mstrust #6- The BBC's Complaint

What's The BBC's complaint? It's Summer. It's 109F. The staff and I agree that Summer should be outlawed.
So we're protesting. It may be hot as hell outside but "delusional" is my middle name. Let's pretend it's a brisk Autumn day.



2018 Reads

1. Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails- 5 stars
2. Backstrom: He Who Kills The Dragon- 3 stars- Nordic Mysteries Group
3. What Does This Button Do?- 4 stars
4. The Man in the Picture- 4.5 stars- Gothic Mysteries Group
5. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles- 4 stars
6. Once Upon A Dreadful Time- 4.5 stars
7. Addicted to Americana- 5 stars
8. The Hidden Art of Disney's Late Golden Age- 4 stars
9. Mrs. Harris Goes to New York- 3 stars
10. Thanks For The Money- 4.2 stars
11. Fairest Of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen- 3 stars
12. The Subway Chronicles- 3.5 stars
13. It's In The Book- 3 stars
14. Grifter's Game- 4 stars
15. iZombie: Six Feet Under and Rising- 4.2 stars
16. Hottest Heads Of State- 4 stars
17. Henry VIII- 4 stars
18. They Do It With Mirrors- 3.5 stars Female Sleuth Group
19. Piracy, Turtles and Flying Foxes-3.5 stars- ScaredyKit-Survival/Disasters
20. iZombie: Repossession- 4.5 stars
21. Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling- 4.2 stars
22. The Martian-3.5 stars- Survival/Disaster Group
23. Pink Ladies and Crimson Gents- 4.5 stars
24. More Stories from The Twilight Zone- 4 stars- Scaredy-Kit Weird Fiction Group
25. Fodor's Seattle- 5 stars
26. The Road to Little Dribbling- 4.5 stars
27. Let Us All Eat Cake-4 stars
28. Faceless Killers-2.5 stars- Global Mysteries Group
29. Howard's End is on the Landing-4.5 stars
30. So I'm A Heel- 3 stars
31. Stories from The Twilight Zone- 4.5 stars Scaredy-Kit Weird Fiction Group
32. Matilda- 5 stars
33. Bettyville- 4.5 stars
34. Rendezvous in Black- 4.2 stars Classic and Golden Age Mystery Group
35. Motorhead: Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers- 4 stars
36. Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes- 5 stars
37. We Should Have Left Well Enough Alone-4.2 stars ScaredyKit- Supernatural
38. A Penknife in My Heart- 3.5 stars Golden Age Mystery Group
39. I Love Everybody- 4 stars
40. Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House- 3.5 stars
41. Slightly Chipped- 4.2 stars
42. The Bad Beginning-4 stars
43. The Sociopath Next Door- 4.5 stars ScaredyKit- Close To Home
44. The Reptile Room- 4 stars
45. I'm A Stranger Here Myself- 4 stars
46. Mr. Monk Goes To Germany- 4.2 stars- Mysteries Involving Transit
47. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club- 3.5 stars
48. Ye Olde Curiosity Shop: A Curious Alphabet- 4 stars
49. The Man From the Train- 4.5 stars
50. I Should Have Stayed Home- 4 stars
51. King Kong- 3.5 stars
52. Night of the Living Dummy- 4 stars
53. Son of Slappy- 3.5 stars
54. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil- 4.2 stars
55. Blondie's Parallel Lines- 4.5 stars
56. Father Ted: The Craggy Island Parish Magazines- 3 stars
57. The Beast Within- 3.5 stars
58. Tiki Art Two- 4 stars
59. Once Upon A Two by Four- 4 stars
60. Stay Out Of The Basement -4 stars
61. The Highest Tide- 3.5 stars
62. Hocus Pocus & The All-New Sequel- 1 star
63. Nevada Curiosities- 4 stars

I'm in!

The staff are thrilled we're cutting Summer from our schedule as it cuts out a quarter of their work.

.

Some of the staff hadn't left the shop in months, so they were fine either way. But most of us care.


Join me and The BBC in our fight against the sun. Let's make it give up and go away.

That's right, I'm putting up a picture of pumpkins. This is how far I'm willing to go.


Grab a giant bowl of candy and join me. The BBC is open!

>2 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hiya, Larry, and thanks for being my first visitor! Here's your prize:
A dozen Jason cookies. Watch out behind you when you eat them.

Happy new thread! I saw Dylan Moran on Tuesday with his new stand-up show, "Grumbling Mustard", and he did indeed grumble most amusingly.

Happy new thread, Jennifer!

>6 rabbitprincess: That must have been great! I hope it's been recorded so the rest of us can enjoy his complaining too.
>7 harrygbutler: Thanks, Harry!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread! Also, happy Friday!!!

Oh no, you're not getting me to eat a Jason cookie! First thing you know, I'm sporting a jumpsuit and a hockey mask! Uh uh!

Happy new thread! I can't say I'm ready to celebrate the wonders of fall when most days, this spring in particular, in CLE have been autumnal with cool temps, grey skies and rain.
It won't, however, stop me from visiting. Your thread, your season!

>9 drneutron: Thanks, Doc!
>10 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Fig, and too you too!
>11 SomeGuyInVirginia: Oh, come on now, Larry. I'm sure there's barely anything in them that will turn you into a homicidal maniac. Read the ingredients list. I'll bet "organic homicidal tendencies" is like, the last ingredient.
>12 Carmenere: Good to see you here, Lynda! Oooh, I'm burning with envy. Although our weather is trying to give me a birthday present, as both today and tomorrow are expected to be rainy and dropping down to 91-95. That's way more than I could have expected. Enjoy your fall-ish weather. My thread was a last minute decision. Picture me shaking my fist at the sky.

I'm allergic to gluten, I break out stabby all over.

Ah, well, that's a tough allergy, sorry to hear that. Maybe you can just lick the blood splattered icing then. Or trade them for cocktails in the tiki bar.

Yay... the flickering lamp light in the OP had lead me to your current thread... and before it hits triple digit posts! Sorry to read that the horrible heat of summer has descended. Personally, I love rain... just not days and days and days of it. ;-)

Happy Autumn! I would move if I had to endure the heat you experience in summer! I love that rainstorm in >4 mstrust:.

>16 lkernagh: Glad you found me early on, Lori. I have heard that living with lots of rainy days can make a person less than cheerful. Mike's friend lived in Seattle for four years and said it took him about two to be tired of it. I've never lived anywhere that got a lot of rain, just non-stop sunshine. People around here get very, very excited when it rains and it's always the first news story.

>17 VivienneR: Thanks, Viv, and Happy Autumn to you too! Oh, believe me when I tell you that I've crabbed at Mike throughout the summers for years :-D. He's been looking at houses north, in the woods, but I doubt if we'll move because of his work. So I pretend I'm a vampire and stay inside during the day.

>15 mstrust: Make mine a zombie!

Oh my God, that's the new title of my memoirs.

I can certainly understand your wishing your summer away with the heat that you have to endure. I start to complain at about 80 F so I would be a right miserable ol' cow with your summer weather! Happy new thread and I hope thinking of autumn helps keep you cool. :)

I just got back from humid Alabama and I tell you I'm loving the dry heat!

Ahhh. The Legend of the Dry Heat. Is that a Louis L'Amour title? Maybe Larry McMurtry.

Stay cool.

>19 SomeGuyInVirginia: So you've got the hardest part down, now start writing!

>20 DeltaQueen50: Thanks!
I too start complaining at about 80F, and then continue as it rises to 118. Though the weather dropped significantly this weekend and we even had a few minutes of rain yesterday, which we hadn't had since March.

>21 PaperbackPirate: I definitely felt the difference when we were in Seattle, but once I got use to the humidity, just from being near water, I enjoyed that my skin wasn't taut with dryness. I'd forgotten what it was like to not put lotion on ten times a day.

>22 weird_O: And the sequel, "You're Gonna Die Out There".

52. Night of the Living Dummy by R.L. Stine. Twins Kris and Lindy compete over everything, but when Lindy finds an old ventriloquist dummy in the garbage and takes it home, the battle between the sisters intensifies. Seeing all the attention Lindy gets from her ventriloquist act, Kris gets a dummy too, Mr. Wood, who soon has Kris in trouble with her parents and the school. 4 stars


53. Son of Slappy by R.L. Stine. Twelve year old Jackson is a remarkably good boy who never lies, gets good grades, and enjoys volunteering at the local youth center. His younger sister Rachel is a borderline sociopath who picks on her older brother, and his parents let her. When they return home from a week at their grandfather's, Jackson finds Slappy the dummy packed in his suitcase, a surprise gift from his grandfather. Guess what happens when Jackson tries to become a ventriloquist. 3.5 stars

Both books have some chills, what I call "horror lite".

