Storeetllr (Mary) Keeps Score, Part 3: Reading Rocks!

Ranunculus on the Back Yard Tree Stump

Hi, I'm Mary. I didn't have a thread for 2019. I didn't think I'd have time to keep up with mine, much less everyone else's threads, after moving in December 2018 from Pueblo CO to Nyack NY to live with my daughter & son-in-law & help my daughter in her last month of pregnancy & first few months as a new mom and then to be the live-in Granny-Nanny for Ruby when Meg went back to school in the spring. And, yeah, I was right - 2019 was really busy, but I've missed the 75ers and LT, so, even though I expected 2020 to be just as busy, I decided to jump back in the water. Turns out, 2020 is so much the opposite of crazy busy - in fact, the opposite of anything I've ever experienced.

These days, I live in the basement (it's really a nicely finished walkout) of our new house with Nickel, an African Grey parrot, and a few dozen moving boxes (which I'm sorting through ever-so-slowly). I'm very grateful to be living downstairs from my family so I don't have to survive the plagues of the coronavirus pandemic and the whacked out tRump presidency alone.

Besides reading, I like to paint, write, garden, and hang with Ruby. I'm also a volunteer with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. - May 8, 2020

Currently Reading

Paint Yourself Calm by Jean Haines. Book.
Finished Business by David Wishart. Kindle.
In the Woods by Tana French. Audio.

On Deck

Trade Secrets by David Wishart. Kindle
Foreign Bodies by David Wishart. Kindle.

My rating system, which I adapted from Katie's (I use half stars to raise a book's rating if it's slightly better than the full star rating):

2 stars = I can't believe I actually stuck it out and finished this hot mess
3 stars = I'm glad I read it, but I can't recommend it & won't be reading it again
4 stars = yeah, this one's really good & I'll probably reread it sometime
5 stars = perfect for me; even if I never reread it, I'll never forget it

(Anything below 2 stars is unlikely to be finished)

Bolded titles are 4.5- and 5 star-reads.

Books Read

May

(I think I read The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben in May 2020, but I don't think I listed it. I won't count it retroactively, but it's good to note it for future queries.)

61. New York to Dallas by J.D. Robb. 3.5 stars. The Collector escapes from Rikers and abducts a former victim, forcing Eve to go to Dallas to catch him or he'll torture, rape & kill her. Mommy issues galore in this one, and I admit I didn't remember it happening the way it did. I missed being in NYC.
62. Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb. 4 stars. The Icove Agenda is being adapted to vid, but all isn't well with the pretend NYPSD crew.

63. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells. 4.5 stars. Murderbot just can't help wanting to help the puny and stupid but nice humans. In this episode, he hitches a ride with ART to the mining installation where he murdered all his humans.
64. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells. 4.5 stars. Murderbot goes to an terraforming facility abandoned by GrayCris corporation that turns out to have been a front for an illegal alien remnant mining operation. Of course, a bunch of humans employed by another corporation is sent in to investigate the terraforming facility for possible reclamation, and for some strange reason that it just can't figure out, Murderbot is compelled to help them and their "pet bot" Miki survive the combat bots and other assorted dangers lurking in the creepy place.
65. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells. 4.5 stars. GrayCris has abducted Dr. Mensah, and Murderbot is compelled to go to her rescue. He still doesn't like humans, still wants to be left alone to watch the vid series he loves, but he is getting better at dealing. Mostly.

66. Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb. 4 stars. Happy Hour at On The Rocks turns into Killing Time, and the place ends up a blood-soaked battlefield.

67. Network Effect by Martha Wells. 3.5 stars. Audio. Honestly, I adore Murderbot, but the audio of this just didn't do it for me. I've got a hold at the library on the Kindle version and will review it after I've read the text version.

68.Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer. 4.5 stars. Audio. Georgette Heyer is just the thing for Après Murderbot. The romance in this Regency wasn't as strong as others, but the characters and dialogue in this comedy of manners were perfection.

69. Calculated in Death by J.D. Robb. 3.5 stars. Not one of my favorites, but still worth a reread. In this one, somebody has murdered a very nice accountant and destroyed the happiness of her loving husband and two young children, and there seems to be no reason for it until Eve starts following the money trail.

70.Flash by Jayne Ann Krentz. 3.5 stars Sweet and easy contemporary romantic thriller pairs a venture capitalist with an event producer against a cold-blooded killer.

71.Close Up by Amanda Quick. 3.5 stars. Short and sweet romantic mystery set in Burning Cove pairs Vivian, a photographer with the talent to get beneath the surface with the camera, with Nick, a private investigator with a talent for dreaming potential future crimes.

72.Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews. 4 stars. Fun adventure scifi/fantasy features Maud, sister of Innkeeper Dina, who, together with her young half-vampire/half-human daughter Helen, reluctantly accompanies Arland, Lord Marshal of his House, to his home planet to meet his mother after promising to think about marrying him. Maud is a real kick-ass heroine with a good brain and serious diplomacy skills.

73.Sweep With Me by Ilona Andrews. 3.5 stars. Short novella featuring Dina and Sean and the Inn, Gertrude Hunt, during the annual Treaty Stay holiday, contemporaneous with Maud's story. Cute and fun but not all that memorable.

74. Thankless in Death by J.D. Robb. 3 stars. This was a hard one for me because I liked the victims and hated reading how they were killed. You knew the identity of the killer right from the get-go; the story was how he got away with a bunch of murders and how Eve finally tracked him down.

75. Concealed in Death 3.5 stars. When Roarke ceremoniously takes the first swing to knock down a wall in the building that will become a youth shelter, he finds the bodies of two young girls, and later excavations find 10 more.
76. Festive in Death 3.5 stars. Christmas season always brings Eve presents; this year, she's presented with a victim it's really hard for her to care about - personal trainer and serial sexual user Trey Ziegler.
77. Obsession in Death 4 stars. Somebody's killing people on Eve's behalf. If she doesn't start showing gratitude, will she be next?
78. Devoted in Death 4 stars. Sadistic Bonnie & Clyde on steroids in NY.
79. Brotherhood in Death 3.5 stars. Yeah, I'd give this a 4 star rating except I hated the victims.
80. Apprentice in Death 4 stars. Serial sniper murderer.
81. Echoes in Death 3.5 stars. Eve has to find a serial rapist/killer before he does it again while dealing with her own unhappy past which is echoed in the current case.

I know, I'm just inhaling these In Death books. Almost finished with the series but can't seem to slow down. I've been worried about what happens when I reach the end of Golden in Death. Luckily, I seem to have found another great series that I'm ready to reread.

82. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters. 4 stars. Audio. 1884-1885. Amelia Peabody's first adventure in Egypt has her rescuing a ruined young woman with the help of the odious archaeologist Professor Emerson and heiroglyphologist Walter Emerson, his nice younger brother. I really enjoy Barbara Rosenblat's rendition.

83. Secrets in Death by J.D. Robb. 3.5 stars. Relatively straightforward police procedural saved for me by the loathsomeness of both victim and murderer.

84. Dark in Death by J.D. Robb. 4 stars. Someone is murdering people based on murder plots in a popular murder mystery series. Loved Robb's ruminations on the art of writing and reading.

85. Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters. 4 stars. Audio. 1892–93. Who murdered Lord Baskerville, if he was, indeed, murdered and didn't die of natural causes - or of the curse of the pharaoh whose tomb he was excavating?

86. Network Effect by Martha Wells. 4.5 stars. Kindle. Okay, this worked so much better in print! All the lovely snark and sly humor - which was missing from the audio - came through. I also got more from the story this time. Loved it!

June

87. Poison or Protect by Gail Carriger. 3 stars. Short novella featuring poison expert and assassin Preshea. More sex scenes than I prefer.

88. Foundation by Isaac Asimov. 3 stars. Audio. What an effing misogynist Asimov was. The ONLY female character of any note was the bitchy wife of an asshole planetary dictator. Every other character - protagonist, antagonist, and villain - was male. I wonder if he'd have written it differently if he wrote it today. Anyway, I remember liking it when I read it a thousand years ago, and the story itself was still good, if disjointed. I didn't like it this time around as much, but I want to finish the series anyway.

89. Leverage in Death by J.D. Robb. 4 stars. One of my favorites in the series. Suicide bomber takes out the well-loved head of his company and a number of other colleagues on the morning of a successful merger. Biggest question is why, since he loved his work and his boss.

90. Connections in Death by J.D. Robb. 3.5 stars. A grittier, not-so-pretty West Side Story without the love story, doomed or otherwise. A former gang member, brother of Crack's new lady/Roarke's latest hire at An Didean, ODs, though he seemed to have reformed himself and was on the road to a good life away from the gang.

91. Vendetta in Death by J.D. Robb. 3 stars. Someone is torturing and killing men who have done bad things to women and gotten away with it.

92. Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov. 3 stars. Audio. I think I missed a book in between, but I don't really feel like figuring it out.

93. Golden in Death by J.D. Robb. 3.5 stars. More enjoyable the second time around.

94. The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters. 4.5 stars. Audio. 1894–95. Quite enjoyable, even though the plot was somewhat convoluted and also a bit unbelievable, but the characters were wonderful (even, surprisingly, Ramses), and their interactions made me giggle more than a few times. Perfectly narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. In this one, the Emersons are back in Egypt with their credulous servant John, excavating one of the least desirable sites and getting involved in religious rivalries between the Coptic priest and a group of missionaries. It's Ramses first visit to Egypt.

95. Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters. 4 stars. Audio. Another enjoyable adventure with Amelia Peabody and her archaeologist husband and son. In this one, it is 1895–96 and they are to excavate at Dahshoor. Emerson hires Donald, an opium eater gone native who saves Ramses from being abducted from atop a pyramid right under the noses of his parents, Peabody rescues Miss Debenham, a wayward young woman whose purported lover was discovered murdered in her bed, we meet Sethos, the master criminal, and Ramses saves the day.

96. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov. 3.5 stars. Audio. Yes, this is the novel that goes between Foundation and Second Foundation. Funny, about all I remembered about it is the scene of The Mule on the beach with Beta, or whatever her name is. A slightly better story but the same dismal writing style, but at least his depiction of women (or, in this novel, a woman) is not as , since it's a woman who saves the day. Frankly, I disliked all the characters with the possible exception of The Mule. Now a word about the narrator. Scott Brick read the Foundation Trilogy with the same melodramatic, shrill, and overdone voice that he read The Passage.

97. Deeds of the Disturber by Elizabeth Peters. 3.5 stars. The summer of 1896. Not quite as enjoyable due in part to the milieu (London as opposed to Egypt) and some of the characters (eg. Brother James's odious children).

98. Alpha Night by Nalini Singh. 3.5 stars. Audio. Ethan Knight (sp?), a broken Arrow, mates at first sight with Salinka (sp?), alpha wolf of Moscow's Black Edge wolf pack and a woman dealing with some damage of her own. Not the most compelling of the Psi-Changeling stories but not bad. At least the dying psi is male this time. And Kaleb makes an appearance here and there.

99. Who Speaks for the Damned by C. S. Harris. 4.5 stars. Audio. Sebastian goes to bat to find the killer of a man who, years earlier, was convicted of murder and transported to Botany Bay, where he was presumed to have died but from where he escaped. Where had he been hiding, why did he return to London, and who is the boy he brought with him who has since disappeared?

100. The Last Camel Died At Noon by Elizabeth Peters. 4 stars. Audio. It's 1897, and the Emersons go deep into the desert far beyond the Nile to search for a missing explorer of Emerson's acquaintance. Treachery has them almost dying when their servants run away with the water and most of the camels. Things are dire when they are rescued and taken to a fabulous city at a hidden oasis. Enjoyable if a bit beyond belief, more like an H. Rider Haggard adventure novel than an historical mystery.

July

101. The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. 5 stars. Audio. I found it fascinating and, tho I knew how it all turned out, I was stunned and kind of horrified to see how close a call the world really had.

102. The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog by Elizabeth Peters. 3.5 Audio. Reread. 1898-99. Peabody & Emerson go to Egypt sans famille. While there, Emerson is abducted, imprisoned, drugged and, presumably, tortured for information on the Lost Oasis. When Peabody and Abdullah rescue him, he emerges with no memories of the past decade. Meanwhile, back in England, the Walter Emerson family, including Ramsey and Nefret, are beseiged. Plot twist at end with a younger-looking, goatee'd Cyrus Vandergelt that I actually saw coming, though I enjoyed it anyway.

103. Seeing a Large Cat by Elizabeth Peters. 3.5 stars. Audio. Reread. This installment was a little disjointed, perhaps in part because Peters was trying out a new story structure. Still enjoyable. It's the 1903-1904 season. Ramses is now a very mature-seeming 15-year-old, as one would expect. Nefret was annoyingly condescending to him, and David is introduced. I listened to the audiobook, and, though Barbara Rosenblat is usually spot on with her take on the voices - of Peabody and Emerson especially - I hated her take on the southern accent of the Colonel. I also wondered how the Colonel managed to not recognize his arch enemy when said enemy was directly under his nose. Peabody, who must be in her 50s by now, seemed a bit more fragile, both physically and emotionally, than usual, and Emerson, apparently noticing, was more gentle than usual. I think the author meant this book as the point where "the children" started becoming the main characters. Oh, and, at the end, Ramses was allowed a glass of whiskey and soda, his first, as a sort of rite of passage after what he did to save his mother. (ETA I read this one out of order. It should have been read after The Hippopotamus Pool. That may account for my 3.5 star rating.)

104. The Hippopotamus Pool by Elizabeth Peters. 4 stars. Audio. I think it's 1900. A strange man who claims to be the reincarnation of Queen Tetisheri's priest visits Emerson and Peabody and tells them they must discover her tomb before it is desecrated by tomb robbers and unscrupulous foreign archaeologists. David's first appearance as the abused apprentice of a scurrilous antiquities forger. Ramses is kidnapped by Richetti, a criminal kingpin who, Peabody posits, is vying to take over Sethos's position as The Master Criminal. Nefret is also kidnapped but at a different time by different villains.

