I'm moving
Oct. 24th, 2011 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frogs_of_warMy new apartment is only two doors down, so it's going to be a lot of filling boxes, taking them to the new place, emptying the boxes and then taking the boxes back and doing it again. The office called today and asked when we were going to be out of this place and I told her that no one had told us when we were getting into the new one. She said we'll get the keys tomorrow.
I feel really weird about this move because I'm used to thinking about moving, deciding to move, finding a place, moving, and cleaning up the old place with at least a month between the beginning and end of the process. We've asked about other apartments before, but every time we were told we would have to wait until our lease was up or that the waiting list for other 3 bedroom apartments was three years long. But last Monday my husband stopped by the office to say out bathroom fan had died and he come back with applications for moving.
We will have a week to move. I am so glad I planned vacation for this week. (Originally it was to get Halloween costumes finished.)
It's all dizzying.
Books I have been listening to:
Apple Turnover Murder by Joanne Fluke. This series has one of those annoying love triangles in it between the main character and two friends, in this case a policeman and a dentist. I have no interest in reading the ten or so previous books, but I liked the characters well enough to get the next two books on CD. I also got them because I had to see if this was supposed to be one of those mystery stories that the reader solves long before the main character. I solved this on on tract 18 of of 142, at least a chapter before the murder actually occurred. And then the nice sweet boy, just looking out for himself and his sister tries to kill the main character, but the summary of most cozy murder mysteries could be 'she solves the murder and then nearly becomes the next victim'.
Gingerbread Cookie Murder is three short stories, the first one by the same author. I liked it much better than the book, maybe because she and I figured out who did it at the same time. The other two stories weren't nearly as good. The second main character whined a lot in the things-I-put-up-with way. I think it was supposed to be funny in an over-the-top way, but I just found it annoying. The last story was boring and seemed to say that young people with tattoos and piercings didn't make good parents because they are money grubbing druggies.
The Cat of the Century by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown. I was under the impression that a book co-written by a cat would be funny or at least interesting. But so many characters were thrown at me at once that I had a hard time following what was happening and when I finally thought I had everyone down, a character said something that totally contradicted what I thought I knew. But the most aggravating parts were that the POV wandered, switching mid-paragraph between people and sometime to omnipresent (or maybe the college dean, while alone and worried about school things, thought that she looked surprisingly young and vivacious) and that the author couldn't keep her politics out of her book. When four people of different ages and professions all agree on taxes withing five minutes listening time, that isn't the characters talking. But I first Wiki-ed the author after the supposed main character (or maybe the human the main character lived with) introduces herself with her husband's name. The book was written only a few years ago and the character just turned forty. I can not fathom a woman born in the late sixties introducing herself as Mrs. Fair Harristein (sp). I was very surprised to find that the author had been a lesbian feminist. Only her constant mentioning of turning lights off, getting good gas mileage, and other environmental things kept me from thinking she was a Tea Party-er.
I also read two Kelley Armstrong books. Waking the Witch and Spellbound. These series within a series can be enjoyed alone (it isn't finished yet), but having read many of her Otherworld books makes it easier to figure out who the secondary characters are. Her books are supernatural romance for the most part, but the author doesn't feel the need to break a couple up just to write another book about them. A lot of them are mysteries, some in the who am I way. I'd recommend nearly everything she's written, but I tend to avoid Clay and Elena because Clay is just crazy. Like for most of us, her later book are better than her first few.
Oh and I read Wonder Struck by Brian Selznick. This guy is a great illustrator, beautiful, beautiful pictures, but the story lost me when it became cliched and predictable (the kid loses every penny withing five minutes of getting to the big city). I finished it though, and it wasn't too bad. It is a very simple story made complex because the illustrations tells one story while the words tell another until they meet near the end. I just expect more from my stories, even children's stories.
And for the first time, I regretted learning to make corsages and boutonnieres. Two high schools withing five miles of my store had homecomings on Saturday, but my floral manager had gotten the week wrong, so we had extra coverage last week, but not enough this one. I stood in the kiosk making corsages and bouts for nine hours straight (I took a early break but didn't get a lunch) while the floral department fell to wreck and ruin. I'd finally catch up, but then something would happen to put me behind (like a corsage that was supposed to have purple dyed roses was made with white and had to be fixed). As I finished the last bout, fifteen minutes before I was scheduled to go home, a mother came in asking if we had any extra corsages, so I made her one. Saturday was one of those days that makes you need a vacation. Good thing I had one coming.
