Monday's Postcard: NYC

For the 4th of July, I thought this image of the twin towers in New York City was pretty poignant. This postcard is from 1987 when my Granny visited the city with her church group.

New Years Resolution 2011: June Update

This photo is from the 1980's, reading and breakfast aboard my Dad's boat...

Reading is a great way to improve your vocabulary, here are some words that I found in books this past month that I did not recognize, or that I want to add to my daily lexicon:

raillery - Good-humored teasing
tulgey - Thick, dense, dark (originally in reference to a wood) credited to Lewis Carroll
inimical- Tending to obstruct or harm, unfriendly or hostile
tumbril - A two-wheeled cart, especially a farmer's cart
oligarchy - a small group of people having control of a country, organization or institution
hegemonic- ruling or dominant in a political or social context
comity -Courtesy and considerate behavior toward others, mutual courtesy; civility.
codified - Arrange according to a plan or system, To reduce to a code
lapidary - One who cuts, polishes, or engraves gems
aspidistra - A bulbous plant of the lily family, with broad tapering leaves, native to Asia and often grown as a houseplant
meretricious - Attractive but having in reality no value or integrity, attracting attention in a vulgar manner
koan- A paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning
micturition- urination


And here are the books I read in June:

Serenity Found: More unauthorized essays on Joss Whedon's Firefly Universe ed. Jane Espenson
Emily Alone by Stewart O'Nan (library)
One Day by David Nicholls (library)
All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris (library)
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley (library)
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff (library)
In Dublin's Fair City by Rhys Bowen (library)
Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult (library)
The Terror of Living by Urban Waite (library)
Tell Me Pretty Maiden by Rhys Bowen (library)
The Early Work of Philip K. Dick Volume II (library)
Dirty Secret: A daughter comes clean about her mother's compulsive hoarding by Jessie Sholl (library)
The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew (library)
From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris (library)
In a Gilded Cage by Rhys Bowen (library)
So Much Pretty by Cara Hoffman (library)
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Miss Zukas Shelves the Evidence by Jo Dereske
Ups and Downs: The misadventures of a crusty old fart and his bouncing son as they trek through the Alps by Don and David Kassin Fried
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
Hell at the Breech by Tom Franklin (library)


Stewart O'Nan, I'm a big fan and I tend to read everything he writes, so this one is his latest. Basically the story of a woman whose husband has died and most of her friends are dying and she is being left alone and how she deals with growing older and alone.

One Day by David Nicholls is a "When Harry Met Sally" type of story. We follow a couple from the day they meet and then revisit that one day in their lives every year for 20 years or so. They are together, they are apart, you get that little snippet of one day of the year to figure out their lives. Very gimmicky, but very enjoyable!

The Winter Sea is pretty much a historical/time travel/romance, but very well done. Scotland setting and Jacobite history.

Cleopatra, I was not familiar with her history...I had never studied it in school and reading this book felt a bit like being back in school. I found it a little dry at times, but Ms. Schiff takes the stereotypes and things you have heard about Cleopatra and looks at the historical record of what really could have happened. So I feel like I learned something.

Jodi Picoult, Sing You Home, again, I am a big fan and read everything that she writes. I have been on the waiting list at the library for this one for a while, but it was worth the wait. Gay Rights and Frozen Eggs/Embryos

The Terror of Living is a great thriller about drug runners along the PNW border with Canada. I read it in a mere four hours!!

Dirty Secret, I read a book about hoarders and hoarding in January, " Stuff: Compulsive hoarding and the meaning of things" by Randy O Frost and Gail Steketee and this book was also mentioned, there are more books in the bibliography of this book that have me fascinated about hoarding also, so I will be reading more of this type of stuff this summer.

The Dry Grass of August, If you liked "The Help", you need to try this book as well. A wonderful story of a family taking a vacation with their maid in the 1950's while Brown vs. Board of Education was being enforced in the South. Also reminded me a bit of "Summer of My German Soldier"...because the young female protagonist has more in common with her Black Nanny than her own family.

Philip Dick, I am continuing to read his short stories in this collection

More Harris and Bowen again this month, almost finished with these series! Also Serenity, another collection of essays about the Firefly TV series.

So Much Pretty got great reviews as a look at a murder in a small town. I found it hard to read. Each chapter is from a different character's point of view or a different piece of evidence. I had trouble figuring out the different voices and I would have to look again at the title of the chapter to see who was supposed to be speaking. Also there is much flashback information from the past and again, I would have to refer to the titles of the different chapters to make sure I could figure out what the heck was going on, is this the past, the near past, the current day? It was confusing. All in all, it was hard to enjoy the book because it was such a difficult read. I read about 2/3 of it before I could enjoy it. Loved the ending. But it was a lot of work for just a thriller type book.

