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.