Miscellany before work

The knee of my jeans did not in fact stain. Not really important, but it pleases me, since that's currently my only pair of jeans and I do like them.

We still had one can of the slices-in-gravy food from when I fed them a couple of those (and stopped because Basta was swallowing the slices whole, and not always keeping them down - which is normal for her and predates this food, Dad commented on it at one point back when I was visiting him, I think just after Mom had passed away). So I checked it against the recall and it's not in the recall anyway. Interestingly, they seem to have recalled the 'adult' but not 'mature adult' formula, and the numbers don't match up either. So the cats may never have been exposed to the recalled food. If they were, it wasn't a whole lot, in any case, and they both seem fine or as fine as they have been all along.

Now to finish waking up and head to work. I should probably brush my hair first, though, or I'll make a really interesting fashion statement....

Mostly books.

I'm doing okay. I didn't post about it then, but yesterday was Mother's birthday - her 62nd - and Dad died three months ago today. I felt worse in the week leading up to these dates than I do now. (The difference is largely, I think, that I had one final big piece of info to toss at the lawyer looming over me and now, I just need to look up one additional thing and send it to him. Plus my to-do list is not as long as it was, though still longer than I like. Making progress is good for my mood.)

I have started listening to audio books in the car. I used to be unwilling to give up my traffic reports, until I started paying attention and realized that I was lucky if one traffic report every couple weeks actually occurred at the proper time to allow me to avoid the traffic. The rest of them simply explain to me why I am sitting around and exactly how unpleasant it may be. Plus, I'm not sure avoiding the traffic actually helps in most cases; the slow freeway may in many instances still be faster than the clear route over the hill. So, the radio goes away.

I listened to most of five CDs of seven in Stephen King's On Writing (I think I mentioned in an earlier post), and then returned them to the library because there was nasty skipping in the remaining tracks of #5. I checked the paper book out and read the rest of it (not while driving, you may be pleased to know) and quite enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I will ever use anything in there, as I don't currently aspire to write fiction. But it was fun to listen to. (Even when I was reading the book, after the CD problems, I was still 'listening' - I could still hear it in his voice.) My current audio book (which is, alas, running down) is Thomas Ayres's That's Not In My American History Book. I'm assuming the stories are true; they are supposed to be; I've done no research and likely never will. But whether they are true or not, they are thought-provoking and also very funny to listen to. Jeff Riggenbach, who narrates, has a very pleasant voice and a very pleasant flow as he reads. I don't care how good a book is, a bad reader means it needs to be read on paper if at all.

Here's hoping I have luck as good with my next attempts...we'll see. (I'm picking titles sort of willy-nilly from what the library can give me, so it really is sort of a crap shoot anyway.)

Also, having read P. J. Tracy's Monkeewrench, I got Live Bait from the library and read it. It was fun, but I must admit ( Somewhat spoiler material here, though only general )

. The tales are fairly well-told and the pacing is good, I'm just not sure I should like them. They're not, I think, re-readable books for me really. The funny moments are really well done, though, regardless of other thoughts. I have Dead Run, the third book, from the library, but am waiting to read it until the weekend as I have been warned (by a friend who beat me to it) that it is "intense" and maybe not a good one to sleep on.

And now I go to bed, so as to be functional tomorrow, for more useful past-times than reading of books. :) Well, okay, actually I type in the last data and send it off, THEN go to bed.