Life: It Goes On - April 20

Happy Easter! We had the most low key Easter ever. Miss H had to work most of the weekend so couldn't make it up, Mini-him and Miss C went north to be with her family, and no siblings or nieces/nephews came up. So I made most of the family traditional favorites and the Big Guy and I took Easter dinner over to my dad's to have our meal with him.  If you know my dad at all, you'll know that he was very appreciative of the visit and the meal, but what he was most excited about was the chocolate pie. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel. It won't surprise anyone to know that I didn't figure out who done it even if I never did trust that person. I don't have of my holds coming up soon so I'm going to have to spend some time this evening looking for something that's available to start tomorrow. 

Watched: Some more of Only Murders In The Building. 

Read: The Life Impossible by Matt Haig. A lot of great lessons in this one but maybe too much supernatural for me. Still pondering that. 

Made: Ham, cheesy hash brown casserole (a.k.a. funeral potatoes), lemonade "salad" (that's the name it came with and we eat it with the meal but it's really more of another dessert), deviled eggs, and that pie. I make Ree Drummond's French Silk Pie. It's so easy, but so decadent. The key to this one is patience. My dad doesn't eat a lot these days, but he ate two pieces of this pie! 

Enjoyed: Dinner with Mini-him and Miss C. After we went for  drinks and had a strange encounter with a very drunk, strung out young man who reminded me why we rarely go to bars. Certainly not to bars that are frequented by people in their twenties and thirties! Although he did call me "adorable" and no one's called me that in at least 40 years so there's that! 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: With the arrival of Easter, 40 Bag in 40 Days is officially over. But as part of that, I started doing some work on organizing our photos so that will continue this week. Can I just tell you how much I wish I had at least written the year on the back of all photos? It is so darn hard to remember if a given photo was taken when your child was eight or when they were nine! Heck, I can't even remember what grade they were in in the school pictures! This will take the better part of my free time this week. 

Thinking About: What great kids we have. I love that we enjoy them as much as adults as we did when they were cute little people. 

Feeling: You know you're old when you can tweak a knee stepping up a 2" curb, which I did on Thursday. I could hardly get out to my car after work. Spent Friday working from home so I can baby it and have taken it easy most of the weekend. I'm happy to report that it's feeling much better now, but it's so frustrating that the littlest things can take me out these days. 

Looking forward to: Book club. I know I said that last week but we had to reschedule. 

Question of the week: Does your family have a big Easter extravaganza? 

**The theme of this weeks book reviews will, very obviously, be Paris

Twist by Colum McCann

Twist by Colum McCann

256 pages

Published March 2025 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

“Everything gets fixed, and we all stay broken.”

Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist and playwright, is assigned to cover the underwater cables that carry the world’s information. The sum of human existence—words, images, transactions, memes, voices, viruses—travels through the tiny fiber-optic tubes. But sometimes the tubes break, at an unfathomable depth.

Fennell’s journey brings him to the west coast of Africa, where he uncovers a story about the raw human labor behind the dazzling veneer of the technological world. He meets a fellow Irishman, John Conway, the chief of mission on a cable repair ship. The mysterious Conway is a skilled engineer and a freediver capable of reaching extraordinary depths. He is also in love with a South African actress, Zanele, who must leave to go on her own literary adventure to London.

When the ship is sent up the coast to repair a series of major underwater breaks, both men learn that the very cables they seek to fix carry the news that may cause their lives to unravel. At sea, they are forced to confront the most elemental questions of life, love, absence, belonging, and the perils of our severed connections. Can we, in our fractured world, reweave ourselves out of the thin, broken threads of our pasts? Can the ruptured things awaken us from our despair?

My Thoughts: 

In 2010, I read McCann's Let The Great World Spin and completely understood by it won the National Book Award, even if it didn't entirely work for me. But ten years later, I read his Apeirogon. That one I proclaimed "incredible;" so impressed with it was I that I couldn't put words together and had to just type in notes that I had taken as I read the book. 

This one falls somewhere in between for me. I was immediately pulled in by McCann's writing; but the story itself is a slow build as Fennell waits for his opportunity to get on that boat that will ship out to repair a broken internet cable. Even though it gave McCann a great opportunity to paint a picture of who both Fennell and Conway are and the world they find themselves in, I was as eager for Fennell to get on that boat as he was. Let me also be honest and admit that I really couldn't see why Fennell was so interested in being on that boat or what the draw was about the cables. 

