Dancing with the Stars Most Memorable Week

 I watched Dancing with the Stars last night and then watched the dances again earlier today.

Last night the stars recalled their most memorable years and then danced to them, telling the story of that year and what it meant to them.

I'm just going to go on record as saying, no one should be sent home on most memorable year night - period.  These people pour their hearts out with their stories and then again on the dance floor, and then one couple is sent home.  It's heartbreaking to see that.  They should let the votes carry over to the next week and send TWO couples home then.  But not on most memorable year night.  It's just wrong.

SPOILER ALERT!!!  I'm going to talk about who went home so if you haven't watched and don't want to know, stop reading now!  SPOILER ALERT!!!

The last three couples standing were Mira Sorvino, Alyson Hannigan and Harry (whose last name I don't know).  They were also the three bottom scorers of the night with Harry at the bottom, Alyson three points higher and Mira one point higher than Alyson. 

I think I mentioned last week that I vote for Mira and Alyson and I did again last night.  (I also vote for Barry but he had a great dance and scored a 24 last night, which was two points higher than Mira.)

Something I've noticed over the years though, is that a man who can't dance can go further in the competition than he deserves because women do most of the voting and they'll vote for a cute male who can't dance before they vote for a woman who can dance.  And I think they did that last night because Harry wasn't the one who went home, even though he deserved to, based on the scores the judges gave him.

Mira was the one who went home last night.  The part that was hard for me was that her memorable year was the year her daughter was born - and her daughter joined her in the dance!  The judges talked about the humor in the dance (which I didn't pick up on - even the second time I watched it) and said how good and sweet it was, etc.  She got her best score yet with the dance.  I thought it was a good dance, deserving of better scores than it got but I hated seeing her go home on a dance that was essentially dedicated to her daughter and one in which that daughter participated in the dance.

I'll just say it again, no one should be sent home on most memorable year week!

Dancing with the Stars

 This season of Dancing with the Stars has had some controversy.  The first thing I heard about the controversy was that one of the contestants had some sort of scandal (I don't remember specifics - domestic abuse, sexual assault?  I really don't remember) that outraged people that he would be allowed on the show.  I don't know all the names but his first name is Adrian, I believe.  Anyway, there were posts online about how the professional should've declined to dance with him, etc. but it moved forward anyway.

Then came the scandal of one of the contestants (I believe his name is Matt something - from Veep) saying they were backing out because of the writer's strike.  The writer's came to an agreement right before the premiere so he danced on night one, and was promptly sent home.  I don't remember his dance and couldn't tell you who his partner was (Peta maybe?).  Then the rumblings online were that he was unfairly sent home because he had briefly walked out - that it was political.  Then that got put behind us.

I watched this past Tuesday's episode but, to be honest, it didn't get my full attention when it was on live.  I record it and decided not to delete it after watching it because I wanted to go back and watch the dances again to see what I had missed and what I thought about who went home.  

**SPOILER ALERT**  If you have not watched it yet and don't want to know who went home, stop reading now!  **SPOILER ALERT**

Adrian was sent home on Tuesday.  When I went back and watched the dancing for the night, his actually was one of the best of the night, in my opinion.  I believe his dance was the Viennese Waltz and it was so smooth and graceful and lovely to watch - and I say this as someone who has wanted him to go home since I heard about his "scandal" (that I can't remember exactly what it was).  I felt his scores were low for his performance (he got all 7s for a score of 21), but I also felt others got scores lower than they deserved too.  Anyway, there were at least 3 - maybe 4 or even 5 - people with lower scores than he got and he was in a three way tie with the score he had gotten, but he was the one sent home.  It kind of surprised me.  Even though I wanted him to go home, he didn't deserve to go home on that dance.  But I guess that's the nature of the show?

Anyway, I read an article today that Charity (I think she recently was the Bachelorette - I haven't watched that in years so can't say with a certainty) was dissatisfied with her scores from the other night - she felt she deserved higher scores (she got all 8s from the judges for a score of 24).  Her partner (Artem) said he felt the scores were good but said something to the effect that there wasn't any constructive criticism given so it's hard to know what to work on from here (I would have to go back and see what was said because I don't usually retain that after it's given, although Adrian did get great feedback from his dance - I believe Derek even stood up and applauded him . . . and then he went home, but I digress).  Thing is, historically, when contestants publicly complain about their scores, they don't typically last on the show much longer, with most going home the very next week.  The judges give their feedback based on the actual dance but the viewers' voting is a popularity contest and most viewers don't seem to like it when contestants think they're better than they may be and vote accordingly.  That said, I would be okay if she went home next week.

Last thing I will say, I've been voting for Mira Sorvino every week (her, Barry Williams and Alyson Hannigan have been getting my votes every week).  Last week she danced the rumba.  For me, the rumba is probably my least favorite dance because unless it's danced by two professionals, it - to me - looks clunky.  It's a slow and sensual dance.  Mira was dissatisfied with her scores (it was shown in her package before this week's dance - I didn't see anything else come out publicly) because she thought it had been her best dance so far.  For me, I felt that she got the steps and movements down well but the problem for me was that I didn't believe the "sensual" part of the dance, which is key and very important to the reception the dance gets, at least in my opinion.  For that reason, I didn't agree that it was her best dance.  She seemed to be concentrating on the steps and movements - which again, she did well - but lost a key component to the dance, again, in my opinion.  This week, however, she did very well, in my opinion.  I think she did a waltz (maybe the Viennese Waltz? can't remember for certain).  She was one of them that I thought deserved better scores (she was one that tied with Adrian - who went home).