105. The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters. 4 stars. Audio. Luxor, 1906-1907. Before the Emersons even leave England, they encounter Sethos who is using the women's movement to stage a robbery and, subsequently, foil an attempt to kidnap Peabody. Upon arriving in Egypt, Nefret, Ramses and David, now in their early twenties acquire a magnificent papyrus, but are stalked and threatened. Sethos is suspected of both acts attempts, but he's not the only enemy Peabody has made. The ending made me cry. (I'd have given it 4.5 stars except the beginning was a bit slow and, you know, boring.)

106. Falcon in the Portal by Elizabeth Peters. 4.5 stars. Audio. 1911, and war is looming. The whole mystery was a bit melodramatic, and there were times I wanted to slap Nefret - WTF was she thinking when she told Percy that Ramses knew he was a fraud and then hid it from Ramses, and when she kept flying off the handle all the time, plus her over-the-top reaction to the introduction of Little Bird. I was actually wondering if she didn't have a touch of the bipolar about her. And if Ramses weren't so secretive and stiff-upper-lippish, things wouldn't have gotten so badly out of hand. Can you tell I was completely emotionally invested in this story? The ending, of course, made me cry, particularly because of my own history, but I still wanted to slap Nefret.

107. Watercolor Flowers Chinese Style: A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide by Lu He, Edelweiss ARC (pub. date 9/29/20). 4.5 stars. Ebook. I found it a pleasure to read this gorgeously illustrated and well-written book. Not only does it describe in detail the techniques used by the author to create beautiful watercolor paintings of flowers but goes into the history of Chinese flower painting and a bit of the philosophy behind it. Besides the illustrated painting techniques that are clear and simple enough for beginning watercolorists to grasp, there's a chapter in the beginning that discusses the kinds of brushes, paper, and pigments available and which types the author prefers, and a chapter at the end that provides sketches of all the flower paintings shown in the book, both of which chapters I found very helpful. (I tend to just start painting without sketching in any details, but I don't always succeed in portraying the subject the way I see it in my imagination.) I've only been painting for a year and have learned a lot from my initial reading of Watercolor Flowers Chinese Style, so much so that I'm preordering a copy. I want it on my bookshelf not only to refer back to the technical details but also so I can just enjoy the stunning images of the flower paintings. Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for allowing me to pre-review this delightful volume.

108. He Shall Thunder in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters. 4 stars. Audio. 1914, and the war has begun. Nefret's back and has begun to exhibit a bit more self-control, thank the stars, Ramses is being gifted with feathers (to indicate cowardice) due to his pacifist stance, all of Cairo is tensely waiting for the Turks to invade across the Suez Canal, Ramses is under a cloud for his pacifist stance, the Master Criminal is back, and it looks like Nefret is conspiring with Percy.
109. Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters. 4 stars. Audio. 1915–1916. Emerson & Peabody discover a body in a tomb in Cairo, while Nefret and Ramses travel to Luxor to survey sites. Tho her father and her lazy brother Jumil object, Ramses and Nefret ask to hire Jumana to assist on the survey. Sethos is dead - or is he? Margaret Minton appears again with a strange story of a romantic rescuer who sounds suspiciously familiar.

August

110. The Golden One by Elizabeth Peters. 4 stars. Audio. 1916-17. The Emersons go from Luxor where they share an excavation site with Cyrus to the front lines and back again. Will Cyrus finally make a discovery? Will Sethos save Ramses again or will the inept British spy organizations finish them both off? Whatever else happens, war is hell. Bodies keep piling up. Good news at the end that made me cry happy tears.
111. Children of the Storm by Elizabeth Peters. 3.5 stars. 1919. The conservator hired by Cyrus on Sethos's recommendation disappears, along with a number of items from the cache. The body of the thief shows up in the desert, sans items, just as Walter Emerson and his extended family show up to join the Emersons for a visit. Bertha's daughter Maryam (aka Molly) also shows up, along with a strange young man with a mental problem and his entourage. It's quite an assembly.
112. Guardian of the Horizon by Elizabeth Peters. 3.5 Audio. 1907. Throwback in time. Ten years after Last Camel, the Emersons return to the Lost Oasis. Tarik's been deposed, Nefret's abducted again, and a strange Englishman has been meddling in affairs. Who could it be? (Three guesses & the first two don't count.) I wish I'd read this in order of storyline chronology rather than published chronology.
113. The Serpent on the Crown by Elizabeth Peters. 4 stars. Audio. It's 1922, and the Emersons are excavating at Deir el Medina. One day, a melodramatic visitor who writes horror novels delivers a solid gold ancient statue to them. Emerson is sure someone has robbed a find of historic proportions and sets about finding out where the statue came from. When the woman turns up dead and her stepchildren disappear, everyone except the Emersons believe the murder is a family affair. Ramses, meanwhile, finds a papyrus which he suspects to be of historic importance, and an assistant who is not all he seems, and who ends up a danger to Peabody.

114. The Graveyard of the Hesperides by Lindsey Davis. 3.5 stars. Audio. I'd have given it a better rating except I hated the narrator. Happily, the next book in the series has a different narrator who will, it is hoped, be better. Flavia Albia is marrying Tiberius Manlius Faustus, an urban aedile, who wants a big traditional wedding, much to Flavia Albia's's dismay. He's also a builder who is renovating their house as a wedding gift to his bride, necessitating a temporary sojourn at Albia's old apartment (where Falco used to live and which he's planning to sell) while, simultaneously, renovating the garden area of a barhouse in the Subura, where the diggers turn up the bones of what looks like four males and one headless female. Not as fun as the Marcus Didius Falco books (Albia is much too serious, tho it may be the reader's delivery), it still had a few episodes that made me chuckle.

115. The Third Nero by Lindsey Davis. 4 stars. Audio. New reader made a lot of difference to my enjoyment. Now that Tiberius is unable to work, Flavia Albia's the breadwinner, necessitating in her accepting a job from one of Domitian's palace spies, always a dangerous undertaking on so many levels. A man pretending to be Nero has been captured, and Albia must go to the prison and interview him to find out if anyone high in government put him up to it. Parthians may be involved. Also an elephant. Albia appeals to one of Falco's old frenemies for aid. This one had a bit more humor than the last.

116. Pandora's Boy by Lindsey Davis. 3.5 stars. Audio. A young girl is found dead in her bed, and her father accuses her mother of murder by witchcraft. Albia's husband's horrible ex-wife, who is a fried of the dead girl's mother, sets them to investigate the death, and Albia goes up against a real witch, Pandora while Faustus masquerades as a nearby fruit-seller's assistant. Meanwhile, two underworld criminal gangs are battling to control the area.

117. A Capitol Death by Lindsey Davis. 4 stars. Audio. Albia is hired by her husband to investigate the death of a man who fell - or was thrown - from the Tarpeian Rock a few days before the Emperor Domitian was to celebrate a Double Triumph for his war against Dacia, which he "won" by buying off its king. A day or so later, another man was thrown off the Tarpeian Rock. I love the glimpses of family life we see as Albia and Faustus set up their household.

118. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. 4.5 stars. Audio. The continuing saga of Thomas Cromwell, from Henry VIII's meeting with Jane Seymour to Ann Boleyn's downfall. Riveting revisionist historical fiction.

Bolded titles are original reads.

Books Read

September

119. Emerald Blaze by Ilona Andrews. 4 stars. Audio. I'm in the middle of The Mirror and the Light, but it's gotten so dark and gory that I had to stop for awhile and read something lighter. (Seriously, The Mirror and the Light is the most misleading title I've ever seen.) Anyway, Emerald Blaze is the continuing saga of Alessandro, an assassin, and Catalina, head of the magical House Baylor. In the first book of this arc, Alessandro broke Catalina's heart. Now he's back to protect her from another assassin hired by another head of house who's involved in some dire and highly illegal magical sh*t. It was actually pretty good and a great way to decompress from the horrifyingly poisonous world of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell.

120. An Offer from a Gentleman by Julia Quinn. Audio. 3 stars. Okay, not ready to tackle the finale of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy yet. I have to do it soon - my library loan will soon be ended. Anyway, I read the third book in the Bridgerton romance series years ago and more or less enjoyed it, but it isn't my favorite. I really didn't like Benedict, the second son, who acted more like a bully than a hero, and Sophie made me want to slap her more than once. Still, it was light and easy and an adequate antidote to darkness of The Mirror and the Light, so I finished it. I've got the first two Bridgertons on hold from the library and hope to read them soon.

121. An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris. 4 stars. Audio. I read this dystopian alternate history on the Kindle a couple of years ago and more of less enjoyed it (gave it 3-1/2 stars), but I enjoyed it a lot more on audio. The reader Eva Kaminsky was pitch perfect, with both the voices and the delivery. Lizbeth Rose aka Gunnie Rose is a gunslinger/guard for hire in Texoma, a country that includes most of Texas and Oklahoma in the post-apocalyptic former U.S. Lots of killing of bad guys and girls, many of whom are wizards, and few folks she can trust outside her own home town. In this first book of what I hope is a series, Gunnie Rose is hired by a couple of wizards to guard them while they track a missing person to Mexico.

122. A Longer Fall by Charlaine Harris. 4 stars. Audio. Ditto my experience with my first read of this, the second in the series, and this reread. Gunnie Rose is reunited with one of the wizards she worked for in the first book after a job she was on - to guard a shipment going cross country to a small town in Dixie - goes catastrophically wrong and most of her crew is killed in a train wreck caused by a bomb and the shipment stolen. The town is what might have happened if the South had won their war to secede, and it wasn't easy to read how the black citizens of the town are treated by most of the whites.

123. Elizabeth I by Abigail Archer. 3 stars. Audio. Not horrible, but more an overview of her life with little detail and no deep dive into the what and why. I didn't really learn much if anything that I didn't already know about her or her era. History light for someone who's not done any reading on the Tudor or Elizabethan era.

124. Shadows in Death by J.D. Robb. 4 stars. Audio. Really good installment. This time, it's Roarke's past that comes back to bite him, and he's stunned at the show of solidarity by the NYPSD in his support. This is more a police procedural, with the murderer known almost from the beginning, and there's not as much interpersonal relationship shown. Much of the usual cast of characters (Mavis, et al) is missing, Eve seems mellower than usual, and Roarke seems just a bit disconnected from events. I thought the ending was somewhat unrealistic (within the world of the story), but it was fun anyway.

125. The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. 3.5 Audio. Reread. Sweet and fun, but a bit over-the-top for my taste. Daphne is everybody's bff but nobody's romantic ideal, until Simon, Duke of Hastings returns from his travels to take up his duties. Simon, Daphne's eldest brother's best friend, is not looking for a wife - in fact, he's vowed never to marry - but Daphne is the only woman he's ever met who, if he wanted to marry, would take as wife. As for Daphne, she finds Simon fascinating and honorable and fun to be with, but she's resigned to never marrying.

126. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. 4.5 stars. Audio. Wonderful. A survey of the natural, anthropological and scientific worlds; in other words, a book about life, the universe and everything, from the Big Bang to the ascendancy of Homo sapiens and beyond. As the author states in the Introduction: "This is a book about how it happened--in particular how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something, and then how a little of that something turned into us, and also some of what happened in between and since." To be honest, I've read a few books and treatises about astrophysics in the last few years, mainly by Tyson and Hawking, so I had a bit of background in that area. Even so, Bryson managed to clarify a lot of things about which I was unclear. As for the parts on natural history, like geology, I found it fascinating and highly informative. Now, one thing I found slightly irritating were the anecdotes about the men (mostly men, *sigh*) who made the discoveries and created the disciplines and pronounced the laws/theories. I really don't care about their personal lives/personalities, tho I know I'm probably in the minority on that score. Still, it's a niggling point and not worth worrying about considering the breadth and scope of the material presented. And I want to say that the way it was presented was not only easily accessible but highly entertaining, with the exception of a couple of the later chapters on extinction and climate change. Yes, tho written in 2003, it could have been written yesterday in that respect. There's even a bit in there about Covid, tho it's not named as such. It's amazing - and saddening - just how destruction homo sapiens are.

127. Defy or Defend by Gail Carriger. 4 stars. Kindle. Novella in the Parasol Protectorate world. Sir Crispin is assigned to protect Dimity, code name the Honey Bee, while she attempts to put to rights a vampire hive whose queen has locked herself into a cave beneath the hulking mansion that is descending into Goth. Light and fun, with more than a little humor and a wonderful cast of characters. I especially enjoyed the vampire Justice and the way Dimity sorts everyone out.

128. The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack. 3.5 stars. Audio. Depressing but fascinating look at, well, the end of everything and the different ways science posits the universe will end, not to mention how the earth will end. And when. And why. Unlike issues like global climate change and the environment, human rights and government overreach, this is something over which we have absolutely no control, and the fact that the time frame is in the millions and billions of years doesn't make it any less sad. I took 1/2 a star off the rating because the production was so uneven, and the reader wasn't great. I may read it again in text form, because parts of it are too dense to grasp on even 2 or 3 listens.

129. Midnight Crossroads by Charlaine Harris. 4 stars. Audio. Read this on the Kindle a couple-three years ago and enjoyed it then, but I really enjoyed the audio version. Wish I could live in this strange town set in the world of Sookie Stackhouse (tho a completely new series without any of those characters) and befriend its odd inhabitants.

130. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey. 3.5 stars. Audio. (reread) Other than the horrible reader, whose thick southern accent is almost unbearable (until I got enough into the story to almost be able to ignore it), I enjoyed this oldie but goodie about the coming-of-age of Menolly, whose wanted more than anything to sing and play music, so much so that she'd rather brave certain death from being outside during threadfall than to remain in her oppressive home hold any longer. At times, I wanted to slap Menolly for being too good, but overall it was a satisfying reread.

