Jammie Day

Since vacation officially ended yesterday, I was blessed with an additional day off today before hitting the early shift at work tomorrow. I took advantage of it and stayed in my jammies and read the latest Kathy Reichs' novel, "206 Bones." Excellent book! As I've mentioned before, Kathy knows her stuff since she is what she writes about. She's a forensic anthropologist and that's what her character, Temperance Brennan does for a living. This storyline took us to Quebec where she also works and there she had to solve four old murders that were discovered to be a serial killing. Needless to say, this was a page turner which kept me reading the whole day long.

Home again

We're back and in relatively good shape. Pulled into our driveway yesterday late afternoon/early evening. Got the car unloaded and then collapsed in front of the television to watch what we hoped would be a good Penn State football game. At least it started out as good but ended badly. I went to bed and read.




Finished Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol." Extremely good read as are most of his books. Also very thought provoking. This one is about the secrets of the "Masons." Does the pyramid exist? Is there a hidden treasure somewhere in Washington, D.C.? What are the Masonic secrets? Of course we had to have a bad guy and of course we had to have Robert Langdon to unravel the mysteries. It's a gotta have book!

Vacation

We drove up the coast through every major city along the way....thanks to our GPS. What a disaster! Driving through Boston was a nightmare. Ruined my desire to go to all those bookstores I was promised. All I wanted to do was get out of there. Salem, MA was too commercial. Freeport, ME promised an afternoon of shopping at LL Bean but that quaint old store is now replaced with a town full of outlets. Three or four of them are LL Bean but none carry large sizes so it was a worthless trip all around to go there. My poor feet are just throbbing with each step I take and hubby is limping around with his hips bothering him. We hit Plymouth on the way back through MA. Been there; done that, but did it again. The stupid museums were a waste of time and money. In one they showed a spinning wheel that said...It's rumored that the Pilgrims spent time spinning but they didn't have access to spinning wheels like this one. DUMB! We decided to go to Cape Cod after that and stopped at Hyannis for one night. Boring! Hubby wanted to go to Provincetown but it was too far and all I wanted to do was head home. Too many little towns with too many shops. One last stop in New London, CT to sleep and now today we get to head home. All-in-all it was an expensive, not very interesting, trip. I wish we would have stayed home and spent the money on new garage doors.

Vacation

We left today for our trip up through New England. It took us several trips in and out of our driveway with things we forgot but finally we were underway. Our stupid GPS took us through inner city Newark, NJ and then tried dumping us on Broadway in NYC. Can't understand why she insisted we get off of I-95. We're staying the night in Groton, Connecticut. Heading to Boston/Cambridge tomorrow.

Finished Clive Cussler's, "Spartan Gold". Excellent! He writes adventures about several different characters but this was a new introduction and I'm liking it a lot. It's a husband and wife team who have the time and money to go on treasure hunts. This one was filled with riddles and travel all over the globe. Of course there were bad guys in pursuit. I'll look forward to a continuation of this duo.

Dirty, rotten, no good..........

My day in bookkeeping went fairly well. My new schedule has me returning to the "desk" after vacation. Apparently the part time bookkeeping job is only 16 hours a week which is not near enough hours for me. I'm hoping one of the assistant managers will go to bat for me and see if I can get more time in the vault. She realized that I haven't been properly trained and if I'm going to have keys and codes then she feels I should have more. Hope she's successful because it sure is frustrating. I work hard, offer to fill in when needed, cover other people's hours when they call off, and have never missed anytime except when my brother passed away.

Another long day at work then vacation. I'd like to just sit throughout the whole thing since I know that is what my feet need to get better. It was so much better today when I was able to sit during my job instead of stand. I didn't come limping home like I usually do. Unfortunately it's 3:45 am and I still haven't fallen asleep. I've tried all the usuals. Breathing, counting sheep, etc. Nothing! I'm sure it's just anticipation of going away and the frustration of things changing at work.

I'm hot and heavy into the Clive Cussler book. Very hard to put it down so at least I'm filling my sleepless hours with good reading.

