Choir Day

Sep. 15th, 2025 11:08 pm
days_unfolding: (Default)
[personal profile] days_unfolding

The garage guys are going to take down my shed tomorrow. I need to remember to take the dogs out on leashes.

Manic cats are running around upstairs.

I’m looking into a possible Iceland cruise for next year. It would have to be only one week because I’ll have the long trip to Europe in the fall. I like the Viking cruise, but sheesh, expensive.

Hmm. I was thinking more about paddle boarding, and my balance isn’t the greatest. Maybe not. In that case, there doesn’t seem to be a shore excursion on the “private island” that I want. I guess that I’ll just spend the day on the ship.

Went to choir rehearsal. We were given a new piece that’s in Latin with a lot of embellishments, so that’s going to be the piece that I send to my voice teacher. Everyone liked my “My dog thinks I’m cool” t-shirt.

It’s the time of year to practice Christmas carols for the Dial-A-Carol thing. We’re doing one that I didn’t know, “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas,” in choir. That got a lot of requests last year for Dial-A-Carol. I need a book of Christmas carols (ordered) and need to practice ones that I don’t know.

Stopped at the local grocery store on the way back to pick up a few things. I decided to get a garlic chicken sandwich from the deli, and it turned out to be very good. I wound up with a couple of lipsticks in colors that I like. Oh, and it’s apple cider season so I got some and some Apple butter and English muffins on which to put the Apple butter.

Dogs: “You’re home! I missed you so much! I’m so happy that you came back!”
Cats: “Good, you’re home. Feed us.”
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Oliver is biting Lily for some reason. I told him that he was a little shit.

I need to feed the critters and go to sleep.

Tempus fugit

Sep. 15th, 2025 04:12 pm
bill_schubert: (Default)
[personal profile] bill_schubert
I've been to the dentist every six months since about 1980 when I joined the Navy.  The Navy makes it easy.  Go to the dentist now.  OK.  My appointments post military were similar.  Go to the dentist.  They make the next appointment on my way out.  Repeat.

My dentist that I'd been using for years decided to return to Romania with her husband once they sold the business.  I knew her personally from a networking group and was very happy for her.  But not for me.

In the transition I didn't get my next appointment and thought I had.  Missed it by six months.  You'd think I'd notice but it has been a year.  For the past month or so I'd brush my teeth and think about it but 'forget' before I got back to figure out what to do.

Finally just made the appointment.  Different dentist (which I hate).  Different dental hygienist (which I REALLY HATE). Different is not good in the dental world.  I'm sure it will be OK but I hate the change.  

If the hygienist I've never met is good it will be fine.  In my experience less than 10% of the hygienists are really good.  Most are just not but go through the same motions.

Fortunately the appointment is this Friday so it will be done ASAP and I'm good.  I don't expect things will be much different.  Baring some filling or something I can't see my teeth are in about the same shape they were in a year ago.

Finger's crossed. 

(no subject)

Sep. 15th, 2025 12:44 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
Yesterday was another surprisingly (for a weekend) quiet day. I managed to get in a 5 km/3 mile walk earlyish while the girls were watching TV, then after I got back Eden and Aria were doing something else and I spent some time reading The BFG to Violet.

After lunch Eden and Violet were going to a Star Wars-themed birthday party so Violet wore her Princess Leia costume from last Halloween. I wasn't sure it would still fit her, but it did although it was more close-fitting and slightly shorter than it had been last October. Eden didn't choose to wear a costume. The party was at a laser show place so my daughter and son in law stayed there with Aria (separately from the party) while the party was in progress, which meant I had a quiet afternoon at home.

This morning I went for a 10 km/6 mile run. It's a fairly warm day and I ended up dripping with sweat. I'm very ready for summer to be over.

This computer (my little Dell I use for travelling) is doing something strange. When I try to start it up it freezes at the lock screen and won't let me enter the pass code, but if I then press control + alt + delete it goes immediately to the log in screen and then functions normally. I suspect it's on its way out. The identical Dell computer S used to use died several months ago so I won't be surprised if this one follows suit.