Happy new thread, Jennifer!
>4 mstrust: We could use some of that rain, and summer has not even started!

Hi, Anita, and thanks for coming! We could use more rain too, those few minutes yesterday weren't nearly enough. But our monsoon season is starting so we'll get some hot, muggy rain that tears trees out by the roots.

Cake and champagne. Come and get it.

>26 mstrust: Mmmm thank you! Just in time for my bedtime snack!

Cake and champagne! If the cops show up and the bride and groom honeymoon at the Betty Ford Clinic, it would be just like the wedding I attended in May.

>27 Carmenere: I believe it's something like an Aztec chocolate cake, and that's awesome.

>28 SomeGuyInVirginia: Oh, look who's gluten allergy is suddenly better. I guess the champagne is a natural antidote when paired with cake. ;-)

Like I'd ever let facial swelling and impaired breathing keep me from cake!

Sure, if your bronchial tube closes you can still put the cake in a blender. Success!

#Winning

>32 SomeGuyInVirginia: 😂😂😂

>32 SomeGuyInVirginia: >33 drneutron: I will just mention that Sonic is making Tiger Blood slushies.

>23 mstrust: I did enjoy the almost daily rain showers. So this is where water comes from!

Hard to believe that most other people are seeing rain on a regular basis, isn't it? I wonder if fog still exists.

Don't mind me, just bringing over The Great American Read for easy voting:
https://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/home/

>37 mstrust: Thanks for posting the link, Jennifer! Makes it so much easier to locate and vote :0D

It does, and I'm happy to make it easier for you too. I was tired of going back to where I'd posted it in my last thread.

That's right, rain. Rain!

Hurrah for rain! Unless, I suppose, it is the kind you mentioned above and is already destroying trees.

We're due for some thunderstorms, but the last time we got just the lightning and thunder, and no rain, so I still had to water the garden.

We had just a few minutes of rain on Saturday, and with the temps dropping suddenly to about 92F, it seemed like the weather was doing all it could to make my birthday nice. A few days before, they had predicted that would be our first monsoon, but it didn't happen.
And until a monsoon arrives, which are always hot, sticky and knock the power out so we sit around in the heat, I have to make my own pleasant weather here. And I like mushrooms.
I'm having to water our plants in the front yard every other day. Thankfully, we don't have a lawn.

Happy Belated Birf-Dee!

Happy Birthday!

>42 SomeGuyInVirginia: >43 PaperbackPirate: Thanks! It was really quiet, just a dinner out, because we'll be meeting up with my sister in Vegas next week and having our birthdays together.
I'm just plugging along with two books and I'll be doing my library shift today. The woman I work with and I have fallen into a pattern. She stays in the employee room scanning the donations through the computer while I re-stock the sale shelves, pushing the carts of books and doing all the lifting. Then, about an hour into this, she looks at me in shock and says,"You're sweating!"

For anyone whose a fan, "The Great British Baking Show" has it's season premiere tomorrow.

A belated happy birthday -- and best wishes for a good celebration next week as well.

Have you been finding many books to bring home after your shift?

I'd come home with books every day if I worked in a lie-berry. Ugh.

Were are you staying in Vegas? The last time I was there was Christmas 2008 (it was like something out of Dickens) and I hear it's a totally different place, now.

I'm in Williamsburg tonight through Sunday.

>45 harrygbutler: Thanks, and I'll bet we spend some time at one of the Vegas tiki bars next week. Just guessin'...
I think I took a book home the second time I worked a shift, then nothing last week but the shelves had been empty so I was stocking as fast as I could rather than looking. Today I came home with a pristine hardcover of The House of Silk, which is a book I'd been wanting. I also grabbed the audio sets of On The Beach and Bite Me: A Love Story, both for Mom.

>46 SomeGuyInVirginia: I finally spotted our infamous mother & daughter thieves today! After hearing about them for weeks! They take the bus around to all the Phoenix libraries and fill big tote bags with our sale merchandise and leave without paying. The woman I work with has even seen the daughter pulling our stuff out of her pants at the bus stop. We can't do anything because it's the honor system, but they clean the shelves out, like they did today.

Mom has two guest rooms, plus there's a room booked at the Santa Fe, which is the closest casino, just three minutes down the street. So there will be four to five of us and we'll figure out who will sleep where. I've spent many Christmases in Vegas. Sunny, isn't it?
Williamsburg sounds like fun! Will you be making yourself a bar of lye soap?

Ack-shully, my being in l Williamsburg is kind of ghastly. I have a follow up for my cataract surgery, and tomorrow Dad wants to go to the funeral home to plan out his service (fun!). Want to bet that I ask to see a dead body? Dad's afraid if he left it to my brother and me, I'd choose a solid gold coffin and my brother would put him in a cardboard box. Bro is totally unsentimental and I keep napkins from restaurants and bars I've had a good time in. Don't even try to pry a playbill out of my hands.

His time is short, I've known for a long time, but it will still blow me out of the water when he dies. Once he's gone, I'm going to take two weeks off and rent a cabin in the woods. Either that or spend it in New York. I don't do well with death, never have. It pisses me off. When my grandmother died I spent a week at my ex sister in law's beach house. Mom died and I took a cruise.

Hey! My birf dee is the 23rd! We're practically twinsies! Did you give a swag report?

You're right, that sounds like an awful trip, the exact opposite of fun. But your dad is just trying to spare you from having to plan and work things out with your brother when things will be hard enough.
Yes, it will still be devastating when it happens. I wanted to go screaming through the streets, but a trip sounds like a better idea. And what a coincidence- Dad's birthday was the 23rd. You're a Cancer. Are you prone to temper tantrums? Yep, June was always three birthdays and Father's Day, making it nearly as expensive as Christmas.
For my birthday I received $250 cash, $150 Amazon cards, $25 McDonald's card, a couple of rings, a cake and a seafood dinner.

Here's something to ponder on your Friday.

Okay, I'm back from an interview at the library I'd originally wanted to volunteer for, and I will need to go to the police department and get fingerprinted for this volunteer position. Guess my bank robbing days are over.

Happy belated birthday! Ooooo! Lots of prezzies!!

I had to get fingerprinted etc etc when I taught Sunday school. I guess your proximity to kids gets you inked too.

>50 mstrust: Heh.

>51 mstrust: Most bank robbers wear gloves these days, I believe. :-)

Will this library be closer? Offer a better selection of books to cart home?

>52 Carmenere: Thanks, Lynda, and it's true, I can't complain about my birthday. And my cake was exactly right, chocolate with white buttercream. Not that awful whipped cream "frosting", which is a sin.
I think the fingerprinting is because of the kids too, just that they'll be in the building. I don't believe I'll have any reason to have much contact with them unless I'm shelving in that area.

>53 harrygbutler: This library is closer, and it's the library I use. It's also a much less congested drive, they have shaded parking (a big deal in Phoenix in summer), they have a huge flock of peacocks on the grounds, a botanical garden, and both the library and sale area have about four times as many books as the other library. It's also a much more quiet place, and from everything I've seen as a patron over the years, the patrons at this one treat the library with care. It just has the other library beat in every way.

54. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. The true stories of several citizens of Savannah in the early 80's. Berendt became acquainted with local deadbeat lawyer Joe Odom, who squatted in empty mansions for months at a time, and drag queen Chablis, who refereed to the author as her chauffeur. He met an inventor who spoke about his ability to kill everyone in town, various local performers, lawyers and socialites. And while he's interviewing the citizens, creating a story of local characters, one of his acquaintances, super wealthy antiques dealer Jim Williams, kills a violent hustler who'd had the run of Williams' home. The focus of the book quickly turns to the trial and whether or not Williams was guilty of murder.
Yep, never read this one (and have yet to see the movie). I actually always thought this was a book of fiction, probably because a movie had been made from it. It turned out to be a story of a smallish, historical yet stylish city that still had a society set and connections count for so much. 4.2 stars

I read this for the True Crime group.

What happened to the library that was damaged in the monsoon? It's sounds like it was a wonderful place.

I finished another book today! Huzzah! We had a thunderstorm and Parker ran and hid in his carrier. He's the only way I I've ever heard of who will do that.

And wow! Your guys do birthdays right! Are you rich? If so, can you guys adopt me?

I'd been meaning to mention that the library, the Burton Barr, re-opened just last weekend after a year of renovation. I haven't been down there to take a look yet. Eleven people who knew about the faulty sprinkler system, or should have known, were fired over the flooding.
I've never heard of a cat who pays attention to thunder either. Mom has one dog, Gracie, who loses her mind during thunder or fireworks. That "thundershirt" product they sell on tv made no difference.
Rich? Ha! More like irresponsible! Now where is my tiara?

