Watching TED LASSO, SUCCESSION, FAUDA, THE NIGHT AGENT among others.
Listening to THE ZEBRA-STRIPED HEARSE (Ross MacDonald) with a cast of 40 major actors reading it. Amazing. It's like going to the movies. I got it through Hoopla. Maybe your library has the audio version. I will try to finish it by Friday to review it.
Because it was April Fools Day I rented APRIL FOOLS with Jack Lemon and Catherine Deneuve and it was really bad. I love Jack so it was a disappointment.
It took Megan 24 hours to get home from Memphis, which doesn't bode well for her book tour in June. Is it the storms, are the Airlines understaffed? It almost happened to me coming home from FL. Be careful out there and what are you up to?
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Another very quiet week. Quiet weeks are begining to suit me. I made it through Saturday without being April Fooled, although Jack did try.
Although Trump was indicted, I am delaying my happy dance until he is convicted. In this crazy world, anything might happen.
Went to the dog beach yesterday morning. Jolly (now three-and-a-half-months-old) was overjoyed -- so much sand to dig, beaches to run, water to avoid, dogs to play with, people to meet. She and Jack spent an hour-and-a-half running back and forth and making new friends. Did not spot any dolphins, though.
Sunday afternnoon we went to the zoo where Mark works so he could introduce us to some of the animals. It's a small zoo, but well laid out. Mark is currently working with the farm animals. Met Percy the goat who was born prematurely earlier in the week. He weighed a bit over a pound at birth; most goats weight at least four times that and the zoo had never had one born at less than two pounds to survive. The first night, one of the workers had to take Percy home and hamdfeed him. Percy is thriving now but has popsicle stick casts (literally) on his front legs to help him walk. He and the other baby goats are just too darned cute. The zoo has had over half a dozen goats born this past week; the sire -- a randy old goat named Doug -- seems proud. Many other fascinating animals, including a baby gibbon I wanted to take home. It was very warm and many of the larger animals, especially the big cats, were enjoying sleeping in the sun. I did not blame them. BTW, highland cattle slobber mucus all over your hands when you feed them; giraffes are much neater.
Watched Perry Mason, John Oliver, Weekend Update, and the late night comics. Jack insisted I watch a Swedish film about ANTBOY with him, but he fell asleep about five minutes in, so I was spared that.
Finally finished reading John Connolly's massive anthology SHADOW VOICES -- very good, more than worth the effort. Also read Donald E. Westlake's WHAT'S THE WORST THE COULD HAPPEN? (a Dortmunder novel in which, among other things, Dortmunder decides to pull a third-rate robbery at the Watergate, so what's the worst that could happen?). Lee Goldberg's King City is a cop novel with a western movie vibe; very good. Christopher Golden's ALL HALLOWS is a Halloween-themed horror novel; also very good. Norman Juster's THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH is a classic kids book and my FFB this week. Mickey Spillane's THE SHIP THAT NEVER WAS and THE SHRINKING ISLAND were the final two books in a young adult adventure/crime trilogy that veered toward fantasy. THE SHRINKING ISLAND had been unpublished until Max Allan Collins rescued it last year; supposedly it's the concluding book of the trilogy, but it read as if it were actually the second. Both books were flawed with sloppy publishing -- poor formatting as well as many typos (g-r-r-r); Spillane deserved better.
It's been warm here. Not too many April showers, but some May flowers are already starting to bloom. Hoping your week will also bloom with glorious beauty, Patti. Stay safe.
I would like to meet a goat. I have an affinity with goats, I think. I drink goat's milk, my original initials were PAN, I am born under the sign of Capricorn.
However I did meet a turkey last week. I was coming downstairs in my building to get the morning paper and the turkey (huge) was standing with his nose pressed against the glass door. I scared him and he ran (awkwardly) across a six lane highway to escape from the horror of my face through the glass. He survived but for how long?
We have plenty of geese crowding the shores of the Erie Canal (about a mile from our house). Foxes have moved into our backyard with four little kits running around. The squirrels and the bunnies have disappeared!
