Hunter's Green - Phyllis A. Whitney

Why is it that I have to work?
Can't I just win the Powerball and move to England (or Greece, or France, or Norway) and sit around and read all day?
Please?


Hunter's Green by Phyllis A. Whitney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been a fan of Phyllis A. Whitney for a long time, so my reviews of her books are not necessarily the best by which to judge how good a book actually is. I grade through nostalgia: for the time of which she writes, and also for who I used to be when I read this book for the first time. I have to admit that it has been many years since I read this particular book, but I did enjoy it - even this second (third or fourth, perhaps?) time around. While the heroine may aggravate many a contemporary reader with her sometimes passive attitude towards how she is treated and viewed, the fashions of Mary Quant and other 60's fashion trends as described in this book will win over many a reader. If you're looking for a good, relatively contemporary Gothic romance for a rainy, gloomy day, then check out Hunter's Green.


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Gingerbread Cookie Murder(s)

Yesterday I spoke with my brother who lives in Colorado Springs. He said they were having so much snow that it was almost a blizzard. Friday they spent in t-shirts and shorts, and on Saturday he was pulling out his snow boots. Too bad he's not a reader because he might have enjoyed staying inside and reading this book:


Gingerbread Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Christmas time is usually when we slow down, but not until after the shopping, cooking, baking, and cleaning are done. For those of us in the snow-trapped northern states the best view of winter is when you're looking out the window as you read a cozy book and enjoy some tea or cocoa. Gingerbread Cookie Murder is the perfect book for a slow winter day. While the stories are short, and the intricacies normally found in cozy mysteries is not as fleshed out as one would expect from these three authors, the book can still provide enjoyment during a relaxing interlude in your day. If you haven't read any of these authors this is a good introduction. As for me, I think Laura Levine is the best of the three writers, and I am certain that I will be reading more of her books in the future.


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How to Clean Your Bathroom Floor

How to Clean Your Bathroom Floor in Five Easy Steps:

One: Use the faucet to wash your hands, and inadvertently leave it running.
Two: Go to the library, and return in 30 minutes.
Three: Return to see that the clogged sink has caused the water to spill over onto the floor.
Four: Gather all the "dirty" towels from your teenager's floor and use them to soak up the water.
Five: Wring out towels in now-dirty tub, and take them upstairs to wash in hot water, bleach, and detergent.

Voila! A clean floor! I wouldn't eat off of it, ever, but it's better than it was.

Next lesson: How to Get Your Husband to Clean the Dirty Bathtub in Two Easy Steps.

I know we're excited, but even so....

Okay, so the Bills beat the Patriots today - that's a big thing not only around these parts, but everywhere.
(Financial crisis in Greece? Who cares! The Bills beat the Pats!)
So we're all happy, the Bills are 3-0, yea!
But does this news have to be included in every story on the web, especially local news?
Such as this piece which has some information about a serious car crash.
Read the article in its entirety (and I copied it because I'm sure at some point the article will be modified - I hope):

7:34 PM

Crash in Orleans County Sends Two People to the Hospital

By: Casey J. Bortnick

Two people were seriously injured when a motorcycle and a car collided in Orleans County Sunday Afternoon. It happened in Kendall on Route 18 near the Orleans-Monroe county line. Sheriff’s Deputies tell YNN multiple EMS crews and mercy flight responded to the scene.

One victim was flown to Rochester's Strong Hospital; the other was originally taken by ambulance to Lakeside hospital and then airlifted to Strong. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

The Buffalo Bills are now 3-0 after edging out the New England Patriots in another thriller at Ralph Wilson Stadium Sunday.

And how do I spend my weeks?

Wondering what I've been doing?
This is my weekly routine:

Work lunch work go home work go to bed
Work lunch work go home work go to bed
Work lunch work go home work go to bed
Work lunch work go home work go to bed
Work lunch work go home order out go to bed

Remembering

I know everyone has their own memories and thoughts about today.
I just want to share this lovely, elegiac version of a traditional song which I think sums up many feelings that will be expressed and shared today. The lyrics may not fit, but then again they may, so please enjoy as we remember how our world changed 10 years ago.



And while we all remember what happened to the Twin Towers, let us not forget all those who lost their lives both in the Pentagon, and on the plane.

Semper fi.

It's Not Only Kids Who Say the Darndest Things

So my son's girlfriend works at Subway.
She told us that she gets asked a lot of stupid questions, ones not coming just from the WalMart employees who want to know if she has a boyfriend, does she want to go out, and also if she wants to go out drinking (yes, no, and no).
Two examples of the dumb questions she hears:

"How long is a footlong?"
"How big is a six-inch sub?"

