Mini vacation

We headed to Harper's Ferry, WV for a short over night trip. With gas prices so high we just wanted a couple day trips that wouldn't be too far. It was nice to check out the history and the weather was beautiful for some sightseeing and photo taking. Found some beautiful shots of the river that would make good paintings. Today we might hit Brandywine for the Wyeth Museum. Depends on what time we get out here.

Finished Barbara Delinsky's "The Secret Between Us." She's a very good author and the book was very enjoyable. It started with an accident on a rainey night. The sixteen year old daughter was driving and the mother was the passenger. Just before they arrived home they hit a jogger. Not their fault but for some reason the mother took the responsibility for driving. She didn't really lie; just kept saying "we" when she was talking to the police implying that she was the driver. Lies, guilt and secrets were the name of the game throughout the whole novel. Starting Dean Koontz's "Odd Hours" which is a sequel to his character Odd Thomas. Can't wait to have time to finish this one.

Another book.......

I got a lot of reading done over this holiday weekend. I finished Mary Higgins Clark's "Where Are You Now." Lots of characters and her usual "who done it." This one invovled a wealthy family that's son disappeared 10 years ago but contacts them every Mother's Day to give his less than one minute message that he's alive and not to try to find him. The father was a victim of 9/11 so it was just the Mother and Sister left to wonder where he was and what had happened to take him away from them. The Sister is on a mission to find him. Her investigation puts her Brother in the limelight and he's suddenly accused of being a kidnapper and serial killer. She now has to find him and clear his name. Ms. Clark is a wonderful writer who isn't necessarily in the league with other crime writers but does a wonderful job none the less.

Memorial Day

I made potato salad, cole slaw, and chicken is ready to be fried but no one has showed up. I wanted to be prepared just in case but looks like it isn't happening. I thought I might get a visit from the oldest granddaughter but I got a long phone call instead. Looks like hubby and I will be feasting on the above mentioned items for the majority of the week.

I finished the second "Dexter" novel last night. This one is "Dexter in the Dark" and it was okay but not near as good as the first one or the television show. His story line is usually very believeable but in this one he took a trip down "Stephen King highway." Little to sci-fi! When you start hearing music in you head that makes you follow it to some weird cult gathering than it goes to a different level of novel for me. Hope he doesn't continue in this way into his future books. Now I'm taking on a Mary Higgins Clark novel which should be much calmer.

Dearly Devoted Dexter

After getting hooked on the television show, "Dexter," I decided to read the books. I finished "Dearly Devoted Dexter" by Jeff Lindsay. What a warped mind! I've read so many books that have description in it that is just so boring and doesn't make a bit of sense but this guy knows how to write descriptively. You're right there with him. I could see bits and pieces (no pun intended if you're a fan of the show) in the book that ended up on the little screen. The story brought new meaning to the old sick joke, "What do you call a guy with no arms or legs?" Doesn't matter; he's not going to come anyway! Just have to read it to appreciate it. I'm definitely going to delve right into the second book. I was going to try something light, like Mary Higgins Clark, but she'll have to wait.

Granddaughter's graduation

My step granddaughter is now officially an RN. We're very proud of her accomplishments since she did this while raising 3 children. She's determined to continue going further in school and I believe she'll do just that. Way to go girl!

Oops! I did it again........

I took another fall today. I was leaving for the office and stopped for the mail. Next thing I know I was on the ground with my knee in shreds. I hobbled back to the car and managed to limp to the bathroom where hubby proceeded to hose my knee down with wound wash and peroxide. I look like a little kid with all the bandaids and tape. Just hoping I haven't done any damage to the neck area. Memories of the last driveway fall and the happenings after that. Won't be doing my office duty tonight afterall. When I wore high heels, I never fell like I do now that I've gone to wearing flats.

Tomorrow is my daughter's birthday and since she doesn't like her age given out, I won't mention that she's two years younger than her brother. See below! I was off by a day all week and thought today was the birthday instead of tomorrow. Got to start looking at the calendar more closely. Anyway, I hope my darling baby girl has a wonderful birthday and knows how proud I am of her and all she's done. She's a great Mom and wife.

Since I'll be alone most of the weekend, I should be able to catch up on lots of reading. I haven't fallen out of bed in years so that's probably a safe place for me to stay with my books.

Careless in Red

There aren't too many murder mysteries that I can't figure out "who dunnit" well before the end but this one kept me guessing right to the near end. Elizabeth George writes a series of novels featuring Detective Lynley and his sidekick Barbara Havers. A couple books back she killed off Detective Lynley's wife and unborn child and in this book he's wandering the cliffs of England trying to get his life back on track. With nothing more than a sleeping bag, he has headed out on the paths along the sea. Unkempt and unbathed this now former detective comes across a dead body. Since he's first on the scene he reports it and becomes a suspect. Once he can prove who he is he is roped into helping solve the case. The body is that of a young adventure seeker who was "climbing" alone at the time of his fall to death. It was discovered that his gear had been tampered with and now it's a murder case. Everyone is a suspect in the small town. Even when the killer is discovered he has set up the murder in such a way that it can't be proved. I was glad to see that Detective Lynley is back on track and hopefully there will be more books about him in the future.

