Stitching up Some Loose Ends

Now that I've started, I have to collect my wits and try to remember which ends have been left loose!

I know that one was my Tracfone. It turns out that once I recharged it with a 60 minute card, my phone still says I have  600 (or so) minutes on it which is good as they were the minutes that were paid for when the phone was purchased. It's just that after six months or so, I had to start regularly (quarterly) buying a phone card to keep it active. So I have, and it is, and that makes me feel beholden to another electronic gizmo that I might need some day.

Like if I have to call THESE guysif I run out of gas or have a flat or my battery goes dead. Anything like that.     It's the ONLY reason I have a cell phone.     So all's good.


Hubs and I never made it to Snake Lake - and I am afraid that the days of 70 degree weather are GONE for probably, say, seven months. Unless we're [very] lucky. It's dark at 6 PM now [Okay, 6:15 is sundown], but still.   Daylight Saving Time ends the first Sunday in November.  I don't want to think about that right now.  But it will mean, especially with our schedule, even less opportunity to get over there to enjoy it.


              Now listen up all of you M&Ms lovers who won't buy your own bag to try:
                      Creepy, for Halloween... HAH!

 I did try those Pretzel M&Ms and I won't be buying them again. The pretzel inside was crunchy, but nowhere near salty enough to make a real flavor difference. It was just like a crunchy M&M.  I prefer Peanut M&Ms for the flavor and the crunch. Now I have to try the dark chocolate variety.

Okay, I've tried the dark chocolate variety and I didn't notice much difference. But dark chocolate is supposed to be better for you, but I think the bag is a little smaller, so forget it.


I made an apple crisp to mark the cooler weather, and again the apples were dry. I used four each of Fuji and Golden Delicious, thinking that the Goldens would be juicy and break down more, and the Fujis would give it a little texture. Wrong. The Fujis were juicier, but not enough, so I added almost a cup of water after 25 minutes, covered it, and let it finish cooking another 10 minutes. It turned out well, so I just wrote on the recipe card to add water or apple juice. As a side note I peeled all eight apples each in a single peel. How about that?


   
So, what have I been reading/ listening to lately?    Let me tell you.

 I recently finished the Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao  by Junot Diaz .  "The titular Oscar is a 300-pound-plus "lovesick ghetto nerd" with zero game (except for Dungeons & Dragons) who cranks out pages of fantasy fiction with the hopes of becoming a Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien. The book is also the story of a multi-generational family curse that courses through the book, leaving troubles and tragedy in its wake. This was the most dynamic, entertaining, and achingly heartfelt novel I've read" (says Amazon). But I Won't be reading it again. It wasn't That good.  
  

 "This is a wonderful book that I'll read again and again. Kavalier and Clay's adventures begin in New York 1939, the dawn of comic books and superheroes. The reader doesn't need any knowledge of comics to love this book--indeed, even Joe Kavalier has no knowledge of them when he arrives as a Jewish refugee and settles in with his American cousin, Sammy Clay. The pair become a success with their superhero character, The Escapist, modeled after Houdini and Kavalier himself--lucky enough to escape Nazi Europe, but struggling to bring his younger brother over to America. ..." reviewed by Richard Guion       While I found this book interesting, I won't be reading it again either; once was enough.

And Now I'm reading several concurrently:    


Freedom: A Novel

 I think Franzen surely is a wordy writer. Every single thought is a dozen paragraphs, which is something I remember from having read The Corrections many years ago. But hey, I'm listening to it now, so it is really not so onerous. If you're a fast reader, go ahead, give it a try. If not, meh. Still, it's holding my interest. I'm just saying that a good editor could have shaved off at least 150 pages of the book.
Make that 350.



AND
 



The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race.

I'll give it three stars for it's humorous value, and for the occasional earthly fact I wasn't aware of.





And finally, for now -
 This is part of The Millennium Trilogy, which I was not aware of and did not know when I picked it up. From an Amazon review 9/2008, "Once you start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there's no turning back. This debut thriller--the first in a trilogy is a serious page-turner.  Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch -- and there's always a catch -- is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo." --Dave Callanan   Needless to say, I am enjoying this one very much.


So, aside from some unsettling formatting issues Blogger is giving me, I've had an uneventful day. I NEED to go grocery shopping tomorrow, and a few other things. I am thankful that it is predicted to be a nice day.

Good Night, TTYL and Be Well,