The Last Thing He Told Me

 

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My husband and I listened to this well performed mystery novel on a recent road trip. Though much of it was implausible, and that irritated me, it did keep our interest. Listening to it made me want to read other books in this genre.

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The Midnight Library

 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What a creative premise for a book- to have the ability to try out different lives, each created by a different decision in our lives. It is so thought-provoking. I remember thinking about that when I was a mother of small children, and a friend my same age was not married and was pursuing a vocal performance career. Though we were not so different, our lives were so very different. Each decision we make sends us down a path, never to return. We make many, many such decisions in our lives. Nora gets to explore many of these paths and what would have happened. Interesting idea, isn’t it? But I felt like the book bogged down a bit in the middle, and I wasn’t sure I loved the ending. It was Goodreads Books of the year for 2020. I’m not sure it was THAT good.

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Rear Window

 Though it was a bit slow moving, we enjoyed this old Alfred Hitchcock classic mystery.  We watched it on Netflix DVD.

Broke My Head

 While Ken was gone on his Texas birding trip, I had an accident.  I was putting groceries away and went down to stuff the plastic bags down into the garbage.  I hit my head on the corner of the upper cabinet, splitting it open.  It bled profusely, immediately covering my hair, the left side of my face and my shirt.  After getting the bleeding stopped, I drove myself to the instacare.  After quite a wait,  the doctor said it was good I had come as the wound was about 2 inches long and deep.  She put staples in my head.

It's a little difficult taking a selfie of one's head.  Be grateful I didn't take a picture with my bloody face, hair, and shirt!

Because we were going to be gone visiting Kristen's family five days later when the staples needed to come out, the doctor gave me a tool to take out the staples.  She showed me how to use it.  I thought I understood it.  It wasn't hard.

So five days later, while in Colorado, I showed Ken how to do it and he tried.  The staple would not come out.  It only bent.  It was very painful and started bleeding.  He tried it on another staple with the same results.  I was in a lot of pain.  He then analyzed it and realized I had shown him how to use the tool upside down!  He tried it again the right way on another staple and it worked perfectly.  

But now I had two staples stuck in my head.  They were bent, so the tool wouldn't work on them.  

Jared to the rescue.  Our son-in-law Jared is intelligent and a pro at problem solving.  He came up with a plan to cut the staple in the middle and then pull each of the halves out separately.  The problem was coming up with a tool that would cut through the thick staple. His wire cutters were too thick to get under the staple. Nathan remembered a tool that his sister had for cutting some plastic letters apart.   It worked!  So Jared performed the operation, and soon I was staple-free and so very relieved. Thank you Jared and Nathan!

So, there's my broken head story- which has healed up nicely, by the way.

The Snow Child

 

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This Pulitzer Prize nominee was an intriguing read. It is almost fantasy; almost real. It reads like a real-life fairy tale. It has an enchanting quality. I came to love the characters and wanted a happily-ever-after ending for all of them. I guess I best not reveal whether or not that happened. It is a beautifully written story.

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A Thousand Splendid Suns

 

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a sad book in a sad setting. I learned a lot about Afghanistan- it’s history and culture. But I didn’t enjoy it. What a horrible, male-dominated culture. I did learn a lot from Mariam and how she bloomed where she was planted. But did she have to be planted in such a dismal, awful place? It is about friendship and loyalty. That’s good. But the story is hauntingly sad. I listened to it with my husband. His rating is a 4. His reason for listening to the book was to learn about Afghanistan and its history and culture. The book did a good job of filling that wish. My rating is a 2. I hate abuse and sadness. It was full of both. Do we average those to a 3? I guess.

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Ten Days Apart: Birding in Brownsville, Texas

April 22- May 3rd, Ken went to Texas on a spring birding trip.   Our nephews, Matt Hinton and Clark Tenney went to Brownsville, Texas last autumn and had a wonderful birding time.  Their reports added to Ken's desire to do the same thing.  He was delighted to add 24 new species to his life list.  He will tell you about his pictures.

Selfie of Ken in front of the South Padre Island Convention Center, where someone has created a wonderful  neotropical bird migration feeding station

Wilson's Phalaropes feeding in a marsh in the Hazel Bazemore Park in Corpus Christi, Texas

A pair of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks at the South Padre Island Convention Center

A pair of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

A Sandpiper at the South Padre Island Convention Center boardwalk

A Least Bittern at the South Padre Island Convention Center boardwalk

A Great-tailed Grackle feeding at one of the many oranges that were hung up as feeders at the South Padre Island Convention Center

A pair of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks at the South Padre Island Convention Center

A Sora along the boardwalk of the South Padre Island Convention Center

A Black-throated Green Warbler at the South Padre Island Convention Center

A Black-throated Green Warbler at the South Padre Island Convention Center

A Black-throated Green Warbler at the South Padre Island Convention Center

A Black-throated Green Warbler at the South Padre Island Convention Center

A male Summer Tanager at the South Padre Island Convention Center

A male Summer Tanager at the South Padre Island Convention Center

Kay documented the .39 inches of rain we received at home while I was birding in Brownsville, Texas

Visiting the Cameron Family

Our next stop on the "visit the family" tour was the Camerons in Hyde Park. We left from Princes on Sunday, the 18th and drove to Logan and stayed until Tuesday, the 20th.   It is always fun to go the Camerons.  Blake had a nice meal ready for us- his famous quiche.

 

Hannah and Lily playing with their amazing lego sets.

Gabe couldn't wait to show us his new tent bunk bed.

Putting together a big puzzle

On Monday, we took Shonna and Gabe to lunch (the others were in school) and then went on a tour of Blake's beautiful new dentist office.  

As soon as Hannah got home from school, she wanted to play with her lego princess castle again.
Lily got a cookbook for Christmas and has been cooking and baking up a storm. She really loves it.  The deal is that she can cook and bake all she wants, but she must clean up the mess.
For dinner, she made us her Brown Soda Bread.  It was delicious.  She made it from start to finish.  I loved watching her work.

First she got out the wheat

And ground it herself

She then gathered the ingredients and made the dough

She made two loaves:  one plain, as the recipe directed and one, with lime, lime zest and basil.  She has made this recipe a lot and often adds creative ingredients.

All ready to go in the oven

Cutting the bread.  Shonna made a delicious salad.  It was fun to watch them both working to prepare the meal.  After dinner, Lily stuck right with Grandpa in cleaning up the entire kitchen, drying the dishes.  She stuck to her end of the bargain.  Just like the Little Red Hen, she did the whole thing!

Baked.  Doesn't that look delicious?  It was!!!

I had to add in these pictures that Shonna sent a couple of weeks later.  She demonstrated making her bread out on their COVID-safe patio to her activity days group.  

Shonna's corn salad

Caleb, Lily, and Hannah work for their dad, putting together little kits to give to the patients.  They save their money for whatever they want.  Lily decided she wanted Bluebird chocolates and saved for them.  Each night, she gets them out, dumps them on the table, and chooses one to eat.

Here's Lily with her chocolates.  They have brought her hours of pleasure!

Ken is a wonderful grandpa.  Whenever we visit, he makes sure to spend time with each grandchild, doing whatever they want to do.  Here, he is playing baseball with Caleb and Hannah.

Gabe's puzzle was a glow in the dark.  Ken had the idea to cover them up so they could see if it truly did glow.

Ken entertained the kids by reading  them Grandpa stories.

We had such a nice visit with the Cameron family.  I'm getting this done just in time to go back for another visit!