Our last oil painting class is tonight. I left a little to be done on the "rooster" that I'm painting and I have a landscape that needs a few more details added. Hubby is hard at work on his lighthouse. Looking good! I don't know if I'd take another course from this instructor. I was hoping for a little more guidance and structure. Like here's an apple, banana, and orange and this is how you paint it. His version is bring in a picture of something and paint it. This guy wanders the classroom giving a few minutes to the eleven of us so that at the end of the evening we've had maybe 5 minutes of one on one time. I took a finished (I thought) piece to him and he told me it was floating and needed to be grounded. What? Apparently adding a little shadowing makes something grounded. I might look around for a more advanced class to see if I have any talent or if I just like to waste paint and canvases.

We've gotten things straightened out for my daughter's settlement tomorrow. No survey was needed once I pulled in the original title company that had done their last settlement on the old house. Apparently when there's a railroad running behind you house that's considered an natural boundary and therefore whether the deed is wrong or not you can't go further than the natural boundary. The current title company should have known that and allowed for it and we would have settled already.
I feel the old title company should have corrected it and we wouldn't have had to endure this current mess. Keeping fingers crossed for tomorrow!

The best comedy on television right now has to be "The Big Bang Theory." There isn't a better group of actors with better timing anywhere. It's season finale was last night but here's hoping that they keep running reruns all summer. Monday nights at 8:00 on CBS!

Alice Sebold.........."The Almost Moon"

I was given this book as a gift. I received it on the day before Mother's Day but it was really a Christmas gift that got misplaced and finally surfaced. I think I'd prefer that it had stayed lost. I'm having trouble even trying to explain the story. In the first chapter the Daughter kills her Mother. Okay, Mom suffered from agoraphobia most of her life and was now having some dementia. She was 88 and her daughter (main character) was in charge of her care. After smothering her Mother the Daughter decides to bath her and then take the naked body to the basement and just let her lying there. It just gets stranger from there on. I'm ready to read something else. A murder mystery might lighten my mood after this one.

Weird

I'm reading a book by Alice Sebold. I think I remember enjoying her novel "The Lovely Bones." I'm having a very difficult time with "The Almost Moon." By now I should be done with it and giving it a nice review. This one is dragging!

Settlement was to take place tomorrow on my daughter's house. What else could go wrong? She's had to replace her septic, repave the driveway where the backhoe (from the septic repair) broke up the existing driveway, and replace the sump pump in the so called waterproofed basement. We found out last night that the deed is wrong and there's no way that the plot can be "closed." Somewhere along the line there was an error on the deed and instead of finding and fixing the problem, it's been hidden all these years. Thirteen years ago we should have been informed about it and a survey should have taken place to correct the problem. Instead the title company just said "ho hum" and let it slide without us being informed. Here we are with a more concientious person doing the title search and now a survey must be done at daughter's expense to correct the problem that's been there and accepted all these many years. This throws off settlement until a surveyor can be found and do the job. Could be a week or more. No wonder no one wants to buy a house anymore!

One more oil painting class. So far I've whipped out four masterpieces and am working on three more. I'm really just trying to justify spending money on all those oil paints and brushes. One of the current ones is a rooster. I figured I did a pretty large stained glass rooster several years ago so why not try painting one. My friend in Michigan has the stained glass one and she may end up with the painted one whether she's interested or not. It's not huge like the glass one so it can be hidden easily.

Happy Birthday to my Son

Okay, he's not really 29! He's my age! Some where along the line he seems to have caught up with me since I sure don't remember leaving my 30's and moving on. I remember going into labor and then waiting 21 1/2 hours longer to pop the little dude out. I remember leaving the hospital after a three day stay, without a clue as to what to do with him. The doctor told me to use my Mother's instincts. I was 19; what Mother's instincts. There wasn't even a small instruction sheet! No one told me that it wasn't okay to let him sleep on his stomach, or to put him in a car seat. Back then we were allowed to hold them in our laps and snuggle them in the front seat on the drive home. And no seat belt to restrain us from moving around and being comfortable. How did we ever survive! So here he is now......just got another Master's Degree. This one in Education. Congratulations on the hard work! I think he'll keep going. He seems to love going to school and getting degrees. Anyway, Happy Birthday, Son! Those years flew by but I loved them all.

Lunch

Had a lovely lunch with two of my stepchildren. Got some nice gifts, too. Actually spent about 3 hours in the restaurant chatting and catching up.

Finished Mary Stewart's "Thornyhold." It was written in the late 1980's but the time frame was from of the 40's. The young woman was a rather lonely child and was sent to boarding school where she spent most of her youth. She came home when her Mother was killed in an accident to take care of her Father. When he died she had to leave home since her Father was a vicar and lived in the church owned parsonage. Her only other relative was her Mother's cousin whom she had only seen a few times in her life time. Contact with her had stopped many years before. A few months went by and she was contacted that her cousin had died and she was the sole beneficiary. She inherited a small amount of money but also a lovely home in the country. Apparently everyone thought her cousin had been a "white" witch. That's different than the typical since she used her "powers" to heal animals and humans with herbs. Life in the country proved to be very rewarding and informative for the new resident. I pretty much always enjoy reading a Mary Stewart novel. This was a good one but the ending did seemed to be rushed.

