a99kitten's Musings

Fed the huskies
Had a super fun beach walk (2 beaches and about 8 new doggie friends!) for almost 2 hours with the huskies
Checked and answered work and personal email
Had some coffee and tweeted and facebooked
Cleaned Gypsy’s (kitty) house and water fountain
Swept back deck from mass wind/tree carnage
Removed spider webs from front of house (waiting for the spider’s revenge…)
Cut some tree branches on front and back trees that were knocking into the house last night and today from wind (and waking me up last night!)
Did 3 loads of laundry
Washed all of my make-up brushes
Put away my new La Mer stuff :)
Removed stuff and cleaned up spare bedroom since husband decided to use it for his piles (wrong pal)
Cleaned up garage just enough to put that stuff there. Garage is husband’s mess – not mine – to deal with.
Swept garage – sand is mine and the huskies :)
Paid bills
Balanced mine and husbands’ various checking accounts
Put stuff away that was in small piles around the house. I hate piles. Might kill husband for piles some day.
Hung up my coat from yesterday that was still in car which led to me cleaning out coat closet and taking out 4 coats to donate. Ahhh…room.

That’s enough for now. Time for reading in the sun with absolutely no lazy guilt…will attack all of our tax stuff for Monday’s accountant meeting tonight or tomorrow. When it’s not prime sun….and I don’t have a new Vanity Fair and Vogue staring at me to read them :)

Nifty! I wish this fit my Kindle. But alas…I have the *old* one (you know, the Kindle 2 from waaaay back in 2009.)

My favorite X-Men storyline!!! Now if only the Kindle was a comic book reader too (hint…hint Amazon.)

But I do love the graphite color of the new Kindle. And it seems even smaller than mine! But I do NOT need to replace mine – it’s perfectly fine. This is what drives me crazy about electronic gadgets!

Maybe next version :)

Last night I finished the final book of the Rizzoli and Isles series. I really liked this one. Although it did stress me out. There is a young man (whose type of character will always remind me of my brother no matter what they story) and a dog…so I get stressed that they will be OK! So I had to finish this book!!

I got hooked on this series this summer because of the new TV show that premiered on TNT based on the books. The show does a good job of following the characters but they are different. It’s weird how different and yet very similar they are. I think the show has done a good job with that. Obviously the books are more detailed and the show doesn’t actually follow most of the actual plot lines from the books. But the character development is good. Plus Angie Harmon is always great. She plays Jane Rizzoli who, in the book, is described as being short and not terribly attractive. So they hired a super gorgeous former model – heh :) But she comes across how the character is written – so it works very well.

Several of the books stand out as my favorites. Those tend to take a jump from the standard crime formula into superstition and the occult. Love that. But without becoming sci-fi or fantasy. They do stay grounded in “reality”. My favorites are the last 3 written – The Mephisto Club, The Keepsake and Ice Cold.

The main characters are strong women characters. Not that I look for that specifically in my books but these 2 definitely are without being made out to be “perfect” by any means. Plus the author keeps a few recurring characters in addition to the supporting characters that re-appear.

If you are looking for a a new series of books to get hooked on – here you go:

* The Surgeon (2001) introduces Det. Jane Rizzoli
* The Apprentice (2002) introduces Dr. Maura Isles. The pilot episode is based on this novel.
* The Sinner (2003)
* Body Double (2004)
* Vanish (2005)
* The Mephisto Club (2006)
* The Keepsake / Keeping the Dead (US/UK 2008)
* Ice Cold / The Killing Place (US/UK 2010)

I can’t wait for the next one! But now I must go to Amazon and search for my next book…

Hmmmm? Long time ago it was…

Gaius to a young Merlin…

“It was real. But it was just one reality. The future is as of yet unshaped. It is we that shape it.

The decisions you make. The actions you take. Remember that.

Now eat your soup, before it gets cold”

So wise these wizards, sorcerers, Jedis are…they also push eating….

I was listening to CNBC radio on Sirius/XM as I was driving into work this morning from Tahoe. As I clicked in to the station, it was Power Lunch time and they were interviewing a woman and the discussion was about muni bonds and the bond market. And then it turned to her new book titled “The Recessionistas”. I was going to change it to Bloomberg as I wanted market news but I vaguely remembered seeing this title as I was perusing Amazon this weekend so left it on.

