I blogged not that long ago about Sunday Scaries and how I mourn the end of the weekend. This generally means I am NOT productive at all on Sundays. I tend to sleep late, do laundry, watch sports, and read (which in turn means napping.)
Not today!
I had a really busy day yesterday with several stops on my shopping trip, so I figured it'd be another lazy Sunday. While I did sleep in late, I've been productive since I got up!
I have the laundry train going, which is not unusual, but I've also cleaned almost all of the files off the hard drive of my old work computer (which has been haunting me for weeks.) I can finally bring the old laptop back to the office and stop being harangued by Help Desk! 😜
I worked on our living room, which has been the dumping ground for the yard sale that never happened due to COVID. (Yes, we've had piles in our living room for a year or so.) I've got things to donate and things which I'd like to try to get some money for at a yard sale or online.
I worked on the built-ins. I think I've said this before, but I have this issue where I want everything to be perfect so that essentially holds me back from decorating because, well, I'm waiting for the perfect picture frame or the perfect fake succulent. I am trying to push past that. I have three openings filled to my satisfaction (for the most part...LOL).
I also started organizing the unfinished portion of our basement. I need some serious "get up & go" to do that. I look at the towering piles of Rubbermaid buckets and think of all the paper that needs to be gone through, shredded, organized, etc... and I want to run. Hopefully we're not the only ones with some serious "stuff" in the basement.
Grace & I started Buffalo Chicken Crockpot Dip for our dinner tonight (we are doing appetizers). We use a simple recipe- cream cheese, hot sauce, ranch dressing. Heat on low for two hours. Put shredded rotisserie chicken in and heat on low for another hour. Voila.
AND I'm writing a blog post. I would definitely call this a surprisingly productive Sunday.
What are you up to on this Sunday?
BOOK REVIEWS 2021
Book #17: The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
Summary: Second in the Flavia de Luce mystery series, a travelling puppet show arrives in the sleepy village of Bishop's Lacey - and a shocking murder takes place. For eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the crime will test her precocious powers of deduction to the limit - particularly when she discovers that the murder echoes a tragedy which occurred many years before...
Rating: A+. I LOVE this series. I thought maybe the first book in the series might be a fluke success, but nope- this is great. Flavia is endearing, funny, smart- you name it!
Summary: A father and son who are census takers journey across a nameless country from the town of A to the town of Z in the wake of the father's fatal diagnosis. Knowing that his time is menacingly short, the father takes his son, who has a disability and requires close and constant adult guidance, on this trip of indefinite length. Their feelings for each other are challenged and bolstered as they move in and out of a variety of homes, meeting a variety of different people. Census is about the ways in which people react to the son's condition, to the son as a person in the world. It is about discrimination and acceptance, kindness and art, education and love.
Rating: B. I was interested in this book because the author based this fictional account on his personal life. He had a brother with Down syndrome who passed away at a young age, but he had all of these feelings about that relationship that he wanted to share and this was his venue. The census taking part was a bit weird, however (actually marking people's bodies as part of it), so while I liked it, I didn't love it.
Book #19: The Betel Nut Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu
Summary: The second novel in Ovidia Yu's delightfully charming crime series set in 1930s Singapore, featuring amateur sleuth Su Lin. Singapore is agog with the news of King Edward VIII's abdication to marry American heiress Wallis Simpson. Chen Su Lin, now Chief Inspector Le Froy's secretarial assistant in Singapore's newly formed detective unit, still dreams of becoming a journalist and hopes to cover the story when the Hon Victor Glossop announces he is marrying an American widow of his own, Mrs Nicole Covington, in the Colony. But things go horribly wrong when Victor Glossop is found dead, his body covered in bizarre symbols and soaked in betel nut juice.
Rating: A-. Similar to the Flavia de Luce series mentioned above, this is a mystery series with a young female main character and I love it. Su Lin is sharp and Yu's writing style makes me want to read all I can about her life in Singapore. The Betel Nut juice is an odd-ish thing (maybe just to Americans.)
Book #20: Frontier Follies by Ree Drummond
Summary: This is an essay collection covering Ree's life from marriage to motherhood to stardom as The Pioneer Woman.
Rating: B. I've enjoyed Ree's previous memoirs but this I found to be somewhat bland. I did enjoy the story she shared when tourists got lost on the ranch and ended up at Ree's house instead of the lodge where filming takes place. She was alone in the house taking a bath. And the tourists walked into the house. 😂
Book #21: Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March
Summary: In 1892, Bombay is the center of British India. Nearby, Captain Jim Agnihotri lies in Poona military hospital recovering from a skirmish on the wild northern frontier, with little to do but re-read the tales of his idol, Sherlock Holmes, and browse the daily papers. The case that catches Captain Jim's attention is being called the crime of the century: Two women fell from the busy university’s clock tower in broad daylight. Moved by Adi, the widower of one of the victims — his certainty that his wife and sister did not commit suicide — Captain Jim approaches the Parsee family and is hired to investigate what happened that terrible afternoon. But in a land of divided loyalties, asking questions is dangerous. Captain Jim's investigation disturbs the shadows that seem to follow the Framji family and triggers an ominous chain of events. And when lively Lady Diana Framji joins the hunt for her sisters’ attackers, Captain Jim’s heart isn’t safe, either.
Rating: C+. I REALLY wanted to like this book more. I love this time period/geographic location, so had very high hopes for it. It was too long. Too much minutiae. Blah.
OK, what did I do yesterday. Got to the gym early- 7:30. Something I can not do during the week. People who need to get to work need the machines, I wait until 9 when the work crowd is gone. That was about it. I did take a nap!
ReplyDeleteI wanted to comment on the Betel Nut book. I haven't read it but have some ( very little) knowledge of Betel nut.
Hubby and I are scuba divers and a few places we visited the locals chewed betel nut. They wrap the nut in some kind of leaf. You could never imagine what their teeth were like. Teeth were stained deep red or even black. If I can find a photo I'll add it to the blog. The juice from the nut would get them high.
Yes! I would love to see the photo of the betel juice. I have a picture in my mind of what it looked like in the context of the book, but would be interested to see if I'm accurate.
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