mstrust#4- Happy Summerween!

An explanation: Summerween officially falls on June 22nd. Or the last Friday of June, it's a whole controversy. Then there's Half-O-Ween, which falls in July. Either way, you get to celebrate a time that is half scary, half tropical, and I'm all for it.
The term "Summerween" was invented in an episode of Gravity Falls around 2012. Set in a small forested town with lots of strange occurrences, the show is about the summer twins Dipper and Mabel are sent to stay with their Grunkle, a man who owns the Mystery Shack.


But this thread isn't about the show, it's about a mash-up between creepy and tiki. A blatant ploy to get more time with Halloween. Our summers are as hellish as can be, so of course I look forward to cooler Autumn.
Hi, I'm Jennifer and I live in Phoenix with my husband Mike and Coral the Clingy Boxer. We spend a lot of time in Vegas because my mom and our favorite bartender live there.
I've published a couple of books on Amazon, but I've spent the past year working on my maple opus, hopefully to be finished soon.
My threads are always politics-free, and sniff sniff, this one smells like pumpkin spice and tanning oil.

2021 Reads

1. Lady Windermere's Fan- 4 stars
2. The Riddle of the Third Mile- 4 stars
3. California Hotel and Casino- 3 stars
4. Ultimate Veg- 4 stars
5. Bowie's Bookshelf- 4 stars
6. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie- 5 stars
7. Britten and Brulightly- 4.2 stars
8. A Walk Around the Block- 4 stars
9. The Little Paris Kitchen- 4 stars
10. Action Park- 5 stars
11. Trick Yourself to Sleep- 2.5 stars
12. Come Home, Indio- 2.5 stars
13. Mystery, Inc.- 4 stars
14. Almost Sleighed- 4 stars
15. Vegas Tabloid- 2.5 stars
16. Essential Herbs- 4 stars
17. The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag- 4.5 stars
18. My Life with Sherlock Holmes- 2.5 stars
19. Rez Metal- 3 stars
20. Hoodoo Harry- 5 stars
21. Bibliotheca Classica- 4.5 stars
22. Selected Poems of W.H. Auden- 3.5 stars
23. Confess- 4.5 stars
24. The Murder of Dr. Chapman- 4 stars
25. The Pretty Little Box- 4 stars
26. Fairytale Baking- 5 stars
27. Seven Years- 4 stars
28. The Golden Gate- 4.5 stars
29. Oh, The Places You'll Go!- 5 stars
30. A Likely Story- 2.5 stars
31. Animal Behavior: A Very Short Introduction- 4 stars
32. Grateful American- 3.5 stars
33. Haunted Nights- 4.5 stars
34. Miao Doa- 4 stars
35. Welcome to the United States of Anxiety- 3.5 stars
36. Skinwalkers- 4 stars
37. Miss Marple's Final Cases- 3 stars
38. The Factory Witches of Lowell- 2.8 stars
39. The Eyre Affair- 5 stars
40. And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks- 3.5 stars
41. Redshirts- 4.5 stars
42. Tiki Surf Witches Want Blood- 4 stars
43. Survivor Song- 2.8 stars
44. Not Taco Bell Material- 3 stars
45. Maigret Goes to School- 3.5 stars
46. Moby Dick- 4.5 stars
47. Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered- 4 stars
48. The Beginner's Guide to Mushrooms- 4.5 stars
49. Elizabeth- 4 stars
50. High Tech and Hot Pot- 4 stars
51. The House on Mango Street- 3 stars
52. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake- 3.5 stars
53. Night of the Mannequins- 3 stars
54. Face It- 4.5 stars
55. England As You Like It- 3 stars
56. Middle Men: Stories- 4.2 stars
57. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont- 4.5 stars
58. Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii- 4 stars
59. Where The Sidewalk Ends- 5 stars
60. An Accidental Bookseller- 4 stars
61. The Giving Tree- 4 stars & The Empire of the Ants- 2.5 stars
62. Mocktails & Cocktails Made Simple- 3.5 stars
63. Murder on Tap- 3.5 stars
64. The Sleep Tight Motel- 4 stars
65. I'd Rather Be Reading- 3.5 stars
66. Uncle Dysfunctional
67. Candy Coated Murder- 3.5 stars
68. Check These Out- 3.5 stars
69. Deadly Arms- 3 stars
70. I Work at a Public Library- 4 stars
71. Mr Monk Goes to the Firehouse- 4 stars
72. Murderously Sweet- 4 stars
73. Just Another Day At Your Local Public Library- 3 stars
74. Hell's Princess- 4 stars
75. The Book of Books- 4 stars
76. A Moveable Feast- 3.5 stars
77. Chocolate Covered Murder- 3.5 stars
78. A Red Herring Without Mustard- 4.5 stars

Welcome! Grab a handful of candy and a daiquiri!

Happy new one, Jennifer. What a great topper.

Happy new thread, Jennifer.
Georgeous and tasty Pictures!

>4 Ameise1: Thanks a lot, Barbara! Here's a special First Place Prize, a Summerween purse:


>5 SirThomas: Good to see you made it, Thomas! Go ahead and help yourself to some delicious shark mouth fruit.

I've just checked out some Amazon Prime deals and bought myself a new Kindle Fire. Mine is at least ten years old and shows signs of breaking down. So the deal was $5 off. Apparently I don't need much incentive.

Happy new thread, and happy summerween!! (I'm also a big fan of Decemberween...)

>6 mstrust: Oh, thanks so much. I love it. 😍

Happy new thread!

May you celebrate as you choose!

>3 mstrust: Oooh...that looks very tempting.

>8 scaifea: Thanks, Amber, Happy Summerween to you!
I've seen little bits of Decemberween here and there. It may be a small party now but it could get big. We Halloween people like a good gap-toothed celebration.

>9 Ameise1: Hooray!

>10 quondame: Thanks, glad you're here!
For now, I choose sand angels, and since Dracula can't be in the sun, the main monster for Summerween is The Creature.

>11 laytonwoman3rd: Doesn't it? I'm not sure if the glass is rimmed with roasted pineapple or human flesh, but I know it has orange and pineapple juice, so that's delicious.

Happy new thread!

Happy new one, Jennifer.

>13 rabbitprincess: Hi and thanks!
>14 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul! Don't worry, I know you're excited on the inside.

>15 mstrust: Maybe because I'm groggy from my AZ injection, but I didn't understand your comment, Jennifer?

Happy new thread, Jennifer!

I see you found good use for watermelons, I hope the pumpkins won't get jealous :-)

>16 PaulCranswick: I was riffing off your calm and collected greeting to indulge myself in a little smart assery. It didn't land, did it?
I'll apologize by handing you a Frozen Pumpkin Juice, as it seems quite Summerweenie and delicious. A shot of whiskey wouldn't spoil it.

Frozen Pumpkin Juice

7.5 tbs pumpkin puree
6 oz apple juice
2 oz pineapple juice
1/4 oz honey
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice.
Whirl it all in an ice filled blender.

>17 FAMeulstee: Hello, Anita! Good to see you!
It's true that the watermelons and pumpkins have been at odds for a long time, but I see signs of willingness to put aside their differences and gang up on the carvers. It's a mutual enemy.

I went back to the Prime sale, like the sucker I am, and bought some lovely kitchen curtains that are covered in pineapples.

Happy new one!

I'm in!

Dropping in to wish you a Happy Summerween!

>19 drneutron: Thank you, Jim! I'm glad you're here.

>20 SomeGuyInVirginia: Larry's here! Hooray!
*could someone hide the rum and wax vampire fangs?*

>21 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy! Happy Summerween!

>18 mstrust: Thanks for that, Jennifer, I will get SWMBO to produce it to your specifications on the morrow. xx

Why would you want to hide the rum and wax vampire fangs. Don't be that guy Jennifer!

>23 PaulCranswick: I hope you think it worth the effort. It's kind of a pumpkin smoothie.

>24 SomeGuyInVirginia:
I, uh, didn't see you standing there.

>18 mstrust: For what it's worth, I giggled at your smart-assery...

Heee! I'm giving you something just for encouraging me.


How's an Island Ghoul candle suit ya?

My new Kindle arrived last night, with four months of their Unlimited book club, so I loaded up last night and will continue hoarding them up today.
And it's my dad's birthday, so Mom is going out to the cemetery in Boulder City with flowers. I wanted to send a Grubhubbed dinner for her tonight but she doesn't want anything so I get to do nothing.
I woke up this morning to rain and 64F. Amazing. Mike happened to be hiking up the mountain at the preserve when it started but he said it was nice.

58. Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii by Lee Goldberg. Unwilling to let his assistant Natalie get away to Hawaii for her best friend's wedding, which would leave him without anyone to drive him and hand him disinfectant wipes, Monk drugs himself up and gets on the plane to Hawaii. They're halfway through the flight before Natalie realizes he's onboard and that her vacation is ruined.
Monk also manages to ruin the wedding, drive the hotel staff up the wall, solve a string of burglaries and a murder, and is determined to expose a tv psychic as a fraud. He visits many famous Hawaiian spots and a luau too, all against his will.
This series of Monk novels, mostly written by Goldberg, are really fun, and since the author was also a writer for the show he voices the characters perfectly. 4 stars

>27 mstrust: Oooh, excellent! Thanks - I love it!

>28 mstrust: I. LOVE. Monk! I need to see if any of our streaming services have it...

>28 mstrust: Oooh, good recommendation. I just tagged an ebook copy from the lie-berry.