Rainy Days......

It's spring and I should be out of the usual low that I experience when there aren't any leaves on the trees and the earth is just gray. That's why I love snow....it covers the blandness of winter. There's plenty of green out there but I guess it's the rain that has brought me down. I tried to lose my self in some painting. I had a friend ask me yesterday to paint her something.... anything. That was nice to hear! I started the canvas last night but by today I was wiping it away. Just couldn't get it going. The good and bad of oils. You can wipe it away but it also takes forever to dry so it's tough to stay at it and not have the colors bleed together. So no help there to bring me out of the slump. Paying a fortune at the grocery store and the gas station sure doesn't help. I stay home as much as possible and only venture out when I have a long list of things that need to get done.

Mother's Day is fast approaching. I always look forward to that. Having my kids without the usual holiday pressures that keep me from enjoying them. Getting to chat and relax with them. Being the center of attention is nice at least once a year. It's so rare to get that time with them anymore.

Got a bunch of books to pick from and yet none of them are jumping out at me. I'm sure there are some good ones in the pile but nothing is saying pick me up and read me. I did order the "Dexter" books that they based the television series on. They won't get here for a week or more though. There's also a new Elizabeth George book that should be good. She writes the Detective Lynley series that PBS has made a series about. I like the books much better than that series though. I'll probably have an increase in nightmares when I read the "Dexter" books. Poor hubby will be suffering from sleep loss when I start screaming during the nightmares. Scares both of us!

Gotta shake the mood!

Great story.....

I finished Jim Fergus' "The Wild Girl, The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932." This is the same author who wrote "A Thousand White Women." He carries his Native American theme into this novel with the final push to finish off the Apache tribe by the Mexicans in the 1930's when they reintroduced the practice of giving a bounty for every Apache scalp. A photographer is thrown back in time when he goes to a showing of his work at the end of the 1900's and he has to re-live the story behind one of his best works. A young Native American female that was captured and brought to a small Mexican village where because of her wild ways is confined to the local jail. The sheriff is charging admission to see her. She has given up and is starving herself until she is rescued and used as a bargaining chip to find a Mexican child that was stolen by Apaches four years earlier. An expedition is formed to head to Mexico to find the missing child. Rich young men are recruited to spend the money necessary to go on this expedition. The young photographer joins up and becomes a major factor in the story. Their adventure not only leads to the discovery of the missing child but another kidnapping that took place 50 years prior of a small child in the US. That child is now in his 50's and a major chief in the Apache nation. The fact that he's red headed and six four is sight to behold for those expecting to see an Apache. This is a wonderful read and to say more would reveal too much for those interested in reading this story.

Trying to get two houses to settlement that have run into tons of problems. Will be especially glad to see them settled! Other than those problems it was a great day with some time spent with my friend M.

Cable

I'm trying to figure out how to convince my hubby that we need to get cable and Showtime by next fall. CBS ran a couple of months of a Showtime drama called "Dexter" and I'm totally hooked on it. If you haven't been watching....it's about a guy who kills killers. Apparently little Dexter was found at a crime scene at the age of 3 and taken into foster care by the cop who found him. The cop discovered early on that Dexter had some inner need to kill and realizing that this wasn't something that would just disappear, he established "rules" early on. Dexter could only fulfill his "needs" by killing someone who killed. During the time I watched the show he was in search of "The Ice Truck Killer." He had a few other incidents along the way but this was his main search. The whole plot came together last night in its season finale. Dexter has an adoptive sister who is a cop and he is a blood analyst for the same police department. The father died 10 years earlier from cancer. Dexter has a girlfriend (with children) and even though he's short on emotions he seems to enjoy being with her and the kids. If I can't get Showtime then I'll be looking for DVD's of the show! The show is based on the novels of Jeff Lindsay. I'm definitely checking out his books.

The Price of Salt

This is a novel from 1952 by Patricia Highsmith. The topic was probably very controversial in it's day. A young woman searching for her sexuality. She's living in New York City and trying to get a job working on set designs. She's been dating a young artist but while working a temporary job at a department store, she is captivated by a beautiful 30 something woman. She sends her a card and from that their friendship grows. It's on a trip across country that their fate is sealed. I'm trying to imagine what life would have been like under those circumstances in that time. A very interesting read.

I've found my niche............I've always been a doodler of daisies and now I've discovered that I can paint them so I'll be doing still lifes of pitchers of daisies or maybe vases of daisies. Wonder how many colors of daisies I can do!

This month is worse than July when I have my own birthday. This is the month when my children turn ?? and ??! God, where did those years go? I could try to pretend I wasn't my age if I didn't have kids reminding me constantly of their age.