As I was searching for new books and saw this title, and freely admit I didn’t stop to read about it as I thought it was more of a real life “how women overcame financial trouble in the recession…snore…depressing…no thanks” book. But now as I was listening to the author talk about it, plus hear her own back story, I was quite intrigued.

She is the daughter of a long-time Wall Street man and worked at the family firm, and then started her own. They deal in municipal bonds and private wealth management. So she wasn’t just writing about Wall Street from a room in LA, she knows it. She lives it. It’s her life. I like that.

Now, this book is fiction. And “chick lit” at that. But she did say it’s “some fiction throw in” along with New York social scene stuff and, of course, Wall Street turmoil. I liked her interview and I liked that she said at the end of her interview that there is a little bit of her in all of the book’s characters, and not just the good ones. The interviewer was like – wow, really?? (it is clear some of the characters are not boy/girl scouts or role models.)

The interviewer made me giggle as well. When the author mentioned Page 6 in a way of describing how one can fall from New York society, she (the interviewer) made sure to point out that Page Six is the gossip page of the New York Post for all us non-New Yorkers who were listening and don’t know this. Who doesn’t know this?? Us non-New Yorkers do have internet access to you know :) Duurrr.

They also discussed the market, how the rich are handling life now in NYC (compared to their short-lived fad of coupon-cutting days *eye roll and yet can totally see some ding-dong arm-candy socialite wife thinking NOW she was being useful in her household*), and other fun-Vanity Fair-esque subjects. It’s a 9 minute interview – you can watch it below :)

Anyway, just added this to my Kindle list of books to buy. It sounds like a fun read and I liked the author brief interview. She came across like quite a smart cookie and women on Wall Street (gold owners/makers and not gold diggers) are quite a rare find. I think I shall make it my next read actually. Or maybe after The Big Short….haven’t decided if Wall Street truth or Wall Street fact mixed in and covered up with fiction comes first…since it’s officially still summer, I think the more fun-sounding one comes first :)

CNBC interview w/Alexandra Lebenthal:

Just finished reading the DC Comics’ graphic novel “Trinity”. It’s a story of Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman as they first meet and fight together to battle Ra’s al Ghul and Bizarro. The novel is from 2004 but I just got it in my comic book/graphic novel birthday haul earlier this month :)

Trinity

I liked it. A version of them meeting for the first time I had never read before. Superman likes Wonder Woman, Batman is a paranoid kinda-sorta jerk (but really isn’t that his charm?) and Wonder Woman thinks these men are brave but cuckoo (ok, it doesn’t actually use that term but you get that feeling;) )

It also has a young “rogue” Amazon named Artemis. They barely touch on where she came from/why rogue but what it did offer didn’t jive with my remembrance of the Amazon and Paradise Island (sorry now called Themyscira that simply IS paradise, not called Paradise) lore. I’ve been out of the WW loop for too long apparently!

On to my next graphic novel in the stack. Do I stay in the Wonder Woman vein or move over to some X-Men?? THAT is the question! :)

I just ordered “Red” – mostly because a) Warren Ellis cracked me up at the SDCC panel and the movie looks fun (even though I don’t think it follows the comic much – it has Helen Mirren so it HAS to be good!)

I also ordered (graphic novel) Grimm’s Fairy Tales Volume 1 (although I think I should order Volume 2 ASAP as well) so I need to get through this current stack! I was talking to people in line at SDCC about the Grimm’s Fairy Tales in gand the definite consensus was that these were great re-tellings in graphic format. Although if that lying beyotch Red does anything to the wolf….(is that a Grimm tale?)

Plus I think I’m heading back to Lee’s on Friday so that can’t end well for my wallet….

Well, I suppose it’s ok. I read Less Than Zero a looong time ago. Apparently long enough to forget how wretched the characters were? I mean, I remember they were F’ed up but man…this story of them “grown-up” is dark. And messed up. And I really, really do not want to believe the kids growing up in Hollywood are all like this. Yikes. If they are, don’t ever move to LA! (which I already knew…)

And could not ever imagine Andrew McCarthy playing this version of Clay. And this is not due to his inability as an actor but more due to the fact that he seems like a better person than wanting to portray this character. But I guess Christian Bale had no problem being an American Psycho (which I refuse and will never read or watch.)

But the book kept me page-turning, that’s for sure. So I guess I recommend it unless you prefer a but sunnier reading…which I kinda do…

Next up and already downloaded!