131. All Systems Red by Martha Wells. 5 stars. Audio. (reread) I read this a number of times on the Kindle, and this was my first foray into the audio version. I loved it! I may have to listen to it again soon, it is so very satisfying.

132. Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey. 3.5 stars. Audio. (reread) Second in the trilogy. Pretty much the same reactions to the reader and the main character. For a coming-of-age saga (which I usually don't care for), it's very satisfying, perhaps because of the fire lizards.

132. Day Shift by Charlaine Harris. 4 stars. Audio. Reread. I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first, because I think it suffers from just a touch of "second-book-in-a-trilogy" malaise, but it was still enjoyable enough for a 4 star rating. In this one, Lemuel only shows up for a brief scene, and Barry Bellhop from the True Blood book series (I think it was Dead in Dallas) shows up.

October

133. Night Shift by Charlaine Harris. 4 stars. Audio. Reread. Good finale, tied up a bunch of threads, but I wish it weren't the last book featuring the Midnight crew. In this one, the Crossroads becomes a beacon for suicides, and the residents of Midnight must find out what is causing the disruption.

134. Hideaway by Nora Roberts. 3.5 stars. Audio. Not my favorite, though the writing is, of course, excellent, the characterizations mostly more than 2-dimensional cookie cutter, almost no sex scenes, and it's mostly set in Big Sur (my favorite place on earth, along with Yosemite and Italy). It's just not my favorite trope - I can't help it, I just don't like coming-of-age family sagas. If you do, you'll probably enjoy this romantic suspense novel that begins with the kidnapping of 10-year old Caitlin and ends with - well, HEA, after a lot of ups and downs and backs and forths but not a whole lot of suspense and not enough Big Sur.

135., 136., 137. Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, and Exit Strategy by Martha Wells. 5 stars. Audio. (reread) Reading them one after the other made this a stellar reread on a different medium - the first few times I read these novellas, it was on the Kindle. The audio versions are really well-done (which makes me wonder why I didn't enjoy the audio of the novel earlier this year and which I think I'm going to try to figure out by re-listening to it as soon as I finish a few books that are due back to the library soon-ish). I just love Murderbot, and I think I figured out one reason for that. It and I are very much the same in one important way: he retreats from his stress by rewatching favorite serials (and don't I wish I could watch Sanctuary Moon with him!), and I retreat from mine by relistening/rereading favorite books. Anyway, the past couple of months have been a really stressful year, which is why most of my reading has been rereads of favorites. Depending on what happens on November 3, I may be doing a lot more rereads of old favorites, tho things are looking pretty positive for a Biden/Harris win. (Dang it, Mary, can't you stop it with the politics for one minute? No. No, I can't. Not quite yet.)

138. Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey. 3.5 stars. Audio. Reread. So, I enjoyed the Harpers of Pern trilogy, which I first read back in the 70s or 80s, perhaps mostly for the nostalgia factor, but I found them a bit too YA for me. I do still love the concept of the dragons and fire lizards, though. In this one, Piemur (can't help it, but I really don't like that name) comes into his own and we spend a lot of time on the Southern Continent.

139. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. 5 stars. The Game is afoot! It's a year when there is a full moon on Halloween, and the door between our world and another dimension can be opened, allowing the Elder Gods to enter. The players gather in a remote area near London where, it is figured, the door can be found, but which of them are Openers and which Closers? A real book, in both the sense it was a hardcover book made of paper with text on the pages that you had to turn and that it was so much fun to read that I want to reread it right away. Anyway, thanks to Roni for recommending it over on the October The Halloween thread.

140. The Grove of the Caesars by Lindsey Davis. 4 stars. Further adventures of Flavia Albia - call me Albia. After her husband Tiberius Manlius has been called to the bedside of his ill sister, leaving Albia in charge of the family construction company. One of his last instructions to her was "Don't go to the Grove," where they were doing a small job, which of course she ignores. While there, her workers show her some old scrolls they'd dug up. More urgently, a body is discovered, and, after seeing how terrible the woman's death was, Albia vows to help discover the perpetrator.

141. The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey. 5 stars. Reread. Best zombie story ever. Of course, I seldom read zombie stories because I don't as a rule enjoy them, but I'm SO glad I made an exception with this one. Wonderful writing, amazingly real characterizations, gory and gruesome yet beautiful.

142. The Boy on the Bridge by M. R. Carey. 4.5 stars. Reread. Set in the same world as The Girl With All The Gifts, the storyline of Boy begins earlier and ends 20 years after the events in Girl. Both are excellent zombie stories, but on reread have decided I enjoy Girl more. I love the Epilogue.

November

143. Archangel's Sun by Nalini Singh. 3.5 stars. Audio. I enjoyed the story of Titus, Archangel of Africa and The Hummingbird Lady Sharine and their struggle to rid the land of the remnants of horror left behind by the Archangels of Death and Disease, but it was missing that spark the books about Raphael and Elena bring, at least that's how I felt.

Recommendations

The Good Man Jesus and Daemon Voices (Karen)
Binti (Judy)
The History of the Ancient World and History of the Medieval World (Jim)
Accepting the Lance (Joe)
(And it's only January 2. *sigh*)
Late Migrations (Mark)
Women Who Read Are Dangerous (torontoc)
The New Jim Crow (Rachel)
The Child Finder (Donna)
Brown Girl Dreaming (Karen)
Red at the Bone (Mark)
Gods of Jade and Shadow (Jim (drneutron))
Underland: A Deep Time Journey (Donna)
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse (humouress)
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Richard)
Old Filth (Joanne, Karen, others too numerous to list)
The Friend (Mark)
Year of Wonders (Mark)
Pumpkinheads (Stasia)
Echoes in Onyx series (Sandy)
The Calculating Stars (Mary Bell)
Caste (Joe)
Matterhorn (Stasia)

R - reading now

New Releases

The Wrong Lance by Sharon Lee (Liaden) 10/27/20
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells (Murderbot) 4/27/21

DNF

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark - Just couldn't seem to stay interested.
The Good Man Jesus (Audio) - Just couldn't stay interested. Might have been the narrator.
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. Audio - Really interesting but didn't finish before the due date. I do plan to read the rest at some later date.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. Audio and Kindle. Not much one for coming-of-age stories. The story just seemed to drag so that, once I stopped reading/listening, I didn't want to pick it up again.
Where the Crawdads Sing - okay, I've enjoyed this, more or less, but again, after over 100 pages, I find I just don't care to pick it up again after putting it down.
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. Almost finished when my loan ran out, and I was distracted and didn't renew. Now I have to wait again. :(
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. Audio. I'm almost finished with this tome - only about 3 hours left - but I couldn't bring myself to finish it. It was just too dark, dismal, and depraved, and I found myself hating all the characters as if they were, well, Drumpf, his family, and his minions. I will get back to it eventually, but right now I need to read lighter, more uplifting books, like, you know, War and Peace or The Road.
When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman. Just couldn't finish it before it was due back at the library because new and shiny kept popping up. I've requested it again. Truth to tell, though, I've never been a fan of either Maude OR Stephen. Both were selfish egotistical and feckless greedyguts, so continuing with this may take super strength of will.
Peace Talks by Jim Butcher. Audio. Just not in the mood for Dresden's magical soap opera just now, what with my election anxieties thru the roof. I'll try again another time.
Hamnet (Mark, Beth, others)- Please don't @ me. Right now, I'm needing mindless drivel that I don't have to really think much about or work hard to get through. This was just not grabbing me. I did get past the part where Hamnet was assaulted by his grandfather and realized his sister had bubonic plague.
Heaven's River: Bobiverse by Dennis E. Taylor (Audio) - I'm about 3/4 of the way thru but it just wasn't grabbing me. I mean, a large part of the book seemed to be one of the Bobs trying to get away from a bunch of beaver creatures, and all of it was all over the place. The whole thing was a disappointing mess.

Happy new thread!

I hope the secure/not secure issue isn't a biggie.

Isn't Murderbot great?

Hi Mary! Happy new thread.

Happy new one!

Happy new thread, Mary!

Regarding Mark's comments on Matterhorn from the previous thread, I would also highly recommend that one. I believe I gave it 5 stars when I read it a few years back. If not, it was right up there!

You made a new thread! Congratulations!

And I'm glad I was able to provide some good reading for you. I may add a recommendations list to my thread. I save them to my TBR/wishlist but it might encourage others.

Stay warm this weekend!

Happy new one, Mary!

Happy New Thread, Mary!!

When my thread isn't showing as secure (which happens occasionally, and randomly for all I can tell), I go up to the address bar and add the "s" to the http, and then reload the address. That usually corrects the issue.

Go, Murderbot!

Happy new thread, Mary.

I can't believe that you didn't finish Haunting of Tram Car 015!!!! I thought that one was fun. Lite - but fun. But, I have had my own problems trying to read books that others thought were really good and I just couldn't even start, let alone finish.

I have been wanting to read the last 3 of the Outlander series and every time I think I will do it I see the size of the next one in the series and put it back on the shelf. The same thing happens when I look at Lionheart the next one in Sharon Kay Penman's series on Henry II and Eleanor 's family. I like the books but good grief are they long. I also think that about the Harry Potter books, and the Cassandra Clare series. Somehow I think that size does matter.

Happy new thread, Mary.

Boy am I pleased you rejoined us thread wise in 2020!

>14 benitastrnad: The long ones have put me off more over the last few years, Benita, but I am going to make a conscious effort to overcome that and read at least one chunkster a month. There are so many great - but long - books on my bucket list.

Happy Saturday, Mary! Happy New Thread! Hooray for the MurderBot series and I am glad to see the full length novel also being warbled about.

>5 quondame: Oh, I adore Murderbot! Sad that I opted to listen to the audiobook of Network Effect. For some reason (I blame the reader), it just didn't work for me. I've reserved the Kindle version from the library and hope to get it soon, because I have a feeling reading it as text is going to be so much better.

>6 richardderus: Thanks, Richard!

>7 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita!

>8 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia. Okay, Matterhorn's going on the wishlist. (I wonder how come I haven't heard of it before, or, if I have, how come I seem to have forgotten about it.)

>9 witchyrichy: I did start a new thread, Karen, just to see if it was something I did in my last thread that caused my net address to show "Not secure." Nope, still shows that in Chrome, but doesn't in Explorer, so guess which platform I'm using now. I like to have a recommendations list so I can remember who to thank when I love a book that was recommended to me. Otherwise, I'd be trying to figure it out by looking through threads, which doesn't really work well.

>10 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie!

>11 ronincats: I tried that, Roni. Didn't work with Chrome, so I went to Explorer to try and it works just fine. No idea why the platforms are different that way. (Yay, Murderbot!)

>12 BLBera: Thanks, Beth!

>13 benitastrnad: Hi, Benita. I don't know why, except I just wasn't able to stay interested and had a number of other books I was longing to read, so... I might go back to it sometime.

>14 benitastrnad: Yes, it can be daunting to think about reading a doorstop. Best thing to do imo is not think about it and just start. I think one reason I'm not too worried about starting really long books is I have no compunction about quitting a book that doesn't grab me, no matter how far along I am. Makes it easier to start something that I know I can put down anytime. I haven't read that Penman series yet tho I have been meaning to get to it. She's a fantastic writer, but she does like to write chunksters!

>15 PaulCranswick: Aw, thank you, Paul. That's so sweet!

>16 msf59: Hey, Mark! Thanks! Hooray indeed for Murderbot! Love the quirky sense of humor in those books.

Or you can check conversations on the book page. I've found the first mentions of a number of books that way, which is one of the reasons I was so upset earlier this year - before we had real problems, with the bug that prevented touchstones from this group showing up in that list.

Happy Mother's Day tomorrow, Mary. Hope you get some quality time with your daughter and Ruby too.

Here are some Ruby pics to brighten my day and, I hope, yours.


Ruby helping me set up the Garden Tower


Ruby & Nickel kisses


Ruby loves books!!!


This is all of us these days

>22 quondame: Oh, that's a good idea, Susan. Even so, I still like to make a list so I see whose reccie made me read the book.

>23 weird_O: Thanks, Bill! We're going to make salmon on the grill tomorrow for Mother's Day dinner. I bought something for Ruby to give her mama - unfortunately, the way things are these days, my sil is so scattered he isn't thinking of that kind of thing. That I thought of it was completely fortuitous because I'm just as scattered.

>25 Storeetllr: I have sooo many lists.

>26 quondame: LOLOL!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Mary!

Love the family photos, Mary! The sunshine of your life, right?

Hi Mary. I like your new thread! Lots of fun reading reported too.

Hope you realise ~ it isn't your browser that makes the accessed website secure, it is only shows the connection security.
If IE doesn't display a Not Secure comment in the url, check the actual url (put your cursor in the url address line and click once). if there is only HTTP, then you know your browser isn't distinguishing that there is no SSL encryption.

Here's an explanation from my cryptographer, tech expert son-in-law:

HTTPS uses an encryption protocol (Secure Sockets Layer, commonly known as SSL). The S in HTTPS stands for secure. If a webpage has the prefix of HTTPS, the data are actually encrypted, making it much safer and harder for hackers to decipher.

Here's when it is important:
In terms of security, HTTP is completely fine when browsing the web. It mainly becomes an issue when you're entering sensitive data into form fields on the webpage (like a password or your credit card info). If you're entering sensitive information into an HTTP web page, that info is transmitted in clear text and can be read by anyone.

LibraryThing is all https, so anything you enter there is secure.
I hope this is reassuring for you (and that I was clear in the explanation; I am not an IT techie).

Happy New Thread, Mary!

Love the Ruby photos. What a cutie.