Something Borrowed is Chick Lit and was made into a movie, haven't seen the movie yet and I will be interested to see what parts of the book made it onto film.


Miss Zukas is written by a local PNW author and one of my favorite "cozy" mystery series. She's a librarian in a small Washington town that seems to resemble Bellingham, WA. She is very stoic and terse, but through the course of the series, she has been opening up and it is hard not to like her.

The Body Finder is a YA book. The plot (sub-plot?) of the boy who was my best friend, but now I want him to kiss me...and will he ask me to the prom? (or homecoming dance in this case) is very familiar to this genre. But the twist here is the heroine of our story has a sixth sense where she can find dead things. Animals and People. A serial killer is abducting young girls in her neighborhood and she is key to finding the bodies and eventually the killer.

Ups and Downs is a fun travel memoir of a father and son who trek through the Alps. If you like Bryson's A Walk in the Woods or if you like reading Ryan's accounts of his AT and PCT treks, this would be a book that you would enjoy! I found it at a used bookstore on my Denver layover this month and read it in mere hours on the way home.

Hell at the Breech is based on a true story from 1890's Alabama. Mr. Franklin writes very descriptively, not beautiful, but gritty and violent. An accidental shooting sets off a feud between the poor white share-croppers and the rich landowners, with the sheriff stuck in the middle, trying to keep the peace. It sucked me in and I couldn't look away, like a car wreck!

Another plus for reading so much! My local library is having a summer reading event and for every 3 books you read, you can enter to win a Nook! How cool is that?

21 books in June

West Seattle Murals

West Seattle has a bunch of great murals and they have been featured in the book West Seattle 101 and on the West Seattle Blog .

(The Barnecut's Mural isn't included in the original 11 West Seattle historical murals.)

The Murals of West Seattle were created to represent images of West Seattle’s past. Spearheaded by Earl Cruzen and funded by a partnership between the West Seattle Junction Association, the City of Seattle’s Neighborhood Grants Program, and many local businesses, The 11 Murals employed gifted artists from all over the United States and the project won a national Neighborhood of the Year Award from Neighborhoods, USA in 1992.

1. West Seattle Ferries

2. The Junction

3. Midnight call

4. Mosquito Boat Land

5. The First Duwamish Bridge

6. Morgan Street Market

7. Alki in the Twenties

8. Tuesday’s Bank Day

9. The Hi-Yu Parade

10. The Old Mud Hole

11. Press Day

I was out and about today and got some photos of some of the murals that were not pictured on West Seattle Blog.


MOSQUITO BOAT LANDING

Located at California and Alaska, this mural depicts a 1910 Sunday landing of the S.S. Clan McDonald at Alki. The paddle-wheeled vessel provided the major form of turn-of-the-century transportation around Puget Sound.

MIDNIGHT CALL

Painted by local artist Don Barrie, this mural was created from an old photograph of a horse-drawn rig leaving the Junction Station from its mural location at 44th and Alaska. It has a 3-D element which is really cool, but it needs refurbishing, it is quite faded.

TUESDAY’S BANK DAY

Anyone who can recollect school days of the ’20s knows all about “bank day.” This mural is located at California and Oregon (on the north side of the Chase bank building) and depicts a 1923 classroom as students line up to make “deposits.”

PRESS DAY

This mural depicts the West Seattle Herald pre-WWII. It is located on 44th between Alaska and Edmunds.

The Old Mud Hole

Located at 44th and Alaska, this mural depicts the swimming pool in Lincoln Park installed by local philanthropist Laurence Colman. A tide gate filled the pool with saltwater from Puget Sound.

The heated, saltwater Colman Pool began as a tide-fed swimming hole in 1929, and was periodically hosed out by the fire department to rid it of accumulating mud and debris. It became so popular that residents began asking for a concrete bottom and sides - much to the chagrin of the city, which wanted to abandon it entirely. The pool took final concrete form in 1941, when Kenneth Colman, son of Laurence, donated $150,000 to have it built in honor of his father.

Monday's Postcard: Catalina Island

I have fond memories of traveling over to Catalina Island on the ferry from Newport Beach with my niece and my Dad. We met with my Stepmom from her cruise ship and we took a golf cart around the island. It was great fun.