In and out

Sep. 15th, 2025 08:33 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
The IRS swooped in last night and got their quarterly estimated payment. Then I got the USPS 'in your mail box today' email and it shows a check from the IRS! Tidy. I should also get the money from my phone trade in today which would be lovely.

No swimming this morning because aqua stretch this afternoon. I could do both but the sun is kind of out and why risk it.

Hazel dropped in last night and while she was here, Martha popped in - it's a party! John is deteriorating but I'm not sure it's fast enough for him or for her. Martha's in a battle with her floor representative. They didn't stay too long and it was fine.

Mary Roach's latest book comes out tonight at 9 pm. I'm looking forward to it.

I think, tomorrow when the house cleaner is here, I'll go get my COVID and flu shots. They do a clinic here but you have to go down and get a paper form ahead of time and fill it out and then get an appointment and then line up and then get the shot and wait 10 minutes. It's far easier to just hop in the car, get shots, get groceries and be done. And I need to remember to get gas. I'm almost down to a half a tank!

No Mariners game today and the Phillies game doesn't start til 7:15 so there won't be a lot of that one, either, for me.

Nothing much on the plate today - at least so far. Just the usual.

20250914_201228-COLLAGE

Tired Day

Sep. 14th, 2025 10:16 pm
days_unfolding: (Default)
[personal profile] days_unfolding

Someone did something with the charger for my Apple Watch. I can’t find it anywhere. Ordered a new one. Sigh.

Woke up a little before 9 AM.

My Bluetooth headphones finally paired to my phone. Yay.

I’m feeding the hordes. “Gracie, leave Oliver alone.” Etc. I knocked over my box of Grape Nuts, and Gracie cleaned it up. She’s one weird dog.

Dogs: "We ate breakfast. Now it’s nap time.” Me: “You are right.” But they were lying quietly when I came in, and now they’re wrestling. Why? Gracie is running around in circles.

Napped. Contacted the cruise line and got my login straightened out. Booked my shore excursions and spa treatment. Do I want to try paddle boarding? Had lunch.

Bella and Gracie were wrestling and fell off of my bed. I laughed. Goofs :)

Napped again. Now I’m feeding the hordes and myself (done). Watched an episode of Downton Abbey. Now it's bedtime.

The Death of Us by Abigail Dean

Sep. 14th, 2025 11:28 am
gilda_elise: (Books-Birds with book)
[personal profile] gilda_elise
The Death of Us


Bringing together the slow-burn simmer of psychological suspense and the propulsive drive of crime thrillers, The Death of Us is the story of a marriage turned inside out by a violent encounter that sets fire to the hairline faults that were there from the start.

Late on a summer’s evening when they are thirty years old, husband and wife Edward and Isabel’s home is invaded by a serial killer. In the wake of this violation, the solid foundation of their love reveals cracks and instabilities that might have been there all along, and their marriage crumbles.

More than 25 years later, they are reunited for their tormentor’s trial and forced to confront their relationship: the secrets, the passions, and the encounter that binds them still. Isabel has waited years for the man who nearly ended her life to be caught. As she’s tracked news of his increasingly violent criminal life, she’s connected with other survivors and prepared for the moment that she’d get to read her victim impact statement aloud in court. She is sure she’ll speak her truth and finally let the past go. Edward has spent the years since the break-in—and the breakdown of his marriage—trying to figure out how a near-miss with death killed so much else in their shared life. Unlike Isabel, he’s not eager to relive these terrible memories. But even though he’s moved on—he’s found love again, his old life almost unrecognizable ​to him now—he can’t resist accompanying Isabel to their intruder’s sentencing. What would revenge or justice feel like? Can closure set Isabel free? And what might that freedom mean for Edward?