I feel really weird about this move because I'm used to thinking about moving, deciding to move, finding a place, moving, and cleaning up the old place with at least a month between the beginning and end of the process. We've asked about other apartments before, but every time we were told we would have to wait until our lease was up or that the waiting list for other 3 bedroom apartments was three years long. But last Monday my husband stopped by the office to say out bathroom fan had died and he come back with applications for moving.
We will have a week to move. I am so glad I planned vacation for this week. (Originally it was to get Halloween costumes finished.)
It's all dizzying.
Books I have been listening to:
Apple Turnover Murder by Joanne Fluke. This series has one of those annoying love triangles in it between the main character and two friends, in this case a policeman and a dentist. I have no interest in reading the ten or so previous books, but I liked the characters well enough to get the next two books on CD. I also got them because I had to see if this was supposed to be one of those mystery stories that the reader solves long before the main character. I solved this on on tract 18 of of 142, at least a chapter before the murder actually occurred. And then the nice sweet boy, just looking out for himself and his sister tries to kill the main character, but the summary of most cozy murder mysteries could be 'she solves the murder and then nearly becomes the next victim'.
Gingerbread Cookie Murder is three short stories, the first one by the same author. I liked it much better than the book, maybe because she and I figured out who did it at the same time. The other two stories weren't nearly as good. The second main character whined a lot in the things-I-put-up-with way. I think it was supposed to be funny in an over-the-top way, but I just found it annoying. The last story was boring and seemed to say that young people with tattoos and piercings didn't make good parents because they are money grubbing druggies.
The Cat of the Century by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown. I was under the impression that a book co-written by a cat would be funny or at least interesting. But so many characters were thrown at me at once that I had a hard time following what was happening and when I finally thought I had everyone down, a character said something that totally contradicted what I thought I knew. But the most aggravating parts were that the POV wandered, switching mid-paragraph between people and sometime to omnipresent (or maybe the college dean, while alone and worried about school things, thought that she looked surprisingly young and vivacious) and that the author couldn't keep her politics out of her book. When four people of different ages and professions all agree on taxes withing five minutes listening time, that isn't the characters talking. But I first Wiki-ed the author after the supposed main character (or maybe the human the main character lived with) introduces herself with her husband's name. The book was written only a few years ago and the character just turned forty. I can not fathom a woman born in the late sixties introducing herself as Mrs. Fair Harristein (sp). I was very surprised to find that the author had been a lesbian feminist. Only her constant mentioning of turning lights off, getting good gas mileage, and other environmental things kept me from thinking she was a Tea Party-er.
I also read two Kelley Armstrong books. Waking the Witch and Spellbound. These series within a series can be enjoyed alone (it isn't finished yet), but having read many of her Otherworld books makes it easier to figure out who the secondary characters are. Her books are supernatural romance for the most part, but the author doesn't feel the need to break a couple up just to write another book about them. A lot of them are mysteries, some in the who am I way. I'd recommend nearly everything she's written, but I tend to avoid Clay and Elena because Clay is just crazy. Like for most of us, her later book are better than her first few.
Oh and I read Wonder Struck by Brian Selznick. This guy is a great illustrator, beautiful, beautiful pictures, but the story lost me when it became cliched and predictable (the kid loses every penny withing five minutes of getting to the big city). I finished it though, and it wasn't too bad. It is a very simple story made complex because the illustrations tells one story while the words tell another until they meet near the end. I just expect more from my stories, even children's stories.
And for the first time, I regretted learning to make corsages and boutonnieres. Two high schools withing five miles of my store had homecomings on Saturday, but my floral manager had gotten the week wrong, so we had extra coverage last week, but not enough this one. I stood in the kiosk making corsages and bouts for nine hours straight (I took a early break but didn't get a lunch) while the floral department fell to wreck and ruin. I'd finally catch up, but then something would happen to put me behind (like a corsage that was supposed to have purple dyed roses was made with white and had to be fixed). As I finished the last bout, fifteen minutes before I was scheduled to go home, a mother came in asking if we had any extra corsages, so I made her one. Saturday was one of those days that makes you need a vacation. Good thing I had one coming.