Plenty of rain and wind hit Western NY all week. More on the way this week. Diane is busy packing for our trip to Ohio to spend Easter with her sister.
I skipped DUNGEONS & DRAGONS because of poor movie reviews. Love TED LASSO. I'll be sad If they pull the plug after this season.
I'm almost caught up with all the Library books I reserved. I'd say that about 90% of my reading is Library books. I only buy books now that the Library WON'T buy! Stay safe!
Not much going on here. We are up early on a Monday morning to take Glen to a medical procedure.
It did rain some in the middle of last week, which was nice. But no rain in the forecast for the next 10 days. We are supposed to have gusty winds this afternoon, but we should be home before then. I really don't like wind.
We are watching DEATH IN PARADISE, STAR TREK:PICARD, WILL TRENT, and others.
I finished reading THE ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE by Robin Hobb and was surprised by how much I liked it. I have read fantasy off and on for the last twenty years, but usually don't enjoy it as much as science fiction. I also finished reading MURDER IN A NUNNERY by Eric Shepherd (from 1940). It is set in a girls school run by nuns. The fantasy book was long (435 pages) and the mystery set in a nunnery was very short (160 pages). There is a follow up book, not published until 1954, titled MORE MURDER IN A NUNNERY.
After reading MURDER IN A NUNNERY, I was inspired to start reading BAD FAITH, by Aimee and David Thurlo. It is set in a cloistered monastery in New Mexico, and that is an interesting setting.
Jerry, Mark's zoo sounds very nice. Where is it located? And George's geese and foxes would be lovely to see. Patti, I cannot believe that there was a turkey outside your apartment building. I must have seen a turkey before but I cannot remember where and when, if so. We have had skunks and even possums show up in our tiny back fenced area, but it has been years now since I have seen any.
I have seen turkeys before nearby, a pair of them. When I googled it, it turned out there have been quite a few seen in the area. I have also seen fox, a troubling number of deer, geese, and so on.
We have had a lot of rain lately but today looks nice. Hope OH is dry for Easter, George.
Yes, it is the storms but even more, it is the airlines. Understaffed and overbooked to a horrendous degree. Not flying anywhere if we can help it. We drive to Florida and we are driving to Connecticut and Maine this summer. Otherwise, staying local.
Jackie is watching THE NIGHT AGENT but I quit it. It's weak and obvious and I don't care about any of the characters so why waste reading time? We are watching PERRY MASON (better than the first series), ASTRID, THE LAST OF US (which we missed as we didn't have HBO in Florida), CHERIF (last series), CANDICE RENOIR, MONGEVILLE, UNDERCOVER (series two), our Saturday British lineup of DEATH IN PARADISE, POIROT (this week was FIVE LITTLE PIGS with Diana Rigg's daughter and Maggie Smith's son in the cast) and the excellent FOYLE'S WAR, YELLOWJACKETS (which I am not enjoying very much so far this season; the girl who plays Shauna's awful daughter also plays the VP's daughter on NIGHT AGENT, by the way), and CALL THE MIDWIFE. Never watched SUCCESSION but we are going to give it a try.
Glad the baseball season is here at last. It might be subtle when you watch, but without batters being allowed to step out after every pitch to adjust their batting gloves, or pitchers walking around the mound, they've shaved 25 minutes off game times, which is a good thing. The Yankees opened at home against two National League teams, the Giants and Phillies, which is certainly different.
The weather has been fairly chilly but is slowly improving. Nowhere near the 80s we got used to in Florida.
If you start SUCCESSION, it takes about five episodes before it finds its footing. And you have to read it as a comedy/tragedy, a satire. I have to watch every episode twice to get it all. It is so fast, like a boxer.
NIGHT AGENT should be better. I don't think it was cast very well, and it feels cheaply made. Netflix shows are starting to seem thrown together lately. I watched CALL THE MIDWIFE for years but just can't take so many tragedies as that show has.
Baseball season with the Tigers is all pain, no glory.