My aunt has lived in Savannah for over fifty years and she has very strong opinions about that book.

Happy Birthday! My son's birthday was a couple of days ago when the temperature was a very nice, sunny, somewhere in the 80sF. But along came a thunderstorm and the heaviest rain I've ever seen! We ran for shelter in the woodshed (open on all sides) and filmed it. The temperature dropped to 60F. Heavy rain continued all day so we finished the party by having lunch soaking wet under umbrellas. You'd have loved it, Jennifer!

>55 mstrust: I loved that book and I'd love to know what >58 RidgewayGirl:'s aunt thought of it.

I loved Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. When I read it I thought it was fiction and found out after that it wasn't. I want to reread it with new eyes; I expect I'll like it even more.

Yay! I hadn't heard Burton Barr is open again! I drove by there about 2 weeks ago and thought it looked far from ready!

We use a Thundershirt for our dog. It worked miraculously well at first but has unfortunately become less effective with time.

Happy Sunday!

Savannah is a great city to visit. We were there when they opened many of the Inns to visitors to view their Christmas decorations. The town squares make for easy restful walking. Even if it is hot, the many old trees offer some respite. I would not carry the "box of chocolates" though in the heat.

The book had not yet been released when we visited or we would have made those rounds especially to the cemetery to see the cover statue.

Savannah and Charleston take historic preservation very seriously. I recall that Charleston may have been one of the earliest cities to organize for historic preservation and many cities followed their example.

>59 VivienneR: Savannah residents are very proud of their beautiful city and a sizable number felt the book tarnished their genteel reputation.

>61 Forthwith: Charleston and Savannah are arguably the US's two most beautiful cities. And there are plenty of people with strong opinions as to which is the more beautiful. I'm just grateful to live within a few hours of each.

>62 RidgewayGirl: That's understandable. Of all the US cities I've visited, Savannah is the most beautiful. San Francisco is next on my list but then I haven't been to Charleston.

>58 RidgewayGirl: I'll bet. First of all, it had to be a huge surprise to most of the citizens to find a non-fiction book about their city to be a best-seller. And one about modern times, not historical.

>59 VivienneR: Thanks, Viv! You're right, I would have enjoyed a downpour on my birthday. It's fun if you can stay home to enjoy it, but it's very likely to ruin other plans.

>60 PaperbackPirate: It didn't take long before my curiosity had me googling Jim Williams and the others, so there were the hard facts that it was non-fiction and a true story. I'd had this book shelved in my fiction section for a few years.
And looking up the site of the event showed that it's now a museum. Isn't it pretty?


Yes, it took a full year, but I saw the branch manager giving a local reporter a tour of Burton Barr the day before it reopened.
My mom had no luck at all with the Thundershirt. She put it on Gracie at dusk on the 4th and the dog was just as freaked out by the noise, only she was wearing a shirt. But she came to Mom as a 2nd or 3rd-hand rescue, her background is hazy, so we don't know what made her afraid of the noise. She loves kisses though.

>61 Forthwith: I'll bet Savannah puts on a gorgeous Christmas season. I'd like to go, and both Savannah and Charleston have been thrown in the hat for vacation spots in the past.
I believe the author said that Savannah became it's preservation efforts in the 50s, which is early on. Somebody was glimpsing the future.
Is this your first visit to my thread? Welcome!

>62 RidgewayGirl: I can imagine it would have been seen as airing dirty laundry by some. And then the tourists came. ;-) I wouldn't argue about the beauty of the two cities. I've yet to visit either but I have no doubt they're beautiful year round. My father was from a tiny little central Georgia town, a place so small it isn't on most maps and seems to be just a place that the train tracks run through.

>63 VivienneR: I've been to San Francisco and it's very pretty. I loved Bainbridge Island for all it's greenery and flowers. I also count Tarrytown (Sleepy Hollow) as one of the prettiest places I've been. And Vermont. And Switzerland.

Stopping by with rather belated Happy Birthday wishes for you, Jennifer. I am with you.... cake must have real buttercream frosting or it just isn't cake.

>55 mstrust: - Such a great book! I love fiction that reads like non-fiction. In Berendt's case, it shows one doesn't need to step away from real life to find unusual characters. :-)

Our current dog, a German Shepard mix, is terrified by thunder. But she was previously a yard dog, left out without adequate shelter all the time, so I don't blame her for not liking storms - the ones we get here in the summer are like mini-monsoons - a ton of water down at once with a lot of thunder and lightening and sometimes hail, but over in a hour.

Our previous dog, a greyhound, was also scared of thunder and wanted us all to take shelter in the closet with him. But after warning each member of the family, he'd just go and lay in the closet. If the thunder were especially close, I'd dump out the hamper and he'd make a bed in our dirty clothes (which is gross, but it worked). The day there was a tornado warning and we all had to go sit in the closet made him so happy.

>65 lkernagh: Hi Lori! Thank you, and glad to find another who insists on buttercream. Whipped cream "frosting"- ppptooey!
I think Berendt hit a gold mine of Southern eccentrics, what my Texan mother calls "pixelated". Growing an abundance of quirky people is something the American South and the British have in common.

>66 RidgewayGirl: Awww, it's got to be hard when you can't tell where the loud banging is coming from. Our Coral loves curling up with one of Mike's dirty shirts, it must be very comforting.
And though we didn't have a storm yesterday, our power was knocked out for fifteen minutes. No doubt it was a system overload with everyone running the a/c and fans in this heat.

We're going to Vegas for the weekend, where it will be two degrees cooler than Phoenix. What a relief.

55. Blondie's Parallel Lines by Kembrew McLeod. Part of Bloomsbury's "33 & 1/3" series, which looks at the making of iconic albums, mostly of the 70's-90's. Looking at this smallish book I expected it to be a song by song discussion of how each song on "Parallel Lines" was written, performed, recorded...maybe some interviews of band members. What I didn't expected was the inclusion of the history of 60's girl groups, the emergence of punk and disco, drag queens and gay rights, and the ups and downs of CBGB's, Max's Kansas City and handfuls of lesser known NYC clubs of the 70's. All these sidetracks come back around to form a picture of Blondie's formation and struggles, their early days playing with the Ramones, Television and The Heartbreakers, and the influences that went into the band's weird lyrics and campy style. The only thing missing were photos. There isn't a single one, which for a band as visual as this one, with Debbie's unique fashion and Chris Stein's art school background, was odd. 4.5 stars

Oh, and since this is my "It's Autumn, I don't acknowledge Summer" thread, I have it from a reliable source that At Home decor stores have put out Halloween decorations. Even I'm surprised.

That 33 & 1/3 series looks pretty interesting.

No, no Halloween, stores! It's June! We had a deal!

Take a look at the very extensive list of 33 1/3's books about albums. There are several more I'd like.
At Home may be a teeny tiny bit early. The next holiday is Fourth of July, then it's back to school, but I'm guessing neither of those are big home decor buying occasions. On the other hand, Autumn and Halloween make bank. And speaking of Autumn, the state fair will have a new culinary coordinator this year! Yea, I get to enter again!

Here's another! Pier 1 is selling both Halloween and general Autumn decor on their website. Cute stuff.
https://www.pier1.com/halloween-decorations#nav=left

>71 mstrust: Excellent news on the state fair! :)

So cool, what are you going to enter?

>64 mstrust: Ooh, yes, I would love to go to that pretty museum. Also when you said you started googling the names I realized I read that book before Google was a thing! A different lifetime!

I will definitely be making a trip to Burton Barr if only to give it a hug and tell it I missed it!

My sil got a Thundershirt after our initial success and it didn't work for her dog either. It must be a hit or miss.

>72 mstrust: I love Halloween and already picked out something from your link that I may not be able to live without.

>73 rabbitprincess: I think so too! It's been three years since I entered.

>74 SomeGuyInVirginia: I'm not sure. I'd love to enter lavender sugar cookies because I think they're great. On the other hand, Mike doesn't. And I'm thinking my dark chocolate and spiced walnut cookies. I don't really know but I have a few months to decide.

>75 PaperbackPirate: It was nice to be able to put a face to the actions for many of the citizens. I really do prefer my non-fiction to have a picture or painting of a person when they're being discussed so much. Nearly the whole second half of the book was about Jim Williams and not a single pic. I'm the curious type.
I'll visit Burton Barr sometime after we get back. I actually volunteered to help with the clean-up about seven weeks ago but I guess they didn't want non-professionals and they were close to done by then.
Do tell, what do you have your eye on? They have some really cute door mats and I liked the painting of the trick or treaters in front of the spooky house.

