September 2023 - Bouchercon for a Day and a Wedding

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Bouchercon is a world wide mystery convention - where mystery authors and readers come together to talk books.  Authors talk about their books, trying to connect with readers.  I went once when it was in Long Beach about 10 or so years ago.  This year, it was in San Diego.  I couldn't go for the entire weekend thanks to work.  It was Labor Day weekend, which is also the start of quarter end close at work.  I did ask, but there was no way to make it work.  But I did go down for one day - Saturday.  Okay, I left early on Friday to drive down, and I drove back on Sunday.  But I was only there for one day.

And it was great.  I went to several panels, and I got to see several authors again that I haven't seen in a few years.  I had a stack of Donna Andrews books to get signed, for example.  Plus, I got to meet some authors I had never met before, which was wonderful.

I spent most of my time hanging out with a friend who has started writing again.  She'd recently self-published the first in a new series, and her panel was on Saturday.  It was a fun panel.  I had dinner with her and her husband on Friday night and lunch with her and another author on Saturday.  It was fun spending time with her.

At the end of the month I went to a wedding.  These are some people I've met at the monthly game days.  It was a nice wedding a reception.  Simple, but nice.

In news of things I didn't do, I'd gotten excited when Camp Pendleton announced they were bringing back their mud run.  That's been one of my favorite weekends of the year.  Last year, they had the mud run, but for base personnel only.  This year, it was semi opened to the public.  If you weren't base personnel, you had to be sponsored on to the base.  Well, that leaves me out, unfortunately.  I'm hoping they will fully opened it to the public again soon.

August 2023 - A Hurricane, an Earthquake, and a Parental Visit

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

My parents had been talking about coming for a visit for a while, and it finally worked out for them to come in the middle of August - the same weekend we were supposed to be hit by Hurricane Hilary.  Mind you, the last time this happened was over one hundred years ago.  Mom and Dad decided to go ahead and come.

Saturday was a little cooler than it had been, but the weather was still nice.

Sunday, however, it rained.  And it rained.  And then it rained some more.  Fortunately, it had weakened by the time it hit here, so we got lots of rain but we never got the winds that were being predicted.  Fortunately.  I'm not sure how things would have turned out if we'd gotten wind.

But I mentioned we got rain, right?  I think we got at least a year's worth of rain in one day.  I saw video of flooded roads around town, although I never saw anything when I went out later in the week.

Best of all, my garage didn't flood again either.  I wasn't super worried about it, but I thought it might happen.

Then, in the middle of the afternoon, we also got hit with an earthquake.  It was far enough away that we felt it, but there wasn't any damage here.  Sounds like there wasn't any major damage close to the epicenter anyway.  Needless to say, it was a memorable visit.

But, we always play lots of games when we are together, and that's what we did.  I introduced Mom and Dad to Qwixx, a game I'd learned at my monthly game days, and it was a huge lit.  We played that a lot.  Mom did a great job of winning it, much to Dad's and my dismay.

July 2023 - Visiting Another Friend

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

A couple of weeks after I got back from New York City, I went to visit another friend.  He'd moved back home on the central coast of California, so I could drive.  We played ultimate Frisbee (how we first met) and then toured the area around his house Saturday and Sunday.  We hung around his place in the evening Saturday and some on Sunday, with me having to drive home Sunday night.  It was a nice trip without taking any time off work.  Very nice to get out of the condo for a couple of days.  And wonderful to see him.  He and his parents were great hosts.

June 2023 - New York City!

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

In June, I was able to take a long weekend and go visit a friend of mine who has moved to New York City.  The closest I had come previously was being lost in Yonkers and a layover in JFK.  Obviously, I had a lot to see.

And we actually did see quite a bit.  I took a red eye Thursday night.  While he worked on Friday, I visited Times Square and the New York Public Library, both a modern branch and the old one with some fun displays.

Saturday, we were really touristy.  We went out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, something he hadn't done yet.  I really enjoyed visiting both of them - more than I thought I would, and they were the biggest things on my list.  We were able to go part way up into the statue, but not all the way to the top since we hadn't booked tickets months earlier.  Kind of hard to do when you decide to go a couple of weeks before the trip.

Sunday, we played book tourist.  I wanted to visit a couple of places I've read about in long running historical series I read, Bank Street for the Gaslight Mystery by Victoria Thompson and Patchin Place for the Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen.  I have no idea if we were anywhere near where the characters live in the Gaslight series, but Patchin Place is very small, so it was great to see what it actually looks like.  Not quite how I pictured it.

After that, we went to Central Park and wandered around there for a while.  It was very interesting to visit that since I'd heard so much about it.