Hi Mary, I love seeing the pictures of your granddaughter. I was able to see mine for a short time yesterday which made me very happy. Iwent over your list of chunksters and although I haven't read all that many, the ones that I have read like Lonesome Dove and A Suitable Boy I did love. I just finished a massive book of over 2,00 pages with The Water Margin one of the 4 classic Chinese novels and I really enjoyed it, although it took me about 4 months to finish. Next massive book for me is going to be Queen Margot by Alexandre Dumas which is a group read for May and June. Have a great week.

>28 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

>29 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I had a lovely Mom's Day. I'll post a pic in a few.

>30 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori!

>31 msf59: Thanks, Mark. Yes, she is the sunshine of my life. So's my daughter, but Ruby's more fun right now. :)

>32 SandyAMcPherson: Thanks for that HTTPS info, Sandy. I just didn't like seeing the "Not secure" in the web address for my thread. I solve the problem by moving from Chrome to Explorer.

>33 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! She is a cutie, yes, she is. A very determined, very strong-willed cutie, but so much fun!

>34 DeltaQueen50: Hi, Judy! So glad you were able to see your granddaughter yesterday! Wow, over 2,000 pages! Not sure I'd be up for something that long. I'll check it out, though, because you never know. Good luck with Queen Margot. I look forward to reading your thoughts on it when you've finished it.

We had a lovely Mother's Day yesterday. Dinner with the kids was yummy - salmon with mushroom risotto, asparagus, acorn squash, and salad (the last two were my offerings). They gave me a great Mother's Day present, since my usual request (for experiences as opposed to things) wasn't possible this year.


It's a Redbud Tree.

Now I've got to decide where best to plant it. I wish I could plant it close to the house so I could see it out the back door, but we don't get enough sun there. Oh, well, I'm sure we'll find the perfect place for it.

>38 Storeetllr: The redbud's a great experience! You get to watch it grow and change and bloom and leaf for years to come. Great gift idea.

>39 richardderus: It is a great gift idea! I've never had a redbud tree before, or, to my knowledge, even seen one growing anywhere before. I could be wrong, but it doesn't sound or look familiar. I'm going to research it a bit before we plant it.

>40 Storeetllr: Start here. These are the main joy-trees in my former Texas home.

Happy new thread, Mary!

>38 Storeetllr: What a lovely gift.

Redbuds are a spring blooming tree of choice in the Midwest, all over my alma mater campus University of Kansas.

>38 Storeetllr: Redbuds! Who knew, and what a superb gift.
I understand that the leaves change colours as they develop, is that right?

>43 ronincats: Showy blossoms, too, Roni.

>24 Storeetllr: Love all the new Ruby pics!

>41 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! I think I'll start calling mine the Joy Tree. Looks like it will do well here in Nyack.

>42 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! I thought it was the perfect gift! Now I just need to figure out where it's to be planted.

>43 ronincats: Oh! That's beautiful, Roni! Can't wait till my little baby Joy Tree gets big like that.

>44 SandyAMcPherson: Apparently so, Sandy, and apparently they provide color all year long. I've been asking for gifts of time/experience the past few years, because I've already got too much stuff, but this year that's not really feasible. The redbud tree is the next best thing!

>45 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia! I'm glad you enjoy them, because I really enjoy posting them.

Here's that mask you wanted, Mary.

I love the picture of Ruby getting some Nickel kisses. And your new tree. What a cool Mother’s Day gift. The Joy Tree - love it! We have lots of redbuds in the neighborhood. They are great harbingers of spring. Unfortunately, they have finished blooming for the year.

>49 weird_O: Yep! That one! I want.

>50 Donna828: Hi, Donna! Yes, Ruby can't get enough Nickel kisses. She's gotten good at giving treats too, though she still flails sometimes and freaks Nickel out. Still, they are becoming buddies, which is a good thing. The Joy Tree was the best gift! I guess we must have missed the blooming stage but that's okay. It'll have all summer and fall to grow & get strong before winter hits, and then maybe we'll get blooms next spring. It will be a few years before it looks like the one in >43 ronincats:.

Yesterday my daughter set up a splash pad for Ruby in the backyard. She loved it! In fact, she loves all kinds of water play. Definitely a water baby!





All I can say is, I'm so glad we have this relatively spacious house with the backyard and front porch to wait out the plague in rather than still being stuck in that 2-bedroom apartment with no outdoor space! Even though we're going to have to spend thousands to fix the plumbing and sagging front porch and other stuff.

My Favorite Activity: Playing With Ruby
Ruby's Favorite Activity (Besides Splashing in Water): Hanging Upside Down

>53 Storeetllr: - That splash pad does look like a lot of fun!

>54 Storeetllr: - *snork!*

>54 Storeetllr: Ha! I do love that one!

>54 Storeetllr: So sad that that is how many people think. Only about 20% of the population, but they are so loud they drown the rest of us out.

ETA Oops, meant to say I loved the Ruby photos!

Such sweet pictures of Ruby. I would love to be quarantined with a toddler. Never a dull moment. You may have missed the spring blooms on your Redbud tree, but you can enjoy the heart-shaped leaves all summer. 💚

>52 Storeetllr: what a neat water play thing, a splash pad! I've never seen one for at home. So nice and relatively safe for tiny kids.

>54 Storeetllr: Love this, I snagged it for my "Plague File of Funnies"!

>52 Storeetllr: Child + water = instant joy! I remember my nieces tossing themselves on the slip and slide I got for them til their ribs and hips were bruised!

Happy weekend Mary!

At this time of the end of Ramadan I want to give thanks for your friendship in this wonderful group, Mary.

Enjoy the long weekend.

>55 lkernagh: Hi, Lori! She loves that splash pad. Too bad it hasn't been warm enough to use since that first time.

>56 richardderus: Me too, Richard.

>57 ronincats: Right?!? It's really quite distressing, Roni, that even 20% of the population think that way. They're lifting some of the restrictions here (20 miles or so north of NYC), which seems a bit premature to me. I won't be joining the exodus from social isolation quite yet. (Aren't the Ruby pics fun?)

>58 Donna828: Oh, yes, Donna! Being quarantined with her (and the kids) make it so much more bearable! We still haven't planted the tree. :( Can't decide where. I think it may be in the front yard, which means I won't be able to see it as much as I don't have easy access to the front, that is, no windows or doors out that way.

>59 SandyAMcPherson: Hi, Sandy! When my daughter told me she was picking up a splash pad, my thoughts flashed to the slip-n-slide we had for her when she was a kid, and I thought that was a bit too rough for a 15-month old. This is much better!

>60 quondame: Yes, exactly, Susan! Except the splash pad won't leave bruises on Ruby's delicate limbs.

>61 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel! It's been great so far! Rained all day yesterday, so I just stayed inside and read. Today, warm and sunny, so we got outside, checked on the garden areas, then cleaned out the storage area under the house and reorganized everything so now I have plenty of room to put the boxes that have been taking up space in my small living area since I moved in. Altogether a wonderful two days.

>62 PaulCranswick: Happy Eid to you, Paul, and thank you for all you do to make this such a friendly and informative (and interesting) group!

Hi Mary, I love the look of that Splash Pad and Ruby definitely looks like she's enjoying it. Maybe if you get a long heat wave this summer, Ruby will share her Splash Pad with you.

Haha, Judy! Maybe, or maybe we'll get one of those hard-sided pools that are about 2 feet high and share it with her. At least that's what the kids are saying they want to do. I think for sure we'll get a sprinkler for the yard that we can all run through on the hottest days. :)

Latest pics of My Preciousssss - er, of Ruby.


Ruby Helps Prep the Garden Bed


And Plant


Then, Pleased With a Job Well Done, Ruby Plays

Very cute pix, Mary. I envy your proximity to your granddaughter!
Posted another 'vintage' book cover, in case this topic still appeals to you. I'm enjoying it, myself of course!

>68 Storeetllr: So adorable!! I want to smoochiesmoochsmooch those chubby li'l cheekies!

>68 Storeetllr: Wee ones are so good at joy and communicating it! Lovey photos.

Loving the new Ruby photos, Mary! That wooden water-holding "box" in >52 Storeetllr: is beautiful and also intriguing.

>70 richardderus: I'll smooch those chubby lil cheeks for you, Richard! They are eminently smoochable. Actually, she loves to cuddle and give & get kisses, much more than I remember my daughter doing when she was a baby. Of course, my daughter clung a lot more than Ruby does. There IS a difference.

>71 quondame: Yes, I just melt when I hear her squeal with happy surprise. Thanks, Susan!

>72 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. That wooden table is great. Water play on one side and sand play on the other. Here's a couple more pics of it to give you a better idea of just how it looks.

>73 Storeetllr: It has both water and sand! How clever is that? It's nicely made and a good height, too. No wonder Ruby likes it.

>68 Storeetllr: Very cute pictures!

>73 Storeetllr: That's really neat! Very clever indeed. Was the wooden table homemade or are you able to buy it in the store?

Sweet Thursday, Mary. I hope you are doing well. I LOVE all the Ruby photos. I can see why she is "the sunshine of your life". We are just biding our time. Are you keeping up with your bird feeders or did you give up on it?

>74 jnwelch: Yep! We have to be sure to cover one before she uses the other, or it would be a real mess!

>75 figsfromthistle: Thanks! It is clever, and it's definitely not home made. My daughter picked it up somewhere online.

>76 msf59: Sweet Thursday to you too Mark! I'm hanging in there, as are we all. Being able to hang with Ruby and the kids are a big help through these hard times. I put up the feeders early this month but have decided to use only one of them (the one that is really squirrel proof) because we were getting a LOT of critters. (Squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks. It's a zoo back there.)

Smart idea, putting up the squirrel proof feeder, Mary. All of mine are. They still get the scraps at the bottom, and I have not seen a skinny squirrel yet.

That's a great looking raised garden bed, Mary!

>78 msf59: Haha, skinny squirrel is an oxymoron! At least around here.

>79 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! It's my (and my daughter's) first time doing a raised bed, so this year is going to be a real learning experience.

*
The Garden Tower, Partly Planted


Ma raison d'etre

>81 Storeetllr: Awww! Isn't it nice to be able to hold close those we love?

>82 PaulCranswick: Paul, I don't know how I would survive if I couldn't be with her and the kids. Mostly her. I can't tell you the joy I feel when her little face lights up with a smile when she sees me. It doesn't always last, especially if I can't give her what she wants (to run into the street, e.g., or to be given my glass of wine to drink/spill), but that first happy smile of the day is so precious!

>83 Storeetllr: Yes, our post Ramadan celebrations were very muted this year with my family spread out across three countries.

>84 PaulCranswick: I knew it would be, Paul, because of that. It has to be incredibly hard to be separated like that for so long. I hope you'll be able to be together soon!

>81 Storeetllr: Love the tower, and *baaawww* for Baby Ruby!

>86 richardderus: I'm hoping for the best for the garden this year, Richard. If things go as they did the first year with the Tower, you won't be able to see much of the Tower in a month or so for all the vegetation.

As for Ruby, you and me both!

I haven't been doing very well photographing the birds and other critters that stop by the feeders, but I did get a cellphone shot of this pretty bird who's been coming by to visit lately.

>88 Storeetllr: Hooray for the blue jay. We very rarely get them at our feeders. I like the look of that feeder, Mary.

Thanks, Mark! I'm enjoying the jay and the robins and saw a couple of finches last week. I've mostly been getting chicadees and grackles and doves.

The feeder's a Brome Squirrel Buster. The other one is squirrel proof too, and also supposed to be proof against large birds, but it doesn't work quite as well. This one isn't proof against large birds either, but it's good against squirrels. I bought a baffle and will install it soon.

Spending such a lot of time with your granddaughter will pay benefits long into the future as well, Mary. I babysat both my grandkids when they were little and even today now that they are 21 and 15 they still come by regularly to visit with us. And of course, they are still the joy of our lives. :)

So, I read 26 books in May. That is, I believe, a personal best. Of course, it's nothing to crow all that loudly about, since only 6 of them were new books and 20 were rereads. Still, I don't think I've ever read that many books in one month before.

Of the rereads, 3 were Murderbot novellas in anticipation of the release of Network Effect, which was also a reread (first read was audio and didn't really work for me; reread was print which did); 2 were Amelia Peabody historical mysteries; and 14 were In Death mysteries.

Of the 6 new books, 3 were sci-fi (1 straight sci-fi; 2 romantic scifi/fantasy); 1 was an historical romance; 2 were romantic thrillers.

Apparently I needed the comfort of HEA this past month, since everything in real life was pretty much dystopian disaster. Except for Ruby, of course. And - so far, at least - the garden.

>92 Storeetllr: And now 45's down the basement like the rat it is.

Dystopian times indeed.

Perhaps he'll follow in the footsteps of another despicable authoritarian figure who spent his last days in a bunker, and we'll be rid of him for good. *sorrynotsorry*

>94 Storeetllr: Your keyboard to the goddesses' inbox.

Heh. If only.

>81 Storeetllr: - Very happy to see the garden tower, Mary, and the grammy kisses!

>91 DeltaQueen50: Hey, Judy! You snuck right in there while I was looking the other way. Sorry I missed your post. Yes, you're so right! I spent lots of time with my Grams when I was little - we lived with her and Gramps till I was 4, then I spent a lot of time with her on weekends and school vacations after Gramps died when I was 6. It wasn't until I was a junior in high school that I stopped going over there at least once a week. I'd have lived with Grams if my parents had let me, I loved her so much. I'm hoping Ruby feels even half the same about me.

>97 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori! Both of those give me great pleasure and joy!

In celebration of Pride, Tor.com Publishing presents four critically acclaimed novellas featuring LGBTQ+ characters.

Miranda in Milan
A reimagining of the consequences of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, casting Miranda into a Milanese pit of vipers.

Every Heart a Doorway
The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well what it feels like to tumble into their own magical world. And each of them is seeking a way back.

Sisters of the Vast Black
The sisters of the Order of Saint Rita are on an interstellar mission of mercy aboard Our Lady of Impossible Constellations, a living, breathing ship which seems determined to develop a will of its own.