In any event, that's my very limited recap of the show so far this season.  I still enjoy the show but feel like I know fewer and fewer of the contestants each season but can say with a certainty that I don't care for it when the contestants complain about the scores they get because I don't believe the judges skew the scores for particular contestants, even when I don't always agree with the scores they dole out.

Doggy Daycare

 A few weeks ago I was offered an incredible opportunity to take a trip with friends.  It was to a country I had been scheduled to go to last year but had to cancel last minute so it was all the more exciting for that reason.  

But of course, I have dogs, which makes traveling more challenging.  On the plus side, my next door neighbor runs a kennel at her home.

I went on their website to look and see if she had openings for my pups for the trip.  It was then that I realized that the trip was a four week trip, not a three week trip like I was thinking.  Three weeks is more than I want to be away myself, much less four weeks with the dogs kenneled so I ended up passing on the trip.

BUT, I accidentally clicked on something while on the neighbor's website, which started an email exchange between me and my neighbor.  I ended up scheduling a "meet and wag" with the new addition to my family, Benji.

From there, I scheduled a couple of "overnight" visits for the boys (they weren't staying overnight though - I wanted "daycare" but her program had no openings and overnight bookings were the only way they could get daycare play time).

Then she had an opening come up in the daycare program so I took the slot.  Having a set schedule that the boys go out to play with others, I decided to make plans for those days.  I would get things done that are harder to do with them underfoot, right?  I could be out all day and not worry what might be happening at home (Benji was a little more aggressive towards Oreo than I would have liked when he first got here - he's calmed down in that regard though so it's all good now).

So, it's been four or five weeks now that they've been going to the neighbor's and the boys come home exhausted, so it's a quiet evening.  Which is a good thing because getting things done is exhausting too!  But the good news it, at least one night a week, we all sleep really well!  :)

Book Review: Save What's Left

 

I loved this book!  I started it late one evening and that's the only reason I didn't read it in one day!

 

Kathleen Deane is a woman who, due to an unexpected life event, uproots her life and moves to another state.  I totally related to this because I did this last year.  The author discloses the year Kathleen was born and it was the year before I was born so I also had that in common with the heroine of the story - similar life experiences.

 

Kathleen moved to this town because it had been "presented" to her as charming and lovely and just heaven.  (Same for where I moved - difference was I had been here before and came to that conclusion on my own and not just told that's how it was, like Kathleen.)  But when she arrives, she finds that things aren't as she believed and she finds it hard to fit in.  She ruffles a few feathers.  (seriously, with minor modifications, this could be MY story!)

 

What I liked about it is that it was relatable, at least for my situation.  It made me have to laugh at it - as well as laughing at the situation I find myself in!  It's kind of like how you find humor in someone else's "disasters" (for lack of a better word) but in this case, it was even more funny because I could see how it applied to my own situation.

 

So, I mentioned Kathleen experienced an unexpected life event that caused her to make the move, right?  Well, her situation was that her husband of thirty years left her and went on a world cruise to "find himself".  He bores of the cruise life and shows up at her house one day, unannounced, with an Airstream in her driveway that he decides to live in . . . in her driveway!  Tom (her husband) starts meeting people and everyone LOVES him - adores him even, he fits right in while Kathleen remains the town pariah.  Tom adopts a dog (Roger), that he walks daily.  Everyone loves Roger too.

Things happen and while Tom finds himself recovering from an accident and Kathleen is in the hospital for poisoning, their daughter, Hattie, shows up unexpectedly (and doesn't know her parents are dealing with medical issues).  While there, she takes up walking Roger.  When asked who she is, she tells people she's Kathleen's daughter and no one knows who Kathleen is, but they know Roger and know he belongs to Tom.  This was hysterical to me.  Kind of reminded me of What About Bob? where Bill Murray's character endears himself to everyone while Richard Dreyfuss' character is hated - I just found it funny.

The ending was a bit of a letdown but it wasn't that it was bad - it just didn't meet the high bar set by the rest of the book's story, in my opinion.  There is more to the story than I've conveyed here but I really enjoyed it and it made me laugh - a LOT.  I'd recommend it to anyone who has picked up their life and moved somewhere new or even if you've just considered picking up your life and moving, or if you just want to laugh.  It was a fun read!  😀

Book Review - Central Park West

I hadn't intended to read James Comey's book, Central Park West but I did put a hold on an ebook copy at the library.  There weren't many people in line for the ebook copy and there were no people in line for the TWENTY THREE copies of the audio book the library had gotten copies of, which I found interesting.  By the time the library emailed me that a copy of the ebook was available, I decided to check it out.  The reviews on amazon were good.  There was a one star review but the review was basically "I don't like James Comey" with nothing about the book so I took that with a grain of salt.

Very early on I noticed something that continued throughout the book - he "head hopped" . . . a LOT.  And the writing was bad, in my opinion.  The first head hopping incident I came to, I thought I had zoned out and missed the scene change for the new head we were in, storytelling-wise.  So I went back to see where I lost the thread, only to realize, I hadn't missed the scene change - he just changed points of view mid-scene.  In at least one instance, he did this mid-paragraph!  It was very distracting.  I've been told that only Nora Roberts can successfully head hop.  I've met Nora Roberts and James Comey is no Nora Roberts!

There were a lot of "data dumps" as well. We're talking data dumps that added NOTHING to the story, literally nothing!

He would describe things - like rooms - without the benefit of anyone's point of view.  It wouldn't be something like "Louise felt the history of the courthouse,, every time she entered the majestic building" followed by a description of the building and what struck her most about it and what she thought about it.  No, he would start with a data dump about the building - sans description - before going into Louise's point of view . . . in the same scene.

