Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Trivia at the library last week was a bust for us. We didn't do well at all, getting only about 60% of the questions correctly. Usually it is somewhere 80-90%. Must have been the categories weren't what we knew. Oh well, there is always next month.  

A few trees are showing hints of color, but the temperatures are going to be near 80 for a number of days. Good news is not much humidity.

Valentine Murder Lucy has joined the library board and on the day of her first meeting the head librarian is murdered at the library. Plus the historic pewter tankard is missing? Are the two crimes related?

The Last Dress from Paris, a grandmother sends her granddaughter to Paris in regards to a certain Dior dress. The granddaughter finds a history of her grandmother she didn't expect.

The Pope at War, written by Vatican expert and Pulitzer Prize winning author David Kertzer, tells the role of Pope Pius XII during World War II. After the Pope's death in 1958 his papers were sealed which covered up his moral failures during the course of the war. The archives were released in 2020 which allowed the in depth account of the Pope's actions or inaction. Interesting read.

I just add them to my TBR, I will get to them eventually!

Happy Reading.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

 Ahoy Matey!

 Time to take out the Good Ship Sassy Cat for its annual sail. All good pirate mates are welcome to join. 

 

 

Captain Derby above and the first mate Dora below!

Also must wish Auntie Kellie a happy purrthday today. She come and cares for me when mum is off doing racy car stuff. 

Mum surprized me this morning. I was snoozing so nice in my heated cat cup when she picked me up and put me in the PTU! NO! Oh yes. 

Off we went to see the vet man, well, in this case the vet lady. Dr Tom retired so we now have Dr Carolynn. She is nice and she does stuff to check on me that Dr Tom didn't, like stretching my back legs out good to check for arthur-itis. I'm good. 

Being woman handled, but with care. The good news was I gain three more ounces in the last 6 months. I'm up to 7 pounds 9 ounces. She and mum decided I didn't need any blood work today, plus no shots. 

It is a rainy day but mum kept me dry. When she took me out of the car she had a gizzy quilt over me. Also too many woofies with bad manners. Barking, jumping and all. Mum went to pay the bill but left me in the exam room while she did it, then could whisk me outside quickly. Although we rain into a big brute on his way in. 

Enough for today. I am going to go and enjoy my sailing.
 

 

Mini-ManCat Monday

There is the little matter of disposal of droppings in which the cat is far ahead of its rivals. The dog is somehow thrilled by what he or any of his friends have produced, hates to leave it, adores smelling it, and sometimes eats it...The cat covers it up if he can... - Paul Gallico

Yep, I covers up my bizzness and leave it to mum to scoop it out and get it into the trash every week. 

Me and mum had a nice week. Lots of open windows and doors, fresh air. The air chiller has been off and even mum isn't running the fans much. Said she enjoys the quiet of not having things humming. 

Mum getting a couple of profile pics of me while I sat in her lap on Sunday. Just watching the feetsball game and the basey ball game too. Lots of sports teams here worth watching. After I got out of her lap she worked on her crow-shay and finished the blanket she started just 10 days or so ago. She doesn't even work on it every day. She is a speedster on getting these done. 

Feetsball Report

The Pack was winning most of the game, but then in the last part the defense didn't do their job quite as good as they should. Plus the offense needed just a couple more points to win. They just losted by one point. Even in defeat they did pretty good, mum isn't expecting purrfection and a championship this season. 

Mum did watch for a bit last Monday and wanted to see ARodg get bumped around a bit. She certainly wasn't looking for him to get hurted so bad that he needed a fix it doc. Heal quickly ARodg.

Mum is also spending lots of time watching our basey ball team. They are close to winning their division which means getting to play in the post season. Paws crossed for them.

Have a good week everyone!

 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

 Hello, I've spent some time the past few weeks going through my TBR. I did it about a month ago, then deleted a bunch of series books to get down to the most recent four books. Then the new copy of Book Page came out, plus lists from the New York Times. My TBR is back close to 200 books, plus I have two newer series to check out. Plus I check to see if my library system actually has the books, usually they do. If not I just note it as by the time I get around to that part of my list they may have it. 

Trivia night at the library. Last time the patrons were smarter than the librarians. Hope we can keep it going!

It cooled off so I have been doing some yard work. I have something that keeps growing along with my lilac in the backyard. I spent an hour cutting out what I could. Didn't quite get it all so have to work on it again another day. My pile of brush below. I didn't work on making this neater, just get it cut and dragged it to the pile. I will cut it down more as I have to fit it in the back of the car to get it to the village compost site.

