Patricia Abbott (pattinase): Monday, Monday

Monday, October 05, 2026

Monday, Monday

So really nice weather but also some rain. Saw a local production of the GOD OF CARNAGE which I saw on Broadway a million years ago with James Gandolfini and Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and sadly I forget the other actress. Also saw THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER, which was too long for me.

Watching EAST OF EDEN, LANTERNS, SLOW HORSES and KNIFE EDGE: CHASING A MICHELIN STAR.

Reading SWITZI by Emma Kline

What about you?

13 comments:

Margot Kinberg said...: It sounds as though you've had some good viewing lately, Patti, and that's great. The theatre shows sound good, too. I'm glad to hear the weather's been pleasant. Not so here (100+ temperatures the last few days)...; 7:03 AM
Jerry House said...: It's been a do-nothing week, starting off with blazing hot days and ending with torrential downpours.

My eyes are still sensitive following past week's cataract surgery so the hot sun kept me indoors for the first part of the week. They gave me some special sunglasses to wear outdoors, but they were ill-fitting and limited my peripheral vision. They also recommended that I not drive for a week, so indoors it was. The last three days brought heavy thunderstorms and (probably) about two inches of what the weatherman might call partly cloudy. Between the sun and the rain, heading to the beach this week was not advised.

Sunday was scheduled for family book club, to be followed by family picture taking. The girls wanted a decent family photo ahead my eightieth, but it is difficult to rearrange schedules for fourteen people and this Sunday appeared to be our best bet: book club at two and photos at four. With the rain, we decided to have the photo taken in front of Christina's fireplace (the original idea was to have it taken outdoors at Navarre Beach). Then we got a call from Jessie at ten. Chicken Nugget had had some sort of accident that morning at doggie daycare and they would have to get her to the emergency vet; but the vet did not open on Sundays until two. And Jack woke up Sunday morning with a vivid all-over rash for unknown reasons. So Sunday was spent with Jessie and Amy at the emergency vet's and Christina and Walt taking Jack to urgent care. Jack's rash was some sort of contact dermatitis and he was given a steroid cream; he's okay. Chicken Nugget's paw was somehow injured and bleeding; it seems she tore off a toe bean; she's not happy but she will be okay after some healing.

My eye is getting much better and I was able to do some reading this week. I read three more books by Preston & Child: two in the Pendergast series WHITE FIRE and BLUE LABYRINTH, the first brought back the popular one-time Goth girl Corrie Swanson, and the second dealt with the murder of one of Pendergast's two sons; MOUNT DRAGON was the second book published by the pair, a standalone introducing computer wizard Mime who would go on to be featured in the Pendergast series, as well as a biological threat threatening humanity. My FFB was THE GAMECOCK MURDERS, originally published as THE SCARLET FEATHER, a late 1940s Johnny Fletcher mystery by Frank Gruber. Also read was Christopher Golden's latest, CARRY ME TO MY GRAVE, a horror novel brimming with suspense of dysfunctional family loyalty, ancient evils, vampires, and witchcraft. I also read two graphic novels. MYCROFT HOLMES AND THE APOCALYPSE HANDBOOK by Kareen Abdu-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld, chronicling a cocky young Mycroft just prior before he becomes officially enlisted in Her Majesty's government; Abdul-Jabbar has also penned three novels about Mycroft. M. R. Carey's THE DOLLHOUSE FAMILY covers the consequences of a primordial evil over a period of seventy years; Carey is a best-selling fantasy author (the Felix Castor series; THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS) and (often as Mike Carey) a major writer of comic books and graphic novels (LUCIFER, JOHN CONSTANTINE, HELLBLAZER), always worth reading; this one especially created for Joe Hill's Hill House Comics project. Currently reading yet another Preston-child novel, BAD LANDS, the fourth in the Nora Kelly series; I have mentioned how addictive their books are, haven't I?

October is my favorite month; I hope this first week will be one of your favorites, too, Patti. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Keep calm and carry on.; 8:10 AM
pattinase (abbott) said...: Megan's been out there off and on and the weather is hard on her.; 8:37 AM
pattinase (abbott) said...: Lots of reading already, Jerry. I imagine October brings relief to Florida.; 8:39 AM
George said...: The weather was nice in Western NY, too. Diane hosted our annual Buffalo Bills party. A dozen of her friends showed up to eat pizza, wings, carrot cake, and apple pie. Sadly, the Bills lost to the Patriots 29-26.

Patrick flies to Rome, Italy today for his vacation. Katie is taking the train to New York City this weekend to see some Broadway plays.

The Weather-guessers are predicting a frost next week so Diane and I will be winterizing our house this week.

The New TV Season starts for some programs this week. The commercials for the "new" series fail to interest me. The networks keep recycling the old entertainment templates. Do we need another NCIS, Chicago, or SVU? Stay safe!; 8:41 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...: We saw GOD OF CARNAGE in 2009. The other actress was Marcia Gay Harden, who won the Tony for Best Actress. It also won Best Play and Best Director.

Jackie is making good progress. She had her first PT last week and will be going twice a week. We went back to the surgeon on Friday and he was happy. She was even able to take a shower yesterday. This week she has something doing every day.

