What I've Finished Reading Lately...

I've been reading a lot of modern mysteries lately. I've always been a big fan of the mystery genre, but mostly "classic" stories like those of Agatha Christie, PD James, etc. My friend Lynn told me about a good one called "Turning Angel" which was very good and sort of had a "Twin Peaks" feel about it. That may be partially why she knew I'd enjoy it, as I'm also a fan of "Twin Peaks." Then my sister Debbie's mother in law, Natalie, gave her a book to give to me since she knew I liked mysteries. It's called "Firewall" by a Swedish writer named Henning Mankell. I couldn't put it down! It has a good mix of "CSI" type forensics and sort of bizzare twists that completely kept my nose in the book. So I finished that one, and well, picked up a couple of other Henning Mankell books, one of which I just finished in Clear Lake, "One Step Behind." This was written prior to "Firewall" so it's kind of fun to be reading these stories in reverse. They have the same main character, so it's fun to see what happened to characters before the last book. Try them out, trust me if you like good crime fiction, these all are well worth it. Soon I will start posting about "what's on my nightstand" - waiting to be read.

Memorial Day Weekend '06

We went to Clear Lake over the longer Memorial Day weekend. The weather was great, if a bit on the warm side for this time of year. Spent a lot of time on the deck, eating, reading and doing watercolours. On Sunday we had some of our relatives over for a picnic/barbecue. I will put some of those photos up here soon, too. My sister Debbie was with us for the weekend, too, so that was very nice. Her husband Jeremy had soccer tournaments back in Minneapolis and couldn't make it. Max dog loves going to Clear Lake as well. Lots of new scents, lots of squirrels to bark at and lots of sun. He loves sitting on the deck in the sun, but it also makes him very sleepy, as in the photo above. Maybe we need to get him some good sunglasses, too!

Da Vinci Code

Considering the opening weekend of "The Da Vinci Code" brought in a cool $77 million, it's good to know that movie goers aren't paying attention to the crazy critics. We saw the film on opening night and thought it was just excellent. I don't see how it could have been done any other way, this isn't exactly a "blow up cars" action film, it's a thinking person's action film. Sure, there may have been some slower moments, but how else could all the "figuring out the codes" be done? In my opinion, the chemistry between the two main characters was just right, they weren't suppose to have that much chemistry anyway, not according to the book. So, go out and see this fine film. Or at least read the book, it is very good and brings up a lot of interesting ideas.

Musings on a Disaster film

How excited am I that there is a good remake of a classic 1970s disaster film? I'm talking about the new "Poseidon." I LOVED the original one from the '70s with Gene Hackman and Shelley Winters. It's sort of campy and of course has "There's Got to be a Morning After" theme song by the spectacular Maureen McGovern. So yes, I was very excited and yet skeptical about a remake. But the reviews are looking good, it has a great cast including Richard Dreyfuss and Kurt Russell and the lovely Emmy Rossum. My first "disaster" film I ever saw was "Airport." I was pretty young and I remember sitting in the very front row and being blown away by it. That was the start of my love of the disaster film. "The Poseidon Adventure" soon followed which set off a wave of (some good, some not so) other disaster films like "The Towering Inferno," "Earthquake," "Midway" just to name a few. I don't really know what it is about them that I've enjoyed so much, it's not that I like to see others suffer, maybe it was especially just the special effects. So Joe and I are going to see "Poseidon" this Sunday afternoon and I for one am very excited. I'll give my review next week. :)

Off to the Lake!

Not a lot has been happening recently, hence no new updates. Last Sunday we went with our friends Lynn and Gene to a very interesting lecture by a man named Matthew Fox. (not the dude from "Lost" mind you...) he's a theologian and he talked about creativity and spirituality. It was very interesting and insightful. Tomorrow taking the day off and loadin' up the VW and heading to Clear Lake for three restful days. Hoping the weather will be nice, we really want to do some yard work and gardening in the front of the house. There's an area in front that is so shaded and sort of worn, that there isn't much grass there so figured we would do a lot of plants that thrive in shade. Should be nice.

Max really enjoys the trip as well, which is fun. A change of scenery for him. He's a good little traveler, as well, pretty much just sleeps in his "Outward Hound" car seat.

The photo is an old photo from the 1960s when we had an "aqua car" in Clear Lake. My dad loved interesting vehicles and this was one that was completely fun.