 

For the record, I don't think "Louise" was one of his characters but they were so unmemorable that I don't recall any of the character's names!  Which brings me to another point.  I like character driven stories.  If I don't care about the characters, I'm not likely to like the book.  There wasn't one single character that I found sympathetic in the book.  It's a murder mystery / thriller and I couldn't have cared less who did the killing or why.  I only kept reading because I figured it HAD to get better.  It did not.

The characters in the book made me question his competence as our attorney general (and I know he no longer is).  He said his wife corrected some things he got wrong in processes and procedures (I guess she holds some position in the judicial system?).  Shouldn't a former AG know those things?

Books borrowed from the library can only be borrowed for two weeks at a time.  Ebooks get snatched back at the end of that time, whether you've finished the book or not.  I was so disinterested in the book that I didn't think I would be able to finish in time so I thought I'd nab one of the 23 copies of the audio book, only to discover that the library had chosen not to keep those versions (I guess since no one seemed interested in them) and was literally trying to finish the book with minutes left before it was snatched back.

I did finish the book and all I can say is, I wish I could get the time I wasted on reading it back.  Not a book I would recommend and I don't understand all the high ratings it has gotten on amazon.  The one star review was pretty accurate and I don't think that person even read the book

Book Review: The Last Thing He Told Me

I recently saw Jennifer Garner give an interview for a new show she's in on AppleTV (there are way too many streaming services!!!! but I digress).  She talked about how her character's husband disappears and leaves behind his daughter, who doesn't get along with Jennifer's character.  The two try to find her husband and have to rely on one another and form a bond. 

 

 

It's not one of those stories that necessarily grabs you instantly but it was mildly interesting and so I put a hold on the book it was based on at the library.  When it first became available to me I was reading something else and didn't check it out.  You have three days to check it out and the first time - only the first time - they hold your place and put you next in line for the book, although you have to wait at least a week.

 

The second time it came up, I knew if I didn't check it out or delay delivery (something you can do indefinitely, so long as you re-book it within the three days you have to check it out), I'd go to the end of the line and the line had gotten exceedingly long since I'd first added my name to the list.  I still wasn't ready though so I pushed it back one week.

 

The third time it became available, I checked it out.  That was this past Friday.  I had an hour meeting from 2-3 Friday afternoon and I started reading the book around 1:00.  

 

I finished it before I went to bed and I did other things besides the meeting, such as walking the dogs, cooking dinner and cleaning.  Those were all things I had to do but I didn't want to

 because I didn't want to put the book down.  It was so good! 

The story is told from the perspective of the wife, Hannah.  The day starts off as any other day but a 12-year old girl brings Hannah a note from her husband, Owen.  It just says protect her.  She knows he means his daughter, Bailey, but she doesn't understand what is going on.  Particularly when a US Marshall shows up at her door saying things that make no sense to her.  He is followed by two FBI agents and news reports about the company Owen works being in serious legal jeopardy.

Things look bad for Owen but Hannah is determined to find out where he is and what exactly is going on, particularly given the note and "package" Owen left for Bailey.

It's noted to be a fast paced with twists and turns in the plot - all true.

It was a very good book and very well told story.  There was one thing that bothered me but it is the final (or one of the final anyway) plot twists so I can't tell it here.  It bothered me because much was told about Hannah's background and she makes a decision that is counter to that history - not something I felt was in line with what we'd previously been told about the character.  But they did tie up loose ends and had a satisfying conclusion to the story overall.

I highly recommend it.

The Maid's Diary - Book Review

I recently read The Maid's Diary by Loreth Anne White.  It was a "amazon's first" offering that interested me and, unlike most of the books I get from there, I actually read it.  Here is the amazon blurb on it:

Kit Darling is a maid with a snooping problem. She’s the “invisible girl,” compelled to poke into her wealthy clients’ closely guarded lives. It’s a harmless hobby until Kit sees something she can’t unsee in the home of her brand-new clients: a secret so dark it could destroy the privileged couple expecting their first child. This makes Kit dangerous to the couple. In turn, it makes the couple—who might kill to keep their secret—dangerous to Kit.

When homicide cop Mallory Van Alst is called to a scene at a luxury waterfront home known as the Glass House, she’s confronted with evidence of a violent attack so bloody it’s improbable the victim is alive. But there’s no body. The homeowners are gone. And their maid is missing. The only witness is the elderly woman next door, who woke to screams in the night. The neighbor was also the last person to see Kit Darling alive.

As Mal begins to uncover the secret that has sent the lives of everyone involved on a devious and inescapable collision course, she realizes that nothing is quite as it seems. And no one escapes their past.

 

That blurb got my attention but the writing made me not want to put the book down - I wanted to know what happened next!  I needed to know how it played out.  I started the book late one day and finished it the next day.

Funnily enough, there was one point where I had this wild thought about what was going on but quickly dismissed it as too farfetched.  But wouldn't you know it, that was what was going on!  Normally, if I can guess what's going on and I have even the faintest thought that it's farfetched, that would put me off but the author so skillfully wrote the story in a way that made it believable and not as farfetched as you might have thought - or as I had thought.  It's funny how that works, isn't it?

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for an unexpected mystery / thriller.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.  :)

Hiding in plain sight

 When I talk to people on the phone and it relates in some way to customer service, I typically take notes on the call.  Things like, who I talked to and what they told me.  Oftentimes (but not always) I will also note the time and date, in case I need that information in the future.

Well, almost two years ago I had a conversation with someone.  I remembered what they told me but not who I spoke with.  I wasn't sure if I had made note of who I had talked to.  I had talked to a number of people during this time and knew I had taken notes on a lot of the calls but wasn't sure I had in this particular instance.