It’s not often that I’m drawn to characters so quickly, but that was surely the case with Isabel and Edward. Their pain, though mutely written, grabbed me from the beginning. You learn of the past through Isabel’s impact statement and the present through Edward’s struggles. Both have been irrevocably changed by their ordeal. Yet there still is hope that they can somehow get past the pain and move forward with their lives.


We often are shown the grief of those who lose someone in a shocking crime, but I think this is the first time I’ve read so graphically about the survivors’ trauma.

I don’t think of this book as a thriller since we already know that the crime has been committed. It’s more of a love story, how these two deal with their pain and what they must do in order for it to survive.


IMG_0174

Perfection

Sep. 14th, 2025 09:51 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
My Mom never put powdered sugar on french toast. I was an adult before I discovered that most of the world believes it is required. So weird. And I don't like it. I do love french toast but it is a major pia to make so I don't.

The Timber Ridge cooks are pretty good about tailoring orders - especially for take out. We have an app that we use and a big old box to type in special requests. On today's menu was 'french toast with fruit compote' and, of course, the powdered sugar is a given. So I ordered it naked. No compote. No sugar and that's just how I got it.

They were late getting the 9 o'clock pick ups out and there was a bit of a crowd but no one was crabby or whiny and there are comfortable chairs to sit and wait so it was fine.

I had a great swim and good shower and then rested while I waited. I didn't open up the container until I got up there but ... perfection!! Two pieces of perfectly done French toast with nice link sausages.

This is Timber Ridge at its finest.

I saved one piece - maybe with an egg for dinner.

Now I need to put the laundry to start and someone - no names will be mentioned - forgot to turn on the dishwasher last night so I'll need to do that, too. Oh and get dressed. The first baseball starts in 30 mins.

Day off

Sep. 14th, 2025 11:35 am
bill_schubert: (Default)
[personal profile] bill_schubert
I have such a hard time keeping track.  There are only two days of the week.  The day that starts with Pickleball and the day that does not.  My calendar has other things for me to do and I do what it says but, really there are not actually seven days in a week.  Only two.

Today is a non-PB day.  And I feel like I need the rest.  Eating a calorie deficit diet is working for me but definitely reduces my endurance on the court.  It is not easy for me to play for two hours.  I'm working at being better with energy expenditure.  My usual mode is just as hard as I can for as long as I can but now I'm working to serve using less energy and be efficient in my movements so I don't waste what I have.  It is a weird mind set for me but mostly works.

It is still very hard for me to get enough protein.  I'm trying different things and closely tracking everthing I eat so I'll figure it out.  I'm definitely losing weight.  Pounds but more importantly, I'm just getting thinner and regular exercise is keeping my muscles stronger.  The slope leading to a leaner me is all I want and the process is working.  It is a bit weird but it is working.  

Dana is off to Tyler today.  Nearly noon and she hasn't left yet for the four hour drive.  I could not do it the way she does but I stay in my office while she gets ready and say goodby when she leaves.  All I need to do.  Then it is just Toby and me.  Party planning in progress.

She is going up for the funeral of a friend from high school and will be back on Tuesday.  

So, quiet time around here for a couple of days.  It will be weird without Zoe.  

Time for serious rest so I can be ready for tomorrow, which is a PB day.

Sunday

Sep. 14th, 2025 07:52 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
On Sundays we have brunch available from 9-1. You can eat it in the dining room with full table service or you can order it for pickup. Today I ordered French toast and sausage for pick up at 9. This week's menus do not hold a multitude of delights and it's going to be difficult to keep my food money daily average in line. I usually blow off brunch but today I made the effort. My plan is to time it so that I swim and then stop by the pick up window on the way home from the pool.

Two baseball games today - not at the same time. Only two more weeks of regular season baseball left.