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps
The Sorcerer follows the Captain, a beautiful man with song for a voice and hair that drinks the sunlight. The two of them are the descendants of the gods who abandoned the Earth for Heaven, and they will need all the gifts those divine ancestors left to them to keep their caravan brothers alive.

Download here before 11:59 PM ET, June 5th, 2020.

ETA blurbs

>99 Storeetllr: Yep, I just sent those off to my Kindle.

Hah! I figure most of us are signed up on Tor, but it doesn't hurt to be sure nobody will be missing out. Have you read any of them, Susan? I read the McGuire, which was enjoyable, but the others are new to me. Sisters of the Vast Black looks really good, from its blurb.

>101 Storeetllr: I also have read Every Heart a Doorway but not the others. I have read a story by Kai Ashante Wilson in a Nebula collection, but have no memory or record of what I thought.

I look forward to checking them all out. Except the one about being cast into a pit of vipers. I like most snakes - at least in theory - but vipers? Not so much.

I've read and loved the Wilson, review: The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps; disliked the McGuire; own the other two and now have a reason to read 'em up!

>2 Storeetllr: Congratulations on reaching 75 and beyond, Mary!

I love your photos, Mary. It sounds like you are keeping busy.

>104 richardderus: Good to know, Richard!

>105 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita!

>106 BLBera: Thanks, Beth. Keeping busy these days entails a lot of reading, but also gardening and spending time with Ruby.

I haven't been posting much lately so missed posting about last weekend's Wear Orange event. Last year, we wore orange and went to Memorial Park for National Gun Violence Awareness Day and saw the Tappan Zee (now the Mario Cuomo) Bridge lit up orange. This year, I painted some rocks and placed them under the shrubs that line the sidewalk in front of the house.

What a difference a year makes.


June 7, 2019


June 5, 2020

I love the painted stones, Mary! While 2020 is a very different kind of year, it is great to see that people continue to honor/draw attention - in creative ways - to the issues and events.

Thanks, Lori! I'm having a lot of trouble staying involved, but I'm trying to do what I can, plus I enjoy art which makes it easier. My daughter does better, even though she's got the baby to take care of. A lot of her activism these days is on social media, though she's gone to two BLM rallies/vigils in the past couple of weeks. (I stayed home with the baby, which is, I guess, doing my part.)

Hi Mary! Trying to catch up with your active thread! Love all the Ruby and gardening photos! Thank goodness for family and the space to enjoy them! :) Gardening in NYS will be so much easier than gardening in CO.

Love the water/sand table. Lots of fun and mischief to be had there. Water babies are such fun!

It's so hard to keep physically involved in all that's happening. I'd have loved to go into Denver for one of the daytime demonstrations but for that dang pandemic. Denver seems to be making some real changes. I'm so angry about the Covid response. This hermit life is wearing on me.

Hi, Joanne! My thread's not that active these days, but so glad you stopped by! Ruby and gardening are what keep me happy and relatively sane these days.

I'm not ready to go to any social gatherings, except I did go with Meg and the baby to the beach the other day. I sat at a safe social distance from the other moms and babies in the moms' group Meg is with. They haven't met in person for months, so this was a bit of an experiment. Anyway, the beach (Sandy Hook in NJ) was pretty open so I felt mostly safe, and I very much enjoyed the outing. Ruby was thrilled with the ocean. All she wanted to do was stand at the water and let the waves wash over her feet and legs.


Ruby in her yellow bathing suit leading the way to the water

And here's a pic I took of her yesterday while I was watching her so her parents could go grocery shopping and she was crawling all over me (trying to get my cellphone, actually).

Happy Saturday, Mary. I hope you are doing well. How are those books treating you? Nothing to report on the bird feeder front. They have been eerily quiet, these past 2 weeks.

That Ruby is adorable!

>112 Storeetllr: *baaawww* she's a smoochieface cuddlemuffin!

Hi Mary, I'm just finding your thread for this year now, and catching up a bit on all your life's changes over the last couple of years. Ruby is adorable! I signed up for the Tor e-book emails when Murderbot was being made available, and have >99 Storeetllr: on my Kindle for... hm, not sure when I'll have time to read them. But they're ready for me, in any case.

Happy weekend!

>113 msf59: Hi, Mark! Busy weekend so didn't have much time to visit LT. Hope yours was fun. My bird feeder is busy as heck whenever it's full, which I admit it isn't always, though I try. I swear, those birds can eat two whole feeders worth in one day, and it's hard to keep seed on hand. Most of them are wrens and sparrows, grackles and some doves, tho, so it's not all that interesting. I saw a hawk yesterday with a flock of something - wrens - chasing it away. That was kind of interesting. Books are hit-and-miss these days. I know it's my mood and the times, but so many books I know I would love just don't grab me. Still, I keep finding ones that do work.

>114 richardderus: That she is, Richard!

>115 bell7: Hi, Mary! Thanks for finding me and visiting my thread! Yes, Tor has a lot of fun offers. Glad you are participating too. I'll be looking for your thread to check out what you're up to. From your profile, it looks like we are on the same wavelength when it comes to reading.

Well, my Garden Tower is going gangbusters, which is a relief since where I put it only gets the morning sun, so I was a little worried. We've already been getting salads from it and my daughter's garden bed.


May 29

*
Today

And my latest effort at rock painting, done on a rock from the back yard that Ruby gave me and asked me to paint on (at least I think she did).

*

Not sure if I'm completely finished with the night scene. I may do a little more with it before sealing it, but it's basically done.

>117 Storeetllr: Salads are so much better when picked fresh. What about some nasturtiums? The young leaves are delish and then the flowers look so pretty in the salad while tasting like a milder leaf.

You're so right, Richard! As for nasturtiums, I've got nasturtiums galore! And we've been adding the leaves to our salads. Look at the images of today's towers, the second image bottom left, and there's also one a couple of rows up and some you can't see on the sides and on top. Plus, there are a few in the garden bed and in some pots. Nasturtiums are my favorite summer flower, followed closely by borage, marigolds, and sunflowers. I'm growing all but the sunflowers this year. Next year, I plan to be better organized and grow a lot more flowers and herbs.

My laptop's hard drive crashed earlier this week. It's being replaced now so, even tho I'll visit other threads, I'll just be lurking because using my tablet to post isn't easy. Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

>117 Storeetllr: Your garden tower looks great, Mary!
Doing weel with painting rocks.

>120 Storeetllr: Sorry about your laptop.

>119 Storeetllr: Excellent! I forgot to mention something good to try: Nasturtium, walnut, goat cheese pesto with regular olive oil, not EVOO. The flavors are so strong there's no point using a lightly flavored oil but a robust golden one works great! And the older leaves work well for the pesto...youngers for salads, of course.

I love your garden tower, Mary. I might give that a try.

Your painted stones are a great idea. You are so creative.

>121 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! I love gardening with the tower - it's so much easier than having to bend down all the time to weed, check for bugs/caterpillars, etc. Glad you enjoyed the painted rocks.

As far as the laptop goes, it's fixed. Turned out, it was Windows 10 that was the culprit, and it needed to be reinstalled. Which, of course, wiped out everything on my hard drive. The files were saved on an external hard drive, so I still have them. Now the only trouble is having to figure out what programs to download again, deciding what files to upload to my laptop from the external hard drive, and setting up my taskbar, desktop, etc.

>122 richardderus: Oh, my, Richard. Pesto with nasturtium instead of basil, walnut instead of pine nuts? Well, I bought some regular olive oil yesterday (do you know how hard it is to find non-EVOO?) per your suggestion. Anyway, I'll try your recipe and see.

>123 BLBera: The garden tower's not cheap, Beth, but it's so worth it for me (especially since I got it for about half the regular price with a coupon and a sale price). Glad you enjoyed my latest painted stone!

In this difficult year with an unprecedented pandemic and where the ills of the past intrude sadly upon the present there must still be room for positivity. Be rightly proud of your country. To all my American friends, enjoy your 4th of July weekend.

>124 Storeetllr: - Glad to see that the laptop has been fixed, Mary. Yes, Windows 10 is a pain. My other half hates it. Wishing you a wonderful week ahead.

>127 PaulCranswick: Thanks so much for your kind words, Paul. I wish I were less pessimistic about the future of my country, but not even the defeat of the current pResident will be enough, I fear, to stem the tide that began with Reagan and gained strength with the rise of the Tea Party after Obama was elected in '08. There is a corruption in the Republican Party today that surpasses anything we've seen in the past century. It's going to take a lot to excise it.

>128 lkernagh: I have to agree, Lori. I've had my laptop (with Windows 10) for almost 5 years, soon after it was released, and this is the first real problem I had with it, though there have been small annoying issues with it all along. I'm hoping this newest updated version will be better behaved. My desktop is still running Windows XP without any real glitches, and I used Vista for years on my work computers without many, if any, issues; I'm not sure why Microsoft can't come up with a better operating system today that is more stable and reliable than 10. It's not like they haven't had enough experience.

Rereading Bird by Bird for a little uplifting comfort.

This also should work.

Hi Mary, I've been very lax about keeping up with the LT reading and activities. In fact, I'm reading rather less than the months before Mr. Virus ramped up my anxiety levels.

I enjoyed Bird by Bird tremendously although I am thinking it might go onto my declutter pile.
It is a good philosophy for the present... treating time as taking it day by day, just like Lamott wrote.

Hi, Mary. Looking for an update on your tower! We are having a great gardening year, which is good as that is our primary entertainment!

Hi, Mary. Happy Weekend.

Loving the photos of your grandee Ruby and the evolving Garden Tower.

>132 SandyAMcPherson: Hi, Sandy - Yes, my reading isn't what it has been in prior years, and I blame it on the anxiety from both Covid-19 and 45. Although I have read over 100 books, most of them are rereads of comfort reads. I just can't seem to focus on new material, though I started reading How to be an AntiRacist and am finding it very compelling. I kept Bird By Bird all these years because I loved it so much, even though I know I'll probably never read the book again (damn my eyes!) (I've got it on audiobook).

>133 ronincats: Hi, Roni - Well, the tower started out great but suddenly a couple of days ago I discovered powdery mildew on the tomatoes and cauliflower. I treated it with a homemade remedy and am hoping for the best, but the leaves that were effected aren't looking so good. I have never had to garden in so wet a climate before so didn't know what exactly to expect. Next year, I'll do things much differently!

>134 jnwelch: Hi, Joe! Glad you enjoyed the pics of Miss Ruby and the tower.

>131 Storeetllr: Lol!

Hi Mary! Going from gardening in Colorado to gardening in NY state is quite a change - from no semi-arid and everything drying out to humidity and mildew. From my very limited experience with growing veggies in both places, it'll be easier there when you get it figured out. And at least you probably get less hail there.

We have two copies of Bird By Bird in the house (one signed) and I love Anne Lamott but I still haven't read it! One of these days.

I'm reading and enjoying my books lately but it takes me forever to finish something. Staying home and doing nothing can be very distracting, I guess.

Happy Birthday, Mary! I hope you are having a wonderful day today. I’m sure Ruby is helping you celebrate. 🎂🎈

I came by to say hello - and I see from Donna's message above that it's your birthday - have a great day!

^I hope you are having a wonderful day, Mary. Miss seeing you around.

Happy personal new year, Mary!

🌹Happy Birthday, Mary!🌺

Oh! Visitors! Let's party!

Thanks so much for your birthday wishes, Donna, Judy, Mark, Richard and Susan! I had a fun if low-key day. The kids grilled big, juicy, rare steaks with all the fixins, and we had cake (strawberry shortcake) and ice cream (Cherry Garcia) after. My SIL's dad came and brought me a bottle of a very nice pinot grigio, which is my favorite wine. Ruby gave me birthday hugs and kisses. Altogether a lovely day.

Oops, was off celebrating my husband's birthday and our anniversary and completely missed YOUR birthday, Mary. Belated happy wishes!

Thanks, Roni! Happy happy to your husband and you on his b/day and your anniversary!

>142 Storeetllr: What a wonderful photo of you and Ruby. The smiles say it all!

Thanks, Richard! I love Ruby's smile. One simply must smile back!

Ruby is getting so big! Happy belated birthday, Mary.

>131 Storeetllr: :)

Happy Mighty Leo Birthday, Mary!

My daughter's 45th was on July 29th - we celebrated with homemade Vegetarian PIZZA and a Good Old Betty Crocker
Yellow Cake, along with a CSA Salad, Apple Cider and bottles of FEVER-TREE NA Ginger Beer.

Pizza and cake were both challenges as Gluten Free Flour does not always cooperate.

Your photos are always so welcome!

>147 BLBera: Thanks, Beth! Yes, she is getting big, and tall, and toddler-y. Her favorite word these days is an emphatic "NO!" Complete with head shake.

>148 m.belljackson: Thanks, Marianne! Glad you enjoy the pics. Your daughter's b/day feast sounds yum. Not sure I understand about the cake, tho. Was it Betty Crocker or was it Gluten Free? Or does BC now make GF cake mixes?

>142 Storeetllr: A majorly excellent photograph. I love how happy you both are, such lovely smiles.
Belated best wishes.

Thanks, Sandy. I love that photo so much! I love Ruby's smile and can't help smiling like a loon when she's with me.

Hi Mary, I just did a quick catch up on a thread and a half. It was very easy to see how much Ruby has grown! Looks like you are in a very good spot there with a great back yard and lots of garden.

*smooch*

That is all.

>149 Storeetllr:

The only place my daughter has found a good GF Yellow cake mix is on the King Arthur site
and they have been out of it for months.

I used their GF Measure for Measure flour to make the Birthday cake - almost as good as their pricey mix.

Good to know, Marianne! I'll have to look for it in my grocery store, whenever I go back to doing my own shopping again. (Currently, my daughter and son-in-law do the shopping for me.)

