Short Stories

I've never enjoyed reading a book of short stories. I like a nice story with substance and not just a chapter's worth. I didn't realize when I bought "Ordinary Life" by Elizabeth Berg that it was a book of short stories or I would have probably not bothered. In this case it was rather enjoyable. One of the stories was a follow up of "The Pull of the Moon." Gave the husband's reply to that novel about a woman leaving home to "find herself" and sending letters back to her husband about what she was experiencing. Anyway, I enjoyed most of them but am anxious to read a real book now. Looking forward to the new Dean Koontz book but I have to wait for the free shipping from Amazon to kick in and get it here. Anyway, if you're into short stories then click the above link.

Off to a 5 hour shift in retail!

Yummo!

A big success! The turkey got done early with stuffing bursting out of it. Everything else came together well. Went to my daughter's by 10:30 and we had the meal ready to serve and everything cleaned up by 1:00. By 2:30 we were moaning from our gluttony. It's now 8:30 and I still haven't made room for desert. Maybe by tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Never fails! I've got a 27.5 pound turkey, 8 extra thighs, two huge amounts of two different kinds of stuffing and tonight I find out that our large crowd went from 20 something down to 14. Geez! What a waste! Not to mention the ham. Everyone's invited for turkey day!

Getting in the holiday spirit

Every year Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark, join forces to write a little Christmas novel. The same characters are thrown into a new adventure and it becomes a fun, quick read. This year it's "Dashing Through the Snow." The characters are an older couple who won the lottery after spending most of their life doing house cleaning for other people. A private detective married to a homicide cop. The parents of the P.I., mother a famous author and father a mortician. This time they're headed to New England where a group of employees from a local grocery store have won the lottery. It's usually 5 of them that play but this time one of them had dropped out of the group to save his dollar. That was the catalyst that got the whole adventure rolling. Reading this was like reading a golden book for adults. Fast and fun.

Strange

It's strange. Even though I'm not hosting Thanksgiving Dinner, I'm still obsessing about it. Woke up in the middle of the night worrying that since there are more people coming this year that there might not be enough stuffing and turkey. I'm used to over planning so there are leftovers for everyone but with the count now being up in the 20's I'm losing my confidence about having enough for all. And then there's the ham. I have to admit there are some huge eaters coming and it will seem like there are 30 some people there. I couldn't get a 30 pound turkey this year. I'll be lucky to get a 24 or 25 pounder. With a tray full of extra thighs, I'm hoping to make up for it being smaller. So many prefer the dark meat anyway. Spent my afternoon chopping onions and crying. Then there was all the celery to chop, too. I'm trying to get a lot of it done early so my weird work hours won't be an issue. I'm actually headed to work for just two and half hours tonight. I thought the 3 hours and 45 minutes shifts were a drag. This is insane. I think I'm getting punished for getting the assistant manager in trouble for hitting me. Pay backs! Next week when I'm headed in there for 5 days, 3 of which start at 6:00 am and last 9 hours I'll probably be wishing it was one of those 3 hour days.

Comedy of errors

On Saturday I went to the AT&T store to purchase new phones for Hubby and myself. It had been three years and the battery life was pretty much shot on both of them. I get a discount through my place of employment that I needed to activate so I took care of all things in one visit. Wrong! When I arrived home I discovered that my new phone wouldn't charge. I called tech support and they said they couldn't figure out why it would turn on while plugged in but wouldn't hold a charge or stay on more than a few seconds. It just kept shutting down. Return it they said. Hubby's worked fine. I put my old battery in the new phone and it worked so that's when I realized I had been given a bad battery with the new phone. Back to the store today after I made a call to complain to customer service. It got me a $25 discount from my bill so that was worth something, anyway. The guy at the store told me to bring everything with me just in case it wasn't just the battery so off I went. Got about half way there and discovered I didn't have the new (dead) battery. It was back in the house. Back I went to the house and I was going to just forget it till another time but I started dwelling on the fact I still needed to purchase things for my portion of the Thanksgiving meal. Off again! I went to the phone store first and was given the new battery. Discovered the original one was for the model Razor phone that I was giving up instead of for the new version I was getting. Now I have the right one and hopefully I'm set. Off to the grocery store. Rushing through I was almost finished when the fire alarm went off. Nobody was leaving so I figured it wasn't a big deal even though management and security were rushing to the delicatessen part of the store. Sure enough, over the load speaker comes the announcement to abandon all carts and leave the store immediately. What luck! Apparently it was an electrical fire or at least it smelled like it. I was done, just needed to check out and here I am stuck out in the cold waiting and hoping to get back in to rescue my cart of goodies. The rescue trucks came and they climbed on the roof and checked it out and then left. After about 45 minutes of waiting outside we were let back in and the few of us that stuck it out found our carts and proceeded to checkout only to find all the abandoned groceries on the belts from people who had decided not to wait and had just left. We cleared out the check out areas and I managed to get through unscathed. An offer of 10% off would have been nice for all they put us through but no such luck. Anyway, I'm good now and with a little luck I'll avoid having to go back before Thursday. I was glad to be back home and will be even happier not to have to go out again till tomorrow.