My friend, Martha, cajoled me into knitting a couple of mini monsters with school colors. I did it, but blah. I don't care about school colors and I'm not interested in getting into that so I stopped. Then, yesterday, she said that someone had asked her why there were no blue and white dolls. She questioned and they said the colors of Jews. She thought it was weird but said she'd ask. I said ok. And then yesterday I started making one and was about 10% into it and hating every minute. I just had these visions of requests coming in for Palestinian colors and one for Ukraine and one for MAGA and so I ripped it out and sent a text to Martha that I was done with specific color requests. She understands. I make these dolls because they are fun to knit and I can give them away easily and that is THE only reason. I don't want any other reasons and I will stop when they become not fun to knit. It's simple and it needs to stay simple.

Jim reports that he's been doing tests to see if he can get to ESPN on his TV and he reports that the tests have all been 100% successful. He told everyone at elbow coffee yesterday and they all think, like me, that it's a hoot that his TV says 'Hi Susan' every time he turns it on.

Time now to hop into my suit and get into the pool so I can get out and to the pickup window at 9!

20250913_185420-COLLAGE

Ouch, Oliver

Sep. 13th, 2025 09:34 pm
days_unfolding: (Default)
[personal profile] days_unfolding

I wound up staying up late watching a real-time video of 9/11 on the Today show, I think? I watched until I was falling asleep watching. (I hadn’t seen anything like it because I didn’t have cable on 9/11.

Emailed in sick for my singing lesson. Rescheduled my COVID and flu vaccines. I want to stay home and work on the place. After feeding us and a nap. I’m a little dizzy and have stomach cramps.

Ordered more recycled toilet paper.

Manic doggos and cattos. Oliver goes into a pet carrier when I open Zara’s door to give her her food. I’m not sure how I trained him to do that. But today he jumped on my arm and scratched it, drawing blood, on his way in. Sigh. I saw a Facebook group called “My orange cat is a little shit”. Maybe I should join it :) Bella always double-checks that it’s really okay to eat her food. We’re all fed now. Nap time. I heard a car alarm going off and thought I forgot to disconnect the Honda, but the alarm wasn’t it.

Napped. I’m feeling a little shaky but need to take a shower (done). Started laundry.

I read an article about a repair cafe, and I checked, and there is one in Urbana. I should bring my leather purse in there.

Dogs: You are eating! You should give your food to us! Me: LOL, no.

Found my Bluetooth headphones and am charging them. Did some work with Byron Katie’s worksheets.

I’m thinking of going to bed early and getting up early. I put my clothes in the dryer, but I think that I'm going to sleep in my clothes because my pajamas aren't dry yet. Plus, I can get up and start doing stuff right away.

Saturday is tired

Sep. 13th, 2025 07:56 pm
shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
I'm thinking of going to bed earlier tonight and reading for a bit. I'm still struggling with waking up in the middle of the night and in pain.
So maybe Chamoille tea? I was trying to convince the doctor to prescribe muscle relaxants - but no, she thinks I should reduce my allergy meds, caffeine intake (decafe coffee and matcha lattes during the day), and drink more water instead. She's decided it's dehydration.

Well, she has a point. I'm taking way too many medications as it is. Mentioned this to mother, who felt the need to do a competition - apparently she's taking more than I am, and I have no grounds to complain.
I told her to stop - she was repeating some of the meds and giving me a headache. Mother had suggested the muscle relaxants - which is what she's taking.

Some doctors throw pills at you, mine is trying not to - considering I've already had too many pills from other doctors thrown at me.

**

Finished Buffy S3 rewatch - and as I mentioned on TV Talk - It's a mixed bag of a season. Ironically the weak link is Faith - and her relationship with Buffy, which should have been built better than it actually was. If it had been - I'd have cared more about the character. Such as it is - I was tired of her. Also, it reminded me of an issue I had with Whedon and his series (not just Buffy) - which is the whole Freudian crap. It was a bit too much on the nose with Faith and the Mayor (the guy turns into the Freudian equivalent of a giant phallic snake?). I think I liked Faith better when I first watched the series in the 1998-1999? But her character doesn't really date well? And has been handled better in other series since then? I liked her better on Angel actually, mainly because they built more of a relationship between Faith and Angel, than with Faith and Buffy. I think a huge mistake was not making Buffy bisexual or building up on that friendship in a way that they really became like sisters? As it is - Buffy doesn't really seem to have that much of a relationship with Faith - so it's hard to care. Angel seemed to have more of a connection with Faith somehow? I don't know. Other than Faith - I liked the season. I even like the Mayor as the villain.