Monday's Postcard: Denver

Another favorite layover. This card is from 1994 and we still flew into Stapleton International Airport. The new Denver International Airport opened in 1995. There was a kiosk at Stapleton where you could get caramel corn and regular popcorn mixed together. Not at the new airport. I loved that stuff, now I have to create it myself by buying both caramel and regular. I have been enjoying Denver layovers again this summer!!

Wild Card: Coconut Grove, Miami

Happy Father's Day! This "wild card" is from my Dad and shows the Coconut Grove Marina where he lived for several years on his boat.

Monday's Postcard: Rome

One of my favorite layovers in Europe is Rome and I love to wander around and look at all the fountains there. Here is one of my favorites in the Piazza Navona. This is also the location of a wonderful Christmas Market during the holiday season.

Monday's Postcard: Davidson, NC

Here is a postcard of The Chapel at Davidson College. I got this card from my Granny in 1995. "what a lovely morning" she says. She always could see the bright side of things. I hope I can always be as optimistic and happy as my Granny.

New Years Resolution 2011: May Update

What do you like to read at the beach? Classics? Thrillers? Tearjerkers? Trash novels? I am a fan of the HUGE epic novel, give me Gone with the Wind, or Anna Karenina...Outlander or Pillars of the Earth, I want 600 pages or more of sweeping drama! Something that totally transports me to another world for days!!


Also I have started adding if books are from the Library or not, because I think that most of my books do come from the library. This month all the purchased books came from used bookstores, except for the Butch Cassidy book, purchased at the Territorial Prison Museum gift shop in Cheyenne.


Here are the books I read in May, and not a saga among them,:

Don't Look Behind You by Lois Duncan
In Search of Butch Cassidy by Larry Pointer
Once Upon a Time There was You by Elizabeth Berg (library)
Finding Serenity: Anti-heros, Lost shepards and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly ed. Jane Espenson
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris (library)
Black Widow by Randy Wayne White
Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America By Peter Biskind (library)
Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris (library)
Oh Danny Boy by Rhys Bowen (library)
I don't know how she does it: The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother By Allison Pearson (library)
Good Behavior by Donald Westlake
The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear (library)
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (library)
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson (library)
The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood
ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
The Veiled One by Ruth Rendell
House of Prayer No. 2 by Mark Richard (library)
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (library)
Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne (library)
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris (library)
A Widow's Story by Joyce Carol Oates (library)




I got the Butch Cassidy book while we were on our Road Trip from NC to WA. We stopped at the Wyoming Territorial Prison Museum (which was terrific) and Butch Cassidy had been there for almost 2 years, July1894-January 1896. This book is about whether or not Cassidy was really killed in Bolivia (like in the movie with Robert Redford and Paul Newman) or if he returned to the USA and went straight for the rest of his life, dying in Washington State of cancer. Lots of evidence compared and contrasted. Fascinating!!

Continuing to read the different series by Bowen, Harris and Winspear. I have noticed that the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris are best read in order. The ones this month, Dead as a Doornail and Definitely Dead really have a lot of characters that you have met in previous books and to understand all the relationships between the different characters, it really helps if you have read the other books first.

Don't Look Behind You is a YA thriller and by the same author who wrote "I Know What You Did Last Summer"--bet you didn't know that one was a book first too!!! :-) And she also wrote "Hotel for Dogs" which was also made into a movie.

Elizabeth Berg writes "chick lit" often very sad, tear jerkers! I love her stuff and this one was not my favorite of hers (I like her period ones about the 1940's better) but it was good.

The Unnamed is about a man struggling with his mental health and the toll it takes on his marriage and his relationship with his daughter.

Black Widow by Randy Wayne White is a murder mystery set in Florida (Sanibel Island area). When I lived down there, my boyfriend at the time was drinking in a local bar and met the author! He got some books signed for me and I continue to read the latest by White whenever they come out, I am a bit behind as this is book number 16 in the Doc Ford Series and number 18 is out in hardback right now!

Star is Warren Beatty's biography, I have been on a biography kick, I read J.D. Salinger's last month and I want to read the new Rob Lowe autobiography....There is a new one out about Robert Redford too!

The Serenity book is a collection of a bunch of essays about the Firefly Television series and movie, Serenity directed by Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame.

Good Behavior by Donald Westlake, these are really fun heist novels. His Dortmunder series is great and I had not read this one yet. Lots of his stuff has been made into movies and there is a lot of action and comedy.