Or regarding what kind of cheese they want on their sub, people will often respond, "Um, yeah."
Sometimes I forget how stupid people really are.
I'm glad they remind me from time to time.

Everything has a downside to it

So...discovered the big downside to using honey as a face wash today.
Bees.
Sitting on Main Street at lunchtime enjoying a slice of pizza with my youngest son, we had four - yes four! - bees buzzing around us.
Granted, we were outside, they wanted some of the pizza too, but no one at any of the other tables was having a problem.
Only us.
On the plus side neither of us were stung, so I guess there's some camaraderie involved here.
Go bees!
No really, shoo...

She Works Hard for Her Money

Recently a former co-worker and I were joking about something networking via e-mail, and I asked her now that she has been promoted how her daily routine had changed.
This is a legitimate question as she is now the queen bee on her floor – not the office manager, but the senior executive assistant to the big boss.
Here is her reply:

This is my schedule:

• Saunter into the office, passing by the lower-class people out front (since I’m nice, I greet each of them)

• Enter my office with the magic lights turning on immediately

• Decide which shoes I should wear with my outfit

• Go into the ladies’ room and make sure that all of the spackle and super glue are holding my face together and that I don’t have any lipstick on my teeth

• Decide if I want coffee or tea to start my day – if tea, I handle that; if coffee I go downstairs and get it (since I don’t believe in the office manager’s method of washing these pots)

• Go back to my office and change my shoes for the first time of the day

• Glance at the headlines in the Wall Street Journal

• Peruse the D & C

• Check my email

• Check CNN and one of the local news sites

• Watch my phone ring and wait for someone else to answer it

• Change my shoes again

• Go check my mail

• Put my flats back on because my feet are already killing me

• By then it’s lunchtime and in the summer I expect the office manager to bring me tomatoes

• If no tomatoes, then back downstairs for salad but not before changing into heels and checking myself out in the mirror

• Change my shoes, eat lunch, brush/floss my teeth

• Re-apply lipstick/powder (repetitive throughout the day as you can imagine)

• Answering questions from the peeps out front because they’re all so damn stupid (excluding SN)

• You know, it goes on and on – definitely not easy being me…

Winter is Just a Dead Leaf Away

Being locked in an office all day does not allow you to experience the weather in any way other than visually. If it's raining, I see the wet rooftops, when the sun shines I'm envious of all those able to walk around and enjoy it, and when it's snowing I look out and see the white snow blanketing the cars and streets. But on a day like today - a cool autumn day - I don't know what the temperature is until I come outside at the end of the day.
So even though it was overcast it was wonderful to come outside and feel the coolness in the air. The high temp was 66, and tonight is definitely sweatshirt weather.
Before leaving for work this morning I put a chicken in the crockpot, and as I walked in the door this evening all I could smell was that wonderful aroma of a dinner - already cooked and waiting to be served.
I've lit some apple scented candles to usher in the cool fall evening, adding to the ambiance of the changing season.
Finally, some Vivaldi adds an extra special touch to the evening:



In other words, enjoy the mild weather while you can because winter is coming, and it's going to suck just like it always does.

Back Into the Closet You Go

Labor Day is here and now gone.
As a non-union employee I appreciate what Labor Day means to workers, but it doesn't affect me in any way other than having a Monday off at the beginning of Semptember every year.
What it really stands for, to me, is that it is time to put away our summer clothes, sandals and bags.
To be honest, we all know that Birks can be worn year round so those can stay out.
My awesome new white sandals, however - time to say goodbye.
Back into the closet they will go, but before I put them away, have a look at them.
Here they are in all their pristine whitness:

Thank you Macy's for awesome end of summer sales.
I really like these sandals a lot, and they are very comfortable. All told, since I purchased them, however, I've only had the opportunity to wear them a total of three - no four - times.
There was a song going through my head in an endless loop as I thought about putting my sandals (and other summer clothes) away, and the words go something like this, "So we've gotta say goodbye for the summer..."
Know who that is?
Well it's not a new song, and it's actually not about the end of summer, I don't believe, but about not seeing someone over the summer.
(Please correct me if I'm wrong - it's been known to happen with alarming frequency.)
So I will ask you to sing along with Brian Hyland (no relation) as he wishes his school love goodbye, and as I say goodbye to my sandals:



You know that everytime you hear that song now you'll think about my sandals (or maybe your own sandals).
And yeah, I know this song is backwards for this situation - no one expects me to be rational do they? - but it's still a very nice song. And if you substitute the words, "I'll send you all my love everyday in my closet..." for the others in the chorus, well, you get my drift.
I'll miss my sandals, but they'll be there waiting for me to wear them on Memorial Day 2012.

P.S. Don't you think it's kind of sad that I actually already have a label for "Shoes"? Can you say "obsession"?

