a grilled tuna salad sandwich called the Pablo Natuna. There was the Go Feta Watchman, Eudora Melty… you get the idea. It was so much fun. I held myself to one book, A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley and Jenn gave me a book from her own shelves, Britt-Marie Was Here by the author of A Man Called Ove, Fredrick Backman.

I'm whupped - I think I was what my husband's mother called 'journey proud' - excited about a trip and unable to sleep. So I wrote my two reviews and figured out January's statistics before I left for Greensboro. I even took a 2-hour nap this afternoon. Tomorrow there are no plans. *grin*

Mom wrote pants, but she did have to wait until my grandmother died before she got her ears pierced. Trashy. Welcome to the South!

Karen--Is it too late to wish you a happy newish thread? And congrats on finishing N2!!



I missed the moon event--clouds, clouds, clouds. Curses!

Have fun with no plans tomorrow. : )

Oh! You got to meet Jenn! And Jenn got to meet you!

Nope, I am not jealous AT ALL.... Nope, nope, nope. *frowny face*

I'm finding this discussion really interesting - it's so far from what I grew up with. School uniforms are illegal here, and as far as I'm aware have never been a thing historically either (well, maybe in the 1800's when only rich people went to school more than a few years).
I wear jeans to work most days, and have at every job I've ever had. That goes for most people I know and know of, including doctors, etc. The only people who wear suits and the like are bank staff, lawyers and real estate agents.
Never being forced to wear anything is probably a big reason why I love skirts and dresses today (always have, actually) - they're so much more comfortable than trousers and if they have pockets it's heaven.

Dare I mention that my mum wore hotpants and a coat with slits all the way to the waist at my uncle's wedding?

Re: clothing choices...as a kid I always wore shorts, I hated skirts as thought them far to girly (i needed to climb trees, you see). And now in winter all I wear is skirts and tights. I love them :)

>83 PawsforThought: My Aunt, the local beauty queen, was probably actually crazy by the time her psychiatrists were done with her. She wore leather slacks to me grandmother's funeral. She was about 75 at the time.

>85 SomeGuyInVirginia: I wouldn't even raise an eyebrow at someone wearing that. If it's their style of clothes and they feel good wearing that, I don't have an issue with it. Mini-skirts, buttoned-up shirts and or shirts/tops that are cut über low I'd have an issue with, but not leather trousers.

Good morning, Karen! Glad you had a good time at the meetup. A few days ago we had a surprise at the feeder — a red-bellied woodpecker for the first time. I was busy working, but Otto saw it and found it interesting enough that his behavior at the window overlooking the feeder drew me over for a look.

>80 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry. Your grandmother must have been quite a force to cause your mother to wait to get her ears pierced. My husband’s mother never did and although I don’t remember her ever saying “Trashy” about my pierced ears, I can imagine her muttering it to herself. Thank goodness even we didn’t know about Jenna’s tongue ring until after Mama died – I can imagine what kind of kerfuffle that would have caused! Know anybody who would like dozens and dozens of clip-on-earrings? I inherited all of ‘em from her and Bill's grandmother.

>81 Berly: Hi Kim! Thank you. Nope. Never too late. I like the stars. Whether for the thread or N2, I’ll take them. I’m sorry you missed the Super Blue Blood Moon (I like writing it and saying it!).

So far I’ve gotten up, fed Kitty William (he yowls when he knows I’m up until I feed him), gotten through half a cup of coffee, and opened a window in the Sunroom because it feels stuffy. It’s a nice bright 38F so that won’t last long.

>82 katiekrug: Yes! My first meet up ever! It was a high-energy talk talk talk and book book book time. I loved it.

>83 PawsforThought: Hi Paws! I’m sure you’ve mentioned it somewhere and I just missed it or forgot it, but where do you live, generally speaking?

Having the freedom to wear what you want makes a big difference, so brava for skirts and tights! And I love the idea of hot pants at a wedding!

>84 LovingLit: Hi Megan! Your name came up yesterday when I asked Jenn where she lived in NZ and then asked where you lived and if you guys had met. Of course you had!

I was always able to wear shorts and long pants at home and playing outside. Didn’t get my first jeans ‘til I was about 10 but couldn’t wear them anywhere except playing outside. I forget when that changed although we still couldn’t wear jeans to school on Pants Days, just slacks.

>85 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! I have a vision of a genteel Southern Lady wearing leather pants to a funeral.

>86 PawsforThought: Buttoned-up shirts – I used to wear my shirts buttoned all the way up. Now I am risqué and leave the first and sometimes even the SECOND button unbuttoned!

One time at Jenna’s high school, I was asked to participate on a panel that rated student projects. The students had to dress ‘appropriately’, conforming to the school dress code and upping it one notch as if for a potential job interview. The only negative thing I ever said was when one girl wore an über low cut top that showed the tat on her left breast. She could have dressed a bit more discretely since the purpose of the exercise was to get them to think of how people viewed them. I'm probably just an old fuddy-duddy about tattoos, but lots of fuddy-duddys are hiring authorities.

I bought one book yesterday, A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, and Jenn gave me a beautiful copy of Britt-Marie Was Here since I had spoken so positively about A Man Called Ove. I’m going to start one of those two and also pick a nonfiction book.

I started Why Buddhism Is True two nights ago but was immediately put off by his reference to The Matrix, which I have a long negative history with and no positive feelings about. I set it down. I may try to push past that or pick up Quiet by Susan Cain.

>87 harrygbutler: Good morning, Harry! The meet up was fantastic. And, good for Otto and I'm glad you saw the woodpecker. They always thrill me because they are so different from most other birds.

Congrats on the successful meet-up! Yay! :)

>88 karenmarie: I believe that's only a passing reference to The Matrix in Why Buddhism is True, Karen. (Huh. Touchstones not working this morning). I don't remember any other one.

Congrats on finishing NN. It's a Dickens I haven't read. Someday.

I've been thinking I should read Grafton. I've only read A, B, and G. I should start over.

>88 karenmarie: Your meet-up sounds like fun. And two interesting new books. And time to read them since you finished NN. I read about the Jane Smiley somewhere here, and it seemed a good one.

>88 karenmarie: I live in Sweden. And yeah, I love the hotpans/short shorts too. My mum has always been cool.

And one (at a funeral) or two (generally) buttons unbottoned is perfectly good for me - but I've seen far too many middle-aged men with shirts unbuttoned all the way to their belly button. Urgh!

>90 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle!

>91 jnwelch: I know, I know, Joe. Silly of me. Probably against the whole central theme of the book and Buddhism too, somehow. I haven't openedQuiet yet, so may continue.

>92 BLBera: Thanks, Beth! It's funny, because when I finish a Dickens, I feel immediately relief and pride that I 'got through' another. I'll think about this one for a while, as I have over the other two I read.

I think it depends on when you read A and B. I read 'em so long ago that I felt it necessary to restart. I did that with the Outlander series, too - I'd read the first four (totaling 4,002 pages) before continuing on with number five.

>93 EllaTim: It was, Ella. I rarely end the month with every book started finished, so this is unusual. I am on page 11 now of A Thousand Acres and am going to continue with Why Buddhism is True, although the first chapter title is Taking the Red Pill and rubs it in my face.

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I come from an Iowa farm family, two generations removed. My maternal grandmother was born and raised on the farm, which her nephew, my cousin George, and his wife Joanne still run. Here's the farmhouse, built in the 1880s or 1890s, I think, after George and Joanne restored it to what it looked like when it was first built, including the colors. Knowing George, he's got the original receipts for the paint and/or the formula if they mixed the colors themselves.

>95 karenmarie: Love that house!

>95 karenmarie: That's a beauty! Is that a basement window on the lower left, or a crawl space? I've always loved basements in old houses, they have the coolest stuff.

>95 karenmarie: How do, Horrible, that's one spiffy farmhouse! I love all the red paint those folks used...a way to reuse the rust they had to scrape off their tools!

>95 karenmarie: Pretty farmhouse!

Morning, Karen! Your meet-up with Jenn sounds full of fabulous. How very fun!

>96 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda. It's wonderful, isn't it?

>97 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks! It's a full basement, Larry. It's quite wonderful. And they do have the coolest stuff, for sure.

>98 richardderus: Thanks, RD! I love the colors, too.

>99 Crazymamie: Thanks, and good morning-almost-afternoon to you too, Mamie! It was a lot of fun.

Glad to read you enjoyed your very first LT-meet-up, Karen!

Oh yes, Anita! A totally positive experience. Jenn's a wonderful person.

I'm continuing with Why Buddhism is True. So far so good.

>102 karenmarie: So you got past the reference to The Matrix, that annoyed you?

Hi Karen, what a fabulous farmhouse my dear, I would love to live in it for sure. Hope all is well with you and Bill and you have had a good week dear friend. Karen is still not 100% but she is getting a little better and I am still keeping up my nursing duties, lol. Sending love and hugs to you both from both of us.

>103 FAMeulstee: Yes. Unfortunately I looked at the Index and there are 8 references. HOWEVER, 8 is my lucky number, so I'm going to forge ahead because of the good number karma. *smile*

>104 johnsimpson: Hi John. Thank you. The house is a fascinating combination of old and new. I'd love to live in it too, except for all the farmwork that goes along with it. Even though I live in a rural area now, I am definitely not a farm girl! I'm glad Karen is doing better and hope she gets to 100% very soon. Sending love and hugs back to you both!

Happy Saturday, Karen. And very belated Happy New Thread. I hope you had a good week. I could probably spend the rest of the afternoon, catching up on threads, but I didn't get as much reading in, as I would have liked, so it will be make up time.

Thanks for keeping my thread warm, during my absence. Always a joy to see.

Lovely house Karen! But such a lot of painting to keep up with! What kind of farm is it now, cattle? (Sorry just curious)

>95 karenmarie: I love it when people restore older buildings or renovate with care and keep the original features and colours. Looks like your cousin has done a great job.

>106 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I'm glad you had such a wonderful time, just as glad to see you back here warbling. I did have a good week. The best part was my first ever LT meet up with @nittnut Jenn in Greensboro. We talked for 3 hours straight and looked at and bought books (well she bought books, I bought book. But the one I bought is a doozy - A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. I'm on page 126 of 371.)

>107 EllaTim: Thanks, Ella! I don't know how often they have to have it done. It's a crops farm - mostly corn and soybeans - perhaps some cows. But the focus is on crops.

>108 PawsforThought: Thanks, Paws. The farm is a Century Farm and they have had their ups and downs over the years but when there's money they put it back into the buildings and land. Probably not in that order. *smile*

Hi Karen. I'm glad you enjoyed a happy meetup with Jenn. Kinda jealous I am.

You should read Quiet. I didn't read every word closely, but the book had chapters that made me feel so vindicated, strange as that seems to me. There's a chapter about group thinking in business settings. A sort of psychological manipulation by employers: "We don't care what works for you, we want you to do it this way." As an introvert, and an easily distracted one at that, I didn't particularly like chummy team meetings.

I am Slugging It Out with Every Heart a Doorway. I hate this book.

OTOH, I'm thoroughly loving Everybody Lies. I got it because it offered some insights into how 45 got close enough to being elected for the Russians to plausibly steal it for him without being about politics, which I *need* to swear off of or I'll go back down the rabbit hole that ate my ability to experience happiness in 2017.

>110 weird_O: Hi Bill! I've always been jealous of meet ups, too, to tell the truth.

In 1989 I was fired from a job because the man I worked for resented the fact that he'd been told to hire me instead of the guy he wanted to hire. He said "I wasn't working out", but the reality is that HE was a very insecure little man and a strong intelligent woman threatened him. I was devastated. I negotiated outplacement services, 3 months of salary and 3 months of paid insurance. The outplacement service gave me a series of test, one of which was Myers-Briggs. I am an INTJ - .8% of the population. So early on I knew I was an introvert and it made things easier at jobs after that for sure. I've never felt inferior from being an introvert, just in the minority. I've always been able to say "I don't like what the group has decided but I will implement the decision" as long as it's not immoral, unethical, or illegal. Fortunately, that's never happened to force the issue.