>68 mstrust: Coolio, another Blondie book to check out!
Bah humbug on Halloween decorations. I purchase them from the dollar store in October and sale items from Pier One in November :0/

Have fun in Vegas and enjoy those cooler temps!! ;}

Oh, I you don't mind I would love your dark choc and spiced walnut cookie recipe. They sound so good!!

Yes, and it's a very good one as long as you're cool with a lot of it being about the times in which Blondie formed and rose to fame, not specifically about the band. It's a sort of overview about NYC in the 70's. I've had a book about the band by rock critic Lester Bangs, Blondie, for years and that's a very good book about the band and various people they'd worked with up until that time. I think it was published in '80-81, so they were still pretty new.

Bah humbug on Halloween decorations. I'm sorry, I don't speak this language. I have a big sparkly bat that I bought at the 99Cent store a few years ago. I hang it in the front hallway and it flies around in the breeze. Most but not all of my after Halloween stuff comes from Target, and I'm always happily surprised to open my boxes of decorations come September, because I've forgotten what I picked up the previous year.

You know, I'm not even sure if I've ever written down that recipe for the cookies. I made them twice last year, and the inspiration was just a pic I saw on the internet, something like this:



And now that you've asked, of course I can't remember if I followed a certain regular chocolate chip recipe or if I had an actual dark cookie recipe. But I can tell you that I've added spiced walnuts into other cookies and all I do is toss a handful of walnuts in a skillet with butter, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir a couple of minutes over a low-med heat. It's so easy.

How fun to be planning an entry in a state fair competition! Did you enter regularly in the past?

Pennsylvania does not have a state fair — only a farm show, which is held in January, and then many county / local fairs. The one in our county is a Grange fair.

I think I entered for eight years in a row, then came the 2015 Debacle. That same coordinator stayed for the next two years, of course, and now I'm looking forward to entering again.
I'm really surprised that Pennsylvania doesn't have a state fair. I thought every state had one, like it's part of being a state, you have a state fair. But maybe your county fair is as big as a state fair? I'd say Arizona has a medium sized state fair, as it takes place on fairgrounds that were built in maybe the early 60's and are in remarkably bad shape. California has a huge fair, so does Texas, and Vermont has a state fair you can walk through in 30 minutes. Those are just the ones I've been to.

I'm supposed to be packing. The worst part of a trip is getting packed for it. Unless you're flying. Flying is definitely the worst part of a trip.

>77 mstrust: Actually it's a doormat, but it's the Day of the Dead Chihuahua one. We have 3 chihuahua mutts so it's perfect. Our current skull and crossbones doormat is falling apart in one spot so it's time for a new one.

>81 mstrust: I'm so curious to hear the story of the state fair Debacle! We like to go for animals, the train model, and fry bread.

Have a great trip!

>81 mstrust: I'm not sure why Pennsylvania doesn't have one. When I was poking around about it, I read speculation that the various county fairs were unwilling to support a statewide competitor, but I don't know the real reasons. With >82 PaperbackPirate:, I'm now curious about the debacle. :-)

I tend to spend very little time packing these days, because I've found that in most cases anything I happen to forget either isn't needed or can be replaced — if only with a temporary substitute. And the sight of someone filling suitcases dismays the animals, so I like to put it off as long as I can.

Enjoy your trip and the joint birthday celebration!

>82 PaperbackPirate: That is a cute doormat, and perfect for a house of Chihuahuas. I have a doormat out right now that just has a big black raven on it. I couldn't pass that up.

>82 PaperbackPirate: >83 harrygbutler: I don't think you two were around here when I told it. Here goes. In 2015 I entered three baked goods as I did every year. One of them was a cinnamon maple walnut bundt cake that all my taste testers loved and I was very sure that it would get some kind of ribbon. When the fair opened we went to see if I'd won any ribbons, and there was my cake with a 1st Place blue ribbon on it- and someone else's name on it, and it was identified as an orange cake. I had a pic on my phone of the cake, I showed it to an employee, I spoke to the coordinator, there was no doubt that it was my cake with the wrong name on it. The coordinator even blamed her staff of volunteers, saying that they had been too excited about the tasting to keep the names with the entries. Anyway, I never received my ribbon or prize money, and when my ribbon for another entry arrived, it was smeared with frosting. Then I found out that other people hadn't received their ribbons, money, and one person had their artwork stolen from a display. So that's the debacle, it was a bad year.

>83 harrygbutler: Thanks! I know we'll be going to the Golden Tiki, and there's mention of a bacon restaurant.
I'm getting more casual about my packing, and especially as it's summer and I just don't feel like it. But my mom is the sort of person who doesn't buy a toothbrush, she buys four, so I don't have to worry about forgetting anything other than my clothes and Coral's stuff. And the presents from Seattle. My doggies have always gotten very upset at the sight of a suitcase too. We always tried to hide the suitcases from Ava especially until the last minute because she'd throw herself down and fall into a depression. Coral's going with us for this trip but she doesn't realize it yet.

Our own tiki bar will remain open while I'm gone. Drinks on the house!

Whoo-hoo! Those three little words that change everything- drinks on me!

Years ago, maybe 8?, Target had these pretty cool Halloween party decorations. I still use a beaded skull place mat for my change dish. Skeleton arm metal salad tongs I haven't unwrapped because what's a salad? Wish I'd bought more.

Safe travels! I'll just camp out here within reach of liquid nurishment :0)

Happy belated birthday!!

>55 mstrust: I remember enjoying that one many years ago. I also thought it was fiction when I had picked it up

Have a great trip!

I hope you are having fun celebrating your birthday...again!!!

Back from Vegas yesterday afternoon, where we had a good time with Mom and Julie and the casinos and tiki bars. We went to both The Golden Tiki and Frankie's, Pink Spot doughnuts, our Mexican and Chinese restaurants, and I won little bitty jackpots a few times. And it turned into July while I wasn't looking.

>85 SomeGuyInVirginia: I think I know exactly what your skeleton arm salad tongs look like. They're tongs, use 'em for cake and pizza.

>86 Carmenere: I hear that somebody had to be dragged out from under a bar stool this weekend. I'm not pointing any fingers...

>87 ChelleBearss: Thank you! We had fun, except Coral hates the car ride. And I do too.

>88 Berly: Thanks, and we did have a good time. Julie opened her presents from us and was happy with her Washington red wine and Bainbridge Island marionberry preserves (and Visa gift card). Too bad she had to leave Saturday morning to get back to work.

Welcome back! How's your weather? We're in the middle of a heat wave: temperatures in the mid-30s Celsius and humidexes in the 40s.

56. Father Ted Craggy Island Parish Magazines by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan. Based on the Father Ted show, this is a collection of stories, interviews, and assorted things a priest on an island of 1000 people might put together for his parishioner's reading pleasure. Included are a list of "100 Greatest Priests", Father Ted's sermons on subjects such as dinosaurs and being told off by a disgruntled parishioner, Father Jack Hackett's photo album, and Mrs. Doyle's household tips.
For fans of the show, it has a few laughs, but there's very little on the three Craggy Island priests. 3 stars

>90 rabbitprincess: Hi Princess! That is very warm for Canada.
How's our weather? Ha! Today will be 108F and that's the lowest temperature we'll have all week. Thursday is suppose to be 114. Many cities across Arizona have cancelled their Fourth of July fireworks displays because everything is so dry.
Btw, I just watched an episode of "Dirty Money" on Netflix that was about that maple syrup heist you told me about last Autumn. So much money involved.

"It's Autumn, it's cold and rainy, I'm not crazy..."

Oooh. Perfect reading weather.

Hi Larry! Exactly, I'll have to get my jacket and gloves to go outside. Brrrr!

Welcome home and congrats on the weekends haul! dang! I was sure everyone was accounted for...I have my suspicions.

>92 mstrust: I do love that picture simply because it's not my window just yet. Still, I look forward to it when it's time but currently I'm still relishing the sun and heat.

Just supporting your delusion....

>94 mstrust: I'm going to tuck them under my armpits and play 'Zombie T-Rex'!

>95 Carmenere: Thank you, Lynda. I'll bet you'll have that view in >92 mstrust: before you know it. And I get to look forward to October, when we drop below 100.

>96 Berly: I do appreciate you joining in! I can smell the Autumn leaves.

>97 SomeGuyInVirginia: Oh, put your arms down when you get to school.

Not all of Canada is experiencing a heatwave. This is a shot from a highway camera in British Columbia yesterday. Although it was chilly in my area, there was no white stuff.

