May’s Mutterings: Rants and Ramblings
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Hawaii (without the kids)
Somehow, we always gravitate to Hawaii when deciding where to go on our annual without-the-kids vacation. As a reminder, the goal of this vacation is a yearly exercise as to remember who the other person across the breakfast table is as planning for the day that we become empty nesters. Our joint requirement is that…
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Christmas in Hawaii (oh, and a wedding too!)
Once again, both children’s school calendars cooperated, and we were able to get away the week before Christmas to Hawaii for just over a week. The daughter’s finals schedule ended the same day as the son’s school break started, and we all met up in San Francisco before flying out to Honolulu. In addition, Jim’s…
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Book review: Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen
Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is my first experience with the author, and it was an enjoyable one. The book takes place in early 1900s England, which is a period of British history that I usually don’t dabble in (it’s a bit recent for me). However, this…
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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
As is typical for us, our snail mail holiday cards are late (well, definitely late for Christmas, possibly late for New Year’s, especially if your last name starts with the letter z). 🙂 For those who are not into delayed gratification, this is the electronic version of our holiday greetings. Best wishes for 2018! And…
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Thanksgiving 2017
We sat 41 people for dinner for Thanksgiving this year. Well, technically, 37 adults (if you include one 16 year old velociraptor) and 4 kids under 10. The menu was as follows: Thai pumpkin soup with gougeres Smoked turkey Roasted turkey with confit legs Stock-braised turkey legs Deep fried turkey Roasted pork shoulder Roast duck…
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Eagle Project: Part I
On a fortuitously cloudy but not rainy Sunday (November 5), Marcus and about a dozen of his friends embarked on Part I of his Eagle Scout project, which was to build a shed and water catchment system for a church in Purcellville, Virginia. The project took the better part of the day, but by the…
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Parent Potluck 2017
One of the lovely traditions at the kids’ school is that of parent potlucks. During the fall, various parents volunteer to host potlucks at their homes for the parents of the grade. We always try to host at least one, but sometimes schedules get in the way. After not being able to host last year,…
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Book review: A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn
A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn My rating: 4 of 5 stars Profound relief was my first reaction after reading the first half of the book. I was disappointed that one of my favorite authors (whose Lady Julia Grey mystery series I love) had created a heroine that I took an immense dislike to in…
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Disneyworld Redux (thanks to Hurricane Irma)
Disneyworld!! We have not been since last September. We were planning to go again this September, as a combination birthday/going off to college trip, but Hurricane Irma vetoed that idea. :(. So we rescheduled the trip to last weekend, when Marcus had a 3 day weekend. He brought a friend, Matthew, along for the trip.…
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Book review: The Good Knight by Sarah Woodbury
The Good Knight by Sarah Woodbury My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is the first in a mystery series that takes place in medieval Wales. The characters are interesting, and I always enjoy books where the protagonist is a woman. The secondary characters were well characterized and had sometimes outsized personalities. The author…
Got any book recommendations?