Really not ready to be back at work.
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While were on the subject of books, I signed up for the Amazon Associates club, which means that if you click on any of the book images or links (in the book portion of the site), they’ll take you to Amazon, and if you buy that book, I’ll get a few pennies towards an Amazon gift certificate. I don’t yet have links for everything, but I’m getting there.

The King’s Peace (2000) and The King’s Name (2001) by Jo Walton

In actuality, there are really three books in two. The first book, The King’s Peace is actually two books, “The King’s Peace” and “The Kings Law” which are just a little shorter than the second book, The King’s Name.

The tale is a history of a world that is similar to, but not exactly, the British Isles, so there is a sense of familiarity, without actually being something real.

Read More about The King’s Peace and The King’s Name

A Stitch in Time (2000) Andrew J. Robinson

Okay, before you say anything, I admit it, this is a Star Trek book. And I don’t even have the excuse of it being a movie novelization.

All I can say is that Garak is my absolute favorite DS9 character, and I felt that they never did as much with him as they could–everything you learned just left you with more questions. So when I read that Andrew Robinson, the actor who had played Garak, wrote a book telling the backstory he had created for Garak… well, I’m a sucker.

Read More about A Stitch in Time

Good Omens (1990) Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Good Omens is one of my all time favorite books, and one that I’d take with me to be stranded on a desert island, because it’s funny.

Really funny.

With lots of passages that make me giggle, and even laugh out loud, not just when I read them, but even when I go back and think about them later.

Read more about Good Omens

We had a fun, although busy time in Baltimore. We made a trip to Va to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins; we visited Cousin Pat and Aunt Doris; we rewired half the lights in Grandmom’s basement to put them on switches instead of pull chains; we went to the National Aquarium; and we ate seafood. (Of course.)

The visits with family were very nice. My cousins are always a lot of fun, and it made up for the extra short visit we had the week before.

I was surprised by the aquarium though. Despite the fact that we’re in Baltimore several times a year, I haven’t been to the National Aquarium since it opened. I have to admit that I think I like the Newport Aquarium better. I think newport does a better job making the big tanks look like a natural environment instead of a cement tank. But the rainforest section was nice, and we would have stayed there longer if it weren’t for the screaming school kids. Amusingly enough, while we were looking at the poison dart frogs, several groups of kids ran up said “Oh, frogs. Big deal,” and ran on. They’re POISONOUS frogs! Frogs in amazing technicolor!

They didn’t know what they were missing.

We also quite liked the dolphin show. Dolphins are amazing creatures. Seeing them, and knowing how intelligent they are, I wonder how they get caught, and what they think about being held in captivity. They seemed to have plenty of trainers though, and the program talked about all the training they dolphins do, and a good deal about ocean conservation, and, interestingly enough, they had two videos screen that showed bits about training, but also showed two brief video clips of people in boats being bitten by wild dophins, which seemed a very wise thing to do, all things considered.

We also walked around the inner harbor a bit–we spent about 5 hours downtown all told–and I was surpirsed by a couple of things. First was at how clean the area around the harbor was. Of course this is March, and wasn’t nice weather for spending a lot of time outside by the water, but they seemed pretty aggressive about keeping the place clean, which impressed me.

The other thing that surprised me was the number of happy people we saw. We had lunch at Legal Seafood, and got a seat by the window, where I watched people walking by, and for the most part, the people walking by were in groups, chatting with each other. I guess I expected on Monday at lunch time to see people rushing from one place to another, hardly paying attention to one another, but that wasn’t what I saw.

Mind you, I still have no interest in living in a city that large, but it wasn’t nearly as grim as I would have expected.

All in all, it was a very pleasant trip, and we had a very good time. And now I plan to spend the rest of my time off from work reading, as I managed to add more books to my collection.

New books: A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, A Stitch in Time by Andrew J. Robinson, Byzantium by Stephen R. Lawhead, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Sister Nivedita, Favorite African Folktales edited by Nelson Mandela, Lucious Lemon Desserts, and three mysteries by Michael Jecks that I left in Baltimore for Grandmom to read.

Finally:

I finally got decent pictures of my favorite section of I 68: Lane Ends

Pictures of the aquarium and stuff we did to Grandmom’s house and some random pictures.

Bit and pictures from the trip to Baltimore coming eventually.

You know what? I like having a car that’s under warranty.

Heard a strange, high pitched, whining noise, only a speeds over 60 (which is why it had gone without notice, since we mostly drive in town) that grew louder when accelerating. I didn’t think it was the engine, and hypothesized it might be the transmission. Dropped by the dealer yesterday, they said to come by today at 10, and they’d have a service person ride with me. Came in, had to wait a few mintues in the waiting room, while the service guy took it out on his own, then he came and got me. He heard the noise, said he hadn’t heard that before, and thought it might be the wheel bearings on the front driver’s side, but wanted to look at it, to make certain. Back into the waiting room (I of course brought a book with me), and before I was even 50 pages into the book, they called me in to say that it was the transmission (HA!) they’d replace the transmission with a new one, and could I please follow go with this gentleman to pick up the rental I’d have until my car was fixed.