Until I could. Once on the boat, though, McCann really begins to amp up the tension, but in the job they've set out to do itself and in the relationships between all of the characters. And I understood what those cables meant...not just to the world because they carry the glass tubes that carry the internet, but all of our connections to each other and our ability to communicate (or not) with each other, as much on a personal level as on a global one.

Once they are out to sea, once that tension began building, I was all in and the closer I got to the end, the harder it was for me to put down the book. Now here's a thing that often happens in a book - we reach the zenith of the story with fifty pages or so left to wrap things up and the story often flags at this point. This one did not. Even after we learn what happened to Conway (we know early on that something has happened that has tarnished his image), I needed to find out how Fennell and Zanele moved on from it. And how Fennell finally resolves his relationship with his son. 

Life: It Goes On - April 13

Happy Sunday! It's starting to get really beautiful outside of my window, with the little bright green leaves on the lilac bushes and the brilliant pink buds on the crabapple tree. This is the one time of the year that I'm happy the Big Guy went against my wishes and came home with a crabapple tree 25 years ago. 

It follows very closely on the heels of the time I am most annoyed at him for the same reason. Early every spring, those little crabapples (which, to be fair, have provided a nice spot of color throughout the winter), just drop off that tree, fully ready to be squished and leave a streak of juice all over my driveway. Not at all the "they'll dry up before they fall off and blow away" scenario my husband was sold. 

Anyone else been mostly chained to their desk chairs getting their taxes done this week? Please tell me it's not just me who puts it off! It's really put a cloud over my head all week On the plus side, at least I got excused from jury duty so I didn't have to deal with that as well. I was terrified I was going to end up sequestered and not be able to get my taxes done! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: A short book I won't even be reviewing until December and don't know why I listened to now. Other than it was available immediately. Also started Stephanie Wrobel's The Hitchcock Hotel, which the New York Times Book Review convinced me to listen to - so far, the jury is out. I should have expected some magical/fantasy elements (having read Haig's The Midnight Library) but, for some reason, I was taken by surprise and you know how I struggle with fantasy in a book.

Watched: NCAA basketball championships and a couple of episodes of Shrinking (if you have Apple TV and you haven't discovered this one yet, you really need to check it out). Then yesterday, when I was taking breaks from doing taxes, I watched a couple of musicals. One was Sara Bareilles' Waitress - absolutely loved it and hope it comes to Omaha soon so I can see it live. The other was a trip down memory land - Robert Stigwood's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, starring George Burns, The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. It really is quite bad but I remember seeing it in the movie theater in 1978 and haven't seen it since. I had such a crush on Peter Frampton then! 

Read: Matt Haig's The Life Impossible, which is my book club's June selection. I'm a little over half way through it and still not sure how I feel about it. I'm also reading The Fairbanks Four: Murder, Injustice and the Birth of a Movement by Brian Patrick O'Donoghue. 

Made: BLTs (which I always regret when I don't have homegrown tomatoes to use), pizza, BLT salads (because we needed to use up the rest of the bacon we'd cooked), and chicken orzo soup. 

Enjoyed: Thursday four members of our book club drove across the Missouri River to Council Bluffs, Iowa, to see Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures, which is our July selection. She is really wonder to see in person, if you get the chance - humorous, open, and very comfortable in a very crowded room. My only regret is that we got no pictures. 

Also, we enjoyed our first evening on the patio on Friday night after we had dinner out. We didn't even have all of the furniture uncovered yet or the fire pit ready but it was too nice to be inside. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Y'all, Easter snuck up on me so this week will be about getting food ready and figuring out how I get it to my dad's to celebrate with him. 

Thinking About: Taxes. Even with a tax software, they are so complicated! And why is there always one document that you need but don't recall getting in the mail? 

Feeling: In theory I have one week of 40 Bags in 40 Days left and I haven't even come close to getting through all of the areas I wanted to get through or to reaching 40 bags. I'm frustrated! 

Looking forward to: Book club on Tuesday.  

Question of the week: what are your go-to side dishes for Easter dinner? What do you have for dessert? 

Life: It Goes On - April 6

Happy Sunday! I'm going to type this quickly because I have a lot of eating to get to today - late breakfast with my dad, late lunch with Miss C and then I need to get a welcome home dinner ready for the Big Guy, who's been out of town for four days. 

Not gonna lie, I've kind of enjoyed having the house to myself for the past four days - I've watched what I've wanted on t.v., eaten what I wanted when I wanted, done nothing or gone like a whirling dervish without concern that I was bothering anyone. But the poor cat has been so confused; she has hardly left my side the entire time and hasn't been eating so she'll for sure be happy to have him home! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I tried listening to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night but it just wasn't working for me (I think in print I'll enjoy it) so I switched to Lucy Foley's The Paris Apartment and I'm a little more than half way through that. 