Started Early Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson, I am a huge fan and read everything by her when it comes out. She's British, and her books are set in England with a British Private Eye as the protagonist. This one concerns adoption and a woman trying to find out about her birth parents.

Charlie St. Cloud was made into a movie with Zac Efrom. Ben Sherwood also wrote "The Man who ate the 747". Very weepy, reminiscent of Nicholas Sparks' stuff.

Another Agatha Christie and another Ruth Rendell made the mix I always have these around in paperback for reading on the airplane.

House of Prayer No. 2, another southern memoir like "Little Boy Blues" by Malcolm Jones that I read earlier this year. I just am drawn to southern authors!
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is also a southern story with a really good mystery at it's core. Totally enjoyed it and read it in mere hours!!

Empire of the Summer Moon is a great non-fiction book about the Comanche Indians. Lots of fascinating history of Texas and the Indian Wars of the 1800's.

A Widow's Story is a look at the devastation that a death can have to your life. I read Joan Didion’s "The Year of Magical Thinking" previously and this is another look at that topic.

22 books in May

Monday's Postcard: Blind Pass

This is an aerial view of Blind Pass between Captiva and Sanibel Island, Florida. My parents were boating along the west coast of Florida in the late 90's.

Monday's Postcard: Alaska

Such a cute postcard of Alaska. I got this one in 2010 when we started flying from Philadelphia to Anchorage. One of my new favorite layovers!!

Monday's Postcard: Disneyworld

Disneyworld 1981. Epcot was brand new and I was a little old for Disney at 15, but still loved it. Continued to go back again and again all through high school and college. Any excuse to visit the mouse :-) Inspired to post this one by my cousins recent visit!

Monday's Postcard: New Zealand

In 1995, I had the great opportunity to travel to New Zealand and stay with friends of my parents on a sheep farm. It was great fun. I was there during March which was the end of their summer.

Wild Card: Panama

Happy Mother's Day! This "wild card" postcard is from Panama. Ryan and I visited in 2005 to see an Eclipse and now my stepmom is living down there! Pretty cool

Monday's Postcard: Yosemite

Can you believe that I have never been to Yosemite? Not yet anyway....this is a postcard from my sister from 2003. El Capitan.

New Years Resolution 2011: April Update

Super creative, a bench made of books! I want one at my house :-)

I had mentioned last month that I also read magazines and someone wanted to know what magazines I read, well Ryan and I have subscriptions to Entertainment Weekly and Newsweek and Backpacker, but I also get magazines that are left onboard the airplane and at a magazine exchange at our local library, and our used book store also sells used magazines for 25 cents. So I get them there too. Most months I read those previous three I mentioned and Sunset, Outside, The New Yorker, Smithsonian, Southern Living, Discover, Astronomy, O, Time, Esquire, Redbook, Allure, Elle, Glamour, Us, People, Ladies Home Journal, Real Simple, In Touch, Self, Woman's Day, Consumer Reports, Seattle and Good Housekeeping.

Other magazines that I might read only a couple of times a year are New York, Popular Mechanics, Fitness, Men's Health, Travel and Leisure, Town and Country, Vanity Fair (great article about Rob Lowe this month!), Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Outdoor Photographer, Just Cross Stitch, Reader's Digest, Islands, Coastal Living, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Cross Stitcher, Firsts, Country Living and Memory Makers Magazine. I am sure that there are many more that I am not thinking of at the moment...I will often pick up a scrapbooking or cross-stitch magazine at craft stores like Michaels or if Ryan and I are going on a special trip somewhere, we might pick up some magazines to read on the plane as a special treat.

Here are the books I read in April, Thanks so much to everyone who sent me boxes of books for my birthday!:

Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear library
Club Dead by Charlaine Harris library
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell library
Sins of the Fathers by Ruth Rendell library
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris library
All We Ever Wanted was Everything by Janelle Brown library
The Best Man to Die by Ruth Rendell
Paris Wife by Paula McLain library
An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear library
Squirrel seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris library
The Early Work of Philip K. Dick Volume One: The Variable Man and other stories library
J. D. Salinger: A Life by Kenneth Slawenski library
Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen
Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King library
The Winter of Our Disconnect by Susan Maushart library
For the Love of Mike by Rhys Bowen library
At Home: A short history of private life by Bill Bryson
Burning Bright by Ron Rash library
Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear library
In Like Flynn by Rhys Bowen library
Heat Wave by Richard Castle

Cloud Atlas was very interesting. I started it and was not sure if I liked it or not, but the more I got into it, the more I liked it. It felt a lot like a collection of stories, but they all intertwined and circled back to each other. In the end I was fascinated. It was a finalist for the Booker Prize. The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary award for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland or Zimbabwe each year. Previous winners are The Remains of the Day, The English Patient, and Life of Pi. Since 2001, they have revealed the runners up. The year Cloud Atlas was a finalist (2004), The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst won the Booker.