So embrace your introversion. I'm glad Quiet helped. I want to read Quiet not to identify myself as an introvert, but to gain a better understanding of how introverts fit into the world.

>111 richardderus: I saw that on your thread, RichardDear. I'm so sorry you hate it - I briefly checked it out on Amazon and it gets lots of positive reviews and is "a mini-masterpiece of portal fantasy", whatever that means. I suppose I'll read your review about it eventually.....

I can see why you would like Everybody Lies, too. Not about politics but about things peripheral to 45 - a good way to not go down the rabbit hole again. *smooch*

We're having dinner out with friends tonight. It's another one of those "it sounded good when we made the plans but both of us would rather just stay in". They are great people and we'll have a good time, but still. David's so high energy that for this poor introvert I can almost feel the energy going out of me across the table. Bill's more extrovert than introvert so will gain energy, too. Terry's quieter like me. Oh well, tomorrow NO PLANS except to stay in and watch the Super Bowl.

Stopping by with Happy New Thread wishes and loving the clothing fashion/age conversation! I own aprons - gifts received - but I never use them.

So happy to see you are re-reading the Kinsey Millhone series! Also, excellent review of Nicholas Nickleby!

>95 karenmarie: - What a beautiful house!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

I'm running behind. Congrats on finishing Nicholas Nickleby. I love the photo of the old farmhouse.

>110 weird_O:, >112 karenmarie: - I WILL read Quiet this year! It's been on my nighttable for a few years, waiting patiently. I have been told by many people (some of whom actually know me!) that this is a book that will speak to me. I am already quite aware that I am an introvert, but am curious, nonetheless.

Belatedly, glad you had a great meet-up. They're a delight, aren't they?

>112 karenmarie: Oh dear, that story of being fired is terrible. I always thought of myself as never having to deal with workplace sexism, but the #metoo movement made me realize that I have. Hitting on me (especially by a boss) is sexism! Weird that it took a whole movement for me to figure that out. I was just used to the whole thing, and never thought much about it. Except the time when it was my boss, and recently when a patient was doing it non-stop, I haven't been bothered by it.

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. Hooray for a Meet Up with Jenn. Always a celebratory time. Glad you snagged A Thousand Acres. I loved that one. Powerful stuff.

I plan on having a lazy day with the books.

>113 lkernagh: Hi Lori! Thank you. I should wear aprons. Of course at this point I’d have to buy one. I’m wondering if an artist’s smock might not work – I hate how restrictive aprons feel.

Thank you re NN and the house, and I’ll be picking up B is for Burglar next, I think.

We had a nice dinner with our friends. We were saved the hundreds of photos of their Ireland trip by the time constraint of the Carolina Pitt game, which everybody except me HAD to watch. I would have enjoyed perhaps 50 photos or so, but 2 years ago their 10-day Costa Rica trip was literally 300 or so photos, so this 21-day trip could have easily topped 600. They are great photos, but really need an edit before sharing. Plus a tablet in a restaurant isn’t the best way. They’ve invited us to their house for our next dinner, so perhaps we’ll be able to relax there and see them.

>114 thornton37814: It’s a huge book, for sure, Meg. It really picked up the last hundred pages or so for me. I hope it does for you too. Thanks re the farmhouse.

>115 jessibud2: Good for you! I haven’t had it staring at me as long as you have, but I want to read it soon, too.

>116 The_Hibernator: First one was wonderful, for sure, Rachel.

I had a boss, in the 1983-1984 timeframe who came around my desk and rubbed my shoulders. I still can’t figure out if was a genuine attempt to take the tension out of my shoulders or some kind of weird sexual thing for him, but it was a serious Ewwwww moment. I immediately rearranged my office furniture so that he couldn’t get behind my desk. He was a large man and I made the opening between the end of my desk and the wall too narrow for him. *smile* This is the same man who everybody tried to avoid sitting next to at lunch because he sprayed food by talking and eating at the same time. We all took one for the team occasionally.

The #metoo movement is wonderful for bringing awareness that it’s all inappropriate. It always was, but most men hadn’t and still haven't gotten the memo.

>117 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark! I’m almost two thirds of the way through it and you’re right, it is powerful stuff.

So I was up reading in the middle of the night for a while (jasmine tea at dinner, low-level caffeine) and only got up about half an hour ago. I’ve had my first several sips of coffee. I’ll be making a bit of breakfast in a few minutes. Today is chili day, possibly Chex mix day for the Super Bowl, and stay in day. We are apparently not going to get any sleet or freezing rain, but it is raining out. The birds have been emptying the bird feeders at an alarming rate.

>118 karenmarie: - The #metoo movement is wonderful for bringing awareness that it’s all inappropriate. It always was, but most men hadn’t and still haven't gotten the memo.

Bingo. Exactly

>118 karenmarie: Good thinking about the furniture rearrangement. I wonder if he got the point?

>119 jessibud2: I'm just glad that women are speaking out.

>120 laytonwoman3rd: He had to, Linda - he couldn't touch me! *smile*

He never said anything, I never said anything. He was a great boss, by the way - eccentric and caring and got the best out of all of us. He promoted women equally with men. I ended up a supervisor in the IT department there and leveraged it into a manager's job when I left.

Morning, Karen! We are also having Chex Mix for the Super Bowl - Rae made her special batch.

Hi Mamie!

Yay Chex Mix.

Superbowl snacks!

Hi, Karen! I hope you've been having a good weekend. We got to see a hawk pounce upon some sort of prey while driving earlier this afternoon, and there were a couple more hawks to be seen out hunting, including one just sitting on a median guardrail.

>124 richardderus: That's quite a spread!

>126 thornton37814: One doesn't wish to appear cheap at such moments.

Hey Horrible! *smooch*

>124 richardderus: Richard, that is clever and practical all rolled up into one.

>125 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! I had a great weekend and enjoyed the Super Bowl. It was an amazing game and since we were cheering for the Eagles were especially happy at the way it turned out! Foles and that touchdown run! Lots of wonderful plays and even though the announcers were biased and let it show, we enjoyed every minute of it. I didn't watch the halftime though.

Hawk watching is fun. I see them over my pastures almost every day - the usual "red" suspects - Red-Tailed and Red-Shouldered.

>126 thornton37814: Hi Lori! I wish we'd had all those snacks.

>127 richardderus: You were generous to a fault, darling Richard! My virtual self ate 'em all up.

Hey and *smooch* back! First cup of coffee almost done, a bit of brekkie in a bit.

'Vinston' is supposed to come over today, first with a curio cabinet that friend Louise is giving to me, then he's going to take a huge branch off one of the barn roofs and cut it and a variety of branches that have fallen over the last 6 months and haul them away. He doesn't know it yet, but he's also going to take the Christmas tree, wreath, and a rotten old ladder too. Depending on time and how much he can fit in his trailer, I may ask him to pick up the remainder of the fallen-from-Hurricane-Matthew branches in the pasture.

>124 richardderus: See, now I want guac. Didn't have any Superb Owl munchies at my house. We aren't football fans, but I did watch the end of the game last night. Totally worth staying up to see that sack!

>128 karenmarie: We often get to watch a red-tail in the field across the road from us too. Once, a couple years ago, it swooped into our yard onto a rabbit, but it misjudged something (I think the bunny fought back!) and ended up crashing into an evergreen. It sat on the ground shaking its feathers for a couple minutes before flying off. The rabbit crouched under another tree for quite a while, and then disappeared. A draw, we think.

>79 karenmarie: Isn't it fun to have your first meet-up? Those meet-up posts that most LTers do always look so fabulous. I had my first EVER meet-up with Judy, DeltaQueen50, last year. Unfortunately there was no bookstore nearby but there was a book involved The Poisoned Chocolates Case which Judy gave me. That reminds me I should read it soon.

I remember Quiet as a very interesting book. I think it disappeared into my son's room. Hmm, I wonder if those larger meet-ups would be that great for introverts?

>129 laytonwoman3rd: I love guacamole. Bill and Jenna won't touch it. I usually get it out with friends if we eat at Mexican restaurants.

How funny about both the hawk and the rabbit having to regroup after crashing into the evergreen.

>130 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! Totally excellent, especially in a book store that also had a great café. If I can get Jenn down and Peggy up to my town for a group meet up, we've got a great soda shoppe and an interesting used book store is just half a block away.

I wonder what the split is between introverts and extroverts in the 75ers?

I just finished A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. What an amazing book.

13. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
2/1/18 to 2/5/18





From Amazon:

This powerful twentieth-century reimagining of Shakespeare’s King Lear centers on a wealthy Iowa farmer who decides to divide his farm between his three daughters. When the youngest objects, she is cut out of his will. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions. Ambitiously conceived and stunningly written, A Thousand Acres takes on themes of truth, justice, love, and pride—and reveals the beautiful yet treacherous topography of humanity.

Why I wanted to read it: It called out to me from a shelf at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro while I was at an LT meetup with @nittnut.

I can see why this book won the Pulitzer Prize. It is beautifully and powerfully written from the viewpoint of one of the daughters, Ginny, the eldest, least ambitious, and most timorous of the three sisters. She is a combination of insightful and willfully blind.

I didn’t realize until after I’d finished it and read A Conversation with Jane Smiley by Ron Fletcher in the back of the book that it is a retelling of King Lear. This just proves that I’ve never read King Lear because the story was unknown to me and didn’t ring any Shakespearean bells.

There was an overwhelming sense of doom and futility throughout. There was also an amazing sense of the land and the people who farm it. Strong, dedicated, hard-working; also insular, taciturn, and private.

This book begs to be re-read.

>132 karenmarie: ...and no mention of sprained wrists...

>132 karenmarie: Jane Smiley doesn't work for me, and I can't figure out why. I read this one a few years ago, and was completely underwhelmed. (I didn't get the King Lear connection either, and I DID read the play in college.) My vague recollection is that I wanted to give all the women a good shake. Now I wonder if I ought to refresh my acquaintance with Lear, and then give it another go. I've been enjoying the Hogarth series of re-imaginings of Shakespeare quite a lot. Maybe the timing was just wrong before, but I was also disappointed in a non-fiction volume about craftsmen in the Catskills, which she compiled.

>132 karenmarie: That one's somewhere in the long list Karen. Hope you're having a good Tuesday.

>133 richardderus: Good (early) morning, RD! Insomnia has reared its ugly head. One cup of coffee down. And no, no damaged body parts from reading in bed. I usually sit up in the Retreat, feet resting on an ottoman to keep my poor right hip from twinging on me, but last night was too lazy to do that!

>134 laytonwoman3rd: Hi Linda! I have authors like that, too - no matter what anybody else says or how the standing the author has, s/he doesn't work for me. This book grabbed me because of my Iowa farm connections and the author's style just happened to be one I immediately felt at home with. I hasten to add that there's nothing in family lore that is remotely like the situation portrayed in the Cook and extended families. I do like how you put it - 'give all the women a good shake'.

It's an interesting mix of feminine suppression and feminine liberation. Ginny never felt the need to get off the farm which was a direct result of her being sexually abused by her father, IMO. These memories were repressed for a long time but eventually came out. Rose had huge ambitions but felt trapped by her need to protect Caroline and Ginny and later her daughters from their father/grandfather. Caroline never felt any connection to the farm or the farm life and made her escape to Des Moines and became a lawyer.

Sigh. I really should read King Lear.

I have Moo and Horse Heaven on my shelves. Actually seeing the copy of Moo front cover out on a shelf at Scuppernong Books caused me to walk over there, and that's where I saw A Thousand Acres.

>135 souloftherose: Hi Heather! I have a long list, too. It just depends on what calls to us when, right?

I woke up at 3:15 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so here I am, mostly awake, and reading B is for Burgler, the second in the Alphabet Series by Sue Grafton. I may or may not go back to sleep. The only things I need to do today are some FoL check writing and general catch up and getting the last of the fish tank items on to the back porch.

