May's Mutterings

May’s Mutterings: Rants and Ramblings

  • Best Buddies Challenge 2013

    October 19 was the date of the Best Buddies Challenge in Washington, DC.  (It was also the date of Homecoming for our high schooler, and Jim was in Japan for the weekend, but I digress.) Best Buddies is a charity that helps folks with intellectual disabilities with friendship and job prospects.  The organization was founded…

  • Dinner with Friends, Take 2

    We hosted another dinner party as part of our donation to our school’s auction to raise money for financial aid.  During the time between our first school auction dinner party and this one, we bought a new dining room table and chairs, so this is what the new setup looks like (we’re quite pleased with…

  • Book Review: A Time for the Death of a King by Ann Dukthas

    A Time For The Death Of A King by Ann Dukthas My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is in the first in a series featuring a mysterious stranger who never dies. Nicholas Segalla is suspiciously long-lived, and he plays a critical role in solving the mystery behind several historical events. In this debut…

  • Obsession, Part 2

    To be fair, this is not my obsession.  This is the obsession of our teenage daughter (whose two favorite phrases are “to be fair” and “awkward”).  I introduced her to the BBC show “Sherlock” starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as John Watson.  The show is excellently written and acted and a…

  • My Latest Obsession (Perfume!)

    So, the disadvantage of being just a teeny-tiny bit OCD is that you easily fall into random obsessions for some theoretically finite period of time.  In my case, the latest obsession is perfume. I can easily place the blame of this obsession on Rania Melhem—a Facebook friend whom I met on the Sharon Kay Penman…

  • Book Review: They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer

    They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a quintessential Georgette Heyer mystery. It’s light and fluffy (or as light and fluffy as a book can be with dead bodies in it). The mystery itself is reasonably straightforward, but the strengths of Heyer mysteries are her characterizations and…

  • Book Review: A Marked Man by Barbara Hamilton

    A Marked Man by Barbara Hamilton My rating: 4 of 5 stars I love this series (I know–it’s only the 2nd book). I love the author’s detailed research, I love the time period, and I love Abigail Adams. (Okay, so I’m not so in love with John Adams, but that’s a petty detail.) This is…

  • minibar by Jose Andres

    We visited minibar by Jose Andres with some friends this past Saturday night.  It was the first time we had been to the new space, which is spare and minimalist with high ceilings and lightly painted wood.  (It’s located at 855 E Street, NW, Washington, DC.) The food definitely catered to the “foodie” crowd and…

  • Town (restaurant in Honolulu)

    We discovered Town (located at 3435 Waialae Ave) on a recommendation by some friends the last time we were in Honolulu and returned on this past trip to see if it was as good as we remembered.  It is as good and possibly better.  Here are some photos of Town’s magnificence: Appetizers include a baby…

  • Asia-Lite Summer Vacation

    What we did on our summer vacation:  we visited Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Honolulu—what I laughingly call our Asia-lite trip (anytime you go to Asia and you can drink the tap water, it’s not a true Asia trip). The weather was hot and humid in both Hong Kong and Tokyo, but they were really fun…

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