Signing Up for the Cozy Mystery Challenge

I'd almost forgotten it was that time of year again, but it's time to think about the Cozy Mystery Challenge.  You can find out all you want to know about it by going to the sign up page.

As always, I'm going for the 11+ level of the challenge.  Six would just be too easy for me.  But I'm not going to list the books I plan to read for it yet.  I'll figure those out as I go along, I'm sure.

Ready, set, lets' get reading come April 1st.

Books Read for the Challenge (link takes you to my review at Epinions):
1. Hot, Shot, and Bothered by Nora McFarland
2. Murder on Monday by Ann Purser
3. Shadows on the Sand by Gayle Roper
4. Swift Justice by Laura DiSilverio
5. Echoes of Titanic by Mindy Starns Clark and John Campbell Clark
6. Mr. Monk is a Mess by Lee Goldberg (exclusive)
7. The Cat Who Talked Turkey by Lillian Jackson Braun
8. Dead Man Waltzing by Ella Barrick
9. Deadly Shoals by Joan Druett
10. Some Like it Hawk by Donna Andrews (exclusive)
11. Going to the Bad by Nora McFarland
12. Hide and Snoop by Sue Ann Jaffarian
13. Death of a Neighborhood Witch by Laura Levine

Word Association for March 14th

Here we go with this week's word association.

1. Exist :: Live
2. Breakfast :: Waffles
3. Corporation :: Business
4. Signs :: Portents
5. Thinking :: Rationally
6. Income :: Paycheck
7. Style :: Substance
8. Job :: Work
9. Marriage :: Family
10. Supplement :: Income

Fiddler Again

This weekend, I got to see Fiddler on the Roof at Glendale Centre Theatre.  I fell in love with the show all over again.  In fact, I'd forgotten just how good it was.

That's kind of funny coming from me, someone who likes happy endings and doesn't go for the more realistic stuff.  The second act in this musical is so sad.  Yet I really enjoy it.

I blame that on having been in it.  In fact, there are lots of parts I still remember very well.  Not the steps to the bottle dance, but lines and songs.  Having the soundtrack helps with that.

There's just something about it that grabs me and draws me to those characters so quickly.  The first act is lots of fun.  But as the second act comes into focus, it's so hard to keep from crying at some of the stuff that happens.

I can't wait to see it again some time.

My February Reads

I made it through 5 books in February.  Not bad for a "short" month. And one of them was over 500 pages, too.

Links take you to my full review at Epinions.

All ratings are on a scale from 1 (bad) to 5 (great).

STAY AT HOME DEAD by Jeffrey Allen - 4
Deuce Winters finds himself a suspect in the death of his high school rival after the man's body is found in his minivan.  I enjoyed the characters, especially Deuce and his wife.  But I felt the mystery was pretty thin and was annoyed by the author's willful ignoring any sense of time.

ARSENIC AND OLD PAINT by Hailey Lind - 4
Former forger turned faux finisher Annie Kincaid is painting in an exclusive men's club when a member is found murdered.  Then's she's asked to find a stolen statue and a painting that may or may not be forged.  This is the fourth in a series, and it's another fun romp.  The ending felt rushed, but that was my only complaint with the book.

GEM OF A GHOST by Sue Ann Jaffarian - 5
When Emma is invited to lunch by an old acquaintance, she is shocked.  The woman is being haunted by her late husband and wants Emma to make him go away.  But when Emma finds out the woman's daughter has tried to commit suicide, she thinks something much bigger may be going on.  I loved this book and always had a hard time putting it down.  Highly recommended.

THE MYSTERY OF THE PHATOM GRASSHOPPER by Kathryn Kenny - 4
When a violent storm blows through Sleepyside, the antique weather vane vanishes, and Trixie Belden sets out to find it and bring it home.  Lots of fun with great characters, although the mystery is a bit straight forward.

THE LOST HERO (HEROES OF OLYMPUS BOOK 1) by Rick Riordan - 5
Jason wakes up on a bus in the middle of a desert with his best friend and girlfriend.  The only problem is, he has no memory of them or who he is.  Finding out he's a demi-god is no real help.  Will a quest bring him closer to his memories?  This is the first in the follow up series to Percy Jackson, and I really enjoyed it.  The book could have been trimmed somewhere, but I was having so much fun I really didn't care.  And the new characters felt absolutely real to me.

Weekly TV Recap for March 10th

The Amazing Race - I am really beginning to dislike just about everyone.  What is it with these shows and the extra drama this season?  I'm sorry the brothers were eliminated just because they were one of the only decent teams left.

Once Upon a Time - Haven't you always wondered how Grumpy became grumpy?  Okay, I haven't necessarily either, but I did enjoy this look at the character.  Plus the dwarves singing "Heigh Ho" was a great touch.  Not much on Kathryn's disappearance, but I think we'll be hearing more about that as the season progresses.

Ringer - So it's official.  Bridget has definitely gone from the frying pan into the fire.  And I'm actually thinking Shioban wasn't quite so crazy when she faked her own death.  Now I'm wondering exactly what her plan was and how she was going to carry it out all along.  And Olivia is going to be a serious problem.  Was she the one trying to kill Shioban?  This is taking yet another great twist and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Psych - Even though I've never seen The Shining, I still got many of the great references to it in the episode.  Lots of fun and plenty of laughs with a decent mystery.  Basically, the best kind of episode.

Survivor - The guys are crazy.  What were they thinking letting themselves get talked into going to tribal when they won immunity?  You never do that!  And Colton?  You need to grow up and mature enough to learn how to get along with people you don't like.  You attitude is petty and spoiled brat childish.  Grow up.

Big Bang Theory - I was laughing so hard, but then when Raj gave his speech at the end about always being the guy who got a girlfriend after Sheldon, I lost it.  Very funny episode that used all the characters in basically one story.

Word Association for My Birthday

So, I've been thinking all week I would get my reading list for February done, but it hasn't happened yet.  I know it won't today, so here's this week's word association.

1. Knees :: Bend
2. Law :: School
3. Goodbye :: Leaving
4. Regrets :: Sad
5. Dedicated :: Hard Working
6. Sushi :: Yuck!
7. Australia :: New Zealand
8. Renovation :: Home Repair
9. Honk :: Horn
10. Beg :: Borrow

2012 Mardi Gras Madness 5K

For my second race of the year, I found one here in town.  It's nice when I don't have to drive all over creation.  There was a 5K this last weekend.  It was themed around Mardi Gras, which was a couple weeks ago.

We started from a shopping area's parking lot and ran a couple blocks, crossed a major street on a bridge, went through part of a park, and then headed out on the trails in town until we hit the turn around and did it all over again.

I was really hoping I could finish this race in under half an hour.  That's been a goal for a couple of months now, and I thought maybe I could do it.  Fortunately, I had my new watch to help me, because I think that's the only reason I made it.

I started out strong, like I often do on a race.  In fact, I was too strong trying to keep up with people in front of me.  So I slowed it down.  I was trying to stay in a sweet spot of 9:30, but only slow down to that if I felt tired.

I was actually feeling pretty good about the half way point.  Even at two miles, it wasn't so bad.  I'd check my watch and see my pace had slowed, so I'd speed up a little, but for the most part I was doing okay pace wise.

Then I hit that last half mile.  I seriously thought if I kept it up I would be sick.  But I was so close I could feel it, so I kept pushing, and it paid off.

Official results aren't out yet, but I finished somewhere between 29:07 (what I saw when I crossed the finish line) and 29:25 (what my watch said when I finally hit stop after exciting the chute).  So I'm calling in 29:15.

I DID IT!!!!!

I don't know if it is reasonable to expect myself to get much faster, but I'm going to keep running and see what happens.

Meantime, I now have my sites set on my next goal, a sub-hour 10K.  According to these results, I should be able to do it, but I was so wiped at the end, I'm just not sure.  I think I'm going to try on June 2nd, so I'll have some time to train between now and then plus I will be adding lots more miles.  We'll just have to see how it goes.

Weekly TV Recap for March 3rd

Amazing Race - I always hate it when a team gets eliminated because of something they had no control over like a bus window blowing out.  That just stinks.  I knew the clowns wouldn't be around for long, but I really did like them.

Castle - And we're back to the fun.  The mystery in this one was actually pretty well done.  And I love it when they figure out the final clue like that, plus it was Castle who did it this time.  Martha's one woman show was a hoot, although I get why Castle was so upset.  She was taking credit for everything he's done.  Overall, a great episode.

White Collar - I am so invested in these characters that this episode was so gripping for me.  I love them all and want to see them happy.  But Neal running at the end is not good.  I get why he did it, but there will be consequences.  And after he told Peter and Mozzie he was going to stay with his life whether we was freed or not because he likes it, too.  It's going to be a long wait to see how they resolve that come next season.

Ringer - Wow, how do they keep raising the stakes so high every week?  So, I guessed that Juliette's mom was really the one behind the attack on the kid last week.  Sure enough, I was right.  Now she's robbed two of the three conspirators of their money.  That's going to have consequences.  But the big news is the Ponzi scheme revelations.  I have been figuring for weeks that Olivia was behind it.  Now to find out that Andrew is really the one behind it is a shock to the system.  I can not wait to see where it goes from here.

Psych - A third time and still no references to Princess Bride.  Why even have Cary Elwes guest star?  Okay, so I like his character and was thrilled to see him back again.  And the episode was great, especially with all the references to Indiana Jones.  Laughs and a good story.  What more could you want?

Survivor - The women are stupid if they think they can keep getting the men to give them fire/shelter whenever they want and the men won't expect anything in return.  I'm completely with the men on that.  However, Colton is so over the top dramatic and obnoxious and not willing to get to know anyone that I am so ready for him to get off my TV.

The Double Useless Review Requests

In 11 days, I got two requests from the same person.  Now, it's not that unusual to get multiple requests about the same thing as a follow up.  (I've got one coming that's a third request.)  But that's not the case here.

First game a book review request.  The author must live in Greece, and he included the very briefests of a plot teaser.  It actually reads like what might be at the very top of the back of a book, but there's hardly any detail about it.  For example, I'm guessing that it is a novel.  And it sounds like a bunch of character sitting around and learning that all religions are one.  So basically, I'll be "learning" something I believe to be a lie, and I'll be preached to the entire time by boring lectures from one character to another. Yeah, I'm going to rush out and not read that book.

Then there's the fact that I could reply to have the book sent to my device.  Sorry, but I don't have a device.

I set the e-mail aside to include in my blog only to get another one 11 days later from the author.  No, he wasn't asking if I was interested in the book.  Instead, he was asking me to listen to and rate a song he's written and posted over at iTunes.  Obviously, I'm just on a spam mailing list now because I have never rated anything there, at least that I remember doing.  And if so, it's so little I doubt my influence means anything.

While the first e-mail was poorly done but might have been interesting, the second one proves he's just a spammer who isn't trying at all to target his audience.

Word Association for March 1st

Welcome to March.  Here's the word association for the week.

1. Unsolicited :: Phone Call
2. House :: Home
3. 24 hours :: One Day
4. Permission :: Granted
5. Inbox :: Mail
6. Presidential :: Election
7. Rising :: Tide
8. Hold :: Tight
9. Hourglass :: Timer
10. More :: Less