The other difficulty I had with S3 - and it kind of drags towards the end - is one too many characters, and trying to do too many things, as a result several characters got lost in the shuffle, including Faith. Ensemble series are difficult to do well because of that.

(no subject)

Sep. 13th, 2025 07:21 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
Today passed really quickly. I was joined by all the girls quite early in the morning (around 6 I think), first Violet followed fairly quickly by Aria, and then a bit later Eden. (This is the normal order in which they wake up. Eden seems to be an excellent sleeper.)

After breakfast I helped Violet construct a "bridal veil" from a piece of an old white sheet which she sewed onto a headband, to be part of a Bride of Frankenstein costume for a birthday party she is going to tomorrow afternoon. She thought she might be able to make some kind of white dress from the rest of the sheet, but she eventually found her Halloween costume from last year which was a Princess Leia white dress, and that will work. I was afraid it wouldn't still fit her because she's grown so much, but it was slightly loose last year and now is fairly tight but she can still get into it so I guess she is going to wear it. While we were doing this one of Aria's friends came over and Eden played with them I think.

In the afternoon the whole family went to swim in someone's grandmother's swimming pool. My daughter invited me but it wasn't warm enough for me to swim (it was about 24C/75F and I like it to be at least 28C/82F before I swim) and I didn't bring bathers anyway, although my daughter said I would probably fit into a pair of Violet's bathers. This is possibly true but I'm not very social and the prospect of spending the afternoon with a bunch of people I don't know around a swimming pool wasn't very appealing.

By the time they all came home everybody seemed tired. We had a quick dinner (picked up from Chipotle) and then the girls started watching Meghan Markle's cooking show (which I think is pretentious and fake but they like it because cooking) but it didn't take long before they started bickering and their mother hustled them upstairs to get ready for bed.

365 Questions 2025

Sep. 13th, 2025 04:06 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
11. Who impresses you? All of my daughters, for various reasons. While I'm staying with her, I see my eldest daughter working hard to run her own business including continuing education in her field, as well as running her household and being a good parent to her three daughters, and I'm aware of my other two daughters doing the same (not running their own businesses, but holding down demanding professional jobs).

12. What have you done that you are not proud of? Many things.

13. When should you reveal a secret that you promised you wouldn’t reveal? When someone stands to get hurt in some way if you continue to keep it.

Downton bucks

Sep. 13th, 2025 11:56 am
bill_schubert: (Default)
[personal profile] bill_schubert
We went to see the Downton Abbey really the last we promise movie on Thursday.  $26 including Dana's Dr Pepper for the two of us.  As a series the DA was not bad.  It had a decent pace and obviously excellent actors.  But the movies are all smaltz and cashing in.

The theater was as nice as one could be.  As they are now days.  People fairly respectful although the woman on Dana's left thought she was in her living room and had way too many comments to her husband.  I refrained.  Barely. 

For some reason they have to have the previews, which were shilling just incredibly bad children's movies, cranked up to rock concert level and I didn't have hearing protection. 

But the whole thing was a major ok and tolerable mostly because I know it won't happen again.  DA is definitely a movie that is better seen, as was the series, in my living room.

And, of course, no subtitles. 

I've gotten so addicted to subtitles that I have a hard time following movies without them.  I don't think that is a good thing but don't much care since I really don't much want to go to movies anyway.

Fortunate the Russell Crowe movie about Nuremberg is getting panned in Rotten Tomatoes so I can wait to see it on my TV.