I finished my current book “Swimsuit” by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. It was good. A good summer beach/pool read, which is exactly where I finished it today – poolside. Not a literary classic but as long as I’m entertained and stay interested, I’m happy. That’s what summer reading is.

Some of it took place on Maui. Sigh….a favorite vacation destination (well, that I’ve been to anyway.) When I think “vacation” I envision Maui. I haven’t been for a few years and desperately want to go back.

In the book, it’s the site of violent rapes and murders. That’s definitely not so good. Yet somehow even with that as the background, as the writers described the lanais and the tropical breeze, hotels and beaches, I was happily imagining Maui, not a crime scene!

The book takes quite a few twists and turns, some predictable and some not. If you like Patterson’s style of writing, then you will at least moderately enjoy this book. Even though he likely wrote very little of it, it’s got his signature. It’s fairly graphically violent though.

Next up! I just downloaded Bret Easton Ellis’ new one “Imperial Bedrooms” – the sequel to “Less Than Zero”. That’s the only book of his (or movie) that I have read/seen. I refused to read or see “American Psycho” but we’ll see how this one is. I liked Less Than Zero – both book and movie (actually preferred the movie as I think the soundtrack and the hazy shade of filming added to the story (as did the Bangles’ Hazy Shade of Winter :) ) Plus I think Robert Downey Jr. and James Spader were outstanding in that movie, as they always are.

And it seems RDJ graduated from being Julian to a more healthy lifestyle in real life – I’m happy to see that as I do believe he is a real talent (see Chaplin) even if a bit cuckoo…

I just finished reading Scott Turow’s “Innocent”. This is the sequel to “Presumed Innocent” which I did not read but did really like the movie (of course..) Now I definitely want to go back and read Presumed Innocent (just added it to my list of books to buy/read) And re-watch the movie…and NOT just to see Harrison Ford…although that IS reason enough :)

This book had me riveted for sure. I had to keep going and going to find out what was going to happen. And I’ll have to say, I was wrong about my assumption of the end. And I’m usually right about these. But I started reading it on Friday afternoon and it’s Sunday afternoon so I blew through it to see how it ended!

The book isn’t solely about crime and whodunit. It’s touches on marriage/relationships/love, making mistakes and paying (or not) for them and how that effects you, wondering if you can find happiness and love, staying in relationships for the wrong reasons, and integrity, both personal and professional. Interestingly, it doesn’t touch on a subject that I assumed they would, that goes back to the first story. But it does always keep the crime element there for you to wonder about it.

I could totally see them making this into a movie with Harrison back as Rusty. And you know I will be there :)

I recommend it as a good read for sure.

Just bought James Patterson’s “Swimsuit” to read next. I am laying out in mine while I read so it seemed fitting :)

My birthday weekend is coming to a close. I think I did OK on my birthday gluttony as far as eating, drinking and general merriment went. Was still busy and stressed with work so I pretty much kept it to a minimum. I’ve mostly been tired so wanting to just hang out with huskies and read in the sun – pretty much the best activities anyway :)

I had my pre-Eclipse dinner with girlfriends that my birthday snuck into last Tuesday, Eclipse (squeal!) and then a comic book store excursion and a nice dinner with friends on Friday, hung out with huskies a lot, finished my book AND one of my new Wonder Woman graphic novels (and the new WW), had dinner with more friends at the house on Sunday night and went to the lake today, hung out, watched (other) doggies play in the water and had a Wet Woody (yummy drink…mind out of the gutter!)

And I did end the day and the weekend with 2 glasses of Gloria Ferrar Blanc de Noir (courtesy of @missmelon leftover from last night) and some homemade Hawaiian poke. One of my all-time favorite combos/meals. Sushi grade tuna and bubbly – perfect combo in flavors.

Back to work tomorrow. I take a week off for my birthday/July 4th every year. With 2 weekends and 5 weekdays = 9 awesome days in Tahoe. This year it got changed due to work. So instead of the annual week off at this time, I will shoot for this past 3-day weekend and a 4-day weekend starting Thursday! We’ll see. Fingers crossed…

p.s. it’s Harrison Ford’s birthday on the 13th so July really is an excellent month :)

Found this on YouTube and grinned the whole way through. I don’t give a crippity-crap about meeting celebrities. But I would love to meet this man.