The Misadventures of Super_Librarian
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Thursday, September 30, 2004I'm sure this will construed as "Un-American" on my part, but heck I'm all about confessing today: I will not be watching the Presidential Debate tonight. I'm sorry, I can't bring myself too. This election nonsense cannot end soon enough for me. Now before anyone starts hurling insults my way, I will state upfront that yes, I do indeed vote. I've always believed strongly in voting. Maybe because it was just 80 years ago that the US decided that as a woman I wasn't too bubbleheaded to be allowed the privelege. However I cannot tolerate politics and this election year in particular is enough to make my brain melt. Every year the mud-slinging gets worse. Call me old fashioned, but I'd like the candidates to actually talk about the issues as opposed to attacking each other's character. Tell me why you think you're the person for the job - not why the other fellow is a lying scumbag. I made up my mind ages ago how I'm voting in November (and no I'm not disclosing it in this blog because I have no desire for hateful comments - and all sides are making hateful comments this year - grow up already). But here are some things I'd like to see the candidates spend their time addressing to the American public instead of 1) Where Bushy-boy was during his National Gaurd duty and/or 2) What Kerry really did in Vietnam:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha - I'm sorry, that's the best laugh I've had in ages. And for the record - I'll read all about the debate on the Internet tomorrow - the condensed version that gives me the highlights in easy digestable pieces as opposed to long-winded explainations by the candidates. Frankly I expect a lot of tap dancing on both of their parts. Monday, September 27, 2004Time again for Wendy's Football Picks From The Past Weekend. This Monday I'd like to feature my bonehead call of the weekend. As my "Upset Special" I picked Cincinnati over Baltimore. I know, I have no idea what I was thinking. Maybe it was lack of oxygen to the brain - I spent part of my weekend sick with a sore throat. I also put a massive dent in Trace by Patricia Cornwell and wrapped it up this morning. I have to say, I really enjoyed it. A vast improvement over the last two entries in the series. Our heroine, Kay Scarpetta, is back to working the autopsy table (she's a former medical examiner), and there is actually a mystery. The last couple of books dealt solely with character relationships with a mystery tossed in as an afterthought. Here, the mystery is the focus. I will say that Cornwell continues the bad habit of leaving loose threads dangling, but as she tends to get to these in later books I haven't become terribly annoyed with the habit. I wouldn't be surprised in Kay finds herself back in Richmond, Virginia working more cases in future books. Pure speculation on my part - but a reasonable assumption I think. Next up - another mystery. Body Double by Tess Gerritsen. Tuesday, September 21, 2004I must have done something right, because I've read two review books in a row that were just fabulous. I wrapped up Come To Me by Lisa Cach this morning, and have been wondering ever since why this author is not a huge star. This is my third book by her - the third that has rated at least a B on my personal rating scale. I can only guess it's because she continues to take risks with her storylines, never settling down to be pigeonholed into one single sub genre. Come To Me is the story of a succubus (a demon who brings erotic dreams to mortal men) who finds herself turned into a mortal woman to help our hero, a scarred prince hungry for revenge. Seems our heroine provided the wrong dream to the wrong man, which led to our hero living in exile and practicing black magic. Don't you just hate it when that happens? Toss into this mix the fact that the story takes place in 15th century Transylvania - well it ain't your typical romance novel is it? And by typical I mean Regency Historical, Victorian England, contemporary comedy, romantic suspense, or even my personal favorite - a western. Next on my list is the latest novel by Patricia Cornwell - Trace. I'm really looking forward to it, as I've heard the author returns to her forensic suspense roots. I've was keenly disappionted in the last two novels in the Kay Scarpetta suspense series, so I'm hoping that the rumors are true, and Trace will be a return to high form. Monday, September 20, 2004It's Monday so that means it's time for Wendy's Football Picks From The Past Weekend! This past weekend my most excellent pick was: Atlanta over St. Louis followed by picking the low spread on Oakland vs. Buffalo. Yes, I picked Oakland to win, but only because the Bills seem determined to squander what talent they do have. Why aren't we putting both whiney McGahee and Travis Henry on the field at the same time? And excuse me - but besides Takeo Spikes on defense - where the hell is the passion on that team? My stupid pick of the weekend was going with a 7 point spread on the New Orleans vs. San Francisco game. Every year it usually sinks in around week 2 what a pointless endeavor it is to call any game New Orleans plays. Never has a team had more talent, but been so awful. I think they