Happy Summerween! Happy New AC!

>29 scaifea: I'm so glad you're enjoying the scent of pineapple and palm tree...maybe I should get one for myself.
I watched the whole series on Prime but that was two or three years ago. If you get the Hallmark Mysteries channel, they play blocks of Monk.

>30 SomeGuyInVirginia: I hope you like it too. I think it's really well-written, like a lost episode. Monk's reaction to being taken to a roadside locals restaurant is priceless.

>31 PaperbackPirate: Happy Summerween! How'd you like our dark skies and high of 88 yesterday?

59. Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. That's right, I'd never read this before even though it was around when I was a kid.
It's fantastic! Poems about a guy who refuses to bath, pirate captains, a boy with hair so long it sends him flying, a girl too sick to go to school until she's reminded that it's the weekend. Whimsical, clever and fun. 5 stars

>32 mstrust: Of course we were out of town for the nice weather, and it even rained at our house - we saw it on our security camera. Lol. Luckily we were near Prescott at the time and it rained there for an hour, so at least we got to feel something other than frying weather.

>33 mstrust: Oh yay for Silverstein! I *loved* him when I was a kid.

>33 mstrust: Didn't he write The Phantom Tollbooth? I read that when I was a kid and I don't remember anything about the story, but I do remember that it left me feeling a sense of unease.

>34 PaperbackPirate: Well, at least you had proof on your camera that it happened. We lived in Prescott Valley for four years and they get some good hail and snow up there too. I haven't been up there in nearly ten years but Mike was there this week and said it's been so built-up that it's unrecognizable.

>35 scaifea: He's great, and I think he and Roald Dahl would have gotten along famously. They both saw children as capable of lying, being bad and stubborn.

>36 SomeGuyInVirginia: The Phantom Tollbooth was by Norton Juster, and that's another that I never read until just a few years ago. I recall it broke the fourth wall and I enjoyed that. Silverstein also wrote The Giving Tree, which I will be reading soon for the first time.
But seriously, what was going on in my house and school that there are all these books that were the cornerstone of everyone's childhoods and I've only heard about them as an adult? Both my parents were readers and they had books, but I think I had just a couple of children's books. I do recall that my mom bought The National Enquirer every week while I was in elementary school and I read every issue, so while I missed out on Silverstein at seven years old, I knew what was going on with the cast of "Charlie's Angels".
Have you been watching "Black Summer"?

Here's Friday's One New Thing.


The heaviest watermelon ever recorded was 350 lbs. The Guinness World Record holder is Chris Kent of Tennessee, who entered it at an Ohio pumpkin festival in October of 2013. There, how's that for a summer/Halloween mash-up?

>37 mstrust: I grew up in Chino Valley (that's where I was when it rained) and I feel the same. All of the farm land is gone and almost all of the ranch land as well. Now it's all urban sprawl. It makes me sad to go home and see the development so I avoid it when possible.

>38 mstrust: Great mash up! 350 pounds of watermelon is kind of scary.

O.k., we got to Chino Valley sometimes. It's hard to believe the area has been built up so much. Remember when Bucky's Casino was a big deal? And Mike and I would go to Mt Fuji's, the only Japanese restaurant in the area.
***

We Sold Our Souls arrived yesterday.

60. An Accidental Bookseller: A Personal Memoir of Foyles by Bill Samuel. Samuel is a Foyle on his mother's side, and he's the grandson of William Foyle, co-founder of the London bookstore company that is now over 100 years old. The title of this book comes from the fact that Samuel never had an interest in being in the family business, not because he didn't love books, but because when he reached adulthood Foyles was being run by his Aunt Christina and they mutually loathed each other.
Samuel became an accountant, but if the term "adventurer accountant" has ever been used, it was to describe this man who worked in advertising in Nairobi, owned a construction company in Portugal and became the Director of Tourism for Turks and Caicos. His memoir of finally joining the board of Foyles and working in the family business, after Christina's death, is also part autobiography of his world travels.
But what a juicy business memoir. He truly disliked his aunt and really slings some mud about what he found as the board member, and accountant, who dove into the non-existent record keeping, billings, and fraud that had been Christina's system. He gives specifics as to how employees were able to defraud the business for years, and he discusses the years of poor customer service and bad treatment of the employees that was allowed to ruin the shop's reputation. He also discusses the steps that were taken to rectify these things, like finally bringing in computers, once the rest of the family was able to step in. 4 stars

>33 mstrust: Shel Silverstein was some kind of genius. He also wrote Johnny Cash's hit "A Boy Named Sue", the Irish Rovers' classic "The Unicorn", and lots of other songs.

Ermagerd! I have not watched Black Summer yet because I am waiting on my new 70-in television. It probably won't be here until around the 4th of July. I. Cannot. Wait.

Good review, I've been wanting to read An Accidental Bookseller for a while. Now I will.

>42 laytonwoman3rd: I didn't know that! I was a dj at a country music station years ago, and Cash's "Sue" from Folsom Prison was on heavy rotation on Saturday nights. It is a good one.

>43 SomeGuyInVirginia: I finished "Black Summer" on Friday. I'll wait until you've watched it to say anything.
I think you'll like An Accidental Bookseller, both because he went all over the world and because he really dishes on the mess the next generation inherited from Aunt Christina.

We got back from Vegas this morning. It was a quick trip, just 48 hours, but we did a lot. And we were very surprised to see the trading post in Wikieup that we liked stopping at had burned to the ground last month.
Mom is good and we took her to the The Ranch House for steaks on Saturday, and on Sunday to Tony's for her favorite meal ever, carnitas nachos. Mike and I hit Frankie's last night and picked up the matte green Frankenstein mug. We already had the glazed orange one, but we both agree the green is cooler.
Because I'm too lazy to take a picture and upload it myself, I grabbed this. It's the mug on the left:


Books!
From The Writer's Block downtown:
Hangsaman
On the Wrong Track
Psychiatry: A Very Short Introduction

From the Summerlin library bookstore:
The Giver
Kon-Tiki a smaller copy than the one I have
Thames Valley Teashop Walks
Chocolate Wars

Gifts from Mom:
Mocktails & Cocktails Made Simple
Two books of a series I'd never heard of, The Book of All Flesh and The Book of Final Flesh, It's a twenty year-old zombie anthology series. I flipped through and there are stories from Paul Trembley and Tim Waggoneer.

And in my mailbox was an order, Blood & Ivy by Paul Collins, one of my favorite non-fiction authors.

I'm lumping these two short ones together.


61. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. Could this metaphor for motherhood be any sadder? This book is another that I'm reading for the first time. 4 stars



The Empire of the Ants by H.G. Wells. I'd wanted to read this one for a long time as I'm a fan of the 70's horror movie version with the actors fighting off huge animatronic ants. Love it. This story started out promising, with a new man aboard a boat in the jungle describing the infestation of aggressive ants that seem more organized than usual, but the ending was disappointing, as if Wells tired of the whole thing. 2.5 stars

Was Las Vegas fully open? Until I move to Lynchburg I was watching YouTube videos on the city, but back then most things were closed for restricted. I also got the sense that the people that were going were not your typical Las Vegas tourists and that they were just raising hell while they were there.

Wells's The Time Machine was one of the most depressing books I ever read.

Yes, Vegas was open. Finally. But being slowed down with so, so much construction happening on the strip. The biggest casino on the strip, ResortWorld, has opened, and a new one called MSG Sphere (Madison Square Garden) is being built. They're doing roadwork too so they have it narrowed down to two lanes. But everything is open and our guy at Frankie's says they are filled most nights.
We got there Saturday morning and a guy was shot in a PT's Pub Casino that night. Then on Sunday someone was shot at the Sahara. So people are really getting out to the casinos, even to commit their murders.
I haven't read The Time Machine yet, but it's on the shelf.
Oh, and the big surprise was that my Aunt Carrie in Texas had sent a package containing booklets she'd made up for Mom, my sister and me, that were messages to each of us and an autobiography that my grandmother had written at the end of her life. She died nineteen years ago and before she was cold Uncle Ken, her only son of six kids, ran to the house and cleaned it of anything valuable, like her jewelry and stereo, and apparently all these letters she'd written to her kids and grandkids, just to keep them from his siblings. Nobody knew about them until he sent them to Carrie a few weeks ago.

I guess this book is so new that I'm the only one who owns it so far. I've entered as much info as I can.

62. Mocktails & Cocktails Made Simple by Judith A. Pearce. A slim book of classic and original recipes along with instructions for making them alcohol-free. Nice color pics of each cocktail. And eight different sangria recipes. 3.5 stars

>47 mstrust: Holy cow, have you read your grandmother's autobiography?! That's amazing.

We had a similar situation when my grandmother died to what you described. My aunt Ruth, whose name was always followed by the phrase 'who would', ran to my grandmother's house as soon as she heard she had died. There was nothing of value in the house but there were sentimental objects and one family holy grail item- a journal that listed every item that my family owned, including people, written just before the civil war. So that went missing and only resurfaced a few years ago in a digitized format, and a pressed glass ambrosia dish that my grandmother always used and my dad wanted.

Why is there somebody really horrible in almost every family?