Tracy, the zoo is in Gulf Breeze. Florida. It can't hold a candle to the larger zoos, but a dedicated staff and a good variety of animals make it more than worthwhile. I could watch some animals forever; yesterday, I had to tear myself away from the scarlet ibises and the baby gibbon; other days, I spend too much time in the budgie enclosure, where the birds come and land on your arms, shoulders, and head. Places like this helkp me center myself.
Glad baseball season is here. Unfortunately the Tigers lost there 3 game series to Tampa.
Watching John Oliver, Bill Maher, Perry Mason, Rain Dogs. Watched Truffaut's The Man Who Loved Women for the first time. Leaves only The Green Room left.
Finished Joe Lansdale's The Donut Legion. Rereading The High Window by Raymond Chandler.
My bloodwork came back and my kidneys looked better than the previous results. They still recommend seeing a kidney specialist. Now if I could only sleep more than 3 or 4 hours a night. Nothing helps me including Ambien.
https://youtu.be/mBPu8NrKhJI for a good episode of Charlie Brooker interviewing other notable UK tv writers, such as those who wrote UK (and US) SHAMELESS, Paul Abbott, and Russell Davies, et al.
New (3-4 yo) cat in the house, Whiskers by previous name, a slip of a Calico who isn't At All sure she approves of this relocation from her late keeper's house, and did let me remove her from being between the Venetian blinds and the window that her (and Ninja's old) cat tree sits next to...how she maneuvered herself around the blinds, clinging the rubberized portion of the moving window with her foreclaws while resting her lower back on the rim of the cat tree, I don't know, can only guess. She is eaing, we hope drinking, and has dug in her litter box, so, so far, so good. We hope Ninja, our 10yo female, like Whiskers a basically shy cat, will at least be tolerant of her presence when they meet (sill want to get a stool sample for the vets before beginning the introduction process--the glamor of cat-keeping).
Yes, the airlines decided they didn't need to pay pesky staff during the lulls, and are proud of not cutting executive pay, of course, while offering high prices and lousy service now. One couple I know slightly through discussion groups are sure they contracted covid during their recent airport/airline journey to visit their grad-student son, despite boosters and masking throughout.
Mowed the lawn for the first time this year. Why troubling amounts of deer and geese? Due to restriction of their wild grassland troubling? All those delicious lawns...the scat is unfortunate at times...and deer ticks. Rather than handle garbage sensibly, NJ is allowing the shooting of black bears again...the only North American bears who won't trouble you if they can help it.
Yeah, giraffes are amazing. We took my nephew years ago to feed them and got to climb up to their height and feed one. Amazing feeling.
Good news, Steve. Have you tried listening to the BBC's shipping news? Apparently insomniacs in the UK find that helpful. You could probably get it on your phone. Ambien works for me but by this point it must be a placebo affect.
The Detroit Zoo has a place to feed the giraffes like that, but not liking heights I haven't tried it. Found a new great cooking show if you have HBO MAX-The Lost Kitchen, set in Maine. It looks like paradise.
Not worrying about lawns has been a big plus of this place.
Jerry, my aunt and uncle (both only 11 years older than me) used to live in Gulf Breeze. They both passed away years ago. I visited them briefly 4 or 5 decades ago; I did not see much of the area, just visited relatives, but I loved the Pensacola / Gulf Breeze area when we were there. It was a good time of year to be there, September I think.
The scarlet ibises and the budgie enclosure must be fantastic. We haven't visited the zoo here since Covid started.
Giraffes probably need all the saliva and phlegm they can produce! No drool spilled...
Steve...better luck with sleep...there are all kinds of things to try (ibuprofen would put me to sleep in my teens and 20s), but perhaps with more time after the scare, it'll come easier.
Patti, I haven't seen - or indeed, thought of - THE APRIL FOOLS since we saw it on first release in 1969. Great cast, but I remember it being pretty weak despite Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve.
Just talked to Megan and the plane delay was after the tornado, where Megan spent an hour cowering in the hotel hallways. The delay was because they had no pilot to fly the plane and couldn't find one. It took 19 hours. We are in trouble.
That is one part of FL I have not been to.
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