have the same issue the Bills have - no passion. I don't even want to talk about the Red Sox vs. Yankees weekend series. Boston - why not just drive the Yankees to the World Series? You could loan them the team bus even! In other news, I got my older sister turned on to the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. I normally like to recommend the gory stuff to her - but having recently given birth she seems sensitive to such plot lines right now. I hope she snaps out of it - I bought her a book at the Tess Gerritsen book signing I went to on Friday, plus I'm going to loan her the next installment in Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series....just as soon as I'm done with it. Tuesday, September 14, 2004So by now everyone has probably heard about the lovely incident at the Oakland A's/Texas Rangers game last night. Nice huh? Rule #1 in professional sports - Ignore Idiot Hecklers. Rule #2 for Women Everywhere - Get Out Of The Line Of Fire If You're Dumb Enough To Be Married To An Idiot Heckler. I told my boyfriend that this is just further proof that women are really stupid when it comes to men. I'll admit it - we really are! My boyfriend also sent me this article on the most notorious Players Vs. Fan fights in MLB history. My favorites? Ty Cobb of course. Arguably the greatest ball player of all time (and the greatest Tiger. Period). What a A-hole though. Geez. And wait until you read the Albert Belle account - priceless. I finished up a totally fabulous book this morning, and just have to gush. Leave It To Cleavage by Wendy Wax is more of a cozy mystery about a woman finding herself than it is a romance - but it's being marketed as a romance, so there you go. The heroine is a former beauty queen who discovers that her husband:
So it's up to our heroine to:
Naturally we have a romance between the police chief and our heroine - but what works so well is the fact that the heroine has to resume control of her life. She's been coasting. She thought her marriage was fine. So in between sorting out the mess her husband dumped in her lap, she's also becoming a stronger, better person. It doesn't hurt that I found this book very amusing in parts, and Wax's writing style is breezy and charming. With only her second book, Wax comes off like a seasoned veteran. Brava! A very high B+ - and I could easily make an argument that it's a "keeper" (A!). Monday, September 13, 2004Since it's Monday (and I'm about as ready to work as the Hilton sisters), let's add a new feature to the blog shall we? I'm going to call it Wendy's Football Pick Of The Past Weekend. My boyfriend and I make the NFL season a bit more interesting by entering into the spirit of friendly competition by calling each game (using a point spread if we pick the same team). I totally kicked his ass this weekend (Ha!) and came out looking like a genius with this pick: San Diego over Houston. Yep - I actually picked the Chargers to win. My boyfriend's exact words were "What?!?!" followed closely by "relying a lot on LaDainian Tomlinson aren't you?" Ok, so yeah I was - but turned out Drew Brees had a good game too. As this new feature evolves, you can also expect it to include the various bonehead calls I make - which this past week included me picking San Francisco over Atlanta. A close game, but still I should have known better. In other non-sports related news - my new toys arrived this weekend. There's nothing like a TV upgrade to make life a little sweeter. We now have a 36" flat screen TV with a surround sound system. Of course, with no entertainment system, we've had to be a bit creative organizing all this new "stuff." All I can say is God bless Rubbermaid totes. I also got my beautiful new oak dining room set - which is so heavy I've declared that we cannot move anytime soon. As far as reading, I finally put aside Summer By The Sea by Susan Wiggs. It's a fine enough book, but I just could not get into it. Also, the arrival of my Amazon order, coupled with new a patch of review books, were so enticing I opted to start something new. The lucky winner was Leave It To Cleavage by Wendy Wax. I know, I can't believe I'm reading something with that title either - but so far I'm enjoying it immensely. This coming from a girl who has never really gotten the romantic-comedy trend in the romance genre. Thursday, September 09, 2004Being a Detroit Tigers fan takes a lot of hope (or denial depending on the season), and a lot of Mylanta. After losing to Kansas City today 5-26 (!) they came back for game 2 of the doubleheader and won 8-0. God bless Alan Trammell - it's amazing he doesn't have an ulcer the size of Montana. Just further proof that we need pitching. Heck, us and just about everybody else in the league. In other updates - Hell is only experiencing mild flurries. The city posted 2 "Unauthorized Vehicles Will Be Towed" signs, but I have yet to see my "Staff Only" parking signs in back. Oh well.... I think Hell is close to freezing over. I just got e-mail this morning that the city is finally going to put up new parking lot signs here at work. Signs that say "Staff Parking Only" in the back - and signs in the general lot that say "Unauthorized vehicles Will Be Towed Blah Blah Blah." These signs are supposed to be in place by 3PM today - but since I've been waiting