The weather was mostly cool with more rain, but the day we went to the city was 84 and humid.

I enjoyed Richard Osman's light WE CHASE SHADOWS.

Started watching DARK MATTER (Apple). I gave up the book but will try this. The Welsh series MUDTOWN (Britbox). A local (volunteer) Magistrate gets criminal pressure on a case.

COOPER AND FRY (Britbox), based on Stephen Booth's series. They made her (Fry) Indian, fair enough - but did they have to make her such an obnoxious jerk?

THE MOUNTAIN DETECTIVE (PBS Masterpiece) is on the border of France and Switzerland. But they started here with series 4.

THE HANKO MURDER (MHz Choice) is Finnish. A cop's estranged father shows up in his hometown and "helpps" the daughter with her murder case.

NEAGLEY (Prime) is tough like her buddy Reacher, but she doesn't have his personality, and the storyline is vicious.

The new FAUDA (Netflix) starts two years after the October 7 attack on Israel, and at first we just see the aftermath.

We gave up on LANTERNS a couple of episodes before the end. Still waiting for one more episode of SLOW HORSES to be available before we start watching. SIGNORA VOLPE is back and LUDWIG returns this week too. Neither of us is interested in a new, long series of EADT OF EDEN or CARRIE.; 9:49 AM
Gerard Saylor said...: I got a fair bit of things done over the weekend. Nothing super important, just tasks that needed doing. A sister-in-law and her husband came through town on Saturday on their way to vacation in the U.P. I was able to pick-up Boy #2 and we a five person dinner. A nice visit.

I've been watching/listening to WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS for a couple weeks as I exercise in my basement. Matt Berry is definitely a favorite of mine.

I finished I'M A FAN by Sheena Patel. Kinda odd with a narrator in London obsessed with the married Famous Guy she is having an affair with her. She gets equally obsessed in a parasocial relationship with an 'influencer' Famous Guy is also sleeping with.
Reading eBook version of KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE by Horace McCoy. Now reading print version of REGENERATION by Pat Barker. Fictionalization of Siegfried Sassoon's mental hospital visit when he was publicly opposing the war.
Listened to ONE, DAY EVERYONE WILL HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AGAINST THIS by Omar El Akkad and it was very good.; 10:28 AM
pattinase (abbott) said...: I remember reading REGENERATION and another book or two in her serious. Good writer. We'll be in Madison 16-18 where I am paying $1500 for two nights. Have to get back to Fauda.I am going to try for a cortisone shot before I go to surgery.
Patrick has really seen the world with this job.; 11:17 AM
Gerard Saylor said...: $1500?! Good golly. Ohio State will be in town and I presume that is the pumped up game weekend rate. My wife and I are planning to go swing over to a Belgian Beer Fest at a small brewery in Madison on the 17th.; 12:07 PM
TracyK said...: We are also experiencing the excessive heat in Southern California that Margot mentioned. The high temperatures here are supposed to top off at 85 but higher temperatures were reported in Santa Barbara. It was miserable here yesterday and we did not have power for several hours in our area for related reasons. The high forecasted for today is 88. The excessive heat is supposed to last about 4 more days but the official warning also says that there is a possibility of an additional week past that.

Thursday was Glen's birthday and this weekend we cooked special meals for him (luckily we got the electricity back in time yesterday) and he picked movies to watch. He picked THE FUGITIVE with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, which we had not watched for years, and BULLET TRAIN, with Brad Pitt.

I am officially jealous of the number of books that Jerry can read in a week and I am glad to hear that Jerry's eyes have improved so that he can read better after the cataract surgery.

We have not been reading as many books as Jerry, but we have been reading. Glen is reading YEAR ZERO: A HISTORY OF 1945 by Ian Buruma, which he started last week. He is finding it more interesting after a slow start.

Last night I stayed up way too late finishing a spy fiction novel that I enjoyed very much: DOUBLE GAME by Dan Fesperman. I am having very good luck with the spy fiction I am picking. This one featured a man who worked as a diplomat in Europe in the 1980s and 1990s and had a huge collection of first editions of spy fiction books. Part of the story centered around book stores in European cities that served as drops for passing information for spies. I enjoyed all aspects of the story, but the focus on real spy fiction novels over the years was especially fun. And the author included a bibliography of spy novels at the end (mostly real, some fictional).; 1:04 PM
Jeff Meyerson said...: Tracy, I've read and enjoyed a couple of Fesperman's books, but not this one, which sounds really interesting. Books and bookstores? I'm in.; 2:10 PM
TracyK said...: Jeff, I would not have waited so long to read this book if I had known that it included so many mentions and quotations from spy novels, etc. The plot was bit lighter than other books I have read by him, but that was OK with me, and I enjoyed the humor.; 3:34 PM
TracyK said...: Jerry, I am glad that Jack's rash was resolved. That sounded very scary. I had missed that your family had a dog named Chicken Nugget; it good that she is better too.

Enjoy all your Preston & Child reading. I read two or three of the early books in the Agent Pendergast series many years ago when Glen's sister gave me her copies.; 3:46 PM