Monday, he had to return to work and I had to fly home.  There was more I would have liked to have done, but it was still a wonderful trip, and we crammed a lot into the short visit.

The downside was that I hurt my shoulder more.  Twice while on the subway, I grabbed a bar to steady myself with my left arm, jarring it more.

May 2023 - Rugged Maniac 2023

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

In May, I did my only mud run for 2023, Rugged Maniac.  It was once again about half an hour from me.  I had an added bonus this time.  Since it was held where I paddle board, I didn't have to pay to park.  My parking pass worked for that!

Unfortunately, I really hurt my shoulder just before the mile marker.  I was trying to crawl across floating platforms that we are supposed to run across, and the last platform moved away from the side.  I was stretched out like Superman, and I fell off, doing something to my shoulder.  It was really bothering me, but did I let that stop me?  Of course not!  I still completed it, doing everything I could to not hurt my shoulder any worse.

It's hard to judge how much fun I had with it since my shoulder really dampened my enjoyment.  But I did finish it, which was nice.  And then I went home, cleaned up, and went to the game day my friends are still hosting.

April 2023 Part 2 - The LA Times Festival of Books

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Yes, April gets two posts.  I didn't want to combine the two.

April once again meant the LA Times Festival of Books.  I wound up going both days this year, something I haven't done for a while.  My friend could only be there on Sunday, but there were some authors I wanted to talk to on Saturday.  Outside of how high parking was, it was worth it.

Actually, Saturday, I wound up talking to several authors I hadn't planned to talk to and bought their books as a result.  Not that I've read them or have any idea when I will.  I need to read more.  If only I didn't care about things like food and shelter.

Sunday was a bit more about hanging out with my friend.  Yes, we talked to authors who were there, but we spent quite a bit of time just catching up.  Considering I hadn't seen her for a while, it was great.

April 2023 Part 1 - Home for Easter

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

At the last minute, I decided to go home for Easter weekend.

I barely made it up in time for the Good Friday service on Friday.  Okay, so I had stopped and gotten dinner when I got into town, but I pulled in the church's parking lot about two minutes before the service started.  Actually, considering I drove several hundred miles, I'm pretty happy with that.

Anyway...

Saturday, I played some ultimate Frisbee with my brother.  I've cut back on how much I'm playing, so it was nice to play with that group.  As a surprise, someone I've played with in the greater LA ultimate community has moved to the area and was there.

I then hung out at my brother's house for a while.  We met up with our parents for my nephew's baseball game.  After dinner, I went back to Mom and Dad's to help them get ready for the next day.

After church Sunday morning, Mom and Dad hosted Easter.  My uncle came over (my aunt was sick), and a family friend was there as well.  It was a fun day.

The downside is that I was two days behind all the rest of the month.  Seriously, I finally caught up with everything that I needed to do on the 30th of the month.

March 2023 - A Fun Book Signing with Friends

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

And a trip down memory lane.

I found out that a friend is the editor for Stuart Gibbs, a middle grade author I've been reading for years.  They are working together on a graphic novel he did for DC comics.  So when Stuart had a book signing in March, I went with her and her husband down to see him.

Of course, I was there to get some books signed, and I got in line.  They hopped in to say hi when it was my turn to get some books signed.  Stuart was surprised to make the connection, and I think they were a little surprised at how well he knew me.

After that, we grabbed some lunch at Cava, a Mediterranean chain I discovered while on the Canada and New England cruise I did last fall.  The one we went to was close to UCLA.  In fact, the close we got, the more I recognized the neighborhood.  Turned out it was across the street from the old location for The Mystery Bookstore, which I use to frequent quite a bit.  It was fun to be back in the neighborhood, but it made me wish we still had a good bookstore dedicated to mysteries in the LA area.

Along the way, we got to hang out, which was a delight.

February 2023 - The Flood

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

If you haven't heard, we've had a lot of rain in 2023 in Southern California.  (And that was before Tropical Storm Hilary dumped more than a year's worth of rain on us in August.)

When I first moved into my condo, I used to have a real problem with my garage leaking in any rain storm when we got more than an inch.  That has stopped in recent years - partially because we haven't gotten much rain at all and partially because, I think, the HOA finally listened to me and beefed up the drainage next to my garage.

However, my garage did flood again in February.

We'd gotten plenty of rain in January and February, but one weekend, we got a heavy rain storm.  Like four inches overnight.  I figured if my garage was every going to flood, this was going to be what caused it.

And it flooded.

We aren't talking about just a little bit of water, it essentially flooded the entire flood of my garage.