 

Several months ago I reached out to this "business" to follow up.  I was stonewalled on the call so finding out if I had noted the name of who I spoke to became all the more important.  Periodically I would do a search for it but always came up short.  It was frustrating because there was other information from the notebook I wanted to find as well.

 

Yesterday I was on a mission to find this notebook that may - or may not - have the information I needed.  I was like a tornado, leaving messes wherever I looked and getting more and more frustrated when I wasn't finding it.

 

 Lately, I've been working with two notebooks - a large (or normal size) one and a small (9.5x6 inch) one.  On a lark, I decided to see if it was possible that the notes were in the large notebook because I would've bet everything I had that the notes were in a large notebook.  The notes I had taken at the time were at the back of a notebook, so I started there.  In the large notebook I did find notes that I had taken around that time but not what I needed - and not all of what I knew I had taken notes on.

I was at the point where I was convinced I had thrown out he notebook by mistake when I decided to look at the smaller notebook - convinced I wouldn't find anything and . . . there was the information I needed!  It's been within arms length this whole time and actually been used with some regularity!  Hiding in plain sight!

Maybe my dog is offended

 As previously mentioned, I'm learning Italian from CDs I bought more than six years ago.  I've been doing the lessons five days a week (Monday-Friday) and stay on the same lesson for the week to help ensure I'm absorbing the information.

Well, my dog doesn't seem to like it.  He literally gets up and leaves the room when I start the lesson, and comes back when I'm done.

Yesterday he had burrowed himself under the throw on the sofa and was snuggled up to me.  He'd just gotten into position and I hit play for the lesson and all they said was "this is lesson 5" and he came out from under the throw and stormed off into the bedroom, after giving me "a look".  Seriously, he gave me a look!

It occurred to me today that maybe it's the language I'm learning.  He's part chihuahua and maybe he's offended that I'm not learning the language of his roots.  Who knows?  I just know he really doesn't like it when I do my lessons!  :)

Epiphany

I was having an email exchange with my niece earlier this evening and the topic of Alaska came up and she asked me if I had ever been and she mentioned she had been offered a job there but had been told she couldn't take it because of the weather and low temperatures there so she had to decline the offer.  The way she told it, it was unclear who had said she couldn't take it but that she then declined it, well, it confused me so I asked who had told her she couldn't take the job.  Turns out it was her husband.

As I thought about this it occurred to me that that is the reason I have no desire to be married again - well one of the reasons anyway.  It seems that when it comes to "allowing" their spouse to do anything, the husbands want the final say - kind of like a parent would for their small child.  We have to get permission to do things like go places or spend money, whereas the men do whatever they want and spend as much as they want and they feel no need to clear it through their wives.

But here's where the epiphany came in (because I pretty much knew the other part), they want to play the role of parent when it comes to what we do, EXCEPT when it comes to taking care of the house.  They want to be the child that gets taken care of.  The one whose only contribution to a meal is sitting at the table (or in front of the TV).  They rarely want to help with household chores of cooking or cleaning and to them, watching their own kids is usually considered "babysitting".  But when a woman does it, it's parenting.  And they expect to receive medals if they ever pitch in at all.  Plus, we can get fussed at if we don't stay on top of "our" chores (but we can't say anything if they don't stay on top of "theirs"!).

At the end of my marriage my husband and I were working together and we only had one car so we were both away from the house all day, everyday.  One day we got home and he immediately started complaining because he thought the house was a mess.  I was stunned by the viciousness of his "complaint" but once I composed myself, I pointed out that he was home exactly the same amount of time as I had been and if he was unhappy with the cleanliness of the house he could just of as easily done something about it as I could.  That didn't stop his complaining.  A few years back I was experiencing a debilitating illness where getting out of bed was challenging for me - literally.  Cleaning was not something I was physically able to do and I remember thinking that if I was still married to that person, he would probably have complained because the house was a mess and not lifted a finger to clean it himself.  I don't miss being married to that man.

Having said all that I also want to say, I know not all men are like that but in my experience, more are than are not and I don't want to be in a relationship with someone who wants to be the boss of me but expects me to be the adult when he thinks tasks are "beneath" him.  And somehow a conversation about Alaska brought more clarity to the situation for me.  Weird how that works, isn't it?  :)

Serendipity

One of my goals this year is to get some things done that I've been putting off.  Early in the year I made a list of things I needed to do each day and checked them off . . . or not.  I "invested" in a product that I can keep the list on my refrigerator (although that's not how I originally envisioned it - but that's okay).

 

Anyway, I moved here almost a year ago (less than a week shy of that anniversary!).  One of the drawing features is the fact that there is a generator here because my other house didn't (and doesn't) have one because it's all electric - no gas for the generator.  Well, about six months ago the power went out here and the generator didn't kick in.  I called the generator guy, who told me he was headed out of town so it would be about a week before he got here.  I said that was fine and I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  I finally got a call about six weeks later with him following up to see if I needed him to come out.  Since I'd originally called, the power had gone out again but that time the generator kicked in like it was supposed to.  I told him that and told him I didn't think I needed him to come out after all, and left it at that.

At some point after that, the power went out again and the generator didn't kick in - again.  I didn't do anything about it for a long time though.  After the first of the year, I added it to my "to do" list and I called him about three weeks ago.  I believe it was on a Friday.  He said he could probably come out on Monday.  My mistake was in not asking which Monday, but I digress.  He came out ten days later to check things out.  Long story short, it was pretty messed up and needed "servicing".