Happy Thingaversary to me! (Aug 16, 2006) I'd forgotten until an old friend wished me happy on my profile page. I haven't been doing much book buying the past few years - no room in my tiny basement apartment for more books, and I'm on a fixed income so not a lot of $$ for books. Most that I've bought were ebooks and audiobooks. So, for the first of 15 thingaversary books, I preordered a book on Audible: the latest installment in the Bobiverse.



Here's the blurb: More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate - whatever the cost.

But nothing is ever simple in the Bobiverse. Bob’s descendants are out to the 24th generation now, and replicative drift has produced individuals who can barely be considered Bobs anymore. Some of them oppose Bob’s plan; others have plans of their own. The out-of-control moots are the least of the Bobiverse’s problems.

Undaunted, Bob and his allies follow Bender’s trail. But what they discover out in deep space is so unexpected and so complex that it could either save the universe - or pose an existential threat the likes of which the Bobiverse has never faced.

Another book (a real one, not an ebook!) I've got preordered is



Not sure what the other baker's dozen books are going to be.

Happy Thingaversary to you! Have fun with Bob!

Thanks for the tip about the Bobiverse. I loved the Bobiverse. I think I have to place an order. Oh crap!

>142 Storeetllr: 😀 Happy girls!

And happy Thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary from me too! I forgot mine ~ ha!

>142 Storeetllr: LOVE this photo!

I hope your week is off to a good start, Mary. Books treating you good?

A belated Happy Thingaversary, Mary. I'm looking forward to seeing what other books you treat yourself to. I love the cover on the watercolor flower book - so pretty!

Happy Thingaversary, Mary!! The feral parrots have been flying overhead (noisily) from one place to another almost every day lately, and I always think of you when I hear them. How is Nickle? Is she jealous of Ruby?

>157 quondame: Thanks, Susan! I'm sure the next Bob book is going to be a lot of fun as usual.

>158 benitastrnad: Haha, Benita. They're so fun, aren't they?!

>159 Copperskye: Thanks, Joanne!

>160 SandyAMcPherson: Thanks, Sandy. It's easy to do with so much else going on these days.

>161 msf59: Thanks, Mark. It's a great photo which I'm going to print and frame. Ruby loves it too. I have it as my lock screen photo on my cellphone, and every time Ruby gets hold of my phone, she opens it so she can see it. Then she points to me (on the phone) and says, "Mimi," which is her name for me, and then points to herself (again, on the phone) and mutters something that may or may not be "Ruby," smiling like a loon the entire time. I'm in a sort of reading slump these days, only able to read the lightest and least substantive books. I think it's low-level depression mixed with anxiety that's the cause.

>162 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy. I'm looking forward to seeing what other books I decide to get too. It's going to be a surprise for me, whatever I choose. I'm giving myself till the end of the year to do it. I do love that watercolor book cover! I got an early review e-copy from Edelweiss (thanks for that, Mark) and loved it so much I decided I need it on my own shelves.

>163 ronincats: Thanks, Roni. Oh, I remember those feral parrots! They used to wake me at 5 am screeching from the trees outside my bedroom window when I lived in Pasadena. So beautiful, though. Nickel's fine. She likes having me nearby most of the day (we live in such a small, open place that it's only when I'm in bed or the bathroom that I'm not in sight of her. She's not jealous of Ruby at all. In fact, they are getting to be friends. Nickel looks forward to seeing Ruby who loves to get/give kisses and give her almond treats. Just lately, Ruby's been playing the "boop" game with Nickel: Nickel gives her a (gentle) peck on the top of her head while I say "boop," then Ruby says "Hey!" and then they "kiss." (It's a game I play with Nickel, and after watching it for awhile Ruby finally decided she wanted to play too.) Ruby has held Nickel too, on her little arm (with some support from me), and Nickel is good with that. We have to watch Ruby, tho, so she doesn't stick her fingers too close to Nickel's beak, because that's a sure way of getting them bit. Usually, she doesn't bite hard, but one doesn't like to take any chances with tender baby fingers.

Oh crud, I completely forgot my own Thingaversary! (the 13th) Anyway, happy yours, and many lovely moments savoring the new Bob book.

Heh. So much is going on these days, it's easy to forget. I think I remember a couple of months ago you talking about starting to buy your Thingaversary books, which is more than I can say for myself.

So, the Tor.com eBook Club is giving away a free sci-fi/fantasy book. This month, you can download Riot Baby, a searing, critically acclaimed novel by Tochi Onyebuchi. Sign up here and claim your copy before 11:59 PM (ET) on August 21st.

Slightly belated Happy Thingaversary, Mary.

Have you bought your 15 books yet?!

Thanks, Paul. Not all of them. Only the two in >156 Storeetllr: and, if you count freebies (I do), then the one in >168 Storeetllr:. I'm working on the last 12.

Mary, you have to check this out! One of our local gardeners posted this this morning.

https://www.facebook.com/sdcoastallivingbyns/videos/1001194330323652/

That video is such fun! Although the birds are a lot less noisy than the ones I had serenading me mornings in Pasadena. Guess they're too busy scarfing up the sunflower seeds to squawk. Thanks for sharing it, Roni.

>156 Storeetllr: The cover of the watercolor book is lovely, Mary. I wish I could paint/draw...

Thanks, Beth. The inside is also beautiful. Me too. 😄 Seriously, I haven't done much artwork over the past few months. Haven't read many new books either. I think I'm suffering from low-level anxiety. By the way, I've been visiting your thread regularly but not posting anything, just lurking.

Happy Sunday, Mary. Sorry to hear about your anxiety issues. I hope you can this resolved, although we are living in anxious times. I know you like a good crime novel, so if you can track down Blacktop Wasteland that might boost your spirits.

Happy Sunday to you, Mark! Thanks, I think a lot of us suffer from anxiety these days. I expect much of it will be resolved on November 3, assuming we all do our part and vote. Thanks for the BB. I seldom get hit on my own thread. (Usually, I have to go to yours. :) I'll order it from the library on your reccie.

>171 ronincats: Yes, amazing to see parrots in the sunflower fields! Are they feral?

Hi, Mary. I join Mark in recommending Blacktop Wasteland. A fast crime novel that makes for good pandemic reading. :-)

>171 ronincats: >177 SandyAMcPherson: Hi, Sandy - I'll answer for Roni. They are wild parrots most likely the offspring of parrots brought to the U.S. by the pet trade in the 50s-80s, some legally and some illegally, which escaped and adapted. Here's a really informative article about them. Or you could read The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, which Joanne (copperskye) sent me awhile back but which, I confess, I haven't read yet for some strange reason.

>178 jnwelch: Hi, Joe! It's definitely on my list, though from the talk I gather it's very tense, and I'm already stressed out what with the election being just 69 DAYS AWAY. Anyway, I'm currently reading the Flavia Albia mystery series, set in Rome during Domitian's reign. Albia is the girl from Britain Falco and Helena Justina met in The Jupiter Myth and later adopted and brought to Rome. The first book of the spin-off series is Ides of April, and Albia is a 28-year old widow who becomes an informer like her father. I'm not in love with the series like I was with the Falco series, but it's great to get away from our modern day dystopia and enjoy ancient Rome's problems (which seem very similar to ours).

Kinda lonely around here, but I get it. So much going on elsewhere. I'm guilty of not visiting others' threads too, or, if I do, of just lurking and not saying hi.

Anyway, thought I'd post a pic of my girl who is growing up SO FAST! She's getting hair now (not a lot, but still...) and has about 25 words - no sentences yet, but her mom is working on it. (Her favorite word? Well, she's 19 months old now, so, despite her beguiling smiles, it's as you might think: an emphatic and resounding "NO!")


She loves to pick vegetables from the garden. We picked a carrot the other day. It was tiny. She loved it.


For some reason, she thinks wearing her noise-reducing earmuffs is hilarious. Also, she insisted on wearing this outfit today even though it's too small for her.

delurking to say "hi" :-)

Hi Mary, wow, is your granddaughter getting big! Love her self-chosen outfit with the noise-reducing earmuffs. You can tell she's quite a ham.

Hope you & yours are doing well.

Hi Mary and Ruby!

>181 Storeetllr: Precious!! The too=small onesie is an instant trip in the flashback machine for me.h

>182 FAMeulstee: Hi, Anita!

>183 bell7: She is definitely a ham, Mary! I'm a little freaked by the news and a little depressed by the pandemic and a little anxious over the election, but still here and doing okay. It's like another introvert said, with all the social distancing, my life has dramatically stayed the same.

>184 katiekrug: Hi, Katie!

>185 richardderus: Richard! Haha, yes, I can identify too. Even as an adult, when I have a favorite outfit I don't want to have to admit I can't really fit into it anymore.

Hi Mary, I am a bit of an introvert myself but I do struggle with keeping distant from others whereas my brother totally embraces being an introvert so he says that he was born for social distancing! Your granddaughter is growing up and obviously has a mind of her own, I envy you being there for every step along the way.

Hi Mary, I also am de-lurking to say what a cutie-pie that granddaughter is!

Happy Labor Day!

>187 Storeetllr: - I love that (and can totally relate to it)!

Hi, Judy! This reminds me of you and your brother. (TBH, I'm more like your bro than you.)



It's wonderful being here watching her grow up! Unfortunately, my son-in-law has to go back to school to teach in person this week, so I may have to isolate from the family again. 💔

>189 SandyAMcPherson: Thanks, Sandy! I think she is!

>190 richardderus: Thanks Richard! Hope yours was fun, or, at least, relaxing.

>191 lkernagh: Heh, me too.

>181 Storeetllr: The "No" Girl is such a cutie! Thanks for sharing a photo, now and then. Always makes me smile.

Happy Tuesday, Mary. I hope all is well, my friend.

>181 Storeetllr: Aw! Such a cutie!

>192 Storeetllr: Lol, Sometimes I love this but more and more, it’s getting old. This week’s big outings are 1) library pick up but not leaving the car, and 2) picking up my Biden Harris yard sign outside a vol.’s house. Fun, fun, fun!

Sorry you might need to distance again...:(

Good that Safer in The Basement can keep protecting you!

Love the Ruby pics, Mary. Keep ‘em coming!

>192 Storeetllr:: Easy solution: Take Ruby to the basement with you! You can give the parents daily updates. I know, probably not funny. It will be a sad time if you have to socially isolate once again. Safety first!

Love the pics, Mary. They grow up so fast!

>174 Storeetllr: Lurk away. :)

>194 msf59: Happy Friday Thursday, Mark! (Now that you're retired, days of the week don't matter quite the same way they used to matter, but you might appreciate being reminded what day it is. I know I do!) Thanks, I think Ruby is the cutest baby - well, toddler - I've ever seen! Her mom was adorable too, but when Ruby says "No!" she says it with a grin, which her mom never did (her mom perfected a scowl at an early age), and that seems to make all the difference in the world.

ETA Yes, I really did wish you a happy Friday today, which is actually THURSDAY. I swear, I think I've been retired too long. lol

>195 Copperskye: Thanks, Joanne! I so know what you mean about isolation getting old (even though I would probably be staying in most of the time without the pandemic). I had to take the car in for its annual inspection today, and I was so excited to be going out! I even put on some makeup, which no one could see because I wore a mask (of course). I'm waiting for my Biden/Harris yard sign which I bought from the campaign website in lieu of a straight political contribution. I've got a couple of yard signs up from the campaigns of local candidates - one for state senate and one for U.S. Rep. And Meg's picking up a BLM sign tomorrow. We live in a blue neighborhood, from what I can see, so we won't stand out, but, since we're on a highway, many people drive by & will see the signs. I hope we don't get rocks thru our windows.

>196 m.belljackson: Hi, Marianne! Haha, Safer in the Basement! Yeah, it's good I can isolate if I need to, but it does get lonely down here all alone except my parrot, and sometimes - listening to Ruby squealing and running and singing up there and me not being able to go up to be with her makes me feel like crying. Not yet, tho. Students are not back this week, just the teachers, so I'm taking the chance it'll be okay till the kids return. In fact, Ruby, her mom, and I just took a little walk around the block (which we had to cut short because it started raining).

>197 Donna828: Thanks, Donna. I wish I could keep her down her with me, but my place is too small, with too many things that she could get in trouble with, including the bird (who bites fingers that are thrust at her). And tho she loves me, I know she does, she (Ruby) is definitely a mama's girl.

>198 BLBera: That they do, Beth! I sometimes look at her and wonder where that tiny baby who couldn't roll over or sit up by herself just a couple of weeks ago (haha, it seems like weeks anyway) went. And then I look at her mom who I swear I just brought home from the hospital after giving birth to her a couple of months ago. lol

Happy Friday to all those who celebrate the end of the week/start of the weekend! (I've been retired now for 7 years, and I still get a little tingle when I realize it's Friday. ;)

Currently reading a very interesting book - A Short History of Nearly Everything - by new-to-me-author Bill Bryson, who I plan on reading more of (terrible grammar--don't @ me). Much of the science has expanded/changed (especially in physics and astrology), but it's a fascinating look at how we know what we know, or knew back in 2003 when the book was published. I love his anecdote about how, as a child, he saw an illustration in his science textbook of the earth's layers, including the molten core, and wondered, "How do they KNOW that?" I've often wondered the same thing about scientific matters, and this book (attempts to) answer that question, among others, and does it in an easily accessible, fun way. Next book up is, I'm afraid, going to be a little less accessible to this relative newcomer to science fandom, but I'm looking forward to The End of Everything: Astrophysically Speaking anyway.

Hung with the Rubester yesterday afternoon while her mama went to Trader Joe's for weekend snacks. At 20 weeks (as of next Wed.), she is SO MUCH FUN to be with! One of her favorite things to do is sit out on the front porch and watch the cars, vans and especially big trucks pass by. Also favorites are bicyclers and motorcyclists, and she gets super excited when an ambulance or police car speeds by with sirens screaming.
n

You're both adorable!

Thanks, Micky! You're too kind re me but spot on re Ruby!