>99 VivienneR: *packs bags*

>99 VivienneR: I'd like to split the difference. The low temps without the snow. Of course, it's perfect here, a brisk 109 here today.

>100 rabbitprincess: Yay, Princess, you're my 100th message! Hooray! Here's your prize:

It's either lemon or pumpkin. Just scrape it a little, it'll be fine. Congrats!

I'm glad I didn't check out your thread until now, Jennifer. The cold rainy gifs would have been too much with the actually thing happening outside at the same time. Looks like you have done lots of traveling lately. (And eating by the looks of things.)

>100 rabbitprincess: Too late it's going to be sunny and warm (30C, about 86F) all week.

Happy Fourth of July - my birthday. I've had so many I'm thinking of cancelling after this one.

>101 mstrust: What a prize, RP! I hope it's lemon, burned pumpkin never works out well.

Happy 4th!

May the 4th be with you!

>102 Familyhistorian: Well. First time someone has said they were happy to not be here sooner, but I'm sure you've caught a ride by now. *looks around* I like it here. And it's true, I have eaten magnificently.

>103 VivienneR: Happy Birthday! Why cancel? Just tell people you're 29 and have the gifts and cake. And tell people they're lucky to have you.

>105 SomeGuyInVirginia: And with you, Sir! I wish you luck with whatever you're planning to blow up tonight.

57. The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince by Serena Valentino. "Beauty and the Beast", told from the Beast's view. A young, handsome and shallow prince is engaged to the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, but his desire to marry her is crushed once his best friend Gaston proves that the girl is a pig farmer's daughter. The prince's cruelty in ending the relationship reveals that the girl, and her three weird sisters, are actually powerful witches, who curse the prince to become a monstrous beast unless he's able to gain and return true love.
The writing can be a little rough here and there, but overall this is an engaging story of the prince's transformation into The Beast and his attempts to save himself. 3.5 stars

>103 VivienneR: Vivienne, we share a birthday! No wonder it's a national holiday down here.

>101 mstrust: Looks like lemon to me! And bonus, I don't have to eat the meringue! (It's not my favourite part of the pie... I eat it separately and immediately cancel it out with the lemon part.)

>109 RidgewayGirl: Happy birthday, Kay!

>110 rabbitprincess: But the meringue is all toasty, it'll be like a lemon s'more! Or pumpkin s'more. The more I look at it, the more it looks like black licorice twists.

And I know what the calendar says but I have to pass this along. One of the new products in the Spirit Stores this fall will be a roving Chucky doll that uses Roomba technology to hunt you down while avoiding things like walls and furniture. He talks and holds a knife which he stabs up and down. Sounds like a treat for the family pet!

>106 mstrust: Oh yes, didn't Jack Benny invent that method of aging? I'll do it.

>109 RidgewayGirl: Happy Birthday, Kay! It's a great date for a birthday.

>110 rabbitprincess: Actually it looks more like pumpkin so the meringue will taste like Jack O'Lantern.

Hi, Jennifer! Glad you had a good time in Vegas, and I hope you had a good Fourth, too.

>111 mstrust: Now that's downright creepy.

>112 VivienneR: I hope it was a good birthday!

>113 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! Don't you think a mobile, knife wielding doll who calls,"Where are you?!" sounds like fun? Especially for a cat?

58. Tiki Art Two: The Second Coming of a New Art God by Otto von Stroheim. von Stroheim is a major force in tiki culture, and this book includes a foreword by artist, author, presenter and curator Jeffrey Valance. It's pretty much a gallery of tiki artists who work in paint, ceramic and wood, all in tiki culture, but the styles vary greatly. This was published in 2005, and since then several of these artists have risen to fame, such as Shag, Crazy Al Evans and Derek Yaniger (I have his 2018 tiki calendar hanging on the wall). 4 stars

It's Friday, 6:30 am and it's already 95F-


Yesterday we hit 115F, the hottest day of the year so far.

59. Once Upon a Two by Four by Ann Combs. In 1970, Combs, her husband Joe and their six kids bought a broken down house on Bainbridge Island. Being a native of the island, she wanted to return, but with so many children they needed not only a large house, but one that was within their modest budget. They bought a house that was in such bad condition that, over several years, they basically pulled it apart and put it back together. Combs relates it all with good humor, especially the chapter about their garbage collector, a man who hates his job so much that he demands a confrontation each week when he sees the debris from their home projects. Halfway through, I was wondering why they didn't set this wreck on fire and walk away, but this is a memoir of a highly active family, and things are right in the end.
I haven't read The Egg and I, but I think fans of that book might enjoy this one too. I bought this at Eagle Harbor Book Store on the island.4 stars

>114 mstrust: I'm not sure the cats would forgive me if I set something like that going. Heck, I suspect they'd object to a plain Roomba.

>115 mstrust: I'll have to tell Erika about Tiki Art Two. She has a lot of tiki books, but not that one.

>117 mstrust: Nice to have reading tied to your visit! I've never read The Egg and I either, and it has been years since I even watched the movie.

They're cats. They'd get even with you.
I know there are at least three in the Tiki Art series but this is the only one I have so far. It's interesting to see all the different spins on tiki.
I do like being able to look at a book and remember exactly where and when I bought it. It would have been nice to have had the island be a larger part of the story, but Combs has several island characters dropping by on a regular basis. Winslow, the largest town on Bainbridge and the closest to Combs' house, seems like a fun community.

>116 mstrust: Ouch, that is way too hot!
I won't complain about our continuing warm weather on this thread... ;-)

Hi Anita! I think if someone wants to challenge Phoenix for dry, burning heat, we'd have to look somewhere like Death Valley or Needles, both in the California desert, or somewhere like Egypt. I can only tell you that this town is quiet right now as people have fled. :-D

I picked up Siddartha as it's in the Great American Read, and read 15 pages. I knew it wouldn't be a good fit for me from the start, as it's about spirituality and I have the spiritual content of a Sex Pistols cd. So I'm not the audience for it and I'll release it gently-

Lol, me too. I'll have to pass then.

After four pages I knew I wouldn't be finishing it but I read to 15 just to make sure I was giving it a chance. I have a low tolerance for someone "finding themselves".

Ugh, yes that does sound ghastly. I've been on a best seller kick this summer and was discussing books with a co-worker. She said that she'd read one on my short-term TBR list, and described it as 'fun but trashy'. I freaking LOVE trashy. I'd totally be down for a trashy spiritual quest.

Ha! Sounds like she wasn't ready for your specialty, forgotten horror books from the 70's & 80's. I've looked for "trashy + spiritual", but dang it, LT doesn't have any suggestions. :-(

Damn - was hoping we could find something trashy spiritual. Gonna have to put on my thinking cap with that.

LOL! The first book club I was in read Eat, Pray, Love which I did not like at all.

But it brought me to a trashy spiritual book, Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand by Andrew Gottlieb. It wasn't a keeper but it fits our Trashy Spiritual genre.

There's also The Life Changing Magic of not Giving a F@#k, which is really more self help than spiritual quest, I suppose.

>127 drneutron: It's almost like publishers think those two genres don't go together. Hmmph!

>128 PaperbackPirate: That sounds like the cream of the trashy spiritual crop.

>129 drneutron: I expect the word "no" pops up quite a bit in that one. Or maybe "f@#k no."

Spent a few hours running around, having lunch, and oh look, we were near a Half Price Books. I came home with a stack of Goosebumps re-issues, A Monster Calls and Zombie Spaceship Wasteland.

First time ever- I went to a lie-berry books sale and left without buying anything. I even...put two books back!

115f?! Wow, I thought I had it bad here at 32c (89f)

>131 SomeGuyInVirginia: Now you've given those poor books a complex about their looks. Was it a big sale?

>132 ChelleBearss: 89F is our early May/late October temperature. Yesterday it was 109 as we drove past people on the golf course, and I said, "Look at those idiots." Then we drove past the park and people were jogging, and I yelled, "Look at those idiots!"

***

I finally went to the police dept. and got fingerprinted this morning, and then it turned out that the photographer doesn't work on Mondays, so I'm still not ready to work at the library.

Maple syrup porn:

Meanwhile, the weather has cooled down a bit here, and I'm enjoying the shady screen porch, as is the cat.

One minute dance party- toin it UP!

>134 RidgewayGirl: Ha, that's a relaxed cat! Clearly you have a comfortable chair.

>135 SomeGuyInVirginia: My cursor is trying to keep up!