She has it organized into sections, such as her family, education (just part-time in school until she was fourteen), being an actual riveter during WWII, and what it was like during the war with rations and her brother away fighting in Europe for nearly four years, and her cousin W.C., who was also her best friend, enlisting in the Marines at the start of the war at seventeen years old and dying in his first battle at eighteen. Her time at the TB hospital, and meeting both her husbands.
I had always thought my grandma was the oldest of eleven kids because she seemed to have been a second mother to her siblings, but she states that she was the fourth child and the second daughter. There's an older sister named Etna Lorene whom I've never heard of, maybe paragraphs like this should be a clue as to why:

I remember the time Lorene was playing with a live cartridge of dynamite Dad had brought home from a job he was on. Mother and Dad left Lorene with us smaller children while they were working. She kept tapping the cartridge on the hot stove and it would crackle, and sparks would fly from it. She didn't know how dangerous it was. She was twelve years old, and I was eight. The cartridge exploded and tore up two of her fingers on her left hand. Her thumb was also mangled. That was the first time I ever saw my dad cry. They took her to the hospital where her thumb and four fingers were removed in surgery. It was a very bad time for all of us. Lorene never seemed to do very well after that. I guess the shock of the blast was overwhelming. She had been left-handed 'til then.
Once, Lorene went to the well to get a bucket of water. She was drawing it up with a pulley and it fell on her head and cut it open. She never seemed quite the same after that.

So the explosion would have been in 1932.
I had expected this to be something I'd read once, then stick in the closet, but it's going on my shelf with my books.

Why is there somebody really horrible in almost every family?
There's always someone who is afraid they won't get their share, so they help themselves. Or, they just enjoy screwing other people over, including family. Some people just have greed in their blood. If we want to be generous of heart, we could say that these horrible people keep things exciting.

63. Murder on Tap by Emily James. The fourth in the Maple Syrup Mysteries series, this one has new sugar shack owner Nicole discovering the body of her young photographer while leading a tour group through the sugarbush. Drew had been getting shots for the new tourism brochure when someone decided to tap him like a maple tree. Nicole is convinced that the killer was one of the tour group, maybe even Drew's annoying girlfriend.
Has some big leaps in logic, but still enjoyable. 3.5 stars

I'm over exciting. You know what I want? Mayberry.

Yes, sometimes I'd like to sit down and swap recipes with Carol Brady. But I'll bet she drinks instant coffee.

Happy 4th!

64. The Sleep Tight Motel by Lisa Unger. Maddie is in the middle of nowhere, driving an old beater that is about to breakdown. She's trying to outrun Erik, her scary boyfriend, who is maybe a day behind her but gaining fast and sending threatening text messages that tell her she can't escape him. As her gas tank is nearly empty and she's exhausted, Maddie pulls into the Sleep Tight Motel, a little place along the interstate run by Drew, a lonely man who couldn't be nicer. But between the two of them they can't figure out why Maddie keeps hearing screaming and scuffling in the empty room next door.
A kind of re-imagining of Psycho, but with a big twist at the end. I read this on Kindle, it's part of their Dark Corners collection. I don't know if this is considered a novella or a long short story. It's the first I've read by this author. 4 stars

65. I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel. Bogel is best known as the host of the What Should I read Now podcast, so I heard her soothing voice as I read this.
In this book she discusses so many aspects of being a reader, from packing a stack of books for vacation to having an acquaintance, someone you hardly know, ask for book recommendations, to the danger of looking at a good friend's bookshelf and being surprised. She discusses the many ways a reader can track their reads, and she reminisces about the many years, as a young family, that she lived next door to a library and would drop in multiple times a day.
This book, with it's lack of a plot, just booky topics, would be a great palate cleanser between more intense reads. 3.5 stars

We we're out shopping yesterday and had the first Halloween sightings! Note it, 4th of July. At Home was putting up Autumn/Halloween, and JoAnn Fabrics had lots of Autumn/Halloween designs out. I bought some.

Oooh, I've been thinking that I want to make a trip to JoAnn Fabrics soon. I've decided I'd like to make some holiday placemats, and I assumed the Halloween fabric would be out soon...

Yep, lots of Autumn and Halloween fabrics, really great designs. Makes me wish I could sew, but do I really need another hobby?

I stopped trying to think of reasons for why I buy fabric when I was in Joanne Fabrics and saw a lime green faux fur animal print like Fred Flintstone wore (but green).

Oh, they have a whole selection of faux furs, any color you want. I tried to come up with a reason to buy the expensive pale pink tulle but restrained myself. And I wanted some of the fabric printed with the 60's logo of The Who. Mike kept asking me if I'd seen the fabric that had dogs all over it, he'd probably like bedsheets made out of that.
I really liked this Halloween print that had 60's cartoony monsters all over it. But a few years ago we bought Halloween fabric from JoAnn's, three different ones, and my MIL was nice enough to turn them into throw pillow cases and bed pillow cases for me. Can't ask her to do it all again.

Sure you can! You married her son and got him out of her house didn't you?

Have you seen Jeff Granito's tiki art at etsy.com? He's got some cool pillow covers.

Ha! I'm about 95% positive that her plan was to have Mike living with her until she died, so I actually spoiled her plans and until very recently she wasn't trying to hide her grudge. You think I'm kidding, but Mike's grandma and uncle did just that, so there's precedence in the family. I saved him!
Btw, have you seen the ads for American Horror Story: Stories and Surreal Estate on SYFY, both starting in a few weeks? They both will be great, I just know it.

I just uncovered a book I brought home from Vegas last week, Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station.

>64 mstrust: Hurray, Mrs. Pollifax!

You did indeed save him! Okay, that does it. I'm going to have to make a Halloween rounds of the city and see what's cool. I'm still kicking myself for not buying a large paper mache pedestal and skull from Ross years ago. It was all retro and sooooo cool.

I hadn't seen anything about AHSS or Surreal Estate, but I do subscribe to Hulu and I pretty sure both will land there.

We're going to have rain and thunderstorms every day for the next week. I like the rain, but it always makes me so very tired.

If you have prime video, have you watched Army of the Dead? I'm a fan of Zack Snyder since he gave us fast zombies and I've been looking forward to watching it, but it seems hard to set aside to uninterrupted hours. I can't wait. These are not only fast zombies, but fast and smart zombies.

>65 rabbitprincess: You know, I've yet to read any Mrs. Pollifax yet, and I'm a big mystery reader. Just gotten past me so far.

>66 SomeGuyInVirginia: I need to check Spooky Little Halloween's Halloween store listing again. She has it divided up by month with the list of which stores begin their Halloween stocking that month. Very handy!
I love rain storms, except during the summer in Phoenix. Our monsoons make everything so muggy, like you're wearing a wet blanket.
I watched over an hour of Army of the Dead on Netflix when it first came out, and for some reason, I didn't get into it and didn't care to go on. I thought I'd really like it- zombies in Vegas- but it was dull. Too many effects, not enough of whatever made TWD so great the first seven seasons. But I happened to come home from Vegas with a copy of Las Vegas Weekly that has a cover story titled, "Aliens! Zombies! Radiation! Why does Hollywood keep destroying Las Vegas on film?"

66. Uncle Dysfunctional: Uncompromising Answers to Life's Most Painful Problems by A.A. Gill. Gill had a column in British Esquire for several years answering questions from readers, and when he was bored, questions from himself. Often, the questions were of the most hilariously raunchy sort, and Gill, sharp-tongued and brilliant, would give his reply. Sometimes his advice was obscene, sometimes profound, such as speaking about the value of freedom or feminism, or the pain of being dumped.
I enjoyed the forward by Esquire's editor, who discusses working with Gill. I've liked everything I've read from him, he was often shockingly funny and fearless. 4 stars

Today's One New Thing:


Summerween Shopping. Etsy has a whole Summerween category and it features very cool enamel pins, spooky tanks and fruit bat candles.
https://www.etsy.com/market/summerween

Summerween and the living is lazy.

I started watching Army of the Dead last night but stopped about 30 minutes in. I'll watch the rest of it, I just wasn't into it. And I was wondering the same thing that journalist did, about why so many apocalyptic movies wind up in Las Vegas.

The author's opinion is that Hollywood sees Vegas as a glitzy den of iniquity, a place where tourists can sin and be fleeced. Which is the pot calling the kettle black.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I bought both a Dean Martin and an Esquivel album while I was there. Just need Mike to set up the turntable.

>71 mstrust: Hmmm....I don't have that one. I do have 2 or 3 Dean Martin vinyl albums from my teenage years, when I belonged to a "record club". There's a thing nobody under the age of 35 will remember, I bet. We bought a new turntable recently, and are in the process of listening to all the records we've collected over the years, keeping the ones we love, and culling the ones we don't. Confirms my judgment that vinyl in good condition sounds better than the digital versions, no matter how well they are produced. We have several things in both formats, so comparisons were inevitable.

>71 mstrust: >72 laytonwoman3rd: I've never compared vinyl to streaming music or CDs, but I've heard from several others that vinyl is superior and I don't doubt it for a minute. The reason I readily believe it is because these 4K smart TVs all seem to have something called 'motion lag', where moving images blur. I never noticed it on my 55-in TV but it's very apparent on my new 70-in TV, especially on anything filmed in HDR. The older programs look ok. It shocks me, really, since TVs are now true home entertainment systems and get so much use, and cost so much. I would have thought that picture integrity would have been more valued by TV manufacturers than it seems to be. I stopped watching Army of the Dead because it was so bad. I did make a couple of adjustments in the settings and that helped. Plus I think that the director intentionally blurred a lot of the scenes? I bought a budget TV from Sam's Club and I understand that more expensive models and QLED models have much better pictures. I'll probably be swapping out for a better TV in the next couple of years.