The Reason Why

This is why we came to Quantico:

Big congrats to an outstanding Marine who will be an amazing Brigadier General.

How Many Books Do You Have in Your Bag?

So we're going away for a few days over the long weekend.
Back to Virginia for a promotion ceremony, to visit friends, and to shop.
It's a 7-9 hour trip depending upon your speed and traffic, and I'll have to drive halfway there and back.
We'll only be away for a few days, but it begs this question: How many books should I bring with me?
I'm 80 pages from the end of The Long Goodbye (super fantastic book - there's my 5-star review), and know I'll finish that on the way down.
Should I bring just one extra book, or two?
Or maybe 275?
That's about how many are on my Kindle.
Yeah, I'm thinking 275 books, let's go with that.
That should see me through a four day trip.

But is it money well spent?

So my youngest is still a pre-teen for at least another two months.
After October we'll be going full throttle into the heady teenage years.
Fasten your seat belts!
This ride is going to be a doozy!
She's different from her older sister in that as a younger girl she is focused on many areas of beauty such as maintaining a polished set of nails on both hands and feet, likes to get her eyebrows threaded, and she fixes her hair every morning - things like that.
And like many adolescents she is anxious to stave off the oncoming signs of hormonal disturbance - you know, the bad stuff that happens to your face when it's not sure what the hell is going on with your body.
I bought her the generic brand equivalent of ProActiv in the grocery store a couple of months ago for $12, and then for some reason when she was in Macy's last week her father bought her the Clinique version as well as something else.
I can't remember what the something else is - all I know is that the Macy's bill was $55 for stuff from the cosmetics counter.
It's time to do some math here - you've got my $12 plus the recent $55 purchase - what does that come to?
$67.00
Now you may recall that in a previous post I was effusive in my delight over the effects of washing my face with honey.
I've been doing it for how many weeks now? It really does work.
That jar of honey (local honey, my friend - I firmly support NY farmers and bee keepers) was $6.00
I think you can see where this is going.
For the past week the youngest has been washing her face with honey.
It's unbelievable - her face is clear and youthful (one would hope, she is only 12).
In other words, she really likes using the honey - a lot!
(What's even better is you can use the crystallized stuff at the bottom of the jar as a scrub.)
Time for math again.
$67 worth of chemicals with so-so results vs. $6 worth of honey with perceivable results.
You can see how she feels about it:

(Pay no attention to the crap on the couch in the background - focus on the face!)

Things I Do Good

Today my boss asked me if perhaps my ego is getting bigger because I'm signing things for him.
I replied in a rather dumbfounded (but slightly disingenuous) manner, "I don't have an ego."
"I know you don't," he admitted.
And really, I don't.
Trust me when I tell you that I have so many things wrong with me it wouldn't be surprising if my co-workers signed a petition encouraging me to become a hermit just to keep my sorry butt out of the general population.
Wow, I'm just bringing myself down here, and I haven't even gotten to the crux of this post!
Seriously, I'm a rather self-effacing individual, and it's usually so easy to find things that I've screwed up.
Rather than dwell on those, I've decided to focus on things at which I excel (because saying it that way is more grammatically correct than the way I have it in the title), and some of my most favorite things in life are reading, knitting, and watching movies.
So I got to thinking that it probably would be good to stop and consider, and perhaps create a list that would allow for reflection and focused direction in the future, and keep me from being too down on myself.
Without further ado here's a list of 20 things at which I excel in no particular order:

1. I can read.
2. I can read fast.
3. I can find lots of books that interest me.
4. I can buy lots of books to read.
5. I can successfully keep at least 10 books in a "currently reading" status without losing place of where I am.
6. I can keep books on the shelf for decades before I get around to reading them.
7. I can pass along books I've read to friends.
8. I can give unread books away.
9. I can knit.
10. I can knit socks.
11. I can buy yarn.
12. I can buy yarn for projects and then forget which project I was buying it for.
13. I can buy yarn for projects and let the yarn sit on the shelf for years.
14. I can start projects.
15. I can successfully keep at least 10 projects in a "currently knitting" status.
16. I can sometimes figure out where I left off when I pick one up again.
17. I can correct a mistake if I let the project sit for long enough (it's amazing how it fixes itself sometimes!)
18. I can tell you quite a bit about classic and contemporary movies.
19. I can tell you quite a bit about classic and contemporary television.
20. I can sit on my butt for hours at a time reading, knitting, or watching movies and TV.

Well, see that?
Already I feel so much better about myself!
I'll have to remember this post, and when I get discouraged about nothing in particular I can pull this list up  and remind myself that there is some worth in what I do (and don't) do.

