July 9th's Joke of the Week

Be thankful it's not snowing outside.

Imagine shoveling snow in this heat.

Lunch with Friends - April 2024 Part 2

(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.)

There were some authors who were going to be at the LA Times Festival of Books on Sunday, and I was considering going back for day 2, until I got a text from my friend Donald.  He and his wife, Heather, were going to be coming through town Sunday afternoon and wanted to know if I wanted to have lunch.  I immediately said yes.

We met over on the other side of town from where I live, but it wasn't too much out of their way.  Not a big or fancy restaurant, but it was a delicious.

And it was very nice to get a chance to sit and catch up with them.  We could have talked much longer, but they needed to drive home.  I always wish we could spend more time together, but a small visit is better than nothing.  And I'm usually the one who has to drive away since I usually visit them driving to and from visiting my family.  So I really can't complain too loudly, can I?

LA Times Festival of Books - April 2024 Part 1

(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.)

April was the LA Times Festival of books again.  I went down on Saturday and just Saturday this year.  I had a fantastic time.

The real highlight was getting to spend the day with my friend Angelique.  We've been going together for decades at this point, which is scary to think about.  Heck, it's scary to realize we've been friends that long.  Doesn't really seem possible.

Naturally, we spent most of the time around the mystery booths.  We got to talk to some authors that we've become friends with over the years, which is always fun.  We did wander around the rest of the festival as well, but the mystery section (and the booths are all right together) is always home base.

I managed to get away with only buying one book, too, which was pretty amazing for me.  Of course, considering how many books I have around here I haven't read, I need to show more restraint like that.  Or find more time for reading.

The festival isn't what it once was.  We can often get through what we want to see by early afternoon.  But we found a nice bench to sit on and just talk, which was so much fun. And the weather was nice.  Not too warm, not too cold.  Considering how cold April and May were overall, that was a blessing as well.

July 2nd's Joke

I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn’t find any.

March 2024 - Family Trip to San Diego

(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.)

The middle of March, I met up with my family in San Diego.  We'd done it a couple of years ago, really enjoyed it, and decided to do it again.

Mom and Dad rented up a place to stay right on the beach.  It was a different place from two years ago, but still very nice.  In fact, we might have liked it a bit more in some ways.  The plan was to enjoy the beach, plays games, and be a bit of a tourist.

We did still play tourist a bit, spending one day at Sea World and another at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

However, we got sick while we were there.  My nephew had gotten sick a couple of days before, and Dad started to get sick our first night.  I was just getting over being sick, but I got sick again.  And my brother got sick.  The ladies stayed healthy, until we left.  Then they got sick at home.  What's the weirdest is we all seemed to have slightly different symptoms.  I was the quickest to recover, and it took some longer than others to get over it.  But eventually we all did.

So it was a bummer of a trip in some ways.  But we did still have fun, and we are glad we went.

February 2024 - Catching Up

Well, I managed to get behind again, didn't I?  Let's work on catching up.

Honestly, not that much happened in February.  We started out with weather in the 70's, but wound up getting lots of rain.  Fortunately, no flooding in my garage, which was nice.  Did miss some running because of the rain, which is a Southern California problem.  But before that started I got a nice afternoon of ultimate Frisbee.

I did my taxes on my President's Day holiday and wound up owing this year, which was a bummer.

The bigger bummer is that I got sick at the end of the month.  Sick enough I would have taken time off work if I weren't working from home.  I might have if nothing else had been going on, but I got sick at the end of the month, which was quarter end, so I plowed through.  I did see a doctor, and it just seemed to be a cold.  I was negative for other things.  Of course, I'd managed to give myself pink eye as well.  Got drops for that, which cleared it up.  The rest slowly ran it's course.

May 27th's Joke

What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?

A Day at the Beach in January

(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 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.

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.

It was a quiet, relaxing day.  And the weather really was so wonderful.

Lunch with College Friends

About a month ago, I met up with a couple of friends from college for lunch.

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.

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.

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.

February 19th's Pun

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.”