Btw, the Kindle version of The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James is on sale today for $2.99. I read it earlier this year and enjoyed it. It's a moody atmospheric thriller that has actual ghosts and not a haunted and moody atmospheric thriller.

>72 laytonwoman3rd: My mom worked in the record club department for Capitol Records, when I was a baby. That's how a couple who liked Hank Williams and Johnny Cash ended up with animals from CCR, the Animals and Simon & Garfunkel. I ended up listening to those.
I remained in the vinyl camp for a really long time, long after CDs came out. Mike convinced me to switch to CD around the same time vinyl was disappearing for regular releases. I still have two boxes of records in the garage, stuff that would never have been made to CD or digital because they were just L.A. bands.

>73 SomeGuyInVirginia: CD and digital is perfect sound, while vinyl has a warmth. It sounds closer to a live performance for some reason. Maybe they clean up the singer's breathing from digital while it remains on vinyl.
I've never heard of "motion lag" but I'm wondering if that's why I sometimes see a slight choppiness to the picture. To me, it looks like the frames have been slowed down a bit. I told Mike months ago and he said he hadn't noticed anything, but then it happened again and I said, "There! Did you see that?" He had, so it's not just my fevered brain.
We started watching "Dexter" a few nights ago, as it's on Prime. I had seen just the first episode years ago and didn't continue for some reason, but I think it's very good and I'll continue now. And we continue with "The Good Place" and I started "Fear Street: 1994" on Netflix.

67. Candy Coated Murder by Kathleen Suzette. Mia has moved home to Pumpkin Hollow, the Halloween town where she grew up and where her family has owned a candy store for generations. She hadn't planned on moving back in with her parents and working at the candy store, as she'd left ten years ago for college, where she earned several degrees but still came away with no idea of what she wants to do with herself.
Normally she wouldn't have dared to go up to next door neighbor Hazel's porch, but Mia was so surprised to see that Halloween hating Hazel had actually made a scarecrow and put it on the bench at her front door. This is so out of character, and when Mia takes a good look, she notices the scarecrow is wearing the same clothes Hazel had been wearing that day.

This is a good Halloween cozy. Pumpkin Hollow has Halloween themed stores and activities from Labor Day to November, and the climax of this murder mystery takes place with Mia dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. She's a little annoying with her constantly being offended by the townspeople openly cheering for whoever killed Hazel, but I'll likely continue the series and maybe Mia will stop telling people they aren't very nice. 3.5 stars

I suspect that Suzette is also Emily James, author of the Maple Syrup Mysteries, as James is the only other author I've ever come across who uses the word "anymore" to mean "now" or "when".

>74 mstrust: You're right on point with the "warmth" of vinyl recordings. We often comment that it sounds as though the performer is right in the room with us. But even strictly instrumental stuff sounds better to us on vinyl. We have a collection of Beethoven's piano sonatas that my husband's grandmother gave him as a college graduation gift; we've acquired at least three CD versions of that music, and one of the same performances. They are all missing "something".
And don't get me started on the HD TV thing. We were in Las Vegas at a trade show back in 2008 (I think) where a huge HD TV was being demonstrated (my husband was a broadcast engineer). I actually had to leave the room, because it was making me nauseated to watch it. Herky jerky, I believe was the term I used. Our largest home screen is 42", and I have no desire to get one any larger than that.

It's got to be that the little unintentional sounds, like an intake of breath, the finger drag on a guitar string, they add up to that "live" sound, which is imperfect but real. They remove these background noises in remasterings.
We have a 42" too. As much as I love tv, I have no desire to go bigger because when I look at one of the huge ones I hear Frasier Crane. Yes, I get the irony of being dissuaded from a tv by a tv character.

We had a monsoon here Saturday night that included a bit of hail and gusting rain. It wasn't until later on Sunday that I looked into our backyard and found our bbq had been blown over and pieces broken off and the propane line bent. Not only was it under our porch, but with the propane tank attached it probably weighs 75 lbs.

What happens to all that rain once it lands? Does everything turn into a lake, or is the land so dry that it's absorbed almost instantly?

Areas like Queen Creek are notorious for flooding because they are in a more natural state with less paving and construction. But for us, the ground soaks it up. Which, combined with the heat, makes it feel like a sauna. Phoenix after a monsoon feels a lot like Florida.

Treasure (Hush Collection) by Oyinkan Braithwaite. Treasure lives in an exclusive neighborhood of Lagos and is on her way to being a real social influencer. She posts lots of pictures of herself in designer clothes, laughing and being happy, hashtagging "blessed" because it's important to be seen as down-to-earth. She will sometimes reply to her fans, just some superficial interaction, like thanking them for the money they send her. And then one day she posts a pic and, just for a few seconds, forgets to hide her location.
A short story from the author of My Sister, the Serial Killer, this is about obsession, a man obsessed with the image of a woman and the woman who is obsessed with herself. I'm not counting it as it's short enough to be read in less than an hour. 3 stars

68. Check These Out by Gina Sheridan. A collection of Sheridan's favorites, organized in chapters such as high school reading, Southern, con artists. Sheridan is a librarian who has read across a vast range of genres, and while I wouldn't agree with many of her choices of the "best", she recommends Jim Thompson and I ended up with a long list of recommendations to track down, so I'm not complaining. 3.5 stars

A few Summerweenie things lately: I went to my post office a few days ago, which is inside a Hallmark, and they had the Halloween cards out. Just a couple of Halloween gifty things on the tables, but they were putting up the Christmas ornaments too.
And driving past the park half and hour ago we spotted a flock of Canadian geese, around fifty of them. That was weird, because even though it's raining, it's still going to be over 100 today. We usually see them in the fall.

Here's a Summerween mash-up, ice cream and R.L. Stine.
The full episode of "Catching Cold": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHhBGCLSQjI

Hey, Larry! Did you finish Black Summer?

Ack! I have not! I've been watching little to no TV lately, I haven't even finished Army of the Dead yet. Part of the problem is that I subscribe to the BFI channel on Amazon Prime And they have a bunch of Brit movies I wanted to see for a long time but they either weren't available or they were ridiculously expensive to rent. I've been watching the first few Carry On films and have enjoyed them a great deal.

Is Black Summer that good? I watched the first episode and the first few minutes of the second episode and really liked them, but my God they are dark. Not that I mind that, all zombie apocalypse fiction is, well, apocalyptic.

With the rising prices, the ransomware, and store shortages I've decided to go ahead and put together a year's worth of food and water for Da Peeb and me. One thing I learned from the pandemic and the lockdown is that nobody is coming to save you.

You'll get to it, and I can relate to wanting to watch the Brit comedies. I've only seen one Carry On but it was very funny.
I would say that I didn't enjoy this season's Black Summer as much as the first. For one thing, it's further on in the zombie apocalypse, so all the men have beards, making it pretty difficult to tell them apart in the fight scenes. I also found the "working backwards" style that was so interesting in the first season was much harder to follow this time round, because there were these huge battles, so you were seeing someone die and then trying to link them to which of the bearded men you saw alive later. Maybe just me. Spoiler Or maybe I was disappointed by seeing Lance killed in the first three minutes of the first episode. That was harsh.

Stocking up couldn't hurt. You'll use food and water either way, but we've learned to prepare for the worst in a way that Americans haven't seen since WWII.
Btw, I have an appointment for the book photo shoot on the 30th! I'm very excited and nervous. Getting other people involved is the point where you know you can't back out.

Wait! Stop. You're having an author shot done for one of your books? Srsly?! Goddamn it Jennifer, have I really been that oblivious? Did I know this? I mean, this is a fame thing. This is the kind of thing that I generally know about. Did I miss it?

Whatever. Tell.

No, I'm not having my pic taken. I'd like people to read the book, not scream and throw it from the window of a moving car.
The shoot is going to be for the maple products that various producers have sent to me, along with my cakes, cookies, cocktails, stuff like that. That's why I've been getting fabrics and props, and I got my giant blown-glass jack o'lantern out. The plan I'm working with right now is three different table settings, plus shots of the products grouped by maker. I'll end up with a shot for the front and back cover, plus chapter headings.

Wow, that is very very cool. How did you pull the deal together?

I'll PM you.

We've been to the baking supply store this morning. Yesterday, lots of errands and lunch. One of the stops was at Half Price Books:
Cold Sassy
The Churchgoer
a Ray Charles cd for Mom
and for the upcoming Halloween reads, Goosebumps: Let's Get Invisible, and two GNs, Zombie Tales: This Bites and Tales From the Crypt.
And something very cool and unexpected was that we met tiki artist Doug Horne in the parking lot as we were both leaving the Staples on Camelback. I'd noticed the very tall (maybe 6'6") man buying a fully assembled chair ahead of us in line. As we walked past his car he noticed Mike's Frankie's Tiki Room t-shirt, we went over and started talking and he was mentioning people we know, and I asked who he was. Turns out we have one of his prints, the tiki Bride of Frankenstein. Really nice guy and we were so happy to have run into him.