Fast forward to last night, a "severe winter storm" hit here and my power went out.  According to the email I received, I lost power around 3:00 a.m. last night.  But, thanks to the service call I put in a few weeks ago, my generator kicked in.  And thank goodness because there's still no power in the area and no estimated time it will be turned back on!

 

I'm also snowed in.  Below is a snapshot of my front yard this morning.  I have a rain gauge that can read 5 or 6 inches and it is completely buried under the snow!  But thanks to my call to the generator guy, I'm nice and toasty in my house.  :)

 

 

Learning a New Language

 Way back in 2016 I bought some CDs to learn Italian.  I was planning to travel there and wanted to be able to speak the language.

Well, I cancelled the trip and set aside the CDs, always intending to go back to them and learn the language anyway.  I did take a Mediterranean cruise in 2018 and we did spend time in Italy but, I hadn't learned the language yet.

In fact, I never opened the box of CDs until last week!  I had them all these years and never opened them, much less tried to learn the language.

But I did open them last week and I have been listening to them and practicing the language.  I've decided to do one lesson a week, repeating the lesson daily so that I feel comfortable with the lesson before moving on.  I decided this after the first lesson because, frankly, I just wasn't getting it.  By the end of the week, I did feel comfortable to move on.  

Lesson two seems easier.  The first ten minutes are a repeat of lesson one and the rest is things like saying hello and good bye - phrases I was already familiar with.

I will say that there have been times where I've found myself incorporating words or phrases from other languages but for the most part, I feel I'm doing okay.

Now, having said all that, I do feel that there are times when maybe I'm saying words in correctly - some I feel I just don't have the ability to pronounce the way they're supposed to be said.  When those words enter the lesson, the video below (particularly the second scene) comes to mind.  :)

Passwords

 I just tried to log into an account of mine and it took two tries to get it right.  

 

About a year ago I tried to long on to this account and apparently they had implemented a new system that forces you to change your password every few months - and it has requirements for those passwords.  You have to have upper and lower case letters in the password.  You have to have at least one number and at least one symbol.

 

In the past I had a few passwords that I used.  If I tried one and it didn't work, I tried another.  If that one didn't work, I'd try capitalizing a particular letter (in case that was a requirement for that particular account).  I could usually figure out the password before I reached the point of locking myself out of an account - I might not remember which one I just typed in to know for future reference, but I could usually figure it out before I was locked out.

Here's the thing, I don't typically use the type of password that would be easily figured out by a bad actor. I actually have some passwords that have all the required criteria I mentioned above.  But the thing is, they don't require me to change them every few months.  I mean, I get that companies want to make it difficult to access by a bad actor but when the user can't access the account?  Now THAT'S a problem!

Happy New Year

It's a new year and a time to start fresh, or something like that.

 

I don't make resolutions anymore but I do set goals for myself each year.  The theory being that if you make a resolution, you can fail - early on - and you're disappointed in yourself and want to give up.  If you make a goal, maybe you just haven't achieved it yet, so keep trying, right?  At least that's how I look at it.

 

This year I have a long list of goals and have even started collecting things to encourage my success at it.  For instance, I ordered a monthly chalk board where I can list what I need to accomplish and mark it off when completed.  It comes with a grocery list and a "to do" list board as well.  I think it will help but time will tell, right?

 

Another example of trying to set myself up for success, one of my goals is to read the entire bible in one year.  I've started this before and read every day for two and a half months before I gave up.  Well, as I was watching my church service this morning, at the end of the sermon the speaker mentioned reading the bible in a year and gave a website - bibleinoneyear.org - and I went there to check it out.  It was interesting because it's not just reading the bible from the beginning to the end, which is how I've always attempted it in the past, it gave passages from three different books in the bible - Psalms, Matthew and Genesis - in that order.  The passages connected to each other to share a specific message.  I liked that.  But to keep me on target for my goal, I signed up for the daily newsletter.  I assume it will be the message and bible passages for the day but if not, it will at least remind me to go back to the website to read that day's messages.

And this evening, I made a "to do" list for tomorrow.  I'm supposed to have someone show up tomorrow to do some work on the house and I don't know how long it will take and it's possible it will interfere with my "to do" list but I figure I at least got a start on the day, right?

So that's how I'm starting my new year and how I'm addressing the year's goals.  

 

How is your year looking?

Book Review Club - December 2022

I'm reviewing two books this month, this one being THE WIDOW by Kaira Rouda.  This book was offered as one of Amazon's First Read books for prime members in November.  One of the reasons I selected this as my book for the month was because it said she was also the author of a book I thought I had read (I haven't, or at least I can't find the title in any of my book histories - purchased or borrowed from the library).  Anyway . . . 

The story centers around Washington and the games people play to stay on top.  It's told, primarily, from the viewpoints of Jody and Martin Asher.  Martin is a House Representative for Ohio and Jody is his wife.

There is a reporter, Max Brown, who wants to interview Martin for an article he's writing but Martin is avoiding and ignoring him because the article is likely to make Martin look bad so he doesn't want to participate or contribute to that but Max is determined to get his story, one way or another.  Jody and Martin's daughter, Charlotte, is scheduled to get married "this weekend" and their goal is to just get through the wedding - which has cost a fortune so it's happening, no matter what! - and then they will deal with whatever else they have to, including sitting down with Max for an interview.

Jody believes Martin is a hardworking politician that has the best interests of his constituents at heart but truth told, she really doesn't care, so long as it doesn't interfere with her social standing within Washington society.  But as the wedding gets closer, the talk of scandals, investigations and subpoenas gets louder and Jody is upset that it will ruin "her" big day (really Charlotte's big day but Jody thinks of it as her own big day) and so she is angry with Martin.