The Ruth Rendell mysteries are great, these are Inspector Wexford ones that were also made into a series on British TV. More Jacqueline Winspear this month and more of the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, the Molly Murphy mysteries by Rhys Bowen too, I will be reading more of these all through the summer.

All We Ever Wanted was Everything is a story about divorce. Very much a chick lit type of book....depressing not funny, similar to Picoult, Shreve or O'Nan, but I enjoyed it.

Philip K. Dick....can you believe I haven't read Philip K. Dick??? Neither could I! The author of Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall!! This is a collection of his short stories.

I enjoyed Paris Wife quite a bit and will probably be rereading some Hemingway now. It is the story of Hemingway's first marriage told from the point of view of his wife, Hadley Richardson.

David Sedaris, I am a huge fan and found this selection of stories pretty funny (and disturbing too) I would love to see Sedaris read in person.

Starvation Heights is a non-fiction telling of the murder trial of an Olalla, WA doctor who ran a sanitarium where folks were starved to death. She (a female doctor in 1910!!) advocated fasting as a remedy for most all disease. It promised to be a spooky and exciting tale, but soon became mired in the notes of the trial.

Stephen King, I am always a huge fan and happy to say that these stories are much better than some of the books he has had out lately! Creepy stuff, highly recommended!!

J.D. Salinger, again, I am a huge fan, so of course fascinated by this biography. I am always intrigued when people acquire fame and then hate it so much.

Bill Bryson, Huge fan! :-) and gave me lots of ideas for other books to read!

The Winter of Our Disconnect has me wishing I could disconnect a little more. If I wasn't blogging, watching reality TV online and playing games on Facebook, I'd have more time for reading :-) A mom with 3 teenagers pulls the plug on Electricity (for 4 weeks!!) and on Cell Phones, Video Games, Ipods, TVs, and Internet for a total of 6 months. This is her story. There were loopholes, one daughter basically went to live with her dad (they are divorced) for much of the time and the kids could use internet, play games etc. at their friend's houses or internet cafes. They were also forced to use libraries to complete homework assignments on the internet. But all in all, it was an interesting experiment and I enjoyed this book.

Burning Bright is a selection of short stories by a NC author. Very Appalachia, much like Winter's Bone in the tone. Very good though, quite enjoyed.

Heat Wave by Richard Castle is a promotional book created for the ABC tv series Castle. I hate to say it is a "fake book" but it is... and entertaining none the less. Wonder who the ghost writer is??? Of course I was grinning all through the reading and looking for parallels to the tv show. I catch maybe every other episode of the TV show, so I am not 100 percent clued in to all the nuances of Beckett and Castle. But I think you can get a lot out of the book that maybe you don't catch while watching the show. It is told from "Nicki Heat/Beckett"'s viewpoint, and of course is written by "Castle/Rook" (Rook is the writer character in the book) A fictional world within a fictional world! I love stuff like that.

21 books


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Monday's Postcard: Winchester Mystery House

One of my favorite places!! In San Jose, CA, the Winchester Mystery House. I visited here as an impressionable preteen and it spoke to all my imaginings of mystery and spookiness and ghosts and obsession! I just love this place. And I really enjoy these type of Now and Then photos.

Wild Card: Mont Saint-Michel

Happy Easter and enjoy this "wild card" of Mont Saint Michel, one of my favorite places in France! Absolutely amazing. My sister and I spent the night on the Mont in 1996. I was inspired to visit by Disney World. If you go to Epcot and visit the France Pavilion, they have a 360 degree film of France. I was blown away by Mont Saint Michel and it immediately made the the top of my life list of places to visit.

Monday's Postcard: the Old Charlotte Coliseum

Wow, now a vacant field, here is what the Charlotte Coliseum used to look like out near the airport. The city skyline is a bit different now too! This postcard is from 1989.

Glass Fun Part II

Oh my, just got a box from Virginia today in the mail! Two of our glass projects were included....one is still in transit. But for those who were curious, here is Ryan's finished Chicken! And my Nancy Drew themed Suncatchers!