Yesterday when Vinston & crew cleaned up the downed branches and etc. from the yard ($650, four trailer-loads to the dump), he brought over Louise's (and now my) curio cabinet. We've got in the breakfast room right now. He asked if he could put it where I really wanted it but I said that the 56-gallon fish tank needed to be emptied and carried out first. I hadn't gotten the gumption to fill a 5-gallon bucket 10 times to dump the water yet. (The last fish, a very long-lived Black Tetra, died a while ago.) He asked if I had a hose, which I did, and he put one end in the fish tank, blew really hard into the other end, and the resulting vacuum caused the water to all drain out in about 45 minutes or so to the yard. Bill and I got the tank/stand out onto the back porch. Vinston called later to ask if he could buy it for his grandson, and I said he could just have it and everything associated with it. I need to put the two trash bags of wet accessories and the box of not-wet accessories outside with the tank so he can pick them up tomorrow. This saves me a trip to the dump and I'm glad someone wants to try to clean it up and use it.

>132 karenmarie: Great review of A Thousand Acres. If you post it, I will Thumb it. I seriously, NEED to do a reread of this one.

Morning, Karen. Back to the arctic grind today. Oh, joy. Hey, it was inevitable, right?

Rearranging the furniture was such a great way to get your point across! It took away the awkwardness of a more direct approach, but still got the job done. My situation was a bit harder to deal with. This guy hired only attractive women employees (ok MOSTLY attractive women, and one guy). He would tend to fire the ones that didn't react positively to his flirting, and I was one of those victims. Another person was suing him when I got fired, but at the time I didn't want to participate. I was sick of working for him. It was probably a bad idea in the long run. He tried to get me to quit because of the other woman that was suing, and I told him I wouldn't because I wouldn't get unemployment. Then he insisted I would never work in Ohio again if I didn't quit instead of getting fired. I insisted on getting fired. Wanted that unemployment. He was right, though, I never got a job in Ohio again. And by the time I moved back to Minnesota, I was in a full-blown undiagnosed bipolar flare-up so couldn't get a job fitting my education there, either.

I go back and forth on blaming my former boss and blaming my undiagnosed mental illness on the fact that I never again got a good job in my field. But it turned out all right in the end. I'm happy where I am. (Yes, I'm a homemaker with a PhD, but I enjoy being a homemaker so far....for the whole month that I've been doing it.)

>136 karenmarie: - Hi Karen. Draining the tank into your yard. Is it cold enough there for you to have a skating rink out there now? That's what would happen here, that's for sure! Lots of people do turn their back yards into winter rinks! :-)

I tried reading the Jane Smiley book many years ago and just couldn't get into it. Possibly just the wrong book at the wrong time, for e. I think there was a film made from it (which I never saw, either)

I remember loving A Thousand Acres when I read it in high school. Also King Lear :) Moo is quite funny, and I've read another of hers whose title I can't recall at the moment but it was an earlier work. Anyway, I like Jane Smiley a lot and have several more on my shelves to read.

Have a good Tuesday, Karen!

Good morning, Karen! I confirmed yesterday that we have at least two chickadees visiting our feeders now, as I saw both at the same time.

>137 msf59: Good morning, Mark! I’ve posted my review and thank you in advance for Thumb-ing it.

I just hope you have a light day to help you ease back rather than jerk back into the world of work.

>138 The_Hibernator: I’m passive-aggressive, Rachel. The furniture rearranging worked for me. I loved that job and loved that company. I worked for them 5 years then jumped companies for a promotion to manager.

Your situation sounds much more like real sexual harassment than mine and I’m sorry that you didn’t get a job again in your field, in OH or MN. Blame and ‘what if’ are futile exercises unless they bring clarity of purpose or spiritual/emotional comfort. I’ve done a lot of ‘what-iffing’ in my life and have resolved to avoid unproductive what-iffing as much as I can and be kinder to myself.

Being happy where you are is the most important thing. And don’t ever be defensive about your choice to be a wife, homemaker, mother. Feminism is about choice. Choice to whatever you want to be and do. I am impatient with women who scorn homemaking and any other choice that doesn’t fit in with some militant version of what it means to be female. That was the whole purpose of Feminism, in my opinion. Now, if you talk about coercion (sexual or lifestyle or career), lack of opportunities for women who want them, or sexism in wages, then I’m right there on the battlefront.

Off my soapbox. *smile*

>139 jessibud2: Hi Shelley! I have to laugh – it did get to 26F last night, but we emptied the tank over some riprap we have in the back (the back of our house is really what faces the road 300 or more feet away). It’s a bit hard to see, but there’s riprap behind the birdbath up and around a retaining wall.



While looking the book up after finishing it, I did see that there was a movie made in 1997. One of my favorites was in it – Colin Firth, so I really want to see it now. Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer too.

>140 katiekrug: Hi Katie! Glad to see a fan. Today is a (mostly) home day – I might go out to make a FoL bank deposit. Might go next door to visit Louise. Other than that, just me. Yay.

>141 harrygbutler: ‘Morning, Harry! I always smile when I see Chickadees. You get Black-Capped, I get Carolina. Either way, they’re distinctive.

Morning, Karen! Sorry to see that you've had some insomnia. Hope you get some rest today!

>143 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle - I might say the same for you with your teething-interrupted sleep! I went back to sleep 'til 9. I may or may not take a nap today. :)

I got to sleep in until 730 today, so I can't complain too loudly ;-p

Morning, Karen! Nice review of A Thousand Acres - I have that one in the stacks.

Sorry about the lack of sleep - me, too with the insomnia. Yesterday sounds very productive - nicely done!

" I am impatient with women who scorn homemaking and any other choice that doesn’t fit in with some militant version of what it means to be female." You're singin' my song! Women telling women what they should aspire to is just as bad as men telling women what they cannot aspire to.

Insomnia, hah. My version is being unable to fall asleep. Once I fall asleep, I'm good for hours and hours and hours... At that end, the problem is getting up and getting moving.

Nice to hear I'm not alone in feeling that football commentators are biased numbskulls. The refs got the calls right, and that's what counted.

Still reading about spies and counterspies during WWII.

>146 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! Thank you. I'll be interested in what you think of it. How big is your TBR stack, anyway?

>147 laytonwoman3rd: I like the way you put it, Linda.

>148 weird_O: We're mostly the opposite. If my sleep is interrupted, like it was this morning, and I go back to bed, I feel off the rest of the day.

Ha. WWII spies and counterspies. My daughter has been watching documentaries about Nazi Mega Weapons (think V2 rocket) and was amused when they slipped in some stuff about Japanese weapons of destruction. She said they should have called it Axis Mega Weapons, not Nazi. She does love her history and documentaries, for sure.

I finished up the FoL stuff - checks and preparing a deposit. We got a matching gift check today so I found my copy of the form I filled out and mailed and e-mailed a thank you to the FoL member for being a member and giving us the opportunity to get matching funds. I've talked with my sister and my daughter. My sister is in a lot of discomfort from the stent she's got after kidney stone surgery and is dosing with Norco when necessary. She has a follow up appointment Thursday and is going to ask for another week off, which the doctor has already told her he's recommending. Poor darlin' has suffered with kidney stones from about two weeks before Thanksgiving 'til last Thursday.

Poor darlin' has suffered with kidney stones from about two weeks before Thanksgiving 'til last Thursday.

HOW DID SHE LIVE?!? I would've expired! *owowowow*

Send her get-out-of-marriage-free vibes from me!

She kept thinking they'd pass, although frankly 6mm stones (.23 inches) are not going to pass naturally. Does the fact that they have Kaiser explain any of it?

Her husband almost died from kidney stones by his treatment from Kaiser 2 1/2 years ago - they weren't aggressive and then when they were they nearly killed him. I'm sure that was in the back of her mind when she wanted to wait and see if she could do this sans surgery. And then the holidays, then the new semester (she's administrative assistant at a huge community college in SoCal).....

I haven't even told her that I think I had kidney stones 2 weeks ago - a bit of lower back pain for 3 days then one night of bad pain that never quite escalated to the "Bill please take me to the ER for morphine" stage.

Huh. Get-out-of-marriage-free vibes. You sure know my feelings about that one.

I am so behind here, but did catch on to that you and Jenn had a meetup (cool). And that kidney stones are baaaaad news.

>50 karenmarie: Oh my goodness, I have a picture of myself in that same dress and hat! My mother always bought us new clothes for Easter and I always had to wear a hat and gloves! I was a real tomboy so it was torture for me every Easter! I will see if I can track down that picture when I go back down to see my Dad in March! And the crinolines...don't get me started!

Hi, Karen. Just catching up. I think I've said this before, but I really enjoyed Quiet. It is not so much about identifying yourself as an introvert, as most of us have already figured that out, but about the things that introverts are better at than extroverts. I've always felt that introverts get a bad rap from society and I thought Quiet sent a very powerful message - I just wish that many of the introverts I knew would read it. I was always labeled as shy growing up, when I'm really anything but (until people get to know me.) When my kids started school, the teachers would say the same thing - I always told them that it would take a month or two for them to observe and figure out the class dynamics and their place, but once they did, watch out! And I was usually, not always, proven correct!

>151 karenmarie: I'm sorry you haven't had good experience with Kaiser.. My hubby and I have had them for 30 years now (for me, he's had it longer) and have always had wonderful treatment and care from them. I really appreciate the emphasis on preventative care but have also had wonderful care when serious issues arose. Same is true for several friends of ours.

>151 karenmarie: I know nothing about Kaiser, but I'm gathering it's a large healthcare provider. I've got a lot of experience with those. I've found that I get the care I require so long as I am willing to require it out loud.

A friend of mine, married for 53 years to the same man, always said marriage should start with a 25-year commitment, then 5-year renewals, then annual ones after 40 years. I figure he knew his onions...those 53 years sounded fine and dandy until you got to the nitty-gritty!

>132 karenmarie: Thumbed! I did see the film, but it didn't leave much impression, despite the cast, unlike the book, which packs such a punch.

Oh dear god the idea of kidney stones scares me to death. One of the reasons I drink about a gallon of water a day is so I don't get them.

Morning, Karen. Waking up to more snow. I think this is the 3rd or 4th day in a row. Sighs...

Have a good day. Keep an eye on those feeders.

>152 LovingLit: Hi Megan! I know the feeling of being behind on threads. Two days ago I was caught up – I don’t always post – but I haven’t looked yet at how far behind I am today.

>153 Dianekeenoy: Hi Diane! Oh, I wanted that dress and hat and gloves and shoes soooo bad. I’d love to see your picture.

>154 rretzler: Hey Robin! When my kids started school, the teachers would say the same thing - I always told them that it would take a month or two for them to observe and figure out the class dynamics and their place, but once they did, watch out! And I was usually, not always, proven correct! You nailed it. Lucky kids to have an understanding mom who could alert/warn the teachers. That’s how I am in any new group too.

>155 RebaRelishesReading: It’s my sister and husband who have Kaiser, Reba. Mostly they get good care, but anytime anything unusual or expensive comes along Kaiser wants to wait. They didn’t even suggest surgery to my sister until after Christmas - 6 weeks by then. She could have been assertive and pushed sooner but with her husband’s experience and all that she had going on, she waited way longer than I would have.

>156 richardderus: Hello RD! Yes, it is. It’s also an HMO. Assertiveness is absolutely necessary, and when you can’t do it, you need a family member or friend to be your advocate.

When Jenna was 5 she had a cough. It lasted 6 months or more and the doctor kept giving me antibiotics for it. I started checking on the internet, and discovered what I felt to be the problem – cough-variant asthma. The next time I took her, he said “let’s try another round of antibiotics” and I said “Let’s not. I want albuterol for her.” He wasn’t particularly happy but got me the prescription for the syrup. That night I gave her a teaspoon and that stopped the cough. Eventually we had her on inhalers, and the asthma completely disappeared by the time she was 7.