The Murder Rule is a plot twisting thriller. Hannah gets herself assigned to an Innocence Project case, but she has an ulterior motive for doing so. The tagline from the book cover "No one is innocent in this story".

Carrie Soto is Back is the story of a tennis great who had the record numbers of grand slam wins and then retires. When a newer player matches her total she decides to make a comeback after six years to being away from the game.

My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy this book has lots of pictures and recollections by Clint Hill who was the main Secret Service agent who was assigned to Jackie. He was cleaning out his old house and discovered pictures, diaries and other items that came from his time with Mrs. Kennedy. 

Happy Reading.

Mini-ManCat Monday

 You can not look at a sleeping cat and feel tense. - Jane Pauley

 You are now not tense. I was sorta watching mum, who was watching the feetsball game and doing her crow-shay. 

Mum got me all painted up for the game, not to worry, it comes off super easy. Won't make se sick either!

The weather has gotten super nice, the hots are gone. We can have the windows wide open to get lots of fresh air in the house. 

Last week some guys came to do some work here. Mum had me in her bedroom to be safe. So this thing now sits outside in the back. Mum says it means we will always have power, so always have air chilling or the heaty monster working. Mum says she is too old to deal with long power outages, me too. So she spent some of her green papers on this.

Mum even had to even off all of the grass this weekend. Got all of her chores done so we could watch feetsball. 

Feetsball Report

The Pack is back in business with a new guy in the backfield. It is the season of LOVE! We beat Da Bears, so The Pack still owns them, just that we have a new CEO in Jordan Love. 

The old QB ARodg went off to a new team, he won't play until Monday night. Mum is going to watch to see how he does. 

So everyone have a good week.

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Friday is International Literacy Day, good things happen when you can read and understand! You aren't as dependent on what others tell you, you can read and make up your own mind!

I've had a library card from some library or another for decades, really for most of my life. Like the old credit card commercial, Don't leave home without it!

 Hello September! Although the past few days haven't really felt like fall with temperatures in the 90s. Although that makes good reason to stay inside and read. Holiday weekend too, so I usually stay close to home and away from the chaos of traveling anywhere. 

Hope everyone had a safe weekend.

Her Royal Spyness, Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie is a very, very minor royal, great great granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Set in 1932 she is scrimping along trying to survive in London, on her own in the family house. No staff, no maid. Then she finds a dead body in her bathtub and her brother is the top suspect. Can she find out who really done it?

Penny for Your Secrets the next Verity Kent book.Verity attends a dinner party and after she leaves the host is killed and his wife is the main suspect. The wife asks Verity to prove she didn't do it, but during the investigation Verity finds a link between the murder and another crime. Who did the crime and why?

Long Mile Home is the story of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. Written by two Boston Globe reporters who worked on the story for the paper at that time. The story is related through five of the victims, the time before, during and after. The surviving bomber is in prison and fighting his death sentence.

Twisted women are disappearing but no ransom notes for kidnapping are being received. Sloane Burbank is former FBI and a friend of one of the missing women and is asked to look into it. What she encounters is a disturbed young man and his obsession with Greek mythology. 

 

 Yes I do need all the yarns! This is a kit I bought mainly to get the pattern. Rectangle granny blanket. First set of the five colors of yarn, three more sets to go, but the pattern goes quickly once it gets started.

The finished project. It isn't quite square but not as much of a rectangle either. But it was interesting to do and I know how to get a project like this started and make it a longer rectangle if I would want to do it again. 

Happy Reading and Happy Projects too!

Mini-ManCat Monday

Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement and love without penalties - W. L. George 

Mum says today is Labor Day.  I am not laboring today, no works, just chilling, eating, litter boxing. 

This was me snoozing by the open window in the past week. It got super nice outside. Cooler temps, no humidity just purrfect. Mum didn't even need to use the air chiller or fans. That changed with yesterday, getting hot again. Mum did her Target run early, home to wash the clothes and stuff. Then chill with the fan and the air chiller on. 

Me one day last week sitting in mum's lap and she like the view of my little snaggle tooth. Mum thought it was cute.

The pro feetsball season starts this week, so my feetsball reports will be back. Lots of changes this year on our team. ARodg is gone and it is the season of Love!

Plus the basey ball team is doing real well too. Mum and I watch lots of games, plus CrashCar is still going strong. So much sports, so little time. Plus mum has books to read and knitting! Below are the first three scarves, mum has done two more and working on number three!

 So that is about it from here. Everyone enjoy their holly day and good luck to all those back in school. 

Have a good week everyone!