Bitter Harvest - Sheila Connolly

Bitter Harvest by Sheila Connolly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When is a mystery not a murder mystery? When no murder takes place. Sheila Connolly's latest outing with orchard farmer Meg Corey is a mystery without a murder, and that's no bad thing. Winter is downtime for an apple orchard farmer, a time to take stock of your stock, of your life, and to catch up on paperwork that was held until the harvest was in. A blizzard, power outage, and a dead furnace leave Meg and her handyman cum love interest Seth Chapin plenty of time to take stock of Meg's colonial farmhouse. During their inspection of one of the front bedrooms they discover an antique sampler shoved in the back corner of a closet lying there undiscovered for well over 100 years. This discovery coupled with a series of odd, almost vindictive events forces Meg to try and figure out the sampler's origins and meaning, as well as uncover who is causing problems around the farm. Once you have suspended disbelief that no one would have found this sampler in the many years of people occupying the house, you'll find the book that much more enjoyable. More genealogy mystery than murder mystery, this cozy is best read in the middle of summer because Connolly so fully evokes the winter weather that I found myself shivering as I read - and it's August!


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We're having weather here too, you know

While the heavily populated east coast has prepared for Hurricane Irene, I was making preparations myself.

I can't very well watch news of the hurricane unless my toes have been properly cleaned and colored.
Hope everyone stays safe!

Concerts

How can I resist this concert?
It's only three blocks from my house (win!), and Christine Lavin is a fantastic artist, an alum, and best of all a...well, read the last line and you'll see just how confident I am that I will be in attendance at this performance:

Friday, February 3


Christine Lavin:

My 25th Anniversary Concert: What Was I (EVER!) Thinking?

This Brockport alumna (’73) has made her mark interntationally as a singer, satirist and raconteur extraordinaire. During her concert she will share some of her early hits while introducing her latest songs, all the while weaving hilarious stories through her music, reflecting on the people, events, near disasters and minor miracles that have defined her life and music. As folksy as she is charming, join Lavin for a knitting circle prior to the show.

This concert is sponsored in part by the Office of Alumni Relations and Development.

Friday, February 3 at 7:30 pm

$15/$10 Seniors, Alumni, Faculty and Staff/$8 Students

Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage

Oh yes, everyone loves a knitter.

Mother's Day Murder - Leslie Meier

Mother's Day Murder by Leslie Meier
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lucy Stone's children are getting older, and in this outing of the Maine mom's sleuthing adventures she is dealing with mean girls from her daughter's school. Also included is an interesting rivalry between two politically and civically active women, the death of one, and a murder of a teenage girl. What Meier tries to relate, and does an adequate job of conveying, is the feeling of helplessness a parent can have when they realize how ignorant they are of the influences in their child's life. Or conversely, how significantly a parent can truly screw up their child when they stifle a child's personal wishes, and control every aspect of their life.


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Late to the Party, but Still Dancing

I have been getting older.
It can't be helped.
It's almost an epidemic.
We're all getting older!
What can we do to stop it?!?!
Is there any kind of emergency drill?
Part of getting older for me is that my normally very oily skin has now become somewhat dry.
The expensive beauty products that I used to use now don't work, and only make my skin dry out even more.
So I over-hydrate, and then it becomes oily and breaks out, so I have to dry it out...It's a vicious cycle.
Something has changed to fix that - certain information has come my way, and it's been good - and I mean really good - for the past week.
That's how long I've been using a new facial treatment.
See, I was creeping on someone's blog and noticed that they were convinced to take up a challenge by another friend.
What's the challenge?
To wash your face with honey for two weeks.
Seriously.
Honey.
But won't that be sticky?
Sure, if it gets in your hair, but water washes it right off your face.
So why honey?
The answers can be found on Crunchy Betty's blog, and let me tell you, this blog is a compendium of wonderful, life-changing information.
And you can put food on your face!
The short answer is that I missed out on entering her challenge, but the long answer is that the challenge was only to just kind of participate and maybe win a prize, and I decided to do it anyway.
Man, am I glad that I have.
Not even a week in and a co-worker/cousin/friend told me, "It's like you're glowing!"
I'm sure she was just saying that because we work together/are related through marriage/and are friends, but the truth is my pores are smaller, my skin is softer, and there really is a difference to my skin.
I have been using some honey from Crete that I bought at the Greek Festival in June, but today I went to Wegman's and found some local organic raw honey (and did I mention it's local).
I believe this is the kind I really should be using, but I have to tell you that the probably over-heated honey from Crete still has worked wonders.
So give it a try - challenge yourself.
And the bonus - when you're rinsing off the honey, if you are like me and tend to leave your mouth open as you rinse, you'll get the sweet taste of honey in your mouth as opposed to the chemical taste from your over-priced beauty aides.
Go natural, follow Crunchy Betty's advice, and let me know how it works out for you!