The Kindle version of Come Closer by Sara Gran is on sale for $1.99 right now. That's a steal; it's a good read. I'm also listening to Carter & Lovecraft by Jonathan L. Howard, and am reminded of what an engaging author he is. I'd read Johannes Cabal the Necromancer many years ago and really liked it, but nothing since then.

>134 RidgewayGirl: Wow, that's a relaxed kitty. Parker never gets that bendy.

Thanks for the recs, I've never heard of either author. And let me inform you that today is National Pina Colada Day, so arrange your schedule accordingly.

We had our first monsoon of the season last night and it was a good one. Thunder and lightning and rain for hours, along with a thick wall of dust. I stepped out to the back porch around 5pm to make sure nothing was damaged. turned east and saw a wall of dirt coming towards me, so ran back in. It seems to have rained all night. The roof of a motel near the airport was ripped off and thrown on several cars, a man had to be rescued from a tree at the river, and someone was rescued from a canal. Surprisingly, our power only flickered rather than being knocked out for an hour as usual.

60. Stay Out Of The Basement by R.L. Stine Margaret and her younger brother Casey are pretty much left on their own when their mother has to leave for a family emergency. Their father, a botanist who recently lost his job, is there, but he spends his days locked in the basement with his experiments, and the kids are forbidden to go into the basement. Each time he makes a brief appearance, the kids are more alarmed by the change in him.
From the Goosebumps series. I was pretty surprised by this one, as it contains both a kid stabbing someone, and a character chopped in half with an axe. 4 stars

>138 mstrust: We had hail too! I love monsoon season! So funny seeing all my friends posted their rain videos on Instagram. We desert people are a funny group.

I heard there was hail near the airport. Yes, a few hours of rain here is the biggest story! But the wall of dust is the scary part. At least it dropped the temps by 30 degrees, and that's great.

>137 SomeGuyInVirginia: He has always been skilled at taking it easy.

>138 mstrust: That's really bad timing. I have to drive this evening and then get up early tomorrow and drive some more. I'll celebrate twice as hard next year.

I'm glad you kept your power. It's too warm to lose your AC.

Don't worry, I'm sure there's a National Mai Tai Day around the corner. And a Daiquiri Day.
We've had monsoons in the past that have knocked out our power for up to two hours, but it's usually more like 15-45 minutes. The power company is pretty good about getting it back on fast.

Mike's friend Todd died on Monday from pancreatic cancer. The second friend to die from that particular cancer in three months. In fact, Todd was in our group at Tom's funeral in April, then was diagnosed exactly a week later.

Oh man, I am so sorry to hear that.

Yeah, I was sorry to hear about it too. And we've all thought it was strange that two young guys who worked together part-time both got the same cancer. Both their doctors said that it could have been growing for about ten years before they showed any symptoms.

>143 mstrust: I'm sorry to hear about Mike's friend. My condolences.

>143 mstrust: I'm so sorry about Mike's friend.

>146 harrygbutler: >147 rabbitprincess: You're both very nice, and thank you. I don't deserve condolences since I barely knew him, but I'll pass them on to Mike, who knew Todd for about six years. Such a strange and awful coincidence though. We're waiting to hear about arrangements.

xoxo

>116 mstrust: YIKES! I hope you get a break soon. That heat can not be easy day after day!

>117 mstrust: So sorry to read of another of Mike's friends passing. Yes, it is a bizarre coincidence, for sure!

>149 PaperbackPirate: Hi Nicole! *Hollywood kiss*

>150 Carmenere: We've gotten something of a break, with monsoons and rain for four days in a row. Now two of those days, the East Valley got the rain, but we had some hard rain and thunder on Monday and last night. Happy!
Everyone's first thought was, of course, since they worked together a few hours a week, that maybe it was the chemicals they used in the cleansers or paint, but pancreatic cancer has a long growth period, so they didn't even know each other when the cancer started.

61. The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch. Thirteen year old Miles lives along the Puget Sound, spending every moment he can searching for marine life and reading every book about the sea he can get. When he finds a giant squid washed up on shore, the news of his discovery brings a lot of attention to him. Soon after he makes another strange discovery, then another, and as his profile grows he finds that strangers want to see him, learn from him and possibly manipulate him.

An interesting story of a boy who is nearly obsessed with one subject, yet the author goes a bit overboard in driving home how knowledgeable Miles is, with him lecturing adults about sea life in long paragraphs that are a list of facts. Also, Miles is super intelligent yet doesn't know when he's being manipulated so blatantly. Still, a good story, especially for someone looking for one about the area or marine biology. 3.5 stars

Dad's superstitious about Friday the 13th, and with good reason- people die around Dad on Friday the 13th. I drove down today so I didn't have to be on the road tomorrow.

Right now I'm on the balcony and some tree frog has been raising hell for the past hour. Damn those things are loud. He's about 15 feet straight out. I wonder exactly how much trouble I'd be in if I fired a gun within City limits? Would it be with it?

Hi Jennifer, I've returned from my visit to Vancouver Island to see my family. We had a gorgeous day today with the temp. in the high 70's and tomorrow we will actually break 80 degrees. I guess this is our long awaited summer.

Happy Friday the 13th!!!

So...anyone got plans to spend the weekend at their cabin by the lake? Happy 13th!

>153 SomeGuyInVirginia: Have a good, scare-free Friday with your dad. And tree frogs are obnoxious. I'd never heard one until we moved to Prescott, where thousands of them make the town sound like fluorescent bulbs humming.

>154 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy! Your visit sounds great, and I'll bet the island is really green and pretty.

>155 Berly: And right back atcha! It's fitting in nicely with my Autumn in July theme, and any occasion you can stab a knife into a raspberry filled cake is fun.

"Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better."

And how! Today has been mostly overcast with a tiny bit of rain this morning. So of course I wanted to see if the rumors were true, and they are!
The first Halloween sighting of the year, July 15th @ At Home home goods store:


Sorry the pic is so big.


This is so great. A Headless Horseman statue, about five feet tall, and made of concrete so it will last for years. It was on a raised platform Halloween display. Halloween-wise, I only got some tibia shaped candles and another bleeding candle, as speedbump Mike balked at buying the yard signs I wanted because it's July.

Move along, nothing to see here.

I caught my first Hallowe'en sighting at a NJ Target - an end cap with a selection of autumnally scented hand soap. That counts, doesn't it? It's still too damn early. I haven't had my beach vacation and my son is still steadfastly refusing to buy school supplies. He needs a few more weeks to grow bored of vacation.

My Dia de los Muertos doormat arrived yesterday!

>159 SomeGuyInVirginia: Excellent! Realtors know how to stress the homes best attribute. Saves them from that awkward "Was anybody murdered here?" conversation.

>160 RidgewayGirl: Yes, that certainly counts as a sighting, and yes, it's too damn early. And yet, I take it as a sign of optimism, with the store looking towards better days. Or maybe just wanting to get Halloween weirdos like me in as soon as possible. ;-)

>161 PaperbackPirate: From the Pier 1 site? Awesome!
I was part of the Amazon Prime members who tried to get on exactly on time and crashed the site. It took four and a half hours for me to be able to even look at stuff, and then, over two days, I bought just a few household things, nothing amazing. Mike bought a watch carved out of zebrawood and it's the ugliest watch on earth.

62. Hocus Pocus & The All-New Sequel by A.W. Jantha. Fans have waited 25 years for more Hocus Pocus, and here's what Disney has come up with, publishing this just last week. It's in two parts.

Part One- the story from the movie, based on the screenplay by Mick Garris and Neal Cuthbert. This follows the movie very closely, with a little additional backstory on the characters and the mention of another Sanderson sister who didn't exist at all in the movie. The word "brunette" is misspelled repeatedly, but if you're a fan, you let it pass (even though Disney can certainly afford proof-readers) and you're likely to enjoy this first part of the book. It's 197 pages of the total 521 pages.

