Just finished reading...

Murder in Miniature by Margaret Grace.

Now that Gerry Porter is a widow, one of the ways she fills her time is as the chair of the local dollhouse committee. Linda, one of the members of the committee, is a talented miniaturist, but a very difficult individual. She disappears in the middle of the annual miniatures fair, then calls Gerry in the middle of the night to come and get her from a remote location near a freeway off-ramp. Since Gerry has her 10-year-old granddaughter, Maddie, with her, she's more than a little annoyed, but becomes even more so when a dead body is found at that location the next day.

Gerry and Maddie are curious, tenacious and pretty darned smart, to the frustration of Gerry's police officer nephew Skip, who is worried that his aunt and his niece will get in serious trouble.

Margaret Grace is the pseudonym of Camille Minichino, the author of the Periodic Table Mysteries. Not being at all scientific, I haven't read any of them, but I'm fairly certain that the Miniature Mystery series is quite different.

I really enjoyed this one. Gerry is a cool grandmother, and I look forward to reading more about her.

Photobucket meme

I found this on Teresa C.'s blog, Knitting the Blues, and thought it was cool, so I decided to play.

1. Go to Photobucket
2. Answer the questions below.
3. Type your answers into the Photobucket search box.
4. Use only the first page of results to choose your picture.
5. Insert the questions and pictures into your blog.

Who is your favorite band or artist?

and


What is your favorite movie?



What kind of pet do you have?

This is my cat.
(I have to admit, I cheated and typed in his name.)

Where do you live?


Where do you work?

Not that particular one....

What do you look like?


What kind of car do you drive?


What is your favorite TV show?


Describe yourself.


What is your name?


What is your favorite candy?


What is your favorite drink?


And since Teresa added one, I thought I would, too:
What is your favourite colour?

Rachel Maddow on Classic Cocktails

I looove the Rachel Maddow show, especially the "Ask Dr. Maddow" segment where she answers listeners questions about anything and everything. Last week, someone was throwing a retro cocktail party and asked her for some recipes.

Just finished reading...

Big Boned by Meg Cabot

Heather seems to have an uncomfortable propensity for discovering dead bodies, and it happens yet again when she enters her new boss's office to find him face down on his desk with a bullet hole in his head.

One of the students is arrested for the murder, and Heather is prevailed upon by his girlfriend to investigate. Heather doesn't want to, but finds herself doing so anyway, when one of the residents of her dorm is arrested while trying to solve the mystery on his own.

Cabot's protagonist has been compared to the Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, but I find Heather easier to identify with, but that may just be the academic environment, something I'm quite familiar with.

In any case, if you like the Stephanie Plum books, you'll probably enjoy these.

Just finished reading...

Without Mercy by Toni L.P. Kelner.

I started this book on Wednesday night. Read a chapter, but had to force myself to close it because I could barely keep my eyes open. Thursday I didn't have to work, and I planted myself on couch and read the whole thing (with short breaks for things like making tea and other physical necessities).

Yeah, I really liked this book.

The protagonist, Tilda Harper, is a freelance journalist, who has somehow managed to specialize in "where-are-they-now" articles about formerly famous people. While writing a series about the stars of a 70s sitcom called Kissing Cousins, one of her informants points out to her that three of them have been died under mysterious circumstances, and hints at a serial killer. At first, Tilda pooh-poohs the idea, but then begins to wonder how she'd feel if her source happens to be right and the next person on her interview list is killed.

However, the next person on her list is Mercy Ashford, who disappeared shortly after the series was cancelled. Tilda decides that she must find Mercy and warn her, which is much easier decided than done. And what if Merch is really the killer?

Tilda is a wonderful protagonist: independent, intelligent and (mostly) sensible. I really enjoyed reading about her travels around the Boston area, as I used to live there.

I'm really looking forward to another Tilda Harper book!

Barack Obama

I don't believe I've ever done a post about politics before, mainly because I don't think I know enough. But I am interested; you may note that one of the links on the left-hand side of the page is DailyKos.

However, I was so impressed by Barack Obama's speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday, that I felt I must post a link to the full text of the speech.

And here's the video:

Just finished reading...

Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris

Paula Holliday decides to leave the stressful life of a television executive in Hollywood, and moves to the quiet town of Springfield, Connecticut, and hangs up her shingle as a gardener/landscaper.

Acting on a tip from a friend, she approaches the Springfield Historical Society for the contract on an estate whose owner recently died. Although a bit surprised when he awards it to her right away, she doesn't waste time getting started.

Unfortunately, on her first day there, she digs up the corpse of a baby. When the police don't seem to be terribly interesting in the baby's identity, Paula begins her own investigation.