Monday's Postcard: Thailand

This is a postcard of the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market outside of Bangkok. I went there with my stepmother in the spring of 1994 and it was just a riot of colors and smells and sounds.

Stained Glass Fun at the Nancy Drew convention

So last week while in Charlottesville, VA for a Nancy Drew convention,
we went to a place called The Glass Palette - Interactive Glass Art Studio
It was so interesting. Like one of those paint your own pottery places. You could just walk in off the street, no classes, no reservations and create a "stained glass" masterpiece. Everything is food and dishwasher safe too!! Amazing.
Why were we making our own glass creations you ask? Well, the theme of the Charlottesville Convention was The Hidden Window Mystery. Nancy Drew is looking for a lost stained glass window that came over from England and has been lost for centuries.
She believes that the Charlottesville area is the perfect place to search for this window. While in Virginia, she tours Monticello and Ashlawn, so we did that too. She also goes canoeing, but we didn't do that. Sometimes you just can't fit in all the Nancy Drew activities!!
Most of the folks at the convention created Peacock stained glass items. Again a nod to the Nancy Drew book. In the book, peacocks at an old southern mansion are considered spooky and mysterious. Also the Hidden Window of the book's title depicts a knight with a peacock on his shield. The cover of the Original Nancy Drew book also features a peacock.


Here are some examples of before and after firing of one of the pieces made by our group. Gina Travis created this peacock and it will be molded into a "sushi dish". We had several different options of items to make from dishes and jewelry to sun-catchers and picture frames. The prices depend on the size of the item you want to make. Everything was very reasonably priced. It is not true stained glass, but fused glass. The pieces of glass are melted together in a kiln.
It was so much fun to work with the glass pieces. We had tools for cutting the glass into smaller pieces and there were so many colors!! There were even little sparkly sand like pieces that created some interesting effects.

I enjoyed the glass making place so much that I took Ryan back there after the convention was over to make some more glass items. I knew that he would enjoy it too. Ryan decided to create a Chicken for his mom!















I was hoping that there would be some place similar in the Seattle area but it seems like most places don't let you just drop in and work, you have to take scheduled classes, but if you are interested in making your own "stained glass" creations here is a list of some places all over the country: Glass Fusionplaces

Tea Bricks? Who knew??

I am a huge fan of tea. In the past week I have encountered a type of tea that I never knew existed before! The tea brick. It was featured on the Amazing Race. And during a tour to Monticello and Ashlawn in Charlottesville, VA, they demonstrated how to use a tea brick, saying that this was the type of tea that would have been used in the New World during the 1700's. Tea Bricks would have been the tea that was thrown into Boston Harbour during the Boston Tea Party. Not tea bags, not loose tea. Supposedly, the tea bricks can be transported easily and won't succumb to the elements (mold and wet) the way loose tea would.

The bricks have sections imprinted onto them and could be broken up and used as currency and in trade. I had been to Monticello in previous years and did not remember this part of the tour! It seems like all of a sudden there is this interest in the authentic tea brick that was not there previously.

The Amazing Race did not show you how you used the tea brick. You would grate the tea off of the brick and into your cup and add the hot water!

So of course, I bought a tea brick and I can't wait to try it!!

Monday's Postcard: Greektown, Detroit

This postcard is from a layover that I had in Detroit in the early 90's. We went to Greektown for dinner. I just remember the food being wonderful!!

New Years Resolution 2011: March Update

This photo is at an awesome book sculpture in downtown Charlotte, NC

Some folks were wondering where I get the idea to read certain books. For new books and current authors, my favorite resources are magazines. Entertainment Weekly, The New Yorker and even People and Elle magazine. They all have book reviews of new stuff that is coming out. I will also see blurbs about books in newspapers and USAToday. If it interests me, I will write it down and then I go and reserve it at the library. If the library doesn't have it, then I will look for it when I go to used bookstores. I will also check out the staff recommendations at bookstores and libraries.
Once I enjoy an author, I will then seek out everything they have written and read it all. Sometimes I will just see a book in a store and be intrigued by the cover or the title and just pick it up. I also rely on recommendations from friends and family. By the way, in addition to reading books every day, I also read magazines and newspapers! Like anyone else, sometimes I just can't keep my mind in a book. So then I like to read something quick, magazines are great for this (and I also read short story collections for this reason as well)

Here are the books that I read in March:

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell library
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Possum Living: How to Live well without a Job and with (almost) no money by Dolly Freed library
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear library
Grifter's Game by Lawrence Block library
Bad Move by Linwood Barclay library
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris library
Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen library
Little Boy Blues by Malcolm Jones library
Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear library
Death of Riley by Rhys Bowen library
Stories from the Twilight Zone by Rod Serling
Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler library
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham library
Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear library
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown library
A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris library
The Bird Man and The Lap dancer by Eric Hansen
The Sinus Cure: 7 simple steps by Debra Fulghum Bruce and Murray Grossan, MD library
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
At Random the Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf library
Maud the Life of L.M. Montgomery by Harry Bruce
What the Dogs have taught Me by Merrill Markoe
Black Book of Secrets by F. E. Higgins
The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay
Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein library


The Wordy Shipmates is about the Puritans who came to America and settled in the Boston and Plymouth areas. It was okay, I enjoyed another book better. A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz. It is about what happened in North America between 1492 when Columbus arrived and 1620 when the Pilgrims came. It is 100 years of history that we pretty much ignore most of the time. I will say that Sarah Vowell is an entertaining writer and I did enjoy her slant on her subject. But much of the book was very dry, I hate to say, boring.

Winter's Bone, you might have heard of the movie, the actress was up for an academy award....the book was great and I plan to read more from this author.

A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley, this book was a birthday present and the third in a new YA series that I absolutely love!! Flavia De Luce is a wonderfully fun and clever heroine. "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" is the first in this series.

Maisie Dobbs is the start of a murder mystery series set in post WWI England. I enjoyed it a lot and will be reading the rest of these books by this author. It was very similar to another series I started reading last year by Charles Todd featuring a WWI Nurse, Bess Crawford. The first book in the Bess Crawford series is "A Duty to the Dead" and I look forward to reading more of those also!

Little Boy Blues is a memoir of a man raised in 1950's NC. Being from North Carolina I enjoyed it. If you were raised in the south, you will see lots of similarities. I always enjoy southern writers for the familiarity that I have with their subject. I already KNOW all these characters, I have eaten the same food and been to the same places.

Dead Until Dark is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series that the True Blood HBO TV series is based upon. I watched the first season of True Blood, so now I am going back and reading the books that the TV series is based on.

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham This one was made into a movie in 2006 with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton.

Maud the Life of L. M. Montgomery is a biography. I was rereading the Anne books and realized that I had never read a biography of L. M. Montgomery, even though I have visited Prince Edward Island (where Montgomery is from and where the Anne books are set)!!

The Weird Sisters I recommend. I enjoyed it a lot. If you have a sister (or sisters), if you like reading, if you like Shakespeare. Reminded me a little of some Jane Smiley or Carol Shields. Great descriptive passages: "Bean pulled a heavy towel from the stack of laundry, unwinding it from the lascivious position it had gotten into with a pillowcase." I just love stuff like that!

At Random the Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf, I got the idea to read this book from a documentary I watched about the history of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. They mentioned a "Bennett Cerf Joke Book," so I went online looking for info about Bennett Cerf and found this book at my local library. It is his autobiography, turns out he was one of the founding fathers of Random House book publishing. The book is an amazing account of his adventures meeting famous writers like Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, Theodore Dreiser, Dorothy Parker, William Faulkner and many many more. I was captivated.

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Monday's Postcard: Campobello Island

Campobello Island is a lovely place in New Brunswick, Canada. It is attached to the United States by a bridge at the easternmost tip of Maine. Franklin D. Roosevelt had a summer home on the island and it is now a wonderful park and museum. I went there with my Granny in 1994.

Monday's Postcard: Boeing Field Airplanes

This is a postcard of Seattle's Boeing Field with the brand new airplanes lined up and ready for delivery to their airlines. Notice the America West and Piedmont planes lined up side by side!! gotta be early 80's.

Wild Card: Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland

Happy St. Patrick's Day and here is a "wild card" from Ireland! I was on a homestay in Bray in 1986. I just last year reconnected with my host family who are now living in Scotland! Shout out to Barry, Derek and Lana Lord! Hope to be seeing more of you guys in 2011 and beyond. This was another wonderful educational opportunity. I highly recommend it for high school age children.

Monday's Postcard: Fort Wayne, IN

This is downtown Fort Wayne, IN. This postcard is from my Grandmother Arkebauer, written to me in 1982 when I was away at an academic summer camp. My Grandmother Arkebauer lived in Fort Wayne and I didn't get to see her as often as my Granny Knox who lived in North Carolina where I grew up. I was at the Governor's School of North Carolina for the summer and it was a great honor and opportunity, but when you are 15 years old, you aren't really thinking about your future, you are more likely thinking about the cute boys that you can meet at Governor's School. I attended at a small college in the middle of nowhere (Laurinburg) NC. And it was very exciting to receive mail. Obviously, I kept this postcard from that time in my life. I must say that looking back, even though I was only interested in meeting boys, Governor's School did a lot to prepare me for college and I made a lot of great friends there.