69. Deadly Arms by Emily James. The fifth in the Maple Syrup Mysteries, this opens with Nicole, the lapsed lawyer and new owner of a Michigan sugarbush operation, being surprised by a visit from her mother. As her harshest critic, Nicole and her mom have never been close, but if there were plans to talk Nicole into coming back to DC they are derailed by a big pool of blood in the bathroom of the room next door to Nicole's mom. Because the majority of the police station is out sick, the investigation is headed by Officer Elise, who has never led a murder investigation, and Nicole and her mom, who have had some run-ins with murderers before. 3 stars

70. I Work at a Public Library by Gina Sheridan. A collection of conversations Sheridan, a librarian in California, has had with patrons or overheard at her library. Most involve people who are strange, such as Cuckoo Carol, the belligerent regular who snaps at everyone but tells Sheridan to get a better attitude, or the man who demanded to know why the library didn't have typewriters for public use anymore. Some of the stories were about the children discovering a love of books or the gratitude patrons can show to their librarians. I think the funniest story was when she overheard two co-workers trying to figure out which of their older female regulars, all having exhibited very strange behavior, was Sheila.
This is a quick read. 4 stars

71. Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse by Lee Goldberg. When the local firehouse dog is found murdered, Natalie's twelve year-old daughter is so upset that she asks Natalie's boss, San Francisco's consulting detective Adrian Monk, to investigate. There's no doubt the dog was murdered, and it happened while the entire crew was working on a house fire in which the resident died. Well, Monk just has to investigate that too, and learns that the whole street is overjoyed that the nosy old lady is dead, because she was the one keeping them from a huge payday. Which means there are lots of people with motives.
The first of the Monk novels, he's as funny and aggravating as you'd find in the tv series. 4 stars

>28 mstrust: >93 mstrust: ...and again new books that I really need to read - thank you Jennifer.
I wish you a wonderful Sunday.

Ha, I was just posting on your thread!
Goldberg captures Monk's quirks and interactions with strangers perfectly. In this one, Monk encounters a man who is working on his car and wiping his hands off on his clothes. You can imagine.
Have a great Sunday!

How did your photo shoot go?! I am in awe.

On the East coast they're reporting monsoons in Arizona and other western states. Are you getting them? What's the effect on the local ecology? On the east they're reporting that the monsoons may relieve the drought the western states are going through.

Okay, I tried. I'm trying to do the extreme frugality challenge but there's some things that I just can't give up on, and one of those is cool air. I tried adjusting the thermostat up to 75 but it was simply uncomfortably warm, so it's back at 73. Which, in itself, is a compromise on the 67 that I was using before everything got so damn hot on the East Coast.

Regarding the extreme frugality challenge. I need lamps. In some cases, more badly than in others. I want to just go ahead and order the damn things but then I think, ... well I just start thinking and that's the whole problem. On Tuesday I'm going to hit the thrift shops and goodwills and Lynchburg and the surrounding towns and see if I can find anything.

The shoot is happening this Friday. I'll be spending the week baking and panicking.
We've been raining on and off since Thursday night and it's brought the temps down as low as 73. It almost feels like Autumn, except that even then we don't usually get so many days in a row of rain. Our usual monsoons last a few hours, come with a lot of wind and leaves us sticky from the wet heat the next day. This has pretty much been hard rain interspersed with light drizzle, and it's rare to have this much of a cool down.

I'm very interested in seeing how you do with being frugal. I do see it as being a real challenge, especially with the book buying.
Second hand shops in your area will probably have some good stuff, and estate sales. Let's see how hard you can pinch a penny!

And we were out running errands this morning, having lunch at Portillo's, and I wanted to pick up something at Barnes & Noble. We drove up and found it was permanently closed.

So far I've been doing pretty good on the frugality challenge. Chase Bank is probably going to call me to see if I've died.

I've gotten on some scammers list, and they're both tenacious and pretty sophisticated. They say that they're a collection agency for my old internet provider from Alexandria and that I owe two pieces of equipment. They call me at least once or twice a day and send me letters. I spoke with the internet provider and they said that they show it at zero balance and that they've never heard of this company before; they recommended that I just ignore them. Today I get a call from the scammers and I let the guy go on for a minute, then I just cut in and said 'Edward you're a goddamn liar and take me off your list.' He started squawking and I just hung up.

I've put myself on a no-buying challenge before, it's like going on a diet. Hopefully you have more restraint than I do, because I still have stacks of unread books and a big butt.
Good for you, yelling at that scammer! He deserved it. I think the punishment for internet scammers and thieves should be the same as if they'd robbed a house or pickpocketed a wallet. Theft is theft, but if they steal an identity it should be a longer sentence than stealing cash.
Here comes my rant!
Mike's credit card got hit again less than a week ago, which makes this maybe the ninth time his credit card has been used in an attempted internet purchase (not the same card). But he's been able to stop the sales from going through for a few years now because his phone pings whenever our cards are used, and that works better than LifeLock, which we used to have. So someone attempted to buy $460 on his credit card from Rock Auto, that auto parts place that has tv commercials. He's never bought anything from them, but they had attempted the purchase using his name too. So he stopped it from going through, notified the credit card company to halt that account, and then called the police to report it. We have less than 2000 police officers in a city of 5 million, so it's not a priority.
A couple of hours later Mike got a call at work from New Hampshire. This guy says, "Are you Mike?" And Mike says yes, and the guy asks, "Did you try to use my Rock Auto account this morning?" So the thief had used Mike's name and cc#, but this guy's account, because you have to sign up to buy stuff. And not only had the NH guy tracked down Mike, he'd gotten the address the thief had wanted the delivery sent, which was just a few blocks from Mike's work. So Mike was able to call the police back and give them all the info, and yes, he considered going to the apartment and having a conversation himself, but he's letting the police handle. This apartment complex that the thief lives in, the police are likely there daily anyway.

>95 mstrust: Thank you, Jennifer - I have started to read and I am thrilled.
I wish you a stress free week and all the best for Friday.
>99 SomeGuyInVirginia: >100 mstrust: I hope that the scams will never succeed.

I'm glad you were able to find it so quickly! I've checked a little and it looks like the Monk book series has continued on, as I found one that was published in 2015.
And thanks, I wish people would stop looking for alternatives to earning money.

72. Murderously Sweet by Kate Bell. The second book in the Pumpkin Hollow series.
Just months after finding her next door neighbor dead and dressed as a scarecrow, Mia and Ethan literally stumble upon a body in the corn maze. It's the mayor, a man who hated the town's Halloween theme and was working to end it. There's a long list of suspects from that angle, but his widow wasn't happy with him either.
Yes, lots of Halloween and candy talk, as Mia's family owns the candy store in the Halloween section of town, where they make homemade candy. 4 stars

Why am I reading Halloween books? My Unlimited Kindle keeps offering me interesting stuff and I have until October to read as fast as I can :-D

It was a good idea not to confront the guy. The best that could have happened was that he became overcome with guilt and ran out into oncoming traffic. That kind of thing rarely happens though at least without an intervention.

Crime has just gone kajagoogoo bananas in this area lately. There's about a murder a day, and often one shooting. Frankly, it's frightening. Even being wildly optimistic, Lynchburg is no more than a medium-sized or largish town.

I just got in from running a bunch of errands. I am too hot to take a shower.

More chores, I called 'dangerously overheated' and prescribed lounging on the couch for another 30 minutes.

I hope you're okay. Maybe a glass of sweet tea and a wet washcloth. Or a nap.
Our amazing respite from the heat seems to have ended. The rain stopped Sunday night and it's back to sunny and 100 today. It's been very strange to see other cities as having a higher temp than us.
I know, no good can come from Mike confronting the thief himself. It's frustrating to not know when or if the police will be able to get to it though. They have bigger crimes to take care of.

BTW, Target has some pretty cool Halloween decorations available online. I especially like the figurines; it looks like they're going with recognized designers again this year. Since I'm doing the frugality thing I didn't buy anything. This year will be the first Halloween in many years where I'll give out candy. It wasn't allowed in my apartment building.

I'll check it out. I was in Target on Sunday and didn't see a bit of Halloween, not even in the front cheapie bins, which is where they usually start.
Very cool that you'll be able to give out candy this year. I still buy bags and bags even though the numbers dwindle each year.
Btw, since you have Prime, they've added Wayward Pines to the "watch with ads" channel, so we've been watching that. I really liked it when it was on regular tv in 2014. The second season was disappointing, but that's because the first was so good.

73. Just Another Day at Your Public Library by Roz Warren. Warren has been a librarian at a busy Pennsylvania library for twenty years. This is a collection of topics that librarians deal with daily, such as confused computer patrons, patrons who try to get out of paying late fines, whether or not shushing is appropriate and how quiet should a busy library be. She uses her Facebook page to ask other librarians questions, such as "What's the strangest thing put through your book drop?" Mostly humorous, but she does touch on the topic of the mentally ill who spend the day at public libraries because they have nowhere else to go. 3 stars

There was a Carnegie Library a short distance from the first place I lived in on Capitol Hill. It was small, but opulent in the way all Carnegie libraries are. At first, I went there fairly regularly to check out books but I never, ever considered hanging out there because it was packed basement to rafters, and side to side, with lunatics, junkies, and drifters. They were everywhere and usually passed out. It was gross. Eventually I gave it up and drove the 15 or 20 miles to the Fairfax County Library system.

I don't think I've ever been in a Carnegie, though we have one in downtown Phoenix that was turned into some other government agency. There's a very nice, small one in Prescott too, but that's private businesses now.
Yeah, the last time we were at our main branch downtown we had to wait with a big crowd for the doors to open. Seriously, there must have been fifty homeless men waiting and as soon as the doors opened they raced for the fifth floor bathrooms. That's known for being their spot.

I've started watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on Prime. Never seen it before, but I'm liking it. So 90's.

>100 mstrust: Just so frickin' annoying. Glad you guys are on it! And so exciting that you saw Halloween stuff out already! LOL.