That's about it for as long as I can see.

Sun's out but it's ok

Sep. 13th, 2025 09:20 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
The sun came out during volleyball but it wasn't too horrible. And it's out now and again, not the glary 'i'm going to kill your eyes' version. As long as it goes back to cloudy before I want to swim again.

My calendar notes that next week, I need to kill the Mariners network streaming service. It has been nice - nicer than I expected although, of course, the software sucks and while it has a web version, the web version really sucks. I'll probably get it again next Summer but again, maybe, wait until mid-Summer. Maybe.

Now I have to worry about post season. I am interested - at least until both my teams are eliminated which means I only need a month of whatever. I can get all the games on Hulu + live (and also get the regular Hulu stuff) or YouTube.TV. In the long run, they are both about the same money and each has special features that the other doesn't have. but, fuck, it's only for a month.

Dinner with Dick and Jan last night was nice. Dick learned yesterday that he his having heart bypass surgery next Friday. So there was a lot of talk about that. They are very nice people.

Elbow coffee is up next then TV and knitting until baseball and then it will be more TV and knitting. My kind of day.

PXL_20250912_214231547

Back to Work

Sep. 13th, 2025 12:28 am
days_unfolding: (Default)
[personal profile] days_unfolding

Woke up at 6 AM and used the bathroom. Woke up with my alarm at 7. Took the dogs out. Now I’m taking a nap.

Took a shower over lunch. Found out how to call my dental insurance but I’m still plowing through email from when I was out.

Work is done. Gracie and Bella are fighting over a dog toy. At least it is an official dog toy and not something of mine with which they were playing.

I have an impulse to watch Downton Abbey. (I saw a clip of it on YouTube.) I think that I was starting the fifth season when I stopped watching? I’ll start with that anyway.

Checked when the Symphony season starts, and it’s October 4th.

Lay down after work, but couldn't sleep. But it was nice lying on the bed with the dogs.

Watched an episode of Downton Abbey. Read some Downton Abbey stuff on the Web.

Fed us all. Bella is dozing at my feet, groaning. I think that it's bedtime. Hmm, I have an impulse to watch one more Downton Abbey episode (done). Now it is bedtime for sure.

(no subject)

Sep. 12th, 2025 01:17 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
My daughter and son in law acquired a cat, Gemma, some months ago. Gemma must be the most timid and reclusive cat I have ever encountered. S's cat, Misty, was also timid, but she would lurk under furniture and attack anybody who came into the house; Gemma never attacks or acts in a hostile way, she just runs away and hides. I've been making an effort to engage her when I see her and she now likes to come to me and mark me by rubbing her face against my hands, but she won't tolerate any kind of touch I offer, such as scritching behind her ears. (I've rarely met a cat who didn't like that.) I usually speak to her while she's rubbing against my hand, and this morning I was astonished when she came to the entrance to the kitchen and meowed at me when I was getting my breakfast, apparently asking to rub against my hand. My son in law is often up in the middle of the night (he is an insomniac) and he says that Gemma is very active and even playful during the night although she seems to spend the entire day sleeping (or just lurking) under my daughter's bed.

It seemed more humid this morning than it has been for a while; I noticed it when I went for a run after breakfast. It felt more like running back home.

Left to my own devices

Sep. 12th, 2025 09:23 am
bill_schubert: (Default)
[personal profile] bill_schubert
Dana is at the dentist getting a filling.  I'm taking a rest day from pickleball.

In the middle of the entry I decided to take Toby on a walk.  It turned out to be hotter than I thought but we did a mile which in Toby distance is about 2 miles.  In a fur coat.

So now I'm truly done.  I changed and washed the sheets (Dana has a hard time doing it with arthritis in her hands).  I'm cooling down and will figure out something for lunch early lunch.  Or maybe morning snack and then normal lunch.  I've not had enough protein so far.

