Dexter

I love the show "Dexter" on Showtime. The language is not to my liking but the show is great. I've read three of the books. Just finished Jeff Lindsay's "Dexter by Design." I wasn't too thrilled with this one. The other two were better but this one left me thinking that there must have been a multi-book deal and Lindsay was struggling to meet a deadline. The show doesn't track too much with the books but are usually enjoyable. This one had Dexter chasing after a man who stabbed and almost killed his sister and when he discovers that he made a huge error he becomes the one being chased. The story went all over the place.

Stupid me

I wrote my schedule down wrong and off I went to work this morning only to find out that it's tomorrow morning that I'm working. At least I didn't punch in before I found out. With nothing else to do sinnce I drove all that distance, I went to the grocery store and spent more than I would have earned. Logical, right? Nothing worse than a day off with part of it wasted on traveling when I could have been reading or sleeping. Got to check my schedule better in the future. That's the second time I had that happen.

I'm now mobile with my blog, I think. Not that I have that much to say but I might as well put my phone to use and just in case I get creative I can now do it from my mobile device.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

A day off after to grueling 10 + hour days on my feet. Today I'm reading and trying to stay off the heels.




John Saul has written another fantastic thriller! This one is "House of Reckoning." After the untimely death of her mother, Sarah Crane is forced to grow up too quickly. Her father has become a drunk and ends up in prison after a bar fight and an accident that leaves Sarah crippled. She's put in foster care where she's treated as nothing more than a servant. She has special artistic abilities and when joined with her new friend's abilities they become a powerful team. Read this one in less than a day!

Electronically challenged

I got my new phone and it didn't come with a book. It came with a CD that you need to have the internet to open. Unfortunately I can't open it. I'm winging it and trying to figure out how to do all the things I now can do on this little gizmo. I still have a few weeks to decide whether I want to keep it or not. Still wanting something more but don't want to spend the extra to have it.




As much as I've said about Patricia Cornwell in the past I bought her new book anyway. Her last one was better so I thought I'd give her another shot. She's back on track with her characters but I found some very disjointed areas in this novel. She talks about characters that I don't remember reading about and suddenly they are important to the crime. I thought maybe I missed something in the last book that I should have remembered. Maybe Patricia thinks she's the only author that people read and that they absorb everything from each novel and remember it a year or more while she writes the latest. I read 60 books a year or more and I can't be expected to remember all those details. Anyway, except for a few problems like that it was a pretty good read. Good to see all the main characters back to normal and doing well.

My hours have been cut so drastically at work that I'm begging for more and hoping that someone will call off sick so I can pick up their hours. It worked two weeks ago and this week. Last week was horrible. I must admit that my feet were much less painful when I didn't have to stand on them for more than 4-5 hours a day. The last two days I've been on them for over 10 each day. Thanks to all those sickies that gave me a full week's work.

Some days it isn't worth chewing through the restraints

Just finished Michelle Richmond's "Year of Fog." Excellent read! Wanted to carry it with me everywhere so I could read it nonstop. One of the books I found in a used bookstore in Cambridge. Abby Mason - photographer - is planning to marry Jake and become the stepmother of Emma. In a perfect world! It's a foggy day in San Fran and she and Emma are walking the beach looking for sand dollars and suddenly Emma wants to pull away and rush ahead to look on her own. Abby glances down and sees a dead seal and the few seconds she takes to snap some pictures is all it takes for Emma to disappear. Months of searching.......Abby won't give up. Even when everyone else has she continues. Her memory of that day is the only thing that can makes a difference. It leads her on a bizarre trip to another continent. Wonderful story.

Another book from New England

I finished another of the books I purchased in Cambridge. This one is Anita Diamant's "Day After Night." A moving novel of life after the concentration camps of a handful of women who managed to make it to Israel and the promise of a new life. What they found was another camp. They were held there by the British because they had no relatives or papers to get them released. Two hundred people living in barracks. A very interesting and informative read.

A very short work week is ahead of me. Originally only 12 hours spread out over 3 days. I got an extra 5 thrown in tomorrow by a co-worker who can't make her shift. You give your all to these people and this is the thanks.

A little book from Salem, MA

I picked up Katherine Howe's book "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" in Salem, MA when we were on vacation. It looked interesting and it was. A grad student looking for a topic for her dissertation finds a link to a previously unmentioned "witch" who was executed in the Salem witch hunts in Salem, MA and she's drawn into a search to find the missing "receipt" book that was the witch's (and her predecessors) journal, almanac, recipe book. Were they really witches or were they just women with special abilities? They had strong religious beliefs and were just helping their fellow man through illness and childbirth. Very enjoyable.

I have gone from working almost a regular schedule of 35-40 hours a week to a mere 12. OUCH! If I would have known this was going to happen I would have not gone on vacation and saved money. This is terrible! I've gotten training in several other departments and still can't manage to pick up extra hours. I think the scheduler is playing games with me. She knows I want her job and she's making me suffer for it. Apparently good reviews and employee loyalty are not rewarded.

A different hat

Today I put on my realtor garb and went to what is referred to as a Realtor Marketplace. It's where vendors (mortgage companies, title companies, home inspectors, pest inspectors, etc) get together and give freebees away to realtors. In the past we used to get some good stuff. Calculators, and such. Economy has hurt everybody and today was just a mass of pens, a couple of chip clips, sticky notes. I really did just go to stock up on pens. My supply was running low and drying up. I arrived at 9 and was on my way home by 9:42. There's a free luncheon but I wasn't in the mood to fraternize with all those realtors.




I finished "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. It took me a couple of chapters to get into it and then I didn't want to put it down. The author is Swedish and the setting was Sweden so other than not recognizing places it was a great read. The main character is a journalist who was trapped by a libel conviction and headed to prison for a few months. He's hired by one of Sweden's most well known industrialist to figure out who killed his niece 40 some years ago. He's currently jobless and other than the time he'll spend in jail he figures he can do some investigation. He ends up hiring a young pierced and tattoed punk prodigy to help him do his investigation. A great combination of a murder mystery, family saga, and financial intrigue.

Homer and Langley

I've never read E.L. Doctorow before but I did enjoy his novel about "Homer & Langley." Two brothers whose lives span the 1900's in NYC. Born to wealthy parents and living on 5th Ave. Homer is a budding pianist when he loses his sight and his older brother Langley goes off to WWI where he is gassed and returns home a different person. Both parents died while he was away from Spanish flu so Langley takes over care of his brother. Langley is now suffering mental problems from his injuries. He's become a "Hoarder." As year pass he fills the house with everything from stacked newspapers to a model-T car. This is an interesting read.