So excited that Heaven's River, the next book in the Bobiverse series, showed up in my Audible library today!

Update on two of my "hobbies."

On the gardening front, I grew two cantaloupe plants and got one perfect melon (so far). We opened it yesterday, and it was juicy and sweet. So proud! Here's a couple pics:


Mmmm, can't you just taste the deliciousness!


Ruby ate most of the half we cut up. I got a couple of slices, her dad got a couple. Her mom got two bites. She got the rest. And then asked for more.

On the art front, I'm painting #RockTheVote rocks for Biden/Harris. So far, I've only finished two, but I've got a half dozen more in process. I hope to have them ready to distribute by the weekend.


My rock painting factory.

Hi Mary. I very much like the rocks you painted. When we held the service for my partner Will, the little neighbors painted rocks. Those rocks were a testimony to their love of him, and his of them. There were lots of butterflys, lots of characters from movies and books they watched or read together. Each person who attended the celebration of his life, received a stone as we gathered by the lake he loved in life.

Oh, Linda, that must have been comforting to you in your grief. How wonderful to be so loved and admired by the children. Will must have been an amazing person!

Love the pix of cantaloupe and of Ruby so obviously enjoying it.
Congrats on getting melons to flourish. I've never succeeded. I start too late, I think for the short warm season.

Rock on! Great idea.

>205 Storeetllr: - The melon looks lovely and I see it gets a big smile from Ruby as well. ;-)

The melon looks fabulous! Good to know they can grow up here - I might see if we can plant some for next year.

Ruby is, of course, adorable!

Isn't it amazing how much of something she likes a teeny-weeny itty-bitty little child can eat? And boy oh boy does she look like she likes it!

>205 Storeetllr:

Ruby looks SO happy with her cantaloupe - what are your secrets for growing up north?

Start plants inside? Special soils? Watering practices? or ???????

You are the first person I've know who has actually grown one of these!

>208 SandyAMcPherson: Hi, Sandy! This was my first time even trying to grow melons. I don't think I would have without my daughter having built a raised bed. Watching Ruby devouring the melon slices, I wish I'd successfully grown more melons! So far, she loves cherry tomatoes and melons from the garden. It makes me feel so happy to see her eating stuff I've grown!

>209 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori! Doesn't she have a best smile! Always makes me melt inside when she smiles like that. (She was, actually, looking at me in that picture!)

>210 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie! Yes, I was gratified that the melon plants grew so lush, but sad to get only one fruit. I may try to get them in the ground earlier next year. (This year I didn't plant them until the end of May.)

>211 richardderus: Oh, yes, Richard - when she WANTS to eat, she can really pack it away. She's pretty stubborn about NOT eating, though, when she doesn't want to. Drives her mom crazy. (Karma at work - her mom was like that too as a toddler/child/teen.)

>212 m.belljackson: Hi, Marianne! I started the seedlings inside around the end of February, then before planting outside we added to the raised bed a load of organic planting soil that we got from a local farm and topped that off with an organic fertilizer. I set up a drip hose for watering and was pretty faithful about it. We also got quite a bit of rain this summer. I also added fish emulsion every week or so during the growing season. This was my first attempt at growing melons of any kind in all the years I've been gardening, so even though we got only one melon (so far), I feel pretty good about it. Next year, I'll be planting the seedlings out a little bit earlier (if possible, depending on the weather).

We have melons out on the median where the husband dropped seeds. They are little, as the soil is unimproved, but we had about a 5 or 6 inch one that was just getting ripe when...a little old Asian lady took it. The hubby was on the porch and saw her and told her "put it down" but she grabbed it and went scampering off as fast as she could. Oh well. None of the others are as big or getting ripe yet.

If the plants grew really lush but few fruits, may have had too much nitrogen from feeding them, or may have had trouble with pollination.

>215 ronincats: Haha, little old Asian lady scampering off with your melon clutched in her arms - what a mental picture that makes!

Yes, it definitely could be there was too much nitrogen in the soil. Next year, I'll use a fertilizer that is more balanced toward fruiting. It was hard this year - I had nothing (I left all my gardening stuff except the Tower back in Colorado when I moved), and trying to find the right fertilizer online wasn't easy. I just kind of gave up. I like going to gardening centers and browsing for the right thing, from seed and fertilizer to soil and tools.

Ruby, the budding artist, painting a pumpkin with acrylic paints I picked up for her the other day. She also painted an abstract for me on one of the canvas boards I also got for her. It makes me so happy that she likes to make art. lol


So intent, my little Picasso!


She said it's a fish (upper right, with a red eye) jumping out of the ocean.

Free this month from the University of Chicago: https://press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEbook.html

>218 Storeetllr: Thanks for reminding me of this freebie. It looks like a very timely analysis, assuming the folks in the place of power have the will to see a change go through.

>217 Storeetllr:

Fish with Red Eye = that's one for a Forever Frame =

Can't wait to see what Ruby does with her first camera & maybe she'll join Rafa and Fina for a Meetup!

>218 Storeetllr: That's a terrific study subject, and I hope a good read.

I gave up on Chicago's freebies because they don't make them Kindle compatible, so no.

>217 Storeetllr: You know, I can kinda see it in her abstract. Love that you have a budding art enthusiast in Ruby!

Happy Friday, Mary. Yep, I am still keeping track of days. LOL? I hope all is well with you and I hope those books are treating you fine.

Hi Mary. Left a few notes for you ~ one on my thread and one on Richard's.
I hasten to add that I've been a teetotaling abstainer since I was about 30 years old, but I sure can understand having that G&T.

Take care, and remember things will look better in the morning sunrise (my Mom's saying, bless her soul).

>219 SandyAMcPherson: You're welcome, Sandy! I'm not sure whether The Hollow Hope is worth reading, but it is a subject that's of current interest in the U.S.

>220 m.belljackson: Haha, yes, I'll be framing it for sure, Marianne. I'll be getting her a camera (or giving her one of mine) when she's a little older. She's already taking cellphone pics. *sigh* Wouldn't a meetup with Joe's grandkids and Ruby be super special!!! Once the Covid threat is over, maybe we'll take a roadtrip to Chicago. :)

>221 richardderus: Yes, I agree Richard. I keep getting them with an eye to seeing if they can be converted to MOBI by Calibre.

>222 bell7: Hi, Mary! A friend came over today, and Ruby pointed to her painting and made fishlips sounds. She apparently really did mean to render a fish in her painting.

>223 msf59: Hi, Mark! Haha, yes, it's astonishing how Mondays and Fridays - and Wednesdays - continue to keep their meaning after retirement. It's been what now? A month? I see from your thread that you're liking it so far.

>224 SandyAMcPherson: I saw them, Sandy! Thanks. Yeah, I seldom drink at all, not even having wine with dinner except once in a great while, but I felt like having a g&t yesterday. I felt so relaxed after, I thought I should have a drink more often. Then I got a nasty migraine and remembered one reason I don't drink very often.

>226 Storeetllr: They can indeed be so converted...but if you use Chrome, you can't use Calibre. It's very much a "you can't get there from here" experience for me.

>217 Storeetllr: Well of course it’s a fish! And a beautiful one at that! I predict your walls will be covered with Ruby’s art work for years to come!

>228 richardderus: Ah, got it. I've downloaded the Calibre program on my laptop so don't have to mess with the online version.

>229 Copperskye: Heh, you've got that right, Joanne! Ruby painted an abstract on a 5x7 canvas which I've put into one of the frames of a tryptic frame and am just waiting for her to complete the set, then it will go up on the wall. My little prodigy is also gifted in music and dance. lol

Fish with Red Eye would also make a GREAT Greeting Card!

I guess, depending on what the card is for. :)

Hi, Mary.

Love the photos of Ruby! The two of you in your hats in >202 Storeetllr: is a treat. She's quite an artist already. :-)

Aw, thanks, Joe! She's such a sweetheart! Tonight, I had dinner with the kids, and Ruby was eating really well, when all of a sudden she let out with an ear-piercing scream, then just laughed. Apparently, she's now working on her voice. lol

Went for a walk in the park today, down by the Hudson River. Enjoyed the cool breeze and the warm sun, left a few painted rocks, saw a monarch butterfly. It was good.

Hi Mary! I enjoyed catching up with you and Ruby. Lovely paintings by both of you. Hooray for the rocks!

You and Ruby are both very lucky to live so close.

That melon looks so inviting. And I love your plant tower. How tall is it? I'm thinking of how to maximize space in my garden window - it looks like perhaps a shorter one would work well, and would be less weight on the window.

Hi Mary, I love your painted rocks - and I would love to see a few of them turn up in the White House garden! Your art projects with Ruby remind me of mine with my grandkids - enjoy these fun years. :)

Hi Mary, I finished Book #15 in the St. Cyr saga. Did you get to that point, too?
I posted a review (with no spoilers) and gave it 4 stars.

This CS Harris series has to be the first one I ever persevered through with reading all the published novels. I guess next year's is due out in April.

>237 streamsong: Thanks, Janet! I really enjoy painting rocks, and, after the election, plan to go back to painting other things than campaign slogans. I'm saving one rock to paint either a bear or an elephant (suggested by the shape) and a rabbit (ditto). I agree and am thankful every day for being able to live so close to Ruby and see her every day. She's growing so fast - changes every day - that, even if I only lived an hour away and saw her every week, I'd miss so much! I'm hoping my artistic adventures fosters a desire in Ruby to create art. She's already showing some talent that way. (Love the way she concentrates when she makes circles and lines with her crayons.)

The plant tower is about 4' tall and with a 2' diameter and isn't cheap. I was only able to afford it (on my fixed income) because I won a contest for $100 off and was able to buy it during a $75 off sale. I don't think it would work well on a garden window, but check it out here.

>238 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy! I love painting rocks! Wouldn't it be a kick to see some in the WH garden. Maybe if - no, WHEN - Biden wins, I'll send him a few. Maybe I'll paint a fly on one (you'll get the joke if you watched the VP debate last Wed.). Hahaha.

Here's my girl, all dressed up to go to the park, with her art supplies scattered all around her feet. (I swear, sometimes she seems more like a 12-year old than a 20 month old.)

>242 Storeetllr: *baaawww* *smoochiesmoochsmooch* So adorable!

>242 Storeetllr: Yes, adorable. Love the fashionable jeans! So teenager-ish.

Hi, RD and Sandy.

I'm hating the new LT. I keep telling myself I'll get used to it, but ugh. Right now, no. Just no. (I hate the new FB too.) (Hoping real hard that Twitter doesn't change too.)

HI Mary

It is obvious that Ruby makes you very Happy! She is adorable.

I love Ruby's painting outfit! :) I love her art. I LOVE your rocks as well. I just have a boring sign.

My dad has had three signs stolen from his yard (Biden Harris). My daughter says he should add a sign saying, "For every sign stolen, I'm donating $1000 to the Biden campaign."

>246 Whisper1: Thanks so much, Linda! Yes, she does make me happy. Deliriously so, sometimes I could just melt.

>247 BLBera: Hi, Beth! Ruby's painting outfit! Hahaha. Yes, I wish I could paint naked too, but no. Not happening. I have enough trouble with feelings of inadequacy when it comes to painting even fully clothed.

We have boring signs in our yard too (for Biden/Harris, of course, plus two for local candidates and one for #BLM). That's horrible about people stealing your dad's signs. Good idea of your daughter's. What state does your dad live in? We haven't had trouble with our signs, but we live in a semi-blue/semi-suburban area on a highway, and most of our neighbors are also Dems.

>236 Storeetllr: I love these photos, Mary. I plan on doing my early voting duty on Tuesday.

Happy Weekend, my friend.

>247 BLBera: That might encourage Democrats to join the thievery!

I am beginning to worry about my vote. I sent in the request for an absentee ballot to Kansas on September 22 and still have not received it in the mail. Of course, this is the Kansas of Kris Kobach, so I shouldn't have been surprised. I am afraid that even if I get it now, and get it sent back it won't be there on time. I am actually thinking of taking a few days vacation and driving back just to vote - but in Kansas a vote for Biden won't make a difference. however, a vote for the Democrat candidate for Senator might.

Ruby is growing up too fast! She's a budding artist, too. That's no surprise because she has your genes, Mary. I'm glad that you are pursuing your art in unique ways. I may let my grands do some rock painting and take them to the park to share their art. Sounds like a fun project.

I'm also glad that your green thumb is alive and well in New York. It got a workout in dry and unpredictable Colorado for sure. I feel like I am supporting the squirrels with my efforts. They love most annuals and a few perennials, too.

>251 benitastrnad: Very much worth thinking about how to get your Senatorial vote to count the most. It's as important to flip the Senate as it is to unseat 45.

>249 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I love those photos (or Ruby) too! Good job on your plan to vote. Did you vote on Tuesday as planned?

>251 benitastrnad: Hi, Benita. I hope you got the ballot and was able to get it in the mail in time for it to be counted! You're definitely right that voting Dem down ballot this year is more important than ever!

>252 Donna828: Hey, Donna! She is definitely growing up too fast! She's 21 months old now, and yesterday we were looking at pics of her when she first came home from the hospital, and it seems like only yesterday! Yeah, she really loves coloring and painting - esp. on furniture and the wood floors. She's so fast, her mom can't turn her back on her for a millisecond. I think your grands will love rock painting! I will love seeing pics of what they make.

I'm not doing as well with the garden here in humid NY as I did in dry Colorado. In Pueblo, I just had to be sure to water regularly and, when it got really really hot, put an umbrella over the tower to shade the plants. Here, we get mold and fungus and so many bugs it's not funny.

Happy Tuesday, Mary. Cold, with light snow here. Yes, I am still going out birding. Crazy, I know, but then I get to spend the rest of the day, in the warm comfort of my books. Are you still keeping up with your feeders? There should be some interesting migrants or winter residents coming through.

