AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

 I can't believe it was another beautiful day. I ate in the garden again. I finished my book club book. So, I cheated and watched the movie made from the book. It is an Agatha Christie novel. I know I was a little sleepy when I watched the movie, but I swear the ending in the movie did not match the ending in the book. I may have to watch the end of the movie again. It is the book "And then there were none".  I quite enjoyed both the movie and book.

I took Lucky for another long walk and she walked all the way on the down incline. She did really well and then I put her in the stroller to come back up. Then she fell asleep. 

I spent part of the day invoicing my clients. The worst job and I hate it. Yes, I like the money but the invoicing is blech. 

Until tomorrow...

CAR SHOW

Today was a busy day. I woke up early (very early for a Sunday) to go to a car show. I used to go to car shows with my brother and his good friend. I love looking at cool old cars. I used to date a guy with a sooped up Camaro and my brother had a Chevelle SS. My brother restored the Chevelle and another car. 

This car show was small compared to the car shows I've been to before. My neighbor had his car there and I found out it is quite a rare car. I took a bunch of photos. If any come out good, I'll post them. 

I planted another round of herb seeds. Between the contractor and the animals, my basil, thyme and dill died. I took this opportunity to replant them.

I showed up for my virtual book club but no one turned the virtual meeting on. Too bad.i actually read the whole book. A Whisper of Bones by Hart. It was a good mystery. 

I spent the book club time making vegan chocolate chip cookies. They came out okay.

In between it all I rode my stationary bike, meditated and walked Lucky. 

Until tomorrow...

BOOK CLUB ATTENDANCE EVEN THOUGH I DIDN'T READ THE BOOK

 I finished reading the MCI book and one of the items it said was to make sure you did a few things each week. One was physical activity, then cognitive activity and lastly social activity. It suggested keeping a log to make sure you are doing enough each week. I started mine yesterday. The only goal I may have an issue getting to will be social activity but I am going to try. 

I did not read the book for book club this week. I found it hard to read and sort of boring. Plus I wanted to read the book on MCI. I emailed the book club organizer and told her I did not read the book and said that maybe I should not attend. She said I should attend even if I did not read the book. I attended and it turned out it was only the organizer and myself. We talked a little bit about the book and then we talked about other books. She also told me I can get my books from the library and put them on my Kindle. I tried it after the meeting but I have to have a newer Kindle. Next months' book seems a lot better. 

Yesterday I watched the Preakness and the horse I wanted to win, won. National Treasure. 

Until tomorrow...

BOOK CLUB APRIL

 This month we read IQ by Joe Ide. I thought it was good but it had a lot of characters to keep track of and I didn't like that. IQ is the first of a series so I guess the characters will be used in the rest of the series. 

It was very funny that I got on the virtual book club meeting and there was a guy who used to live a floor above me in my old apartment. He didn't recognize me and I could not remember his name. Once I told him my name, he remembered that I (and my ex) used to watch sports and got a little loud on game day. Rooting for the teams, of course! 

I have been practicing darts. I see improvement. 

I moved my sandbags away from the front of my home and once again, I fell. I hit hard on my knee and elbow. Yes, these falls hurt but they are more humiliating than anything. 

Until tomorrow...

THE NIGHT AGENT

This will be short. We spent today relaxing after our last two days of adventures. The mold guy came for 15 minutes today to check everything. 

I read my bookclub book and watched a new Netflix series The Night Agent which is good. 

That was the entire day besides taking Lucky out for short pee breaks. 

Until tomorrow...

SOLAR GENERATOR ARRIVED

 Surprise! My solar generator arrived early. I am glad I was home. It was a nice surprise but I have to say these companies think they are doing you a favor but what if I was away from home? They would have left it on my steps. 

I was lucky the delivery guy carried it into my garage for me. I tried to get it out of the box but it is too heavy. I haven't even tried to get the solar panels out of the box.

The plan is tomorrow I am going to charge it up while the sun is out and it charges from my solar panels. 

I had my book club this afternoon. I tried really hard to finish the book but I missed the mark by a few chapters. I skipped to the end so I knew how it ended. I did enough so I could fake my way through the book club meeting. It is a good book and I am going to finish it. 

Until tomorrow...

DAY AT THE PARK

 Lucky and I woke up early and got ourselves packed up to go to the park. It is a newly renovated park and, boy, is it marvelous. I would show you pictures but I took photos with my old film camera. I thought it would be fun. Plus, nobody wants to steal an old film camera! There have been a streak of camera muggings in my area and with the dog, I am not able to pay very good attention to my surroundings. Not to mention, using my old 35mm film camera keeps me in practice. 

We walked all around the area for about an hour and stopped for a short time to give Lucky some snacks and water. I was taking some photos of some flowers and Lucky got her leash tangled around my foot. When I went to stand up, I fell backward on my butt in front of two men. How embarrassing! They were sweet and helped me up. I didn't realize it until I got home but I broke my camera neck strap when my camera fell on the ground. I already ordered a new one that should work. 