Watched: As much basketball as I could, including the national high school girls championship game. Mini-him's company installed the scoreboards in the gym where the high school championships were being held and he was there to rep the company and be on hand if there were any issues. So proud of him for being the go-to guy who can solve both the physical but also the programming problems AND be a person that a company wants interacting with customers. 

Read: Finished Nina George's The Little Village of Booklovers, which is April's book club selection. 

Made: Really, really very little - tuna salad, grilled cheese, some pasta. When I'm eating alone, I tend to eat like a 15-year-old. 

Enjoyed: I binged the entire series of Shonda Rhimes' The Residence and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was just the thing to watch when I was in the house by myself and didn't want anything too intense. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: This week is going to be all about finishing up taxes. I hate doing them and have to do them for us, my dad, and Miss H, so I tend to put them off. 

Thinking About: As part of 40 Bags, this week I've been working on organizing photos and memorabilia. It certainly has me remembering so many wonderful things that have happened in our lives. 

 Photo by @ItsCassified    

Feeling: Hopeful after being one of 5.2 million people across the country who protested in an effort to save democracy. Omaha had a really great turnout; this picture represents about half of what was on the hill in the park and doesn't include all of the people lining the street the park is on or the walkway over that street. 

Looking forward to: Getting these taxes behind me so that I can focus on getting back to a final push on 40 Bags. Time to get to the basement, where there will certainly still be a lot to get rid of. 

Question of the week: What have you been watching on t.v. or streaming services that might be great for me to watch the next time BG is out of town? We have a lot of things we watch together, but there are things that I just know I'll enjoy more than he will and I prefer to watch those by myself. 

How To Walk Away by Katherine Center

How To Walk Away by Katherine Center

Read by Therese Plummer

11 hours, 28 minutes

Published May 2018 by St. Martin's Press

Publisher's Summary: 

Margaret Jacobsen is just about to step into the bright future she's worked for so hard and so long: a new dream job, a fiancé she adores, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in a brief, tumultuous moment. 

In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Maggie must confront the unthinkable. First there is her fiancé, Chip, who wallows in self-pity while simultaneously expecting to be forgiven. Then, there's her sister Kit, who shows up after pulling a three-year vanishing act. Finally, there's Ian, her physical therapist, the one the nurses said was too tough for her. Ian, who won't let her give in to her pity, and who sees her like no one has seen her before. Sometimes the last thing you want is the one thing you need. Sometimes we all need someone to catch us when we fall. And sometimes love can find us in the least likely place we would ever expect.

My Thoughts: 

Margaret has always been afraid to fly, terrified, in fact. Her boyfriend, Chip, is a pilot-in-training, who convinces her, despite every fiber in her being screaming out against it, to go on a flight with him. Midflight he proposes and Margaret feels like her entire life is falling into place - she's about to start the perfect job, Chip is about ready to start a great job, and they're about to be married. But Chip is not skilled enough to deal with the winds that confront them as they try to land and the plane is sent cartwheeling down the runway. Chip walks away unscathed. Margaret is not so lucky. She will spend weeks in the hospital after skin grafts for burns and trying to regain the use of her legs. 

This is one of those books that is both predictable and unexpected. I knew that any relationship that good, any future that bright, was going to implode. Just as I knew that a relationship will develop between Margaret and Ian and that Margaret and Kit will mend their broken relationship. Readers will want those things to happen; we want Chip (and his not very nice mother) to fade out, we want Margaret to fall in love with someone who deserves her, and we want she and Kit to become close allies. 

But this isn't just a book filled with the lightness of a heroine finding love, with some humor thrown in. There is plenty of heaviness here as well. From the plane crash and  Margaret's burns and paralysis, to the reason that Kit left home and didn't make contact again for three years, Center gives readers some depth. And while there is a predictable happy ending (I'm not spoiling it - you know it's going to happen), there is an expected piece of the ending that made it all seem more believable. 

Was Chip (and Ian's boss, for that matter) a bit too much of a caricature? Yes. Did Ian and Margaret's relationship seem to develop pretty rapidly, considering how much she disliked him at first? Also, yes. Did Margaret seem to mentally heal faster than I would expect it to happen in real life? Yes, again. But all of those things seemed perfectly acceptable to me since I was all about Margaret healing and finding happiness. This is the fifth book by Center that I've read, and I've enjoyed all of them - she's become a go-to author when I'm looking for just a certain kind of book, particularly a book that will end on a high note, something I really need these days.