Wally Lamb

I've read Wally Lamb novels before and enjoyed them. His new one, "The Hour I First Believed" is very interesting but very depressing. I'm only about half way through but so much has happened to the female character that I feel the need for the Xanax or Valium that she ends up dependent on. It starts with the tragedy of Columbine High School and continues on with Post Traumatic Stress and the horrors that one woman suffers. If you're a fan of Lamb, you'll definitely want to read it. You might want to break it up with something a little light to help the tension.

Plans are in the works for the Thanksgiving festivities. Not many step children this year but my daughter's in-laws are coming and so is my son's mother-in-law. We'll miss the rest of our family and hope they are having a good time wherever they are. This Christmas will be a mixed event. My step son in Hawaii is returning with his wife for the holiday. Unfortunately we found out that my step daughter and her family are moving to Washington state in the spring. It will be the last we'll all be together for quite some time. Hopefully the oldest will put in a showing and we can all be together for a group picture. I've always wanted to see the great northwest and now will be our chance if we could afford that trip. Maybe on our way to Alaska some day.

James Patterson

The was one of Patterson's Alex Cross mysteries. That's about the only one of his books that doesn't show up with multiple authors on the jacket. This one takes him to one of his most gruesome murder scenes and the discovery that the female victim is his first love from his college days. The murderer is an African "tiger." Murder for hire. His possy is a gang of young boys as young as ten that swope in and commit these horrible crimes. Alex tracks him to Africa and is exposed to torture and the autrosities of life there. He meets up with a reporter and is given the secrets about what is really happening in this land of turmoil. The US government makes him leave and go back to Washington and what awaits him there is his worst nightmare. Needless to say, it was a fast read and a page turner.

Now I get to go back to the Wally Lamb novel that I was reading before I set it aside to read Patterson. Not that the Lamb novel wasn't good, it's is extremely sad. I'll be back to it tonight.

Hopefully more hours at work. The other evening girl is leaving so hopefully since I've agreed to work nights now they will fill my week up so we can have a little Christmas this year.

A Dexter Surprise

I thought I'd seen the last of Season 2 of Dexter and then I had a Netflix surprise. One more show came through on a disk 4. No season hanger for me. Everything got wrapped into a nice neat little package and I'm good for another year. I don't have to wait to see what happens. Dexter had his revenge on everyone who was out to get him and we can start fresh with another year of problems. I'm a happy camper.

No Hard Feelings

The election is over,
The talking is done.
My party lost,
your party won.

So let us be friends,
Let arguments pass.
I'll hug my elephant,
You can kiss your a--!

Jeffrey Deaver's latest

I'm a big fan of Jeffrey Deaver's novel of his character Lincoln Rhymes. When I discovered that his latest book, "The Bodies Left Behind" was not part of that series, I thought I'd probably not enjoy it as much. Wrong! It was great! Kept me glued to every page. It all started when a youngish couple heads to their vacation home for a relaxing weekend only to become victims of an horrendous crime. The husband tried to dial 911 but didn't get more than "This" spoken before the call disconnected. Being out in the middle of nowhere near a lake next to a state park, the local police decided to send their deputy that was closest to the spot to check it out. Little did she know she'd fall into the worst night of her life. What twists and turns! I couldn't even come close to guessing who was guilty and who wasn't. Looks like I have to wait until 2010 for the next in his Lincoln Rhyme's series.

Another sequel

I read "The Gold Coast" back in 1990. Needless to say I don't remember anything about it. Nelson DeMille has written a sequel to it called "The Gate House." Fortunately he filled in all the blanks that would otherwise have driven me nuts. I could not put this book down. I've always enjoyed DeMille's books and this was excellent. The main character us John Sutter who has just returned from many years in London to his former residence and that of his ex-wife. She's from a wealthy Gold Coast family on Long Island. Their marriage ended 10 years prior to this when she had an affair with a Mafia Don and when it ended she killed him. For some reason she escaped punishment and continued to live her life as a rich socialite while John decided to take his wounded pride and leave the country on his sailboat and spent three years sailing the world then running out of money and staying in London to work as a tax attorney for misplaced Americans. He's now returned to say his final goodbye to a former family servant of his former in-laws. She's dying and he's her attorney. She lived in the gatehouse of his wife's former family mansion with a life tenancy. His wife is living in the guest cottage which was their home for 20 years and it is just a stone's throw from the gatehouse where he's taken up residency while his client lives her last days in hospice. Upon his first meeting with his former wife they decide that they can bury the last 10 years and start fresh but not without some roadblocks along the way. Her parents and their hatred for him for one but the major one is the son of the former Mafia Don who is suddenly out for revenge. DeMille's humor makes this book even better. I found myself chuckling out loud. I would say if you haven't read him then get a copy of "The Gold Coast" and then read "The Gate House."