A major event happens that changes the course of everything.  I would tell it here and it wouldn't really be a spoiler because it's disclosed in the amazon blurb and well, the title is a hint, but it's one of those things that I think the details are best read in the book, but things change when it happens.  And then towards the end of  the book several bombshell revelations occur that I didn't see coming.  It basically suggested that everyone in Washington has secrets and that they're stored up by others and used as leverage as needed.

I really enjoyed this book and found myself wanting to "read one more chapter" before I  . . . took the dog out, made dinner, etc.  Then I'd get to the end of the chapter and think "I can't stop now.  Just one more chapter."  In short, I read it pretty quickly because I wanted to see what happened next.  That said, I didn't find any of the characters particularly likeable.  Martin wasn't too bad but there was the cloud of potential scandal hovering over him so I wasn't fully invested in him - I was reserving judgment, so to speak.  Everyone seemed to love Charlotte but she wasn't a fully developed character and didn't really factor into things in the story - other than she was getting married "this weekend".

Between each chapter there was a "tip" on surviving in Washington, which I also found interesting.  As I read them, I wondered how legitimate they might be.  Then I read the acknowledgements at the end of the book (as I always do) and discovered that the author's husband actually did serve two terms in the House.  Interesting side note, an article on him accused him of breaking the law for trading stocks early in the pandemic.  He's also changed parties - started as a republican, became an independent before ultimately running as a democrat.  But I digress.

In any event, I feel comfortable recommending this book as I found it interesting and I enjoyed it.  :)

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Book Review Club - November 2022

 This month I will be reviewing Mad Money by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan.  This was a Good Morning America (GMA) book club recommendation that I listened to the audio book version of.

It's a story told from the perspectives of Olivia, who is Asher's mother, and Lily, who is Asher's girlfriend.  Olivia tells her story in chronological order but Lily tells hers in reverse order, which seemed a bit odd to me.  But considering Lily is found dead in Olivia's first chapter, I guess they had to decide how to tell her story and instead of starting two months prior to her death (where they ended), they started with the "day of" and worked backwards from there.

When the police arrived at Lily's house, after her death, Asher was there holding her body and there was evidence that he had moved her so he was a suspect in her death and that's what the bulk of the story revolves around.  Did Asher kill her?  Did he really just find her body as he says?  Was it just an accident?  We don't know.
 
Without giving too much away, there is a trial but here's the thing: a verdict is reached but that isn't the end of the story - there was actually still an hour left of audio to listen to AFTER the verdict.  That is to say, there is a plot twist.  I suspected that before the verdict came in but it went a different way than I expected (I think this option crossed my mind at one point but I was convinced of something else by the time I got to this point).

GMA had done an interview with the authors before I read it and at one point someone said "not to give away a plot point but . . . " and I just have to say, it definitely was a PLOT POINT - a pretty significant one, at that!  If they had not told it, it would've been a total shock when I got to that point in the book but, as it was, I was kind of like "oh, that's what they were talking about.  so?"

Overall it was a good story and I enjoyed listening to it but there were a few things (other than Lily's story being told in reverse order of occurrence) that took away from the story a bit.  For one, the language.  I'm not a particular fan of foul language so that bothered me.  Also, there was way too much information about what bees and beekeepers do.  It was like they did a deep dive in research into beekeeping and felt they didn't want to waste what they learned and dumped it into the book.  And it wasn't in a "to distract myself I . . . " with a detailed account of what she did.  It was a "the queen bee does this" and "the worker bee does that" in painstaking detail that added absolutely nothing to the story except length.  And this was done throughout the book.  Despite that, I still think it's worth a read / listen.  :)

For more book reviews, go to https://barriesummy.blogspot.com/index.html

Book Review Club - September 2022

Disclaimer:  I wrote this review last summer when the book review club was on hiatus.  I didn't have anything for this month so I'm recycling it now.

 I borrowed brat: an 80s story by Andrew McCarthy from my library (ebook) and read it in two days time - this includes watching a couple of the movies he talks about in the book as well!  It's worth noting that I had just finished reading Julianna Margulies' book, which took me the entire two weeks the library allows for ebook checkouts because I just couldn't get into it but forced myself to finish so that I didn't have to wait months to borrow it again (since there were others waiting for it).  

 

With Julianna's book I felt like it started very slow.  The writing wasn't great and the stories she was telling weren't all that interesting - at least for the first 1/3 of the book.  And I like Julianna - a lot - but her book wasn't the best memoir I've ever read.  I didn't feel like I learned anything new about her or her work.  And that's okay.

 

But to follow it up with Andrew's book - an actor I wouldn't call myself a fan of and who I constantly confuse with George Newbern - that I didn't want to put down, says something.

I loved this book.  He gives insight into who he is, how he became who he is and where that took him.  And the behind the scenes stories about movies he has been in were great.  

Andrew's father was against him going into acting, that is until he booked Class with Jacqueline Bisset and his father wanted Andrew to invite her to dinner. Ha!  (Andrew declined.)  He spoke about his relationship with his father throughout the book and his father's response to things related to Andrew's acting and income really strained their relationship.  Andrew found some peace with his father before his death but I don't think anything was truly resolved.

I'll be honest, I'm sure I've watched Class before decades ago but I couldn't have told you Andrew was in it.  I had a vague idea of the plot but (spoiler alert!) I would've bet everything that Rob Lowe was the one who slept with his friend's mother.  Before I read the background behind the movie, I watched the movie on some platform (HBO Max maybe?).  I believed his acting and thought he did a good job.  It was his first film and he had to develop some mechanisms to deal with the process itself.  I wouldn't have guessed that by the performance.

