Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Back to Books

We interrupt this talk of cats to note that I have finished Dragonwell Dead by Laura Childs. It was ok. Needed more depth and more complicated plot. I do like all the talk of tea and the yummy recipes. I've started North by Northhanger by Carrie Bebris. Loved the first two books in the series and I'm looking forward to this one.

I recently bought Scratch the Surface by Susan Conant, supposedly a really good cat-lover mystery, and Died in the Wool by Mary Kruger. Died in the Wool is part of a knitting mystery series. I want to see if that series is as good as the Maggie Sefton knitting mystery series.

I also bought a book from an author whose work I'd almost forgot about: Karen MacInerney. She has begun a mystery series set in Maine and involving a B&B called the Grey Whale Inn. I liked the first book: Murder on the Rocks. The newest book is called Dead and Berried.

I'm beginning to sort out the books I want to take with me when we move to Europe in June. I'll have maybe three months to amuse myself while my belongings are shipped from Hawaii to Germany. I'll probably box up some books and mail them to myself in Germany. That way I won't have to lug everything with me. I'll check on the status of the mail over there and decided what I want to mail.

Friday, April 20, 2007

The Rebellion Begins

They are getting on in years, they are all overweight, the pet food scare, moving to a foreign country...all reasons I decided to gradually switch the Unholy Trinity to a natural diet of cooked meat, rice and a supplement. Day three now of the food-switcheroo, and at least one of them is beginning to crack.

I've been serving chicken and turkey mixed with a little rice and bit of vitamin supplement. Boo-boo never did take to eating "people food". By that I mean food people eat as I do not feed my cats people, nor do I eat them myself. That would be unhygienic. Last night Boo was less than thrilled about eating chicken/turkey again and this morning he positively balked and tried to cover it up. I wish I could have someone explain to me why a cat would eat the same nasty, boring dry cat food for YEARS and then rebell when he gets three days of yummy chicken and turkey. It's a Boo-boo thing, I know and part of his plot to have me declared insane and take over my vast fortune, but I wish he would cooperate with me sometimes. So he got some crunches for breakfast.

Jazz and Ferdi are just fine with the chicken and turkey. They are not too crazy about the supplement, but they eat it as long as it's on the food. I'm going to get them something else to diversify their meals this week, but I have no illusion that Boo-boo will be happy with that either.

I think I need a merit badge (or is that a martyr badge) for all I do for these three spoiled rats...er..CATS.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Let's talk cats

Yes, I know what some of my friends think: "She's obsessed with her cats." "Good thing Bob married her, because otherwise she'd be over 40 and living alone with cats. And you know that's just one step from the funny farm." Well, I'm here to tell everyone that I'm really not obsessed with my cats. At least it's not what I'D call obsession.

Yes, ok, I do live with three cats I have dubbed the Unholy Trinity. There's a reason for that. Three more manipulative felines you will NEVER find. But it's not my fault. One of the Trinity is Boo-boo an Cream Shaded Oriental Shorthair....yeah, sounds a lot fancier than Boo-boo is. In fact, Boo-boo was not his original name. I nicknamed him that because he is so snotty I wanted to annoy him. It's payback for all the things he does to annoy me. He spends 1/2 his day sleeping and 1/2 thinking about and doing things that annoy me. Like inappropriate scratching, climbing my armoire, and trying to run out the door.

And then there is Ferdi. Ferdi, an almost 11 yr old grey smoke Persian, has the soul of a poet and the brains of a gnat. He is possessive, jealous and totally demanding. He makes up for it by being the sweetest, cutest and most endearing little animal....but only to me. He dislikes people he doesn't know and he dislikes change.

And finally there is Jazmyn. She's a 9 year old brown tabby and she is smarter than all of us.
She's a dainty girl with a ferocious side. She is the pest control officer and the cat who escorts us to the bathroom. She went through a phase were she learned to open the screen door, but she never went outside. She just wanted the boys to go out and quite possibly never come back. And, of course, the boys DID go out, but have always been caught. They never seemed to get it that THEY get in trouble and Jazz doesn't. Finally, I started putting a bell on the floor near the door, so if Jazz opened the door, the bell would fall out and I'd catch them all misbehaving.

That's all the cat-talk for today!

Monday, April 16, 2007

Knitting Mystery Completed

I forgot to mention that I finished all three books that are available in Maggie Sefton's knitting mystery. I look forward to more in that series.

New Book

Geez, I just almost finished a post when through the miracle of technology, it was wiped out!

As I was saying, I just started Laura Childs' Dragonwell Dead. I love her teashop mysteries, but can't get into her scrapbooking mysteries. Possibly because I'm not into scrapbooking at all.

I also got the newest in the Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mysteries by Carrie Bebris. I like this series. It has nothing to do with Pride and Predjudice and in fact combines characters from other Austen novels. The two books I've read were very clever and quite entertaining.

I am also sampling some of the sequels to Pride and Prejudice that have been written since 2004. Probably inspired by the horried movie version of P&P which came out last year or the year before. I waited until it was on cable to watch it and I'm glad I did. It was awful. I don't know how anyone could think they could get that book into a 2hr or so move. The A&E/BBC mini-series will probably always be the P&P that I like. However, I am not above being amused by a sequel or two. One that I started, but put aside so I can finish a couple other books before I leave Hawaii, is by Linda Berdoll. Quite racy it seems, but very promising.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Knitting Mystery

I finished the first book in the knitting mystery by Maggie Sefton. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am now enjoying the second book just as much. There's some way in mysteries, and maybe books in general, to make the characters instantly interesting and make you want to read on. I'm not sure what that is. I've started some novels (which I don't read very much) and some mysteries (which I read all the time) that I just couldn't get into. Rarely do I finish those books. It's a bummer when you get to about page 30 or 40 and realize you can't stand to read ANOTHER WORD! There are a couple mystery series where I have read several books and then one book will completely bore me and I never go back. I don't like figuring out on page 50 who committed the murder and why. It's like mystery movies on tv. I hate figuring out who dun it in the first 30 minutes. I like to be challenged and love plot twists. I don't mean that it has to be so complicated that you lose total track, but introducing a character for no apparent, or a very flimsy reason, is a dead giveaway for me.