While we were on the walk, I checked my phone and it didn't have a signal. I had no cell service. I called my provider when I got home and it wasn't me exactly. I had to get through the AI (don't you hate AI) to get to a person to help me. No matter what I said, the AI kept sending me to "how to set up my new phone".  I finally kept cursing at the AI and the AI kept getting more and more angry sounding and then I got a person.  The person diagnosed that something happened when my payment didn't arrive in the mail. He said the service was not turned off but something happened that was not supposed to happen. After turning my phone on and off two times, my phone service was restored. He was super helpful. 

I had my book club this afternoon. We read Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke. It was really very good. Although if you are planning on reading it, I would read the first book in the series first. I was a little lost in the first few chapters. It was a good and lively discussion this month.  

Until tomorrow...

BOOK CLUB ON A RAINY DAY

 Today was book club. I had two months to read the book because we didn't meet in December because of a scheduling conflict. The book was Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union. I know this book is a best seller but I didn't like it. It is not my type of book. 

The book club was interesting listening to everyone talk about the book. I added what I could since I only got to chapter 10.  I was not the only person that did not like the book. But some did like it.

I think I will like next months book much better. 

Until tomorrow...

LANDSCAPER POSTPONED

 The landscaper was supposed to come today but he begged off. He changed it to tomorrow.  It rained so hard today and the temperature dropped. It looks like it is going to rain a lot in the coming days. 

I just got a notice that my book club will not be meeting in December because a person in charge forgot the date of the meeting is during their time off. The book we are reading is pushed back until January. I think that is good because I am not finding my free time during the holidays to read. All those Christmas Movies to watch! 

Until tomorrow...

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTY-FOUR OF VEGAN COOKING COURSE

 The Vegan Lavender Blueberry Cheesecakes taste delicious. They look so vibrant.  The inside is vanilla and cocoa butter and the outside is lavender and blueberry. 

I showed up for virtual book club but they were having technical issues. It didn’t hurt too bad because  I only read about 1/ 5 of the book. 

Until tomorrow…

DAY ONE OF CLEAN UP

 I got up early and spent two hours cleaning , dusting, sweeping, organizing, and putting things away. I started in the kitchen by organizing it. Then I cleaned it, swept it and dusted it. Tomorrow I am going to mop the floor. Then I moved to the bathroom where I cleaned and swept it. Then I dusted and swept my office. Then my two hours was over and I sat down exhausted. 

I read my bookclub book for a while and then had a few phone calls. I took Lucky for two walks. 

I wanted to watch a new show but I fell asleep at 9 pm. I was so tired. 

Until tomorrow...

BOOK CLUB WAS GREAT

 Well, mystery book club was great. They were a real nice group of people. It was a small group and I didn't get to ask if this was the regular group or if it had shrunk due to the lockdown. We talked about the book and how our lives were like the book. The meeting went exactly one hour. That part was nice. My old book club would drag on for over two hours. Ugh. It's a book how much can you talk about?  I have my book for next month. It is very different but still a mystery-ish. 

I spent over one hour clearing off almost everything on my dining room table. I don't know about you but my dining room table became a place to drop things and it was out of control. I got rid of empty boxes and a ton of junk mail. I can see the table top and only have about 20 thing left on it. I will work on it again and get rid of them. 

I wanted to watch the Dallas/Eagles game today while I made soup. (yes, they lost.) I could not get the remote to work so I put new batteries in. The remote still did not work so I tried to get the battery out and the twirly metal part of the remote where the battery is stabbed the battery. The battery got real hot. I panicked. Could the battery blow up? Catch on fire? I called my brother and then another brother. He assured me it would not blow up. (yes, I googled it. You google it and see what you get. It will confuse you and not tell you what to do.) He told me to take it outside and use some pliers to get the battery out of the remote. The remote was toast now and the battery was no longer hot. I guess I need to buy a new remote or I can not change the volume with out doing some sort of yoga to reach the TV that is mounted on the wall. Luckily I can push a button on the TV to turn it on. 

I made the soup Curry Butternut Squash Lentil. It was so delicious. It has spinach and carrots in it too. 

My neighbor moved today. I am a little sad. She and I were just becoming friendly more than the "hi" type of neighbors. She just rented her place so maybe she will be back. I gave her some of the cookies I made for the road trip. 

Until tomorrow...

THINGS I LEARNED FROM BOOKCLUB

After six years in book club, I have learned a few things from being in the club.

1. How to pick a book for a group to read.  It is a talent picking a book that a group will like and that a group can discuss in depth.  It doesn't have to be a book that the group ultimately likes but they have to like it enough to want to read it and therefore choose it initially.  Whether they ultimately like it, well that is always up for grabs.
2. How to not be a nay-sayer. There are a couple of Nay-Sayers in the group. When they make their point they frequently start with "no, I think..."  I feel that puts down the other people in the group.  I like to give my opinion without disagreeing with their opinion.  They don't have to be wrong for me to have my opinion.
3. People like certain types of books and gravitate toward them.  Our book club reads all sorts of books but there are a few people who always gravitate toward the same type of book.  The same type of writing.  The long prose with flowery sentences that have long descriptions of a thing.  Like a paragraph describing a cloud.  That type of writing drives me crazy.  I like to read for fun and not to learn something or to spend an hour reading a description about a flower.
4. Some people like to talk only about the book and others like to add information their personal experiences.  