All I had to do for the rental was walk in, show ID and a credit card, sign some paper work, and leave. The whole thing took less than an hour and a half, which included the drive with the mechanic.

And it’s all covered by Toyota.

And I got a free doughnut in the waiting room.

Not only do I have the coming week off from school, it’s also a slow time at work.

Thusly, I’m taking the whole week off! (happy dance)

I’ll be doing some work on the house (perhaps repainting three of the bedroom walls, maybe staining anf polyurethaning our entertainment center), a good deal of reading, and will be visiting my grandmother for a few days. Not only will we be spending time with her, but we’ll also be rewiring the lights in her basement (like that use of “we” there?), and of course eating well. Definitely G&Ms and a trip to Attman’s. Not sure where else, but when in Baltimore… eat seafood! We’re also going to the Aquarium (after which Michael will definitely want to eat seafood) and I’m going to find a book store. I think there’s a huge Barnes & Nobel at the Inner Harbor near the aquarium. Woo Hoo!

What’s the point of all this? The point is that I’m going to try to relax, so I’ll be attempting to stay away from the computer. Attempting anyway. So if you’re looking to be entertained, try some of the sites on my sidebar.

They’ll playing all my favorites!

eclectic \ih-KLEK-tik\ adjective
1 : selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles
2 : composed of elements drawn from various sources; also : heterogeneous

Commonly confused words.
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I don’t have any need for this word, but a friend’s older relative used the term, and we wanted to know what it meant.

grass widow

The usual current sense of grass widow is ‘a woman who is separated, divorced, or lives apart from her husband’. The other sense found in current use is ‘a married woman whose husband is frequently apart from her for short periods of time, as on business or to pursue a hobby’.

Historically, there are two senses that are now archaic, obsolete, or dialectal: ‘an abandoned mistress’ and ‘a woman who has borne an illegitimate child’.

More on the etymology at the Mavens’ Word of the Day website.

Headline from today’s Charleston Gazette reads, “Capito vs. Byrd?”

I hope she goes for it. It’ll be the easiest way EVER to get her out of Congress!

Run Shelley! Run!

Dear Spammers,

I do not have a paypal account.
I do not have an e-bay account.
I do not bank at Washington Mutual.

Thus, I am not going to believe that any of those accounts are about to be cancelled and fall for your not so devious ploys.

So, as is probably obvious, I love to read. I come by it honestly, as everyone in my family loves to read, although I don’t think my brother reads as much as everyone else does. (Possibly because he has a life. But that’s neither here nor there.)

But the person who I most take after may be my grandmother, who also loves to read, but due to the circumstances of being 87, doesn’t get to the library much. So whenever I visit I take down books for her to borrow, so that she has something to read when they can’t get to the library.

The problem is that she’s now gone through ALL my mysteries. I have a handful of books I’m taking down next trip, but I’m pretty certain that she’s already read them. (Last year she reread JA Jance’s JP Beaumont series, because she wasn’t certain at first if she’d read them.)

She likes everything from Agatha Christie to Robert Parker to Anne Perry to Peter Tremayne (She really liked Peter Tremayne and she loves Anne Perry).

So… I need some recommendations for good mysteries. You can look at the complete list of my mysteries, to see what she’s gone through in my library. It would be better if I can find the books used, since she gets suspicious if I bring up new books, but I did get her several Laura Lippman books, which she things are great (I’m just waiting for another occasion to get her more. I can’t just send her the books for no reason, because then she gets mad I’m spending money on her.)

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

The only word better than sashay is saunter.

sashay sash-AY verb
1 : to make the sliding dance step called chasse
2 a : walk, glide, go *b : to strut or move about in an
ostentatious or conspicuous manner c : to proceed or move in a
diagonal or sideways manner

saunter ‘son-t&r, ‘sän- intransitive verb
Etymology: probably from Middle English santren to muse
: to walk about in an idle or leisurely manner : STROLL

From Merriam-Websters on-line

Math’s Eagle Honor Court was very nice. The ceremony was great, and I had a great time after, talking with people. It’s always good to spend time with my grandmother, and to be honest, my family is a lot of fun, although they always make me feel rather boring in comparison. And I got to talk with Ben a bit more, which was nice, although I wish our visit could have been a little longer.

I also discovered that Math is definitely taller than me. By a lot. Which means that the only people I’m taller than now are Grandmom (who has lost height as she’s gotten older) and Liz (who is not yet 15). I’m pretty sure that I’m going to end up the shortest person in the family, which doesn’t seem quite fair.

Guess I got more than my fair share of my great-grandmother’s genes. Despite being the shortest person in my class throughout elementary school (and Jr High for that matter), I was taller than my great-grandmother by fourth grade.

So I get to look forward to always being the shortest person in a family of small giants. Oddly enough, my brother, clocking in a 6’5″, is the tallest in the group, which means that unless Liz has stopped growing, we would bookend the family if we were to line up by height.

The only bad part of the whole trip was spending an extended period of time in the car with my mother. Let’s just say that it’s amazing how things can regresss a decade or two when you’re not paying attention.