Hi, Mark! Cold with light snow sounds great for birding and then cocooning with a book and a hot beverage! Here it's cold and raining, raining, raining. Ugh. It's supposed to clear up on Saturday, and I'll start putting out seed again then. I figured the birds had enough to eat over the summer without needing the feeders, so I stopped because we were getting too much of a mess and the squirrels (or other creatures), which were attracted by the feeders, were digging up my plantings.

I voted today. I wanted to cast my vote in person, so I got up early and went with my daughter to one of the four early voting locations in our county. Polls opened at 9 a.m., and we got there around 9:30. The line, which doubled back on itself, was a block long, and this on a Wednesday. In the rain. It was heartening to see so many people voting. Anyway, we had the baby with us, so I just dropped off my absentee ballot, got my "I Voted" sticker, and we drove back home. My daughter will go tomorrow, getting there early and hopefully grabbing a place at the head of the line, while I stay home with Ruby. BTW, she has started calling herself RuRu. Her name for me is "Mimi." She's so damn cute I can hardly stand it!

>256 Storeetllr: Mold, fungus, and bugs...it sounds like gardening in Missouri!

I think Mimi is the perfect Grandma name for you. I wish I had a cute moniker. An acquaintance insists that her grands call her "Grandma Precious". Kinda weird, huh? I like the names that just happen, and in my case it didn't. Oh well. Happy November to you and RuRu.

>259 Storeetllr: Yay for a task accomplished!

Have a lovely week ahead, Mary. Anything new happening there?

>260 Donna828: Haha, Grandma Precious. If Ru called me that, I'd think of Gollum every time. When my daughter asked me what I wanted to be called, I said I was so grateful to have a granddaughter that I'd be happy to be called ANYTHING by Ru, but when she insisted, I chose "Grammy" (which was what I called MY paternal grandma). Ruby apparently disagreed. Funny, her paternal grandpa wanted to be called Grampa, but she insisted on GupGup, and he hated it at first. Now, he's good with it. (She calls her maternal grandpa PopPop.) She came up with those names all by herself a few months ago and has stuck by them.

>261 richardderus: Hi, RD! Yes, it was a bit of a relief when I dropped off my ballot. At my age, I just kept hoping that I'd stay alive at least till Nov. 3 so I could vote against the Orange Menace. Now I'm just waiting with bated breath. Not sure how I'll manage if we have another 2016 event. I mean, I'm so stressed I can't even focus enough to read anything new so have been rereading the Murderbot books. For some reason, reading about It calms me enough to sleep and get stuff done.

Not much new going on here. It's been raining so much (as you know) that I haven't been outside to garden or walk except for yesterday when we had a Halloween Candy Hunt in the back yard. (Pictures follow.) In desperation, I've started marching in place while doing the dishes and such so I get at least SOME exercise.

Halloween 2020


Forrest Gump, his Mama, and Jenny. Note, Ruby refused to wear the glasses and the wig, but I think she rocked the look anyway.


Here's me with Ruby dressed up as Forrest Gump's Mama (I went as myself--the Village Crazy Lady)

>264 Storeetllr: *baaawww* y'all all look so adorable!

>264 Storeetllr: Fabulous!

Aw, thanks. RD and Susan!

RD, this is for you. I could watch it all day. https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2020-10/011-octo-gif.gif

Also, here's a really good article discussing social issues raised by both Blade Runner and the Murderbot series and why Murderbot does it better.

>264 Storeetllr: Such adorable-ness!

I missed seeing the trick-or-treaters this year. Hopeful, next year will be better.

I’m in extreme high anxiety mode regarding Tuesday and its aftermath. Hope you’re doing better than me!

>267 Storeetllr: How completely col! Thanks, now I'm both fascinated by and jealous of that Tentacled American. I'd love to have a crab dinner, but gout forbids it.

>268 Copperskye: Thanks, Joanne! I saw the pic of the Lion King aka Skye that you posted on FB. Talk about adorableness! I'm not a huge fan of Halloween anymore, tho I do enjoy seeing the little ones in their costumes when they come to the door trick-or-treating. My daughter & son-in-law are, on the other hand, huge fans. So, tho they did their best to make it fun for Ruby, they were really disappointed.

I can't even convey how filled with anxiety I am. If... No, I can't even go near there.

>269 richardderus: Isn't it fun, Richard?! I mean, I feel kinda sorry for the little crab, but Circle of Life and all that, right? Did you click on the article about Murderbot? I think you'll enjoy it, if you haven't already seen it.

ETA the bit about Murderbot.

>270 Storeetllr: I read that Tor.com piece, yes, and agreed with it wholeheartedly. Martha Wells is a really talented writer; also a nice presence on Twitter.

...not talking about that until tomorrow...too anxious...

Thanks for the tip about Wells on Twitter, Richard. I just followed her there.

I went to bed last night at 8 pm and slept until 8 am. Talk about not wanting to talk or think about it. I just now went online to see what happened and find that we're still not sure about the presidential election but that McConnell, Collins and Graham won. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? I swear, I just don't understand people. At least we're rid of Gardner (CO) and McNasty (AZ). Now, I've had enough election drama and I'm getting offline and, I don't know, cleaning the bathroom instead.

Cleaning is good. I wanted to clean more than we got to clean.

I am so disappointed in Alabama. We traded a good descent guy on the youngish side (mid-50's) for a loud mouthed testosterone overloaded ex football coach who was fired from every football job he held, AND who is 73. 73!!!!! at least he won't be long in the job. Nature will take care of that, but he can still do lots of damage in 10 years. Or 20. After all, our other Senator is almost 90 (well, 86) and so crippled that he can barely walk, and he isn't going to retire. At least Pat Roberts from Kansas decided to retire and move over to let somebody else in.

I am going out for a fancy meal today just to think about something other than the nonsense going on in the electorate.

>264 Storeetllr: CUTE!!

Sweet Thursday, Mary. I hope you are surviving this stressful week. Egads!! Seeing any interesting birds? Our juncos have arrived for the winter. Do you see them there?



-NMP

>272 Storeetllr: Still cleaning that bathroom, Mary?

Hope all is well with you and family. The politics drags on down in the US of A and we up here grieve for the wasted time and angst you're all enduring.

Hope you'll let us know that you are well.

>273 richardderus: Haha, RD - this is one hot mess. It's going to take a good strong power washing, innit.

>274 benitastrnad: I'm so sorry, Benita. Some sad results, and what President Plague Rat is doing is beyond beyond, but there are some good things too. F'rinstance, here in Rockland Co. NY, early days looked like a lying scumbag (GOP of course) won the race for state senator, but now that all the absentee ballots have been counted (mine is one), the Dem is the winner. I worked on that campaign, so it really makes me happy. Glad you were able to get out and away from the craziness for an evening.

>275 msf59: Thanks, Mark! No, I've had a few little issues and haven't been able to get out to set up the bird feeder for the winter yet. I hope to do that this weekend (with help from my daughter & son-in-law) (and Ruby, who loves to help!).

>276 SandyAMcPherson: Haha, yeah, that bathroom needed a LOT of cleaning. Thanks for checking in, Sandy. We're okay here, thanks, except for the stress and anxiety that comes from the antics of President Plague Rat and his crew of ratfink enablers. I can't believe he's actually attempting a coup, but it sure seems that way.

So, my son-in-law's school where he teaches is closed for 2 weeks as of yesterday, so he's teaching from home again. I can't help feeling relieved, esp. now that the virus is picking up again.

As for me, I haven't been feeling very sociable lately, or even like reading or gardening or painting. I was struggling with a few medical issues that had me really down, but I'm happy to say they seem to be resolving. One was arthritis/bursitis that had me stiff and in pain all day and night, but the anti-inflammatory Rx I started taking a few days ago seems to be working. All I can say is, thank God for drugs!

I started doing some painting again - acrylics on rocks and some watercolor studies. As soon as I've finished with them, I'll post a pic of the Thanksgiving decorations I painted for our very small Thanksgiving dinner we're having with just us and my son-in-laws dad. It will be his first Thanksgiving without his wife of a gazillion years who loved this holiday in particular, so Covid or not, he needs to be here with family. He tries to be careful about exposure because of Ruby, so it should be safe.

I'm also listening to music again: Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks (which may be my favorite of his); Bob Seger's Hollywood Nights; and Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms. These are not LPs, btw, but cassette tapes. Yes, I am anachronistic. And tonight I've got an old Sting album on - Soul Cages (a CD). Not sure when I'm going to be ready to move past the oldies; I'm finding comfort in favorite books too. Funny. I thought once Biden/Harris won, I'd be able to get out of my funk and start enjoying life again, but I guess between the pandemic and the coup Drumpf is attempting, worry over Georgia's runoff election in January, and disappointment at some of the losses down ballot, it's going to be awhile.

>279 Storeetllr: Despite all this drama, Mary, you have been wonderful in keeping on with keeping on. Thanks so much for the update. I'm sure everyone who's been posting here will be so pleased to "see" you.

>279 Storeetllr: It's affecting literally everyone I know. I just want to be sure you know there's always a warm place by this cyberfire with your name on it. Take care of you first, come when you can, and remember to feel free to ask if help is wanted or needed or both.

I'm a Bob Seger fan too! Nothing like listening to one of his albums while driving. I also like John Mellencamp's American Fool.

This Brit wishes to express his thanks for the warmth and friendship that has helped sustain him in this group, Mary.

>280 SandyAMcPherson: Thanks, Sandy, for your kind words and your understanding.

>281 richardderus: Thanks, RD. I know everyone is feeling the stress, but everyone has their own ways of dealing. Mine seems currently to be to batten down my hatches and retreat from the world.

>282 benitastrnad: There's nothing like music from the 70s and 80s. Sometimes it's just what you need.

>283 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I'm thankful for you and all my LT friends, and for LT itself!

We had a lowkey but very nice Thanksgiving. I was busy cooking (3 side dishes, and it felt like I'd been slaving in the kitchen for days cooking for an army) and then feasting and then hanging out with the family and reading to Ruby and then I collapsed in bed. Here's a pic of us with the turkey. It was my daughter's first turkey, and it was the best, juiciest and most tender turkey I've ever had!

Looks like a great Thanksgiving!

Stopping by to say hello and dropping off a picture of my holiday tree for some inspiration on this dreary Monday morning. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

>287 drneutron: Hi, Doc! Thanks! It was really nice. One of the best parts was we didn't have to drive anywhere like we usually do.

>288 witchyrichy: Oh, that's a great tree, Karen! Thank you!

So, winter's not my favorite season, but this year I'm having fun with my paints, learning to watercolor paint holiday-themed greeting postcards and painting holiday-themed rocks. Here's a tree ornament rock I painted the other day for my granddaughter who's just recently gotten into Elmo.

>286 Storeetllr: I love this photo! Such a nice looking family.

Hi, Mary. I hope you are feeling better and getting some reading in. Enjoy that painting too.

>290 Storeetllr: aww, Elmo's too cute!

Love the Elmo rock! Also all the pics of you and your family, Mary! Despite the gardening issues, I am so glad you are there with them rather than on your own in Pueblo! Okay, that's enough exclamation points now.

>286 Storeetllr: That’s a great photo!

>290 Storeetllr: And that’s a great Elmo!

Sorry you’ve been struggling. Does it help that you’re certainly not alone? It’s been such a shitty year and having winter ahead of us really doesn’t help. Celebrate your art, my friend! It’s a wonderful outlet.

A Belated Happy Thanksgiving, Mary. Your family looks happy and healthy and that's something to be very thankful for. I've been battling the blues a bit as, even though there is talk of a vacine on the horizon, we seem to be getting behind in battling this virus. I am more than ready to get back to normal life.

>290 Storeetllr: Awesome Elmo, Mary. I'm sure your granddaughter will love it!

>291 msf59: Mark! Thanks so much for visiting and for your kind words. It's so good to be with family during these trying times!

Yes, I'm okay, just the winter doldrums hanging around. I'll survive, but I may need to retreat occasionally to cope. The painting does help, tho. Last night, I started a snow globe in watercolors, my first. I thought I messed up and almost threw it out, but then this morning thought it looked kinda good. I'll post a pic of it if it turns out even halfway okay. I'm not doing a lot of reading of original material, just on Kindle Unfinished Business, an Ancient Roman mystery in a series I've enjoyed over the years, which I'm reading really slowly, but I've got In the Woods, Tana French's first Dublin Squad mystery next up on audio, along with Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue. Hoping at least one of them grab me.

ETA a couple of details.

>292 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! It was fun to paint. Hard, but fun.

>293 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! I'm glad too, even though my digs aren't my favorite of all the places I've ever lived. :) I mostly miss being able to look out the window and see, you know, trees and grass and the sky rather than a driveway and the side of the house next door. Still, it's snug and dry and I've got my family right upstairs. Many people aren't half as lucky as me, so I'm grateful for that anyway.

>294 Copperskye: Hi, Joanne! Thanks for your kind words. Yes, I know I'm not alone, and that I'm luckier than many, so I try not to complain too much. I did want to explain, tho, why I haven't been here much lately, and why I haven't been visiting everyone's threads often. But you're right - my art is a wonderful outlet and, seriously, a lifesaver. Or, at least, a great emotional outlet. Thank you for caring.

>295 DeltaQueen50: Hi, Judy! I'm sorry you're struggling with the blues too. As Joanne said, it's pretty universal, even if the reasons and the ways we all cope are individual. I really hope we can eventually get back to "normal life," though I'm not sure that's going to ever look the same as it did a year ago.

>296 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky! I already gave it to her when they put up their tree on Sunday, and, yes, she did like it. My daughter says she won't leave it on the tree but wants to carry it around all the time. :) True story: she's been fascinated by rocks since she could walk. Every time she goes outside, she finds a few rocks that she shows everyone like they're treasures and then wants to keep. The rock I posted here was a rock she gave me from the back yard. I'll give it back to her one of these days, but not just yet. Anyway, you think she'll grow up to be a geologist?