Monday, September 02, 2019

Things That are Making Me Happy





Happy Labor Day!

Enjoying HUNTING GAME by Helene Tursten. I am always amazed when a writer is able to present a milieu as successfully as she does with a hunting lodge and hunting itself in Sweden. Of course, maybe it is her scene. Will have to try her other series.

I am sad to be finished MINDHUNTER, where I liked the personal stories as much as the Atlanta Child Killer plot. Although it was pretty brilliant all around. Also enjoying TRAPPED on Prime. Thanks, Jeff.  Still enjoying SUCCESSION on HBO.

Had a nice family dinner Friday night. Kevin is getting taller by the minute. He is going to play hockey, soccer, cross-country and tennis this fall. As well as begin to learn the bass guitar along with the one he's been playing for years. The music teacher says most guitar players can play more than one thing. Today's parents, at least ones that can afford it because no school sports are free nowadays) are so busy getting their kids to various events.

What about you?

12 comments:

Margot Kinberg said...

So glad you enjoyed your family dinner, Patti. And I like Helene Tursten's work quite a lot - good to see that you're enjoying that one.

Jeff Meyerson said...

It's great to hear how Kevin is progressing. He seems to be keeping up the interests he acquired young - music, hockey.

Glad you're enjoying TRAPPED. If it were solely up to me, I would be watching one or two episodes a night and be done with season one already, but...we have about 8 or so shows we are watching currently and generally watch about three (occasionally four) a night, rotating them. On Saturday nights we watch GAVIN & STACEY (on season two now, which I don't really remember) and the next MIDSOMER MURDERS (we're in season 19), followed by a movie (this week was CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?). We're also watching PROFESSOR T. on PBS (and, finally, season 8 of DEATH IN PARADISE) and OUR BOYS on HBO (plus LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER, when it is on), but otherwise it is Amazon Prime/Acorn and Netflix. Still enjoying THE MINISTRY OF TIME. We've started the French/Belgian BLACK SPOT now that we finished DARK and THE RAIN.

We usually spend a weekend in D.C. in the summer, but we try and pick one that isn't unbearably hot, something that often involves changing dates several times. This year we finally decided to wait and it looks like it will pay off, as we are going down on Thursday and will be back on Monday, assuming Dorian cooperates.

George said...

Katie flew home last week to attend the Ruth Bader Ginsburg event. It's always wonderful to see your kids no matter how briefly.

Diane's sister has stayed with us for Labor Day Weekend. She had a wedding to attend on Saturday and plans to drive home today. We had a nice dinner at The Griffon Pub.

The weather in Western NY has been pleasant with temperatures in the 70s with low humidity.

My sister who lives in Merritt Island, Florida has evacuated to Clearwater, Florida. I offered her a safer place: North Tonawanda!

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Halfway through season 2 of Trapped. Finished season 2 of Mindhunter. The actor who plays Charlie Manson is the same actor who portrayed him in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. He also played Dewey Crowe in Justified. Watched the first episode of Amazon's highly touted Carnival Row and was not impressed. Very heavy handed.
Didn't see any movies this week.
Read T. Jefferson Parker's The Last Good Guy and am now reading The Lonely Witness by William Boyle.
Have one grandson in travel baseball and a granddaughter who does competitive cheerleading. Both still in grade school. We didn't have anything like that when I was a kid or even when my kids were little. All we had were scouts.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Damon Herriman, the Aussie actor who played Dewey Crowe and Manson, also played the awful son of Ben Kingsley in Perpetual Grace, Ltd.

BVLawson said...

So happy to hear about your quality family time, Patti! I'm also happy to see that Hurricane Dorian is *probably* going to avoid a direct strike on my family members who live on the Treasure Coast of Florida (although my heart goes out to the Bahama residents affected).

Haven't watched much TV lately and am behind on fiction reading, but I'm enjoying going through some science books. Yes, I'm a closet nerd.

Hope you have a safe and peaceful Labor Day!

pattinase (abbott) said...

