Thank God for James Patterson

"Double Cross" is great! Kept me reading it even though with the short chapters that he writes (sometimes only a page) I felt the need to put the book down and do something constructive. His character Alex Cross is being pursued by two serial killers. Not enough drama in this man's life. He's on every wacko's "want to kill" list since he was birthed by Patterson. I'm sure the return of Kyle Craig's character will bring us "Triple Cross." That's the only predictable thing in this book. I was thoroughly entertained. Now I'll calm down by reading Nicholas Sparks' latest. "The Choice." I doubt there will be any serial killers in this one but always a great read. I did find Ken Follett wrote another book like his now famous (because Oprah said so) "The Pillars of the Earth". This one is "World Without End." Oprah's suggested the later for her book club readers. Where's she been! He wrote it in 1989! That's when I read it and loved it. She made a big deal about it being over 900 pages. My God, what will she do with the new one. It's over 1000! Guess she'll wait another 19 years to recommend it.

The Thanksgiving plans are in place. Turkey, ham and spuds galore will grace the table. Might even throw down a vegetable even though it's a waste of time and effort. Who wants veggies at Thanksgiving! There's a need for stuffing and maybe a sweet potato. I better get busy on those pumpkin pies, too! One more trip to the grocery store and another $100 should do it. I'm down $200 now. I can't imagine that a meal purchased at a restaurant could cost me much more than buying all the makings for this feast. I can't fit it all in the frig so it's sitting in coolers on the deck. Hope we don't have a heat wave before Thursday! The oldest stepdaughter won't be coming. She's decided to work that day. Sounds like Christmas is out for her, too. The life of a nurse! So we're down two stepchildren! Still planning on 14-17 to make it. Hope the Thanksgiving Fairy shows up to help in the clean up!

Made a teeny tiny dent in the "clean out the basement" project. Managed to drag 4 boxes up to the street for garbage pickup tomorrow. Plenty more could follow but that would involve opening and going through the items to place a value on whether to keep or not. Let's see; if I hated my kids then I'd just wait another 20 or 30 years and let them deal with it. They'll have enough on their hands just putting all the book jackets back on all my books sitting naked on the shelves. The cleaning project was suggested by my beloved husband and he started it recently. He found some old army information and some pictures of the kids and now they aren't in the basement but in a notebook compliments of his wife. There are plenty more boxes so we'll see what other treasures he comes up with. I must get another scrapbook so that I can put the newly found pictures in some kind of order.