I really like Paula. Leaving the Hollywood life behind to be a gardener makes perfect sense to me, and gardening does appear to be her calling. The other characters are well-rounded and interesting...and as unpredictable as Paula herself.

There are two more books planned for the series, and I'm looking forward to them.

Wow! What a weekend!

As I mentioned in Saturday's post, Friday was our fourth wedding anniversary. We planned to celebrate on Saturday evening with dinner at the Magic Castle (which is where we went on our first date).

Late Thursday night, we got a call from Tod's brother Kyle, who asked us if we wanted to use their tickets for Sweeney Todd at the Ahmanson, since they couldn't. Of course, we said "yes", and decided to have dinner at a restaurant downtown beforehand. When my SIL Betsy came by on Friday morning to drop off the tickets, she also brought us a present: two gift certificates to McCormick and Schmick's.

The show was fabulous, and I'm happy that Kyle and Betsy thought of us when they couldn't use their tickets!

Saturday, I'd planned to go to Book Carnival, where Laura Lippman was signing. When I got there, the first person I saw was Jan Burke. We had a nice little chat, I got a copy of Laura's latest book signed, and headed home.

In the evening we went to the Magic Castle. The only dinner reservation Tod could get was for 9:30 p.m., so we went early to catch as many shows as we could before dinner. We actually managed to get a table at 9:00 but still weren't able to catch the Palace of Mystery show until 11:15, so it was quite late when we got home.

Tod had to get up early in the morning because he was playing in church. When he got home, we quickly had brunch, and then headed over to Fullerton to see A Midsummer Night's Dream with Katy, who has to see all of the theater school's productions as part of her course work. It's one of my favourite plays, and the students did an amazing job.

We'd planned on grilling burgers for dinner when we got home, but it was pouring rain when we came out of the theatre, so ended up eating at Angelo's and Vinci's.

Whew! Fun, but exhausting. It feels kind of good to be going back to work today.

Isn't it romantic?

Yesterday was our fourth anniversary.
Tod and I always give each other cards first thing in the morning.
These are the envelopes containing the cards we got each other:


Hey, a lot of card have similar envelopes, right?
Here are the two cards:


We both thought it was pretty darned funny.

Just finished reading...

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde.

It's been a long time since the last Thursday Next book. Something Rotten was published waaaay back in 2004, and Fforde apparently put Thursday on hold while he published the two Nursery Crime books (The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear).

The story begins on Thursday's birthday. Although she dislikes celebrating her birthday, her husband Landen Parke-Laine has a gift for her before she leaves for her job at Acme Carpets, which is really a front for her old SpecOps department.

Landen is unaware that SpecOps hasn't really been disbanded, and the very complex plot of the book centres around what Thursday really does while Landen thinks she's installing carpets.

This is vintage Thursday Next. I've missed her and I'm happy she's back.

Finished object

I had planned to give my mother-in-law a shawl for Christmas. Of course, with my history of making shawls for Christmas, this wasn't ready in time.
But I finally finished it a couple of weeks ago, and gave it to her on Saturday, so now I can post a picture.
I used the Prayer Shawl/Healing Shawl pattern from Lion Brands, in the russet colourway.

Just finished reading...

Both of these books that were gifts from the generous authors, who are fellow DorothyLers.

Just Add Salt by Jinx Schwartz

This is the second in the Hetta Coffey mystery series. Hetta is a delightful character. Single, intelligent, self-employed and independent, she lives on a boat moored in the Oakland area. In this book, Hetta and her best friend Jan and their boyfriends (brothers Jenks and Lars) had plans to sail down to Mexico. Upset when the two men suddenly disappear on a job, Hetta accepts an assignment in Baja.
This means that she'll have to sail down there on her own, during hurricane season.
Naturally, Hetta gets into all kinds of trouble, including an amorous whale, a shady group of Japanese investors, and two hurricanes.

Relative Danger by June Shaw

June Shaw's first mystery stars Cealie Gunther, a retired widow. Visiting her granddaughter Kat, she finds out that the honour student has not been attending school because of the death of a custodian, which is being blamed on Kat's favourite teacher. Cealie's son, a widower, is too caught up in his own grief to notice what's going on with his daughter.
Alarmed at the idea that Kat might not graduate at all, Cealie sets out to find out the identity of the killer by becoming a substitute teacher at the school. Of course, her meddling is unappreciated by her granddaughter, but Cealie persists.
The first person narrative helps, as we are aware of the thought processes which lead Cealie to do what she does, which otherwise might be totally baffling actions.
I enjoyed the book, and I look forward to more Cealie Gunther mysteries.