Fewer hours

This is a really short week for hours on the job. I'm suffering! There's a rumor that the girl that started at the same time as I did might be leaving and I'm keeping my fingers crossed since that would probably mean more hours for me. I'm not schedule now until next Wednesday. I noticed that my hours are a little heavier the week of Thanksgiving which means I'm working the night before the turkey goes in the oven. That's the one week that less hours would have been better. I'm not scheduled for black Friday. I guess that's a good thing!

Happy Birthday!

My grandson turns 12 today! I'm bummed! Where did that little "Q" ball headed guy get to. It seems like just yesterday that he was a little fussy guy. Now he's all football and hair! It was bad enough that my kids are grown. Now I have to watch the grandchildren age. Of course looking in the mirror is no picnic. Happy Birthday Jasper!!

"Homeplace"

Another Anne Rivers Siddons novel. I had this paperback lying around for quite a while and since I enjoyed her last novel, I thought I would put this one to rest. This one started in the south in the early 60's. Racism was rampant! Young Micah (female) was born and her mother died. Her father never forgave her for taking his beautiful wife from him. At 18 she made the the worst mistake she could in her racist father's eyes. She went to a sit-in during a Civil Rights Rally. She got arrested. Her Father threw her out of the house. From there she made her way on her own to become a rather well known journalist. A failed marriage and her daughter's desire to live with her estranged husband left her with a decision. Her Father, now sick with cancer and a stroke, wanted her to return to the small town in the south. No welcoming arms awaited her. Just a shell of a man. Time would tell whether there would be a healing of the break in their relationship. Some sinister plots were thrown in the mix to make it a very page turning novel.

Lots of new books are out tomorrow by favorite authors. Hmmmmmmmmm!

Dexter

I finished my marathon watching of the second season of Dexter. When I first watched the first season they had showed it on regular television so it was quite different then what you get when you see it on DVD. The "F" bomb is every other word spoken and nudity is rampent. Unfortunately I'm hooked on the show. I need to know what's going to happen to Dexter. Now I'm hanging out there until a year from now and the next season is released. He's in a real "pickle" now! I wish they would have followed the book when dealing with the police sargent that is stalking him. Oh well, that's what happens when you give up your rights as an author. It is a gory show and my hubby can't take it other than in small doses so I waited till he was working and watched it. This last season wasn't as bad as his first season in the gore department. Now it's back to the latest novel to calm me down.

A different story

"Off Season" is Anne Rivers Siddons' latest novel. It opens with the main character of Lilly as an eleven year old girl at her parent's vacation home on the coast of Maine. She's the tomboy leader of the gang until she meets Jon. A 12 year old who is her first love. Her life is changed drastically by events that summer and with her Mother's breast cancer. She becomes a recluse along with her father. It isn't until she's 18 and meets the dashing Cam that she turns her life around. After 38 years of marriage she loses her husband. She returns to the coast of Maine to spend the summer and spread his ashes in the place he loved best. It is a journey that begins with good memories and ends with a revelation that takes the wind out of her sails. A wonderfully written story!

An interesting work week. Hubby has shorter hours but unfortunately we're not on the same schedule. I pass him on his way home as I'm going in. I hate working in the middle of the day. Much rather have those early morning hours. Never get much done when you have to break up your day mid way. Always feel the need to head back to bed for a nap.

One more day

Well, if all goes as it should we will no longer be exposed to the endless commercials from the Presidential candidates. Tomorrow is the day! Whatever the outcome, at least that is the blessing.

I just finished "Testimony" by Anita Shreve. The first chapter was rather shocking. It established the whole book. A small private school is rocked by a scandal. Three basketball stars over 18 are caught on tape having inappropriate relations with a 14 year old girl. She was the instigator but they should have known better. The novel went on to describe what all those that knew the boys went through prior and after the scandal. So many lives ruined! The story just won't stop. Even years later there seems to be someone that wants to bring it back to the front burner and let it simmer. No one is left untouched from the head master to the parents. A good read.