Monday's Postcard: The Maldives

Extra points to all you folks who can point to the Maldives on a map. I didn't know where it was until my Dad started flying there. He would have 4 day layovers in paradise. Definitely on the bucket list of places to visit!

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New Years Resolution 2011: February Update

These pictures are of a book vending machine!! How cool is that??!! This is at an airport in Europe.

Folks were asking WHEN do I read? I commute to work from Seattle to Philadelphia. The flights are usually around 5 hours or so give or take. Plus with getting to the airport an hour prior and getting into Philadelphia several hours prior to when I actually go to work, I have lots of downtime to read. I ALWAYS have a book with me. I cannot sit and wait without something to read. Doctor's office, getting on oil change, waiting for a friend at a restaurant etc. And when I am not wasting time on facebook or watching reality tv....it's the season for Amazing Race and America's Next Top Model, not to mention Survivor!!!, when I am not wasting my time watching tv (usually catching up after the fact online--thank goodness for CBS.com), I am usually reading. And I will definitely reread books that I have enjoyed. Especially if it has been 10 years or more since I read them....for example, in February, I reread 1984. I had not read it since high school/ college.

Still keeping track of the books that I read in 2011, here are all the books that I read in February:

Primal Threat by Earl Emerson
1984 by George Orwell
Great Son by Edna Ferber library
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd library
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe library
Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
Murder in the Marketplace by Lora Roberts
Loitering with Intent by Stuart Woods library
Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery
Norwood by Charles Portis
The Wild Cat Crime by Carolyn Keene
Pit of Vipers by Carolyn Keene
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell library
Christmas Mourning by Margaret Maron library
The Tinder Box by Minette Walters library
Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
How Evan Broke His Head and other secrets by Garth Stein library
The Confession by John Grisham library
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro library


I loved The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein and will be looking for other books that he has written.
Edna Ferber wrote Giant and Showboat. Great Son is about a Seattle family, found this book while just cruising thru a local used book store. Lots of interesting Seattle history from pre-WWII
Ordinary Thunderstorms was pretty entertaining. It is a fictional thriller that might give you a different view of homelessness! It inspired me to reread the Lora Roberts mysteries, her protagonist was homeless in the first book in this series (Murder in a Nice Neighborhood)
The Carolyn Keene books are Nancy Drew books I was reading and thinking about writing an article about for one of the fanzine's
Never Let Me Go has been made into a movie with Keira Knightly. I got into a rant last year because I read The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist and got it confused with Never Let Me Go because they do have similiar themes. (I will say that I prefered The Unit) The Unit revolved around a 50 year old woman and I was going off because I thought they had Keira Knightly doing this role..changed the whole thing for younger actors etc. Turns out, I was thinking of the wrong book. :-)
PS Here is my RANT:


"The Unit is being made into a movie as we speak. I am not too happy about this and i will tell you why. The book was wonderful I enjoyed it immensely. The synopsis is that once you reach the age of 50, if you have not reproduced and if you do not have a job that is deemed indispensable then you are sent to the UNIT and you are used as a lab rat for tests and your organs are farmed out to people who are more worthy..until you make the final sacrifice and donate your heart or lungs etc. (*In Never Let Me Go,the people being farmed for organs are clones, created for this purpose) It seems that artists are not deemed worthy and most of the folks in the UNIT are artists, writers, store clerks, film critics and librarians etc.
I am not happy about the movie because I heard it is starring Keira Knightly and some other 20-somethings. OKAY. This is a novel about how you are not worthy if you live your life without procreating. I don't know how they are going to change it so that the 20 year olds are sent to the Unit. But the book was awesome in that it made you question your choices in life and the decisions that you make. To have a child or not,
what kind of career you pursue etc etc."

*I added this info so you would know the differences between the books
Again, I preferred The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist. Maybe I could emphasize better with the 50 year olds than with the school children of Never Let Me Go.

Ryan and I both just finished The Confession by Grisham and were pretty underwhelmed. Grisham's books were so great in the beginning because there was a lot of action and things just moved! Now they are sort of slow and this one for me just never zipped along. I could barely care about the characters.

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