I'd gotten lazy about what I put where, and so the water had plenty of things to take it from one item to the next.  I'm not sure if that helped it spread further than it would have or not.

I spent the next few days cleaning it up.  It seemed like the more I worked, the more stuff I found that was wet.  I throw away quite a bit of stuff, and the result is a garage that looks better.  Yes, I could still clean it up more, but it is better than it was.

I was glad that it never flooded again even with all the rain we kept getting through the spring.  Once was enough.  That also leads me to believe that we've got better drainage then we used to that just got overwhelmed that night.

January 2023 - Caribbean Cruise

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

I started out the year on a fabulous note - I got to take a Caribbean cruise!

I'd been eyeing a 10 day cruise for a while that looked like a great list of ports.  I wasn't sure it was going to work to take the time off for it, but everyone at work took one some extra tasks so I could take the time off and go.  Well, there were some things I didn't do, but they weren't essential like the rest of it was.

Anyway, the cruise was round trip from Ft. Lauderdale.  The only bad part was my flights.  I took a red eye and arrived very early in the morning, with a couple of hours to kill in baggage claim in the morning.  My flight home was late, and I killed multiple hours sitting in the airport again.

But the rest?  It was fabulous!  There were three sea days, but the rest of it, we were in ports.

One highlight was stopping in Puerto Rico.  Since I signed up at the last minute, all the excursions for that day were sold out, but I reached out to a friend I'd made online who was living there.  We'd never met, but we had a fabulous day hanging out.  He and his wife showed me the island, and I'm sure I saw more of it than I would have with an excursion.

I did have excursions at the other stops.  One was a botanical garden, which was pretty.  I did paddling at two of them.  The paddling through the mangroves was a bit of a challenge due to the guy I was partnered with, but eventually we figured it out - sort of.  The other paddling went much smoother.  And I went snorkeling in St. Thomas.

I also made some friends on board the ship, which helped keep those days from being so long.  That was my issue with the Alaska cruise I had taken back in July 2022.

I was not ready to come home - especially since I came home to discover there had been an issue with some of the files that were run late the week before, and I had to fight people to get them run my first day back, meaning I got delayed in logging out.  Welcome back, right?

And, I've been pointing out duplicates in the cruises I was taking.  This was a new ship for me and a new destination as well.  However, I had the same cruise director as that Alaska cruise.  She is great, so no complaints, but I found it very funny.

December 2022 - Christmas at Home

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Of course, I turned right back around and went home again for Christmas.

This time, I was the only visiting family in town for the holiday itself, so it was a bit quieter, but it was still wonderful to get to spend time with my family.  We had Christmas Eve and Christmas morning services at the church they all attend.

My cousin was down, so the day after Christmas, we headed over to see him and his family and my uncle and aunt.  We had a wonderful visit with them playing a fan game.

Again, my time up there was short.  But it was wonderful to be able to see them.

November 2022 - Home for Thanksgiving

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Yep, still wanting to catch up here.

Obviously, Thanksgiving is the big thing that stands out for most people when it comes to November.  And I went home for Thanksgiving.

It was a bit of an odd Thanksgiving since my niece and nephew were sick on the day itself.  But they were better before I left so I did get to see them.  And, I've got to say, their attitude about it was probably better than mine would have been even now.  I would have had a bit of a pity party even though I understood what was going on.

My sister-in-law had family in town for the weekend, and it was fun to get to see them as well.  Plus my uncle and aunt came out for the day.  It was a big group, and laughs and hugs were shared.  We had a great time.

Unfortunately, with how fiscal year end fell at work, I had to leave Sunday instead of taking Monday off work.  And that means leaving super early to miss the worst of the traffic.  Hopefully, I can actually take Monday off this year and enjoy that extra day.

October 2022 - Jury Duty

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

October 2022 saw me facing something not that fun - jury duty.  It had actually been several years since I'd been called, although with the people I talk to who have never been called, I wonder why they pick on me so much.

Worse, this was Federal jury duty, so I had to go down to downtown LA that day.  With morning traffic, I left very early so the trip down.

I'd actually originally been summoned back in March, and I was supposed to be on call for two weeks (seriously, two weeks?  That's insane!), one of which was when I was on vacation with my family.  Then I got rescheduled to the summer, but the judge wanted people who were vaxed and boosted.  So I got pushed back a third time.  Almost had it around Thanksgiving, when I would have been out of town and then things would have been crazy at work, but they switched me to October to finally get it over with.

