tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33596772024-03-13T20:36:29.983-07:00Random Ramblings from Sunny Southern CAThoughts from a California native currently residing just north of LA.Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.comBlogger2864125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-74516147333925056522024-02-23T01:49:00.000-08:002024-02-23T01:49:00.133-08:00A Day at the Beach in January<p>(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, <a href="https://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>At the end of January, we had some very nice weather. We're talking mid-70's. Yes, we can get that in Southern California in the winter, usually at least once, but it isn't the kind of thing we always have. It's been mostly cool and raining the last couple of weeks, for example.</p><p>So I had to take advantage of that. So I went down to the beach in Santa Monica. I parked where I also do these days, and then walked along the beach. I'd just set out to walk, but I wound up walking down to the Santa Monica pier. It's been years since I was there, so I had some fun playing tourist and wandering around to see what I could see.</p><p>It was a quiet, relaxing day. And the weather really was so wonderful.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-22250586002290403522024-02-21T23:42:00.000-08:002024-02-21T23:42:00.133-08:00Lunch with College Friends<p>About a month ago, I met up with a couple of friends from college for lunch.</p><p>It started because Brian is getting married this summer, and he asked John and I to be in the wedding. He was about to move to be closer to his fiancee, so this was the only chance to hang out and see him before we go back for the wedding.</p><p>To my surprise, they both came up here. In fact, we wound up not that far from my place. I feel a little guilty about that, but neither one of them seem to mind.</p><p>We sat around and talked for several hours, sharing memories and catching up. Yes, we talked a little about the wedding as well. It was just a nice, pleasant afternoon.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-68249971880911909462024-02-19T08:51:00.000-08:002024-02-19T08:51:00.132-08:00February 19th's Pun<p>A three-legged dog walks into a frontier saloon, sidles up to the bar, and announces, “I’m looking for the man who shot my paw.”</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-70897656376232630192024-02-09T10:52:00.000-08:002024-02-09T10:52:00.213-08:00Jury Duty 2024<p>(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, <a href="https://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>I had jury duty again the third week of January.</p><p>I'd had Federal jury duty in October of 2022, and I had to actually show up. And it was in downtown LA, which wasn't fun. This was back to LA County. Fortunately, that meant I was going to be going to a more local courthouse. Still not the one in down, but closer than downtown.</p><p>They'd originally called me for the week of Christmas. Since I was out of town with my family for Christmas, I postponed. I couldn't have showed up if called to show up. But I wanted to get it over with, so I just postponed by a couple of weeks.</p><p>What I didn't like? I couldn't call in until after 7 PM.</p><p>But I did pick the week of Martin Luther King weekend, so I only had to call in for four days instead of a full week.</p><p>And I never had to report. It was so great every night hearing "You don't have to report tomorrow."</p><p>My boss was on call that week, too. At the same court house. She never had to show up either, but we were checking in with each other first thing in the morning each morning.</p><p>Hopefully, it will be several years before I have to go through that again in either location.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-85180655414049359392024-02-07T22:52:00.000-08:002024-02-07T22:52:25.821-08:00Master's University Winter Classic 5K - 2024<p>(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, <a href="https://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>Well, you can see how good a job I've been doing at keeping up with this blog this year. So much for my once a week life updates, right?</p><p>Almost a month ago now, I took part in the Master's University Winter Classic 5K. Last year, it was cold and threatening rain, with a little bit of sprinkles on us. This year? It was cold, but not nearly as cold. But the sun was out. Once we started running, I warmed up pretty quickly. I finished in a little over 36 minutes (like 36:10 or something), which I was happy about. I took a couple of weeks off from running in December because of my cough, so the last couple of weeks before the run were a struggle. I took a couple of walk breaks, but did better than expect overall. (And I generally walk at some point during my runs, even before I took the break in December.)</p><p>As always, I saw a couple of friends there, which isn't a surprise after attending school there and then my time working there. However, it wasn't the friends I normally see. Still, it was nice to say hi really fast to them.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-36060933402542334492024-02-04T02:03:00.000-08:002024-02-04T02:03:00.399-08:00February 4th's PunA rancher counted 196 head of cattle when they were out on the range, but when he rounded them up he had 200.Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-5317486533021430262024-01-27T13:15:00.000-08:002024-01-27T13:15:00.142-08:00January 27th's Pun<p>“But why?” the man exclaimed to the vet when she insisted she had to put his dog down. “Because he’s heavy,” the vet explained.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-38614337045591331512024-01-11T05:14:00.000-08:002024-01-11T05:14:00.143-08:00January 11th's Pun of the Week<p>I went to the butcher’s the other day, and I bet him fifty bucks that he couldn’t reach the meat on the top shelf. He said, “No, the steaks are too high.”</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-22092186903534871762024-01-09T05:47:00.000-08:002024-01-26T17:02:09.355-08:00Starting 2024<p>I finally did it! I got all caught up. I'm hoping now that I'm caught up to stay that way. As part of that, I'm going to be using the beginnings of my Sunday/Monday posts over on <a href="https://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a> over here, too. I might pop in with other things as well. We'll see. But at least I want to keep that much on top of things here.