San Francisco, Day 2

Since I managed to navigate the SF public transit system so well on Thursday, on Friday I decided to walk from the hotel to ArtFibers. It seemed easy enough: walk down to the corner, turn on Powell, and walk down to Sutter and then find #124. Only about half a mile.

Well, I walked down to Powell just fine and then I guess I turned the wrong way. I walked and walked and walked and never hit Sutter Street. I finally realized I'd goofed, and turned. There, a block or so in front of me, I saw City Lights bookstore, which I had wanted to go to anyway, and obviously wouldn't have found if I'd gone in the right direction to begin with.

I went in and browsed for a while. Before I left, I asked the nice man behind the desk for directions, and discovered I was only about half a mile away.

Sigh.

I slogged on. My feet were tired and I was thirsty, but I knew I was close. I found the store and discovered it was on the second floor, a long climb up a very narrow staircase.

But what a surprise when I got there!! It was a large, bright, airy room. I was greeted by Nyle, who was very pleasant and extremely helpful.
I'd decided, after e-searching the store's stock, that I wanted some tussah silk.

The cool thing about ArtFibers is that they strongly encourage the customer to knit a swatch with any yarn they might be considering purchasing. This is especially important because their stock is so unique. So, I sat down and knit a triangle (since I plan to make a triangle shawl) with Golden Chai. I decided that was what I wanted, and chose colourway #40. Nyle helped me do the math to figure out how big the shawl should be, and how much yarn I should purchase according to my gauge (something I'm not really very good at).

After that, I was exhausted and starving, took a cab back uphill to the hotel where I had lunch. When I got back to the room, Tod was there, finished for the day, and we took the cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf to play.

Tod had made reservations for dinner at Alioto's, but we had a few hours to wander around. We stopped for hot chocolate at Ghirardelli's. I ordered a dark one, and it was like drinking a chocolate bar. Heaven!!! Dinner at Alioto's was wonderful, but it paled in comparison.

San Francisco - Thursday, February 28

Last week, Tod had to go to San Francisco for the annual Bank Counsel Seminar. I decided to tag along (as I often do when the seminar is held somewhere interesting). We arrived late Wednesday evening. The seminar took place on Thursday and part of Friday, and we spent the remaining time exploring and having fun.

Of course, I had to keep myself occupied while Tod was seminar-ing. My plan was to seek out bookstores and yarn stores, while also getting in some major relaxing, reading and knitting time.

Wednesday night, I was reading the hotel literature as I always do, and discovered that if I requested a wake-up call, I could also get tea or coffee delivered at that time. So I asked for a wake-up at 9 a.m., along with tea. Sure enough, when I peeked outside the door, there was a tea tray waiting for me. Yes, it was only Lipton's tea, but I managed to overlook that detail.

Once I was tea'd, showered and dressed, I headed to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Here, I discovered, I could get many types of quality tea, including my favourite Yorkshire Gold, which I ordered a pot of to have with my (excellent) meal.

I had thought about taking the BART down to Noe Knit and the San Francisco Mystery Bookstore, which are a few blocks apart, but at the last minute became a little intimidated and took a taxi.

I went to Noe Knit first and had a fabulous time. I'd decided it was time to buy yarn for the Clapotis that's been on my to-knit list for months, and the wonderful saleswoman, Susan (if I remember correctly) spent a good deal of time showing me different types of yarns that would work with the pattern and then allowing me to decide without any pressure what to purchase. I decided on Crystal Palace Waikiki in the shell colourway.

After that, I walked a few blocks to the SF Mystery Bookstore, which is a charming little place with books piled everywhere. After a great deal of browsing, I finally made my purchases and with the help of Diane, the proprietor, decided I could take the public transit back to the hotel. I almost managed it, too, but was daunted by the 10 uphill blocks from the BART station and took a cab for the last leg.

I was starving by the time I got back, and had a lovely liquid lunch in the hotel restaurant. Tea and soup. What did you think I meant?

Then I went back up to the room for a nap. I'd intended to do some blogging, but slept too long, waking up when Tod returned.

Thursday was banquet night, so I finally got a chance to wear the LBD I'd bought before Christmas when the Coldwater Creek store opened in Seal Beach. After dinner, we went next door to the Top of the Mark for drinks with some of Tod's colleagues, but unfortunately the fog had rolled in and we couldn't see anything from the windows. But the place was very attractive and busy, and there was a cool jazz band, with lots of people jive-dancing.

After that, we went back to our room, and I, tired out from my excursions, fell into bed.