A Visit with Maureen

My college friend, Maureen, drove down from Seattle to visit her family last week. I got to sneak in a little visit on Sunday. She is just the dearest person. We can be separated for months and it still feels like we haven't missed a beat. Who else knows all the history of the intervening 40 years? Who else can laugh when I say that Reg is finally helping to support me with his Social Security payments? Who else will send a special message to Adrian when I'm showing her how I can take movies with my still camera? She is, after all, the Maureen that Adrian named our dog after when he was little. She was such a big part of his life.

Maureen was staying at Katie's house. Katie is Mo's sister and I haven't seen her for years. Gosh, it was good to see her, too. She's the only one still working. Maureen is still playing in the stock market. Not playing. She is a very serious investor. Sorry we can't see each other today when the market is bouncing back after its heavy drop last week. I don't know if she missed her moment to buy Proctor and Gamble. She's driving home today, so I'll have to see if she bought anything later in the week.

I can see that when I move up to Albany, I'll be making a lot of trips north and I hope that she can visit me more often there.

Finished Game Change on the way to Covina to see Maureen. Poor Mo. It was too much on my mind because of that. The Dreadful Edwardses, the foul-mouthed McCain, the muddled Palin, the over-confident and flawed Clintons, the brash upstart Obama. It was all good reading. As always, the person who comes off best is Michelle. That could just be my bias. It becomes easier to see how the Reps (and Dems) could be wary of Bill Clinton lurking in the background. Tom recommended this as a good read and I agree. Remember, nothing you ever read is gospel, which is why you must read a lot. It might as well be enjoyable while you do it.

The Lusty Month of May

Or so they sang in Camelot. If not lusty, full of sunshine, flowers, strawberries and friends.Isn't that a pretty shot from my local farmers' market? The colors and smells still catch me every Saturday morning. The onion guy asked me if I wanted anything as I was standing there smelling the fresh, clean scent of young onions. It would be a great diet just to take in all these good smells.

This is pretty much how my needlepoint looked mid-April. I almost posted this picture, but somehow got busy. My life is so unbusy that surprises even me. I think I'd identified where the bottom of the picture was at that point, but still working mightily on the middle ground. What do you read while needlepointing? Cranford. Women in that era were always working on a piece of something. Look at the picture. She has knitting next to her. This book is a good antidote to raucous thrillers. Slow moving and sweet. Now I may be able to see the Masterpiece Theater shows based on the book that are saved on my DVR.
Another book to intersperse between mysteries is Villette by Charlotte Bronte. When Karen and I were at the FOB a couple of weekends ago we wrote what we were reading on a huge wall set up for just that purpose. As I was half way through Villette, I didn't feel too dishonest writing that as opposed to one of the mysteries I was reading. Not too. Villette is about the classic orphan girl managing in the world. I really liked it. I was not aware that the Bronte girls were not that prolific. Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre, this book and two others. You can get the Kindle edition of a book with all four books for just $1.00. Amazing.
And then begins my spat mysteries that deal with other genders. Other genders? Well, I've noticed that most mysteries are written from the male perspective. Women are often there to have horrible stuff done to them. The "other gender" in Dressed for Death is transvestites. Not that Venice is rampant with transvestites, but Donna Leon (whose name is much bigger than the title; hum, so are all the other names on this page; never mind) likes to write about issues affecting Venice. They are still mentioned here - huge pollution problem, corrupt politicians, oversexed Italian men. I loved that part where the protagonist's wife asks if he's ever noticed how often the men of Venice fondle themselves. Good story, despite the fondling. Darker Domain has a female Cold Case detective and a female journalist working what appear to be wildly divergent stories. This was nominated for a Times Book Prize for mysteries. The ending is a little contrived, but I liked it pretty much. Glad it didn't win the prize. Can't wait to read the one that did.
Gallow's View is about a Peeping Tom. Hum, why did I think this was from a different gender perspective? I'm not sure. It was well written. This was from the batch of books that were first books in a series. There are many more Inspector Banks books. Even though this was a classic mystery of the slow moving variety, I liked it.
Pirate is not a classic mystery of the slow moving type. It's actually pretty funny in its high testosterone, thrill a minute plot devices. Manly men, gorgeous women, unkillable heroes. Karen read a review that said it was Bond-like. Yes. Poorly plotted, yet moves like a runaway train. Can't put my iPod down. :) I must recommend this one to my brothers. I think both of them would love this. I know I'm enjoying it.

Do you think that the pace of that book is why my needlepoint has moved on so rapidly? I've also found the right side of the picture.