</p><p>(And a reminder that if you landed here after I left a comment on your book blog, you probably want Carstairs Considers.)</p><p>I had a quiet New Year. Church Sunday morning, and then a quiet day at home. Yes, I stayed up until midnight. Actually, I stayed up until about 1 AM. There were some fireworks, but none of the pot banging and yelling that we often have. I was awake in time to watch the Rose Parade live, too, which doesn't usually happen since it is so early here in California. And you tell I'm not a morning person?</p><p>No, I haven't started undecorating from Christmas yet. That was on my agenda for the weekend, but it just isn't going to happen. Honestly, I think I'm going to struggle to get the two reviews written I need to write and the others edited. All I really want to do is curl up and veg.</p><p>Let's see, what else? We got the month closed at work without too much in the way of surprises. It's nice that it wasn't fiscal year end this month. As much as I had having to deal with that around Thanksgiving and then into December, it's nice that the December close is fairly quiet.</p><p>My cough is getting much better. It's still there sometimes, but not nearly as bad as it was even a week ago.</p><p>My life group at church met Saturday morning to clean the church. After that, I stopped at a local nursery and picked up some pansies for my planters. Hopefully the wire I have in them know will keep the squirrels from digging them up, although I did see one sniffing around the box a couple of hours ago.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-7095938128133790912024-01-07T05:13:00.000-08:002024-01-07T05:13:00.145-08:00December 2023 - I Was Home for Christmas<p>(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, <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>Naturally, I went north again for Christmas. This time, the complication was my health. I got what I thought was a mild cold, but developed into a low fever and cough. The fever only lasted three days or so, but the cough is still hanging on, even now (as of when I'm tying this on New Year's Day).</p><p>But my family said to come on up, and I wasn't about to argue. For one thing, I don't think I'm contagious. And it's more annoying than anything else. (If I had tested positive for Covid or the flu, it would have been different, but I was negative for both.)</p><p>And I had a great time. I didn't have any repeats of the traffic drama on the way up, although it was sluggish on the drive back on the 26th. Still nothing like it was going.</p><p>I was there for three full days. And they were pretty chill. We all went out looking at Christmas lights one night, which was great. My brother had mapped out a plan of attack, and he did a great job leading up to some fun displays. Sunday was Christmas Eve, which meant a morning and evening service this year instead of just the Christmas Eve evening service. And I loved how they rearranged things for the evening service with us around the instruments and improvised stage in the middle.</p><p>Christmas Day, we were at my parents' all day. My uncle and aunt came over for a while. We opened presents and had a great meal.</p><p>As I said, it was chill. Which was wonderful.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-49648287391048916852024-01-05T05:01:00.000-08:002024-01-05T05:01:00.247-08:00November 2023 - Thanksgiving<p>(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, <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>In November, I went home for Thanksgiving like always, despite the traffic.</p><p>Seriously, I wish I had paid attention to a traffic report before I left because I got stuck in some of the worst traffic I've ever been in. What should have taken me one hour took me give hours. The traffic heading north the Wednesday before Thanksgiving can be bad/sluggish, but it's never that bad. Once I got past the slow down, things were fine.</p><p>What I've heard is that a track carrying pipes lost it's load on the freeway. Everything was cleared up by the time I got to it.</p><p>What's frustrating is, had I known, I could have easily avoided it. There were a couple of alternatives I could have taken. I just assumed things would be fine.</p><p>The bad part is that I missed seeing my friend and his family on the way up. By the time I made it past the traffic, I just had to drive. As it was, it was after midnight by the time I got home.</p><p>But the rest of the weekend was great. My brother hosted as always, and his in-laws were visiting. It was fun to see them. Friday, we went to see my uncle and aunt plus my cousin and his family were down. Saturday and Sunday were just quiet days.</p><p>Fortunately, I took Monday off so I could drive home that way. I would not have bene happy having to fight traffic on the way back on Sunday. But the traffic was much better on Monday. I did drive through Fresno and see my friend and his wife, which was great. I just missed seeing their kids.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-54516616745458769592024-01-03T04:44:00.000-08:002024-01-03T04:44:00.130-08:00October 2023 - Universal Studios<p> My brother and his family were down in Orange County at the beginning of October to visit some family. They were planning on one day in Universal Studios during that time, and invited me to join them. At first, I didn't think it would work, but then I thought about it some more and decided to ask for the day off, which I got.</p><p>I'm so glad I went.</p><p>I hadn't been there sine 2007 or so, and I had been there most recently of everyone. And we had a blast. The Harry Potter world was fabulous, and the main attraction there was a ton of fun. Super Nintendo World looked amazing as well, although we didn't like that ride quite as much. The other rides were fun. I feel like the backlot tour used to be better, but it was still fun.</p><p>And we had a great time together. I think that was the most fun, just hanging out together in line.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-19987852349323682592024-01-01T17:36:00.000-08:002024-01-01T17:36:00.131-08:00September 2023 - Computer Issues of Some Kind<p>In September, I had a computer meltdown of some kind. My laptop just shut down on my and it had to wait for the battery to drain itself to be able to turn it on again, a process that took several days. Fortunately, I have my old laptops, so I was still able to have access to some stuff, although my old laptop is really, really slow. And a friend at least helped me a little diagnosis the problem.