I like the marriage commitment thing. I’ll see where we are at 30 years, 3 years down the road!

>157 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I do want to see the movie though.

>158 SomeGuyInVirginia: Good for you, Larry! I need to get back to drinking more water. They are absolutely no fun at all.

>159 msf59: Good morning! More snow? Wow, Mark. It’s off-and-on-again raining here. Going to get to 63F. Too warm for this time of year. *grumble*

I need to fill the ones in the back this morning – 3 sunflower feeders. This afternoon I’ll fill one of the feeders in the front, 2 parts wild bird seed and one part sunflower seed. The birds are hungry.

First sip of coffee. I’ll have some brekkie, read a bit, then meet my old IT department for lunch in Sanford, about 28 miles away, then hit the post office and bank for FoL.

14. B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton
2/5/18 to 2/6/18





From Amazon:

Although business has been slow lately for P.I. Kinsey Millhone, she's reluctant to take on the case of locating Beverly Danziger's sister Elaine Boldt. It's a small matter that Beverly should be able to handle herself. So why is she enlisting Kinsey's services? Beverly claims she needs Elaine's signature on some documents so that she can collect a small inheritance. But the whole affair doesn't sit well with Kinsey. And if there's something she's learned in her line of work, it's to always follow your instincts…

Kinsey's hunch proves true when she begins her inquiries into Elaine's whereabouts and discovers that the attractive widow was last seen in a flashy lynx coat boarding a plane for Boca Raton. But the more Kinsey searches for Elaine the more questions she encounters. Is Elaine's disappearance tied in to the brutal murder several months ago of one of her bridge partners? And what happened to Elaine's Persian cat who seems to have also vanished?

Things take a turn for the worse when a stranger vandalizes the home of one of Elaine's neighbors and another neighbor turns up murdered. With her reputation and career on the line, Kinsey risks all to find a missing woman and a killer who's waiting in the shadows to strike again…

Why I wanted to read it: My continuing tribute to Sue Grafton, who died in December of 2017.

There are several early hints as to what really happens, and I noted a couple of them but didn’t put it all together until after Kinsey did. We learn that Kinsey is nothing if not stubborn, has a deep sense of what is right and wrong, and occasionally does stupid things like forget to take a weapon when she knows a killer is out there.

These novels are told in the first person by Kinsey as case reports. The last page is always Epilogue, either a bit of action that occurs after the dramatic ending, or a bit of philosophizing. And then

--Respectfully submitted,
Kinsey Millhone

Good morning, Karen! A little light snow today has meant busy feeders, including the first cowbird I've seen since late fall, I think.

I wrote on @majleavy's thread that I've abandoned Why Buddhism is True. Between blue and red pills from The Matrix and using powdered-sugar donuts as a metaphor, I just got the sense that I could find a book about Buddhism that wouldn't be so tailored to an American's movie and food sensibilities. There's an awfully lot of 'me' in it, too. I may be missing something, true, but I'm not feeling the loss.

>161 karenmarie: Such fun, re-reading these in order. Like going to a favorite restaurant.

>163 karenmarie: I got 11% into it and said, "Hold, enough," so I guess it's damned be I.

Yucky day. Want a do-over.

>164 richardderus: Oh yes, I'm very pleased to be re-reading these this year, although obviously sad for the reason.

You and I will be damned together. We occasionally ATD, RD, but (don't tell anybody) I get a little thrill when you and I feel the same about a book. Shhhhh!

Why is today yucky? - Went back to your thread and am sorry to hear that you had a bad night because your roomie did.

Morning, Karen! Glad to see you enjoy the Alphabet series. I've seen that one around for years but never picked one up. I had not realized that Grafton had passed away. I see that she got to the letter Y. I wonder if she has Z written or if someone will finish up for her.

High, Karen. You asked on my thread what book I am reading about WWII spies and counterspies. Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre. It has set off a few sparks in my head—topics to look up, like the German rocketry program, which figures significantly in Michael Chabon's Moonglow and, of course, Gravity's Rainbow. And Operation Paperclip, which is on my wish list.

Reasonably engrossing.

>166 ChelleBearss: Hi Chelle! Grafton's family stated just after she died that she did not believe in ghost writers and didn't want any TV or movie adaptations of the Alphabet Series. I hope they stick to their guns, but it does mean no Z.

>167 weird_O: I like that - It has set off a few sparks in my head—topics to look up - I do that too. Sounds like a great plan, although Gravity's Rainbow - Pynchon - better you than me, I guess.

Just got back from lunch with former co-workers, going to the PO, getting into the bank for the FoL deposit and not remembering if I'd scanned the checks or not so brought the deposit home. I'll just create a consolidated deposit for tomorrow because I got memberships that I can process.

Rainy, dank, cold day. That's why the thought of the donuts I bought while in Sanford at the wonderful Sandra's Bakery make me feel so good. A fritter for me, and 6 donuts to do with as we will. The thought of a donut and some protein and some coffee for breakfast tomorrow morning already makes me feel good. The fritter is for today, of course. Can you say another pot of coffee? And C is for Corpse? My afternoon cup runneth over.

Hi Karen! It sounds like coffee, donuts and a book is just the cure for a rainy day.

Afternoon, Karen! I am glad that your afternoon cup runneth over. *grin*

>169 nittnut: Hi Jenn! I so rarely eat donuts anymore... I do feel cured. I'm on the second cup of coffee, and the donut disappeared in the middle of the first.

>170 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! Yup. Evil carbohydrates and fats. Except for Kitty William yowling in the living room it's all good. (KW's confused, I think. He's 18 and occasionally gets 'lost'. ... He was under the coffee table and is now in here with me. He's a bit restless. It's not his dinner time yet - and I gave him an extra wet-kitty-food snack when I got home about 2.)

Hi Karen - Love the farm house. It's funny because when you mentioned that your roots are in Iowa, I immediately thought of Jane Smiley! Have you read Some Luck? It's the start of a trilogy, and is the one of the founders of the Iowa farm. It's less bleak than A Thousand Acres.

It has been a while since I read any Grafton, so I will probably start from the beginning. One of these days.

>151 karenmarie: Is surgery your only option with kidney stones, Karen?

My father had them in the 1990s and avoided surgery, he had lithotripsy: a way of crushing the stones, so they can pass naturally.

>172 BLBera: Hi Beth! Thank you re the farmhouse. A Thousand Acres is my first Smiley, but it won't be my last. I need to keep an eye peeled for the Last Hundred Years Trilogy.

I hear you about "one of these days." I have so many books that I'll get around to one of these days.

>173 FAMeulstee: It's been so far apart since each of my 2 for sure, 3 probably, KS episodes, that I am not sure if surgery makes sense - by the time I feel it (it's always only ever been one), it's made the painful journey out of the kidney. My understanding is that they can only be pulverized when in the kidney. Don't know for sure - unless I end up in the ER any time soon, I don't want to incur the expense of an MRI to see if I have any lurking. ER visits are $500 on Bill's insurance. Maybe when I go onto Medicare in June there may be other options.

I had needy kitties this afternoon. Kitty William was on my book and Inara Starbuck was in my lap. Note the donut-already-gone plate and fork.

Another INTJ salutes you, Karen!

Good morning, Karen. Our cats don't really like to share people, so there's seldom more than one in close proximity, though they hang out together while napping elsewhere. Right now Otto is dozing on a throw rug near my recliner; he doesn't always want to be on my lap, but he does like to be close by.

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. Bracing ourselves for our first big snowstorm. Ugh...

Hope your day goes smoothly.

>175 ronincats: INTJs of the world unite!

>176 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! Aw, sweet Otto. Our two will sleep within a foot of each other, either on the dresser in the Sunroom (microfleece blanket is a great equalizer) or in the kitty beds in front of the propane stove.

>177 msf59: 'Morning, Mark! Sweet Thursday for sure. Wow. 3-7" tonight, 4-8" tomorrow. Looks like you should be able to get your work day done before it gets really heavy, right? Ugh indeed.

This morning I've got a FoL meeting at 10:30. Then the bank, then grocery store for a few odds and ends, then home. Then books.

>174 karenmarie: Such beautiful kitties!

Morning, Karen! I also have to go to the bank and the market today. Also the post office. And pick Abby up from work, but that is it. Hoping your errand running goes smoothly.

>174 karenmarie: On your book! Everything to sabotage reading and direct your attention to where it should be...

>174 karenmarie: I always need kittens or cats. One of our student workers has a cute kitten. She sometimes brings Eleven by for a visit. I teased her this morning she hadn't brought the kitten to play with me.

So how was the FoL shindig? *smooch*

>179 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie! Errands run was good, home and just made a Greek Salad for lunch. Going to start D is for Deadbeat, having just finished C is for Corpse. I'm on a roll!

>180 EllaTim: Kitty does that occasionally, Ella. If it's not Catman sitting on my book, it's Inar herding me into the living room to put some treats out for her. A cat mom's work is never done. *smile*

>181 thornton37814: I agree, Lori! At one point, when we had 5, and I pretty much had all the work, I said that I was going into attrition mode. Now that I'm down to 2, I can't see not having at least two.....

Eleven is a great name for a kitten. What's it from?

>182 richardderus: Well, except for the fact that I got my times confused and was half an hour late, it went fine. The Head Librarian and the Childrens' Librarian wanted budget/actuals information for various categories, which I was happy to provide them with. They were all okay with my being late - they discussed some other things with Pete until I got there. It was embarrassing, though.

The best part of my errands was the perfect job I did parallel parking on a side street to go to the bank. Nothing available on the main street, and I nailed it without any to-and-froing. Simple pleasures for simple minds.....

I have a Common Grackle on one of my feeders - he's gorgeous and intimidating all the cardinals.

15. C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton
2/7/18 to 2/8/18





From Amazon:

C IS FOR CALCULATED

How do you go about solving an attempted murder when the victim has lost a good part of his memory? It's one of Kinsey's toughest cases yet, but she never backs down from a challenge. Twenty-three-year-old Bobby Callahan is lucky to be alive after a car forced his Porsche over a bridge and into a canyon. The crash left Bobby with a clouded memory. But he can't shake the feeling it was no random accident and that he's still in danger…

C IS FOR CRIME

The only clues Kinsey has to go on are a little red address book and the name "Blackman." Bobby can't remember who he gave the address book to for safekeeping. And any chances of Bobby regaining his memory are dashed when he's killed in another automobile accident just three days after he hires Kinsey.

C IS FOR CORPSE

As Kinsey digs deeper into her investigation, she discovers Bobby had a secret worth killing for―and unearthing that secret could send Kinsey to her own early death…

Why I wanted to read it: My continuing tribute to Sue Grafton, who died in December of 2017.

This is a clever case, because there are several red herrings and very little is as it seems. I most recently read this book 8 years ago but could remember enough about the ending that I wasn’t terribly surprised when Kinsey figured it out almost too late.

There’s also an interesting personal note in this one as Kinsey meets her landlord’s new romantic interest and is immediately put off by her. What does a red-blooded female PI do? Why, she gets her police friends to check the lady out with amusing results.

Kinsey is very snarky in her descriptions of people and living spaces. Sometimes it grates, but it also vivid and you can see the person in your mind’s eye.

Grafton is Preachy, no two ways about it. It’s there in every book, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, and you have to put up with if you want to read her books. In this book health food comes up for snark as Kinsey eats it to be sociable with Bobby but prefers her MacDonald’s hamburger, fries, and Coke. On the other hand, Grafton is also preachy about NOT judging people because of physical disabilities and even if some of Kinsey’s methods skirt the law, her overall goal is to find the crooks, criminals, and murderers and bring them to justice.

>174 karenmarie: Love how Kitty William is minding your place for you!

Parker will sit in the hallway and meow plaintively whenever I'm on the 'puter. Heartbreaking, sometimes it's all I can do to get up and shut the door.

>185 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! He does that sometimes, bratty 18-year old that he is!