since May, I'm not exactly holding my breath. Why do I need these signs? Evil Little League Parents. OK, I'm not being fair - Evil Sports Parents In General. My library sits next door to a park. A park that is overrun every Saturday due to various sporting events. Naturally, despite our current signage, sports people take up library parking then library patrons naturally come complaining to me. After a couple of meetings with the city, who assured me back in May that they were sympathetic, I've heard nary a beep from them. Sick of people complaining to me about it (when I tried, I really did), I started handing out the city's phone number to every complaining library patron. I said, "Here, call them on Monday. Maybe you as a tax paying citizen will get somewhere." New signs of course will not alleviate this problem entirely. I'm probably going to have to take to patrolling the lot myself and calling the cops to come and ticket. This is of course assuming I can get the cops to come out and ticket. They've been crying "budget cuts!" every time it is suggested that they might want to patrol our parking lot every now and then due to the feces, used condoms, graffiti, and abandoned cars being left here. Silly me. In other more pleasurable news, NFL Kick Off is tonight! Yeah! For the past several years my boyfriend and I have entered into the spirit of friendly competition by calling the games and using a points spread. Because I'm hopelessly optimistic (or maybe hopelessly clueless?) I picked the Colts over the Patriots tonight. Yes, I know - they are playing in New England. But it's also not December, 20 below with 10 feet of snow dropping from the sky. My boyfriend probably made the wiser choice and went with the Pats. We'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out won't we? Wednesday, September 08, 2004So as not to disappoint Kate - looks like the Skankies will have to play that game against the Devil Rays after all. David posted a lovely link in my comments section that sums up the debacle nicely. My hatred for the Skankies is closely followed by my intense dislike for Bud Selig. I figure about the only thing he hasn't screwed up is introducing inter-league play, and worse still we're stuck with him for a while. Didn't he just sign a massive new contract with MLB? In other news - I'm finally done furniture shopping! While our bedroom still looks like something out of a college dorm, we have a new TV, surround sound system, dining room set, coffee table and end tables on the way to us. The coffee table and end tables had to be ordered - so it looks like it will be a 3-4 week wait for those. However by Saturday morning - I will be basking in the glow of our new 36" TV (football season here I come!) and eating lunch on my new oak dining room set. In other not so good news - I seem to be in a reading slump. I'm trying to read Summer By The Sea by Susan Wiggs. One of my favorite historical writers, the jury is still out on how her contemporary voice works for me. I feel I'm not giving SBTS a fair shot - but if it still hasn't grabbed me after a few more chapters, I may have to set it aside for something else. Saturday, September 04, 2004Confession time: I once dated a NY Yankees fan. I know, I'm not terribly proud of it either. However I was able to overlook this unfortunate characteristic because he had other sports affilations I approved of, most notably his dislike for the NHL NY Rangers. If you read the comments section in my blog you'll notice that this ex left me a message about my previous post where I rejoiced that the Indians crushed the Skankies 22-0. Well David, I've just got one thing to say to you.... Ha ha! Kevin Brown! Sorry - I know this isn't terribly mature of me. In fact, it's plain mean on my part. But like my boyfriend told me this morning, "Hey I like Kevin Brown - but he's a dirty Yankee now." Speaking of sports - it's that time of year again. The time of year where Wendy becomes a college football widow. I do enjoy the NFL - but I've never been able to muster up much enthusiam for college football. There are a couple of reasons for this:
My boyfriend is a fierce Notre Dame fan - despite growing up in NY state. I think it's the whole Irish Catholic thing - with emphasis on the Irish more so than the Catholic. So while he's screaming at Notre Dame vs. BYU this evening, I'll probably be hiding out somewhere. At least we have a second sofa in the computer room now, ideal for reading - and who knows? Maybe I can squeeze a bookstore run in this evening. Thursday, September 02, 2004Oh no Ugi! My favorite pitcher for my Detroit Tigers got some bad news - here's hoping his mother is returned unharmed. "Ugi, Ugi, Ugi til you just can't Ugi no more." Sorry I can't help myself. Anyone get to watch the fantastic Cleveland Indians crush the dreaded New York Skankies earlier this week? The highlights on ESPN were awe-inspiring, but alas, I could not watch the game. Heck, assuming I hadn't been working and the game was televised in my region (which it probably wasn't) I still probably wouldn't have watched it. My hatred to the Yankees means I only watch them when I absolutely have to - which is unfortunately every god damn post season. I suddenly feel my blood pressure spiking. Calm blue ocean, Wendy - Calm blue ocean. |