I actually had recorded Pretty in Pink a few months back.  Several things - I had no idea Andrew was in it.  As with Class, I'm sure I watched it decades ago but couldn't have told you the plot to save my life.  I knew Jon Cryer and Molly Ringwald were in it but that's about all I could've said for certain.  I also had expected that I would delete the movie without watching it because it's not really on the list of movies I thought I would want to watch (I have a few others of those on my DVR still, but that's a whole other story / issue).  I read the chapter on Pretty in Pink (actually the book's longest chapter) before I watched the movie.

Again, I liked the movie and his performance - I definitely believed him.  Now, without intending to give away any spoilers, the ending the movie has was not the original movie ending.  They screened the movie before release and the ending was a problem so they re-did the ending.  The problem was that Andrew was already working on his next job (on an off-Broadway production) and had shaved his head for that role.  As a result, the final scenes of the movie were shot with him wearing a wig.  

I'm so glad I knew that going in because it made me pay attention to that, whereas I wouldn't have noticed.  But that's part of the point of this - if I hadn't known it was a wig I don't think I would've thought it was a wig.  Since I did know though, it stood out like a sore thumb!  hahaha

Those are the only movies I've watched so far but HBO Max has some others of his movies that I plan to check out, now that I know the backstories (and some I haven't seen).  (Some of Weekend at Bernie's were ad libbed moments.  He thinks the sequel was a mistake.  Also another movie I know I've seen but I wouldn't have said he was in.)

He's also open about his drug and alcohol abuse.  He talks about missing the signs that it would be a problem for him - in hindsight he sees it very clearly.

Bottom line, I enjoyed this book and like Andrew better for having read it and will be less likely to confuse him with George in the future.  

 

I don't feel differently about Julianna - even though I didn't find her book all that engaging (I have read books before that completely changed my mind about someone negatively - this wasn't that . . . I just don't think she's the best storyteller, at least not in word form.  just my opinion.)

So there you go.  Kind of a twofer in book reviews, one I highly recommend (Andrew's) and one I don't recommend so much (Julianna's).  

😁

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Book Review Club - June 2022

 By way of disclaimer I just want to say that I typically write my reviews immediately after I read the book so that the details are fresh in my mind.  It's been a couple of weeks since I've read this book so I don't remember all the names of the characters, but I hopefully remember the right details.  :)

With that said, this month I will be reviewing All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M Morris.  All Her Little Secrets tells the story of Ellice Littlejohn - from her point of view.  Ellice works in the legal department of a corporation, is one of the only black people working for the organization and is having an affair with her boss, who she followed to the company after the both left the law firm they'd worked for previously.

The boss she's having an affair with is white and married.  They often meet at work before any other employees arrive at the office and that is the plan for the day when Ellice goes up to the 20th floor to meet her boss, only to find that he's been shot and is dead.

As Ellice tries to process the scene before her she remembers that there are no security cameras on the 20th floor so if she leaves, no one will ever know she had found him dead.  So she does just that - leaves and pretends she knows nothing because she doesn't want to be in the middle of something like this . . . again.

Then she gets offered the dead boss's job.  She says she would like to think about it before accepting, only to find out it was announced within hours of her being offered the job - before she could accept.  But it puts her in meetings with upper management.  When a particular topic gets brought up she starts to ask questions and gets told to basically mind her own business but it piques her curiosity and she starts digging further.

As she launches her own investigation into things she starts to receive threats and warnings that let her know that someone within the company knows all her secrets and may be trying to set her up to take the fall for the death of the boss in the office.  She also learns that the death hits closer to home than she realizes and she finds herself in a race to discover exactly what is going on before it's too late.

Periodically the story goes back in time to share events related to the "again" comment and tell you what she's been through and brought her to this point.

Overall, I thought it was a good book and definitely made me want to read further to find out what happened next - I could recommend it.  :)

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@Barrie Summy

Active Shooter

Have you ever had a situation that made your heart stop?  A few seconds that seemed to drag on for hours?  I'm thinking of a situation where maybe a child falls from the jungle gym at the park and you're paralyzed with fear of what will happen.  Or maybe your dog gets loose and runs right in front of a speeding car.  Until you know the child or pet is okay you experience an overwhelming sense of fear and it seems to last a lifetime, even though it's only a few seconds before you know the results.

Years ago I was working for a company that has offices all over the world.  Our particular office had just started having active shooter drills.  In the announcement for the drill it states that it is NOT a drill.  Normally when they would have drills the managers would be notified in advance so they could plan their day accordingly.

One day the announcement went off.  We learned later that someone had accidentally set it off (although, from what I'd heard, it would've been really hard for hit to have been an accident - but that's not the point here) but at the time, since no managers had been notified of a drill, there was more concern in the office that there was an actual active shooter situation.  Making matters worse, it was during the time of year where employees were being given performance feedback so the timing even made sense.

My office was outside my boss's office so we closed and locked my office door and went into her office and locked that door as well while she texted other managers (we weren't supposed to call or talk to anyone so that an active shooter wouldn't know if the office was vacant or not) to see if anyone knew anything about the situation.

Meanwhile, we had a visitor who worked in our office a couple of days a week.  She worked at another location within our company and their location had never done an active shooter drill so she was terrified of what was happening.  She closed and locked her door, crawled under her desk and started texting family members because 1) she wanted them to know she was okay - at least in that moment - before they heard about the active shooter at the company and 2) she wanted to be sure she was able to tell her loved ones that she loved them because she thought it might be her last opportunity to do so because she didn't know if she would make it home that night.