Poor Parker. To be ignored for a computer. Give him some skritches from me in sympathy. :)

>184 karenmarie: Oh myyyy...I am so pleased to know I'm not the only one who sees Grafton's snark as preachiness. (Happen I agree with her re health food, but still...)

My all-time favorite parking photo:

>161 karenmarie: These novels are told in the first person by Kinsey as case reports. The last page is always Epilogue, either a bit of action that occurs after the dramatic ending, or a bit of philosophizing. And then
--Respectfully submitted,
Kinsey Millhone
That is cool. I like it.
I guess I will read something from her one day- probably on holiday, where I foresee finding one of her books *just sitting there* waiting for me serendipitously......

>183 karenmarie: I'm glad I'm not the only person who didn't know how Eleven came by her name. A character on "Stranger Things" uses that name. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleven_(Stranger_Things) The Stranger_Things in parentheses is part of the URL, but it won't highlight.)

>187 richardderus: Great minds, RD! Yay for us.

I like it. Damned fancy cars think they can take up two spaces….

>188 LovingLit: Hi Megan. Yup. Good stuff. I have only ever read the books in order so don’t know how just dropping into the series will work. But each case is unique and some of the backstory can be missed, I suppose.

>189 thornton37814: Ah, got it. That is a way cool name for a way cool girl. Thanks for sharing, Lori!

Bill’s watching the Carolina-Duke game, being a serious Carolina fan. I might mosey on out there and watch a bit with him. We’ll see if I stick it out or not.

D is for Deadbeat is coming along.

Today was the grand whoop-de-do for the Eagles in Philadelphia. What a crush of people!! You shoulda been there. My wife turned on the tee-vee this morning, and all the network stations had eager hyper talkers jabbering from corners. And it was TWO HOURS before the team was to be bussed through town. At suppertime, the parade was all the locals had for news.

I'm glad I wasn't there.

I am more or less keeping up, Karen, but only tonight coming out of lurk.
We live in two belts - or maybe just one seriously twisty one - anyway, Bible and Kidney Stone.
I congratulate you and Jenn for finally making the meeting. I do wish I could have been there too!

Hi, Karen! I hope you have a fine Friday.

>191 weird_O: Hi Bill! When Carolina basketball won the NCAA Men's 1A Champtionship last year, as with every big win (and I suspect last night's at-home defeat of Duke), downtown Chapel Hill gets mobbed too. The Eagles certainly deserved it!

I would have avoided it, too, though.

>192 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! Ooh. Kidney Stone Belt? Never heard of it. Do tell.

We will have a meeting, the three of us, soon. The weather's getting warmer, so we can start planning.

>193 harrygbutler: I plan on it, Harry, and thank you. This morning is a meeting with the NC SHIP volunteer to discuss Medicare options. (I turn 65 in June). I'm going to hedge my bets by meeting with a private broker soon, too, and have the e-business card of one I spoke briefly with last month. That's at 10:30. Then home.

Bill came home yesterday about noon after having an upset stomach and getting sick twice. Our immediate thought was flu, but he had no other symptoms and felt good the rest of the day. He went to work this morning.

Ah. Third sip of coffee. Blue skies, hungry birds, and a nice and chilly 28F.

Weird, Dad had the same symptoms yesterday but feels fine today, and I woke up with a stomach ache at about 4:00am but feel fine now. OK, Bill is our guinea pig. If he gets sick, then it's Gatorade and doc in the box for dad and me.

Here in the Nation's Blah, I got the first whiff of spring a few days ago. Just a tease, but it was a cool and refreshing thing.

Up the thread, Karen, I mentioned that Double Cross, that spy book I was reading (now finished), had sparked interest in reading more about recruiting Nazi rocket scientists like Werner von Braun. So shopping at Amazon for a Colson Whitehead book yesterday, I saw that the paperback of Operation Paperclip was less than $6, cheaper than the Kindle version. So it's on the way to me, along with Apex Hides the Hurt by Whitehead and Endless Night by Agatha Christie.

Not as if I NEED to buy more books....

>195 SomeGuyInVirginia: Weird for sure. I haven't heard from Mr. Bill, so assume he feels fine.

There's no whiff of spring here yet. My forsythia has no yellow, I haven't seen any other budding or etc. We are still technically in the middle of winter although it is supposed to get to 71 on Sunday with the possibility of thunderstorms. 50F now.

>196 weird_O: Probably very few of us need more books, Bill, but WANT is another matter entirely. Good for you!!

15. D is for Deadbeat by Sue Grafton
2/8/18 to 2/9/18





From Amazon:

He called himself Alvin Limardo, and the job he had for Kinsey was cut-and-dried: locate a kid who'd done him a favor and pass on a check for $25,000. It was only later, after he'd stiffed her for her retainer, that Kinsey found out his name was Daggett. John Daggett. Ex-con. Inveterate liar. Chronic drunk. And dead. The cops called it an accident--death by drowning. Kinsey wasn't so sure.

Pulled into the detritus of a dead man's life, Kinsey soon realizes that Daggett had an awful lot of enemies. There's the daughter who grew up with a cheating drunk for a father, and the wife who's become a religious nut in response to an intolerable marriage. There's the lady who thought she was Mrs. Daggett--and has the bruises to prove it--only to discover the legal Mrs. D. And there are the drug dealers out $25,000. But most of all, there are the families of the five people John Daggett killed, victims of his wild, drunken driving. The D.A. called it vehicular manslaughter and put him away for two years. The families called it murder and had very good reason to want John Daggett dead.

Deft, cunning, and clever, this latest Millhone mystery also confronts some messy truths, for, as Kinsey herself says, "Some debts of the human soul are so enormous only life itself is sufficient forfeit"--but as she'd be the first to admit, murder is not a socially acceptable solution.

Why I wanted to read it: My continuing tribute to Sue Grafton, who died in December of 2017.

The most interesting thing about this book to me was how the different family members of victims coped with the deaths and how revenge did or did not play into their thoughts and actions.

Kinsey, as always, bird-dogs what she feels is a murder, interviewing and re-interviewing people, trying to figure out if she’s being lied to, working alibis and motives.

She also has a romantic interest in this book, and we get to go to an evangelical funeral, follow her around as she spies near an air vent in a single-wide trailer, and go with her as she desperately seeks to protect someone going to try to blackmail a murderer.

Once again, Grafton's preachiness and snark collide in some of the zingers she puts out there that, for me at least, are home truths. Being with devout Christians is like being with the very rich. One senses that there are rules at work, some strange etiquette that one might inadvertently breech. I tried to hold bland and harmless thoughts hoping I wouldn’t blurt out any four-letter words.

This is another clever and fun romp with one of my favorite introverted, loner, feminist detectives.

I'm just going to leave a Hooray for Parallel Parking on the First Try! right here.

Suddenly I am seeing Robins everywhere. Everywhere. Would the Farmer's Almanac say that means rain?

How's Bill? I still feel fine and so does Pop.

>199 nittnut: Hi Jenn! Thank you. It was a serendipitous moment. I was happy.

I have not seen a single Robin. We used to get huge flocks of them, but haven't seen anything like that in years and years. And haven't seen even a single Robin here in years either. I'll have to ask Louise if I'm just missing them or if they aren't visiting us here.

>200 SomeGuyInVirginia: He's fine, Larry. I told him about you and your dad. Very strange. Same symptoms, same immediate recovery.

I didn't know that they still did surgery for kidney stones, Karen. I went through a lithotripsy to break up the stones so that they would pass by themselves (that was no picnic.)

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. It is lightly snowing out there and it looks like we may get 2-3 additional inches. Sighs...I definitely would rather stay right here and drink coffee and visit pals.

Enjoy your day, my friend.

Good morning, Karen. Should be a quiet Saturday, so I'm hoping to wrap up one book and make some progress on a couple more.

>202 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! I'm not sure that 'surgery' was the right word, but whatever it was, my sister was in discomfort after it although there's been no more Kidney Stone pain. She had the stent out Thursday but (possibly TMI): is still passing some blood in her urine. She's still off, and goes back next Thursday. She will probably be released to go back to work then. I'm still worried about her. She keeps saying that she's supposed to rest, but also keeps saying that she was on her feet too much every day we've texted or talked for the last week or so. Her good-for-nothing husband, Stage IV Parkinson's MiL, and her caregiver are not giving Laura any relief around the house. MiL Shirley can't, and GFN husband and caregiver are both so self-centered that if I could I'd kidnap my sister and bring her here so she could truly relax and recoup.

Mark and Harry - I think we've all three been busy on each others threads!

>203 msf59: Hi Mark! I saw that - I check various weather situations in the morning, and Chicagoland is one of them. At least it's tapering off.

I wish you could stay right here and visit pals, too. I'm very appreciative that you keep up during the day on your breaks, too.

>204 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! Quiet is good. It will be quiet here, too.

Bill had insomnia last night - very, very rare for him. I woke up at 3:45 and saw the light on in the living room. He said he'd been up since 1:30. He went back to bed by 4:30. But his waking up woke me up, so I've up since 3:45. Sigh.

Lots of rain today so far, and more through at least Monday. We'll run our normal errands then possibly move the curio cabinet to where the fish tank was. It's very quiet without the fish tank - I love it. All that burbling and gurgling made me crazy. I think I was tortured with the sound of running water in a previous life. A brook or stream is okay, but water fountains and fish tanks make me crazy. I'm the same with air movement - a natural breeze is great, but I do not like to feel air movement created by a fan.

I've started E is for Evidence, the fifth in the Alphabet Series by Sue Grafton.

Morning, Karen! Happy Saturday! I am with you on the running water in the house - makes me nutty. You are doing great with that alphabet!

Morning, Karen! You are making great progress with the alphabet books!

I think running water in the house would drive me nuts but I love sitting outside and listening to water. I think I'd love a house beachfront someday. Perhaps in retirement!

Happy Saturday Karen! Sorry to hear about the insomnia. Good luck with the curio cabinet.

>206 Crazymamie: 'Morning, Mamie! Thanks. We're done with fish tanks. Yay. And I'm already half-way through E is for Evidence.

>207 ChelleBearss: 'Morning, Chelle! I'm surprising myself with finishing one and starting the next. Will I stop sometime soon or go all the way through Y is for Yesterday? Don't know yet. That's the joy of just reading what I want when I want.

I love sitting on a beach-front house screened porch and watching and listening to the waves.

>208 EllaTim: Thanks, Ella! Ah well, I can nap this afternoon if I want. Thanks for the reminder - I'm going to go ask Bill if he'll help me move it now. I need to clean the glass doors and shelves before putting anything in. And then the fun of deciding what goes in and where it goes.

Hi Karen my dear, things seem to have been busy for us one way or another the last few days (see my thread for details) but I should be back posting as normal from Monday. Karen is back at work on Monday and with her being off and at home and me up and downstairs looking after her has slowed me down on LT.

We went to Harrogate yesterday as Karen wanted to go out as she was fed up of seeing four walls, we had a lovely day and picked up a couple of things and a couple of books. Karen was only a little tired by the time we got back home so that's a good sign.

Hope you have a really good weekend dear friend and send love and hugs from both of us.

I'm glad you are enjoying Sue Grafton books. I read quite a few of them back in my late 20's or early 30's, but then I kind of dropped them. I amazed that she got to Y and sorry that she won't be able to do the Z. Still, it's amazing how much of the alphabet she got through. Enjoy!

Wow, you are churning through the Sue Graftons. Will you read to Y? Or take a break with some others in-between?

Pouring rain with the winds from the south, so it's been hitting the windows. I love that sound. I also turned the heat on, since it seemed colder outside than it probably was. Of course, I have no idea because other than feeding Parker I've been reading in bed all day, or watching a movie, and the closest I've come to actually being outdoors was looking out from the kitchen window. Lovely, lovely day for Agatha Christie. Parker's not used to the heat so he's been wilting around here like he's on kitty valium.

OK, I'm going to pick up a Sue Grafton, I like snark. Have you read anything by Sparkle Hayter? You might really like her, she's snarky but very human about it. (Have we had this conversation?)