It's really on us to stop these criminals. I can tell you that the best thing we've done, after so many virtual cc thefts, was to set up the phone to ping and notify Mike every time there was a pending charge on the credit cards. I love the thought of the bum being disappointed and then wondering if they'll be arrested :-D. So far, we haven't heard back from the police about that though.

We were doing our Sunday stuff yesterday, which includes stopping in multiple stores. I kept an eye out but didn't spot any Halloween at all. Hmph. We were in Barnes & Noble to pick up a book for Mom, and they only had three Autumn magazines out, all crafting stuff. I bought her An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good. It's going into her Box of Distractions. The anniversary of Dad's death is in a few days and it's very difficult for her. Over the last few years I've been sending her a BoD, to give her little things to focus on when neither my sister or I are able to visit that day. This year's box includes the book, a Ray Charles cd, a bag of popcorn flavored marshmallows, a bag of candied almond, a wrist wallet, and a hummingbird house.

One of my takeaways from Michael Lewis's latest book, The Premonition, is that 'no one is coming to save you'. He discussed how difficult it was for those scientists and health professionals who, watching Wuhan and China in December and January and who had strong beliefs that it would become a global pandemic, had to fight with local, state, and federal agencies to get any kind of response to fighting covid-19. It sounds like a total bummer but the unspoken corollary is, 'so get off your butt and save yourself'.

As an aside- when I was living on Capitol Hill in DC I borrowed my parents brand new SUV for a single night to load up with luggage for a trip in the morning. Of course it was stolen from right out in front of my house. The officer who responded to my call to the police showed up and he had to borrow a pin from me to jot down some notes on a piece of scrap paper.

A Box of Distractions sounds like a really great idea. What have you included in the past? I used to get bummed out around the anniversary of my parents' deaths but after my brother's last round of shenanigans I think I might be over it. They made no effort to conceal the fact that he was their favorite and now I feel a bright bitter vindication and just think 'well I hope you guys will be very happy together'.

Other distractions have been jigsaw puzzles (she's always doing one), books of word searches, a hummingbird feeder and a bird seed bell, pecan logs, cds, a harmonica,,,just anything shiny to take her mind off the day for a few minutes.
Wow, a DC cop who didn't have the equipment to do his job? That's unreal. And I'm sure you didn't have much faith in getting your parent's car back. But did they find it?

There are some way cool puzzles out there, and they don't cost much either. A couple of months ago I bought two from Mondo Tees, and as soon as I have level, empty space I'll very likely consider doing one. Eventually.

They found it that night. It had been stolen by very young teenagers and used in a drag race on H Street. It was a complete loss, they did everything but set it on fire.

His did the photo shoot go?!?!

>116 SomeGuyInVirginia: Earlier this year I found an online jigsaw supplier, named something like The Puzzle Warehouse, that carries thousands of jigsaws. I just haven't needed to buy online in a while because my local Hallmark carries them, so I just grab one when I'm mailing packages.
Wow, I'm surprised the car was found so quickly, but I guess the kids didn't care when it was found at that point.
Our area is having a huge problem of catalytic converters being stolen off cars. The thieves are even going under cars in store parking lots.

>117 SomeGuyInVirginia: Really well! We spent two hours at it. I brought an enormous amount of props and baked goods, plus all the maple products sent by producers. The photographer, Jeremy, and his assistant Edgar couldn't have been nicer. I don't know how many pictures he took as I'm waiting for him to send them to me. I ended up leaving behind a maple pumpkin cake, pumpkin spice cupcakes with maple buttercream, maple buttons and walnut bars for them in their kitchen. There are other people working in the studio so I was sure they'd be eaten, but Edgar had already called dibs on the cake.

Here are a couple of my pics from the day.


Here he's taking a pic of various cocktails. Yes, I have a maple cocktail section!

That is so cool! And he used a handheld camera, I would have thought he'd have used something on a tripod or something? You'll have to post pictures when you get them from him. Were you there in his studio, I mean did you have to schlep all the products through the Arizona heat to get there? I've always enjoyed the idea of photography and keep meaning to learn Photoshop. But wait, If he's a professional photographer where's the big mirror with all the cocaine? And I have to ask - did Edgar drink the cocktails?

Do you format your books yourself? Really, I'd be interested in learning the whole process, I think it's fascinating.

Jeebus! I just checked out the Puzzle Warehouse. If weren't doing the frugality thing I would have probably dropped a hundred bucks. I really love puzzles. So far I've been really good about not buying stuff I don't need.

I thought that I set my credit card up to ping me every time I used it, but I bought some household stuff on Amazon and from Sam's Club and I didn't get notified. I put it on my to-do list today to figure out what's going on.

Greetings! Love the photo shoot! It must be so exciting to see your book develop. Congratulations!

My niece just had her catalytic convertor stolen in her apartment parking lot. Now, she thinks she'll have to have the car towed to get a new one. $$

I'm so done with working outside - totally looking forward to fall (except for the abundance of leaves) and getting cozy again with puzzles and tea. I can switch on "old lady with two crazy cats" mode in an instant.

>119 SomeGuyInVirginia: He used a handheld for the overhead shots but used the tripod for the regular shots when he was on the floor. I'm eager to see the photos. He showed me one that he'd just taken to ask me about the direction I wanted to go, but I was running around gathering up displays and washing glasses and unwrapping food. So at the moment I have no idea which shot will be on the cover.
Yes, I'm formatting myself, but as this is my first full length book and I'm self-publishing, Mike has hired someone to come over and make sure we don't have problems with the software. That's the most nerve-wracking part of all this.
And Edgar tasted everything I offered, including a cocktail.

>120 SomeGuyInVirginia: Huge inventory, right? When you've been good for awhile you might allow yourself a present.
You know, I'm not sure how Mike set his phone to ping, whether it was through the bank or credit card, I'll ask when he wakes up.

>121 Carmenere: Hi Lynda! Thanks so much, I'm excited too! I hope people find it useful, but even if it doesn't sell a single copy, I did it and it will exist as proof :-D.
So the converters are being stolen there too. There are so many job openings, employers are begging for employees, but I guess stealing is a better option.
Believe me, I'm ready for fall too. We were out doing our yard yesterday and it was nearly 100F at 7:30am. Ugh. But we have to do it ourselves because when we hire someone they never come back a second time. Sometimes they don't even come and do it the first time.
My mom called yesterday to tell me her Ross was putting up Halloween right then. Ha, I've got a network!

74. Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men by Harold Schechter. The story of Gunness, a Norwegian immigrant who married twice, took in many children, ran a mid-sized farm, and murdered her husbands, children, and lots of lonely men who answered her lonely hearts newspaper ads in the early 1900s.
Believed to have killed around 28 people, she is likely still the record holder as the most prolific female serial killer in America. When it looked like she was about to be found out, her house burned to the ground, along with her children and a conveniently headless female body, leading to decades of speculation as to whether or not she had actually died in the fire (blamed on a disgruntled ex-employee) or set it herself and escaped.
It's strange that her name isn't as known as her fellow male psychopaths. Even in her fifties and nearly 300 pounds, with what is described as a "frog face", she possessed a strong seductive quality, noted by surviving paramours, that allowed her to lure men to their deaths. Her letters to lonely Norwegian men from all over the country drew them to cash out their stocks, sell farms, leave their families, and want to marry her even after seeing her. Even the young farm hand who was sentenced for the fire, while insisting that he was innocent, said her had fallen in love with Belle. Bizarre story that has been heavily researched by the author, including the "sightings" of Belle decades later. Very cool graphics and evidence and photos throughout the book. 4 stars

>122 mstrust: If you ship internationally and I get a dedication, you will sell at least one copy ;-).
Best wishes for your adventure.

Hooray! Thanks for the good wishes, Thomas. I'm still anxiously waiting on the photos.
It will be available on Amazon, so there shouldn't be a probably with shipping. If there is, do let me know.

I got the photo proofs last night! Two hundred of them. Really great shots, and I've been through them once, but I'll go through again today and make my picks for Jeremy to crop and size.

I had to stake a branch of an Eve's Needle cactus under our front window this morning. Four days of consecutive rain were a little too much for it, so the whole thing was leaning and one branch was so heavy with water retention that it was laying on the ground. I wore heavy work gloves, but with the plant being bright green and the needles a pale blonde, one needle went through my glove and pretty deep into the back of my finger. Bloody.


I'll be hosting September's ScaredyKit, "The Dead, Their Habits and Abodes". This will cover graveyards, burial grounds, funeral homes, mummies and stuff like that. Fiction or non-fiction, so if you've been meaning to read Mary Roach's Stiff or that book about Egyptian death rituals, find your book now. This topic will start the 16th-17th.

75. The Book of Books: Recommended Reading. Organized into chapters by genre or plot, this turned out to be a great source for making my WL and TBR piles so much longer. I ended up with a list of at least fifty books to look for, so clearly the recommendations worked. 4 stars

Congrats on hitting the goal!

Congratulations on completing your 75th book!

>128 drneutron: >129 quondame: Thanks! I didn't even realize I was at 75 until I wrote the review.

>127 mstrust: Congratulations on reaching 75, Jennifer!

Congratulations on reaching the magical 75, Jennifer!

>131 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita!
>132 SirThomas: Thanks, Thomas! I think I hit 75 around this time every year, so at least I'm consistent.

We were back at At Home a few days ago and had a major Halloween sighting. They had two aisles of Halloween and Autumn up, though it looks like they'll end up having four aisles of Halloween when they get it filled in. We dropped in Target the same day and there was nary a single candy corn displayed. I thought they usually start moving Autumn stuff into their front cheapie bins by now.