 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Hello. Forgot to do an intro before this posted. Weather has changed from hot and humid to cooler and sunny, minimal humidity. Great weather for anything. Windows wide open.

The Astronaut and the Star is a bit of a romance novel which isn't usually my thing, but this was cute. She is a top notch astronaut at one time thought to be the first woman on the moon, but is now in the dog house due to a PR issue. He is an airhead actor who she is assigned to train so he can star in a movie. Do the sparks fly or is it failure to launch?

Blood Sugar, Ruby is accused of murdering her husband but that isn't true. He died from complications of Type 1 diabetes. There are however three other deaths that she could claim. Will the police be able to pin her down on these deaths?

The Body in Berkeley Square and The Corpses at Waterloo these two books are books three and four in the Mayfair 100 series by Lynn Brittney. My local library system had the first two books but not the next two. So I asked my librarians to see if they could track them down. They did, from a library in northern Wisconsin, about 4 hours away. Books are a special of the books investigative group in London during World War I.

What I though was interesting was that our normal check out period is three weeks but the two that came from the other library I had 5+ weeks!  I actually read these first from the checkouts that day. 

I believe in getting books back as soon as I can. There is always the transit time and that takes these books out of circulation for a longer time. Even within my local system, I read the books from other libraries first. 

Mini-ManCat Monday

 You can't own a cat. The best you can do is be partners. - Sir Harry Swanson 

I think me and mum are pretty good partners. I look cute for her and she is good at giving me foods, treats and love. 

We both survived the hots. Mum stayed inside as much as possible where our air chiller was hard at work. Plus the fans to keep the air moving. Mum took pics of our outside temperature things to show the high of the day on Wednesday. This is way too hot!

 So I did lots of being lazy and so did mum for a few days. Mum readed her books, did some knitting too. Making scarves for little peple. Once the weather got nicer mum has been working on evening off the grass again. 

 Auntie Kellie came over on Caturday and brought mum this big ball. Too big for me to push around. Mum says it has lovely stuff inside to eat!

Woo, last few days of August. Have a good weekend everyone!

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Hello, the really hot weather is back and also very humid so there is an excessive heat warning in place for a couple of days. Not doing much outside as I don't do well with this type of weather. The worst is supposed to be over by the weekend. Following that the extended forecast looks for more reasonable temperatures. I hope so!

So that means staying inside and reading, plus a bit of knitting as well. A friend gave me yarn that is too thick for hats, so knitting scarves instead. 

I did a serious scrub of my TBR list in the last week and dropped it from over 250 to about 190. I found multiple duplicates, books I had already read and I checked to see if the local library system had the books. For the books that were on the fence to keep on the list I read the plot synopsis and looked at the classification if it was fiction, non-fiction, mystery, thriller etc. That help weed out a few more books too.

The Lunar Housewife was inspired by the CIA's use of literary and arts publications to promote the US way of life. Based in 1953-1955 shows also the male dominance of publishing to the point even stories written by women were published with male bylines. A novel within a novel, Louise who is writing and trying to get her novel published feels like she and her editor boyfriend are being watched and manipulated by outside forces.

The Woman in the Library I couldn't get into this book. I tried to start it one evening and it wasn't gelling, so I tried again the next day when I wasn't tired. Still nothing for me. Basic plot is four people at the Boston Public Library reading room, friends, but one of them is a murderer.

The Death of Mrs Westaway another goodie from Ruth Ware. Harriet (Hal) Westaway is struggling to make ends meet when she gets a letter in regards to an inheritance. She doesn't think they have the correct party but figures maybe she could pretend and at least get a little bit of money. She gets a lot more than she expects.

Be My Baby is a memoir written by Ronnie Spector who was the lead singer for the Ronettes in the 1960s. Phil Spector had a huge impact on her career and life as they were also married. The bulk of the book covers her early performing life and relationship / marriage to Spector. Originally written in 1990 the book was updated with a postscript as of November 2021 and she died in January of 2022.

 

 

Mini-ManCat Monday

If animals could speak the dog would be a a blundering outspoken fellow, but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much. - Mark Twain 

Thanks Mr. T for the compliment! 

The hots are back for this next week. Sunday was super hot and sticky and a few more of those this week. Then mum says the weather looks like it will shift to more normal and nice weather!

Mum got me snoozing in her lap while she did crow-shay this past week. Using up the left over yarns from that last blankie. Plus a furiend gave her yarns but mum is knitting scarves from the stuff.

Plus mum got a nice shot of me and my tail last week when we actually had an evening nice enuf to have the window open.
 

Hope all my peeps in the southwest are staying safe if not dry with the hurry-cane. 

Have a good week everyone!