Changes

I've been at the new job now for just slightly over a year. I interviewed last spring for the bookkeeping job because one of the regulars was having a baby. I was scheduled for the training and at the last minute it was given to someone else (who was pregnant and due this summer) because according to my supervisor, I was already trained for my current job and it didn't make sense to send me to bookkeeping to train and bring another girl to my job to train her. Just send the other girl to bookkeeping and keep me where I am. Fine! Human Resources stepped in and followed up on my request and a couple months ago I was told to take the computer training laid out for me and then I could get hands-on training in the "vault" for bookkeeping. I could be a backup or get extra hours by being trained in several areas. Fine, again! Training was like pulling teeth. I've had a total of 6 hours of hands-on training. Last week rumors went flying that there were all kinds of changes coming. Department heads being moved. My co-worker being sent to another department which means a vacancy on the "desk." Who will replace her? Why the girl who beat me out of the bookkeeping training ages ago. She's had her baby and is back. She's the one they didn't want to train for the desk while I went to bookkeeping training. The Assistant Manager let it slip the other week that I was going to bookkeeping, but I knew that. One night only and two days before my week's vacation. No other discussion. Could it be that I'm actually moving to this new job? Tonight is the night and I'm really not prepared. I got very little training but have been assured that I'll be okay. You need pass codes and keys if you're in this position. Nothing was said so I just waited. Yesterday, with no fanfare, I was given the code and keys and I'm thinking I just might be the new part time bookkeeper. Apparently one of the full time girls (she's a dead beat and doesn't show up a lot) is being transferred and now they are filling her slot with a part timer. Me? I'm waiting for confirmation of all this when I see the schedule due out today for the week after next when I return from vacation. Will I be off the "desk" and off my very painful feet? I wouldn't mind doing both jobs but when on the desk I have a "till" which relates to money and money comes from the vault which relates to a conflict if I'm working there. Can't have a till the day before or the day of working in the vault. Limits my availability.

Headed out on Saturday for vacation. We haven't made any definite plans. Just thinking of heading up the New England coast. Hubby got it in his head after reading an article in a magazine that we need to go to Cambridge, MA and check out the 30 bookstores located there. He apparently is either going to torture me by taking me there and letting me just gawk in penniless frustration or he's won the lottery and has been waiting to spring it on me when we get there. I need to jot down a few titles before leaving so I'm prepared and also print out my list of books I own so I don't buy more of the same. Of course I could just take my laptop and hope they have the internet available but then my hands would be full of computer and less room for books.

I'm in the middle of Clive Cussler's new novel and Dan Brown's is due in the mail (hoping it gets here before I leave so I can take it with me) anyday. I pre-ordered it months ago or I could have just bought it in Cambridge. Anyway, it's on my schedule to read next so I hope it gets here in time.

More reading......

The one I just finished was Nicholas Sparks', "The Last Song." He's a great author but you always need a tissue at the end of his novels. This was a little different. An almost 18 year old Veronic Miller is forced to spend her summer with her father whom she hasn't talked to in 3 years. He abandoned them and she is not going to forgive him. Her 10 year old brother is really into the visit but she's determined to make everyone's life miserable. Once a famous concert pianist, she gave it up to punish her father since she got her talent from him. Throw in a summer romance and a brush with the law and suddenly her life takes on new meaning. Loved it!

Another Patterson

This James Patterson novel is a bit different than his normal Alex Cross novels. "Alex Cross's Trial" is a novel about Alex Cross writing a novel about his great Uncle Abraham (1906)who lived in the south where the KKK was reeking havoc on the blacks. Ben Corbett was a young upcoming lawyer who had fought with Roosevelt in Cuba. He's summoned by the President to go undercover back to his home town in Mississippi to determine how bad the situation is. He almost becomes a victim of the lynchings that he's been sent to investigate. His contact in Mississippi is Abraham Cross. What he uncovers is shocking. A very good read and of course you can't put it down.

Good read

Finished a book by Heather Gudenkauf. "The Weight of Silence" was a very good read. On a pre-dawn summer morning a young two young girls disappear into the woods. Seven year old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler. Her best friend, Petra Gregory, also is missing. They are not together in the woods. They are taken there by two different people under two different scenarios. This novel is a true page turner as you wait to see what has happened to the girls.

Finally got the latest Patterson book so I'll be reporting on it soon.

Missing my reading time

I've been so busy lately that my reading time has been cut drastically. I just finished "The Monster of Florence" by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi. This is a true story about a serial killer that started his killing in the 1960's in Florence, Italy. His favorite prey were young couples that were enjoying the local private lanes and forrests to do a little love making. He'd shoot the male and then the female. He would drag the female from the car and if she was still clothed he would remove them and then mutilate the body. The Italian police force were so inadequate that they tried just about anybody they could think of to try to close the case. Many lives were ruined by false arrests. These same bumbling idiots are now in charge of the murder charge against Amanda Knox. The American student charged with murdering her roommate. Having read about these idiots, I'm even more convinced of how wrong the charges are against this young woman. God help her!