You're going to have to get the Halloween ball rolling. Wear your costume when you go to Target or grocery shopping. If anyone ask why you're dressed up tell them it's your court ordered community service.

What makes you think I haven't been wearing a costume all this time?
I have to go back to the photographer this afternoon for just a few more pictures. The dozen he took of one producer's products turned out that all the labels in the pic are unreadable.

Be sure to take an offering for Edgar. That's all really exciting, and I'm looking forward to seeing the book!

:-D I didn't take anything but the products and a prop this time! I hope I didn't disappoint him.

Congrats on reading 75 books!!

Thanks!
I'm currently juggling five books, which slows down actually finishing one considerably.

Tiki melon! Tiki farm has a cool new Frankenstein mug. I had to use all my frugalness to not buy it. Frugal rocks!

Frugal rocks!
I can feel you smiling through the pain.
Mike is constantly scrolling so I wonder if he's seen the new Tiki Farm. And isn't that a cool melon carving? No way to get the red parts out of those holes without crushing it though. No doubt went into a watermelon margarita.

Woo hoo, 75 books! And I love that it added nearly as many books to your wishlist.

>139 mstrust: You carried a cool watermelon!

Congratulations on 75!

>123 mstrust: OK, you got me with this one.

>142 rabbitprincess: Hi, Princess! That book on books was super dangerous for me. I ended up having to pick just one or two from lists where everything sounded good. My shelves are groaning as it is.

>143 PaperbackPirate: Thanks, Nicole! There have been summers when I practically live on watermelon, but I haven't had a single one this summer. I've been eating cherries.

I got nearly halfway through Rod Serling's The Season to be Wary before pulling the plug. I've read a couple of Serling's books and consider him one of the greatest television writers, but this one, published in 1969 I believe, was so unrelentingly grim.

>144 laytonwoman3rd: Ha, you sound like you'd tried to dodge the BB but I got you anyway! It'll make a perfect Autumn read.

Yeah, we are coming up on October and that requires spooky reads. This year, I think my October spooky read is going to be the newspaper. Lynchburg had its own Attica moment a few days ago where the maximum security prisoners took over part of the jail. WTF?! I thought moving to the country would get me away from city craziness.

When I worked overnights as a dj at a radio station, in a small town, I'd get calls from inmates at the local jail begging me to accept their collect calls. The first came soon after I'd started and no one had warned me that this was an occasional thing. So I'm picking up the call and hearing some guy begging me to take his call, and I said okay because I had no idea if this was from someone I knew or what. But it's an inmate telling me that they are on a hunger strike and I need to report it over the air. Luckily it wasn't even my choice because we had a news reporter and she wasn't there, so I told him I'd pass it on and hung up. When I talked to her later she said they had a hunger strike about every other month. And there weren't any reports of the guards abusing them, they just wanted out of jail.

Today almost slipped past me. Wishing you a dull Friday the 13th!

Congrats on the photos! Let us know when it goes up for sale on Amazon! I missed Friday the 13th, so happy Saturday the 14th. ; ). And congrats on the big 75.

My dad firmly believed that Friday the 13th was an unlucky day. I'll give it to him; his best friend in childhood died on Friday the 13th, his beloved boxer died on Friday the 13th, and Mom also died on Friday the 13th. He wouldn't leave the house unless it was on fire. I respected his belief and kept my distance on Friday the 13th because I didn't want to die, and I wasn't completely sure that it wasn't all his doing. You have to be careful around the quiet ones...

I've always thought that any Friday was an unlucky day. Then I read that the Romans also thought that Friday was an unlucky day so then I knew that I was right.

I'm assuming you're cognizant and ambulatory?

ps- If I wasn't rocking the whole frugality thing I would order a pizza right now.

pps- You should read I Am Not A Serial Killer, by Dan Wells, asap.

I did indeed survive Friday the 13th! Hooray!
Your father's belief wasn't just superstition, he had ample proof that it was a bad, bad day. He read the writing on the wall.
Thanks for the rec, I'll look it up. In the meantime, go to the store and get yourself a Fruscetta frozen pizza. Not as good as delivery, but still a decent pizza that you can dress up yourself. And for the future, Trader Joe's ball of ready-made pizza crust is pretty great. You can pile on all the cheese you have.

>150 Berly: Thank you very much!
And just try and stop me from "helpfully" informing everyone when my book is out!

76. A Moveable Feast by Lonely Planet. Essays from travel and food writers such as Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern and several former writers at Gourmet Magazine. Essays include flirting over a traditional Egyptian breakfast, the most celebrated restaurants of New York, learning to cook the local specialties of Jerusalem. and shadowing a resort chef on the island of Mustique. One of the most interesting essays was by ex-pat pastry chef David Lebovitz, about the hits and misses of Parisian chefs trying to create new trends. Some of the essays were disturbing, such as eating dogs or fruit bats. 3.5 stars

>149 mstrust: Apparently, here in Canada there used to be a fuss about how unlucky number thirteen is, that they skipped naming the 13th floor on high-rise buildings. Instead it became # 14.

Anyhow, have a wonderful week :)

That is prevalent here in the states too. Lots of buildings skip naming a thirteenth floor, though the people on the fourteen floor should know that they're really on the thirteenth and lean into it with flickering lights and cobwebs.

When I was looking at apartments in Alexandria I did find one building that had a 13th floor, and the residents had formed their own club to celebrate it. It sounded cool.

The apartment building that I lived in did not have a 13th floor. I was in the elevator one day and somebody pointed that out, and I told them that there was in fact a 13th floor but if the elevator ever opened on it to Not.Get.Out. In a lot of ways I really liked living in a large apartment building, and misinteracting with so many neighbors all during the day.

Thirteen cupcakes and bottles of wine! Somebody walk under the ladder!
There are some casinos in Vegas that have a large Chinese clientele and rumor is they avoid the number four as much as possible because the pronunciation in Chinese is similar to "death".

We had a monsoon yesterday that dumped buckets of rain, flooding the streets. It brought down lots of branches from our neighbors chinaberry tree into our yard and theirs. We've had a very active monsoon season, which we needed.

77. Chocolate Covered Murder by Kate Bell. When a Pumpkin Hollow landlord is found murdered in the town's haunted house attraction, everyone is worried. Not only do they have another murderer in the small California themed town, but the crime has shut down one of the major tourist attractions just as the Halloween season is ramping up. Then there's the issue that Ethan has just been promoted to part-time detective and needs to solve his first case or risk being demoted back to full-time patrolman.
So Mia, candy store employee and Ethan's girlfriend, helps out in the investigation, while her mom keeps coming out of the store kitchen with new candies.
This series goes down so easily, like eating popcorn. 3.5 stars

We're in the last weeks of Summerween. In Phoenix, we're going to shoot back up to around 109 next week.

13 is my lucky number!! Along with 11. : ) Sorry the heat waves persists for you. We finally have a "normal" week of summer weather and I am in heaven.

Hi Jennifer, you have my deepest sympathy over your high temperatures - we are having a day of much needed rain today, it is wonderfully cool and drippy - just the way we Westcoasters love it!

Ew, 109! We're in a heat warning this weekend, but 109 is about the *humidex* value we're expected to have, not the actual temperature :(
(Forecast high is 33 Celsius, humidex 41) Stay cool!

>146 mstrust: I picked it up at the library yesterday!

>163 Berly: I grew up with summer temps around 90, but the last time I was in SoCal during the summer, I couldn't believe how sticky it was. I've been in Arizona for so long that the humidity in California had me almost panting.

>164 DeltaQueen50: Nice!
I feel sorry for myself during the summer, ha!

>165 rabbitprincess: Ha, eww is right! I think we have to hit around 116F to have a heat warning during the summer. I believe we had just one prominent heat related death this summer though.

>166 laytonwoman3rd: I hope you like it, or I should say, I hope you are just as appalled by her :-)

Yesterday was spent formatting my maple book. I should get the proofs around Tuesday, and if it's okay, it will be on sale this week! :-D :-D :-D

Happy Sunday, Jennifer! Your maple book news is so exciting! Sorry if you've mentioned this, but is it self published? Amazon? The traditional route?
I'm curious because when Will was little I wrote a short story about dinosaurs. I thought it was kinda clever, but that's just me. If I find where I put it, I'm thinking about doing something with it.
Today's going to be a fine day to read on the deck but first pick up groceries curbside. Yeah yeah yeah, I know I can shop inside with or w/o mask but I just love the fact I'm not wasting an hour or more in the grocery store, when I could be wasting it watching You Tube or catching up on LT, which I might add is NOT a waste of time. I actually believe I spend less with curbside because those impulse items are not attracting my attention.

I was asked before, maybe in my last thread, and yes I'm self-publishing through Amazon. We hired someone to help format because this is both the first full length book I've done and the first with photos, so way more involved than my previous article or short stories.
Years ago, before there was a way around them, I used to go back and forth with editors and fiction editors. Sometimes my work was accepted, a lot of times it was a back and forth, round and round with them wanting changes, or saying, "not this, but send us more." I think the fiction editor at The Atlantic was trying to break me. I like being my own editor now.