</p><p>Both times it happened, I had plugged in my external hard drive to run a backup. I started plugging it in after the computer had been on for a bit so it had time to warm up, and everything has been fine since then.</p><p>Until this last Sunday, when it did it again even though I thought I'd given it long enough to warm up.</p><p>I bought a new laptop, although I haven't even taken it out of the box yet. I'm wondering if it is the laptop or the extern hard drive. And wondering how I can even go about testing that out. But I should try to figure it out sooner rather than later, I know.</p><p>Got to love technology. That is, when it is working well.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-78383951602005030342023-11-07T01:21:00.000-08:002023-11-07T01:21:00.159-08:00September 2023 - Bouchercon for a Day and a Wedding<p>(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, <a href="https://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-9355937034279440212023-11-05T01:09:00.000-07:002023-11-05T01:09:00.170-07:00August 2023 - A Hurricane, an Earthquake, and a Parental Visit<p>(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, <a href="https://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>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.</p><p>Saturday was a little cooler than it had been, but the weather was still nice.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Best of all, my garage didn't flood again either. I wasn't super worried about it, but I thought it might happen.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-36532471468013757692023-11-03T01:03:00.000-07:002023-11-03T01:03:00.142-07:00July 2023 - Visiting Another Friend<p>(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, <a href="https://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>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.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-5729792176262985912023-11-01T01:53:00.002-07:002023-11-01T01:53:00.146-07:00June 2023 - New York City!<p>(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, <a href="https://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-15133704707871027022023-10-30T02:46:00.000-07:002023-10-30T02:46:00.150-07:00May 2023 - Rugged Maniac 2023<p>(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, <a href="https://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>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!</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-59482414886136287442023-09-29T01:19:00.002-07:002023-09-29T23:42:05.977-07:00April 2023 Part 2 - The LA Times Festival of Books<p>(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, <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>Yes, April gets two posts. I didn't want to combine the two.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-7551431859745243812023-09-27T01:14:00.000-07:002023-09-27T01:14:00.163-07:00April 2023 Part 1 - Home for Easter<p>(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, <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>At the last minute, I decided to go home for Easter weekend.</p><p>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.</p><p>Anyway...</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-23653591532193564372023-09-25T01:06:00.000-07:002023-09-25T01:06:00.160-07:00March 2023 - A Fun Book Signing with Friends<p>(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, <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>And a trip down memory lane.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Along the way, we got to hang out, which was a delight.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-34736926223759542762023-09-23T01:51:00.003-07:002023-09-23T01:51:00.146-07:00February 2023 - The Flood<p>(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, <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>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.)</p><p>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.</p><p>However, my garage did flood again in February.</p><p>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.</p><p>And it flooded.</p><p>We aren't talking about just a little bit of water, it essentially flooded the entire flood of my garage.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-73539338416391868712023-09-21T01:35:00.003-07:002023-09-29T23:44:09.106-07:00January 2023 - Caribbean Cruise<p>(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, <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>I started out the year on a fabulous note - I got to take a Caribbean cruise!</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>But the rest? It was fabulous! There were three sea days, but the rest of it, we were in ports.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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?</p><p>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.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-47182661978181046252023-07-28T01:06:00.000-07:002023-07-28T01:06:00.139-07:00December 2022 - Christmas at Home<p>(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, <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>Of course, I turned right back around and went home again for Christmas.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Again, my time up there was short. But it was wonderful to be able to see them.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3359677.post-6223560884263137912023-07-26T01:04:00.000-07:002023-07-26T01:04:00.153-07:00November 2022 - Home for Thanksgiving<p>(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, <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/">Carstairs Considers</a>. But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)</p><p>Yep, still wanting to catch up here.</p><p>Obviously, Thanksgiving is the big thing that stands out for most people when it comes to November. And I went home for Thanksgiving.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>Mark Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567392254011373198noreply@blogger.com0