It is funny to be a group.  I am usually not a joiner.  In my job it makes it makes it difficult for me to be a joiner.  I am also not a joiner anyway.  I never joined a gym.  No team sports once I was out of school.  No groups.  The most I did was volunteer.  In college I joined a few things but I was always the outsider in the group.  Even in high school I was the person who was in the group but was so far out on the fringe and was in so many groups, no one claimed me.   I was in a lot of yearbook group photos.

Anyway, the decision continues.  Do I stay with the group or do I drop out?  I think I stick it out for now. There are only three more meetings this year.  I like the two new members so maybe they will tip the balance.
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I cooked a fantastic pasta salad today.  It is Pasta Salad with Roasted Broccoli.  It tastes delicious.  The broccoli tastes so rich when roasted.  Yum!

Until tomorrow...

PEARS AND BOOKCLUB

Tonight was my bookclub meeting. So much happened. I left my clients early so I could finish cleaning up and making the dessert.

I decided to make a vegan dessert. I bought pears to make Maple-Pecan Baked Pears. Basically you take 4 pears and cut them in half. Brush them with lemon. Put them in a greased pan cut side up.  Combine in a bowl chopped dates, chopped pecans, maple syrup, cinnamon, and ground ginger. Mix and spoon into pears. Cover the pans and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve two halves warm with vanilla non-dairy ice cream.

The bookclub said they liked it. There were no empty plates.

There is a member in the bookclub who has a small dog. She brings her dog everywhere. Says the dog can't be left alone.  I thought I had made it clear that it would not be smart to bring her dog to my house since I have two dogs who are not used to having another dog come in their house. It is not the best time to introduce another dog into the house during bookclub. She has never brought the dog to my house.

Tonight she called to say she would be coming but would be late.  No mention of a dog.  Then she showed up and said "I hope you don't mind that I brought my dog" while she walked in.  I said "I wish you had asked when you called."  I have two semi wild dogs.  So I spent the whole night trying to keep my dogs calm.  Unfortunately Little Lucky could not stay calm so she had to go in her cage.  So, my dog had to spend the night in a cage because her dog was in he house. Then she wanted to feed her dog dinner.  Great!  That sounds like a disaster. My dogs would tear her dog up for food.  We had to sequester her dog in order to feed it.

When she left she said thank you letting me bring my dog.  Did I have a choice?

Now comes the decision. Do I want to continue? I know I keep talking about it. I am just not happy about the books and the people.  Another person who I like dropped out tonight.  That makes it less desirable.  Not sure how to make this decision. I started the bookclub so how do I leave it?

Until tomorrow...

SUCK IT UP AND READ THE BOOK

I started a bookclub a number of years ago. There was a group of women from the neighborhood that got together every six weeks to discuss a book. At first it was a lot of fun. Then last year I got sick and busy and the bookclub fell apart. Almost everyone said they wanted to restart it, so we did. 

I had a great time at the Christmas pot luck. I just don't have a great time with the book selections. I don't think I have read the last four book selections. Maybe more. The selections just aren't books that interest me. I understand that in bookclubs you are supposed to suck it up and read the book the group chooses. But I am just not interested in the type of books some of the remaining members enjoy. Since we use democratic vote, many times the book I like is out voted. 

Tonight I sat at bookclub and realized I am not happy anymore. They picked my book but only because I was the only person who brought a book to nominate. It seemed like they begrudgingly chose the book. Even taking the time to web search for other options. 

I am hosting the next time but I think after that I am going to drop out.  If I am not going to read the books and be happy, then what is the point?  I can read my own books. Or join an online bookclub. Or one with the library.   Any suggestions?

Until tomorrow...

READING BOOKS

I love reading a good book. Then there are some times that I don't feel ilke reading a book at all. Maybe I feel like reading a magazine instead. Sometimes People Magazine is just my speed.

Right now I feel really overwhelmed with tax season arriving, invoicing for work, all the work I have to do and an impending trip. Too much to do to open a book and get into a story. I just want to watch a movie or a TV show.

An intellectual book right now is too much for me. I just want a mindless story that engrossed me. Unfortunately book club chose an intellectual book, Sex, Time and Power. I may or may not read it. I may read the book we didn't choose. The book we didn't choose is called a "Must Read". The book is Cowboys, Armaggedon and the Truth by Scott Terry. It sounds really interesting.

Oops. Battery dying.

Until tomorrow..

BOOK CLUB DINNER

Tonight was the book club potluck dinner at my house. It seems to have been a success. The food was good, the dogs behaved, my dish came out great.  I made roasted  Brussel sprouts with a mushroom sauce.

It was such a great time that no one wanted to leave! They were here for almost four hours.

I have to go to sleep!

Until tomorrow...