Yesterday I had Amazon deliver my weekly groceries to the office, about 5 bags worth, mostly for the novelty. I was putting the frozen stuff in the fridge when the office manager came in an I thought she was going to have a cow! I think she thought she was going to have a cow, too, but I talked her down from the ledge. She's a great person, but she rules the office with an iron fist. Apparently a delivery of five grocery bags constitutes a Major Disruption, but she'd never have known about it except she chose that moment to get a glass of water. Anyway, I put everything in a cart and took it down to the garage underneath my building. I park on the lowest circle and a sparrow had gotten in and was lost. All I had to feed it was Doritos so I threw a couple on the ground to buck him up until he figured out how to escape. Because that's about the only way that I won't go to hell.

>210 johnsimpson: Hi John! Glad to hear that things are okay just busy. I’ll check out your thread – probably tomorrow as it’s 10:28 p.m. and I turn into a pumpkin soon. *smile* Sending love and hugs to you both.

>211 vancouverdeb: Hey Deborah! Thanks. I’m flying through them. Next post will be my review of E is for Evidence. I finished it this morning and wrote the review but forgot to post it.

>212 LovingLit: Hi Megan! Yup. I will read them all this year – whether I keep reading from now until I finish Y is for Yesterday or take a break is up in the air. It’s whatever I feel like doing. I will need to read Plainsong by Kent Haruf for March’s book club meeting, starting it some time soon, but I’ll probably just keep reading The Alphabet Series ‘til I get temporarily bored.

>213 SomeGuyInVirginia: We had some good rain this morning, Larry. I love the sound of rain, too, especially when I don’t have to go out in it. I’m glad you were able to stay in and Do Nothing Except Fun Stuff. Give Parker skritches from me, and absolutely do pick up a Sue Grafton. Preferably A is for Alibi.

Iron-fisted office managers and Doritos for the sparrows. Your life has some major excitement in it, Larry, for sure. 5 bags of groceries from Amazon. Working in a big city has its advantages, doesn’t it?

You’d never go to hell. C’mon. Books, kitties, feeding sparrows. You’re among the chosen.
...

I've started F is for Fugitive. I pulled Plainsong off my shelves but have only read the back cover. Kinsey is a bit too fascinating right now.

15. E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton
2/9/18 to 2/10/18





From Amazon:

E IS FOR EX

Being a twice-divorced, happily independent loner has worked like a charm for P.I. Kinsey Millhone―until holiday weekends like this one roll around. What she needs is a little diversion to ward off the blues. She gets her much-needed distraction with a case that places her career on the line. And if that isn't enough to keep her busy, her ex-husband, who walked out on her eight years ago, pops back on the radar...

It all begins with a $5,000 deposit made into Kinsey's bank account. Problem is she's not the one who deposited the money. But when she's accused of being on the take in an industrial arson case, Kinsey realizes someone is framing her…

Now Kinsey's working for herself. But with new evidence―and corpses―surfacing around her, she's going to have to act quickly to clear her name before she loses her career, her reputation―and quite possibly her life…

Why I wanted to read it: My continuing tribute to Sue Grafton, who died in December of 2017.

Here’s a flavor of Kinsey’s snark and self-knowledge, pp. 62-63.

It was 6:15. High tea wasn’t doing much for someone with my low appetites. I was suddenly famished. Martinis give me a headache anyway and I knew I smelled of secondhand cigarette smoke.

I excused myself and headed home, stopping by McDonald’s to chow down a quarter-pounder with cheese, large fries, and a Coke. This was no time to torment my cells with good nutrition, I thought. I finished up with one of those fried pies full of hot glue that burns the f*** out of your mouth. Pure heaven.

When I got back to my place, I experienced the same disconcerting melancholy I’d felt off and on since Henry got on the plane for Michigan. It’s not my style to be lonely or to lament, even for a moment, my independent state. I like being single. I like being by myself. I find solitude healing and I have a dozen ways to feel amused. The problem was I couldn’t think of one. I won’t admit to depression, but I was in bed by 8:00 P.M. … not cool for a hard-assed private eye waging a one-woman war against the bad guys everywhere.

Henry’s gone for Christmas, Rosie’s gone for Christmas. Kinsey reconnects with the Wood family, who own the company she’s performing the industrial arson case on. There are five grown up children, all in varying states of dysfunction, the family hiding secrets large and small.

Kinsey keeps plugging away, trying desperately to figure out who’s framed her, who benefits from disruption and murder. New issues or old issues?

The entire book is a riff on loneliness vs. aloneness. There’s the usual snark about overweight people, spoiled rich kids, and the choices women make in their lives. But we keep learning more and more about Kinsey’s upbringing and the aunt who raised her after her parents were killed in a freak automobile accident when she was 5. Kinsey’s taught how to shoot a pistol when she’s 8, and certainly knows how to crochet and knit by then, too. She hangs with a bad crowd in high school, but her innate moral sense and ethics cause her to end up on the side of law and order. She’s a fascinating character. The mysteries are almost a parenthesis to this being a series of vignettes about The Life and Times of Kinsey Millhone, with Philosophical Comments and Showcasing of Eccentricities and Inconsistencies.

I think I’m liking these even more this time around.

Hi, Karen! I'm glad that you're still enjoying Kinsey. I have them to reread sometime - through T, I think.
Happy Weekend!
We're supposed to get rain tonight and tomorrow, which means that the river will overflow its banks. It was low. Now it's certainly not. Anyway, the temps are balmy.

>213 SomeGuyInVirginia: Having groceries delivered to your workplace? Not so disruptive. When our first was born, I got weekly delivery from the diaper service. At work. I don't remember the day of the week, but each week I'd arrive with a big bag of used diapers. I'd leave them outside the front door, and the diaperman would stop and exchange dirties for cleans. We lived in the country and the service's route ended a mile from our house. And of course the route couldn't be extended that mile. Nope. Nope nope.

>216 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! So far the weekend's been good. We're supposed to get that rain, too. Today is supposed to get to 72F. Too warm for winter for me!

I hope the river does not overflow its banks.

>217 weird_O: Before Jenna was born I tried to get diaper service out where we lived, unsuccessfully. It absolutely never occurred to us to get the diapers delivered to Bill's work - he worked for Nortel in Morrisville NC.

It turned out well, though, because once Jenna was born, Bill always found one major task that he took over. Washing cloth diapers was first, and he did such a good job at it (with Amway products) that I still have about a dozen or so left - not a single one is stained. After we had to go to disposable diapers for daycare, and she was on formula, he made sure he mixed up all the formula all the time so all I had to do was grab bottles.

Last night we watched the some of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics - one night late, I know - on the 4K channel. Oh my goodness. Absolutely stunning clarity and colors.

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. I have had a nice lazy A.M. so far, catching up on a few threads and catching up on a couple of mini-reviews.

Trying to snap a snowy photo of my bird feeders, but waiting for some activity and there has been some too...finally.

'Morning, Mark! Good to hear about your nice lazy a.m. so far with some bird activity.

Yesterday was fun bird-wise - I'll preface it by saying that on Thurday I had a huge flock of Common Grackles on our front field - perhaps 200 or more. Then on Friday I had one on the feeders I can see from the Sunroom, then yesterday I had six. None today so far.

A very good morning to you, Karen, and an even better day ahead.

(Did I scare you, calling you Karen? I had a nightmare about meeting all my LT friends and having to address them by their usernames despite the fact they were all in alien bodies. Last time I read We Are Legion (We Are Bob) before I go to sleep.)

Aack. Well, I am Karen to everybody except to family members. (Mom, Wife, Aunt Karen, sissie, niece)

You didn't exactly scare me, but it is rather startling as I consider myself karenmarie here. Looks like you need to monitor your just-before-bedtime-reading a tad.

I have a funny story to tell. When Jenna was a toddler at a daycare in our small town, they apparently asked the toddlers what their parents' names were. Without even thinking how it had impacted our daughter, I'd taken to calling my husband "Bill Honey" - a riff on his initials. So when it was Jenna's turn she proudly said "Karen and Bill Honey". When Bill went to pick her up that afternoon, he got a chorus of "Hi Bill Honey!"s. They called him that until daughter 'graduated' to kindergarten and the afterschool program there. There was also a little boy there named Ethan. His family and ours became close when the kids were little. They had him in private school until high school, and his parents came to the football games when Jenna was required to be there because she was in marching band. If Brenda and Jeff got into the stands before us, they'd call out "Hey Bill Honey" as we walked by.

>222 karenmarie: HA!! Say hi to Bill Honey from me.

*snort*

>222 karenmarie: - What a hoot! I have a very similar story about a student of mine. One of my students was from Ethiopia and although his English was good, and his parents' English was also quite excellent, they did not speak it at home. When we were talking about first names one day in school, I also asked the kids what their parents' names were. When I got to him, he said the word he used for *daddy*. I said that was HIS name for his dad but what does his mom call him? That's when he said *honey*. I had to suppress a smile and try another tack. I asked him what I should call him since it wouldn't make sense for me to call him dad or honey. That's when the lightbulb went on. *Oh, you can call him Ali*. I wrote a note home that night, explaining to Ali what had transpired in class that day and promising I wouldn't call him Honey, next time we met! :-)

>223 richardderus: Done! *smile*

>224 jessibud2: That's a great story, too, Shelley! Took your student a bit. It's a great insight into a family, the names that they call one another.

Morning, Karen! I loved the Bill Honey story - thanks so much for sharing!

>205 karenmarie: I know what you mean about the air from fans driving you crazy, Karen. I'd rather be warm than feel that forced breeze. Love the Bill Honey stories.

Good morning, Karen! It seemed quiet at our feeders yesterday, too; the steady rain was likely a disincentive for all but the shortest visits.

>226 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! You're welcome. *smile*

>227 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! Bill (Honey) always has a fan on in the living room. I just insist that none of the 'air' is directed towards my end of the couch.

>228 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! Our feeders were steadily busy. The sunflower tube of the 3-tube feeder is empty again.

Today will be a busy one. FoL board meeting at 9:15, then a quick trip to the bank. Home by 11 at the very latest, then over to pick up Louise at 11:40 to take her to her cataract surgery. Her appointment is 12:15. From what I remember of my two, I anticipate us being home by 5. We'll see. I'll take a couple of books for sure.

Morning, Karen. I am enjoying another day off, so another day of books and feeder watching. I have not seen any grackles or starlings, in quite some time.

Have a good Monday. Good luck with those errands.

Thanks, Mark! I thought you had another day off but wasn't sure. Yay for books and beer. I hope your son has done the shoveling!

Morning, Karen! Hoping everything goes smoothly for you today.

Thanks, Mamie! I had cataract surgery myownself in December of 2014, so I know what to expect for her. They did my left eye on the 8th, right eye on the 15th. Everything went well, and Louise will be at the same excellent local hospital that Bill took me to - 10 miles from home.

I bet that is a huge comfort for your friend - it's so helpful to have someone who's been through it before. I will eventually need that surgery, but I am not there yet.

Louise asked me to take her several months ago and we got the date nailed down late January. She didn't want her son-in-law to take her 'cuz he fusses so much. He will take her to her follow up appointment tomorrow, though.

I finally got the point where I was afraid to drive at night and told my eye doctor that. He immediately referred me to the specialist who agreed that cataract surgery was indicated. My appointments were scheduled within a month. The biggest thing was keeping track of all the eye drops you have to use for the next x days. There were 3 sets, each on a different frequency, and at least one of them had a changing schedule depending on how many days after surgery! Would it surprise you to learn that I created a spreadsheet, especially after the second surgery, with everything for the right eye on a different schedule than the left eye? *smile* It is an amazing thing, cataract surgery.

A spreadsheet?! Brilliant!

I lerve spreadsheets.....

I must confess that I have never made one.