Part Two- And, if you're a fan of the movie, and why would anyone buy this book unless they are, you will likely be really pissed off by Part Two, which is effing garbage. Why did Disney do this? Why take such beloved characters from a movie that was witty, funny, a little edgy, yet ultimately about good versus bungling evil, and turn it into a platform for Social Issues?
It's 25 years later, teens Max and Allison grew up, married, and had one child, Poppy, who is now a teen herself. She is also a lesbian, which we aren't allowed to forget as the first 100 pages are solidly about her mooning after her friend, popular homecoming queen, Isabella. I'm not exaggerating, the book is written in first person, so we have over 300 pages of inner dialogue teen angst. Poppy's best friend Travis, is black and also gay, and he's the only one who knows her "secret". That is until the end-*Spoiler* (but not really a surprise by now)
Isabella is also gay.
They use the term "BAMF" and say lame things like "...if they call your parents, Travis, you'll be grounded until Cyber Monday." The writing is terrible. It's a "Gossip Girl" book. They have Jay, the skanky blonde burn-out from the movie, as the high school principal.
The Sanderson sisters, the reason for the movie's immense popularity, show up 100 pages in, and by then I was skipping through two and three pages at a time because I couldn't take the narcissistic workings of the teenage mind. When the Sandersons finally appeared, they were flat imitations of their previous selves, lacking the wit and charming deviousness. It felt like they were being used. And the new Sanderson sister, a "good" one who appears from the 1600's, actually says, with her parting breath, "Weed out hate and ignorance and persecution whenever and wherever you can."
My God I hate this book. And the ending was set up for more sequels. 1 star

>159 SomeGuyInVirginia: ha! I saw a few of those signs while I was in New Orleans. I guess that's to be expected. Muriel's restaurant is known to have a resident ghost or two and a room's dedicated to seances. You'd love it!

Either I haven't paid attention or the stores are just too preoccupied with back to school so no official Halloweenish products to report from Cleveland.

No Halloween sightings here yet but then I don't have the radar that you do!

>158 mstrust: I actually saw Christmas decorations being put out a couple weeks ago, and several aisles set up for them already. It was in a craft store, so there's some leeway for crafts that actually will take time to complete, but I'm seeing what appear to be regular decorative items as well. (I've not gone over to take a closer look.)

>164 Carmenere: I'm thinking that a couple of stores are in competition to see who gets Halloween out earliest, because I've noticed them starting in August more often now. I think they used to wait until after school started.

>165 Familyhistorian: Ha, it's true, I do scan the surroundings for black and orange. And the words "pumpkin spice".

>166 harrygbutler: I saw Christmas being put out too, at the At Home store, where they had a full aisle or two already out and were stocking more. I wonder if there are more people now that do Christmas year round, leaving the house decorated. I saw a British show a while ago about people who live Christmas. One guy ate Christmas dinner every day.

I made a batch of chocolate meringues yesterday just to see if they were in the running as I consider my options for the fair. They are delicious and puffy, but every one of them was cracked, which I know is from a too hot oven even though I followed the instructions. Anyway. meringues are so temperamental with the humidity that I'll pass.


internet pic

>162 mstrust: Yes, from Pier 1. So cute. Hopefully it will keep people away from our door.

I usually don't find much on Amazon Prime Day. I didn't even check until Tuesday but I found a few good things: my first bluetooth speaker, a Hogwarts pillowcase for the Christmas pillow we use year round for comfort, and a Friends birthday gift for my father-in-law.

MMM, chocolate meringue. Don't mind if I do.

Your chocolate miringues look delicious. Sweet Thursday, Jennifer.

>163 mstrust: I absolutely hate when they take something fun and turn it into a teachable moment. Blood Crazy and Killing Mr. Griffin were ruined at then end. Bloody Crazy by the idea that, yes the world is overrun by blood mad psychos, but you'll be fine as long as you follow your heart, and Killing/Griffin by 'It's been 10 days since you killed your teacher and you're still moping around the house! Your father and I love you and want you to get on with your life!' Gah!

>164 Carmenere: I would totally want to tour a house with a For Sale- haunted sign!

Oh oh oh! Look what I just bought, it's 2 feet tall! And no, it's not for Halloween, it's going up on the walls as soon as it gets here. I saw it and started hyperventilating.

>168 PaperbackPirate: I was looking for a door mat that says "Go Away" at the home goods store. Apparently surly doesn't sell because I've only seen it online.
Sounds like you got some special things for Prime Day, so well worth it for a good discount. I bought a bed skirt, a 18 pack of dog food, a 12 pack of Planter's peanuts and best of all, a 30 pack of those little Kellogg cereal boxes, so I can pretend I'm in a coffee shop.
Do help yourself to meringues. I went to the baking supply store (ABC on Indian School Rd) and stocked up on extract, oils, cookie cutters and bakery boxes. I'm ready to experiment.

>169 Ameise1: The pic isn't mine, but it was close enough to how mine look. I don't use a pastry bag, I just scoop and swirl with the spoon.

>170 SomeGuyInVirginia: That cat is beautiful! And I went to the site and see that it glows in the dark too. Awesome, and great website. I poked around a bit and will go back to look more, but how happy it makes me to know those plastic Halloween masks still exist! The sweet memories of barely being able to breathe through those little pinhole nostrils.
I had really looked forward to that book. I'd told Mike, "Hocus Pocus will come tomorrow!" Then "Hocus Pocus arrived!" became "how dare you!" Promising me a sequel to a quirky Halloween classic then pooping all over it with "Issues" is enraging. About 20 minutes after I wrote my review I had calmed down enough to go back and remove the swearing. :-D I don't want to seem completely crazy.
Ha! "So you killed your teacher, how's the substitute shaping up?"

It's Friday. Let's have cheese.

Ok, I had to remove this gif as it was broken. Guess the dog got his cheese and left.

63. Nevada Curiosities by Richard Moreno. A travel guide to the quirky or underrated of Nevada. From an outdoor art display from various established sculptors in Rhyolite, the splendor of the courthouse in little Goldfield with it's Tiffany lamps, the many building murals in Ely, the factory that lies at the bottom of Soda Lake, the UFO heavy towns of both Beatty and Rachel, or the haunted spots in Vegas. But, since this was published in 2009, plenty of things have changed. I don't know if the mob tours still exist since The Mob Museum was built in the meantime, and I know The Liberace Museum closed, but I found a collection from that museum housed in another museum now. It's still a fun book of the unusual, and one I'll be able to use. 4 stars

I'll just mention that Saturday morning was another baking test day. Mike had come up with one of his cookie fantasies (he has them more often than you'd think) of a S'more cookie consisting of graham cracker cookie, like a small, flat pie crust, with chocolate frosting and covered in marshmallow. So I figured it out, and while it tasted good, it was crumbly and the marshmallow fluff remained gooey and messy. I don't think it's a ribbon winner. Mike's having trouble letting go of the dream.

And yesterday we went to a new lounge called The Hatter and the Hare. An Alice in Wonderland styled bar that serves original cocktails and a small menu of salads and sandwiches. It turned out to be a very narrow place that was packed even on a Sunday morning. I had a "T'Was Brillig Mule" with vodka, lime juice and ginger beer, and a French, while Mike had a "Mad Hatter" of Irish whiskey, apricot brandy, passion fruit and English tea. It was really good, and served in a little teacup. The place fought against it's own ambiance though by playing disco and Bon Jovi as loudly as a nightclub.
https://www.hatterandhareaz.com/

Sounds like it would be a fun place to go to with my book club except for the music!

If it weren't for the music so loud that everyone was screaming their conversations, and the very tight fit, oh, and several people on Yelp noted they they either waited, or were told to wait, about an hour to get in. But they do have Alice murals and big playing cards on the ceiling. ;-)

>174 mstrust: We tried a new restaurant on Saturday for a late lunch/early dinner: Devil's Acre Tavern (www.theacrepa.com), which offers some food with a German influence as well as what I think are their own cocktails. The food was good, but probably not worth a lengthy drive. The drink I tried was Love & Rockets, with rye, Aperol, lemon juice, and min simple syrup. I thought it was fine but nothing special. Should we go again, I'll likely opt for the Acre Smash, with bourbon and "smashed" blackberry, lemon, and mint, plus Angostura bitters and honey simple syrup.

At one of the antique stores on the itinerary, I saw the Weebles Haunted House (I believe; I didn't look in the box): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QedtWlEPoyM. Spooky!

Very cool place, and the owner likes some good bands. Besides the "Love & Rockets", there's the "Pretty Vacant" (Sex Pistols) and the "Rockaway Beach" (Ramones). The "Bee's Knees" is a classic that I've made at home.
I have hazy memories of playing with Weebles. I know I had some kind of set for them but I can't remember if it was a house or what. I don't know if I should be embarrassed that I played with what is basically a hardboiled egg.

Oh, and I'd forgotten about the books I bought on my library shift. Left them in my trunk all weekend.
Haunted Nights, a collection of short stories. The only author I recognize is Garth Nix.
The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death
In Sunlight or In Shadow a collection of short stories inspired by Edward Hopper paintings. Includes Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Megan Abbott, Joe R. Lansdale and Lawrence Block.

Gah! Good grief, you guys are getting slammed with heat. Would you hate me very much if I told you that it's been unseasonably cool and rainy here since Saturday? heheh

Yesterday matched our record of 116F and today is expected to match the record of 115. One of the local news stations is doing a livestream of tubes of biscuits in the sun. Not unrolled biscuits baking, but the enclosed tubes so that they explode in the heat.
Go ahead and laugh. Winter. That's all I'm sayin'.