I had some Halloween sightings today as we went all over town. At Target, I picked up the pumpkin spice limited editions of both Cheerios and Special K. They also had a small amount of Halloween cards and a tiny amount of stuff in the dollar bins. There were actually a lot of empty shelves throughout the store.
I picked up an Autumn baking magazine and a collectors The Walking Dead magazine. They didn't have the Autumn issue of Yankee, which I pick up every year.
At Total Wine, I picked up Elysian Nightowl Pumpkin Ale and a small bottle of pumpkin vodka. They didn't have the maple cream liqueur yet. I saw bottles of The Walking Dead brand Bourbon.
Have you seen anything?

>169 mstrust: Thanks for the info!

>170 Carmenere: You're welcome to pm me if you have more questions. Maybe I'll be able to help, but I'm not that adept with the software. I'd encourage you to publish your book though!

>171 Berly: Exactly. I.Am.Ready.
In the second picture it looks like the ghost has vomited up a jack o' lantern ;-)

Hooray, it's Stephen Fry's birthday! That's worthy of cake.


Seems like a last minute decision, but our fair has been moved back to the regular fairgrounds downtown and they've put up the culinary competition. It looked like the competitions weren't going to happen when they had the event scheduled at an Indian casino, but that's fallen through. So everything is back to normal and I made a practice batch of dark chocolate cookies.
In half the batch, I added Korean chili flakes. They made no impression at all. In the other half of dough I added a tablespoon of finely diced jalapeno. On a few of these, I added a slice of jalapeno on top. These came out with a good kick to them and I liked it. But the ones with the slice of pepper on top were very spicy and the pepper oil made the middle of the cookie mushy. Not good.
I think I'll just go with mini chocolate chips. Safe, I know, but I don't think the judges go for unusual flavors.

I bet your house smells absolutely amazing! What about chipotle powder? Or not, people love chocolate and may not want the taste to fight with something else also strong. Look at me philosophizing on kitchen matters!

I'm glad you'll get a chance to showcase your skills this year.

Baking does make the house smell wonderful.
I've suddenly developed a taste for spicy foods, which I've always disliked. I decided I liked ginger, which led to experimenting with whole peppercorns, which led to chili powders and ancho and jalapenos and Sirracha. I've put about two tsp of ground black pepper in these cookies before and really liked it.
The problem is that if you label something as "jalapeno chocolate cookie", you've got to deliver the heat, and that means some judges (fair volunteers, I'm sure) won't like that combination even though I think it's good.
Going by the winners I see from past years, I don't think our judges stray too far from traditional flavors. When I started entering pumpkin spice cake about six years ago, I was the only pumpkin spice entry even though it had been a craze for several years. Weird.
I saw a package of pumpkin spice brioche at the store this morning :-)

>173 mstrust: Happy birthday to Stephen! I ended up watching a couple of QI compilation videos in his honour.

You're a superfan!

I'm sending my fair entry form out this morning. And, because it's me, it seems as though my book proofs haven't been processed. I was expecting them today.

That sucks! How are they processed, and do you know what went wrong? If you're paying for it see if you can renegotiate, pointing out that publishing is a deadline driven industry. One thing I've learned from my brother is to always renegotiate contracts when they're up for renewal, or when you think you're at an advantage. Really, I've saved money on everything from my phone plan to the Adobe creative suite I've subscribed to the last two years and have never used.

Mike figured it out. So when I ordered the proofs, it puts the order in your shopping cart, eventually. Could take 24 hrs to show up, then you have to purchase it, and you've got just 24 hrs to do that or it disappears. Three of us in the room, and we all thought we were making the purchase already, since they have our credit card on file. So I've done it again, then had to come back and buy the proofs when they showed up in my cart.
It's the difference between the process of making a physical book and just doing it on Kindle, as I've done with my previous work.
Now more waiting.
There's no one to negotiate with on Amazon, but if there was, I'd be all for it even though it was a mistake on my end.

Spicy cookies - this sounds tastes and smells wonderful!
All the best wishes for your book, Jennifer - i hope all will be well.

Hi Thomas, and thanks! Now that I'm about two weeks behind schedule, I'm white knuckling it ;-D

Phoenix is currently seeing millions of White Lined Sphinx Moth caterpillars coming down from the mountain ranges and into the streets. Brought out by the heavy monsoon rains we've had over the weeks, they migrate across the roads looking for plants to eat.
Mike went for his usual hike in the mountain preserve this morning and told me that he was having to tiptoe through thousands of them coming down from the mountain, and then when he drove north to get coffee, the four lane street next to the preserve was yellow from millions of them being run over. I know, gross.

>182 mstrust: Ewwwww!!!

Oh my God do they pop like bubble wrap? Please say yes even if it's not true.

>183 rabbitprincess: I feel confident in thinking that I may have written the most cringe-worthy sentence ever on LT. Oh wait, let me answer Larry's question...
>184 SomeGuyInVirginia: Popping? Hmmm, I guess it depends on how juicy the individual caterpillar was, so it's certainly possible. But I imagine that for most of them it would be closer to a toothpaste tube being squeezed very suddenly.

Er. Mah. Gerd. If they pop like bubble wrap, and of course in my head they do, I would put on red sequin tap shoes and load up my Sony Walkman with the 90 minute extended version club play of Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition', and dance the flipping night away. Tappa tappa tappa pop pop pop. I wouldn't come in until the neighbors complained about the noise!

>186 SomeGuyInVirginia: And up 'til now I imagined what a fun sort of neighbor you would make, but there are limits.

"But I imagine that for most of them it would be closer to a toothpaste tube being squeezed very suddenly." Thank you for your concise description. *gablaaaaa*

>186 SomeGuyInVirginia: Or complained about the weirdo who's dancing on caterpillars.

>187 quondame: >188 Carmenere: I take responsibility for bringing the subject up, that's on me. But I blame the escalation on Larry. The words "caterpillar" and "bubble wrap" shouldn't meet. It's his fault.

>189 mstrust: Well, how would you know the white lined sphinx moth caterpillar story would take such a sloppy turn. On the bright side, they are not butterfly caterpillars.

A real shame that they aren't going to be lovely butterflies, but as far as moths go, they are snazzy. I'll take them over mosquitoes.

>187 quondame: >189 mstrust: It was the top hat, wasn't it? Too much. The headmaster at my exclusive boys-only prep school (South Carolina State Reformatory for Fabulous Youth. Go Gladiolas!) always said that once you're finished dressing you should look in the mirror and take off the first thing that you see. I mean, yeah sure, that time it was my pants but we all had a good laugh because that was how I got there in the first place.

My god, I'll bet you ran that place.

>123 mstrust:, >166 laytonwoman3rd: I barrelled through Hell's Princess, and appalling is a mild word for her. Something is clearly mis-wired in the brain of such an individual. I was, however, extremely disappointed to find there were none of the " cool graphics and evidence and photos throughout the book" in the library copy I read! The only photo was on the cover.

I think Gunness was rare even among serial killers in that she killed people who brought her financial gain, but also those were close to her, such as children, for nothing more than convenience. Even if a grown male visitor's absence could be explained away, it's really noticeable when children disappear.
I read it on Kindle, so that's where the cool moving graphics and slideshow of photos of the dig happened. Sorry if I didn't mention it, but I've read several of the author's works, all on Kindle, and they all have moving graphics.

"moving graphics"....interesting. I don't usually read on Kindle, other than short newspaper or magazine articles, and I haven't encountered those. A plug for e-reading! I thought maybe some library editions were cheaper versions that left out the illustrations.

I'm pretty sure it was much easier to cover up disappearances or sudden deaths in the early 20th century, when infant mortality was high, and there were fewer tests to determine what happened inside the body. And Belle was sure good at deflecting suspicions. The whole world was more gullible I guess.

78. A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley. In this third book of the series, Flavia gets her fortune told by a gypsy at the village fete and promptly sets the old woman's tent on fire. Trying to make it up to her, Flavia invites the gypsy to set up her caravan on the grounds of Buckshaw, Flavia's ancestral home. When Flavia goes back to check on her, she finds that the woman has been beaten nearly to death, and so Flavia, the eleven year-old genius, is once again at the center of a crime, which embarrasses her family and aggravates Inspector Hewitt.
Spending time with Flavia is so fun, whether she's asking nosy questions, experimenting in her laboratory or getting even with her older sisters. 4.5 stars

>196 laytonwoman3rd: Yes, I'm sure if she'd been a man there would have been an investigation into all those disappearances much sooner.
I get why people didn't look into the deaths of the babies, as you pointed out, that was common enough then. The older daughter's disappearance was harder to understand, as she seemed to have friends.
As the author pointed out, Belle's discovery had such a similarity to "The Bloody Benders", where the brother of a victim smelled a rat and went to investigate for himself.
I've been reading a lot of Kindle books right now because I have the Unlimited until October. I'll be back to way more physical books after that.

Couple things-
Have you been watching the new season of American Horror Story, set in Provincetown, Cape Cod? It's wild and full of references to other horror movies.
Or The Walking Dead? Maggie is filled with rage and Eugene just made a surprising admission, and there's a new settlement.
Also, my Autumn thread will start Monday.

>199 mstrust: I'd honestly forgotten TWD was still on!

Ha, a lot of people have, which is why it's ending! They really drove it into the ground the last few seasons, but I think it will go out with a bang. Something huge. This season so far has been pretty good.

Oh, I didn't know the new season of AHS was up. I'll have to check it out.

The first two episodes have aired, but it's likely that you can still catch them as FX plays stuff over and over.

Thanks!

Welcome! And What We Do In The Shadows just started their new season a few days ago too.

Seems I lied when I said I was putting my Autumn thread up tomorrow. The party started early.