I'll likely watch some series or other on my computer and pick up Prolific bucks on the break.  Prolific has been pretty interesting.  I've done a bunch of AI training and that pays pretty well.  I could do a lot more for a decent income stream but it is first come/first served and the jobs are off the site in a couple of minutes so luck is involved.

But that's about it for the day.  It is a nice one and Toby is napping now. 

Friday

Sep. 12th, 2025 08:01 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
The IRS is coming to get more taxes today. It's my estimated taxes for next year that I pay every quarter. They are all set up in a special account that I keep for that purpose. I fund it after I submit my tax return and then just tell the IRS to come get the money every quarter. Unlike paying me my refunds, the IRS is quite prompt when it's paying them. I still haven't seen the refund coming for 2022. I feel like I have spent way too much time and energy and money with the IRS over the past few years. One ugly year to go - mainly due to sale of condo - and then things should get batter. She says so hopefully.

Yesterday's Adventures With Bonny where fun. While waiting for her, I was in the elbow puzzling. Dick and Jan were there and we were all chatting and finding pieces. Then Bonny and I got into the car and headed first for Costco. Where I discovered that my phone was on the table next to the puzzle. We called Dick and Jan who had already found it and put it into my apartment. I had brought my wallet which was kind of rare since I rarely take it if I'm not driving. So I had cash and cards. But it was so weird to be without my phone. So weird.

We did Costco and Costco gas and car wash (which turned out to be the first time she had ever even been inside a car wash). And QFC and then home. Bonny's fairly good company. She's 85 and she has a bum hip which she kind of thinks getting replaced but maybe not. She's been a widow for a really long time. And has two kids. A daughter with no kids and a son with grown kid(s) and at least a couple of great grandchildren - all of whom live nearby. She's not particularly fascinated by the world around her (like Myrna was) but she does not fret or stew about much and is not at all needy. She moved in here about 6 months before me.

Tonight I'm having dinner with Dick and Jan.

Baseball is ramping up. The Phillies will absolutely be in the playoff's. They are only a few games away from clinching their spot. The Mariners may not be but their week has been a thrilla. Night before last, they won in the 13th with a home run from a rookie (I think it was his second major league home run ever.) Last night they won in the 12th with a fly ball hit buy a rookie who had only bat in the major leagues 3 times before! The guy last night is the backup to the backup catcher and was only even at bat because they had an empty spot and he was the last man on the bench. Pretty wild. Right now, the Mariners are tied for the top spot in their division which would absolutely put the into the playoffs.

We have been blessed with overcast skies every morning now and I love them. So I think I'm going to get ready for the day short of dressing and then slip down to the pool first.

PXL_20250912_012604362

Book: How to Solve Your Own Murder

Sep. 12th, 2025 03:15 pm
elusivek: (books)
[personal profile] elusivek
IMG_1291How to Solve Your Own Murder
Kristen Perrin
Amazon Product Link

Frances Adams always said she’d be murdered. She was right.

In 1965, Frances Adams is at an English country fair where a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. It is a prediction that sparks her life’s work—trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet.

Nearly sixty years later, Annie Adams is summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is found murdered, just like she always said she would be. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder.

Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer? As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.

= + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = +


Listened as an audiobook.

Narrator’s voice was nice, not grating at all, very easy on the ear.

I suppose you can call this one of those cliche cozy mysteries and whodunnit? The POV alternates between current timeline and the past timeline. Pacing was pretty good until all of a sudden the mystery was resolved without really showing us the thought process, but revealing plenty of in-the-end irrelevant clues. But I suppose that’s the usual way these types of stories go? I just thought a little bit more of sleuthing wouldn’t hurt for this one. The conclusion came a little too abruptly, I found.

Profile

days_unfolding: (Default)
days_unfolding

September 2025

S M T W T F S
  1 2 3 45 6
7 8 9 10 1112 13
14 151617181920
21222324252627
282930    

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Sep. 16th, 2025 03:40 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios