Brass Monkeys by Terry Caszett

Brass Monkeys by Terry Caszatt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The beginning of Brass Monkeys was a little slow as the author laid the foundation for the rest of the story.  As I continued to read, I found several times throughout the book where I could not put the book down, waiting for the next event to happen.  I loved how the author intertwined some of the slang from the 60's and 70's into the modern day story. 

Fantasy fiction is not my favorite genre but this book was fun to read.  The ending was a little strange and leaves the reader with a feeling there is more..... does this mean there is a sequel in the future? 



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Guilt By Association by Marcia Clark

Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark

My rating: 4 of 5 stars






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Spring Time is Sick Time

Allergy season is back!

A little over a week ago I started experiencing a mild sore throat.  Last week the sore throat spread to an ear ache, sore throat, light head, dizzyness, 2 ear aches and an overall feeling of the yuckies.  I spent 5 days curled up on the couch doing as little a possible, sleeping and reading books.

Last night I had an extremely vivid dream.  It was so real that upon waking after the dream, I was very disoriented and had trouble remembering where I was.  I dreamed I was a teenager again, living in my parents home.  I had been sick and decided I would go to school tomorrow.  After telling my mom I planned to go to school tomorrow I asked her if I could borrow her car.  She told me I was always welcome to borrow her car but I had a car of my own, why couldn't I drive that.  Oh yes, I remembered, I owned a yellow jeep, never mind, I will drive the yellow jeep.  Then I asked my mom for directions since I had never driven to the high school.  Right after that I woke up.  I have no idea why I remember this dream so clearly, maybe because I laid in bed so long trying to figure out why I didn't know the directions to the high school and also trying to figure out where I was. 

Anyway, I decided I didn't care how I felt in the morning, I was going to get out of bed and go to work.  Enough of this feeling sorry for myself.

Thanks to Revlon, Clinique and Aveeda, I managed to conceal how miserable I actually felt.  I worked in a fog for most of the day, came home and then immediately left again to go to the gym where I tanned for 10 minutes and then walked the treadmill for 40 minutes.  After that the dear hubby took me out for a sandwich.

Here's hoping my dear friends Revlon, Clinique and Aveda help me pull this miracle off again tomorrow.

National Harbor, Home of The Awakening

Several weeks before our Washington DC vacation I signed up for Groupons.  Every day I received an e-mail with discounted offers for restaurants, spas, tours, etc.  One of the offers was a deal for a boat tour up and down the Potomac River to see the cherry blossoms.  I immediately started googling for information on the boat tour.  I found the boat was docked at the National Harbor in Oxon, Maryland and the tour brought us to East Potomac Park and Haines Point.  I was curious as to how we would get to the National Harbor so I searched Google Maps.  The easiest way I saw was to take the subway south and then grab a taxi.  I estimated the distance from subway to harbor was around five miles.  Shouldn't cost much.

I went ahead and booked the tour and I am so glad I did!  My guess for transportation was confirmed by Stu in Congressman Huizenga's office.  During our tour of the capital I asked Stu if he would be able to help me.  After the tour, he checked and sure enough, Blue Line to King Street Station and then cab to National Harbor was the safest way to journey.

Upon our arrival at the National Harbor we located the dock where the Pelican would be waiting for us.  We also found The Awakening - a sculpture that I spent time looking for years ago. 

The last time I saw for the sculpture, I took a cab ride with a cabbie that had no idea where the sculpture was but managed to find it - shortly after it started raining. 

  
When I got out of the cab to take pictures I found out my camera was not working (I accidentally left it running) and I was unable to document finding the sculpture.



I had heard the sculpture had been sold but I thought it was moved to Florida.  Needless to say, I was excited to find the sculpture.  There are several interpretations about the meaning behind the sculpture.  I read somewhere the artist said he created it because it looked good.  I'll leave it up to you to decide on your interpretation.

More on DC

Sorry I haven't posted about our adventures of yesterday - I'll do it later, I promise.

Today was already an adventure.  Linda & I packed a couple of flat rate boxes to send some of our extra stuff home.  I walked a little over a 1/2 mile to bring the boxes to the post office.  This involved crossing three busy streets.  Being from the little city, I am not extremely confident in crossing six lane roads but, with the assistance of a young homeless man, I made it unscathed.

At the post office a man pulled in as I crossed the parking lot.  He almost hit a pole, pulled forward and parked katty-wumpiss.  Then, he just sat in his card.  As I taped our boxes closed, the clerk kept an eye on him and soon determined something was not right.  She went outside to check on him and he said he "felt dizzy."  The clerk came back in and called 911.  As I walked back to the hotel I heard sirens, soon police and ambulance were arriving to help the man.

Anyway, our boxes are now safely in the hands of the postal department.  Unfortunately, my suitcase is still heavy and the wheels pretend like they do not want to roll.

Heading home this afternoon!  Oh, the fun we had

Washington DC - Tuesday, April 5

Last night, a cold front moved into the area bringing wind & rain.  We got a rather "late" start this morning - especially since we were slowed down by problems on the Metro and trains were sharing one track.  We arrived at Union Station and wandered through the Food Court and window shopped through out part of Union Station.  We ate lunch in the middle of Union Station (not the food court).  I enjoyed a platter of crispy pita chips and spinach/artichoke dip.  Delicious.  After lunch we found our way through the Metro toward Capitol Hill.  We found the Longworth Building, went through security and located Congressman Huizenga's office.

Our tour guides from his office were Nate Bult and Stu.  A new visitor's center has been added onto the building since my last visit there.  We were told the visitor center has helped move people through the doors faster.  Since it is spring break, there seems to be an enormous number of people visiting DC this week.  The young aides were very knowledgeable and helpful in many ways. 

 I even got a peek at the Library of Congress.  I'm told it is very helpful to obtain visitor passes for tours way ahead of time from our Congressman. 

I think I asked for passes but, our decision to come to DC was made quite late.  We were extremely lucky to get the reservations for the Supreme Court Lecture and Capitol Tour.  Maybe I'll be able to visit the Library of Congress next time!

We even located the office of a congressman from Texas!  There you go Joyce, that picture is for you!

Changing of the Guard

Monday in DC

Today was a very busy day for Linda & I.  We started our day with a ride into DC on the Metro.  We arrived at Union Station, wandered in and out of a few trinket shops and then located the hop on - hop off bus kiosk.  After purchasing our tickets and boarding our bus we found seats on top where we enjoyed a lovely ride on a glorious, warm and sunny day.

Cherry blossoms were in different stages of bloom.  We found quite a few forsythias, pansies and other assorted early spring flowers throughout the city.

Our bus tour took us past the monuments, Capitol Building, White House and throughout the city.  After several hours on the bus - yes we stayed on for almost all of the tour - we headed to the Supreme Court where we were scheduled for a lecture at 2:00.  Our docent took about 20 minutes giving us a brief history of the Supreme Court, the building and little tidbit about the various Justices. 
She patiently answered questions from various people in the audience too.  After the lecture, we ate a sandwich in the Supreme Court cafeteria.  We ended our visit at the Supreme Court with a visit to the gift shop where I purchased a children's book written by Sandra Day O'Connor.

We walked several blocks from the Supreme Court to Union Station where we hopped on the Metro Red line, headed to Metro Center, switched to the Blue Line and traveled to Arlington Cemetery.  We road the tour-mobile throughout the cemetery, hopping off to visit the Kennedy gravesites, and the Changing of the Guards.

Our time at Arlington went very quickly.  The people employed there are very well informed, interesting, funny and helpful too.  If you have never visited Arlington, I recommend going.  Witnessing the Changing of the Guard is a very moving experience.

After Arlington, we returned, by subway, to Union Station to get something to drink and purchase more bus tickets for a nighttime tour of the city. 








Since it is quite late and this has been a very busy day, I'll post more photos tomorrow.  From Washington DC - goodnight.

Washington DC - Day One and Two

Linda B & I left Muskegon Saturday morning at 11:30 am heading to Kalamazoo.  The train/bus station is around the corner from the homeless shelter in Kalamazoo and I must say there were some interesting people hanging out in the station.  Our lovely travel agent led us to believe there was a lovely deli around the corner from the bus station.  Turns out the deli was accommodating but lacking....

The train from Kalamazoo to Chicago was almost an hour late leaving the station.  A little nerve wracking but we managed to arrive in Chicago and only have a short layover.  We took advantage of the rule to allow senior citizen to board the train early.  Our seats on the train were row two - the car directly in front of us was the lounge car where the windows basically go from the floor to the ceiling and snacks and drinks are served below.  The car in front of the lounge car was the dining car.

We shared out table with a lovely couple from out east.  Dinner consisted of vegetable lasagna for me and talapia for Linda.  Desert was a chocolate puff pastry for me and cranberry walnut crumb cake for Linda.  I was rather disappointed to find Amtrak no longer uses china and cloth table clothes but Erin, our server, assures us the practice will be reinstated soon.  Octavia was in charge of the dining car - she made it perfectly clear she was in charge!  My favorite line from her was "somebody's got to love you."





Highlight of the night on the train was when we used the bathrooms on the train.  I used the handicap bathroom and was slightly startled to find I could not unlock the door.  Fortunately, Linda was right outside the bathroom and rescued me.  Well, Linda didn't actually rescue me, she located Dan Kuhl, the assistant conductor who allowed me to escape.  Needless to say, I did not use the handicap bathroom again - for that matter, I don't think Linda did either.

Another highlight was our dining companion at breakfast this morning.  The gentleman wore a Chicago Bears sweatshirt.  I asked him if he was a big Bears fan.  He responded by telling us he played for the Chicago Bears - between 1966 and 1968 - Defensive Back.  Our lovely dining car attendant called him "Mr. Curtis".  I googled the Chicago Bears for that time frame and found Curt Gentry, Defensive Back - on the same team roster was Mike Ditka!  According to friend Joyce, this roster contained "royalty".  Hmmmmm, should we have asked for an autograph?


We arrived in DC - a little tired and yearning for a nice hot shower.  Both of us took showers and naps then set out to explore.  Dupont Circle was our destination - dinner was delicious.  As I posted our status at the restaurant I was pleasantly surprise to find the Peace Corps Offices were a block down and street and around the corner.  Of course, it is Sunday so the offices are closed but I took a series of photos of the pictures displayed in the windows.

I'm having difficulty posting the photos - will try again tomorrow. 

Tomorrow morning we are hopping on a bus and touring and city.  Tomorrow afternoon we are scheduled for a Supreme Court lecture.  Stay tuned for more details of our trip --- hopefully photos too.