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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 14 April 2008
Latest Update: Sunday, 20 April 2008 12:15 p.m.
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Monday, 14
April 2008
I
love springtime but really hate when every flat surface is covered in a
yellow film of pollen. We actually had frost this morning. The
long range forecast, which is way too far out for them to predict
anyway looks just like it has been for the last month. Cold start to
the week, warm up, rain and storms for the weekend.
Over the weekend I started another Sarah Stewart Taylor, Judgment of
the Grave from my TBR shelf. Taylor's character Sweeney St. George has
gone off to nearby Concord to do research on a gravestone carver from
the mid to late 1700's. While searching the graveyard for headstones
she meets up with Pres Whiting, a 12 year old boy who has a rare
form of cancer. She learns he had a Revolutionary War ancestor who was
also a stone mason and carver and who mysteriously disappeared
the day the first shots were fired on the green starting the
Revolutionary War. Walking home from the graveyard, Pres and Sweeney
stumble upon a body in a shallow grave dressed as a Revolutionary
Redcoat probably from one of the recent reenactment camps.
Sweeney decides to pursue the history of Pres' ancestor who had a
very unique way of carving headstones. She takes a room at a nearby Inn
to do her research and of course, help investigate the murder of the
mysterious Redcoat. As I mentioned before, the plot theme sounds a
little macabre but Taylor does an excellent job of weaving current and
past history into the plot to solve the murder. There are several
sub-plots going on at the same time including a tie in to the last book
and her character Detective Tim Quinn.
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Tuesday, 15 April 2008
No update.
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Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Last night I had dinner with Frances and her
friend Marcie at T. K. Tripps. One of the reasons for meeting for
dinner was to discuss our travel plans for the fall. We decided the
trip we had planned for August would be too much for dad. We picked out
an alternate trip for October but Marcie could not do that one plus New
England in October may be too cold for the folks. We finally found a
trip on August that looks like it suits everyone so Frances took care
of getting us signed up.
Dad's heart doctor has not released him yet to schedule the knee
surgery again. In fact, he may not release him at all. If they do
decide to to do later this summer he will have to wait until we get
back.
Tonight, of course, was gym night. It has been another very hectic week
at work and it is only Wednesday. It was cold and windy yesterday but
warmed up a lot more today to make my lunch walk a little more
pleasant. We had to turn the heat back on Monday night with the
temperatures going back down into the low 30's.
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Thursday, 17 April 2008
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Last night I started a new Janet Evanovich,
Plum Lucky, subtitled A Between-the-Numbers Novel. This is the
third book in her holiday novella series celebrating St. Patrick's Day;
proceeded by Christmas and Valentine's Day. These books feature the
usual cast of characters except Diesel replaces Morelli, though he does
get mentioned, as one of the previous men in her life.
Grandma Moser takes of with a hired kid to drive a camper to Atlantic
City to gamble away a bag of money she found. Of course the money was
stolen to begin with so the guy she stole it from plus Stephanie, Lulu,
and Connie from the bale bondsman's office take off after Grandma where
they catch up with her in a casino. There are other wacky characters I
will not take time to mention. These little novellas are as funny as
her full length novels though I am not sure why she feels she has to
write them between her full length ones. Which, by the way, she has
number 14 coming out in June.
Back to warm weather again. 80 degrees today. I put shorts on when I
got home from work. I hate this betwixt and between weather. Too cool
at night to turn the heat off yet so darn warm during the day the
house gets hot. It was so hot last week we had to turn the air on then
we had frost two days later. Geesh. It is to be 80 again tomorrow. I
may switch the AC back on in the morning before I take off for work.
The trash is out but I still need to gather up the recycling. The dogs need some playtime.
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Friday, 18 April 2008
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It's no surprise the weather forecast for the
weekend is a repeat of what we have had for the last month or so. In
trying to stay one step ahead of mother nature I left work at four
today by working through lunch. I made a quick stop at the library to
pick up reserve books and then the weekly grocery shopping. While Bob
put the groceries away I headed out to mow the lawn. This is the first
time is a month I have been able to mow with it completely dry. With
clouds and rain in the forecast tomorrow at least I have that out of
the way.
I already had some gardening activities planed for the weekend. More on
that tomorrow. It reached 80+ today. Tomorrow is to be cooler but not
colder like it was last weekend.
Last night I finished the Stephanie Plum. Yea, it's a quick read and
very funny, as a matter of fact, off the wall funny. Now after I my
library visit I have lots to choose from for my next read. Bob is
currently reading a series of books by Patricia Moyes. I picked up a
paperback for his at the library book sale. After he read that one he
liked it well enough for me to reserve what they had at the library.
Her books were published from 1958 to 1993. She died in 2000. He
character, Inspector Henry Tibbett of Scotland Yard. At one point I
thought I might give them a try but decided not to right now. The
character and setting are definitely in my reading area. But, for some
reason I am not in the "older" books written back in the 50's - 70's
right now. For one thing, the print us usually very small, which even
with my glasses I have a hard time with. If you enjoy Agatha Christie
type older mysteries you might want to give these a try. While I enjoy
watching the older mysteries on TV I do not really enjoy reading them
for some reason.
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Saturday, 19 April 2008
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I did sleep in until 8:30, read the paper,
etc. before heading over to Marcie's house. She had some plants that
needed divided and given new homes. I spent about an hour over visiting
with her and digging up various hosta, black eyed Susan, and lots of
other things I cannot remember the name of. I dropped those back off at
home, grabbed a quick snack, and took off for the folks house. I
rounded up more of dad's hanging pots setting him up in a chair to to
fill and put plants in. While he did that I put the other plants that
needed to go on the hill and the bed out front in the ground. Then I
helped him put in and stake up his tomato plants.
That took about two hours. Just as we finished it started peppering a
little rain but nothing to amount to anything. I watered everything
just in case we don't get enough to soak the stuff in the ground.
Back across town I stopped at the garden store to pick up five bags of
mulch, some grass seed, and something to kill all the ants I have along
the curb and in the back. They are not fire ants just black ants but
they have little hills all over the place.
When I got home I spread the five bags of mulch in the widened natural
area in the back and planted most of everything I dug up at Marcie's
house this morning. I watered it down real good as well as the sod I
dug up and replanted last weekend. Again, just I finished up it started
blowing rain with a little more seriousness to this wave of showers.
I've had a quick shower and now need to go fix dinner having not anything except a pack of nabs and a few cookies since 11am.
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Sunday, 20 April 2008
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The weekly house cleaning chores are
completed. Once I finished those I took the dogs out back to play while
I finished up my garden activities. I finished planting the few things
left from Marcie's and the plants I bought last week at the garden
store. I did a quick tiding up job of the basement area where things
tend to get messy. I stock the boxes there until I break them down and
pile other assorted stuff when I am too tired or busy to put it away
properly then swept the floor.
I have bills to pay and stuff to sort on my desk but otherwise plan to
take it easy the rest of the day. We did get a pretty good thunderstorm
last night with more in the forecast for this afternoon.
I am reading the newest Joan Hess, Claire Malloy mystery Mummy Dearest.
As you can tell from the title Hess set this one in Egypt. For some
reason both Bob and I like her Claire Malloy series but not her Maggody
series. As usual, Hess is delightfully funny as Claire and her
recalcitrant daughter Caron along with her friend Inez join Peter in
Egypt. Finally married, Peter and Claire are on their honeymoon in
Luxor, Egypt although Peter is actually on a working holiday.
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Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.