Here's the official Season 9 Walking Dead trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBaKVC1wIW4

Seems like it's no secret now that Rick is gonna die this season.

I am looking forward to the show starting up again, but I can't help but feel that this could be the last season, I don't know if the show can survive Rick not being there. On the other hand, I was really happy with how Fear the Walking Dead revamped itself this year.

Rick's demise will change the show completely, and at the moment I can't see any good coming from it. Darryl will have a lot on his shoulders, and Carol too. And I couldn't believe it when I saw the trailer and who's there? Murray Goldberg's brother! Ha, let's see how he screws everything up. I'm looking forward to it.
I agree that FTWD did a pretty good job with adding cast members who were way more interesting than Madison, so perhaps that gave them a few more seasons.

>180 mstrust: Tubes of biscuits exploding in the sun? Now that is hot! I'm surprised that you are going out of the house at all.

There was a bright light in the sky which I have on good authority is the sun. Today's supposed to be the last of the flooding, it's been an epic few days.

I have to binge TWD, I'm two seasons behind. Rick was never my guy; Daryl is, and Carol, and Glenn (RIP). I watched the trailer and the talking dead are freakin' cray-pay!

Howdy Jennifer! >173 mstrust: sounds like a very interesting book. I'd love to rent a car and check those places out and also finish our drive on Rt 66. I love the west!
Yikes! 116 degrees! day after day it must be aweful! What about monsoons? Are you getting any? Do they cool things off?
Exploding biscuit tubes! LOL I'm guessing that when you go grocery shopping there's no stopping on the way home or you'd be scrapping dough off thw windshield.

You're welcome.

64. The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming. The story of Vivian Michele, a young French Canadian woman who has been persuaded to spend a night alone watching over a motel in the Adirondacks. While a storm rages outside, two employees, sent by the motel owner, arrive. Vivian knows immediately that she's in trouble, and may die that night, but then an Englishman with a flat tire happens to arrive and is willing to fight to save her.
Surprisingly, Bond arrives 100 pages into the story, which is Vivian's first person story. There were times I even forgot to expect him, as Vivian's story of failed relationships and career moves were so interesting, and pretty detailed considering this was published in 1962. On the list for The Great American Read. 4 stars

It may be hard to see, but the girl on the cover looks just like Annette Funicello, and the guy at the bottom looks like a thin Matt Lucas stealing a tv.

>184 Familyhistorian: We stay in as much as possible, with much of the city becoming very quiet in the summer. Except the idiot hikers, they seem to be drawn to the mountains of Phoenix like moths to a flame, and we have daily rescues on the news. A few days ago, five people on one day had to be rescued from various mountain hikes.

>185 SomeGuyInVirginia: I saw the flooding in Pennsylvania on the news yesterday. I hope you're doing okay. Not so bad in D.C. and Virginia?
I still miss Glenn. And Abraham. I think they'll have to throw all kinds of new characters in to hook viewers after what I expect to be a highly traumatic season coming up. Everyone have your binkies and blankies ready. Entering Pee Pee Town.

>186 Carmenere: Hello, Lynda! I'd like to drive around to those small towns too. I've wanted to visit the Valley of Fire for a long time and dig for opals, but it's all the way on the other side of the state from Vegas. Just about two months ago, my mom and sister drove out to Rachel and Beatty, the UFO towns. Small and good for an hour or so of looking around and having a pic of your head on an alien body.
Monsoons don't really cool things. They drop the temps by about ten degrees and leave us with a muggy next day. But the rain is welcome, as this is when Arizona gets the majority of its yearly rainfall.
During the summer, we shop for things like ice, chocolate and ice cream when we're going straight home, and many people have coolers in their trunks to get this stuff home. You just have to think ahead.

>187 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thank you! I wish!

Ha! That does look like Annette Funicello. I'd never heard of Matt Lucas until I looked him up. Every time I see a completely hairless man I think 'cannibal'. I don't know why, maybe my mother was frightened by a cannibal when she was carrying me.

I've always thought the model on this cover looked like Blondie-



I wonder if there's a whole secret society devoted to working old sex symbols into modern noir covers? You know, like the Vatican did with all those murals?

Have you seen this cannibal?

Last seen wearing a shirt made out of winos.

You mean you haven't watched "Little Britain", the most shockingly funny show? It's where I first met both our patisserie manager, Marjorie, and our office manager Carol. And now they work for my Little BBC.
Both Lucas and one of the baddies from the Bond book have alopicea (however it's spelled, even spellcheck doesn't know). In Lucas' case, I think it works out because he can do a wig change super fast. Silver lining.
You're right, that cover does look like Debbie Harry, and she even posed in a similar way once. I know that Harry's face has been"borrowed" in many ways. Years ago, a drawing of her was used to promote fashion shows in Southern California malls, without her permission, of course.

>192 SomeGuyInVirginia: Yep, that's how Marjorie looks after having a jam tart.

I was especially greedy on my library shift today. I brought home Mr Mercedes, Night Music: Nocturnes Vol. 2, Dancers in Mourning, Red Harvest and Finders Keepers.

>178 mstrust: >193 mstrust: Good hauls from the library! I told Erika about In Sunshine or in Shadow, as she's a real Hopper fan. Not too long ago she got a new Tiki book, The Field Guide to Tiki Decorating, which she thought pretty good in terms of content but badly in need of an editor and proofreader.

I'm on The Case of the Late Pig in my effort to read the Campions in publication order, which is proceeding fairly slowly, so I don't know when I'll eventually get to Dancers in Mourning. I enjoy them, but they seem to benefit from allowing time to pass between cases.

I hope you find the Hopper book. I haven't cracked it open yet, but his paintings have such a moodiness to them that I can see them being rich with story ideas.
I couldn't believe it, but going through the carts and boxes of donations at the library yesterday, I unearthed a very old Trader Vic's cookbook. I actually gasped. I showed it to the woman I work with and she snatched it out of my hands and put it in the box that goes to the central warehouse to be researched. I didn't even get a shot at it.
I have yet to read any Allingham at all. I'd never heard of her until just a few years ago, so I need to get on it.

Here's Friday's Whaaaat?
Have you heard about the new ice cream flavor in Scotland, land of the Spam doughnut? Mayonnaise ice cream, which can be topped with ketchup. It's true, it exists. :-(

Nope, I am just not "down" with mayo ice cream! Blech!!

Not even with a nice vinegary ketchup topping? Maybe smash a few oily french fries in?

Why? Two words- veggie pizza.

Veggie pizza is good. You put a thick layer of cheese on the crust, then a few slices of mushrooms and black olives, then top with a couple cups of cheese. You shouldn't be able to see the vegetables, but you'll get all the nutrients you need for the whole day.

>196 mstrust: I'm game for that if I can get bacon bit sprinkles!

Ha! Ewwww!

Nah, veggie pizza is almost always a mistake, like tequila shooters or incense, or checking your ex's Facebook page after you've drunk a bottle of wine. And I've always thought black olives tasted like regret. But no sensible person would pay a damn but of attention to anything I have to say on food- last night for dinner I had peanut butter and yoghurt.

We might get nine more days of rain. That is totally insane. DC cold experience significant flooding.

I'm reading The Death of Mrs. Westaway and it's pretty good. Not what I would usually read but I'm still on my bestsellers kick.

I've meant to ask for a while, are you a professional writer? If not, you could be, easy.

Not sure about mayo ice cream with ketchup sauce but I'm with you on veggie pizza. That's what I always order, with roasted red peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and feta covered in cheese - yum!

>205 Familyhistorian: I'll come sit by you and split the veggie pizza. And if we sit over on this side near the bar, I can order cocktails without even getting up. Win - Win.

>203 SomeGuyInVirginia: Oh, that is a saaaad dinner. Time for take-out. But now I'm thinking, peanut butter yogurt? Why doesn't that exist?
We're suppose to get a monsoon this weekend, which will bring a "cool down" to about 105.
>204 SomeGuyInVirginia: Awww, thanks, but no, I'm not. I've had little things published in the past, but that short story I had online last year was the first thing I'd even attempted to publish in about a dozen years.

>205 Familyhistorian: >206 RidgewayGirl: Put enough cheese on it, and I'd eat a cardboard box.

The BBC has loaded up the books, pastries and tiki mugs and moved! Come see the new place, the first cocktail is free.

Here's my last look at Autumn in July:

Sigh. Just wait til September. I'm gonna lose my mind with pumpkins.