My son, Josh did baseball and tennis. A little bit of other stuff. Megan took art classes and some dance. Megan was a scout for a few years. But nothing like today. Plus a lot of it was free or near free. I just saw the doc about FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, which I liked a lot because that if a favorite of mine. Not sure anyone else would be interested.
Hey, Bonnie Don't you know all that science is fake. Hope that Dorian goes out to sea.
Miss meeting up with you in La Jolla, Margot.

Rick Robinson said...

It's been hotter than I like here, though most of the country would say it's just great, I guess. Some 90s, rest mid-80s. I want it to be in the 70s all the time. We're not doing anything for Labor Day, it's also the meeting day for Barbara's quilt group and she's hosting, so they will be here (in an hour and a half) and all day. She made a chicken & pasta casserole for the midday meal, so that will be it for our food day.

I've been rereading a five novel fantasy series and am about done with it, which is a good thing because I have library books sitting here that were checked out a week ago and the clock is ticking. We've been watching no movies, no TV series, only PBS Newshour and the disappointing Ducks game.

I'm glad you had that family dinner, sounds like it was fun.

Jerry House said...

We moved into our new apartment on Saturday. It's a bit smaller than the old one and the rooms are abit narrower so it will tke us a few days to unpack and see what fits where and what furniture we may have that we don't need -- always a hassle, but the place is nicer and the management actually listens (!) The damncat survived the trauma of moving and has settled in nicely.

Granddaughter Amy also moved this week, driving the U-Haul by herself all the way from Pensacola to Boston with nary an incident, even when she unexpectedly came across some low bridges with a clearnce some three inches shorter than the truck's height. Jessie went with her for moral support and flew back last night. Moving on a holiday/hurricane weekend can be challenging, especially when you move to Boston the same time all the students in the world are returning to school. Amy has two jobs waiting for her there Boston, right? expensive) and has friends in the area as well as her roommates. And yesterday, she picked up her new dog so she's doing her happy dance. The dog will join her two cats and her snake, along with any animals her roommates might have. Amy left here with two snakes (she was going to give one of them to Ceili, but Ceili balked at the idea of feeding it live mice) but they had spent Friday night with friends in Virginia and their teenage daughter fell in love with one of the snakes; after consultation with Jessica's parents, the snake found a new home and Jessica is doing her squee dance.

Dorian decided to pass us by, it seems, and I'm pretty happy about that. My heart goes out to the people in the Bahamas and to anyone else in Dorian's path. Our esteemed president (you know, "The Chosen One") evidently had never known that there was such a thing as a Cat 5 hurricane and has diverted FEMA money for his wall, so I really hope Dorian goes out to sea will minimal damage. And of course, he was "presidential by cancelling his trip to Poland because of the hurricane's possible impact on the country and certainly not because of the possible damage to his two Florida resorts. **sigh**

I am not happy with the latest mass shooting in Texas, but it's good to see the tide beginning to turn against the NRA. Sadly, a groundswell of public opinion will probably have no impact on Moscow Mitch.

Kitty got an official okay this week to stop chemo. She will have monthly blood tests to be sure her numbers don't decline, but for the foreseeable future...no more chemo!

Between moving and shuttling kids bck and forth and doctors, we did not watch much television this week. Ditto for reading, although I was able to get a number of Max Allan Collins books read, always a pleasure.

Hope you have a fantastic week, Patti!

pattinase (abbott) said...

Glad your new apt. seems like an improvement. And glad about Kitty's prognosis. Yay, Amy. Wish I could drive to the library.
We are getting your weather, Rick. Seems like that happened last year too.

Todd Mason said...

Alice finally had enough, and asked if I will go with her to the upcoming DC day of protest of the immigrant kids/parents in separate camps. It's been some years since I've been to a protest in DC.

My friends are all facing vicissitudes, but none are falling over at the moment, so that small favor is also something.

Glad most of the news checking in here is good as well! May we all have a decent September, at very least...

Barrie said...

This labor day weekend, we went to an escape room as a family. And we escaped! I enjoyed the time together.