I was seated in the jury box almost immediately.  When the morning ended, we had all introduced ourselves, but no one had been dismissed yet.  The afternoon started, and we were slowly working through the challenges.  Fortunately, I was one of them.  I don't know what I would have done if I wasn't since I don't have the time to take off for this kind of thing any more.  Seriously, I had worked the Sunday before (after church) to be able to go.  I just have that much work to do these days.

Ironically, that was the first day we'd decided to come back and work in the office since we were sent home in March of 2020.  So I drove up and stopped by the office to say hi to people and meet our new co-worker in person.  He was the replacement for the co-worker who left in August, but he didn't wind up working out.  Still, it was a nice end to a day.

Plus, since I was sent home early, I beat the traffic driving back.

I had such a big smile on my face when I was sent home that day.

September 2022 - Canada and New England Cruise

 (Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

I won a free cruise last year, and I took it in September.  My friend Cameron joined me.  We had originally been eyeing a Norwegian cruise, but we couldn't do it because it was round trip from Amsterdam, and we didn't meet the vaccine requirements in the Netherlands.  So we went to Canada and New England.

It was definitely cool by my standards - winter weather to this Southern California wimp, but it was fun.  We didn't do much in the way of excursions, but we got off the ship and explored every day we could.  One of the stops was at Prince Edward Island, but the wrong side of the island for Anne of Green Gables stuff.  Still, I had read the book before we went.

This was right before the hurricane hit that area (my parents actually took a cruise right after and reported on some of the damage).  We had to miss a stop in Maine as a result of it coming, but that was the only interruption to our trip.

We got off in Boston and delayed coming home one day to explore that area.  We spent Saturday walking around Boston, looking at the sites there.  Then, Sunday, we explored Lexington and Concord.  Definitely would have liked more time there, but we had to fly home, sadly.

Ironically, this wound up being on the same ship that I sailed on with my family to Alaska in 2016.  So, for my third cruise, I'd been on two itineraries and two ships.

August into September 2022 - Crazy at Work

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

I meant to come back with another post before this.  But that's how life is going these days.

So, where was I?  Oh yeah, back in August of 2022.  Right after I got back from my Alaska cruise, we found out that one of my co-workers was taking an promotion and leaving our department for another one.  That left a huge hole in the department since she'd been there for years and knew her job forwards and backwards.  Unfortunately, a lot of her job fell to me on top of what I was already doing.  Since August is a quarter end month (thanks to our slightly off fiscal year), that meant things were extra stressful and extra crazy.

Just how bad?  I worked 19 days in a row the end of August and beginning of September, including all three days of Labor Day weekend.  And that was just to get us through the stuff that had to be done for close.  I (sadly) wasn't ahead after all of that.

They did hire someone pretty quickly, but he didn't work out.  Fast forward to April, and we finally have a replacement, who is working out well.  In the meantime, we had a temp, who was fantastic.

Fortunately, things seem to have gotten a little better after that.  I mean, it is still crazy, but not that crazy now that I have some feel for what I am doing.  But it is very hard to take time off.  I took two days off in April, and I didn't really catch up until the end of the month.  They've been good about letting me take time off (as you'll see as I keep updating), but there's just so much work before and after any more.

July 2022 - Alaskan Cruise

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Well, I didn't intend to leave this blog alone for 10 months, but here we are.  Time to start catching you up on everything I've been up to, isn't it?  (Beyond time, actually).

When last I posted, it was July of 2022.  When that post actually went live, I was on an Alaskan cruise.

I'd been wanting to take advantage of some deals for a while, and things finally came together.  Alaska wasn't my first choice because I had only been on one cruise before, and it was to Alaska.  But I went, and I had a good time.

Unfortunately, the ship was having engine troubles, so we essentially missed two ports.  But the two ports we did stop in were great.  I went rafting on one of the stops, and zip lining in the other.  It was fun to see places I'd been with my family six years earlier again.  And we made one additional stop I hadn't seen before.

I went by myself, which had some good points and bad points.  I do love the freedom of doing what I feel like when I feel like it.  Unfortunately, by the end of the week, not having anyone to really talk to was getting to me, and I was ready to be off the ship.

I got to hang out with a co-worker who lives in the Seattle area when I got back, which was an added bonus.  She played tour guide in Seattle, which I hadn't been to in decades.

Sadly, I brought an extra souvenir home with me from that trip - Covid.  I was sick for about a week, although after the first couple of days I started to feel better.  I'm still working from home, and I was able to work just fine most of the time.  I did take one afternoon off, and the next day was when I was really starting to feel better.  I am glad I was able to work from home since it was busy (actually, it's always busy) at work, so I didn't have to miss anything due to being sick.  I would have hated to have all of that land on my co-workers.