??!!!?? But what about downloading transaction data from your bank? Or creating a spreadsheet of ingredients for a party that you can consolidate by ingredient to know how many onions or how much heavy cream to buy and then sort by location in the store? Or ... or.... download your LT data to play with it? Or create a spreadsheet of books read for the year for statistics? How do you survive? Okay, I admit that I'm a computer geek and nerd.

>235 karenmarie: - I hope I never *need* to have cataract surgery because I don't think it would work for me. I have to be the world's biggest baby when it comes to eye drops. The very first time the eye doctor used drops to check for pressure in the eye, she practically needed a crowbar to pry my eye open. I have some kind of strong reflex when anything comes close to my eyes and even when I know, intellectually, that it's *only drops*, I have a really hard time opening the eyes. I can't see how I could put drops into my own eyes, multiple times a day.

I won't tell you how long it took me to learn to use mascara. I stopped using it a long time ago

>239 karenmarie: I know, I KNOW! I need to learn how to do it.

>239 karenmarie: Ha! You REALLY love spreadsheets!

That Dad Honey story is a hoot. Well done, you. I'm sure Ali got a kick out of that.

Do you have 20-20 vision after the cataract surgery? My wife does, after having to wear correctional lenses her whole life. Amazing. When my parents had the surgery, my mother couldn't stop talking about how vivid colors now were for her.

I'm like Mamie, not a fan of spreadsheets. I can understand the appeal, but I'm too busy watching the clouds drift across the sky . . .

I guess you can count me among those who aren't keen on spreadsheets. :-)

I think they do have their place, but I have found that often business folk who use them regularly make them their default document type, when the document would be much easier to work with as a Word doc.

K -- really should get to the Grafton books--they sound like fun and might be the perfect light read for me (I need one right now!). Spreadsheets are good thing now and then! But I agree with Harry that Word works very well for a lot of the information/list playing. Say Hi! to Dad Honey for me. : )

>240 jessibud2: Oh yes, Shelley, if you can’t ‘do’ eye drops, unless the technology changes, cataract surgery would not work well for you.

Ha. Mascara. I stopped using makeup about 15 years ago. Completely. Once I had to wear glasses again because I couldn’t get soft contact lenses because of my astigmatism and hard contact lenses didn’t work out at all, I figured the big thing about makeup for me was for my eyes and glasses disguised my blonde lashes and brows. Then after I had cataract surgery I only need glasses for close up (again because of the astigmatism) – my distance vision is now 20-25. I remember all the times I accidentally poked the end of the mascara brush into my eye….. makeup is so not worth it for me anymore. And bless my daughter’s heart, she has dark brows and lashes and isn’t a makeup type girl anyway. (When my daughter was born, Bill's mother said she was so glad Jenna had HER dark brows and lashes and I thought "What am I, chopped liver?" Jenna could have had blue eyes because bill's dad had blue eyes and I have blue eyes, but I'm just as glad she's got the dark brows and lashes and the cow brown eyes.)

>241 Crazymamie: I could teach you….. I used to teach Excel classes at my company.

>242 ChelleBearss: Absolutely. They are good for so many things. I still use Word for recipes and lots of other things, but spreadsheets….. I love their logic. I also use them for FoL. I need to get them to let my buy QuickBooks for NonProfits, but until then I can do it on a spreadsheet.

>243 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! 20-25 distance and 20-20 corrected for computer work and close work. I have bifocals for computer/reading, but none for distance.

I like clouds, too, but some things require being on a list. Did I also mention that I have a Christmas card mailing list that gets updated each year? Vacation items to pack lists? Daughter’s class schedules when she was in high school? It goes on and on…..

>244 harrygbutler: I like Word, too, Harry, but Word Tables aren’t as good as Excel for me personally.

>245 Berly: Yes, Kim, you should! Fun, snarky, short (at least the first 10 or so, clocking in about 180 pages each in hardcover. The newer ones are longer.)

Well. I got home from the FoL meeting and the bank run just in time to check in here. Now it’s time to put a snack into my book bag (I’ve got 3 books and my Kindle, just in case. *smile*), say hi to the kitties and head over to Louise’s.

Meyer lemon donuts. In case you're peckish in the waiting room.

I don't use makeup anymore, either! I don't want some conglomerate's products defining my role in society. Be free, peeps!

Happy Monday Karen.

I'm enjoying your progress through the Kinsey series, Karen. I'll be interested to know if you feel they are hitting you differently reading them one after the other rather than as they came out, which I think was every couple of years. This was a series that I was always up-to-date with, and sometimes I had trouble getting back into the 1980s groove after having been out of it for so long each time. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the books, because I did. But I think the experience would be different reading them in close succession — more cohesive, maybe?

>247 richardderus: I'll take some of those! I love most things with lemon.

>247 richardderus: Yum. I wish I’d had those! I had a bottle of water and a dark chocolate and peanut protein bar.

Everything went well, got Louise home after picking up prescriptions. Made sure she had some food and had taken her first set of eye drops.

>248 SomeGuyInVirginia: Ha. I’ve even gotten to the point where I don’t like advertising products on items of clothing I wear.

>249 johnsimpson: Hi John! It’s been a busy one, but I’m home now. Had some teriyaki chicken and rice for an early dinner and am basically waiting for Bill to get home from work. Sending love and hugs to you and Karen!

>250 rosalita: Thanks, Julia. It’s funny you mention that, because each book starts within a couple of months of the end of the previous one. When she’s been injured she mentions recovery and if she’s in PT or whatever. She doesn’t do spoilers, though – we never hear in the next book about who the murderer was in the last book. I can easily slip back into 1982-3 California – maybe because that’s where I was living when she was writing. I wasn’t living in Santa Barbara, the thinly disguised Santa Teresa, but I was in LA.

>251 thornton37814: Hi Lori! They do look scrumptious, don’t they?

While I was with Louise back at her house this afternoon, we were looking outside through her huge kitchen window and I saw a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, my first one! It was definitely a female, just like this one:

Hi Karen! I got the book today. :) Hooray!! I have to do a couple cleany-uppy things and then I'm going to crawl into bed and read. Thank you!

You're welcome, Jenn! I hope you like it as much as I did.

Crawling into bed and reading are next on my list. We just finished watching Chloe Kim take gold in the snowboarding halfpipe. Not a sport I've ever watched, but it was amazing to watch.

>171 karenmarie: 12 yo Picasso does the same thing. He goes into another room, and I think he either gets lost or is feeling lonely and starts to meow. Usually, I just shout "Picasso", and he stops and eventually finds his way back to me.

>239 karenmarie: I love spreadsheets (couldn't live without them either) - but I'm beginning to love databases even more!

What's more impressive to me than how fast you've been reading is that you've been getting your reviews done quickly too! I always get hung up on the review part.

Hi Robin!

Kitty is currently getting comfortable on the printer after eating kitty breakfast. I can call Kitty during the day, but Bill's just getting up and I didn't want Kitty waking him up before he has to get up.

I spent quite a bit of my career writing and writing interfaces to databases but now I seem able to be able to get by with spreadsheets.

Why thank you! I have my Word Document "Book Review Sample" and just update the right images and words. It doesn't usually take more than 15-20 minutes, although the review I wrote at the end of last year for The Righteous Mind took upwards of an hour.

Well, I hadn't planned on going out today but we are now Officially Out of Whole Bean Coffee. When Bill had to stay home with two snowstorms in January and drank coffee each of those mornings, it threw my pattern off. I wasn't expecting to have to go to Costco 'til next week (Costco brand roasted by Starbucks, $9.99 for 2 lbs and I usually buy 3-4. It means driving 30 miles one way. Sigh. Or I can go to the grocery store and buy half a pound for $6.99-$8.99.) Blech.

Good morning, Karen! Congratulations on the sapsucker sighting!

I got my start on computers working with dBase, and I don't think I've liked any subsequent database software as well. :-)

Morning, Karen! Hooray for the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. Yah! They do look like downys, so you have to really look.

Hi Harry! Thanks re the Sapsucker. She was gorgeous.

Most of my career was spent with HP3000 computers and the proprietary Image Database System. Master and detail sets, key and sort fields identified for quick searches. I loved those computers and that database. Sigh.

Morning, Karen!

>246 karenmarie: I'm a big fan of google docs and sheets. I keep track of everything on there from monthly bill payments to my family address book. I like it because I have access to it from all my gadgets and my work computer.

Hi Chelle!

I can understand the convenience, but the older I get, the less inclined I am to let Google know what I'm doing. I don't even "google" anything; as I've mentioned on previous threads I use duckduckgo.com for privacy.

Okay - reminder to self. Make sure the trash can lids are completely pushed down onto the trash cans. I went to fill up the sunflower feeders and when I opened the sunflower seed can in the garage, there was a mouse staring up at me. I screeched and quickly closed the lid. I carried/wheeled the can out to the end of the concrete, opened, tipped, and eventually he zoomed out. I'm perfectly happy to set traps in the house. Looks like we'll have to set traps in the garage again, too. Ah, rural living! Can't beat it.

Spreadsheet historical anecdote: I had a boss in the mid-1980s whose BiL was the co-founder and boss of VisiCorp, the outfit that developed and marketed VisiCalc. Rich, my boss, told me that Bob, his BiL, had a programmer on the staff who left the company and asked—and received—permission to take with him "some lines of code" he'd been noodling with. That was Mitch Kapor. Founder of Lotus 1-2-3.

I think it's very cool that you saw a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. I had to look it up since I've never seen one, but I wondered if I missed them. Their range avoids Montana and the other western states although they are to the far north of us in the summer time.

>262 weird_O: That is totally cool, Bill. Things were much more loosey-goosey then, weren't they?

>263 streamsong: Hi Janet! Me, too. I'm wondering if I haven't mistaken them for woodpeckers and seen them before. From their range map it looks like they deliberately avoid Montana!

It looks like the Red-Naped Sapsucker has a summer range in Montana and looks similar to the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker.

Oh, is that beautiful calico kitty Inara Starbuck! What a beautiful name for a beautiful kitty. I love calicos.

Hi Rachel! Thank you.

She is our 'baby girl', as Bill calls her. She has the funniest little short, staccato meow - more like a squeak than a meow actually. I had a calico named Imsai, who was 16 when she went to kitty heaven. I always knew I wanted at least one more calico kitty in this life.

15. F is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton
2/10/18 to 2/13/18





From Amazon:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton crafts a thriller set in a town so small that P.I. Kinsey Millhone wonders just how private her investigation can be . . . F is for Fugitive

When Kinsey Millhone first arrives in Floral Beach, California, it's hard for her to picture the idyllic coastal town as the setting of a brutal murder. Seventeen years ago, the body of Jean Timberlake―a troubled teen who had a reputation with the boys―was found on the beach. Her boyfriend Bailey Fowler was convicted of her murder and imprisoned, but he escaped.

After all this time, Bailey's finally been captured. Believing in his son's innocence, Bailey's father wants Kinsey to find Jean's real killer. But most of the residents in this tight-knit community are convinced Bailey strangled Jean. So why are they so reluctant to answer Kinsey's questions? If there's one thing Kinsey's got plenty of, it's persistence. And that's exactly what it's going to take to crack the lid on this case.

As Kinsey gets closer to solving Jean's murder, the more dirty little secrets she uncovers in a town where everyone has something to hide―and a killer will kill again to keep the past buried...

Why I wanted to read it: My continuing tribute to Sue Grafton, who died in December of 2017.

Kinsey is out of her natural element here, staying in the hotel owned and run by the Fowler family. We learn that Kinsey is squeamish around needles and certain medical procedures and that she uncovers a multitude of secrets – some of which relate to murder and some of which are just red herrings to try to confuse us.

Grafton gets small town California right as a microcosm of any large city. Politics, power plays, religious influences, loose ‘girls’ and single parents, sexual abuse and adultery. Oh yes, and murder.

Not one of the strongest in my opinion. And I think I’ll leave Kinsey for a while, picking up G is for Gumshoe sometime later this month perhaps.

...those were different birds...? Are you *sure*?