The "drill" went on for five or ten minutes and she was terrified for all of them.  They felt like an eternity, and it turns out it was a false alarm.

Then there's Uvalde.  It wasn't a drill.  Those students could hear the gunshots ringing out from other parts of the school.  Some saw their friends and teachers shot and killed.  Some called for help, desperate for help, begging for help.  The terror they felt was real and it was justified.  Parents and neighbors begged the police to go into the school and save the children.  Some parents tried to help the children themselves when the police refused.

The terror went on for more than an hour while the police waited outside and did nothing.  These are memories those children will never forget and will shape their lives going forward and it didn't have to be that way.

I read an article where a child psychologist talked to a child about Uvalde and the child said she didn't need to worry because they had drills and they knew what to do when this type of thing happened.  When, not if.

It may have been in the same article where another child told her parents about an active shooter drill at school and told her parents where she had to go so that when (again, when - not if) it happened at their school, they'd know where she was and could come get her.

One of the kids at Uvalde said he pretended to be dead so that the shooter wouldn't kill him.

These are things kids shouldn't have to be dealing with.  And yet, nothing is being done about it.  Governor Abbot in Texas has said it's not a gun issue but rather a mental health issue.  This from the man who cut funding to mental health programs and lifted most - if not all - restrictions on gun ownership.  And several years ago he posted a tweet saying he was embarrassed because Texas was #2 in gun purchases behind California and told Texans to step up their gun buying.

If you believe that our leaders should lead by example, what does Abbot's words and actions suggest we should do?  Nothing.

Republicans constantly complain, saying they're being silenced and being denied their first amendment right of freedom of speech but what I see is them trying to silence the opposition.  Did you see what the Republicans did to Beto O'Rourke when he tried to express himself - calmly, I might add - at a news conference recently?  He was told to shut up.  He was called a sick son of a bitch and told to get out and was removed from the venue, simply because they weren't willing to hear a side that didn't align with their own.

Additionally, Ted Cruz was approached in a restaurant after he spoke at the NRA convention Friday night.  One of his constituents tried to talk to him and he wasn't interested in a dialogue.  He told the guy he didn't know what he was talking about and blamed Democrats and the media for the shootings.  And then the guy was removed from the restaurant.  

From personal experience I know that Ted Cruz does NOT want to hear from his constituents.  Until a few months ago I was one of his constituents.  I wrote him on two separate occasions on two separate topics.  With the first one he didn't respond to me personally, he just added me to his newsletter mailer (which I promptly told him to remove me from!).  The second time he literally tried to gaslight me by telling lies in his response.  Apparently he considers his constituents ignorant and uninformed and thinks that because he says something that we will believe him.

I say it's time for change.  We need to vote out the leaders that turn a blind eye to senseless - and preventable - murders that continue to happen under their watch.  We need people like Beto O'Rourke who will fight for what's right and who isn't afraid to go up against people in power.

It it my sincere hope that the events of the last few months will motivate people who might not have otherwise voted in November to get out and vote.  And support the candidates (financially - with time - or any other way you can) who work for the people and not the interest groups that fund their campaigns because no child should have to endure one second of fear that they could be shot and killed, much less endure it for more than an hour., only to have their governor say "it could've been worse".

Book Review Club - April 2022

Nora Seed was having a bad day.  She gets home from work and a friend stops by and tells her that her cat is dead in the street, presumably having been hit by a car.  She goes to work the next day to have her boss inform her that he can no longer afford to pay her and he was going to have to let her go.  She leaves work and runs into an old friend who yells at her and tells her she ruined his life when she quit the band they were in.  She gets home and decides to kill herself, after all, who would care if she died?  Her best friend had moved away.  She'd called off her wedding two days before it was supposed to happen and she wasn't on good terms with her brother.  She'd had lots of opportunities to make something of her life - she was a great swimmer; she was a gifted singer / songwriter and had even considered philosophy and glaciology but she never followed through on things.

 

She left her brother a voicemail message telling him she loved him and wrote a letter and decided to die.

 

It was midnight and she "woke up" in a library.  It was being tended by the librarian from school, which Nora found odd.  But after speaking with Mrs. Elm (the librarian), she learned that she was at the midnight library.  Mrs. Elm explained that the books on the shelves were her life.  The biggest and heaviest book was her book of regrets.  At the midnight library, Nora would have the opportunity to go back and live any of the versions of her life that she chose to in order to see which one truly suited her.  She was advised to choose wisely because there were no guarantees - she could die in any of the other versions of her life and things would end immediately.

Any life she chose would take her to the exact date and time she arrived at the midnight library but her history would have changed, based on the choice she made.  For example, in one instance she returned to a life where she hadn't stopped swimming and changing that decision had changed everything that happened after that.  The problem was, she entered these alternate lives without the knowledge of the history that came with it so that she didn't know where she was, where she lived or who the people around her were.  On the plus side, once she realized she didn't want that life, she would return to the midnight library and get to experience another life.

I think we all have times in our lives that we wish we'd done differently and in The Midnight Library, Matt Haig gives a glimpse of how certain decisions can totally alter your life - and not always for the better.  One thing I liked about the writing is that the chapters were short - well most of them anyway.  It reminded me of how James Patterson writes in that the chapters are short so you're always willing to read just one more chapter, but there's such a big hook you kind of HAVE to read the next chapter. :)  Although, it did seem to lag in the middle and I felt that things were dragging out too much.  Then it picked up again and I couldn't put it down.

Overall it was an enjoyable read that was thought provoking and entertaining.  I would recommend it!

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