My name is not Grace . . .

I was in the dining room and putting away the vacuum.  I caught my foot in a loop of cord, I presume, because my right foot would not join the left one, my shoe came off, and I face-planted my right cheek and forehead on the kitchen floor. 

I don't need to use a flashlight because I have the most perfect example of a shiner you ever saw.  Nothing broken except my sense of pride in my ability to walk.  I put on sunglasses and look normal, take them off and look like an alien.  

No paparazzi need apply . . .

Trading games of choice . . .

It is a known thing that J and I like to do crosswords.  Most days, we print the one in our local paper so we each have an enlarged copy. There is no competition between us or not much anyway.

J's brother, who lives in Tennessee, does Sudoku.  We send him copies of our local Sudoku and he sends us crosswords from his local paper.  He cuts them out. He marks them Monday thru Friday and is careful to include answers from the Saturday crosswords from the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times.  All this is by snail mail - which tells you something.

I have gone further afield, for him, than our local Sudoku.  There is a site that rates its Sudoku as Evil, Egregious, Excruciating, Extreme, and Excessive. This is the increasing order of difficulty.  Today, I discovered that I can print the answers to these bad boys on the reverse side of the page.

So I did. It makes me feel like the Answer Angel.

Schedule changes . . .

We stayed up until 2 a.m. in order to say goodbye to BigEd as he left for Orlando, with friends.  He came back inside twice to gather up items he needed and almost left without.  This, after making lists on computer and iPhone which were consulted faithfully.

We went to bed after he left, leaving Miu to put herself to bed when she felt like it and leaving Snax in his room.  He is not familiar with the inflexible rules of the house such as no cats on the table or counter.  Miu is quite familiar with these codes of feline conduct.  She would be aghast if she saw them violated.

Because of shifting sleep times, we rose late.  The cats were not at all forgiving.  

Breakfast should never be served after noon.

A Spear of Summer Grass

I received an advance copy of A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn.  As in Alexander McCall Smith's books, Africa, itself,  is a character here as alive as the savanna and deep as the rift valley.  Raybourn brings the land and its people to life, breathing and dusty with attitude.

Delilah Drummond is banished by her family  from polite (and not so polite) society in Paris to rusticate at Fairlight, her uncle's plantation, near Mombasa.  Near is a relative term depending on the coming of the long rains when the roads are barely passable.

 Fairlight might have been called an operating plantation if the irrigation system operated properly.  As it is, Delilah and her cousin, Dora, are immersed in a mystery which is, at first, barely perceptible.  She encounters a hunter and guide who hates guiding and seems to have bagged most of the women in the area.  A challenge?  Perhaps.

Delilah carries her own ghosts who reach from the past and seek to capture her future. She is changed by the people and the experiences she encounters. She is, however, an excellent shot.

I could not put this book down: Received it on Friday evening and finished it on Sunday afternoon.  Deanna Raybourn just gets better and better.

Ahh, Free

Today, I acquired a prequel to "A Spear of Summer Grass." The novelette called "Far in the Wilds." is set in Africa.. Barnes and Noble offer it as a free download. 

Luv-ly!

We had such plans . . .

We had such plans for today.  We took BigEd to work so we could keep his car. We dropped J's and my car off the the mechanic to get the brakes done and oil changed. Our honest mechanic said we had half the brake pads left and that they just made occasional squealing noise because there was dirt on the pads.  He changed the oil and rotated the tires.  That was it.

He did not have the time to change the oil in BigEd's car so we returned it to him at work.  His oil change is scheduled for Friday.

We spent less money than we had planned on the car.  Sometimes when plans go awry, it's a good thing.

I never win anything, until I DO!

Apologies for the hiatus without explanation.  But I am back now.  And I am so stoked.  I have loved Deanna Raybourn's books and have been a fan and reader of her blog since the first book "Silent in the Grave" came out.  

I have followed her from blog platform to platform, from the first: Blog A-go-go to the present:
Deanna Raybourn which has just been incarnated to an easier to follow format.

The NEWS is that I will receive an advance copy of  "A Spear of Summer Grass" to read and let you know what I think of it.  Since she never produces anything which does not increase her following, I am looking forward to receiving my copy.  With glee, glee, I tell you. 

And I WILL tell you.  As soon as I read it.