Anyway, all my settings carried over to the new Chromebook, upon which all my secrets are captured, monetized, and monitored by the interested parties. I just can't care about it anymore. There is no privacy, there is no hope if The Establishment decides to cyberframe you, and unless you go back to writing letters by hand and not xeroxing them, you're gonna leave a digitrail a million bits wide behind you.

Hey-ho, RD!

Yup. Absolutely. Positively.

It is rather depressing, and I'm sorry you just can't care about it any more. Everything is linked to everything else, and I'm pretty sure they're spying on us through our smart TVs.....

BUT. I still use duckduckgo. I do the little bits I can. I still have the 'selfie' camera blocked on my smartphone and the camera blocked on my laptop and tablet.

I'm all for resistance! They can't colonize my head.

Yet.

*smooch*

Right. They can't colonize our head.

Another funny story from my checkered past - I moved to Connecticut in 1977. Got tired of my boyfriend and job in SoCal and my friend Marie and her husband Joe had moved to Connecticut because Joe was in the Navy and based out of New London. I got rid of everything I owned except for what would fit in my car and drove to CT. Stayed with Marie for a bit, then got a ratty apartment in an old converted mansion. I shared the bathroom with a couple in the front apartment. When I got a phone, I started hearing strange clicking noises, and Bill, still just a friend at the time, a Sonar friend, listened one day and said he thought my phone might be tapped. I was surprised because I wasn't a revolutionary. However, I answered the phone with "Fuck the Navy" for a while. I don't remember my parents ever hearing me answer that way, fortunately.

*smooches* from Horrible

Catching up on your thread after a couple of days, Karen.
Laughed about 'Bill Honey' and the other funny name posts after that one. Glad Louise stood the cataract surgery. No make-up for me either.
As you know I also love spreadsheats, no Exel for me, I still use my very old Microsoft WORKS that is still working for me ;-)
I purchased it with my first PC in 1989, and used the database function to catalogue our books.

>271 karenmarie: Maybe someone who lived there before you caught the attention of phone tappers?

^You may have missed me up there, cheering on the sapsucker!

Morning, Karen. We are going to enjoy a bit of a warm up for a couple of days. It should feel good.

>272 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! I've never even heard of Microsoft Works, but I'm glad you found something to work for you. I tried cataloging my books on Excel and went crazy doing it. Got to about book 50 or so and gave it up. I found LT in October of 2007 and have never looked back.

It's possible, although I've never thought of that before. New person in town, new phone number.... I just assumed they were tapping me. The New London Naval Base is pretty old by US standards - voted funding in 1868. It was used as a fueling station initially, then in 1912 the first diesel-powered submarine was commissioned in Groton and in 1916 it was designated Submarine Base, the New London Submarine Flotilla, and the Submarine School. I lived there for about 3 years, then moved back to California. I just learned all that stuff about the base by the way.

>273 msf59: Sorry, Marky-Mark! I know what I did - took a few minutes thinking about my response to Harry (about the HP 3000 computers), then posted it after you'd posted but without seeing yours. When I went back to my thread later I jumped to last unread, completely missing you. I'm sorry. I'll try to be more mindful if I take a long time to post a response.

Good morning! Yay for the warm, especially after the cold, especially after your Mexico trip. It's 36F here now, going to a high of 62F.

First sip of coffee. I literally have nothing on my desk calendar for today, the only day this week without something.

Morning, Karen! I just might take you up on that offer. I also have a day free of commitments - just have to pick Abby up from work this afternoon, so hooray for that.

>261 karenmarie: Aw, the poor little mouse just wanted a snack!
Seriously though, having mice in the garage is quite annoying. We had an infestation last winter (when I was pregnant) and we had to set traps in the garage. We ended up catching 17! Nate was so mad when he had to remove everything from the garage and clean up mouse poop! He threw out a lot of our stuff!

>275 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! More and more I'm beginning to love 'free' days. I miss my mind - what offer?

>276 ChelleBearss: He did, and that's why I didn't just slap down the lid and wait until Bill came home to 'dispose' of him.

I had a mouse in the Sunroom for a while - when I was inventorying books in 2015 I found a stash of dry cat food and mouse poop behind some of my books. Thank goodness s/he preferred cat food to books.

The spreadsheet teaching.

Oh yes. *blush* I did say that. And meant it. All I have to do is get down to Pecan Paradisio, right? Of course you could come UP to central NC.....

Good morning, Karen!

We had a mouse get in last summer; Otto alerted us to it, and I was eventually able to get it shooed out the door. But our neighbors (who own no cats) apparently have a terrible time with them; they've had exterminators calling constantly for months.

I'm actually really great with book learning, but it would be good to have someone to run a question or two by.

>280 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! Good for Otto!

We get a fair few mice - last fall one was in my Retreat, running along the baseboards. Inara was in the room, just looking at it. I said "Inara, get the mouse!" and she actually did! We need to set traps again, I think.

>281 Crazymamie: I'm available for questions..... If you really want to do this I can PM you my cell phone number.

>282 karenmarie: That is so very generous of you. We need a new computer, so I will wait until we get one because I have to be careful of my time on a laptop as it irritates my carpal tunnel. We were going to do it at Christmas, but then we had Daniel's injury and surgery and PT, so... Hopefully soonish.

I certainly understand the carpal tunnel issues - I had ct surgery on my left hand in 2006. Totally successful, totally wonderful, immediate relief. I had strange nerve twinges and that arm was weak for about a year, then one day I realized that no more nerve twinges and my arm was back to full strength. My right hand got so scared at my left hand's surgery that it stopped acting carpal tunnel-ish - I'm convinced that subconsciously I didn't want to go through the other hand and 'fixed' the problems with the right. My right hand was never quite as bad as my left, but it was a candidate for surgery and I would have done it if the symptoms hadn't gone away.

Now my big issue is spending too much time on my cell phone. However, I haven't played games on my cell phone for 3 days, and my left hand feels great.

>284 karenmarie: Hi Karen, so you had carpal tunnel issues on both hands? Good that the surgery for one hand has helped for both!

I'm having a similar problem with my right hand ever since I got this iPad. Games, big problem, need to stay off them.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, Karen.

>256 karenmarie: I also have a word template that I use, but for me it's the actual writing of the review that is time-consuming. I struggle to put my thoughts into words in a coherent fashion - I think perhaps Keegan gets his writing learning disability from his mother!

>285 EllaTim: Both hands. Wear wrist braces, hands numb 20 or more times a day, shooting pains, carpal tunnel issues. I remember after the tests that confirmed carpal tunnel issues that when I went to the hand specialist in December he said that he had no slots available until mid-February and I broke down and cried. Somehow I was scheduled for January 4th and was so grateful.

Games are evil. *smile*

>286 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thank you, Larry! Happy Valentine's Day to you too.

>287 rretzler: Thanks, Robin! Happy Valentine's Day to you. I write and re-write and wordsmith and play around and eventually come up with something that gives the essence of what I'm trying to say. I figure there's always standard boilerplate for a general overview - Amazon, author website, Wikipedia, etc., then I write my impressions and anything specific that I want to say.

Not everybody who is intelligent and successful is a good writer. Left-brain dominant and right-brain dominant folks have different skill sets. I don't have a single artistic bone in my body, but I have strong analytical skills and reasonable writing skills even though I've never written a novel or indeed anything after I went through two separate phases of writing poetry (one in high school and one in college.) I did have a series of stories that I made up for Jenna about Herman The Little Green Tree Frog that went on for years and years and eventually had a cast of hundreds. I only wrote the first one down (busy mom, wife, and 40-hour a week person) and regret not writing down more of them. I do remember some fun stuff though - Hermanita the black snake, Herman and friends using leaves for sleds in wintertime, and a ghost crab family at the beach that Herman got to know when he stowed away when we went on a family vacation once.

Are you left-handed or right? I had CT in my left hand, which seemed odd to me. I'm right-handed. It was awful while it lasted, and occasionally pops up when I knit too much or some such thing.

Herman the Little Green Tree Frog *grin* I love it!

I came over to let you know that I adored The Hounds of Spring. Poppy is a charming character, and Spock is the dog we all dream of. It's one of the most delightful books I've read in a while. I will wait patiently (not) for it to be released on Amazon so I can give it a 5 star review. Then I will buy it for all the people I love, one birthday at a time. It was also really special to see Pat and Peggy in the acknowledgements. Thank you so much for sharing!

>270 richardderus: yeah! You said it.

Good morning, Karen! It seems many folks who end up as editors want(ed) to be writers, but not me. Though I can write when necessary, I don't enjoy it; I much prefer editing (and even rewriting). Hence my comments on books in my thread tend to be quite short.

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. Very foggy start to the day but another mild one. Loved The Power.

Morning, Karen! How have your hands been since your surgery?
I had CP badly during my pregnancies but it went away immediately after both births. I don't know if it will come back as I age?

>289 nittnut: Hi Jenn! I’m right-handed, although I probably might have been left-handed – I don’t remember anybody forcing me to write right-handed but I throw a ball with my left hand (using a right-handed mitt because nobody else in our neighborhood was a lefty and popping the mitt off to throw) and play cards left-handed by holding the cards in my right hand and playing with my left, although I fan the cards like a righty would because most decks don’t have the numbers on all four corners.

My left hand needed surgery first too, even though I’m a ‘righty’.

I’m so glad you liked The Hounds of Spring, Jenn! And I’m even happier to know that you consider it a birthday gift. I’ve got my copy on order with Tupelo Press so will replenish my library in April. If you happen to keep that copy and want the cover to be accurate, I scanned in the Uncorrected Advance Reader’s Copy cover.

>290 LovingLit: Hi Megan!

>291 harrygbutler: Good morning to you too, Harry! I’m glad you found your niche without the heartbreak of not getting the writing career you wanted. I loved writing papers in HS and college, and that was without computers! Hand written first-, second-, and etc.- drafts, things scratched out, paragraphs added, then either painstakingly handwritten out or eventually typed.

>292 msf59: Good morning to you, Mark! It is a sweet Thursday. Yay for your mild day. I think I will read The Power after I finish Plainsong for March’s book club discussion.

>293 ChelleBearss: Hi Chelle! I've not had any carpal tunnel pain, but I do occasionally have numbness in my pinkie fingers. That's mostly due to match-3 game playing on computer, cell phone, and tablet, which I'm trying to seriously cut back on. Right now I've got a strange little pain in/near my right pinkie knuckle, but that only started this a.m. and will probably go away in a while. For me, the 2006 carpal tunnel surgery was da bomb, with immediate, and so far permanent, relief.

Today I’ll be talking with my Aunt – Mom’s sister. We try to talk about once a month or so, just catch up and reminiscing and discussing politics and etc. We’re both Democrats, so have a great time blasting drumpf and what the r-party are doing to our country.

First cup of coffee started, Kitty fed, books calling after the futile attempt that will be trying to get caught up on everybody’s threads!

Another day for coffee with scream:

Hi RD! Rough day or just lovely coffee art?

I just got off the phone after talking almost 2 hours with my Aunt Joyce. It was lovely and I can hardly believe we were on the phone that long.

Time for reading and lunch.

Guns. Death. 45.

Yech.

Well. Yes, there is that. My aunt and I had a discussion about drumpf and how the r-party are gutting our country, so to speak. We didn't talk about the FL HS shooting.

>297 richardderus:, >298 karenmarie: - It's horrific, of course But as long as gun control continues to be ignored, and dismissed, I just cannot wrap my head around how anyone can be surprised that this continues to happen. Apparently, life is cheap. None cheaper than 45, in my humble opinion. I wonder what his response, verbal or otherwise, would be if one of his grandchildren's schools were to be a target, or one of his grandchildren, a victim.

Excuse me while I go retch

You become numb after a while, Robin. I've always been for gun control, always. I do not interpret the 2nd Amendment as the right for individuals to bear arms unrestrictedly.

What is making me sick right now is drumpf focusing on mental health and one of the sheriffs in Broward County where it happened doing the same but not addressing Gun Control.